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In ordinary times she was accustomed to employing from twenty-five to fifty men, although always Miss Patricia acted as her own overseer. As she had announced, for the present she had managed to secure the services of an old French peasant, nearer seventy years of age than sixty, to act as her assistant. But Jean was possessed of a determination of character only equaled by Miss Patricia's.
Of all the houses, cabins, barns and cribs which had made up the home of the Carys a few short months ago nothing remained to-day but ashes and black ruin. Only one building had been left unburned and this, before the war, had been the cabin of an overseer. It had but two rooms, and a shallow attic, which was gained by means of an iron ladder reaching to a closely fitting scuttle in the ceiling.
Mr Sorely, Mr M'Combie's overseer, and I, all agreed that as a wood dividing-partition had been allowed to remain since the time of the previous infection, and the cow was seen chewing pieces of the wood that had got rotted at the base, the wood had retained the poison, and the cow had been infected from the chewing of it.
With the others came my Indian overseer, who shouted that he too wanted revenge, as some of the goats had belonged to him. Whereupon he levelled his revolver at the dead leopard, and shutting his eyes tightly, fired four shots in rapid succession. Naturally not one of these touched the beast, but they caused considerable consternation amongst the onlookers, who scattered rapidly to right and left.
On my return to Louisiana I had been thought nothing of. I was a drone in the hive with money, but without skill or perseverance. My overseer was more looked up to than myself; but the recent change in the state of my plantation, attributed, however wrongly, to my presence, had caused a revolution in people's ideas; and I was now met on all sides with open hands and smiling countenances.
Julius declared, with much earnestness, that he didn't believe Mrs. Gray had concealed any money, but if she had he could find it out if anybody could, and he would bring the news straight to the overseer. When his supposed ally took his departure Hanson was obliged to confess to himself that he did not know any more about Mrs.
Thinking only of Captain Beardsley and the overseer and his whip, the frightened black boy could not be prevailed upon to stop until he had pushed the boat to the middle of the stream, where he felt comparatively safe; and then he looked over his shoulder to see who his pursuer was. "Why, honey!" he exclaimed, as he got out the oars and backed the boat toward the place where Marcy was standing.
This officer had received special instructions from the Warden of the prison, to watch the Dead Man with all possible vigilance, and by no means to lose sight of him for a single moment, inasmuch as his former escape had been accomplished through the inattention of the overseer who had charge of him.
His escape was discovered and the overseer, with Thomas Hull, set out in hot pursuit of the fugitive. At dawn of day they came in sight of him in the forest on the Lower James River and, being on horseback, gave chase. "Keep away! keep back!" cried the fugitive, "or I will not answer for the consequences," and he brandished his gun in the air.
An acre of ground, in Arthur's Vale, was sown with wheat on the 6th; and on the 8th, Noah Mortimer, a convict, was punished with sixty lashes, for refusing to work, on being ordered by the overseer, and being abusive. The 10th, being Good-Friday, I performed divine service, and no work was done on the settlement. On the 13th, three acres of wheat were sown with four bushels of seed.
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