Volume Three, Chapter XVIII.

A HIDEOUS INTRUDER.

Loftus Vaughan was not long alone, though the company that came first to intrude on the solitude that surrounded him was such as no man, either living or dying, would desire to see by his bedside.

The black groom had galloped off for help; and ere the sound of his horse's hoofs had ceased to reverberate through the unclayed c.h.i.n.ks of the cabin, the shadow of a human form, projected through the open doorway, was flung darkly upon the floor.

The sick man, stretched upon the cane couch, was suffering extreme pain, and giving way to it by incessant groaning. Nevertheless, he saw the shadow as it fell upon the floor; and this, with the sudden darkening of the door, admonished him that someone was outside, and about to enter.

It might be supposed that the presence of any living being would at that moment have pleased him--as a relief to that lugubrious loneliness that surrounded him; and perhaps the presence of a living being would have produced that effect. But in that shadow which had fallen across the floor, the sick man saw, or fancied he saw, the form of one who should have been long since dead--the form of Chakra the myal-man!

The shadow was defined and distinct. The hut faced westward. There were no trees before the door--nothing to intercept the rays of the now sinking sun, that covered the ground with a reddish glare--nothing save that sinister _silhouette_ which certainly seemed to betray the presence of Chakra. Only the upper half of a body was seen--a head, shoulders, and arms. In the shadow, the head was of gigantic size--the mouth open, displaying a serrature of formidable teeth--the shoulders, surmounted by the hideous hump--the arms long and ape-like! Beyond doubt was it either the shadow of Chakra, or a duplication of his ghost--of late so often seen!

The sick man was too terrified to speak--too horrified to think. It scarce added to his agony when, instead of his shadow, the myal-man himself, in his own proper and hideous aspect, appeared within the doorway, and without pause stepped forward upon the floor!

Loftus Vaughan could no longer doubt the ident.i.ty of the man who had made this ill-timed intrusion. Dizzy though his sight was, from a disordered brain, and dim as it had been rapidly becoming, it was yet clear enough to enable him to see that the form which stood before him was no phantasy--no spirit of the other world, but one of this--one as wicked as could well be found amid the phalanx of the fiends of darkness.

He had no longer either fancy or fear about Chakra's ghost. It was Chakra's self he saw--an apparition far more to be dreaded.

The scream that escaped from the lips of Loftus Vaughan announced the climax of his horror. On uttering it, he made an effort to rise to his feet, as if with the intention of escaping from the hut; but finally overpowered by his own feebleness, and partly yielding to a gesture of menace made by the myal-man--and which told him that his retreat was intercepted--he sank back upon the _banquette_ in a paralysis of despair.

"Ha!" shouted Chakra, as he placed himself between the dying man and the door. "No use fo' try 'scape! no use wha'somdever! Ef ye wa able get 'way from hya, you no go fur. 'Fore you walk hunder yard you fall down, in you track, like new-drop calf. No use, you ole fool. Whugh!"

Another shriek was the only reply which the enfeebled man could make.

"Ha! ha! ha!" vociferated Chakra, showing his shark-like teeth in a fiendish laugh. "Ha! ha! ha! Skreek away, Cussus Va'ghan! Skreek till you bust you windpipe. Chakra tell you it no use. De death 'pell am 'pon you--it am _in_ you--an' jess when dat ar sun hab cease shine upon de floor, you go join you two brodder jussuses in de oder world, wha'

you no fine buckra no better dan brack man. Dey gone afore. Boaf go by de death 'pell. Chakra send you jess de same; only he you keep fo' de la.s.s, 'kase you de grann Cussus, an' he keep him bess victim fo' de la.s.s. De Debbil him better like dat way."

"Mercy, mercy!" shrieked the dying man. "Ha! ha! ha!" scornfully answered Chakra.

"Wha' fo' you cry 'mercy?' D'you gib mercy to de ole myal-man, when you 'im chain up dar to de cabbage-tree? You show no mercy den--Chakra show none now. You got die!"

"Oh! Chakra! good Chakra!" cried the Custos, raising himself upon the couch, and extending his arms in a pa.s.sionate appeal. "Save me! save my life! and I will give you whatever you wish--your freedom--money--"

"Ha!" interrupted Chakra, in a tone of triumphant exultation. "Gib me freedom, would you? You gib me dat arready. You money dis hya n.i.g.g.a doan' care 'bout--not de sh.e.l.l ob a cocoa. He hab plenty money; he get wha' he want fo' de lub spell and de death 'pell. Whugh! De only ting you hab dat he care 'bout, you no can gib. Chakra take dat 'ithout you gibbin."

"What?" mechanically asked the dying man, fixing his eyes upon the face of Chakra with a look of dread import.

"Lilly Quasheba!" cried the monster, in a loud voice, and leering horridly as he p.r.o.nounced the name. "Lilly Quasheba!" he repeated, as if doubly to enjoy the fearful effect which his words were producing.

"De dawter ob de quaderoom! Da's only fair, Cussus," continued he, in a mocking tone. "You had de modder yourseff--dat is, affer de Maroon!

You know dat! It am only turn an' turn 'bout. Now you go die, Chakra he come in fo' de dawter. Ha! ha! ha!

"Whugh!" he exclaimed, suddenly changing his tone, and bending down over the form of the Custos, now prostrate upon the couch. "Whugh! I b'lieve de buckra gone dead!"

He was dead. On hearing the name "Lilly Quasheba," accompanied by such a fearful threat, a wild cry had escaped from his lips. It was the last utterance of his life. On giving tongue to it, he had fallen back upon the bamboo bedstead, mechanically drawing the cloak over his face, as if to shut out some horrid sight; and while the myal-man, gloating over him, was endeavouring to procrastinate his pangs, the poison had completed its purpose.

Chakra, extending one of his long arms, raised the fold from off his face; and holding it up, gazed for a moment upon the features of his hated foe, now rigid, blanched, and bloodless.

Then, as if himself becoming frightened at the form and presence of death, the savage miscreant dropped the cover quickly to its place; rose from his stooping position; and stole stealthily from the hut.

Volume Three, Chapter XIX.

TWO SPECULATIVE TRAVELLERS.

The sun was sinking out of sight into the bosom of the blue Caribbean, and the twilight, long since extended over the valley below, was now spreading its purple robe around the summit of the hill, on which stood the hut. The shadows cast by the huge forest trees were being exchanged for the more sombre shadows of the coming night; and the outlines of the hovel--now a house of death--were gradually becoming obliterated in the crepusculous obscurity.

Inside that deserted dwelling, tenanted only by the dead, reigned stillness, solemn and profound--the silence of death itself.

Outside, were sounds such as suited the solemnity of the scene: the mournful _loo-who-ah_ of the eared owl, who had already commenced quartering the aisles of the forest; while from the heaven above came the wild wail of the potoo, as the bird went across the fast-darkening sky, in search of its insect prey.

To these lugubrious utterances there was one solitary exception. More cheerful was the champing of the steel bit--proceeding from the horse that had been left tied to the tree--and the quick, impatient stroke of his hoof, as the animal fretted under the stings of the musquitoes, becoming more bitter as the darkness descended.

The body of Loftus Vaughan lay upon the bamboo bedstead, just as Chakra had left it. No hand had been there to smooth that rude pillow--no friendly finger to close those eyes that were open, and saw not--those orbs gla.s.sed and coldly glaring from their sunken sockets!

As yet the attendant had not returned with that succour which would come too late.

Nor was it possible for him to get back in much less than an hour.

Content, though in actual distance scarcely a mile from the hut, was full five in point of time. The slope of the mountain road was at an angle with the horizon of at least fifty degrees. There could be no rapid riding on that road--neither up nor down, upon the most urgent errand; and the black groom was not going to risk life by a broken neck, even to save the life of a Custos.

It would be a full hour, then, before the man would return. As yet only twenty minutes had pa.s.sed, and forty more were to come.

But it was not fated that even for those forty minutes the body of the Custos Vaughan should be permitted to rest in peace.

Twenty minutes had scarcely elapsed after Chakra had stolen away from the side of the corpse, when there came others to disturb it, and with a rude violence almost sufficient to arouse it from the slumber of death!

Had Chakra, on leaving the hut, only taken the main road back to Montego Bay--and that was the direction in which he intended going--he would have met two strange men. Not so strange but that they were known to him; but strange enough to arrest the attention of an ordinary traveller.

But among the proclivities of the myal-man, that of travelling along _main roads_ was one in which he did not indulge, except under the most unavoidable circ.u.mstances.

Following his usual practice, as soon as he had cleared the precincts of the negro cabin, he struck off into a by-path leading through the bushes; and by so doing lost the opportunity of an encounter with two individuals, who, although of a different nationality, were as great villains as himself.

The brace of worthies thus described are already known. They were the man-hunters of Jacob Jessuron, Manuel and Andres--_cacadores de cimmarones_ from the Island of Cuba.

With the object for which they were journeying along the Savanna road the reader is equally _au fait_. Jessuron's talk with them, on starting them off, has plainly proclaimed the vile intent of his two truculent tools.

All day long had these human bloodhounds been following upon the track of the Custos--now nearer to him--now further off--according to the halts which the traveller had made, and the relative speed of horseman and pedestrian.

More than once had they sighted their intended victim afar off on the white dusty road. But the presence of the stout negro attendant, as well as the broad open daylight, had deterred them from proceeding in their nefarious purpose; and they had postponed its execution till that time which gives opportunity to the a.s.sa.s.sin--the going down of the sun.

This hour had at length arrived; and just as the real murderer was hastening away from the hut, the intending a.s.sa.s.sins were hurrying towards it, with all the speed in their power!

"_Carrambo_!" exclaimed he who was the older, and in consequence the _leader_ of the two, "I shouldn't be surprised, Andres, if the _ingeniero_ was to slip out of our clutches to-night! Not far beyond lies Content, and the owner of that _ingenio_ is a friend of his. You remember Senor Jacob said he would be like to put up there for the night?"

"Yes," replied Andres, "the old Judio was particular about that."

"Well, if he gets there before we can overhaul him, there'll be nothing done to-night. We must take our chance on the road between that and Savanna."

"_Carajo_!" responded Andres, with somewhat spiteful emphasis; "if it wasn't for them ugly pistols he carries, and that big buck n.i.g.g.e.r by his side, we might have stopped his breath before this. Supposing he gets to Savanna before we can have a talk with him? what then, _compadre_?"