successful before I came on the scene. Being convalescent
from his wound, and learning that Mistress Lucy wished to consult
Mr. McTavish about selling the estate (for she had determined to
carry through the negotiations begun by Vetch), he had offered to
carry a message to the steward, intending to remain at the house
for a few days for change of air. He had seized the opportunity
also of bringing to Uncle Moses and Noah charters of freedom from
their mistress, in reward for their services to her and to hers.
Cludde insisted on her accepting from him the five hundred dollars
which I had promised Noah for his life, and she handed it back as a
present for the negro.

We were talking about all these strange things that had happened,
when suddenly we heard a commotion at the head of the column.
Running hastily forward, I saw Punchard and several of my men
rushing at full speed across a tract of scrubby land in pursuit of
Vetch. He had persuaded the buccaneer beside him, whose hands had
not been bound, to cut his bonds.

I joined in the chase; Cludde hung back; I think that after all he
would not have been ill pleased, for old friendship's sake, if
Vetch had got away. Vetch had had but a few yards' start, but he
was a swift runner, and I doubted much whether any of us could
overtake him. We could not bring him down with a shot, for my men,
though their muskets were loaded, had not kindled their matches, so
that before they could fire he was out of range. Foremost of the
pursuers was Joe, bounding along like a deer, furious (as he
afterwards told me) because he regarded the escape as due to his
own negligence.

We had raced on for maybe half a mile, and still had not lessened
the distance between us and the fugitive, when I suddenly saw him
sink above his ankles into the earth. He uttered a terrible shriek;
the man running beside me, who knew something of the country, cried
out "A cockpit!" in accents of horror and stopped short. But the
agonizing cries of the poor wretch who was sinking inch by inch
into the horrible hole whose treacherous surface had beguiled him
were more than I could endure. 'Twas not a death for the foulest
villain on earth. Heedless of the warning shouts of my crew, I
dashed forward, hoping to reach Vetch in time to rescue him ere he
was sucked under.

To venture directly on the spot where he was sinking would, I knew,
be certain death to me. But when I reached the edge of the cockpit
I flung mys