Going up his ladder the next minute, he lit a lamp above, and turned on the water into his bath-tub. He came down presently, bare to the waist, the light gleaming on his muscular arms and massive chest, and stood fronting the fugitive with his watch in his hand, his head bent toward him on the kingly and beautiful slope of his white shoulders.
“Now, friend,” said he, with naive gravity, “you must be washed. In five minutes the bath-tub will be full, so take off those things, and I’ll give you some other clothes.”
“Yes, Marster, I’m in need of bein’ washed. I ain’t fit to be in this nice house,” quavered the fugitive abjectly, rising feebly as he spoke.
Harrington, without replying, watched him curiously as he fumbled at the blanket on his neck, and saw that he was loth to remove it.
“O Marster, Marster,” he groaned, “I’m afeard to let you see it. But, Marster, you’ll be friendly to me, and you won’t send me back, Marster?”
“Come, come, poor fellow, you know you’re safe with me,” said Harrington, kindly, all alive meanwhile with curiosity. “Come, off with it.”
The negro still fumbling at the blanket, without undoing it, and sighing piteously, Harrington laid his watch on the table, and stepping forward, unwound the wrappage from his neck, fold after fold, pulled it off, and disclosed an iron collar with a prong, and the letters distinct upon it—Lafitte Brothers, New Orleans.
He did not start, nor stagger back, but stood, like a statue struck by thunder, glaring at the collar with parted lips and starting eyes, a pallor like death upon his countenance, and a strong shudder quivering through his bare chest and arms, while the negro cowered with a hideous-piteous imploring face, his form crouching, and his hands clasped before him. In the dead silence, nothing was heard but the loud running of the water in the room overhead, and the faint gasping breath of the fugitive.
“God Almighty!” shouted Harrington, “what is this?”
The fugitive did not answer, but stood faintly gasping. The next instant Harrington started, with a strong muscular convulsion of his frame, and strode a pace forward.