here longer.' As I had no wish to be offered up as a
sacrifice to the fetish I followed his advice, and as fast as we could
move along we made our way back to the open. On inquiring of Rob what
he had heard, he told me that the negroes were cursing the white men,
and were praying to the fetish to assist them in some design or other
they had on foot. Rob even thought that in their excitement they might
seize us and put us to death. He was so earnest in the matter that he
convinced me he did not speak without sufficient cause. I don't wish to
alarm you, Miss Ferris, but I want you to try and induce your father to
take precautions against any sudden outbreak of the blacks. Our manager
holds them in such supreme contempt that he wouldn't listen to what I
have to say, and would only laugh at me and call me a second-sight
Scotchman. Even the hundred negroes I saw assembled might commit a
great deal of mischief; and there may be many hundreds more united with
them: numbers arrived while we were there, and others were coming in as
we made our escape."

"I certainly think you are right, Mr Sandys, in not despising the
warning given by the overseer," said Ellen. "I will tell my father what
you have said to me, and ask him to speak to you on the subject, and he
will probably examine Rob Kerlie. It will surely be wise to be on our
guard, even should the negroes not really be meditating mischief. I
confess that what you have told me has made me somewhat anxious; this
hot evening is not calculated to rise one's spirits. Tell me, Mr
Sandys, is the air often as oppressive as it is at present?"

"No, certainly. It is very hot indeed; I suspect that we are going to
have a storm," answered Archie. "I observed this morning curiously
shaped clouds high up in the sky, which suddenly dispersed from every
point of the compass. I have been for some minutes, watching a bank of
clouds rising above the horizon in the north-west, and it has gained a
considerable height since we were speaking; it seems to have swept round
the western end of the island."

Ellen looked in the direction indicated; just then a vivid flash of
lightning burst from the dark bank of clouds in the west, followed
almost without interval by several others, and in a few minutes the tops
of the tall palms bent before a sudden blast which came rushing from the
westward. Every instant it increased in fury; the leaves torn from the
trees filled the air, succeeded b