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Earle pulled over behind us, and I jumped down to go to him. “What’s this about Mink?” I insisted as the others scrambled out of the wagon.
Earle panted as if he’d been running, not the horses. “Hey, there!” he said to Tauseret. “You cleaned up right good.”
“What about Mink?” I pressed.
“Hold up.” He patted his brow with a handkerchief that had started life as a tablecloth.
“Tell us first if Mink is near, then you can take your time,” I said.
“He’s up the road a pace, waiting for me,” said Earle. “Far enough still. I left him there a whiles ago to come down here.”
We had stopped in time, it seemed. I trembled anyway. Tauseret must have sensed this, for she pressed herself against my back and slid her arms around my waist. It was a comfort.
“Were you running from Ceecee?” Earle asked.
“You know about that varmint?” Mr. Bopp said, and snapped his teeth.
Earle winced. “Yeah, he was supposed to kidnap Abel and signal me with a lantern so’s I could get Mink and his hired help to round you all back up while you was scart and confused.”
“Earle!” gasped Miss Lightfoot.
“I wasn’t gonna do it!” he proclaimed. “Once Ceecee was out of there with Abel, I was gonna go in and warn you. Sorry, Abel,” he said to me. “Best I could do. Not much a fat man can manage.”
Tauseret let me go so she could stride up to Earle and reach up to grab a handful of his dungarees at the knee. “You didn’t know that Ceecee would slay him instead?” she asked ferociously.
Earle’s mouth fell open. “Where’s Ceecee?” he whispered.
“Hanging dead from the undercarriage like a side of beef,” said Moses, relishing the revelation.
Earle’s gulp sent shock waves down his ample form.
Bertha laughed shrilly. A cloud crossed the moon and left us in shadows. The other children joined in the lau
ghter, disembodied voices in the dark, like spiteful elemental spirits. I shivered.
“That’s okay,” I said to Earle. “You weren’t to know what Ceecee had in mind.” The moon showed its face again. “Who’s this hired help you mention? Does he have more men now?”
“We was up in Osceola this morning,” said Earle, eyeing the underbelly of our wagon. “And I was outside a tavern by the square ’cause they don’t build doors for folk my size. The doctor was inside rounding up thugs for the price of a few drinks. The sort of feller who drinks in the morning is a rough character, and he was recruiting an army of ’em. Telling them tales of how he was robbed. Promising them ample re-wards. He loaded them in some wagons with a barrel of ale, and we came down this way with a plan.”
“We should go back,” said Miss Lightfoot. Her voice shook.
“And know Mink is breathing down our backs?” I answered. “He’s not going to wait long when Earle doesn’t show.”
“A railroad line crosses the road ahead,” said Earle. “Mink is across the tracks. Hid in a hollow off the road. There’s a lane on this side of the tracks that follows the railroad west. We could sneak on up there and be on the lane before he noticed.”
“I don’t like our chances,” said Mr. Bopp, and Mr. Ginger nodded agreement.
“The bone man will get us,” cried Willie. He held on to Bertha.
“We should sweep them from our path like the cowardly scum they are,” proclaimed Tauseret, waving her fist.
“With what exactly?” I asked. Her opinion of my military skills was obviously not based on this century’s incarnation.
“Can’t we cut across the fields?” asked Miss Lightfoot.
Earle pouted like a giant baby. “I couldn’t be coming with you across no fields,” he said. “My cart would stick for sure.”
“He’s right,” I said, “and so would our wagon.” I groped for an idea of what to do. Any idea. I felt helpless.
