The Mystery of the Canebrake Read online

  Well, everybody really liked that plan, because there weren’t nobody that didn’t just hate that sorry Homer Ray, and just the idea that we were all gonna shoot at him had our army tickled to death.

  Me and the rest of the generals ran up and down the line telling our army what to do and by the time I reached the end of the line everybody was screaming and shaking their slingshots at the Blue Army. Wow, I could just feel the excitement in the air as both armies screamed and yelled at each other. All 80 kids had blood in their eyes and they couldn’t wait to tie into the other army.

  “Everybody get ready to charge!” I screamed to my generals, “Forward—march! Everybody spread out, and get the two little kids that are carrying the flags in the center and out front!

  “Slow down, don’t run! Put a rock in your slingshot, and get ready!” I screamed. The two smaller kids carrying our flags moved out in front. A slight wind was blowing the flags, and everybody was yelling, shaking their slingshots, and moving forward in one long line as we walked though a grove of big trees in front of the dam. On the top of the dam ahead of us I could see General Homer Ray (who had moved out in front of the Blue Army) and the rest of the Blue Army screaming at us and getting ready to shoot. I looked down the line, and I could see our army of 40 kids, all with green armbands. They’d already put rocks in their slingshots, and they were drawing back, ready to shoot. Sniffer was running back and forth in front of our army howling.

  “General Ears,” I yelled, “this is great! Look at our army!”

  “Yeah!” said Ears, “we’re gonna wipe ’em out!”

  My gosh, you would never believe in a hundred years how exciting that was. Heck, I couldn’t wait to tie into that sorry Blue Army. We were getting closer, and almost in slingshot range when I yelled.

  “Charge! Charge! Charge!”

  A huge yell went up from the Green Army, and we ran forward. We hadn’t run 10 yards until we were in range of the Blue Army, and every boy on the beaver dam started to pull their slingshot back.

  “Get ready! Watch out! They’re ’bout to shoot!” I yelled. It wouldn’t be but a few seconds before a hail of rocks would be coming at me as we closed in on the pit wall.

  I started to begin weaving, bobbing, and ducking behind trees, when Sniffer, who had practiced with us all week, ran ahead and started up the beaver dam.

  “No, Sniffer! No, here boy! No, no!” I yelled.

  “Shoot the dog!” yelled General Homer Ray. Before poor Sniffer could get even halfway up the beaver dam, several rocks hit him almost at once. Sniffer went spinning outta control, rolling down the pit bank, howling at the top of his lungs.

  “Dang, you sorry bunch! They shot Sniffer!” I yelled. “Them worthless rats! Let’s go get ’um!”

  “Yahaaaaaaaaa, yahaaaaaaaaaa!”

  The Green Army was screaming mad now. Shooting a dog was sure a sorry, low- down thing to do. The last time I saw Sniffer, he was running for his life with his tail between his legs. Sniffer showed a lot more sense than we did because we were in range now, and a hail of rocks came my way. I was bobbing, dodging, and ducking behind trees, and I only got nicked a couple of times. Before they could get another rock in their slingshots, I glanced up the bank and there stood stupid General Homer Ray standing out in front of his troops looking down to load another rock.Boy, was he shocked when almost 40 rocks hit him.

  Well, I knew the Blue Army would be sending more rocks my way in second, so I started running, dodging, and jumping. This time a couple hit me, but it was nothing compared to what hit General Homer Ray. I could hear him screaming about shooting at the head, and then a rock hit me right above the ear with a glancing blow, but even that one blow was enough to make me yell.

  “Ahaaaaa, oh, oh, my head! Stop shooting at the head! That’s not fair!” After the next volley of rocks nearly wiped General Homer Ray off the top of the beaver dam, he ducked behind some of his army, and our Green Army began shooting everybody in sight. Soon both armies were just pelting each other. The closer we got to the dam the more screaming I could hear above all the yelling, and I knew we were really taking some hits. But we were giving out just as many as we were taking, and General Homer Ray was shot up so badly that I could see skinned and bloody places on him even from the bottom of the dam.

  We’d reached the bottom of the dam when a rock caught me on the shoulder. “Oh, dang you! Dang you, oh, it hurts!” It was a direct hit that made me double over, holding my arm. I was about to cry. I looked around to see that the Green Army had all reached the foot of the beaver dam, but no one was trying to climb up and push the Blue Army off the dam and win the battle. Everybody was just standing there, shooting their slingshots.

  “Charge, up the bank!” I yelled. I took my slingshot, and slapped the two boys carrying our flags to make them move up the side of the beaver dam. A yell went up, and all 40 boys of the Green Army ran forward up the beaver dam until we reached the top. Then I realized I’d made a huge mistake. At least when we were at the bottom of the dam, there was a little distance between us and the other 40 boys with slingshots. When we reached the top, there were 80 boys all shooting point blank at each other!

  Neither side would give an inch, and, instead of trying to push the other side off the top of the pit wall, the boys just kept pelting.

  “Oh, no!” I yelled. Homer Ray ran up to me and shot me point-blank right in the chest. I doubled over screaming my head off only to have him shoot me again, this time right in the middle of my back. He was reaching in his pocket to get another rock when I drew back.

  Whap!

  Wow, what a shot, I thought. Shoot, that rock hit him alongside his head, and he staggered back screaming and holding his head.

  “Ahaaa, oh, oh, damn you! You shot me in the head!”

  About that time, Private Benny, carrying one of our flags, took a rock right in the ribs. He screamed at the top of his lungs, and as he backed away from the kid with the slingshot, he slipped and rolled down the bank of the beaver dam and hit the water wrapped in the flag, screaming and crying. ’Course, we had to stop the battle and fish him out and then everybody stopped shooting.

  All I could hear was the sound of kids whining. Everyone had been hit a bunch. Some had been hit at such close range that they were bleeding. The two armies walked off the pit wall and sat down under a big chinquapin tree. We checked everybody’s wounds and decided they weren’t serious, except for Bobby Ray, who had a broken tooth. Everybody else just had skinned places and bruises, except for that moron, General Homer Ray, who had been hit so many times he was covered with cuts and bruises.

  After the littler kids stopped crying, I stood up and said, “Listen, we all know if our folks find out ’bout this, we’ll get the switching of our lives. No one can tell anything, and if they ask you where you got those cuts and bruises, just say you fell on something.”

  Someone said, “How are we gonna make sure no one tells?”

  “I know what we can do,” I said. “We can take a blood oath.” I’d read about the Three Musketeers and how they’d cut themselves, mixed their blood, and swore, “One for all and all for one.”

  “How do you do a blood oath?” one of the kids asked.

  “Homer Ray, come here; we’ll show you how.” I pulled out my pocketknife. My knife is always so sharp you can shave the hairs off your arm. I nicked the end of my finger with the knife, and a little blood trickled out.

  “Here, Homer Ray, you cut your finger, and then we’ll mix our blood. If we betray each other, the one that betrays will drop dead.”

  He looked a little worried, but by now all the boys had crowded around to watch the blood oath ceremony. Stupid Homer Ray took the knife and instead of making a little nick on his finger pulled it across his arm.

  “Watch it! It’s sharp!” I yelled, but it was too late. The knife opened up an inch- long cut in his arm and blood ran down his arm.

  “Ahaaa, dang you, Richard, that hurt!”

  I had to turn my head
to keep from laughing. A yell went up from the other boys, as Homer Ray screamed and grabbed his arm.

  Well, that’s the end of the blood oath. Sure enough, kids started leaving in a hurry. I began walking home, dreading those phone calls that were sure to come after some boy spilled the beans, but I was really laughing at how sorry Homer Ray’s trick to get me had backfired. Heck, I had a cut or two and a couple of places that would probably bruise up, but dumb old Homer Ray looked like he’d been through a stomping machine. Shoot, he’d been hammered.

  When I got home Sniffer came out from under the house with a sheepish hang-your-head-down look.

  “Sniffer, you cowardly dog!” Well, I couldn’t blame a dog for getting away from an all-out slingshot war.

  Well, it was exciting, and outside of one tooth being knocked out nobody was really hurt. Maybe no one will tell. I felt better about everything, so I walked up to the house to get a drink. As I left the kitchen, the phone rang. Bad news spreads fast in Norphlet, so in about 10 minutes when I heard Daddy whistle, I knew the news of the war games had reached home. He was standing in the yard when I rounded the corner of the barn.

  Sure enough, he shook his head and said, “Bobby Joe’s dad called about the slingshot fight. He said his son lost a tooth, and he said you and Homer Ray organized the whole thing. What have you got to say for yourself?”

  “We had a ‘no shooting at the head rule.’ Somebody broke the rules. It wasn’t me.”

  “Richard, you and Homer Ray evidently got 60 or 70 boys.”

  “80.”

  “Okay, 80 boys to have a slingshot fight, and all you have to say is somebody broke the rules?”

  “But, Daddy, we were just playing war games.”

  “War games! Well, let’s play another war game! You’re gonna think war games when I get through with you. Cut me a switch!”

  Sniffer watched me walk over to the willow tree, and when I broke off a limb and stripped the leaves off, he left the area and ran under the house.

  Smart dog, I wish I were under the house!

  Well, the next day me and John Clayton were down at the breadbox whining about getting switched for having the slingshot war when Naomi walked up. She was grinning like she knew something. ’Course, then I remembered that Naomi had been trying to come up with the mystery girl ever since right after Valentine’s Day. Sure enough, she had news.

  “Well, I know your mystery girlfriend,” said Naomi.

  Gosh, me and John Clayton hopped off that breadbox so fast it’d make your head swim.

  “Who? Who is it?” I said.

  “I can’t tell you—yet.”

  “Whata you mean you know and can’t tell me?” I demanded.

  “That’s just what I mean. I found out, but I promised the girl that I wouldn’t tell you until she’s ready for you to know. She has a surprise way she’s gonna tell you.”

  “Oh my good Lord, what now?”

  “Can’t tell you, Richard, but believe me, you’re gonna be surprised.”

  Well, Naomi laughed and walked away leaving me and John Clayton just so hacked off you wouldn’t believe it.

  “Dang it, Richard, I can’t hardly stand it. Are we gonna go through the whole summer without knowin’?”

  “Naw, I think from the way Naomi talked that it ain’t gonna be long.”

  Gosh, I spent nearly every night for the next week trying to figure out the mystery girl, but I didn’t come up with anybody I thought it could be.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The Plan

  When I got to the newsstand Sunday morning, I was just about half-asleep as I stuffed the papers in my bag. Then, just as I put the last Arkansas Gazette in the bag, I saw a great big ad on the back of the last section of the paper. Oh my gosh, the circus is gonna be in Little Rock weekend after next!

  ’Course, we could hardly wait to tell Mr. Bill, and when me and John Clayton took Mr. Bill’s groceries by the canebrake on Wednesday afternoon, I ran up to the canebrake yelling, “Mr. Bill, Mr. Bill, Come here, we’ve got some news ’bout the circus.”

  Mr. Bill pushed the cane aside and walked out and over to the big pin oak log where we always sit and talk.

  “Okay, boys, what have you found out about the circus?”

  “Well, Mr. Bill, I’m the paperboy and this morning on the back page of the Arkansas Gazette there was a big ad for the circus. It’s gonna be in Little Rock for two days leaving on July 15th. Heck, that’s less than two weeks away.”

  “Boys, that might as well be at the North Pole. I could never get to Little Rock. Just as soon as I walked up to buy a ticket someone would have me picked up and put away. I just can’t do it. And anyway, boys, this skin disease has kinda got my eyes messed up, and I can’t see well enough to go by myself.”

  “Heck, Mr. Bill, we’ve done figured out a way to get you back to Little Rock without being seen,” I said.

  “Now, Richard, Little Rock is 120 miles north of here, and I sure can’t walk that far. What have you come up with?”

  “Well, Mr. Bill, me and John Clayton spend a lot of time down at the train station, and awhile back we started talking to a cowboy hobo named Mr. Perry. And after we went and got him a peanut butter sandwich, he told us ’bout the freight train he’d just got off of that came straight from Little Rock. He said it didn’t take him but four hours counting the stops. That freight train goes on to El Dorado, picks up some more cars, and then heads back to Little Rock. You could just hop that freight and be in Little Rock before morning.”

  “I don’t know boys, seeing so poorly and riding in a boxcar—no telling who I would see, and then once I got to Little Rock I wouldn’t have any idea of how to get to the fairgrounds; I can’t do it by myself.”

  “Heck, Mr. Bill, Daddy took me to the State Fair last year, and I know exactly how to get to the fairgrounds. Me and John Clayton will ride the boxcar up with you and lead you to the fairgrounds.”

  “Huh?” said John Clayton.

  “Yeah, we can make up some excuse to our folks that we’re spending the night with some of our El Dorado friends, and then we can ride up to Little Rock with you and be back ’fore they even know we’re gone.”

  “Boys are you sure? I don’t know. We just might get in a lot of trouble if someone checks on you and reports you missing.”

  “Heck, Mr. Bill, they’ll never know. You just get ready, ’cause July 14th we’re gonna take the night freight train to Little Rock, and then after we drop you off at the circus we’ll just take the morning freight back, and be right here in Norphlet before anybody knows anything.”

  I could see Mr. Bill had his doubts and I did, too, but not like John Clayton. Heck, as soon as we were far enough away from the canebrake John Clayton just started having a fit.

  “Richard, why on earth did you tell Mr. Bill we’d ride the freight train to Little Rock with him? Dang you, we’ll get switched to within an inch of our lives if our folks find out ’bout it, and, heck, Little Rock is so far away, they ain’t no telling all the trouble we’d run into.”

  “Hah, they won’t find out ’bout it. Edwin and George have been asking us to spend the night with them for a long time. In fact, Edwin came up to the car last Saturday when Daddy picked me up at the Ritz and asked Daddy if I could. And you know what Daddy said?”

  “Naw, whut?”

  “He said,” “Maybe next week.”

  “Shoot, that’s as good as saying okay. Listen, this is what we’ll do. Saturday when we go to the Ritz, I’ll tell Edwin what we’re up to and get him to ask my Daddy if we can spend the night. I’ll bet Daddy’ll say yes and then you can have it fixed up with your daddy to stay with me over in El Dorado. Then, instead of spending the night with Edwin and George, we’ll ride the train back to Norphlet and sneak in the woods to get Mr. Bill. The night freight train to Little Rock leaves ’bout nine o’clock and, shoot, we’ll just hop on and ride up to Little Rock with Mr. Bill, take him over to the circus, and then hop back on the day freight t
o El Dorado.

  “It’ll be so easy you won’t believe it.”

  “Richard, you make it sound too easy. Heck, every time you come up with some easy scheme we end up in trouble and getting switched.”

  “Okay, are you just gonna leave Mr. Bill down in the woods to starve or next winter freeze to death? Or, heck, do you just want to turn him in and be the one who got him locked up in the State Hospital for the Strange?”

  Well, I, myself, already thought about all that stuff, and I knew that we had to at least try to get Mr. Bill back to the circus.

  “Oh, dang you, Richard, we gonna do it, and I know better than anything in the world that things are gonna go bad, and we’ll get switched half to death.”

  “Oh, you big whiner, I promise and cross my heart nothin’ will happen.”

  John Clayton just shook his head and headed for home. But, you know, just thinking about getting on a freight train at night and riding all the way to Little Rock had me so nervous I could hardly breathe.

  We started to put the plan in place the next Saturday when I saw Edwin at the Ritz and told him all about our trip to Little Rock to take Mr. Bill back to the circus, and how we needed him to tell my daddy that we were gonna spend the night with him next Saturday night.

  On Sunday I started talking to Daddy about spending the night with Edwin and George, and by the time Monday night rolled around I had him convinced enough to let me make a long distance call to Edwin for Daddy to be sure I was invited. Edwin was really convincing, and we were set to go. After I got the okay, John Clayton had it easy, because if I was going then John Clayton could go.