"Be quiet," said Sharpe imperiously. "I'll have no lynching in a vessel I
command. Now then, you, sir, how do you know he was robbing the captain?"
"How do I know! Yah! yah! Cap'n, if you please you tell dis unskeptical
gemman whether you don't miss a lilly book out of your bosom!"
During this extraordinary scene, Dodd had been looking from one speaker
to another in great surprise and some confusion; but at the negro's
direct appeal, his hand went to his breast and clutched it with a feeble
but heartrending cry.
"Oh, him not gone far. Yah! yah!" and Vespasian stooped, and took up an
oilskin packet off the floor, and laid it on the bed. "Dis child seen him
in dat ar niggar's hand, and heard him go whack on de floor."
Dodd hurried the packet into his bosom, then turned all gratitude to his
sable friend: "Now God bless you! God bless you! Give me your honest
hand! You don't know what you have done for me and mine."
And, sick as he was, he wrung Vespasian's hand with convulsive strength,
and would not part with it. Vespasian patted him soothingly all over, and
whimpered out: "Nebber you mind, cap'n! You bery good man: this child
bery fond of you a long time ago.
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