is hand, I flung it, sugar
and all, into the tache, from which I knew nothing short of a
miracle could recover it.

'For a moment only did Martin hesitate; and then, after fumbling for
one instant with his right hand in his girdle, he made a rush at me.
Fortunately for me, I was prepared; and springing back to the spot
where I had before been standing, I took up a light cutlass, which I
always carried about with me, and stood on the defensive.

'I had, however, no occasion to use the weapon; for, in running
towards me, Martin's foot slipped in some molasses which had been
spilt on the ground, and he fell heavily to the floor, striking his
head against the corner of one of the large wooden sugar-coolers.

'The blow stunned him for the time, and before he recovered I had
left the boiling-house.

'The next day, to my surprise, I found him excessively civil, and
almost obsequious: but I noticed that he had taken a violent
dislike to our head overseer, whom I shall call Jean Marie, and whom
he seemed to suspect as the person who had betrayed him to me when
stealing the sugar.

'Things went on pretty quietly for some weeks, till the crop was
nearly over.

'One afternoon Jean Marie told me there was to be a Jumby-dance
amongst the Africans on the estate that very night. Now Jumby-
dances were even then becoming less frequent, and I was extremely
anxious to see one; and after a good deal of difficulty, I succeeded
in persuading Jean Marie to accompany me to the hut wherein it was
to be held.

'It was a miserable kind of an ajoupa near the river-side; and we
had some difficulty in making our way to it through the tangled dank
grass and brushwood which surrounded it. Nor was the journey
rendered more pleasant by the constant rustling among this
undergrowth, that reminded us that there were such things as snakes
and other ugly creatures to be met with on our road.

'Curiosity, however, urged us on; and at length we reached the
ajoupa, which was built on a small open space near the river,
beneath a gigantic silk-cotton tree.

'Here we found assembled some thirty Africans, men and women, very
scantily dressed, and with necklaces of beads, sharks' teeth, dried
frogs, etc., hung round their necks. They were all squatted on
their haunches outside the hut, apparently waiting for a signal to
go in.

'They did not seem particularly pleased at seeing us; and one of the
men said something i