“D’yer hear, you black swab!” cried the sailor. “Show the way to your master’s house, and keep that talking box of yours shut up, or—”
May made an offer at the black as if to bring the butt of the musket he carried down upon his toes, and accompanied it with so meaning a look that the guide’s eyes opened widely and he was in the act of making a dash sidewise into the cane brake at the side, but the sailor’s free hand came down upon the fellow’s shoulder with a loud clap.
“Ah, would you!” he cried. “None of that! Bullets run faster than legs, my lad.”
“That will do, May,” cried the lieutenant; “but mind he does not slip through your fingers.”
“No, sir; right, sir,” said the sailor, keeping a firm grip upon the black’s shoulder and seeming to steer him in and out along the windings of the rough track, while the boat’s crew and officers followed behind.
“The black fellow disgusted me, gentlemen,” said the lieutenant, turning a glance at the lads. “Jack in office generally proves to be the worst tyrant.”
The distance from the creek proved far greater than the officers expected, and they threaded the forest for hours before they came upon cultivated plantations dotted with black figures hard at work, and evidently superintended by men of the same type as the guide, who moved forward quietly and quite cowed by the stern-looking seaman who had him in custody, and who at last stopped short pointing at a long, low, well-built house half hidden amongst the trees and beautiful enough to raise an exclamation from Murray.
“Yes, the place looks beautiful enough,” said the lieutenant, “but I’m afraid its beauty depends upon the supply of poor wretches who are forced to labour beneath the burning sun with the lash as a stimulus whenever they show signs of slackening. Oh, here we are,” continued the speaker. “Is this the redoubtable Mr Huggins?”
“No, sir; I should say it would be Mr Allen,” replied Murray.
“Yes, you must be right, Mr Murray,” said the lieutenant. “He looks more like a sick man than the owner of a slave plantation.”