Two men came my way before I could follow, and I pulled out a knife with my left hand to match the one in my right. They dodged my jabbing blades and smirked. The big fellow swooped up Minnie with a whoop of triumph and headed back to the wagons. Apollo used his spar like a battering ram into the big fellow’s back, and the man dropped Minnie. Moses caught her and gave the fellow a kick in the shins for good measure. Tauseret smacked him across his chest with her pole.
The train crawled by. The passenger cars had passed, and the freight cars followed.
My attackers rushed me. I slashed with my knives. They weren’t designed for fighting, but the tips were sharp, and I scored a hit on the smaller man and drew blood. He squealed. They both leaped back and eyed me.
“Finish them off, you lily-livered cowards,” Mink called from the roof of his wagon. “A bonus to the first to throw a brat in my coach.”
Tauseret tripped, and a fleshy man flung himself on her while two cronies cheered him on. She wrestled like a she-cat. Oh, my God, he meant to defile her! I had to stop him. I flung my knives at the men I faced but missed with both, and I cursed my stupid haste. The men ran at me. I felt a fist to my jaw, and then I gazed up from the ground and the world spun. I thought I dreamed what I saw next.
A camel and rider jumped over me.
I fought for consciousness and sat up woozily in time to see another camel and rider leap from an open freight-car door as the train chugged by. I shook my head and blinked in disbelief. My attackers fled. The fleshy man let go of Tauseret and crossed himself. The two thugs with him ran. The camel pursued. Tauseret scurried away on her hands and feet.
A horse landed clumsily just beyond me, hooves scattering pebbles and sod. An older man was in the saddle, whirling a cavalry saber in circles so fast it sang. Behind him sat a dwarf.
“Colonel! Archie!” I cried as I struggled to my feet.
They set off toward the tramps that beset the children.
A filthy man, too full of gin and false courage to run, assailed me. I landed several blows with newfound strength, my hopes elated, but he seemed immune and I lost steam. Then a pungent stench of manure and hay enveloped me, and I was knocked askew by a long, hairy leg with a knobby knee. I gasped as someone yanked the drunk from above. “Tallyho!” the man on the camel cried, and hung the drunk from a tree by his suspenders. He gave me a smart salute. “I don’t know who those fellows on the horse are, but I don’t mind the help.” It was Frank, th
e younger Arabian brother from Marvel Brothers Circus. I was too amazed to answer. Beyond him the taillights of the train retreated up the track.
Tauseret confronted me and wrapped her arms around my neck. “They have come,” she cried, and threw her head back in a wild, glad laugh that made my heart sing.
Mink still screamed invectives from the roof of his wagon, but he was losing control of his men once more. Most were running off. Archie had slid from the colonel’s horse and joined the cheering children. He wasn’t much taller than they. The colonel chased a fellow along the path in the direction the train had gone. The fellow scrambled through the bushes to get around Earle just as a cart arrived. My heart lurched. Was it friend or foe?
A dark-skinned man jumped from the cart and came at the fleeing villain, swinging his fists like a gentleman.
“Poppa!” Willie called. “I knew you’d come.” Mr. Northstar knocked the villain unconscious and ran to embrace his son.
A red-haired girl stood in the cart waving a broom in triumph. “Lillie!” I yelled with joy. Bless her wanton heart. She had heard Tauseret’s call all the way off at Mrs. Delaney’s house of ill repute and brought Mr. Northstar with her. He must have come back like he said.
The thug scrambled to his feet and ran around the cart, while Lillie whacked at him with her broom. The colonel jumped his horse over the fat man and followed the fleeing varmint up the lane. He could have run the man down, but he ran him off instead.
Two remaining thugs fled in the other direction. Eddie, the older Arabian brother, pursued them on camelback past their wagon, topsy-turvy on the path. The wagon horses plunged and snorted at the sight of the camel but couldn’t escape their tangled harness. The men swarmed up the side of Mink’s paneled wagon to join Mink on the roof. Mink screamed something at them, and they flung themselves from the roof at Eddie, carrying him off his leggy beast. I ran to Eddie’s rescue and jerked one of the thugs away by the scruff. Eddie limped and had a gash in his cheek but swung gamely at the other.
With the horse rider gone and one camel rider unseated, some of the ruffians must have found their nerve. Half a dozen, led by Billy Sweet, poured back onto the path. I took one on, and as I pummeled my foe, I saw Tauseret climbing a tree. The bastard I fought kicked me in the shin. I kneed him in the groin and watched him fall, shrieking.
Above the chaos rose a hideous ululation. Tauseret launched herself from the tree and onto the back of Eddie’s loose camel. She snatched the reins but didn’t know what to do with them. Her tugs drove the beast wild. It ran into the knot of villains around the children and Mr. Northstar, spitting and nipping viciously, and scattered them, then it crashed through the hedges and into the field. Frank whipped his camel after her.
I wanted to chase her too. What if she fell? What if she broke her neck? But I had children to protect. Or did I?
Moses and Bertha each now clutched an end of the length of barbwire, padded with handholds torn from someone’s clothes. They ran at the legs of Billy Sweet and wrapped him like a maypole. He fell to the ground and bloodied his hands as he pulled at his bonds. The children pelted the men with rocks. Mr. Northstar laid out those who came through the barrage with his fists, and Archie crunched kneecaps and punched stomachs. All around tramps ducked, covered their heads, protected their groins, and hopped on one foot.
We were winning! Against all odds we were winning.
“Don’t move, or I’ll blast your head off,” said Mink from behind me. Cold metal pressed into my cheek. My blood froze. When had he left his perch?
“Tell them to give up the fight,” the skeleton man demanded.
They wouldn’t abandon me to my fate like he had Ceecee. They would do as I said and be defeated. I refused to speak.
Mink jabbed me with the gun barrel. “Do it, boy. They value your hide, and you do too.”
He was right. I valued my hide, and how could I help them if I was dead?
“Stop, everyone,” I cried. “Mr. Northstar, Archie, everyone, hold your blows. Stop, or he’ll shoot me.”