Chapter 5

In the time he waited for Matt and Mark's return, Jules kept a log of the events of his days.

Day 20

Mrs. Ridgemont took me to church again today. There is a small catholic population on this island that meets near her Methodist church. I have been expected to attend every Sunday since coming here. Mrs. Ridgemont is a very pious woman and takes her duties as hostess seriously. I was introduced to the local priest as soon as she knew I was Catholic. I will not confess to her my last church attendance, only the priest knows.

Day 21

I accompanied Mrs. Ridgemont to the market. She bought two chickens and German sausage from new immigrants readying themselves for a wagon trip inland. They are heading to a settlement to the north called Fredericksburg. Mrs. Ridgemont tells me more and more European immigrants are coming into Texas every month by this port since the war ended.

I have taken over chores that Matthew and Mark used to attend to for their mother. It is no great burden and helps pass the time. I am even chopping wood. The work has brought home how very sedimentary my life in Paris is.

Day 25

Mrs. Ridgemont received a note for me from her sons by a messenger coming to Galveston from Harrisburg. The message implied they were close to finding the League base. Again, they promised to turn the information over to the local commander of the (Yankee) army. The base is not as they thought near the town of Harrisburg, also called Houston. For their mother's sake, the note was coded and did not elaborate more than that. I will have to await their return to get full details.

A friend informed Mrs. Ridgemont today that good Catholics make confession and morning mass every day. She came to me with this new knowledge, releasing me from my morning chores to observe my obligations. I tried to tell her that was unnecessary, but she would not hear it. I have not observed religious rites so closely since leaving home. My mother would be quite pleased at this woman's insistence.

Day 30

I returned from mass this morning to find a cow stubbornly grazing on Mrs. Ridgemont's cabbage. I chased it away. My hostess tells me it is a neighbor's animal that routinely escapes from its nearby pasture.

Day 32

The cow came back, and I chased it away again.

By day thirty-five, Jules was bored to death. He physically pined for the sight of the Aurora in the clouds and dreamed of the Foggs coming to his rescue nightly. The beauty of travel with the Foggs was that the Aurora traveled across distances so fast that boredom never set in. His times off the airship were also so filled with pleasant and not so pleasant adventures that time flew by quickly.

And, Phileas Fogg has never left me in the care of a pious widow who makes sure I am as proper a Catholic as I have not been since boarding school, for all her own very protestant beliefs.

On day thirty-eight, Verne's fight with boredom was over. He was sitting in church waiting for his turn for confession when Mrs. Ridgemont came in to sit beside him. She seemed quite upset.

"What's wrong?" Jules said.

"I received this, this morning after you left for church." She handed him a note. "It is from my brother in Harrisburg. My sons were arrested east of there. Jason doesn't say why. Matt and Mark are being kept locked up, speaking to anyone. I am so anxious. I am also worried for you, Jules," she added. "Not an hour after I was given this note, four soldiers from the local garrison came looking for you. They would not tell me why they wanted you, but I was terribly frightened for you after reading of my son's arrests. I told them you were touring the coast heading for Matagorda."

"Why would you say that?" Jules said.

"Jules," Mrs. Ridgemont turned to him near crying, "you are very new to Galveston, so I will tell you now, being sought by soldiers is a very bad thing. You are not American, but few of us are more than a generation or two away from first setting foot in Texas. It won't help for you to claim French citizenship. If the boys ran afoul of the army and you are being sought because of them, there will be no help for it. You will be judged as another new immigrant and treated as harshly as any southerner. You need to hide until this blows over, or until my brother can find out why the boys were arrested. The priest here and my minister are on good terms. I will ask that you be given sanctuary."

"Surely that's unnecessary," Jules said, bewildered. He had been given way too much information with too few details. "No matter what reason Matt and Mark have been arrested, it cannot possibly reflect on me. Mrs. Ridgemont, the soldiers may have just come asking that I verify what your sons told them. I should go to the army garrison now and find the officer that came looking for me."

Mrs. Ridgemont looked at Jules like he had lost his mind, shaking her head in despair. "You can't understand. You don't know how it has been since the end of the war and President Lincoln's death. The entire country went crazy when that poor man died. "Mr. Booth did the south no favor. Please Jules, please talk to the priest about this before you do anything," she pleaded. "Maybe he will make you understand."

Jules saw that his turn in the confessional was on him, as the widow made her plea. "I will ask him now," he promised. "Wait here until I come out." Jules headed for the confessional booth ready to enlist the priest to help him calm the woman's nerves.