The White Squall | Page 7

before the rain came on, and that prevented
him from going to cut the grass," I explained.
Jake looked astounded.
"Hey, Pomp catch him 'guana?" he asked.
"Yes," said I. "He killed it in the stable-yard, and has gone to cook it."
This immediately fired Jake's jealousy. It was, to him, just like adding
insult to injury on his rival's park. It seemed like poaching on his
special domain.
"What, Mass' Tom, he catchee 'guana, for suah?"
"Yes, in the corner there," I answered, pointing out the exact place with

the twisted rattan, or "supple Jack," which I used for a riding- whip and
held loosely in my hand.
"Dat for true, right on de mush heap dar?" repeated Jake, apparently
unable to realise the fact of the other's success in the chase.
"He did," I said briefly; and then, wishing to end the colloquy, I jumped
on Prince's back, whereupon my skittish pony, as I had trained him to
do on my once mounting, immediately started off at a brisk canter
down the carriage drive. So Jake had perforce to bestride Dandy and
follow after me, without having the pleasure of calling Pompey to
account for his misdeeds before we started--as he evidently expected
and most decidedly wished to have done I've no doubt.
Jake was very angry.
This was not so much because the other darkey had omitted cutting the
guinea-grass, which, of course, the horses would not now require until
we returned from town, as from the circumstance of Pompey having
had the chance of exhibiting his prowess in respect of the iguana. Jake
was evidently much dissatisfied with the whole proceeding; and I could
hear him muttering anathemas against his rival as he trotted behind me
through the grounds, and out at the entrance-gate into the main-road
beyond.
"Golly, dat most mystiferous, nohow!" I heard him ejaculate after a bit
as he got nearer up to me. "I'se spec dat 'guana one big fool let Pomp
grab him. Nebber mine! Me catchee big manacou byme-bye; an' dat
heap betterer dan nasty fat-face 'guana. Say, Mass' Tom, um like
manacou?"
"I can't tell you, Jake," I replied. "I have never yet tasted one."
"Den you jest wait an' see. Dey is splendiferous, Mass' Tom, an' beat
cock-fightin'. Golly, I get you one, two, tree, five manacou to-morrer,
dat ebber so nicer dan dat poor trash ob 'guana dat hangman tief Pomp
catchee, you jest wait an' see!"

"All right, Jake," I said kindly, to appease his jealous feelings; for, he
was very fond of me and thought that his rival had eclipsed him in my
estimation. "I will come with you to-morrow, if my father doesn't want
me, and then we'll hunt for manacous up the mountain."
This promise delighted him, and very soon Jake regained his customary
good-humour, satisfied with having prospectively outshone Pompey;
for, he presently broke out with one of his happy African laughs, which
told me as plainly as words the little unpleasantness of the past was
now dismissed from his thoughts.
As we rode on, at first downwards and then up a steep hillside again,
the path winding by the edge of a precipice most of the way, we came
across further traces of the force of the recent storm. Large trees were
at one place stretched across the road, their massive trunks having been
rended by the lightning; while the sudden deluge of rain had channelled
little streams through the red clay. These coursed along like so many
independent rivulets, right under our horses' hoofs, rippling onward
light-heartedly, until they came to one of the many broad ditches or
gullies, that intersected our track at intervals, the contents of which
they swelled to such an extent that we frequently had great difficulty in
fording them, the water reaching quite up to Prince's girths, and the
current being so strong as to almost sweep him off his legs.
The scenery on either hand was grand.
On the right, plantations of cocoa and nutmeg trees stretched up the
slopes of hills, which all converged towards a central mountain peak
that overtopped all the rest by many hundred feet. This was crowned by
the extinct crater of a volcano, now filled with water and known as Le
Grand Etang. On the left, were valleys and gorges of the richest green,
with here and there a tall silk-cotton tree or graceful palm elevating
itself above the other wood-nymphs, the smoke of charcoal burners
dotting the landscape from amid the thickest part of the forest growth
of green with curling wreaths of grey.
We soon reached a wide plateau just above Government House, where
the best view in the whole island was to be obtained, above which

towered the old battery on Richmond Hill, armed with obsolete and
worm-eaten