“How do we look?” Arthur asked. “Like a couple of dairy farmers?”
“I don’t know a lot of dairy farmers, but I’d say yes,” Mabel said.
Shyly, Mabel removed her sweater and cap, and Arthur wrapped all of their old clothes around a rock and sank them in the river. He climbed into the driver’s side; Gloria, the passenger side. Mabel clambered onto the truck’s long bed, clinking past the crates of milk bottles they’d planted to back up their story. Then they waited for Aron and Luis. Over the percolator hum of the truck’s motor, Mabel could hear the distant shouting. An eerie orange glow lit up the sky. Smoke poured through the trees like a St. Walpurgis Night festival. Already, the fire was burning toward the road. They could even feel some of the heat where they were. Mabel raised the binoculars. Guards were running about. Some of the militiamen had joined them. They grabbed buckets of sand and water for the fire. Even some of the striking workers had joined in to help. Still there was no sign of Aron and Luis. Where were they? Mabel thought she’d scream from nerves.
“It’s been five minutes. We should go,” Gloria cautioned from the front seat.
“We can’t just leave them!” Mabel cried.
“That was the plan. We all agreed. They knew the risks,” Gloria said.
“Just one more minute,” Mabel pleaded.
Chewing the inside of his cheek, Arthur looked from Gloria to Mabel and back out at the eerie backlit trees.
“Arthur… !” Gloria warned.
“Just another minute,” he said.
“It’s too hot. They might close the road!” Gloria said. “We’ll get caught if we d—”
The slap-slap-slap of three quick rifle shots pierced the night, making Mabel jump.
“What was that?” Gloria whispered.
Two more shots rang out. With shaking hands, Mabel raised the binoculars. She could see the militiamen running for their trucks.
“Mabel?” Arthur.
“They’re getting into their trucks.” Her heart felt as if it would burst from fear. “They’re on the move.”
“That’s it. We can’t wait another second,” Arthur said.
Mabel held on tightly as Arthur shifted the truck onto the old dirt road. She wanted to cry, but she was too frightened for tears. She kept the binoculars pressed against her eyes, searching for any sign of Luis and Aron.
“Come on, come on,” she whispered prayerfully.
Gloria leaned out her window, angling her face toward the back. “Mabel! What are you doing? Lie down under the tarp this instant!”
“I haven’t given up yet,” Mabel said.
“You’re going to get us arrested—or killed!”
Shapes darted between the dark trees. For all Mabel knew, it could be militiamen coming for them. Her heart beat so fast it felt as if it would burst. She squinted hard against the plumes of irritating smoke blowing toward them, and then she was smacking her palm against the side of Arthur’s door. Aron and Luis were racing after the moving truck.
“There they are! I see them!” she cried.
Arthur jerked to a stop, keeping the motor running, and Mabel crawled to the back and helped haul her exhausted friends onto the truck bed. Aron and Luis sprawled onto their backs, gasping for breath.
“Thanks for… waiting,” Luis managed between fits of coughing.
“It was Mabel who spotted you,” Arthur said over the motor’s hum.
“Ah, Mabel Rose, you are true to your name and just as sweet,” Luis said on scant breath.
Aron grinned. “We did it! Those bastards won’t be making money off scab labor anymore.”
“We’re not safe yet,” Arthur warned. “Stay quiet and hidden.”
Mabel pulled the tarp over the back of the truck, and the three of them crouched down behind the stacked milk crates. Mabel cracked open one of the bottles and handed it to the boys, who swigged generously and coughed just as heartily. The truck jostled down the rutted road—just a dairy farmer and his wife making the morning rounds. But soon they slowed to a stop.
“Why are we stopping?” Luis whispered.
Mabel peeked out from under the tarp and her heart sank. “Pinkertons. Blocking the road,” she whispered.
“We’re done for,” Aron said.
“Shhh. Have faith,” Luis said.
Mabel lifted the tarp ever so slightly and saw an agent approach the driver’s window. Arthur snugged his cap down lower over his newly darkened hair. There was coal dust on his shoulder. She hoped the agent couldn’t see it.
“Morning. My wife and I saw the fire,” Arthur said, making his voice calm and country. “What’s the trouble?”
The agent looked at Arthur for a long time. Mabel was sure her pounding blood could be heard from under the tarp. If they were discovered, they’d go to prison for certain. But there was always the chance the agents might just shoot them there and then, and be done with it.
“Anarchists just blew up the mine,” the agent answered at last.
Arthur shook his head in disapproval. “That a fact? Well, I’ll be.”
“It isn’t safe anywhere nowadays,” Gloria said.
“No, ma’am. It sure isn’t.”
Let us go, let us go, let us go, Mabel prayed silently.
“Mind if I check the back of your wagon, there?” the agent said.
Mabel pressed a hand to her mouth to keep the scream in. Beside her, she saw Luis’s lips moving in silent prayer. Aron trembled, his eyes tightly shut.
“Not at all,” Arthur said. “Just getting a jump on the morning run. Got a long drive ahead. Taking the cream all the way to Camden today. Care to wet your whistle? Got a bottle right here. Finest milk in New Jersey, if I do say so myself.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” the agent said. He took the bottle from Arthur and swigged half of it down. His rifle gleamed in the fire-tinged night. “That is awfully fine cream.”
The agent peered at the tarp again. He took a step forward. Mabel held her breath as he sipped from the bottle. But then he stepped back, smiling. “Well, I’ll let you get on your way, then. You folks be careful, though. Don’t pick up any strangers out here. We got orders to shoot to kill.”
“Will do. Thank you, sir,” Arthur said.
The truck lurched forward, and Mabel didn’t let out her breath till she could see the agents and the fire receding into the night.
EVERYTHING WAS DIFFERENT NOW
By the time the Secret Six had made it back to Manhattan, it was nearly four in the morning. After they’d ditched the truck on the West Side, the adrenaline loss left everyone limp and sleepy. Arthur promised to see Mabel back to Evie’s hotel, where she’d told her mother she was staying for the night.
“Come up for a second first?” he said as they stood outside the bookshop.