“To tell you the truth,” the planter said, “the man is a good workman, and like to an ox in his strength.  The three others were by his side, and also withstood me.  Had I laid a complaint before the governor they would all have been shot, or put on the roads to work, and I should have lost their labor.  My overseer was in the wrong, and struck one of them first, so ’twas better to say naught about the matter.  And now will you walk me to the house, where I can open the letter of the governor, and talk more of the business you have in hand.”

The instant the man had spoken Harry had recognized the voice of his old friend Jacob, and doubted not, though he had not ventured to look round, that he who accompanied him was William Long; and he guessed that hearing he had been sent with the other captives spared at the massacre of Drogheda to the Bermudas, they had come out to try and rescue him.  So excited was he at the thought that it was with difficulty he could continue steadily at his work through the rest of the day.  When at nightfall he was shut up in the hut with his companions, he told them that the Puritan they had seen was a friend of his own, a captain in his troop, and that he doubted not that deliverance was at hand.  He charged Mike at once to creep forth to join the negroes, and to bid them tell one of their color who served in the house to take an opportunity to whisper to one of his master’s guests—­for he learned that they were biding there for the night, “Be in the grove near the house when all are asleep.”  The negroes willingly undertook the commission, and Mike rejoined the party in the hut.  Two hours later Harry himself crept out through the hole, which they had silently and at great pains enlarged for the purpose, and made his way round to the grove.  There were still lights in the house, and the negroes in their hut were talking and singing.  An hour later the lights were extinguished, and soon afterward he saw a figure stealthily approaching.

“Jacob,” he whispered, as the man entered the shelter of the trees, and in another moment he was clasped in the arms of his faithful friend.  For some time their hearts were too full to speak, and then Harry leading his companion to the side of the wood furthest from the house, they sat down and began to talk.  After the first questions as to the health of Harry’s father had been answered, Jacob went on: 

“We saw by the dispatch of Cromwell to Parliament that the sole survivors of the sack of Drogheda, being one officer, Colonel Furness, a noted malignant, and thirty-five soldiers, had been sent in slavery to the Bermudas.  So, of course, we made up our minds to come and look after you.  Through Master Fleming I obtained letters, introducing to the governor the worshipful Grace-be-to-the-Lord Hobson and Jeremiah Perkins, who desired to buy an estate in the Bermudas.  So hither we came, William Long and I; and now, Harry, what do you advise to be done?  I find that the ships which leave the port are searched before they leave, and that guards are placed over them while they load, to see that none conceal themselves there, and I see not, therefore, how you can well escape in that way.  There seem to be no coasting craft here, or we might seize one of these and make for sea.”