Chapter 16

"But it's--it's all wet. Excuse me, my dear comrade, I've not yet acquired the habit of sleeping in water."

"No more have I, Bob; we shall sleep on a fallen tree, my boy. Did you never hear of men sleeping in a swamp on the top of a log? It's often done, I assure you, and I mean to do it to-night. See, here is a good large one, three feet broad by twenty feet long, with lots of stumps of broken branches to keep us from rolling off. Come, let's begin."

We immediately began to make our arrangements for the night. With the aid of our clasp-knives we cut a quantity of leafy branches, and spread them on the trunk of a huge prostrated tree, the half of which was sunk in the swamp, but the other half was sufficiently elevated to raise us well out of the water. The bed was more comfortable than one would suppose; and, being very tired, we lay down on it as soon as it was made, and tried to sleep: having nothing to eat, we thought it well to endeavour to obtain all the refreshment we could out of sleep.

We had not lain long, when I started up in a fright, and cried--

"Hallo! Jack, what's that? See, through the reeds; it creeps slowly. Oh; horror! it comes towards us!"

Jack looked at it sleepily. "It's an alligator," said he. "If it approaches too close, just wake me; but, pray, don't keep howling at every thing that comes to peep at us."

Just at that moment, the hideous reptile drew near, and, opening its jaws, let them come together with a snap! Even Jack was not proof against this. He started up, and looked about for a defensive weapon. We had nothing but our clasp-knives. The alligator wallowed towards us.

"Oh for an axe!" gasped Jack.

The brute was within a few yards of us now. I was transfixed with horror. Suddenly an idea occurred to me.

"Your leg, Jack, your leg!"

He understood me. One sweep of his clasp-knife cut all the fastenings-- the next moment he grasped the toe in both hands, and, swaying the heavy butt of the limb in the air, brought it down with all his force on the skull of the alligator. It rang like the sound of a blow on an empty cask. Again the limb was swayed aloft, and descended with extraordinary violence on the extreme point of the alligator's snout. There was a loud crash, as if of small bones being driven in. The animal paused, put its head on one side, and turning slowly round waddled away into the noisome recesses of its native swamp.

Scarcely had we recovered from the effects of this, when we heard in the distance shouts and yells and the barking of dogs. Crouching in our nest we listened intently. The sounds approached, but while those who made them were yet at some distance we were startled by the sudden approach of a dark object, running at full speed. It seemed like a man, or rather a huge ape, for it was black, and as it came tearing towards us, running on its hind-legs, we could see its eyes glaring in the moonlight, and could hear its labouring breath. It was evidently hard pressed by its pursuers, for it did not see what lay before it, and had well-nigh run over our couch ere it observed Jack standing on one leg, with the other limb raised in a threatening attitude above his head. It was too late to turn to avoid the blow.

Uttering a terrible cry the creature fell on its knees, and, trembling violently, cried--

"Oh, massa! oh, massa, spare me! Me no runaway agin. Mercy, massa! mercy!"

"Silence, you noisy villain," cried Jack, seizing the negro by the hair of the head.

"Yis, massa," gasped the man, while his teeth chattered and the whites of his eyes rolled fearfully.

"What are you? Where d'ye come from? Who's after ye?"

To these abrupt questions, the poor negro replied as briefly, that he was a runaway slave, and that his master and bloodhounds were after him.

We had guessed as much, and the deep baying of the hounds convinced us of the truth of his statement.

"Quick," cried Jack, dragging the black to the edge of our log, "get under there; lie flat; keep still;" so saying he thrust the negro under the branches that formed our couch. We covered him well up and then sat down on him. Before we had well finished our task the foremost of the bloodhounds came bounding towards us, with its eyeballs glaring and its white fangs glittering in the dim light like glow-worms in a blood-red cavern. It made straight for the spot where the negro was concealed, and would have seized him in another instant, had not Jack, with one blow of his leg, beat in its skull.

"Shove him out of sight, Bob."

I seized the dead hound and obeyed, while my comrade prepared to receive the second dog. But that animal seemed more timid. It swerved as the blow was delivered, received on its haunches, and fled away howling in another direction.

Jack at once laid down his leg and sat down on the negro, motioning me to do the same. Then pulling an old tobacco-pipe out of his pocket, he affected to be calmly employed in filling it when the pursuers came up. There were two of them, in straw hats and nankeen pantaloons, armed with cudgels, and a more ruffianly pair of villains I never saw before or since.

"Hallo! strangers," cried one, as they halted for a few moments on observing us. "Queer place to camp. Fond o' water and dirt, I guess?"

"You seem fond o' dirt and not o' water, to judge from your faces," replied Jack, calmly, attempting to light his pipe, which was rather a difficult operation, seeing that it was empty and he had no fire. "Ah! my light's out. Could you lend us a match, friend?"

"No, we can't. No time. Hain't got none. Did you see a nigger pass this way?"

"Ha! you're after him, are you?" cried Jack, indignantly. "Do you suppose I'd tell you if I did? Go and find him for yourselves."

The two men frowned fiercely at this, and appeared about to attack us. But they changed their minds, and said, "Mayhap you'll tell us if ye saw two hounds, then?"

"Yes, I did."

"Which way did they pass?"

"They haven't passed yet," replied Jack, with deep sarcasm, at the same time quietly lifting his leg, and swaying it gently to and fro; "whether they'll pass without a licking remains to be seen."

"Look 'ee, lads, we'll pay you for this," shouted the men as they turned away. "We've not time to waste now, _but we'll come back_."

I remonstrated with my friend. "You're too rash, Jack."

"Why? We don't need to fear _two_ men!"

"Ay, but there may be more in the woods."

My surmise was correct. Half an hour after, the hound was heard returning. It came straight at us, followed by at least a dozen men. Jack killed the dog with one blow, and felled the first man that came up, but we were overwhelmed by numbers, and, in a much shorter time than it takes to tell it, both of us were knocked into the mud and rendered insensible.

STORY TWO, CHAPTER 9.

On recovering from the stunning effects of the blow that had felled me, I found myself lying on a hard earthen floor, surrounded by deep impenetrable darkness.

"Are you there, Jack?" I sighed faintly.

"Ay, Bob, I'm here--at least, all o' me that's left. I confess to you that I do feel a queer sensation, as if the one half of my head were absent and the other half a-wanting, while the brain lies exposed to the atmosphere. But I suppose that's impossible."

"Where are we, Jack?"

"We're in an outhouse, in the hands of planters; so I made out by what I heard them say when I got my senses back; but I've no notion of what part o' the world we're in. Moreover, I don't care. A man with only one leg, no head, and an exposed brain, isn't worth caring about. _I_ don't care for him--not a button."

"Oh, Jack, dear, don't speak like that--I can't stand it."

"You're lying down, ain't you?" inquired Jack.

"Yes."

"Then how d'you know whether you can stand it or not?"

I was so overcome, and, to say the truth, surprised, at my companion's recklessness, that I could not reply. I lay motionless on the hard ground, meditating on our forlorn situation, when my thoughts were interrupted by the grating sound of a key turning in a lock. The door of the hut opened, and four men entered, each bearing a torch, which cast a brilliant glare over the hovel in which we were confined. There was almost nothing to be seen in the place. It was quite empty. The only peculiar thing that I observed about it was a thick post, with iron hooks fixed in it, which rose from the centre of the floor to the rafters, against which it was nailed. There were also a few strange-looking implements hanging round the walls, but I could not at first make out what these were intended for. I now perceived that Jack and I were chained to the wall.

Going to the four corners of the apartment, the four men placed their four torches in four stands that seemed made for the purpose, and then, approaching us, ranged themselves in a row before us. Two of them I recognised as being the men we had first seen in the swamp; the other two were strangers.

"So, my bucks," began one of the former,--a hideous-looking man, whose personal appearance was by no means improved by a closed eye, a flattened nose, and a swelled cheek, the result of Jack's first flourish of his wooden leg,--"so, we've got you, have we? The hounds have got you, eh?"

"So it appears," replied Jack, in a tone of quiet contempt, as he sat on the ground with his back leaning against the wall, his hands clasped above his solitary knee, and his thumbs revolving round each other slowly. "I say," continued Jack, an expression of concern crossed his handsome countenance, "I'm afraid you're damaged, rather, about your head-piece. Your eye seems a little out of order, and, pardon me, but your nose is a little too flat--just a little. My poor fellow, I'm quite sorry for you; I really am, though you _are_ a dog."

The man opened his solitary eye and stared with amazement at Jack, who smiled, and, putting his head a little to the other side, returned the stare with interest.

"You're a bold fellow," said the man, on recovering a little from his surprise.

"I'm sorry," retorted Jack, "that I cannot return you the compliment."

I was horrified. I saw that my poor friend, probably under the influence of madness, had made up his mind to insult and defy our captors to their teeth, regardless of consequences. I tried to speak, but my lips refused their office. The man grinned horribly and gnashed his teeth, while the others made as though they would rush upon us and tear us limb from limb. But their chief, for such the spokesman seemed to be, restrained them.

"Hah!" he gasped, looking fiercely at Jack, and at the same time pointing to the implements on the wall, "d'ye see these things?"

"Not being quite so blind as you are, I do."

"D'ye know what they're for?"

"Not being a demon, which you seem to be, I don't."

"Hah! these--are," (he spoke very slowly, and hissed the words out between his teeth),--"torterers!"

"What?" inquired Jack, putting his head a little more to one side and revolving his thumbs in a contrary direction, by way of variety.

"Torterers--man-torterers! What d'ye twirl your thumbs like that for, eh?"

"Because it reminds me how easily, if I were unchained and had on my wooden leg, I could twirl you round your own neck, and cram your heels into your own mouth, and ram you down your own throat, until there was nothing of you left but the extreme ends of your shirt-collar sticking out of your eyes."

The mention of this peculiarly complicated operation seemed to be too much for the men: setting up a loud yell, they rushed upon Jack and seized him.

"Quick--the screws!" cried the man with the flattened nose.

A small iron instrument was brought, Jack's thumbs inserted therein, and the handle turned. I heard a harsh, grating sound, and observed my poor companion's face grow deadly pale and his lips turn blue. But he uttered no cry, and, to my surprise, he did not even struggle.

"Stop!" I shouted in a voice of thunder.

The men looked round in surprise. At that moment a great idea seemed to fill my soul. I cannot explain what it was. To this day I do not know what it was. It was a mystery--an indescribable mystery. I felt as one might be supposed to feel whose spirit were capable of eating material food, and had eaten too much. It was awful! Under the impulse of this sensation, I again shouted--

"_Stop_!"

"Why?"

"I cannot tell you why, until you unscrew that machine. Quick! it is of the deepest, the most vital importance to yourselves."

The extreme earnestness of my voice and manner induced the men to comply almost, I might say, in spite of themselves.

"Now, lad, what is it? Mind, _your_ turn is coming; so don't trifle with us."

"_Trifle_ with you!" I said, in a voice so deep, and slow, and solemn,--with a look so preternaturally awful,--that the four men were visibly impressed.

"Listen! I have a secret to tell you,--a secret that intimately concerns yourselves. It is a fearful one. You would give all you possess--your wealth, your very lives--rather than not know it. I can tell it to you; _but not now_. All the tortures of the Inquisition could not drag it out of me. Nay, you need not smile. If you did torture me _before_ I told you this secret, that would have the effect of rendering my information useless to you. Nothing could then save you. I must be left alone with my friend for an hour. Go! You may leave us chained; you may lock and bar your door; you may watch and guard the house; but go, leave us. Much--too much--valuable time has been already lost. Come back in one hour," (here I pulled out my watch),--"in one hour and three minutes and five seconds, exactly; not sooner. Go! quick! as you value your lives, your families, your property. And hark, in your ear," (here I glared at them like a maniac, and sank my voice to a deep hoarse whisper), "as you value the very existence of your slaves, go, leave us instantly, and return at the hour named!"

The men were evidently overawed by the vehemence of my manner and the mysterious nature of my remarks. Without uttering a word they withdrew, and locked the door behind them. Happily they left the torches.

As soon as they were gone I threw my arms round my comrade's neck, and, resting my head on his shoulder, bemoaned our sad lot.

"Dear, dear Jack, have they hurt you?"

"Oh! nothing to speak of. But I say, Bob, my boy, what on earth can this monstrous secret be? It must be something very tremendous?"

"My poor Jack," said I, regardless of his question, "your thumbs are bruised and bleeding. Oh that I should have lived to bring you to this!"

"Come, come, Bob, enough of that. They _are_ a little soreish, but nothing to what they would have been had you not stopped them. But, I say, what _is_ this secret? I'm dying to know. My dear boy, you've no idea how you looked when you were spouting like that. You made my flesh creep, I assure you. Come, out with it; what's the secret?"

I felt, and no doubt looked, somewhat confused.

"Do you know, Jack," said I, solemnly, "I have no secret whatever!"

Jack gasped and stared--

"No secret, Bob!"

"Not the most distant shadow of one."

Jack pulled out his watch, and said in a low voice--

"Bob, my boy, we have just got about three-quarters of an hour to live. When these villains come back, and find that you've been humbugging them, they'll brain us on the spot, as sure as my name is John Brown and yours is Robert Smith--romantic names, both of 'em; especially when associated with the little romance in which we are now involved. Ha! ha! ha!"

I shrank back from my friend with the terrible dread, which had more than once crossed my mind, that he was going mad.

"Oh, Jack, don't laugh, pray. Could we not invent some secret to tell them?"

"Not a bad idea," returned my friend, gravely.

"Well, let us think; what could we say?"

"Ay, that's the rub! Suppose we tell them seriously that my wooden leg is a ghost, and that it haunts those who ill-treat its master, giving them perpetual bangs on the nose, and otherwise rendering their lives miserable?"

I shook my head.

"Well, then, suppose we say we've been sent by the Queen of England to treat with them about the liberation of the niggers at a thousand pounds a head; one hundred paid down in gold, the rest in American shin-plasters?"

"That would be a lie, you know, Jack."

"Come, that's good! You're wonderfully particular about truth, for a man that has just told such tremendous falsehoods about a secret that doesn't exist."

"True, Jack," I replied, seriously, "I confess that I have lied; but I did not mean to. I assure you I had no notion of what I was saying. I think I was bewitched. All your nonsense rolled out, as it were, without my will. Indeed, I did not mean to tell lies. Yet I confess, to my shame, that I did. There is some mystery here, which I can by no means fathom."

"Fathom or not fathom," rejoined my friend, looking at his watch again, "you got me into this scrape, so I request you to get me out of it. We have exactly twenty-five minutes and a half before us now."

Jack and I now set to work in real earnest to devise some plan of escape, or to invent some plausible secret. But we utterly failed. Minute after minute passed; and, as the end of our time drew near, we felt less and less able to think of any scheme, until our brains became confused with the terror of approaching and inevitable death, aggravated by previous torture. I trembled violently, and Jack became again uproarious and sarcastic. Suddenly he grew quiet, and I observed that he began to collect a quantity of straw that was scattered about the place. Making a large pile of it, he placed it before us, and then loosened one of the torches in its stand.

"There," said he, with a sigh of satisfaction, when all was arranged, "we shall give our amiable friends a warm reception when they come."

"But they will escape by the door," said I, in much anxiety, "and we only shall perish."

"Never mind that, Bob; we can only die once. Besides, they sha'n't escape; trust me for that."

As he spoke we heard approaching footsteps. Presently the key turned in the lock, and the door opened.

STORY TWO, CHAPTER 10.

Punctually, to a minute, our jailors returned, and once again drew up in a row before us.

"Now, lads, wot have ye got to say?"

"My friends," began Jack, standing up and balancing himself on his one leg as well as he could, at the same time speaking with the utmost gravity and candour of expression, "my companion here in _temporary_ distress--for I feel that it will be but temporary--has devolved upon me the interesting duty of making known to you the secret which has burthened his own mind for some time, and which has had so impressive and appropriate an effect upon yours. But first I must request you to lock the door, and hang the key on this nail at my elbow. You hesitate. Why? I am in chains; so is my comrade. We are two; you are four. It is merely a precaution to prevent the possibility of any one entering by stealth, and overhearing what I say."

The man with the battered face locked the door, and hung up the key as directed, merely remarking, with a laugh, that we were safe enough anyhow, and that if we were humbugging him it would be worse for us in the long-run.

"Come, now, out with yer secret," he added, impatiently.

"Certainly," answered Jack, with increased urbanity, at the same time taking down the key, (which caused the four men to start), and gazing at it in a pensive manner. "The secret! Ah! yes. Well, it's a wonderful one. D'you know, my lads, there would not be the most distant chance of your guessing it, if you were to try ever so much?"

"Well, but what is it?" cried one of the men, whose curiosity was now excited beyond endurance.

"It is this," rejoined Jack, with slow deliberation, "that you four men are--"

"Well," they whispered, leaning forward eagerly.

"The most outrageous and unmitigated asses we ever saw! Ha! I thought it would surprise you. Bob and I are quite agreed upon it. Pray don't open your eyes too wide, in case you should find it difficult to shut them again. Now, in proof of this great, and to you important truth, let me show you a thing. Do you see this torch," (taking it down), "and that straw?" (lifting up a handful), "Well, you have no idea what an astonishing result will follow the application of the former to the latter--see!"

To my horror, and evidently to the dismay of the men, who did not seem to believe that he was in earnest, Jack Brown thrust the blazing torch into the centre of the heap of straw.

The men uttered a yell, and rushing forward, threw themselves on the smoking heap in the hope of smothering it at once. But Jack applied the torch quickly to various parts. The flames leaped up! The men rolled off in agony. Jack, who somehow had managed to break his chain, hopped after them, showering the blazing straw on their heads, and yelling as never mortal yelled before. In two seconds the whole place was in a blaze, and I beheld Jack actually throwing somersets with his one leg over the fire and through the smoke; punching the heads of the four men most unmercifully; catching up blazing handfuls of straw, and thrusting them into their eyes and mouths in a way that quite overpowered me. I could restrain myself no longer. I began to roar in abject terror! In the midst of this dreadful scene the roof fell in with a hideous crash, and Jack, bounding through the smoking _debris_, cleared the walls and vanished!

At the same moment I received a dreadful blow on the side, and _awoke_-- to find myself lying on the floor of my bedroom, and our man-servant Edwards furiously beating the bed-curtains, which I had set on fire by upsetting the candle in my fall.

"Why, Master Robert," gasped Edwards, sitting down and panting vehemently, after having extinguished the flames, "wot have you been a-doin' of?" I was standing speechless in the midst of my upset chair, table, and books, glaring wildly, when the man said this.

"Edwards," I replied, with deep solemnity, "the mystery's cleared up at last. _It has been all a dream_!"

"Wot's been all a dream? You hain't bin a bed all night, for the clo'se is never touched, an' its broad daylight. Wot has bin up?"

I might have replied, that, according to his own statement, I had been "up," but I did not. I began gradually to believe that the dreadful scenes I had witnessed were not reality; and an overpowering sense of joy kept filling my heart as I continued to glare at the man until I thought my chest would rend asunder. Suddenly, and without moving hand, foot, or eye, I gave vent to a loud, sharp, "Hurrah!"

Edwards started--"Eh?"

"Hurrah! hurrah! it's a DREAM!"

"Hallo! I say, you know, come, this won't--"

"Hurrah!"

"Bless my 'art, Master Ro--"

Again I interrupted him by seizing my cap, swinging it round my head in an ecstasy of delight, and uttering cheer upon cheer with such outrageous vehemence, that Edwards, who thought me raving mad, crept towards the door, intending to bolt.

He was prevented from carrying out his intention, and violently overturned by the entrance of my father in dishabille. I sprang forward, plucked the spectacles off his nose, threw my arms round his neck, and kissed him on both eyes.

"I won't run away now, father, no, no, no! it's all a dream--a horrid dream! ha! ha! ha!"

"Bob, my dear boy!"

At this moment Jack, also in dishabille, rushed in. "Hallo! Bob, what's all the row?"

I experienced a different, but equally powerful gush of feeling on seeing my friend. Leaving my father, I rushed towards him, and, falling on his neck, burst into tears. Yes, I confess it without shame. Reader, if you had felt as I did, you would have done the same.