ings of the spot, "it is fearful! Had I known what you were
about, I should have given you up for lost. Not a tree within twenty
rods of you! Suppose you had failed to kill him? It frightens me to
think of it!"

Going to the ledge beyond, they saw where the negro had scrambled up
with muddy feet, and where the sharp hoofs of the boar had scratched
long lines on the rock.

It was easy to see how the large, loose stone, which had prevented the
fugitive's escape, had slipped from its place as he tried to climb
over it.

"Well, well," said Mr. Arthur, "you ought to have one good friend in the
forest, and I guess you have! I don't think that poor fellow will ever
forget you."

Ralph felt that this was pay enough, even though the friend was only a
poor negro, whom he might never see again.

And now, leaving the huge game where it had fallen, he accompanied the
good planter back to the little village of huts, where Mrs. Arthur and
Camilla were awaiting them in some anxiety.

CHAPTER XIV.

OUR SAILOR BOY DISLIKES MR. OSBORNE.

"Oh, how dreadful!" exclaimed Camilla, as she listened to the recital of
what had taken place.

"I am thinking of his mother," said Mrs. Arthur, "and I am so
thankful--so thankful--that he is safe!"

Mr. Osborne took a very practical view of the matter.

"You could have kept the negro, I suppose," he said, "as you had your
gun; but then it might not have been very easy to get him anywhere, you
being a boy."

"I didn't wish to _get him anywhere_," replied Ralph. "I wished him to
go where he liked."

"Of course; it wasn't your business to catch runaway negroes," said the
overseer, "and you did perfectly right. Only I wish I could have been
there. Did he seem to be afraid of you?"

"No, sir; I laid down my gun."

"Suppose he had taken it up?"

"I never thought of such a thing, sir; I was trying to help him, and he
knew it."

"I wouldn't have trusted him," remarked the overseer.

"I did trust him, sir; or, rather, I didn't think anything about it.
I wanted to stop his leg from bleeding."

"Was he in a hurry to be off after you had fixed him up?"

"He looked uneasy, as if afraid that somebody else might come before he
could get away."

"Perhaps he expected you to take up your gun and order him to march for
his old quarters?"

"I don't know how that was," said Ralph; "but the gun lay all the while
where he could have taken it up if he would."

"What did you say to him?"

"I