The White Squall | Page 5

animal's side, he gave it one smart stroke on the nose, whereupon
the iguana was incontinently settled, turning over on its back a second
afterwards. The brightness at once faded from its green and gold skin,
while the rich cream-coloured throat changed to a dirty-white in the
hues of death, in the same way that a dolphin alters its colour when
taken from its native element.
"Guess um well kill' now, nohow," said Pompey grimly, taking up the
animal by the tail; but it was such a big one that he couldn't lift it, so he
had to drag it along the ground towards the quarters of himself and the
other negroes. Here it would, I knew, ere long be skinned and dressed
in a very savoury way, known only to African cooks, when a portion of
the banquet would be sent in anon to "the big house," for the kindly
acceptance of the white folks there--my mother, and sisters, and
myself--elegantly dished up in plantain leaves with red peppers for
dressing.
While I stood for a second watching old Pompey making off with his
prey in high good-humour, looking in the distance, as he climbed the
slope of the hill up to the huts, uncommonly like a lean monkey
dragging away a centipede, the intense glare of the tropical noontide, of
which I was for the moment oblivious, changed in an instant to a deep
gloom resembling the blackness of night. It seemed as if some
interposing body had suddenly been placed between the sun and the
earth.
Then came a tremendous crash of thunder, like the sound of heaven's
dome breaking in, it was so fearfully loud and awesome; and the
reverberating roar was accompanied by a vivid flash of forked lightning,
whose zigzag stream struck a tall tamarind-tree standing in front of me,
splintering the trunk from top to bottom with a scrunching noise like
that made in rending timber!
I turned and ran back to the house for shelter as fast as I could,
anticipating what was coming, such storms being of frequent
occurrence in the tropics after exceptional heat and when there is no
wind to agitate the pent-up air; but, ere I could ascend the half dozen

steps leading up to the terrace, the rain-cloud overhead burst and a
sheet of water came down as if poured over the side of some giant
reservoir in the sky, wetting me to the skin by the time I had gained the
shelter of the verandah.
My mother was just coming out of the drawing-room to see where I
was, when Jake came up racing behind me, shouting out at the pitch of
his voice, above the sound of the sluicing rain, "De packet am in, Mass'
Tom! De packet am in!"
CHAPTER TWO.
"MORE HASTE, WORSE SPEED."
"Hurrah!" I shouted out.
I was so overjoyed at hearing Jake's announcement that the
long-expected mail steamer had at last arrived that I was utterly
oblivious of my soaking condition, although I had been so completely
drenched in the brief space of time that had elapsed before I could get
under shelter from the shower, that the water was now trickling down
my dripping garments and running out of my boots. "Look alive, old
fellow," I added to the willing darkey, who was in an equally moist
state, his black skin glistening as if it had received a fresh coating of
Japan varnish. "Saddle my pony at once, for I must go into town, as I
told you!"
"But, Tom," interposed my mother at this juncture, "you cannot start in
all this rain. See how wet you are already, dear, and it is still pouring
down, worse than ever!"
"Oh, never mind that, mother, it will stop soon," I rejoined hastily,
mortally afraid of her putting an embargo on my contemplated
expedition to Saint George's. "I will go in and change my things, and
long before I'm ready it'll be fine again, you'll see! Besides, you know,
dad may have come by the steamer, and he'll be expecting me to meet
him and want Dandy to ride home on. Jake can take him down along
with me, so as to be on the safe side, eh?"

"Well, well, my dear, I suppose you must have your way," said my
mother, whom this last argument of mine, in respect of my father's
possible arrival, seemed to convince against her will, for she made no
further demur to my setting out, in spite of the weather.
This very material point being satisfactorily arranged in my favour, as
Jake could see with half an eye, he having waited to learn whether my
orders were to be carried out or not, the darkey now hurried off to the
stables to execute them with a cheerful