'Here's the Big Sandy, right after we make the bend, after passing the Guyundat. The Indian Guyundat is a creek on the right side.' He gave me a sharp look. 'What d' you want to know all this for?'
'Mr. Robinson, you must tell nobody.Nobody , do you understand? I have to leave the boat and I do not want anyone to know.
'Mrs. Buchanan will certainly be asking. Tell her I've gone forward, tell her anything, but try to make her believe I am still aboard.'
'But, ma'am, there's nothing there at Big Sandy! I mean, there's a landing. We'll nose into the bank there and load some freight, but it won't be more than five minutes.'
'That's all I need. But please! Don't tell anyone! Not even the captain!'
'Somebody will see you.'
'Maybe, maybe not. I hope not.'
He had drawn a dark line on paper showing the river and where the various creeks came into it. I studied it for a few minutes after he was gone, and then returned to my cabin. Essie Buchanan was not there, so I looked through the carpetbag to make sure everything was all right. I did not know what they intended, but suspected they planned to rob me when I left the boat in Cincinnati.
Our arrival at Big Sandy would be very late. If I could I would smuggle the carpetbag out of the cabin when Essie had gone to supper, passing it through the outer door to Dorian Chantry.
What did the arrival of Felix Horst mean? Had he received some knowledge that the others had failed? But how could he know that?
No, Horst must have some plan of his own. Perhaps he wanted me to be far enough away from Philadelphia or Pittsburgh and in a place where it would take time for word to get back, if it ever did. People were often lost on the river, and the Cave-in-the-Rock had been a hideout for outlaws for years.
Horst was no fool and he would not want to risk being taken by the law again. He would know how much money I was carrying and he would choose his time very carefully.
The day passed slowly. Green Bottom Ripple, a dangerous place, was negotiated with care. I watched the creeks to check them off in my mind; then I went back to my cabin and lay down on my berth. I wanted to rest before the coming night.
Essie Buchanan came in. 'What's the matter, dearie? Not feeling well?'
'I've a headache,' I lied, 'Just not feeling well, I guess, or maybe it's ague. I've had fever an' chills all the morning. I think I'll just lie here.'
'Want me to bring you something?'
'No, thanks. I'll just rest.'
At suppertime I went to the main cabin, and as Essie was at another table and could not observe, ate well enough. Dorian Chantry sat across from me.
There were folks sitting close by, so we could not talk of what we planned, nor about ourselves. There was time to look around and see those who traveled with us. One was an Englishman, interested in western America, who wanted to know everything. He asked a sight of questions and it seemed like he was suspicious of answers. He evidently had a different idea in his mind than what he was discovering to be true, and was uneasy about it.
He was surprised to find so many people reading Dickens, Scott, Thackeray, and the lot, although I don't know why. A lot of western folks were readers, and books were precious things, hard to come by and much treasured.
'Miss Sackett? Do you read? I mean for pleasure?'
'Of course.'
'You have books in your home?'
'Mighty few. Pa used to lend books, and somehow they never seemed to come back. My Uncle Regal, he took to Scott. When I was no bigger than a button he was always recitingLochinvar or something fromMannion .'
'From memory?'
'Of course. We Sacketts all have good memories. Part of it comes natural, part of it is from learning. When folks don't have many books, they have to learn their history by heart. We learned the way ancient people did, like the bards of the Irish or the Welsh.
'It is a good deal like traveling across country. A body lines up on a peak or a tree or something in the way of a landmark, then as he walks, he checks the backtrail, which always looks different. We learn to pick out a tree here, a rock there, or something of the sort to guide us. Once seen, we don't forget it.
'Pa, he started teaching us that when we were youngsters, as his pa did before him. It was the same with history or the folks in our family. We learn about the principal Sackett of a time, and all the folks connected to him. You mention any one of the family back three, four hundred years and we can tell you who he or she was married to and what happened to their get. Their children, that is.'
'I never heard of such a thing!'
'You mention Barnabas, now. He was the first of us in this country, and any Sackett can tell you what ship he crossed on, who his friends were, where he settled, and how.'
'It must have been some such means that was used by the druids.'
My eyes were wide and innocent. 'I suspect so.' I purposely sounded vague. I had talked as much about that as I was going to.
Dorian asked me many questions, and I noticed he was listening carefully. From time to time he glanced at me curiously, as if wondering about some of my answers. Ginery Wooster was setting back in his chair, seeming to pay us no mind, but he was listening, too.
'We all remember that way, after a fashion,' I said. 'Somebody says 'George Washington,' and right away you think of Mount Vernon, of 1776, of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, Valley Forge and all that, and each one of those things tips you off to another set of memories.
'Well, we just extended that, a-purpose. We didn't just kind of do it by happenstance. We sort of extended it out further and further, and as youngsters we were taught not just to learn something but to learn something else that went with it. Pa, he used to say that no memory is ever alone, it's at the end of a trail of memories, a dozen trails that each have their own associations.
'There's nothing very remarkable about it, or even unusual except that, like I said, we do it a-purpose.'
'But there must be limits!'
'Maybe, we just never found one yet.'
Dorian, he pushed back his chair and got up. 'Miss Sackett? There are many lights in the sky. Can you come and tell me their names?'
'Well,' I said, 'I can start you off right. That big round white one is called the moon. Does that help any?'
Chapter 14
Bright was the moon upon the narrow waters, black and silent the shores except for the occasional lights from a settler's cabin, blinking feebly from the trees or some meadowed bluff. There was no sound but for the chugging of the engines, yet we were not alone upon the deck, for others had come from the main cabin to enjoy the night.
Essie Buchanan was there, accompanied by a heavy-set man with muttonchop whiskers. Was she watching me?
'I had not realized the Ohio was so large a river,' Dorian said aloud, but under his breath he whispered, 'I wish they'd all go to bed!'
'We must wait them out,' I said, not at all unhappy about it. Then I added, 'The step to the bow is right behind us.'
'Archie will be down there waiting for us,' he said softly. 'He has your carpetbag hidden there.' After a moment he said, 'I still believe we should stay aboard until Cincinnati.'
'They are waiting for us there,' I said. 'If we move now, there will be fewer of them. We may even get away unseen.'
'If there's trouble,' Dorian said, 'stay out of it. Leave it to Archie and me.'
'Maybe I could help.'
'You? You're just a girl. What could you do in a fight?'
