The short tropic twilight had passed, and night had descended upon the
Island of Jamaica. It promised to be a night of deepest darkness. The
moon would not rise before midnight; and even then she might not be
seen, as the canopy was covered with a thick curtain of black cumulus
clouds, through which neither star nor speck of blue sky was visible.
Alike lay valleys and mountains shrouded in amorphous darkness; and even
the Jumbe Rock--the highest and most conspicuous summit for miles
around--was wrapped in complete obscurity. Its vitreous flanks no
longer sparkled in the light, since there was none; and its dark mass
was so dimly outlined against the equally sombre background of the sky,
as to be invisible from the valley below.
The form of a man, groping his way up the narrow ravine that debouched
upon the summit of the rock, could not have been distinguished, much
less the black hue of his skin, the deformity that marked his figure, or
the hideous aspect of his countenance. And yet a man so characterised
climbed up there, about half-an-hour after the going down of the sun.
It need scarce be said that that man was Chakra, the Coromantee. Who
else would be seeking the Jumbe Rock at that hour?
What was his errand up there? Let the sequel declare.
On setting foot upon the platform, he undid the knot that fastened the
skin mantle over his shoulders; and then taking off the garment, he
spread it out upon the rock.
The stick he had brought up with him he placed along one edge, and there
made it fast with some pieces of string. When this was accomplished, he
lifted both stick and cloak from the rock, and, proceeding to the palm,
he laid the stick transversely across the stem, at about the height of
his own hand, and then lashed it fast to the tree.
The kaross now hung down the stem, in a spread position, the transverse
stick keeping it extended to its full width.
While arranging it thus, Chakra evidently had an eye to the direction--
that is, the plane represented by the spread garment had one face
fronting the valley of Mount Welcome and the cultivated lowlands between
that and Montego Bay, while the reverse side was turned towards the
"black grounds" of Trelawney--a tract of wild country in which not a
single estate, plantation, or penn had been established, and where no
such thing as a white settlement existed. In this solitude, however,
there were _black_ colonies of a peculiar kind; for that was the
favourite haunt of the absconded slave--the lurking-place of the
outlaw--the retreat of the runaway.
There, even might the assassin find an asylum, secure from the pursuit
of justice. There had he found it: for among those dark, forest-clad
mountains more than one murderer made his dwelling.
Robbers there were many--even existing in organised bands, and holding
the authorities of the Island at defiance.
All these circumstances were known to Chakra; and some of the robbers,
too, were known to him--some of the fiercest who followed that free
calling.
It was to communicate with one of these bands that the preparations of
the myal-man were being made. Chakra was preparing the signal.
Satisfied that the skin cloak was extended in the proper direction, the
Coromantee next took up his reflector-lamp; and having attached it
against that side of the kaross facing towards the mountains, he took
out his flint, steel, and tinder, and, after striking a light, set the
wick on fire.
In an instant the lamp burned brightly, and the light, reflected from
the bits of looking-glass, might have been seen from the back country to
the distance of many miles; while, at the same time, it was completely
screened from any eye looking from the side of the plantations. The
projecting edges of the calabash hindered the rays from passing to
either side; while the interposed disc of the spread kaross further
prevented the "sheen" that otherwise might have betrayed the presence of
the signal.
It was not meant for the eyes of honest men in the direction of Montego
Bay, but for those of the robbers among the far hills of Trelawney.
"Jess de sort ob night fo' dem see it," muttered the myal-man, as with
folded arms foe stood contemplating the light. "De sky brack as de
Debbil's pitch-pot. Ole Adam, he sure hab some 'un on de look-out. De
sure see 'im soon."
Chakra never looked more hideous than at that moment.
Stripped of the ample garment, that to some extent aided in concealing
his deformity a scant shirt, of coarse crimson flannel, alone covering
the hunch; most part of his body naked, exposing to the strong light of
the reflector his black corrugated skin; the aspect of his ferocious
features compressed by the snake-encircled turban upon his temples, the
long-bladed knife and pistol appearing in his waist-belt--all combined
to produce a fearful picture, that could not fail to strike terror into
whoever should have the misfortune to behold it.
Standing immovable under the glare of the lamp, his misshapen figure
projected across the surface of the summit platform, he might easily
have been mistaken for a personification of the fiend--that African
fiend--after whom the rock had been named.
In this situation he remained, observing perfect silence, and with his
eyes eagerly bent upon the distant mountains, dimly discernible through
the deep obscurity of the night. Only for a few minutes was this
silence preserved, and the attitude of repose in which he had placed
himself.
"Whugh!" he exclaimed, dropping his arms out of their fold, as if to set
about some action. "I know'd dey wud soon see um. Yonner go' de
answer!"
As he spoke, a bright light was seen suddenly blazing up on the top of a
distant eminence, which was suddenly extinguished.
After a short interval another, exactly similar, appeared in the same
place, and in a similar manner went out again; and then, when an equal
interval had elapsed, a third.
All three resembled flashes produced by powder ignited in a loose heap.
The moment the third response had been given to his signal, the
Coromantee stepped up to his reflector and blew out the light.
"Dar's no use fo' you any mo'," said he, apostrophising the lamp; "dar
_am_ some danger keepin' you dar. B'side, it am a gettin' cold up hya.
A want my ole cloak."
So saying, he took down the reflector, and after it the kaross; and,
separating the latter from the piece of stick, he once more suspended
the garment around his shoulders. This done, he moved forward to the
front of the platform; and dropping his legs over, sat down upon the
edge of the rock.
Volume Three, Chapter XXIX.