, my dear," said he,
"I am a plain man: none of your damned Spaniards, but a true blue,
hard-working, honest Englishman. My name is Caulder."

"Thank you, sir," said I, and curtsied very smartly as I had seen the
servants.

"Come," said he, "this is better than I had expected; and if you choose
to be dutiful in the station to which it has pleased God to call you,
you will find me a very kind old fellow. I like your looks," he added,
calling me by my name, which he scandalously mispronounced. "Is your
hair all your own?" he then inquired with a certain sharpness, and
coming up to me, as though I were a horse, he grossly satisfied his
doubts. I was all one flame from head to foot, but I contained my
righteous anger and submitted. "That is very well," he continued,
chucking me good-humouredly under the chin. "You will have no cause to
regret coming to old Caulder, eh? But that is by the way. What is more
to the point is this: your late master was a most dishonest rogue and
levanted with some valuable property that belonged of rights to me. Now,
considering your relation to him, I regard you as the likeliest person
to know what has become of it; and I warn you, before you answer, that
my whole future kindness will depend upon your honesty. I am an honest
man myself, and expect the same in my servants."

"Do you mean the jewels?" said I, sinking my voice into a whisper.

"That is just precisely what I do," said he, and chuckled.

"Hush!" said I.

"Hush?" he repeated. "And why hush? I am on my own place, I would have
you to know, and surrounded by my own lawful servants."

"Are the officers gone?" I asked; and, oh! how my hopes hung upon the
answer!

"They are," said he, looking somewhat disconcerted. "Why do you ask?"

"I wish you had kept them," I answered, solemnly enough, although my
heart at that same moment leaped with exultation. "Master, I must not
conceal from you the truth. The servants on this estate are in a
dangerous condition, and mutiny has long been brewing."

"Why," he cried, "I never saw a milder-looking lot of niggers in my
life." But for all that he turned somewhat pale.

"Did they tell you," I continued, "that Madam Mendizabal is on the
island? that, since her coming, they obey none but her? that if, this
morning, they have received you with even decent civility, it was only
by her orders--issued with what after-thought I leave you to consider?"

"Madam Jezebel?" said he. "Well, she is a dan