“A buggy ride!” Great-grandmother exclaimed. “Oh, I’d love that. I haven’t had a buggy ride in thirty years!”

“Well, have one now then,” Mr. Small said. And to Pluto: “I meant no offense. I know how well you handle a horse-drawn buggy. I just thought ...”

“You just thought to tell everybody what to do,” Pluto said quietly, sadly.

“Mr. Pluto, I’m doing the best I know how,” Mr. Small said shakily. “I must see you tonight. I’ll be back.”

Pluto looked surprised. He studied Mr. Small for a moment but said nothing.

“Come on, children, we’ve things to take care of,” Walter Small said. Thomas and Pesty went out with him. Pesty glanced shyly back at Pluto and Great-grandmother and waved.

“Bye,” Thomas said to them.

They could hear Pluto following. He would lock the doors of his cave behind them. Great-grandmother was reading again: “The Philadelphia Vigilance Committee heeds your call. Mr. Purvis gave to me food and clothing and a place to rest at his estate. I met more abolitionists from everywhere.”

Outside Pesty, Thomas, and his father walked in silence for a time, toward the Drear house. Mr. Small was deep in thought. “Papa, what is it?” Thomas said.

“It’s just the time,” his papa said. “It’s a good and bad time.”

“What do you mean, Papa?”

“I mean, we’ve kept the great cavern secret for so long. I’ve been inventorying everything all these months, to give a listing of the treasure to the foundation that owns the house and the hill. That’s what I told myself I was doing.” He laughed. “Well, I never gave them a list of anything. I kept it all to myself. Still a secret. And I as much as promised Mr. Pluto that I would not tell the foundation anything as long as he lived.” He sighed. “Well, I had no right to promise such a thing! And now what has to be done makes me very sad—”

“What’s that?” Pesty asked. “What’s it that has to be done?”

Mr. Small stared down at the ground for a long moment before he said, “Well, it’s a plan worth trying. Pesty, your share of it has two parts. The first thing in the morning I want you to get your mother out of the house and into our house without anyone else knowing. Can you do that?”

“Sure!” she said. “We can go the tunnelway, and if it’s morning, everybody just think Mama is taken to bed or is sleeping late.”

“And Pesty, after bringing your mother, will you go back and do something else important?” Mr. Small said.

“What’s that?” she asked.

He told her, speaking just above a whisper. Thomas listened. His eyes grew wide, startled, as he heard it all. Looking all around, Mr. Small made sure that only the three of them could hear. “Timing is everything,” he told them. “Pesty, you must have your mother in our house by eight o’clock tomorrow morning.”

“Eight o’clock,” she said. “She don’t sleep long these times. I can do it. We’ll be out in the tunnel by eight anyway.”

“No, in the house at eight,” Mr. Small said firmly.

“And no later than eight-ten, you hear? Because the last part comes at nine. You remember?”

“Yes,” she said, “I—I just hope I don’t get in worse with …” She wouldn’t name her papa, River Lewis, but that was whom she was thinking about.

Mr. Small knew it. “Let’s hope that everything happens just the right way, so there is no time for folks to think about how and why it’s happening.

“Timing. Timing!” he continued. “Once and for all. There’s no other way. … The timing must be perfect.”

“But I don’t understand, the part about—” Thomas began.

Mr. Small stopped him. “I’ve said all that needs to be said for now. Wait until tomorrow. Seeing is believing, Thomas, and this you have to see.”

Supposing something goes wrong? Thomas was thinking. Supposing the Darrow men … and Macky— he didn’t want to think what would happen if things went wrong.

Although she had misgivings, Pesty trusted Mr. Small. “Wish things wouldn’t always change,” she said. “Then again I wish they would.”

“Me, too, Pesty,” Mr. Small said.

Everything’s up in the air. What if Pesty gets into trouble? Thomas was thinking. What if Pluto gets mad at Papa, or Mrs. Darrow can’t be moved? And River Lewis, what if ... ? The what-ifs made his head spin.

19

THOMAS WOKE UP EARLY and dressed quickly. He paused long enough to think: Good luck, Pesty! Next, he put her out of his mind while he made sure his papa was still confident about everything, that Great-grandmother was ready. He guessed that was his part of the plan to do. Papa sure didn’t give me a lot to work out in perfect timing, he thought.

He was right about what Pesty would be doing. She and Macky were up first, while it was dark out. Next, her daddy was up, and her older brothers, Wilbur, Russell, and River Ross. Her mama might stay awake all night. Or she might sleep and wake up a million times. Or like these days, she would wake up peacefully and want to get dressed to go walking. Pesty had a time with her. Today she would need to keep her mama quiet for more than an hour. She’d told Mr. Small she could do it. Mr. Thomas had heard her say so.

Pesty awoke at ten minutes past six. Not bad, she thought. The house was cold. She blew her breath; it was like white mist on the air. Wonder how many breaths it take to warm this room? She got up and got dressed. Shivering, she put on boots that were the warmest shoes she had. Remember boots for Mama. And her coat, too. Keep her good and warm.

In the kitchen she started the fire in the big old cookstove. She washed up in the cold water pumped into the sink from the well and dried her face and hands. By that time there was a roaring fire in the stove. She put the water kettle on to boil. When the flames settled down, she added pieces of wood and soft coal from the bucket next to the stove. Now I wash my hands again! She always did that when she lit the fire.

She put peanut butter and jelly on the toast, boiled eggs and instant coffee. She had it all on a tray when Macky came in. “Morning. Mama hungry this morning,” she told him, forcing herself to smile.

“What you been doing?” he asked her. It was his chance to talk to her with no one else around. “You stay over there at that house all the time. What have you been up to?”

She couldn’t get over how fast he’d got on her trail. “I was over to Mr. Pluto’s, too, yesterday,” she said pleasantly. “And Mr. Thomas and me play with the little guys some, over his house. They go to school, too. We hang out with Great Mother Jeffers. She a lot of fun, and we took her to Mr. Pluto’s.” All the time she spoke, she was moving out of the kitchen, away from him. Macky stood there, rocking on his heels. Looking angry and defeated, he watched her go.

Pesty ran into her daddy. He was looking in on Mattie. He had closed the door, so Pesty knocked. River Lewis Darrow opened the door. “Morning, Daddy,” she said as softly as she could. He blocked her view, and she couldn’t see if her mama was awake.

River Lewis eyed her and stepped to one side so she could pass through with the tray. He nodded curtly, but he did not speak to her. It made her feel bad, never to have her daddy say hardly a word to her.

Mattie was sitting up in bed. River Lewis went back to sit down in the chair. Pesty remembered that Great Mother Jeffers had sat just there.

Mama seem not to mind Great Mother, Pesty thought. She looking pleasant this morning, too. “Morning, Mama,” she said. “How you feeling today?”

Mattie laughed suddenly. “I bent my back down the road,” she said happily. “I squirreled the tree and gave a hoot.”

Pesty sighed. “Okay, Mama, I got some food for you and me. Eggs and toast—how ’bout that?”

“I treed a squirrel, that was my dream,” Mattie said. “But going down the road backward—I don’t know.”

Pesty grinned, delighted. When her mama could figure out her own words, she was doing better than ever.