A deep growl and a loud burst of barking roused Nic Revel from his deep
sleep, free from fever, calm and refreshed, to lie listening to the
dogs, wondering what it all meant.
The sun was up, and horizontal rays were streaming in between
ill-fitting boards and holes from which knots had fallen consequent upon
the shrinking of the wood. There was a feeling of cool freshness in the
air, too, that was exhilarating; but for a few moments Nic could not
make out where he was.
Then the slight confusion passed away, as he heard the rustling of
leaves, and turned to see his companions stirring and yawning, while at
the same moment a dog's great head was butted at him as if its owner
were a playful sheep, and it then drew back, swinging its tail slowly
from side to side.
The next minute the heavy bar was swung down, the great padlock rattled,
and the door was drawn open, to let in a flood of light, followed by the
two blacks who had fitted on the irons, but who now bore a huge loaf of
bread and a pitcher of water; while two more blacks, each shouldering a
musket, closed in behind them, to stand as if framed in the doorway.
"Heah, jump up," cried the big smith. "Make has'e; eat your brakfas'
'fore you go to de boat."
As he spoke he turned an empty barrel with its head upward, banged the
loaf down upon it, drew a knife from its sheath in his belt, and counted
the prisoners over with the point of the blade. He then drew a few
imaginary lines upon the top of the loaf, paused to rub his woolly head
with the haft, looking puzzled and as if cutting the loaf into as many
pieces as there were prisoners bothered him, and ended by making a dash
at his task.
He cut the loaf in half, then divided it into quarters, and went on
working hard as he made these eighths, and finally sixteenths.
By this time the top of the barrel was covered.
"Now, den, 'tan' in a row," he cried importantly.
The men scowled, but they were hungry, and obeyed, the black sticking
the point of his knife into the chunks he had cut, and handing a piece
to each in turn, beginning with Humpy Dee, who did not seem any the
worse for his immersion, and ending with Nic.
After this he began again with Humpy, went down the line again, and had
begun for the third time when it suddenly struck him that there would
not be enough to go round, and he snatched the piece back.
Humpy Dee uttered a furious growl, and made a step forward to recover
it; but the big black presented the point of the knife at him and
shouted:
"Ah, what dat? You back, sah, 'fore set de dog at you."
Humpy growled like one of the beasts, and resumed his place in the line,
and the black went on calmly dividing the remaining pieces, distributed
them, and called up the dogs to catch what remained.
The water was then passed round, the blacks went off leaving the
sentries in position, and the prisoners sat amongst the Indian-corn
leaves, to eat their breakfast ravenously enough.
Before they had finished, the barking of the dogs announced the coming
of the overseer, who came in, whip in hand, to run his eye over his
prisoners, nodding his satisfaction as he saw that he was not going back
minus any of them, and went out again.
Then, as Nic sat eating the remainder of his bread, the entry was
darkened a little, and he saw a couple of women peer in--one a
middle-aged, comely body, the other a young girl.
There was a pitying expression upon their faces; and, obeying a sudden
impulse, Nic stood up to go to speak to them, for it seemed to him that
his chance had come. But at his first movement Humpy Dee leaped up,
with his fetters clinking, to intercept him, a sour look upon his face,
and the frightened women ran away.
"No, you don't," growled Humpy; "not if I knows it, m'lad."
"You, sah--you go back and eat your brakfas', sah," came from the door;
and Humpy turned sharply, to see that their guards were standing, each
with his musket steadied against a doorpost, taking aim at him and Nic.
"Yah, you old pot and kettle," cried Humpy scornfully; "you couldn't hit
a haystack;" but he went back to his place and sat down, Nic giving up
with a sigh and following his example.
Half-an-hour after the overseer was back with the dogs, the order was
given, and the prisoners marched out, to find the blacks waiting. Nic
saw now that there was a roomy log-house, fenced round with a patch of
garden; and in a group by the rough pine-wood porch a burly-looking man
was standing with the two women; and half-a-dozen black slaves were at
the far end of the place, each shouldering a big clumsy hoe, and
watching, evidently with the greatest interest, the prisoners on their
way to the boat.
In his hasty glance round, Nic could see that the farm was newly won
from the wilderness, and encumbered with the stumps of the great trees
which had been felled, some to be used as logs, others to be cut up into
planks; but the place had a rough beauty of its own, while the wistful
glances that fell upon him from the occupants of the porch sent a thrill
through his breast, and raised a hope that if ever he came that way he
might find help.
But his heart sank again as his eyes wandered to the black labourers,
and then to a couple of huge dogs similar to those which followed behind
with the overseer; for he knew that he was among slave-owners, and in
his despondency he could not help asking himself what chance he would
have, an escaped prisoner, if he tried to get away.
He had little time for thought, but he took in the surroundings of the
place quickly, noting that the house and out-buildings stood well raised
upon a mound, round one side of which the creek they had turned into
ran; while through the trees some little distance away there was the
river, and across it the forest, rising from the farther bank, not black
and forbidding now, but beautiful in the early morning sunshine.
The overseer shouted a hearty good-bye to the people by the porch, and
there was a friendly reply, as they marched on to where the boat lay
fastened to a stump; the dogs sprang in to retake their places, barking
their farewell to the others which trotted down to look on; a big basket
of provisions was next put on board by the smith and his assistant, and
then the prisoners were sent forward to their old places, Pete glancing
once at Nic, whose eyes were wandering here and there; but Nic avoided
the glance.
"Now you, sir," cried the overseer; "don't stand staring about. In with
you."
Nic obeyed as soon as there was room, and the overseer took his place
astern.
A minute later they were being poled along the creek, which was here and
there overarched by the spreading boughs of the trees, and soon after
they were out in the main stream, with the blacks rowing steadily in
water which seemed to be very slack; the little settlement was seen as a
bright spot for a few minutes, and then disappeared behind the trees,
which began upon the left bank, and became once more a great green wall
to shut out everything else.
And then hour after hour the boat was rowed onward, the river winding
far less than on the previous evening, and seeming to form a highroad
into the interior, upon which they were the only travellers. It varied
little in its width at first, but towards afternoon Nic noted that it
was beginning to narrow considerably; but it ran always through forest.
As thoughts of escape would intrude, and the poor fellow scanned the
banks, he quickly grasped the fact that if an attempt were made it must
be by the river, for the forest on either side seemed to be impassable,
and how far it ran inland was impossible to say.
A change was made every hour or so, the prisoners taking their turn with
the oars; and before the morning was far advanced the overseer ordered
Nic into one of the places, watching him intently as he obeyed and fell
into stroke at once, rowing hard for a few minutes in the hot sunshine
without a murmur. Then all at once the trees on the bank began to sail
round, the oar slipped from his hand, and he fell backward into Pete's
arms.
When he opened his eyes again he was sitting forward in the bottom of
the boat, with one of the blacks supporting him and splashing water from
over the side in his face, while the overseer stood looking down grimly.
"You needn't take another turn," he said gruffly; "I wanted to see
whether you could do your share."
The rest of the day Nic sat watching their progress, a good deal of it
through the gloomy shades of a great swamp, through which the river ran
at times almost in twilight, the faint current being marked by the
difference in colour and the freedom from the vegetation which marked
the waters of the great lagoon spreading away to right and left among
the trees, which grew and fell and rotted as far as eye could penetrate.
The vegetation, was rich, but it seemed to be that of a dying forest
which had been inundated by the stream, for bank there was none. Huge
cypresses stood out at every angle, many having fallen as far as they
could, but only to be supported by their fellows. And as the boat went
swiftly on in obedience to the sturdily-tugged oars, Nic forgot his
troubles in wonder at the strangeness of the scene through which he
passed, for it was dreary, horrible, and beautiful all in one. Rotting
vegetation supplied the rich, muddy soil from which rose vine and
creeper to climb far on high, and then, finding no further support,
throw themselves into the air, to hang and swing where the bright
sunshine penetrated. Wherever it was shadowy the trees were draped with
hanging curtains of moss; while all around Nic looked down vistas of
light and shade, whose atmosphere was now golden, now of a score of
different delicious greens.
There was something so new and strange about the swamp that it had a
fascination for Nic, and he was leaning over the bows, resting his chin
upon his hand, when he had his first glance at one of its inhabitants;
for, as the boat was being steered past a moss-covered, rotting stump,
the gnarled wood suddenly seemed to become animated, a portion of it
rising a little and then gliding away with a heavy splash into the
water.
Before he could realise what it was, there was another movement just
beyond, and this time he made out plainly enough the gaping mouth,
prominent eyes, and rugged back of a great alligator, followed by its
waving tail, as it dived down from a cluster of tree-roots out of sight.
After this the reptiles became common enough, for the swamp swarmed with
them, and Nic realised that it might be a strangely-perilous task to
make his way through the forest unless provided with a boat.
The men whispered to themselves as the reptiles scuttled about in their
eagerness to escape, and shook their heads; and as Nic turned from
observing them to gaze aft he became conscious of the fact that the
overseer was watching them with a grim smile upon his lips, reading
their thoughts respecting the dangers of an attempt to escape.
The dogs were evidently familiar with the sight of the reptiles, rarely
paying any heed to them save when the boat approached quietly and
aroused a sleeper, which in its surprise raised its great jaws
menacingly, when one of the dogs would set up the hair about its neck,
growl, and make a savage snap at the reptile; and after a while the
prisoners grew in turn accustomed to the loathsome-looking creatures.
"But we might seize the boat," thought Nic, "in the case of no help
coming;" and he sat there more and more grasping the fact that after all
he might be forced to depend upon the aid and companionship of those
around him, and be compelled to master the dislike and repulsion which
they inspired.
Another stoppage at a woodland farm for the night, and then on again for
a fresh day's toil as monotonous as the last.
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. Soon after they passed the mouth of a clear stream,
and at the end of another mile the boat was turned suddenly off to their
right into a little river of the clearest water, which ran meandering
through a lightly-wooded slope rising towards the hills; and as Nic was
gazing at the fairy-like scene, whose atmospheric effects seemed, even
in his despondent state, far more beautiful than anything he had ever
seen at home, the boat swept round a curve whose banks were thickly set
with trees, and once more there was a human habitation in sight, in the
shape of a well-built, farm-like house upon a knoll, and the agitation
amongst the dogs warned the prisoners that here was their resting-place
for the night.
The next minute, as the dogs were barking, the boat was steered close
inshore, and the brutes bounded over into the shallow water, to scramble
up the bank, and set off as fast as they could go towards the house,
from which figures could be seen issuing; and at last, as Nic scanned
the signs of cultivation around, the growing crops roughly fenced, and
the out-buildings, the thought struck him that this might be their
destination.
While he was wondering whether this were so, the boat was run into a
little creek only big enough to let it pass for about a couple of
hundred yards before it grounded where a track came down to some posts;
and as the boat was secured to one of these the overseer sprang ashore
to meet a tall, sun-browned, grey-haired man, whose keen eyes were
directed towards the bows of the boat.
"Back again, then, Saunders!" he said sharply. "Well, what sort of a
lot do they seem?"
"Rough, but strong," replied the overseer; "all but one young fellow who
has been knocked about, but he seems as if he'll soon come round."
"Like so many horses or bullocks," said Nic to himself bitterly, "and I
am the one with broken knees."