“You are certain, Yola, the old Jew made this offer?”
“So me say young missa.”
“Two hundred pounds! And Mr Vaughan refused it?”
“Missa Kate no allow Massa Vaughan me sell. She say ‘Never!’ Ah! young missa! she good for say so! No matter what money he give, she never let wicked white man buy Yola. She so say many time.”
“Miss Kate said this? Then she is good, she is generous! It must have been her doing, else the Custos would never have refused such a tempting offer. Two hundred pounds! It is a large sum. Well, I must begin again. I must work night and day to get it. And then, if they should refuse me! Ha! what then?”
The speaker paused, not as if expecting a reply from her who stood by his side, but rather from his own thoughts.
“Never mind!” continued he, his countenance assuming an expression partly hopeful, partly reckless. “Have no fear of the future, Yola. Worst come worst, you shall yet be mine. Ay, dearest, you shall share my mountain home, though I may have to make it the home of an outlaw!”
“Oh!” exclaimed the young girl, slightly frayed by the wild look and words of her lover, her eye at the same instant falling upon the red pool where the hounds had been slain. “Blood, Cubina?”
“Only that of some animals—a wild boar and two dogs—just killed there. Don’t let that frighten you, pet. You must be brave, my Yola; since you are to be the wife of a Maroon! Ours is a life of many dangers.”
“With you Yola no fear. She go any where—far over the mountains—to Jumbé Rock—anywhere you her take, Cubina.”