The Colonel advanced, and Peek brought down his knife so as to inflict on Charlton’s shoulder a gentle puncture, which drew from him a cry of pain, followed by the exclamation, in trembling tones: “Keep off, keep off, Colonel! Peek doesn’t mean any harm.”
Iverson made an attempt to get in the negro’s rear, but a shriek of remonstrance from Charlton drove the officer back.
Finding now that he was master of the situation, Peek let his right arm fall gradually to his side, and, still holding Charlton in his grasp, said: “Gentlemen, there are just five chairs before you. Be seated, and hear what I have to say.”
The company looked hesitatingly at one another, till Blake, one of the policemen, said, “Why not?” and took a seat. The rest followed his example.
And then Peek, crowding back the rage and anguish of his heart, spoke as follows: “My name is Peculiar Institution. I came to this lawyer some seven weeks ago for advice. I paid him money. He got me to tell him my story. He pretended to be my friend; but thinking he could make a few dollars more out of the slaveholder than he could out of me, he sends on word to the man who calls himself my master;—in short, betrays me. You see I have him in my power. What would you do with him if you were in my place?”
“I’d cut off his dirty ears!” exclaimed Blake, carried beyond all the discretion of a policeman by his indignation.
“What do you say, Colonel Hyde?” asked Peek.
“Wall, Peek, I don’t car’ what yer do ter him, providin’ yer’ don’t damage yerself; but I reckon yer’d better drop that knife dam quick, and give in. It’s no use tryin’ to git off. We’ve three witnesses here to swar you’re the right man. The Yankees put through the Fugitive Law right smart now. Yer stand no chance.”
“That’s all true, Colonel,” replied Peek, speaking as if arguing aloud to himself. “The law was executed in Boston last week, where there wasn’t half the proof you have. To do it they had to call out the whole police force, but they did it; and if such things are done in Boston, we can’t expect much better in New York. But you see, Colonel, with this knife in my hand, I can now do one of two things: I can either kill this man, or kill myself. In either case you lose. The law hangs me if I kill him, and if I kill myself the sexton puts all of me he can lay hold of under the ground. Now, Colonel, if you refuse my terms, I’m fully resolved to do one of these two things,—probably the first, for I have scruples about the second.”
“The cussed nigger talks as ef he was readin’ from a book!” exclaimed Hyde, in astonishment. “Wall, Peek, what tairms do yer mean?”