Hunting the Skipper Part 61

"From the mouth of a gun? Well, he deserves it."

"But surely this is not the ruffian you folks have been talking about-- firing upon the boats, and--Ah, here he is!"

For the well-made cutter now came alongside, the slave crew who rowed it and the c.o.xswain being well-armed, and hooking on quite as a matter of course, the latter showing his white teeth, an example followed by the rest of the crew, while the occupant of the stern sheets rose feebly and painfully, gladly s.n.a.t.c.hing at the hands offered to him, by whose aid he climbed the side with difficulty and stood tottering on the deck.

"The captain?" he said to Mr Anderson. "No; I saw you ash.o.r.e, sir.

Thanks," he added, taking the arm the chief officer extended to him. "I am greatly obliged, sir, for I am very weak."

"Yes," said the doctor, stepping forward. "A deck-chair, there. That's right, Mr Murray; a little more under the awning. Sit down, sir. Mr Roberts, a gla.s.s of water, if you please."

"You are very good, gentlemen," said the visitor, recovering a little, for he was evidently on the point of fainting. "I am better now. Can I speak to the captain?"

"Yes, sir," said that gentleman, coming forward frowning, and rather taken aback by the aspect of one he looked upon as a surrendered prisoner. "Now, sir, what have you to say?"

"Only that I wish to express my grief, captain, that the untoward business of the past twenty-four hours or so should have occurred."

"Very pretty, sir," said the captain sternly. "You set me at defiance, fire upon his Majesty's forces, and then presume to come aboard my ship having the insolence to suppose that all you have to do is to offer an apology."

"No, sir," said the visitor sadly. "This has all been none of my doing.

I think your officers will bear me out when I tell you that it was far from my wish that any resistance should be made to one of the King of England's ships."

"Indeed! To one of your king's ships?"

"Yes; I own myself to be one of his Majesty's most unworthy subjects."

"Indeed!" said the captain sharply. "Why, Mr Anderson, I understood you to say that this man claimed to be a subject of the United States Government."

"No--no!" interrupted the planter. "I can bear this no longer; the end has come. All this trouble, sir, has arisen from my weakness in allowing myself to be subjected to the oppression and led away by the villainy of the man whom I at first engaged to manage my plantation."

"Look here, my good fellow," cried the captain sternly, "I do not want to know anything about your overseer, but I take it that you are a slaver. Answer me that--yes or no."

"Unwillingly, sir, yes."

"And you confess to having fired upon his Majesty's forces?"

"No, sir; no."

"What, sir!" cried the captain. "Do you deny that your servants--your slaves--have done this thing?"

"Sir," cried the planter bitterly, "for long enough my chief servant has made himself my master. I, the slave, have fought hard against what has been carried out in my name."

"Indeed?" said the captain sharply. "But _qui facit per alium jacit per se_. Eh, Mr Murray? You can render that for this gentleman if he requires an interpreter."

"I need no rendering of the old Latin proverb, sir," said the planter sadly, "and I know that I am answerable. I am a sick man, sick to death, sir, of the horrible life I have been forced to lead for the past two years, and I come to you ready to render you every a.s.sistance I can give in clearing away this plague spot."

"Indeed," said the captain, after exchanging looks with Mr Anderson, "but this plague spot is, I understand, a very prosperous one, and you seem to lead rather a lordly life with your state barge and retinue of slaves."

"I beg that you will not mock me, sir," said the planter. "I am indeed sincere in what I say, and I offer to do everything possible to enable you and your men to root out this nest of slavery."

"Exactly," said the captain; "now that I have found it out and do not want your help. Yours is rather a late repentance. Upon what terms do you propose this?"

"On very easy terms for you, sir," replied the planter; "only that you will let a broken man die in peace."

The captain looked at his visitor searchingly, and then turned to the doctor.

"What is your opinion of this gentleman's state?" he said.

"Most serious," replied the doctor, after a very brief examination of the visitor.

"Humph!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the captain. "And I understand," he continued, "that you are ready to give me every a.s.sistance I need to root out this plague spot, as you term it?"

"Every help I can," replied the planter.

"Now that I do not need it, eh?"

"I beg your pardon, sir," said the planter; "you do need it. You have made your way to my house and plantations without help."

"Yes; my officers soon made their way there," said the captain.

"And it will be easy to burn and destroy there; but you will not be able to deal with the slave quarters in different parts of the island, nor with the three well-equipped slaving schooners that voyage to and from the West Coast of Africa and carry on their sickening trade with this depot and the other stations."

"H'm!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the captain. "Perhaps not; but I have no doubt that we shall soon find out all I require."

The planter shook his head sadly.

"No, sir; the task will prove more difficult than you antic.i.p.ate. Your officer here has some little experience of one of your opponents."

"Oh! There is more than one to deal with, then?" said Mr Anderson sharply.

"There are two, sir, who act as heads of the traffic--my overseer Huggins, and his twin brother."

"Ah! I see," said the chief officer, smiling. "I am of opinion, then, that we have met the brother yonder upon the West Coast."

"Most likely, sir," said the planter feebly. "If you have, you have encountered another of the most cunning, scheming scoundrels that ever walked the earth."

"And these are your friends that I understand you are ready to betray to justice?" said the captain sternly.

"My friends, sir?" said the planter bitterly. "Say, my tyrants, sir-- the men who have taken advantage of my weakness to make me a loathsome object in my own sight. Captain," cried the trembling man, "I must speak as I do to make you fully realise my position. I am by birth an English gentleman. My father was one of those who came out here like many others to settle upon a plantation. In the past, as you know, ideas were lax upon the question of slavery, and I inherited those ideas; but I can answer for my father, that his great idea was to lead a patriarchal life surrounded by his slaves, who in their way were well treated and happy."

"As slaves?" said Mr Anderson sternly.

"I will _not_ enter into that, sir," said the planter sadly, "and I grant that the custom became a terrible abuse--a curse which has exacted its punishments. I own fully that I have been a weak man who has allowed himself to be outwitted by a couple of scheming scoundrels, who led me on and on till they had involved me in debt and hopelessly so.

In short, of late years my soul has not seemed to be my own, and by degrees I awoke to the fact that I was nominally the head of a horrible traffic, and the stalking-horse behind whose cover these twin brothers carried on their vile schemes, growing rich as merchant princes and establishing at my cost this--what shall I call it?--emporium of flesh and blood--this home of horror."

"Do I understand you to say that in this island there is a kind of centre of the slave-trade?"

"In this island and those near at hand, sir," said the planter. "In addition there are depots on the mainland which the slavers visit at regular intervals, and from which the plantations are supplied."

"And you are ready to give information such as will enable me to root out a great deal of this and to capture the vessels which carry on the vile trade?"