“No, no; this one will know all they could tell, if we can make him speak.”
“Shall I try, sir?”
“No, no, Tom; you’re too big and—”
“Ugly, sir?” said the man, with a grim smile, for Murray had stopped speaking.
“Too ugly to him,” said the middy, laughing.
“Here, you sir,” he added gently, as he bent down and tapped his prisoner upon the shoulder.
“Oh, massa! Poor niggah, sah!”
“Yes, yes; you said that before,” cried Murray.
“Poor beggars, sir, they’ve been so ill-used that they think every white man is going to murder ’em.”
“Well, let’s show the poor fellow that we are not all savages; but we’ve begun pretty roughly, Tom, to win this one’s confidence. You did give it him pretty hard.”