Mysterious Signal (24 page)

C
aleb jumped up, too, but he laid his hand on her arm. “Libby,” he said as gently as she’d ever heard him. “Peter can’t hear you.”

For Libby it was the final blow. “I could call and call. He could be standing right here. And he wouldn’t know!”

Tears ran down Libby’s cheeks. “Peter wanted to come with me. He wanted to help, and I was afraid for him. If he had come—” Desperate now, Libby broke down sobbing.

But Caleb cut in. “Remember what he said? Is Peter really a good swimmer?”

“He wanted to help me rescue the woman. I didn’t dare let him. I didn’t know if he really could swim.”

“But if he
is
a good swimmer—Libby, that changes everything!”

Suddenly Caleb’s words reached Libby’s frantic feelings. “We have to think,” she said, trying to make herself calm. “If Peter has managed to stay alive so far—”

For the first time since knowing Peter was gone, Libby remembered to look around for Dexter. She lowered her voice. “If Peter is still alive, he must be in the water, right?”

“Some place where he could hide,” Caleb said so quietly that Libby could barely hear him.

Now Caleb looked around. Neither Dexter nor his friend Slick were anywhere to be seen.

When Libby spoke again, only Caleb could hear. “Peter must be hidden, but hanging on to something. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Since the
Christina
hasn’t moved, he must be hiding next to one of the paddle wheels,” Caleb answered. “If the wheel turned, it would knock him in the head. That would be the end of him. But what if he was sure the
Christina
wasn’t going to move for a while?”

“The housing—the wood framework outside the paddle wheel. It would hide him.”

“That’s where he is!” Caleb exclaimed. “It has to be! If he was pushed off right here, he’s hanging on to the starboard paddle wheel.”

“The wheel away from the
James Mason
,” Libby said. “We’ve got to find him while we can still see.”

Caleb’s look was grim. “We’ve got to rescue him without Dexter or Slick seeing us.”

On the deck behind the starboard wheel was a pen for whatever animals were transported each trip. Libby and Caleb slipped quietly between four mules, under the railing, and into the river.

The bottom edge of the wheel housing came close to the water without touching it. When they swam behind the housing, they found less light there than outside.

In the dim light the giant blades of the paddle wheel hung down into the water. Huge beams formed crosspieces that
caught the water and propelled the boat forward. Caleb swam along one blade while Libby took the next.

Moment by moment it was growing darker. With it grew Libby’s concern.
What if we can’t see well enough to find Peter?

She was almost ready to turn around when she saw him clinging to the innermost side of the paddle wheel. Libby could just barely make out his head. His face was turned away from her, but she could see his blond hair.

Filled with relief, Libby was ready to call Caleb, then remembered how sound carried on water. As she started swimming toward Peter, she thought of something else.
What if I scare him?

Cautious now, Libby knew that if Peter turned, he would see her against the small amount of light left. Her face would be in darkness.
What if Peter thinks I’m Dexter and panics?

Treading water, Libby started to pray.
Lord, I need your help again
.

Hanging on to the paddle wheel, she searched her mind for ideas. At last she remembered Peter at Annika’s house. Peter leaning against the piano with his ear to the wood. Peter feeling the vibration of the music.

Still praying, Libby balled her right hand into a fist and pounded the crosspiece.

Suddenly Peter turned his head. “Libby?” His voice was little more than a whisper.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Libby pounded back.

“I’m here, Libby.”

As she reached Peter, Libby saw that his entire body trembled. Whether with fear or cold, he shook so hard that he clung to the crosspiece with both hands. As Libby laid her hand on
his arm, he took a deep breath but could not stop shaking.

When Caleb found them, he wrapped his arm around Peter’s shoulder. Together Libby and Caleb helped Peter along the crosspiece until he reached the outer edge of the wheel. There Caleb put his hand on Peter’s as though saying, “Wait.”

If we could only wait for dark—real darkness, not just twilight
, Libby thought, as Caleb swam outside the housing to take a look. Yet she knew they couldn’t. Peter’s teeth chattered, and his face looked pale.

Then Caleb returned. “We’ll go back the way we came,” he whispered to Libby. “When we get to the rail, you lift Peter from one side. I’ll lift from the other.”

When Caleb raised his arm above his head as though swimming, Peter’s teeth chattered so hard he could not speak, but he nodded.

With one on either side of Peter, Libby and Caleb swam the short distance to the deck behind the paddle wheel. Caleb lifted the bottom rail, and he and Libby helped Peter up. When he rolled onto the deck, Libby and Caleb followed him.

The moment Caleb replaced the rail, they led Peter through the pen into a part of the cargo area near the kitchen. There in an out-of-the way corner he could be safely hidden from view.

“I’ll get Peter some dry clothes,” Caleb said.

“I’ll tell Gran,” Libby answered. “She’ll bring him something warm to drink. Then I’ll find Pa.”

“Take care,” Caleb warned.

“I will,” Libby said. Never in her life had she meant a promise more.

When Libby left Gran, she crossed the cargo area and passed through the engine room on the port side of the
Christina
.

Coming out on deck, she saw that the
Christina
was still lashed to the
James Mason
. In the gray light after sunset, Jordan manned one of the pumps. Then, as Libby started toward the
Christina
’s front deck, a man took Jordan’s place.

Moments later Jordan stepped onto the
Christina
. Remembering that she needed to warn him about Dexter, Libby stopped.

Just then, near the bow, a man stood up. As though seeing the movement out of the corner of his eye, Jordan glanced that direction. In the next instant he started to run.

Dexter took one step toward Jordan, then seemed to have second thoughts.

Libby saw the look in Dexter’s eyes.
He’ll wait this time. He’ll wait for some dark moment when Jordan is alone
.

Whirling around, Dexter melted into the crowd. But Jordan took no chances. Like a deer fleeing for its life, he zigzagged between people and freight. As Libby raced after him, Jordan passed through the doorway into the engine room. In the next breath he ran straight into Caleb.

As Caleb staggered backward, Libby slammed the door shut. “We saw Dexter!” she said.

“I need to leave this boat!” Jordan exclaimed. “If I don’t, I’ll get Libby’s pa and everyone in trouble.”

“Both you and Peter need to leave.” Caleb told Jordan what had happened to Peter.

But now Libby remembered something else. “We’ve been so busy thinking about Dexter that we’ve forgotten Slick.” Not only had the counterfeiter walked round and round the hurricane deck as if he was looking for someone, he had come into the cargo area, again searching for someone. “Where is he?”

Caleb shook his head. “With three hundred people and all this freight on board, there are countless places to hide. He might be watching us even now. But from where?”

In the dim light of the engine room, Jordan looked over his shoulder. “The Lord is telling me, ‘Jordan, you get out of here fast.’”

“But the
James Mason
is stuck on a rock,” Libby said. “And we’re stuck with her. How can you get out of here?”

“I came in a barrel, and I’ll go in a barrel,” Jordan answered without a second thought. “But this time off the end of the boat.”

Libby stared at him. “And Peter too?”

“And Peter too.”

Just then, in the midst of everything else, Libby thought about the loan on the
Christina
. “At four o’clock tomorrow afternoon Pa’s payment is due. And he’s stuck in the rapids because he helped another boat!”

But Caleb knew what to do. “We’ll take the money with us when we leave.”

For the first time in hours Libby smiled. “
We
, you said. You and I will go with Jordan and Peter? We’ll guide the barrels to shore?”

Caleb grinned. “And make the payment in Galena.”

“Give me half an hour,” Libby answered. “I’ll try again to talk with Pa.”

“Jordan, you’re in charge of collecting food from Gran,” Caleb said. “I’ll get dry clothes for Peter.”

From the engine room, Libby crossed the cargo room to leave by a different door. She was still in her dripping wet clothes when she found Pa in his cabin. “We’re in trouble again,” she said.

As Libby told how she and Caleb and Samson rescued the mother and child, Pa turned white. When she described what Dexter had done to Peter, Pa slammed his fist into the palm of his other hand. Finally he started pacing the floor.

“I put my most trusted men on to looking for Dexter and Slick,” he said. “Yet the minute we were hung up with the accident, Dexter did his worst. I’ll double the men who are watching for them.”

“Jordan and Peter need to leave the
Christina
,” Libby answered.

Pa sighed but he agreed. “Do all of you understand how to do it safely?” he asked when he heard their plan. “Hang on to the chine, the ridge on the bottom of the barrel. Don’t fight the current. Swim with it to get to shore.”

When Pa stretched out his arm to hug her, Libby knew they had his permission. “Tell Caleb I want to talk with him before you go. I’ll pour on steam and follow you to Galena.”

Pa shook his head. “I should have made it in plenty of time. But I won’t take a chance on leaving those people on the
James Mason
. If something happened to them, I’d never forgive myself.” Then Pa grinned. “I suppose you want to take the money with you.”

Libby laughed. “Yes, Pa. We’d like to take the money with us.”

When her father left to get the money from the safe, Libby hurried to her room. Feeling her way around in the dark, she dressed in the boys’ shirt and overalls. With one quick jerk she pulled her braid from her hair and wrapped it in a cloth. As soon as she pushed the braid, a dress, and shoes into her knapsack, she was ready. But as Libby opened the door, she looked back.

A shaft of moonlight fell across the bed. As Libby stood there, her gaze followed the cream-colored path across the quilt. In that moment the quilt had greater meaning than ever before.

Bending down, Libby brushed her hand across it. Like a whisper on the night wind, she began to pray.
Jesus, I’ve always wanted to be safe, and I try hard to be careful. But there’s something I finally know. What really counts is having You with me. That’s what I want more than anything. So, Jesus, will You be with me—with us—no matter what?

After a quick goodbye to Annika, Libby raced down the stairs. This time she remembered to take a roundabout way to the cargo area. After talking with Pa, Caleb rolled two empty barrels to the part of the cargo room closest to the stern.

When Caleb tipped the barrels on their sides, Jordan and Peter crawled in. Libby gave each of them a money belt. She handed Peter her knapsack, and Caleb gave his to Jordan.

Already Caleb had shown Peter the air hole and how to get out of the barrel by himself. Now Caleb told Libby what to do with the tight-fitting lid.

“Peter can kick out the lid, or you can pull it off,” he said. “See the big air hole on the side? When your barrel floats steady, make sure the cork faces up. Signal Peter. He’ll push it out.”

When Caleb finished showing Libby, Caleb signed to Peter. “Ready?”

Peter grinned. “Ready.” He was dressed in dry clothes now. No longer shivering, he just seemed eager to get going.

Caleb set the lid in place, then tested it to be sure Peter understood. When Caleb knocked twice on the barrel, Peter felt the vibration against his body and pushed out the cork. When
Caleb knocked three times, Peter pushed out the lid.

This time it was Caleb who grinned his approval. Once again he set the lid in place.

“Don’t fight the current,” he now warned Libby as Pa had. “Let it carry you downstream, but keep swimming toward the Iowa shore. We’ll walk upriver from there.”

The minute Jordan was ready, Caleb and Libby rolled the barrels out the door onto the narrow deck at the stern. The water was only a foot or so below the deck. For a moment they waited, letting their eyes grow used to the darkness. Then Libby rolled Peter’s barrel off the edge.

CHAPTER 20