The Mandie Collection (39 page)

Joe joined the girls outside their doorway, and when the young people got downstairs, Morning Star had breakfast ready. Dimar and Uncle Wirt were already in the kitchen.

As Morning Star motioned for everyone to sit down at the table, Riley O'Neal came in through the back door and joined them. After rushing ahead of them downstairs, Snowball was sitting by the iron cookstove washing his face.

There was not much conversation during the meal, since everyone was in a hurry to get on with the search and get it over with.

Uncle Wirt explained how they were to split up and cover the woods on the other side, away from the mountain.

Mandie didn't want to look after Snowball during this search. She asked Uncle Ned, “Will it be all right if I shut Snowball up in the bedroom upstairs while we are gone?”

“Yes, shut up cat,” the old man agreed with a big smile, and then he turned to translate this to his wife.

Morning Star also smiled and said, “Cat up.”

That was a great relief. Mandie would take him upstairs and leave him. Then she realized something else. “Oh, he will need a sandbox if he is left up there all day,” she said.

“I will get a sandbox for Snowball,” Dimar volunteered.

When everyone had finished the meal, Dimar went outside to prepare a sandbox for Snowball. The girls helped Morning Star clear the table and pack a large quantity of biscuits with ham and sausage for their noontime meal, wherever they were at that time.

“Make three,” Uncle Wirt told Sallie. “We go three ways.”

“Yes, sir,” Sallie replied and found three flour sacks, which she filled with food.

Dimar came back inside with a wooden box full of sand. Mandie told him, “I'll get Snowball and take him upstairs now.”

“Food,” Morning Star insisted. “Food.”

“Yes, food and water,” Sallie said, going to the dry sink to fill a tin bowl with water from the buckets of water standing there.

“I'll get the food,” Celia said, reaching down to pick up the bowl of food and causing Snowball to protest.

Mandie picked up the cat and said, “Don't worry, Snowball. We are only moving you upstairs. You can have your food back up there.”

After finally settling her cat in Sallie's bedroom, Mandie waited to be the last one to leave the room so she could be sure the door was closed and Snowball could not get out.

“I suppose we are all ready now,” Mandie remarked as she, Sallie, Dimar, and Celia returned to the kitchen.

Joe grinned at Mandie and said, “I'm glad you packed that cat away so we won't have to go on a search for him, too.” He was holding the rifle Dimar had loaned him the day before.

“I'm beginning to believe it would be much easier to have to hunt for Snowball than it is to hunt for Tsa'ni,” Mandie replied.

Outside in the early morning light, Mandie tried to see whether there were hoof prints in the yard but decided there would be some anyway from all the other horses coming in and out.

They split up into three parties, with Uncle Wirt directing them as to which way each group should go. The young people were all together again, with Riley O'Neal and Dimar to lead them. Several other young men had joined them in the yard and went with the other two parties.

Not having slept very much the night before, Mandie soon grew tired and seemed to be lagging behind everyone else after a couple of hours of walking and searching the bushes in the forest into which their route took them.

Riley O'Neal, bringing up the rear, said loudly to Dimar, who was in the lead, “I believe we should take a short break by that creek up ahead.”

Dimar looked back, smiled, and said, “I agree.”

Riley glanced at Mandie as she turned to look at him, and she smiled in gratitude.

As the group stopped by the creek and sat on fallen logs, Dimar suggested, “Why don't we eat a biscuit now? And then in another two hours we could eat another one and so on. That way we would not have to stay long in one place.”

“Yes,” was chorused by the young people.

As they ate, Mandie asked Dimar, “Do you think we will be searching all day? Or in other words, will this take the whole day just looking for Tsa'ni?”

“Most of the day,” Dimar replied. “It depends on how fast we move along. And also whether the other two groups meet us at the planned place by the river when we get there. They may be slower. Or they could be faster.”

Mandie sighed loudly. “I think Tsa'ni should be locked up or something so he can't run away and waste all our time,” she said.

“Impossible to lock up Tsa'ni,” Riley said. “He can get out of anything.”

“Except the bear trap we found him in one time before,” Joe added.

“When will his father return from Asheville?” Mandie asked.

“Any time now,” Dimar said.

“I believe Tsa'ni followed his father to Asheville,” Sallie said, finishing her ham biscuit.

“Then I hope his father punishes him good,” Celia said.

“He will, but it doesn't do much good,” Riley said, drinking water from a cup he had filled in the spring nearby.

“I still think if everyone just ignored him and did not go on these searches for him, he would quit running away so much,” Mandie replied. “And we need to be thinking about that and figuring what can be done.”

“Yes, his grandfather, Mr. Wirt, has been saying the same thing,” Dimar said, rising to pick up his rifle. “Now we go on so maybe it will not take all day.” He smiled at Mandie.

Mandie hoped it would not take all day. She had decided that
after today's search she would drop out and go to visit her Cherokee kinpeople over at Bird-town.

Much later in the day the three groups met at the river. Nothing had been found that might even lead to Tsa'ni. Mandie listened as the adults discussed what they had been doing on these searches. She could tell that Uncle Ned was tired and losing interest in finding Tsa'ni.

“We go home now,” the old man said. “No more search today.”

Then Uncle Wirt surprised them all as he added, “No more search at all.”

The young people sighed with relief.

“We go home now,” Uncle Ned told the group. “Eat.”

Even though Morning Star was with them again on this search, Mandie knew supper wouldn't take long to prepare. The old woman had left a stew cooking in the iron kettle hanging in the fireplace. And the thought of food gave Mandie another reason to want to get back to Uncle Ned's house.

The journey back didn't take as long as the search because now the group did not even pause to investigate anything. They hurried right on behind Uncle Ned and Uncle Wirt.

Once they reached Uncle Ned's house, everyone sat down in the kitchen, waiting to eat. The girls helped Morning Star serve the food, and soon everyone was eating heartily.

“Cat,” Morning Star said to Mandie from the end of the table.

“Yes, I'll get Snowball down for his supper in a few minutes,” Mandie replied, eating the beef stew on her plate.

As soon as everyone finished and sat back with a cup of coffee, Mandie decided it was time to go upstairs and get Snowball.

“I'll be right back,” Mandie told her friends as she rose from the table. “I'm going to get Snowball.”

She hurried upstairs to Sallie's room and opened the door, which was still tightly shut. “Snowball, where are you? Come on. Let's eat,” she called to the cat as she looked around the room.

“Snowball, where are you?” Mandie asked, becoming anxious now since there was no sign of the white cat.

Quickly looking under the beds and in every nook and cranny in
the room, she felt a sinking sensation. Snowball was missing. He was not in Sallie's room. How did he get out? The door had been closed.

Mandie hurried over to the room Joe was using and searched it, but no cat was found.

She felt like crying, but then, crying would not help. She took deep breaths and hurried back downstairs to report the missing cat.

CHAPTER SEVEN

ESCAPADE IN THE DARK

Mandie hurried back into the kitchen, shouting loudly, “Snowball is gone! He's not in Sallie's room!” She stopped to stand by the table, where everyone was still sitting.

“Are you sure?” Joe asked, getting up from his chair.

“Didn't you close the door to my room when you put him in there?” Sallie asked.

“Oh, Mandie!” Celia exclaimed.

Uncle Ned cleared his throat and said loudly, “We find white cat.” He spoke rapidly in the Cherokee language to Morning Star, who was puzzled by the excitement.

Morning Star quickly got up to come and put an arm around Mandie. “Cat be back,” she said.

Mandie was embarrassed to find tears coming into her blue eyes, and she quickly turned to hug the old woman.

“I will help you look for him,” Dimar said.

Riley O'Neal stood up and said, “Let's look for that white cat now before it gets dark.”

Everyone agreed. Uncle Ned and Morning Star began searching the inside of the house. The others went outside.

“Don't forget to look up in all the trees. Snowball likes to climb trees,” Mandie told them.

“Did he eat the food we put in the room?” Sallie asked.

Mandie thought for a moment and said, “I don't remember for sure, but I don't believe he ate any of it. As far as I remember, it was still there in the bowl.”

“Then that means that cat got out a long time ago,” Joe said. “That cat likes to eat, and all of the food would have been gone if he had stayed in the room very long.”

Mandie thought about that and agreed, “Yes, he must have been out for a long time.”

Riley O'Neal had taken over the search outdoors. “All right, now, let's go. You young ladies begin searching around the house and yard. The rest of us will fan out into the fields and woods.”

Uncle Wirt, Joe, and Dimar followed him down the trail to the fields.

Mandie led the way, running as she searched behind every bush and looked up into every tree. She called loudly, “Snowball! Snowball, where are you? Snowball!”

They finally covered the yard and hurried out to follow Riley and his group. Joe and Riley had sticks with which they hit the bushes and the undergrowth. They finally all ended up by the creek on the other side of the cornfield and stopped to discuss possibilities.

“It is getting dark and we didn't bring any lanterns, so we must return to the house now,” Riley O'Neal told them.

“Couldn't we go back and get lanterns and keep on going from here?” Mandie anxiously asked.

“Let's make that decision when we get back to the house,” Riley replied.

“Maybe Uncle Ned and Morning Star have found him by now,” Joe suggested as they started back toward the house.

“I don't understand how he got out of Sallie's room. I am positive we closed the door. It was still closed, so someone had to have let him out,” Mandie said as she walked by Joe, Sallie, Celia, and Dimar.

“That cat has been missing before, and I don't believe we ever found him. He always came back on his own,” Joe reminded her. “And if someone did let him out, they are long gone now.”

“But who let him out? We were all gone,” Mandie reminded him.

“Maybe someone we know came to see us and found no one home and went upstairs looking for us,” Sallie suggested.

Mandie thought about that idea for a minute and then said, “No one ever locks their door around here, do they?”

“No one has ever had a key that I know of,” Dimar said.

When they arrived back at the house, Uncle Ned and Morning Star had not found anyone around or a clue as to how Snowball got out.

“Must go home,” Uncle Wirt said. “Back tomorrow.”

“I must go home, also. My mother will be worried if I am late,” Dimar said.

“We search tomorrow,” Uncle Ned told Mandie. “Maybe white cat come home tonight.”

Mandie was so worried about her cat that she would have liked to go back outside by herself and search some more, but she knew Uncle Ned would never allow it.

“Oh, where could Snowball be?” Mandie said, sitting in a chair in the kitchen as Riley, Dimar, and Uncle Wirt all said good-night and left.

“I'm sorry, Mandie,” Celia said, sitting next to her.

Joe and Sallie pulled chairs up and sat down. Morning Star had cleared the table, but now she brought out a large pecan pie and told them, “Eat.”

The young people quickly turned around to the table as Morning Star went to get the coffeepot on the stove. Sallie got cups, plates, and forks from the cabinet and set them on the table.

“My grandmother believes food is a cure for all worries,” Sallie told them, smiling as Morning Star began filling the cups with coffee.

“Food certainly helps,” Joe agreed.

Sallie cut the pie, put slices on the plates, and passed them around.

Mandie took a bite of pie from her plate and washed it down with a sip of coffee and then decided she was not hungry. She fiddled with the pie while her friends hastily ate, until suddenly Morning Star said very loudly, “Eat,” and looked directly at Mandie.

Uncle Ned, sitting at the far end of the long table, heard this and echoed, “Eat.” He frowned at Mandie. “Sin to waste food.”

“Yes, sir,” Mandie quickly replied, picking up her fork and cramming the pie down with swallows of the strong black coffee.

Too many things were happening, she was thinking. The quilt disappeared, and now her cat had also disappeared. And of course Tsa'ni was also not to be found, but who cared about that? The Indian boy did not like white people and was probably causing all this trouble to get even with someone.

Someone had to have taken the quilt, but who? Someone who knew their way around in Uncle Ned's house and who knew Mandie had brought it with her. She had not told anyone about it, but maybe someone saw it when Joe brought the valise containing the quilt into Uncle Ned's house.