The Young Deliverers of Pleasant Cove

by Elijah Kellogg

In a few days there would be a double-cross holiday, when the negroes would be frolicking and dancing night and day. It was, therefore, resolved to make the attempt the night after the frolic, when the negroes, being completely tired out, would be sure to sleep soundly on their posts.

Lemaire was notified of the time of sailing, and requested to furnish a pilot to take the vessel out of the creek. Meanwhile, Sewall Lancaster, under pretence of fishing, had sounded the passe, and made himself familiar with the channel; and the vessel was towed out some distance from the wharf, to a place where she was hidden from view by a sharp turn of the creek around a wooded point, and lay at a single anchor.

Walter sold the boat to Lemaire for one hundred and fifteen dollars and another boat, that, for a vessel's use, was worth more than the one he sold, being longer, stronger, and more burdensome, though clumsy and homely. Having ascertained when the vessel was going, the planter said to his overseer,—

"The schooner is going two days after the holiday. They have made a great deal of the servants, and perhaps may take off some of them, or some may stow themselves away. You must keep a good watch the last night they are here."

"The watchmen," said the overseer, "will all be sleepy after the holiday. I will keep watch with my son. They might take some fowl or pigs, if nothing else. They've got an old sailor on board that would steal a man's boots off his feet while he slept."

This arrangement would have interfered most seriously with the designs of the boys, as it was their intention to sail the night before the appointed time, and would probably have frustrated the entire plan. But, the day before the holiday, a planter from Sans-Souci rode over to Vauclin. He had seen the frames, and wanted to make arrangements with Walter to bring him some of the same dimensions, and also frames for a house, sugar mill, and out-buildings, inviting Walter so cordially to come over to his plantation the next morning, offering to send a horse and servant for him, that he consented. The next morning a servant came on horseback, and leading another horse for Walter, who told the crew that he should be back in the evening to start. Walter dearly loved to ride on horseback. Edmund Griffin, his father, owned a vast deal of land, and raised a great many colts. The travelling in those days, in that portion of the country where Walter was reared, being almost exclusively on horseback, he had been early accustomed to horses. Many a spanking gallop he had enjoyed, riding a half-broken colt to pasture, bareback, without shoes or stockings, and clinging with his great toes to the animal's sides, with no better bridle than a rope halter, and a half hitch over the colt's nose.

With a splendid, well-bitted horse under him, riding through wild and beautiful scenery, and amid a vegetation entirely new, he enjoyed the most exquisite pleasure. Uneasy and perplexing thoughts would have flung their sombre shadow over those pleasant scenes, and marred all their beauty, had Walter been aware that the overseer and his son, both strong, resolute men, armed to the teeth, were intending to share the watch that night, and rouse any sleeping darkies by blows on the skull from the butt of a pistol.

In blissful ignorance of impending danger, he surrendered himself to the pleasures of the hour, and enjoyed a most delightful ride, succeeded by a day of equal enjoyment at the hospitable mansion of the planter.

Deliverance came, however, from a quarter whence it was least to be expected, and thus the circumstance which threatened to render the effort abortive, and involved a desperate conflict, proved the very means of its success.

Old Nep had been invited by the negroes to share in the amusements of the holiday, and, arrayed in white pants, waistcoat, and jacket, proceeded to the great house to pay his respects to the ladies in the kitchen. When he arrived old Phil was engaged in a wordy contest with Juan Baptiste. It seems Phil had been whipped at last, for the loss of so many turkeys and pigs, and Juan had been twitting him of it.