THE HUES OF LOVE.
CAPTAIN BRAMBLE did not long remain contented on board his ship. This he
could not do while he realized that Miss Huntington was so near upon the
shore; for, so far as such a being could really love, he did love the
lady; and yet his sentiment of regard was so mixed up with selfishness
and bitterness of spirit, and pride at being refused, that the small
germ of real affection which had found birth in his bosom was too much
corroded with alloy to be identified. He felt that he had been
overreached by Captain Ratlin, and also that he had good grounds of
suspecting his successful rival of being either directly or indirectly
engaged in the illegal trade of the coast, and, determined, if possible,
to discover his secret, he again became a frequent visitor of Don
Leonardo's house, where he was sure to meet him constantly.
There were two spirits whom we have introduced to the reader in this
connection, who were fitting companions for each other; but they had not
as yet been brought together by any chance so as to understand one
another. We refer to Captain Bramble and Maud the Quadroon. Both now
hated Captain Ratlin, and would gladly have been revenged in any way for
the gratification of their feelings upon her whom he so fondly loved.
With this similarity of sentiment it was not singular that they should
ere long discover themselves and feelings to each other. Indeed Maud,
who had been a secret witness of the deed, already realized that Captain
Bramble was the enemy of him whom she had once loved, and whom she now
so bitterly despised.
Untutored in the ways of the world and fashionable intrigue, yet the
Quadroon saw very clearly that through Captain Bramble she might
consummate that revenge which she had so signally failed in doing by the
agency of the hostile negro tribes she had treacherously brought to her
father's doors. He had not been long at the factory, therefore, on
landing after the duel, before Maud sought a private interview with him,
on pretext of communicating to him some information that should be of
value to him in connection with his official duty. To this, of course,
the English officer responded at once, shrewdly suspecting at least a
portion of the truth, and he therefore met Maud at an appointed spot in
the jungle hard by her father's house.
"You will speak truly in what you tell me, my good girl?" he said
sagaciously, as he looked into her dark spirited eyes with admiration he
could not avoid.
"Have I anything to gain by a lie?" responded Maud, with a curling lip.
"No, I presume not," he answered. "I merely ask from ordinary
precaution. But what do you propose to reveal to me? Something touching
this Captain Ratlin?"
"Ay," said the girl quickly. "It is of him I would speak. You are an
English officer, agent of your government, and sent here to suppress
this vile traffic?"
"True."
"And have you suspected nothing since your vessel has been here?"
"I suspect that this Captain Ratlin is in some way connected with the
trade."
"He is, and but now awaits the gathering of a cargo in my father's
barracoons, to sail with them to the West Indies. It is not his first
voyage, either."
"But where is his vessel? he cannot go to sea without one," said the
Englishman.
"That is what I would reveal to you. I will discover to you his ship if
you swear to arrest him, seize the vessel, and if possible hang him!"
"You are bitter indeed," said the officer, almost startled at the
fiendish expression of the Quadroon's countenance as she emphasized
those two expressive words.
"I have reason to be," answered Maud, calming her feelings by an effort.
"Has he wronged you?"
"Yes, he loves the white woman whom he brought to my father's house."
"Thus far, at all events, my good girl, we have mutual cause for hate,
and we will work heartily together. You know where his vessel lies?"
"I do."
"Is it far from here?"
"Less than a league."
"Indeed! These fellows are cunning," mused the officer. "When will you
guide me and a party of my people thither?"
"To-night."
"It is well. I will be prepared. Where shall we meet?"
"At the end of the cape, where you and he met a few days since."
"Where we met?" asked the other, in surprise. "How knew you of that?"
"I saw it."
"The duel?"
"Yes."
"It is strange. I thought none but ourselves were to be there."
"He has moved in no direction since this woman has been here that I have
not followed. There I hoped to see him fall; but he was strangely
preserved."
"You are a singular girl, Maud," replied the officer. "Take this and
wear it for my sake," he added, unloosing a fine gold chain from his
watch and tossing it around her neck, "and be punctual at that spot
to-night after the last ray of twilight."
"I will," answered the Quadroon, as she regarded the fine workmanship of
the chain for a moment with idle and childlike pleasure, then turning
from the spot, they both returned, though by different paths, from the
jungle towards the dwelling of her father.
Captain Bramble dined with Don Leonardo that day, and his good spirits
and pleasant converse were afterwards the subject of comment, exhibiting
him in a fair more favorable light than he had appeared in since his
arrival at the factory. Maud, too, either for sake of disguise, or
because the knowledge of her plan imparted exhilaration of spirits to
her, was more agreeable, seemingly frank and friendly than she had been
for many a long day, if we except the day before the late attack of the
negroes upon the house, when the same treacherous assumption of
cheerfulness and satisfaction with all parties was similarly assumed.
Captain Ratlin, on his part, was ever the same; he found that he must
wait some weeks even yet before he could prosecute the purpose of his
voyage, and indeed he seemed to have lost all interest in it. His
thoughts were full of too pure an object to permit him to participate to
any extent in so questionable a business. Gladly would he at any moment
have thrown up his charge of the "Sea Witch;" and he had indeed promised
Miss Huntington that for her sake, and in honor of her friendship (for
he had never aspired to any more intimate relationship), he would ignore
the trade altogether, and that he would despatch Mr. Faulkner, his first
officer, to the owners in Cuba with the ship he had himself taken in
charge.
Having been brought up from childhood upon the sea, he had never studied
the morality of the trade in which he was now engaged. But the nice
sense of honor which was so strong a characteristic of his nature, only
required the gentle influence of a sweet and refined nature like her
with whom providence had so opportunely thrown him, to reform him
altogether of those rougher ideas which he had naturally imbibed in the
course of his perilous and daring profession. In the presence of that
fair and pure-minded girl he was as a child, impressible, and ready to
follow her simplest instructions. All this betokened a native refinement
of soul, else he could never have evinced the pliability which had
rendered him so pleasant and agreeable a companion to her he secretly
loved.
"Lady," he said to her as they sat together that afternoon, "Heaven has
sent you for a guardian angel to me; your refining influence has come to
my heart at its most lonely, its most necessary moment. I have done with
this trade, never more to engage in it."
"That is honorable, noble in you, Captain Ratlin, so promptly to
relinquish all connection with a calling, which though it affords
fortune and command, can never permit you self-respect."
"The ship will probably be despatched within these two weeks, and then I
will take any birth in legitimate commerce, where I may win an honorable
name and reputation."
"There is my hand on so honorable a resolution," said Miss huntington,
frankly, while a single tear of pleasure trembled in her clear, lustrous
eyes.
The young commander took the hand respectfully that waits extended to
him, but when he raised his eyes to her face and detected that tear, a
thought for a moment ran through his brain, a faint shadow of hope that
perhaps she loved him, or might at some future time do so, and bending
over the fair hand he held he pressed it gently to his lips. He was not
repulsed, nor chided, but she delicately rose and turned to her mother's
apartment.
How small a things will affect the whole tenor of a life time; trifles
lighter than straws are levers in the building up of destiny. Captain
Ratlin turned from that brief interview with a feeling he had never
before experienced. The idea that Miss Huntington really cared for him
beyond the ordinary interest, that the circumstances of their
acquaintances had caused, had not thus far been entertained by him; had
this been otherwise he would doubtless have differently interpreted many
agreeable tokens which she had granted him, and to which his mind now
went back eagerly to recall and consider under the new phase of feeling
which actuated him.
How else could he interpret that tear but as springing from a heart that
was full of kindly feeling towards him. It was a tell-tale drop of
crystal that glistened but one moment there. Could it have been fancy?
was it possible he could have been mistaken? The matter assumed an
aspect of intense importance it his estimation, and he paced the
apartment where she had left him alone, half in doubt, half hoping. In
one instant how different an aspect all things wore; life, its aims, the
persons he met at the door as he now passed out. Even the foliage seemed
to partake of the freshness of his spirit, and the world to become
rejuvenated and beautified in every aspect in which he could view it.
This was the bright tide of the picture which his imagination, aided by
that gaudy painter and fancy colorer, Hope, had conjured up before his
mind's eye, but the reverse side of the picture was at hand, and now he
paused to ask himself seriously: "Can this be? Who am I? a poor unknown
sailor, fortuneless, friendless, nameless. Who is she? a lady of refined
cultivation, high family, wealth, and beauty. Is it likely that two such
persons as I have considered should be joined by intimate friendship?
can such barriers as these be broken down by love? Alas, I am not so
blind, so foolish, so unreasonable, as to believe it for a moment." So
once more the heart of the young commander was heavy within his breast.
In the mean time Captain Bramble had found an opportunity that afternoon
to see Maud, and to learn from her that Captain Ratlin almost always
slept on board his ship, departing soon after dark for the spot through
the jungle. Satisfied of this, Capt. Bramble once more proceeded to make
his arrangements, for to have seized the vessel without her commander on
board would have been to perform but half the business he had laid out
for the night's engagement. But all seemed now propitious, and he
awaited the darkness with impatience, when he might disembark a couple
of boat loads of sailors and marines, and with the Quadroon for guide
follow the path through the jungle to where the "Sea Witch" lay.
"Why do you muse so long and lonely, my child?" asked Mr. Huntington of
her daughter that afternoon, as she came in and surprised her gazing out
at a window vacantly.
"O, I hardly know, dear mother. I was thinking over our strange fortune
since we left Calcutta, the wreck, the nights in the boat, and our
fortunate rescue."
"Fortunate, my dear? I don't exactly know about that. Here we have been
confined at this slave factory, little better than the slaves
themselves, these four weeks."
"Well, mother, Captain Bramble says he shall sail soon, and then we can
go round to Sierra Leone, and from thence take passage direct for
England."
"For my part I can't understand why Capt. Bramble insists upon staying
here so long. He don't seem to be doing anything, and he came into the
harbor by chance."
"He says that business and duty, which he cannot explain, detain him
here, but that he will soon leave, of which he will give us due notice."
"Heaven hasten the period!" said the mother, impatiently; "for I am most
heartily tired and worn out with the strange life we lead here."
This conversation will explain to the reader in part, the reason why
Mrs. Huntington and her daughter, English subjects and in distress upon
the coast, had not at once gone on board the vessel of their sovereign
which lay in the harbor, and been carried upon their destination. From
the outset Captain Bramble had resolved not to let his rival slip
through his fingers by leaving port himself, and thus he had still
remained to the present time, though without any definite plan of
operation formed until he availed himself of Maud's proposal.
"Why, bless me, my child, you look as though you had been crying," said
the mother, now, catching a glance at her daughter's face.
"Do I, mother?" she answered, vacantly.
This was just after she had returned from the meeting with Captain
Ratlin as already described, and whether, she had been crying or not,
the reader will probably know what feelings moved her heart.