IN HIDING
"The first thing to do," Nat said, after he had seen that Madame
Duchesne was as comfortably seated as possible, "is to find some sort of
hiding-place. We may be sure that the negroes will search everywhere for
you, and that, released from work and having nothing to do, they will
wander about the woods, and one of them might come upon us at any
moment. Therefore, unless we can find some sort of shelter, I dare not
leave you for a minute."
"But why should you leave us?" Myra asked.
"We must eat and drink," he said. "I must endeavour to discover what is
going on elsewhere; I must, if possible, obtain a disguise, and
endeavour to find out what are the intentions of the blacks, and
ascertain whether it will be possible to obtain help from the town; and
I can begin to do nothing until I feel that you are at least
comparatively safe. There is no doubt, Madame Duchesne, that our
position is a very painful one, but we have a great deal to be thankful
for. If the rising had taken place in the night, as no doubt it did at
the plantations where the negroes began their work, we should all have
been murdered without the chance of resistance. Now, we have escaped
with our lives, and have the satisfaction of knowing that Monsieur
Duchesne is safe in the town, and will assuredly do his best to rescue
us; but that can hardly be yet. Cape Francois is no doubt in a state of
wild panic, and will in the first place be thinking of how it can best
defend itself."
"There are, of course, many other planters there in the same position as
your husband. Each will be thinking of his own people; nothing like a
general effort will be possible. At any rate, it seems to me that it
must be some time before any operations can take place to put down the
insurrection. If one could but get hold of some messenger one could
trust, and could let Monsieur Duchesne know that you are for the present
safe, it would be an immense relief to him; but so far as we know at
present that old nurse is the only one of your slaves who is faithful,
and even if I could find her and get her to carry a note or a message,
it is unlikely in the extreme that she would be permitted to pass on
into the town. However, as I say, the first thing is to discover a
hiding-place where you would be comparatively safe, and before I go to
find a messenger I will look round for some clump of undergrowth where
nothing but close search could find you. I think that those bushes we
see across there would do for the moment. You cannot remain here, for
you would be seen at once by anyone who came along within fifty yards of
you. I will go and see at once whether it would do."
Without waiting for an answer he hurried away. On examination he found
that the place was more suitable than he had expected. A great tree had
once stood there, and had been sawn off close to the ground. Round this
a clump of bushes had sprung up, growing so thickly that it was
impossible to see into the centre save by pushing aside the bushes and
entering the little circle. He hastened back.
"It will do excellently for our hiding-place for the present," he said,
"and the sooner we are inside the better."
He assisted Madame Duchesne to her feet, led her to the bushes, and then
bent some of them very carefully aside. The ladies made their way in,
and he followed them, seeing that each of the saplings fell back in its
natural position.
"There, madame," he said, "unless anyone took it into his head to push
in as we have done we are absolutely safe. But it will be better that
you should keep your dark cloaks on. I do not think that anyone could
see through this thick screen of leaves, but it is as well to be on the
safe side."
"You won't leave us at present?"
"Certainly not," he said. "After it gets dark I shall make my way down
to the house. I must get a disguise of some sort; it does not matter
much what it is, for I expect the slaves will be dressing up in the
clothes they have stolen, no matter what they are. With some charred
wood I can blacken my face and hands. No doubt anyone would see at once
on looking at me closely that I was not a negro, but at a distance I
should pass."
"You would make a better mulatto than you would a negro," Myra said.
"So I should; as they are all shades of colour, I should not have to be
very particular."
"If we had Dinah here with us," Myra said, "she could make you some dye.
She knows all about berries and roots, and generally doctors any of the
women who may be ill; she would know for sure of some berries that would
stain your skin."
"Well, I must see if I can find her, Myra. If not, I must use the
charcoal, but certainly the other would be much the safer; and, you see,
thanks to my long stay with you before, I have got to speak French very
fairly now."
The day passed slowly. Occasionally they heard shouts lower down in the
forest, but these did not come near them, and after a time died away.
"I thought they would hardly come up as far as this," Nat said; "negroes
are not given to work unless they are obliged to, and they will find it
so pleasant doing nothing that they are hardly likely to give themselves
the trouble to search very far for us. Besides, doubtless they have
other things to think about. They will know that their work has only
begun when they have burnt their masters' houses, and killed all the
white people they can lay their hands upon, and that until they have
taken possession of the towns they are not masters of the island. No
doubt, too, they carried out the wine before they burnt the house."
"Besides," Myra said, "there is the rum store; there are at least a
hundred barrels there."
"Yes, I did not think of that. Well, I expect that before this the
greater part of them are drunk, and I don't suppose there will be a
sober man left to-night. That will make it an easy business for me to
find out what they are doing, and to get hold of the things that will be
useful to you. I am more afraid of the mulattoes than of the negroes."
"Do you think that they would join the blacks?"
"I have no doubt at all about it--I feel sure they have done so. I saw
three of them talking together yesterday; they were paying no attention
to the slaves, and I thought then that it was rather peculiar. Besides,
we know that these lower class of mulattoes are as hostile to the whites
as the negroes are, if not more so, and I have no doubt they have had a
good deal to do with exciting the slaves to revolt. And now, Madame
Duchesne, I will go down through the woods and get you some sugar-cane,
and look for a stream."
Madame Duchesne protested, but she was accustomed to have every want
supplied as soon as expressed, and she was suffering much from thirst
after the excitement and effort.
"You really require something," Nat went on. "You see, if I go down
after dark I may be away for two or three hours, and were you to wait
till then you would be in a fever with thirst. It is evident that the
negroes have all left the wood, therefore there can be no risk in my
going down and cutting a dozen of the young canes."
"If you go," she said firmly, sitting up as she spoke, "you must leave
me two of your pistols--they are double-barrelled, are they not?"
"Yes, madame."
"Well, leave two. If the negroes come and begin to search this place I
shall shoot Myra first and then myself, for death would be a thousand
times preferable to falling into the hands of these wretches."
"I think you are right there," Nat said gravely, "and if I thought that
there would be the slightest fear of their coming I would not leave you.
I shall not be away a quarter of an hour. I will leave my jacket and cap
here, and tie a handkerchief round my head, so that should I by any
chance come across a searcher, he will not recognize me until I am close
enough to silence him. I shall take the sword as well as the other brace
of pistols; it will be useful for cutting down the canes."
Taking off his jacket and waistcoat, and tying his handkerchief round
his head, he made his way through the bushes, and then started at a fast
run down the hill, keeping, however, a sharp look-out as he went. As he
expected, there were no signs of the blacks. As he reached the edge of
the wood, and cut the canes, he could hear the sound of distant yells in
the direction of the house.
"The brutes have got at the rum," he said. "If I had but half a dozen
blue-jackets, I believe I could clear the lot out. I do hope," he went
on, as he started on his way back, "I shall be able to lay my hand on
something to eat, and get hold of a bottle or two of wine. Madame will
never be able to get on on yams and sugar-canes, accustomed as she has
been to every luxury. Myra will be all right, she is a regular young
brick." As he neared the clump of bushes he cried out cheerily: "All
right, madame, I have got the canes, and have not caught sight of a
negro." An exclamation of relief followed. Madame Duchesne and Myra were
both standing as he entered, each with a pistol in her hand.
"I was not alarmed by your footstep," she said, "for anyone who was
searching for us would come along slowly and stealthily; but I thought
you might be pursued."
"If I had been," Nat laughed, "you may be very sure I should not have
brought them this way, but would have given them a dance all over the
place, and then slipped away and come back here."
"I know that," she said earnestly, "but I am nervous and shaken."
"Very naturally, too," Nat said: "you felt very much as I did when,
after that explosion, I went on board the other pirate to drown the
magazine. I believe that if anyone had given a shout close to me I
should have tumbled headlong down on the deck. I think, now, we are
perfectly safe till to-morrow. By the noises I heard down by the house I
should say that most of the slaves are drunk already, and you may be
sure that they will not think of starting to look for us till to-morrow.
Now, if you will take my advice, you will try to sleep a bit."
Accustomed to sleep for two or three hours during the heat of the day,
Madame Duchesne was indeed feeling so drowsy that she could with
difficulty keep her eyes open, and she now in the course of a few
minutes was breathing quietly and regularly.
"Now, Myra, do you watch by your mother while I go and look for water.
That tiny stream that crosses the road a quarter of a mile above your
house must come down not far from here, and it is essential that we
should be near it."
"But it is near water that they are most likely to look for us."
"I did not think of that, Myra; of course it is. Well, then, we must
move over this hill and hide up in the next little valley we come to.
There is a road that turns off half a mile above your house. I never
went far along it, but it seems to go right up into the heart of the
hills."
"I never went up it either, Nat, but I have heard my father say there
were a good many small clearings up among the hills, some with twenty
slaves, some with only two or three."
"Then, when I come back from seeing how things are going on at the
house, we had better make for that road, keeping along down at the end
of the plantation until we come to it. It will be much better to keep
straight along there till we pass some little valley where there is a
stream, than to wander about in the wood; and we shall be farther away
from those who may be looking after us. If your mother sleeps for two or
three hours she will be able to go some little distance to-night."
Myra shook her head doubtingly.
"We must get her on," he added, "even if we have to carry her. It is all
very well for us, because I am as hard as nails, and you do a lot of
walking for a white girl here, but your mother is not strong. You saw
how terribly exhausted she was when she got here, and it is quite likely
that she may knock up altogether; therefore it is essential to get her
into shelter. We are safe for to-day, but to-morrow we may have the
negroes all over the hills, and it will have to be a wonderfully good
hiding-place to escape their search."
"But do you feel sure that they have risen on all the other
plantations?"
"I have not the least doubt that they have risen on every plantation in
this neighbourhood. Your slaves were wonderfully well treated, and would
not have joined unless they had known that it was a general rising. You
know the old nurse said that it was to have been on the twenty-fifth,
which means, of course, that it was a great plot all over the island.
Of course in some places they may not have got the news yet, and may not
rise for a day or two, but you may be sure that all around here it has
been general."
"But why should they want to kill us?"
"Because they are really nothing but savages. Though they have in many
cases been slaves for generations, still there are always fresh slaves
arriving; and the others know that their fathers, like these, were
captured and sold to the whites, that they had terrible times in the
slave-ships, and are on some plantations treated like dogs, and are
bought and sold just like cattle. I don't wonder at it that, now they
have got a chance, as they think, they should take vengeance for all the
ills they have suffered. When they are at war with each other in Africa
they kill or enslave all who fall into their hands--men, women, or
children--and you may be sure that they will show no mercy here. When I
was down at the edge of the wood to cut those canes I could see smoke
rising from a dozen points lower down. It is possible that some besides
ourselves got warning in time, but I am afraid very few can have
escaped; for you see, once beyond the line of wood, which does not go
more than a mile or two further, there will be no hiding-places for
them. There is only one comfort, and that is, the news must have got
down to the town in a very short time, and there is no fear of your
father driving out and being taken by surprise. My greatest hope lies in
that old nurse of yours. She could do more in the way of helping us than
we could do ourselves. She could go and get things, and hear what is
going on. She is old, but she is a strong woman still, and could help to
carry your mother, and attend to her if she is ill."
"Do you think she is going to be ill?" Myra asked anxiously, looking at
her mother.
"I sincerely trust not, Myra, but I own that I am afraid of it. She is
breathing faster than she did, and she has moved restlessly several
times while we have been talking, and has a patch of colour on each
cheek, which looks like fever. However, we must hope for the best.
Anyhow, I shall bring Dinah up here if possible."
So they talked till the sun went down. Madame Duchesne still slept, but
her breathing was perceptibly faster. She occasionally muttered to
herself, and scarcely lay still for a moment.
"I will be going now," Nat said at last; "it will be pitch dark by the
time I get down to the house; it is dark already here. You have the
pistols, Myra, but you may be quite sure that no one will be searching
now. I may have some difficulty in finding these bushes when I come
back, but I will whistle, and when I do, do you give a call. I hope I
shall bring Dinah back with me."
"Oh, I do hope you will. She would be a comfort to us."
Nat heard a quaver in her voice, which showed that she was on the point
of breaking down.
"You must not give way, Myra," he said. "You have been very plucky up to
now, and for your mother's sake you must keep up a brave heart and hope
always for the best. I rely upon you greatly. We may have many dangers
to go through, but with God's help we may hope to rejoin your father.
But we must be calm and patient. We have been marvellously fortunate so
far, and shall, I hope, be so until the end. When I find out what the
negroes intend to do we shall be able to decide upon our course. It may
be that they will pour down from all the plantations within thirty or
forty miles round and attack the town, or it may be that they will march
away into the mountains in the interior of the island, in which case the
road to the town will be open to us. Now, good-bye; I will be back as
soon as I can."
"Do not hurry," she said. "I will try to be brave, and I don't mind
waiting, because I shall know that you are trying to get nurse, and of
course it may be difficult for you to find her alone."
"Good-bye, then," he said cheerfully, and passing through the bushes he
went rapidly down the hill.
On reaching the cane-field he again took off his shoes. He did not hurry
now. It was a tremendous responsibility that he had upon his shoulders.
He thought nothing of the danger to himself, but of how Madame Duchesne
and her daughter were to be sheltered and cared for if, as he feared,
the former was on the edge of an attack of fever, which might last for
days, and so prostrate her that weeks might elapse before she would be
fit to travel.
"I must get Dinah at all costs," he said to himself. "She knows what
will be wanted, and will be a companion to Myra when I have to be away."
As he neared the place where the house had stood he heard sounds of
shouting and singing coming from a spot near the storehouses, where a
broad glow of light showed that a great bonfire was burning. He kept in
the shrubbery until near the house, and then stepped out on to the
grass. The house was gone, and a pile of still glowing embers alone
marked where it had stood. Nat approached this, found a piece of charred
timber that had fallen a short distance from it, and proceeded to
blacken his face and hands. Then he turned towards the fire. As he had
expected, it was not long before he came across the figure of a
prostrate man, who was snoring in a drunken sleep. The stars gave
sufficient light for him to see as he bent over him that he was a negro.
He had attired himself in what when he put them on were a clean nankeen
jacket and trousers, a part of the spoil he had taken in the sack of the
house. Without ceremony Nat turned him over, and with some trouble
removed the garments and put them on over his own. Then he took the red
handkerchief that the negro had bound round his head and tied it on,
putting his own bandana in his pocket.
"Now," he said to himself, "I shall do, provided I keep away from the
light of that fire. The first point is to find where Dinah has gone. I
know she has a daughter and some grandchildren down at the slaves' huts.
I should think I have most chance of finding her there."
Turning off, he went to the huts, which lay two or three hundred yards
away from the house. As he did so he passed near the houses in which the
mulatto overseers lived. There were lights here, and he could hear the
sound of voices through the open windows.
"I will come back to them later on," he said, "I may hear something of
their plans; but Dinah is the most important at present."
He was soon among the slave huts. No one was about, the women being
mostly up at the fire with the men. He looked in at the door of each hut
he passed. As he was still without shoes his movements were noiseless.
In a few of them women were cooking, or putting their children to bed.
At the last hut of the first row which he visited an old negro woman was
rocking herself in great grief, and two or three children were playing
on the floor. Nat knew that he had come to the end of his search, by the
blue cotton dress with large white spots that the woman wore. He went in
and touched her.
"Dinah," he whispered, "come outside!"
She gave a little start of surprise, and then said to the children:
"Now, you stop here, like good childer, Aunt Dinah is agoing out. If you
keep quiet she tell you story when she comes in."
[Illustration: "IT WAS NOT LONG BEFORE HE CAME ACROSS THE FIGURE OF A
PROSTRATE MAN."]
Then she went out with Nat without any appearance of haste. By long
connection with the family she spoke French fairly well, whereas the
negro patois, although mostly composed of French words, was almost
unintelligible to him.
"Tank de Lord dat you hab come back, Marse Glober. Dinah fret terrible
all day. Am de ladies well? Whar you hide dem?"
"They are up in the wood, Dinah. I am greatly afraid that Madame
Duchesne is going to have fever, and you are sorely wanted there. Myra
said she was sure that you would come when you knew where they were."
"For suah me come, massa," she said. "What madame and Mam'selle Myra do
widout Dinah? So you black your face?"
"Yes, but I want some juice to make my face yellow like a mulatto.
Anyone could see that I was not a negro in the daylight."
"Dat so. Me bring 'tuff wid me. What you want beside?"
"We shall want a bottle or two of wine if you can get them, and a jug of
fresh water, and anything you can get in the way of eatables, and I
should say a cooking pot. Those are the principal things."
"Dere am plenty ob boxes of wine up near house. Dis black trash like rum
better, leave wine for de mulattoes; dey bery bad man dose. Where you go
now, Marse Glober? Me take some time to get de tings."
"It would be a good thing, too, if you could get hold of enough cotton
cloth to make dresses for them."
The old woman nodded.
"Plenty ob dat, sah. Storehouses all broke open, eberyone take what him
like. Dis dreadful day, almost break Dinah's heart."
"It has been a terrible day, Dinah, and I am afraid that the same bad
work is going on everywhere."
"So dey say, marse, so dey say. Where you go now, sah?"
"I am going to the overseers' huts to hear what their plans are. Where
shall I meet you, Dinah?"
"Me take tings to bush just where you and de ladies ran in. Me make two
or tree journeys, but me be as quick as can."
"Do; it is anxious work for Myra there, and I want to get back as soon
as I can. Her mother is asleep, and even if she wakes I do not think she
will be able to talk much."
"Me hurry, sah, but can't get 'tuff to stain you skin to-night. Find
berries up in de wood to-morrow."
"There is one other thing, Dinah. Can you tell me where to find a
hand-barrow? I expect we shall have to carry your mistress."
"Me know de sort ob ting dat you want, sah, dey carry tobacco leabes on
dem. Dere are a dozen ob dem lying outside de end store."
"All right, Dinah, I will take one as I go past. Now I will go."
So saying, he turned and made his way to the overseers' house. He crept
softly along to a lighted window. When in a line with it he stood up for
a minute, knowing that those inside would not be able to see him, there
being a screen of trees just behind him. The three mulattoes whom he had
seen talking together in the field on the previous day were seated round
a table. On it were placed two or three wine-glasses. All were smoking.
"To-morrow we must get those drunken black hogs to work," one said, "and
have a regular search through the woods. Everything has gone well except
the escape of madame and her gal. Someone must have warned them. The
house niggers all agree that they were in the verandah behind just
before we came up, talking with that English lad. Of course they will be
found sooner or later, there is nowhere for them to run to. The thing
is, we want to find them ourselves. If anyone else came upon them they
would kill them at once."
"Yes, and you will have some trouble if you find them, Monti," one of
the other men said. "These blacks have been told that every white must
be killed. It is easy enough to work these fellows up into a frenzy, but
it is not so easy to calm them down afterwards."
"No, I am quite aware of that, Christophe, and that is why I did not
press the search to-day, and why I was not sorry to find that they had
got away."
"You see, we have arranged that when the whites are all killed I am to
marry madame, that Paul is to take the young one, and that we are to
divide the place equally between the three of us."
"If the negroes will let us," the one called Monti said. "I expect they
will want to have a say in the business."
"Yes, of course, that is understood. No doubt there will be trouble with
them, and there is no saying how things will turn out yet. At any rate
we will make sure of the women. I have gone into this more for the sake
of getting the girl than for anything else."
"We have made a good beginning everywhere, as far as we have heard, but
you must remember that it is only a beginning. Even suppose the whites
of the town do nothing, and I fancy we shall hear of them presently,
they will send over troops from France."
"They can do nothing against us up in the mountains," Christophe said
scornfully.
"That may be," the other said quietly; "but at any rate there are the
blacks to deal with. They have risen against the whites, but when they
have done with them we need not suppose for a moment that they are going
to work for us. Luckily, here it has been the order that no slave is to
be flogged without Duchesne's approving of it, and the result is that we
are for the present masters of this plantation, but we have heard that
at some of the other places the overseers as well as the whites have
been killed. The order has gone through the island that all the whites,
including women and children, are to be killed, and if we were to come
across the women when we have forty or fifty of the blacks with us I
don't think there would be a chance of our saving them. These negroes
are demons when their blood is up. They know, too, that they have gone
too far to be forgiven, and will believe that their safety depends upon
carrying out the orders faithfully. It seems to me that we are in a
rather awkward fix. If we don't take the blacks out to-morrow we sha'n't
find them, if we do take them out they will be killed."
"We ourselves may find them," Paul said.
"Yes; and if you do, they will have that English lad with them."
"We can soon settle him," Christophe growled.
"Well, I don't say we couldn't; but you know how he fought that hound,
and there was a report two days ago, from the town, that they have
attacked the Red Pirate's stronghold, taken it, and destroyed his four
ships. I grant that as we are three to one we shall kill him, but one or
two of us may go down before we do so. Now, I tell you frankly that as I
have no personal interest in finding those two women, I have no idea of
running the risk of getting myself shot in what is your affair
altogether. Any reasonable help I am willing to give you, but when it
comes to risking my life in the matter I say, 'No, thank you.'"
The others broke into a torrent of savage oaths.
"Well," he went on calmly, "I am by no means certain that the English
boy would not be a match for the three of us. We should not know where
he was, but he would see us, and he might shoot a couple of us down
before we had time to draw our pistols. Then it will be man against man;
and I know that girl has practised shooting, so that the odds would be
the other way. Now, I ask you calmly, is it worth it?"
"What do you propose, then?" Paul asked sulkily, after a long silence.
"I say that we had better wait till we can get hold of some of these
blacks; a little money and a little flattery will go a long way with
them. We can tell them that we have private orders that, although most
of the whites have to be put to death, a few are to be kept, among them
these two. We shall elect a president and generals, and it is right that
they should have white women to wait on them, just as the whites have
been having blacks. That is just the sort of thing that will take with
these ignorant fools. Then with, say, ten men we might search the woods
thoroughly, find the women, and hide them up somewhere under your
charge; but we must go quietly to work. A few days will make no
difference. We know that they can't get away. The men of the plantations
lower down have undertaken to see that no whites make their way into the
town. But it will not do to hurry the negroes, they are sure to be
either sullen or arrogant to-morrow. Some of them, when they get over
their drink, will begin to fear the consequences, others will be so
triumphant that for a time our influence will be gone."
"That is the best plan," Christophe said. "You have the longest head of
us three, Monti. For a time it will be necessary to let the blacks have
their own way."
Nat, while this conversation went on, had been fingering his pistol
indecisively. His blood was so fired by the events of the day, and the
certainty that hundreds of women and children must have been murdered,
that he would have had no hesitation in shooting the three mulattoes
down. Indeed he had quite intended to do so, in the case at any rate of
Paul and Christophe, when he learned their plans; the advice, however,
of the other, who was evidently the leading spirit, decided him against
this course. It was unlikely that he would be able to shoot the three,
for at the first shot they would doubtless knock the candle over;
besides, it was better that they should live. Evidently they would in
some way persuade the great mass of the negroes not to trouble
themselves to search the wood, and some days must elapse before they
could get a party together on whom they could rely to spare the women
and take them as prisoners.
If they did so, and, as they proposed, put them in some hut in charge of
Paul and Christophe, he would have a fair chance of rescuing them, if he
succeeded in getting away at the time they were captured. At any rate,
if they carried out their plans they would have some days' respite, and
he could either take Madame Duchesne and Myra a good deal further into
the hills, or might even be able to get them into the town.
The mulattoes now began to talk of other matters--how quickly the
insurrection would spread, the towns that were to be attacked, and the
steps to be taken--and he therefore quietly made off, and waited for
Dinah at the place agreed on. It was not long before she arrived with
her first load.
"I am here," he said as she came up. "Now, what can I do? I had better
come and help you back with the other things. We can carry them in the
hand-barrow."
"Yes, sah. I'se got dem all together, de tings we talked of, and tree or
four blankets, and a few tings for de ladies, and I'se taken two ob de
best frocks I could find in de huts. I'se got de wine and de food in a
big basket."
"All right, Dinah; let us start at once, I am anxious to be back again
as soon as possible."
In ten minutes they returned with all the things. The basket of wine and
provisions was the heaviest item. The clothes and blankets had been made
up into a bundle.
"Me will carry dat on my head," Dinah said, "and de barrow."
"No, I can take that, Dinah, that will balance the basket; besides, you
have that great jug of water to take. Now let us be off."
After twenty minutes' walking they approached the spot where the ladies
were in hiding, but it was so dark under the trees that Nat could not
determine its exact position; he therefore whistled, at first softly and
then more loudly. Then he heard a call some little distance away. He
went on until he judged that he must be close, and then whistled again.
The reply came at once some thirty yards away.
"Here we are, Myra," he said; "nurse is with me."
An exclamation of delight was heard, and a minute later he made his way
through the bushes.
"Mamma is awake," the girl said, "but she does not always understand
what I say; sometimes I cannot understand her, and her hands are as hot
as fire. I am glad Dinah is here."
"You can't be gladder'n me, mam'selle. I hab brought some feber medicine
wid me, and a lantern and some candles."
"Would it be safe to light the lantern?" Myra asked.
"Quite safe," Nat said; "there is no chance whatever of anyone coming
along here; besides, we can put something round the lantern so as to
prevent it from being seen from outside. You have brought steel and
tinder, I hope, Dinah?"
"Of course, marse, lamp no good widout; and I hab got sulphur matches,
no fear me forget them."
"Give them to me, Dinah, I will strike a light while you attend to your
mistress."
Dinah poured some water into a cup and then knelt down by Madame
Duchesne.
"Here, dearie," she said, "Dinah brought you water and wine and tings to
eat. Here is a cup of water, I am sure you want it. Let me lift you up
to drink it."
She lifted her and placed the cup in her hands, and she drank it off
eagerly.
"Is that your voice, Dinah?" she said after a pause.
"Yes, madame; I'se come up to help to take care ob you. Marse Glober
come and tell me whar you were, so you may be suah that me lose no time,
just wait to get a few tings dat you might want and den start up."
"I think I am not very well, Dinah."
"Jess a little poorly you be. Bery funny if you not poorly abter sich
wicked doings. Now de best ting dat you can do is to go to sleep and not
worry."
"Give me another drink, Dinah."
"Here it is, dis time a little wine wid de water and a little 'tuff to
make you sleep quiet. Den me double up a blanket for you to lie on and
put anober over you, and a bundle under your head, and den you go to
sleep firm. No trouble to-night; to-morrow morning we go on."
Madame Duchesne drank off the contents of the cup. She was made as
comfortable as circumstances would permit, and it was not long before
her regular breathing showed that the medicine that Dinah had
administered had had the desired effect.
"Now, Myra," Nat said, "we will investigate the contents of the basket.
I am beginning to get as hungry as a hunter, and I am sure that you must
be so too."
"I am thirsty," the girl said, "but I do not feel hungry."
"You will, directly you begin. Now, Dinah, what have you brought us?"
"Dere am one roast chicken dar, Marse Glober. Dat was all I could get
cooked. Dere are six dead ones. I caught dem and wrung their necks jest
before I started. Dey no good now. Dere is bread baked fresh dis morning
before de troubles began, and dere is two pine-apples and a big melon."
"Bravo, Dinah! You have got knives?"
"Yes, sah, four knibes and forks."
"We could manage without the forks, Dinah, but it is more comfortable
having them. Now we will cut the chicken up into three. It looks a fine
bird."
"I'se had my dinner, sah; no want more."
"That is all nonsense, Dinah," he said. "I am quite sure that you did
not eat much dinner to-day, and you will want your strength to-morrow."
Dinah could not affirm that she had eaten much, and indeed she had
scarcely been able to swallow a mouthful in the middle of the day. The
meal was heartily enjoyed, and they made up with bread and fruit for the
shortness of the meat ration.
"Now you two lie down," Nat said after they had chatted for an hour. "I
am accustomed to night watches and can sleep with one ear open, but I am
convinced that there is not the slightest need for any of us keeping
awake. When the lantern is out, which it will be as soon as you lie
down, if all the negroes came up into the woods to search for us I
should have no fear of their finding us."
Dinah, however, insisted upon taking a share in watching, saying that
she was constantly sitting up at night with sick people.
Finding that she was quite determined, Nat said: "Very well, Dinah. It
is ten o'clock now. I will watch till one o'clock, and then you can
watch till four. We shall be able to start then."
"It won't be like light till five. No good start troo wood before that.
I'se sure to wake at one o'clock. I'se accustomed to wake any hour so as
to give medicines."
"Very well, Dinah; I suppose you must have your way."
Myra and the nurse therefore lay down, while Nat sat thinking over the
events of the day and the prospects of the future. He had said nothing
to the negress of the conversation that he had overheard, as on the way
from the house they had walked one behind the other and there had been
no opportunity for conversation, and he would not on any account have
Myra or her mother know the fate that these villains had proposed for
them. He wondered now whether he had done rightly in abstaining from
shooting one of them, but after thinking it over in every way he came to
the conclusion that it was best to have acted as he did, for they
clearly intended to do all in their power to save mother and daughter
from being massacred at once by the negroes.
"Even if the worst comes to the worst," he said to himself, "they have
pistols, and I know will, as a last resource, use them against
themselves."