Had Quaco gone mad?
“In the presence of death, sir,” said the young Maroon captain, directing a severe glance upon his lieutenant, “you might lay aside that merry mood, too common with you. It ill becomes you—”
“Death, do ye say, cappen?” interrupted Quaco; “who’s gone dead here?”
There was no reply to this abrupt interrogatory. Those to whom it was addressed were too much taken by surprise to say a word.
“If you mean the young buckra lady,” continued Quaco, “I’d give all the barbecued hog I ever owned nebber to be more dead than she jess now. Dead, i’deed? nonsense dat: she only sleep!”
Herbert and Cubina started from their seats, each uttering a cry of astonishment, in which might be detected the accents of hope.
“Who’s got a piece o’ lookin’-glass!” continued Quaco, turning his glance interrogatively around the hut. “Good,” he exclaimed, as the sparkle of a piece of broken mirror came under his eyes; “here’s the thing itself!
“Now, lookee hyar!” resumed he, taking the bit of glass from the place where it had been deposited, and rubbing its surface with a piece of rag: “you see thar’s ne’er a speck upon it?”
The others, still held silent by surprise, made answer only by nodding their assent.
“Wal, now,” continued Quaco, “watch me a bit.”