Voyage of the Dolphin (10 page)

G
ant left early in the morning, his booming voice saying, “I'll be back with a horse and carriage late tonight. Tomorrow I'll leave to sell that pretty little doll of yours.”

Josh looked at Abbey. She turned white and looked up at Dave, who was standing beside her. “It frightens me to think of it, Dave. Just think what it'll be like being all alone in a cage somewhere. I won't have you or any of the others to talk to.”

Dave put his arm around her and drew her close. His voice was husky as he said, “Somehow I know it's going to be all right. Every jam we've gotten into looked like it was impossible to get out of at the time, but Goél always made a way.”

“But all the other times we were on some kind of quest for Goél,” Abbey said quietly. “This time we're just on a vacation.”

Dave's handsome face was totally serious, and Josh thought he had grown up a great deal over the past months. Now his blue eyes were filled with compassion for the girl. “Somehow,” he said, “I don't think Goél is interested in us only when we're doing his work. He's interested in us all the time. He likes us just for ourselves.”

“Do you think that, Dave?”

“Sure I do, and he'll somehow get us out of this fix too.”

Late that afternoon Olina took a nap, and the Sleepers,
having nothing to do, lay around resting. A cloud of sadness hung over the cage.

Most of them were asleep, but Abbey and Jake were restless and talked quietly. Abbey knew that Jake knew she was worried. He did not allude to the fact that she would be taken away first but told her stories about his boyhood in Oldworld, trying to make her laugh.

But Abbey could not put out of her mind the future that seemed so dark, and after a while both fell silent.

Then, “I just wish we'd never come on this trip,” Jake said moodily.

“So do I,” Abbey agreed. “I've complained so much about some of the things that have happened to us on our adventures, but this is absolutely the worst.”

“Hey, guess what! Guess what!”

The two looked up at Wash, who had been lying on a pad made out of one of Olina's handkerchiefs. He was sitting up and scratching his head, and there was a strange look in his eye. “I just had a dream.”

“A nightmare?” Jake asked.

“No, no, it was a good dream. I dreamed about Goél.”

“Tell us about it!” Abbey and Jake exclaimed at once. So many times in the past when things had been absolutely bleak, Goél had come to them—either in person or in a dream but always to bring encouragement.

Wash looked at them blankly. “I can't remember I was just asleep, you know, and I seemed to see him like he always looks. He has such a nice, kind face, but I can't remember anything else.”

“What good is a dream like that?” Jake demanded. “It's important when Goél talks to us. You've
got
to remember.”

“Well, I can't help it,” Wash said, looking half angry at himself. Always before, the others had known exactly
what Goél said. “It's right on the edge of my mind, but I just can't get hold of it.”

“Maybe you'll think of it soon. Try hard. It's real important,” Abbey pleaded.

“Yeah, yeah, I'll do that. I'll think
real
hard.”

After Olina's nap, she took them outside. They went for a ride on the board in the pond, and a fish, almost as large as the boat, came up and stared at Wash and Abbey as they poled around.

“Did you think of it yet, Wash? What Goél said?”

“Not yet,” he said, “but I'm working on it.”

All afternoon Abbey tried to make the sun slow down. But it seemed to be falling rapidly, and she knew this would be her last night with her friends unless a miracle happened.

The others all seemed sober too. Their turn was coming, but she knew they all felt especially sorry for her, who would be the first to go.

Reb tried to make her laugh. There was a hen that was interested in the small people. She was much higher than Reb's head and had a sharp beak. She came by and pecked at him, and Reb slapped her on the head, then grabbed her around the neck. The hen began to cluck and flutter away, but Reb threw himself over the bird's back.

“Come on, chicken!” he said. “Let's see some good old-time Texas-style bucking!”

The Sleepers gathered around, watching as the chicken ran wildly around the yard. They were inside a small fence and could not escape, so Olina let them have their fun. Reb hollered and jerked off the Stetson that he had preserved through the shipwreck and, holding onto a handful of feathers, yelled shrilly, “Come on, let's see some bucking!”

The poor hen, however, had never had anything like this happen to her before. She flapped about in circles, clucking wildly.

Everyone was laughing, even Abbey.

Finally Reb patted the hen on the head. “You're all right, old girl,” he said. “Not much of a bucker, but you'd sure make a big platter of fried chicken.” He slipped to the ground and walked over to Abbey. “How about you having a ride, Abbey? I'll hold this critter down for you.”

“No, thank you, Reb.” She smiled. “Nice of you to offer, but I've never had much of a desire to ride a chicken.”

As it grew darker, Olina put the Sleepers into their box and took them back into the house. While she helped her mother set the table, the Sleepers as usual sat at their own little table on their rough chairs.

By chance, they had fried chicken for supper. Olina took one leg and put it in the middle of the table and laughed as the Sleepers stared at it. “There's your supper. You want me to cut it up for you?”

“You'll have to,” Reb shouted. “That leg's as big as an ox.”

Olina took a sharp knife and cut the meat into small fragments. She also spooned out some gravy into a small bowl, and they all dipped their bread into it.

Abbey was not eating; she was glad no one said anything to her about it.

Just as they were finishing, she heard Gant's voice, and he entered, talking excitedly about the wagon and the horses he'd bought.

“I'll leave first thing in the morning,” he said, squeezing his wife and mussing Olina's hair. “When I come back, I'll have enough gold to buy the best pony you ever saw.”

That spoiled the evening for all of the Sleepers, and everyone seemed glad when Olina put them into their cage. The door was always firmly fastened at the top with
a latch that none of them could reach. They had tried every way they could think of but had found no way to get at it.

Finally the giants were in bed, and silence fell over the house. It was then that Abbey began to cry. She made no noise about it for a while, then finally could not contain a sob.

At that Sarah reached over and pulled her close. “Don't cry,” she said. “Please don't cry.”

“I can't help it! I can't stand the thought of being all alone!”

“It scares me too. The rest of us will go the same way if Gant has his way.”

Then the Sleepers all gathered on the girls' side of the partition, drawn together by their mutual peril. They stood and talked softly for a long time—all except Wash, who sat with his back to the side of the cage, his head bowed. He was obviously thinking hard.

Josh tried to encourage them all. Then he said, “I'm sorry—I'm not much of a leader to get us into a thing like this.”

“Why, it's not your fault, Josh,” Sarah said. “We all wanted to come.”

“Yes, and nobody could have known how a thing like this would wind up,” Dave added. “Besides, it's not over yet.”

Jake shook his head stubbornly. He was pessimistic by nature and said, “Well, it's almost over. I hate to see that morning sun—”

“I got it!”

Abbey and everyone else turned and looked at Wash, who was scrambling to stand up. “I'm a pretty slow thinker, but I just finally remembered what it was that Goél said to me.”

“What was it?” they all cried, their eyes fixed on the boy's dark face.

“Well, it just all come rushing back while I was sitting here,” he said slowly. His eyes glowed, and he smiled. “He told me that he hadn't forgotten about us. Said that he knew all about our trip here, all about the shipwreck. I guess he knows everything.” Wash shook his head in admiration. “I dreamed I asked him, ‘But Goél, how're we going to get out of here?'”

“And what did he say?” Jake demanded.

“He said, ‘All you need is to do a little more fishing.'”

Silence ran around the group. The Sleepers looked at each other, then their eyes came back to Wash.

“What does
that
mean?” Jake said. “We need to do a little more fishing?”

“Well, I don't know about that, but that's what he said in my dream.”

“That's no good,” Jake said. He flung himself down and struck the side of the cage with his fist. “You just ate too much of something.”

“I don't think so,” Josh said slowly. He seemed to be thinking hard. “Goél has always come like this, sometimes in person but sometimes in a dream. The first time he came to me, we were in a jail. I didn't know him very well, but he came, and I saw him, but nobody else could. I think this is like that.”

“I think so too,” Sarah said quickly. “Somehow, he's trying to tell us something.”

“Well, I wish he'd just come out and tell us instead of hinting around.” Jake grunted. “It's too scary around here to fool around with guessing.”

“I think he likes us to figure out things for ourselves,” Sarah said slowly. She tapped her chin thoughtfully with her forefinger. “Going fishing—going fishing—what in the world could that mean?”

“Well, it's too late to go fishing anyway. We can't go unless Olina takes us.”

“It's too late to go to the pond or the river,” Josh said, “but did he mean that?”

“What other kind of fishing is there?”

They thought hard and began to walk around the cage. Fishing.
Fishing!
It was like a game in which a riddle had to be solved.

“Goél said we had to go fishing—no, he said we had to do a little
more
fishing. What kind of fishing have we done already?” Josh was muttering out loud.

“The only fishing I know is fishing for fish,” Jake said.

“Well, I've got my line here. I don't know why, but I brought it back with me,” Wash said.

Abbey knew that the boys usually left their lines down by the creek. She watched Wash move over to his sleeping place and pull out the line with the hook Reb had fashioned.

“We're ready to go fishing if we just had some water” He looked around and then suddenly slapped his forehead. “We don't need no water!”

“What is it?” Abbey cried. “What do you mean, we don't need water? You have to have water for fish.”

“But we ain't gonna fish for fish,” Wash said. “We're gonna fish … for
that!”

Wash ran up to the side of the barred cage. The slats extended far over their heads. The bottom was a board. The top was wire netting. “Right up there is the catch that holds that wire top on this old cage. They always lock it— right there. I've seen Olina do it.”

“So have I,” Josh said. “They put some kind of a pin in it to hold it shut. But what are you—”

“I've
seen that!” Reb said. He looked up. “All we've got to do is climb up there, let down the line, hook that pin, and yank it out. Then we could lift the wire top off, and
then
we'd be out of this here pokey.”

“That's it! That's what Goél meant!” Wash cried. “Quick! Let's see about gettin' out of here!”

The Sleepers had never tried to go up the sides of the cage before, and the climb up the bars looked too far for any of them.

“We've got to get up there and stand on that wire mesh,” Wash said. “Then we can lean out through the wire and let the hook down.”

“But how do we get up there?” Jake rubbed a slat and shook his head doubtfully. “It's straight up and down, and we're just not big enough.”

“I know how we can do it,” Abbey said. “I
knew
that being a cheerleader would come in handy someday.”

“Being a cheerleader?” Josh stared at her. “What does that have to do with getting out of this place?”

“Why, we used to make a pyramid. You've seen cheerleaders do that.” Her eyes were bright. “What we used to do was, three of us girls would stand together, two would get on our shoulders, then the littlest one would get up on top of those two. We could go three high that way.”

“You know, I think that might work,” Josh exclaimed. He looked around. “We'll put the biggest of us on the bottom and then the smaller ones as we go up.” He measured the distance with his eye. “That's awfully far up—but we'll try it! It'll have to be like you said, Abbey—a pyramid.”

He stood thinking hard. “OK! Here's what we'll do. Dave, you and Reb and I are about the same size. We'll form the base of the pyramid. Jake, you and Wash will get up on our shoulders. Just put your feet right there. We can hold you.” He turned to the girls. “It will take two more steps on this pyramid to get to the top. Sarah, you'll have to climb up and stand on Jake and Wash.”