"Oh, Cheditafa know!" exclaimed Maka, but without coming any nearer the captain. "He know many, many t'ings, but he 'fraid come tell you hisself."
"I should think he would be," replied the captain, "and I wonder you are not afraid, too."
"Oh, I is, I is," said Maka. "I's all w'ite inside. But somebody got speak boss 'fore he go 'way. If nobody speak, den you go 'way—no boss. All crooked. Nobody b'long to anybody. Den maybe men come down from mountain, or maybe men come in boat, and dey say, 'Who's all you people? Who you b'long to?' Den dey say dey don' b'long nobody but demselves. Den, mos' like, de w'ite ones gets killed for dey clothes and dey money. And Cheditafa and me we gets tuck somew'ere to be slaves. But if we say, 'Dat lady big Cap'n Horn's wife—all de t'ings and de people b'long to big he'—hi! dey men hands off—dey shake in de legs. Everybody know big Cap'n Horn."
The captain could not help laughing. "I believe you are as big a fool as Cheditafa," said he. "Don't you know I can't make a woman my wife just by calling her so?"
"Don' mean dat!" exclaimed Maka. "Cheditafa don' mean dat. He make all right. He priest in he own country. He marry people. He marry you 'fore you go, all right. He talk 'bout dat mos' all night, but 'fraid come tell cap'n."
The absurdity of this statement was so great that it made the captain laugh instead of making him angry; but before he could say anything more to Maka, Mrs. Cliff approached him. "You must excuse me, captain," she said, "but really the time is very short, and I have a great deal to say to you, and if you have finished joking with that colored man, I wish you would talk with me."
"You will laugh, too," said the captain, "when you hear what he said to me." And in a few words he told her what Maka had proposed.
Instead of laughing, Mrs. Cliff stood staring at him in silent amazement.
"I see I have shocked you," said the captain, "but you must remember that that is only a poor heathen's ignorant vagary. Please say nothing about it, especially to Miss Markham."
"Say nothing about it!" exclaimed Mrs. Cliff. "I wish I had a thousand tongues to talk of it. Captain, do you really believe that Cheddy man is a priest, or what goes for one in his own country? If he is, he ought to marry you and Edna."