The Return of the Freedom Thief

by Mikki Sadil

  Ben sat down on the other one. “Yeah, this one is okay, too. You stay here, and I’ll put the horses up.”

  * * *

  When Ben finished putting the horses in the barn and throwing them each some hay, he picked up his satchel with the newspapers and the hidden packet of money, both bedrolls, and walked back to the parlor. Buster nodded to him. “All right, young fella, I have that bill for you. It comes to $13.25. I have it all written out.”

  Ben nodded. He turned his back, dug out the money, and counted out what he owed. He put the packet back in the satchel, and handed the money to the hotel man. He took the bill and looked it over. “It all seems right. Uh, one more thing. Do you, uh, do you have bath facilities here?”

  “Sure do. Out in back, next to the outhouse, there’s what my wife calls the ‘wash room.’ It’s got three tubs, two for washing clothes, and one for washing bodies. One bath is twenty-five cents, but if you want clean hot water, you gotta empty the tub and fill it up again yourself. And that costs forty cents. And by the way, there’s a basin with a bucket of water in your room. That’s for free, but if you want more water, you have to get it yourself, and it’s five cents a bucket.”

  Ben shook his head. All these extras were going to add up. They might not be able to stay here for three days, after all. “Uh, Mister Buster, is…”

  “No, young fella, there’s no ‘Mister’ in front of my name. It’s Buster, and that’s that.”

  “Okay, Buster, what I was going to ask is if we don’t stay but two days instead of three, do we get that extra day’s money back?”

  Buster looked at him quizzically. “Now, young fella, what do you take me for? I ain’t going to rob you, so if you have to go before three days, sure, I’ll give that day’s money back, sure as shootin’.”

  “Okay, thanks. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Buster laughed. “Won’t see me, but my wife Alice will be here. Have a good sleep.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Broomville, Rebels, and Spies

  Ben awoke early to the sounds and smells coming from the hallway. He looked across to Puck’s bed, but she was still sleeping. Harsh voices, hacking coughs, a bit of laughter seeped under the door. Along with that, came the smell of cigarette and cigar smoke, a faint odor of male sweat, and something else that Ben was reluctant to put a name to.

  He got out of bed, walked over to Puck and shook her. “Come on, Puck, wake up. We gotta get out of here, and get busy.”

  She groaned. “All I want to do is sleep. Do I have to come with you?”

  “Yes, you do. You wanted to stay with me, so now you’re going to stay with me all the time. Get up. Besides that, it’s not safe for you to be here by yourself.”

  He walked over to the curtain, pushed it aside to let in some light and looked into the cracked mirror over a round tin basin perched on a marble-topped table. An unruly mop of uncombed, overly long hair, and a tired face, streaked with dirt, stared back at him. He shook his head at himself, emptied half of the bucket of water into the basin, and slapped the cold water on his face.

  Puck came up behind him. “Ben, I have to, uh, you know. Where…”

  “It’s outside in the back. I think I saw a door at the end of the hall, so try that. Hurry up and get back.”

  Ben took off his shirt, and washed himself as best he could. He dug around in his bedroll, and found his toothbrush and comb. After brushing his teeth and combing his hair into something more agreeable than what it had been, he walked over to the window, pushed back the curtains, and opened it. He tossed the water in the basin out, and put it back on the table for Puck to use.

  As he turned around, he heard a scream. Through the window, he saw two men holding Puck as she struggled to get away. One had her arms pinned in front of her, the other fought her with an arm around her neck. Ben threw on his shirt as he ran out through the back door.

  “Hey, take your hands off her. Leave her alone, she’s my sister.”

  The man holding Puck by her arms, a Confederate Lieutenant by the insignia on his shirt, turned to face Ben just as Puck kicked him viciously in one knee. Swearing, he said, “You had better tell your sister to hand over what she stole from us while we were in the wash room.”

  “Let her go before I tell her anything.”

  Both soldiers glared at him, but it was the Lieutenant who spoke. “Fine, let her go, Johnson.”

  Puck ran to Ben, who put his arm around her. “She stole something? Puck, did you steal from these men?”

  She looked down at the ground, but her voice was full of the petulance that seemed to be a part of her. “I didn’t steal anything. It was just there, on the ground. I didn’t know it belonged to anyone.”

  “Oh, for crying in a bucket, Puck. What do you have? Whatever it is, give it back.”

  She reached into her back pants’ pocket and drew out a dirty, worn leather packet stuffed with bills. She threw it to the Lieutenant. “Here. If you don’t want someone to take it, don’t leave it on the ground.”

  The Lieutenant picked it up, and turned to Ben. “You’ve got a thief for a sister. Don’t know if you knew it before, but you do now. Broomville is full of Confederate soldiers, so you better keep this little thief away from all of us. Take her home to your momma where she belongs, but don’t let me see her around here again, or I’ll have her in irons.” He and the other soldier strode angrily away.

  Ben was furious. He grabbed Puck by the arm and yanked her towards the back door, protesting all the way. As soon as they got to their room, he pushed her inside, stepped in and slammed the door.

  “What in tarnation do you think you’re doing, stealing money like that? Are you crazy? I’m supposed to be here doing a job, and you’re going to get yourself put in jail. You just better recollect that you’re not my real sister, and I don’t have any responsibility for you. You want to do stupid things like this, you go your way, you do it on your own, and you get out of my way. You get put in jail, you can rot there for all I care. You understand me?”

  Puck turned away from his angry face and harsh words. She sat down on her bed, all petulance gone. Tears ran down her face. “Please, Ben, please don’t be so mad at me. I saw all that money in that packet on the ground, I knew we needed money, and honest, I didn’t think it belonged to anyone. Why would that soldier leave it on the ground like that? There was nothing with it, just the money.”

  Ben thought for a minute. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter. “Puck, when the soldiers came at you, did they come out of the wash room like they said?”

  “No, they came up behind me. I had just come out of the, uh, you know, when I saw the money laying a few feet away. I picked it up, and then they came up and grabbed me.”

  After a few moments, he said, “It sounds like it was a kind of set-up. Maybe they were just looking for someone to hassle, or maybe, somehow, they know who we are.”

  Her voice quavered. “You think they know we’re here to spy on them? How could they know that?”

  “I don’t know that for sure. But we can’t be too careful. I was going to send you around today by yourself with some of the newspapers, but I don’t think you should work alone. So you’ll just stick with me all day. For now, I’m starving, so let’s go find some breakfast.”

  As they came through the parlor, the woman behind the counter said, “Good morning, young friends. Did thee rest well last night?”

  Ben recalled what Buster had said the night before about his wife Alice being here in the morning. He stopped. “Good morning. Are you Mistress Alice?”

  She laughed. “My name is Alice, but thee need not to call me ‘mistress.’ That sounds, as my husband would say, very ‘highfalutin’, and indeed, that is not what we are around here.”

  Ben recognized her speech as that of a Quaker. For a brief moment, he remembered the young girl Charity and her parents who had been so generous in their help to him and the slaves. That seemed so long ago, he had almost forgotten. He lo
oked again at this lady, and saw she wore the gingham bonnet and plain gray dress of the Quaker women.

  He smiled at her. “You are Quaker, Alice?”

  She smiled back. “Yes, I am. Does thee know the Quaker speech?”

  “I recalled it from some people who helped me a while back. Is there a decent eating place where we could get breakfast?”

  “Oh my! Not on this side of the tracks, my friend. Thee and thy sister should go across to Miss Virginia’s Eatery. Her food is palatable and as inexpensive as thee will find in all of Broomville.”

  “Thanks, we’ll go there.”

  During this exchange, there was no word from Puck. When Ben turned around, she was gone. Saying a few unmentionable words under his breath, he walked outside, but she wasn’t there. Where in tarnation is that girl now? She’s going to be the death of me yet…or maybe both of us, if I can’t get her to do what I tell her to.

  He heard horses whinny. He hurried around the back of the hotel to the barn, to find Bandit and Socks chomping down on fresh hay, and Puck struggling with saddles and blankets.

  “Puck, what are you doing? We’re walking over to Main Street to get breakfast. And we’re not riding the horses today at all. Everything we do today, we do on foot.”

  “What? We’re leaving the horses here? On this side of Main Street they’re likely not to even be here when we get back. I swear, Ben, why would you leave them here? Look at those other horses, they’re all nags. These are good horses, and I bet they won’t even be here tonight.”

  Ben looked thoughtful. “Hmm. You may be right. Okay, we’ll saddle up, but we’ll have to find some place to put them up. A safe place. We have to be afoot for what we’re going to do, Puck, we can’t ride them all day.”

  * * *

  They found Miss Virginia’s Eatery, and tied the horses to the hitching rail. Inside, they found long wooden tables laid end to end, four tables to a row. There were five rows, with long benches on each side of the tables. There weren’t any individual chairs. The Bill of Fare hung high over the ordering counter, and the prices were comparable to those in Lexington.

  The room was crowded with men, most of which were soldiers. Confederates took up most of the tables, but there were a few Union soldiers seated at the very last row. Apparently, the idea of North vs South in a war had not penetrated this far into Broomville.

  Puck stood close to Ben as he ordered breakfast for them. When he finished, he turned and looked the room over. There weren’t many spaces left, but he saw room for the two of them at one of the last tables where the Confederate soldiers were. He led the way to the table, and they attempted to sit down. The soldiers refused to look at them, or to move over to give them room.

  Ben’s voice was quiet. “Excuse me, can we please sit down here?”

  The soldiers continued to ignore them.

  A little more loudly, Ben said, “Excuse me! My sister and I would like to sit here if you could please move down a little.”

  A Sergeant turned around. “Get lost, kid. This table is for soldiers of the Confederate Army. We don’t need no sassy kids sittin’ here.”

  Puck pulled at Ben’s sleeve. “Come on, Ben, let’s go. These guys are scaring me.”

  Before Ben could respond, a soldier at the far end of the table stood up. “Hey, ain’t that the kid that helped those slaves escape from his pa’s plantation a while back? I recollect his pa had a poster out on him.”

  Voices rose up from all the tables, as almost all the soldiers turned to stare at Ben.

  “Yeah, he looks like the little varmint.”

  “Reckon his pa will still give out $1000 for him if we hogtie him and take him back to Kentucky?”

  “Come on, let’s get him and find out!”

  Ben grabbed Puck’s hand. “Let’s get out of here!”

  “Oh, no, you don’t.” Hands yanked him away from Puck, while another soldier threw her to the floor. “Stay outta the way, or you’ll get it, too.”

  Ben tried to fight his way out of the soldiers’ grasp, but there were too many of them holding him down. A fist came out of the blue into his face, and he felt warm blood running from his nose and his lips. A blow to his stomach doubled him over, and another one caught him in the ribs. Several of the men were hitting him across the shoulders and back, and then a second blow to his stomach was so vicious, the world turned black.

  Abruptly, a shot rang out. The Union soldiers were standing, all with pistols drawn and pointed at the Confederates. A Major walked towards them, his pistol cocked and ready. “I am only going to say this once. Leave the boy alone. Get out of this establishment immediately. You don’t go back to your seats, you don’t get anything left behind, you leave. Now. My men have orders to fire at will, so I strongly suggest you take this opportunity, and get out.”

  The Confederates stepped away from Ben, letting him drop to the floor. They looked at each other uneasily, but made no move to leave the eatery. The Union Major took another step towards them. A Lieutenant, who appeared to be the only senior officer among all of the soldiers, said hastily, “All right, all right, we’re going. Come on, boys, let’s get out of here, no reason to be in this place anyway, as long as the Feds are going to smell it up.”

  As soon as the soldiers had gone, Puck rushed over to Ben and helped him get up. “Ben, Ben, you okay? Oh, my goodness, you’re bleeding all over. We’ve got to get you back to the room and get you cleaned up.”

  The Union Major put his hand on Ben’s shoulder. “Come on, lad, we’ll go in the back. We’ve got some stuff there that’ll help you.” He smiled at Puck. “Don’t worry, little miss, we’ll get him back on his feet in no time.”

  Miss Virginia came out of the kitchen, drying her hands on a towel. “Oh, dear Lord, those muggings hurt him bad, didn’t they? Tim,” she spoke to the Major, “are you going to take these young’uns back to camp, or just leave them here?”

  “We’re going to clean him up a bit and then we’ll talk to him about going to the camp. He’s not as bad hurt as he looks, just has a bloody nose and a split lip. Those hits to his belly just swapped his breath out of him for a minute, don’t think they were hard enough to do damage.”

  The Major had been leading Ben and Puck out to the back of the kitchen while he was talking to Miss Virginia. He had his arm around Ben, who was leaning heavily against him. He settled Ben down on a stool, and turned to a locked cupboard. He unlocked it, and took out some bandages, what looked like surgical scissors, a few bottles of dark liquid, and a large roll of tape. All of this he placed on the table close to Ben.

  In the meantime, Miss Virginia had filled a small basin with warm water. She put a soft face cloth in the water, and placed the basin down near the medical items. She gently cleaned Ben’s face with the wet cloth, rinsing off the blood. When she finished, he sported a swollen nose and a split lip. Above that, however, one eye was beginning to turn purple.

  “He’s going to be okay, right?” Puck still had tears running down her face.

  “Yeah, I’m going to be all right. Stop crying, Puck, and go see about the horses. Make sure they’re still tied up.” Ben’s voice was hoarse, and seemed to come from a long distance because of his swollen nose, but he was sitting up straighter on the stool. He smiled, a little painfully, at Puck. “See, I’m okay. Better check out the horses, though. Okay?”

  She sniffed, and rubbed at her wet cheeks. “Okay. I’ll be right back.”

  The Major handed Ben a glass with a small amount of the dark liquid he had taken out of the cupboard. “Here, drink this. It’ll help you feel better.”

  Ben took a big swallow and almost choked. He put the glass down and glared at the Major. “Dang it, you trying to kill me, Major? What in tarnation is this stuff?”

  The Major laughed. “I reckon you’ve not acquired a taste for whiskey. That’s just whiskey with a small bit of quinine in it. It might help your belly feel better, but you don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to.”

&nb
sp; Ben straightened up. “Well, I thank you, but I reckon I’ll do without. Thanks to both of you for your help. Major, I’m sorry we caused a problem out there.”

  The Major shook his head, and said grimly, “You weren’t the problem, son, it was those Rebel soldiers. This war is getting closer and closer to becoming a bad reality, and the Confederates look for a fight any time they can. Picking on a kid like you is beyond that, however. Say, are you really the boy who helped some slaves escape?”

  Puck hurried through the door at that moment. “Ben, the horses are okay. What are we going to do now? Can you ride?”

  He slipped off the stool. As he stood, his belly tightened up, but not so badly that he couldn’t stand. “Yeah, I can ride. My stomach is sore, but that’s all.”

  He started to thank Miss Virginia and the Major for the help once again, but both of them cut him off. Miss Virginia handed him some money. “I wouldn’t dream of charging you for breakfast, especially since you didn’t get to eat. If you feel like eating now, I’ll fix you what you paid for, but you eat for free.”

  Ben took the money, and smiled at her. “Thanks, but about all I feel like now is a cup of coffee and maybe a biscuit.”

  He limped back into the eating room, with Puck hovering anxiously beside him. By the time both had had some strong coffee, a couple of hot biscuits and butter, along with a few pieces of bacon, Ben was feeling much better. His nose and lip hurt, his stomach was sore, but other than that, he felt pretty good.

  The Major stopped at the table. “You two want to ride on out to our camp outside of town? If you don’t have a place to stay, you can bunk down there.”

  “Thanks, Major, but we do have a place. But we’ll probably be seeing you anyway, since I’m a newsboy. I have newspapers to deliver around here in town, then I’ll come on out to the camp. Oh, and yes, I’m the one who helped some slaves escape. They were my friends.”