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On a rustic seat, near a rear door, white-haired old Sam is sitting, listening intently, while dusky Mug reads to him from the book of books, the one he prizes above all else, stopping occasionally to expound, in his own way, some point which he fancies may not be clear to her, likening every good man to "Massah Hugh," and every bad one to the leader of the "Suddern 'Federacy," whose horse he declares he held once in "ole Virginny," telling Mug, in an aside, "how, if 'twasn't wicked, nor agin' de scripter, he should most wish he'd put beech nuts under Massah Jeffres' saddle, and so broke his fetched neck, 'fore he raise sich a muss, runnin' calico so high that Miss Ellis 'clar she couldn't 'ford it, and axin' fifteen cents for a paltry spool of cotton."
The colored man said no more, but rowed inshore, and in the meantime the doctor hurried down to meet him. "Did you find any gold, massah?" asked the colored man, his white teeth gleaming. "Gold! Why, you foolish nigger, what chance is there of finding gold on a wreck over ten years old? The best thing you can do is to break the boat to pieces and take the wood ashore for fuel."
"Massah Hugh de perfectest massah," he said, "and Miss Ellis a little more so;" adding that though "Canaan was a mighty nice place, he 'sumed he'd rather not go thar jist yet, but live a leetle longer to see them 'joy themselves. Thar they comes dat's miss in gray.
"Well, you see, da aint persackly brother an' sister." "No?" and the surgeon raised his heavy eyebrows as if in surprise. "No, sah. Massah Jack is only de 'dopted son ob de late colonel." "Ah, is that really so? A er nephew, perhaps?" "No, he aint no kin to de Ruthvens. He was washed ashoah from a wrack ten or 'leben years ago.
"Tom! Sam! look out fo' yourselves!" came from Aleck, and in a second more the negro, burst on their view. "Come, if yo' is dressed!" he added. "Where to?" asked Tom hurriedly. "Anywhar, Massah Tom. De others is took prisoners! Come!" And Aleck almost dragged the boy along.
The brawny African began at once to examine the footprints along the lake shore. "Him been here," he said. "Him came up dis way. But him no walk away." "Didn't walk away!" ejaculated Tom. "No. Udder footprints walk away, but not um Massah Dick." "I don't understand, Cujo. Do you think he fell into the lake?" "Perhaps, Massah Tom or maybe he get into boat." Tom shook his head.
Then he confessed what, in the evening, he had repeated to Hugh, telling Alice how "poor massah groan, wid face in his hands, and how next day he went off, never to come back again." In mute silence, Alice listened to a story which explained much that had been strange to her before, and as she listened, her resolve was made. "Sam," she said, when he had finished, "I wish I had known this before.
"But de ghosteses, massah! Besides, Mrs. Ruthven wouldn't let us touch dat wrack nohow." "On account of the boy, I suppose." "Yes, massah." "To tell the truth, my man, I have now as much interest in that ship as has that boy or Mrs. Ruthven. It brings back an exciting passage in my life. My visit to the wreck was made to satisfy me concerning several important questions.
Not long could Mrs. Worthington stay contentedly at Snowdon, and after a time Alice started with her and Lulu for Washington, taking Sam also, partly because he begged so hard to go, and partly because she did not care to trouble her friends with the old man, who seemed a perfect child in his delight at the prospect of seeing "Massah Hugh." But to see him was not so easy a matter.
No answer came back at first. Then, to Tom's astonishment, a strange voice answered from the woods: "Here I am! Where are you?" "Dat aint Dick," muttered Aleck. "Dat's sumbuddy else, Massah Tom." "So it is," replied Tom, and presently saw a tall and well-built young man struggling forth from the tall grass of the jungle. "Hullo, what are you?" demanded the newcomer, as he stalked toward them.
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