George Manville Fenn

“ For a human life was valuable in those early days of the American colonies, especially the life of a strong, healthy slave who could work in the broiling sunshine to win the harvest of the rich, fertile soil.
So, as the boat drifted away, he gave his orders sharply, and the black slaves, who had stood helplessly staring, rushed to the help of their companion, who was hanging by the boat-hook, half in the water, afraid to stir lest the iron should give way and the tide carry him off to where, as he well knew, there were dangers which made his lips turn grey with dread. ”

“ And who minds that?”
“Ah! who minds a trifle like that, Solly?” sighed Nic. “Well, sir, you see he does. Wind gets up directly, and he talks to me as if I’d mutinied. But I don’t mind. I know all the time that he’s the best and bravest skipper as ever lived, and I’d do anything for him to save him from trouble.”
“I know you would, Solly,” said Nic, laying a hand upon the rugged old sailor’s shoulder.
“Thank ye, Master Nic; that does a man good. But look here, sir; I can’t help saying it. The fact is, after his rough, stormy life, everything here’s made too easy for the skipper. ”

“ In another minute Nic would have been on his way back to try and get speech with Pete, and tell him what he had seen. He might, he thought, elude Samson’s watchfulness, when, to his astonishment, the man reached the farther shore, stepped out, and shook himself, when Nic felt that he must be dreaming, for it was Samson himself.
The next minute Nic saw him plunge into the thick growth overhanging the narrow creek and disappear. ”

“ The watcher would not believe this for a long time, but at last he uttered a cry of joy, followed by a groan; for, though the boat was there, the dark speck which represented Pete’s head had disappeared; and, to make the watcher’s despair more profound, the boat began to move once more, unmistakably gliding from beside the trees. All was over now, for Nic felt that to struggle longer was hopeless: there was nothing more to be done but lie down and die. ”

“ In another minute the heavy figure had been hauled upon the platform, to lie there apparently dead; while the blacks began, after their homely, clumsy fashion, to try and crush out any tiny spark of life which might remain, and kept on rolling the heavy body to and fro with all their might.
“It’s no good, boys,” said the overseer, frowning down at the prisoner. “Keep on for a bit, though;” and he turned away to watch the coming of the boat, just as Pete sat up, looking dazed and strange, and Nic rose to his knees, and then painfully seated himself in his old place. ”

“ Three months had passed since the boat reached the place that night, and there had been little to chronicle, for the prisoners’ life had been most monotonous, embraced as it was in rising early, toiling in the plantation in the hot sunshine all the day, with the regular halts for meals, and the barn-like shed at night, with the men’s roughly-made bunks, a blanket, and a bag of husks of Indian-corn.
The life suited Nic, though, for after the first fortnight he rapidly began to gain strength, and soon after he was sent out with the rest of the men. ”

“ How dare you speak to me like that?” cried the Captain.—“And you, Solly, you mutinous scoundrel, how dare you laugh?” he roared, turning to his body-servant, who happened to be in the hail.
“Beg your honour’s pardon; I didn’t laugh.”
“You did laugh, sir,” roared the Captain—“that is, I saw you look at Master Nic here and smile. It’s outrageous. Every one is turning against me, and I’m beginning to think it’s time I was out of this miserable world.” ”

“ I’ve been thinking that when we get on into that great big marsh of a place where the river runs through the trees we might stop and vish, for there must be plenty there, or else the ’gators wouldn’t be so plentiful. I did zee one big fellow, close to the top, in the clear water where it looked like wine. I thought it was a pike as we come up, and I felt as if I should like to try for him; but how to do it without a hook’s more than I can tell. But we must have zomething to eat, Master Nic, or we shall be starved, and never get away after all. ”

“ He felt that it would be of no use to appeal to this brutal slave-driver who had him and his fellow-unfortunates in charge. What he had to do was to wait patiently and make the best of things till then.
His head was rapidly growing so clear now that he could piece the disconnected fragments of his experience together, few as they were, and broken up by his sufferings from the injuries he had received; and, as he sat there in the darkness, he became more calm, and rejoiced in the thought that he was growing stronger, and would, without doubt, soon be fully recovered and able to act. ”

“ Worse off than I. There is no pleasant Devon for him to reach, as we must and will reach it some day. Yes, there are slaves far worse off than I. What can the dear old dad have thought when he found me gone? There is only one answer to that,” said Nic, with a weary sigh—“that I was drowned in the pool struggle and swept out to sea.”
The next minute Pete came into sight, and their eyes met, Nic giving the man so long and intent a look that he did not see Humpy Dee watching him, only that Pete’s face worked a little, as if he grasped the fact that his companion had some news to impart. ”

“ Instinct taught the listener that to save his life he must spring at his enemy before he could take aim, and, nerving himself for a leap forward to dash the musket he held upon the man’s face, he was almost in the act of bounding across the room when there was a low gurgling sound, and his nerves and muscles relaxed, for he realised the fact—the overseer had awoke suddenly from some nightmare-like dream, and it was no pistol he had taken out, but a flask of spirits. ”

“ There was silence again for a few minutes, during which time Nic sat with his heart beating hard, listening to the familiar sounds which came from the forest, while the passionate desire to flee grew and grew till it swept everything before it.
“Pete,” he cried at last, “we must escape. Better starve in the woods than lead such a life as this. We shall be flogged to-morrow, and it will kill me, I know.”
“The dogs’ll hunt us down if we go, lad, and we shall get it worse. Better face what we’ve got to have.”
“I will not; I cannot, Pete. The way is open, man. ”

“ Don’t you be downhearted; we shall do it yet.”
“But,” said Nic, “it is the getting taken in a ship if we manage to find our way to the coast.”
“If we find our way? We’ve on’y to get that boat. The river will show us the way down to the zea; and as to getting away then, all we’ve got to do is to try and find a ship that wants men.”
“They will not take us, Pete; we shall be looked upon as criminals.”
“Not if the skipper wants men,” said Pete, laughing softly. “Long as a man can work hard, and is strong, and behaves himself, he won’t ask any questions.” ”

“ Why can’t the rascals leave me and mine alone?”
“Like salmon, I suppose, father,” said the young man.
“So do we—but they might go up the river and catch them.”
“We get so many in the pool, and they tempt the idle people.”
“Then they have no business to fall into temptation. I’ll do something to stop them.”
“Better not, father,” said Nic quietly. “It would only mean fighting and trouble.”
“Bah!” cried Captain Revel, with his face growing redder than usual. “What a fellow to be my son! Why, sir, when I was your age I gloried in a fight.” ”

“ At the different changes made, the rowers left their oars dripping with perspiration, for the swamp seemed breathless and the heat intense; but towards evening a faint breeze sprang up, and instead of its growing darker there was a lightening in the appearance of the place; the setting sun sent a red glow among the trees, and then they passed out of the forest into a lovely, dreamy, open country, stretching for miles and miles towards where a range of hills ran right across their course, beyond which, pale orange by the fading light, another range of greater height appeared. ”

“ I must apologise to Solly. Grand old fellow, William Solly. Saved my life over and over again. Man who would die for his master, Nic; and a man who would do that is more than a servant, Nic—he is a friend. ”

“ The murmur increased as the young man strode on down the rugged slope, or leaped from mossy stone to stone, amongst heather, furze, and fern, to where the steep sides of the combe grew more thickly clothed with trees, in and amongst which the sheep had made tracks like a map of the little valley, till all at once he stood at the edge of a huge mass of rock, gazing through the leaves at the foaming brown water which washed the base of the natural wall, and eddied and leaped and tore on along its zigzag bed, onward towards the sea. ”

“ For Saunders seemed to pay no heed to the black slaves slipping away of a night on some excursion.
“’Nuff to make a man wish for a kettle o’ tar, or a pot o’ black paint,” said Pete one day. “What for, sir? Just to put on a coat of it, and change the colour of one’s skin. They’d treat us better than they do. Makes me wish I was a nigger for a bit, so long as I could wash white when I got away.”
“Master Nic,” said Pete one night when they were alone in their bunks, “I aren’t going to share that bit o’ ’possum.” ”

“ Ay, it is, sir; and when I cons it over I feel it. Why, Master Nic, when I think of all the real trouble as there is in life, and what some folks has to go through, I asks myself what I’ve ever done to have such good luck as to be safely moored here in such a harbour. It’s a lovely home, and the troubles is nothing—on’y a bit of a gale blowed by the skipper now and then along of the wrong boots as hurts his corns, or him being a-carrying on too much sail, and bustin’ off a button in a hurry. ”

“ We must try and get down through the trees. You can’t do it, I tell you.”
“Must, and will, my lad,” cried Pete. “Never zay die.”
Nic sank back and watched the brave fellow as he swam away more vigorously than ever. At every stroke Pete’s shoulders rose well above the surface, and, to all appearance, he was as fresh as when he started.
But there was the boat gliding down the stream, far enough away now, and beginning to look small between the towering trees rising on either side of the straight reach along which Nic gazed; and the watcher’s agony grew intense. ”

“ But what a pity it is that your father worries himself so about these poaching scoundrels! Can’t you wean him from it? Tell him, or I will, that it isn’t worth the trouble. Plenty more fish will come, and there must be a little grit in every one’s wheel.”
“Oh, I’ve tried everything, sir,” replied Nic. “The fact is that he is not so well as I should like to see him; and when he has an irritable fit, the idea of any one trespassing and taking the fish half-maddens him.” ”

“ It was evident that the water swarmed with the reptiles, and in spite of the terribly faint sensation of hunger that was increasing fast, Nic felt disposed to tell his companion to give up trying, when suddenly there was a fierce rush after the glistening hook as it was being dragged through the water, a sudden check, and the water boiled again as Pete hauled in the line, sea fishing fashion, to get his captive into the boat before it could struggle free from the clumsy hook. ”