Chapter 17 - Page 2

himself. No
wonder, then, that the vigilance of the negro became still more active,
and that not even the slightest circumstance was suffered to escape his
admiring eye. During the whole time consumed by the visit related in the
preceding chapter, not a minute had been suffered to pass, without an
inquiring look in the direction, either of the brigantine, or of the
adjacent shore.

It is scarcely necessary to say how keen the attention of the slave
became, when his master and his companions were seen to return to the
land. They immediately ascended to the foot of the oak, and then there was
a long and apparently a serious conference between them. During this
consultation, the negro dropped the end of his hoe, and never suffered his
gaze, for an instant, to alter its direction. Indeed he scarcely drew
breath, until the whole party quitted the spot together, and buried
themselves in the thicket that covered the cape, taking the direction of
its outer or northern extremity, instead of retiring by the shore of the
Cove, towards the inlet. Then Bonnie respired heavily, and began to look
about him at the other objects that properly belonged to the interest of
the scene.

The brigantine had run up her boat, and she now lay, as when first seen, a
motionless, beautiful, and exquisitely graceful fabric, without the
smallest sign about her of an intention to move, or indeed without
exhibiting any other proof, except in her admirable order and symmetry,
that any of human powers dwelt within her hull. The royal cruiser, though
larger and of far less aerial mould and fashion, presented the same
picture of repose. The distance between the two was about a league; and
Bonnie was sufficiently familiar with the formation of the land and of the
position of the vessels, to be quite aware that this inactivity on the
part of those whose duty it was to protect the rights of the Queen,
proceeded from their utter ignorance of the proximity of their neighbor.
The thicket which bounded the Cove and the growth of oaks and pines that
stretched along the narrow sandy spit of land quite to its extremity,
sufficiently accounted for the fact. The negro, therefore, after gazing
for several minutes at the two immovable vessels, turned his eye askance
on the earth, shook his head, and then burst into a laugh, which was so
noisy that it caused his sable partner to thrust her vacant and circular
countenance through an open window of the scullery of the villa, to demand
the reason of a merriment that to her faithful feelings appeared to be a
little unsocial.

"Hey! you alway' keep 'e queer t'ing to heself, Bonnie, but!" cried the
vixen. "I'm werry glad to see old bones like a hoe; an' I wonner dere ar'
time to laugh, wid