The Yellow Chief

CHAPTER ONE.

THE PUNISHMENT OF THE PUMP.

"To the pump with him! And see that he has a double dose of it!"

The words were spoken in a tone of command, earnest and angry. They
were addressed to the overseer of a cotton-plantation not far from
Vicksburg, in the State of Mississippi, the speaker being Blount
Blackadder, a youth aged eighteen, and son to Squire Blackadder, the
owner of the plantation.

Who was to receive the double douche?

Near by stood a personage to whom the words evidently pointed. He was
also a youth, not very different either in age or size from him who had
given the order; though his tawny skin and short crisped hair bespoke
him of a different race--in short, a mulatto. And the time--for it is a
tale of twenty years ago--along with other attendant circumstances,
proclaimed him a slave of the plantation.

And why ordered to be thus served? As a punishment, of course.

You may smile at the idea, and deem it a joke. But the "punishment of
the pump" is one of the most severe that can be inflicted; far more so
than either the bastinado, or castigation by the lash. A man may writhe
while his back is being scored by the cowskin; but that continuous
stream of cold water, at first only refreshing, becomes after a time
almost unendurable, and the victim feels as though his skull were being
split open with an axe.

What had "Blue Dick"--the plantation sobriquet of the young mulatto--
what had he done to deserve such chastisement?

The overseer, hesitating to inflict it, put this question to Blount
Blackadder.

"That's my business, and not yours, Mr Snively. Enough when I say he
has deserved; and darn me if he don't have it. To the pump with him!"

"Your father won't be pleased about it," pursued the overseer. "When he
comes home--"

"When he comes home; that's my affair. He's not at home now, and during
his absence I'm master of this plantation, I guess. I hope, sir, you'll
recognise me as such."

"Oh, sartinly," grumbled the overseer.