He lay on a bed formed of dry grass and mats; I hurried up to him.
"I have found you at last, my dear, dear Dick!" I exclaimed.
"Charley, is it you, yourself? Then you are not dead," he cried out.
"I was told you were, and it well-nigh broke my heart. I shall get well
now though. Where have you been? what have you been about?"
I soon told him, and how I had managed to elude my captors. He
expressed his delight that I had not been ill-treated, as he had been.
"That old chief is a regular tyrant; he made me work for him till I
could work no longer, and then would have let me die of starvation, if a
good woman had not, at the risk of her life, brought me food. Bless
them! they are all alike, black and white, when a fellow is in trouble,
however bad they may be in other respects. Things were not so bad at
first. Tui, who lives not far off, came over with Mat Davis, and helped
me to put up this hut; or otherwise, as far as my old master was
concerned, I should have had to sleep out of doors. He, however, would
not let them come again, and I have had to look out for myself. The
only pleasant thing that has happened to me was seeing Toobo Cava go off
to the war, but he will be back again soon, I fear, and then the hard
work will begin once more. But you must not stay here, Charley; I don't
know what he would do if he caught you, though it will be a sore grief
to me to have you separated from me."