The Mandie Collection (22 page)

Mandie nodded. “That's right. How is Tsa'ni today?”

“Not good. But, go—see,” she said, directing the four over to the bed.

Tsa'ni stared but did not speak.

“We came to see how you are,” Mandie spoke cheerfully.

There was no answer.

“What did Dr. Carnes tell you about your injuries?” she asked.

Tsa'ni seemed determined not to speak.

“You could at least answer,” Dimar told him. “You are being rude.”

Tsa'ni took a deep breath. “Why should I speak to the white girl? White people! They are always causing trouble for the Cherokee!”

“No one caused trouble for you, Tsa'ni,” Dimar retorted. “What happened to you was your own fault. And you
were
rescued because Mandie cared about what happened to you.”

“The white people come here poking into the Cherokees' affairs,” Tsa'ni said. “I do not want to see any more white people!” He turned his face toward the wall.

“You are a very narrow-minded person, Tsa'ni,” Mandie told him.

“Tsa'ni, if you had not been trying to find the gold first, you would not have been injured,” the Indian girl said.

“Go away! I do not wish to communicate with white people! I do not wish to have any company!” He still kept his face turned away from them.

Joe was filled with anger. “You may not wish to communicate with white people, but you must admit you tried to get the gold which we found first.”

“The gold belongs to the Cherokees, not the white people!” Tsa'ni turned to glare at Joe.

“We found it and we will do what we please with it!” Joe insisted.

“Do not be too sure about that! Now, get out!” Tsa'ni yelled, flushed with anger.

The four backed off to leave. They stopped to say good-bye to his mother who had been watching the whole scene.

As they walked back through the yards to Uncle Ned's house, Mandie asked, “I wonder what he meant when he said we shouldn't be too sure about doing what we please with the gold?”

“Just talking,” said Joe. “He wants to frighten us away from it.”

“He could have told someone else about the gold,” Sallie suggested.

“Yes, and they could be looking for it right now,” Dimar added.

“I hope not,” Mandie said. “You all heard what Uncle John said could be done with the gold, and I sure hope the wrong people don't get it.”

They all felt their plans were strangely threatened. Mandie hated Tsa'ni more that ever in spite of her intentions to forget the wrongs he had done them. He was such a revengeful person. How could anyone like him?

CHAPTER NINE

TSALI'S MESSAGE

Uncle Ned and Uncle John were back from Bryson City in time for the noontime meal. As they all sat around the table, they discussed their journey.

“Did you get the piece to fix the wagon?” Mandie asked before anyone had eaten a bite.

“Yes, as soon as we finish eating, we'll get it back in working order, and tomorrow we'll go back to the cave,” Uncle John told her.

The four looked at one another and smiled.

“Eat,” Uncle Ned commanded.

“Yes, sir, Uncle Ned,” Mandie replied, picking up her fork, and starting on the beans. The other three followed suit.

Elizabeth turned to John. “Did you talk to anyone about those two people up in the mountain?”

“The old man and woman? Yes, we told everything we knew about them. There will be men scouting the mountain looking for a still in a few days,” he said.

“We went to see Tsa'ni and he was rude to us,” Mandie said. She related the conversation between them. Uncle Ned listened closely.

“Tsa'ni bad Cherokee,” he mumbled. “Up to no good.”

“Bad,” echoed Morning Star.

“Well, there's nothing he can do if he can't get about,” Uncle John told them.

“I don't trust him at all,” Joe said. “I think if he
could
walk, he wouldn't let us know it.”

“Joe!” Elizabeth admonished him.

“Sorry, Mrs. Shaw, but I don't trust him,” Joe told her.

“I don't either, Mother,” Mandie said. She had decided to give up believing the Indian boy.

“I cannot trust him either,” Sallie added.

“Neither can I,” Dimar joined in.

“Well, in that case, maybe there
is
some reason not to trust him,” Elizabeth replied.

“Reason—Tsa'ni bad,” the old Indian repeated.

“Oh, Uncle Ned, you've been saying Tsa'ni is bad ever since we got here. How about telling me why you say that?” John asked Ned.

“Leave Papoose with panther. Try to steal gold. No bring things to Bird-town,” the old man explained. He took a deep breath. “Now he make bad talk to Papoose.”

“The Bible says repay evil with good, remember, Uncle Ned?” John reminded him.

“Big Book not say Tsa'ni can be bad Indian,” the old Indian muttered.

Everyone smiled.

Mandie couldn't understand why one should keep on doing good to a person who kept on doing bad things in return. She was quite exasperated and was losing her determination to be kind. Then she remembered her father had taught her to pray for her enemies, so she decided she would start praying for Tsa'ni. In the meantime, she hoped he would recover from his accident—but not in time to beat them to the gold!

Uncle Wirt went with them the next morning to the cave. He was still angry with his grandson and would not talk about him. He had gone on to his house in Bird-town the day before and had not seen Tsa'ni since.

After arriving inside the cave, Sallie led them straight to the cavern where they had seen the gold.

“Here is the place,” she told them, pointing to the pile of rocks along the far wall.

Mandie agreed. “Yes, this is it.”

“Well, let's start digging,” Joe said, pushing up his sleeves.

With the three men to help them, it didn't take long to move the piles. Elizabeth watched from a safe distance as they threw the rocks behind them out of the way. Sallie found the first nugget.

“Gold,” she said, handing the nugget to Uncle Ned who was working beside her.

He turned it over in his hand, didn't say a word and passed it on to John. The others crowded around.

“The real thing,” John Shaw said. “Let's see how much we can find.”

Mandie and Joe were moving the rocks at the bottom of the pile when she stooped and squealed. “Here it is! All of it!” They had uncovered the gold they had found before.

“At last!” Joe gasped.

The men bent to inspect the gold.

“You were right, Mandie. It is about a bushel,” her uncle told her. “Now let's get it into these sacks and get out of here.”

Everyone was stuffing the sacks with the gold when Sallie, cleaning off the floor under one end of the pile, called out, “Look! Writing!” She was pointing to the wall of the cave behind the rocks.

The group gathered to see what she had found. They all worked to clean the wall and the rest of the writing. Soon large Indian sign language appeared and also some words in English.

Sallie bent close to read it. “This gold left here for good of Cherokee after white man makes peace. This gold belongs to us who are hiding here to save our lives. Curse on the white man who takes it. Tsali.” She gasped as she finished the words.

All were speechless as they stared at the crude letters on the stone wall.

Joe turned to Ned. “Could it really have been Tsali who wrote this message and left the gold?”

The old Indian nodded. “His name.” He pointed to the symbol under the English “Tsali.”

“He did not forget his people,” Dimar said very solemnly. “He gave his life and left them a fortune.”

“After all these years!” Mandie exclaimed. “And to think we were the ones who discovered it!”

“Someone else must have written the message for him,” Uncle John said.

“Probably the white man, William H. Thomas, who came to ask him to surrender to save his people,” Sallie added. “He was the trusted friend of the Cherokee people.”

“Of course,” Uncle John agreed.

“Would it be possible to take the message, too, with the gold?” Mandie asked.

“You don't mean that?” Joe laughed. “That's a stone wall.”

“I just don't know. I suppose we could get somebody to look at it to see if the piece of stone could be chiseled out,” Uncle John suggested.

Elizabeth asked, “Wouldn't it be better to leave it here for history's sake?”

“Well—” began John.

“On, no, Mother,” Mandie protested. “You see, the wall caved in on us when we climbed through the hole we dug, and sooner or later rockslides will completely cover it again and maybe even break it up. Besides, we don't want to spread word about the gold yet, do we?”

“You're right,” her uncle said. “We'll see about getting it chiseled out.”

“We take message out,” Uncle Ned told them.

Wirt nodded.

“Please, could I help?” Dimar asked.

Uncle Ned nodded. “Strong brave.”

“Let's hurry,” Uncle John said, bending to help fill the sacks. “We want to get back before sundown. Uncle Ned, you and Uncle Wirt can come back whenever you get ready and see what you can do about cutting out the message.”

Carefully sorting through the rocks to be sure they got it all, they finally finished filling the sacks and carried them to the wagon. It was time-consuming and back-breaking work, but it seemed worth the effort. With all this gold the Cherokees could accomplish a lot.

As they prepared to return to Uncle Ned's cabin, Uncle John warned them, “It's better that we don't discuss this with anyone outside our little group here until we can come to some decision as to how to give this gold to the Cherokee people.”

Uncle Ned looked fiercely at the others. “No talk!”

Uncle Wirt added, “No talk.”

The others agreed. Some plan would have to be made for distributing the gold to the Indians, and until something was finalized, it would be safer not to let anyone else know about what they had found.

It was dark when they arrived at Uncle Ned's cabin. Morning Star had the table set with food to greet them. They hurriedly unloaded the gold in the barn and covered it with hay.

“Should be safe here until we can decide something further,” Uncle John said as they shut the door. He took the nail hanging on a leather strap and dropped it into the hook, the only way there was to secure the door.

They were all happy as they walked toward the cabin, not realizing they were being watched in the darkness.

CHAPTER TEN

THIEVES IN THE NIGHT

The four young people were talkative and restless long after they had gone to bed. Snowball sensed their mood and bounced around between them. There was a small window next to Mandie's bed, and she and Sallie kept peering out at the barn.

“Just think what's in the barn!” Mandie exclaimed.

“Yes, and think of how much fun it will be giving it to the Cherokees,” Joe called over the dividing wall.

“It is such a dark night. If the moon were only shining, we could see the barn more clearly,” the Indian girl said.

“I do not think we need to stay up all night watching the barn,” Dimar said from the small room he occupied with Joe.

Sallie tensed up suddenly. “Mandie! Look! Is that someone out there?”

Mandie pressed her face against the windowpane. “Where, Sallie?”

“At the corner. There!” Sallie poked at the window.

“I can't see anyone, Sallie,” Mandie was getting excited.

“Oh, I suppose it was just my imagination,” Sallie admitted. “We should go to sleep.”

“I can't believe those girls,” Joe sighed.

“Hey, wait, I see a light! Look!” Mandie shouted.

The two girls stared hard into the darkness. Then gradually the light grew stronger.

“It's a fire! The barn is on fire!” Mandie screamed. She ran to the ladder and screamed again. “Uncle Ned, Uncle John, the barn is on fire!”

Dimar and Joe hastily pulled on their trousers and ran to see. They took one look through the window and flew down the ladder. The girls, pulling their dresses on over their heads, followed, Snowball close behind.

Uncle Ned and Uncle John were already out the door by the time the boys' feet hit the floor. Elizabeth and Morning Star were getting dressed.

“Bell!” shouted Uncle Ned to Dimar as he ran. The boy understood and ran to the huge iron bell hanging in the tree and pulled the rope. The clapper sent out a loud gong and in seconds neighboring Indians began appearing from all directions carrying water buckets.

“Oh, please, dear God, don't let it burn up,” Mandie prayed as she was held back by her mother.

There were so many men fighting the fire that it was soon extinguished with little damage done, thanks to the girls who had seen it start. Uncle Wirt had gone to his son's house for the night, and he was among the fire fighters who had answered the call of the bell.

The volunteers all went home and Uncle Ned, Uncle Wirt, and Uncle John stood surveying the damage.

“Thank goodness we caught it in time,” John said. “That was deliberately set. I just hope whoever it was doesn't come back tonight.”

“I will guard the barn,” Dimar offered as he stepped forward. “I will stay out here.”

Joe, not to be outdone, spoke up, “I'll help you. One of us can sleep inside while the other one watches and then we can switch.”

So it was agreed. The boys stood watch for the rest of the night. The girls, more restless than ever, kept watching at the window.

“Who do you suppose set that fire?” Mandie asked as they lay by the window.

“I do not know,” the Indian girl said. “But whoever it was I wish we could catch him.”

“I have a feeling whoever did it knew about the gold,” Mandie said.