Chapter XXXVI: An Encounter in the Dark

by Mark Twain

　　London -- to a slave -- was a sufficiently interesting place. It was merely a great big village;and mainly mud and thatch. The streets were muddy,crooked, unpaved. The populace was an ever flockingand drifting swarm of rags, and splendors, of noddingplumes and shining armor. The king had a palacethere; he saw the outside of it. It made him sigh;yes, and swear a little, in a poor juvenile sixth centuryway. We saw knights and grandees whom we knew,but they didn't know us in our rags and dirt and rawwelts and bruises, and wouldn't have recognized us ifwe had hailed them, nor stopped to answer, either, itbeing unlawful to speak with slaves on a chain. Sandypassed within ten yards of me on a mule -- huntingfor me, I imagined. But the thing which clean brokemy heart was something which happened in front ofour old barrack in a square, while we were enduringthe spectacle of a man being boiled to death in oil forcounterfeiting pennies. It was the sight of a newsboy-- and I couldn't get at him! Still, I had one comfort -- here was proof that Clarence was still alive andbanging away. I meant to be with him before long;the thought was full of cheer.I had one little glimpse of another thing, one day,which gave me a great uplift. It was a wire stretchingfrom housetop to housetop. Telegraph or telephone,sure. I did very much wish I had a little piece of it.It was just what I needed, in order to carry out myproject of escape. My idea was to get loose somenight, along with the king, then gag and bind ourmaster, change clothes with him, batter him into theaspect of a stranger, hitch him to the slave-chain,assume possession of the property, march to Camelot,and --But you get my idea; you see what a stunningdramatic surprise I would wind up with at the palace.It was all feasible, if I could only get hold of a slenderpiece of iron which I could shape into a lock-pick. Icould then undo the lumbering padlocks with whichour chains were fastened, whenever I might choose.But I never had any luck; no such thing ever happened to fall in my way. However, my chance cameat last. A gentleman who had come twice before todicker for me, without result, or indeed any approachto a result, came again. I was far from expectingever to belong to him, for the price asked for me fromthe time I was first enslaved was exorbitant, and alwaysprovoked either anger or derision, yet my master stuckstubbornly to it -- twenty-two dollars. He wouldn'tbate a cent. The king was greatly admired, becauseof his grand physique, but his kingly style was againsthim, and he wasn't salable; nobody wanted that kindof a slave. I considered myself safe from partingfrom him because of my extravagant price. No, Iwas not expecting to ever belong to this gentlemanwhom I have spoken of, but he had something whichI expected would belong to me eventually, if he wouldbut visit us often enough. It was a steel thing with along pin to it, with which his long cloth outside garment was fastened together in front. There werethree of them. He had disappointed me twice, because he did not come quite close enough to me tomake my project entirely safe; but this time I succeeded; I captured the lower clasp of the three, andwhen he missed it he thought he had lost it on theway.I had a chance to be glad about a minute, thenstraightway a chance to be sad again. For when thepurchase was about to fail, as usual, the master suddenly spoke up and said what would be worded thus --in modern English:"I'll tell you what I'll do. I'm tired supportingthese two for no good. Give me twenty-two dollarsfor this one, and I'll throw the other one in."The king couldn't get his breath, he was in such afury. He began to choke and gag, and meantime themaster and the gentleman moved away discussing."An ye will keep the offer open --""'Tis open till the morrow at this hour.""Then I will answer you at that time," said thegentleman, and disappeared, the master following him.I had a time of it to cool the king down, but Imanaged it. I whispered in his ear, to this effect:"Your grace will go for nothing, but after anotherfashion. And so shall I. To-night we shall both befree.""Ah! How is that?""With this thing which I have stolen, I will unlockthese locks and cast off these chains to-night. Whenhe comes about nine-thirty to inspect us for the night,we will seize him, gag him, batter him, and early inthe morning we will march out of this town, proprietorsof this caravan of slaves."That was as far as I went, but the king was charmedand satisfied. That evening we waited patiently forour fellow-slaves to get to sleep and signify it by theusual sign, for you must not take many chances onthose poor fellows if you can avoid it. It is best tokeep your own secrets. No doubt they fidgeted onlyabout as usual, but it didn't seem so to me. It seemedto me that they were going to be forever getting downto their regular snoring. As the time dragged on Igot nervously afraid we shouldn't have enough of itleft for our needs; so I made several prematureattempts, and merely delayed things by it; for Icouldn't seem to touch a padlock, there in the dark,without starting a rattle out of it which interruptedsomebody's sleep and made him turn over and wakesome more of the gang.But finally I did get my last iron off, and was a freeman once more. I took a good breath of relief, andreached for the king's irons. Too late! in comes themaster, with a light in one hand and his heavy walkingstaff in the other. I snuggled close among the wallowof snorers, to conceal as nearly as possible that I wasnaked of irons; and I kept a sharp lookout and prepared to spring for my man the moment he shouldbend over me.But he didn't approach. He stopped, gazed absently toward our dusky mass a minute, evidentlythinking about something else; then set down hislight, moved musingly toward the door, and before abody could imagine what he was going to do, he wasout of the door and had closed it behind him."Quick!" said the king. "Fetch him back!"Of course, it was the thing to do, and I was up andout in a moment. But, dear me, there were no lampsin those days, and it was a dark night. But I glimpseda dim figure a few steps away. I darted for it, threwmyself upon it, and then there was a state of thingsand lively! We fought and scuffled and struggled,and drew a crowd in no time. They took an immenseinterest in the fight and encouraged us all they could,and, in fact, couldn't have been pleasanter or morecordial if it had been their own fight. Then a tremendous row broke out behind us, and as much as half ofour audience left us, with a rush, to invest some sympathy in that. Lanterns began to swing in all directions; it was the watch gathering from far and near.Presently a halberd fell across my back, as a reminder,and I knew what it meant. I was in custody. Sowas my adversary. We were marched off towardprison, one on each side of the watchman. Here wasdisaster, here was a fine scheme gone to sudden destruction! I tried to imagine what would happenwhen the master should discover that it was I whohad been fighting him; and what would happen if theyjailed us together in the general apartment for brawlersand petty law-breakers, as was the custom; and whatmight --Just then my antagonist turned his face around inmy direction, the freckled light from the watchman'stin lantern fell on it, and, by George, he was the wrongman!