And all he got for his pains and his sweat was the condemnation of Jeremy Pitt.
"Damn you for a fool!" said the slave.

"If it's Blood you're seeking, why are you wasting your time here ?" "I can't find him," bleated Nuttall.

He was indignant at his reception.
He forgot the jangled state of the other's nerves after a night of anxious wakefulness ending in a dawn of despair.

"I thought that you...." "You thought that I could drop my spade and go and seek him for you?
Is that what you thought?
My God! that our lives should depend upon such a dummerhead.

While you waste your time here, the hours are passing! And if an overseer should catch you talking to me?
How'll you explain it ?" For a moment Nuttall was bereft of speech by such ingratitude.