University of Virginia Library

8. CHAPTER VIII.

The ensuing morning about eight o'clock
a man with a patch over his eye and dressed
in the ordinary costume of a ship's mate entered
the tap-room of the Two Anchors, and
was passing into a little passage which led
up stairs, when the host called to him—

`Avast, there, mate! There's been a black
fellow here, who said he had engaged to ship
with a mate as put up here; and as you are
the only one, I told him to wait till you come
in; for I said you hadn't been in since yesterday.'

`Where is the man?' asked Gordon Haysturning
towards the landlord who was mix,
ing a can of grog behind his bar, for a knot
of sailors that were seated by a low window
in the corner, overlooking the water.

`He said he would call again, sir! a likely
fellow and make you a good hand. When
do you expect your brig round from York?'

`I hardly know!' evasively answered Gordon.

`Well, you'll find the Two Anchors a
snug sailor's home as you own cabin, so long
as you stay with me; though you have not
taken a meal here yet, and hardly slept here,
for that matter.'

`I have friends in town, and my business
calls me a good deal away.'

`Yes, yes! I dare say,' answered the landlord
with a twinkle of the eye and a sly wink.
`Young mates just in from sea generally have
enough to keep them busy. But every man's
business is his own. Shall I send the black
fellow up to your room when he comes in?'

`Yes,' answered Gordon, and left the tap
to go up stairs, glad to escape further conversation
with his landlord, with whom, as
the reader has understood, he had only engaged
a room temporarily in order to aid him
in his plans. He had reached the city at
two in the morning and gone at once to his
own princely residence in summer street,
and after a few hours sleep he had left for
the inn to meet the negro Cæsar.

The room into which he retired from the
tap, was a small, dark apartment, ill-lighted
by a single window which commanded not
only a view of the harbor, but of the island
a mile and a quarter distant where the shallop
was concealed. He could also see on
his right the extremity of the old wharf which
we have described as the site of the house
where Robert Alison and his daughter dwelt.

He walked up and down the chamber
deeply meditating upon his projects and devising
a dozen other schemes in case the
present one should fail. Suddenly he heard
a step on the stairs, and a loud voice:

`Go right up, man, and turn to the left-first
door.'

`It is the negro!' exclaimed Gordon. Now
shall I soon know whether this young girl
will aid us or not.'

`He threw open the door and Cæsar stood
before him at the head of the stair-way.

`Be dat you, massa capitan?' inquired the
negro, as if doubtful whether he recognized
the person he had seen the preceding night.

`Come in, Cæsar! I have been expecting

you,' said Gordon. `You have been here
once before?'

`Yiss, massa,' responded Cæsar, as he entered,
doffing his old red cap and bowing
with the excess of African politeness, `I
bin here leetle bit time ago, and not findin'
massa in, I takes leetle walk to see a frien'
ob mine as black boots for a libin', what lib
up de lane.'

`Well, Cæsar, I promised to ship you last
night,' said Gordon, as he carefully shut the
door and placed himself in a chair by the
window.

`Yiss, massa! Twenty-four dollars month!'
answered Cæsar grinning from ear to ear.

`Twenty-four was it, I thought it-was
twenty.'

`Twenty-four, massa.'

`Well, I agree to it! But do you know in
what service you are to ship?'

`I hopes berry `spectable, massa, seein as
how massa look like a gemman.' answered
Cæsar, with a look of slight misgiving.

`What kind of service would not be respectable,
Cæsar, in your notion?' asked
Gordon, smiling.

`Wall, massa,' responded Cæsar with a
deliberatum and rolling the white of his eyes
around the walls, to the ceiling and then out
of the window, as if looking for something
to hang his answer on, `wall, I should tink
smugglin' wasn't 'spectable; nor piratin';
nor privateerin' under Captain No-man's
flag.'

`Very well! Then you take me for smuggler,
you rascal?' said Gordon, with amazement.

`Not zactly, massa, but—'

`But what?'

`Last night I tink dar is something 'spicious
bout you, massa! But den I wants de money
berry much for Missy Jenny, and so I
says, I'll go and see what you be, and if it
aint hangin' I'll ship.'

`You are very cautious, Cæsar.'

`Has to be, massa. All poor nigger hab
in dis world be him caracter to support! If
massa, please, I'd like to know whar your
ship be, and whar she bound, and how long
de voyage.'

`Well, you shall know shortly. I would
first inquire of you about this young girl,
this captain's daughter.'

`Missy Jenny, massa?'

`Yes. What is her name?'

`Jennette, massa.'

`Jennette! And her father's?'

`Alison! Missy Jennette Alison, daughter
ob Cap'n Alison, massa.'

`You say they are very indigent.'

`Berry how much, massa?' asked Cæsar
with a stare.

`Very poor you say they are?'

`Berry, massa! Cap'n hant yarned a dollar
this three years, and his da'ter support
him and hersef sewin'. Dar ant in all Bosson,
massa, sich a fine young lady as Miss
Jenny. She is up in de mornin' yairly to
her work, and nebber goes to her bed till
long arter de watchmen come on deir beat.
But, massa, dere so many white women sewin'
dat work berry cheap, and Miss Jenny
hab work all de time hard as a nigger to
get enough for both to eat and wear, and
pay de rent.'

`Have they no friends to assist them?'

`Massa, hab a rich sister, married a lawyer,
but she berry proud and turn her back
on him soon as de marchant said he lost his
ship by bein' careless; and when arter he
got poor he sent Jenny to her, four year ago,
to borrow some money, she treated the child-like
a beggar's brat come to her for cold wittals.
It near broke de Cap'ns heart. Wall,
things got pretty bad, and when he saw Jenny
getting sick for working too close, he
made up his mind to call and ax an old friend
who was a marchant. But de marchant sent
him back such a letter he nebber hab de
heart to write agen. So Jenny say she support
him altogether. But poor litty lady she
hab more dan she can do.'

`I really pity them!'

`It make me berry sorry to see em, massa,

when I come home from my last voyage
and find em out! Cap'n berry proud,
wouldn't tell poor nigger how bad off he
was; but I guess it, for ebbery ting speak
berry plain!—no chairs—no tables—no bed
—ebbery ting berry bad, massa! So I axes
Miss Jenny, and she tell Cæsar all about it!
So when I hear it I berry mad at myself coz
I brought home only little money, coz I had
been gone four years; but nigger spend all
him pay in foreign ports. But I hab sixteen
dollars and try and make Miss Jenny
take it; but she refuse, so I tell her it is
for her father, and if she don't take it I'll
throw it in de dock. So she take it and buy
cheap table, chair and bed, and dat all dey
hab.'

`How come they so destitute?'

`Landlord took ebbery ting day afore I
came home, massa! Strip em complete.'

`When did you give her this?'

`Three weeks or four ago, massa! Now
I wants to ship and give em my advance and
dat'll make em lectle more comfortable, massa;
and I'll leave 'structions behind, massa,
to have ebbery dollar ob my month's pay
paid over to Miss Jenny when I'm at sea.'

`You are a noble fellow, Cæsar. There is
a purse of gold, in it you will find fifty dollars!
I give it to you as a bounty, not as
your first month's advance; for I don't know
that you will ship when you know in what
craft you will go.'

Cæsar's eyes opened as large as those of
an ox, when he felt the undoubted weight of
gold in his palm and saw it shinning yellow
through the strings of the purse. He looked
at the coin and then at the giver with incredulous
wonder mixed with an indefinable
joy.

`What! Give dis gold to Cæsar as bounty!
Why massa! nigger oberwhelm! Massa
joke.'

`No, Cæsar! I am serious. I give it to
you, that you may be able to assist the persons,
your friends, in whose distress you have
so deeply interested me.'

`But, massa—'

`Well, Cæsar!'

`I ant shipped yet, massa! And—'

`Well, out with it! Why do you hesitate?'

`Dis looks berry suspicious, master!' answered
Cæsar, shaking his head, and looking
side-ways at the gold.

`Your first idea of my being a smuggler
or pirate has come over you.'

`To tell de libbin' truf, massa capitan, it
hab!' answered Cæsar, with emphasis.

`Well, my good fellow, you may set your
mind at rest upon that subject. I am no
smuggler, pirate, nor privateersman.'

`Den what trade am massa's ship 'gaged
in?'

`Can you keep a secret, Cæsar?'

`Yiss, massa!'

`Will you keep the secret I am about to
relate to you?'

`Yiss, massa, if it don't be bout murderin'
nobody.'

`I applaud your caution, Cæsar. Know
then that I have a young friend—who—who
is in love.'

`Yiss, massa! young gemmen berry often
dat way.'

`Well, the young lady doesn't exactly feel
as he does.'

`I understand, massa;'

`Now, you know, Cæsar, that it is the
most natural thing in the world for the young
man to wish her to love him.'

`Yiss, master.'

`And that he should think that if she saw
more of him and knew him better, she could
not help loving him! Do you comprehend,
Cæsar?'

`Parfectly, massa! I und'stan'!' answered
Cæsar, who had listened with attention,
his mouth open devouring every word.

`Well, the only way he can bring this
about is to try and get her into his possession,
that she may see what a noble young
man he is and how worthy of her love on
better acquaintance.'

`Yiss, massa!' nodded Cæsar.

`Therefore it would be the most natural
thing in the world for him to get a small vessel,
say the shallop you saw me get on board
of last night, and come to Boston after her
and try and get her on board that he may run
away with her.'

`Berry nat'ral, massa, berry much so.
Now I begins to onderstand 'bout de shallop
dat make me so 'spicious ob you, massa! Dat
was de young gemman's den?'

`It was the young gentleman's shallop.
He is waiting down the harbor to day for his
passenger. He wants another hand to help
him work his craft, in addition to the man
and two boys he has. It is for his service I
would ship you. It is uncertain how long
you may be wanted; but not more than a
month or two. If you are faithful, however,
you shall always find in both him and myself
a fast friend.'

`And when does de young massa expec' to
run away wid de young missis?'

`Perhaps to-night. Will you take part
with us? That fifty is but a trifle of what
you will be paid.'

`Yiss, massa! Cæsar will do just as you
say.'

`Then, perhaps, I may further trust you!'
added Gordon to himself, as he paced up
and down the room with a thoughtful air,
while Cæsar, all his suspicions removed, was
delightedly counting over the purse of gold.
`Indeed I shall have to trust him instead of
deceiving him, as I have just done, if I expect
the co-operation of this young girl, who
will doubtless be more influence by what he
will say, than by anything I can urge. I
see that I must make a full confidant of him
as well as her, perilous though it will be, if
I would enlist her. He is an honest fellow
and I may be able to awaken his sympathies.
I will not garble the matter! He shall know
all, keeping what he has! Cæsar!'

`What, massa.'

`I have not told you all! I am afraid to
trust you.'

`I'll be true, massa.'

`Do you believe in God?'

`Sartain, massa! How can nigger ebber
be libbin without dar be God?'

`Well, swear to me and say that you hope
He will never have mercy on you, if you reveal
the secret I am about to tell you.'

`I swear it, massa capitan!' answered
Cæsar whose heart the shining gold had
wholly won.

`Then listen! The object which brings
the shallop here, is not altogether what I
have stated; indeed we will not think of
that.'

`No, massa.'

`The captain of that shallop is a young
seaman—a man beloved by me, for we have
sailed together. His father lies in prison under
sentence of death. The crime he committed
was stopping the mail, not to rob it,
for he was rich and respectable, but in order
to obtain possession of a letter in the bags
which involved the estate and character of
one very dear to him. He was so unfortunate
as to wound the mail-carrier, though he
obtained the letter he wished so much for.
The mail-carrier died, I am sorry to say, and
the gentleman was arrested, tried, convicted
and sentenced to die. His son you saw in
the shallop last night. He is waiting to effect
his father's release to-night or to-morrow
and convey him away by water to a place
of safety. I know you are too good-hearted
to refuse your aid in this case. His father
intended no crime, but only to save a family
from ruin. In the attempt to save others he
ruin himself. Will you give his son your
aid in sailing the shallop, should he be so
fortunate as to get his father safely on board?'

`Yiss, massa.'

`You shall have gold uncounted! May
I trust you now further?'

`Whatebber massa please! I berry grad I
can do something for de poor gemman.'

`I have then, one more thing to propose
to you, Cæsar;' said Gordon with peculiar
emphasis.