Daniel Webster Jackson & The Wrongway Railroad

by Robert Walker

  "Did she carry slave cargo?" asked George.

  Daniel reluctantly nodded, "Many times. Not always, but many. They'd be out on the deck at the stern, there with the wood piles, the bales of cotton and the flax. I didn't never think of them much. None of the boys did. We'd all grown up with the sight."

  "See what's come of your proud, old steamer?" George said. "Same thing's going to come of the whole state of Missouri and the South—when war comes over slavery, Daniel. Free states and slaves states are heading toward a collision, and its going to bring half this nation to its knees. And it'll all come because of those black folks riding up and down this river on boats like the Walter Scott, treated like so much cattle or wheat or cotton, those black people nobody in Missouri thinks about now."

  "You really think there's a war coming over slavery?"

  "Yeah. A war between the states."

  Daniel gave it thought for some moments, asking, "When will it come?"

  "A year, maybe two, maybe ten."

  "What does Mr. Fairfield say about it?"

  "He thinks it'll come in less than ten years, and he says there ain't nothing anyone can do now to stop it. All the talk in Washington, all the law-making against slavery, it's all led straight for war, he says. It's why the Underground Railroad is so busy these days."

  "White men and black, who can't sit by any longer and watch slavery go on in this country, are taking action," said Robert Fairfield in Daniel's ear. "In some ways, the war's already started. The Road is the war."

  "Robert, his brothers and his father, me, too, I reckon," began George, "we're the first soldiers along with thousands like us."

  "I guess then that I'm a soldier, too," said Daniel.

  The boat bumped against the steamer, hugged her and was tied tightly now. The men started up the ladder and along the side-wheel with Grady and Tom in the lead. Robert and his brothers followed, and then George left, shaking Daniel's hand as if for the last time. Each man made the difficult climb up to the deck.

  Daniel, waiting in the boat, tried to get his bearings. Exactly where are we in relation to the keelboat lights? Mr. Fairfield had said they would hold the flatboat close to shore on a northerly tact, but as Daniel searched for their light in the dark, he could not find it. Now the feeling of being carried swiftly along by the steamboat wreck began to take hold of him. Being tied to the side of a great whale could not be so different, he thought.

  Daniel didn't know that Fairfield and the others on the flatboat were this moment watching the steamboat slip rapidly past them, going at a quickening pace toward a dangerous bend. Daniel couldn't know that some of the keel boatmen had already started saying that the speeding steamer would come to a grinding halt amid sandbars, snags, and overhanging willows at the place where Eben Grimes had been buried. Everyone feared the steamer would explode. Word spread around the keelboat that Daniel and the men who had followed George would not be returning.

  EIGHTEEN

  FROM EXPLOSION TO EXCURSION

  Daniel watched the water level rise over the lettering alongside the steamboat. He realized that the river meant to sink the steamer in quick fashion. He had given up trying to determine where in all the gloom and rain lay the keelboat. He imagined the steamer with him lashed to it had somehow turned completely in the water and the keelboat must be on the other side, out of his view. Now Daniel worried about George and the other men aboard the steamboat, as the water mark along her side indicated she'd dropped three feet since they'd attached. The Walter Scott could capsize any time now.

  Then Daniel saw the river bend coming at them. It appeared some three or four hundred yards off, but it loomed large and mean-looking. The steamer and everyone on it would be dashed against the bend. Daniel started up the ladder to warn the others, but suddenly the steamer lurched and Daniel was thrown into the water. Daniel felt the strong pull of the current at his feet. Somehow he'd grabbed hold of the rowboat and held on for life. Overhead, he heard George shout, "Stay in the boat!"

  He looked up to see Grady, Tom, George and the Fairfield sons, their arms loaded with suitcases, trunks and loose clothing, all trying to manage a foothold on the ladder. Between them, Grady and Tom held onto a huge steamer trunk.

  "You can't put that on a rowboat!" shouted George to them. "It's too much weight in this storm. It'll sink us sure."

  Robert Fairfield solved the problem with a gunshot to the lock, and in a moment clothes were raining down on Daniel where he had climbed back into the boat. Tom and Grady insisted on emptying the contents with no regard for what floated down into the water and what hit the boat. Meanwhile, the Fairfield boys and George had made it back into the small boat, and Daniel pointed out both the bend ahead which threatened to kill them all, and the fact he had lost sight of the keelboat.

  "How're we going to find our way back, George?" asked Daniel.

  "I saw the keelboat light from the deck," said Tom as he made the leap from ladder to boat. The climb down was much easier since the water level had risen so high up the ladder. "They're north of us! We went whizzing right on by them."

  The steamboat lurched again, pulling the small boat out of the water. George and Tom worked to cut the lines. Daniel shouted, "What about Grady? He's still up there!"

  With the ropes cut, the small boat crashed back into the river and slipped away from the steamer. Grady fell onto the side-wheel and refused to jump from it.

  "Jump, man! It’s your only chance," yelled Tom.

  "Jump!" chanted the others.

  "I can't swim!" he shouted back.

  "So, you goin' to die up there or down here with your friends?" shouted Tom.

  "I'll ride her out till she hits a snag or land!" he bawled back.

  Just then, the Walter Scott came forward at them, keeling over as if to smash them all, and Grady lost his hold. Thrown into the raging river, he came up screaming. Without hesitation, Daniel tied a rope around himself and dove in to help Grady.

  "Throw out some ropes!" shouted George to the others. "Fool boy's going to get himself killed!"

  Daniel swallowed water and spit a lot out, while he called Grady's name and swam for the spot where he had last surfaced. He heard Grady before he saw him. The big man shouted, "Help! I'm here!"

  "Mr. Grady, take hold of the rope around my waist and hold firm," Daniel said. "The rope's attached to the boat. It's our lifeline, Mr. Grady. Hold on."

  The big man was frantic with fear, but he focused on Daniel's words and did as told. Another rope hit Grady across the face, and he grabbed onto it. "They done lassoed me!" he yelled.

  Daniel and Grady felt themselves being tugged toward the rowboat, now well away from the sinking steamer. As Daniel and Grady fell into the wet bottom of the rowboat, the steamboat hit the sandbar at the river's bend, not fifty yards from where they'd bobbed and twirled cork-like in the water. The black sky was suddenly alight with the grandest and most awful fireball Daniel had ever seen.

  Watching the ensuing fire in the sky, the boiler having exploded, George quietly said, "Looks like the Walter Scott's run right into something too big to move."

  Daisy sat crying alongside an equally tearful Sissy. Others in the big cabin on the flatboat cried as well, and Mr. Fairfield sadly contemplated the loss of his sons.

  Daisy said, "Not fair! Just ain't fair to find my boy, George, only to lose him like this. And that poor sweet boy, Daniel Webster Jackson."

  "Why'd we let them go off and do such a fool thing?" asked Sissy. "Blown to smithereens, every one of 'em."

  "Burnt to a sizzling crisp," someone was in the midst of saying when Daniel, followed by the others, sauntered into the cabin, each swinging clothing and bags.

  George shouted, "We didn't have time to take sizes, but we got our arms loaded. You all just step up and find what fits you."

  Daniel thought, While the clothes are soaking wet, these howls of happiness and pleasure are warm enough to dry' them out.

  "George!" shouted Daisy, hugging him, an
d then grabbing Daniel and doing likewise. "You're all safe!"

  "All present and accounted for, pa," said Robert to his father who hugged each of his sons.

  "We gave you all up for dead when we saw the explosion," said Fairfield.

  Grady, still shaken from his ordeal in the water, found himself surrounded by well-wishers, and Tom strutted about as a hero, holding clothes over his head, saying, "Our shopping trip went mighty fine!"

  Grady told the others about Daniel's bravery. Everyone wanted the entire story, and as the heroes were warmed with hugs and mugs of coffee and stew, everybody listened to the adventure. As the story unfolded, so did the clothing, as each person on the keelboat located something he or she liked.

  "Here you are Mr. Wileford," said one woman to Tom. "This vest would look right smart on you."

  "Something here for you, too, Mr. Radcliff, Sissy said to Grady, holding up a pair of suspenders."

  Another lady said to Sissy, "Why Miss Smith, mayn't this be your bonnet?" Sissy took the hat and tried it on for size, George helping her with the blue lace about her chin.

  "Why, look at this scarlet scarf!" said Daisy. "I won't wear scarlet. Ain't never going to be that free!"

  "Mr. Palmer," suggested Robert Fairfield, addressing Ichabod in his freeman's name, "I bet these green pants are about your size, and they'd go fine with a white shirt."

  Daisy disappeared for a while and reappeared in the doorway completely changed. She wore an emerald green dress with fluffy feathers all around the collar, and a sash of yellow about her waist. Obviously a large woman had once owned the dress, but Daisy looked as if she could hardly breathe in it. She wore yellow gloves up to her elbows, and a huge green feathered hat made her look like a rooster. She struggled to walk in a pair of yellow shoes she'd worked onto her feet.

  Ichabod looked on in amazement. Daisy said to him, "Well, what's the matter with you, old man? Ain't you never seen a lady before?"

  "Oh, Daisy," he said, his eyes wide, "you're...you're beautiful."

  Throwing back her head and almost falling in her new shoes, she laughed. Ichabod grabbed her by the waist to help right her. Then he backed away as if she might break. He repeated, "You just looks so beautiful, Daisy."

  George agreed, adding, "You sure do, momma."

  "You just every one of you remember this! I'm the widow Mrs. George Henry Hillock on travel excursion with my only-est son, George. I'm a freeborn black woman on holiday. Come to visit. Paid my fare to Mr. Colfax," she said, pointing to Mr. Fairfield. "The operator of this here excursion boat."

  Everyone laughed and each began to talk in the same manner. John Fairfield had told them that with the clothes they'd found, they could set up an elaborate scheme. Mr. Fairfield was to be called Mr. Isaac Colfax, the owner and operator of the Sights and Wonders of the Mississippi River Excursion Company. George had been busy at work, making out a bill of sale on the boat in the name of Isaac Colfax and Sons, and a formal listing about the company, costs, and schedule.

  Most of the people would pose as passengers, like Daisy, freeborn black people, with their freedom papers and their newfound wardrobes. The plan stood a fair chance, and by now all of the "free" men and women aboard had learned their lessons about their identities and histories.

  Mr. Fairfield joked, "Who'd believe anyone was stupid enough or brave enough to attempt running off with fifty slaves right up the river in full daylight?" But as he said it, he cocked his head first to one side, and then the other, deep in thought. He shouted, "By George! Who'd believe anyone that crazy?"

  George knew this meant something special. He approached Fairfield and said, "You're hatching a new plan. What is it?"

  Fairfield frowned and shook his head to indicate no, and said, "It's too risky."

  Ichabod asked, "What's too risky?"

  "We stick with the Colfax Excursion plan, but we take it one bold step further."

  "Meaning?" asked Daisy, joining in the pow-wow.

  "Meaning, my lady, we brazen it out boldly."

  "So, we begin by putting up a big sign over the top of the boat?" asked George. "A sign reading out The Colfax Excursion Line?"

  "That's a fine start," replied Fairfield. "Do you think we could get up a sign?"

  "All we need is to locate some paint aboard."

  "There's some canvas aboard," added Daniel, warming to the idea.

  "But what's this brazen plan?" asked Ichabod of Fairfield.

  "Don't you know?"

  Ichabod's eyes lit up and he shouted, "We go straight into Hannibal under our own steam! Just like that."

  "I get it," added Daniel. "We're supposed to stop there as one of the wonderments of the Mississippi. After all, it is a real wilderness town. No self-respecting river excursion tour would miss it."

  "Right!" said Mr. Fairfield. "We'll have George add it to the schedule."

  Everyone looked about at one another, some grumbling. "Do you think we can get away with that, George?" asked Daisy. "I mean, it is risky."

  "There's no way we can slip by Hannibal without being seen, even at night," replied George. "Before they stop us and make us come into the landing at Hannibal, we'll come in on our own. Brazen it out, like Mr. Fairfield says."

  "Colfax, George," he corrected. "Best everybody begins now calling me and my boys by Colfax."

  George held up his hand, saying, "There's people in Hannibal who will recognize Daniel, and the judge there knows me as George Penny, the runaway catcher."

  Daniel waved him down, saying, "I plum forgot to tell you that Judge Hatcher ain't judge of Hannibal no more."

  "What?"

  "According to Sheriff Brisbane, Judge Halverston's come to office."

  "Spying agrees with you, Daniel,” George said with a wry smile.” That's mighty fine information, and it could be a great help getting past our problems with Hannibal."

  "Who's this Halverston?" asked Fairfield.

  "A good friend. Got his own road operation near Hannibal."

  Daniel told Fairfield about the colonel. Old Billy and how they worked their station on the Underground Railroad.

  "Maybe our luck's changing, folks," said George.

  NINETEEN

  A TRULY BRAZEN ACT

  The old, gray flatboat, once the most drab thing afloat, was now decked out on each side with big signs made from sheets that proclaimed the boat to be The Isaac Colfax's Mississippi River Excursion Boat. The lettering was beautiful, going from two-feet in size to regular lettering on the list of places visited by the Colfax Excursion Line. Large rippling red ribbons flowed from stem to stern, these created by Sissy from discarded clothes and scarves.

  All along the deck of the flatboat, couples strolled arm-in-arm, Daisy with Ichabod, George with Sissy, Tom and Grady with their partners. Fourteen of the men were working the poles and rudder, and they had easy parts to play, as they didn't have to pretend to be anyone but themselves, acting as slaves to Mr. Isaac. George had made out a bill of sale on each of these men, and Colfax's name figured in the ownership papers. These men worked the keels and lifted and toted boxes in shifts. Colfax's sons pretended to be mean to these men, shouting orders and threats. Meanwhile, Daniel had officially become the galley boy to help out with the cooking.

  As they neared the landing at Hannibal, Mr. Fairfield cautioned everyone. "You're on your own now. Hold tight to your freedom papers, whatever happens. Even if we're arrested, we have proof we are who we say we are."

  "Don't show your papers to anybody but the judge," George instructed them. "Show them to the wrong man, and he'll just eat 'em raw."

  Daisy twirled a big white parasol. Overhead, lacey trim flew at its edges as she walked alongside Ichabod. Ichabod muttered to Daisy, "I hope we made the right decision."

  "Don't worry. George and Mr. Fairfield know what they're doing."

  "This is going to be something, if it works," replied Sissy as she and George strolled by.

  Hearing this, Mr. Fairfield shouted, "Brazen it out,
Mary Eloise, Mrs. Hillock!"

  "What about you, Mr. Radcliff?" George asked of Tom. "You doing all right?"

  Tom lifted his cane and twirled it between his fingers. Smiling, he said, "I bet they ain't never seen a bunch like us before. The name of Ezeekiel Radcliff will long be remembered in these parts!" The cane snapped back into place at Tom's heel.

  People around them laughed at Tom's show of sass, and Mr. Fairfield said, "That's it folks! We're on a riverboat excursion, and people laugh and have fun on holiday, so laugh it up! We want folks yonder at the wharf in Hannibal to be downright jealous. Pass the word! Whoop it up. No sourpusses and no fear!"

  George agreed, saying, "We're also sight-seers, so I want everyone looking and gawking and straining to see, and you're to make opinions on what you see." He then asked Daniel to help spread the word.

  Hannibal had come into sight, and now a crowd began to form at the landing, everyone curious about the strangely decked-out flatboat with the big sign atop it. As they neared the landing, they saw some boys waving hats and some grownups shouting a welcome. However, this excitement was soon replaced by a curious agitation as the boat drew nearer and everyone saw the color of the passengers' skin.

  The crowd that had gathered began to swell, yet as it did so, it became quieter, the people talking among themselves, the hat-waving finished. Daniel saw boys sent off, possibly to alert authorities. Others returned with friends and relatives to see the amazing Colfax Excursion Boat.

  "We're committed now!" shouted Fairfield. "Looks like some official-looking types are coming out to greet us, boys, George!"

  Looking finer and prouder than she had any right to look, the aged flatboat moved in as the black people aboard continued their charade, laughing, and strolling the deck, some waving now to the people on shore, Daisy twirling her parasol, Tom his cane. The smiles and laughter coming from the The Colfax excursion people kept the crowd on the wharf wondering. Suddenly, the clatter of a base drum, a fiddle, a horn and a flute erupted, and Hannibal's four-piece band began marching down Hannibal's main street and to the landing, the crowd parting to allow them through.