The Mandie Collection

MANDIE

AND THE

MEDICINE MAN

For My Mother,

Bessie A. Wilson Leppard,

and

In Memory of Her Sister,

Lillie Margaret Ann Wilson Frady, Orphans of North Carolina

Who Outgrew the Sufferings of Childhood

CONTENTS

MANDIE AND THE MEDICINE MAN

Chapter   1  Off for the Holidays

Chapter   2  Home Again!

Chapter   3  Visit With Uncle Ned

Chapter   4  The Torn-Down Hospital

Chapter   5  Joe Disappears

Chapter   6  The Search

Chapter   7  Cherokee Powwow

Chapter   8  Trouble for Mandie and Sallie

Chapter   9  Tsa'ni Tells a Lie

Chapter 10  Snowball Helps

Chapter 11  Rescue

Chapter 12  Captured!

Chapter 13  Tomorrow

With love to all those wonderful readers
who have written to me, including:

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,

the evidence of things not seen.”

Hebrews 11:1

CHAPTER ONE

OFF FOR THE HOLIDAYS

“I wish you could come home with me,” Mandie told Celia as they packed their trunks.

All the students at Misses Heathwood's School for Girls in Asheville, North Carolina, were getting ready to leave for their first holidays of the school year.

“I wanted you to go to Charleston with us.” Mandie's blue eyes sparkled. “I can't wait to see the ocean!”

“Mandie, you know I'm torn between this wonderful trip you have planned and going home to see my mother,” Celia answered. She folded a dress and laid it in the open trunk. “It would be nice if I could do both, but I can't. You know I haven't seen my mother since I came to school here. I've just got to go home.”

Mandie straightened up from the trunk she was packing and studied her friend with the sad green eyes and thick, curly auburn hair. “I know,” she agreed. “That's what you should do. This will be a short holiday anyway. Just one week. Maybe you can come home with me for Thanksgiving. We'll get two whole weeks then.”

“I'll see,” Celia replied. “My Aunt Rebecca should be here pretty soon. She'll spend the night here at the school, and we'll leave tomorrow morning to go home to Richmond. It'll be good to get home again, see my mother, and the horses, and my dog, Prickles.”

“I'm glad my mother took Snowball home with her when she and Uncle John were here last week. It has been nice having my kitten right here in town at my grandmother's house. But since Grandmother is going away on a long trip, Snowball wouldn't be able to stay there any longer,” Mandie said.

“When do you leave?” Celia asked.

“Mother and Uncle John ought to be here early tomorrow morning, and then we'll leave on the train,” Mandie replied. “We'll spend tomorrow night at home in Franklin, and then the next day we'll start out for Charleston. I'm so glad Tommy Patton's parents invited us to his home there. I can't believe that the time has finally come to go.”

Suddenly there was a knock at the door of their room. When Mandie opened the door, Aunt Phoebe, the old Negro who worked for the school, was standing there.

“Missy, Miz Hope want you down to de office,” the black woman told Mandie.

“Miss Hope? Oh, goodness! What have I done now?” Mandie gasped, dropping the skirt she held. “Aunt Phoebe, what does she want?”

“Don't you be gittin' all flustered, Missy,” said Aunt Phoebe. “Miz Hope, she don't seem upset 'tall. De doctuh man, he be in huh office.”

“Dr. Woodard? He's in Miss Hope's office? Goodness, I'd better go see what she wants!” Mandie exclaimed.

As Mandie ran out the door, Celia called to her. “Hurry back and tell me what's going on.”

Mandie quickly made her way to Miss Hope's office on the main floor. The door was open. Dr. Woodard sat in front of Miss Hope's desk. Miss Hope, smoothing back a stray lock of faded auburn hair, smiled at Mandie as she entered.

“Dr. Woodard, is anything wrong?” Mandie asked anxiously.

“No, no, Amanda. Nothing serious,” Miss Hope told her quietly. “Sit down for a minute.”

Mandie sat in the other chair and looked from Miss Hope to the doctor.

Dr. Woodard cleared his throat. “Amanda, your mother and your Uncle John will not be coming for you tomorrow—” he began.

“Not coming for me?” Mandie broke in quickly.

“No. You see, I had to come here to Asheville to see some patients and will be going home myself on the train tomorrow,” the doctor explained, “so you're to go back with me to Franklin.”

“Oh, that's great! I was afraid something was wrong,” Mandie responded, a smile lighting up her blue eyes.

“Well, there is a little change in plans,” the doctor said slowly. “You see, you probably won't be going on to Charleston the next day.”

Tears filled Mandie's eyes. “We aren't going to Charleston, Dr. Woodard? Why not? Tommy's family is expecting us.”

“Amanda, please let Dr. Woodard explain without any more interruptions,” Miss Hope reprimanded her.

“I'm sorry, Miss Hope, Dr. Woodard,” Mandie apologized.

Dr. Woodard looked at her with concern. “We're having some trouble at the hospital,” he said.

“Oh, no!” Mandie gasped.

“Someone is tearing down the walls of the hospital as fast as they're being put up,” the doctor explained. “So far, we have no idea who would do such a thing, but I told your Uncle John you'd want to come and help solve the mystery, isn't that right?”

“Well, yes, Dr. Woodard.” Mandie hesitated. “But I would like to go to Charleston, too.”

“Your Uncle John said that as soon as this matter is cleared up, you will all go on to Charleston as planned. Maybe it won't take long. We've already put guards around the place,” he said.

Miss Hope sat forward. “This is the hospital for the Cherokees that is being built with the gold you and your friends found in a cave, isn't it, Amanda?” she asked.

“Yes, ma'am,” Mandie replied. “The great Cherokee warrior, Tsali, left the gold in a cave. After we found the gold, the Cherokees refused to have anything to do with it. They said it would cause bad luck. So they put me in charge of the gold, asking me to use it for whatever I saw fit. I knew they needed a hospital, so we're building one for them.”

“That is a big job for a twelve-year-old girl, but it's a sensible thing for you to do, Amanda,” the school-mistress told her. “I do hope you get all this straightened out.”

“I hope it won't take long.” Amanda looked at Dr. Woodard, pleading. “I want to go to Charleston. I've never seen the ocean, and I've been so excited about this trip,” she said.

“We'll all pitch in, Amanda,” Dr. Woodard promised. “The Cherokees will help us solve this thing, and I'm sure you'll get to Charleston.” He stood and patted her blonde head. “Just be sure you're ready when I call for you tomorrow morning so we can make the train on time.”

“I'll be ready.” Mandie got up and hurried to the door. “I'd better finish my packing. See you in the morning, Dr. Woodard.”

Racing up the steps to the room she shared with Celia Hamilton on the third floor, Mandie burst through the door. Celia stopped packing and looked up.

“I'm going home with Dr. Woodard tomorrow,” Mandie told her friend. “Somebody is tearing down the Cherokees' hospital as fast as it's being built. I have to go home and stop them.”