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Untitled Article
"They're rather awkward , certainly , " I said ; " but of course I trust you with them . " " My duty binds me , you know , to you ; but the fact is , this estate
we are on is not liable to visitations of the police , for my father , who , entre nous , is a slave-dealer , has several suspicious characters visiting him in town , whom he sometimes desires to hide ; so therefore pitched on this estate , and pays a high sum yearly to the Government to insure its freedom from search . The Government is very amenable to money , as every one knows who is in a condition to bribe , and the authorities by this means are saved a great deal of trouble—at
another person ' s expense . So , you see , if you have come out . on account of any row , ' you are in a right track for having it settled . " " Thank you ! ' " ¦ I replied , and then explained my case .
"A rather perplexing one , my dear sir , I ' m afraid . However , I'll do what I can . The first thing will be to find out the slave ' s owner , and pay him ; then bribe officers , and possibly the Government itself . " " But the money ? "
" Ah ! some few mil . I presume you fear that you will not be able to spare it ? "
" Yes ; m my position as a clerk I am not very wealthy . " " But I am ; so I can settle it for you , and some future time you'll do the same for me . " I slept that night in a cotton hammock , swinging coolly and comfortably across the saloon . I have found that on board men-of-war ,
where I have occasionally slept , hammocks are far too hot during summer ; but these Brazilian ones were expressly calculated for the heat . They enhanced the pleasure of that greatest of all pleasures , balmy sleep . In the morning we breakfasted off fruits , with bread and weak tea ; I took a bath in a stream that ran by the house , the
waters being received in an artificial basin , so as to form a reservoir of ever-fresh water . I was luxuriating in the cool fluid , while my Brazilian friend sat on a bench near , smoking a cigar , when footsteps were heard , and a pudgy old gentleman came up , and hailed my friend as his son . The father did not look a pleasing character , but was apparently irascible .
I compared him to a puff-adder mentally . " A bad business has taken place , " said the father . " Santa Maria ! I was nearly going to the Ambassador ' s country place to look for him . He has a friend up there who might conceal hinij , Darkle tells me . " Darkle ! He must have come after me , I thought ! " Whom are you speaking of , my dear father ?" " Bah ! a young Englishman who has run off with one of my slaves . I was sending one to be flogged , to the fort , when this young Englishman was passing in his boat ; and if he didn't coolly go alongside , thrash the officers , and rescue him !" " And you think he ' s up at the Ambassador ' s ?" " Yes , " replied the father , solemnly . " It seems he pulled out , at night , under the forts , who hadn't got intelligence about the fact
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
"They're rather awkward , certainly , " I said ; " but of course I trust you with them . " " My duty binds me , you know , to you ; but the fact is , this estate
we are on is not liable to visitations of the police , for my father , who , entre nous , is a slave-dealer , has several suspicious characters visiting him in town , whom he sometimes desires to hide ; so therefore pitched on this estate , and pays a high sum yearly to the Government to insure its freedom from search . The Government is very amenable to money , as every one knows who is in a condition to bribe , and the authorities by this means are saved a great deal of trouble—at
another person ' s expense . So , you see , if you have come out . on account of any row , ' you are in a right track for having it settled . " " Thank you ! ' " ¦ I replied , and then explained my case .
"A rather perplexing one , my dear sir , I ' m afraid . However , I'll do what I can . The first thing will be to find out the slave ' s owner , and pay him ; then bribe officers , and possibly the Government itself . " " But the money ? "
" Ah ! some few mil . I presume you fear that you will not be able to spare it ? "
" Yes ; m my position as a clerk I am not very wealthy . " " But I am ; so I can settle it for you , and some future time you'll do the same for me . " I slept that night in a cotton hammock , swinging coolly and comfortably across the saloon . I have found that on board men-of-war ,
where I have occasionally slept , hammocks are far too hot during summer ; but these Brazilian ones were expressly calculated for the heat . They enhanced the pleasure of that greatest of all pleasures , balmy sleep . In the morning we breakfasted off fruits , with bread and weak tea ; I took a bath in a stream that ran by the house , the
waters being received in an artificial basin , so as to form a reservoir of ever-fresh water . I was luxuriating in the cool fluid , while my Brazilian friend sat on a bench near , smoking a cigar , when footsteps were heard , and a pudgy old gentleman came up , and hailed my friend as his son . The father did not look a pleasing character , but was apparently irascible .
I compared him to a puff-adder mentally . " A bad business has taken place , " said the father . " Santa Maria ! I was nearly going to the Ambassador ' s country place to look for him . He has a friend up there who might conceal hinij , Darkle tells me . " Darkle ! He must have come after me , I thought ! " Whom are you speaking of , my dear father ?" " Bah ! a young Englishman who has run off with one of my slaves . I was sending one to be flogged , to the fort , when this young Englishman was passing in his boat ; and if he didn't coolly go alongside , thrash the officers , and rescue him !" " And you think he ' s up at the Ambassador ' s ?" " Yes , " replied the father , solemnly . " It seems he pulled out , at night , under the forts , who hadn't got intelligence about the fact