The Grave Robber's Secret (16 page)

“Yes,” Robby said softly.

“Doc would be glad if you stayed here. You could let in the resurrection men and give them their money. That way, Doc could go to his own bed at night. You could do that, couldn't you? Seeing the bodies brought in wouldn't be too much for you to stand?”

“No,” said Robby, “that doesn't bother me now.” Then the small room was quiet. For a long time, no sleep came to him. He lay awake listening to Lij snore and smelling the strong cleaning substance used in the school. Finally, after what seemed like hours and hours, sleep came and blocked out the pain.

In the morning, Lij woke him. “Get up, lad. I've got some bread for ye and a bit of sausage.” For a second Robby couldn't remember where he was, but he sat up and rubbed his eyes. Lij put a saucer on the tiny table. “Got to get to work now,” he said, and he shuffled out.

The food filled Robby's stomach, and gratitude to Lij and Dr. Bell filled his heart. Robby would give Lij part of his money from Dr. Bell for food. He looked about the room. Yes, he could live here.

He wandered out into the hall. The big clock said eight thirty. His mother would meet his father in an hour and a half. He looked at his hands, surprised that they were not shaking. He felt shaky inside, far too nervous to work. He would walk. Maybe he would go to the square to see how the gallows had progressed. Why should he do that? Hadn't it made him sick to see the structure the day before? Still, once outside, he found himself heading in that direction.

There it was. A rope now dangled over a trapdoor that hung open. People stood about in small groups. Robby stopped walking and sank down at the base of a tree. A family sat on the other side, a mother, a father, and two boys. He noticed a basket, covered with a cloth. Was there food in there? Had that family come to have a picnic and see Burke hang? His whole body felt shaky, and he reached out to hold the tree for help in pulling himself up. Whirling away, he almost bumped into a lady selling oysters. “I'm sorry,” he muttered.

“Buy yourself some oysters, lad,” she said. “You'll want to have something to eat while you watch him swing.”

Robby shook his head. The woman leaned closer to him. “Don't go drifting off and lose your good view. Crowd going to be big way before ten.”

“Is that when it happens, ten?”

“So they say, boy.” She laughed. “Ain't it a hoot? They'll give his body to the doctors to cut up, just like the poor souls he murdered. Oysters, oysters, roasted oysters.” She walked on.

Robby stood still, but his mind raced. They would hang Burke at the same time they let Da out of jail. A voice from the other side of the tree broke into his thoughts. “Which one are they hanging, Papa? Is it Burke or Hare?”

“Burke,” said the man. “Hare got off by talking about Burke.”

“Tell us the story again about what they done.”

Robby moved away quickly. Ten o'clock would be here soon. His mother and father would be leaving the city. He knew what he had to do. He started to run, dodging people, once narrowly missing being hit by a rider on horseback.

His mother sat on the low stone wall that separated the jail from the street. She wore the black lace shawl. Two white bags, obviously stuffed with belongings, rested at her feet. A small gasp escaped from Robby. The body bag! Ma had cut the bag in two and sewed up a second bag. For a moment Robby did not move. Then Da, or at least a thin man who resembled Da, came through the door, and Ma stood.

“Wait,” Robby called, and his parents turned toward him.

“God be praised!” Ma shouted. “I knew you'd come.”

“You've forgiven your old da, ain't you, Robby, me boy?” Roger Hare held out his arms.

Robby stood still and folded his arms across his chest. “I don't know, Da. I don't know if I can forgive you or not.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Anyway, that's not why I came.” He stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out the money from Bran. “Here,” he said, “take this. I don't need it as much as you do.”

“Come with us, son, please.” His mother reached out to take his arm, but he stepped away from her.

“I can't, Ma. Just take the money. When you get where you're going, maybe you can find someone to write me a letter at the medical school.” It was his father who reached for the money, and for a second Robby thought of pulling it back. He didn't. What difference did it make who took the money? Ma would give it to Da anyway. She could never break free from him.

A train whistle sounded. “We got to hurry, Robby. Got to catch a train.” Tears rolled down Ma's cheek.

“Good-bye,” Robby said. “I'm going to work now.” He turned away.

When he knew the hanging was over, he walked through the square on his way to the school. Most of the crowd was gone, but the same group of girls he had seen before jumped rope. Their words made Robby stop and stand dead still. “Through the alley and up the stair, arm and arm come Burke and Hare, Burke the butcher, Hare the thief, Doctor, Doctor, slice the beef.”

When he could move, Robby found his way to the heavy wooden door. It was locked. They were cutting up someone in room five, and he knew it was Burke. He knocked hard. Lij opened the door. “Might be best if you stay away from room five,” he said.

Robby stepped back. He couldn't go inside right now. “I'm going to get my clothes and my books. Can I bring my books here?”

“Sure thing,” said Lij.

Robby walked slowly and stood for a long time in front of the house with the broken stoop. In April he had lived there with five other people. They were all gone away now, all except him, and even he would be leaving soon. There would be no more Robby Hare in Philadelphia.

First he went to the shed for the wheelbarrow and parked it in front of the house. He carried the books out, several at a time, and stacked them carefully in the cart. When they were all loaded, he went into the kitchen for his clothing and blankets. He opened the back door for one last look. There was the vegetable garden that would never be planted. He bolted the door and went out front to spread what he carried across the top of the books.

He pushed the wheelbarrow away, but he looked back once at the house. He wished he could have fixed the broken stoop and the skewed shutters. At the school, the heavy wooden door was unlocked now, and Robby knew the cutting was finished. He would unload the books, then take the cart and leave it somewhere on Society Hill.

He hesitated for just a moment before he went inside. It was strange how his life had come full circle since that first terrible night he had entered the building. He no longer had to fear being forced to steal bodies in the night. Instead, he would be on the receiving side of that operation. He still hated the idea that anyone would rob graves, but he understood the need to study the human anatomy. In fact, he felt certain he would soon be involved in the learning.

Lij was in the hallway, his broom in hand. “Lij,” said Robby, “I'm going to change my last name. I was thinking I might use Jenkins. Would that be all right with you?”

“I'd be mighty proud,” said Lij.

Robby Jenkins, his arms full of books, moved with a lighter heart down the hallway toward the room that was his new home.

A
LSO BY
A
NNA
M
YERS

Red-Dirt Jessie

Rosie's Tiger

Graveyard Girl

Spotting the Leopard

The Keeping Room

Fire in the Hills

Ethan Between Us

Captain's Command

When the Bough Breaks

Stolen by the Sea

Tulsa Burning

Flying Blind

Hoggee

Assassin

Confessions from the Principal's Chair

Wart

Spy!

Time of the Witches

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I
first became interested in bodies being stolen and sold when I went to Edinburgh, Scotland, ten years ago. It was there that I learned how the growth of medical schools brought about the need for bodies to dissect for learning purposes. Also in Edinburgh, I first heard about Burke and Hare, and about the jump rope chant using their names.

In this book, I borrowed the story of Burke and Hare from Edinburgh, where two men by those names really did kill sixteen or seventeen people in the 1820s to sell their bodies. Hare really did own a boardinghouse, and he saved his own life by testifying against Burke. The word “burking” came into our language, meaning to kill a person in order to obtain a corpse. I made up Robby and Martha, and I Americanized the chant by changing the word “close” to “alley.”

The stir over Burke and Hare, at least partially, caused laws to be passed in Great Britain making it a crime to take bodies and providing that all unclaimed bodies in hospitals, prisons, and workhouses be given to medical schools.

Body stealing went on longer in America. One interesting case occurred in 1878 in Ohio. John Scott Harrison, a member of the U.S. Congress, was the son of William Henry Harrison, who was our ninth president, and father of Benjamin Harrison, our twenty-third president. When John Scott Harrison died, the family noticed that the nearby grave of a friend had been opened and robbed. The Harrisons decided to put bars across John Scott's grave to protect it from thieves. The next day, two of the young men in the family went to the medical schools to look for the friend's body. They were horrified to find their own relative's body, stolen despite their precautions.

The outrage over this case caused laws to be passed in one state after another to stop body stealing and to give unclaimed bodies to medical schools. Finally, the people of America could bury their dead without the terrible fear that robbers would steal away those precious bodies.

Copyright © 2011 by Anna Myers

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

First published in the United States of America in February 2011
by Walker Publishing Company, Inc., a division of Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc.
E-book edition published in February 2011
www.bloomsburykids.com

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Walker BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010

Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Myers, Anna.

The grave robber's secret / Anna Myers.

p.   cm.

Summary: In Philadelphia in the 1800s, twelve-year-old Robbie is forced to help his father rob graves, then when he suspects his dad of murder, Robbie makes a life-changing decision.
ISBN 978-0-8027-2183-9 (hardcover)

[1. Grave robbing—Fiction.  2. Murder—Fiction.  3. Philadelphia (Pa.)— History—19th century—Fiction.]  I. Title.

PZ7.M9814Gq 2011         [Fic]—dc22         2010018097

ISBN 978-0-8027-2260-7 (e-book)