Spake As a Dragon

by Larry Edward Hunt

  Someone yelled out ‘bad’ and save the ‘good’ for last. “Okay,” replies Robert, “Here is the bad: we found the right department in the United States government where we needed to send the gold.”

  Across the room was heard the soft moan of disappointment. “Ah gee,” said Thomas Henry, “I was thinkin’ how I was gonna buy me one of them new ‘yo-yo’ things.”

  And Stephen piped up, “Yeah, I wanted a ‘rolling hoop’, I saw them down at the hardware store.”

  “I’m sorry too Robert,” exclaimed Malinda sadly, “I wanted a set of glass marbles and one of those new baseballs for the boys, and a couple of store bought dolls for the girls. The girls are getting too old to be playing with their shuck dolls, it’s been a long time since the children have had any real toys, but we shouldn’t have gotten our hopes up after all it isn’t our gold.”

  Taking the yellow telegraph response from his pocket, he unfolded it and held it in the air for all to see, “Not our gold huh? Yes, yes it is! That is the good news! The government said if we found it we could keep it. The gold is ours! It says so right here on this official telegram.” The room fell silent. Everyone was looking around at the others with a look of bewilderment.

  Someone says, “Ours...? To keep?”

  “Robert! You’re not saying the gold is ours to keep and spend as we see fit,” said Malinda.

  “Yes, it is ours, but there is a but...”

  Malinda looks at Robert dishearten, “Aren’t there always? We really do not get to keep it, right?”

  “Oh no, we’re keeping it all right, the ‘but’ is we have to divide it with the Meetinghouse and the Masonic Lodge.”

  Just as Luke said earlier Matthew jumped in, “Divide it? Father we found it. It ought to belong to us alone.”

  “Now let’s not get greedy, I think roughly five hundred thousand dollars will be enough for you all to buy that ‘yo-yo’ gadget and the ‘hoop de do’ thing, and the dolls, balls, dresses and clothes and...and...anything else you heart desires. Now what do you think of that?”

  Malinda and the rest were finally speechless.

  “And Nate we have plenty of land right here on Scarlett don’t see why you and Elsa can’t build y’all a nice place right here with us. We can rebuild Scarlett bigger and better and do all the things we need and want to do. The question still remains: how to divide the gold?”

  “Father,” said Mattie Ann, “there is the Meetinghouse and the Masons and us, that’s three, divide the gold into three parts and each gets a part.”

  “Good suggestion Mattie Ann, then the Meetinghouse Elders and the members of the Lodge can split their third anyway they see fit. Yes, that is the answer – split the gold three ways.”

  EXPLANATION

  The next morning Robert had assembled the same group of Elders and the same members of the Masonic Lodge underneath the old oak in front of the Mill. They thought they had been requested to meet to hear Robert tell where the gold was to be sent.

  Tipping his hat, “Elder Lindley and friends, Worshipful Master Turney and members thank you all for coming. I know you are anxious to hear of mine and Luke’s trip to Columbia to return the gold.”

  “Ah, yes,” said Elder Lindley in a somber tone, “proceed.”

  “Luke and I traveled to Columbia knowing if we send a telegram from our local Western Union office word of the gold would spread like a wildfire. We decided to send a message from the state capitol at Columbia to the Department of the Treasury in Washington, D.C. asking them what we were supposed to do with the gold. Well fellows, they thought at first we were trying to send them a ton and half of gold ore. After assuring them we had approximately a ton and a half of pure gold, I was told they did not want it. They would not take it.”

  The Worshipful Master spoke up, “Well, where are we to send it or what are we to do with it then?”

  “Nothing,” answered Robert.

  “Nothing, what does that mean?”

  “It means IT...IS...OURS!” Robert said, slowly speaking the words.

  “Ours, ours to keep,” said Elder Lindley?

  “Yes, absolutely yes,” Robert said pulling out the telegram and passing it around for all to read, “and here is my proposal, unless you all have a different arrangement. I suggest we load up the bells and headstocks and bring them to the Mill. William you bring the thirty cannonballs as well. We will take the gold inside, put the largest iron pot we can find over the forge and then melt the bells, headstocks and cannonballs. We’ll pour the gold up into gold bars and then divide it into thirds – one for us, one for the Meetinghouse and one for the Lodge. That’s the fairest way I can determine to do it right. Anyone with another suggestion?”

  Everyone shook their heads, “Good plan Robert, good plan,” commented the Elder. “We have already removed the bells and headstocks from the belfry, we’ll load them in a couple of wagons and have them down here this afternoon.”

  “Same with us,” said Lonnie. “Just as soon as we can get the cannonballs loaded.”

  “Fine gentlemen, in the meantime I will get the forge fired up and ready and get the blacksmith to make us some molds to pour the gold into for cooling.” Waving as he walked to the Mill, “See you all later.”

  Two days later stacked in three huge piles are one hundred eighty bars of pure gold, sixty bars to a stack. Each bar weighing in at thirty pounds each. Robert was a tad off in his guessing the gold’s weight there was twenty-nine hundred pounds more. Instead of 2,500 pounds there was 5,400. At the going rate of $30.00 per 12 ounces Troy, they had $1,944,000 of pure 24 karat gold, or split three ways: $648,000 each. Each bar was worth $10,800.

  Representatives of the Meetinghouse and the Lodge were on hand bright and early the third morning and each loaded their wagons with sixty bars or eighteen hundred pounds of gold. The disposition of their individual shares of gold was up to the members of the Meetinghouse and the Lodge.

  Robert and Luke were standing outside the Mill’s large sliding door as the wagons drove away heavy loaded. Robert smiled, “Come on Luke, back that wagon up we need to get our gold and get on home.”

  Luke stood in the wagon and the men from the Mill passed a bar along until it got to Robert. Robert handed it to Luke who was making a nice pile in the wagon. When they got to the last bar Robert turned to the workers in the Mill, “Jethro, Rubin and Dan you all have been faithful and loyal to our family and the Mill, without you we could never have gotten it going. Y’all stayed even when there were times we did not have enough money for a division of the money, we really appreciate you and it will never be forgotten. In the meantime, to say thank you,” Robert stopped talking, took the last bar of gold and handed it to Jethro, “Here sell this and divide the money out among the men.”

  The others gathered around Jethro sticking out their old, dirty hands to touch the shiny gold bar. “Well, I do declare!” Jethro said holding the gold up into the air. “Yous mean this here bar of gold is ours, all ours?”

  You all deserve it.” Laughing Robert added, “Don’t spend it all in once place now, you hear.”

  Back up onto the wagon seat Robert said to Luke, “Let’s go home, but stop at the bank first. There’s something I need to do.”

  Luke ties the mules to the hitching post in front of the Scarlettsville National Bank. Meanwhile, Robert slid a bar of gold into a burlap sack and entered the building. Asking the first teller he came to, “May I see the bank’s president?”

  Opening the president’s door Robert exchanged pleasantries and begins, “Mr. Scott I wish to borrow $10,000 from your bank. What is the interest rate?”

  “Uh, 3% Mr. Scarburg, but $10,000! Sir, Scarlett, is worthless, and it will be a couple of years if that, before you could get out a paying crop. And you are recently returned from the Army, and you nor your family have nothing of value to backup this loan, besides, this would be the largest loan our bank has ever taken. No sir, no sir’ree bob, can’t do it!”

  “You reckon this
would be sufficient to cover that loan,” Robert said flopping the heavy burlap sack down on his desk with a thud? Mr. Scott slowly pulled apart the opening to the sack, peered inside, paused and said, “Oh my!” Looking once again, he pulled the gold bar from the sack looked at Robert and said, “Yes Sir, Mr. Scarburg, I believe this will more than cover a $10,000 loan! My oh my, how much does this bar weigh Mr. Scarburg?” He said emphasizing the Mister in his address to Robert.

  “Just 30 pounds Mr. Scott! That’s all!”

  Opening the large safe he asked, “Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money Mr. Scarburg, what do you intend to do with such a large amount of cash?”

  “A number of things Mr. Scott, but right now I’m going to get started rebuilding Scarlett and there’s a manufacturing company I need to invest in. And there might be a few other things I need to do!”

  Back on the wagon Roberts instructs Luke to stop at the lumberyard. Robert jumps from the wagon goes into the yard’s office and returns in a few minutes. “What was that all about Father?”

  “Tomorrow workmen they will begin rebuilding Scarlett. I want it returned to its previous glory. No, even better.”

  “So you’re going to supervise the rebuilding of Scarlett, huh?”

  “In a while, maybe, but Son right now I want you, Nate and me to make a little trip to our farm in Alabama. Will you go with me? I have already asked Nate and he is willing to go.”

  “Well, yes of course Father, if you want, but why would we want to go back down there, the farm is gone.”

  “You and I have some unfinished business to take care of. Nate is going to help if needed.”

  MONEY FLYING EVERYWHERE

  Back at the guesthouse Sary, Ora Lee, Catherine and Malinda are preparing supper as Robert and Luke return. Robert is carrying a rather large burlap sack. Standing at the kitchen table, Malinda asked what was in the sack. Walking over to the table Robert empties its contents all over the tabletop. Hundreds and hundreds of 5’s, 10’s, 20’s and 100 dollar bills, grabbing a handful he pitched it into the air, “This is what is in that sack Mother, and there’s more where that came from.”

  The four women could not believe their eyes, money was flying everywhere, on the table, on the floor, and even in the soup they were having for supper. “Robert Scarburg have you gone crazy,” Malinda said going around the room picking up money. “If you had to realize what me and Sary had to go through just for one of these bills during the War you would be ashamed. Why in one minute I can pick up enough money to pay the taxes on our farm for years. For years, I say! If Sary and I had just a small portion of this money, we could have kept that scoundrel Simeon LaPree from taking our farm away.”

  “Speaking of the farm Malinda Luke, Nate and I have decided to make a little trip back to Alabama.”

  “Back! I can’t for the life of me think why!”

  “I need to compensate Doctor Crawford for the money he let you have during my absence and to thank him personally for the care he gave my family while I was gone, and Nate wants to visit his Pa and brother’s graves.”

  “Oh, Robert the few dollars that Doc Crawford gave us was a gift, he did not expect any repay, and Uncle Jed and Jefferson are resting peacefully underneath that red oak in the edge of the yard.”

  “No, no! I will not let any debt of mine go unpaid! You forget, Nate has never seen where his pa and brother are buried either.”

  “Wait! Wait just a minute Robert Scarburg, you’re not going back to only repay Doc and Nate to see those graves, you are going after Simeon LaPree! Tell me I’m wrong! Robert that man is dangerous and mean; he will kill you and probably Luke and Nate too. Please, I beg you, don’t go. I prayed to God to bring retribution upon that man long ago for what he did to our family, but since you, Luke and Matthew have returned home from the War God has softened my heart. I do not think of LaPree any longer. I cannot lose you and Luke now.”

  “Have to settle accounts...use this money as y’all will. Sary and Ora Lee I have fixed you up with an account at the bank as well, you can draw money on it whenever you need. Malinda there is an account for Nate and Elsa too.”

  “I see your mind is made up, so there isn’t any need for me to try and change it. When are you leaving?”

  “Luke, Nate and I are saddling up first thing in the morning. Don’t worry we’ll be back in a few weeks, a month at the most. I’m sorry Malinda, sometimes, as you have always said: a man has to do what a man has to do. Oh, I almost forgot, tomorrow the workers will arrive to begin cleaning up and start rebuilding Scarlett. Anything, and everything you want just let the superintendent of the building project know. Build it as glorious and as beautiful as you can image, but one important thing – I want a crew of his to burn all those slave quarters out behind the main house. After the cleanup I want good, clean houses built for our workers. Workers we will hire to run Scarlett when I return.”

  The next morning as Robert stated he, Nate and Luke have their horses loaded and carry a spare loaded down with supplies. They mount and are about to say their goodbyes when Malinda walks from the porch into the yard.

  “I’m sorry Robert, but when you and the boys left to go to war, I always believed in my heart you would come back, this time my heart is saying you, Luke and Nate will not return. So all I can say is ‘Goodbye’... forever.”

  BACK TO ALABAMA

  A couple of weeks later they approach the outskirts of the town of Albertville. “First stop,” said Robert, “the post office.”

  Opening the door Robert walks over to the counter. The clerk looks up from his duties and asks if he can help. Robert replies, “You work here by yourself?”

  “Yes ’er,” the clerk answers, “we ain’t the size town where the post office is a very busy place.”

  “How long have you been working here? Did you work here during the War?”

  “Well sir, let me think, going on about ten years I reckon, and yeah, I was here during that terrible ordeal.”

  Hearing that Robert reaches across the counter, grabs the clerk’s shirt with both hands and jerks him across the counter onto the wooden floor. The clerk tries to regain his feet, but Robert smacks him across his face with his fist knocking him to the floor again.

  On his hands and knees, blood dripping from his nose, he raises up one arm, “Now hold on Mister you had no call to go and do that! I ain’t got no money in here.”

  “I ain’t robbing you, you idiot,” as another fist drives the clerk to the floor. Half unconscious the man stammers, “Wh...wh...what have I don...don...done to you Mister?”

  “Nothing! You ain’t never done nothing to me! I’ve never laid eyes on, you before in my life.” He says grabbing the man by the hair of his head and landing another solid, skin cutting, punch to his right eye.

  Lying on the floor in his own blood, he barely whispers, “If not you... who have... I done something too?”

  Kicking him in the ribs with his boot Robert replies, “My wife, you low-down sorry excuse for a man...my wife!”

  Moaning and unable to breathe he mutters he doesn’t know Robert’s wife.

  Another swift kick and Robert answers, “Malinda Scarburg, you remember her don’t you?”

  Kicking him again the man barely whispers, “Yes...yes, I knew her, but I was only following Simeon LaPree’s orders. He had me keep all her letters she tried to post...,” Stopping for a second to catch his breath, “...and none was ever delivered to her house.”

  Stepping on the man’s hand Robert spins around grinding his spur into the clerk’s hand and fingers, “Where? Where are my letters?”

  Now the clerk is beyond talking, he barely raises an arm and with his mangled index finger points to the letter rack behind the counter. Robert jumps across the counter and notices one cubbyhole filled with letters. He is right, they are all his and Malinda’s, nearly three years worth.

  Back across the counter he stands over the clerk who is grimacing in pain. Blood is beginning to pool on the floor;
he coughs, spitting out a couple of teeth. “I guess the next time you think about holding onto someone’s mail you’ll give it a second thought, in fact, I suggest you find another line of work, you’re not very good at this one. Have a good day,” kicking him one last time he steps over the man’s lifeless body and returns to Luke and Nate waiting outside.

  “What took you so long?”

  “Me and the mail-clerk had an enlightening conversation concerning the protocol of mail delivery.”

  “Did youse straighten him out Mister Robert.”

  “Yeah Nate, I believe the young man now sees the error of his ways.”

  Reining their horses around Robert, Luke and Nate head out of town on Pleasant Grove Road to Doctor Crawford’s place.

  Riding into the yard and up to the hitching post Robert yells, “Doc Crawford...hey Doc, you old coot. It’s Robert Scarburg.”

  The door opens partially and from behind the screen Doc calls out, “Well I’ll be, if it ain’t Robert Scarburg, and riding old Blaze too!”

  Robert, Luke and Nate dismount and Doc settles them into comfortable chairs on the porch while he brings them cool water to drink. After Nate is introduced Doc asks, “What brings you all the way down here Robert? I heard you were livin’ in your old place in Carolina.”

  “Well, yes and no Doc. We are living at Scarlett for sure, but the main house has long since been burned to the ground by a bunch of army deserters. We are all living in the guesthouse.”

  “Tell me Robert, what about Matthew? Did he get back from the War, I see here Luke made out okay, and Blaze, I see you are riding her, I recognize that large ‘S’ in the martingale on her chest. There’s not another magnificent animal as she.”

  “Yeah, Doc he got home all right, but he’s missing one leg. He’s doing good tho’ so is the rest of the family. Malinda says to give you her love, so does the rest of the family.”