CHAPTER 17 CHAPTER 17 
In the silence that followed, not even little Rose made a sound. Finally Sam McGrady spoke. “The boy pulled me from the river. The narrow strip of water between the boat and the shore.”
“You fool!” exclaimed the other outlaw. “You just made a little slip, and you is going to give all that money away?”
“I wore heavy wet clothes,” Sam said. “The water was cold.”
“He’s a slave boy! You don’t owe him nothin’!”
“I had one chance to come up. My breath was knocked out.”
“I tell you, Sam. He’s just a no count slave boy.”
“I was heavy, but he was really strong. He lifted me up on the gangplank.”
“You don’t owe him nothin’! I tell you, Sam. You don’t owe him nothin’!”
“I do.” The rasp was still in McGrady’s voice, but it sounded less hard. “The boy is right.”
“Do you know what you’re giving away? A two-hundred-dollar reward!”
“I would have been dead,” McGrady answered.
“All that money—just throwing it away? Well, I’m not such a fool! All the rest are mine. I’m taking the woman and the children. And I’m selling them to the highest bidder I find!”
“No, you ain’t.” Jordan’s words shot out like bullets. “I expects you to let my people go.”
When the silence stretched long, it was Sam McGrady who broke it. “His family goes with him,” he said.
Without looking away from McGrady, Jordan called into the wagon. “Git down, Momma!”
Moving quickly, Jordan’s family climbed down from the back of the wagon. Serena. Zack. Hattie. Then with her mother’s help, little Rose. As they stood behind the wagon, the two outlaws climbed up to the high seat at the front. Sam McGrady took the reins.
Jordan faced him. “One more question. Does you value your life?”
“I value my life.” McGrady’s voice was angry now but low, as if he didn’t want the other outlaw to hear.
“Then I wants you to do something more,” Jordan said. “When you git across the border, leave the horses and wagon where honest folk can find ’em.”
Instead of answering, Sam McGrady flicked the reins.
As the peddler’s wagon moved away, Jordan and his family slipped into the bushes at the side of the road. Caleb waited until the wagon disappeared from sight, then hurried across the road after Jordan. Within a few minutes Caleb and Libby caught up to the family.
Caleb clapped Jordan on the back. “They’re gone!” Caleb said. “But I wonder if Sam McGrady will stick to his end of the bargain.”
Jordan shook his head as if he too had his doubts. “We ain’t goin’ to take a chance on trustin’ him.”
Caleb agreed. “Sam might still want the whole reward for himself. If he does, he’ll ditch the other outlaw and hunt for us again.”
Just thinking about it, Libby felt afraid. But Jordan knew what he wanted to do. Instead of following a road, he cut across country, using the woods to hide from whoever might search for them. The rest of them followed single file with Zack and Serena close behind Jordan and his mother carrying little Rose next. Then came Libby with Caleb last.
They walked where there was no path, up steep hills, then down again. Libby’s eyes grew used to the darkness, but she felt confused by the tall trees. Before long, she lost all sense of direction. But Jordan walked straight ahead as if he had been this way a thousand times before.
Feeling more bewildered all the time, Libby watched him. Again and again Jordan looked up to the night sky. When they stopped for a moment to rest, Libby asked how he knew the way.
“I is following the North Star.” Jordan told her how to find it. “Look for the drinkin’ gourd.” He pointed up to the Big Dipper. The two stars on the right side of the dipper—the side away from the handle—pointed to the North Star.
As they hurried on again, Libby thought about their enemies. Mr. Weaver. Sam McGrady. The Fox River outlaws. Plus any slave catcher who might see or know about Jordan and his family.
Libby had no doubt that slave catchers would patrol the border between Iowa and Missouri. More than once Caleb had told her that catchers watched the border in order to collect the reward offered for fugitives.
Whenever he had the choice, Jordan followed the steep, narrow valleys called ravines. Libby hoped the high banks on either side hid them from view. The muscles in her legs ached now, and she wondered if she could walk another step. Even worse, what Jordan was trying to do seemed impossible. How could he and his family ever find their way to safety and freedom?
Then like a whisper on the night wind, Libby remembered the promise. “When I am weak, then am I strong.”
Looking up at the stars, Libby began to pray. “I am weak, Jesus. I’m tired and really scared. If I feel that way, what about Serena and Zack and little Rose? If they get caught, they’ll lose their family—maybe even their lives.
“And what about Hattie—up all last night praying for her children? She’s carried Rose mile after mile! But You promised, Jesus. You promised to help all of us. You promised that when we are weak, You will make us strong. Make us strong, Jesus! Make us strong!”
After a time, Libby remembered Caleb’s whisper to Jordan. “What’s at Keosauqua?” she asked.
“A crossing on the Des Moines River. An Underground Railroad station. I wanted Jordan to know about it in case the outlaws headed there.”
“How do you learn about all these places?” Libby asked.
“I found out about Keosauqua because of something the town did. A fugitive slave and her children were hiding in a cornfield.” Caleb’s glance took in Hattie and her children. “The woman had walked all the way from a plantation in the state of Mississippi. Though she had reached a free state, she was still afraid of slave catchers. She didn’t dare ask for help, and she and her children were starving. When the people of Keosauqua learned that she was hiding in the field, they went to her and brought the family to safety.”
Jordan had led their group for three or four hours when a cloud passed over the moon. Looking up, Libby saw other clouds darker than the night sky. One by one, they swept across the stars.
What will Jordan do? Libby wondered as her scared feelings came back. Without the North Star, how will he know the way?
But Jordan kept walking. Often he leaned forward to feel the bark of a tree. Whenever he found moss on the trunk, he moved on again, sure which way was north.
Before long, a drop of rain splashed against Libby’s cheek. As she and the others came out of the woods to cross an open area, Libby felt more raindrops splat against her arms. Then came another and another. The rain that had threatened the day before was now here. Though Libby saw no lightning, thunder rumbled in the distance.
At first the rain came gently, offering welcome relief after the warmth of the day before. Then the gentle rain turned into soft pinpricks. Soon the wind drove the rain against Libby’s face until it hurt.
By now Libby was angry. The harder it rained, the more upset she felt. Finally she cried out to God. “Jordan asked You to protect us! Where’s Your protection now?”
Holding Rose against her chest, Hattie crossed her arms over the child’s head. Zack clutched Jordan’s hand, taking three steps to Jordan’s two. From all around came the sound of running water as creeks became torrents and new streams found their way down steep hillsides.
Grabbing Serena’s hand, Libby bent her head against the wind, squinted her eyes against the rain, and kept on. Here in the open, the rain cut slantwise against them, but Jordan still kept on. As though he walked this way every day, he never slowed his pace. But Jordan had no path, no trail, no road. He just knew where to go.
Then, as suddenly as it came, the rain stopped. As Libby looked around, she saw water streaming down the side of Serena’s face. Her thin sack dress hung about her knees, and she shivered with cold. Yet her bare feet followed her brother with sure, strong steps.
As the darkness of night changed to the gray light of dawn, Jordan stopped on a rise. Raising his arms, he lifted his hands toward heaven. “Thank You, Lord!”
His quiet voice seemed to fill the earth. “Hallelujah!”
Only then did Libby understand what had happened. Only then did she remember that the rain had erased their tracks. No one needed to tell her, “That downpour washed away your scent for any bloodhound who might follow.” No one needed to say, “You aren’t safe yet, but right now the bloodhounds can’t follow Jordan’s family.”
Soon after Jordan went on again, they came to another thickly wooded area. There Jordan began to search for a place where they could rest during the day. He found it near the bottom of a tucked-away ravine. “Git branches,” he told all of them.
Together they hurried to find small branches blown down during the storm. In a hollow between two trees, Jordan and Caleb laid the branches so they appeared to have just fallen. Soon the branches and leaves offered a large enough shelter to hide the family.
While Libby watched in one direction, Caleb watched another. On her hands and knees, Jordan’s mother crept into the hiding place. With little Rose safely in her arms, Hattie lay down to rest. Serena and Zack and Jordan crawled into the space beside her. Soon they were all asleep.
“Eat now,” Caleb told Libby and the others in late afternoon. “We’re close to the border. Right here the Des Moines River is a dividing line between Iowa and Missouri. We need to catch a ferry on its last run before dark.”
And what if we don’t? Libby wondered. She felt afraid to think about it.
But Serena was excited. “We is goin’ into the Promised Land?” she asked.
“Iowa be a free state,” Jordan told her. “But you won’t be safe yet.”
Hattie looked relieved to be this far, but Libby felt sure that she also knew the dangers ahead. Both Jordan and Caleb had told her about the slave catchers who roamed up and down the border to catch runaways.
As they finished eating, Hattie spoke to Libby. “I wants to thank you for comin’ to my room and warnin’ me about Zack.” Whenever Hattie turned toward her younger son, a glad light shone in her eyes. Then her gaze rested on Libby’s hair.
“When I was prayin’, the Lord gave me a warnin’ about you. Your hair be mighty pretty, Libby, but if we ain’t careful, it goin’ to get us in trouble.”
“People notice my hair, don’t they?” Libby remembered Melanie’s anger. If Mr. Weaver doesn’t remember how I look, Melanie will tell him.
“Does you have a sun bonnet with you?” Hattie asked.
When Libby pulled it out of the bag she carried on her back, Jordan’s mother told her, “Then I got what you need.” Hattie opened the small bag Libby had noticed before.
Libby started to giggle. “Is it flour?” she asked. “That will make my hair look dull and lifeless!”
Hattie smiled. “You’ll look as harmless as a baby kitten.”
Sweeping her long hair up and away from her face, Libby tied it in a knot. Hattie sprinkled the flour over Libby’s head and worked it into her hair. Then Hattie tucked the leftover strands inside the back of Libby’s collar.
“You is goin’ to be full of flour, child,” Hattie warned as Libby put on her bonnet. “But if we lets your hair swing free, all the flour might ride out.”
When they started walking again, Jordan kept looking at the sky. As the sun dipped lower and lower in the west, he picked up his pace.
“What if we don’t make the ferry on time?” Libby asked Caleb as they hurried along.
“We’d have to wait till morning.” Clearly Caleb didn’t like that idea. “Worst of all, we’d have to cross the river in daylight.”
Libby glanced around. Here in the deep woods, it would soon be dark. Since their escape from the farm, the woods had given shelter to Jordan’s family. But those same hills and woods offered all kinds of hideaways for outlaws.
“It’s a bad spot,” Caleb said as though hearing Libby’s thoughts. “The Fox River outlaws have seven crossings on the Des Moines River and four on the Mississippi. When they commit a crime in Missouri, they use the crossings to escape to Iowa and Illinois. There’s a good chance we’ll find a thief somewhere around here.”
“Or have him find us.” Libby dreaded the idea. “It’s no wonder you had trouble getting rid of Sam McGrady on the way down. He must have been going close to where you wanted to be.”
“And I bet he knows this country like the back of his hand,” Caleb said.
When they came to the edge of the woods, Jordan’s family had their first look at the Des Moines River. Though both Serena and Zack knew the danger of speaking aloud, they gazed across the river with excitement in their faces.
But Caleb and Jordan looked upset. Up and down the river, for as far as Libby could see, there was no ferry.
“Which way does we go?” Jordan whispered.
Caleb shook his head. They had come out at the river, but at a different place than planned. Staying within the line of trees, Caleb stared at the broad, deep waters. Usually calm, he seemed more nervous by the moment.
“You go one direction, and I’ll go another,” he whispered to Jordan. Whoever found the ferry would call like an owl.
Every minute we stay here, the more chance we have of being found, Libby thought.
Searching for a better hiding place, Hattie moved her family farther back into the woods. Libby followed them, but as time grew long, she crept back toward the river where she could see the sun. Already it had dropped behind the trees in the west. With growing dread Libby watched the light sink lower and lower.
Then an owl hooted from upstream. From downstream Caleb answered with another hoot.
We’ll make it! Libby thought as she looked in the direction Jordan had gone. If his family followed the flat, pebbly ground close to the river, they would make better time than in the woods. But as Libby started back to them, she glanced downstream. Just then a man on horseback rode out of the woods.
Afraid again, Libby stepped behind a tree to watch. The man gazed at the water as if wondering about a way across. But Libby had no time to waste. Avoiding sticks that would snap and break, she hurried deeper into the woods.
Soon Libby met Jordan’s mother. She too had heard the owl and knew what it meant. As Hattie led her family upstream, Libby fell in behind them. Again and again she looked back over her shoulder.
As they walked, the light faded and the woods grew dark. Soon even the gray twilight that followed sundown would not help them. But just as Libby was ready to give up, Jordan found them.
“Where’s Caleb?” he whispered.
Libby explained that she had seen a man between them and Caleb. “You better keep going,” she said.
“And leave Caleb?”
“He would want you to,” Libby said. “If you don’t, all that you’ve tried to do might be lost.”
Still Jordan did not want to go on.
“Maybe he’ll catch up,” Libby said.
Turning, Jordan started back upstream with his family walking close behind him. In the last gray light, they reached the ferry. Already the owner was loosening one of the ropes.
As the others stayed inside the line of trees, Libby ran forward. “Seven passengers,” she said.
When the man named his price, Libby dug down into the bag she carried. Suddenly she realized that she had no money!
Fumbling around, Libby searched her bag for something to sell. Drawings? No. She didn’t have any more. When she found the bracelet Mrs. Weaver had given her, Libby held it up.
But the owner of the ferry shook his head. “I ain’t got no use for the likes of that. I got a family to feed.” Turning his back on Libby, he walked over to another post and untied the second rope.
Palms up, as though asking what to do, Libby looked toward the woods. In that moment Jordan stepped out, followed by his family. As they hurried onto the ferry, Jordan took a coin from his pocket. The man stared up into his face, bit the coin, then nodded.
“I is paying for my friend too,” Jordan said.
“It’s enough,” the man answered.
Just then Caleb raced out of the woods. As he leaped onto the ferry, the owner pushed off. They were halfway across the river before Caleb caught his breath.
As the twilight faded into darkness, Libby stared at Jordan. “Where did you ever get enough money to pay for all of us?”
Jordan straightened, wearing the proud look that reminded Libby of royalty. “Your pa been paying me for my work. When he gives me money, he says, ‘Jordan, it be good havin’ your help. You earned this.’”
Jordan turned toward his mother. “I been savin’ the money for my family.”
As tears welled up in Libby’s eyes, she glanced toward Caleb. For the first time since she had known him, Caleb could not hide his feelings.
As the ferry drew close to the Iowa side of the river, Caleb spoke in a low voice. “Just do what I do,” he told Jordan and his family. “And do it as fast as you can.”
The moment the ferry touched land, Caleb was off. Like shadows in the night, Jordan’s family followed, their bare feet making no sound. One instant after they reached a hiding place, Libby heard noise from the river side of the bushes.
Crouching low, she and the others waited. Peered between the branches. Across the river, lanterns swung back and forth. Then the lanterns moved down to the dock where they had taken the ferry.
From their hiding place Libby heard the mournful baying of bloodhounds. So! Mr. Weaver guessed where we’d come, even if his dogs didn’t track us.
With their half howl, half bark, the baying dogs filled the night with fear. Waiting in the darkness, Libby shivered.