"
Chuckling low at the manifest disappointment in my face, she
disappeared, to return almost instantly.
"I thought she must be possumin'," she said, "but I know she is as fas'
asleep now as de bar' in de hollow ob a tree in cole wedder, for she
made no 'sistance like wen I grabbed de key from undernefe her head, an'
here it is, chile, an' ef you wants to try your 'speriment you kin, but
I spec you'd better wait a spell," and she looked cunningly at me;
"dere's traps everywhar in dese woods!"
It occurred to me as well that Mrs. Clayton might be feigning slumber,
having penetrated my design of lulling and soothing her fitful spirit to
rest; and feeling, as I did, an utter want of confidence in Sabra, not
only as free agent but as watched attendant, I determined as far as in
me lay to disarm suspicion by duplicity. So I lifted up my voice in
testimony of deceit, and declared my weariness of bondage to be such
that I had determined to embrace Mr. Bainrothe's conditions, and that in
a few days I should be free again without assistance.
"So take the key, Dinah," I said, after observing it closely, and
perceiving that it was several sizes larger than that I had made, as
clumsy as that was, and, therefore, could be of no use to me. "Let
yourself out, and bolt the door behind you, and Mrs. Clayton shall see
that I will take no mean advantage of her slumbers.
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