es, and you will have need of the bear.'

"'But what is the use of roast meat, if we are to be roasted too?' said
Withers, who will always be droll, whatever happens.

"Then Stackridge spoke. He proposed that they should place themselves
under my command; for I knew the woods, and while they had been running
to and fro in disorder, I had been carefully observing the ground, and
forming my plans. I laughed within myself to see Deslow alone hang back;
he was unwilling to owe his life to one of my complexion--one who had
been a slave. For there are men, do you know," said Pomp, with a smile
of mingled haughtiness and pity, "who would rather that even their
country should perish than owe in any measure its salvation to the race
they have always hated and wronged!"

"I trust," said Mr. Villars, "that you had the noble satisfaction of
teaching these men the lesson which our country too must learn before it
can be worthy to be saved."

"I showed them that even the despised black may, under God's providence,
be of some use to white men, besides being their slave: I had that
satisfaction!" said Pomp, proudly smiling. "Stackridge was right: I had
observed: I saw what I could do. On one side was a chasm which you know,
Mr. Hapgood."

"Yes! I had thought of it! But I knew it was in the midst of the burning
forest, and never supposed you could get to it."

"The fire was beyond; and it also burned a little on the side nearest to
us. But the vegetation there is thin, you remember. The chasm could be
reached without difficulty.

"'Follow me who will!' said I. 'The rest are at liberty to shirk for
themselves.'

"'Follow--where?' said Deslow. I couldn't help smiling at the man's
distress. All the rest were prepared to obey my directions; and it was
hard for him to separate himself from them. But it seemed harder still
for him to trust in me. I was not a Moses; I could not take them through
that Red Sea. What then?

"I made for the chasm. All followed, even Deslow,--dragging and lugging
the bear. We came to the brink. The place, I must confess, had an awful
look, in the light of the trees burning all around it! Deslow was not
the only one who shrank back then; for though the spot was known to some
of them, they had never explored it, and could not guess what it led to.
It was difficult, in the first place, to descend into it; it looked
still more difficult ever to get out again; and there was nothing to
prevent the burning limb