In Washington, he engaged in various small employments that yielded a revenue in the form of tips. He purchased a banjo, and ingratiated himself everywhere by singing his plantation songs, including both those that he had learned from others, and a few, such as "Oh, Eliza," which he had fabricated for himself. In the course of a week or two he learned all he needed to know about roads, military lines, and the like, and was prepared to make his way to the hospital where his master lay.
There he besought employment of menial kinds, at the hands of the surgeons and other officers, of whom there were only a very few at the post. Again he strummed his banjo and sang his songs to good purpose, impressing everybody with the conviction that he was a jolly, thoughtless, happy-go-lucky negro, and very amusing withal. The hospital was a very small one in a very lonely part of the country, and service there was extremely tedious to those who were condemned to it. Sam"s minstrelsy, therefore, was more than welcome as something that pleasantly broke the monotony, and the officers concerned were anxious to keep the amusing fellow employed at the post, lest he go elsewhere.
They gave him all sorts of odd jobs to do, from blacking boots and polishing spurs and buckles, to grooming a horse when privileged in that way, to show his skill in "puttin" of a satin dress onto a good animal,"
as he called the process.
Agatha had provided the boy with a small sum of money for use in emergencies, and, as his living had cost him nothing, he had considerably added to its amount. He cherished it jealously, feeling that it might prove to be his readiest tool in accomplishing his purposes.
For a time he was not permitted to enter the hospital, which was nothing more than an old barn in which a floor had been laid and windows cut.
Four sentries guarded it, one on each of its sides. The patients within numbered about fifteen, all of them wounded Confederate officers, for whom this provision had been made until such time as they should be sufficiently recovered to be taken North to a military prison.
Being in no regular way employed at the post, Sam was free to go and come as he pleased, and he did a good deal of night-prowling at this time. He managed in that way to establish relations with certain of Agatha"s friends, whose residence was ten or a dozen miles away. He visited them at intervals in order to hear from Agatha, and report to her through them. He had not dared inquire concerning his master in any direct way, or to reveal his interest in any of the hospital patients.
But when two of them had died, he had asked one of the servitors about the place what their names were, and had thus satisfied himself that neither of them was Captain Pegram. By keeping his ears on the alert, he had learned also that there were not likely to be any further deaths, and that the remaining wounded men were slowly, but quite surely, recovering. Still further, he had heard one of the doctors, in conversation with the other, comment upon the remarkable vitality of Captain Pegram.
"That wound would have killed almost any other man I ever saw, but upon my word the man is getting well. Barring accidents, I regard him now as pretty nearly out of danger."
All this Sam duly reported to Agatha through her friends. It greatly comforted her, but it seriously alarmed Sam. For Sam had learned the ways of the place, and he knew that there was haste made to send every patient North, as soon as he was in condition to be removed without serious danger to his life; and Sam had begun to cherish hopes and lay plans which would certainly come to nothing if his master should be removed from the hospital to a military prison.
He determined, therefore, to find some way of getting into the hospital, communicating with his master, and finding out for himself precisely what the prospects were.
It was winter now, and besides the snow there was much mud around the hospital, which was freely tracked into it by all who entered. Peter, the rheumatic old negro man who was employed to scrub the place, complained bitterly of this. He said to Sam one day:
"Dese heah doctahs an" dese heah "tendants is mighty pahticklah to have de place keeped scrumptiously clean, but dey"s mighty onpahticklah to wipe dar boots "fo" enterin" de hospital. Ole Pete"s done got mos"
enough o" dis heah job."
"Why don"t yo" quit it, den?" asked Sam, with seeming indifference.
""Case I can"t "ford to. I ain"t got no udder "ployment fer de rest o"
de wintah, an" it"s a long ways to blackberry time."
"How much does dey gib yo" fer a-doin" of it?"
""Mos" nothin" "tall--a dollah an" a half a month an" my bo"d."
"Yes, an" de job won"t las" long, nuther," said Sam, sympathetically, ""cordin" to what I heah. De rebel officers is all a-gwine to git well, I done heah de doctahs say, an" when dey does dat, dey"ll be shipped off Norf, an" dis heah "stablishment"ll be broke up. You"se too ole fer sich wuk, anyways, Uncle Pete. Yo" oughter be a-nussin" o" yer knees by a fire somewhars, "stead o" warin" of "em out a-scrubbin" flo"s. You"se got a lot o" prayin" to do yit, "fo" yo" dies,--"nuff to use up what knees you"se got left. Give up de job. Uncle Pete, and go off wha" you kin make yer peace wid de Lawd, as de preachahs says you must."
"But I cawn"t, I tell you! I ain"t got no money, an" I ain"t got no "ployment, "ceptin" dis heah scrubbin". Ef I had five dollahs, Ole Pete wouldn"t be heah fer a day later"n day afteh to-morrow--dat"s pay-day."
Sam sat silent for a time as if meditating on what he had it in mind to say, before committing himself to the rash proposal. Finally, he turned to the old man, and said:
"Look heah, Uncle Pete, I"se sorry fer you, sho" "nuff I is. I"se done "c.u.mulated a little money, by close scrimpin", an" I"m half a mind to help yo" out. Lemme see. You"se a-gwine to git a dollah an" a half day after to-morrow. I kin spar yo" six dollahs mo". Dat"ll make seben dollahs an" a half. I"ll do it ef you"ll take pity on yerse"f an" go to town an" git yerse"f a easier sort o" wuk. Yo" kin owe me de six dollahs tell you git rich enough to pay it back."
The old man was inclined to be suspicious of a generosity of which he had never known the equal.
"Who"se a-gwine to take de job ef I gibs it up?" he asked.
"What de debbil do you k"yar "bout dat?" asked Sam. "Anyhow, dey ain"t a-gwine to raise de wages. Yo" kin jes" bet yo" life on dat. Yo" kin do jes" as yo" please "bout "ceptin" de offer I done made you. I oughtn"t to "a" made it, but I"se always a-makin" of a fool o" myse"f, when my feelin"s is touched. Six dollahs is a lot o" money, _hit_ is. Maybe yo"
think I"m Mr. Astor, to go a-throwin" of money away like dat, or, maybe yo"se Mr. Astor yerse"f, to be hesitatin" "bout a-"ceptin" of it. Reckon I bettah withdraw de offah--"
"Who"se a-hesitatin"?" broke in old Peter, hurriedly. "I ain"t never thought o" hesitatin", Sam. I"ll take de money sho", an" I thank you kindly for yer generosity, Sam. You"se a mighty fine boy, Sam, an" I"se always liked you ever since I fust knowed you. Now dat you"se a-behavin"
jes" like as if yo" was my own chile, I reck"lec" dat I always had a fatherly feelin" foh you, Sam. Lemme have de money now, Sam, so"s I kin go to sleep to-night a-feelin" I ain"t got but one mo" day to do dis heah sort o" wuk."
"Yo" won"t change yo" mind?" asked Sam.
"Sartain sho"! Wish I may die ef I do."
Sam regarded that oath as one likely to be binding upon any negro conscience, but he wished to take no risks; so putting on an air of great solemnity, and pushing his face to within four inches of the old man"s, he said:
"Now you"se done swore it by de "wish I may die," an" you mus" keep dat sw"ar. Ef yo" don"t, it"ll be my solemn duty to carry out yo" wish by killin" you myse"f, an", "fore de Lawd, I"ll do it. Heah"s de money."
XXIV
_FLIGHT_
Sam had so far commended himself by alertness and thoroughness in whatever he did, that he had no difficulty in securing what he called "de scrubbin" contract." He now had perfect freedom of hospital ingress and egress, but he felt that he must be cautious, especially in his first revelation of his presence to his master, who, he was confident, knew nothing of his being there. He feared to surprise some exclamation from Pegram, which would, as he phrased it, "give de whole snap away."
So on the first morning he began his scrubbing at the outer door, and moved slowly on his hands and knees along the line of cots, taking sly glimpses of their occupants as he went. It was not till he reached the farther corner of the large room that he found the cot of his master.
Then with his face near the floor and scrubbing violently with his brush, he began intoning in a low voice:
"Don"t say nothin", don"t say nothin", don"t say nothin" when yo" sees me. It"s Sam sho" "nuff, an" Sam"s done come, an" don"t you give it away."
To any one ten feet away, all this sounded like the humming of a chant by one who unconsciously sang below the breath as he worked. But to Baillie, who lay within a foot or two of the boy"s head, the words were perfectly audible, and presently, without moving, and in a low murmuring voice, he said:
"I understand, Sam. I knew you were here. I heard you singing outside, many days ago."
Then the wounded man pretended to have difficulty in adjusting his blankets, and Sam rose and bent over the cot to help him. While doing so, he said:
"Mis" Agatha, she done brung me to New York, an" sent me heah to fin"
yo". How"s you a-gittin"? Tell me, so"s I kin report, an" tell me every day."
Baillie replied briefly that his wound was healing and his strength coming back, to which Sam answered:
"Don"t you go fer to tell de doctah too much "bout dat. Jes" keep as sick as you kin, while you"se a-gittin" well. I"ll tell you why another time. Git "quainted wid Sam more an" more ebery day, Mas" Baillie, so"s we kin talk "thout "rousin" "spicion."
In aid of this, Sam took pains, as the days went on, to establish relations with all the other patients who were well enough to talk, and as his inconsequent humour seemed to amuse them, the doctors made no objection to his loquaciousness.
It was one of the articles in Sam"s philosophical creed that "yo" cawn"t have too many frien"s, "case yo" cawn"t never know when you may need "em." Accordingly, he cultivated acquaintance with everybody, high and low, about the place, including the peculiarly surly man who brought the coal and the kindling-wood for the establishment. That personage was a white man of melancholy temper and extraordinary taciturnity. He went in and out of the place, wearing a long overcoat that had probably seen better days, but so long ago as to have forgotten all about them. The only other article of his clothing that was visible was a slouch hat, the brim of which had completely lost courage and could no longer pretend to stand out from the head that wore it, but hung down like a limp lambrequin over the man"s eyes. The man himself seemed in an equally discouraged condition. He shambled rather than walked, and never answered a question or responded to a salutation, except in Sam"s case.
To him, when the two were alone, the man would sometimes speak a few words.
Sam was daily and hourly studying everybody and everything about him, with a view to possibilities. n.o.body was too insignificant and nothing too trivial for him to note and consider and remember. "Yo" cawn"t never know," he philosophised, "what rock will come handiest when yo" wants to frow it at a squirrel."
As the weeks pa.s.sed, Baillie Pegram so improved that he sat up, and even walked about the place a little. One day, Sam learned that Baillie and three others were deemed well enough to be removed from hospital to prison, and that the transfer was to be made two days later. During the night after this discovery was made, Sam trudged through a blinding snow-storm--the last, probably, of the waning winter--to the house of Agatha"s friends, ten or a dozen miles away, and back again through the snow-drifts, arriving at the hospital about daylight, as he had often done before, after a prowling by night.
He had made all his arrangements but one, and he had armed himself for that, by drawing upon Agatha"s friends for ten dollars in small bills.
During the day, he managed to tell his master all that was necessary concerning the emergency, and his plans for meeting it.