Flight to Canada Read Online Free PDF

speaking …” To Lincoln, Moe and Uncle Robin, “That got em.”
    “Hello, Lee? What’s the big idea of your men come busting up to my place and annoying my guests? I told your boss, Jeff Davis, to keep that war off of my property … Why, you impertinent scoundrel.” Hand over the phone, he mimics Lee to the trio in the room, “Says extraordinary emergency supersedes the right to privacy enjoyed by the individual no matter what station in life the individual may hold … Look, you little runt, if you don’t get those men off my property, I’ll, I’ll … My father’s dead, I’m running this thing now. I don’t care how long you’ve known the family—my brothers and Ms. Anne and me are running things now …
    “Who’s up here? Why, the nerve. For your information, Mr. Abraham Lincoln is up here.”
    Lincoln tries to shush Swille, but Swille signals him that it doesn’t matter.
    “You’ll do no such thing.” Hands over the phone, to Lincoln, “Says he’s coming up here to arrest you …
    “Look, Lee, if you don’t get those men off my property I’m going to create an energy crisis and take back my railroads, and on top of that I’ll see that the foreign countries don’t recognize you. And if that’s not all, I’ll take back my gold. Don’t forget; I control the interest rates …
    “Now that’s more like it … Now you’re whistling ‘Dixie’ … No, I won’t tell Davis … Forget it … That’s fine.” Turns to Lincoln, “Says he’s going to send an escort up here to see to it that your men return safely to your yacht, The River Queen. Lee said he was preparing to blow it up but will call it off in deference to your comfort …”
    Turning back to the phone, “What’s that? … Oh, you don’t have to come up here and play nigger for three days for punishment; anyway, who will run your side of the war? Look, Lee, I got to go now.” Hangs up. To trio, “Boy, when you say gold, they jump. And speaking of gold, Mr. President, I’m going to give you some.”
    “Why, Mr. Swille, now that you mention it,” Lincoln says, fidgeting and pushing his feet, “I didn’t come all the way through Confederate lines just to pass the time of day. We need some revenue bad. Why, we’re as broke as a skeeter’s peeter. I’m leaning toward the peace plan originally proposed by Horace Greeley of the New York paper … it’s called … Well, the plan is called …” Lincoln reaches into his coat pocket for a piece of paper. “Ah, Mr. Swille, I didn’t bring my glasses, would you read it?” Lincoln hands the piece of paper to Swille.
    “And cut the formalities, Mr. Swille. You can call me Abe.” Lincoln, once again, reaches out for a handshake, but Swille is too busy reading to notice. Lincoln, embarrassed, puts his hand in his pocket.
    Swille takes the paper and examines it. “I … well, your writing, your aide’s writing, is nearly illegible. Here, Uncle Robin, can you make this out?”
    Robin looks at it. “Compensatory Emancipation it says, Massa Swille.”
    “Compensatory Emancipation, that’s it! Sure enough is, Mr. Swille. It goes like this. We buy the war and the slaves are over. No, like this. We buy the slaves. That’s it. We buy the slaves or the bondsmen and then they pay the South seven and a half percent interest. No, dog bite it. How did it go? My aides have been going over it with me ever since we started out from The River Queen. I got it! We buy up all the slaves and then tell them to go off somewhere. Some place like New Mexico, where nobody’s hardly seen a cloud and when they do show up it looks like judgment day, and where the cactus grows as big as eucalyptus trees, where you have to walk two miles to go to the outhouse and then freeze your can off in the cold desert until it’s your turn and then the outhouse is so dark you sit on a rattlesnake. Other times I think that maybe they ought to go to the tropics where God made them. You know, I’ve been reading