Hogarth II

by Vicky Saari

  The three men paused for a moment and looked at one another for an answer of some kind. The man whom Seth had met in Madison said, “In our business, men do not have names. It is safer dat vay.”

  Seth had to think on this and knew the man had a good point. The less one knew, the safer it was for all concerned. “So I take it you have been checking me out ever since I left Madison.”

  “Sorry, Mr. Hodges, we began our inquiry even before you left Madison. That is how our agent found his way to your wife’s store.” The oldest of the three men had tossed aside his German accent.

  “So the things your man said to my wife were a test to see how my wife would react?” he asked.

  “Unfortunately, we cannot afford to make mistakes in our business. Especially when the person in question is a brother to a slave owner and trader,” he said. “We also made inquiries about you in this small village a few miles back. We heard rumors about the men they held in jail. People say you had something to do with them being arrested. Mr. Smallwood said there was talk of trouble.”

  Seth squirmed uncomfortably in his chair at that thought. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to help an old friend and still prevent any kind of trouble,” he confessed somewhat dejectedly.

  “We suspected something like that when we saw you in Madison. That is why we are here.”

  “Ya, ve have a solution, Brother Seth. Can you arrange for the person thee speak of to meet vis us?” asked the brother he had spoken to in Madison as he resumed his German accent. “Ve have a plan, but ve cannot afford to vait. It must happen tonight. Just tell thee friend that ve follow de North Star, and he vill come.”

  “Ve vill wait here. If anyone comes, ve vill send them on. Trust us, Brother Seth. There is no time to vait,” pleaded the third man as he rested his hand on Seth’s arm.

  Seth studied the men carefully but detected no note of deception. “I will be back within the hour.”

  The sun was already low in the sky, and the shadows were growing deeper as Seth set off again for the Hogarths’ place. He wasn’t sure how he could manage to get Moses away without being seen. Besides, John and Cindy would be coming home soon, he feared. And what would he tell Martha? As he neared the old familiar homestead, he heard a wagon pulling away and found that it was Jed and Sarah taking the children home. Watching from behind the tree line, he located Moses still sitting on the stoop of the old cabin. He wondered if the man had moved since he left. He moved as close as he dared and quietly called out for Moses’ attention, “Psst! Psst!”

  Moses wasn’t sure what he heard, but it drew his attention to a shadow in the trees. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust, but he eventually recognized the figure and walked out into the wood line. “Mr. Seth, what’s goin’ on?” he asked.

  “I found the path for the North Star. Some Friends are at the inn to spirit you away,” Seth whispered.

  “But I need to tell Miss Martha. I just cain’t go an’ leave her again,” Moses said and frowned.

  “Quickly, there’s no time. They said it has to be tonight,” Seth whispered. “If no one knows, it’s safer that way for all.”

  “You’re right,” said Moses. “Tell Miss Martha I’ve always missed her.”

  “She knows, and I think she will be happy if she knows you are safe,” said Seth as he turned back toward the inn. “Let’s move away from the house so no one sees us.” Soundlessly, the two men hurried toward the inn.

  Seth told Moses to wait inside the tree line while he went in to speak to the brothers and was surprised that a freight wagon was sitting in front of the inn. “Is that a customer wanting a room?” he asked the men, who still sat in the darkening room at the same table as when he had left.

  “No, Brother Seth, zat iz one of our couriers. He vill take your cargo to safety tonight,” spoke the most familiar man.

  “Where are you taking him?” Seth asked uncertainly.

  “It is a very long journey. Ve have place vere former slaves have found safety and a home of their own. Dat ist all ve can tell thee,” said the man. “My two brothers vill vatch ze road, if thee vill introduce me to thy friend.”

  Seth led the Friend out the back door, where he called to Moses to join them. “Shh, Brother Seth, thee must learn to speak softly if thee is to work among Friends,” admonished the man with no name. “Moses, I zee thee has no need vor new clothes. If you will follow me?”

  Seth followed the two men to the front of the inn, where the others waited. Moses turned quickly and gave Seth a quick hug. “Thank ye and the Hogarths for being my friends. I will always remember all of you. I wish I could have stayed.” Just as quickly he stepped up to the wagon, where a man was holding the side of the wagon open to expose a false interior. It was lined with a heavy comforter, and as soon as George was comfortable inside, the side of the wagon was raised back into place. One of the brothers had already been to the stable and had their horses saddled and ready. “If thee need our services again, you know how to contact us. By the way, here is a blanket that if you leave it out on the fence at night, visitors will feel safe to call upon thee. Good-bye, Brother Seth.”

  Seth watched as the three men and the wagon headed toward the old village and Madison or wherever. He had no idea. There was a heavy feeling in his chest. So much change had come over his little town in such a short time. He wondered if anything would ever be the same again. This thought had hardly passed through his mind before the sound of teams came from behind. “Pa, what in the world are you doing out here in the dark? Where are our guests? Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Hamburg said we had guests,” Cindy asked.

  John and Job were already leading the team toward the stable, and Seth ached for the boys’ loss. “Need a hand, son?” he inquired but was interrupted by the coming of another wagon. It sounded like a party was coming. Zeke and Lucy had brought Martha, Luke, Hiram, the Maynard kids, the Hamburgs, and the Turners.

  “”Whoa! Boys, you got a full load there!” he exclaimed. Martha was climbing down almost before the wagon came to a halt.

  “Seth, the strangest thing happened tonight. We were all talking and having a good time when all of a sudden someone asked where Moses was. We looked in the old cabin and all around, and it was as if he had just vanished,” complained Martha. “And where are those men that Agnes said had checked in? Don’t tell me they left too.”

  “It’s a good thing I collected in advance,” interrupted Agnes Turner as she handed three silver dollars to Martha. “I meant to give it to Lucinda but never got a chance.”

  Behind her, Greta withdrew three quarters from her pocket and handed them to Martha also. “Ze men paid me vor ze dinners, too,” she said.

  Seth turned to the group gathered in the middle of the road and said, “Folks, I don’t know about you, but this has been a long day for me. I will see you all later.” He took Martha by the arm and started walking toward their drive at the other end of the town, leaving all the others to make do for themselves. As they walked, he told her all that had transpired that night. “You mean that man who came into my store and insulted me so much was actually one of their agents?” she cried incredulously. Seth could almost see her blush with mortification in the dark.

  *****

  Hogarth smiled at the memories of George’s disappearance. He understood early that the old songs sung by the slaves came to be called “spirituals,” which supposedly guided slaves out of bondage and away to safety. He wondered if Dave knew the history of some of the songs he often sang as he worked. Although it was hard to admit, Hogarth enjoyed watching the three men work. Twice they had restored him to life. Again, moisture formed under his eaves.

  Chapter 20

  The morning after came early at the Hogarths’, and Jessie wasn’t sure if she was ready to start the day. After nearly a week flat on her back, the idea of staying in bed was very alluring. She didn�
�t think much about it until she realized the sun was much brighter than normal, and the smell of fresh biscuits and coffee came wafting up from the kitchen. Caleb was already gone, and when she got to the kitchen, she found Little Jessie bent over the fireplace putting chunks of pork in a kettle for dinner. She looked up surprised when she saw her mother standing behind her. “It was so late when you and Pa went to bed, I thought I’d get things ready for you,” she chirped.

  Speechless, Jessie staggered to a chair beside her kitchen table, wondering what had happened to her. “Has anyone heard anything from Moses this morning?” she asked.

  “Naw, Pa’s gone to see if Mr. Hodges knows anything. He disappeared while Mr. Hodges was at the inn,” said her daughter as she set a plate of gravy and biscuits before her ma.

  Grimly, Jessie picked up a biscuit and began crushing it up in her gravy. She took her spoon and stirred it up some more. She hated to admit it, but her daughter’s biscuits were even better than her own. “You know you’re gonna make some man a good wife someday, Mittens. I can’t make biscuits as good as yours are already,” she sighed sluggishly. “You know, I wuz just a getting’ used to havin’ Moses around.”

  “I think Pa’s gonna miss him more’n anyone. They got to be awful good friends when you wuz sick,” remarked Little Jessie. “He was a big help when things were goin’ so bad around here.”

  Jessie didn’t know why she felt so guilty. “I don’t know who’s gonna miss Minnie more, me or Martha.” Little Jessie set the pan down that she was about to put into the oven and turned to console her mother.

  “There’ll never be another Minnie,” Mittens reflected. “Having her around was as good as havin’ another mother. I know Job and John are gonna be plumb lost without her. I worry about Job.”

  “What do ya mean, you worry about Job? Job’s a grown man. He can take care of hisself,” Jessie fired back.

  Young Jessie always had a way of seeing inside a person. Her ma watched her work and was remembering the young girl who constantly kept the boys on their toes. “I thought you had your eyes set on Brad,” she queried her daughter and watched closely for her response.

  “I do, but Brad’s different. He seems to know who he is and where he belongs. Job’s different. He’s a lot like his pa. I don’t think Mr. Bascom ever really knew who he was or where he belonged,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “Maybe you’re right,” Jessie conceded. “I’d never really thought about it. Opal never did seem to relax, even when times were good. Since so many people are passing through Sethsburg and not many are stopping or staying, his tannery business has all but dried up.”

  “That’s right ma, and he never really had anything else to fall back on,” the younger woman spoke philosophically. “By the way, when you get done eatin,’ I want you to check out the garden and see if I got things laid away like you wanted them.”

  Jessie watched her daughter go out the door and knew it was time to pick up a new subject. With nothing else to do, she followed her daughter, and, with a note of mischief, she said, “Hey, you wanna go green pickin’ today?”

  This brought a fit of giggles to the girl, who added, “Seems like that’s where all our troubles began.”

  Jessie couldn’t disagree. “Any idea when your Pa’s comin’ home?” she asked as she stepped through the gate into her garden. “Who fixed the fence?”

  “Brad did one day after the pigs got out again. See that patch over there? That’s Little Jed’s patch. He wanted corn and beans.” She pointed to a small plot at the end of the family garden. “Brad dug it up for him. He made you a separate place just for your special herbs. I think he heard his ma talk about some lady havin’ a fancy herb garden when she was a girl.”

  Jessie glanced at the other end of her garden and saw the fancy pattern it made. He’d even carried in some rocks to dress it up. Jessie studied this idea for a moment and had to laugh at the thought of carrying rocks into her garden when she’d spent so many years throwing rocks out of it. Mittens then led her mother to the springhouse, where she showed her mom all the butter she had made while her mother was so sick. “I have no idea what we will do with all of this, but we had so much cream, I had to do something.” She paused for a moment and added, “Dad and Moses drank up most of the buttermilk.”

  Caleb was halfway to Seth’s place before he began to regret his decision to walk. He made a mental note to ride Rosie the next time he made that trip. Of course, lying awake most of the night hadn’t helped. As he neared the Hodges’ place he saw Hiram Ross leaving in a wagon and Seth standing near the barn as though he was just seeing his worker off. He was about to return to the house when he saw Caleb emerging from the wooded path leading from his place to the Hogarths’. “Mornin,’ Caleb. What’s got you out so early this morning?” asked Seth.

  “Mornin,’ Seth. I came to see if you knew anything about my hired man,” said Caleb. “He went missin’ last night, and I was hopin’ you might have seen him.”

  For a moment, Seth looked a little sheepish, “Sorry, I couldn’t say anything about this last night, but so much has happened so fast that I haven’t had a chance to get back to you.” He then went on to explain about the men who showed up while they were at the dinner and how George had been spirited away in the night.

  Caleb thought for a minute. “So what Moses was tellin’ us was true about this followin’ the North Star and trying to get to freedom in Canada? I thought you said you didn’t have any luck while you were in Madison.”

  Seth then explained to Caleb what Luke had overheard while they were in Madison. “I guess they have all kinds of agents working in secret. Apparently that man who came into the store who made Martha so mad she threw peaches at him was one of their men checking us out. Anyway, when these men showed up yesterday, they knew all about that and about the rumors floating around the village. I guess some of those young bucks are threatenin’ to do somethin’ ’cause there’s such a big reward out for George.”

  He went on to explain how very few people knew who all is involved in the spiriting away of the slaves. Few know much more than what route to follow to reach the next safe house. “They said that way, if anyone ever gets caught, nobody can actually tell much. These men assured me that they would see to it that George would someday get to freedom.”

  Caleb had to wrestle with his feelings for a moment. He sure hated losing such a good helper and friend, but it heartened him to realize that this could be a new life for his new friend. “Do you think we’ll ever find out what happened to him?”

  Seth smiled at his old friend and offered this thought, “I wouldn’t be surprised if someday Martha got a note of some kind from him. I know she’s awful grateful that you took him in and cared for him.”

  “I offered him a piece of land as payment for his work, but I think he was afraid of the trouble his stayin’ around here might have caused,” spoke Caleb aloud.

  “That’s kind of why I’m sendin’ Hiram into the village. We need some supplies to finish the new well, and I needed to report all the deaths we’ve had here in the past few weeks to the sheriff. I’m hopin’ Hiram can let people know in some way that we don’t have a runaway slave out here.”

  At the inn, Job opened his eyes slowly, uncertain of what the day might bring. He and John had talked about going back to the house to see if there was anything left that they could salvage. He wasn’t sure if he really wanted to go back. He wasn’t sure if there was anything left waiting for him. He tried to close his eyes and hoped that, if he woke up later, things might be different. His mother might be at home waiting for him. But he knew he had to face the situation, not just run from it. He wanted to scream.

  “Hey, Job! Wake up!” Luke was coming up the stairs. “Pa gave us an old wagon, and I need you to help me load it with coal. We’re takin’ it to Madison so we can make you some money and buy you some new clo
thes.” Luke walked into his room and tossed a bundle of old ragged work clothes on his bed. “I thought you might wear these, since this coal digging is such a nasty job. Besides, the coal on your land is easier to get to than mine.”

  Job was trying to clear his head and make sense of what Luke was trying to tell him all the while getting up and putting on the clothes Luke had tossed him. He wasn’t sure he was going to like this, but anything was better than feeling sorry for himself as he had been.

  In the village, Hiram Ross pulled up in front of Smallwood’s General Store in the early afternoon and left the list of materials that Seth had given him. “It’s gonna take me a while to get all of this rounded up, so if you got any other business around town, you might as well get goin’.” Smallwood was never one to mince words. Ross nodded and promised to be back when the supplies were ready.

  His next stop was at the courthouse, where he asked to talk to the sheriff. The sheriff was busy collecting taxes, but he gave Hiram a stack of death forms to fill out and told him to meet him at the jail. The two bounty hunters were still being held prisoner in the jail, and Ross was curious enough about them that he hoped he’d get a good look at them. The jailer offered him a desk to sit at to complete the paperwork that the sheriff needed. First, there was the Maynard family. The wife and four children whose cause of death he listed as “the fever.” Then, there was the Bascoms, whose cause of death was listed as “house fire.” The jail was a small but sturdy log building that offered little privacy, and even the most sensitive public business could easily be overheard. Ross’s arrival immediately aroused the curiosity of the two prisoners, though they did not know him. When the sheriff came in, he picked up the forms that Ross had completed. “You say this Maynard family died of the ‘fever?’ The stage drivers told me you had quite an epidemic goin’ in Sethsburg. Any new cases?” he asked.

  “So far, none this week, but we have closed the old town well and have dug a new one.” He made sure his voice could be heard by anyone present. “Mr. Hodges says he fears the old well was too close to the stables, and he didn’t want anyone usin’ that water. Them Maynards were the only ones that used it much.” He motioned toward the forms in the sheriff’s hands.