Into the Bright Unknown (The Gold Seer Trilogy #3)(26)

“We’ll find the sheriff and pay Hampton’s bounty,” Jefferson says.

“I’ve got some money—” I begin.

“Hold on to it,” Jim says.

“Why?”

“You’re acting like this is the first time a free Negro has been kidnapped and locked up until he pays a fine,” Jim says. “When the law can’t take our freedom, it takes all our money instead. Takes both when it gets the chance.”

“We can’t leave Hampton in jail,” Becky says.

“We won’t. But it’s important for us to solve this, because it affects all of us.”

“We are trying to solve it,” I say.

“Don’t get me wrong; we can definitely use your help. But freeing Hampton is taking the easy way out. We can do that part just fine ourselves. And when I say us, I mean free Negroes. This is our problem. It was our problem before Hampton got arrested. It’s gonna be our problem long after he gets free again.”

My heart aches. The fire that was burning inside me just a little while ago has about gone out, leaving me cold.

“What do you want us to do?” I say.

“We want to help,” Becky adds.

“Hampton is our friend,” Henry insists.

Jefferson stands beside Jim. He doesn’t say a thing, but he doesn’t need to.

“You can’t barge in and try to fix Hampton’s situation like it’s something unusual, like it’s a one-of-a-kind circumstance,” Jim says. “That’s what white people do. They fix one tiny thing and think they’re heroes.”

He stares right at me as he says it, and my gut churns in response. When I met Jim in Independence, I mouthed off to the store clerk for treating Jim poorly. I thought I was doing the right thing then, but maybe I was just making things worse.

“What happened to Hampton happens to free men all the time, all over this country,” he continues. “We will take care of him, but then you gotta take care of Hardwick. It ain’t enough to rescue a man in trouble, if you don’t stop the man who put him there. Hardwick’ll just do it again to someone else.”

Life isn’t fair.

Then it’s our job to make it fairer.

Oh, I realize. This is what that means.

“Jim’s right,” I say. “My uncle took everything from me. Then . . . remember how Dilley treated the Indians we met crossing the continent? Hardwick funded my uncle’s mine, and we know what happened to the Indians and the Chinese there.”

Henry adds, “Then Hardwick took all the money we raised in Glory and promised us a town charter, only now he’s holding the charter ransom for even more money.”

I nod. “He’s stealing Becky’s house, and he’s going to sell it to somebody else. Now he’s stealing Hampton’s freedom. Over the last year, we’ve been treating all these things like separate problems, but they’re not. They’re all one problem.”

“What’s the one problem?” Jefferson asks. “Hardwick’s an evil cur?”

“No, there are lots of bad men. I mean, yes, he is, but the real problem is the way he’s got the law all tied up with money. He uses the law to rob people. Then he uses his money to change the laws and to buy lawmakers so he can rob even more people. It’s a vicious circle, and it won’t stop until he’s not able to do whatever he wants to anyone.”

“So what are we going to do?” Becky asks.

“We’re going to stop him.”

Jefferson steps forward, puts his hands on my shoulders, and looks at me dead-on. “You know I’m with you, right, Lee? Always, no matter what. But this time, we need a plan. No more going off half-cocked.”

“A plan,” Becky agrees.

“Something foolproof,” Henry adds.

“Easy,” I say. “Right?”





Chapter Eight


Two mornings later, we take leave of the City Hotel, long before our full week is up—paid in advance, both rooms, all four cots—and form a small parade with all our possessions to walk down to the docks.

The Major has the baby tucked in one arm and holds Andy’s hand with the other. I’m afraid he’s going to topple over on his wooden leg, but he stomps along like a man who’s been doing it his whole life and not just a few months.

Olive flits like a hummingbird. She runs ahead half a dozen steps, notices something new, and then immediately dashes back to tell us about it. “Ma, the sign on that big house says it’s an oh-per-uh. Ma, what’s an oh-per-uh?”

“An opera is a form of musical entertainment—”

“Jasper, is that man sick? He’s sitting against the wall and his skin is blanched. You said that when a man’s skin is—”

“Hush, dear,” says Becky. “It’s not polite to point out such things.”

The three bachelors walk together. It’s the first time they’ve all seen each other in days, because Jasper has been volunteering at doctors’ offices throughout the city.

“I’m trying to find someone I can learn from,” Jasper tells his friends, “but when a man with a crushed hand needed two fingers amputated, I was the one teaching the doctor how to do it instead of him teaching me.”