Miss Katie's Rosewood (21 page)

I
t was an hour or so after Rob had overtaken us. A couple of Mr. Davidson's men had gone on ahead from where we stopped to rest and had discovered the kidnappers where they had camped for the night at Wolf's Cove. The blacks were all huddled together. They could hear humming. Every once in a while the kidnappers yelled at them to shut up. But by now most of the black men suspected what was going on and that they were to be sold. They figured they would not be shot because there was no money for dead men nowadays. Had the kidnappers known what to listen for, they would have heard in the humming a dialogue about whether it was better to be a slave or be dead. The old woman had whispered to one of the men that I was gone. But they didn't know if I had escaped or if one of the men had tried to have his way with me, and they were trying to communicate about what would be the best way for them to escape too, without endangering the women and children. The ship hadn't come yet
.

As soon as the scouts returned with the news, we doused the fire and hurried to the place as quietly as we could. By then I was so tired and sleepy. I had
probably managed only a couple hours of sleep at the two or three places we had stopped to rest over the last day and night. Now that we had caught up with the kidnappers, we had to decide what to do to rescue the people I had been with on the train
.

Mr. Davidson and his men and Rob were all whispering about what to do. The kidnappers were doing exactly the same as when I had been with the group—two of the men were on guard, while the other slept. They would soon herd their captives aboard a ship, and that would be the last these former slaves ever saw of the United States of America!

I had just heard Mr. Davidson say, “If only we could get some of them away without charging in. It would make it less likely that anyone got hurt.”

I had an idea
.

“Mr. Davidson,” I said. “What if I snuck in close and lay down and pretended to be part of the group again, and slowly went to some of the ones who were furthest away from the kidnappers. I could whisper to them to try to crawl away toward the woods when the men were looking the other way.”

“Hmm, it might be a little dangerous,” he said
.

“If they hear me, or come to see what I'm doing, I'll pretend to have just woken up. Most of the people aren't asleep anyway. They'll just think I'm one of the group and tell me to shut up. They might not even have noticed I'm gone.”

“But you'll be placing yourself in danger again.”

“You're going to rescue everyone anyway, aren't you?”

“We certainly hope so! I just don't like to see you at the mercy of those men again.”

“I think it's worth a try,” said Rob, who had been listening. “By the time they realize something's wrong,
we could have half the group with us and safe. We have to get the drop on all three of them at once. If the slightest thing goes wrong, some of these people could get hurt.”

“I see what you mean,” Davidson said, nodding. “And you are the only representative of the law we have here. So I bow to your judgment.”

Rob thought a minute more
.

“All right, let's try it,” he said. “But, Mayme, you must promise that at the very first sign of trouble, you will quietly and carefully get back to us. Do you promise? For Katie's sake, I cannot let anything happen to you.”

“I promise.”

“In the meantime,” said Mr. Davidson, “we'll sneak around so that we're ready to make a move when the time comes.”

“All right, see what you can do, Mayme,” said Rob. “But if you think there is any danger to any of those people, stop at once.”

I nodded. “Mr. Davidson, do any of your men have a blanket?” I asked
.

A few minutes later, with the blanket huddled around me, I crept toward the place where all the people were spread out on the ground, with a campfire at the far end where two of the men were sitting. When I got close where they might be able to see me, I lay down and, like I had before, rolled and inched my way slowly into the group. Then I lay still, tried to listen and see if I could recognize any of the people by the flickering of the light from the fire, then gradually inched my way into their midst
.

The man next to me I remembered as a single man forty or forty-five years old. I thought he would be someone good to try to talk to first. If something went
wrong, it would only be to the two of us
.

I nudged at him gently. When he stirred I got as close as I dared to his face
.

“Shh . . .” I whispered
.

“But what—” he began
.

“Shh . . . don't say anything,” I whispered. “Can you hear me?”

“I reckon,” he whispered
.

Around the rest of the group, the men who were awake were humming and whispering so we could whisper ourselves without being heard
.

“There are some men in the woods behind us who are here to help us.”

“Where'd dey come from?”

“Never mind that. Can you help me try to wake up a few people and get them to the woods? We've got to be real quiet.”

I left him to think about it. I rolled to my opposite side and did the same thing with a single woman I also remembered. She didn't have to be told twice. Within seconds she was crawling away—a little too hastily, I thought! But we were far enough from the fire that they couldn't see us clearly in the darkness and she made it to the woods safely. By then I faintly heard the man I had woken up waking up one of his friends. The next people beside me were a man and his wife. In another minute they were gone too. Then a few feet away I saw the old woman I had sat next to. I nudged at her. When she heard my voice she recognized me immediately
.

“I wondered if you'd come back, dearie,” she said, “or ef dey'd done somethin' to you.”

“Shh . . . stay as quiet as you can,” I said. “There are some men that have come to help us.”

“Praise da Lawd! I knew somebody'd come!” she whispered
.

“Can you crawl over that way?” I said. “They're waiting for you in the woods.”

“I don't know ef I could wiffout dem seein' me. But I feel better jes' knowin' you's back. I'll jes' lay here an' wait. I's be fine. You go help da others.”

She reached out and gave my arm a squeeze, then I crawled on a little further
.

The first man was now humming and mumbling in song so faintly the kidnappers didn't even hear any change in his voice. But around the other group a few more of the men began to look around while they kept up their low singing and gradually word began to spread. The kidnappers probably thought we were all dumb, like cattle being led to slaughter, and though they occasionally yelled at us to quiet down, they weren't really paying much attention
.

The two men on guard must have been sleepy too because some of the people the man and I woke up made a little too much noise when we startled them. And one little girl cried out for a second or two. But neither of the men got up and came looking to see what was going on. Eventually I think twelve or fifteen people made it safely to the woods, maybe even more—I couldn't tell exactly because it was dark. But I was slowly getting closer and closer to the fire, and finally one of the women I tried to wake up who had been sleeping real soundly got so startled she cried out
.

“Hey, what's going on there!” one of the men said. He slowly stood and wandered toward where I was lying. “What are you doing there?”

For a moment I was terrified. Then I remembered that Rob and Mr. Davidson and his men were close by and were probably watching me and waiting for a chance to run in and grab the men. It was probably a stupid thing to do, and I did it without really thinking
how dangerous it might be. But what went through my head was that it might help them if I distracted the men for a few seconds
.

So I stood up
.

“Nothing's going on,” I said. “I just woke up and need to make a visit to the woods.”

I walked straight toward him. “Is it all right?” I said
.

“Who are you?” he said, coming toward me. “I don't remember you.”

“I was on the train with everybody else—” I began, still walking toward him so he would keep looking at me
.

Suddenly from the woods there was running and several men appeared and the man found himself surrounded and grabbed by Mr. Davidson and two of his men. He swore loudly, but they held him so tight, even as big and strong as he was, that there was nothing he could do. At the same time, several other men ran to where the big black man had been sitting by the fire. At the first movement he reached for his gun. But they grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet before he could get to it
.

But they didn't know where the third man was who was still asleep. Neither did I
.

He had woken up as soon as the man who had heard me yelled out. Seeing the commotion and men running out of the woods, he rolled over and grabbed his rifle and swung it around and pointed it right at Mr. Davidson
.

A shot exploded in the night
.

Screams and shouts sounded from those who were still asleep, terrified to wake up to gunfire. With them came a huge yell of pain and terrible swearing. Everybody jumped up and people were running around and yelling in panic and confusion
.

I looked toward where the shot had come from as the echo died away. There stood Rob with his pistol in his hand, about ten feet away from the man he had just shot in the arm
.

Mr. Brannon and several of the black men ran out from the woods and grabbed hold of the wounded man, both to keep him from trying anything else and to bandage his arm to stop the bleeding
.

Rob put away his gun and walked over toward me. I was looking at him with wide eyes of amazement. He was so cool and collected . . . and he'd just shot somebody!

“Are you all right?” he asked
.

“I think so,” I said. “My goodness!” was all I could say
.

The people were scurrying around, still wondering what was going on while the men tied up the three kidnappers and everyone who had been hiding wandered in from the woods
.

Gradually everyone calmed down as they realized they'd been rescued. The children were wide awake by now and chattering away and asking questions. Some of the people were asking Mr. Davidson and his men if they were from the railroad. All I really wanted to do was go to sleep! I was so tired. But I wasn't going to have a chance to do that for a while!

When they had the men tied up and the people calmed down, Rob and Mr. Davidson and Mr. Brannon had to decide what to do with all the people who had been kidnapped by the three men
.

They asked the kidnappers when the ship was coming, but they were surly and belligerent and wouldn't tell them anything and insisted they didn't know anything about a ship
.

It was an hour or two, maybe three, before daybreak. There wasn't much that could be done while it was dark
.

Mr. Davidson talked to the people and told them who he was and what had happened. Most of them now remembered me and came up and talked to me like I was a hero for rescuing them, even though I hadn't really done much
.

Then he told them that we would have to stay there till morning anyway, so they might as well try to get some more sleep, which sounded good to me! I talked to the old lady, who was quickly becoming my friend, for a little while, but it didn't take long for all the excitement to make me sleepier than ever. I lay down near the fire and wrapped the blanket tight around me. People were still murmuring in little groups and the men were talking about what to do. But my eyes were heavy and it wasn't long before I was sound asleep
.