Race for Freedom (12 page)

L
ibby’s heart shivered too. Just hearing about the evil slave trader scared her. “Go on, Jordan,” she said.

“Fast as a cat on a hot tin roof I run for the bushes and gits down behind them. I knows that if Riggs finds me, I sure enough git another beating. When he comes round the corner, my heart pounds out of my chest.” As though feeling the fear again, Jordan’s eyes widened.

“What did you do?” Libby asked.

“I barked.”

“You
barked
?”

Jordan laughed. “Like this.” As though he were the most savage dog on earth, he growled and snarled.

Just listening to him, Libby felt afraid. “If I didn’t see you right in front of me, I wouldn’t believe it was you.”

Jordan grinned. “Riggs was so skeered of my bark that he didn’t go into the barn. When he goes back to the house, I runs away.

“I ain’t got no pass, so I hides behind trees and bushes. I sneaks along in the dark till I finds the free colored man who sells stoves. He take one look at me and said, ‘You shore took a long time in comin’. I is mighty glad you’re here.’

“When I told him my story, he said, ‘You trust that white boy?’

“‘I trusts that boy,’ I said.

“‘Then I need to deliver a stove up that way,’ he said. ‘I take you to him, and if he ain’t there, I know another way.’”

“Through Alton, Illinois?” Caleb asked.

Jordan nodded. “Next morning that stove man hide me in a crate in his wagon. Then he puts in another crate with a great big stove. On the way, men stop us. That stove man said, ‘Here my pass.’ They checked the crate closest to the back end of the wagon. Then they said, ‘Go on, boy. Guess we’re lookin’ for someone else.’

“When no one there, that stove man talk to me. ‘We be goin’ on a ferry now,’ he said once. After we drive and drive and drive, he said, ‘Now we wait for dark.’

“When night comes, he opens my crate. I looks and waits. No houses there, just trees and bushes. The moon and stars shows me where I is. I sees a river so big I knows I is crossin’ into the Promised Land.”

“Across the Mississippi and into the free state of Illinois,” Libby said.

Jordan’s eyes shone with the memory. “When a cloud passes over the moon, a girl comes out of the bushes. ‘You ready?’ I hears her whisper. Then I see a rowboat and two boys. They show me how to lie down in the boat. They put a heavy cloth over me and cover up everything but my face.

“While one boy rowed, another put out a line to fish. ‘We’ll bring you close to a tunnel,’ he said. ‘When we come to shore, you run straight ahead as fast as you can.’

“‘I wants to find the
Christina
,’ I tells them.

“‘The
Christina
?’ That boy sure was surprised. But the other boy said, ‘We’ll bring you where the steamboats take on wood.’

“When we gits close to the shore, those boys cover my face. Soon I feels the boat bump against something. ‘This is Alton,’ one of them said. ‘We’re at a flat rock—a stone wharf. When we lift the cover, step out on the wharf as though you belong here. Walk straight ahead as though you know what you’re doing. When you see a woodpile, look for a tall man with a beard. He’ll tell you what to do.’

“I found that tall man with a beard,” Jordan said simply, as though his story had come to a close. “When I said, ‘The
Christina
,’ he acted like he knew you, Caleb. He hide me between the piles of wood till it was time to go on board.”

“We’re going to get your momma out,” Caleb promised as he had before. “There’s one thing we know from going into Keokuk. Your proud look gives you away.”

“My proud look?” Jordan asked, as if he didn’t know what Caleb meant.

Libby picked up the wanted poster she had torn down. “It’s right here.” Even when Jordan was being sold as a slave, he had reminded Libby of royalty. She read the words describing him:

“Either we have to travel at night, or you have to wear a disguise,” Caleb told Jordan.

“You, too, Caleb,” Libby reminded him. “Slave catchers know you. If you’re recognized, you’ll give Jordan away.”

Caleb ran his fingers through his blond hair, as though trying to think what to do. “First we have to keep you safe, Jordan, no matter what Riggs tries to do.”

“If that man I seen last night was Riggs, why didn’t he grab me then?” Jordan asked.

“Because he’s watching all of us,” Caleb answered. “He wants to know what we’re doing, who we take on, how we do it. When he knows that and how to catch Libby’s pa, Riggs will make his move.”

Libby groaned. “Caleb, how can you say such a terrible thing?”

“Because we have to know what we’re up against. If we don’t, Riggs will catch us for sure.”

Then teasing lit Caleb’s eyes. “It’s all up to you, Libby. You’re the one who eats in the main cabin. Maybe you’ll spot Riggs there.”

Libby felt nervous just thinking about it. Pulling forward a long, strand of hair, she twisted it between her fingers. Soon she had her hair all tangled up, but she didn’t feel any better.

When they stopped in Burlington, Libby saw Caleb hurry down the gangplank and disappear. When he returned, Caleb looked pleased with himself.

Soon after, Libby noticed Caleb and Jordan together. But to Libby, Caleb said only, “Jordan and I have figured out how we can get to where his mother is.”

“What do you mean?” Libby asked.

“You’ll see,” Caleb answered.

During the evening meal, Libby searched for Riggs. The large cabin that served as a dining room stretched from one end of the boat to the other. Captain Norstad sat at the front of the cabin with his officers.

Sitting next to her father, Libby ate with only half her attention on her food. With each forkful she thought about Elsa and how much she would like a meal like this. Taking one table at a time, Libby looked around for Riggs.

Again she passed over the women and the tall men, searching for someone short and slender.
But Riggs could wear padding
, she reminded herself.
He might look heavier
.

As Libby watched, talk about the upcoming race swirled around her.

“What’s the news from Reads Landing?” asked Mr. Bates, the first mate. The busy steamboat stop lay at the foot of Lake Pepin.

“Minnesota Territory has had the worst winter in years,” Captain Norstad answered. “They’ve had four feet of snow on the ground. When the wind picked up, drifts covered houses and barns.”

“And Lake Pepin?” asked Osborne, the chief engineer. Pepin was a widening in the Mississippi River as it flowed between Minnesota Territory and the state of Wisconsin.

“The lake is still frozen over,” Captain Norstad answered. “Every day more boats arrive at Reads Landing. We’ll have a fine race this year.”

Libby glanced around the table. Each man looked eager for the big event that opened the 1857 season. The race through Lake Pepin was exciting. The first steamboat through the ice-filled waters won the honor of first arrival in St. Paul. Yet the race was also dangerous. Every spring some boats were wrecked trying to get through Lake Pepin.

Now Captain Norstad held out the bait—a sizable reward offered by the city of St. Paul. “Whoever wins the race won’t have to pay a cent all season for using their wharf.”

“We’ll do it, all right!” Osborne grinned, as though thinking about all the ways he could pour on steam.

Bates looked just as eager. “If we’re first, we’ll have even more passengers and freight every trip.”

“We’ll reach Reads Landing on time?” That was young Martin, the mud clerk. “Before the ice goes out?”

No one else would even think of asking such a question. Of course they would make it there on time.

“We won’t miss the opening of the season,” Captain Norstad answered, making no mention of the newspapers or the telegraph reports he checked daily. “If all goes well, we’ll be at Reads Landing in two days. My good friend Daniel Smith Harris might already be there.”

“Captain Harris?” young Martin blurted out. “But he’s won the race four years in a row!”

“That doesn’t mean he’ll win the fifth,” Captain Norstad said calmly. “But if he does, he’s still my friend!”

Libby could hardly wait to reach Reads Landing, to see the famous riverboat captains and be part of the race. But right now she had more things on her mind. As she bit into one of Granny’s delicious rolls, Libby turned to see the men at another table. All of them were too tall to be Riggs.

Just then Bates took a large piece of meat, cut off one slice, and left the rest on his plate. Again Libby remembered Elsa. “Please—” Libby spoke before thinking.

When Bates looked up, Libby swallowed her words. Here in the elegant main cabin she couldn’t ask for someone else’s food. But Libby remembered the Meyer family’s celebration.
One herring each. And the one I didn’t eat went back in the bottle
.

Libby stared at each plate. Those potatoes, that piece of meat. On deck the people would fall upon those tasty morsels as a meal fit for a king.

Before long the waiter set down thirteen desserts in a circle around Libby’s plate. Six of the desserts were served in tall, slender glasses. The other seven were pies, puddings, and ice creams. Each dish was for her alone.

Until now Libby would have taken a dainty spoonful from every dish, trying each one. Instead she thought about Elsa. The Meyer family carried a long tube of smoked sausage in their trunk. Libby had watched Mr. Meyer carefully slice off pieces. Last night only a small piece of sausage remained.

I’ll talk to Granny
, Libby decided.

Toward the far end of the cabin, there were tables Libby couldn’t see. The moment Pa gave her permission to leave, Libby leaped up from her chair. Walking slowly, she studied each of the people she had not seen. Suddenly she spied a gold-headed cane.

Ah!
Libby stopped. But the gentleman using it was definitely not Riggs. Libby turned away in disappointment.

Then her keen artist’s eye rested on a man whose back was turned to her. His hair was the right color. The way he sat seemed familiar. As Libby watched, he took a mustache cup from the waiter. Whoever the passenger was, he needed the special cup to hold his mustache above his coffee.

Like a cat creeping up on a mouse, Libby walked closer. When she saw the man’s face, she felt sure.
Riggs!

I’ll follow him!
Libby decided.
I’ll find out where his cabin is. Then Caleb can keep an eye on him
.

Moments later the man looked up. As his gaze met Libby’s, she felt sure of something else.
I can’t stand here watching. He’ll know exactly what I’m doing
.

Slowly she walked away. Outside the main door of the cabin, she stopped and glanced back. The man who looked like Riggs was still watching her.

I’ll sneak around to another door
, Libby decided. But when she reached the door on the side of the cabin, the man was gone!

Libby trembled.
I was so close! In one minute I lost him
!
Again she understood what Jordan meant by a shivery heart.
What if the man truly is Riggs, and he’s setting a trap for Jordan even now?

Trying to push aside her fear, Libby decided she would feel better if she talked to Caleb’s grandmother.

On her way to the kitchen, Libby ran into Caleb. “I saw Riggs!” she exclaimed. “But I lost him! He caught me looking and must have gone out a different door.”

“He was in the dining room?” Caleb asked.

“Using a mustache cup. Is there any reason a man would wear a false mustache if it weren’t a disguise?” Libby asked.

Caleb shrugged. “He might want to see if other people like it. But if he looked like Riggs, I’m going to search this whole deck right away. I can go into places where you can’t.”

Once again Libby headed for the pastry kitchen to find Granny. Samson followed close behind.

Caleb’s grandmother had gray-white hair pulled back and twisted into a knot at the top of her head. Smile wrinkles around her eyes made Granny seem young. She took one look at Samson and said, “You can’t come into my nice, clean kitchen.”