Mysterious Signal (12 page)

“Is there anyone you know in this city?” the marshal asked kindly.

Annika
, Libby thought. Feeling as if she were drowning and someone had thrown her a rope, Libby remembered Annika.

“Yes,” Libby answered. But then another thought leaped into her mind.
Annika works with the Underground Railroad. She took Jordan and Micah in. What if I get her in trouble?

“Yes?” the marshal asked hopefully.

“Yes, I mean, no.” Libby stumbled over the words, then wailed, “Oh no, I’m not supposed to lie!”

A puzzled look entered the marshal’s eyes. “Why don’t you tell me your name?”

“My name.” As though every thought had fled her brain, Libby stared at the man. “My name.”

“Yes, your name. Can you manage that?”

Suddenly Libby gagged. Frantically she covered her mouth with her hands.

“He’s pretending—” the shopkeeper accused.

Turning in his direction, Libby gagged again. This time she was very sick.

CHAPTER 10

W
hen it was over, Marshal Croon spoke to the shopkeeper. “Is there anyone minding your store?”

For the first time at a loss for words, the shopkeeper shook his head. Turning, he headed for the door.

Standing up, the marshal walked around his desk. A pail of water stood on a bench near the door.

“You’ll feel better if you wash up,” the marshal told Libby as he poured water into a basin.

Libby took her time and spent every moment trying to think what to do. Like a squirrel running around in a cage, her mind flew from one thought to the next.

From where she stood, Libby could see the two cells and the rough-looking men. As fear washed over her, Libby began to pray.
Jesus, I’m in big trouble. I believe in You, and You better help me out
.

When she finished splashing water on her face, Libby saw that the marshal had taken another bucket of water and cleaned up the floor. Once again he sat behind his desk. This time he motioned for her to sit down in a chair.

The chair faced him, and Libby felt as if she were sitting on eggs instead of wood. But then Marshal Croon said, “Now,
I want you to tell me what happened this morning. Without getting all nervous, just tell me the truth.”

Libby drew a deep breath. “This morning I went to two stores. At the first store I bought cloth.”

“Cloth?”

“To make a money belt.”

“So you have a lot of money to carry around.”

“Yes.” Libby gulped, knowing she had said the wrong thing again. “I mean, no.”

The marshal’s eyes seemed to cut right through Libby’s brain. “You don’t look like the kind of person who has a lot of money.”

“Oh, but I am,” Libby said quickly, again without thinking.

“No wonder the shopkeeper brought you in!” the marshal exclaimed. “For a moment I thought you might be innocent.”

“I am,” Libby said again. “Really, I
am
innocent.”

“Then you’d better start proving it very quickly. I’m having more and more trouble being convinced.”

Maybe I better not tell Jesus what to do
, Libby thought.
Maybe I should ask Him instead
. This time she prayed,
Jesus, I just want to be safe. Will You help me?

“Why don’t you start by telling me the whole truth right from the beginning?” asked the marshal.

Even Libby knew that would take too long. Instead, she started at Springfield and worked forward from that.

“And are you traveling around the state of Illinois by yourself?” Marshal Croon asked finally.

“I have a friend. If I can find him, that is. His name is Caleb.”

With that the marshal sighed. “Why didn’t you say so in
the first place?” Looking as relieved as Libby felt, he stood up. “Where might we find this Caleb?”

They tried the newspaper office first, and that’s where he was. When Libby walked in, Caleb held up a newspaper. From the excited look on his face, Libby felt sure the editor had published his letter. But then Caleb’s glance shifted from Libby to the city marshal and back to Libby again.

Caleb’s excitement faded. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

Marshal Croon asked Caleb to follow him to the station. When they walked inside, the room still smelled.

As Caleb sniffed, he looked at Libby. “You?” he asked with a grin. “No hiccups, just sick, huh?” More than once Libby had gotten hiccups when she felt nervous.

Embarrassed again, she avoided Caleb’s eyes. It was bad enough looking like a boy—a homeless waif at that. It was even worse being dragged through the main street of town to the police station. But to have Caleb tease her besides—

“Have a chair.” Marshal Croon broke into Libby’s thoughts. “I’ll be right back.”

The moment the man left, Libby tried to tell Caleb what happened. “The marshal thinks I passed counterfeit money.”

“Oh, is that all?” Caleb glanced around and lowered his voice. “I thought something had gone wrong with the Underground Railroad.”

“Something
has
gone wrong.” She felt even more upset.

“No, I mean something serious.”

“You don’t think this is serious?” Libby couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “After all I’ve been through—”

But Caleb was already opening the newspaper. “Look!” He spread it out on the desk. “They published my letter to the editor.
It’s the very first thing I’ve had in print!”

As Libby read what Caleb wrote, she saw that it was a fine letter. But she was in no mood to tell him so.

“And here—” Caleb pointed to the words printed beneath the letter. “The editor wrote this—”

Libby stared at the words:

In that moment the marshal returned. To Libby’s amazement Caleb sorted out all that had happened to them. Quickly he told about the gambling on the train and the men who blocked the aisles so that women and children couldn’t get through. By the time Caleb finished, Libby felt sure that the leader of the group was passing counterfeit bills around.

Somehow Caleb even avoided any hint of the Underground Railroad. He made good sense without telling too much. Strangely that made Libby even more angry.

“Do you have any friends here in town?” the marshal asked Caleb.

“Annika Berg,” Caleb answered as if he had known Annika all his life instead of two days.

“Annika?” The marshal turned to Libby. “She’s one of my good friends.” The way the young man spoke her name, Libby felt sure that he liked Annika.

Without wasting another minute the marshal stood up. “Let’s go see Annika. If she tells me you’re honest, I’ll take her word for it.”

But Libby was still angry with Caleb. She couldn’t believe how he could act so calm in the midst of such difficulty. “Don’t you get upset at anything?” she whispered on the way there.

“Only if it’s worth it.”

Caleb’s self-satisfied grin upset Libby even more. “Just once,” she hissed. “Just once, Caleb Whitney! I would like to see you get nervous and upset and throw up and—”

When they reached Annika’s front door, the young man knocked as if he had been there a thousand times before. As Annika opened the door, a welcome smile lit her face. “Well, hello, Mark!” She didn’t seem surprised to see him there. Then Annika’s glance took in Libby and Caleb.

“I’m here on business,” the city marshal explained as Annika invited them inside. “Are these friends of yours?”

“Why, yes,” Annika said quickly.

“You would trust them?”

“With what?” Annika asked, puzzled now.

The marshal’s glance took in Libby. “To not pass counterfeit bills knowingly.”

“Counterfeit bills!” Annika shook her head. “No, Mark, you don’t have to worry about that. If such a thing happened, it was not intentional.”

“Good!” The young man smiled, obviously glad that his business was over.

“Would you like a glass of lemonade?” Annika asked, and he followed her into the kitchen.

When Annika had poured lemonade for everyone, the marshal held open the door for her to go out on the side porch. Libby and Caleb took the hint and stayed in the kitchen. But they sat where they could see what was going on.

“Did you notice something?” Libby whispered to Caleb. “Annika never said my name. She never said he or she.”

“Did you notice something else?” Caleb asked. “Marshal Croon seemed awfully glad to have a reason to visit Annika.”

Through the doorway Libby was watching him. “I think he likes her. I think he wants to marry her.”

It made Libby see Annika in a new light. Not just as a courageous, beautiful station agent for the Underground Railroad. Not even as a new friend. But as someone who spoke the truth.
Maybe she really means it when she says she’ll only marry a man of God
.

As Marshal Croon started to leave, Caleb told him about Dexter. “He escaped from jail in Springfield, and we’ve seen him here in town.” When Caleb gave a description, the marshal promised to keep a sharp lookout for Dexter.

But after the young man left, Annika told them, “Dexter was here while you were gone. While you were with Mark, Dexter managed to find a man who gave him a search warrant.”

“A search warrant?” Libby asked. “Dexter searched both the house and the barn?”

Annika nodded. “He wanted to see everything.”

“Did Dexter find Peter?”

“Of course not. Peter hid in our upstairs room.”

“He must have been really scared,” Libby said.

“I don’t think so,” Annika said.

“What about the barn?” Caleb asked. “Did Dexter find anything there?”

“Yes, he did.” Annika’s pleased smile matched the laughter in her eyes. “Dexter found two barrels that had nothing in them but air.”

“Where is Peter now?” Libby hadn’t seen him since breakfast, and that seemed years ago.

“Out in the barn,” Annika said. “He figured out a better way to hide the door to where fugitives stay. He asked if I wanted him to fix it.”

“Peter?” Libby asked. “He’s only ten years old.”

Annika smiled. “Wait till you see what he’s doing. He may be ten years old, but he has an inventor’s heart.”

“Well, it’s good we can travel tomorrow,” Caleb said. “Jordan and his father are supposed to return on the morning train from Chicago.”

“They’ll be coming in barrels?” Libby asked.

Caleb nodded.

“And they’ll travel that way to the
Christina
?”

Again Caleb nodded.

Just thinking about the
Christina
made Libby lonesome. Strange how quickly the steamboat had become home. But then Libby knew what it was. The
Christina
was where her father was. “I can hardly wait to see Pa again,” she said.

“Talking about your father, we need to see if there’s a message from him,” Caleb answered. “Before we left Springfield, I sent a telegram asking him to send any message here. Want to go with me?”

Libby shook her head. Right now Libby didn’t want to even think about facing the world. “I want to stay where it’s nice and safe.” With all that had happened, she had almost forgotten about Dexter. Now Libby felt grateful for the short overalls and bent-out-of-shape hat she wore when dragged down the main street.