Chapter 12
The boy swung from the looped rope, cans clanging. He couldn’t have been much more than fourteen, Andrew thought. He seemed scrawny and very scared as he dropped the chicken he’d been holding.
It clucked and, in a flurry of feathers, rushed back into the henhouse.
“I knew that trap would work,” Troy said happily as he stepped up beside Andrew. “Now at least we know who’s been after the birds.”
Andrew nodded. “Now we have to find out the why.”
“No, now you have to cut him down,” Julie said. She had come up beside them so quietly that Andrew hadn’t heard her arrive. He started and then relaxed.
Troy moved to the henhouse and did something or other. The boy came down slowly and when he touched the ground, headfirst, he began to wriggle.
“None of that,” Andrew said, stepping closer and laying a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “We only want to talk to you.”
The boy scoffed.
Between them, Andrew and Troy got him untangled and took him to the campfire. Everyone was up by now, the racket the thief had made flailing around with the cans clanging like horrible, tuneless bells sufficient to rouse the entire camp.
They tied his hands and feet together only because the boy seemed intent on running off, and Andrew wanted answers.
“Look, we aren’t going to hurt you,” he said as the boy writhed, glaring at him. “We just want to know why you’re stealing our chickens.”
“I won’t do it again,” the boy said, finally speaking. “Okay? Let me go.”
“That’s not good enough,” Troy said, shaking his head. “Not by half. Why did you steal them in the first place? Didn’t your folks teach you not to take things that don’t belong to you?”
“Don’t got none,” the boy said, shaking his head. “Folks, that is. They’re all gone to heaven.”
“What happened?” Julie handed the boy a mug of something that smelled sweet. He took it and sniffed the contents. “It’s just some tea.”
He nodded and held up the mug. “Much obliged.”
Andrew found himself surprised to discover their thief had manners.
Julie smiled and sat down on the ground by the fire. “It’s my pleasure,” she said. “I can make you something to eat too, but before that, you’re going to have to talk to me. My name is Julie. What’s yours?”
“Timothy,” he said after a moment’s hesitation.
“It’s good to meet you, Timothy,” Julie said. “Do you think you can tell me what’s going on? Why did you come here and steal our chickens and bread and vegetables? Who do you live with if your folks are gone?”
The theft of bread and vegetables was news to Andrew, but he didn’t have time to consider it as the boy responded.
“We’re in trouble,” Timothy said softly, his eyes large and round.
“We live south and east of here, a long way away in a little town. About three months ago, these bandits showed up. We didn’t think too much of it.
Bandits come through sometimes; they take some crops, maybe a chicken or two, take some money, and they leave. But not these ones. They stayed.”
“They stayed?” she asked.
He nodded, sipping the tea. “Well, I mean, not stayed. But they kept coming back over and over and over again until we had nothing left. We had less than nothing, so we packed up and left our homes.”
“So, you’re traveling north?” Julie asked. “Are you trying to find somewhere to settle?”
He nodded again. “But some of us are sick now,” he said. “Fever, vomiting. Some folks are too sick to walk fast. There’s only about twenty of us. Half are wounded, and the other half sick.”
“You seem fine,” Troy said.
The boy glared at him. “’Coz I’m quick,” Timothy snarled. “Quick and hard to catch.”
“We managed it,” Troy said.
“You’re not helping,” Julie said pointedly. She turned back to the boy. “Tell me where your sick and wounded are. I’m an apothecary. I can help.”
Timothy eyed her. His eyes were very dark, and his hair hung in ragged, uneven strands in his eyes. Andrew wondered what he was thinking. Was he trying to think up some sort of story, a tale for the nice lady who might believe anything a young boy told her?
“I can take you there,” Timothy said eventually.
“My sister Lizzy is there. She’s terribly sick.
I thought chicken broth would help her, but she’s not getting better.
She tried to help the others and only got sick herself.
” The boy shook his head sadly. “What am I gonna do if she dies on me? She’s all I got left. ”
Julie cocked her head. “Well, we had that illness here maybe a month ago. And those men are all well and sitting here now. They’re better.”
“Look, kid,” Michael said. He’d been sitting silently, watching as most of them had. “Julie is the real deal. If it can be cured, she’s the one to do it.”
“She’s our apothecary,” Andrew said with a decisive nod, “and we haven’t faced anything she couldn’t beat.”
The boy shrugged. “We have nothing left to lose,” he said and finished sipping his tea.
“Why not come and ask for help?” Walter asked.
“We don’t trust folks much now that we’ve been sent from place to place,” Timothy said. “It’s not easy out there. Folks don’t want more mouths to feed. Do you want more people?”
As a matter of fact, Andrew had been thinking they would need more men. The mining would become too much for the twelve of them in no time, and soon he would need to employ a much larger workforce. Could some of Timothy’s friends be interested in becoming miners?
He didn’t mention anything though. He would need to meet these people first.
“Let’s all go and get some sleep,” Andrew said. “Timothy can come and sleep in our hut, Jeff. Then we’ll know where he is.”
“I’ll make him a bed,” Jeff said, yawning. He got up and left the fire.
“Julie, will you pack up what you need? We’ll head out at first light,” Andrew said.
She nodded and smiled at him. Then as she got up to leave, she patted his shoulder. “You’re a good man, Andrew.”
He smiled and put his hand over hers for a moment. That little gesture meant so much to him. She was with him. Even without knowing what his plan was, Julie supported his decision.
Kyle looked thunderous though, glowering from where he sat. Andrew waited for Jeff and Troy to take the boy away before speaking to him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Really?” Kyle asked. “The boy comes in here, steals our food, and you believe whatever sob story comes out of his mouth? Andrew, he could be lying. He could be luring you and Julie to your deaths. Did it ever occur to you that he might be working for the bandits?”
“That’s absurd,” Walter said, shaking his head.
“Bandits don’t do that. They come in shooting and killing people.
They don’t recruit boys to lure people out of makeshift villages.
We’re hardly a threat. If there were bandits and they wanted something from us, they would simply ride up to our fabric doors and demand it at gunpoint. No need for subterfuge.”
“He has a point,” Andrew agreed. He knew that Walter was right, although just how vulnerable they were hadn’t occurred to him before. Their little settlement was hardly anything, and it was true that bandits, should they come through, would have no trouble at all taking what they wanted.
He didn’t share his morbid thoughts but did decide it was high time they speeded up the process of building actual houses. With wooden doors.
“Fine,” Kyle said. “But take Jeff and Troy with you. At least then you’ll have someone.”
Andrew nodded.
By dawn, Troy, Jeff, and Julie were ready with a horse harnessed to the cart and Julie’s medicine trunk all packed. Timothy was allowed to sit up front with Andrew and Jeff while Troy and Julie rode in the back.
Andrew quietly had a word with the men to warn them to bring their guns. There was no point in going into a situation blind and foolish. The blind they couldn’t help, but the foolish they could avoid. At least in part.
Timothy directed them to follow the creek downstream much further than even Julie had been washed in the flood. The sun rose and the sky became a bright blue, dotted with clouds, as they drove on.
“How far is it?” Andrew asked.
“Not far,” Timothy said, pointing away from the creek. “It’s in that clump of trees there.”
The trees were elms and a few stray pines.
A thin wisp of light gray smoke rose from the canopy and as they drew closer, the sounds of people stirring filtered through the air.
Pots clanged and voices drifted on the air.
Someone must have heard the cart creaking and rattling along the uneven ground because the camp suddenly went silent.
Timothy called out before Andrew could warn him not to.
“It’s me! It’s Tim. I’ve brought help!” he cried.
As though by magic, people appeared between the trunks of trees. Andrew’s heart sank to his toes. This wasn’t a potential workforce. These people looked as though they had escaped a war.
Many had bandages on their arms, legs, or heads. Others looked pale, drawn, and sickly. They were thin women, children, and men, all gaunt and filthy. This was a rabble of desperate creatures.
He stopped the cart, and it was no surprise to him that Julie was the first one out.
“Please bring my trunk,” she said, heading in between the trees.
Timothy followed her while Jeff and Troy hung back with Andrew.
“They look terrible,” Troy said. “And the smell.” He cringed.
“There are some very sick folks here,” Andrew said, wrinkling his nose at the sickly sweet smell of illness that hung on the air despite them being out in the open.
“Do you think Julie can help them?” Jeff asked. “They all look like they need something.”
“Let’s go find out,” Andrew said.
He followed Julie into the trees.
What he found was a camp of weary folks.
A man by the name of Douglas Trent seemed to be their leader.
He wasn’t sick, just tired and very thin.
While Andrew and Jeff stoked the campfire and began to make a stew out of the food Julie had insisted they bring, Douglas spoke to them about his people’s plight.
It seemed they had been a little fishing and farming community. And then the bandits came, targeting them and relentlessly hounding them until no one knew peace. Many had fled the community, leaving only the very old, very young, and those sick and injured behind.
“We lost a lot of good folks along the way,” Douglas said sadly. “Just because they couldn’t keep up and we couldn’t help them.”
The pain in his voice was heavy like an anvil that sagged his shoulders and stole the life from his eyes. Andrew didn’t know what he could possibly say that could help this man, so he stayed silent and just nodded.
What would he do if this was his lot and this happened to the people he was responsible for?
He didn’t know, but the thought scared him.
This was every leader’s nightmare, to be helpless as some cretin attacked and destroyed everything he’d strived to build.
His heart went out to Douglas, and Andrew wished he could do more.
But this was all they had to give—some food and Julie’s excellent medical assistance.
Was it enough? He could only hope it would be.
“Praise the Lord,” Douglas said, a little flicker of hope in his voice, “Timothy found you. Do you have a large settlement? Is it far? He never said how far he went for food.” He paused and smiled, showing yellowing teeth.
“I should thank you for not hurting him; he’s only a boy and he didn’t mean any harm. ”
“We’re all right,” Jeff said. Never the most trusting soul, Jeff didn’t like telling strangers anything. “There are enough of us, and we’re not close enough.”
“Close enough for what?” Douglas asked.
“For anything,” Jeff said, looking at him meaningfully. Then he rounded on Douglas. “Tell me, when did you last see these bandits?”
Douglas thought. “Gosh, it’s been a while now. We last saw them weeks ago. I don’t think they travel this far north and west.”
“You think?” Jeff asked. He looked over at Troy. “I think posting a lookout might be wise.”
Troy nodded. “I’ll go.” He trotted off out of the cover of the trees.
Jeff leaned forward, putting his face only an inch from Douglas. “Okay, we’re here sharing our medicine and our food with you, so you owe it to us to be straight. When did you really last see these bandits of yours?”
“Jeff, what are you saying?” Andrew asked, feeling he’d missed a lot although he couldn’t see how that could happen. After all, he had been sitting right there with them.
“He’s been leaving things out,” Jeff said. He sighed and shook his head. “You never were any good at knowing if someone was lying to you. Really, Andy, you should listen with your head and not your heart.”
Douglas screwed up his face. “They’re due back here soon … now, in fact.”
“What?” Andrew asked, the hairs on his neck rising. “What do you mean?”
Douglas looked wretched. “They come every three days, like clockwork, and take whatever we have.”
“So, you sent the boy to lure us here so that you would have someone new to give to these blackguards?” Jeff asked, eyes narrowing.
“No,” Douglas protested. “It’s not like that at all.
We sent the boy to steal food. We thought Tim would come back with medicine, maybe, or just the food.
Anything would do. They pick us off one by one if we have nothing for them.
Please, we didn’t mean for you to get caught up in this, but you have to help us. ”
“We don’t have to do anything,” Jeff said, rising to his feet, “Anything but leave, that is.”
Troy’s whistle cut through the air. Andrew and Jeff rose, pulling their guns from their holsters.
“You’re a sorry excuse for a leader,” Jeff snapped at Douglas.
“Get whoever you can into hiding,” Andrew said. “We’ll do what we can.”
“What are you talking about?” Jeff demanded. “We’re getting Julie and leaving.”
“She’s not going to budge with so many sick people here,” Andrew said.
“Face it, Jeff, we’re stuck. Either we help to send these bandits packing or we’re in a whole world of trouble.
” He looked over at Julie. She was treating a young woman who lay on a pallet, pale and so weak she couldn’t even lift her head to drink some water Julie was offering.
These people weren’t to blame. They were desperate.
And what would he and his friends do if the tables were turned, if they were the ones who had been broken down again and again by blackguards?
There was no way of knowing, but Andrew didn’t want to find out.
It would be unchristian to leave these people in their moment of great distress.
“Okay, find a defensive position and the moment those cretins are in view, shoot them,” he said.
Jeff, who was always a man of action, nodded. “Now that’s better,” he said, and strode off through the trees.