Fighting King George

TWO FIGURES BOUNDED UPON THE WALLS
by John T M c Intyre
Illustrated by J A Graeber
THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY PHILADELPHIA M C M V
Copyright 1905 by The Penn Publishing Company
Fighting King George
“The wind’s changing again, Cole,” said Tom Deering, as he threw his rudder handle to leeward in order that the sheet might catch the full benefit of the breeze.
The person to whom he spoke was a negro, young in years but of colossal size; as he sat amidships in the skiff, with the sheet rope in his hand, his sleeveless shirt showing his mighty arms bare to the shoulder, he resembled a statue of Hercules, cut out of black marble. Tom Deering was about sixteen, and the son of a rich planter, just below Charleston; he was a tall, strongly built boy for his years, but beside the giant negro slave he looked like an infant. Cole had been born upon Tom’s father’s plantation and was about five years the elder; the two were inseparable; where Tom went the huge black followed him like a shadow.
When he had the sail drawing nicely, Tom continued:
“I wonder, Cole, how all this is going to end?”
Cole shook his woolly head and grinned; then suddenly his face changed and he held up one hand as though bidding his young master to listen.
From across the bright stretch of water between them and the shore came a drum beat; the evening sun slanted down upon the white crests and upon the meadow-lands below the city. No one was in sight, but the hollow rub-a-dub of the drum continued. Seeing his master had caught the sound Cole turned and silently pointed out into the bay.