The Maroon Part 77

A DAY OF CONJECTURES.

Towards sunset a fresh inspection was made of the tracks, Jessuron going in person to examine them. The skilled herdsman was again questioned; and on this occasion a fresh fact was elicited; or rather a conjecture, which the man had not made before, since he had not noticed the circ.u.mstance on which he rested it.

It was some peculiarity in the sole of the shoe that had made the strange track, and which guided the herdsman to guess who was the owner.

In scouring the forest paths in search of his cattle, he had observed that footmark before, or one very like it.

"If't be de same, ma.s.sa," remarked he, in reply to the cross-questioning of the Jew, "den I knows who owns dat fut. It longs to that ere cappen of Maroons."

"Cubina?"

"Ah--that's jest the berry man."

The Jew listened to this conjecture with marked inquietude; which was increased as another circ.u.mstance was brought to his knowledge: that Quaco the Maroon--who had been arrested along with Herbert on the day of his first appearance at the penn--had been lately seen in communication with the latter, and apparently in a clandestine manner. Blue d.i.c.k was the authority for this piece of incidental intelligence.

The penn-keeper's suspicions had pointed to Cubina at an earlier hour of the day. These circ.u.mstances strengthened them.

It needed but another link to complete the chain of evidence, and this was found in the tobacco-pipe left in the hammock: a rather unique implement, with an iron bowl, and a stem made out of the shankbone of an ibis.

On being shown the pipe, the herdsman recognised it on sight. It was the "cutty" of Captain Cubina. More than once had he met the Maroon with the identical instrument between his teeth.

Jessuron doubted no longer that Cubina had been the abductor of his book-keeper. Nor Judith, either: for the Jewess had taken part in the a.n.a.lytical process that guided to this conclusion.

Judith was rather gratified at the result. She was glad it was no worse. Perhaps, after all, the young Englishman had only gone on a visit to the Maroon, with whom she knew him to be acquainted: for Judith had been informed of all the circ.u.mstances connected with their first encounter. What was more natural than a sort of attachment between them, resulting from such an odd introduction? Curiosity may have induced Herbert to accompany the Maroon to his mountain home; and this was sufficient to explain his absence.

True, there were circ.u.mstances not so easily explained. The presence of the Maroon at the penn--his track twice to and fro--the hurried departure of Herbert, without any previous notice either to herself or to her father--all these circ.u.mstances were suspicious; and the spirit of the jealous Judith, though partially tranquillised by a knowledge of the new facts that had come to light, was, nevertheless, not quite relieved from its perplexity.

The same knowledge had produced an effect on the spirit of her worthy parent altogether different. So far from being gratified by the idea that his book-keeper was in the company of the Maroon captain, he was exceedingly annoyed by it. He at once remembered how pointedly Herbert had put certain questions to him, in relation to the fate of the flogged runaway--the prince. He remembered, also, his own evasive answers; and he now foresaw, that in the case of the questioner being in the company of Cubina, the latter would give him a very different account of the transaction--in fact, such a statement as could not fail to bring about the most crooked consequences.

Once in possession of those d.a.m.ning facts, the young Englishman--of whose good moral principles the old Jew had become cognisant--would be less likely to relish him, Jessuron, for a father-in-law. Such an awkward affair coming to his knowledge might have the effect, not only to alienate his much-coveted friendship--his equally-solicited love--but to drive him altogether from a house, whose hospitality he might deem suspicious.

Was it possible that this very result had already arisen? Was the whole scheme of the penn-keeper to prove a failure? Had murder--the blackest of all crimes--been committed in vain?

There was but little doubt left on the mind of Jacob Jessuron that the deed was now done. Whether by the poison of Chakra, or the steel of the _cacadores_, so far as the Custos himself was concerned, that part of the programme would, by this time, be complete; or so near its completion, that no act of the instigator could stay its execution.

How, when, and where was it done? And had it been done in vain?

During the early part of that same night--and on through the midnight hours--thus interrogatively reflected the Jew.

He slept not; or only in short spells of unquiet slumber, taken in his chair--as on the night before, in the open verandah. It was care, not conscience, that kept him awake--apprehension of the future, rather than remorse for the past.

After midnight, and near morning, a thought became uncontrollable--a desire to be satisfied, if not about the last of these interrogatories, at least in relation to the former.

In all likelihood Chakra would, by that time, have returned?--would be found in his lair in the Duppy's Hole?

Why he had followed the Custos, Jessuron could not tell. He could only guess at the motive. Perhaps he, Chakra, was in fear that his spell might not be sufficient; and, failing, he might find an opportunity to strengthen it? Or, was it that he wished to be witness to the final scene? to exult over his hated enemy in the last hour of life?

Knowing, as the Jew did, the circ.u.mstances that had long existed between the two men--their mutual malice--Chakra's deadly purposes of vengeance--this conjecture was far from improbable.

It was the true one; though he also gave thought to another--that perhaps the myal-man had followed his victim for the purpose of _tendering him_.

To ascertain that he had succeeded in the preliminary step--that of murdering him--the Jew forsook his chair couch; and, having habited himself for a nocturnal excursion, proceeded in the direction of the Duppy's Hole.

Volume Three, Chapter XVII.

THE SICK TRAVELLER.

After pa.s.sing beyond the precincts of his own plantation, and traversing for some distance a by-road known as the Carrion Crow, Mr Vaughan at length reached the main highway, which runs between Montego Bay on the north and Savanna-la-Mer on the southern side of the Island.

Here, facing southward, he continued his route--Savanna-la-Mer being the place where he intended to terminate his journey on horseback. Thence he could proceed by sea to the harbour of Kingston, or the Old Harbour, or some other of the ports having easy communication with the capital.

The more common route of travel from the neighbourhood of Montego Bay to Spanish Town, when it is desired to make the journey by land, is by the northern road to Falmouth Harbour, and thence by Saint Ann's, and across the Island. The southern road is also travelled at times, without the necessity of going to the port of Savanna, by Lacovia, and the parish of Saint Elizabeth. But Mr Vaughan preferred the easier mode of transit-- on board ship; and knowing that coasting vessels were at all times trading from Savanna to the ports on the southern side, he antic.i.p.ated no difficulty in obtaining a pa.s.sage to Kingston. This was one reason why he directed his course to the seaport of Savanna.

He had another motive for visiting this place, and one that influenced him to an equal or greater extent. Savanna-la-Mer, as already stated, was the _a.s.size town_ of the western district of the Island--otherwise the county of Cornwall--including under its jurisdiction the five great parishes of Saint James, Hanover, Westmoreland, Trelawney, and Saint Elizabeth, and consequently the town of Montego Bay. Thus const.i.tuted, Savanna was the seat of justice, where all plaints of importance must be preferred. The process which Mr Vaughan was about to inst.i.tute against the Jew was one for the consideration of a full court of a.s.size. A surrept.i.tious seizure of twenty-four slaves was no small matter; and the charge would amount to something more than that of mere malversation.

Loftus Vaughan had not yet decided on the exact terms in which the accusation was to be made; but the a.s.size town being not only the seat of justice, but the head-quarters of the legal knowledge of the county, he antic.i.p.ated finding there the counsel he required.

This, then, was his chief reason for travelling to Spanish Town _via_ Savanna-la-Mer.

For such a short distance--a journey that might be done in a day--a single attendant sufficed. Had he designed taking the land route to the capital, then it would have been different. Following the fashion of the Island, a troop of horses, with a numerous escort of servants, would have accompanied the great Custos.

The day turned out to be one of the hottest, especially after the hour of noon; and the concentrated rays of the sun, glaring down upon the white chalky road, over which the traveller was compelled to pa.s.s, rendered the journey not only disagreeable, but irksome.

Added to this, the Custos, not very well on leaving home, had been getting worse every hour. Notwithstanding the heat, he was twice attacked by a severe chill--each time succeeded by its opposite extreme of burning fever, accompanied by thirst that knew no quenching. These attacks had also for their concomitants bitter nausea, vomiting, and a tendency towards cramp, or _teta.n.u.s_.

Long before night, the traveller would have stopped--had he found a hospitable roof to shelter him. In the early part of the day he had pa.s.sed through the more settled districts of the country, where plantations were numerous; but then, not being so ill, he had declined making halt--having called only at one or two places to obtain drink, and replenish the water canteen carried by his attendant.

It was only late in the afternoon that the symptoms of his disease became specially alarming; and then he was pa.s.sing through an uninhabited portion of the country--a wild corner of Westmoreland parish, where not a house was to be met with for miles alone: the highway.

Beyond this tract, and a few miles further on the road, he would reach the grand sugar estate of Content. There he might antic.i.p.ate a distinguished reception; since the proprietor of the plantation, besides being noted for his profuse hospitality, was his own personal friend.

It had been the design of the traveller, before starting out, to make Content the halfway house of his journey, by stopping there for the night. Still desirous of carrying out this design, he pushed on, notwithstanding the extreme debility that had seized upon his frame, and which rendered riding upon horseback an exceedingly painful operation.

So painful did it become, that every now and then he was compelled to bring his horse to a halt, and remain at rest, till his nerves acquired strength for a fresh spell of exertion.

Thus delayed, it was sunset when he came in sight of Content. He did get sight of it from a hill, on the top of which he had arrived just as the sun was sinking into the Caribbean Sea, over the far headland of Point Negriee. In a broad valley below, filled with the purple haze of twilight, he could see the planter's dwelling, surrounded by its extensive sugar-works, and picturesque rows of negro cabins, so near that he could distinguish the din of industry and the hum of cheerful voices, borne upward on the buoyant air; and could see the forms of men and women, clad in their light-coloured costumes, flitting in mazy movement about the precincts of the place.

The Custos gazed upon the sight with dizzy glance. The sounds fell confusedly on his ear. As the shipwrecked sailor who sees land without the hope of ever reaching it, so looked Loftus Vaughan upon the valley of Content. For any chance of his reaching it that night, without being carried thither, there was none: no more than if it had been a hundred miles distant--at the extreme end of the Island. He could ride no further. He could no longer keep the saddle; and, slipping out of it, he tottered into the arms of his attendant!

Close by the road-side, and half hidden by the trees, appeared a hut-- surrounded by a kind of rude inclosure, that had once been the garden or "provision ground" of a negro. Both hut and garden were ruinate--the former deserted, the latter overgrown with that luxuriant vegetation which, in tropic soil, a single season suffices to bring forth.

Into this hovel the Custos was conducted; or rather carried: for he was now unable even to walk.

A sort of platform, or _banquette_, of bamboos--the usual couch of the negro cabin--stood in one corner: a fixture seldom or never removed on the abandonment of such a dwelling. Upon this the Custos was laid, with a horse-blanket spread beneath, and his camlet cloak thrown over him.

More drink was administered; and then the attendant, by command of the invalid himself, mounted one of the horses, and galloped off to Content.

Loftus Vaughan was alone!