Leppard, Lois Gladys - [Mandie 02] (3 page)

“And this is the cave where Tsali lived?” Sallie queried.

“Yes. People are born, live, and die, but mountains stay forever,” the Indian boy replied. “This cave has several tunnels and other sections. Come, I will show you.”

The group followed as he went down a long tunnel which led into another section of the cave, and then continued into another tunnel. It was all so dark and cold. The lanterns made a soft glow and cast eerie shadows. Snowball seemed nervous. He leaned against Mandie’s skirt and meowed to be picked up. She consented and he snuggled against her shoulder.

“Oh, Snowball, I think you are lazy today,” she laughed.

“Look, there is a stream over there. Look closely and you can see minnows in it,” Tsa’ni told them, pointing to the other side of the large cavern they were in.

Everyone hurried over to the stream and huddled on the ground to watch for minnows in the flowing water.

Tsa’ni, with a sly grin on his face, silently crept away, heading for the entrance. He knew his way around inside, and the trail for home, but he knew the two white children didn’t know the way, and neither did Sallie.
The white girl claims to be part Indian
, he thought.
Well, we’ll just see how much Indian she is. A real Indian could find the way out. White people—always coming to mess in Cherokee business!

Joe turned to speak to Tsa’ni. “I don’t see any minnows.” And then realizing the Indian boy was nowhere in
sight, he called, “
Tsa’ni
, where are you?”

The girls were startled at the alarm in Joe’s voice. They saw no sign of Tsa’ni. Mandie once again felt the hatred rising in her heart.

“He has left us!” Sallie spoke angrily.

“Oh, no, Sallie! How will we ever find the way out—and home?” Mandie cried.

“We can only search around and hope to see familiar things,” the Indian girl told them.

“Thank goodness, we have a lantern,” Joe added.

Mandie sighed. “Well, let’s be on our way.” She started forward and then stopped. “Joe, you’d better go first with the lantern so we can watch our step.”

“Please, be careful,” Joe warned them. He stepped ahead and flashed the light into the next section of the cave. “Did we come in from here or over there? There’s another opening over there.” His voice echoed.

The girls turned to look. There
was
another opening. They were both puzzled.

“This one, I—I think,” Mandie said, indicating the one nearest where they stood.

“No, I think it is that one over there,” Sallie disagreed.

“Hey, now, we can’t go two ways at once,” Joe said.

“All right, which way do you say, Joe? We’ll go the way two of us agree on,” Mandie said.

“I just don’t know!” Joe sounded confused. “I suppose we could
try
this way and then come back if we don’t find the way out.”

“And maybe get thoroughly lost doing it!” Mandie moaned.

“But there is nothing else we can do but try,” Sallie reasoned.

“Agreed,” Joe said. “So here we go.” He led the way
into the next cavern, and to their dismay it had several openings.

“Listen for the sound of the water,” Sallie told them. “If we can get headed toward the water, we will find our way out.”

The three stood still, holding their breath, listening for the faint roar of the waterfall. Simultaneously they pointed in three different directions. Then they all laughed.

“I’ve always heard two heads are better than one, but I’m not so sure three heads are any good at all,” Mandie sighed.

“Let’s do it this way,” Joe suggested. “We’ll take turns deciding which way to go.”

“All right, you choose first,” Sallie replied.

“This way,” Joe said, pointing to his right, and the girls followed.

Now they were in a long tunnel with no end in sight within the dim light of the lantern.

“Mandie, you choose next,” Sallie said, as they stumbled along the rough floor.

“Right now I would choose to go back the other way. It looked smoother and I don’t remember a floor as rough as this one. No, wait! I see a dark place on the right up there.” She hurried forward. “It’s an opening!”

“Well, let’s go through it,” Joe said, flashing the lantern light inside the next cavern. At that moment it seemed like hundreds of dark birds came flying at them. Flapping wings buzzed around their heads and a wild cackling sound filled the air. Joe and Mandie froze in terror.

“Bats!” Sallie yelled. “Get down low and go back out!”

The three almost crawled out of the cavern into the tunnel they had just come down. Two of the bats circled here and there, and then disappeared.

“Sorry, I picked the wrong way,” Mandie said breathlessly, as they ran through the tunnel.

“Here is another opening on the left,” Sallie said. “Joe, hold the light inside first so we can see.”

Joe flashed the lantern around but no bats appeared. Directly across the passageway was yet another opening. “There’s another tunnel over there.”

The girls followed him on through. It was a large cavern with a huge hole in the middle of the floor. They gathered around to look. Even though Joe held the lantern as far over the hole as he could bend, they could not see the bottom.

“Oh, how spooky!” Mandie shrieked.

“Do not get too near the edge!” Sallie warned them.

Joe turned to look at the girls. “I think we are completely lost.”

“That Tsa’ni! Just wait until I tell my grandfather what he has done to us!” Sallie cried.

“There’s only one thing left to do,” Mandie told them. “We must pray. In fact, we should have prayed long before now.”

“Pray?” asked Sallie.

“Yes. I know you must go to church, because Uncle Ned does. Whenever I am afraid or confused I ask God to help me,” Mandie told her. “And He always does.”

“Yes, I go to church and I believe in God,” the Indian girl replied.

“Then, let’s all repeat this verse together: ‘What time I am afraid I will put my trust in Thee.’ ” And the three did as Mandie suggested.

“Oh, dear God, please help us! We need your help now!” Mandie pleaded, turning her eyes upward.

“Now let’s not worry anymore. God will help us find the way out,” Joe added.

“Yes, but I cannot hear Him telling us which way to go, can you?” Sallie was serious as she looked at the other two.

“No, but we have to trust Him to put it into our heads which way to go,” Mandie explained.

“I think I’ll check what’s over on the other side,” Joe said, walking slowly around the huge hole in the floor.

The wall on the other side had stones of all shapes and sizes piled up against it, and there was no opening.

Mandie, following Joe, accidentally stubbed her toe on a rock near the bottom of the pile, and all of a sudden the whole stack seemed about to tumble. She jumped out of the way and bent to look closer at the stones. As she was straightening up, her eyes caught a glitter in the pile.

“Joe, hold the lantern over here! I saw something shiny in the rocks!” she exclaimed.

“Oh, it’s probably mica,” Joe said.

As he swung the lantern the light revealed more glitter and the three began pulling at the rocks to see what was there, breaking fingernails and rolling rocks onto their shoes. All at once a large stone rolled down, uncovering a pile of gold nuggets.

“Gold!” whistled Joe, furiously digging away the loose stones.

“Gold!” murmured Mandie.

“Gold!” repeated Sallie.

Then the three of them broke into hysterical laughter.

“Here we are, lost to civilization, with a fortune in gold at our feet!” Mandie cried, picking up a nugget.

“Yes, we’d better be trying to find our way out,” Sallie reminded them.

“Find our way out? Oh, Sallie, aren’t you interested in seeing how much gold is here behind the rocks?” Joe asked, as he kept digging.

“Gold—that is what caused the Cherokees to lose their land, their homes—everything!” Sallie replied, sadly.

Mandie turned to her, understanding. “I know, Sallie. If that gold had not been found in Georgia, the white people might not have ever made the Cherokees move out.” She dropped the nugget into her pocket.

“Daylight! I see daylight!” shouted Joe as he continued to pull away at the rocks. “There’s an outside opening behind all these rocks!” In his excitement he broke the lantern on a rock he was rolling away and they were suddenly in the dark.

But he was right. Together the three soon had a hole dug big enough for them to squeeze through to the outside. The terror of being lost in the dark, cold cave was over.

“It’s a little uphill out there, I think. Let me go first and then I can help you two crawl out,” Joe suggested.

All thought of the gold left their minds. Joe climbed through the hole they had dug and pulled the two girls after him. Snowball scrambled ahead of Mandie. Sallie went through last and barely cleared her foot when the whole side of the cave seemed to come tumbling down and the opening disappeared.

“Thank you, God! Thank you!” Mandie cried.

“Amen!” Joe added.

“Me, too!” Sallie said.

They stood up and looked around. They were in a thick forest of balsam firs and it seemed to be growing dark rapidly. Hours must have passed since they left Uncle Ned’s house and now they were lost in the woods. There was no sign of the waterfall or the creek. It would be dark soon, and they had no lantern.

Chapter 3 - Captured in the Dark

Tsa’ni waited for hours outside under the waterfall for the three to find their way out of the cave, but they never came out. He smiled to himself.
That white girl claimed to be part Cherokee. If she was part Cherokee she would find the way out
. He sat down to whittle on a piece of pine he took from his pocket. It got later and later and then began to grow dark, and still there was no sign of the three!

Suddenly he heard voices and saw lights flashing through the waterfall in front of him as they came nearer. He stood up and put his knife and the piece of wood back into his pocket. Evidently a search party was coming and he had better be prepared for them.

A group of men appeared through the trees, swinging lanterns in the dark. One stepped forward and Tsa’ni recognized him as Uncle Ned.

“Cave under water,” he said, motioning to the waterfall. “Papooses might go there.”

Uncle John walked to the edge of the creek, swinging a lantern. “Where is the cave, Uncle Ned? I can’t see a thing beyond the water.”

“Follow me,” the old Indian told the others. He took them across the rocks and under the waterfall.

Then they were face to face with Tsa’ni.

“Tsa’ni! Where Papooses?” Uncle Ned demanded.

“We went into the cave and they ran off and left me. I went back inside to look for them, but could not find them,” the Indian boy lied to the old man.

“Lost in cave!” Uncle Ned muttered.

“Do you know your way around in there?” asked Uncle John as the old Indian approached the entrance and flashed his lantern light inside.

“Little,” Uncle Ned replied. “Big place, many rooms. Drumgool, pull trees. We make trail.” He spoke in Cherokee to another Indian in the group.

Drumgool, understanding his friend’s language, turned back and ordered the other men to gather small branches from the trees. Soon they returned with their arms full, while Uncle Ned and Uncle John waited at the entrance to the cave.

“We make trail,” the old Indian repeated, entering the tunnel into the cave. The other Indians, understanding perfectly what he meant, began breaking twigs from the branches they carried and dropping them on the floor as they followed him.

Tsa’ni followed along in the rear. Now that the three were really lost, he was afraid of what they might tell. He had better prepare a good argument for when they were found.
Palefaces, why didn’t they stay out of Cherokee territory? Always causing trouble!
He thought to himself.

Led by Uncle Ned, with Uncle John close behind, the search party thoroughly combed the cave.

“No one come to cave anymore. Rocks slide,” Uncle
Ned said, pointing to a rockpile that had evidently fallen from above in one of the sections.

“But Tsa’ni, knowing this, took them inside?” Uncle John questioned.

“Tsa’ni bad brave!” Uncle Ned was angry.

“I don’t think the boy likes us, even though we are kinpeople,” replied Uncle John as they entered another tunnel.

“Tsa’ni no like white people,” Uncle Ned explained. “He have no heart.” He swung his lantern up and another rockpile came into sight. “Rocks dangerous.”

“Where, oh, where can those kids be?” John sighed. “Tsa’ni said they ran off and left him while they were in the cave. Maybe they are already outside somewhere, or have already gone back to the house.”

“Papooses come home; Morning Star send word. No, Papooses not home,” the old man said as he flashed his light into the room with the huge hole in the floor. The opening the young ones had dug in the wall to escape through was now completely obliterated, and a pile of rocks hid the gold nuggets. “Papooses not here.”

They went into the other sections and surprised the bats as the three lost ones had done.

Tsa’ni, still tagging along at the rear, was growing more and more positive that the three had just completely disappeared. He knew only the one way in and out of the cave, and they had certainly not come out. On the other hand, they weren’t to be found in the cave. They had just vanished.

It was a big cave and the men were tired, but Uncle Ned insisted on going through the entire place one more time. This time the men laid bare twigs for their trail. They walked slowly and poked into every crevice, looked
into every nook and cranny, and finally ended up back at their starting place.

Uncle Ned shook his head in dismay. “Not here. Now we look in trees, bushes,” he told the men, explaining how they would work.

“Please, God, let us find them before some harm comes to them,” Uncle John implored, as they gathered to leave the cave.

Mandie, Sallie, and Joe stumbled along in the darkness after they left the cave. It was some time before their eyes became accustomed to the dark night so that they could detect outlines of bushes and trees.