Black Angels (17 page)

“Shh, somethin's in here.” Luke put his eye up to a crack in the wall.

“Let me see!” Caswell said. Luke motioned to Caswell to be silent, putting his own finger up to his mouth. “Can't see nothin, too dark. Have to open the door.” He cracked the door, poised to run if necessary. And then they all let out a whoop, clapping their hands over their mouths when they remembered they had company. There she was, all tied up. Lying on the floor with a rag in her mouth. Betty's eyes were wide with surprise when she saw them. Luke loosened the gag and Betty couldn't help grinning, even though her mouth was swollen and black and blue.

“Shh, be quiet now,” she warned, “and for God's sake, y'all young'uns get me loose!”

Daylily was so glad to see Betty, she almost cried. Caswell was hanging on her neck, and Luke was trying to untie the knots.

“Had me hog-tied!” she whispered, “but you young'uns is here!” Her legs were numb and sore, and she rubbed them fast. “I ain't never been so glad to see somebody in my whole life!”

“Hush, y'all!” warned Luke. “That man gonna hear us!”

“How many of em are in the house, Luke?” Betty loosened the last of the knots herself. She gave them all a hurried hug.

“Just one that I saw, Betty.”

“That don mean nothing,” she whispered. “Could be more. Drunken trash they was. We got to get out of here.”

Betty cracked the door of the shed and motioned silently for them to follow. Just as they got all the way outside, the man in the house came down the steps and into the yard. They all stopped breathing.

But he didn't see them. He was on his way to the outhouse that was on the other side of the shack, and he was fumbling with his overalls. As soon as he had stumbled into the outhouse, Betty said, “Get in the wagon yonder, quick!”

Luke lifted Caswell into the wagon, Daylily scrambled on, and Betty got the horse loose. She leapt into the front seat and flicked the reins hard.

“Giddup!” she said sharply, and they took off flying down the road, faster than lightning. Nobody looked back. They all heard him cussing and shouting at them. Luckily he hadn't taken his gun with him to the outhouse.

CHAPTER 24

SMALLPOX

Back on her land, Betty worked quickly. She turned the wagon around and slapped the horse's haunches. He started off down the road as she hoped he would, and she prayed he'd make his way home so they wouldn't come looking for their horse. She had seriously wounded a man, and now she would be called a horse thief, an occupation not too uncommon in the war. If she got caught as a spy now, she'd be hanged for sure. Still she couldn't help smiling. Don't that just beat all, she thought. Caswell got through! She couldn't believe it; she had to laugh. The little pathfinder made his way back!

“I would have been a dead duck!” she said to the children. “Because I was supposed to meet someone else. They were the wrong men.”

She couldn't take any chances. She thought about those guns and the other “stolen” goods from Union and Confederate sides both. There was no way she could get rid of the evidence fast enough.

As they approached her house, she motioned to all the children to stay back. No need for all of them to get hurt. “Listen,” she whispered, “if anybody in the house, run and hide. Don't try to get help. Betty Strong Foot be OK. Hide till you see them leave, then come home, get food, and go north to Harper's Ferry. Understand? Stay here and watch. Betty Strong Foot be OK.”

Luke looked at the others. They didn't ask any questions. They all knew this was serious business.

She picked up the largest stick she could find. She usually wore a knife under her blouse, but they had taken it away after she'd stabbed that man.

She slowly pushed the door with the stick. It opened silently. Once into the cabin, she could see every corner. She checked behind all the big boxes, and anywhere a person could fit. Something was off. There was a jar of her best homemade blackberry wine on the table. And she could smell it—the scent of something foreign invading her space. “Nobody here,” she told them, and put her fingers to her mouth to signal that they should be quiet.

She motioned them forward. But she still was not sure it was safe. In some mysterious way, it was too quiet. And strangely, Yaller Feet was not there.

Once they were all in, the children looked at her, puzzled because she was still whispering. “Somebody's been here. Be quiet as a mouse,” she said. “I looking outside.” The children froze, afraid to stay and afraid to go with her.

Finally, she found it, outside in the back, and she called into the cabin. “Luke, Luke, come out here! Only don't you come too close!” She was nervous, but not frightened.

Luke crept up to her until she motioned to him to stop. A man was on the ground. “He dead?” Luke asked, hardly daring to breathe.

“No, not yet,” she said, “but he almost gone. See can you help me get him turned over.” They tugged at the unconscious man, who moaned when they turned him. He was White, a soldier; she knew that from his hat, or maybe he had stolen it.

“What ails him, Betty?” Luke asked.

“Don't know. He skin and bones, burnin up with fever. Get me some cool water, Luke, and a rag. Could be something bad, could be something not so bad.” Looked to be Union, Betty thought. She checked his pockets and found a dusty letter with dried blood on it.

“Kin you read, Luke?” Betty was sponging off the man's face with an old rag Luke had found inside. Daylily and Caswell were standing in the cabin too scared to ask what had happened and afraid to call out loud.

“No, ma'am, that's a fact . . . but . . . I guess I can tell it now. Daylily can read some.

“Lookee here, y'all,” called Luke, running into the cabin. “Come see. A soldier most dead and a letter. Miz Betty want you to read this letter to her, Daylily.”

Caswell and Daylily hurried up to Betty. “You don't mind I kin read?” said Daylily.

“Why would I? I'm a Indian, not a White woman. Here, read for me.”

They all looked over Daylily's shoulder while she read, as if they knew what the words said. “It say, ‘To Pri-vate Clar ence Ol-m-stead, Con-fed-derate pr-isoner of war, Eden, North Caro-lina Cole Pitts.' What's ‘Cole Pitts,' Miz Betty?”

“Coal's for burnin,” Betty answered. “Got to dig down underground to get it out. What the letter say?”

“It say, ‘My dear Clar-ence. I'm pray the letter reach you and that you are in soun health in that reb prison. We hear about the sick-nesses that has taken more than three [zero zerozero, I don know what that sum is, y'all] of our boys who would be happier dyin for the cose, but die instead for small-pox.'”

Suddenly Betty knew what it was she was looking at. “Get back in the house!” she said. “Bring me some old rags and drop them by the woodpile. Don't touch nothin in the house till I git there! Now git!”

She had to call on her relations. The ground was telling her things. Broken leaves, dragged dust. Look like he had gone outside for some reason. This Union man, he wasn't one of those who had caught her two days ago. She had never seen his face before. This man looked too sick to do anything but die.

One bad thing followed another, and now another bad thing had to be done. She had to get these children out of here before that scum came back looking for her. There was always that chance, and with smallpox . . . There wasn't any way she could fix it so they could stay.

She made a little pillow with the rags and put it under Olmsted's head. Went to the pump and washed and scrubbed her hands as clean as she could with lemongrass and cold water and then lye soap she kept at the pump. She should have known they could only stay with her for so long, but her heart hurt, knowing what she had to do, hurt for them and for herself.

“Miz Betty!” Daylily called from the house. “We hungry!”

Inside the cabin, she looked at everything real hard. The three children were sitting on the floor waiting for her just like she had told them. “OK, here's what we gotta do,” she said. “First we gotta eat, and then we gotta talk, and then we gotta rest.”

“But Miz Betty,” Caswell said, getting ready to ask the question they were all thinking. “What about the poor sick man? You gonna leave him in the yard like that?”

She took Caswell and set him on her lap. “Come'ere, Gray Wolf. You all need to know. This man's more'n likely got the smallpox, but I ain't sure yet.”

“See,” Luke said to Daylily, “I tole you!”

“Shh, Luke. Just listen. That's terrible bad sickness for him and bad news for us, whatever it is. Cause you guys gotta grow up, and if he gives you the sickness, you might not get to. You might get sick and die. So after we eat, I gonna find somewhere in the woods for you to sleep, and next day you gotta rest, and then you gotta go.”

They all looked like she had slapped them. She hated this. She purely hated it, what she had to do, and all the heart went out of her.

“Go where?” said Caswell.

“Go north like you was before I found you and you found me.”

“We gotta leave you?” Daylily looked like that was the last thing on earth she thought Betty would ever say. “No, I don't wanna. Betty, we can't leave without you, we can't!” Daylily put her arms around Betty and held on tight.

Luke said softly, “She can't help it. We catch that man's sickness we all gon die.”

Tears were brightening Daylily's brown eyes. “But Betty, Miz Betty, what you gon do?” she said.

“Don't you worry bout Miz Betty Strong Foot, Little Bear. Got plenty strong medicine,” she said, beating her chest and making fun of how White men sometimes talked to her, pretending to be brave. But she wasn't, not brave at all. This was harder than being captured.

“But you'll die,” Caswell wailed.

“Betty not gon die!” she said. “Promise. Now stop that and let's get somethin to eat. Some good meat and bread. And then I gotta talk to Luke. I got somethin for him to do.” Everyone looked anxious and scared. “Listen, everything gon work out. You gonna get up north, you gonna grow up and be important people, and you gonna come back here and see Betty someday. I gonna show you a way to get to Harper's Ferry, and you kin get help there, have a place to stay, and find some grown folks to take care of you. I gonna show you which way to go, so don't be scared. And some day y'all gonna be all grown up doin all kinda important things in the world.

“Now listen to Betty. All of you got strong medicine. Caswell is a wolf. A wolf is a teacher; he finds a way, and he can always get back home to the family. Wolf must lead by sharing what he learns. And he teaches other people what he learned. Wolves be loyal and wise.

“And Daylily is a bear. A bear knows things by listenin. Bear goes to the dream lodge and tells us the truth. Bear is a fierce mother for the young.”

Daylily's chin was trembling, but she was trying hard to be brave.

“And Luke,” said Betty, “Luke got powerful eagle medicine. Luke got big courage. He can come through fiery trials. He can fly high and see it all. He knows the whole story, and he talks to the Great Spirit and tells other folks. So you see, you got everything you need. What did I say? If you believe, you ain't never alone. You got a whole passel of angels and spirit animals with you. And you gotta be caring for each other.”

Daylily blew her nose on a handkerchief and straightened her shoulders. She put her arm around Caswell. “We can do it for you, Miz Betty,” she said.

That's all Betty could say to them, and she hoped and prayed they had strength enough to make it without her. “You all gotta promise Betty you gonna be strong, OK?” Caswell nodded, yes. Luke made a fist and said, “OK, OK, Betty, we gon be fine.”

Betty pointed at each one of them. “Cause you a bear, an eagle and a wolf, and that's a fact!” she said. “I saw it in my sleep, and what I see in my sleep I believe!”

 

They ate quickly; in spite of their trouble, they were all hungry, like children almost always are. Every few minutes, Betty would look outside and go around back to where the sick man was. Yaller Feet came stepping back from wherever he had gone. He must have run when the sick man came around. “Checkin up,” she told them. “Got to be on the lookout.”

They had to go rest in the woods on the back side of the house away from the soldier, so she could watch for them. About thirty yards from the house Betty knew there was a small cave. She took the children there and gave them a quilt to lie on, and put another quilt over them to keep the chill away. When she walked away, she felt a big lump in her throat. These my children, she thought. They deserve something more than this.

While they were resting, she put together some food for the road, and water in the canteens. She gave Luke fresh gunpowder in his powder bag, and cleaned his rifle. She made a sling to make it easier for him to carry his rifle, and then she went outside and woke Luke up.

He had dozed off, and she was glad he had been able to get some sleep. They were all tired from their rescue efforts.

“Luke, you gotta wake up,” Betty said, hating to wake him.

He rubbed his eyes. “Huh?” he mumbled. “Yeah?”

“I'm sorry, little Blue Eagle, you gotta do one more piece of business for me before y'all go. You gotta take a message. It's two hours walkin time, where you gotta go. I need you to carry these words in your head, OK? The words are ‘Red is dead. Sunrise on the left.' OK?”

“Red is dead. Sunrise on the left,” Luke said to himself slowly. Then all of a sudden he was fully awake. He knew she was giving him a spy message! He was both thrilled and scared.