them were stretched on the bare boards at the lower end of the pallet,
and they were white. The third was a son of Ethiopia of unmixed blood
and gigantic frame. He sat at the left of the couch, cross-legged, and,
like the rest, was in a doze; now and then, however, he raised his head,
and, without fully opening his eyes, shook a fan of peacock feathers
from head to foot over the recumbent figure. The two whites were clad in
gowns of coarse linen belted to their waists; while, saving a cincture
around his loins, the negro was naked.

There is often much personal revelation to be gleaned from the
properties a man carries with him from home. Applying the rule here, by
the pallet there was a walking-stick of unusual length, and severely
hand-worn a little above the middle. In emergency it might have been
used as a weapon. Three bundles loosely wrapped had been cast against a
timber of the ship; presumably they contained the plunder of the slaves
reduced to the minimum allowance of travel. But the most noticeable item
was a leather roll of very ancient appearance, held by a number of broad
straps deeply stamped and secured by buckles of a metal blackened like
neglected silver.

The attention of a close observer would have been attracted to this
parcel, not so much by its antique showing, as by the grip with which
its owner clung to it with his right hand. Even in sleep he held it of
infinite consequence. It could not have contained coin or any bulky
matter. Possibly the man was on some special commission, with his
credentials in the old roll. Ay, who was he?

Thus started, the observer would have bent himself to study of the face;
and immediately something would have suggested that while the stranger
was of this period of the world he did not belong to it. Such were the