Tony was not a little frightened at the effect of his shot. He thought that the man was about to fall into the river; and if he had, he would have stood a fair chance of drowning, before his companion could have gone out in the skiff and picked him up. But even while these thoughts were passing through Tony's mind, he began to wish that the lump of coal had been larger and heavier, and that his arm had been stronger. Mose was not in the least injured by the blow he had received, nor was he cowed by his narrow escape from being knocked overboard. He still held fast to the knife; and the eyes with which he glared at the boy over the gunwale, were fairly ablaze with fury.
"What you doin' dar, Jeff?" he shouted, as he drew himself up, and threw one foot over the side of the barge. "Can't you frow chunks just as well, an' mebbe better'n he kin?"
These words seemed to arouse the other negro, who had halted and been on the point of turning back, when he witnessed his companion's discomfiture. He quickly jumped down into the barge; and Tony, who had been indulging in the hope that he could hold the robbers at bay until the tug hove in sight, lost all heart when he saw him begin to gather up the coal. He looked about the deck and saw at a glance, that if the negroes were going to adopt his own mode of fighting, it would be impossible for him to defend his position. They would have a thousand bushels of coal within their reach, while Tony had not more than a dozen lumps, and some of these were too small to be of any service. Two of the biggest of these lumps, Tony in his desperation put to a good use. With one of them he knocked Jeff flat, just as he was preparing to rise to his feet with an armful of coal; and with the other, he inflicted a severe cut upon the hand of Mose, causing him to howl with rage and pain, and to drop the threatening knife. By these two shots, Tony unconsciously created evidence that was strong enough to send both the rogues to jail as soon as they reached St. Louis.
Jeff was on his feet again in an instant, and clearing his eyes of the blood which trickled into them from an ugly cut in his forehead, he looked all around for Tony; but the latter had disappeared. The moment the last lump of coal left his hand, he sprang across the narrow deck, and seizing a rope that was made fast to the bitts, descended it hand over hand, and dropped into a skiff that was towing alongside the barge. To shove off, pick up the oars and put the skiff in rapid motion was the work of scarcely a moment.
Tony's Escape From The Coal Barge
"Hyar he is, Jeff," shouted Mose, who had at last succeeded in climbing up and seating himself on the gunwale. "Knock him outen dat dar boat, if he don't come back. Bus' de bottom in. Do something mighty lively, kase we's gone niggahs if dat dar tug kotch us hyar!"
Jeff must have thought so too, for his movements were much quicker than they had been before. He climbed out of the barge to the deck as quickly as he could, and opened a hot fire upon Tony, who was pulling swiftly away from the dangerous neighborhood; but although his missiles were thrown with power sufficient to do damage if they had hit anything, they all went wide of the mark, and by the time Jeff's companion could raise himself to his feet and run along the gunwale to the deck, the boy was safely out of range. Mose fired a few chunks at him, but they all fell short, and then it seemed to dawn upon the negroes all at once that their prize had slipped through their fingers; that they had opened the doors of the penitentiary for their reception, and gained nothing by it. It must have been some such thought as this that set them into the wild war-dance that followed. They jumped about the deck, stamped their feet, and whooped and swore at the top of their voices; and Mose shook his knife at Tony, and made furious gestures with the weapon, just to show what he would do if he only possessed the power.
"Well, boys," said Tony, as soon as he could make himself heard, "it looks to me as though you were in for it. I've got this thing in my own hands. You'll stay there until the tug comes, and I'll stay here."
"No, we won't stay hyar, nudder," shouted Mose, in reply. "We kin swim to de shoah."