The captain looked at his visitor searchingly, and then turned to the doctor.
“What is your opinion of this gentleman’s state?” he said.
“Most serious,” replied the doctor, after a very brief examination of the visitor.
“Humph!” ejaculated the captain. “And I understand,” he continued, “that you are ready to give me every assistance I need to root out this plague spot, as you term it?”
“Every help I can,” replied the planter.
“Now that I do not need it, eh?”
“I beg your pardon, sir,” said the planter; “you do need it. You have made your way to my house and plantations without help.”
“Yes; my officers soon made their way there,” said the captain.
“And it will be easy to burn and destroy there; but you will not be able to deal with the slave quarters in different parts of the island, nor with the three well-equipped slaving schooners that voyage to and from the West Coast of Africa and carry on their sickening trade with this depot and the other stations.”
“H’m!” ejaculated the captain. “Perhaps not; but I have no doubt that we shall soon find out all I require.”