"You"s bery black in de face, my frind, but you"s much blacker in de h"art. What business hab you to come here widout washin" your white face clean?"
"Well, you"re a pretty smart chap for a n.i.g.g.e.r. An" I dare say you"ll understand that I"d have had some difficulty in fetchin" this here port at all if I"d washed my face," answered the lame man, in excellent nautical English.
While he spoke, Foster ran towards him, laid a hand on his shoulder, and looked earnestly into his face.
"You are the British sailor," he said, "who rescued Hes--Miss Sommers from the janissaries?"
"That"s me to a tee," replied the sailor, with a broad grin.
"Is Miss Sommers safe?" asked the middy anxiously.
"Ay! safe as any woman can be in this world. Leastwise, she"s in a cave wi" three o" the toughest sea-dogs as any man could wish to see--one o"
them bein" a Maltese an" the other two bein" true-blue John Bulls as well as Jack Tars. But Miss Sommers gave me orders to say my say to Peter the Great, so if this n.i.g.g.e.r is him, I"ll be obleeged if he"ll have a little private conversation wi" me."
"Did Miss Sommers say that I was not to hear the message?" asked the middy, in some surprise.
"She made no mention o" _you_, or anybody else at all, as I knows on,"
returned the sailor firmly, "an" as my orders was to Peter the Great, an" as this seems to be him, from Sally"s description--a monstrous big, fine-lookin" n.i.g.g.e.r, with a lively face--I"ll say my say to him _alone_, with your leave."
"You may say it where you is, for dis yar gen"lem"n is a frind ob mine, an" a hofficer in the Bri"sh navy, an" a most "tickler friend of Hester Sommers, so we all frinds togidder."
"You"ll excuse me, sir," said the seaman, touching his forelock, "but you don"t look much like a" officer in your present costoom. Well, then, here"s wot I"ve got to say--"
"Don"t waste your time, Brown, in spinning the yarn of your rescue of the girl," said Foster, interrupting; "we"ve heard all about it already from Sally, and can never sufficiently express our thanks to you for your brave conduct. Tell us, now, what happened after you disappeared from Sally"s view."
The sailor thereupon told them all about his subsequent proceedings--how he had persuaded Hester to accompany him through the woods and by a round about route to a part of the coast where he expected ere long to find friends to rescue him. From some reason or other best known to himself, he was very secretive in regard to the way in which these friends had managed to communicate with him.
"You see I"m not free to speak out all I knows," he said. "But surely it"s enough to say that my friends have not failed me; that I found them waitin" there with a small boat, so light that they had dragged it up an" concealed it among the rocks, an" that I"d have bin on my way to old England at this good hour if it hadn"t bin for poor Miss Sommers, whom we couldn"t think of desartin"."
"Then she refused to go with you?" said Foster.
"Refused! I should think she did! Nothing, she said, would indooce her to leave Algiers while her father was in it. One o" my mates was for forcing her into the boat, an" carryin" her off, willin" or not willin", but I stood out agin" him, as I"d done enough o" that to the poor thing already. Then she axed me to come along here an" ax Peter the Great if he knowed anything about her father. `But I don"t know Peter the Great," says I, `nor where he lives." `Go to Sally," says she, `an"
you"ll get all the information you need." `But I"ll never get the length o" Sally without being nabbed," says I. `Oh!" says she, `no fear o" that. Just you let me make a n.i.g.g.e.r of you. I always keep the stuff about me in my pocket, for I so often cry it off that I need to renew it frequently." An" with that she out with a parcel o" black stuff and made me into a n.i.g.g.e.r before you could say Jack Robinson. Fort"nately, I"ve got a pretty fat lump of a nose of my own, an" my lips are pretty thick by natur", so that with a little what you may call hard poutin"
when I had to pa.s.s guards, janissaries, an" such like, I managed to get to where Missis Lilly an" Sally lived, an" they sent me on here. An"
now the question is, what"s to be done, for it"s quite clear that my mates an" me can"t remain for ever hidin" among the rocks. We must be off; an" I want to know, are we to take this poor gal with us, or are we to leave her behind, an", if so, what are her friends a-goin" to do for her?"
"There"s no fear of your friends going off without you, I suppose?"
"Well, as they risked their precious lives to rescue me, it ain"t likely," returned the seaman.
"Would it not be well to keep Brown here till Ben-Ahmed returns?" asked Foster, turning to Peter the Great.
The negro knitted his brows and looked vacantly up through the leafy roof of the bower, as if in profound meditation. Some of the brighter stars were beginning to twinkle in the darkening sky by that time, and one of them seemed to wink at him encouragingly, for he suddenly turned to the middy with all the energy of his nature, exclaiming, "I"s got it!" and brought his great palm down on his greater thigh with a resounding slap.
"If it"s in your breeches pocket you must have squashed it, then!" said Brown--referring to the slap. "Anyhow, if you"ve got it, hold on to it an" let"s hear what it is."
"No--not now. All in good time. Patience, my frind, is a virtoo wuf cultivation--"
"You needn"t go for to tell _that_ to a Bagnio slave like me, Mister Peter. Your greatness might have made you aware o" that," returned the sailor quietly.
An eye-shutting grin was Peter"s reply to this, and further converse was stopped by the sound of clattering hoofs.
"Ma.s.sa!" exclaimed the negro, listening. "Das good. No time lost.
Come wid me, you sham n.i.g.g.e.r, an" I"s gib you somet"ing to tickle you stummik. You go an" look arter de hoss, Geo"ge."
While the middy ran to the gate to receive his master, Peter the Great led the sham n.i.g.g.e.r to the culinary regions, where, in a sequestered corner, he supplied him with a bowl containing a savoury compound of chicken and rice.
"I hope that all has gone well?" Foster ventured to ask as the Moor dismounted.
"All well. Send Peter to me immediately," he replied, and, without another word, hurried into the house.
Calling another slave and handing over the smoking horse to him, Foster ran to the kitchen.
"Peter, you"re--"
"Wanted "meeditly--yes, yes--I knows dat. What a t"ing it is to be in"spensible to anybody! I don"t know how he"ll eber git along widout me."
Saying which he hurried away, leaving the middy to do the honours of the house to the sailor.
"I s"pose, sir, you haven"t a notion what sort o" plans that n.i.g.g.e.r has got in his head?" asked the latter.
"Not the least idea. All I know is that he is a very clever fellow and never seems very confident about anything without good reason."
"Well, whatever he"s a-goin" to do, I hope he"ll look sharp about it, for poor Miss Sommers"s fate and the lives o" my mates, to say nothin"
of my own, is hangin" at this moment on a hair--so to speak," returned the sailor, as he carefully sc.r.a.ped up and consumed the very last grain of the savoury mess, murmuring, as he did so, that it was out o" sight the wery best blow-out he"d had since he enjoyed his last Christmas dinner in old England.
"Will you have some more?" asked the sympathetic middy.
"No more, sir, thankee. I"m loaded fairly down to the water-line.
Another grain would bust up the hatches; but if I might ventur" to putt forth a wish now, a gla.s.s o"--no? well, no matter, a drop o" water"ll do. I"m well used to it now, havin" drunk enough to float a seventy-four since I come to this city o" pirates."
"You will find coffee much more agreeable as well as better for you. I have learned that from experience," said the middy, pouring out a tiny cupful from an earthen coffee-pot that always stood simmering beside the charcoal fire.
"Another of that same, sir, if you please," said the seaman, tossing off the cupful, which, indeed, scarcely sufficed to fill his capacious mouth. "Why they should take their liquor in these parts out o" things that ain"t much bigger than my old mother"s thimble, pa.s.ses my comprehension. You wouldn"t mind another?--thankee."
"As many as you please, Brown," said the middy, laughing, as he poured out cupful after cupful; "there"s no fear of your getting half-seas-over on that tipple!"
"I only wish I _was_ half-seas-over, or even a quarter that length.
Your health, sir!" returned Brown, with a sigh, as he drained the last cup.
Just then Peter the Great burst into the kitchen in a very elated condition.
"Geo"ge," he cried, "you be off. Ma.s.sa wants you--"meeditly. But fust, let me ax--you understan" de place among de rocks whar Brown"s mates and de boat am hidden?"
"Yes, I know the place well."
"You knows how to get to it?"
"Of course I do."