"And I feel as if I've got 'nough o' that stuff in me for both. Wish we could be hoeing together again, so as we could talk it over."

"I wish so too, Pete."

"It aren't half so pleasant hoeing along with the blacks as it is with you, zir."

"Thank you, Pete," said Nic, smiling to himself.

"I aren't got nought agen 'em. They can't help having black skins and them thick lips, and they're wonderful good-tempered. Just big children, that's what they are. Fancy a man being a zlave and ready to zing and dance 'cause the moon zhines, ready to go out hunting the c.o.o.ns and 'possums as if there was nothing the matter."

"It's their nature to be light-hearted," said Nic.

"Light-hearted, zir? Why, there's one o' the gang along with me as allus seems as if you were tickling him. Only to-day he drops hisself down and rolls about in the hot sun, and does nothing but laugh, just because he's happy. Why, I couldn't laugh now if I tried."

"Wait, Pete; perhaps you may again some day."

"I want to laugh to-morrow night, zir."

"What?"

"When we've got a couple o' guns aboard that boat, and we're going down the river," whispered Pete excitedly. "I can laugh then."

"We couldn't do it, Pete."

"We could, zir, if we zaid we would."

"There is the risk of that man watching us and telling."

"He'd better!" growled Pete. "Look here, zir; let's have no more shilly-shallying. Say you'll go to-morrow night, and risk it."

"Why not wait for a good opportunity?"

"'Cause if we do it mayn't never come."

"But food--provisions?" said Nic, whose heart was beginning to throb with excitement.

"Eat all we can to-morrow, and chance what we can get in the woods, or go without a bit. I'd starve two days for the sake of getting away.

Will you risk it, zir?"

For answer Nic stretched out his hand and grasped Pete's, having his own half-crushed in return.

"That settles it, then," whispered Pete hoa.r.s.ely. "Zave a bit of bread-cake if you can. May come in useful. To-morrow night, then."

"To-morrow night."

"Are you two going to keep on talking till to-morrow morning?" growled a deep voice. "Zum on us want a bit o' sleep. Look here, mates; I'm going to speak to the gaffer to-morrow, to ax if them two chatterin' old women can't be put somewheres else."

Nic turned cold, and Pete uttered a deep sigh, for if this were done they would, he knew, have to begin making their plans again.

But hope cheered them both as the next day dawned and pa.s.sed on without incident. Humpy Dee's was evidently only an empty threat, and as evening drew on Nic's excitement increased, and with it came a sensation of strength such as he had not enjoyed for months.

It was as if his companion had endowed him with a portion of his own elastic temperament, and success was going to attend their efforts. All the weary despondency had pa.s.sed away, and in imagination Nic saw the boat floating down the river towards the sea, where, hope whispered, it must be very easy to find some British ship whose captain would be ready to listen to their unhappy story, and let them hide on board till he set sail, and then let them work their pa.s.sage home. "For," argued Nic now in his excitement, "no Englishman could be so hardhearted as to refuse help to a white slave."

He saw nothing of Pete after they had started for their day's work, their duties taking them to different parts of the plantation; but that was no more than he expected, and he toiled away with his hoe, telling himself that this was the last time he would handle it, for they would-- they must--escape; and he wondered now that he could have hesitated so long, and have let the notion that Humpy Dee was quietly trying to undermine them act like a bugbear.

One thing was difficult, though, and that was to eat heartily in readiness for what might be a long fast. Nic ate all he could force down, however, and hid away the rest. But how long that hot day seemed, before the darkness closed in and the strange sounds began to rise from the woods and river!

Never had all these sounded so loudly before; and when at last Nic lay down in his rustling bunk, and the place had been locked and the black sentry placed at the door, it seemed to the listener as if the great goat-suckers were whirring about just outside, and the bull-frogs had come in a body to the very edge of the woods and up the ditches of the plantation to croak.

Humpy Dee and his companions were talking together; the black sentry yawned, and began to hum an air to himself; and soon after the voices of the settler and the overseer pa.s.sed, discussing some plan in connection with the crops; but Nic did not hear either of the dogs bark, neither did the one which had shown friendliness towards him come snuffling about the entrance of the low shed.

"Why doesn't Pete say something?" thought Nic, who began to wonder at the silence of his companion, not a word having pa.s.sed since they met at the rough supper; and now, for the first time that day, Nic's heart sank a little, for it seemed to him that his fellow-plotter had shrunk from the risks they would have to encounter--risks which might mean being shot at, worried by the dogs, dragged down by the alligators to a horrible death, perhaps fever and starvation in the swamp, or being drowned at sea, if they reached the river's mouth, and were swept away by one of the fierce currents along the sh.o.r.e.

It meant waiting two hours at least before they could begin their attempt; but still Nic wanted to get rid of the oppression which troubled him, and to feel that they really were going to make their escape; but the murmuring of their companions' voices went on, and still Pete made no sign.

At last Nic could contain himself no longer. He was all eagerness now; and, if they were not going to make the attempt, he wanted to know the worst. He spoke in a whisper:

"Pete, Pete!"

"Phew! how hot--how hot!" muttered the man.

"Pete!" whispered Nic again.

"I wish you wouldn't keep on talking," said Pete loudly. "You know how it set them grumbling last night."

Nic drew a deep breath through his teeth, as he lay there in the hot, oppressive darkness. They were not going, then. It was the way with a man of Pete's cla.s.s to pick a quarrel upon some other subject when he wanted to find an excuse and back out of an arrangement.

"Ay, you had a narrow escape on it," said one of the men surlily. "Old Humpy was pretty nigh going to the gaffer to-day."

"It's all over," thought Nic, as a feeling of bitterness ran through him. Only four-and-twenty hours earlier he had been ready to give up and accept his position. Then Pete had touched the right chord in his nature, and roused him up to a readiness to run any risk, and make a brave dash for liberty; while now the man seemed to have shrunk back into his sh.e.l.l, and to be completely giving up just when the call was about to be made upon his energies.

At another time Nic might have argued differently; but, strung up as he had been, his companion's surly indifference was crushing, and it seemed that the wild, exciting adventures of the night were to give place to a cowardly, sordid sleep.

"If anything big is to be done, one must depend upon one's-self,"

thought Nic at last; and, angry with the whole world, bitter at his own helplessness, as he felt how mad it would be to attempt the venture alone, he turned over in his bunk, throwing out one hand in the movement, and it came in contact with Pete's, to be gripped fast.

In an instant the blood was dancing through his veins, and a choking sensation as of impending suffocation troubled him; the arteries in his temples beat painfully, and he lay breathing hard.

For it was to be after all, and this conduct was his companion's way of showing him that it was better to lie in silence, waiting till the time arrived for commencing their task.

Nic lay there listening to the low murmur of his fellow-prisoners'

voices and the chorus of strange sounds from the forest and river; and in the stillness of the night, every now and then, a faint splash came plainly to where he lay, sending a thrill through him, as he thought that, if all went well, before very long he might be swimming across the river, running the gauntlet of the horrible-looking reptiles, and his left hand stole down to his belt to grasp the handle of the sharpened knife, while he wondered whether the skin of the alligators would be h.o.r.n.y or tough enough to turn the point.

How long, how long it seemed before all was perfectly still in the long, low shed, and not a sound could be heard outside but the faint humming noise made by the black sentry!

Then all at once there were steps.

Some one had come up, and in a low whisper Nic heard the words:

"All right?"