Spake As a Dragon (46 page)

“
Snow! You’re missing the
snow. These mountains will have at least two to three feet of snow
on them for another month or so.”

“
Now wait Sam. We don’t
have another month or so, we need to be finding that creek now.
Times a wasting.”

“
William the only way to
get into the mountains this time of the year is with snowshoes, and
yeah, I’ve got some, but traipsing up and down these old mountains
on them things will kill a feller.”

“
Okay, okay, I understand
Sam, but figuring by the map how far do you think it is to that
gold filled creek?”

“
From here I’m saying
about eight or ten miles.”

“
Eight or ten miles, why
Sam that ain’t nothing.”

“
You ever walked in a pair
of snowshoes William?”

“
No!”

“
Then you’re
nothing
is really going to be
something
.”

“
It can’t be that bad,
lets head out in a couple of days after we’ve rested up
some.”

“
William if you think
walkin’ ten miles over these mountains in snowshoes isn’t bad, I’m
here to tell you - you’re
really
gonna need that
rest!”

DEATH AT
PETERSBURG

Back on the eastern side of the Blue
Ridge Mountains Nate is inquiring how much further do they have to
go? Luke answers, “Nate we have been in Virginia for the past
couple of days, I reckon we should be in Petersburg tomorrow and
Richmond is just a hop-skip-and-jump from there. We should be to
our destination a few days later, no more than a week I reckon.
What’s wrong Nate, you’re rump got saddle sores?”

“
Yer darn tooting, my
saddles sores done got saddle sores!”

The following day around mid-morning
Nate turns to Luke, “Yer smell that?”

“
Yeah, we’ve smelled that
many times before, right Nate?”

“
We shore have! Dead
folks! And from the smell there’s plenty of ‘em.”

Luke and Nate are a couple of miles
south of Petersburg, Virginia Luke is going to skirt around the
east side and travel on to Richmond. Neither Luke nor Nate knew
General Ulysses S. Grant had pinned down General Robert E. Lee for
over a year at Petersburg. When the fighting was over more than
11,000 men both Union and Confederates lay dead and dying in the
trenches that the Rebels had dug around the entire city. Lee
slipped out of the siege and retreated westward toward a small
settlement known forever in the pages of history as the meeting
place where General Lee surrendered to General Grant – Appomattox
Courthouse.

As Luke and Nate slowly walk their
horses through the seemingly never ending battlefield both grimace
as they approach a hand sticking out of the dirt, almost as if it
is pointing a gnarled finger at them. Here and there lay the busted
skulls of the fallen and a little farther on they see whole remains
of skeletons that weren’t even given the decency of simple graves.
The stench is almost unbearable, even to seasoned veterans such as
Luke and Nate. Both wrap wet neckerchiefs about their faces in a
feeble attempt to better endure the ghastly smell of rotten flesh.
Neither speaks the remainder of the day as they make their way
around the outside edge of the city of Petersburg. It is almost
nightfall when the two riders finally find themselves traveling
away from the field of battle. Thankfully, a fresh wind from the
north is blowing the stench away from them.

“
Nate, pick us a spot and
we’ll make camp for the night.”

“
If it’s all right with
you Luke, I just soon we keep on riding fer another few miles or
so. I don’t believe I could get much sleep this near that field of
death. Lord have mercy, I knows I can’t eat a bite of
supper!”

Luke did not look at Nate, “Amen to
that!”

GOLD HUNTIN’

“
Okay, sleepy head,” Sam
says punching William. “Get yer rump outta that bed! Today we’re
goin’ gold huntin’. Up and at ’em William.”

Within the hour, the boys begin
walking up the mountain into the Cumberlands. Sam knows in a few
miles they will reach the snow line and the snowshoes slung over
their shoulders will become a necessity.

A few hours later Sam’s prediction
came true. Emerging from a grove of pines they began to walk in
ankle deep snow. An hour later Sam stops, “It’s time
William.”

“
Time for what
Sam?”

“
Them thangs hangin’ off
your back - time to put’em on.”

Sitting on a fallen tree log Sam
quickly laces his snowshoes to his boots, but William, that is
another story. He turns them one-way, then another, “Shucks Sam,
how does a feller put these galldurn things on?”

Just as Sam had laughed the first time
he watched Luke trying to walk in the contraptions tied to his
feet, so it is now with William. William would take a step, or
rather, try to take a step and both his feet would become entangled
and he would fall face down into the snow.

“
No William, I’m telling
you walk like you got a potato stuck up your rump, keep your feet
apart. Forget about normal walking, this is a whole new game for
you. This is snow-walking, come on try again.”

It took William a while, but he
finally got the hang of the things. In fact, Sam was impressed that
he caught on so quickly.

“
All right now Sam,” said
William proudly marching around and around Sam, “which way to the
gold?”

Sam pulled the map from his pocket and
studied it again closely. He explained to William Old Bill wasn’t
much of a mapmaker, but he believed he knew about where the creek
was that contained the gold. William stopped his walking practice
and turned to Sam, “What! You know
‘about’
where the creek
is! ‘
About!
’ Sam there are hundreds and hundreds of square
miles and dozens and dozens of creeks up here, you told me I would
only have to walk in these darn thingamajigs for a few miles. Now
you saying we might have to hike over these mountains for God only
knows how far?”

“
Hold on William, it ain’t
quite that bad. See here,” Sam said pointing to a place on the map,
“this here is what is called Twin Peaks, I think, and this thing
here has got to be Chimney Rock the creek is just on the other
side. William I know exactly where them peaks and that rock
are.”

“
All right! Let’s get
going, I guess you know what you are doin’, at least I hope you
do.”

“
Right William, but you
know I have noticed something strange since we arrived at the snow
line.”

This caught William’s attention. He
wanted to know what Sam saw that was so peculiar. Sam reached down
and scooped up a handful of snow and shaped it into a
snowball.

“
See that,” said
Sam?”

“
Yeah, a snowball,
so?”

Sam explained too much water squeezed
out as he made the snowball. It is too warm for this time of the
year. The snow is melting! He said he had even noticed Kentucky
Lead’s feet, which normally walked on the frozen top of the snow,
were now beginning to sink into the snow as he ran across the
snowfields.

“
Okay, Sam so the snow is
melting. That’s good right?”

“
No, the snow pack farther
up in the mountains where we are headed may be melting
too.”

“
You mean, it’s gonna make
walking in these snow things worse?”

“
No, but William if the
pack is melting early the creeks will be full of running water,
maybe even overflowing their banks. I am hoping the ice in the
creeks will slow the water so we can dig up enough gold for
Matthew.”

“
Come on then, there ain’t
but one way to find out,” William said as he maneuvered his feet
one feeble step at a time up the side of the mountain. “Let’s go
Sam, we’re burning daylight, and Sam do you really know where we’re
goin’?

“
William, I reason the
creek on this map of Old Bills is Indian Creek. This creek runs
into the Cumberland River. I’ve only been there once with Pa, he
used to trap beaver up that way.”

“
How far you reckon
Sam?”

“
Day after tomorrow we
should be close, right now it’s getting’ nigh on sundown. William
we must find us a place to hole up ‘till mornin’ and I know just
the place.”

Two hours later Sam is leading William
down a narrow path to a bluff shelter on the side of the mountain.
“Them Cherokee has been using this rock overhang for hundreds of
years William. Look at the ceiling.”

Looking up to the top of the semi-cave
all William could see was blackened, soot covered rocks with soot
that had accumulated, as Sam said, for hundreds of years. In a
short while they had a nice warm fire burning and a pot of hot
coffee brewing. Leaning back against the back wall Luke asks, “Sam,
what are you gonna do with all the money this gold will bring when
we find it?”

Sam sat there for a minute, pondering
the question without saying a word; he pitched a small stone or two
into the fire and watched the sparks drift toward the ceiling. “You
know Sam, there ain’t nothing I want for myself, but I sure would
like to help your family down in Carolina and of course, we need to
keep Matthew and Mark working on them artificial legs for the
soldiers, then...”

“
Then? Come on Sam what
else?”

“
I would like to help
folks with my money. I think if this gold strike amounts to
anything I want to take a journey to that Dr. Mayo’s home in
Minnesota, you know the one that helped your Pa in the prisoner
camp, and maybe help him start a hospital or maybe even a clinic up
there. In that letter, he sent to your Mama he sounded like a
decent feller. For some reason I just figure he’s gonna do
something great with his life, and I want to be a part of
it.”

“
Well said Sam, can I just
say here and now, sitting in this hole in the side of the mountain,
Sam Barr it is a pleasure to be your friend.”

“
Ah, hush up! Let’s get
some sleep we have a busy day ahead tomorrow, ‘nite
William.”

“
Good night
Sam.”

THE HOSPITAL

Much farther to the east of the
Cumberland Mountains and Kentucky, Luke and Nate are walking their
horses down Main Street of City Point, Virginia. The day was sunny
and cool, not cold for this time of year.

Luke watches the folks walking the
plank sidewalks and if not for the blue Yankee uniforms of most of
the men he would never have believed a dreadful war had just ended.
The ladies stroll with their frilly parasols and large hoop skirts;
some holding their dainty lace handkerchiefs to their lips as
though stifling a laugh at some humorous remark their escorts must
have made. The stores up and down the broad way were open and
customer traffic appeared unusually heavy for a weekday. It was
easy for Luke to see the difference between this northern city just
south of Washington, D.C. and the devastated remains of the Capitol
of the South - Richmond, Virginia that he and Nate passed a few
days earlier.

“
Sir,” Luke says to the
first Union officer he approaches, “We seek the hospital. Would it
be presumptuous of me to think you might know its
location?”

“
Wh..y, wh..y,” the
officer says stuttering, “you’re a Johnny Reb! Why should I provide
you with any information?”

“
You are partially correct
Captain, I was a member of the 48
^th
Alabama Infantry in
the recent un-pleasantries between the states, but the reason I was
presumptuous I figured being a blue-belly you wasn’t smart enough
to know where the hospital was!”

“
Why, why, the Captain
says again, “dismount and I will give you a thrashing that you will
not soon forget.”

Luke could spot a combat veteran a
mile away – he said they all had a look – something he called the
thousand-yard stare. This officer did not have the look. Glaring at
the Captain from his horse, “A beating like we gave you at the
1
^st
and 2
^nd
Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of
Chancellorsville, the Battle of Chickamauga, the Battle of
Fredericksburg, the Battle of...of...oh that’s enough Captain. I
suppose you ‘saw the elephant’ in a number of our engagements,
huh?”

Half apologizing for his service, “I
wanted to serve in the infantry, but at my enlistment upon
graduation from Dartmouth University I was assigned to the
Commissary Department. You as a foot soldier surely know the
importance of supplies. My job was providing these essentials to
our Union men. As you know, our Army is said to travel on its
stomach.”

“
That may have been true
in your Union Army Captain, but if the South had depended on its
stomach, the War would not have lasted the first year. We brethren
of the South traveled and fought simply on bravery, our heart, the
man standing next to us, loyalty to our state and most of the time
our fighting was barefoot and no, not slavery as you think. Most of
us never owned slaves,” turning to Nate, “this man here is free and
has been free for a long time before Abraham Lincoln issued his
proclamation of freedom, he is not my slave, he is my friend.”
Reining his horse to turn Luke touched the brim of his hat, “Good
day to you Sir.”