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white or mulatto. He certainly had the fighting spirit and he knew how to read and write English and was good with numbers. If one day he chose to blend in with the whites, he could. That was his advantage; he could go anywhere blacks were forbidden to go.
    “You have a plan …” Kes said impatiently, he hated it when Nanny zoned out. 
    “Yes, er … ” Nanny had completely forgotten that she had said something before her assessment of the men. “I think we should help others to escape; we could get our spies onto the plantations and have a network going.”
    The men nodded, especially Adofo who was hell bent on rescuing his wife from the plantation in Spanish Town.
    They sat and discussed the plan until the sun was high in the sky and they were sleepy.
    “Another thing,” Nanny said as she leaned on a tree and looked up at the sky. “We will need to go back to the Simmonds plantation in the future to rescue somebody.”
    “How would you know that?” Ibo asked sleepily. “I thought we were finished with that section of the island for good.”
    “No we are not.” Nanny said resting her head on a tree trunk; her thick plaits of hair offered her some cushioning from the rough exterior.
    “Don’t argue,” Quao said looking at Ibo. “You will soon learn that she is hardly wrong.”
     
    ********
     
    The slaves were all gathered on the front lawn of the Simmonds plantation. Even the house slaves were bungled up near the field slaves. Robert Simmonds face was red as he shouted at both the slaves and his overseer.
    “Explain to me John, how is it possible for me to lose twelve of my slaves without anyone knowing about it till roll call this morning?”
    “Paul was on duty Sir,” John said, he pointed to the night watchman. “The dogs did not give any indication that there was an escape underway. They did their regular patrol.”
    “I lost close to twenty pounds.” Robert held his head. “I did not even get two days work from them properly before they ran away. No footprints, no trace of them, no scent. We do not even know if they went north, south, east or west.”
    “That’s not possible … ” Robert’s voice trailed away and he gazed at the slaves before him. They would know something but he had tried the intimidation tactic before and he would get no results. They would just look at him blankly. Besides, the twelve that disappeared were living in the same hut. No witnesses, nobody to threaten after the fact.
    How clever. He had felt deep within his bones that they would be trouble. John’s warning not to buy them came back to him and his anger melted somewhat. He couldn’t blame John.
    “What is it dear?” Elizabeth came down the steps of the great house and headed toward the lawn, her frilly blue umbrella twirling flirtatiously. Mark walked behind her solemnly, his green eyes serious. As small as he was he could sense the tension in the air. However, Elizabeth was determined to be cheerful.
    “Take the boy back to the house Elizabeth,” Robert roared, he was tired of his wife’s interfering in business that had nothing to do with her.
    Elizabeth flinched, her green eyes filled with tears.
    “I wanted to go to tea at the Williams’, Bridget invited me, I was looking for Mason to tell him to prepare the carriage when I saw you all out here.”
    “Slaves ran away,” Robert said impatiently, “I am trying to get to the bottom of it. I will send Mason as soon as we sort this out.”
    Elizabeth nodded and grabbed Mark’s hand. “Can Martha at least take care of Mark while you quiz the people, she wouldn’t know anything about runaway slaves.”
    “She is a slave. Elizabeth,” Robert said through gritted teeth. “It's possible she heard something.”
    Elizabeth stood her ground and tapped her foot.
    “Okay, okay,” Robert sighed. Martha was a house slave and the slaves who ran away had been there for only two days.
    “Martha go and help your Mistress.”
    Martha who was standing near