"Of course we will. Come, Mrs. Condiment, mum! There's a good bench in the lobby and I'll send for my old woman and we three can have a good talk while the worthy Mr. Gray is speaking to the prisoners," said the warden, conducting the housekeeper from the cell.
As soon as they had gone the old man went to the door and peeped after them, and having seen that they went to the extremity of the lobby to a seat under an open window, he turned back to the cell, and, going up to Hal, said in a low, voice: "Now, then, is it possible that you do not know me?"
Hal stopped twiddling his fingers and looked up at the tall, thin, stooping figure, the gray hair, the white eyebrows and the pale face, and said gruffly: "No! May the demon fly away with me if I ever saw you before!"
"Nor you, Dick?" inquired the old man, in a mild voice, turning to the one addressed.
"No, burn you, nor want to see you now!"
"Steve! Steve!" said the old man, in a pitiful voice, waking the sleeper. "Don't you know me, either?"
"Don't bother me," said that worthy, giving himself another turn and another settle to sleep.
"Dolts! blockheads! brutes! Do you know me now?" growled the visitor, changing his voice.
"Our captain!"
"Our captain!"
"Our captain!" they simultaneously cried.
"Hush! sink your souls! Do you want to bring the warden upon us?" growled Black Donald, for it was unquestionably him in a new metamorphosis.
"Then all I have to say, captain, is that you have left us here a blamed long time!"
"And exposed to sore temptation to peach on me! Couldn't help it, lads! Couldn't help it! I waited until I could do something to the purpose!"
"Now, may Satan roast me alive if I know what you have done to turn yourself into an old man! Burn my soul, if I should know you now, captain, if it wa'n't for your voice," grumbled Steve.
"Listen, then, you ungrateful, suspicious wretches! I did for you what no captain ever did for his men before! I had exhausted all manner of disguises, so that the authorities would almost have looked for me in an old woman's gown! See, then, what I did! I put myself on a month's regimen of vegetable diet, and kept myself in a cavern until I grew as pale and thin as a hermit! Then I shaved off my hair, beard, mustaches and eyebrows! Yes, blame you, I sacrificed all my beauty to your interests! Fate helps those who help themselves! The camp meeting gathering together hosts of people and preachers gave me the opportunity of appearing without exciting inquiry. I put on a gray wig, a black suit, assumed a feeble voice, stooping gait and a devout manner, and--became a popular preacher at the camp meeting."