Intus si recte ne labora--you remember the
old school motto. We're friends, and all we have to worry about now
is how to dish Cyrus Vetch; and as we shall be none the worse for a
long sleep, I'll take first watch, and wake you when you've had
three or four hours."
And with a grip of hands we closed the enmity of a dozen years.
Chapter 27: Some Successes And A Rebuff.
We lay all next day in the forest, maintaining an irksome silence,
and continually on our guard against intrusion. Uncle Moses told me
that the wagons would not leave Dry Harbor on their return journey
until the heat of the day was past--a circumstance which favored
our design. The spot we had determined on for the ambush was five
miles from our lurking place, and we should have cover all the way
save where we must needs cross the road. When the time came for our
setting forth, I went myself to the edge of the woodland to spy out
and see if the coast was clear. Not a soul was in sight; we were at
the portion of the estate which was given over to pasture; if it
had been sugar land we must have inevitably met negro laborers.
I was about to return and acquaint the others that we might safely
start when I heard a trotting horse, and from my place of
concealment among the trees, I soon afterwards saw a horseman
appear from the direction of Spanish Town and ride by towards the
big house two miles or more away. He was beyond doubt one of
Vetch's gang: 'twas impossible to mistake the thick ungainly
figure, and the exceedingly nautical way he had of sitting his
horse.
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