The task was not so easy as it looked, for the collies were frantic at the thought of being unfastened, and barked and leaped about wildly. To make matters worse, they had been hard at work trying to strangle one another on the way by leaping over their chains, and tying them up in an almost inseparable knot, one which refused to yield to his fingers; and after many tries Nic appealed to Brookes.
“I wish you’d come and unfasten this,” he said. “I want to take the dogs to water.”
“Take the dogs to water!” grumbled the man. “Why can’t they take themselves? Hi! Leather! Come and untie these dogs.”
The younger man left the oxen he was loosening, and approached Nic in a surly way, hardly glancing at him; but for a few moments the chain-knot baffled him, while the dogs bounded about wildly.
“Hold them by the collars for a minute,” said Leather harshly.
Nic obeyed, feeling mentally lower now, for he seemed to be the servant instead of the other.
Then he felt better, for the man softened a little in his manner.
“Poor brutes!” he said: “prisoners and thirsty. Steady, my lads, steady!”
“Oh, they won’t be prisoners long,” said Nic. “Father’s afraid that they’d run back and try and get on board the ship or to the governor’s house.”
“There you are,” cried the man, placing the chains in his hand, when, as if scenting out the water, the two collies started off, with eyes starting and tongues hanging out of their mouths, tugging and striving to get on, and forcing Nic to follow at a trot, his legs hurting him for the first few moments horribly.