"Then you found out nothing?"

"Oh yes, I did," said Pete dryly. "I found out that it didn't matter which way I went there waren't what I wanted."

"You mean the boat?"

"That's right, master. I went as far as I could get along the river one way, and it waren't there; and I went as far as I could get t'other way, and it waren't there. Old Zam must get in and paddle it right away zomewheres. There now, if I haven't found it after all!"

"What! Where it is hidden?"

"I believe I have; zeemed to turn it over and find it under this here clod I'm breaking up with the hoe. Wish I'd looked when we was aboard."

"Looked at what?"

"Her bottom. She's got a big bung-hole in her zomewhere, and he must pole her along into a deep part, and take the bung out, and let her fill and zink. Then he zinks the painter with a stone."

"But she wouldn't sink, Pete."

"Oh yes, she would, with ballast enough, sir; and all we've got to do now is to find out where she is."

Nic shook his head sadly, for he was not convinced.

"Don't you do that, my lad; that's not the way to get home. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think I'm right, and I dare zay, if we knowed where to look, she's just close handy zomewhere. Zay, Master Nic, s'pose I get old Zamson down and kneel on his chest, and pull out my knife. I could show my teeth and look savage, and pretend I was going to cut his head off if he didn't tell me. That would make him speak--eh?"

"Yes, to Saunders; and you would be punished, and we should be worse off than ever."

"That's about it, sir. I'm afraid I did no good last night."

Pete chopped and broke clods, and muttered to himself in a way which suggested that he was by no means satisfied with his investigations.

Then all at once he said:

"What do you zay to our going quietly down to the water some night, dropping in, and zwimming for it?"

"Into the jaws of the great alligators, Pete?"

"Didn't think o' that. Could hear 'em, too, as I walked along. One whacker went off from just under my feet once. I 'most fell over him, and he roared out like a bull calf. I thought he meant my legs. No, we couldn't do that, Master Nic. We must get hold o' that boat. I'll have another try to-night."

"Better not," said Nic. "Some of the others will hear you."

"And old Humpy be on'y too glad to get me in a row. Well, I mean to have it zomehow."

But Pete did not go upon any nocturnal excursion that night. Nature was too much for him. He dropped asleep, and did not wake till the conch sh.e.l.l sounded its braying note; and Nic rose once more to go to his labour in the fields, asking himself if it was not all a dream.

The next time the settler came that way the young man made an appeal to him for permission to send off a letter to some one in authority; but the angry refusal he received, coupled with a stern order to go on with his work, taught him plainly enough not to place any confidence in obtaining his liberty through his employer, so he tried to move the overseer the next time he came by.

Nic fared worse.

"Look here, my lad," said Saunders; "your country said you were better out of it, and we've taken you, and mean to try and make something decent of you. We're going to do it, too."

"But that was all a mistake, sir, as I told you," pleaded Nic.

"And this is a bigger one. Who is to believe your word? Get on with your work, and if you worry me again with your whining I'll shorten your rations, and keep you on the hardest jobs about the plantation."

"It's of no use, Pete," said Nic as soon as he could speak un.o.bserved; "there is nothing to hope for here. We must escape somehow, or else die in trying."

"That's sense, Master Nic, all but the last part. I don't see any fun in dying for ever so long. I'm going out to-night to find that boat, and if I do, next thing is to zave up some prog and be off. There's one thing to do, though, 'fore we start."

"What's that?"

"Borrow a couple o' guns and some powder and shot."

"Impossible, Pete. No; I think I could manage it."

"How, my lad? It has bothered me."

"There are two ways. Get at the guns one day when Samson is cleaning them; or else creep to the house some hot night, risk all, and climb in by one of the windows. I think in time I shall know whereabouts they are kept."

"Risk getting zeen and shot?"

"We must risk something, Pete," said Nic quietly. "It is for liberty.

I should leave it to the last moment, and get them when the boat was all ready; then, if I were heard there would be somewhere to make for, and once afloat we should be safe. But there, we have not found out where the boat is yet."

"And," said Pete thoughtfully, "there's zomething else we haven't took count of."

"What's that?" said Nic eagerly.

"The dogs, my lad; the dogs!"

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

A FIGHT WITH MORPHEUS.

Nic had no faith in his companion's notions about the boat lying sunk in the creek or river; but as the time wore on he could suggest no better idea.

Still, he did find out where the guns were kept one day when, in company with a man of Humpy Dee's party, he was ordered up to help in stowing some bales of tobacco-leaf in a kind of store at the back of the low wooden building.

The work was pretty hard, but Nic hardly felt it, for in going to and fro he had to pa.s.s an open door which led into the place used by the settler and Saunders for their dining and sitting room. It was a very rough spot, and the furniture was all home-made--that is to say, it was manufactured by the blacks. But Nic hardly heeded its contents after seeing a series of hooks driven into the wall, and upon each pair a musket, with powder-flask and bullet-pouch attached.

He could think of nothing else as he walked away, for these weapons meant a supply of food if he and Pete took to the woods, and that night he communicated the discovery to his companion.

"It ought to be easy to borrow a couple of them," said Pete quietly--"zome night when the two gaffers are asleep. On'y one thing to hinder it, as I zee, for I don't believe they shut themselves up, feeling as they do that we're under lock and key."

"What is to prevent me creeping in and getting them, Pete?"

"Dogs," said the man quietly. "Now, if we was at home I could walk into Plymouth and go to a druggist's shop, and for twopence buy zomething I knows of as would zend those dogs to sleep till we'd done what we wanted; but there aren't no shops in the woods here."

"And we haven't found the boat, Pete."