Splash! Went the iron rings and links, and the boy looked puzzled, but made no opposition as I knelt down hard by the sleeping negro’s feet, and using the screwdriver as a key, opened both the anklets in turn, and pointed to them as they lay on the grass, looking hard at the lad the while.
He stared at me stupidly for a few moments, and then in a curiously sullen manner stooped down, knelt down, and began to replace them on the sleeping man’s legs.
“No, no,” I shouted; and the boy started away, flinching as if expecting a blow; but as I stood pointing down at the irons, he stooped once more and picked them up, looking at me wonderingly again, but as I pointed to the river a flash of intelligence came from his eyes, and he whisked the irons over his head, and cast them right out into the stream.
“Now fetch him something to eat,” said my father, as the boy crouched down by the man’s head again under the shelter.
I went for some bread, and after a long time managed to make the boy take it; but he only snatched it up after the fashion of a wild animal, and ate it voraciously.
“There,” said my father at last; “leave them now. I dare say the poor fellow will sleep for hours, and it will be the best thing for him. Don’t go far away, George; and if you find that he wakes, try and give him some bread soaked in that thin French wine.”
“Well,” said Morgan, as soon as my father had gone back into the house, “you don’t catch me saying any more about it; but your father gave a lot o’ money for them two, and they might ha’ been useful on the plantation; but you mark my word, Master George, that there big nigger ’ll begin to open first one eye and then the other when we aren’t looking; then him and the boy ’ll slip into the boat, and a’most afore we know it, look you, they’ll be gone.”
“Nonsense, Morgan!” I said.
“Nonsense! Why, no, my boy, I reckon it’s madness. If master didn’t mean to have slaves why did he buy them?”
“To save them from being ill-treated.”