Part 21 (1/2)

”That's a good Woodson. I want Regulus to be one of the boatmen. You can send any other you choose. I shall take Darkeih with me.”

”You can't have Regulus, Mistress Patricia,” answered the overseer positively. ”He's worth any two men in the field. I can't let him go.”

”Let him be at the wharf in half an hour. I will be ready by then.”

”You can't have him, Missy.”

Patricia stamped her pretty foot. ”Am I mistress of this plantation, or am I not, Woodson?”

”Lord knows you are!” groaned the overseer.

”Then when I say I want Regulus, I will have Regulus and no other.”

The overseer sighed resignedly. ”Very well, Mistress Patricia, I'll send for him.”

Patricia danced away, and the overseer strode down the path, viciously crunching the pebbles and bits of sh.e.l.l beneath his feet. At the wharf he found a detachment of the infant population of the quarters busily crabbing; all of whom, save two little Indians who fished stoically on, scrambled to their feet, and pulled a forelock. The overseer touched one urchin upon the shoulder with the b.u.t.t end of his whip.

”You, Piccaninny, run as fast as your legs will carry you to the field by the swamp, and tell Regulus to leave his work, and come to the big wharf. Mistress Patricia wants to go a pleasuring.”

Piccaninny's black shanks and pink heels flew up and out, and he was away like a flash. The overseer kept on to the end of the wharf, where were cl.u.s.tered the boats, some tied to the piles, some anch.o.r.ed a little way out. ”Haines was to send a man to caulk a seam in the Nancy,” he muttered. ”Whoever he is, he'll have to go in the Bluebird. I'm not going to take another man from the tobacco. What fools women are! But they get their way,--the pretty ones at least.” He leaned over the railing, and called,--

”You there, in the Nancy!”

G.o.dfrey Landless looked up from his work. ”What is it?”

The overseer chuckled grimly. ”It's that fellow Landless who angered her once before,” he said to himself with a malicious grin. ”Well, 't isn't my business to know which of all the servants on this plantation she most dislikes to come near her. She'll have to put up with him to-day.

There isn't a better boatman on the place anyhow.”

To Landless he said, ”Bring the Bluebird up to the wharf, and see that she is sweet and clean inside. Mistress Patricia starts for Rosemead in half an hour, and you and Regulus are to take her. You'll bring the boat back to-night. Step lively now!”

Landless brought the Bluebird, a sixteen-foot open boat, up to the wharf, made the inside, and especially the seat in the stern, spotlessly clean, put up the sail, and sat down to wait. Presently Regulus appeared above him, and swung himself down into the boat with a grin of delight, for he much preferred sailing with ”'lil missy” to cutting tobacco. He had a great burly form and a broad, ebony face, and he was the devoted slave of Patricia, and of Patricia's maid, Darkeih. Moreover, he enjoyed the distinction of being the first negro born in the Colony, his parents having been landed from the Dutch privateer which in 1619 introduced the slave into Virginia. Viewed through a vista of nigh three hundred years, he appears a portent, a tremendous omen, a sign from the Eumenides. Upon that tranquil summer afternoon in the Virginia of long ago he was simply a good-humored, docile, happy-go-lucky, harmless animal.

”'Lil Missy's comin',” he remarked, with bonhommie, to his fellow boatman.

Darkeih, laden with cus.h.i.+ons, appeared at the edge of the wharf.

Landless, standing in the bow below her, relieved her of her burdens, and taking her by the hands, swung her down into the boat. She thanked him with a smile that showed every tooth in her comely brown countenance, and tripped aft, where, with the a.s.sistance of Regulus, she proceeded to arrange a cus.h.i.+oned seat for her mistress.

Landless waited for the lady of the manor to come forward. In the act of extending her hands to the boatman, she glanced at him, crimsoned, and drew back. Landless, interpreting color and action aright, buckled his armor of studied quiet more closely over a hurt and angry heart.

”I was ordered to attend you, madam,” he said proudly. ”But if you so desire, I will find the overseer and tell him that you wish for some one else in my place.”

”There is not time,” was the cold reply. ”And as well you as any other.

Let us be going.”

Landless held out his arms again. She measured with her eyes the distance between her and the boat. ”I do not need any help,” she said.

”If you will stand aside, I can spring from here to the prow.”

”And strike the water instead, madam,” said Landless, grimly, ”when I would have to touch more than your hand in order to pull you out.”