Dorothy Garlock - [Wabash River]

by River of Tomorrow

Daniel looked so furious that Bernie backed around to the other side of the mules. Daniel took a deep breath. He didn’t want to draw any more attention to the Kentuckians, but if they didn’t get out of his sight, he was going to split their heads. If he did that, he reasoned, it would be cause for more talk. Mercy would be the one to take the brunt of it. When he spoke, he directed his words to Lenny.

  “I stayed the night with Miss Quill because she was afraid you would break into the house again. She needs time to consider the things you’ve said about her being your Sister. All these years she had thought of herself as Mercy Quill.” Daniel tried to speak calmly and in terms they would understand. “We were raised together in that house. The Quills have been parents to both of us. Now get this through your thick heads. I’m going to stand between Mercy and anyone who will try to hurt her. If I have to break your legs, crack your heads, or shoot you, I’ll do it. The best thing you can do is back off and give her time to decide what she wants to do. If she wants to go to Kentucky, I’ll abide by her decision.”

  “We ain’t got no time, mister. We done swore ta Maw we’d find Hester ’n’ brin’ her so she can see her little girl afore she passes on.”

  “I understand that. But give Miss Quill a few days to get used to the idea.”

  “What’s he talkin’ ’bout, Lenny? What’s he mean abide? Abide what?” Bernie came out from behind the mule scratching his head.

  “It means I’ll not stand in her way if she wants to go to Kentucky,” Daniel said.

  “Ya ain’t got no right to be standin’ in the way, nohow. Ya ain’t got nothin’ to say ’bout Hester! Ya ain’t wedded, ’n’ ya ain’t no blood kin.”

  “I’ve got more right than you have, but I’ll not argue the point. I’m telling you, stay away from her and give her time to decide what she wants to do.”

  “I ain’t never heared of the like.” Bernie snorted. “Women does what their menfolk tell ’em or they get a switchin’. It’d put a heap a shame on the Baxters if’n folks got wind we was waitin’ fer a woman to be decidin’ what ta do. One mornin’ after the next, we’re headin’ home. We ain’t got no time to dally no more’n that.”

  “Bernie’s right, mister. One dawn after this’n we’re headin’ out.”

  “That’s fine with me. Go. I’ll be glad to see the last of you.”

  “Hester goes with us.” Lenny sucked in his cheeks and looked Daniel straight in the eye.

  “No.” Daniel’s eyes locked with Lenny’s.

  “She goes or we ain’t.”

  “In that case I’ll meet you downriver at that place where you’ve camped the last few nights. Knives or muskets. Take your choice.”

  “Ya’d take on both of us at oncet?”

  “I don’t figure that even the two of you are equal to one of me.”

  “We’d aim ta kill ya.”

  “You can try. But I’ll tell you this: both of you won’t leave that clearing.”

  “Dawn, day after tomorry. Come with Hester, or come by yoreself.”

  “One way or the other, I’ll be there.”

  Daniel watched them mount up and ride away. He had to admire their persistence and their devotion to their mother’s wishes. He would hate to kill them, but he would. He knew he would do just that before he’d allow them to ride away with Mercy against her will.

  * * *

  It wasn’t until the middle of the afternoon, after George had climbed down the ladder and closed the flume gate stopping the wheel, that Daniel mentioned something that had been worrying him.

  “George, were the Kentuckians hanging around when Levi Coffin came in yesterday?”

  “Didn’t see nothin’ of them. I went down to the wagon when I seen who it was. Mr. Coffin said the woman was beat down and the babe sickly. I knowed that cellar room’d be too cold. I tell him to go to livery, then slip into the back of the store. Turley went too. They took the woman to Mr. Mike’s rooms.”

  “I know all that. I’m wondering if the Baxters saw anything. They were hanging around watching the Quill house last night. They might have been watching the store too.”

  “Why’d they do that?”

  “They’ve got it into their heads Miss Mercy is their long-lost Sister.”

  “Miss Mercy kin to them?” George rolled his eyes upward. “They can’t be no kin to Miss Mercy.”

  “They think they are. I may be having to—” Daniel stopped speaking abruptly and went to the window. The loud clanking of shod horse’s hooves on the cobblestone paving at the foot of the ramp had reached his ears. “The devil himself,” he murmured. “Hammond Perry!”

  “Lordy! That devil man here a’ready?”

  “He didn’t waste any time. Someone in Evansville must have seen Levi heading north and passed the word. It wouldn’t be hard to trail a peddler.”

  “Lordy!” George said again. He moved back away from the window after viewing the man who reminded him of a strutting bantam rooster and the six armed men who accompanied him. The sight of Hammond Perry, widely known for his cruelty and his unrelenting pursuit of runaways, sent a shiver of apprehension through George. “What you want me to do, Mr. Dan?”

  “Stay here, George. I don’t want them to catch you off by yourself. Stay over there by that buffalo gun. But if it has to be fired, I’ll fire it.”

  Daniel reached for a heavy coach pistol, checked the load, and slipped the weapon into his belt behind him. When he could hear the men coming up the stone ramp, he went to lean against the doorjamb.

  “That’s far enough, Perry. What brings you to Quill’s Station?”

  Hammond Perry, a short man, hated having to look up at a man towering over him. He motioned for his men to stay and moved on up the ramp to where the slope leveled. Almost a head shorter than Daniel he backed away so he didn’t have to tilt his head quite so far back to look at him.

  “I’m searching for my runaways, as you well know,” Perry sneered. His chinless face was shaped like a turned-over bowl, and reddish-gray whiskers covered the lower part of his face in an attempt to hide the receding chin and weak jaw. He was dressed in a fine linen coat, tight breeches, and shiny black boots. A black beaver hat sat on his head, and a coiled whip was looped over his shoulder.

  “Illinois is a free state.”

  “I own that runaway wench. She was leased out.”

  “To Crenshaw to breed a superior strain of Negroes? You’ve no authority here.”

  “Oh, but I do. I’ve got friends in high places the same as Farr Quill does. His objection to my searching for my legal property was overruled by the Illinois court. I’m within my rights.”

  “Not here. This property is mine. It will not be searched by anyone other than the Illinois State Militia. I believe one of the conditions attached to your permit was that you be accompanied by a militiaman.”

  “Bah! I’m not waiting around for a militiaman. By the time I get one, my niggers are long gone.”

  “It’s a shame that a few poor souls escaped your hellhole.”

  “I know about you, Phelps. Quill is supposed to have found you in a massacred train of settlers, but more than likely you’re one of his by-blows.”

  If Perry thought to rile Daniel by the accusation, he was disappointed.

  “If that were the case, I’d be honored,” Daniel said. “But my parentage has nothing to do with you being here. So state your business or leave. It makes me sick to look at you.”

  “Levi Coffin, the Quaker preacher from over around Newport, was seen coming this way. He’s got my niggers. A wench and her get. I intend to get them back.”

  “How do you know he’s got them? He came through here, but as far as I could see, he had a wagonful of rug samples and dress goods.”

  “He’s got them, all right. Every planter south of the line knows he transports nigger runaways. He’s one of those abolitionists who thinks he’s going to change things. It’s fools like him that get the niggers all riled up. He’s a goddamn thief is what he is.”r />
  “A thief is no worse than a goddamn kidnaper. How many free Negroes have you stolen, taken back over the line, or to that hellhole of a salt mine of Crenshaw’s?”

  “You’d not be talking so smart if you were down in my territory.” Perry looked at Daniel as if he were something that had crawled out from under a rock. His nostrils flared angrily when Daniel grinned.

  “What territory is that? Not everyone in the South is as much of a bastard as you are, Perry. I bet you give Rain Tallman a wide berth. You’d better get the hell out of here before Gavin McCourtney gets back. If he sets eyes on you, he’ll chew you up and spit you out. He hasn’t forgotten you tried to steal the woman who is now his wife. My God, Perry! It’s beyond me how you’ve managed to live this long.”

  “McCourtney can have the chit. If I had really wanted her, I would have taken her. Now move out of my way. I mean to look around.” Hammond squared his shoulders, motioned his men forward, and stepped closer to the door. He stopped abruptly when the barrel of Daniel’s pistol poked his belly. “You stupid fool,” he sputtered. “Do you think you can hold off all of us?”

  “You’re the fool. A bigger one than I thought you were! What difference will it make to you what your men do after I blow you to hell?” Daniel looked over Perry’s head to the men on the ramp. “Does this little weasel pay you enough to risk getting your heads blown off? This is my property. Come a step farther up that ramp and I’ll shoot this worthless piece of horseshit, and the man behind me will open up on you with a buffalo gun.” As he spoke, George thrust the barrel of the gun out the side of the doorway. “Make up your minds. Back down that ramp and live, or come ahead and die.”

  Without hesitation the men turned as one and went back down the ramp.

  “You’ll pay for this, Phelps!” Perry’s face was red, and his chin trembled. “You’re putting yourself above the law.”

  “Above the law? Hell! When did you ever pay any attention to the law? I’d be doing the world a favor if I pulled this trigger.” With the end of the gun barrel deep in Perry’s belly, Daniel pushed the man away from him. “I’ve got a word of warning for you, Perry. If one of the free Negroes in this community comes up missing, I’m coming looking for you, and I’ll not be hampered by any rules of fair play. I don’t believe in giving a snake a chance to bite me. I’ll blow you to hell as soon as I get you in my sights.”

  “You may have the upper hand now, but I’m not a man who gives up. If you’re running niggers through here, I’ll find out about it and I’ll be back with the militia.”

  “You’d better bring the militia to protect you, or you might find yourself tied to the mill wheel slapping water.”

  “Goddamn that Quaker,” Perry sputtered, needing to direct his anger at someone other than the hard-eyed man facing him. “When I catch up with him, I’ll strip the hide off that wench’s back.”

  Daniel followed Perry down the ramp. “That sounds like something you’d do. The only thing you could whip is a woman,” Daniel said sarcastically. He saw one of Perry’s men hiding a grin behind his hand. Daniel couldn’t help throwing a few more barbs. “You’re a real blood-and-guts man, Perry. I bet you eat alligators for breakfast, drink buffalo milk, and catch bullets with your teeth.”

  The ridicule turned Perry’s face livid with rage. He mounted his own horse and cruelly jerked on the reins until the animal spun around. He looked down at Daniel. “You’re nothing but a two-bit miller. I could buy and sell you a hundred times.”

  “You may be rich, but you’re the ugliest son of a bitch I ever laid eyes on.” Daniel laughed when he saw the rage in Perry’s eyes. His words had touched a raw spot just as he thought they would. He knew it was foolish to goad Perry, but he couldn’t resist one last jibe. “The poor woman probably got a look at your face, and that’s why she run off.”

  “I’ll run that damn Quaker into the ground and have that nigger before nightfall.”

  “Wrong again, Perry. Coffin’s halfway over to Sprin—” Daniel clamped his lips shut and looked down at the ground.

  A knowing expression settled on Perry’s face. He wheeled his horse and headed south toward the ferry. His men followed. Daniel watched them leave, then sprinted up the ramp.

  “He took it, George. He thought I was trying to throw him off the track. Levi was going to take the ferry at New Harmony. He’ll leave a trail, hoping Perry will follow him east.”

  “Turley’ll be pert nigh to Springfield by night. Do you want me to follow Perry, see if he crosses over?”

  “I’d sure like to know if he goes east. But don’t let them catch you, for God’s sake!”

  “Ain’t no white trash like him goin’ to catch me.” George’s handsome face split with a confident grin.

  “Don’t get too cocky. I’ll worry until you get back. Perry knows you’re the son of Mr. Washington and that the Quills are very fond of you. He’d love to get his hands on you just to spite them.” Daniel placed his hand on George’s shoulder and gripped hard. “Be careful, you clabberhead. I couldn’t run this mill without you. Remember, just watch and see if he boards the ferry. Don’t do anything foolish.”

  George’s eyes shone with pleasure. “You ain’t got no need to fret, Mister Dan. My mama’s folks teach me to trail when I be ass-high to a grasshopper. It’ll be a Shawnee brave trailin’ that nigger chaser.”

  * * *

  It was a long, quiet afternoon. With Turley gone and George away on his mission, Daniel tried to concentrate on the ledger where he kept his accounts, but his thoughts gathered and splintered, going in a dozen directions. After several large drops of ink fell from the pen to stain the ledger sheet, he closed the book and sat with his feet on the windowsill and allowed his mind to dwell on Mercy.

  His earliest memories of her was as a child of two or three years. Her hair was very light, he remembered, long and tangled. She wore a single garment that came down past her knees. It was something Farr had rigged up to cover her nakedness. Daniel smiled, remembered what a time Liberty had had of breaking her from squatting in the yard to relieve herself regardless of who was near. The grin stayed on his face as he thought of the time he and Mercy hid under the table. Mercy had grabbed Mrs. Thompson’s skirt and almost scared her to death.

  Mercy had readily accepted her new family, screeching with laughter, planting wet kisses on the cheeks of anyone who held her. From the first he had appointed himself her protector. He had dragged her out of the hog pen, boosted her up onto the rail fence when the angry geese pecked her bare legs, picked her up when she fell on slick rocks in the creek, scolded her for not wearing her mittens. His life had been entwined with hers since the day Farr had found him.

  The question that was constantly in the back of his mind came forward to haunt him. Would she ever see him as a man who loved her, not as a brother loves a Sister but as a man who loves his wife? The thought nagged at him until he got to his feet and paced the room.

  By the time Daniel was ready to leave the mill, a dark rain cloud hovered in the southwest. He went up the steep steps to the attic room where George lived to check the shutters on the windows. The furnishings in the room were sparse, but it was neat and clean. Daniel had not been there for a while, and the walls held even more pictures than when he had seen them last. Some were painted on canvas stretched over frames, others on smooth boards or flattened pieces of bark. The subject matter was the same in all the paintings. George painted happy Negroes in various settings.

  One painting was that of a young Negro woman in a bright red dress, reaching up to pluck an apple from a tree. Her body was well rounded, her eyes bright and shining, and a smile curved her lips. On her feet were black slippers tied with ribbons. The young woman looked amazingly like Birdie, Gus and Rosie’s daughter. Daniel wondered if George was in love with Birdie.

  He moved on to study a larger painting of a Negro family in front of a neat cottage with glass windows and flowers around the door. The mother sat in a rocking chair with a small
child at her breast. The father, with several children around him, seemed to be telling a story. All the characters in the painting were smiling. It was a happy scene.

  George seldom painted a white person or allowed anyone other than Daniel and Liberty Quill to see his pictures. Liberty had discovered his talent by accident and had encouraged him by taking him to Vincennes to see the paintings at Grouseland, the home of Governor and Mrs. Harrison. She had bought canvas, brushes, and paints and challenged him to see what he could do with them.

  Eight years ago Liberty and Farr had heard that Sugar Tree and George were in a village north and west of Vincennes and that Sugar Tree was ill. They loaded a wagon with supplies and went in search of them. Sugar Tree’s father and brothers were dead, and she had George, a lad of nine years, to hunt for her. Liberty and Farr brought George and his mother back to Quill’s Station where Liberty cared for her Indian friend who died a few months later.

  Daniel went around to stand in front of the unfinished painting that faced the window. It was a picture of an angel with a cloud of white hair, rosy cheeks and lips, and startling blue eyes. It was Liberty’s face. The body of the angel was in a swirl of clouds, but her arms reached down toward a group of children standing on green grass. The Negro and white children were dressed in fine clothes, and each wore a pair of shiny black shoes. Indian children were dressed in elaborately beaded and fringed buckskins. All the children wore happy smiles on their faces.

  The image of the hauntingly lovely picture stayed in Daniel’s mind after he had closed the door to George’s room and had gone back downstairs. He had no doubt that if George had been born white, he would someday be recognized for his talent. It was grossly unfair that the boy felt the need to hide his paintings rather than have them ridiculed because of the color of his skin.

  * * *

  A low rumble of thunder came from the southwest as Daniel took the path through the woods to the Quill house. His mind was active with the problems Mercy faced, and he wondered how she had managed to fill the day. As he neared the house, his ever watchful eyes noted at once that it was in total darkness, that not a light shone from the windows. He quickly scanned the area, then broke into a hard run.