Soon
after her mother had left the room, the governor said:
"Why do you think I have come here to-day?"
He added to the words a note of sympathy, even of passion in his voice.
"It was to visit my mother and myself, and to see how Salem looks after
our stay on it, was it not?"
"Yes, to see your mother and yourself, but chiefly the latter. As for
Salem, it looks as though a mastermind had been at work, I see it in
everything. The slaves are singing. Listen!"
He held up a finger as though to indicate attention and direction.
"One, two, three,
All de same;
Black, white, brown,
All de same;
All de same.
One, two, three--"
They could hear the words indistinctly.
"What do the words mean?" asked Sheila. "I don't understand them."
"No more do I, but I think they refer to the march of pestilence or
plague. Numbers, colour, race, nothing matters, the plague sweeps all
away. Ah, then, I was right," he added. "There is the story in other
words.
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