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"If your bulky shoulders get through, we can all manage it." The negro was about to obey the order when Nigel let the lantern fall and the shock extinguished it. "Oh! Massa Nadgel; das a pritty business!" "Never mind," said Van der Kemp. "I've got matches, I think, in my no, I haven't. Have you, Moses?" "No, massa, I forgit to remember him."
"I sees no 'ob course' about it, Massa Nadgel," observed Moses, who never refrained from offering his opinion from motives of humility, or of respect for his employer. "My 'dvice is to go on an' let de purfesser foller." "But I promised to wait for him," said the hermit, with one of his kindly, half-humorous glances, "and you know I never break my promises."
I t'ink he's go mad! I tell you what I'll foller him wid a rifle an' knife and two revolvers." "You'll do nothing of the sort," said Nigel, laying hold of the negro's wrist with a grip of iron; "when a man like Van der Kemp gives an order it's the duty of inferior men like you and me strictly to obey." "Well p'raps you're right, Nadgel," returned Moses calmly.
"No, I didn't, Massa Nadgel," said the negro, the edge of whose flat contradiction was taken off by the extreme humility of his look. "Well," returned Nigel, with a laugh; "you at least gave me to understand that other people said something of that sort." "Da's right, Massa Nadgel kite right. You're k'rect now."
"No, no, Massa Nadgel 's not dat. But he was awrful fond ob his wife an' darter, an' I know he's got a photogruff ob 'em bof togidder, an' I t'ink he'd sooner lose his head dan lose dat, for I've seed him look at 'em for hours, an' kiss 'em sometimes w'en he t'ought I was asleep." The return of the hermit here abruptly stopped the conversation.
"What can he be up to now, I wonder?" murmured the disturbed youth, sleepily. The hermit, who slept through all noises with infantine simplicity, made no answer, but a peculiar snort from the negro, who lay not far off on his other side, told that he was struggling with a laugh. "Hallo, Moses! are you awake?" asked Nigel, in a low voice. "Ho yes, Massa Nadgel.
"Massa!" gasped Moses, who while the hermit was speaking had been working his body with mysterious and violent energy; "massa! couldn't you fall dis way, an' Nadgel could kitch your hand, an' I's got my leg shoved into a hole as nuffin' 'll haul it out ob. Dere's a holler place here. If Nadgel swings you into dat, an' I only once grab you by de hair you're safe!"
"If your bulky shoulders get through, we can all manage it." The negro was about to obey the order when Nigel let the lantern fall and the shock extinguished it. "Oh! Massa Nadgel; das a pritty business!" "Never mind," said Van der Kemp. "I've got matches, I think, in my no, I haven't. Have you, Moses?" "No, massa, I forgit to remember him."
If he were going in a big boat to save some of his goods and chattels I could understand it, but the canoe, you know, could carry little more than her ordinary lading." "Well, Massa Nadgel," said Moses, "it's my opinion dat he wants to go back 'cause he's got an uncommon affekshnit heart." "How? Surely you don't mean that his love of the mere place is so strong that "
The listening monkey cocked its ear a little higher at this, and Moses, who had at first raised his flat nose indignantly in the air, gradually lowered it, while a benignant smile supplanted indignation. "You're right dere, Massa Nadgel. I'd die a t'ousand times sooner dan injure massa. As to your last obserwation, it rouses two idees in my mind.
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