The staple bent
upward in the tree, but did not loosen.
At that instant the scraping of a boat upon the mud was heard, and the
black woman fell upon her knees.
"Pray, but do it soft," Jimmy whispered; "an' not a cry from the child,
or there'll be a murder!"
He had rapidly trimmed the hickory stem of its branches while he spoke,
so that it could penetrate the arborage of the tree from above, and
climbing higher, like a cat, he worked the point of the lever downwards
into the now crooked staple, and threw himself out of the tree against
the sapling, which bent like a bow nearly double, but would not break,
and, as the staple yielded and flew out, the chain and the deliverer
fell together on the soft pine litter.
"Hark!" exclaimed a voice through the woods.
"What was it?" asked another voice.
"Come!" Phoebus murmured, and gathered together the woman, the child,
and the chain and ball, and stepped, long and silent as a rabbit's
leaps, through the awe-hushed pines, carrying the whole burden on his
shoulders.
He sat them in the scow, which sank to the edges, and, covered by a
protruding point of woods, pushed off into the deep river, yet guiding
the frail vessel in to the sides of the stream, away from the influence
of the out-running tide. As the scow turned the first crease or elbow in
the river, it began to sink.
"If you make a sound you are a slave fur life," whispered the waterman,
as he slipped overboard and began to swim, with his hand upon the stern.
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