"Do, zur: do try hard. I aren"t a bragger, Master Nic, but it"s just truth what I zay. I want to get you back again to the old country; and I can"t think o" nought else night or day. If I can get you off, and come with you, o" course I should like; but if I can"t, and I can get you off--there, I"ll lie down and die to do it, lad. But look here, we must only trust ourselves. If the other lot, who are making some plan of their own, knew it, they"d tell upon us and spoil us. Master Nic, can"t you believe in me!"
Nic was silent for a few moments as he turned to look in the man"s eyes.
"Yes," he said at last; "I do believe in you."
"And you"ll trust me, zur?"
Again there was a momentary hesitation before Nic answered, "Yes."
"Hoe, Master Nic, hoe," whispered Pete excitedly; "he"s been watching us, and he"s sent the dogs at us for not being at work."
As proof thereof the two fierce-looking brutes came rushing down one of the rows, open-mouthed, and Pete raised his hoe as if to strike.
"Me first, Master Nic," panted Pete. "I aren"t afeared. Let him do what he likes after; I"ll kill one or both on "em before they shall touch you."
At that moment there was a savage growling from the dogs not thirty yards away, and they came rushing at the poor fellows as hard as they could tear.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
A LURKING PERIL.
In obedience to the order which had despatched them, the two well-trained bloodhounds of the overseer tore on till they were about to bound upon the prisoners, when a sharp, shrill whistle arrested their rush on the instant, and they stopped, growling fiercely, their white teeth menacing, and their eyes red, as with a smouldering fire.
The next moment a different note was blown from a distance, a shrill, chirruping note which made the dogs turn and bark. Then one of them set off at a steady trot, while the other, as if its duty were done, approached Nic in the most friendly way, with its tail waving from side to side.
The whistle chirruped again, and the dog gave vent to a sharp bark, as much as to say, "All right, I"m coming--" and bounded after its companion.
"Well, we"re out of that job, Master Nic. I did wonder at that dog coming at you zo fierce."
"Set at me, Pete," said Nic quietly, "and education was stronger than nature. Keep on working now, and pray let me do my hoeing myself."
Pete grunted, and was silent, as he chopped away with his hoe till a horn was blown up at the house, when the tools were shouldered, and, hot and weary, the two companions trudged back to their barrack, to partake of their evening meal together, Humpy Dee and his party sitting quite aloof, for the feud was stronger than ever.
From that day a change seemed to have come over Nic. It was partly due to the feeling of returning health, but as much to his growing belief in Pete"s sincerity, and to the conviction that under the fellow"s rough sh.e.l.l there was an earnest desire to serve him and help him to escape from his terrible position.
The despondency to which he had given way seemed cowardly now, and as the days rolled on he worked as one works who is determined to make the best of his position. All the same, though, he joined heart and soul with Pete in the plans made for getting away.
Drawn closer together as they were now, the subject was more and more discussed, and in the long talks they had in whispers of a night, they could not help dwelling on the difficulties they would have to encounter even if they did manage to escape.
"But we will, Master Nic; you zee if we don"t. They both talk about shooting us, and that zets me up. I don"t want to hurt anybody; but when a man zays he"s going to fire at me as if I was a wild beast, I don"t feel to mind what I do to him. Don"t you be downhearted; we shall do it yet."
"But," said Nic, "it is the getting taken in a ship if we manage to find our way to the coast."
"If we find our way? We"ve on"y to get that boat. The river will show us the way down to the zea; and as to getting away then, all we"ve got to do is to try and find a ship that wants men."
"They will not take us, Pete; we shall be looked upon as criminals."
"Not if the skipper wants men," said Pete, laughing softly. "Long as a man can work hard, and is strong, and behaves himself, he won"t ask any questions."
The time went on, and there seemed to be no likelihood of any captain asking questions; for in spite of keeping a sharp watch, neither Nic nor Pete could obtain the information they wanted. The boat seemed to disappear in the most mysterious way after being used by the settler or his overseer, and Nic grew more and more puzzled, and said so to his companion.
"Yes, it gets over me zometimes, Master," said Pete; "but one has no chance. You see, there"s always people watching you. It aren"t as if it were on"y the masters and the dogs, and the n.i.g.g.e.rs who are ready to do anything to please old Zaunders; there"s old Humpy Dee and the others. Humpy"s always on the lookout to do me a bad turn; and he hates you just as much. He"s always thinking we"re going to get away, and he means to stop it."
"And this all means," said Nic, with a sigh, "that we must be content to stay as we are."
"Don"t mean nothing o" the kind," said Pete shortly. "It"s a nice enough place, and there"s nothing I should like better than staying here a bit, if we could go about the river and swamp and woods, fishing and shooting, and hunting or trapping; but one gets too much zun on one"s back, and when it"s always chopping weeds with a hoe, and the weeds grow faster than you can chop, one gets tired of it. Pretty country, Master Nic; most as good as home, only zun is a bit too warm."
Nic sighed.
"That"s "cause you wants to write letters and get "em sent, Master Nic, I know; but don"t you worry "bout that. You can"t send letters here like you do at home, so it aren"t no use to worry about what you can"t do. Worry "bout finding the boat, dear lad; that"s better than letters."
"I have worried about it," said Nic, "but it is of no use till we get a chance to go and wander about to try and discover where it is kept."
"And that the skipper and old Zaunders won"t let us do, you zee," said Pete quietly. "They"re a wicked pair, both on "em. Might let us loose a bit on Zundays; but not they. Zunday and week-days all the zame.
They"ve got us, and they mean to have their penn"orth out on us. Never thought as I should have all my strength turned into sugar for some one else to eat. There, work away; old Humpy"s watching us, and he"ll go and tell the skipper we"re hatching eggs."
Nic smiled, for his companion"s good temper and patience were contagious, but he could not repress a sigh from time to time as he thought of home; and the beauty of the country, the waving fields of ta.s.selled Indian-corn or beautiful sugar-cane, with the silver river beyond, the glorious slopes leading up to the distant blue mountains, and the gloomy, green, mysterious attraction of the swampy forest enhancing its attractions to an explorer, did not compensate for the absence of liberty, though Nic was fain to confess that the plantation would have been a glorious place for a few months" visit.
The blacks were not friendly, as Nic soon found; but he attributed it to the stern orders they had received; but now and then one or another made a little advance, by offering, on the sly, fish or flesh in the shape of bird or "possum which he had caught or trapped during the moonlight nights. For Saunders seemed to pay no heed to the black slaves slipping away of a night on some excursion.
""Nuff to make a man wish for a kettle o" tar, or a pot o" black paint,"
said Pete one day. "What for, sir? Just to put on a coat of it, and change the colour of one"s skin. They"d treat us better than they do.
Makes me wish I was a n.i.g.g.e.r for a bit, so long as I could wash white when I got away."
"Master Nic," said Pete one night when they were alone in their bunks, "I aren"t going to share that bit o" "possum."
"What bit of "possum?" asked Nic, as he lay listening to the low murmur arising from where Humpy Dee was talking to his fellow-prisoners, who were all chewing some tobacco-leaf which the former had managed to secrete.
"Why, you know; that bit old Zamson give me, wrapped up in one o" them big leaves."
"Oh yes; I had forgotten. Eat it, then; I don"t mind."
"Likely, aren"t it?" grumbled Pete. "Good as it smells, for them black fellows do know how to cook a thing brown and make it smell nice. Can"t you zee what I mean?"
"No."
"Want it for the dogs. I"m going to slip off after that boat as soon as it"s a bit later."
"Impossible, Pete. Don"t try; you"ll be shot at. There is sure to be one of the blacks outside the door with a musket."
"Let him stop there, then. I aren"t going by the door."
"How, then?"
"Climb up here to where I"ve got a couple o" them split wooden tiles-- shingles, as they call "em--loose."
"But you can"t climb up there."