So long as they remained in the maize-field, I saw nothing of either.
The direction of my view was slightly oblique to the rows of the plants.
The corn was at full growth, and its tall culms and broad lanceolate
leaves would have overtopped the head of a man on horseback. A thicket
of evergreen trees would not have been more impenetrable to the eye.
By going a little to the right, I should have become aligned with the
rows, and could have seen far down the avenues between them; but this
would have carried me out of the cover, and the mulatto might then have
seen _me_. For certain reasons, I did not desire he should; and I
remained where I had hitherto been standing.
I was satisfied that the man was still making his way up the field, and
would in due time discover himself in the open ground.
An indigo flat lay between the hommock and the maize. To approach the
house, it would be necessary for him to pass through the indigo; and, as
the plants were but a little over two feet in height, I could not fail
to observe him as he came through. I waited, therefore, with a feeling
of curious anticipation--my thoughts still wearing a tinge of the weird!
He came on slowly--very slowly; but I knew that he was advancing. I
could trace his progress by an occasional movement which I observed
among the leaves and tassels of the maize. The morning was still--not a
breath of air stirred; and consequently the motion must have been caused
by some one passing among the plants--of course by the mulatto himself.
The oscillation observed farther off, told that the alligator was still
following.
Again and again I observed this movement among the maize-blades. It was
evident the man was not following the direction of the rows, but
crossing diagonally through them! For what purpose? I could not guess.
Any one of the intervals would have conducted him in a direct line
towards the house--whither I supposed him to be moving. Why, then,
should he adopt a more difficult course, by crossing them? It was not
till afterwards that I discovered his object in this zigzag movement.
He had now advanced almost to the nether edge of the cornfield. The
indigo flat was of no great breadth, and he was already so near, that I
could hear the rustling of the cornstalks as they switched against each
other.
Another sound I could now hear; it resembled the howling of a dog. I
heard it again, and, after an interval, again. It was not the voice of
a full-grown dog, but rather the weak whimper of a puppy.
At first, I fancied that the sounds came from the alligator: for these
reptiles make exactly such a noise--but only when young. The one
following the mulatto was full-grown; the cries could not proceed from
it. Moreover, the sounds came from a point nearer me--from the place
where the man himself was moving.
I now remembered the white object I had observed as the man was crossing
the corner of the savanna. It was not an opossum, then, but a young
dog.
Yes. I heard the cry again: it was the whining of a whelp--nothing
else.
If I could have doubted the evidence of my ears, my eyes would soon have
convinced me; for, just then, I saw the man emerge from out the maize
with a dog by his side--a small white cur, and apparently a young one.
He was leading the creature upon a string, half-dragging it after him.
I had now a full view of the individual, and saw to a certainty that he
was our woodman, Yellow Jake.
Before coming out from the cover of the corn, he halted for a moment--as
if to reconnoitre the ground before him. He was upon his feet, and in
an erect attitude. Whatever motive he had for concealment, he needed
not to crouch amid the tall plants of maize; but the indigo did not
promise so good a shelter, and he was evidently considering how to
advance through it without being perceived. Plainly, he had a motive
for concealing himself--his every movement proved this--but with what
object I could not divine.
The indigo was of the kind known as the "false Guatemala." There were
several species cultivated upon the plantation; but this grew tallest;
and some of the plants, now in their full purple bloom, stood nearly
three feet from the surface of the soil. A man passing through them in
an erect attitude, could, of coarse, have been seen from any part of the
field; but it was possible for one to crouch down, and move, between the
rows unobserved. This possibility seemed to occur to the woodman; for,
after a short pause, he dropped to his hands and knees, and commenced
crawling forward among the indigo.
There was no fence for him to cross--the cultivated ground was all under
one enclosure--and an open ridge alone formed the dividing-line between
the two kinds of crop.
Had I been upon the same level with the field, the skulker would have
been now hidden from my sight; but my elevated position enabled me to
command a view of the intervals between the rows, and I could note every
movement he was making.
Every now and then he paused, caught up the cur, and held it for a few
seconds in his hands--during which the animal continued to howl as if in
pain!
As he drew nearer, and repeated this operation, I saw that he was
_pinching its ears_!
Fifty paces in his rear, the great lizard appeared coming out of the
corn. It scarcely made pause in the open ground, but still following
the track, entered among the indigo.
At this moment, a light broke upon me; I no longer speculated on the
power of Obeah. The mystery was dissolved: the alligator was lured
forward by the cries of the dog!
I might have thought of the thing before, for I had heard of it before.
I had heard from good authority--the alligator-hunter himself, who had
often captured them by such a decoy--that these reptiles will follow a
howling dog for miles through the forest, and that the old males
especially are addicted to this habit. Hickman's belief was that they
mistake the voice of the dog for that of their own offspring, which
these unnatural parents eagerly devour.
But, independently of this monstrous propensity, it is well-known that
dogs are the favourite prey of the alligator; and the unfortunate beagle
that, in the heat of the chase, ventures across creek or lagoon, is
certain to be attacked by these ugly amphibia.
The huge reptile, then, was being lured forward by the voice of the
puppy; and this accounted for the grand overland journey he was making.
There was no longer a mystery--at least, about the mode in which the
alligator was attracted onward; the only thing that remained for
explanation was, what motive had the mulatto in carrying out this
singular manoeuvre?
When I saw him take to his hands and knees, I had been under the
impression that he did so to approach the house, without being observed.
But as I continued to watch him, I changed my mind. I noticed that he
looked oftener, and with more anxiety _behind_ him, as if he was only
desirous of being concealed from the eyes of the alligator. I observed,
too, that he changed frequently from place to place, as if he aimed at
keeping a screen of the plants between himself and his follower. This
would also account for his having crossed the rows of the maize-plants,
as already noticed.
After all, it was only some freak that had entered the fellow's brain.
He had learned this curious mode of coaxing the alligator from its
haunts--perhaps old Hickman had shown him how--or he may have gathered
it from his own observation, while wood-chopping in the swamps. He was
taking the reptile to the house from some eccentric motive?--to make
exhibition of it among his fellows?--to have a "lark" with it? or a
combat between it and the house-dogs? or for some like purpose?
I could not divine his intention, and would have thought no more of it,
had it not been that one or two little circumstances had made an
impression upon me. I was struck by the peculiar pains which the fellow
was taking to accomplish his purpose with success. He was sparing
neither trouble nor time. True, it was not to be a work-day upon the
plantation; it was a holiday, and the time was his own; but it was not
the habit of Yellow Jake to be abroad at so early an hour, and the
trouble he was taking was not in consonance with his character of
habitual _insouciance_ and idleness. Some strong motive, then, must
have been urging him to the act. What motive?