Hunting the Skipper Part 62

"I can and will do all this, sir," replied the planter feebly. "I thought I had explained as much."

"Yes, yes," cried the captain impatiently, "but I want to know more about the bargain you wish to make."

"What can I say more, sir?" replied the planter. "Your protection, so that I may die in peace, trying to make some amends for the past."

"H'm!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the captain thoughtfully.

The planter smiled.

"You are thinking, sir," he said, "that you cannot trust me, and that you will be able to root out this accursed trade without my help."

"Perhaps so," said the captain drily.

"Let me tell you, then, that you are setting yourself to cleanse an Augean stable. You are pitting yourself against men who have made these swampy forests, these nets of intertwining water-ways, a perfect maze of strongholds in which your little force of sailors would be involved in a desperate fight with Nature at her worst. Your officers and men here have had some slight experience of what they will have to deal with, but a mere nothing. I tell you, sir, that you have no idea of the difficulties that await you. I am speaking the plain truth. You cannot grasp what strong powers you would have to contend with. Ah, you, doctor, you should know. Tell your captain. You must have some knowledge of what Nature can do here in the way of fever."

"Humph! Yes," said the gentleman addressed. "You are a proof positive."

"Yes," said the planter sadly; "I am one of her victims, and an example of what a strong man can become whose fate has fixed him in these swampy shades."

"I'll trust you, sir," said the captain suddenly. "I must warn you, though, that at the slightest suspicion you arouse of playing any treacherous trick upon me, your life will be the forfeit."

"Of course, sir."

"Then tell me this first; how am I to lay hands upon this overseer of yours? He is away somewhere in hiding, I suppose, on that lugger?"

"Oh no; that lugger is under the command of one of his men, a mulatto.

He has gone off in a canoe, as I expect, to bring round one of his schooners."

"What for? Not to attack us here?"

"I expect so; but I can soon tell."

"Ah, how?" asked the captain eagerly.

"By sending a couple of men whom I can trust, to find out."

The captain rubbed his ear and stood looking at the planter thoughtfully, and then turning to the first lieutenant, he took his arm and led him right aft, speaking to him hurriedly for a few minutes before they returned to where the doctor stood evidently looking upon their visitor in the light of a new patient.

"Now, Mr--Mr Allen," said the captain sharply, "I have been consulting my chief officer, and he agrees with me that it will be wise to accept your offer; so tell me what you propose first."

"To return to my little house."

"How can that help us?" exclaimed Mr Anderson sharply. "How are we to communicate with you right away in that swampy forest?"

"You misunderstand me," said the planter. "I mean I shall return to the place I have by the side of the bay here;" and he pointed across the water.

"I do not see where you mean."

"Not from here. It is up one of the little rivers quite hidden amongst the trees."

"Everything seems to be hidden amongst the trees," said the lieutenant.

"Exactly," replied the planter, smiling; "that is what I wish you to understand. You must trust me, sir."

"Well," said the captain, "I will trust you, but you understand that you are offering to serve me at the peril of your life?"

"It is at the peril of my life I am offering to help you, sir. Ezekiel Huggins will not scruple about shooting me like a dog as soon as he finds that I am actively helping you."

"Then I must place you under my protection."

"If you please," said the planter gravely. "Your officer here will give me the credit of being upon your side from the first."

"Yes," said Mr Anderson; "I do that."

"Then I will go back home at once," said the planter, "and I shall look to you as a friend. It would be best if you sent a boat and men to lie up in the little river. When will you land?"

"At once," said the captain, and he walked slowly to the gangway with his visitor, saw him into his boat, where, in quite man-o'-war fashion, the black crew sat with oars erect, ready to lower them with a splash and row off for a few dozen yards, and then rest while the first cutter was lowered again with a well-armed crew, including a couple of marines.

"You will take command, Mr Murray," said the captain, "and take note of everything, being well on your guard. I trust to your discretion."

Murray listened, conscious the while that Roberts was looking on scowling blackly.

"In four hours you will be relieved."

"That means you're to take my place," said the middy, telegraphing with his eyes, greatly to the improvement of his brother middy's aspect.

"Off with you!" was the next command, and as the sailors lowered their oars, the black crew waiting received their orders to start, leading off in the direction from which they had come, the cutter following closely, while her young commander kept a sharp lookout for the mouth of the little river, which remained invisible, hidden away as it was by the dense foliage which on all hands came right down to the calm, smooth water of the great crater-like bay.

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

ON DUTY.

"I didn't expect this," said Murray to himself, as after sweeping the sh.o.r.e of the bay he once more fixed his eyes upon the well-manned boat in front; and then he started in wonder, for Tom May, who sat close to him astern, said in a low voice--

"I didn't expect that the captain would send us off again directly, Mr Murray, sir."

"Neither did I, Tom; and, what is more, I did not expect to hear you say that you were thinking just the same as I did."

"Was you, sir?"

"Yes. You didn't want to come, I suppose, after going through so much?"

"Not want to come, sir? I just did! But what sort of a game is this going to be?"

"I don't know, Tom," replied Murray gruffly, "only that we've got to watch this Mr Allen."