Cludde looked at me inquiringly.
"'Tis true, Cludde," I said. "I had to buy you off."
"But I don't understand," he said. "A crown piece?"
"Oh!" said I, feeling a little uneasy lest he should probe this matter of the crown piece too far, "the negro has the mind of a child. The price of his freedom is five hundred dollars: he wouldn't take my word for that sum, but the sight of a coin was enough."
"But you told me the buccaneers stripped you of your money," he said, with a look of puzzlement.
"So they did, but I happened to have this crown piece slung about my neck under my shirt, and it escaped their attention."
"Egad, I should never have believed you were superstitious," he said with a laugh, and I laughed back, glad enough that I had escaped further interrogation.
I returned the coin to Noah, assuring him that I had no further need of it, and he went away well pleased, assured of the protection of the white man's duppy--the token of the good spirits which he venerates as much as he fears the bugaboos.
I was not to get off after all. When we lay side by side on the grass, Cludde was for a long time silent; then he said abruptly, with a keen look at me:
"Bold, do you remember I flung a crown piece at you when I passed you on the Worcester road years ago!"