verwhelmed by such unexpected news, and, withal, so strongly
attracted by Harold's sympathetic manner, that he straightway made a
confidant of him, told him of his love for Maraquita, of Maraquita's
love for Azinte, of the utter impossibility of his being able to take
Azinte back to her old mistress, now that she had found her husband and
child, even if it had been admissible for a lieutenant in the British
navy to return freed negroes again into slavery, and wound up with
bitter lamentations as to his unhappy fate, and expressions of poignant
regret that fighting and other desperate means, congenial and easy to
his disposition, were not available in the circumstances. After which
explosion he subsided, felt ashamed of having thus committed himself,
and looked rather foolish.

But Harold quickly put him at his ease. He entered on the subject with
earnest gravity.

"It strikes me, Lindsay," he said thoughtfully, after the lieutenant had
finished, "that I can aid you in this affair; but you must not ask me
how at present. Give me a few hours to think over it, and then I shall
have matured my plans."

Of course the lieutenant hailed with heartfelt gratitude the gleam of
hope held out to him, and thus the friends parted for a time.

That same afternoon Harold sat under a palm-tree in company with Disco,
Jumbo, Kambira, Azinte, and Obo.

"How would you like to go with me to the Cape of Good Hope, Kambira?"
asked Harold abruptly.

"Whar dat?" asked the chief through Jumbo.

"Far away to the south of Africa," answered Harold. "You know that you
can never go back to your own land now, unless you want to be again
enslaved."

"Him say him no' want to go back," interpreted Jumbo; "got all him care
for now--Azinte and Obo."

"Then do you agree to go with me?" said Harold.

To this Kambira replied heartily that he did.

"W'y, wot do 'ee mean for to do with 'em?" asked Disco, in some
surprise.

"I will get them comfortably settled there," replied Harold. "My father
has a business friend in Cape Town who will easily manage to put me in
the way of doing it. Besides, I have a particular reason for wishing to
take Azinte there.--Ask her, Jumbo, if she remembers a young lady named
Senhorina Maraquita Letotti."

To this Azinte replied that she did, and the way in which her eyes
sparkled proved that she remembered her with intense pleasure.

"Well, tell her," rejoined Harold, "that Maraquita has grieved very much
at