In great elation of spirit I now took into consultation Cludde with Uncle Moses, Noah, and Jacob, all of whom I felt I could trust, because all had suffered.  I told them what I proposed, and whether it was the story I had told of the wondrous good fortune that had befallen me through the crown piece, or whether their own native courage and their thirst for revenge influenced them, I know not; but certain it is that the negroes agreed at once to follow my lead.

Considering then how the rest of my party should be made up, I decided, with the assent of Uncle Moses, to take only two more men, these being all who had fled from the Cludde estate.  I thought it better that none but those who had a personal interest in the welfare of Mistress Lucy, and who had reason to deplore the iron rule of Vetch, should be enlisted in the enterprise.  The sixth and seventh members of the expedition having been brought into the council, we talked over the details of the scheme so far as we could foresee them.  My general plan was to surprise the convoy, to conceal ourselves—­myself and Cludde—­in one of the wagons, and, thus gaining the house unsuspected, to steal our way in and then act as chance might order.

Since we knew not how we might be taxed if we should succeed in reaching the house, and a march of twenty-five miles in the heat of the day would greatly impair our energies, we decided to set off at once (this being Thursday), and spend the night in the forest at a spot not far distant from the road.  The negroes by themselves would never have consented to this plan, so great was their dread of bugaboos, but they derived courage from the companionship of white men, and, to stiffen their resolution, I told them how, when wearing the crown piece about my neck, I had escaped by night with nine companions from a place with stone walls ten feet thick.  This impressed them greatly—­Noah in particular; and in the evening, when we halted for our bivouac in the forest, he came to me holding the string on which the coin was suspended, and put it into my hand, saying: 

“Dis white man’s duppy.  Massa hab it dis time; Massa got through stone wall, get through anything.  Den I hab it again when Massa done wid it.”

I smiled and was hesitating whether to sling it round my neck or to give it back when Cludde asked me what was the meaning of this strange talk.  As I did not answer at once, Uncle Moses broke in.

“Massa gib dat silver so dat you not be burned, sah.  Noah will hab eber so much more bimeby, ’nuff to buy him free, sah.”

Cludde looked at me inquiringly.

“’Tis true, Cludde,” I said.  “I had to buy you off.”

“But I don’t understand,” he said.  “A crown piece?”

“Oh!” said I, feeling a little uneasy lest he should probe this matter of the crown piece too far, “the negro has the mind of a child.  The price of his freedom is five hundred dollars:  he wouldn’t take my word for that sum, but the sight of a coin was enough.”