l me: I lib for teach him lesson."

"Let him go," I cried, "and I will give you money--twenty dollars."

"No!"

"Thirty--forty dollars!"

"No!"

"Forty dollars is a great big lot," said Uncle Moses, who had
joined us and saw my desperate eagerness to save the man.

"No!" said Noah again, his mouth tightening with inflexible
determination.

"Uncle Moses," I said, "can't you bend him? I will give anything if
he will but spare the man. I am a king's officer; you know that
what I promise I will do; and he is your mistress' cousin."

"Noah, my son," said the old negro, "listen to Massa. S'pose you
burn de white man, what good to you? He die, oh course, and nebber
can do nuffin' to black mans no mo'; but you will only be pleased a
lill tiny while, and if you let him go you gwine hab dollars what
will last long, long time."

"No!" returned Noah. "I will teach him lesson, and be pleased for
ebber and ebber."

And he walked away and began to gather up some sticks and carry
them to the tree where Cludde, utterly exhausted, seemed to have
fainted away.

I asked Moses what sum would purchase Noah's freedom, ready to
spend my last penny to prevent the hideous scene for which
preparation was being made. He told me five hundred dollars, and I
bade him go to Noah and promise that the money should be his as
soon as I got back to Spanish Town. He returned downcast from his
mission.

"He say dat is all talk," he said. "It is for bimeby, but he want
rebenge now; black man don't fink nuffin' ob bimeby."

"But can't we give him something now as earnest of what is to come?
There are our muskets; they will be useful to him, and are worth
some dollars; offer them to him, and assure him on the word of an
Englishman that he shall have the price of his freedom as soon as
ever I can get back to my friends."

He went away with this message, but came back again unsuccessful.

"He say hab plenty guns, and what good guns widout any powder and
shots? He hain't got no powder; de guns hain't worth more'n old
sticks. Hain't Massa got no money? If he seed de look of silver,
now, dat would be somet'ing 'spectable."

But my pockets were empty; all my money had been taken by the
buccaneers. And then, with a start of recollection, I remembered
the crown piece that hung by a riband about my neck, and with the
thought a flash of inspiration shot through my mind. I ran forward
to the spot where Noah was already heaping the sticks for the fir