“Shut your mouth, you black rascal; you told me you were taking some clothes to be washed, you lying scamp.”
During this scene, Cato was inside the pantry, with the door ajar, looking out upon his master and Charley with unfeigned satisfaction.
Still holding the negro by the collar, and leading him to the opposite side of the boat, the Captain called to Mr. Roberts, the second mate, to bring up the small boat to take him and the “runaway” over the river.
A few moments more, and the Captain, with Charley seated by his side, was being rowed to Covington, where the negro was safely locked up for the night.
“A little longer,” said the Captain to the second officer, as he returned to the boat, “a little longer and I’d a lost fifteen hundred dollars by that boy’s running away.”
“Indeed,” responded the officer.
“Yes,” continued the Commander, “my servant Cato told me, just in time to catch the rascal in the very act of running off.”
One of the sailors who was rowing, and who had been attentively listening to the Captain, said, “I overheard Cato to-day, trying to persuade Charley to go somewhere with him to-night, and the latter said he was going to a ‘surprise party.’”
“The devil you did,” exclaimed the Captain. “Hasten up there,” continued he, “for these niggers are a slippery set.”
As the yawl came alongside of the steamer, Captain Price leaped on deck and went directly in search of Cato, who could nowhere be found. And even Charley’s bundle, which he left where he had been opening it, was gone. All search for the tricky man was in vain.