"Nor I nuther, till I know what you want of me. If it is an honest sarvice, one that I can do without goin' agin my conscience, why, I am ready to do anything to help a feller-cretur."
"The service I am about to request," replied Hatchie, his doubts in a great measure removed by the apparent sincerity of his auditor, "can be done honestly; and, if your conscience approves any act, it will approve this one."
"Very well, I will act for you to the best of my judgment, and use all the discretion that natur gave me, and a little I larned by the way-side. Partrick tells me you want to talk with the lady whose life you saved last night."
"Not exactly to talk with her, but about her. I feel that I can trust you, even with her destiny. That lady is my mistress. She is an angel of goodness. I am perfectly willing to be her slave, so that it was not to gain my freedom I escaped in this box. It was to save her from a cruel wrong which her uncle would inflict upon her."
"That old gentleman who is with her?" interrupted Uncle Nathan.
"The same. He is the most hardened villain in the world,—so different from my poor master, who was a good man, and loved even his slaves! This man would make it appear that my mistress is not the legitimate child of her father, but the daughter of a quadroon girl, whom he formerly owned. He has forged a will to obtain his own purposes, and deprived poor mistress of her natural rights. But, on the night when the villany was perpetrated, I managed to obtain the true will, and to make my escape,—and a very narrow escape it was, for I was shot at and obliged to jump into the river to save my life. They think the shot killed me; but I shall yet expose their villany—"
"Good gracious, I hope so!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, whose sympathies wore awakened by the brief narrative of the mulatto.
"Now, it is scarcely prudent for me to retain possession of this will. I may be discovered, or drowned, or shot; and then my poor mistress would never be restored."
"True," replied Uncle Nathan, appreciating his companion's reasoning, and admiring his warm devotion to his mistress.
"I wish to place the will in the keeping of some trusty person, who will guard it as his own life,—who will deem no sacrifice too great to relieve the distressed, and foil the wicked," said Hatchie, earnestly.