WHERE NEXT?_The Maroon

The Maroon, after mounting to the summit of the cliff, paused for some

moments to reflect upon a course of action.

In his bosom were many new emotions, springing from the strange

revelations to which he had just listened. His mind was in such a state

of chaotic confusion, that it required some time to determine what he

ought to do next, or whither he should go.

The thought that thrilled him most, was that which related to the

discovery of his maternal relationship to Miss Vaughan. But this

matter, however strange it was, required no immediate action to be taken

on his part; and though the semi-fraternal affection, now felt for the

first time, strengthened the romantic friendship which he had conceived

for the young lady--whom he had now seen several times--still, from what

he had overheard of the scheme of the conspirators, his new-discovered

sister did not appear to be in any danger. At least, not just then:

though some horrid hints darkly thrown out by Chakra pointed to a

probable peril at some future time.

That her father was in danger, Cubina could not doubt. Some demoniac

plot had been prepared for the Custos, which was to deprive him even of

life; and from what the Maroon could make out of the half-heard

conversation of the conspirators, action was to be taken upon it, so

early as the following morning.

Mr Vaughan intended a journey. Yola had herself told him so; and the

confabulation between Jessuron and Chakra confirmed it. Cynthia had

been their informant; and it was evident that upon that very night she

had brought the news from Mount Welcome. Evident, also, that the piece

of intelligence thus conveyed had taken both the conspirators by

surprise--causing them to hasten the _denouement_ of some devilish plan

that before that night had not been quite ripe for execution.

All this was clear enough to the mind of the Maroon.

Equally clear was it, that the plan was no other than an atrocious plot

to murder the proprietor of Mount Welcome; and that poison was the safe,

silent weapon to be used--for Cubina was not unacquainted with the

signification of the _death-spell of Obeah_. Before that night he had

reason to believe that his own father had fallen by that secret shaft,

and reasons to suspect that Chakra had shot it. What he had just heard

confirmed his belief; and but that he saw the necessity of hastening to

the rescue of the threatened Custos--and knew, moreover, that he could

now find Chakra at any time--he would, in all probability, have avenged

his father's death before leaving the Duppy's Hole.

The young Maroon, however, was a man of mild character--combining

prudence with an extreme _sang froid_--that hindered him from bringing

any event to a hasty or ambiguous ending. Though leaving Chakra for the

time, he had determined soon to return to him.

The resurrection of the myal-man, though it at first very naturally

astonished him, had soon ceased to be a mystery to the mind of the

Maroon. In fact, the presence of the Jew had at once explained the

whole thing. Cubina conjectured, and correctly, that Jessuron had

released the condemned criminal from his chains, and substituted the

body of some dead negro--afterwards to become the representative of

Chakra's skeleton.

For this the Jew, well-known for wickedness, might have many motives.

The Maroon did not stay to speculate upon them. His thoughts were

directed to the present and future rather than the past--to the rescue

of the Custos, over whom a fearful fate seemed to impend.

It need not be denied that Cubina felt a certain friendship for the

planter of Mount Welcome. Heretofore it had not been of a very ardent

character; but the relations lately established between him and the

Custos--in prospect of the process to be taken against their common

enemy, the penn-keeper--had, of course, occasioned a fellow-feeling

between them. The revelations of that night had strengthened the

interest which the Maroon had begun to feel for Mr Vaughan; and it is

not to be wondered at that he now felt an honest desire to save the

father of her, whom he was henceforth to regard as his own sister. To

this end, then, were his thoughts directed.

He stayed not long to speculate upon the motives either of Chakra or

Jessuron. Those of the myal-man he could guess to a certainty. Revenge

for the sentence that exposed him to that fearful fate on the Jumbe

Rock.

The motives of the Jew were less transparent. His deepest did not

appear in the confabulation Cubina had overheard. Even Chakra did not

know it. It might be fear of the approaching trial: which by some means

the Jew had become apprised of.

But no. On reflection, Cubina saw it could not be that: for the

conversation of the conspirators betrayed that their plot had been

anterior to any information which the Jew could have had of the design

of the Custos. It could not be that.

No matter what. Mr Vaughan, the father of the generous young lady--she

who had promised to make him a present of his beloved bride, and who now

proved to be his own stepsister--her father was in danger!

Not a moment was to be lost. Without regard to motives, measures must

be taken to avert that danger, and punish the miscreants who designed

it.

For some minutes Cubina remained on the spot, reflecting upon what step

should be first taken.

Should he go direct to Mount Welcome and warn the Custos, by reporting

to him what he had heard?

That was the first idea that presented itself to his mind; but at that

hour Mr Vaughan would be abed, and he--a Maroon--might not be admitted,

unless, indeed, he could show, by pleading the urgency of his errand,

good cause for arousing the Custos from his slumber.

This, undoubtedly, would he have done, had he known that the scheme of

the conspirators had been definitely arranged. But, as already stated,

he had not heard Chakra's concluding speech--referring to Cynthia and

the bottle of strong medicine; and all the rest only pointed vaguely at

some measures to be taken for frustrating the expedition to Spanish

Town.

It would be time enough, thought he, to meet these measures by going to

Mount Welcome in the morning. He could get there before Mr Vaughan

should start upon his journey. He could go at an early hour, but one

when his appearance would not give cause for any unnecessary remark.

It did not occur to him to reflect, that the time of the traveller's

departure from Mount Welcome--of which Cubina had not been apprised--

might be anterior to that of his arrival there. The Maroon, thinking

that the great Custos was not likely to inconvenience himself by early

rising, had no apprehension of missing him by being himself too late.

With this confidence, then, he resolved to postpone his visit to Mount

Welcome until some hour after daybreak; and, in the meantime, to carry

out the preliminaries of a programme, referring to a very different

affair, and which had been traced out the day before.

The first scene in this programme was to be a meeting with Herbert

Vaughan. It had been appointed to take place between them on the

following morning; and on the same spot where the two young men had

first encountered one another--in the glade, under the great _ceiba_.

The interview was of Herbert's own seeking, for, although neither had

seen the other since the day on which the runaway had been rescued, some

items of intelligence had passed between them--Quaco acting as the

medium of their correspondence.

Herbert had an object in seeking the interview. He desired a conference

with Cubina, in hopes of obtaining from him an explanation of more than

one circumstance that had lately arisen to puzzle and perplex him.

His patron's suspicious story about the red runaway was one of these

circumstances. Herbert had heard from Quaco that the slave was still

staying with the Maroons in their mountain town; and had been adopted

into their little community--in fact, had himself become a Maroon.

This did not correspond with the account given by Jessuron. Of course,

Quaco could not state the reasons. The secrecy enjoined by the Custos

kept Cubina's tongue tied upon that theme; and his own men knew nothing

of the design which their captain had conceived against the Jew.

This was not the only matter which mystified the young Englishman, and

which he was in hopes of having cleared up by Cubina. His own position

at the penn--of late developing itself in a manner to surprise and

startle him--also needed elucidation. There was no one near of whom he

could ask a question in regard to it, and never in his life did he stand