"MORE HASTE, WORSE SPEED."
"Hurrah!" I shouted out.
I was so overjoyed at hearing Jake's announcement that the long-expected
mail steamer had at last arrived that I was utterly oblivious of my
soaking condition, although I had been so completely drenched in the
brief space of time that had elapsed before I could get under shelter
from the shower, that the water was now trickling down my dripping
garments and running out of my boots. "Look alive, old fellow," I added
to the willing darkey, who was in an equally moist state, his black skin
glistening as if it had received a fresh coating of Japan varnish.
"Saddle my pony at once, for I must go into town, as I told you!"
"But, Tom," interposed my mother at this juncture, "you cannot start in
all this rain. See how wet you are already, dear, and it is still
pouring down, worse than ever!"
"Oh, never mind that, mother, it will stop soon," I rejoined hastily,
mortally afraid of her putting an embargo on my contemplated expedition
to Saint George's. "I will go in and change my things, and long before
I'm ready it'll be fine again, you'll see! Besides, you know, dad may
have come by the steamer, and he'll be expecting me to meet him and want
Dandy to ride home on. Jake can take him down along with me, so as to
be on the safe side, eh?"
"Well, well, my dear, I suppose you must have your way," said my mother,
whom this last argument of mine, in respect of my father's possible
arrival, seemed to convince against her will, for she made no further
demur to my setting out, in spite of the weather.
This very material point being satisfactorily arranged in my favour, as
Jake could see with half an eye, he having waited to learn whether my
orders were to be carried out or not, the darkey now hurried off to the
stables to execute them with a cheerful grin on his ebony face, fearing
the rain as little as he did the burning rays of the mid-day sun; while
I scurried off to my room upstairs to shift my wringing clothes and put
on another suit of white flannel, which is the ordinary wear of all
sensible people in tropical countries--just as it is becoming the
fashion over here in summer, especially for fellows who go in for
cricket and other athletic games provocative of perspiration.
I had judged well of the climate and been a true weather prophet; for,
albeit I was pretty sharp in dressing, long ere I could get below again
the rain suddenly ceased falling, and, in another moment or so, the sun
was shining down as potently as it had done before the thunder-storm,
from an absolutely cloudless sky, whose burnished blue arc was only
suggestive of heat and glare as usual.
When I stood under the verandah once more, awaiting Jake with the
horses, I noticed that the marble pavement of the terrace in front had
dried up already, while the earth of the flower-beds scarcely looked
damp. As previously, lots of humming-birds, displaying their rainbow
plumage to the best advantage, were flitting here and there between the
shrubs, in pursuit of the myriads of flies and other insects that had
come out for an airing after the shower, some of the tiny feathered
mites poising themselves before some opening bud or blossom, or else
peering into its interior, with their little wings moving at the rate of
ten thousand bird-power per minute and creating a little halo of
variegated light around them.
The industrious ants, too, had reformed their parasol procession, which
the temporary deluge had seriously disorganised; and, but that several
solemn-looking blackbirds, of a larger species than the yellow-billed
variety familiar to us in England, were now hopping about on the lawn
under the orange-trees, digging up worms, and that a stray drop or two
of crystal glittered on the petals of the roses like diamonds, or
reflected the sunshine from the trumpet bells of the lilies, while there
was a greener tint on the vegetation around, one could hardly have
imagined that it had rained at all!
Still, there was a perceptible coolness in the air now noticeable that
was most refreshing after the suffocating heat, which I had found so
oppressive an hour agone; and, this tempered tone of the atmosphere
brought out more vividly the fragrant scent of the frangipanni and
languid perfume of the jessamine, the whole atmosphere without being
redolent of their mingled odours, harmoniously blended together in sweet
unison, like a regular pot-pourri!
The showery avalanche, besides cooling and sweetening the air with the
balmy breath of the flowers which its influence extracted, left also
other evidence of its effect behind. This was especially apparent in
the swelling torrent of muddy water, drained from the slopes of the
mountain-side above the house and now impetuously rushing down an
impromptu gully which the flood had scooped out for itself across the
grounds, following the course of the carriage drive almost up to the
entrance-gate, where the suddenly-created cataract, diverging into a
hollow to the left, made another exit for itself through the cactus
hedge into the cocoa plantation beyond.
Jake was much longer in getting the horses saddled than I had expected;
and I had to shout out for him more than once before he came up to the
steps of the terrace with the especial animals he had charge
of--"Prince," my pony, a skittish little bay from the Spanish main; and
"Dandy," a sturdy dapple-grey Canadian roadster, that in appearance was
quite the reverse of what his name would imply. The old horse, however,
was as sound and steady as a veteran drum-major and thoroughly reliable;
and my father prized him highly, always riding him from choice and not
minding any chaff about his charger's looks.
On advancing to mount Prince, our darkey groom seemed put out about
something, I noticed; but, before I could put any question to him or ask
the reason of his being so tardy in bringing out the horses, he burst
out full of his grievance.
"I tole um so, Mass' Tom, tole um so!" he exclaimed.
"Why, what is the matter?" I inquired, rather surprised.
"Golly, matter 'nuff for dis chile," grumbled Jake.
"You savvy I tell you, Mass' Tom, I'se come back from de hill 'fore Pomp
get him cutlash to cut um guinea-grass, hey?"
"Yes, so you did, Jake," I said sympathisingly, remembering his boast
when setting out.
"I'se right den, massa!"
"Indeed?" I responded.
"Iss, Mass' Tom. Belieb me, dat lazy ole niggah not cut guinea-grass,
not do nuffin'!" said Jake indignantly, thinking and hoping that Pompey
would receive a rating.
"Oh, he caught a 'guana before the rain came on, and that prevented him
from going to cut the grass," I explained.
Jake looked astounded.
"Hey, Pomp catch him 'guana?" he asked.
"Yes," said I. "He killed it in the stable-yard, and has gone to cook
it."
This immediately fired Jake's jealousy. It was, to him, just like
adding insult to injury on his rival's park. It seemed like poaching on
his special domain.
"What, Mass' Tom, he catchee 'guana, for suah?"
"Yes, in the corner there," I answered, pointing out the exact place
with the twisted rattan, or "supple Jack," which I used for a riding-
whip and held loosely in my hand.
"Dat for true, right on de mush heap dar?" repeated Jake, apparently
unable to realise the fact of the other's success in the chase.
"He did," I said briefly; and then, wishing to end the colloquy, I
jumped on Prince's back, whereupon my skittish pony, as I had trained
him to do on my once mounting, immediately started off at a brisk canter
down the carriage drive. So Jake had perforce to bestride Dandy and
follow after me, without having the pleasure of calling Pompey to
account for his misdeeds before we started--as he evidently expected and
most decidedly wished to have done I've no doubt.
Jake was very angry.
This was not so much because the other darkey had omitted cutting the
guinea-grass, which, of course, the horses would not now require until
we returned from town, as from the circumstance of Pompey having had the
chance of exhibiting his prowess in respect of the iguana. Jake was
evidently much dissatisfied with the whole proceeding; and I could hear
him muttering anathemas against his rival as he trotted behind me
through the grounds, and out at the entrance-gate into the main-road
beyond.
"Golly, dat most mystiferous, nohow!" I heard him ejaculate after a bit
as he got nearer up to me. "I'se spec dat 'guana one big fool let Pomp
grab him. Nebber mine! Me catchee big manacou byme-bye; an' dat heap
betterer dan nasty fat-face 'guana. Say, Mass' Tom, um like manacou?"
"I can't tell you, Jake," I replied. "I have never yet tasted one."
"Den you jest wait an' see. Dey is splendiferous, Mass' Tom, an' beat
cock-fightin'. Golly, I get you one, two, tree, five manacou to-morrer,
dat ebber so nicer dan dat poor trash ob 'guana dat hangman tief Pomp
catchee, you jest wait an' see!"
"All right, Jake," I said kindly, to appease his jealous feelings; for,
he was very fond of me and thought that his rival had eclipsed him in my
estimation. "I will come with you to-morrow, if my father doesn't want
me, and then we'll hunt for manacous up the mountain."
This promise delighted him, and very soon Jake regained his customary
good-humour, satisfied with having prospectively outshone Pompey; for,
he presently broke out with one of his happy African laughs, which told
me as plainly as words the little unpleasantness of the past was now
dismissed from his thoughts.
As we rode on, at first downwards and then up a steep hillside again,
the path winding by the edge of a precipice most of the way, we came
across further traces of the force of the recent storm. Large trees
were at one place stretched across the road, their massive trunks having
been rended by the lightning; while the sudden deluge of rain had
channelled little streams through the red clay. These coursed along
like so many independent rivulets, right under our horses' hoofs,
rippling onward light-heartedly, until they came to one of the many
broad ditches or gullies, that intersected our track at intervals, the
contents of which they swelled to such an extent that we frequently had
great difficulty in fording them, the water reaching quite up to
Prince's girths, and the current being so strong as to almost sweep him
off his legs.
The scenery on either hand was grand.
On the right, plantations of cocoa and nutmeg trees stretched up the
slopes of hills, which all converged towards a central mountain peak
that overtopped all the rest by many hundred feet. This was crowned by
the extinct crater of a volcano, now filled with water and known as Le
Grand Etang. On the left, were valleys and gorges of the richest green,
with here and there a tall silk-cotton tree or graceful palm elevating
itself above the other wood-nymphs, the smoke of charcoal burners
dotting the landscape from amid the thickest part of the forest growth
of green with curling wreaths of grey.
We soon reached a wide plateau just above Government House, where the
best view in the whole island was to be obtained, above which towered
the old battery on Richmond Hill, armed with obsolete and worm-eaten
thirty-two pounders, once deemed sufficient protection for the Carenage
or harbour below, which it commanded. Fort George, another
fortification equally powerless nowadays either for attack or defence,
lay on the right; and looking beyond, over a series of terraces of
villas and gardens, and negro provision grounds, the open sea could be
seen stretching away to the Boccas of the Gulf of Paria and the Serpent
Passage which divides the island of Trinidad from the main coast of
British Guiana.
I could see, on arriving at this point, the English mail steamer coaling
at the jetty below, with gangs of negroes and negresses busily engaged
going to and fro along the wharf, carrying baskets of fuel on their
heads; so, setting spurs to Master Prince, I made him race down the road
as if a drove of wild bulls were after him, heedless of every obstacle
in my path and only intent on reaching the quay.
"Top, Mass' Tom, 'top!" shouted out Jake behind me, putting Dandy into a
heavy trot. "De road am berry slippy, an' you go one big fall soon!"
But, Jake's caution was all in vain, for the steamer was there, and the
passengers had probably already landed with my father amongst them, so
there was every reason for my hastening on quickly.