CHAPTER IX. TREACHERY WITHIN TREACHERY.
"Massa!" said the mulatto, after he had rowed awhile, till large drops of sweat rolled down his forehead—"massa, this is confounded hard work! Shall we drink a drop?—the bottle lies beside you." And he raised his oar out of the water whilst he said these words, so that the clear drops slowly trickled from it into the stream; Dr. Normann also stopped rowing, and breathed hard.
"Confound it!" he then whispered, "this is cursed hard work! I should like you to take the oar a little. There you sit at your ease, enjoying yourself! Let me steer awhile."
Normann made this proposition more for the purpose of getting beside Bertha than to be released from the work, which, though hard, was not altogether new to him; the bold looks which the rascally Yankee now no longer turned away for a moment from the girl, did not please him, and he was less and less able to suppress a growing suspicion that the American did not mean fair play.
"Nonsense!" retorted Turner, who appeared by no means disposed to give up good-naturedly any advantage which he might have obtained. "You want to steer, do you? so that we may run foul of bushes or snags every minute, and afterwards get too late into the Mississippi—eh? No, every second is worth gold, and the change of places would occupy us too long. Row away! row away!—rest when we are once in the river!—there's no time for it now. Away!—when we're in the Mississippi, you may steer,—a trifle either way is of no consequence there. Away, I say! or you will have no one to thank but yourself for the destruction of us all!"
The men took to their oars again in silence, and shot down stream with wonderful speed. The moon lent them her silver light; and it was not until they caught sight of the shining sheet of water, the Mississippi, that they stopped a moment to take counsel whether they should attempt the passage at once, or reconnoitre first.
Turner voted for the latter plan, and the mulatto was despatched to examine the safety of the mouth; but he returned within a few minutes, laughing, and chuckled out, shaking all the time with inward enjoyment—
"Just as I s'posed!—a confounded rough road through the woods, and the worthy Dutchmen will have a while to ride yet, before they catch sight of the shore! Well, I wish 'em joy! But now, massa, I must have a drink, by golly! or else I wont touch an oar again!"