I slept heavily when Uncle Moses had gone, making up for my
wakefulness the night before; and next day I was more composed in
mind, and readier to take thought. Ignorant as I was of the
plantation and the country round, I saw that to escape in the night
without a guide would be to court disaster, and a timorous guide
like Uncle Moses, with his fear of the bugaboos, might lead me to
my undoing. Therefore my flight must be contrived by day. The door
of my chamber was opened three times, when the guards brought me
food, and 'twas possible that, with the negro making a diversion
outside, I might seize such an occasion to fell one of the men and
evade the other. But this plan scarce promised success, for the
house was situate in the sugar plantation, and doubtless many
negroes would be at work, and the overseer would be at hand, with
possibly others of the piratical dogs whom Vetch had brought up
from the coast.
There was one period of the day, however, when few people, if any,
would be astir, and that was the middle part from eleven till about
three, when work ceased, everybody seeking shelter from the heat. I
could reckon on my guards being sleepy and sluggish then; and,
moreover, seeing that during several days I had given them no
trouble, they would be quite unprepared for any violent outbreak.
True, my door was always locked, but looking at it, I did not doubt
that if I threw myself upon it with all my strength it would give
way. And if Uncle Moses had the courage at the same time to tackle
the men, there was a chance that we might seize their arms and make
good our escape before they had recovered from their surprise. At
any rate, I saw nothing better.
Being resolved on this first step, I had to consider the next. What
should I do if I escaped? Should I endeavor to make my way to
Spanish Town and return with a force of tars, or of soldiers from
Collingwood's regiment then in garrison, sufficient to deal with
Vetch's desperadoes? This idea I soon dismissed. I felt that time
was of the greatest moment. I did not know the exact date of
Mistress Lucy's coming of age, but 'twas very clear that it was not
far distant; it might be, indeed, within a few days, and I had such
a belief in Vetch's villainy that I feared he might force Lucy into
a marriage with Cludde the very moment she was free from the
authority of the Chancery Court. Cludde had arrived, I remembered,
and was perhaps still at the house awaiting the day of Lucy's
enfranchisement, and I clenched my fists at the thought.
It would take me a full day on a swift horse to reach Spanish Town,
even if I rode at peril of sunstroke through the hot hours, and
another day, perhaps two or three, to return with assistance; and
it was in the highest degree unlikely, first that I should be able
to get a horse, and if I did, to ride the whole length of the
estate without being intercepted. And further, supposing all
happened as favorably as I could wish, at the news of my flight
Vetch would without question carry off Mistress Lucy to the brig
that lay on the coast, and would sail to England or elsewhere,
secure in the knowledge that I could not pursue him.
I can relate the course of my reasoning in cold blood now, but on
that day of anxious pondering every other consideration was
outweighed by the feeling that I must not go far from Mistress
Lucy. And so I resolved that if I got free I would ask Uncle Moses
to lead me to some spot near by, difficult of access, where I might
lurk while concerting some means of assisting her. It passed my wit
to conceive of any plan that promised success; but certainly I
could do nothing while a prisoner, and to be free was my one
consuming desire.
How impatiently I waited for the dark needs no telling. And some
words I overheard pass between my jailors, as they talked over
their supper, drove me to such a state of desperation that I had
almost there and then dashed myself against the door and ruined
everything.
"'Twill be summat new for Parson Jim," says Jack.
"Ay, 'tis many a year since he tied a knot o' that sort," replied
the other.
"D'ye reckon he can tie it safe and proper, seeing he bean't no
more a parson?" asked Jack.
"Never you fear," says Bill; "once a parson always a parson, as
I've heard tell. 'Tis no matter he's a swab and a tosspot like you
and me, only worse, and fit for nothing but a Newgate galley; he'll
read the words o' the book, if so be he's sober enough to see 'em
(though to be sure his talk is always most pious when he's drunk),
and they'll be lawful man and wife, same as if they'd bin spliced
by the Pope of Rome himself."
This wrought me into a very fever of apprehension. I could only
guess who Parson Jim might be; the buccaneers gathered all manner
of strange recruits; it was enough that there was talk of a
marriage, and I was sick with dread lest after all I should be too
late. And when at last I heard the welcome rustle below me, the
first words I spoke through the tube were an anxious inquiry for
Lucy's welfare.
"Missy lots better now, sah," replied the negro, and with the
vanity of youth I inferred that she was better for the knowledge
that I was near.
"Is Mr. Cludde at the house?" I asked.
"No, sah; Massa Cludde gone yesterday."
That was good news, at any rate, for I supposed him to have
returned to Spanish Town, perhaps to make preparations for his
wedding, and it must be four or five days at earliest before he
could be back.
"And when is Mistress Lucy's birthday?" I asked.
"Missy's bufday Friday, Massa, but oughter be Fursday."
"What do you mean?"
"Missy keep bufday one day after proper time, sah, cos her muvver
die on proper bufday, and Massa and Missy too sorry to be jolly dat
day, sah."
"Does Mr. Vetch know that?" I asked, with no little anxiety, for
'twas Tuesday night, and if Vetch knew that Lucy came of age on
Thursday the time was perilously short.
"No, sah; Massa Vetch t'ink de proper bufday be Friday, and he hab
told all de black people dey shall get drunk Saturday, 'cos dere
will be wedding in de house."
There was confirmation of the suspicion my jailors' talk had bred
in me. I lost no time now in imparting my plan to the negro. He
gave a low groan when I had finished.
"What's the matter?" I said. "Are you afraid?"
"Yes, Massa, I am 'fraid. S'pose we get away, dere be dogs at the
big house, and dey will let 'em loose on us and follow on
horseback. We shall be cotched, and dat will be de last of po'
Uncle Moses."
This was a staggering blow, and I own I felt for the moment an
utter despair. In the depths of the forest land, could we but gain
it, we might elude the search of men, but not the unerring scent of
bloodhounds.
"Are there horses we could make off with?" I said at length.
"No, Massa; all de horses but two at de big house be gwine to take
sugar to de coast tomorrow, and dose two are kept for Missy and
Massa Vetch."
This had an element of comfort in it, for if we could not find
horses for ourselves, neither could our pursuers, save these two,
which might not be at hand, and I did not doubt we could outstrip
any man on foot. I pointed this out to the negro, and when he
replied that we had still to reckon with the dogs, I tried to
hearten him by showing that some time must elapse before the beasts
could be fetched from their kennel and put upon the scent. And then
I asked him whether slaves had never run away from the estate
without being caught.
"Not when old Massa was alive, nor yet when Massa McTavish was de
boss; but some did run 'way when Massa Vetch come, and dey was not
cotched."
"Well, then, why should not we do the same? Do you know where they
hid?"
"In de swamp six mile 'way," he said.
"Yes, dat is it," he added, with a new eagerness in his tone, "we
will run to de swamp. I never thought of Massa going where de
niggers go. De dogs will not run on de swamp 'cos dey 'fraid of
being drownded."
"Then how can we?" I asked, wondering.
"I know all about dat, Massa," he said. "De slaves what run way dey
wear swamp shoes. I make some for massa and me, and den if we get
dere befo' de dogs cotch us, we shall be safe."
I was getting desperately uneasy lest our whispered conversation,
which had lengthened itself out, should be heard by my jailors. So
I now brought it to an end by reminding Uncle Moses of the part he
was to play on the morrow and giving him a message to Mistress
Lucy.
"Tell her that with God's help I shall be free tomorrow, and beg
her to shut herself in her room, and see no one. If mortal man can
save her, she shall be saved."
And ere I went to sleep I prayed very fervently that all might be
well with us and her.
When morning broke, I was conscious of a great agitation of mind,
which I schooled myself to hide from the eyes of my guards, forcing
myself to eat the breakfast for which I had no appetite. It would
have eased me to pace up and down my room, but I forbore even from
this, so that no restlessness might provoke their curiosity or
suspicion. I sat for hours on my bed, awaiting the time for our
attempt. The men brought me my midday meal: one of them made a
brutal remark on my pallor; and then the door was shut, and they
settled themselves to their usual siesta.
'Twas about an hour later when I heard the tube pushed up through
the hole in the floor. Uncle Moses was below. The critical moment
for which I had been longing was come, and my limbs trembled
uncontrollably, as they had not done since the time when I saw my
first sea fight on the deck of the Dolphin. As we had arranged, I
allowed time for the negro to mount the steps and come through the
veranda into the room adjoining. Then, gathering my strength, I
took three strides across my chamber and dashed my right shoulder
against the door. It flew outwards with a crash, the force of my
impact being such that the lock tore a great piece out of the jamb.
I rushed blindly into the next room, and lost a few moments in the
endeavor to grasp the scene. But my jailors lost more, for the
crash had wakened them from a sound sleep and, seamen though they
were, the event was so sudden and unexpected that they were taken
perfectly aback, and were still looking about them in a dazed
bewilderment when Uncle Moses and I threw ourselves upon them. We
got them just as they were staggering to their feet. A blow from my
fist sent one spinning against the wall; at the same moment the
negro, whom I had barely yet seen, caught the other man by the
middle and, by a feat of strength which amazed me, hurled him
through the doorway into the room I had just quitted. I hoped they
were stunned; we could not wait to see, and we had no means of
binding them.
The noise must have awakened everybody in the house; indeed, I
heard shouts from the rear; no doubt the overseer, and the two
buccaneers who had been on guard during the night, would in a few
moments be upon the scene. Snatching up the men's muskets and
bandoliers that lay on a bench against the wall, we dashed into the
veranda, sprang down the steps, and made off across the plantation.
We had not run a hundred yards when we heard a bellow behind us,
and, turning, I saw a man at the head of the steps lighting the
match for his musket. I was pleased at this, for it would give us
another hundred yards' start before he could fire. The muskets of
these days can not boast of great precision, but those of fifty
years ago were infinitely more cumbersome and clumsy, so that I did
not fear he would hit us, unless by some unlucky chance. And
indeed, when his weapon flashed, we were quite two hundred and
fifty yards away, and the slug went very wide. He would have done
better, I thought, to pursue us at once on foot.
But as we sped on side by side, I heard a great horn blast that
seemed to set the welkin ablaze. 'Twas the signal that a slave had
run away, and I could not doubt that Vetch would immediately
suspect what had actually happened. Before long, beyond question,
he would be hot upon our traces.
"How far to the forest?" I asked of the negro.
"More'n a mile, massa," he replied.
And then, as I ran, I looked more closely at the man whom fate had
made my comrade in this desperate adventure. He was an older man
than I had expected; very powerfully made, as his cast of the
buccaneer had proved; but his hair was white, and, short as was the
distance we had run, I could see that he would soon be laboring for
breath. But it was two miles to the big house, as he had called
Mistress Lucy's abode, and I did not despair of reaching the edge
of forest land before Vetch could make up on us, even if he started
the very moment he heard the alarm. If once we gained the forest,
we might perhaps blind our trail in a stream, and so gain time
enough for our further flight to the swamp.
We were running on a broad track that divided the sugar plantation,
and here and there negro laborers who had been roused from their
noontide sleep by the horn blast and the shot rose up to see what
was afoot. None of them offered to interfere. They stared at us for
the most part in silence, one or two of the older people crying out
that it was Uncle Moses on the run, and wondering at his companion
being a white man.
I took little note of them, for I was already anxious on behalf of
the old negro. We had six miles to go; could he hold out? 'Twas two
miles from the big house to the house we had left; a horseman could
cover the distance in little longer than it would take us to reach
the forest; and then we should have but one mile start in a race of
six. The odds were heavily against even me, in strong and lusty
youth; how much more heavily against Uncle Moses, who was perhaps
three times my age!
Already I was slackening my pace to keep with him. And we were
cumbered with the muskets we had seized--heavy weapons, and, when I
came to think of it, likely to prove of little use to us, for we
could not pause in the race to light matches, nor, once they were
discharged, should we have time to recharge them. Yet I dared not
suggest we should fling them down; they were our only weapons save
for a knife that Uncle Moses carried at his belt, and perchance if
it came to a fight at close quarters we could wield them with some
effect as clubs. So we pounded on, saying never a word, I
husbanding my breath, the negro panting hard.
We came to the edge of the forest land bordering the estate, and
when we had plunged into it for some little distance Moses was fain
to stop to recover his wind.
"Dey hab not started yet, massa," he gasped.
"How do you know?" I asked.
"'Cos dere is no sound of de dogs," he replied.
"Should we hear them three miles away?"
"Oh, yes, massa; de wind carry de sound miles and miles."
"We have luck on our side, then. Can you run again?"
"Yes, massa. Po' Uncle Moses hain't no chicken now, but he hain't
done yet."
And then we set off again through the forest, at a more moderate
pace now, for the way ran no longer clear. The word "forest" to a
stay-at-home means a tract of soft, springy turf, with tall trees
and pleasant glades and clumps of bracken that shelter rabbits and
other small creatures of the woodland. But the forest of the West
Indies bears to our English forest the relation of a giant to a
dwarf. The fronds of the bracken grow to feet where we have inches;
weeds that with us would shelter a mouse would there oonceal an
elephant, and a creeping plant which in England would delay a man
only while he kicked its tendrils aside grows in Jamaica to such a
strength and tanglement that it would obstruct the passage of a
troop of horse.
This was somewhat in our favor. We could run where horses might
not. But I took little comfort from this, for where we went the
dogs would certainly follow. And we had not gone above a mile, as I
reckoned, when the howling sound came to our ears--a deep-toned
baying, faint and mellow, stealing through the umbrageous foliage
like the horns of some fairy host. The hounds had found our scent.
Uncle Moses groaned. Doubtless he knew full well the fate of
unhappy slaves who had been recaptured in flight. He quickened his
strides for some yards, then, stopping, he held his hand to his
side and begged me to go on alone.
"But I can not," I said. "I do not know the way; and besides, I
will not leave you. Give me your musket. We have still a good
start, and after you have rested a little you will be able to run
again."
I took his musket, and when we set off again we were lucky to come
upon a stream swirling athwart our track. We stepped into this and
walked through the water for some distance, until we had, as I
thought, effectually blinded our trail. And no doubt it was so, but
Uncle Moses told me that it would only delay our pursuers for a
little; they knew the direction of the haven for which we were
making, and even if the dogs were at fault the horsemen would still
press on. We wasted no more time in deflecting from our course for
any such vain manoeuvers, but ran straight on.
Alas! the old man's strength was failing. He staggered, and but for
my arm would have fallen. I think his collapse was due partly to
terror, for the baying of the hounds was growing upon our ears; the
pursuers were gaining fast upon us. I had perforce to wait
patiently until the poor negro had somewhat recovered, and
meanwhile the deep-mouthed baying sounded ever nearer, and the
precious minutes were fleeting by. When we set off once more 'twas
at little above a walking pace, and every moment I dreaded the
appearance of the pursuers at our heels. And I noticed with alarm
that the forest was thinning; apparently we should soon reach open
country, and lose what little advantage we had in being out of our
enemy's sight.
I asked anxiously whether 'twould not be better for us to turn
aside into the thickets and try to hide; peradventure the dogs and
the horsemen would go past. But the negro said 'twould be useless;
we could not deceive the dogs, and we should be no safer than rats
in a barn.
We had come to the end of what would in England be called a glen--a
narrow gorge, with shelving banks rising to the height of some
ninety feet, and overgrown with shrubs and creeping plants. No
doubt in the rainy season 'twas the bed of a torrent; the bottom
was sandy and pebbly, and hard to the feet. We had gone but a
little way along it when Uncle Moses sank down, and, looking at his
livid face, his panting nostrils and starting eyes, I feared that
the hand of death was upon him. 'Twas clear that he was utterly
spent; he could not even stagger to the farther end of the gorge;
and with the bitter pangs of despair I heard the fierce baying of
the hounds, and had almost resigned myself to the inevitable end.
I glanced round to see whether the pursuers were in sight. I saw,
not them, but something which flashed a wild hope through me. Some
little distance back a tree hung over the sandy bottom, its roots
partially laid bare by the washing of the stream which had now
disappeared. The trunk was inclined at a sharp angle; but little
force would be needed, I thought, to topple it over until it lay
athwart the path which the pursuers must follow. Its foliage was
thick, and though I did not flatter myself 'twould put an end to
the pursuit, I thought it might serve as a check, and enable Uncle
Moses to gain strength enough for a last attempt.
Dropping the muskets by the negro's side, I ran down the gorge,
scrambled up the bank to the base of the tree, and swarmed along
the trunk to the farthest extremity. It was a tall tree, of a kind
I did not know, and my weight upon its tapering top must have
exerted a considerable force upon its loosened lower end. Catching
a branch that seemed strong enough to bear me, I dropped with a
jerk. There was a movement of the trunk, and I heard a wrenching
sound below, but the roots still held fast. I climbed up again with
the quickness I had learned at sea, and again threw myself down.
This time I produced the effect I desired; the roots gave way, and
in a moment I found myself on the ground, somewhat scratched and
bruised, but sound of bone and limb. The fallen tree lay full
across the gorge, its foliage completely filling the space, save
for a narrow gap between it and the ground, through which a man or
a dog might crawl, but not a horse.
I ran back to Uncle Moses, lifted him to his feet, and, assisting
him with one hand, the muskets clasped in the other, I led him up
the gorge with what haste I might. We had gone but a little way
when I heard the shouts of men mingled with the baying of the
hounds, and immediately afterwards these latter forced their way
beneath the tree and ran with lolling tongues towards us. Knowing
nothing of the ways of bloodhounds, I expected the two dogs would
fly at our throats like foxhounds at a fox, and I loosed the
negro's arm and stood with musket upraised to defend myself and
him. But to my surprise Uncle Moses called to them by name, and
they answered him with a bark and fawned on him.
"Dey won't hurt us," he said. "Dey hab done their work; dey lub po'
Uncle Moses."
"Will they come with us?" I asked, with wondering delight.
"Dey will do anyt'ing for Uncle Moses," he replied.
"Then let us get away into the forest again as soon as we can, and
take them with us. How far is the swamp now?"
"'Bout a mile, Massa."
"Come, then; we may have time to get to it before the men can
overtake us. They cannot get their horses over the tree."
And we made off, the dogs accompanying us willingly, in spite of
the cries and calls of the baffled horsemen on the other side of
the tree. Issuing from the gorge, we struck into the forest, and
heard our pursuers cursing us and the dogs as they tried to follow
us. By the help of my arm Uncle Moses managed to struggle along,
and after about a quarter of an hour we came to the edge of the
swamp.
Then he took from his back, where they had been strapped, two pairs
of shoes in shape similar to those which our trappers in America
adopted from the Indians for marching over snow, but slighter and
shorter. These we donned, the negro showing me how to fasten mine,
and then we stepped on to the morass, the oozy red soil squelching
beneath our feet. The hounds came with us for a few yards, but, the
ground becoming softer the farther we went from the edge, they
halted, whined as though loath to part from friends, and then ran
back to meet Vetch and one of his buccaneers, who stood helpless at
the brink. They fired at us, but we were already out of range, and
with the sound of their execrations still in our ears we trudged
slowly but steadily towards the other side of the swamp.