"Could you get out of that window, if we take the bars out?"
"No, sonny; it no large enough."
"Then we must break the door."
"Dat make too much noise. You bring strong string, piece of spun-yarn, and crowbar; tie de bar to de spun-yarn; I pull him up, hide him in my bed; den, when time come, pull de staple out de stone what hold de bolt. De stones of dis island bery soft, Peterson bery strong; pull him out; make no noise."
The plantation at Vauclin abounded in domestic animals and fowls of all kinds. Hogs were not suffered to run at large, but were kept in a yard surrounded by a high stone wall, laid in lime mortar; here were hogs, sucking pigs, and shotes of all ages. The fowls run at large. There were ducks, geese, guinea-fowl, turkeys, and hens in abundance. These were all under the supervision of an old negro, assisted by several boys. Philip was a Guinea negro, uncommonly stupid and indolent, although his office was no sinecure, as the other slaves stole all the fowls and pigs they could lay their hands on. But the depredations of the negroes upon their master's poultry and pigs were few indeed compared with those of Dick Cameron. From the time Dick was ten years old, and held horses for a baubee in the streets of Greenock, he had been flung upon his own resources, was an old forager, and his miscellaneous life was not favorable to the cultivation of very accurate distinctions in respect to the rights of individuals in such things as fruit, fowl, and other outlying property.
Dick would have cut his right hand off sooner than have cheated his landlord, backed out after signing the ship's articles, or run away after taking his advance wages; but he would not hesitate an instant in helping himself to a pair of trousers, or a frock, from any piece of canvas that was lying about decks, or to any rope, small line, twine, or worming he wanted for beckets to his chest, hammock lashings, or strings to a clothes-bag. Entertaining such sentiments, it was not wonderful that, since the arrival of the Perseverance, turkeys, ducks, and guinea-fowl should disappear with astonishing rapidity, especially turkeys. At length Walter objected to the process by which he had good reason to suppose the table of the Perseverance was supplied; but all the difference this made was, that, although he and Ned fared less sumptuously, Sewall, Dick, and old Nep lived none the worse, taking their meals at extra hours by themselves; and what they were unable to consume there were plenty of invited guests to finish.
At length the disappearance of some very fine turkeys attracted the attention of the cook, who told his master. He threatened to flog Phil if the matter went on.
"It is these white sailors," said the planter. "They steal them in the night. There's never a vessel comes here but the fowl and pigs are stolen. You must set a watch while this vessel is here,—there's enough of you,—or shut them up."
As the easiest method, Phil and his understrappers shut up the fowl; but every night, when Phil drove them in, some of the turkeys were missing.
"You lazy rascal," said Lemaire, "can't you keep them from stealing them in broad daylight? They don't take the geese; why don't you keep them from taking the turkeys as well?"