Midnight Rescue

by Lois Walfrid Johnson

  But Jordan kept walking. Often he leaned forward to feel the bark of a tree. Whenever he found moss on the trunk, he moved on again, sure which way was north.

  Before long, a drop of rain splashed against Libby’s cheek. As she and the others came out of the woods to cross an open area, Libby felt more raindrops splat against her arms. Then came another and another. The rain that had threatened the day before was now here. Though Libby saw no lightning, thunder rumbled in the distance.

  At first the rain came gently, offering welcome relief after the warmth of the day before. Then the gentle rain turned into soft pinpricks. Soon the wind drove the rain against Libby’s face until it hurt.

  By now Libby was angry. The harder it rained, the more upset she felt. Finally she cried out to God. “Jordan asked You to protect us! Where’s Your protection now?”

  Holding Rose against her chest, Hattie crossed her arms over the child’s head. Zack clutched Jordan’s hand, taking three steps to Jordan’s two. From all around came the sound of running water as creeks became torrents and new streams found their way down steep hillsides.

  Grabbing Serena’s hand, Libby bent her head against the wind, squinted her eyes against the rain, and kept on. Here in the open, the rain cut slantwise against them, but Jordan still kept on. As though he walked this way every day, he never slowed his pace. But Jordan had no path, no trail, no road. He just knew where to go.

  Then, as suddenly as it came, the rain stopped. As Libby looked around, she saw water streaming down the side of Serena’s face. Her thin sack dress hung about her knees, and she shivered with cold. Yet her bare feet followed her brother with sure, strong steps.

  As the darkness of night changed to the gray light of dawn, Jordan stopped on a rise. Raising his arms, he lifted his hands toward heaven. “Thank You, Lord!”

  His quiet voice seemed to fill the earth. “Hallelujah!”

  Only then did Libby understand what had happened. Only then did she remember that the rain had erased their tracks. No one needed to tell her, “That downpour washed away your scent for any bloodhound who might follow.” No one needed to say, “You aren’t safe yet, but right now the bloodhounds can’t follow Jordan’s family.”

  Soon after Jordan went on again, they came to another thickly wooded area. There Jordan began to search for a place where they could rest during the day. He found it near the bottom of a tucked-away ravine. “Git branches,” he told all of them.

  Together they hurried to find small branches blown down during the storm. In a hollow between two trees, Jordan and Caleb laid the branches so they appeared to have just fallen. Soon the branches and leaves offered a large enough shelter to hide the family.

  While Libby watched in one direction, Caleb watched another. On her hands and knees, Jordan’s mother crept into the hiding place. With little Rose safely in her arms, Hattie lay down to rest. Serena and Zack and Jordan crawled into the space beside her. Soon they were all asleep.

  “Eat now,” Caleb told Libby and the others in late afternoon. “We’re close to the border. Right here the Des Moines River is a dividing line between Iowa and Missouri. We need to catch a ferry on its last run before dark.”

  And what if we don’t? Libby wondered. She felt afraid to think about it.

  But Serena was excited. “We is goin’ into the Promised Land?” she asked.

  “Iowa be a free state,” Jordan told her. “But you won’t be safe yet.”

  Hattie looked relieved to be this far, but Libby felt sure that she also knew the dangers ahead. Both Jordan and Caleb had told her about the slave catchers who roamed up and down the border to catch runaways.

  As they finished eating, Hattie spoke to Libby. “I wants to thank you for comin’ to my room and warnin’ me about Zack.” Whenever Hattie turned toward her younger son, a glad light shone in her eyes. Then her gaze rested on Libby’s hair.

  “When I was prayin’, the Lord gave me a warnin’ about you. Your hair be mighty pretty, Libby, but if we ain’t careful, it goin’ to get us in trouble.”

  “People notice my hair, don’t they?” Libby remembered Melanie’s anger. If Mr. Weaver doesn’t remember how I look, Melanie will tell him.

  “Does you have a sun bonnet with you?” Hattie asked.

  When Libby pulled it out of the bag she carried on her back, Jordan’s mother told her, “Then I got what you need.” Hattie opened the small bag Libby had noticed before.

  Libby started to giggle. “Is it flour?” she asked. “That will make my hair look dull and lifeless!”

  Hattie smiled. “You’ll look as harmless as a baby kitten.”

  Sweeping her long hair up and away from her face, Libby tied it in a knot. Hattie sprinkled the flour over Libby’s head and worked it into her hair. Then Hattie tucked the leftover strands inside the back of Libby’s collar.

  “You is goin’ to be full of flour, child,” Hattie warned as Libby put on her bonnet. “But if we lets your hair swing free, all the flour might ride out.”

  When they started walking again, Jordan kept looking at the sky. As the sun dipped lower and lower in the west, he picked up his pace.

  “What if we don’t make the ferry on time?” Libby asked Caleb as they hurried along.

  “We’d have to wait till morning.” Clearly Caleb didn’t like that idea. “Worst of all, we’d have to cross the river in daylight.”

  Libby glanced around. Here in the deep woods, it would soon be dark. Since their escape from the farm, the woods had given shelter to Jordan’s family. But those same hills and woods offered all kinds of hideaways for outlaws.

  “It’s a bad spot,” Caleb said as though hearing Libby’s thoughts. “The Fox River outlaws have seven crossings on the Des Moines River and four on the Mississippi. When they commit a crime in Missouri, they use the crossings to escape to Iowa and Illinois. There’s a good chance we’ll find a thief somewhere around here.”

  “Or have him find us.” Libby dreaded the idea. “It’s no wonder you had trouble getting rid of Sam McGrady on the way down. He must have been going close to where you wanted to be.”

  “And I bet he knows this country like the back of his hand,” Caleb said.

  When they came to the edge of the woods, Jordan’s family had their first look at the Des Moines River. Though both Serena and Zack knew the danger of speaking aloud, they gazed across the river with excitement in their faces.

  But Caleb and Jordan looked upset. Up and down the river, for as far as Libby could see, there was no ferry.

  “Which way does we go?” Jordan whispered.

  Caleb shook his head. They had come out at the river, but at a different place than planned. Staying within the line of trees, Caleb stared at the broad, deep waters. Usually calm, he seemed more nervous by the moment.

  “You go one direction, and I’ll go another,” he whispered to Jordan. Whoever found the ferry would call like an owl.

  Every minute we stay here, the more chance we have of being found, Libby thought.

  Searching for a better hiding place, Hattie moved her family farther back into the woods. Libby followed them, but as time grew long, she crept back toward the river where she could see the sun. Already it had dropped behind the trees in the west. With growing dread Libby watched the light sink lower and lower.

  Then an owl hooted from upstream. From downstream Caleb answered with another hoot.

  We’ll make it! Libby thought as she looked in the direction Jordan had gone. If his family followed the flat, pebbly ground close to the river, they would make better time than in the woods. But as Libby started back to them, she glanced downstream. Just then a man on horseback rode out of the woods.

  Afraid again, Libby stepped behind a tree to watch. The man gazed at the water as if wondering about a way across. But Libby had no time to waste. Avoiding sticks that would snap and break, she hurried deeper into the woods.

  Soon Libby met Jordan’s mother. She too had heard the owl and knew what it meant. As Hatt
ie led her family upstream, Libby fell in behind them. Again and again she looked back over her shoulder.

  As they walked, the light faded and the woods grew dark. Soon even the gray twilight that followed sundown would not help them. But just as Libby was ready to give up, Jordan found them.

  “Where’s Caleb?” he whispered.

  Libby explained that she had seen a man between them and Caleb. “You better keep going,” she said.

  “And leave Caleb?”

  “He would want you to,” Libby said. “If you don’t, all that you’ve tried to do might be lost.”

  Still Jordan did not want to go on.

  “Maybe he’ll catch up,” Libby said.

  Turning, Jordan started back upstream with his family walking close behind him. In the last gray light, they reached the ferry. Already the owner was loosening one of the ropes.

  As the others stayed inside the line of trees, Libby ran forward. “Seven passengers,” she said.

  When the man named his price, Libby dug down into the bag she carried. Suddenly she realized that she had no money!

  Fumbling around, Libby searched her bag for something to sell. Drawings? No. She didn’t have any more. When she found the bracelet Mrs. Weaver had given her, Libby held it up.

  But the owner of the ferry shook his head. “I ain’t got no use for the likes of that. I got a family to feed.” Turning his back on Libby, he walked over to another post and untied the second rope.

  Palms up, as though asking what to do, Libby looked toward the woods. In that moment Jordan stepped out, followed by his family. As they hurried onto the ferry, Jordan took a coin from his pocket. The man stared up into his face, bit the coin, then nodded.

  “I is paying for my friend too,” Jordan said.

  “It’s enough,” the man answered.

  Just then Caleb raced out of the woods. As he leaped onto the ferry, the owner pushed off. They were halfway across the river before Caleb caught his breath.

  As the twilight faded into darkness, Libby stared at Jordan. “Where did you ever get enough money to pay for all of us?”

  Jordan straightened, wearing the proud look that reminded Libby of royalty. “Your pa been paying me for my work. When he gives me money, he says, ‘Jordan, it be good havin’ your help. You earned this.’”

  Jordan turned toward his mother. “I been savin’ the money for my family.”

  As tears welled up in Libby’s eyes, she glanced toward Caleb. For the first time since she had known him, Caleb could not hide his feelings.

  As the ferry drew close to the Iowa side of the river, Caleb spoke in a low voice. “Just do what I do,” he told Jordan and his family. “And do it as fast as you can.”

  The moment the ferry touched land, Caleb was off. Like shadows in the night, Jordan’s family followed, their bare feet making no sound. One instant after they reached a hiding place, Libby heard noise from the river side of the bushes.

  Crouching low, she and the others waited. Peered between the branches. Across the river, lanterns swung back and forth. Then the lanterns moved down to the dock where they had taken the ferry.

  From their hiding place Libby heard the mournful baying of bloodhounds. So! Mr. Weaver guessed where we’d come, even if his dogs didn’t track us.

  With their half howl, half bark, the baying dogs filled the night with fear. Waiting in the darkness, Libby shivered.

  CHAPTER 18

  The Secret Stairway

  Half standing, half crouched, Caleb started to run. When he reached the nearby woods, the rest of them were close behind.

  For some time they walked without speaking, going deeper and deeper into the woods. Libby knew they followed a path, but it was an unmarked path most people wouldn’t see. Caleb was back in the area he knew well from his work with the Underground Railroad.

  When they came to a barn where horses were harnessed and ready, Libby wasn’t surprised. No one was around, but Caleb seemed used to being here. As Jordan and his family crawled under the hay in the back of the wagon, Libby took her place on the front seat. Caleb led the horses out and closed the door behind him.

  The moment Caleb sat down beside Libby, he flicked the reins and the horses moved out at a steady trot. They had traveled only a few miles when a group of men rode out of the woods into the road.

  “We’re looking for runaway slaves,” one of them said. “They told us to find a girl with red hair.”

  With a suspicious glare, a man held a lantern toward Libby. The light fell across her face.

  As her hands started shaking, Libby tightened her fists. Keeping her hands in her lap, she forced herself to smile. “To set your mind at rest, you might like to see my hair,” she said.

  Telling herself that her fingers could not shake, Libby untied the strings of her bonnet. Carefully she raised it to show the hair that was now a dull, lifeless color.

  “You see?” Libby asked, her voice still sweet.

  In the glow of the lantern, the man stared at Libby’s hair, then backed away. “Thank you kindly, miss,” he said. “We’re keeping the roads safe for you tonight.”

  As Caleb called “Giddyup!” to the horses, they moved out again. When Caleb finally looked at Libby, she saw his grin. Only then did Libby breathe deeply again.

  About twelve miles down the road, the horses turned into a farm. As though they knew exactly where they were going, the horses stopped in front of the wide doors of a barn. Caleb jumped down to open them.

  Once inside, he again closed the door. “It’s okay,” he said softly, and Jordan and Zack wiggled out from under the hay.

  Together the three boys worked quickly to put the horses in stalls and rub them down. As they hitched up a fresh team of horses, another boy entered the barn.

  “I’ll leave them at the usual place,” Caleb whispered to him.

  As soon as Jordan and Zack again took their place under the hay, the boy opened the door. The moment the fresh team of horses stepped out, the door closed on well-oiled hinges.

  When they were well away from the farm, Libby looked at Caleb. “I’m awfully glad you made it to the ferry,” she said.

  “Me too.” Caleb’s grin showed his relief. “Jordan could have taken you through the woods, but he wouldn’t know the first station. From there someone would have taken you on. But it might have been hard getting that far.”

  Libby wasn’t sure how many miles they had traveled from the ferry—twenty-five, twenty-six, or perhaps more. She only knew that it had to be about one o’clock in the morning when Caleb turned and spoke softly toward the back of the wagon.

  “We’ll be crossing the Skunk River,” he said. “There’s a ford here—stones put down like a road on the river bottom. The water shouldn’t be more than three feet deep. But if it’s higher—”

  “We is ready” came Jordan’s quiet voice.

  At a worn-down place in the bank, the horses eased into the river, as though used to the crossing. Soon the water rose around their knees, then sloshed against their bellies. On the far side of the river, the horses plodded up the bank. When they reached the road again, they picked up speed.

  “We’re close, aren’t we?” Libby asked as she watched them. No doubt about it, the horses knew there was feed and water not far away.

  Twisting around, Caleb peered back in the darkness. “I don’t like it,” he said. “I feel uneasy, as if someone is watching me. But that has to be crazy. I’ve haven’t seen anyone since those men near the Des Moines River.”

  “Where are we?” Libby asked.

  “Augusta, Iowa.”

  “Could the horses keep going if we didn’t stop?” Libby asked.

  “If they had to, they could, but they need a rest,” Caleb said. “And if there’s someone behind us, we need to get rid of him somehow.”

  As the horses started up a long steep hill, Caleb again looked back. “Strange,” he said. “I just can’t explain it. But I’ve worked with the Railroad long enough to pay attentio
n when I think something isn’t quite right.”

  “Can you tell me where we’re going?” Libby knew that “passengers”—runaway slaves—might go in and out of a station without ever knowing the names of the people who helped them.

  Now Caleb surprised Libby by telling her about Dr. Edwin James.

  “He’s an explorer and a scientist,” Caleb said. “On an expedition to Colorado with Major Long, Dr. James discovered plants and trees no one had named before. He was an army doctor too, and the first white man to climb Pikes Peak. For a while the mountain was named James Peak after him.”

  As Libby listened to the pride in Caleb’s voice, she guessed the doctor was one of his heroes.

  “But there’s more,” Caleb went on. “Dr. James translated the New Testament into the Chippewa language.”

  “And Dr. James must be part of the Underground Railroad,” Libby said.

  “Yup. A well-known part. That’s why I can tell you about him. A few years back he was caught taking a fugitive named Dick across the Mississippi River. The slave catchers forced Dr. James back to Burlington, and Dick was thrown into jail. The courtroom has never been as full as it was the day of that trial in Burlington. The judge challenged the fugitive slave laws and set Dick free.”

  Caleb grinned his delight at telling the story. “A great shout went up in the courtroom. Those who hadn’t been able to get inside cheered till the whole town echoed. A thousand men walked with Dr. James and Dick down to the river. There they cheered again while Dick started across on his way to freedom.”

  As they came into view of a small stone building, Caleb spoke quickly. “This chapel is on Dr. James’s property. He has church here every Sunday. I’ll leave all of you while I find him. If it’s safe, he’ll come get you, and I’ll take care of the horses.”

  The minute they stopped Caleb gave Libby the reins and jumped down to check the little church. In a moment he returned and spoke softly to Jordan’s family. As Caleb stood watch, they wiggled out from under the hay and slipped into the chapel.

  The inside of the small building was dark, but a shaft of moonlight shone through one window. With Rose sleeping in her arms, Jordan’s mother dropped down on a bench and rocked back and forth.