When they reached the plantation the horsemen alighted in the courtyard of the residence, and the planter, whose name was Zachariah Stebbings, told the overseer to take them to the slave quarters.

“You will have,” he said harshly, “to subdue your pride here, and to work honestly and hard, or the lash will become acquainted with your backs.”

“Look you here, Master Stebbings, if such be your name,” Harry said, “a word with you at the beginning.  We are exiled to this place, and given into servitude to you through no crime but that of having fought bravely for his majesty King Charles.  We are men who care not greatly for our lives, and we four, with seven others, did, as you may learn, defend the tower of Drogheda for two days against the whole army of Cromwell, and did only yield to thirst, and not to force.  You may judge then, of our mettle from that fact.  Now, hark you; having fallen into this strait, we are willing to conform to our condition, and to give you fair and honest work to the best of our powers; but mind you, if one finger be laid on us in anger, if so much as the end of a whip touch one of us, we have sworn that we will slay him so ventures, and you also, should you countenance is, even though afterward we be burned at the stake for doing it.  That is our bargain; see you that you keep to it.”

So stern and determined were Harry’s words, so fierce and haughty his tone, that the planter and his overseer both turned pale and shrank back.  They saw at once the manner of men with whom they had to deal, and felt that the threat would be carried out to the fullest.  Muttering some inarticulate reply, the planter turned and entered the house, and the overseer, with a dogged, crestfallen look, led the way to the slave quarters.  The place assigned to them was a long hut, the sides lightly constructed of woven boughs, with a thick thatch overhead.  Along one side extended a long sloping bench, six feet wide.  This was the bed of the slaves.

An hour afterward the other inmates of the hut entered.  They consisted of four white men who had been kidnaped as boys, and two who had been apprentices, sent out, as Harry soon learned, for their share in the rising in the city, which he had headed.  The negroes on the estate, some twenty in number, were confined in another hut.  There were, besides, four guards, one of whom kept sentry at night over the hut, while another with a loaded firearm stood over them while they worked.  The garrison of the island consisted, as Harry had learned before landing, of two hundred and fifty soldiers, besides the militia, consisting of the planters, their overseers and guards, who would number altogether about five hundred men.