BLACKWATER:The Mysterious Saga of the Caskey Family Read Online Free PDF Page A

watched Miss Elinor disappear, then said goodbye to his mother and turned his steps back onto the road in the direction of the Driver house. He tipped his hat politely to the sleeping driver.
    Elinor was fed on salmon and crackers in the corner of the church. She sat on the end of one of the benches and stared at the little sleeping map of children in the corner opposite. All the servants had risen and were huddled in a distant corner to wash and dress as best they could under the difficult circumstances. Sister Caskey sat beside Elinor, and now and then whispered a question that was answered in a whisper.
    Caroline DeBordenave and Manda Turk had risen in time to see the stranger led inside by Sister Caskey. They dressed quickly and ran out of the church to question Mary-Love, who waited for them on the other side of one of the wagons. The three women fell immediately to a discussion of Elinor Dammert's muddy red hair and the peculiar circumstance of her having been left for four days in the Osceola Hotel.
    Their only conclusion was that the circumstance was something more than just peculiar—it was downright mysterious.
    "I wish," said Caroline DeBordenave, a large woman with a tremulous smile, "that Oscar would come back down the road so that we could ask him a question or two about Miss Elinor."
    "Oscar wouldn't know anything," said even larger Manda Turk, whose habitual frown was anything but tremulous.
    "Why not?" asked Caroline. "Oscar pulled her out the window of the Osceola Hotel. Oscar rowed her back to dry land. Oscar must have spoken a word or two along the way."
    "Men never know what questions to ask," replied Manda. "Won't learn anything asking Oscar about it. Isn't that right, Mary-Love?"
    "It is," said Mary-Love. "I'm afraid it is, even if I do have to say it about my own son. Sister's talking to her now. Maybe Sister can get a little something out of her."
    "Here comes Bray," said Manda Turk, pointing down the track into the pine forest. The sun, higher now and warmer, was drawing more steam up from the sodden ground. The black man had appeared quite suddenly out of the mist, swinging a small suitcase in his right hand.
    "Is that your bag?" asked Caroline DeBordenave of Mary-Love.
    "It is not," replied Mary-Love. "It must be hers."
    "Is that her bag, Bray?" Manda Turk called loudly.
    "Sure is," replied Bray, coming closer and knowing that "her" referred to the woman who had been rescued from the Osceola.
    "What's in it?" asked Caroline.
    "Don't know, didn't open it," replied Bray. He paused. "She inside the church?" he asked.
    "She's eating her breakfast with Sister," said Mary-Love.
    "They was two bags," said Bray, coming up to the three ladies.
    "Where is the other?" said Caroline.
    "Did you leave it back in the boat?" said Manda.
    "Don't know where it is," said Bray.
    "You lost it?" cried Mary-Love. "That girl has two bags to her name in this world, and you lost one of 'em!"
    "She's gone be mad at you, Bray," said Manda Turk. "She's gone bite your head off!"
    Bray shuddered, as if he feared the prediction might prove literally true. "I don't know where that old thing is, Miz Turk. Mr. Oscar and me get that lady in the boat, and she say two bags sitting inside the window. I bring that lady and Mr. Oscar out here, and Mr. Oscar tell me, 'Bray, row back,' so I row back and I reach in that window, and they one bag there. Only one bag. Now, where the other one go?".
    None of the women ventured an answer to Bray's question. The black man handed the bag to Mary-Love. "Maybe something reach up out of the water and put a hand inside the window feeling around and it feel that bag and it pull it down under the water."
    "Nothing in that water but old dead chickens," said Manda Turk contemptuously.
    "Wonder what's in there," mused Caroline, nodding at the case in Bray's hand.
    Mary-Love shook her head. To Bray she said, "Bray, you go on down to Miz Driver's house and get you something to eat. I'll tell Miss Elinor you