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"Will we fight for 'im, massa?" asked Ebony, with anxious looks, as they ran to the place of execution, which was not far-off. "That would be useless," answered Mark. "If we were thirty Samsons instead of three ordinary men, we could not overcome the Queen's army." "I've half a mind to try," said Hockins, with something unusually fierce in his expression. "Many a man has run a-muck before now.
"What! all on us?" exclaimed Hockins, with elevated eyebrows. "Yis all." "Oh! nonsense," he cried, turning to Mark. "It must be you, doctor, she wants to see. What can she want with a or'nary seaman like me?" "Or a extraor'nary nigger like me?" said Ebony, with a look of extreme contempt.
"We will take the prison in passing," said his companion, grasping the spear and hastening onward. The prison was soon reached. The guards were a little surprised at the change of the bearer, but no one dared to think of opposing the passage of the well-known and awful emblem of office! "Come, Hockins, Ebony, Laihova, follow us," cried Mark, springing in. He did not wait to explain.
In this way the innocent are too often made to suffer for the guilty. We will now return to our friends in the tree. When the day began to break Hockins awoke, and his first impulse was to shout "hold on!" Ebony's first action was to let go, thereby bringing himself to the ground with an awful thud, which would have told severely on any one less akin to india-rubber.
Hockins observed the act, and there passed over his soul another wave of self-condemnation, which was indicated by a deprecatory shake of his rugged head. Observing it, Ebony paused a moment and said "You's an awrful sinner, 'Ockins!" "True, Ebony." "Das jist what I is too. Quite as bad as you. P'r'aps wuss!"
This, no doubt, was largely owing to the operations of the soldiers, whose manoeuvres Hockins watched with a critical eye, for his father, having been a soldier, had made him intimately acquainted with the drill as practised in the British army at that period. "Why, I do believe the fellers are speakin' English!" he said, in some surprise.
Still thinking of the recent conversation which he had had with the guide, Mark Breezy retired a little from the rest of the party and flung himself on the ground under a tree to rest and meditate. He was not left long, however, in solitude, for Hockins and Ebony soon discovered his retreat. Each of these worthies was armed with a spear.
Boldness is often successful where timidity would fail. Without hesitation, or even consultation with his friends, Mamba went straight to the palace and demanded permission to visit the Maker of Medicine. He was allowed to pass and conducted by an official to the quarters of Mark Breezy, who was seated with Hockins and Ebony at the time. Great was their surprise at seeing their friend.
Hockins dreamed of tobacco-pipes and explosions; Mark dreamed of freed slaves, thunder-struck queens, eloping lovers and terrible consequences; and Ebony dreamed of incomprehensible situations, crashing thunderbolts, and unimaginable coruscations of resplendent fire!
As it was certain, however, that they would find it in a few minutes, Ebony sprang upon the creeping plant and clambered along its tortuous limbs like a monkey. Young Breezy followed, and Hockins came last. The plant was tough. It stood the strain well. If it had given way, death on the jagged rocks below would have been the result.
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