"Jes thot so. Dar's nuffin' yeer to eat 'cept dis ole snake. Mass' no
care to eat snake: dis nigga eat 'im. Cook 'im at night, when smoke ob
de fire not seen ober de woods. Got place to cook 'im, mass' see.
Gabr'l truss mass' Edwad. He take him to caboose ob de runaway."
He had already cut off the head of the reptile while he was talking; and
having pinned neck and tail together with a sharp stick, he lifted the
glittering body, and flinging it over his shoulders, stood ready to
depart.
"Come, now, mass'," continued he, "come 'long wi' Ole Gabe; he find you
somethin' to eat."
So saying, he turned round and walked off into the bushes.
I took up my gun and followed. I could not do better. To have
attempted to find my own way back to the clearings might again have
resulted in failure, since I had twice failed. I had nothing to hurry
me back. It would be quite as well if I returned to the village after
night--the more prudent course, in fact--as then my mud-bedaubed and
blood-stained habiliments would be less likely to attract attention; and
this I desired to avoid. I was contented, therefore, to follow the
runaway to his "lair," and share it with him till after sunset.
For some hundred yards he led on in silence. His eyes wandered around
the forest, as though he was seeking for something. They were not
directed upon the ground, but upward to the trees; and, therefore, I
know it was not the path he was in search of.
A slight exclamation escaped him, and, suddenly turning in his tracks,
he struck off in a direction different to that we had been following. I
walked after; and now saw that he had halted by a tall tree, and was
looking up among its branches.
The tree was the frankincense, or loblolly pine (_Pinus toeda_). That
much of botany I knew. I could tell the species by the large spinous
cones and light-green needles. Why had he stopped there?
"Mass' Edwad soon see," he said, in answer to my interrogatory.
"Please, mass'," he continued, "hold de snake a bit--don't let um touch
de groun'--dam dogs dey smell um!"
I relieved him of his burden; and, holding it as he desired, stood
watching him in silence.
The loblolly pine grows with a straight, naked shaft and pyramidal head,
often without branches, to the height of fifty feet. In this case,
however, several fronds stood out from the trunk, at less than twenty
feet from the ground. These were loaded with large green cones, full
five inches in length; and it appeared to be these that my companion
desired to obtain--though for what purpose I had not the remotest idea.
After a while he procured a long pole; and with the end of this knocked
down several of the cones, along with pieces of the branchlets to which
they adhered.
As soon as he believed he had a sufficient quantity for his purpose, he
desisted, and flung the pole away.
What next? I watched with increasing interest.
He now gathered up both the cones and the adhering spray; but to my
surprise he flung the former away. It was not the cones, then, he
wanted, but the young shoots that grew on the very tops of the branches.
These were of a brownish-red colour, and thickly coated with resin--for
the _Pinus taeda_ is more resinous than any tree of its kind--emitting a
strong aromatic odour, which has given to it one of its trivial names.
Having collected the shoots until he had both hands full, my guide now
bent down, and rubbed the resin over both the soles and upper surface of
his coarse brogans. He then advanced to where I stood, stooped down
again, and treated my boots to a similar polishing!
"Now, mass', all right--de dam, blood-dogs no scent Ole Gabe now--dat
_hill de trail_. Come, mass' Edwad, come 'long."
Saying this, he again shouldered the snake and started off, leaving me
to follow in his tracks.