The emphasis upon the last word struck upon the ear of Cubina. It seemed to imply that Quaco, on his route, had encountered others.
“Anybody else, did you meet?” he inquired, hurriedly, and with evident anxiety as to the answer.
“Ya-as, Cappin,” drawled out the lieutenant, with a coolness strongly in contrast with his excited manner on entering the glade. But Quaco saw that his superior was waiting for the coming of the young Englishman, and that he need not hurry the communication he was about to make. “Ya-as, I met ole Plute, the head driver at Moun’ Welcome. He was ridin’ ’longside o’ the Cussos, by way o’ his escort.”
“Nobody else?”
“Not jess then,” answered Quaco, evidently holding back the most interesting item of news he had to communicate. “Not jess then, Cappin Cubina.”
“But afterwards? Speak out, Quaco! Did you meet anyone going on the same road?”
The command, with the impatient gesture that accompanied it, brought Quaco to a quicker confession than he might have volunteered.
“I met, Cappin Cubina,” said he, his cheeks bulging with the importance of the communication he was about to make, while his eyes rolled like “twin jelly balls” in their sockets—“I met next, not a man, but a ghost!”
“A ghost?” said Cubina, incredulously. “A duppy, I sw’ar by the great Accompong—same as I saw before—the ghost of ole Chakra!”
The Maroon captain again made a start, which his lieutenant attributed to surprise at the announcement he had made.