Si cursed. “Nothing! I can’t seem to find her.”
“Why not?” Ray asked.
“I don’t know. Something’s … blocking her.”
Nel quickly said to Ray, Conker, and Si, “Spread out! Start looking for her.”
Ox Everett called, “We ready to go, Nel?”
“No!” Nel hollered. “Hold the train. … ”
Ray was already running, splitting off from Conker and Si as they went into the woods, calling Jolie’s name. A quarter of an hour later, they had found nothing to indicate where Jolie had gone. They made their way back to Nel’s car, hoping she had been located.
Buck was roaring, “Who knows how far she’s gotten? How could I have been so stupid! That’s been hours now, and she could have gone in any direction.”
“I’m still having trouble seeing her,” Si said. “I’d have trouble if she’s gone too far, or if there’s lead blocking her. … ”
“Why would there be lead?” Redfeather asked tentatively.
Buck slammed a fist to the table. “The Gog!” He pulled a pistol from his belt and opened the cylinder to touch a finger to each of the bullets.
“What are you doing?” Nel asked.
“Going to hunt for her,” Buck said, turning to leave.
“Wait,” Nel said. “If Si can’t find her, then continuing the search will surely be fruitless.”
Buck snarled as he headed out the door. “I’m loading the guns anyway.”
After Buck was gone, Nel sank his face in his hands. “There’s got to be another way. … ”
“I know,” Ray said, remembering suddenly. He reached into his pocket and removed the dandelion from his toby. It was still yellow and fresh, despite its days of being carried around in Ray’s pocket.
The others looked curiously at the flower.
Conker exclaimed, “Peter Hobnob!”
“Who’s that?” Nel asked.
“Someone who can help,” Ray replied. He clapped three claps, said Peter Hobnob’s name three times, and blew three breaths on the petals. The yellow rapidly faded to gray, and the petals became wispy before scattering on the breeze into the night.
EVERYONE SAT AROUND THE TABLE, PICKING WITH LITTLE appetite at some food Ma Everett had brought. Every minute that passed Ray felt Jolie was getting farther from the Ballyhoo.
Something tickled Ray’s cheek. In the light of the table’s oil lamps, Ray saw a white seedpod float past like a lost flake of snow. He sat up from his chair as a small cloud of seedpods fell around. Others noticed, too, and looked about curiously.
Nel stood and looked to Ray. “Is it … ?”
The pods swirled around more and more quickly until they coalesced into a shape, gaining color and form. Peter Hobnob appeared. He looked around as if unsure of his location until spotting Ray’s face in the awestruck crowd.
“Ray, I know I promised about your sister,” Hobnob chirped. “Been planning on looking, I swear to you. But between robbing this town and—”
“It worked!” Ray leaped to his feet to greet his friend. Hobnob pulled the dandelion hat from his tousled mop of yellow hair. The others stood around the table in stunned silence, mouths gaping.
Just then Buck came back into the car, carrying several rifles. “I know that voice,” he growled. “It couldn’t be. … What’s that scalawag doing here?”
A smile grew on Hobnob’s face as he eyed the cowboy. “Ah, Eustace. En’t you charming as always.”
“I called Hobnob to help us find Jolie,” Ray said, surprised that the two were acquainted. But of course, Ray realized, they knew each other from the Snapdragon.
“You call him help?” Buck growled at Ray.
“He can help,” Ray insisted. Turning to Hobnob, he added, “Can’t you?”
“Well, I’ll be needing specifics if you want my aid. What’s the trouble?”
“Wait!” Nel said. “Are you sure he can be trusted?”
“No!” Buck shouted.
“He’ll have to be,” Ray said.
“Maybe I ought to come back when Eustace—” Hobnob began.
“Don’t leave,” Ray said to Hobnob, and then turned to Buck. “Buck, you know what Hobnob can do.”
Buck scowled before giving a reluctant nod.
Ray began to explain to Hobnob. “We’ve been hiding a siren—”
“H-here?” Hobnob stammered. “A siren? On this train?”
“She’s gone. Earlier this afternoon, she disappeared.”
“Kidnapped?” Hobnob asked.
“We can’t be sure.” Ray gulped. “But something’s preventing Si from locating her, and with the Gog’s Hoarhound after her … She’s a girl with dark hair. Really pale. A strange green dress. Barefoot. Can you look?”
“Not much to go on …” Then Hobnob looked from Ray to Buck. “Do you know what direction she went?”
“No, but I thought since you could fly—”
“None’s the difference. I’ll leave straight away.” Hobnob lifted his dandelion hat, but Ray stopped him.
“Take this,” Ray said, placing the golden rabbit’s foot in Hobnob’s hand. “This will tell you if the Gog’s Hoarhound is near. If he is, then the Gog might have caught her.”
“How’s it work?” Hobnob asked hurriedly.
“It glows if it’s near the Hound. I don’t know if it will work for you, but I thought it might help.”
Hobnob nodded, taking the foot with a quick, curious inspection.
Ray looked at the rabbit’s foot hesitantly. “I need you to be careful with it.”
“Like it were my dear old mother’s.”
“Just don’t drop it,” Ray said. Hobnob gave a look of hurt and made a swishing cross over his heart. Situating the hat with a tight pull over his yellow locks, Hobnob quickly faded, dandelion pods scattering into the wind.
Buck shook his head. “If I’d known you were mixed up with that one …”
“Can we trust him?” Nel asked Buck in a low voice.
Through gritted teeth, Buck said, “What choice do we have?”
Ready for a quick departure, Mister Everett moved the train to the end of the abandoned track and telegraphed the switch operators on the main line to find out what other trains were expected. Conker pulled the toppled poplar off the track. As night settled fully, he and Ray sat on the vestibule, waiting anxiously for Hobnob’s return.
Si sprinted down the side of the train. “Ray! He’s back!” They jumped from the vestibule and followed Si in a run toward the locomotive.
Mister Everett had a rail map unrolled on the grass with a lamp holding the corner. Nel and Hobnob squatted as Everett traced his finger over the bramble of rail lines. Buck stood behind the three, listening.
“What happened?” Ray asked Buck.
“The rabbit’s foot glowed as he passed over a train that was stopped several miles to the southeast of here,” Buck said.
“Saw men loading a girl into a boxcar,” Hobnob explained. “Didn’t get a close look, but she must be your siren. And that train. I’ve seen it once before, and heard rumors aplenty about it. They call it The Pitch Dark Train.”
“Is it—?” Ray began.
“Yes,” Buck growled. “The Gog.”
Terror struck at Ray’s heart. “We’re going after her, right?”
Buck nodded and continued listening to Mister Everett explain. “This rail line we’re going to get on will meet up with the westbound one the Gog’s using. Heads toward the Mississippi River. Hopefully we won’t be too far behind their train.”
“But will we be able to catch up to them?” Nel asked.
“Don’t know,” Mister Everett grunted. “I’ll give her all we can. … ”
Hobnob stood as Mister Everett began quickly rolling up the map and shouting instructions to Shacks and Eddie.
Nel turned to Hobnob. “We’ll be crossing the Mississippi. You said the Snapdragon’s coming up that way. Return and tell your queen to head for the trestle. If we don
’t catch the Gog’s train before then, we’ll need her—”
Hobnob shook his head. “I don’t think you understand the Pirate Queen. She’s no friend to the Gog, but she en’t exactly the type to rush into battle for nobody or nothing but her beloved steamer. She’s going to have my ears when she finds out I’m missing!”
Buck held out an envelope, the one Ray had delivered to Buck from the Pirate Queen.
“What’s that?” Hobnob asked.
“Never mind,” Buck replied. “Just give it to Lorene … your queen. She’ll understand, and she’ll help. Hurry!”
“All aboard!” Mister Everett motioned everyone to the Ballyhoo. The others clambered up into the cars.
Nel caught Hobnob’s shoulder. “After you tell the Snapdragon what’s happening, can you come back? We might need you again.”
Hobnob tucked the envelope in his pocket. “I’ll try.” He nodded and then handed the rabbit’s foot back to Ray.
“Good luck,” he added before disappearing.
The Ballyhoo raced on as they waited for Hobnob to come back and tell them the Snapdragon’s position. Ray had never felt the train go this fast before. He had his doubts nevertheless whether it would be fast enough to catch The Pitch Dark Train.
Nel was explaining why the Gog was after Jolie. While Ma Everett, nervously scrubbing pots and pans that already shone like copper mirrors, gasped audibly from time to time, Seth kept rolling his eyes. As Nel finished, the train began slowing down. Conker hurried to the window.
“Brushfires or something up yonder,” he said in his deep voice.
Nel got up to join him at the window. Ray felt the train slowing and could smell a hint of smoke seeping into the car.
“Shut them windows,” Ma Everett ordered.
Ray shut the one nearest him; through it he saw the land in flames. Fire lapped at the edges of the raised tracks.
“How’d a fire like that spread?” Ray asked.
“Some farmer clearing some land,” Nel answered. “Must have allowed it to get out of his restraint.”
“Or it’s the Gog’s doing,” Buck said darkly.
Nel turned with a tight brow, but before he could reply, the door to the vestibule opened and Hobnob quickly entered. “Could hardly find you. Smoke’s a pinch thick out there.”
“Did you reach her? Did you tell the queen?” Ray asked.
“Yes. Don’t know what you had in that envelope, Buck, but she’s heading north. The Snapdragon will be ready. Also spotted the Gog’s train. They were farther south than I thought. This old bucket reached the track first.”
“We’re ahead of them?” Nel asked, running his thumb along his jaw.
“By near ten miles,” Hobnob said.
Buck got to his feet. “We could let them get up close behind us and stop them.”
Nel shook his head. “I’m going over it. Let me think. … We don’t have the guns to take the Gog on. He’ll have his men, those Pinkerton mercenaries. They’re a vicious lot.”
Buck hit a fist to the wall. “Damnit! We’ve got to, Nel.”
Conker turned to face the two men. “Reckon we could tear up the track?”
“What?” Buck snarled, but Nel raised a hand.
“What are you thinking, Conker?” Nel asked, his eyes narrowing sharply.
“We stop just long enough to tear up a little bit of the track—”
“They’ll crash! Jolie might be killed!” Buck shouted.
“But the smoke’s pretty thick,” Conker continued. “See how Mister Everett’s had to slow the Ballyhoo to near a crawl. They’ll slow, too. Can’t go fast with all this smoke. You won’t know what’s ahead. So when they hit the torn-up track, the locomotive will get stuck, but I don’t suspect they’ll wreck, not bad anyways.”
“That’s a big risk,” Ray said.
Nel nodded. “But I think Conker’s right. They wouldn’t go fast enough for a real wreck. And when they stop, we wait until they’re out trying to get the locomotive back running and sneak in for Jolie. It’s a good plan, Conker. It might just work. Don’t you think, Buck?”
Buck thought for a moment. “The Gog will suspect an ambush, so we’ll have to stay one step ahead. It might work. Redfeather, get up to the locomotive and tell Everett.”
As Redfeather ran out the door, Nel turned to Si. “Go to the boxcar. Get out the crowbars and hammers—”
“Won’t need them,” Conker said, and touched a hand to the Nine Pound Hammer.
“Good,” Nel said. Drumming a finger on the table, he mumbled, “Need something. Just the right potion to even the odds … Do I have enough frankincense? … Where are those skullcap flowers?”
Amid the frantic energy of preparation, Ray watched as Nel dashed here and there though his root doctor supplies—pulling down a coil of dried snakeskin and crushing it into a powder, burning coltsfoot, mixing various herbs and powders, and mashing them all into a vat of vinegar.
“Yes, this will manage nicely,” the old pitchman muttered with a smile. “This will manage quite nicely.”
As the Ballyhoo was coming to a stop, Nel gave Ray a set of phials, small bottles made from thinner glass than he used to hold the tonics sold during the medicine shows. A cork was wedged into the top of each. Nel explained that the phials held a soporific, something that would cause an immediate sleep to overcome anyone who smelled them. With the supplies he had, he managed to make a dozen phials.
Nel said that it would be best if they were thrown so that the phial broke, as the vapors would be spread wider. On the chance that Ray or the others should accidentally inhale the tonic, Nel gave them each a small pinch of bitter leaves to eat that would guard against the soporific’s effects, as well as some extra leaves for Jolie if—or when, hopefully—they were able to reach her.
The Ballyhoo stopped between two low hills where the fire was not as close to the track. As Ray stepped down he could see that, ahead and behind, a sea of flames nearly overtook the rail line. Conker propped the Nine Pound Hammer on his shoulder. Si took a bottletree with her and followed Redfeather and Seth, who carried his sword case. Buck came out last, armed with rifles. The air was dense with acrid smoke, and all but Redfeather quickly tied wet bandannas around their noses to keep from coughing.
Mister Everett moved the Ballyhoo ahead to wait. He wouldn’t risk being seen as the Gog’s train approached, but had to be near enough that they could leave quickly after Jolie was rescued. When the lights of the caboose disappeared, the six were left in an unnatural twilight. The smoky sky overhead glowed crimson-orange with the fires.
Conker gave a kick to the wooden crossties. “I’ll handle this.” He rolled back his sleeves and spit once into his hands before gripping the Nine Pound Hammer’s stout handle.
“Where’d you get that?” Seth asked as he eyed the hammer curiously.
Before Conker could answer, Buck shouted, “Don’t just stand around. There’s not much time. We need to scout out a place to hide when they arrive.”
“There’s a hill just off the south end of the track,” Si said quickly. “It looks wooded. The fires haven’t gotten up there—”
“Go! You and Ray, check it out,” Buck said.
Seth said, “Redfeather and I’ll go watch for the Gog’s train.”
Buck nodded. “Be quick and hurry back.” The two jogged down the track and disappeared into the smoke.
Ray followed Si up the hill, searching for a good position to watch the track secretly. Looking down, Ray saw Conker destroying the track with his hammer. Sections of rail ripped from the crossties like wheat under a thresher’s blade. In little time, a thirty-foot portion of track was broken apart, and Conker and Buck scattered the pieces down the far side of the right-of-way.
Conker shouldered the Nine Pound Hammer and led Buck up the hill toward Ray and Si. Ray hoped Conker was right, that the Gog’s train would not be going too fast. If it hit that section at full speed, it would be a devastating wreck. Their gamble was a risky one.
As Si set the bottletree in the ground for protection, Conker and Buck reached the top of the hill, slipped the bandannas from their noses, and settled to their knees on the pine-straw-littered ground next to Ray. In the trees of the high ground, it was darker than down below, where the smoke and nearby fires bathed the railroad tracks in an eerie glow.
“What will we do when the Gog gets here?” Ray whispered to Conker.
“Go get her.”
Si added, “We’ll have to be quick and quiet and sneaky.”
“Where are those boys?” Buck grumbled.
At that moment a figure came stumbling out of the smoke from along the track. “Over here!” Si called, and then said to Buck, “It’s Redfeather, but he’s alone.”
“What!” Buck said, getting back to his feet.
When Redfeather reached them, Buck shouted, “Where’s Seth?”
Redfeather had a red mark on his cheek that was beginning to swell. He looked around fearfully. “He’s … gone. We had a fight. He kept saying the other show would treat him better. That now that Nel had canceled the medicine show we wouldn’t—”
“What are you talking about?” Buck snarled. “Where’s Seth gone?”
Redfeather gave a hesitant glance at Buck and then looked down at his rifle. He mumbled, “To … The Pitch Dark Train.”
“HE’S—HE’S JUST BEEN SO WORKED UP OVER THE SHOW stopping,” Redfeather stammered. “He convinced himself that this man pursuing us is from another show. … ” Redfeather trailed off as his eyes followed Buck’s angry pacing steps.
“That’s not some other pitchman out there!” Buck shouted, jabbing a finger toward the track.
“I know,” Redfeather mumbled.
“It’s the Gog!”
“There’s something else,” Redfeather said. “The man … the Gog’s agent, he told Seth they were looking for a mermaid act. He asked Seth to look for something for them. Something hidden on our train. Before, when we were all keeping watch, Seth took something from your room, Buck. I don’t know what, but—”
“The music box!” Ray gasped.
“Did he bring it with him?” Buck exploded.
“I don’t know. Would it fit in his sword case—?”
The Nine Pound Hammer Page 20