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When he had thus stirred up, as it were, an air of mystery and expectation, he led the Secretary, Hockins, and Ebony, to a retired spot, and, bidding them sit down, gave them a brief address. "You see," he said, "the time has now come for me to explain to you more fully, the plans and plots with which I have been engaged for some time past.
A great cry arose just then, and some of the pursuers came running back. "He is down," said one. "He is dead!" said another. Now our friend Hockins was one of those men who have at all times an irresistible tendency to take the part of the weak against the strong, without much regard to the cause of battle! He instantly, without a word, ran off at full speed to the rescue.
"Ditto, says I," answered Hockins, when appealed to, "for, to the best o' my belief, my old ooman is awaitin' for me, too, over there he pointed to England with the stem of his pipe to say nothin' o' three thumpin' boys an' a gal also an old gran'-mother an' a maiden aunt, etceterer all awaitin' with great patience, I have no manner o' doubt." "But how's we to git dar?
"About two rice-cookings off." To dispel the reader's perplexity, we may explain at once that in Madagascar they measure distances by the time occupied in cooking a pot of rice. As that operation occupies about half-an-hour, the Secretary meant that the hot spring was distant about two half-hours that is, between three and four miles off. "Let's go an' git into it at once," suggested Hockins.
A new day had begun, cattle were lowing on the distant plain, and birds were chirping their matutinal songs in bush and tree when Mark Breezy, John Hockins, and James Ginger alias Ebony awoke from their uneasy rest on the prison floor and sat up with their backs against the wall. Their chains rattled sharply as they did so.
"You may be right, Ebony," returned Hockins, with an approving nod; "we human being's is apt to think too much of ourselves. Moreover, it has come into my mind that Great Britain was a solitood once or much about it an' it's anything but that now; so mayhap them lands will be swarmin' wi' towns an' villages some day or other. What d'ee think, Doctor?"
The friend turned out to be an old woman who was rather deaf, but she heard enough to understand the situation. "Here!" she said, tottering into a back-yard, in which was a quantity of straw and rubbish. "Go down there." She pointed to a hole. It was the mouth of a rice-hole. Down went the Secretary, without a word, and turned to receive the end of the pole which Hockins passed carefully in.
Recognising the importance of the event, Hockins and Ebony, unable to restrain themselves, gave vent to a hearty British hurrah! At this interruption, the bearers of the royal palanquin or chair halted, the soldiers brought their muskets to the "ready," and a dark frown overspread the features of the Queen.
"I'm not quite so sure," said Hockins; "you must remember I've only got sea-legs on but I'll try." And he did try, and so did the others; with such success, too, that before the sun set that evening they had penetrated into the very heart of the mountain range which runs through the centre of the island.
In any other circumstances the singularity and unexpected nature of this good treatment would have stirred up the fun of Ebony and the latent humour of Hockins, but they could not shake off the depression, caused by the memory of what they had seen in the prison the heavy iron collars and the cruel binding chains.
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