Cubina, on arriving near the precincts of the penn, moved forward with
increased caution. He knew that the penn-keeper was accustomed to keep
dogs and night-watchers around his enclosure, not only to prevent the
cattle and other quadrupeds from straying, but also the black bipeds
that filled his baracoons.
The Maroon was conscious, moreover, that his own attitude towards the
slave-merchant was, at this time, one of extreme hostility. His refusal
to restore the runaway had been a declaration of open war between them;
and the steps he had since taken in conjunction with the Custos--which
he now knew to be no longer a secret to the slave-stealer--could not
otherwise than render him an object of the Jew's most bitter hatred.
Knowing all this, he felt the necessity of caution in approaching the
place: for should the penn-keeper's people find him prowling about the
premises, they would be certain to capture him, if they could, and carry
him before Jacob Jessuron, J.P., where he might expect to be treated to
a little "justice's justice."
With this prospect before him, in the event of being detected, he
approached the Jew's dwelling as cautiously as if he had been a burglar
about to break into it.
It was towards the back of the house that he was advancing from the
fields--or rather, the side of it, opposite to that on which lay the
cattle and slave enclosures.
He had made a short circuit to approach by this side, conjecturing that
the others would be more likely to be guarded by the slave and cattle
watchers.
The fields, half returned to the condition of a forest, rendered it easy
to advance under cover. A thick, second growth of logwood, bread-nut,
and calabash trees covered the ground; and nearer the walls the old
garden, now ruinate, still displayed a profusion of fruit-trees growing
in wild luxuriance, such as guavas, mangoes, paw-paws, orange and lemon,
sops, custard-apples, the akee, and avocada pear. Here and there a
cocoa-palm raised its tufted crown far above the topmost spray of the
humbler fruit-trees, its long, feathery fronds gently oscillating under
the silent zephyrs of the night.
On getting within about a hundred yards of the house Cubina formed the
intention not to go any nearer just then. The plan he had traced out
was to station himself in some position where he could command a view of
the verandah--or as much of it as it was possible to see from one place.
There he would remain until daybreak.
His conjecture was, that Herbert Vaughan would make his appearance as
soon as the day broke, and this was all the more probable on account of
his engagement with the Maroon himself.
The _protege_ of Jessuron would show himself in the verandah on leaving
his chamber. He could not do otherwise, since all the sleeping-rooms--
and Cubina knew this--opened outward upon the gallery.
Once seen, a signal by some means--by Cubina showing himself outside, or
calling the young Englishman by name--would bring about the desired
interview, and hasten the execution of the project which the Maroon had
conceived.
A slight elevation of the ground, caused by the crumbling ruins of an
old wall, furnished the _vidette_ station desired; and the Maroon
mounting upon this, took his stand to watch the verandah. He could see
the long gallery from end to end on two sides of the dwelling, and he
knew that it extended no farther.
Though the house glistened under a clear moonlight, the verandah itself
was in shade; as was also the courtyard in front--the old grey pile
projecting its sombre shadow beyond the walls that surrounded it. At
the end, however, the moonbeams, slanting diagonally from the sky,
poured their light upon the floor of the verandah, there duplicating the
strong bar-like railing with which the gallery was inclosed.
The Maroon had not been many minutes upon the stand he had taken, when
an object in the verandah arrested his attention. As his eye became
more accustomed to the shadowy darkness inside, he was able to make out
something that resembled a hammock, suspended crosswise, and at some
height above the balustrade of the verandah. It was near that end where
the moonlight fell upon the floor.
As the moon continued to sink lower in the sky, her beams were flung
farther along the gallery; and the object which had attracted the
attention of Cubina came more into the light. It was a hammock, and
evidently occupied. The taut cordage told that some one was inside it.
"If it should be the young Englishman himself!" was the conjectural
reflection of Cubina.
If so, it might be possible to communicate with him at once, and save
the necessity of waiting till daybreak.
How was the Maroon to be satisfied that it was he? It might be some one
else! It might be Ravener, the overseer; and Cubina desired no
conversation with him. What step could he take to solve this
uncertainty?
As the Maroon was casting about for some scheme that would enable him to
discover who was the occupant of the hammock, he noticed that the
moonbeams had now crept nearly up to it, and in a few minutes more would
be shining full upon it. He could already perceive, though very dimly,
the face and part of the form of the sleeper inside. Could he only get
to some elevated position a little nearer to the house, he might be able
to make out who it was.
He scanned the ground with a quick glance. A position sufficiently
elevated presented itself, but one not so easy to be reached. A
cocoa-nut palm stood near the wall, whose crest of radiating fronds
overlooked the verandah, drooping towards it. Could he but reach this
tree unobserved, and climb up to its crown, he might command a close
view of him who slept in the swinging couch.
A second sufficed to determine him; and, crawling silently forward, he
clasped the stem of the cocoa-tree, and "swarmed" upward. The feat was
nothing to Cubina, who could climb like a squirrel.
On reaching the summit of the palm, he placed himself in the centre of
its leafy crown--where he had the verandah directly under his eyes, and
so near that he could almost have sprung into it.
The hammock was within ten feet of him; in a downward direction. He
could have pitched his tobacco-pipe upon the face of the sleeper. The
moonlight was now full upon it. It was the face of Herbert Vaughan!
Cubina recognised it at the first glance; and he was reflecting how he
could awake the young Englishman without causing an alarm, when he heard
a door turn upon its hinges. The sound came up from the courtyard; and
on looking in that direction, Cubina saw that the gate leading out to
the cattle enclosure was in the act of being opened.
Presently a man passed through, entering from the outside; and the gate,
by some other person unseen, was closed behind him.
He who had entered walked directly towards the dwelling; and, mounting
the steps, made his way into the verandah.
While crossing the courtyard, the moonlight, for a moment, fell upon his
face, discovering to Cubina the sinister countenance of the Jew.
"I must have passed him on the path!" reflected the Maroon. "But no,
that couldn't be," he added, correcting himself; "I saw his return track
in the mud-hole just by. He must have got here before me. Like enough,
he's been back, and out again on some other dark business. _Crambo_!
it's true enough what I've heard say of him: that he hardly ever goes to
sleep. Our people have met him in the woods at all hours of the night.
I can understand it now that I know the partner he's got up there. _For
Dios_! to think of Chakra being still alive!"
The Maroon paused in his reflections; and kept his eye sharply bent upon
the shadowy form that, like a spirit of darkness, was silently flitting
through the corridor. He was in hopes that the Jew would soon retire to
his chamber.
So long as the latter remained outside, there was not the slightest
chance for Cubina to communicate with the occupant of the hammock
without being observed. Worse than that, the Maroon was now in danger
of being himself seen. Exposed as he was upon the cocoa--with nothing
to shelter him from observation but its few straggling fronds--he ran
every risk of his presence being detected. It was just a question of
whether the Jew might have occasion to look upwards; if so, he could
scarce fail to perceive the dark _silhouette_ of a man, outlined, as it
was, against the light blue of the sky.
That would be a discovery of which Cubina dreaded the consequences, and
with reason. It might not only frustrate the intended interview with
the young Englishman, but might end in his own capture and detention--
the last a contingency especially to be avoided.
Under this apprehension the Maroon stirred neither hand nor foot; but
kept himself silent and rigid. In this attitude of immobility he looked
like some statue, placed in a sedentary posture upon the summit of a
Corinthian column--the crushed crocus represented by the fronds of the
palm-tree.
Volume Two, Chapter XXXVI.