Taterskin & The Eco Defenders: Book 2, Chapter 15
Book 2 ("Tell It to Future Generations"), Chapter 15 of 56
CHAPTER 15
Instead of arriving at the McLeod Plantation at sunup for the showdown, we arrived a couple of hours early. Alexis said this was an OAT (Old Animal Trick). I didn’t know if she meant the trick was invented by an old animal, or if the trick itself was old. Maybe it was both.
At any rate, beating us there would have been a hard thing to do for Jefferson and his crew, lest they use torches and advertise their presence (there were no flashlights in 1861, so literal torches would have been their tool for lighting up the night). Most of us could see at least reasonably well in the dark, though, so we needed not carry fire with us. As for Albert, being only human and thus not able to see well in the dark, we guided him through the gloom of night.
Arriving about five, we spread the word to both the domestic animals at and around the plantation as well as the wild ones in the neighboring forest what our plans were. All were for helping us except the owner’s dogs, Baggins and Tracker — they wanted nothing to do with us and were going to try to spoil our surprise by alerting their master that we were there (McLeod considered himself the master of both the animals and the humans who lived on the plantation).
Because of their misplaced allegiance, we had to dispatch those two bloodhounds. By that, I don’t mean that we killed them. We wouldn’t do that. We simply dognapped them and transported them to a cabin in the woods, far enough away that their barks wouldn’t be heard by the humans in the house.
The dognapping was easy: Chumbawumba picked up Baggins with his trunk, wrapping the end of it around the dog’s muzzle so that he couldn’t bark; Tubthumper did the same with Tracker. One of the soon-to-be-ex-slaves guided the Elephant siblings to the cabin in the woods and kept watch over the dogs — to make sure that they didn’t get out, and also to see to it that the dogs had enough food and water until our work was done, at which time they would be given the same option the current owners of the plantation would get: Move into the slave quarters, or vacate the premises altogether.
Tubthumper and Chumbawumba had just returned when we noticed the first rays of sunlight poking above the horizon. Almost immediately thereafter we heard the sound of tramping feet. It sounded like a large army was descending upon us. It was OK, though; we weren’t afraid. We knew we had the would-be insurrectionists outnumbered and outstrategized.
The largest members of our entourage (The Elephants, Ocero the Rhino, and Jowls the Hippo) waited in the forest; the rest of us were ensconced in the slave’s quarters.
“Well, I reckon we got up early and made the trip for nuthin’,” we heard someone in the yard between where we were and the main house say. “I calculate they got skeered when they heard us a-comin’ and skedaddled — or did the smart thing for once and decided not to come at all.”
Except for the chirp of crickets and the occasional cluck of a chicken, there was silence for a time.
Then we heard voices saying: “Hey!” “Ouch!” “Yikes!” “Aiyee!” “What’s that a-crawlin’ up my leg?!?” “Hey, get off o’ me!” and suchlike things.
The Ants and the Spiders and the Snakes were having a good old time crawling around the apparently squeamish persons in the yard — those who had wrongly assumed that we had ‘got skeered and skedaddled.’
“Ants are crawlin’ all over my face! Get ‘em off me! Get ‘em off!”
“Those ain’t Ants, they’s Centipedes — I’m not a-touchin’ ‘em; get ‘em off yo’ own self!”
Our punctual visitors wanted to do a little skedaddling themselves then, but when they turned tail, trying to beat a hasty retreat, they saw that they were surrounded by Cottonmouths and Water Moccasins. They froze in their tracks.
We then strode up, at which point the Snakes, as we had instructed them to do, slithered under the house, to observe what would happen next and return if they were needed.
There were two paths of escape, if Jefferson and his gang could somehow slip away from us, but one was guarded by Tubthumper and Chumbawumba, while the other was flanked by Ocero and Jowls. Our adversaries saw they were completely trapped, and any attempt to flee would be bound to fail — and probably be painful to boot.
With a vice-like grip, Ooga grabbed Jefferson with one hand and a co-conspirator of his with another.
“Jeb, wake up! Help us!” Jefferson cried out.
Almost immediately, a light went on in an upstairs room, and a wild-haired and sleepy-looking man flung open a window and stuck his head out of it.
“Is that you, Jefferson? What are you doing down there?”
“Come down here into the yard and find out,” Albert said.
The head disappeared back into the room, and the window slammed shut. We heard some voices from the house yelling (we couldn’t tell what), and then a banging sound as the man apparently bounded down the stairs.
Suddenly he burst out his front door with a rifle in his hand.
Taterskin & The Eco Defenders (in paperback, kindle, or hardcover) is available here.