"Bang! bang!" The boar"s head was not three feet from the muzzle as the second barrel was fired. The monster"s impetus carried him on with a plunge; and the young hero"s legs were knocked from under him by the weight of the huge body, so that he fell at full length in the mud.
For an instant he believed himself lost, and while scrambling to his feet he expected to feel the sweep of those sword-like tusks.
But there was no longer any danger; the last discharge had done its work to perfection, and with his knees bent under him, the boar lay just as he had plowed into the mire, having not even rolled over.
Picking up his gun, Ralph hurried to a.s.sist the person on the rock, whom he had already seen to be a negro, and whom he now found to be held down by a large stone, which lay upon his legs, he having doubtless pulled it from a position above in his frantic efforts to escape from his pursuer.
The confined black could not help himself; but Ralph succeeded, without much difficulty, in relieving him from the heavy weight.
The stone could not have slipped more than two or three feet, for the negro was not much injured by it, although it had held him so firmly.
He had the marks of the animal"s tusks on one of his legs; but the wound was not a dangerous one. Ralph bound his handkerchief around it, and felt very glad to find that the poor fellow was almost as good as new.
Finding himself able to walk, and seeming to realize how much he owed to his young rescuer, the stout negro grasped the boy"s right hand in both his own, and with tears glistening in his eyes, uttered a number of rapid sentences, only a few words of which Ralph could understand, but which were evidently the outpourings of grat.i.tude.
Still, there was in his manner an appearance of apprehension, as if he feared that the lad might not be alone. He would glance furtively about, like one who is expecting an enemy; and it was plain that he was meditating a retreat.
Back of the rocks there was dry, firm land; and in this direction he looked, as if desirous of moving off.
Ralph recalled the conversation which he had heard the day before about the runaway slave.
"This man may be Jumbo himself," he thought. "I"ll try to make him understand me."
Then, looking kindly in the negro"s face, he said, in Spanish:
"I think you are Jumbo. I am only a boy, and I am all alone. You are free; you can go where you will."
And he pointed to the deep, free woods.
Ralph had great difficulty in getting out this amount of Castilian; but the negro, whose own command of that language seemed to be of the most meagre description, comprehended his meaning. He took the spirit, if not the words.
A grateful expression came over his dark face, and again he clasped the boy"s hand, with the same flow of mingled African and Spanish upon his tongue.
Ralph bade him a kind good-by, and he walked away into the forest, waving his sable hand with a gesture full of feeling as he disappeared.
Our young sailor now proceeded to examine the animal he had killed.
It is said that the timid man is afraid before the danger, the coward during it, and the brave man after it. Ralph was afraid after it.
He felt a kind of weakness about the knees, and wondered that he had not noticed it before. He remembered how the bristles had stood up on the boar"s back, how the savage jaws had clashed together, and how he had seen the tusks standing out like long knives as the creature came straight for him.
Now how grim the monster looked as he lay in the mud and water, just where he had dropped dead--not on his side, but with the legs doubled under him, and the stout, hoggish ears sticking up like ears of corn.
"The next thing is to find my pony," thought Ralph. "Let"s see--which way did I come? Here are my tracks. I must have come out of that thicket yonder."
Then, looking about him, he saw another line of tracks, and, going to examine it, perceived that it was where the boar had chased the black man across the mora.s.s. Most of the negro"s footprints were lost in those of the hog.
Almost at the moment in which Ralph reached his pony, he heard the report of a gun at some distance, and guessed that Mr. Arthur was coming in search of him. He answered the signal, and the planter, who had become anxious for his safety, soon made his appearance.
"I had begun to be really alarmed about you," said Mr. Arthur, "and feared I should have to go back and summon a.s.sistance in the search. If you had not heard my gun, I should have missed you, for I was just about to turn in the opposite direction."
"Oh, I am sorry I have given you all this trouble!" said Ralph. "It is too bad. But you can"t think what I have killed! I am glad you have come, so that I can show you."
"Why, how wet and muddy you are!" said the planter, "and how your clothes are torn! For heaven"s sake! where have you been?"
Ralph related his adventure, and told how the black man had gone into the forest.
"I would not have had you take such a risk for all I am worth!" said Mr.
Arthur. "What would your father say if he knew of it?"
"But the man couldn"t get away, and the boar might have got at him before I could have had a chance to bring any one else here," replied Ralph.
"Yes, I know; but it was a fearful risk. No doubt the man was the runaway that I was speaking of to Mr. Osborne. At least, I should judge so from your description. Osborne would have detained him, of course; but I am not sorry that you made no such attempt. I should have been tempted to let him go myself."
It was a great relief to Ralph to find that Mr. Arthur took this view of the matter--a very singular one, he thought, for the owner of five or six hundred slaves; yet, from what he had seen of his kind friend, he was not surprised at it.
The planter was curious to visit the scene of the adventure, and, with some difficulty, they made their way to the place.
"Why, Ralph," he exclaimed, looking at the dead animal, and then at the surroundings of the spot, "it is fearful! Had I known what you were about, I should have given you up for lost. Not a tree within twenty rods of you! Suppose you had failed to kill him? It frightens me to think of it!"
Going to the ledge beyond, they saw where the negro had scrambled up with muddy feet, and where the sharp hoofs of the boar had scratched long lines on the rock.
It was easy to see how the large, loose stone, which had prevented the fugitive"s escape, had slipped from its place as he tried to climb over it.
"Well, well," said Mr. Arthur, "you ought to have one good friend in the forest, and I guess you have! I don"t think that poor fellow will ever forget you."
Ralph felt that this was pay enough, even though the friend was only a poor negro, whom he might never see again.
And now, leaving the huge game where it had fallen, he accompanied the good planter back to the little village of huts, where Mrs. Arthur and Camilla were awaiting them in some anxiety.
CHAPTER XIV.
OUR SAILOR BOY DISLIKES MR. OSBORNE.
"Oh, how dreadful!" exclaimed Camilla, as she listened to the recital of what had taken place.
"I am thinking of his mother," said Mrs. Arthur, "and I am so thankful--so thankful--that he is safe!"
Mr. Osborne took a very practical view of the matter.
"You could have kept the negro, I suppose," he said, "as you had your gun; but then it might not have been very easy to get him anywhere, you being a boy."
"I didn"t wish to _get him anywhere_," replied Ralph. "I wished him to go where he liked."
"Of course; it wasn"t your business to catch runaway negroes," said the overseer, "and you did perfectly right. Only I wish I could have been there. Did he seem to be afraid of you?"
"No, sir; I laid down my gun."