He stooped to kiss her hand before releasing it, and she did not deny him.  Then he turned and strode off towards the stockade a half-mile away, and a vision of her face went with him, tinted with a rising blush and a sudden unusual shyness.  He forgot in that little moment that he was a rebel-convict with ten years of slavery before him; he forgot that he had planned an escape, which was to be carried into effect that night; forgot even the peril of discovery which as a result of the Governor’s gout now overhung him.

CHAPTER VII

PIRATES

Mr. James Nuttall made all speed, regardless of the heat, in his journey from Bridgetown to Colonel Bishop’s plantation, and if ever man was built for speed in a hot climate that man was Mr. James Nuttall, with his short, thin body, and his long, fleshless legs.  So withered was he that it was hard to believe there were any juices left in him, yet juices there must have been, for he was sweating violently by the time he reached the stockade.

At the entrance he almost ran into the overseer Kent, a squat, bow-legged animal with the arms of a Hercules and the jowl of a bulldog.

“I am seeking Doctor Blood,” he announced breathlessly.

“You are in a rare haste,” growled Kent.  “What the devil is it?  Twins?”

“Eh?  Oh!  Nay, nay.  I’m not married, sir.  It’s a cousin of mine, sir.”

“What is?”

“He is taken bad, sir,” Nuttall lied promptly upon the cue that Kent himself had afforded him.  “Is the doctor here?”

“That’s his hut yonder.”  Kent pointed carelessly.  “If he’s not there, he’ll be somewhere else.”  And he took himself off.  He was a surly, ungracious beast at all times, readier with the lash of his whip than with his tongue.

Nuttall watched him go with satisfaction, and even noted the direction that he took.  Then he plunged into the enclosure, to verify in mortification that Dr. Blood was not at home.  A man of sense might have sat down and waited, judging that to be the quickest and surest way in the end.  But Nuttall had no sense.  He flung out of the stockade again, hesitated a moment as to which direction he should take, and finally decided to go any way but the way that Kent had gone.  He sped across the parched savannah towards the sugar plantation which stood solid as a rampart and gleaming golden in the dazzling June sunshine.  Avenues intersected the great blocks of ripening amber cane.  In the distance down one of these he espied some slaves at work.  Nuttall entered the avenue and advanced upon them.  They eyed him dully, as he passed them.  Pitt was not of their number, and he dared not ask for him.  He continued his search for best part of an hour, up one of those lanes and then down another.  Once an overseer challenged him, demanding to know his business.  He was looking, he said, for Dr. Blood.  His cousin was taken ill.  The overseer bade him go to the devil, and get out of the plantation.  Blood was not there.  If he was anywhere he would be in his hut in the stockade.