"Stop the wagon, Champ. Stop it."
He did as I said just as soon as he was sure that we were hidden behind a stand of dark trees.
"What's wrong, boy?"
"You know where the hangin' oak is?" I asked him.
"I guess I do," he said. "They hanged the man I called uncle from there onceit."
"Numbah Twelve will be theah waitin' for me. You go to him and I'll be by in just a while."
"Where you goin'?"
"Hand me that rope from under yo' "seat," I said.
Big Champ Noland did as I asked and I ran off in the woods faster than a deer fleeing a cougar.
Running through the deep forest toward the sound of the girl's scream, I realized that it wasn't one girl yelling, but two.
I was agitated and afraid for my life and the lives of the only family I had ever known. But even though I was so distressed it was still amazing to me how I managed to run through those woods. My feet moved surely between the low-slung branches, and if there was no place to stand I easily climbed high and moved quickly through the upper branches like a wily chipmunk avoiding some land-bound predator. At times I was nearly at the top of the trees, finding the fastest footholds there.
I was at such a lofty place when I saw Mr. Stewart fall upon Eloise Turner and her faithful servant, and half-sister, Nola. Eloise, dressed in a mere slip and barefoot, was trying to evade the leather-skinned madman while Nola, wearing only a nightshirt herself, was standing to the side yelling for help.
Stewart grabbed Eloise and lifted her in the air.
"Help me!" she cried, and I remembered when Pritchard had slapped me silly and branded me.
I knew I had to save those two girls. I knew I had to face my fear of the man who daunted me since as far back as I could remember. But before I could steel myself Nola ran forward and threw a rock, hitting Stewart in the head. That blow would have knocked any ordinary man out cold. But Elias Ainsworthy Stewart was no longer an ordinary man. He had risen after Eighty-four delivered a fatal blow to his head, and so Nola's pebble wasn't going to bother him.
The stone made a metallic sound upon striking his skull, and for a moment Stewart froze, tilting his head as if he had forgotten something. Eloise was screaming and I chose that moment to jump down from the tree.
I came down on the ground behind Stewart. I made to run up to him but I tripped on something soft. I was up on my feet soon enough but then I saw that the obstacle that made me fall was the body of Tobias Turner. He was lying half on his side with his head turned at an impossible angle. He wore black pants and a white shirt with the tails out and no shoes. It was his bare feet that made me feel sorry for him. The big difference between the master and all of his slaves was that he was always shod and we never were. Now that he was fallen down to our level even the musket lying next to his outstretched hand was impotent.
I stared at the man who I'd always thought of as master, until the coming of Tall John. I felt sorry for his death, angry at his life, and glad that he could never hurt another slave. These feelings struggled against each other in my heart. A slave has a thousand feelings about his slaver. This is because that man has the power of life and death over his slaves and even though you might be hating him you also pray that he will show you mercy.
I might have sat there all night between those emotions if Nola hadn't screamed again.
"You leave my mistress be, Elias Stewart!" she shouted, and then she screamed like a banshee.
Quickly I tied a loop in the rope I got from the carriage. I tied the other end to a poplar sapling. Then I came up behind the living ghoul Mr. Stewart. When he raised a foot I put the loop about his ankle and pulled hard. The one-eyed goliath fell and I lashed his feet together.
"Damn you, boy," Stewart bellowed.
He released Eloise in order to grab at me but I was too swift. I ran all the way around him, seized Eloise by the wrist with one hand and Nola with my other. We all three took off through the woods.
As we ran away Stewart roared an evil curse.
Eloise was so frightened that she stopped running.
"Come on," I hissed. "We gots to go."
"Yeah, Miss Eloise," Nola echoed. "We gots to get away from that man."
"I'm scared," she cried.
"We all scared, babychile," I said. "Scared is the lamp that lights the way."
"Yes, suh," Nola said.
They were words that Flore had often said to me. They had the right effect. Eloise pulled her tattered slip around her and hurried with me and her light-skinned servant through the dark wood. The three of us moved quickly amid the howls of Mr. Stewart's rage.
22.
It didn't take us long to come to the hanging oak. Because we could make a straight line through the woods while Champ had to take a longer road we all arrived at the same time.
There were alarm bells ringing throughout the valley by then. People on other plantations had seen the fire and smoke rising from Corinthian and so they were coming to help out. The hanging oak wasn't on any direct path and so we knew that we were pretty safe.
Tall John hadn't shown up yet but I wasn't worried about him. I had the feeling that if he were harmed I would have felt it in the light in my chest.
"What you doin' wit' her here, Forty-seven?" Champ asked me when he caught sight of Eloise.
"Mr. Stewart was tryin' t'kill her and Nola," I said. "I took 'em away from him."
"Take me home," Eloise cried.
"No, Miss Eloise," Nola said. "That Mr. Stewart's still out there. An' he must be untied by now."
"That's yo home, girl," I added, pointing at the smoke rising with the sun. "It ain't safe for you there yet."
Eloise looked at the thick black plume and took a deep breath. "My father will stop that traitor," she announced. "And he will give all you slaves a chicken dinner and set you free for bein' faithful and savin' my life."
At one time that would have been my only dream, to be given freedom by my master. But neither nigger nor master be had become a reality for me. And even though by Georgia law I was now the property of Miss Eloise Turner I expected to take my own freedom come what may.
"Yo' daddy's dead, girl," I said.
"No," Eloise replied sounding almost reasonable. "Mr. Stewart hit him but my daddy only fell down senseless."
"No ma'am," I said. "He fell down all right but his neck broke when he went down. I saw him."
"No!" Eloise protested.
She looked around at Nola and the slave girl wrapped her beloved mistress and half-sister in her arms.
Champ pulled the buggy behind the hanging tree and I climbed in the back to see how Flore was doing.
Her skin had gone dull and her eyes were open but it didn't seem like she saw anything. I called her name but she didn't answer. When I stroked her cheek I felt that she was burning hot.
"Forty-seven," Tall John from beyond Africa said.
When I turned around I saw that my friend had retrieved
his yellow sack. As John approached us from the deep wood Champ faltered and then fell to the ground. He clutched at his foot, the foot he used to kick open the burning door.
Quick as anything John brought out a tube of healing wax and slathered it on Champ's bloody burns. He then climbed into the wagon and began to examine Flore.
The sun was coming up and there were the sounds of dogs braying all around.
"Let's get these people into the woods," John said.
He took a tarp from the back of the buggy and laid it on the ground. Then he and I together pulled Flore from the carriage and lay her on the thick blanket. Then we pulled with all our might, dragging Flore into the forest.
"Come on, girl, and help us," John said to Nola.
For a moment she gave her mistress a worried look but then she ran to our side and helped haul the unconscious slave behind the trees that stood witness for so many years to the hangings of so many slaves and criminals.