Read Online Walking to Gatlinburg: A Novel by Howard Frank Mosher - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Howard Frank Mosher
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elephant's pulling harness and guided the Caliph a few paces up the fast current. The chain tightened.
"Hi! Hi yi hi!" Morgan yelled. The elephant gave a sudden terrific pull, surging into his harness with enormous force and springing the colossal pine trunk free. The jam began to shift. Morgan continued to exhort the Caliph to pull. The elephant plowed through the current, angling toward the bank, yanking the monstrous log into the slack water and thumping it up onto dry land like a stick of stovewood. The towering log jam began to turn on its axis, then collapsed in upon itself and slowly broke apart. Once again the logs ran freely down Henry Hudson's River.
"Zachias, come outen that tree!" exclaimed the foreman. "Leviathan hath spoken."
Morgan unhitched the iron hook on the end of the logging chain from the ring bolt on the elephant's pulling traces.
"No dyne-a-mite," he said to Big Eva, showing his open hands. "Just a flop-eared old elephant. Now, what can you tell me about--" Morgan sat down on a stump. He was having trouble catching his breath. His last thought as he toppled toward the ground was that as long as you were called upon to do it only once, dying was probably manageable. He was only sorry that he had not found Pilgrim first.
"'B OUT TIME you come to."
Morgan opened his eyes. Eva's gray-haired foreman was looking at him through wisps of smoke. No, not smoke. Steam. He was lying on a bed of fresh cedar boughs inside a hut made ofgreen cedar. The foreman was pouring water over red-hot stones in a shallow pit to make still more steam, which rose up through a lacy canopy of cedar boughs. The powerful scent of evergreen filled the hut.
Through a flap in the side of the hut came Big Eva. She bent over and pressed her ear against Morgan's chest. Then she straightened up as much as she could without striking her head on the woven boughs overhead. "Sound clear," she said. "Just a bad ague was what you had, boy. Maybe a touch of they walking ague. How long you think you been laying here, being minister unto?"
Morgan sat up, then fell back. "My guns," he said.
"You guns safe, don't worry. How long you think you been here?"
"Two days?"
"Try five," Eva said.
But Morgan had already sunk back on the cedar boughs, where he slept for yet another day and night. When he woke again he was ravenously hungry.
M ORGAN KINNESON, STILL WEAK but no longer coughing, scooped smoking pork and beans into his mouth as fast as he could knife-and-thumb them. Mopped up the gravy with a chunk of yellow cornbread the size of a house brick. Oh, it felt wonderful to be well again. As for Pilgrim, Eva told Morgan she had heard through Underground scuttlebutt that Quaker Meeting Kinneson's elder son had vanished during the fighting in Pennsylvania. Be that as it might, Eva told Morgan that Pilgrim had not come through her station, Laguz . Nor had she seen a runaway girl, with or withouta little boy. Not that she could say so directly if she had. It was absolutely forbidden for a Railroad employee to mention the name of any passenger or conductor, even to another Railroad employee. But Eva admonished him not to deceive himself with wishful thinking about his brother. When Morgan showed her Jesse's stone, she too implored him to destroy it, saying it jeopardized the safety of every stationmaster from Tennessee to Canada. "Get it by heart and then bury it in they woods, boy," she said. "Be sure you bury it deep."
Morgan pointed to his rune,, on the stone. "Sabbati called this Nauthiz . He told me to ask you what it meant."
"Means everything harder than you think. And everything connected."
"And this one?" Morgan pointed to Pilgrim's sign,, at the bottom of the stone.
Eva frowned. "Othila . Means separation. And that all you gone tease outen Big Eva. Bury that stone twenty feet deep, boy. Then go home where you belong. That you advice from me."
Morgan held out his empty tin plate to the cook.
"Thank you, sir, you
"Hi! Hi yi hi!" Morgan yelled. The elephant gave a sudden terrific pull, surging into his harness with enormous force and springing the colossal pine trunk free. The jam began to shift. Morgan continued to exhort the Caliph to pull. The elephant plowed through the current, angling toward the bank, yanking the monstrous log into the slack water and thumping it up onto dry land like a stick of stovewood. The towering log jam began to turn on its axis, then collapsed in upon itself and slowly broke apart. Once again the logs ran freely down Henry Hudson's River.
"Zachias, come outen that tree!" exclaimed the foreman. "Leviathan hath spoken."
Morgan unhitched the iron hook on the end of the logging chain from the ring bolt on the elephant's pulling traces.
"No dyne-a-mite," he said to Big Eva, showing his open hands. "Just a flop-eared old elephant. Now, what can you tell me about--" Morgan sat down on a stump. He was having trouble catching his breath. His last thought as he toppled toward the ground was that as long as you were called upon to do it only once, dying was probably manageable. He was only sorry that he had not found Pilgrim first.
"'B OUT TIME you come to."
Morgan opened his eyes. Eva's gray-haired foreman was looking at him through wisps of smoke. No, not smoke. Steam. He was lying on a bed of fresh cedar boughs inside a hut made ofgreen cedar. The foreman was pouring water over red-hot stones in a shallow pit to make still more steam, which rose up through a lacy canopy of cedar boughs. The powerful scent of evergreen filled the hut.
Through a flap in the side of the hut came Big Eva. She bent over and pressed her ear against Morgan's chest. Then she straightened up as much as she could without striking her head on the woven boughs overhead. "Sound clear," she said. "Just a bad ague was what you had, boy. Maybe a touch of they walking ague. How long you think you been laying here, being minister unto?"
Morgan sat up, then fell back. "My guns," he said.
"You guns safe, don't worry. How long you think you been here?"
"Two days?"
"Try five," Eva said.
But Morgan had already sunk back on the cedar boughs, where he slept for yet another day and night. When he woke again he was ravenously hungry.
M ORGAN KINNESON, STILL WEAK but no longer coughing, scooped smoking pork and beans into his mouth as fast as he could knife-and-thumb them. Mopped up the gravy with a chunk of yellow cornbread the size of a house brick. Oh, it felt wonderful to be well again. As for Pilgrim, Eva told Morgan she had heard through Underground scuttlebutt that Quaker Meeting Kinneson's elder son had vanished during the fighting in Pennsylvania. Be that as it might, Eva told Morgan that Pilgrim had not come through her station, Laguz . Nor had she seen a runaway girl, with or withouta little boy. Not that she could say so directly if she had. It was absolutely forbidden for a Railroad employee to mention the name of any passenger or conductor, even to another Railroad employee. But Eva admonished him not to deceive himself with wishful thinking about his brother. When Morgan showed her Jesse's stone, she too implored him to destroy it, saying it jeopardized the safety of every stationmaster from Tennessee to Canada. "Get it by heart and then bury it in they woods, boy," she said. "Be sure you bury it deep."
Morgan pointed to his rune,, on the stone. "Sabbati called this Nauthiz . He told me to ask you what it meant."
"Means everything harder than you think. And everything connected."
"And this one?" Morgan pointed to Pilgrim's sign,, at the bottom of the stone.
Eva frowned. "Othila . Means separation. And that all you gone tease outen Big Eva. Bury that stone twenty feet deep, boy. Then go home where you belong. That you advice from me."
Morgan held out his empty tin plate to the cook.
"Thank you, sir, you
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