"I have gained the mastery," thought I,--"it will be my turn now. He
don't like to answer, but he shall, or he shall starve. Why does he
feel so angry at my name? Henniker! what is the meaning of Henniker,
I wonder? I will make him tell me. Yes, he shall tell me everything."
I may here observe, that as for pity and compassion, I did not know
such feelings. I had been so ill-treated, that I only felt that might
was right; and this right I determined upon exercising to the utmost.
I felt an inconceivable pleasure at the idea of my being the master,
and he the boy. I felt the love of power, the pride of superiority. I
then revolved in my mind the daily task which I would set him, before
he should receive his daily sustenance. He should talk now as much as
I pleased, for I was the master. I had been treated as a slave, and I
was now fully prepared to play the tyrant. Mercy and compassion I
knew not. I had never seen them called forth, and I felt them not. I
sat down on the flat rock for some time, and then it occurred to me
that I would turn the course of the water which fell into the hole at
the edge of the cliff; so that if he crawled there, he would not be
able to obtain any. I did so, and emptied the hole. The water was now
only to be obtained by climbing up, and it was out of his power to
obtain a drop. Food, of course, he could obtain, as the dried birds
were all piled up at the farther end of the cabin, and I could not
well remove them; but what was food without water? I was turning in
my mind what should be the first question to put to him; and I had
decided that I would have a full and particular account of how the
vessel had been wrecked on the island, and who were my father and
mother, and why I was named Henniker--when I was roused by hearing
Jackson (as I shall in future call him) crying out, "Boy, boy!" "Boy,
indeed," thought I--"no longer boy," and I gave no reply. Again he
called, and at last he cried out, "Henniker," but I had been ruffled