"
"And then all this noise is occasioned by your doubting whether that
poor gentleman is your prisoner, or not, is it, sirrah? Who the devil do
you think it can be, else?"
"I don't know who else it can be," returned the fellow, sullenly; "but
he has grown thicker and shorter, if it is he; and see for yourself,
sir, he shakes all over, like a man in an ague."
This was but too true. Caesar was an alarmed auditor of this short
conversation, and, from congratulating himself upon the dexterous escape
of his young master, his thoughts were very naturally beginning to dwell
upon the probable consequences to his own person. The pause that
succeeded the last remark of the sentinel, in no degree contributed to
the restoration of his faculties. Lieutenant Mason was busied in
examining with his own eyes the suspected person of the black, and
Caesar was aware of the fact, by stealing a look through a passage under
one of his arms, that he had left expressly for the purpose of
reconnoitering. Captain Lawton would have discovered the fraud
immediately, but Mason was by no means so quick-sighted as his
commander. He therefore turned rather contemptuously to the soldier,
and, speaking in an undertone, observed,
"That anabaptist, methodistical, quaker, psalm-singing rascal has
frightened the boy, with his farrago about flames and brimstone.
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