Page 29 of Follow the Lonesome Trail
But he had his own doubts. How could they be sure of all this without asking the kids? Yet the little girl had already shown that she was sworn to keep quiet, and would probably pretend she didn’t know what they were talking about if they did ask.
He was still wrestling with the problem when he reached Mrs. Mulligan’s, and made his preliminary scout around to check for any lurkers in the pines. He rounded the corner of the cabin, and came upon Dominic sitting alone on the woodpile, kicking his heels against the logs. Dominic’s feet were always active, even when sitting, as if their constant motion was the engine that powered his active mind.
Steady Shaffler eyed the little boy for a moment, scratched his head thoughtfully, and glancing around to make sure nobodyelse was within earshot, he sat down on the woodpile beside Dominic as casually as is possible for the most simple and honest of men attempting guile.
“Like Flat Rock?” he inquired genially.
Dominic studied him with round, inscrutable dark-blue eyes, and gave a measured nod.
“I reckon,” said Steady, “it’s a heap different than places you’ve lived before. Cities, and streets, and”—he fixed his eyes on a pine branch above him and pronounced with elaborate carelessness—“big houses, or...castles?”
They could never decide afterward whether Dominic had done it out of sheer mischief, or whether he had some private theories about Margot’s stories that he wanted to put to the test. Theodore always maintained that Dominic knew exactly what he was doing, but Margot was never so sure.
“We lived with the Countess,” he remarked.
Steady stared at him for a good half-minute.
“In secret, I suppose,” he ventured, when he could collect his thoughts.
Dominic nodded. “Because of her father, the Grand Duke. But they found out where we were, and we had to leave St. Petersburg at night.”
“And the Qu—your ma’s in hiding too?”
“She escaped by a secret passage,” said Dominic solemnly. “To Vienna. There was a traitor in her midst. We couldn’t go with her, so we came here, to the salted mines.”
“Salted mines!” exploded Steady Shaffler. “You mean to tell me somebody around here’s been salting a mine? Isthatwhat English John was put out o’ the way for knowin’?”
“No, I think that was the Czar,” said Dominic, still swinging his feet. “Because he’d offended him. That’s what happens in Siberia.” He added curiously, “What crime did they sendyoufor?”
“What? Oh—I got a few days for disturbin’ the peace once, but that ain’t no account,” said Steady, somewhat distracted. He glanced uneasily around and leaned closer to Dominic so he could speak lower. “Do you know who it is that’s after you?”
“They’re always in disguise,” said Dominic, lowering his own voice impressively. He added, “Once it was a policeman.”
(There had been a painful incident where Theodore had been hauled home by the collar by a neighborhood policeman, and after Mrs. Wood had paid for the broken window and Theodore had apologized to its owner, Margot had taken some of the sting out of the affair by casting the innocent officer as a mercenarygendarmewho had been bought off from betraying them with a fabulous sum of gold.)
“That was during the Revolution,” said Dominic. Whatever his original intentions, he was undoubtedly enjoying himself now. “Mama was giving lessons to the Marquis’ daughters. When the rebels got him, we had to flee too.”
“I’m convinced,” said Steady, white and tottering.
“Should we fetch Doc?” said Butch, whose hair was standing up nearly as stiffly as Mrs. Mulligan’s.
“He ain’t here. Called out to tend a feller with a broken leg at some diggings three miles off. He’d want to wait for the marshal anyway—and if these enemies of theirs could get round a policeman, who knows but what Forster might be fooled into handing ’em over where they won’t be safe?”
“But where to hide ’em? We can’t trust nobody in camp,” said Mrs. Mulligan.
“I’m thinking,” said Steady, kneading his temples with both hands. “I’m thinking.”
Suddenly his head jerked up and he snapped his fingers. “I got it. I know just the place!”
Butch was able to borrow a wagon without trouble, since half of Flat Rock had been indebted to him at some point. The maneuver was planned for dusk, when the children could be smuggled out of the cabin unseen, and in the meantime Mrs. Mulligan hastened back to prepare them for flight.
She shut the cabin door, took a sharp look out the window, and came over to the table where Margot was folding some clean clothes off the line. “You kids get your bag packed,” she said, “and have your hats an’ coats all ready for when it gets dark. We’re goin’ to get you out of Flat Rock tonight.”
Margot looked up, her face troubled. “To—to go to the Orphans’ Home?”
“No, someplace safer.” Mrs. Mulligan glanced round the cabin as if she suspected eavesdroppers concealed under piles of laundry, then leaned closer and said,
“You don’t have to worry none, Your High—I mean, miss. You’re safe with us. We know all about it, and there’s no assassins gettin’ near you or your ma so long as we can help it.”
