Mandie Collection, The: 8 (28 page)

“I’m willing to go faster, but how about you? This is awfully steep terrain and pretty hard to walk up in some places,” Joe reminded her, straightening up.

Mandie grinned at him and said, “I can make it if you can.” She moved Snowball’s weight from one arm to the other.

“Even with that cat? I know he’s heavy. Why don’t you let me carry him?” he offered.

“I’ll just put him down to walk at the end of his leash in places where the ground is level enough, but, you know, cats can climb, so maybe I’ll just let him trail along and do his own climbing,” Mandie replied.

“Please don’t let him get away. That’s all we need to slow us up,” Joe reminded her.

Mandie knew Snowball had a habit of running away whenever he got a chance, but she was tired of being reminded of it. “If he manages to run away, I’ll go after him. You won’t have to bother with it,” she said as she set the white cat down and held tightly to his leash.

Joe looked at her and frowned but didn’t say anything. He started on up the trail.

Mandie felt sorry for her snappy remark but turned her attention to the cat and proceeded along the way. Snowball was delighted to have the run of the leash and he inspected everything they passed.

There were no trail markings that they could see, only the footprints belonging to Mr. O’Neal, and they reached the top of the mountain quicker than they expected. Dimar was already there, sitting on a stump and waiting for them.

“You must have worked awfully fast,” Mandie said, catching her breath and flopping down on a nearby boulder as she held Snowball’s leash. She looked out over the valley, hoping to see some sign of her other friends, but there was no one else in sight.

“I am more experienced than you and Joe are,” Dimar said with a big smile. “I only found Uncle Ned’s and Sallie’s prints, but they did leave a lot of markings along the way.”

“We didn’t find anything but Mr. O’Neal’s footprints,” Joe told him as he sat down on a fallen log nearby.

“Dimar, this is taking an awfully long time,” Mandie said with a big sigh. “Couldn’t we do something a little faster?”

“It will be faster going downhill than it was coming up,” Dimar
reminded her. “There are two valleys between here and the foot of the mountain, and we will have a better view of our surroundings. But, alas, there are several trails. I hope Uncle Ned, Sallie, and Mr. O’Neal all went down the same pathway.” He stood up and stretched.

“So do I,” Mandie agreed.

“Have you seen any sign of anyone else? Any other prints, that is?” Joe asked. He rose and picked up his rifle.

“Nothing,” Dimar replied.

“So we are probably wasting all this time for nothing,” Mandie said, standing up to tighten her hold on Snowball’s leash as he tugged to run away.

“No, not for nothing,” Dimar told her. “We have to investigate all possibilities until we come to the right one.”

“Dimar, whoever stole those wagons couldn’t possibly bring them up this mountain,” Mandie told him.

“It is possible on certain trails to get a wagon up the mountain if someone knew how to do this,” Dimar replied.

“In other words, it would have to be Cherokee people to figure that out,” Joe said.

“Yes,” Dimar replied. “This mountain is no mystery to the Cherokee people, only to the white people.”

“Then you believe whoever stole the wagons and moved the mica were Cherokee people,” Mandie said, frowning as she thought about this.

“Yes, and Uncle Ned also believes this,” the Indian boy said. “That is why we are searching this mountain. He thinks we will find their trail somewhere near here.”

“I hope we do soon,” Mandie said as the three of them continued on the trail.

Dimar was right. There were valleys now and then and a clear view, but they saw nothing suspicious and didn’t meet up with anyone. Now and then the mountainside seemed to drop straight down, and it was in one of these places that Mandie suddenly slid on loose rock and Snowball managed to get away when the leash slipped out of her hand.

Joe quickly reached to grab Mandie to keep her from falling. “Are you all right?” he asked.

“Yes.” She caught her footing as she saw the white cat disappear into the bushes. “Snowball!” She started after him.

“He will not go far in the bushes before his leash will catch and stop him,” Dimar told her as he and Joe followed.

But Snowball was experienced at this, and he managed to dodge between bushes and disappear. The cat had cut across the mountainside rather than continue on down the trail they were following.

The three pushed their way through the thicket and followed. Mandie was in the lead, and she suddenly stopped and exclaimed, “Here he is, and look at what he has found!” She stood staring into a clearing.

Joe and Dimar quickly came to her side and gasped in surprise. There ahead of them was one of the missing wagons, and Snowball had jumped up into it. The three rushed forward to investigate.

“Whose wagon is this?” Mandie asked as she reached her white cat, whose leash was now tangled up on a hook in the wagon bed. She got it loose and picked up her cat.

“This wagon belongs to Uncle Wirt,” Dimar said, examining the vehicle.

“It doesn’t look wrecked or anything,” Joe remarked.

Mandie gazed around their surroundings and said, “It’s a miracle to me how anyone got it into this space through all those trees.”

Dimar quickly went over to one side and pulled at some bushes, which immediately moved, revealing a hidden pathway. “These bushes are not growing here,” he said. “Someone put them here to block the way.”

Mandie suddenly remembered what they had been doing all this time and asked as she bent to look around, “Are there any footprints here?”

“No, you will not find prints. The thieves made sure to erase all signs,” Dimar replied.

“Well, what are we going to do about this wagon?” Joe asked.

“We will leave it here, since we do not have a way to move it,” Dimar replied. “And we will look for more wagons and people now that we know they have been here.”

Mandie held Snowball, who was trying to get back down into the wagon, and she watched as Dimar shook out a blanket in the wagon bed. Beneath that was a wad of paper that had evidently held food
and the cat smelled it. “Snowball, you are a smart cat,” she said. “You smelled food and led us right to this wagon.”

“But what if there had not been food smells for him to go after?” Joe asked.

“Then we would just chase him until we caught him somewhere,” Mandie replied, holding tightly to her cat.

Dimar examined the ground and decided the best thing to do was keep on the trail they had been following. The thieves had covered their own prints, so the three would continue following Uncle Ned’s, Sallie’s, and Mr. O’Neal’s.

“Just think,” Mandie said as they walked on. “Uncle Ned must have missed that wagon completely because it is off the trail we are following.”

“Perhaps,” Dimar said.

“I hope we soon catch up with them,” Mandie said with a big sigh. “This has been a pokey day.”

CHAPTER TEN

MORE MYSTERY

And it got to be a pokier and pokier day as the three traveled through the mountain. They followed the tracks and markings left by Uncle Ned, Sallie, and Riley O’Neal on several different smaller pathways and then found they looped right back onto the main trail and ended up at the base of the mountain, but not anywhere near where they had started.

“Where are we, Dimar?” Mandie asked, looking around the clearing where they had emerged and holding on to Snowball, who was trying to get down.

“We are near the river,” Dimar replied, stooping to look for tracks.

“The river,” Joe repeated as he watched Dimar.

“The river,” Mandie said, rushing out into the clearing to look around. Suddenly she remembered that she shouldn’t be recklessly walking around and perhaps obliterating tracks. She stood still and called back to Dimar, “I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t ruin any footprints.”

Dimar stood up and smiled at her from a distance as he said, “No, you went the wrong direction. The tracks go this way.” He pointed to his right.

Mandie sighed with relief and came back to join the two boys. She and Joe followed as Dimar expertly traced the footprints. She was
amazed to see that the tracks led straight to the river when it came into view around a bend.

“Down to the river,” Dimar remarked as he led the way, still watching for prints.

The three stood still, staring at the footprints that ended at the riverbank. There were three distinct tracks, belonging to Uncle Ned, Sallie, and Riley O’Neal.

“Well, now what?” Mandie asked, frowning as she looked out over the river.

“There must have been a boat or something here for them to go off on,” Joe remarked.

“Yes,” Dimar agreed. “They left by boat or raft. I don’t think they would have gone swimming out into the water because the current is too swift at this particular place.”

“Oh shucks!” Mandie exclaimed, stomping her foot in the sand. “How do we find them now?” She squinted from the glare of the sunshine on the water.

“We survey the river,” Dimar said. “We follow the water and watch for markings in the river.”

“Markings in the river?” Mandie and Joe both asked at once in surprise.

“Yes, we look for broken twigs on branches that overhang the banks, or anything that is not usual for the river,” the Cherokee boy explained.

“Like particles of mica floating in the water maybe?” Mandie asked.

“That is possible. Something caused Uncle Ned to go out on the river,” Dimar replied. “We also need to find the place where they left the river.”

“Dimar, you are so smart to figure all this out. I would never be able to even start solving this mystery,” Mandie told him with a big smile. She tightened her hold on Snowball as he tried to get free.

Dimar bowed his head and wouldn’t look at Mandie as he said, “We must begin now. This will take time.” He turned to start walking down the bank by the river.

Mandie stayed close behind him and let Snowball down on his leash. Joe followed. They had to walk single file in order to stay close to the river as the banks narrowed to almost nothing in places with trees
and bushes growing to the very edge of the water. Dimar stopped to stoop down and examine the ground now and then, but they found no footprints, no broken twigs or any other markings at the water’s edge where Uncle Ned could have reached out to mark his path from the boat that he, Sallie, and Riley O’Neal had evidently traveled in.

A long time after they began their search along the river, they rounded a bend and Mandie was the first to exclaim, “I see a boat way down there ahead!” She pointed, then snatched up Snowball who was walking at the end of his leash, and started running toward it.

“Yes, that is a canoe,” Dimar agreed and hurried after her.

“But I don’t see anyone in it,” Joe told them as he, too, raced along the riverbank.

Out of breath, Mandie stopped on the high bank and looked down at the canoe tied up below in the water.

“Please, do not move around,” Dimar cautioned Mandie and Joe as he began searching the ground for prints.

“I’m sure I can see flakes of mica in the boat,” Mandie told the boys, pointing to the vessel.

Dimar straightened up to look.

“Yes, so do I,” Joe agreed.

“You are right. That is mica in the canoe, tiny flakes,” the Cherokee boy added.

Mandie looked down at the ground where they were standing. “Dimar, can you see any footprints?” she asked. Snowball meowed angrily in her arms as he tried to escape.

Dimar pointed to the dirt of the bank going down into the river. “There are tracks coming up this way from the canoe. Then they go into the bushes here,” he explained, motioning toward the brush growing nearby. “Now we will follow and see where they go.”

Dimar was able to track the prints through the woods, and Mandie found broken twigs along the way, but since she had to carry Snowball, who didn’t like it at all, she missed a marking now and then, which Joe was quick to show her.

“You missed one,” Joe said with a big grin, pointing to a broken twig.

“Why, Joe, you are getting to be good at this,” Mandie teased back.

“It’s the company I keep,” Joe replied, still grinning.

Soon Dimar led them out of the woods into a clearing. Mandie looked around and was amazed to see Joe’s cart and Ned’s wagon in the distance, and there were Uncle Ned, Sallie, and Riley O’Neal sitting on the grass by the vehicles.

“Look!” Mandie called out excitedly to the boys as she raced toward the others.

Dimar and Joe quickly followed, and the three plopped down on the ground by their friends, out of breath.

“We waited and y’all never came back,” Mandie said, gasping for breath.

“And we tracked you all the way across the mountain, and, mind you, that was quite a job,” Joe told them.

“Canoe all we find. We bring it down here,” Uncle Ned told them.

“Oh, Uncle Ned, we found Uncle Wirt’s wagon,” Mandie told him.

“Actually, Snowball found it,” Joe corrected her.

“Where?” the old man asked.

Mandie explained where the wagon was and said, “You missed it because it was not on the trail that we went.”

“It was covered with bushes,” Dimar added.

Uncle Ned looked at the young Cherokee boy and said, “Tonight, we go get wagon.”

“Yes, we will get it,” Dimar agreed.

“I will go and help,” Riley O’Neal told the old man.

“Yes,” Uncle Ned agreed.

“Where else are we going to look for the other wagons and the mica?” Mandie asked as she held the end of Snowball’s leash while he played in the grass.

“You find wagon in woods. We need look all way in woods there,” Uncle Ned replied. He looked up at the sun now low on the horizon. “Late now. We go when sun rise tomorrow.”

“It’s not really late, Uncle Ned,” Mandie protested. “Couldn’t we look a little more somewhere else today?”

Uncle Ned looked at Joe and asked, “You go home now?”

Joe frowned as he thought about it and replied, “We don’t have to go this very minute, but we do have to be home in time for supper.”