"What'd you do?" asked Daniel.
"Made up them freedom papers for fifty people, and I got my bounty-hunter disguise together, making papers out on myself."
"Where's these freedom papers at now?" asked Grady, his voice gruff.
"I had them all in my buckskin pouch, but the sheriff got 'em. He knows I'm a conductor on the real Underground Railroad, and he knows he can sell those freedom papers for a handsome profit anywhere."
Daniel imagined the papers stuck into the compact buckskin pouch, recalling the night at Colonel Halverston's when George had retrieved it from a hiding place. Just behind Daniel, Grady said to George, "You was a conductor on this here railroad, you had some free man's papers, you were a free man yourself once't, but you're caught now and in chains. You ain't no better'n any one of us, now, Mr. George Penny-Penrose."
Daniel turned to the contentious man and defended George, saying, "That ain't so! George has gotta be the bravest man I ever met. And Mr. Fairfield will come for him and help us all out!"
Then Grady's friend, Eben. said, "No white man's ever been honest with a black man! If this Mr. Fairfield was honest with you, George Penrose, then why didn't he come down here to help you? Why'd you have to brave it alone? You being a runaway yourself."
George's anger flared. "Mr. Fairfield has shot other white men, defending runaways, mister! Fairfield does come down here on raids, many times, with his boys! He pretends being a doctor from Canada, sometimes a judge, a captain, or a colonel. He's got a right-smart French accent he uses sometimes, too. Got it down real good. He picks his time and place careful and uses his head!"
This caused some grumbling and thought among Grady, Eben and the others.
George continued, saying, "Mr. Fairfield turns a plan inside and out and over. He don't go rushing in like a fool, like I did. You should hear the stories this man tells, how the other white folks he fooled thinks he's so fine when he talks about Quebec and Ontario and all the great men he knows in Parliament, Washington, New York, and over to Paris, France. He knows how to use the names of every disease, and he talks on science, medicine, politics and religion, and when he helps a runaway, he's got friends, relatives, and sons from Illinois clean to Canada to see that runaway free."
"Still ain't going to be no help to you now," Grady solemnly replied.
"Maybe...maybe not. I tell you, them freedom papers are good, if we can just get 'em back."
"There's gotta be a way," Daniel said, frustrated and scratching his head.
Ichabod turned to the others and made a pronouncement as leader of his people. All who'd come from Blainy's wanted to hear what he had to say about all these revelations. "Daisy's boy George is telling the truth. That man who purchased us didn't rightfully purchase us. He ain't no major but a sheriff from down at Hannibal. We're heading south, and this here sheriff may have it in his head to sell us to Deep South. If that happens, we'll all go in different directions, split up like culled apples."
"You just got this white boy's word on the major," objected one man in Ichabod's camp.
"That and the word of a man who ain't never cared about any of us before now," said a sassy, young girl beside this man. "That George never had any use for nobody among us before. Left us and his mammy without asking a soul to make free with him!"
"Yeah," agreed another. "Why should we believe him now?"
Daisy stormed into them all. "Ain't none of you ever cared one lick about George all his sweet life until he made free!"
Old Ichabod waved his hands, cutting the argument short, saying, "I saw the so-called major pay off all his men at the landing, just before they put the lock on the door! If he was from Louisana like he claimed and was taking all fifty or so of us all the way to his plantation in Deep South, then he'd have brought along his own armed guards."
George shouted, "This ain't going to be a long ride, just to St. Louis."
"It's plain enough we're moving south," said Daniel.
"George here hasn't any reason to lie," shouted Daisy. "And neither does this here white boy."
There was still grumbling. Ichabod held up his hands and yelled, "Use your ears!" "Do you hear a single oarsman outside yonder? You hear any oars dipping water? Any cursing."
"We're running with the water's current," added Daniel. "The sheriff and one or two of his men are aboard, and that you can believe."
George perked up considerably at this. "That's good news. Only two or three guns on us, and we're fifty strong."
"We're still trapped," Grady said sullenly.
"But we're not surrounded by so many guns we can't handle them. This puts a different light on things altogether." He went silent a moment, thinking. "Brisbane pays off all his men up front, and then they're out of it. Probably all of 'em prefer it that way. Then he and one or two others take all the real risks."
Ichabod asked, "Wonder how long he's played out this game?"
George considered this. "Good question. If there was only some way to expose him..."
"Expose him and we're free," added Daniel.
"You'll be free," replied Sissy, her lip quivering.
"Daniel, rest of us would just be turned back to Mr. Blainy, and him still with his debts and problems. He'd just sell us all over again."
"No telling what they'd do with George," added Ichabod. "I think we'd best sleep on it. Everybody's tired and wore out."
THIRTEEN
A DISGUISE OVER A DISGUISE
When the morning prayers and the preaching finished, everyone sang psalms until someone banged loudly on the door and yelled for them to be quiet inside.
"That sounded like Lem," Daniel said.
"Who's Lem?" asked Daisy.
"The one you threw into the water."
"Oh, yeah, that mean one."
Daisy had nursed George's wounds all day long. She'd torn her apron into strips, dampened them at the single water basin, and tied them about his head for bandages. George had stopped bleeding, and cleaned up, he looked a fair sight better. Sissy had helped in nursing George along.
"Wish we could get them chains off my boy," moaned Daisy.
Ichabod had been sitting at the wall all night and all day, sitting still and quiet until someone interrupted his thoughts. He appeared to be thinking on the situation and how best to proceed. He'd stare at nothing for the longest time, like a cat might stare at a corner in a room. Gaunt and high-cheeked, Ichabod stood some six-foot-two, so tall Daniel thought he purposely bent at the back so as to not stand over a person too much when he spoke. His clothes hung on his thin frame like a scarcrow's. Daniel thought Ichabod's hands the biggest he'd ever seen, and when he raised them in prayer it was like two flatirons being stood on end. Daisy had told Daniel how once, when Ichabod worked in the barn, a carriage, harnessed to the rafters, had fallen on him, yet he survived. That had been ten years ago. A miracle, Daisy had said.
He erupted now, saying, "I got us a plan! I done hit upon a plan."
"What plan?" asked Daisy.
"Smallpox! That's what it is, smallpox!" Ichabod shouted.
Ichabod frightened everyone in the cabin, not only by the suddeness with which he came to life, but with the fear of being trapped inside with the terrible smallpox. Smallpox meant almost certain death. People generally called it the fever until one hundred or more died from it, then it was proclaimed smallpox. It was a terrible superstition that everyone held to—folks didn't call it smallpox until there was nothing left to call it. By calling it the fever, it might only kill some and be on its way. Smallpox had killed Daniel's parents.
Daniel realized Ichabod was now coldly staring right into his face. Daniel feared the old man at that moment.
Daisy saw the strange look in Ichabod's eye as well, and she placed her large self between Daniel and Ichabod. showed her fist and said. "Don't you touch this child, old man! I don't care what you saw in any crazy vision in your head!"
"Smallpox!" he shouted again, still coming closer to Daniel. "Daisy. George,
look close here on this boy's face! He don't look so well, not at all!" Ichabod tore out a handkerchief and with it he dabbed at Daniel's smoky, lamp-blackened face. "See all these spots, here and there," he continued as he dabbed at Daniel's cheeks. The spots he created were gray-white. "That's how smallpox look, and even if it don't, how many people have ever seen smallpox?" he asked.
"A disguise over a disguise," George said, smiling.
"It's a marvelous-good plan," Daniel agreed. "They hear smallpox, and they'll be crazy upset with their cargo!"
"They hear smallpox, and they'll throw away the key," said Daisy, putting a damper on all the enthusiasm. "Leave us all here to rot."
"Then we won't call it smallpox," said Ichabod. "We'll let them draw their own conclusions."
"You're putting a lot of faith in that white boy," said Eben from where he sat. Grady nodded in agreement.
Sissy replied boldly. "You got a better plan?"
"Ichabod," said Daisy, "I don't want this boy put in no danger."
"He's our only hope, woman."
"Daniel wants to help, momma," George added, "and he'll do just fine. Won't you, Daniel?"
"Only one thing worries me," Daniel began, hedging after thinking the dangerous plan over. "It's just that I'm not so good at disguises, as you know, and if the sheriff looks too hard at me and sees who I am, he's going to think I got aboard as the judge's spy.
"Judge's spy?" Grady asked.
"Spy?" asked Eben.
"What're you talking about, spy?" asked Sissy.
"Can't trust him," Eben said from his corner.
"It's a good plan, and Daniel's a spy for our side!" George was angry he could not get up, move around the room and bring home the plan. He finally said, "It's the only chance we got."
"I'll do it," Daniel said.
Daisy stepped from beside Daniel, and going to the fireplace in the middle of the far wall, she covered her hands with pitch pine cinders of good age. She returned open-palmed to Daniel. "You've got to do something about them earlobes first, and that hairline," she said with a motherly smile. "First chance you see to set yourself free, young man, you take it!"
Daniel felt her kind, warm fingers at his ears and covering his forehead as she smeared the pitch pine. She then looked up at Ichabod and said, "All right, finish speckling him!" She felt truly worried for Daniel.
"Then it's settled," said Ichabod. "This is how we do it. Gather round."
At one point in Ichabod's outline of the plan, Eben shouted, "Then we jump them!"
"Right," agreed Grady.
"No!" shouted Ichabod.
Eben glared at Ichabod and said, "My men don't follow you. They follows me!"
"We've got to be together on this thing," Ichabod pleaded.
"Eben, Grady," said George from where he sat, "no sudden moves while there's a gun pointed in here. There's women and children here."
"But we can take the gun away from anyone steps in here, Eben hissed."
"The sheriff carries a second gun right here," George said, pounding his fist to his chest. "A small one."
"Then we'll jump them both," Eben said.
George was fast losing his temper. "Look, Eben, that man's got our tickets home, got our papers without which it'd be impossible to make it far."
"My men and me, we don't need no papers if we got guns," shouted Eben, a fierce look contorting his eyes and mouth. "I'm so tired, man, if they killed me yesterday, I'd have to sleep another week to catch up to my soul. So. what do I care."
Grady placed a hand on Eben's shoulder as Ichabod said, "Then stay clear out of it. Mr. Eben, and give these other folks their chance to run. You had your chance, and it got you here. We're trying to get from here. Now, you're with us, or you get back in your corner over there and stay put." Eben looked around at the others. Grady pulled him away, both men grumbling.
Daniel heard the talk all around him. He felt the uncertainty building. He heard Grady say, "We got to put our trust in a white boy?"
"All we can do is pray," said another.
"The sheriffs got all the guns. He's got the keys, and he's got them papers most of all," Ichabod told Daniel. "You're our one chance."
"Now Daniel, what are you going to do?" George asked.
"I'm to lay so still I look dead but with a twitch here and there, and moan and fret. I'm supposed to be with fever, so I'm to complain of the heat."
"We need to sweat him up somehow," suggested Sissy. "Maybe he could run around the room some."
"I got a good, warm blanket here," said a woman beside Sissy. She handed it to Daniel and he placed it over his shoulders. Madly, he began running around the room like a frightened chicken until his brow glistened.
"Now. Daisy!" Ichabod gave the signal.
Daisy went to the door, and pounded on it and pleaded. "Major! Major Splitshot! Help me. please, please help me!"
Ichabod leaned into Daniel and whispered. "Try to keep him stalled, to keep the door open for as long as possible."
"Then what?" asked Daniel.
"I don't know...making this up as I go along."
Suddenly Daisy was answered by Lem's voice: "What in tarnation's going on in there?"
"The child! He's burning up with fever!" she shouted through the door. "He's burning up with fever! Help him, please!"
Shaken, Lem answered, "I'll...I'll get the major."
In a moment, the door was thrown open, and Lem stood in the doorway, his long gun pointed in. Brisbane entered and stood over Daniel, who lay under a blanket at the far wall, acting as sick as he was afraid. He made horrible faces, hoping this would further disguise him.
"This boy looks awful!" said Sheriff Brisbane. "He looks near death, Lem."
"Oh, my God," answered Lem. "What'11 we do with him?"
"Fetch him a doctor when we reach St. Louis, I reckon."
The sheriff stood up and shook his head over the boy and shrugged. He made as if to leave, saying, "We don't have no provisions on board for the sickness." He looked into Daisy's face and said, "I'm sorry. Maybe some hot soup. I'll have Lem bring a bowl around to him."
Daisy shouted, “Nooo, you got get him fresh air! The air in here’s gone stale. My baby, my honeypot! He’ll die!”
The sheriff bent over Daniel again and nodded. "All right."
Brisbane hefted Daniel and started through the door. Daniel lifted a leg and made it difficult for him to get through, but in a moment they were clear. Daniel heard George shouting, "I guess you won't get much for a bunch of slaves with smallpox, sheriff!"
Sheriff Brisbane shouted, "Smallpox!" and flung Daniel over the side of the flatboat, out into the darkness. In another second, as he smacked into the river, Daniel heard the terrible report of a single gunshot. He swam for the rudder of the flatboat as it neared him, caught it and held on. The mournful singing inside the cabin, sad and low, told him that the escape attempt had failed and at least one man was dead. Daisy's strong voice led the mourning song, the loneliest he'd ever heard. All the same, Daniel held fast to the rudder, feeling the easy current's drag and pull under his feet, feeling cold and believing himself a failure.
The rudder was tied-to, unmanned, dragging silently behind the boat in the deep water. Daniel was able to pull himself back onto the boat. He hid amid several bales of cotton behind the cabin where the slaves were held. He saw a light in the smaller cabin over the bow where the sheriff and Lem were probably having a drink to steady their nerves—the sheriff worried he'd touched smallpox, Daniel guessed.
It seemed that the sheriff and Lem were the only two crewmen aboard. Daniel stared at the rudder again. Leaving a rudder unmanned was dangerous business. It was done in wide water, but one always took a chance letting a boat look out for itself, current or no current. Daniel wondered just how long Lem would leave it unattended. He decided to wait and see.
Daniel dozed and was awakened by the sound of something moving toward him amongst the bundles of flax and cotton. It was too dark to see, there be
ing no moon out. Then he heard breathing. It must be Lem, and Lem must see like a cat in the dark, staring right at me, the boy thought.
Daniel inched back toward the rear of the boat and sat on a pile of rope. He saw Lem at the rudder, sitting calm and undisturbed, his long gun put up at his side.
Does the sheriff have another man aboard? he wondered. Suddenly Daniel was being licked across the face and crowded by Samuel.
"Heyyy boy." he whispered, "how did you get onboard?"
FOURTEEN
A FIRST STEP TOWARD FREEDOM
Daniel awoke in the dark to Samuel's frantic nudging. Lem had left the rudder again, and the smart dog had awakened him. This was Daniel's chance.
He grabbed the rope he'd used for a pillow, rushed to the rudder and pulled it as far to the right as it would go, and tied it there. He looked down the boat and saw that Lem had already gone into the sheriff s cabin, probably for coffee or something to eat. He hadn't taken his long gun. though. Daniel took it and went back into hiding amid the bales.
Daniel knew he wouldn't be firing off any gun at anyone, so he took the long gun up to the roof of the large cabin. He let the gun drop down the chimney. "Who's up there?" called Ichabod. Thank God, Ichabod vasn 't shot, Daniel thought.
"It's me. Daniel." he whispered down.
A muffed cheer of happiness greeted him. When Lem returned to the rudder, he hit himself on the side of his head with his palm and corrected the rudder. He mumbled something to himself, then went back to the sheriff s cabin.
Daniel went again to the rudder and reset it hard to port. Then Daniel and Samuel inched their way forward, down the other side of the boat to the sheriff s cabin. A lamp burned brightly there. The window was covered with an oilcloth sash. The sheriff and Lem were sitting at the table, passing a bottle back and forth. Lem was telling the sheriff that everything was going to be all right.
Daniel Webster Jackson & The Wrongway Railroad Page 10