XV.
“It was good of you Jack, to have Mr. Dunlap invite me to dine with him this evening. I am deucedly weary of the ‘off colored,’” exclaimed Lieutenant Tom Maxon as he and his companion, Captain Jack Dunlap walked in the twilight through the outskirts of Port au Prince.
“To tell you the truth, Tom, I was not thinking of your pleasure in the visit half so much as I was about my old kinsman’s. You see we have been here a month, and as my Cousin Lucy is an invalid and sees no company, Mr. Dunlap has divided his great rambling house into two parts. He and Burton occupy one part and the women folk the other; I join them as often as possible but as Burton is exceedingly popular with the dusky Haitians and often absent, my old cousin is apt to be lonely. I thought your habitual jolliness would do him good, and at the same time secure you a fine dinner, excellent wine and the best cigars in Haiti; hence the invitation.”
“How is Mrs. Burton? I remember her from the days when you, the little Princess and I used to make ‘Rome howl’ in the Dunlap attic.”
“Lucy is much improved by the sea voyage and change of climate, but must have absolute quiet. For that reason my mother keeps up an establishment in one part of the house to insure against noise, or intrusion,” said Jack.
“I hope that you didn’t promise much jollity on my part this evening, old chum, for the thought of our little Princess being an invalid and under the same roof knocks all the laugh and joke out of even a mirthful idiot like Tom Maxon,” said the lieutenant.
“It’s sailing rather close to tears, I confess, Tom, but I do wish you to cheer the old gentleman up some if you can,” replied Jack as they strolled along the highway between dense masses of tropical foliage.
“I say, Jack, is Mr. Dunlap’s place much further? I don’t half like its location,” said Maxon as he looked about him and noticed the absence of houses and the thick underbrush.
“Why? What’s the matter with it? Are you leg weary already, you sea-swab?” cried Dunlap laughing.
“Not a bit; but I’ll tell you something that may be a little imprudent in a naval officer, but still I think you ought to know. The American Consul fears some trouble from the blacks on account of the concessions that Dictator Dupree was forced to grant the whites before the English and American bankers would make the loan that Mr. Dunlap negotiated. The rumor is that the ignorant blacks from the mountains blame your kinsman and mutter threats against him. When Admiral Snave received the order at Gibraltar to call at Port au Prince on our way home with the flag-ship Delaware and one cruiser, we all suspected something was up, and after we arrived and the old fighting-cock placed guards at the American Consulate we felt sure of it,” replied Lieutenant Tom seriously.