For sure and certain nobody followed us?” Bessie asked for what had to be the hundredth time that afternoon.
“For sure and certain, Bessie,” Ruby Mae said. She peered through the thick woods behind her though, just to be on the safe side. “Would you stop actin’ like a scared rabbit?”
At the edge of Dead Man’s Creek, the girls stopped to catch their breath. The dense greenery around them rustled with every breeze. The sun dappled the creek with sunlight.
“I could have swore I heard somebody a-whisperin’,” Bessie said nervously.
“We doubled back just to be sure,” Clara reminded her. She sat on the bank and let her dusty feet cool in the creek. “Even Lundy Taylor would have had himself a hard time followin’ us.”
“I still don’t see why we had to come all the way back here with Prince Egbert,” Bessie complained.
“Now that Miz Christy’s done teachin’ with him, we owe it to him to set him back in his rightful home,” Clara said. “Could be he has a wife and kids, you know.”
“Let’s just get this over with,” Ruby Mae said curtly. She didn’t like coming back here any more than Bessie did. For some reason, returning to the spot where they’d found the gold made her feel guilty.
“You know, that talk about the gold with Miz Christy got me to feelin’ kind of bad,” Clara murmured as they walked along the bank.
“You’ve been usin’ your head too much again,” said Ruby Mae. “I can tell by the way your forehead gets all crinkled up.”
“Ain’t crinkled.” Clara felt her forehead, just to be sure. “But all that talk about the Golden Rule and all . . .” She sighed. “This bein’ princesses is awful complicated, ain’t it?”
Bessie nodded. “Lizette wouldn’t even talk to me this afternoon. You’d a thought I had the typhoid or somethin’, the way she run off.”
“And last night,” Clara confided, “I heard my ma and pa arguin’ out by the woodpile. Somethin’ about how to spend the cash-money. My pa wants a new roof and a floor. And my ma wants to save some of the money for later. My pa started to yellin’, sayin’ how are we even goin’ to have a later if’n we don’t have a roof over our heads? It was somethin’ awful to hear.”
“For a blessin’,” Bessie said, “this gold sure is a passel of trouble.” She paused. “What’s that? Did you hear anything? Kind of a rustlin’ noise?”
“You’re imaginin’ things,” Ruby Mae said.
“All I’m sayin’ is,” Clara continued, “this gold sure does seem to bring out the argufyin’ in people.”
Suddenly, Ruby Mae stopped. A flash of white under some reeds by the edge of the creek caught her eye.
She bent down and fished her hand in the icy water.
It was a white handkerchief.
“What’d you find, Ruby Mae?” Clara asked.
Ruby Mae stared at the white clump of fabric in her palm. “Nothin’ much. A man’s handkerchief. Or maybe it’s just a piece of fabric off’n a shirt. Can’t rightly say.”
The other girls joined her. “Can so say,” Clara said. “That’s a man’s handkerchief for certain.”
“It looks like the one Mr. Halliday was carryin’ with him,” Bessie said.
Ruby Mae wrung out the little piece of fabric. “Prob’ly lots of people carry handkerchiefs.”
“Not in these here parts, they don’t,” Clara said. “Are you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?”
“Not likely,” Ruby Mae said. “You think more than a whole roomful of teachers and preachers put together, Clara Spencer.”
Clara put her hands on her hips. “I’m thinkin’ we were right about what we were sayin’ before. I’m thinkin’ that gold might just have belonged to Mr. Halliday. And I know you’re thinkin’ it too, Ruby Mae. Even if’n you don’t think you’re thinkin’ it.”
“Start over,” Bessie said, scratching her head. “That’s one ‘thinkin’ too many.”
“What Clara means, Bessie,” Ruby Mae said, dropping onto the mossy bank, “is that our gold may really be Mr. Halliday’s gold.”
“It’s like one of them mystery stories Miz Christy reads us,” Clara explained. “We’ve got us some clues, see. We know Mr. Halliday said he was lookin’ for somethin’ out here. We know he and Clancy were by a creek when Clancy slipped. We know Mr. Halliday’s handkerchief was here. That’s a lot o’ clues, no matter how you look at it.”
“’Ceptin’ for one,” Ruby Mae shot back. “Like I said already—how come he doesn’t just claim the gold then?”
Clara shook her head. “I don’t know why. I admit it don’t make a whit of sense. But flatlanders ain’t always as sensible as regular people. Them that comes from the city don’t always know which way’s up and which way’s down.”
“Maybe we should say somethin’ to somebody,” Bessie said.
“Why?” Ruby Mae demanded. “Mr. Halliday had his chance to claim the gold.”
Bessie shrugged. “I don’t know. It just sort of feels a little like stealin’, Ruby Mae. And the preacher always says, ‘Thou shalt not steal.’”
“He also says, ‘finders, keepers.’”
“I ain’t never heard him say that,” Clara said.
“Well, if’n we asked him, he would say it,
I’m pretty sure.” Ruby Mae fingered the handkerchief. She didn’t like this ugly feeling inside her, not one little bit. “Look,” she pleaded, “even if’n it is Mr. Halliday’s gold— and I ain’t sayin’ it is—I got to talkin’ to him this mornin’. He’s got plenty of cash-money. He told me he’s met real, live princesses his own self. And presidents and rich folks. A few nuggets of gold won’t matter to him one way or the other.” She sighed. “Not the way they can matter to us. With that gold, we can make somethin’ of ourselves.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Bessie said.
“It’s true he ain’t said the gold’s his,” Clara conceded.
Ruby Mae slapped her thigh and stood up. “Exactly! Now, no more disagreein’. The Princess Club has got to stick together.”
Clara held up her hand. “Here’s the spot where we found Prince Egbert.” She opened the box she’d been carrying and gently set it on its side. Prince Egbert hopped out, blinked, and looked up at the girls.
“Without you, we might never have found the gold,” Clara said. “Thanks, Prince Egbert.”
Just then, the trees behind them rustled.
“That ain’t no breeze,” Clara whispered darkly.
A branch cracked. A bush shook.
“There’s somebody comin’!” Ruby Mae cried.
Out of the trees leapt Lundy Taylor. In his hand was a heavy rock.
“Well,” he sneered, “if’n it ain’t The Princess Club. Fancy the luck. Just so happens I’m lookin’ to join up.”