brute who had come upon his young doe in her solitude, and striven with
such brutal violence to tear her heart from her bosom.
He got to his assistance early in the morning some of the constables
from St. George, and before the day was over, he was joined by two or
three of the warders from the convict establishment. There was with him
also a friend or two, and thus a party was formed, numbering together
ten or twelve persons. They were of course all armed, and therefore it
might be thought that there would be but small chance for the wretched
man if they should come upon his track. At first they all searched
together, thinking from the tidings which had reached them that he must
be near to them; but gradually they spread themselves along the rocks
between St. George and the ferry, keeping watchmen on the road, so that
he should not escape unnoticed into the island.
Ten times during the day did Anastasia send from the cottage up to
Morton, begging him to leave the search to others, and come down to her.
But not for a moment would he lose the scent of his prey. What! should
it be said that she had been so treated, and that others had avenged
her? He sent back to say that her father was with her now, and that he
would come when his work was over. And in that job of work the
life-blood of Aaron Trow was counted up.
Towards evening they were all congregated on the road near to the spot
at which the path turns off towards the cottage, when a voice was heard
hallooing to them from the summit of a little hill which lies between
the road and the sea on the side towards the ferry, and presently a boy
came running down to them full of news. “Danny Lund has seen him,” said
the boy, “he has seen him plainly in among the rocks.” And then came
Danny Lund himself, a small negro lad about fourteen years of age, who
was known in those parts as the idlest, most dishonest, and most useless
of his race. On this occasion, however, Danny Lund became important, and
every one listened to him. He had seen, he said, a pair of eyes moving
down in a cave of the rocks which he well knew. He had been in the cave
often, he said, and could get there again. But not now; not while that
pair of eyes was moving at the bottom of it. And so they all went up
over the hill, Morton leading the way with hot haste. In his waistband
he held a pistol, and his hand grasped a short iron bar with which he
had armed himself. They ascended the top of the hill, and when there,
the open sea was before them on two sides, and on the third was the
narrow creek over which the ferry passed. Immediately beneath their feet
were the broken rocks; for on that side, towards the sea, the earth and
grass of the hill descended but a little way towards the water. Down
among the rocks they all went, silently, Caleb Morton leading the way,
and Danny Lund directing him from behind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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