"Well, one might think so, from that doleful phiz of yours. What"s troubling you now, my worthy parent?"
"Ach! Shoodith! Don"t dishtress me by your speeches. I hash something of importance to shay to you, before I go to shleep."
"Say it quick, then: for I want to go to sleep myself. What is it, pray?"
"Well, Shoodith, dear, it ish this: you mushn"t trifle any more with thish young fellow."
"What young fellow do you mean, my good man?"
"Vochan, of coursh--Mashter Vochan."
"Ho! ho! you"ve changed your tune. What"s this about?"
"I hash reason, Shoodith; I hash reason."
"Who said I was trifling with him? Not I, father! Anything but that, I can a.s.sure you."
"That ish not what I mean, Shoodith."
"Well, then, what do you mean, old gentleman? Come now! make yourself intelligible!"
"I mean thish, Shoodith: you mushn"t let things go any further with the young fellow--that ish, shoost now--till I knowsh something more about him. I thought he wash going to be lich--you know I thought that, mine daughter--but I hash found out, thish very night, that--perhaps--he may never be worth a shingle shilling; and therefore, Shoodith, you couldn"t think of marrying him--and mushn"t think of it till we knowsh more about him!"
"Father!" replied the Jewess, at once throwing aside her habitual badinage, and a.s.suming a serious tone, "it is too late! Did I not tell you that the tarantula might get caught in its own trap? The proverb has proved true; _I_ am that unhappy spider!"
"You don"t say so, Shoodith?" inquired the father, with a look of alarm.
"O do! Yonder sleeps the fly,"--and the speaker pointed along the gallery in the direction of the hammock--"secure from any harm I can ever do him. And were he as poor as he appears to be--as humble as the lowest slave on your estate--he is rich enough for me. Ah! it will be _his_ fault, not _mine_, if he do not become my husband!"
The proud, determined tone in which the Jewess spoke, was only modified as she uttered the last words. The conjunctive form of the closing speech, with a certain duplexity of expression upon her countenance showed that she was not yet sure of the heart of Herbert Vaughan.
Notwithstanding his attentions at the ball--notwithstanding much that had since occurred, there appeared to be a doubt--a trace of distrust that still lingered.
"Never, Shoodith!" cried the father, in a tone of determined authority.
"You mushn"t think of it! You shall never marry a pauper--never!"
"Pauper him as much as you like, father; he won"t care for that, any more than I do."
"I shall disinherit you, Shoodith!" said the Jew, giving way to a feeling of spiteful resentment.
"As you like about that, too. Disinherit me at your pleasure. But remember, old man, it was you who began this game--you who set me to playing it; and if you are in danger of losing your stake--whatever it may be--I tell you you"re in danger of losing _me_--that is, if he--"
The hypothetic thought--whatever it was--that at this crisis crossed the mind of the Jewess, was evidently one that caused her pain: as could be seen by the dark shadow that came mantling over her beautiful brow.
Whether or not she would have finished the speech is uncertain. She was not permitted to proceed. The angry father interrupted her:--
"I won"t argue with you now, Shoodith. Go to your bed, girl! go to shleep! Thish I promish you--and, s"help me, I keepsh my promish!--if thish pauper ish to be a pauper, he never marries you with my conshent; and without my conshent he never touches a shilling of my monish. You understand that, Shoodith?"
And without waiting to hear the reply--which was quite as defiant as his own declaration--the Jew hurried out of his daughter"s chamber, and shuffled off along the verandah.
Volume Two, Chapter x.x.xIII.
WHERE NEXT?
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 subst.i.tuted 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.