Jump Ship to Freedom (11 page)

“They're taking boxes and such off and stacking them up on the dockside. There's about the biggest black man I ever did see with a club standing watch over them.”

She had the right ship, that was clear. “That's Big Tom,” I said. “He don't like black folks.”

“Why not?” she said.

“I don't know,” I said. “I guess it's because he wants white folks to favor him instead of other black folks.”

“Well, he looks mighty scary to me,” she said. “I wouldn't mess with him if I was you, Dan. Now come on. I got to get this fish back. You promised.”

So I picked up the barrow handles and started off at a trot, with Nosy clipping along beside me, and we got back quick enough so that Nosy didn't get cursed out by the cook, only a couple of dirty looks.

Now at least I knew where the soldiers' notes was. They wouldn't be there for long, though. Captain Ivers wasn't going to leave the cargo sitting around on the dock, no matter who was standing guard over them. If he didn't find a buyer for them right away, he'd put them in a storehouse somewheres. I'd have to do something about them quick. But I didn't get much of a chance to think about it, because word came that I was to help out in the stables to work out my keep, and the stable boss kept me on the jump the rest of the morning.

But about the middle of the afternoon things slackened off a little, and I sat down on a bale of hay and gave it a little thought. The first thing that worried me was that if Mr. Fraunces or Mr. Fatherscreft knew what I had in mind, they'd probably stop me, or at least try to. I don't know why they was worried about me; as far as they was concerned, I was just another darky without no home. But they was worried about me, that was clear. Part of it had to do with Mr. Fatherscreft being a Quaker. And of course if Mr. Fraunces really was black, that would explain another part of it; but I didn't know if he was black, and anyway, being black didn't make Big Tom any nicer to his own kind.

No, it had mainly to do with my daddy. They respected my daddy, there wasn't any two ways about that. It was a funny thing, here he was drowned and all, and he was helping me more than he could if he was alive. And that was the reason I wasn't going to quit on those soldiers' notes. If I left Mum up there in Newfield to rot, I'd never be able to think about my daddy again as long as I lived without feeling terrible. A feeling like that would be worse than slavery. So I was going to take the chance. And that meant not letting on to Mr. Fraunces or Mr. Fatherscreft.

But who would I get to help? The only person I knew was Nosy, and she wasn't nothing but a child. But she wasn't stupid, neither. And I figured she'd help me, so as not to be left out.

I didn't have a chance to talk to her until suppertime, when we was on the ground out in the yard with our backs up against the shed wall, eating bowls of stew. “Now listen, Nosy,” I said. “Are you game to help me out again? It's a mighty scary adventure.”

“You bound to get into trouble, Dan.”

“I'm already in enough trouble so's a little more won't matter very much. Tonight, after it gets dark, we're going back to the
Junius Brutus
and get my daddy's soldiers' notes. There's just one little thing you have to do. It ain't scary at all. I'll do all the scary parts.”

“Mr. Fraunces, he'll kill me if I get into trouble.”

“He ain't going to know about it. It's a secret between you and me. And afterward we'll be heroes.”

Well, she was torn about it. I could see that. She wanted to go with me, that was for sure; but on the other side of it, she knew that she could get into a peck of trouble for helping me out. “You sure nobody's gonna know?”

“Sure as sunrise,” I said. “You ain't going to say nothing, and I ain't going to say nothing, so how would anybody find out?”

I left it like that. We finished up our suppers, and she went back into the kitchen to help wash up the dishes. About an hour later she came out into the yard to pump some water. I came up to her. “Soon's it gets dark we'll go, Nosy. Bring your barrow.”

I stayed out in the yard, mostly hanging around the shed where nobody would notice me. It came to be seven o'clock. The time went awful slow, but finally it was near full dark. I could see Nosy through the kitchen window, messing around with the plates. Finally she came out into the yard to pump up another bucket of water. I crossed over the yard. “Let's go,” I said.

She looked at me like she was hoping I'd forgot about it. “I got to fill the water barrel.”

“How long will that take?”

“What are we going to do, Dan?”

“I'll show you when we get there. Now swipe the oyster knife when you come.”

“You're going to get in trouble, Dan.”

“I don't care,” I said. “Now finish up quick, so we can get going.”

She didn't want to do it, I could see that, but she would. And about ten minutes later she came out of the kitchen drying her hands on her skirt. We got the barrow, loaded it up with hay, and hid the oyster knife in it. Then we slipped around the tavern as quiet as we could and set out along Broad Street. I was pretty nervous, all right. There was a lot of risk to it. But I didn't have any choice except to give up on the notes.

Even though it was night there was a few people going along the streets. The streetlights made their shadows loom up sudden on the walls of the houses, then shrink down again as they walked away from the light. There was plenty of livestock, too, mostly lying down snoozing.

We came across Dock Street until we was just a block away from the waterfront. I stopped. “Nosy, which way's the brig?''

She pointed. “Up there.”

We made a turn and worked our way along behind the waterfront for about fifteen minutes until I figured we was at about the right place. Then I told Nosy to wait, and I slipped forward sort of crouched over in the shadows of the buildings. In a moment I come to the corner. I pressed myself close against the building and eased my head around just a hair to get a look.

There were streetlights here, too, and lanterns hanging on some of the ships, so it was light enough to see a good distance. There was the street, and a mess of ships tied up to the docks every which ways, so that a lot of the bowsprits stuck out over the street like branches of trees. There was just a little breeze, making a kind of whispery noise in all those lines. The ships rocked a little, and I could hear loose lines slapping on the masts and them all creaking in different tones as if they was alive and complaining. There was two or three fires along the street, with sailors lounging around them, smoking, drinking rum, and talking to some women who was there. They looked mighty tough.

Down the street a little ways was the
Junius Brutus.
On the wharf in front of her was a stack of boxes and barrels. And sitting on one of the barrels, with his arms folded across his chest and his club across his lap, was Big Tom, his scar red as fire.

The stack of boxes and barrels was kind of pitiful. The storm had destroyed the largest part of the cargo. The deck cargo had gone overboard, and a lot of the stuff in the hold, like grain and such, had got ruined by the saltwater. I could see the linen chest, though, its shiny cherrywood gleaming in the streetlight. It was on top of a stack of other boxes tied round with cord. It wouldn't take Nosy more than ten seconds to cut the cord, grab the notes out, and stick them under the hay.

I pulled back and slipped down to where Nosy was standing with the barrow. My heart was going a mile a minute, and my hands was damp with sweat. “All right, Nosy,” I said. “Here's what you got to do. There ain't nothing to it. You remember that big black fellow you saw this morning? Well, he's sitting out there on a barrel. Next to him there's a cherrywood chest with a cord around it. I want you to go out there with your barrow and just ease along aways. The minute he jumps off that barrel to chase after me, you cut that cord with the oyster knife, grab those notes out of the box, and stick them under the hay. Then you just ease off down the next street and head back to the tavern.”

“What if he don't chase after you?”

“Don't worry about that none, Nosy. He will. You got it straight?”

“Dan, I'm scared.”

“You ain't got nothing to be scared of. I'm the one he's going to be chasing.”

“Dan, you're gonna be in a lot of trouble if he catches you.”

“He ain't going to catch me, Nosy. Now you just do what I tell you. You're going to be a hero tomorrow.”

She eased out onto Ferry Street, pushing the barrow in front of her. None of the sailors paid her no mind. She was just a little black girl pushing a barrow full of hay, and about as important as dirt. I figured Big Tom wouldn't even notice her. I waited until she was about twenty feet away from him. Then I took a deep breath to calm my nerves down and stepped out onto Ferry Street myself.

The main thing was to draw Big Tom as far down the street as I could. He wasn't going to have any trouble catching up with me once he got going, so it was important to get myself a good lead. I began to trot toward him, holding my head bent forward and turned away from him. I sure didn't want him to spot me until I was ready for it. I passed Nosy. She gave me a look, which she shouldn't have done because it might give it away that we were together. I didn't look at her but just sailed on by. Four steps farther and I was coming right up to Big Tom. I raised my head so he could see it and sort of gasped out, “Big Tom,” as if it had taken me by surprise to come upon him, and then I began to run as fast as I'd ever run in my life.

“Arabus,” he shouted. “Stop.” His footsteps began to clunk on the cobblestones, and I went full tilt down Water Street. It wasn't easy going, for there was cargo standing everywhere in stacks and heaps and I had to keep dodging back and forth. But Big Tom had to dodge, too, and I had the advantage because I knew which way I was going to dodge, and he didn't. By maneuvering right, I could keep stacks of things between him and me. Still, by the sound of his footsteps, I knew he was gaining on me.

When I'd gone about a hundred yards, I took a chance and swung my head around. Big Tom wasn't more than twenty feet behind me. His mouth was open and I could see all those busted teeth and the red scar clear as day. A cold shiver ran up my back. But behind him, in the distance, I could see Nosy and the barrow disappearing around the corner onto Ferry Street. I swung my head back around and swerved off the street onto the dockside. The ships were packed in close to each other, with hardly any space between. “Arabus,” Big Tom shouted. He wasn't more'n ten feet behind me now.

I kept on running, looking for a gap between the ships. Then I saw on up ahead a space where a ship had gone out. I veered toward it. “Arabus,” Big Tom shouted. Something slapped on my back, and I knew he'd made a grab for me and missed. I ran for the water. “Arabus.” The hand hit my back again, and this time his fingers clutched at my collar. He jerked me back, and I twisted around. He had me. He loomed over me like a great black tower and swung his free hand back to lam me. I ducked forward, threw my hands up over my head, and jerked backward. My shirt slid up over my head, I pulled my arms free, tumbled back onto the dock, and rolled into the water. “Arabus,” he shouted.

I sunk down and swum underwater as long as I could, and then I burst up on top and looked back at the dock. He was standing there with my shirt in his hands. He was shouting and cursing, but there wasn't anything he could do about it, because he couldn't swim any more than the rest of them. Suddenly he left off shouting and dashed away. I figured he was heading back to the brig to get the longboat and come after me.

But it was going to take him awhile to get started, because first he'd have to get one of the other men to guard the cargo, and then he'd have to lower the longboat into the water. I turned and began to swim along the harbor in the opposite direction. When I'd covered a couple of hundred yards, I swum in between two ships that was tied up there, hoisted myself up onto the dock, and broke for Fraunces' Tavern.

We'd got the notes back. Nosy slept with them tucked down in her shirt. In the morning I took them up into the hayloft of the stable and hid them down in the hay way at the back of the loft, where the hay wasn't likely to be touched until the winter. I couldn't decide about telling Mr. Fraunces about getting them back. I'd probably want him to help me sell them, but I knew he was likely to be mighty sore about me and Nosy taking a chance like that.

But before I got a chance to think it over, Nosy came out to the stables where I was working and told me that I was supposed to go see the Quaker, Mr. Fatherscreft, in his room up there on the top floor of the tavern. I dropped my pitchfork, washed up a little bit, went on up, and knocked at his door. “Come in,” he said.

I went in. Mr. Fatherscreft was lying in bed still, but he'd got himself shaved, and he didn't look so pale as he had before. Mr. Fraunces was there, too, sitting on a chair by one of the little windows. I shut the door. They both looked at me. I didn't say anything. Then Mr. Fraunces said, “I hear you did something foolish last night, Arabus.”

I went hot and prickly. “How'd you know that, sir?”

“You don't think Carrie would keep a good story like that to herself, do you?”

“Oh,” I said. I never figured she'd go bragging about what we'd done, for fear of getting into trouble herself. I should have known better.

“Thou hast thy father's notes, then, Daniel?” Mr. Fatherscreft said.

“Yes, sir,” I said. “I hid them out in the hayloft.”

He gave a little cough. “I'd be glad to hold them for thee, Daniel,” he said. “It might be safer that way.”

I thought about it for a minute. “Yes, sir, I guess it would.”

Then I noticed that Mr. Fraunces was looking at me kind of funny. “Dan, that was a foolish stunt you tried last night. You might have spent the rest of your life in the cane fields as a result of it.”