After a time my passion subsided, and with recovered calmness I saw that my only chance of doing anything for Lucy depended on my patience and self restraint.  I waited eagerly for night.  The negro had said that he would come again, and this could only mean that Lucy had some hope of our being able between us to devise some means of escape.  The man ran a great risk; if the buccaneers heard us speaking they would discover him, and then all hope would be lost.  Fervently as I longed to hear his voice again, I was consumed with anxiety lest he should come too soon, or that by some accident, some incautious movement, he might reveal his presence.

The day passed and when I went to bed I lay in restless impatience, straining my ears to catch the slightest whisper, and starting up several times in the belief that I heard him.  At last, when all was silent save for the heavy breathing of the men outside the door, I caught the faint sound made by the pushing of the tube (a length of sugar cane, as I afterwards learned) through the hole he had bored in the double floor.  I stole noiselessly out of bed, and crept cautiously to the place beneath it.

“Is that you, Moses?” I whispered.

“Yes, massa, me’s here.”

“Is Mistress Lucy well?”

“Welly miserable, sah.  Missy say Massa Bold take care; she say ’God bless Massa.’”

Inwardly I blessed her for her thought of me; then I said: 

“We must both be careful, Moses.  Now, I must escape from this, and you must help me.”

“Yes, Massa, me want to help, but dere is no way for po’ Uncle Moses.”

“We must find a way; we must,” I said in a fierce whisper.  “Could you come up and help me if I burst open the door?  Are you strong?  Could you knock a man down?”

“Me plenty strong, sah, but what good dat?  Massa might get away, but what den?”

“Why, we could get among the trees in the darkness, and you could lead me to the road, and perhaps find me a horse, so that I could ride to Spanish Town.”

“No, no, sah, me berry much ’fraid in dark, sah.  Me shake like leaf now, sah; but in forest, wiv de bugaboos, me melt all away to water.”

I had heard of the dread with which the negroes regarded the bugaboos, the evil spirits of the woods, and knew that there was but a poor chance of escaping if my guide were in a state of panic terror.  Moses had shown unusual courage in coming alone in the darkness to the stable beneath me, and there was a tremor in his voice which showed that even now but little was wanted to make him go howling away.  I thought it best not to risk so inopportune and fatal a calamity, so I bade him go away and come again next night, by which time I hoped to have been able to think out a plan that offered reasonable prospects of success.

Chapter 24:  I Make A Bid For Liberty.