Chapter 46: Strange Events

It was a few weeks later that Tom woke up suddenly. He wasn't sure what had awoken him but he knew that something had. He slipped quietly from the bed without disturbing Mei or Su. He looked around and decided that Wei must have headed back to her room.

He quietly slipped on his pants and the soft slippers that Mei had made for him. He moved silently to the window, watching and listening. It was some time before he heard a faint noise. It drew all of his attention and he focused on finding the source. As he looked deeply in the night he saw a movement. He watched as the movement repeated itself becoming clearer and louder.

He smiled to himself. He didn't need to see the details to know that the horses had thick cloths wrapped around their hooves. There was almost no noise from the wagon or the harness rigging. Someone had put a great amount of time into the preparation. He wasn't sure who was behind it, but he doubted that Don Carrone would have sent so few men, or a freight wagon.

Tom quietly slipped from his room and walked down the hall, tapping twice on each door as he went. By the time that he was at the end the doors were beginning to open. They saw him standing in front of a window at the end of the hall and quickly joined him there. He held up a hand stopping any talk.

"We have visitors. I saw a wagon with five men in it. Luke in the drawing room; Peter, I want you and Ben outside. Once they come in the house you can have what's left. Robert, there is probably a watcher by the road, or maybe two. I want these men alive, I have questions for them." Tom turned and opened the window silently. With a look Peter, Ben and Robert disappeared through the window. Tom closed the window and started back down the hall.

At John's room Ming and Ping were standing in the doorway. They watched the men walk by and followed them. At Tom's room Mei and Su were standing in the doorway watching as the others went by and joined the other women.

At the stairway Tom stopped and looked at the women. Su's English had gotten a lot better, but she still allowed Mei to do most of the talking. "Men come to our house?" Tom silently nodded his head. The four women looked to each other and silently came to a decision.

"We will fight with you. This is our house, too." Tom considered it for a minute. He knew that Mei and Su were deadly with their knives, and he had been told that Ming and Ping were better. He nodded his head. "You four will wait in the kitchen. If they come in there you can have them. But, I want them alive. So, be cautious but safe. I don't want to lose anybody over something as stupid as this. Take the back stairs. Go, now." The four women were off at a run. Even running they were as silent as the night. Tom smiled as he slipped his knife from his belt and pointed to the stairs.

They were half way down when they heard the muffled sound of breaking glass. Tom nodded to John and the hallway that he had decided the sound came from. He didn't look back knowing where Luke would be.

As they moved silently down the hall they heard muffled talk coming from the Library. Tom nodded his head to John and they each stood beside the door. They listened and heard what was obviously books hitting the floor. They waited and heard more books and the obviously angry voices of men cussing.

Tom smiled and whispered to John, "They aren't very good at this, are they?" John smiled and shook his head. He then nodded at the door knob with a questioning look. Tom listened again for a minute to the sounds moving around the room, and then nodded his head.

The door opened silently. One man noticed the newcomers, but he didn't have a chance to say anything before John's knife handle hit him in the side of the head. One more thud hitting the floor wasn't even noticed by the other three men.

Tom motioned to the odd man at the side of the room, and took the two across the room with their backs to him. Tom slammed the first man's head against the bookcase and hit the other with his own knife handle. Once the second man was quietly on the floor he turned his attention back to the first man. He was looking up with blood running from his nose, with a confused expression on his face. Tom smiled at him just before kicking him in the stomach. As he bent over Tom's knife handle connected with the back of his head. He silently slumped to the floor.

Tom motion to John, and then to the broken window; they silently peered into the night and into the wagon waiting at the window. They saw the lone driver waiting and watching for any signs of activity in the rest of the house.

Tom and John looked at each other again. Tom nodded his head and dropped to one knee. John pulled the curtain back as Tom flipped his knife into the air and caught it by the blade. He then drew back and threw it hard through the window. The knife didn't flip or spin, it just sailed handle first until it encountered the drivers head. He never made a sound as he fell half out of the driver's box.

Tom looked quickly both directions before he pointed at the men on the floor. "Well, since they were nice enough to supply a wagon, let's get these men into it." John nodded and went to the first man and grabbed one arm and one foot, Tom did the same to the other side and they moved to the window and pitched the first of the four men out the window and into the waiting wagon. Tom smiled at the thud that the unconscious man made as he landed in the wagon. John grinned back at him.

This process was repeated three more times, but they didn't get the same pleasing sound as the men landed in the wagon. After the last one was loaded John climbed out into the wagon, followed by Tom. John quickly climbed into the wagon box and grabbed the man that was threatening to fall out. He jerked him back with enough force to flip him over the seat to join his friends in the back of the wagon.

Tom lightly dropped over the side of the wagon and started walking to the front. John picked up Tom's knife from the floor of the wagon box. After making a low bird whistle of the night-bird John pitched the knife. Tom caught it by the handle and slipped it into his belt sheath.

Tom took the lead horse's bridle and began leading the wagon toward the stable. John sat in the wagon box and kept a watch, with is pistol in his hand. He figured that any trouble after this point sound wouldn't be a factor.

As they pulled up to the stable Pat was waiting for them, but he still looked half asleep. Tom smiled at him and ruffled his hair. "You look like we woke you up." Pat grinned and nodded his head. Tom turned him around and pushed him toward the house. "Go up and sleep in the house tonight, I'm sure that your sister will share her warm bed with you tonight." Pat looked confused, but knew better than to argue, he hoped there was still some of the rice pudding left that Wei had made for desert. With any luck he might be able to beg a little. He found that he was suddenly wide awake and moving at a run.

Tom and John had just backed the wagon up to the stable entrance when they heard a horse walking toward them in the night. Since it was coming from the front he suspected that it was Robert. He was surprised to see all three men leading the horse.

Once they were close enough he gave an enquiring look and Ben smiled. We were having to carry ours back when Robert came walking along with a horse. It sure made it easier to just add ours to his. Tom looked at the two men across the horse and raised his eyebrow.

Ben shrugged, "Only had one man on the other side of the house and none in front. I guess that they didn't think that anybody would even hear them. Robert only found the one up by the road. I don't think that I would have done it like that, but that's probably why we are taking them to the stable." Tom shrugged and dropped the wagon gate.

They soon were tying up men and putting them against the wall. Once all seven of the men were tied with their hands behind their back and the feet pulled up to join them, they got a bucket of water and started pitching it on their sleeping visitors. None of them woke up without a groan or two.

Tom asked John quietly, "Which one do you think will be the one to talk, and which ones do you think won't?" John took a quick look at the assembled men before saying, "The boy will talk easily. The men inside the house I don't think will talk, unless you are willing to work for it. But all of them can be made to talk, you know that." Tom smiled and nodded his head.

Tom had a determined grin on his face, "Just like old times. Well, why don't you pull out the first one that you put to sleep, unless there is another one that you just don't like the looks of." John shrugged and nodded to Ben. They went over and pulled out the first man that John had hit with his knife in the Library.

Tom walked over and picked up an axe handle from a barrel, with more than a few of them in it. He hefted the axe handle a few times and swung it a couple of times before he turned to the man and asked him, "Well, why don't you tell me what you were looking for?" The man sneered and spit on Tom soft shoe before he said, "You can't scare me, and I aint gonna tell you anything."

Tom nodded his head sympathetically then he looked at the axe handle as he raised it and swung it with all of the force that he could muster. The sound of the impact on the man's head was almost like a gun, and just like a gun the other side of his head split and some gray matter splattered on the floor. He noticed a stunned expression of the man's face before he fell forward.

Tom then pointed to the boy and waited until John and Ben pulled him out in front of the others. Tom noticed that the front of his pants was already wet, and he found it difficult not to laugh. "Well, boy what do you have to tell me?"

The boy, who looked about fifteen, was already crying, "Please mister, don't kill me. I don't know nuthin." Tom smiled at him as he hefted the axe handle again, "Are you sure about that?"

The boy was watching his every move with tears streaming down his face. "My name is Bobby Ray Peters, and I was just watching the road. Honest mister, that's all that I know." Tom smiled at the boy again.

Tom looked him in the eye and said, "I don't believe you Bobby. You were watching the road for a reason, and somebody told you to do it. Now I want to know why you were watching the road, and who told you to do it."

Bobby looked confused for a minute, but quickly realized that those were things that he did know, and if telling the man would keep him alive then he was sure going to tell him. "Yes sir, but you already know that. I was watching the road because them there other fellas was in the house stealing the gold. Mister Penny said that was all I had to do, just watch the road and sing out if anybody comes around."

Tom smiled at the boy, "See Bobby you did know more than you said. You told me that you were here to steal gold and Mister Penny is the one you work for. Now how did you start working for Mister Penny?"

Bobby considered what he was told and realized that it was true, there were things that he did know. But he couldn't figure out why it was important, it wasn't important to him. "Well, Mister Penny came around by Harold's Tavern a few nights ago and asked real quietly if there was some fellas that might be interested in making some money without a lot of hard work. Well, there's always a few of them fellas around and I needed money, as I was plumb broke."

Bobby looked around to see if this was what the man wanted. Since he wasn't complaining Bobby decided to keep going, "Mister Penny, he got us all together at a back table and bought us all beer. Then he starts telling us about this here fella that is throwing gold around all over the place. He even told us where to find you and to come watch for ourselves. And he was right, we watched you sitting at that fancy tavern handling out gold to feller after feller, sometimes we saw them fellers giving you money. We shore couldn't figure out what you were doing, but we knew that you had to have a passel of gold."