by Diane Roads
CHAPTER 17
It was Saturday and Jasper was taking the whole day off. Friday had been spent catching up on all the other duties he had put aside this last week, so he and Smokey were due for some R & R. They were both enjoying the fresh air of the backyard patio. Jasper had his cream with a little coffee and a dash of sugar in one hand, and his Aunt Mattie's Quagmire Family History book in the other.
He was reading how the Quagmire family originated back in England in 1310. His great-great-grandfather came over in the early 1800's. He was a proud man who believed in truth and freedom. These were the values he past down to his children. Mattie wrote about how his great-great-grandfather had made his money in mining back east. Slavery was big-time back there, and his idea that all men should be free no matter what color their skin was didn't go over very well.
He shared that belief with Parker Untrue Looney. They had both found fortune in their own way. Neither of the men owned a slave. They had bought slaves, but had given them their freedom. The cost for each slave got them to thinking why buy when you can set them free for little to no cost. This prompted both to move to a part of the country that didn't know them or what their beliefs were. Both men were believed to be half brothers in real life. They traveled across the ocean together. That was the story they told everyone. That was when Parker said, ‘lets move where we can do the most for our cause.’ Parker moved closer to the Mason Dixon line, and Jasper moved further west. Parker would let escaping slaves rest for a few days when they got to his house and then send them on a mapped trail to Jasper's house. The only people that knew how to read the map were Jasper, Parker and those that traveled it. If anyone was stopped they were to tell them they were returning from their master's brother's house. They had papers and no one ever questioned them.
The town that Jasper moved to was called River Point. Jasper had always made his money mining, and when he said he was going to do some test mining, nobody thought anything about it. So what if he was a little nuts? He was donating a lot to the town. This is what they called being a little eccentric. And when he wouldn't find anything, no one was surprised.
He used the grounds to build a house about thirty yards from the woods that ran along side of the property. At one end of the property was his house, and at the other end, was a shack with a chimney with a row of white bricks around its top. This was the sign that it was a safe house. Once inside, there was a shaft with a ladder that went down into a tunnel. The other end of that tunnel was the house.
The shack had caught fire in 1934, and most of it had burned to the ground. The new owners never knew what the hole was for, and everyone believed it was a dried up old well, but Aunt Mattie knew better, and never said a word to anyone. A long time had passed, and all anyone had to do was ask her, and she would have told them everything, which was a lot more than she ever put in this book. Jasper wished he had taken more time to talk to her. How did Mavis Gentry seem to know about this? Maybe the Parker Untrue Looney family had a book just like his written from Parker’s side.
As he was sitting lost in time a hundred and fifty years ago, he heard a hearty "good morning," and looked up to see Pete standing there in just his pajamas with two glasses of orange juice in his hand.
"Good morning to you too. How was your get together with all of the lottery winners?"
"Oh, it was the best time I have had since I won that stupid game. This time I may have hit real pay dirt. She is wonderful! She's a school teacher from Oklahoma and she teaches computer class to high school students. She has been going through the same things I have since she won the lottery and never thought she would meet anyone she would ever want to go out with. You can meet her on Sunday; I am bringing her to the picnic."
"Wonderful! I would love to meet her."
"What have you been up to? Did I hear right, you found Mr. Twilliger?"
"Yes, and he seems to be doing alright, back home resting with his wife. We caught the people responsible for it all. There were three of them, and they used Mr. Twilliger to smuggle a stolen Van Gogh. And if it hadn't been for Mr. Twilliger's dog, Rollo, I probably wouldn't be here now. Rollo attacked Earl Scooter just as he was about to shoot me. Everyone thought his name was Earl Skinner. I am not sure what name he really goes by, there may be more names than just those two. Anyway, he was one of the three."
"You're kidding! Was anybody hurt?"
"No, not really, although I think Earl’s arms are going to be a little sore for a day or two. Rollo grabbed one and Smokey the other and they threw him to the ground. That's not the exciting part. We got a chance to go into a tunnel that runs from the Twilliger's house out to where the woods once were. One of my grandfathers from way back built it for the Underground Railroad.”
“This Looney family reunion that is in town; well, they are all part of the Parker Untrue Looney family. I was just reading in a book that my Aunt Mattie had written, that my Grandfather, Jasper P. Quagmire the 1st, was really close friends with him. And you won't believe all of the history we found down there."
"Like what?"
"Oh, like chain, chisels, an old gun, and a knife… just a lot of stuff. The best part was some old journals my grandfather had written, and a first edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The boys tell me, that back in 1850, when it was published, you could go to prison just for buying a copy. It was just incredible. We could have spent days down there."
"So what did you do with the Journals? I would like to see them."
"We boxed them back up and left them there. They belong to Mr. Twilliger now. He owns the house."
"That's too bad. I would have liked to read them. It would have been neat to put them in the computer and make them available to everyone. I could have scanned each page. They would have looked just like they do in the journal, line for line."
"Really? Maybe Mr. Twilliger would let you do that. He really is a nice man."
"Oh yeah, it's easy. You just swipe across the page, that’s it, and it’s in the computer. You can then put them on a flash drive, or print them out. It's wonderful what you can do with a computer now-a-days."
"Well, maybe someday I'll get one at home, but for now I will rely on the one at the station and Harry. I don't know what I would do without him some days. I was so lost with him being up at the hospital this last week. I am going to have to tell him, 'no more kids,' this is his last one," Jasper laughed.
"Oh, how are they doing?"
"Wonderful, they had a little girl, and they are both doing fine. He said that Becky was a little shy about bringing her around a lot of people, but thought that outside at the picnic would be okay for a little while. So maybe we will get to see them then. Well, it's been a long week, and I have been reading all morning. I think Smokey and I are going in to take a nap so we will be rested up for tomorrow. We will see you later. Thanks for the ‘OJ’."
"Well, I have a date this afternoon with a lady from Oklahoma," Pete replied. “Enjoy your nap, the both of you.”
