River Queen

by Gilbert, Morris

  “I’m glad,” Carley said happily. “I love riding the river. Can I be the second mate again? I promised Julienne I wouldn’t bother you the first time we went out, but could I maybe this time ring at least the big bell?”

  “You bet,” Dallas said, and bent and held his hands out to her.

  She flew to him, and he swung her around and around until she gasped, “Oh! I’m so dizzy! It’s so much fun!” He set her down.

  “Funny how it’s not so much fun when you’re grown up,” Dallas grumbled under his breath with a furtive glance at Julienne. She smiled at him.

  After Carley stopped staggering around, she tugged on Dallas’s sleeve. “Can you stop working for just a little while, so we can celebrate?”

  “What exactly did you have in mind?”

  “Digging for crawdads? Please?” Carley answered. “And then maybe Jesse will put us out some throw lines tonight, and maybe I can catch another big ol’ catfish!”

  “You know, I think I might just take me a little break this afternoon,” Dallas said thoughtfully, and Carley’s face lit up. “I know a good place right down close to the end of Silver Street where we can probably find enough crawdads to catch a mess of fish. And besides, I saw back up the hill there’s a whole field of pretty yellow daffodils blooming. I might even pick a flower and put it behind my ear.”

  “Would you? Would you pick one for my ear too?” Carley exclaimed.

  “I sure will, Miss Carley, ma’am. You’ll look a lot prettier than me with a flower behind your ear.”

  “That’s the truth,” Julienne said, rising. “I have to see this. And I would love to pick some daffodils to put in our staterooms, they look so nice and cheery. So if I may, Mr. Bronte, I’d like to accompany you.”

  “Miss Ashby, I would be honored,” he said, bowing elaborately. “I’ll even let you put the flower behind my ear.”

  THEY WALKED DOWN SILVER Street in high spirits, with Carley between them, holding their hands. Julienne had threatened to lock her in her room all the way to Cairo if she got excited and ran off.

  Silver Street ran down a snaky course from Natchez proper, and it basically turned into the docks and boardwalk. However, it wasn’t the only street in Natchez-Under-the-Hill. The little shanty-town was actually eleven blocks long and four blocks deep. At the south end, the farthest away from Silver Street, the buildings lining the shore were warehouses, with dismal shanties behind. As they came to the end of town, Julienne shuddered as she looked back behind the warehouses. She wouldn’t venture down one of those cross streets for the world. They were little more than mud paths just wide enough for a wagon, with the warehouses brooding over them, making them shadowed and evil-looking. The thought of Carley blithely skipping down one of those dark alleys made Julienne doubly grateful to Dallas and the crew for watching out for her.

  They were nearing the end of the path, and ahead Julienne could see the field of flowers, thousands of them, blooming on the sides of the hilly bluffs. Dallas pointed. “Now just up there, where you see that dogwood tree? There’s a whole bunch of crawdad holes there. We’ll have a bucketful of them in no time.”

  They turned off the shore path to the right and started angling for the dogwood tree. On their right was the last warehouse, an ancient crooked barn with the windows and loft door boarded up. As they passed it, they heard a scream.

  All three of them stopped, frozen. Then they heard a woman’s voice, “Please help me! Please, they’ve locked me in here! Two men have locked me in here, and they’re going to come back and kill me!”

  Dallas dropped Carley’s hand and ran so fast that Julienne barely saw him move. The double barn doors had a thick plank set on iron brackets to lock them. He started to lift the plank, but it didn’t budge, and he saw that someone had driven three nails halfway into it to secure the plank. Behind the door he could hear the woman crying, “Please, please hurry, please hurry.”

  Furiously he looked around, and in the piles of junk surrounding the barn he saw a hammer head with no handle. Quickly he picked it up, popped out the nails, and heaved the plank. As soon as it cleared the brackets the barn doors burst open. A woman flung herself into Dallas’s arms.

  “Good heavens!” Julienne said, grabbing Carley’s shoulders and pulling her close.

  The woman wildly pushed Dallas away, ran back into the darkness of the barn, and came out with a canvas sack. Dallas took her arm and led her over to Julienne and Carley. Even though she was dirty, her face smudged, Julienne could see she was a beautiful young girl, much younger than she had thought. For some reason from the hoarse scream, and the situation alone, she had expected a mature woman. This was a pretty blonde girl with wide terrified blue eyes.

  “What in the world is happening?” Julienne asked.

  Grimly Dallas replied, “This lady says that two men kidnapped her and locked her in the barn, and she’s afraid they’ll harm her when they get back.”

  “I’ve got to go,” the girl said desperately. “I’ve got to run.”

  “Wait just a minute, ma’am,” Dallas said. “I’m going to help you. I’m sure not going to let any men hurt you. Now, why don’t you just come with us—”

  At that moment two men came staggering down the alley by the barn. Both of them were clutching gallon whiskey jugs. When they saw the four of them standing there, they came to a sliding stop that would have been funny under other circumstances. With care they set their jugs on the ground, and then they both started running, and the bigger one yelled, “Hey, you! What are you doing? Robbie, you git back in thet barn right now or I’m gonna whip you like a stuck mule!”

  Dallas stepped in front of the women and waited, arms crossed.

  The two men stopped running a few feet from Dallas. They were sorry-looking sights. One was obviously older, a tall skinny man with an enormous bobbing Adam’s apple. The younger one was shorter and though he too was skinny, he had a round pot belly. A scraggly greasy long black beard rested on it. Both of them were wearing clothes so soiled that the only color one could see of them was dirt-brown. Dallas eyed them and saw the bulge at their sides under their long canvas coats. His face grew dark and dangerous.

  They hesitated, then with ill grace the older one said, “I’m Milt Meacher, and this here’s my brother Zeke. You got our girl there, and we’ll be a-taking her back now.”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Dallas said calmly. “She doesn’t want to go with you.”

  “Well, that don’t matter none, now does it?” Milt sneered. “’Cause she’s ours, we own her. Her mama sold her to us, fair and square. Cost us a whole fifty dollars, that girl did, and mean as a snake she turned out to be too. Never woulda paid that much for her if we’d-a knowed it.”

  “You don’t own me, you stupid sniveling son of a skunk!” the girl yelled. She actually started around Dallas, but rolling his eyes he held her back.

  “I never heard of any white women slaves,” Dallas said slowly. “I don’t know where you’re from, but that bird’s not gonna fly down here.”

  With an air of superiority Milt said, “I didn’t say she was no slave. She’s our denture servant. All fair and legal, denture to us for seven year.”

  “That’s ‘indentured’ servant, you moron,” Dallas said. Then frowning, he looked down at the girl. “I guess that indentured servants are still legal, ma’am, but if these men are any threat to you, then me and them are gonna have a problem with it, legal or not.”

  “It’s not legal,” she cried. “I’m eighteen years old, my mama couldn’t sell me legally! And besides, I told you they’re going to kill me!”

  “Eighteen year old? Kill you? You’re gonna get struck down for lying, girl!” This time it was the younger brother Zeke that spoke, and, swaggering forward a half-step, he shoved one side of his coat back so it hung behind the holster on his hip.

&nbs
p; Julienne murmured, “Oh, Lord, no,” and clutched Carley even closer.

  The whites of Milt’s eyes flashed when he saw how his brother was showing out, but he only swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing rhythmically. Zeke continued, “That there girl is sixteen year old, just look at her, you kin tell she’s just a girl. Kill her? Why, that would be stupid, for me and Milt to kill her. We told you we done paid fifty dollar for her. Kill her and lose that money for nothing? That’d be stupid!” he repeated.

  As he spoke Dallas’s face had darkened until he looked as if he might simply swat the man down like a worrisome gnat. But by the time Zeke finished, he couldn’t help a sort of desperate amusement from coming over him. When he spoke, though, it was still in such a quiet, dangerous tone that Milt took a half-step backward and ducked his head. Zeke held his ground, resting his hand on the butt of his holster.

  Dallas said, “Now, listen, uh, what’s your name? Meat? Listen, Meat. This girl isn’t going anywhere with you. In about ten seconds you’re going to see her for the last time.”

  Zeke seemed to swell up; at least, his gut inflated out rounder than ever. “Are you threatenin’ me, mister? Are you blind and dumb? Cain’t you see I got a gun here?”

  “Funny. So do I,” Dallas said, and pulled his coat back. A pistol was stuck in his trousers, at his side.

  “Now wait just a minute here, Mister,” Milt said in a much weaker voice, and holding up his hands in surrender. “Ain’t no call for us to go wavin’ around no guns.”

  “You shut up, Milt, you ain’t never had no sand,” Zeke snarled. “Whatcha gonna do, Big Man? Gun me down dead right here in front of your pretty wife and daughter?”

  “No, I wouldn’t do that. But if your fingers so much as twitch on that gun, I’m going to shoot your toe off,” Dallas said in a death-knell voice.

  The brothers were a little slow on the uptake, so it took some time for them to work through what Dallas had said. Then Zeke looked back at Milt, and Milt looked at him, and they started laughing. “Didja hear that? Scairt me bad, it did,” Zeke said in a jolly voice. Then he turned and said, “You’re not just blind and dumb, you’re crazy. I’m through messin’ around with you, I want you to git outta my way, and—”

  He clasped the butt of his gun, and Dallas shot his foot.

  It happened just like that, as if the man had suddenly been struck by a bolt of lightning. Dallas stood there holding the smoking gun, Julienne and Carley stopped breathing, and the girl’s red full mouth made a round O. Milt’s eyes were so big and round they looked like they might pop out of his head and his Adam’s apple hopped up and down crazily.

  Zeke’s mouth fell open, he looked down at his foot, and then he sat down heavily. Reaching down, he grabbed his foot and pulled it up onto his lap. He howled, “OOOOOWWWW! You shot my toe off! Clean off! My big toe!”

  “Tried to tell you,” Dallas said regretfully. Unhurried, he went to Zeke and bent down, and Zeke flinched. But Dallas simply gently removed the gun from his holster and turned to Milt. His hands shaking, carefully with two fingers he took out his gun and handed it to Dallas. “I’m going to throw these in the river right down there,” he said. “You can swim for them.” He tucked them into the waistband of his trousers.

  “You shot my toe off! OOOOOWWWW!” Zeke bawled, and then started a low monotonous moan.

  Dallas turned back to them, took the girl’s arm, grabbed Carley’s hand, and said gently, “Carley, take Julienne’s hand.”

  Carley reached up and took Julienne’s hand, and all together they walked off. The girl kept looking behind her with hatred, but after a few moments she said, “Thank you, mister.”

  “You’re welcome. My name is Dallas Bronte. You can call me Dallas. This is Miss Carley, and this is Miss Ashby.”

  “I’m Robbie. Robbie Skinner,” the girl said, as if she were in a dream. “Thank you, Dallas.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said again. When they got to the river, he stopped and tossed the two guns far out into the water.

  They reached the boardwalk and climbed the steps. Silently they made their way along, and all of the human traffic of the port started passing them, slave women carrying goods on their heads, male slaves bent over with big boxes strapped to their backs, river men shoving and cursing, children running in and around the adults, catcalling to each other, prostitutes sashaying along in a cloud of scent of old sweat and rose water.

  Suddenly Julienne stopped short, let go of Carley’s hand and threw her own hands up, palms out. “Stop! What are you doing? Where are we going?”

  “Back to the Queen, Julienne,” Dallas answered, surprised.

  Julienne stared at Robbie. “We can’t take her back to the Queen!”

  Dallas’s mouth tightened. “She can stay on the Queen until we get this all sorted out.”

  “Sorted out? How? Why? She’s not our responsibility! Even though you did shoot a man over her!” Julienne snapped.

  “He only shot his toe,” Carley said in a small voice.

  Robbie stepped forward, between Julienne and Dallas. “Ma’am, Miss, I’m so sorry but I forgot your name. If you could just help me out a little, please, Miss. I don’t have a nickel, I had a little bit of money but they took it from me. But I can work. I can cook, and clean, and sew, and I’m strong. I work hard, I’ll do anything, you don’t have to pay me. If I could just have somewhere to sleep, and something to eat, I’ll work harder than two women.”

  “You? You lied. You said that those men were going to kill you,” Julienne said between gritted teeth. “We thought your life was in danger.”

  Robbie’s eyes dropped to Carley’s interested face, and she murmured, “And would you have been so eager to help me if I had screamed that some men were going to try to kiss me? I could see you all, through the cracks. I could see her,” she said, nodding downward.

  When the meaning of her words sunk in, Julienne hesitated but then she turned back to Dallas and continued her conversation with him. “We can’t do this, Dallas. We can’t take this girl in, it’s impossible!”

  “Why?” Dallas asked simply.

  “Because—because—” Julienne stuttered.

  “So what do you think I’m going to do with her? Drop her off at the Blue Moon?” he said evenly.

  Her mouth shut, and then she sighed. “All right. But just until we can find her a suitable situation.”

  “Fine,” he said, shrugging. “Don’t worry too much, Julienne. She’s kinda little, I doubt she eats much. She can always have oxtail soup.”

  Julienne shot him a deadly glance and they fell in step together, unconsciously, walking along and talking about the details of what they could do with Robbie.

  She fell into step behind them, and Carley took her hand. Looking up at her, she said, “I like your name, Robbie.”

  “It’s really Roberta, but no one ever calls me that,” she said, but she looked worried.

  Shrewdly Carley said, “Don’t pay any attention to my sister. She usually ends up doing what Dallas says. She just always has to argue with him first.”

  “He sure is handsome,” Robbie said appreciatively. “Is he your sister’s man?”

  “Dallas? Oh, no. I’m going to marry Dallas,” she said confidently. “Besides, Julienne doesn’t like him. Well—I don’t know. Sometimes I think she does, and then sometimes it seems like she doesn’t. But he helps us, see. On the Queen, he’s our pilot.”

  “Oh,” said Robbie with interest. “So your family has a riverboat, and that’s where we’re going?”

  “Yes, the River Queen. That’s where we live now. And you’re coming to live with us. Your room is gonna be really dirty,” she said, her face wrinkling with distaste, “and you’re going to have to clean it, because my Aunt Leah says that cleanliness is next to godliness, so we all have to scrub a lot, ex
cept my mother, because she’s a lady.” A worried look came over her pixie face, and she asked, “Robbie? Is that true, what that man Meat said? That your mother sold you to them?”

  “I’m awful sorry you had to hear that, Carley,” Robbie said in a low voice. “But you just don’t worry about it. You and your sister and Dallas came along, and you’re helping me, and I’m going to help you, I promise.”

  Carley nodded. “I’ll pray and thank Jesus that we found you, and that Dallas shot Meat in the toe, instead of having to shoot him down dead.”

  Though Robbie said nothing, privately she wished that Dallas had shot him down dead.

  They got back to the boat, and Dallas gathered the family at the old dining table, and the explanations began. Robbie stood the entire time as if she were a prisoner in the dock, her sky-blue eyes darting to each of them.

  It stunned Julienne that neither her mother nor her aunt seemed to be as utterly horrified as she had thought they would be. They were shocked and seemed upset for Robbie’s plight. When Dallas finished the story, her aunt took over and said, “Robbie, you’ve had a terrible time, I’m sure. Come along with me, and I’ll take you to one of our staterooms. I’m afraid you’ll find it in sad shape, and all we can offer you right now is a cot mattress, but my feeling is that you should rest awhile, and then we can talk about how you can help us out here on the River Queen.”

  “Oh, but, no, ma’am! I want to work, I feel fine, I can work right now!” She sounded panicked.

  Leah studied her for a few moments, then took her arm, threaded it through her own, and patted it. “Listen to me, Robbie. You’re safe now. No one is going to do you any harm here, nothing bad is going to happen to you from now on. So stop worrying, and just get some rest. Come along,” she said firmly. Obediently Robbie followed her through the double doors to the stateroom hallway.

  Roseann said, “That poor child. She looks scared to death. She’ll be all right in a few days, I’m sure. Dallas, would you be so kind as to ask if someone could set up my chair and the pavilion? I’d love to sit up on the hurricane for a while.”