"Put your hands up." "Get down." "Where were you running off to?" "He was going across the river to Cincinnati, master." "He was scared to go by himself and he done made me go with him." "You lying scamp." "A flogging, Mr. Starr, will take the running out of them." "No flogging." "They're new here or they wouldn't run away." "Take them up to the old cemetery and have them pull the weeds." "Get up." "Move." "Long as I have been in Starrwood, he's never whipped a slave." "Never sold one, neither." "They sure got funny ideas up here in Kentucky." "Manty, darling." "Father, why isn't she buried over yonder with our other folks?" "Well, Manty, I told you I wanted your mother near the house, where she'd be closer to me, to you." " Oh, Shad?" " Yeah, Master Aaron?" "Manty, you go along with Shad." "Tell old Sukie to bake us a nice, big berry pie for supper." "Doesn't that sound good?" "Now, now, sweetheart, what are little girls made of?" " Sugar and spice, I guess." " And everything nice." "You run along now." "I catched you giving my berries away." "And you put her up to them tricks." "You no good, Shaddie." "That baby girl has got to eat big to grow big like me." "She's growing up." "Blooming out pretty all over." "Before you know it, someday she gonna be owning Starrwood." "Her?" "Own Starrwood?" "Yes, her." "And that's enough from you." " But she couldn't." " Shut your mouth." "No, I want to hear about it." "Shad?" " If Master Aaron finds out..." " Master Aaron?" "Him?" "Them muckety-mucks ain't nothing." "Pull off their fancy clothes and they ain't nothing different." "And Manty, what's she?" "She ain't nothing." "Ain't no better than nothing." "You get up and get yourself up out of my kitchen." "Out of my kitchen right now, before I hit you upside your..." ""No better than nothing"?" "What did he mean?" "He just crazy, that's all." " I'll ask Father." " Manty?" "Manty." "That man from Danville took Shaddie." " You sold him, you sold him away." " I had to." "Certain things have to be done." "Nobody can change them." "Now listen, honey, here's some good news." "You've sort of outgrown Starrwood and Miss Tottenham..." "I mean, your governess you've learned most everything she could teach you." "Well, you're going away to school." "First you send Shad away and now me." "I won't leave you." "I won't leave Starrwood." "I don't want you to leave me, Manty." "But this is just a little place in a great big world." "Someday you'll come back to it, Miss Amantha Starr." "A great lady with a head full of learning." "It won't be too far away." "I'll see you often." "Try to get some sleep now, honey." "Sweet little Manty, what are little girls made of?" "I don't know, Father." "I don't know." "Dear Sukie:" "You know I would write to you more often but Father comes to Cincinnati so frequently." ""And each time, I have sent my love to you." "I am now a graduate student at the conservatory not as homesick as I used to be, because I have some fine friends." "Especially the Reverend Seth Parton, he's a young Divinity student who conducts chapel for us at the conservatory." "He is so splendid and strong and earnest... "" "That child's sick." "No, I'd say she's just busting with health." ""As you know, Father will be in Cincinnati this weekend and I am taking Seth to meet him at a tea which Miss Idell my French teacher, is giving for me and some of the girls from my dormitory." "She's quite fascinating, and Father seems to think so too. "" " Doesn't she play divinely?" " If you like arias of unbridled passion." "I'm sorry, Mr. Parton, perhaps a sonata would have been more fitting." "Possibly so, Miss Idell." "Some music lifts the soul." "Some expresses a baser instinct." "Please forgive my ignorance." "There is the unsolid happiness of virtue and good works and the sanctified happiness of marriage." "Aside from these conditions, man's only true joy is self-denial." "I always thought a woman was, until I met Seth." "You should have heard his last sermon, "Plowing Under the Wicked. "" "Well, today, Amantha, I am troubled by a graver subject more than anything you heard in that sermon." "Slavery, Mr. Starr." "I declare to you, sir, my burning belief in the natural equality of all humans." "I'm not prepared for debate, sir." "But I believe you would agree that my slaves are treated kindly." "That's it, sir." "That's just it." "Kindness can be the mask for evil." "The kindness of deluded persons ensnared in the works of wickedness." "For indulgence rivets the shackle, kindness seduces the..." "The..." "I'm listening, Mr. Parton." "That is all, sir." "Truth gives pain sometimes." "That doesn't mean I lack regard for the one who might be hurt." "You don't hurt anybody, Seth." "You know how preachers give tarnation in the sermon and then shake hands when church is out." "My hand, sir." "It's been pleasant." "Good afternoon, all." "Good day, sir." "Come along, girls." "But Seth has to go and work on his new sermon." "I'm sure nobody would go to sleep when you preach, young man." "Good day." "Amantha." "Isn't he wonderful, Father?" "If you say so, Miss Sugar-and-Spice." "Big, aren't you?" "Strong as a bull, I imagine." "My strength is of the spirit, Miss Idell." "Maybe so, Seth." "But if your muscles ever get to wrestling with your spirit I'll buy a ticket to the contest." "Good day." "I'll tell Sukie how well you look." "She's asking about you all the time." "You tell her I'll write her another letter next week." "I'll tell her, honey." "Now, don't you worry, I'll see you soon." "I have to come up here again next month on business." "Thank you so much for the nice party." " Goodbye, Manty, dear." " Bye, Father." "Goodbye, dear." "Only graduates are allowed to wear their hair up." "Six years of this." "How did she ever...?" "Miss Amantha, are you ever gonna leave the conservatory?" "Amantha." "Does that answer your question?" "I'll probably be married and have quite a family before you all graduate." "Young ladies." "My dear Amantha, I've just been entrusted with a great crusade." " It'll take me all over two counties." " What is it?" "Well, I volunteered to speak in the presidential campaign of Mr. Lincoln." " I've been chosen." " Seth, what an honor." "Tonight I make my opening address at Clinton County." "I shall carry the fight to every village and crossroads." "Oh, I'm so proud of you." "Oh, I must be off or I'll miss my train." " Good luck, Seth." " Oh, my apologies." "I'm on my way to strike a blow against slavery." "Splendid." "Letter for you, Amantha." "Mail's arrived." "Mildred, Jenny." "What is it?" "It's my father." "He's terribly ill." " I'm gonna have to leave." " I'm sorry, Amantha." "Floodings are making river travel difficult." "Some of the packet boats haven't left for three days." " You'll tell Seth?" " As soon as possible." "My baby." "Oh, my baby." "My baby." "That's Amantha Starr." "Thanks, sheriff." "Too bad." "They waited." "They thought you never was coming." "Father?" "No." "No." "That's the wrong place." "He should be over there, over by my mother." "Manty, Manty, child." "Sorry I've gotta do this, folks." "All you slaves there, get your belongings together." "A judgment has been given against the estate at the courthouse." "Now, you heard what the sheriff said and I'm warning you I aim to sell all you all, vendue, dicker or cry off, every last one." "Nobody's going to sell them away from this place." " You'll find out about that, ma'am." " And who are you, if I may ask?" "Mr. Calloway's a slave dealer from Danville." "He's got the court judgment against Starrwood." " Now where's the overseer?" " I'm right here." "What do you want?" "Your Mr. Starr must've thought he was running a charity farm here." "Most of these hands ain't worth their freight." "Now, here." "Them that's on this invoice, you deliver to Franklin where I got a coffle awaiting to be shipped." "The rest of them, just drop them off at Robard's Market." "You'll do nothing of the kind." "There's some kind of mistake." "Go ahead, you do as I say." "There's been no mistake, ma'am." "Mr. Aaron Starr was the fine gentleman that kept borrowing money from me so he could go sporting over in Cincinnati." "Don't you talk about my father that way, you white trash." "I can't say I like what I gotta do but I call you all to witness." "Do you state and affirm that you go by the name of Amantha Starr?" " Certainly, that's my name." " Amantha, it is sworn and affirmed that you are the issue of the body of a slave called Louisa the chattel of Aaron Pendleton Starr, deceased." "And as her issue, you are declared by the law of this Commonwealth to be a chattel of Starrwood, subject to any claims against the estate." " My mother?" " She was a Negress." "And that means you the same strap as the rest of them slaves out yonder." "It's not true." "You're lying." "You liar!" "I know who's got it." "Overseer told me that Master Aaron give her all his bank money." "Her gotta be." "They got the plantation house too." "Miss Idell." "Miss Idell." "Miss Idell." "Put this nigger in the rig." "She's real money." "No, you can't." "I'm Amantha Starr." "You can't." "Go on." "Do like I tell you." " Please, Mr. Calloway." "She ain't no Negro." " No, a nigger's what you can sell." "I aim to sell her quicker than she can swallow her own spit." "Oh, my baby." "My baby." " Go on, you old cottontooth." "Sit down." " They're gonna sell this baby." "Hey, put her baggage in here." "All right, take off now." "Sukie?" "Sukie?" "Somebody help me." "Help me!" "Sukie." "Now, you wait here." "I'll get us a cabin." "Oh, no, you don't." "You're going all the way." "Let me through here." "Now, you settle down and stop skittering around." "You gonna find I ain't such a bad fellow to get along with." "I got us fixed up real homelike." "Now come on." "Come on!" "Come on." "Sam, get them in the pen." "All right, move on, move on in here." "Let's go." "Come on here." "Let's get in here." "Here we are." "Well, you don't have to be scared." "I ain't no hurrying man." "You just lucky it ain't some crazy young rooster gonna be sharing this here coop with you." "Put my bags in there." "I brung you a present." "Some old Doc Calloway's soothing syrup." "Guaranteed to give you the don't-care look." "If you feel like it, help yourself." "Say, you sure are put together real nice, ain't you?" "Soft and white." "Oh, you gonna bring a right pretty price from one of them dandy's in New Orleans." "You know, I'm kind of glad this is gonna be a long trip." "They'll never own me." "And you won't either." "Now, don't you get uppity." "You ain't thinking you're too good for me, are you?" "No, you just never had no man fun, that's it, ain't it?" "Is that it?" "Have you?" "Have you ever had a fellow?" "Yes." "And he'll find me, and he'll kill you." "You don't know how uppity he's gonna be killing one of the happiest men he ever seen." "Now, come here to me..." "Why, you ornery little she-cat, you done broke my hide." "But you know something?" "I kind of like that in a wench." "I used to be pretty proud of marks like that when I was a young'un." "You didn't really mean it, now, did you?" "Master Calloway?" "Master Calloway?" " Master Calloway?" " Yeah?" "Big bucks fighting like devils." " Keep an eye on her until I get back." " Yes, sir." "You better hurry, Mr. Calloway." "You better hurry." "They're gonna slice themselves up." "I'll cool you off." "So you wanna cut each other up, huh?" " I'll learn you how." " Hold on there, now." "None of that." "You wanna scar them up worse than they are?" "Now clean them up." "If the cuts don't heal fast, use some boot blacking to cover them over, you hear?" " I still say they need a good whipping." " You ought to know better than that." "Why, I couldn't even get $40 for one of them rambunctious fighting bucks." "Why, I'd be losing money." " Calloway." " Yeah?" "What price you asking for that pretty little white one you got up there?" "She's kind of personal, Mr. Simpson." "That is, until we get to New Orleans." "Open the door." "Open the door." "Master Calloway?" "Master Calloway?" " Master Calloway?" " Yeah, yeah, what's now?" " Master Calloway, she done locked me out." " She done locked you out?" "Unlock that door in there." "You open up that door or I'll whip you." "Help me over here." "Get over there." "Go and get help." "You got her?" "Put her down here." "Just take this." "Give me that whiskey there." "That'll bring her around." "Here." "Gall dang you." "I buy her and you go and you try to cheat me." "You scut, you let her die and I'll buck-batter you." "Now, you lookie here." "You done tried it once but I don't reckon you gonna try it again." "Because I ain't gonna bother you no more." "I get you a nice cabin, treat you like you was a lady but you don't seem to appreciate it." "But any more shenanigans and I'm gonna chain you to a post down there with them hot-natured blacks and I ain't gonna care what happens just so they don't bruise you too bad, you hear?" "I know, I've got money tied up in you but I'd rather let them wear a couple of hundred dollars' worth off you than to get a lot of worriment." "Give me that bag." "And I'll see you..." "I'm gonna bust them biggity notions of you on wide open." "Get them tea-party duds off of her." "Dress her like the rest in my coffle." "That'll learn you ain't such a fancy article." "Might as well get used to it." "Ain't nothing gonna change nothing." " I'll change it." " Yeah?" "Just who do you think you are, girl?" "Amantha Starr." "And nobody's gonna keep me from being free." "You think you're white, don't you?" "Whiter than me." " Well, you ain't." " You stay away from me." "Some fellow will buy you." "And what he do?" "What he then do?" "Maybe it won't be so bad." "Maybe you get something you like out of it." "One of those Frenchy fellows in New Orleans." "Maybe he buy you." "You know what he'll do?" "He'll go..." "Then you get old and it don't matter." "It don't matter what you've done had." "They sure can't take it away." "Do I hear 100?" "Going, gone." "Sold for $ 75." "Next." "Come on out, boy." "Get up there." "Stand up there." "Two hundred pounds." "Fine specimen, a fine piece of a boy." "Now, what am I offered?" "What am I bid?" " Seventy-five." " Seventy-five dollars, for this boy here?" "He's built like a bull." "Go on, boy, show them what you're made of." "Show them what your muscles are made of." "Watch him run up and down, now." "Look at him go, he run like a rabbit." "Watch that boy." "Look at that specimen." "Look at those shoulders on that boy." " All right, last time." "Now, what are my bids?" " One hundred." "One hundred, 100 is bid." "Now, do I hear 125?" " Get up here, boy." " One hundred twenty-five." " Do I hear 150?" " One hundred fifty." " One fifty." " One fifty is bid." " Do I hear 175?" " One seventy-five." "One seventy-five has been taken." " Do I hit 200?" " Two hundred." "Going, going, gone." "Sold for 200 dollars." " Next." "Come up, get up here." " Come here." "Come here." "You ruin my sale and I'll break you down to $5 worth, you hear?" "Get up there." "Now, ladies and gentlemen, a flower of Kentucky in the bloom of youth." "But why go into details about something fit to ornament a drawing room?" "You ladies and gentlemen have eyes, especially you, gentlemen." "Now, I don't misrepresent." "For the fact, she has colored blood." "But it couldn't be more than a miser's dram if indeed, ladies and gentlemen, that much." "Just a moment." "All the same, I'm going to examine her." "Why, certainly, sir." "Anybody's free to look before bidding." "You'll see perfection." "Note the make of the leg and the splendid conformation." "I bid $5000." " Did I hear 5000?" " You did." "You mean you wanna start the...?" "Oh, it's you, sir." "According to what you say, she's a bargain at $5000, isn't she?" "Oh, why, sure enough." "Now, who's game to bid against this gentleman?" "I reckon that you all know him and I consider it an honor..." "I still intend to have a look at her." "Turn around." "This way." "Perhaps you better tell him the rules of the auction." "Yes, sir." "No inspection of the property is permitted after the first bid, sir." " Do you expect me to bid sight unseen?" " No." "I don't expect you to bid at all." "It's my opinion that you got into the Rue Royale by mistake while looking for Gallatin Street where things are free and easy." " Mostly free." " Are you calling me a cheapjack?" "I must be." "I don't see any others around here." "Then I demand satisfaction." "I have seen brave-talking cowards like you before..." " Hamish Bond, why didn't you tell me?" " I've been trying to." "If you get his dander up, you'll find yourself in a pine box." "And you wouldn't be the first one either." "Sorry." "Please proceed." "Thank you, sir, thank you." "I have 5000." "Five." "Five thousand." "Mr. Hamish Bond offered 5000." "He invites you to bid against him." "I have five, five, five." "I have 5000." "Is Mr. Bond's bid a little too steep for you?" "Well, it usually is." "But that's no disgrace to mortal man." "Sold for $5000 to Mr. Hamish Bond." "Charge to my account and send her papers to my house." "What do they call you?" " Manty." " Come on, Manty." "All right, boy." "Now, come on." "Come on, get up here, boy." "Take a look at this specimen, ladies and gentlemen." "Look at this boy." "Two hundred and twenty-five pounds." "A big, strong worker." "You needn't put me in the center room." "Just put me with the rest of the slaves." "Follow Michele." "Hot water will be sent up to you for your bath and also your supper." "Like a prisoner in a cell." "I think he's horrible, with his iron bars and his iron gate." "I think it's the outside he wants to keep out." "I don't believe he gives much thought to the inside of this house." " Oh, yes." "He's thinking about his $5000." " He has many thousands of dollars." "And he thinks that's all it takes to own a woman her name on a piece of paper, like an animal's." "Well, he can buy her, all right." " But he can never own her, her feelings." " And her heart?" "You think monsieur wouldn't be receiving full value without that?" "Many ladies have worn their hearts on their sleeves for him, free women of quality." "Free." "That word one hears it so often these days." "Especially from the North." "I have friends up there." "Maybe you could help me get in touch with them?" "I'm sorry, ma petite." "There's nothing I can do." "Well, he need never know." "If you're afraid of him, of what he might do." "I, afraid of Monsieur Hamish?" "Well, you're a slave aren't you?" "Don't you ever think of escape?" "Oh, I see." "Oh, at night, do not forget to arrange the netting against the mosquitoes." "The season is upon us." " What are you doing?" " It is not a prison cell as you said." "No, it's worse." " What am I gonna do?" " You will live, ma petite." "Michele." "Would you care to sit down?" "Monsieur is kind, but it is not necessary." "Well, I declare." "What are you looking for?" "Looks like somebody needs my gri-gri loving potion." "Pour it in coffee, pour it in rum." "Make Master Hamish crawl like a hound dog." "Make him moan for his new gal." "What's the matter?" "Don't you love nobody?" "Then you better try my gri-gri." "Then you love somebody." "Make you sit up and purr like a little pussy kitten." "Dollie, get to work." "Well, seems I was right." "You still live." "Like any other captive." "Monsieur Hamish send you an invitation to dine with him downstairs any evening you wish." "No, thank you." "You tell him if I ever come down, it'll be to go to the slave quarters." "That was smart." "Tease him like a catfish swimming around a worm." "And wait till he gets itchy." "And then he'll get a little bite and grab so hard he'll break his pole." "What were we saying?" "Nothing, monsieur." "Nothing for quite a while." "I believe I was about to mention I like that gown you're wearing." "You paid for it, just as you did for me." "Please, don't use that as a weapon against me." "You know, I know better than most men that money is no cure-all." "I used to think it was." "I used to think it would open the door to friendship and other essentials more important than power." "I used to believe it was everything." "A drug for loneliness, a painkiller for certain memories." "Well, the whole apothecary shop for every problem of life." "What would you know about problems?" "I learned about yours from your papers." "Kentucky." "Your father." "And my mother?" "My pedigree?" "There's quality in it." "More than in some thoroughbreds I've seen." "Good to see you." "I've placed the bills of sale for cotton on your desk." "The price goes high on the English market since Louisiana and the others seceded." "President Lincoln makes no move to blockade the ports." "He's a wise man." "He says he can't control events, that events control him." "They're building up, Rau-Ru, like a bonfire waiting for the torch." " The world is full of fools." " Of all colors, monsieur." "The cry for freedom is in the air like a rising wind." "Slaves have already gone wild on many plantations." "But not at Pointe du Loup?" "No, it is serene." "People don't usually try to kill kindness." "All the same, I'd better go up there." "As soon as I can get the rate of exchange confirmed at the bank here." "You know the cotton market is bound to rise." "I want you to stay in New Orleans and watch it." "Keep everything in the storehouse until we get the price we figured on, then ship it out quick." "Oh, this is Rau-Ru." "Perhaps you've heard of him?" "I've heard about her, monsieur." "Michele told me." "Monsieur would probably rather discuss his business in the morning." "Good night, Rau-Ru." "He's a high-stepper, isn't he?" "That's why they call him "Big Bond's High-Stepper. "" "He gets off the sidewalk for nobody." "No constable or paddy roll ever stopped him." "No steamboat captain ever asked to see his pass." " Because he's Big Bond's boss Negro." " And what am I?" "All your others know their duties." "What are mine?" "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable." "Why did you buy me?" "Because you were on the slave block, somebody else was bound to bid you in." "I saw a fellow with laced cuffs putting his hands on you." "I hate lace cuffs." "I wouldn't recommend the streets of New Orleans at night." "Not for a girl with your looks." "Hey, that is a pretty gown." "And you set it off too." "Oh, that reminds me, I told Michele to take you shopping with her sometime when she goes." "We'll put some beauty and fashion in this old house." "Well, so you can smile." "Well, I didn't think you could, but I caught you red-handed at it." " You done seen the big k'la, Rau-Ru?" " He's just another slave." "He ain't gonna be a slave for long." "Soon he be the high muckety-muck." "Soon he be the master." "And Hamish Bond gonna be toting for him." "You're crazy." "Won't be long now till nobody say "come" and nobody say "go. "" "No, Lord, gonna be parlor time, gonna be rocking-chair time." "Sit in the parlor, rock and fan." "A feather-fan, this Lord's child." "Soldiers coming down soon from the North." "Soldiers toting freedom." "Dripping freedom like sweat on a hot day." "Then Rau-Ru, he gonna be king of Pointe du Loup." "You purr pretty for him, honey gal, maybe you get to be his queen." "I'm white." "Get out of this room!" "Get out!" "It is nice." "It's been a long time since I..." " I do like it." " Michele?" "And here is another one." "I am sure mademoiselle would adore it." " Who is she?" " Her father is a planter a friend of Monsieur Bond." "It's easy to see she is a lady of quality." "From Paris, Manty." "And it's just your size." "But I've already selected two." "But three is lucky, so they say." "All right." "Would you please select a traveling case for mademoiselle?" "And place this in it along with the other purchases." "Perhaps lucky for both of us." "Oh, a grand lady, nobody could ever doubt it." "And now, if you'll excuse me for a little while, ma petite." "Here, take this money, buy whatever your heart desires." "You really do love him, don't you?" "Come along, boy, I'll miss my boat." "I'll give you a dollar if you hurry." " Oh, Rau-Ru." " Mademoiselle." "That boy is so plum lazy, I'll never get home." "Run along, run along." "Well, don't fiddle around like that other boy." "Come along." "At your service, mademoiselle." "So you had to set your spies on me." "Why didn't you just lock me up and be done with it?" "Is that Manty's?" "Take it to her room." "You know, that's a very becoming frock." "We are putting style in this old house, aren't we?" "Don't talk to me about this house, I hate it." "And I hate you." "I thought you had some decency, but you haven't." "Setting that pet overseer of yours to watch me." "I like the chapeau too." "I bought it to run away in, you hear?" "I was about to get on a steamboat if it hadn't been for that Rau-Ru." "Well, this slave's not gonna do you any good, master." "Because I'm getting out of here, come hell and brimstone." "And you'll never see hide nor hair of me again." "And you better tell that man to give you back your $5000." "Open the hatch." "Let down the plank, you son of a sea-going rum scut or I'll ram your craw with eels." "Let him in." "You get back to the ship, if you can find the way." " Jimmee, I've come aboard." " Well, Boatswain Canavan." "I'd be thanking you to call me captain, which is me true station now." "And master of that old black coffin, the Argosy." "It's all dressed up, you are nowadays." "And softer than a toad's belly." "Oh, well, grab the capstan and brace yourself." "Oh, so that's what it is, is it?" "All right now." "Hey!" "Hey, stop it, man." "Stop it." "Holy rattlesnakes." "You're breaking my bottle arm." "Jimmee, this fat pudgy old porpoise needs building up." "Cook him a turkey and stuff it with rabbit." "Aye, and a few steaks smothered with chops." "We'll drink to the old days and the finest rum of islands." "'Tis a sweet belch that rum gives you." "What easy wind in a thousand ports, all across the blinking world." "I remember well the first day you ever came to this gaudy, wicked city." "Correct me if I'm falsifying you." "You were carrying your sea bags and stopping every now and then for whiskey and fighting in dives and emporiums." "Steady as you go, boatswain." "Then we staggered our way up to the portholes of a bank." "'Tis 4:00 in the afternoon and the hatches was batten." "So we locked arms, stepped off a few paces then charged like Pampas bulls." "And we kept on charging till we cracked the blockage of the portholes of the great sultan of the house." "Do you remember what you said to him?" "You said, "Me name's Hamish." "And I'm a captain from the ocean seas." "And I wish to deposit in your forts the modest sum of $2 million. "" "Those two bags that you had been carrying through the dives of Sodom and Gomorrah for two nights and a day you opened them up and twirled like a whirling dervish till you buried him up to his starting eyeballs in gold notes." "Rau-Ru, come here." "Boatswain." "It's good to see you, monsieur." "Sure, you've grown up a foot since I saw you last." "Do you remember the old days?" "The jolly and old sailing days?" " I'll never forget them." " You won't?" "Then sing us a chantey, lad." "Good night." "Good night, Rau-Ru." "Good night." "Good night." "There's a wee breeze." "A wee, wee, trifling breeze." "But it might turn into a wind." "So I best be getting back and look to the..." "Mooring of me ship." "If you ever need the old boatswain, ask any seaman bound for the islands." "They're all me friends." "The whole wide world's me friend." " Bye, captain." " No, you devil." "You darn near crippled that one." "Take this, 'tis closer to me heart." " Steady as you go, captain." " Goodbye." "Sounds like the gales we used to get off Rio Pongo." "I've seen them all:" "Cape Verde, Cape Saint Maria Sierra Leone and the Bight of Benin." " You sailed to all those places?" " Yes, and a thousand more." "Or maybe it wasn't me at all." "Maybe it was that other fellow, the fellow I used to be." "He wasn't a bad sort." "Young, hungry, until he got his first ship." "And then more ships, until he had a whole fleet of them." "At first I was just a mate." "The skipper tried to beat me once." "Just once." "I took his ship and I took his name, Hamish Bond." "That old seadog who came here tonight brought it all back to me like it was yesterday." " Who are you then?" " Never mind what my name was." "You talk about freedom, you think I've got freedom?" "I got a past I'd like to forget but I can't run away from it no more than you can run away from what you are." "Ma petite, we must pack." "We're going to the upriver plantation, Pointe du Loup." "You'll like it up there away from the city." "We used to go there more often than now." "You mean you and..." "But I was of no importance." "No real importance." "No woman ever was." " What is it like at Pointe du Loup?" " Oh, it's beautiful up there." "But he sees no beauty nothing but some secret trouble which is always with him." "The Golden Fleece leaves at noon, Michele." "See that the others are ready." "Send Dollie to help Manty with her packing." "Very well, monsieur." "Now, as I said, Manty I don't think we can run away from ourselves." "But everybody deserves a chance to try." "And I guess I'm the only one who can give you your chance." "When I get off the boat at Pointe du Loup you'll continue all the way upriver to Cincinnati." "You mean I'll be free?" "As free as anyone can be if you can make it to the North before the South starts a shooting war." "The darn fools." "They can't win." "Or maybe they can." "I guess down in my heart I'll always be what I was." "Just a damn Yankee skipper." "All aboard." "We're going to the land of honey." "Cotton-picking bucks up there baying at the moon, waiting for Dollie, gal." " There they are." " All Master Bond's people." "Well, this is the plantation." "Here's where I leave you." "All arrangements have been made for you." "Captain Simmons will take you to my business representative in Cincinnati." "He'll see that you have comfortable accommodations and ample funds." "Goodbye." "Goodbye, Manty." "Listen, forget everything." "Everything that's happened." "Forget me." "Hamish!" "Well, Manty." "Well, I'll be darned." "Jimmee, bring her baggage!" "Lord, there's gonna be trouble to come." "I done seen it in the tea cup." "I done dreamed of big trouble at Pointe du Loup." "All stirred up by a half-white gal, high-juiced and sweet-smelling." "I'm glad you came to Pointe du Loup." "Come on, I'll show you around the old place." "That's all Pointe du Loup." "All the way to the river." "Five miles of fields and meadows to the north and 3000 acres of cane and cotton to the south." "Oh, it's a grand place." "And just as beautiful as Michele told me." "They're having a juba-pat." "It gives them a good excuse when I come home." "Home?" "They say you have other plantations." "A bunch of cotton camps." "Lint stations, I call them." "But here at Pointe du Loup, built in 1789 it's special." "Sort of peaceful." "Far from memories." "They're never far away." "I didn't mean yours, I meant mine." "My father, Starrwood." "Did they ever exist, I wonder?" "I think you better go inside now." "I'm expecting a visit from a neighbor of mine." "Oh, I see." "It would be difficult to present Miss Manty, wouldn't it?" "Wait, Manty." "Manty." "You've got it backwards." "I don't think Charles de Marigny is good enough to present to you." " Who is he?" " Oh, he's a blue blood all right." "But I always figured it was better to be a man than a gentleman." "My tread is as light as thistledown." "I get quite an intimate view of life that way." "I heard about you in New Orleans." "One usually suffers a disillusionment on facing the reality, but not this time." "It was a poverty of words which tried to describe you." "Monsieur seems to be using a lot of words to discuss nothing." "Always lucky, aren't you?" "If I'd been there, I'd have outbid you." "Get on with it, Charles, what brings you here?" "We've kicked the Yankees out of Fort Sumter." "The war is on, Hamish." "The North will try to bleed us to ruination." "At my plantation, I'm threatened with a loss of everything with all this freedom fever." "The runaways banding together, raiding out of the swamps." "They plundered my stores and run off my livestock." "You used the whip and the hot iron too much." "Please, this is no time to be smug about your own well-being." "I want you to use your influence with my Negroes, Hamish." "They'll listen to you." "No." "I'd have to give them my own word and I can't trust you to keep it." "I resent that." "I could call you to account for it." "Oh, yes, I know your ability with a dueling pistol." "But don't bank on it with me." "I believe I'd rather beat you at something that would really hurt you." "Your vanity, your pride and power." "Do you forbid me to see her, Hamish?" "No." "I consider her free." "A guest in this house." "You treat her any other way at your own risk." "Good day, Hamish." "Michele." "Pack a few things for me, please." "I'm going to Belle Helene plantation for a few days." "Very well, monsieur." "Oh, Rau-Ru, it's good to see you." "We hear there's great trouble in New Orleans." "Their days are numbered." "Farragut's gunboats are hammering them." "They're burning cotton on the wharfs to keep the Yankees from getting it." "It's the beginning of the end for them." "Where's Monsieur Hamish?" "He's been away for quite a while now." "Buying the Belle Helene plantation, and drawing up plans to make it a grand place again." "You're living in a fool's paradise around here." "With the Northerners at the gates, he still wants to live in grand style." "A palace for our little princess." "Isn't Pointe du Loup good enough for her?" "I believe she's enjoying it here." "According to that snooping Dollie Charles de Marigny has been teaching her the minuet." "Charles de Marigny?" "French poetry." "A gift, no doubt, from Monsieur Charles." "That perfumed peacock." "You deluded little coquette." "Don't you know his reputation?" "Every slave he owns is scarred by the whip." "People of our blood, of your blood." "I don't want to hear about it." "Gives you a sense of power, doesn't it?" "White men dancing attendance." "But it still isn't freedom." "Freedom's a white word." "And the fact is, you and I, aside from being male and female, are exactly alike." "No identity beyond the confines of Monsieur Hamish's protection." "I chose his protection." "And I'm content with it." "You're ungrateful." "He's raised you like a son." "Even broke the law to educate you and you hate him." "I hate him for his kindness." "That's worse than the rawhide." "When a man uses a whip, you know what there is to fight against." "But this kindness, it's a trap that can hold you in bondage forever." " It isn't bondage." " It's the worst kind." "You keep trying to cross the white line." "You keep building your hopes for marriage with Monsieur Hamish or Charles and you'll find your place is with your own people." "Get out." "Close the door." "Well, Manty, what's the word from Hamish?" "There's been no word lately." "I'm surprised to see you." "I supposed by now you'd be in the gallant uniform of the Confederacy." "Cotton is my contribution, Manty." "Our president, Jeff Davis, says us planters must double our crops." "Cotton is money for the South." " Here, have a brandy with me." " No, thank you." "My dear Manty, this reserve of yours will accomplish nothing." "What has to be will be." "Indeed, it has been too long delayed already." "Listen, you know what I say is true, Manty." "You know, the time has come." "Now, we'll take a little ride and stop by my plantation house." " I'll call Rau-Ru." " What good will that do?" "He puts his hand on a white man, he'd be killed." "And so will Hamish Bond if he challenges me." "Oh, listen, Manty, you're wasting your life away with him." "You've never really known what life can be like, have you?" "Don't you want to know?" "Unless, of course, you've been behind his back with that fancy black fellow of his." "Now, now, now." "Now, look here." "Now, in just a second, I'll take my hand off your mouth." "You won't scream." "You don't really want to scream, do you, Manty?" "No, that's not what you want at all." "Stop it." "Stop!" "He'll be all right." "I'll get word to Hamish." "If I see him, I'll kill him." " You wouldn't." " Yes, I would." "He did this to me." "He created it." "He made me believe I was a person with pride and dignity." "Now it's destroyed me." "But I'll live to kill him for that." "Go quick, Rau-Ru, before he gets word to the sheriff." "Nothing but swamps out there for 30 miles." " Well, that's a fitting place for him to die." " Come on." "Let's go." "Come on." "Hamish." "Yes, I know." "I heard." "The doctor says Charles will be all right after a little rest." " He's been sleeping." " When he wakes up, let me know." "I'm quite awake, Hamish." "I put the sheriff and his hounds onto that Rau-Ru of yours." "I want to see the look on your face when they bring him in." "They'll never bring him in." "But take a good look at my face anyhow." "Stand over there." " No." "Don't." " Stand over there." "You're a fool, Hamish." "I could outshoot you on any terms." "Yes, you probably could, under the shallow meadows in New Orleans with a seconds watching and the referee counting." "You'd cut a dashing figure there." "You make a picture in your mind of how grand you'd look killing a man." "But here it's different." "Just the three of us alone." "Your face mussed up by a Negro with the woman you wanted watching you fight scared." " Give me a pistol." " Let's not hurry things." "I've known you a long time." "A man doesn't kill an old friend fast." "It's taken me 15 years." "I guess I can wait a minute longer and watch you sweat while I tell you just how I'm going to kill you." " Give me that pistol." " I'm not fast, Charles, but I'm sure." "Oh, you'll hit me but I'll still be taking my time." "You'll try to finish me quick between the eyes or in the heart and you'll miss." "And then I'll nail you." "You know that." "You know when I set my head on doing a thing, I do it." "Yeah, all the time, I'll be aiming right at your guts." "A nice big target." "And I'll need it because I'm not as expert as you." "But I don't have to be because the deepest thing in you is a coward." "And you can see yourself now lying on the floor bleeding like a stuck hog." "How does it feel, Charles, to know just what's going to happen to you?" "Give me the pistol." "Look at your hand, it's twitching." "Not much, but enough." "So now I guess we'll start." "Pick it up." "I'll wait for you." "You just take your shot anytime you can." "All the time, I'll be aiming at your insides." "You can cock it while I count to three." "Slow." "One." "Suppose I..." "Suppose I refuse to shoot?" "You won't refuse, you're not that kind of a coward." "You'd be afraid not to shoot because you're a strutter and a braggart and Manty's watching you." " Two." " No, Hamish." "No." " Oh, so you want to save him?" " No, it's not that, I loathe him." "Well, it's up to him." "If he wants, he can walk out that door and never come back." "That is, if he's coward enough." "And I think he is." "I did a bad thing to you, Manty." "I guess I knew all the time, way back, it would turn out like this." "I just let it happen." "No, worse than that, I brought it on." "You know what I'm talking about." "I let him hang around you because I wanted to prove something." "I wanted to prove that I could still hold onto somebody I loved." "And I guess I had to know just what you'd do." " Do you hate me for it, Manty?" " Oh, Hamish." "Hamish." "Sir." "Captain Parton." "I commend you on the progress of your Negro recruiting." "You're managing a difficult job extremely well." "Thank you, General Butler, sir." "It has long been a task dear to my heart to further equality among the brethren of all mankind." "Laudable idea, captain." "And I'll see that they're pressed into the thick of battle with equal burial rights." "Good day." "Fall in line here." " How many did you bring in?" " Forty." " All right." "What's your name?" " Rau-Ru." " Got a last name?" " Ponce de León." "Mr. Bond, I've gotten word all the planters are in the parish." "Union troops are heading up this way." "We're going to burn our fields and storehouses tonight." "We won't leave a solitary cane stalk, or cotton bale for those Yankee thieves." "I'm not gonna set fire to mine." "Maybe you had a point there." "Damn Yankee General Butler's handed down an order." "Anybody destroys property, he'll hang." " Butler." " That's right." "The one that's been rawhiding New Orleans." "I'll help burn your field, Mr. Stuart, and you can help me burn mine." "I knew damn well, sir, you would never take an order from any man." "He just burned out his whole life." "You've been hurt badly." "No, that's an old scar." "Everything is going to be all right, Manty." "We'll find it somewhere." "But you'll never marry me, will you, Hamish?" "I wonder if you'd marry me." "You know, that's like the night we took the village." "What village?" "Oh, I don't remember the name." "If ever I knew it." "But it was burning." "Bodies around." "Sometimes they'd split open a head and run a hand in the man still trying to crawl." " Where?" "Africa, up in the Rio Pongo." "I was in the nigger business." "I was in it in a large way, if I may say so without pompous boasting." "You mean the slave trade?" "Yeah." "They called me Captain Strike Down." "There was a time when I was right proud of that name." "Well, a man has to be proud of something." "But don't get the idea that it was all white man's wickedness." "My chief partner was Old Gezo a black king who drank rum out of gold-mounted skulls while the buzzards sat around waiting for him to start to slaughter." "Yup, Old Gezo and his tribe left nothing alive once they raided a village." "Well, nothing that is but the good ones, which I had to pay hard cash for." "And when the unfits were called out for the buzzards we'd truss the captives to poles and march them through the jungle to the coast." "The ones that couldn't stand the march Gezo and his cutthroats would feed to the sharks behind the reef." "The rest were put in barricades until I can haul them out to my ship." "And what went on in that prison, a thousand locked up that way they sounded like dogs, moon howling and moaning." "You?" "I can't believe it." "Not you." "But that was nothing to what went on in the ship." "I can still hear them." "The puking and the screaming and the praying." "Packed into slave shelves with hardly any turning room." "Like herring in a barrel of salt." "I ran the British blockade with a price on my head and smuggled them into the West Indies." "You know, slaving wasn't illegal in those days." "It wasn't what you might say Christian neither, was it?" "But I didn't make this world." "I didn't even make myself." "And if the Creator didn't like it, he should have done the world a favor and sunk those hellish ships under the sea along with the whole black coast." "Kindness." "Michele, Rau-Ru they all believed you were kind." "And I tried to be." "I tried to make up for it." "But you still know how to torture, don't you?" "Why did you have to tell me this?" "Because you wondered why I wouldn't marry you." "I would, Manty, if you could have taken the truth about me." "You know, I had plans for us." "Leave all this behind." "Step out to the Indies, where I still have some holdings." "But that wouldn't work now." "That drop of blood you got in you would never stop despising me." "You'd always hate me, like Rau-Ru." "You said he wanted to kill me." "Nope." "There's no place for you here." "Or anywhere with me." "That's gold." "Not a lot because I put nigh all I had into Confederate." "This paper will show you that you're a freed woman." "Keep you from getting picked up by the Yankees." " Hamish..." " Wherever you go I don't want to know where it is, you understand?" "I don't ever want to know where you are." "You know, I always liked that hat on you." "Monsieur Hamish, sending her away was not from your heart." " Why did you do it?" " I had to give her a chance." "Maybe she'll find it in the white world." "Soldiers, they're coming." "Wearing blue." "Pretty soldiers marching." "Time for darkies to sing and dance." "Burst out the barrel." " Lay on the ground and roll for sweetness." " Hallelujah." "Stretch the mouth and pour rum till it comes out of your ears like a bung bust." " Praise the Lord." "Praise the Lord." " Lay on the ground and roll for freedom." "Freedom?" "If they only knew." "Butler's confiscating slaves not liberating them." "He's relocating them on carpetbagging plantations where the Yankees will use their whip and pay no wages." "If we could live another 100 years, we'd probably see white justice for blacks." "We'd know by then that men don't make history but are shaped by history, and history takes its time." "Get my slaves out of here before Butler's buzzards come." "Take all the provisions in the storehouse." "You'll find horses and wagons in the barn." "If you see Rau-Ru, tell him this place is his." "I put it in the records years ago." "Make way for General Butler." "Make way for the general, folks." "What a pretty little confederate." "You Yankee pig." "General Order Number 28." "It is hereby ordered that if any female of New Orleans by word, movement or gesture would insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States..." ""She shall be regarded and treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation." "By command of Major General Butler. "" "Well..." "Hey, lookie." "She's doing very well with her lessons." "I'll be back next Thursday." "Ma's home cooking was never like that." "Real Southern-fried chicken." "Watch this." "So you're afraid a Yankee might crash against you, huh?" "Well, that's an insult." "You bear my witness." " Right, corporal." " We seen it." "You could learn some decent manners." "Well, you're no better than a hooker." "You're no better than those slat-busters following General Hooker's army." " Why...?" " Corporal, attention." "Sir, I was acting under General Order 28." "It doesn't authorize you to commit mayhem on ladies." "She insulted me and I was trying to arrest her." "You'll probably get a chance to explain that under court-martial." "You saw her show contempt for me like it says on the order, didn't you?" "That's right, sir." "She insulted Corporal Daggett." "Besides that, she slapped his mouth." "Corporal Daggett?" "You're in my regiment aren't you?" "Yes, sir." "You and these two privates will report to me this evening." "Yes, sir." "Miss, you may be called upon to make a statement." "Oh, no." "Please, lieutenant." "I don't want to make any trouble, just let him go." "It's no trouble, it'll just be routine." "I think I better escort you wherever you're going." " I was on my way home." " Permit me." " The others who burned their fields?" " Company C's got some of them, sir." "But there's no trace of that Hamish Bond." "His plantation is deserted." "They'll get him now that General Butler's offered bounty money for him." "Well, get on with this job." "Monsieur Hamish." "Jimmee?" " So you joined that band of angels?" " Yes, monsieur." "But to me, you are still the master of the land." "And I knew you'd be heading this way for your old Belle Helene plantation." " You were right, Jimmee." " I put everything there that you need." "I stole it from the Yankees." " You got Manty away safely?" " She's all right." "Thanks, Jimmee." "Seen anything since we grabbed this burned-down half of Louisiana?" "I heard some noises going through over there." "I kept praying that wasn't Hamish Bond." "Come on." " The little bouquets were just as nice, Ethan." " Everything's been nice." "These last few weeks have been my happiest since I left home." "Does there happen to be a very lonely girl back there?" "You underestimate me, there were several." "But I can honestly say that absence did not make the heart grow fonder." "Fickle Yankee." "I'll see to it that you don't break my heart." "Amantha, you're the heartbreaker, Oh, yes, you are." "With you, I could so easily forget that I'm in the Army." "That I'm even a Yankee." "Indeed, I almost forgot what brought me here this afternoon." "Dreary bit of rules and regulations." "I'll have to ask you to sign this complaint against those three soldiers." " Oh, must I?" " There's nothing to it." "I've taken the liberty of answering the questions for you." ""Amantha Starr." "23-A St. Louise Street." "Music teacher. " Age...?" "You once referred to me as a gentleman so naturally I followed my own inclinations on that question." "Now, let's see. "Sex:" "Female." "Color:" "White. "" "Yes, I believe that's all." "Anything wrong, Amantha?" "No." "No." " Do I have to sign it?" " Well, if you don't Corporal Daggett will stay in the guardhouse for the rest of the war." "I put him there and preferred the charges personally." "Is there any happiness in this world, I wonder for anybody?" "The way I'm looking at the future, there will be." "Our future." "Us, Amantha." "But of a more immediate nature, there's Colonel Morton's party tonight." " Had you forgotten that I'm your escort?" " No, I haven't forgot." "And a proud night it'll be for Lieutenant Sears." "They can have all those gold epaulets on their shoulders I'll have Amantha on my arm." "I'll call for you at 8." " Good evening, Ethan." " Don't you ever rest, captain?" "There aren't sufficient hours in the day to aid one's humble effort towards the ends of human justice." "But it seems you've taking your ease in large doses lately." "A somewhat troubled ease, Seth." "As one friend to another, I don't mind saying that I'm..." "Well, I'm in love with a certain charming young lady." "I sympathize with you." "Especially tonight." "Colonel Morton has requested that you escort Mrs. Morton to the dance." "What?" "But I've already made arrangements with..." " With the lady I mentioned." " The colonel's been called to Baton Rouge." "And you know Mrs. Morton." "She'd have us all shot at sunrise if she'd missed one dreary waltz." "Well, then you take her." "Please." "Fortunately, not a candidate for the honor." "I have a theological right leg and a most-dogmatic left leg." "Both unschooled in frivolities." " Please do this for me." "Be a good friend." " I'm sorry, Ethan." "You are smitten, aren't you?" "Who is this light of love?" "You can find out by reading that document, Captain Parton." "Corporal Daggett case, sir." " Amantha Starr." " What did you say?" "I was about to say, I'd see Mrs. Morton to the dance for you." "Seth." "Thanks." "Mrs. Morton, may I present Miss Amantha Starr." "Miss Starr." "Well, congratulations, Ethan." "She's perfectly lovely." "My goodness, I don't think any gentleman has ever flattered me so much as you have tonight." "How, Mrs. Morton?" "By requesting your friend, the captain, to save practically all of my dances for you." "Did you...?" "I mean, did I, Mrs. Morton?" "With pleasure, dear Ethan." "There seems to be some mistake." "Amantha, I should like you to meet my friend." "My most true and faithful, Captain Seth Parton." "Ethan." "Seth." "Seth." " Amantha?" " Please, Miss Amantha." "She's indisposed, gentlemen." "For months, I've been looking for you." "Long ago, I came across some information that you were in New Orleans." "I used to hope you'd try to find me." "Has it all been unhappy, Amantha?" "No, not quite all." "Of course, when I lost Father, everything changed." "Once I went north to try to find you, Seth." " Something changed that too." " And you're still fighting for your beliefs." "In my humble way." "Well, you still believe in the equality of all peoples, regardless of color." "Well, my beliefs remains firm, Amantha." "Although tempered somewhat with a larger knowledge of life." "You're still the same." "A little more worldly perhaps." " But you're still Seth Parton." " Oh, Seth?" "You're too frugal with the wine, please give that punch some real authority." "We must talk soon, and alone." "Away from this." "Perhaps tonight." " Who is it?" " Seth, Amantha." " I had to see you, Amantha." " Why, it's awfully late, Seth." "Yes, it seems I'm always late." "My arrival in New Orleans for instance." "Will you...?" "Will you excuse me for a moment?" "My dress." "That's right." "I wouldn't wish Ethan to think I made an untimely intrusion." " I think he hopes to marry you, Amantha." " Oh, did he tell you that?" "Oh, I was a fool." "That nonsense I used to spout." "Self-denial, man's only true joy." "For which I received the usual reward of all noble idiots." "I lost you." "I lost you to others." "Now, you really are being foolish, Seth." "I lost you because I was a fool." "I lost you to a man named Hamish Bond." "I've heard of his hiding place." "Questioned slaves he held." "Amantha, you were his mistress." "Listen, Manty." "Did you expect to deceive Ethan by falsifying that document?" "By the lie that you're white?" "I know him well, his family." "What they'd fight for and what they'd take into their home are two different matters." "What if he knew that you're a Negress?" "But he need never know, Manty." "I'll tell him nothing." "Nothing at all, if..." "Stop it, Seth." "Don't!" "You hypocrite!" "Manty!" "Manty!" "Forgive me, Manty." "Please forgive me." "I bid $5000." "Mr. Hamish Bond offered 5000." "He invites you to bid against him." "I have five, five, five." "I have 5000." "Sold for $5000 to Mr. Hamish Bond." "Charge to my account and send her the papers to my house." "What do they call you?" " Manty." " Come on, Manty." "Come in." "Sit down." "That's your old place over there when Hamish Bond gave his orders from this chair." "I hope you didn't expect to find him here, mademoiselle." " Things have changed." " I see." " You in the master's place." " Everything has changed." "I hear you've been doing very well on the white side of the line." "Now you come crawling back here." "You detest me, don't you?" "Because I was the cause of their putting the hounds on you at Pointe du Loup." "I don't hold that against you." "It's the lie you've been living that I despise." "Pick up that light." "I said pick it up." "Hold it close into your face and look right into it." " Why, what do you want?" " Nothing except just to look at you." "How does it feel with the light in your face not seeing anything but the light and the darkness beyond you?" "Knowing I'm over here, but you can't see me?" "Knowing I'm looking at you all the time?" "A woman who denied her own people." "A woman who cast her lot with Hamish Bond, the man who bought her." " He was good to you." " That was the worst." "The soft talk, the confidences." "Yeah." "If I am ever lucky enough to deliver him to the hangman it will be you who helped put him there." "Why didn't you go on your way north?" "Why did you jump the boat at Pointe du Loup?" "Why did you stay on as Hamish Bond's woman denying freedom to be the mistress of a slave holder?" "If you hadn't, much might be different now." "Maybe he'd have a friend somewhere who'd be helping him to live rather than wanting to see him die." "But I guess all the fires of retribution are not in the hereafter." "You've suffered and so has he." "And I always will, with him or without him." "There always will be the fires, the memories because I love him." "He's the only man I ever loved or ever will." "And I'll keep on living a white life from now on." "Rau-Ru?" "Rau-Ru?" "Sergeant, General Butler, he thinks he knows where old Hamish is hiding." " Where?" " Belle Helene." "Somebody seen a spooky light moving around the windows." "A likely place, right by the gulf." "The bayous overran that land long ago." "Yeah, nothing there but snakes and owls." "Them soldiers maybe they'll get lost in the swamps for looking for that haunted place." " They're on their way?" " Yeah, more than an hour ago." "I'll get him." "I'll get him." "Give it to him again." "Aye, there it is." "Old Alec Hinks, a blockade runner." "Oh, but I always thought his name was Hamish Bond, aye?" "Aye, so it is now, me old bucko." "Our soldier's a fine landlubber of a gentleman, he wanted to be." "And it's requiring an army of vast proportions to send him back to sea again." "Pull up the anchor." "Give me some sail." "We'll drop our cargo in New Orleans, and come back here to pick him up." "Hey, break out two kegs of rum." "We'll be needing them." "I'm aiming at your back, monsieur." "Put it down." "Turn around." "Well, my k'la." "That is what I used to be called." "This is a new day." "Maybe for you, but not for me." "Sit down." "I told you to sit down." "Now, go ahead and tell me about it, Rau-Ru." "Monsieur's living in the past." "Yes, you know I am." "I never got out of the old days." "I was always out in the Rio Pongo, always living it over again." "You won't be bothered by those memories much longer." "No?" "And who's going to wipe them out?" "You?" "Excuse me, Rau-Ru, if I don't shy too easy." "It's pretty hard for me to get the shakes over the likes of you because I've known you since you were no bigger than a shucked oyster." "A man can't be afraid of something he's proud of." "And believe me, Rau-Ru, I'm real vainglorious about you." "You learned a lot from me beside book knowledge." "Yup." "Right now, you're thinking of that bounty that General Butler has offered for my pelt." "I'll give it to my platoon." "White soldiers are on their way to get you now but I want the satisfaction of taking you in." "Put those on." "Sure, sure." "You'll get a thousand dollars for me, that's a pretty fair prize for a beginner." "Not much the way I used to sell them, in bulk." "I remembered that night in Africa, the night we burned the village." "I guess that was the biggest grab I ever made." "But I stood in the middle and watched the unfit Negroes get massacred by my partner, Gezo, and his blacks." "Flames leaping to the top of the jungle, a million bats squeaking in the sky." "And that's when I saw the woman get a spear in her." "I mean, she was a woman I used to know." "I took her aboard my ship once but she got home fever so I send her back to her jungle." "But there she was now, dying, sprawled out on the ground trying to protect something underneath her." " A 2-month-old brawling brat..." " That's got nothing to do with now." "Then one of Gezo's men took a spear swipe at the young'un." "I, like an idiot, jumped in the middle and got his spear clean through my leg." "But I let him have it with my ship's knife, right through his crocodile belly." "I guess that was the other fellow with me, not Hamish Bond." "That started me slashing at Gezo's men like they were the enemy." "I guess I wanted some blood too." "Old Gezo thought it was a good joke, me all mixed up, fighting on the other side." "And then he reached down and picked up the kid and handed it to me." "I suppose he thought I wanted to eat the brat." "You are not talking your way out of this." "So there I was with a messed-up leg and a whimpering pup on my hands for the rest of my usual days." "But I grew to be proud of him." "I brought him up like my own son." "Hired the best teachers for him." "Denied him nothing." "He called himself my k'la." "That is until he grew up to know the value of 30 pieces of silver." "Go." "Go wherever you are going." "Cypress Cove." "You remember Boatswain Canavan." " I have the prisoner, sir." " Where'd you come from, sergeant?" " Across the bayou in a skiff, sir." " Short way, huh?" "Beat us to the big juicy prize." "Well, Bond, I've hunted game in my day, and if it's any compliment to you you're the toughest old grizzly I ever caught." "That's no compliment from a blue-belly who hasn't been weaned yet." "And you, you whelp." "I wish I'd let you burn in Africa." "I'm sorry that spear went through my leg instead of your guts." "The abuses one must suffer to gain freedom." "But nothing worthwhile is easily bought." "The agonies, the torments, the humiliations all these are the natural elements from which the key is forged." "The key that opens the vistas of new worlds and new lives." "The key to freedom." "You're quite a philosopher, sergeant." "Where did you get that fancy talk?" "He got it from me." "With your permission, I'll take him to the general's headquarters." "Wait a minute, sergeant." "I'll have a couple of my men deliver him to General Butler personally." "Corporal, order the rest of my men to search the premises." "Any wagons, plows, harrows, confiscate them." " Look in the storehouse and the barn." " Yes, sir." "Well, I see he left some valuables, at least." "Pour us a drink, sergeant." "You know, I like you, sergeant." "I like the way you handled Hamish Bond." "I'm gonna recommend you for an advancement." "That's very kind of you, sir." "Well, it might lead to something a lot more important than that bounty." "Which I presume you're going to claim." "Yes, sir." " I took Monsieur Bond prisoner." " Yes, of course." "But I was thinking that perhaps a white officer's influence might be worth some money to you." "Not unless I could change my color, sir." "Oh, I see what you mean." "And under such circumstances..." "Well, let's look at it this way." "You take the money, sergeant and allow me to take the military credit." "A white man's bargain, sir?" "I'd have to think of it." "Certainly." "Certainly, sergeant." "I know you're a man of honor and you're only thinking of my good." "I've decided to let you have whatever glory and bounty that's due this occasion." " You will?" " Yes, sir." "I guess it's my sense of inferiority, sir." "Well, well." "I do like you, sergeant." "I really do." "A nigg..." "I mean, a Negro such as you I don't mind shaking hands." "Whoa." "Can't take you no further, missy." "Belle Helene's across there somewhere." "But the wilderness has done swallowed up the whole road." " I'll find it." " You gonna get lost." "Monsieur Hamish!" "Manty, you did forgive everything." "Rau-Ru, I guess he felt he couldn't be free unless I was." "You." "All of us." "He still is the k'la." "He's even more than that."