"Dunno, Marse Dick. I'se been here sence yesterday—I ain't seen no one—they all must be gone somewheres, too."
"Carry him to the Hall," I said to the soldiers, and then Will and I started on a run towards the house. On reaching the front door we found it shut fast, but Will burst the fastening of a window on the verandah and sprang into the dining room, and I followed at his heels. I bawled out my mother's name, and Will cried out for my sister, but our voices echoed through an empty house. There was not even a slave there.
We quickly went through the rooms upstairs, and then through the pantries and kitchens in the rear, without finding a single house servant. Then we started for the slave quarters to see if anyone had remained there, but not even a single pickaninny was in sight. Everywhere there were traces of hurried preparations for departure. Clothes were scattered about the floors, and in the servants' dining room the evening meal lay untouched upon the table. We went outside and looked about the court, and then went to the stables. We had only been through the empty stalls on the lower floor, when we saw two of my niggers coming on a run through the field to the northward. They had seen us and had come from hiding places, and in a few minutes they were with us and seizing our hands, thanking us for coming back again. Then Mr. Johnson came up with his men, carrying Sam on a litter made of their crossed muskets, and Barron showed them the way to a couch in the slave quarters.
My two field hands, who were telling me what had happened, were ready to run at the sight of the soldiers, but I bade them be still and tell their story.
They told how the schooner, Hound, had anchored just off Harrison's plantation, the evening we were captured by Captain Cahill, and how Berkley Harrison had come over to the Hall with Captain Fordyce and a file of soldiers. Then all hands had gotten drunk, in spite of my mothers' presence, and Harrison had insisted on my family and Miss Carter accompanying him to Norfolk on the vessel. My mother had remonstrated at this high handed business, but Harrison stormed and threatened, and vowed he could not keep the soldiers from looting and burning the Hall if they were not all on board and ready to sail within an hour. My sister took him outside to try and get him into a more reasonable mood, and that was the last anyone on the plantation, except Sam, saw of her.
After waiting half an hour, my mother and Miss Carter became alarmed at her absence, and also at the actions of the soldiers, who began to fire their muskets at random. Upon looking for their Captain, they found him sitting on the verandah with a bottle of spirits on a table before him and much the worse for what he had already drank. He informed my mother roughly that Harrison and my sister had embarked aboard the Hound, which would sail within the hour. He then rose from the table and insulted Miss Carter, after which he staggered down to the shore and was carried aboard his vessel, leaving the Hall at the mercy of his men. These rascals broke into the women's side of the slave quarters and such a scene of riot followed that my poor mother and Miss Rose fled across the fields for their lives. They reached Harrison's place and had the frightened slaves, who were preparing to follow their master, harness a horse for them. Then they drove with all speed for Pendleton's Inn at the cross-roads several miles to the eastward. Here they were made comfortable and were now awaiting news of our whereabouts. As the men finished their story, Barron reappeared with the Lieutenant, and I repeated some of the details. Then I turned to the officer.
"You may give the Governor my compliments," I said, in a dry, rasping tone that seemed to stick in my throat, "and tell him that I am sorry not to be able to accompany him to Norfolk this evening. I shall, however, hope to meet him and his party quite soon, and will make all haste after I see affairs attended to here. Mr. Byrd, and, perhaps, Mr. Barron, will go with you," and I gave Will a look that made him nod assent.
"I am v-very s-s-sorry, sir," stammered Mr. Johnson, "but the Governor's orders were positive. They were that all of you should return with me to the Fowey."
"Indeed?" asked Will, blandly.