الفصل الفصل 36 · AN ENCOUNTER IN THE DARK

AN ENCOUNTER IN THE DARK

London--to a slave--was a sufficiently interesting place. It was

merely a great big village; and mainly mud and thatch. The streets

were muddy, crooked, unpaved. The populace was an ever flocking

and drifting swarm of rags, and splendors, of nodding plumes and

shining armor. The king had a palace there; he saw the outside

of it. It made him sigh; yes, and swear a little, in a poor

juvenile sixth century way. We saw knights and grandees whom

we knew, but they didn't know us in our rags and dirt and raw

welts and bruises, and wouldn't have recognized us if we had hailed

them, nor stopped to answer, either, it being unlawful to speak

with slaves on a chain. Sandy passed within ten yards of me on

a mule--hunting for me, I imagined. But the thing which clean

broke my heart was something which happened in front of our old

barrack in a square, while we were enduring the spectacle of a man

being boiled to death in oil for counterfeiting pennies. It was

the sight of a newsboy--and I couldn't get at him! Still, I had

one comfort--here was proof that Clarence was still alive and

banging away. I meant to be with him before long; the thought was

full of cheer.

I had one little glimpse of another thing, one day, which gave me

a great uplift. It was a wire stretching from housetop to housetop.

Telegraph or telephone, sure. I did very much wish I had a little

piece of it. It was just what I needed, in order to carry out my

project of escape. My idea was to get loose some night, along with

the king, then gag and bind our master, change clothes with him,

batter him into the aspect of a stranger, hitch him to the slave-chain,

assume possession of the property, march to Camelot, and--

But you get my idea; you see what a stunning dramatic surprise

I would wind up with at the palace. It was all feasible, if

I could only get hold of a slender piece of iron which I could

shape into a lock-pick. I could then undo the lumbering padlocks

with which our chains were fastened, whenever I might choose.

But I never had any luck; no such thing ever happened to fall

in my way. However, my chance came at last. A gentleman who

had come twice before to dicker for me, without result, or indeed

any approach to a result, came again. I was far from expecting

ever to belong to him, for the price asked for me from the time

I was first enslaved was exorbitant, and always provoked either

anger or derision, yet my master stuck stubbornly to it--twenty-two

dollars. He wouldn't bate a cent. The king was greatly admired,

because of his grand physique, but his kingly style was against

him, and he wasn't salable; nobody wanted that kind of a slave.

I considered myself safe from parting from him because of my

extravagant price. No, I was not expecting to ever belong to

this gentleman whom I have spoken of, but he had something which

I expected would belong to me eventually, if he would but visit

us often enough. It was a steel thing with a long pin to it, with

which his long cloth outside garment was fastened together in

front. There were three of them. He had disappointed me twice,

because he did not come quite close enough to me to make my project

entirely safe; but this time I succeeded; I captured the lower

clasp of the three, and when he missed it he thought he had lost

it on the way.

I had a chance to be glad about a minute, then straightway a chance

to be sad again. For when the purchase was about to fail, as usual,

the master suddenly spoke up and said what would be worded thus

--in modern English:

“I'll tell you what I'll do. I'm tired supporting these two for

no good. Give me twenty-two dollars for this one, and I'll throw

the other one in.”

The king couldn't get his breath, he was in such a fury. He began

to choke and gag, and meantime the master and the gentleman moved

away discussing.

“An ye will keep the offer open--”

“'Tis open till the morrow at this hour.”

“Then I will answer you at that time,” said the gentleman, and

disappeared, the master following him.

I had a time of it to cool the king down, but I managed it.

I whispered in his ear, to this effect:

“Your grace _will_ go for nothing, but after another fashion. And

so shall I. To-night we shall both be free.”

“Ah! How is that?”

“With this thing which I have stolen, I will unlock these locks

and cast off these chains to-night. When he comes about nine-thirty

to inspect us for the night, we will seize him, gag him, batter

him, and early in the morning we will march out of this town,

proprietors of this caravan of slaves.”

That was as far as I went, but the king was charmed and satisfied.

That evening we waited patiently for our fellow-slaves to get

to sleep and signify it by the usual sign, for you must not take

many chances on those poor fellows if you can avoid it. It is

best to keep your own secrets. No doubt they fidgeted only about

as usual, but it didn't seem so to me. It seemed to me that they

were going to be forever getting down to their regular snoring.

As the time dragged on I got nervously afraid we shouldn't have

enough of it left for our needs; so I made several premature

attempts, and merely delayed things by it; for I couldn't seem

to touch a padlock, there in the dark, without starting a rattle

out of it which interrupted somebody's sleep and made him turn

over and wake some more of the gang.

But finally I did get my last iron off, and was a free man once

more. I took a good breath of relief, and reached for the king's

irons. Too late! in comes the master, with a light in one hand

and his heavy walking-staff in the other. I snuggled close among

the wallow of snorers, to conceal as nearly as possible that I was

naked of irons; and I kept a sharp lookout and prepared to spring

for my man the moment he should bend over me.

But he didn't approach. He stopped, gazed absently toward our

dusky mass a minute, evidently thinking about something else;

then set down his light, moved musingly toward the door, and before

a body could imagine what he was going to do, he was out of the

door and had closed it behind him.

“Quick!” said the king. “Fetch him back!”

Of course, it was the thing to do, and I was up and out in a

moment. But, dear me, there were no lamps in those days, and

it was a dark night. But I glimpsed a dim figure a few steps

away. I darted for it, threw myself upon it, and then there was

a state of things and lively! We fought and scuffled and struggled,

and drew a crowd in no time. They took an immense interest in

the fight and encouraged us all they could, and, in fact, couldn't

have been pleasanter or more cordial if it had been their own

fight. Then a tremendous row broke out behind us, and as much

as half of our audience left us, with a rush, to invest some

sympathy in that. Lanterns began to swing in all directions;

it was the watch gathering from far and near. Presently a halberd

fell across my back, as a reminder, and I knew what it meant.

I was in custody. So was my adversary. We were marched off toward

prison, one on each side of the watchman. Here was disaster,

here was a fine scheme gone to sudden destruction! I tried to

imagine what would happen when the master should discover that

it was I who had been fighting him; and what would happen if they

jailed us together in the general apartment for brawlers and petty

law-breakers, as was the custom; and what might--

Just then my antagonist turned his face around in my direction,

the freckled light from the watchman's tin lantern fell on it,

and, by George, he was the wrong man!