“Hush!” said I.
“Hush?” he repeated. “And why hush? I am on my own place, I would have you to know, and surrounded by my own lawful servants.”
“Are the officers gone?” I asked; and, oh! how my hopes hung upon the answer!
“They are,” said he, looking somewhat disconcerted. “Why do you ask?”
“I wish you had kept them,” I answered, solemnly enough, although my heart at that same moment leaped with exultation. “Master, I must not conceal from you the truth. The servants on this estate are in a dangerous condition, and mutiny has long been brewing.”
“Why,” he cried, “I never saw a milder-looking lot of niggers in my life.” But for all that he turned somewhat pale.
“Did they tell you,” I continued, “that Madam Mendizabal is on the island? that, since her coming, they obey none but her? that if, this morning, they have received you with even decent civility, it was only by her orders—issued with what after-thought I leave you to consider?”
“Madam Jezebel?” said he. “Well, she is a dangerous devil; the police are after her, besides, for a whole series of murders; but after all, what then? To be sure, she has a great influence with you coloured folk. But what in fortune’s name can be her errand here?”
“The jewels,” I replied. “Ah, sir, had you seen that treasure, sapphire and emerald and opal, and the golden topaz, and rubies, red as the sunset—of what incalculable worth, of what unequalled beauty to the eye!—had you seen it, as I have, and alas! as she has—you would understand and tremble at your danger.”
“She has seen them!” he cried, and I could see by his face that my audacity was justified by its success.