Part 19 (2/2)

Tiger's wife was more affected than Lawrence expected she would have been by her husband's accident, and tended him with anxious care. By taking hold of him, and laying him gently down in a corner opposite to that of his sick child, Lawrence gave him to understand that it was his duty to take rest. To say truth, he did not require much persuasion, but at once laid his head on his pillow, and quietly went to sleep.

”The hospital is filling rather quickly, Manuela,” said Lawrence, when he had finished tending his new patient, ”and your duties are increasing, I fear.”

”No fear. Me likes to nuss,” replied the girl, with a look that puzzled the young doctor.

It was Manuela's fascinating smile that came hardest on our poor hero.

When she looked grave or sad, he could regard her as a mere statue, an unusually cla.s.sical-looking bronze savage; but when she smiled, there was something so bewitchingly sweet in the lines of her little face that he felt constrained to shut his eyes, turn away, and groan in spirit, to think that she was brown, and a savage!

”Was there _ever_ a case,” he thought, ”so mysteriously miserable, so singularly sad, as mine! If she were only white, I would marry her at once, (if she would have me), for the sake of her gentle spirit alone,-- ay, even though she were the child of a costermonger; but I cannot, I _do_ not, love a savage, the daughter of a savage chief, with a skin the colour of shoe leather! No, it is impossible! and yet, I am in love with her spirit. I know it. I feel it. I never heard of such a strange thing before,--a man in love with a portion of a woman, and that the immaterial portion!”

The last word changed the current of his thoughts, for it suggested the idea of another ”portion” belonging to some girls with which men are too apt to fall in love!

”Ma.s.sa, de grub's ready,” said Quashy, entering the hut at that moment.

”Go to work then, Quash. Don't wait. I'll be with you directly.”

But Quashy did wait. He was much too unselfish a son of ebony to think of beginning before his master.

When they had seated themselves on the gra.s.s outside the hut, along with Manuela, who left her post of duty in order to dine, and had made a considerable impression on the alligator-ragout and tiger-steaks and other delicacies, Quashy heaved a deep sigh of partial satisfaction, and asked if Tiger would be well enough to go out hunting next day.

”I think not,” said Lawrence; ”no doubt he may _feel_ able for it, but if he shows any disposition to do so, I shall forbid him.”

”How you forbid him, when you not can speak hims tongue?” asked Manuela, in a mild little voice, but with an arch look to which her arched black eyebrows gave intense expression.

”Well,” replied Lawrence, laughing, ”I must try signs, I suppose, as usual.”

”No use, ma.s.sa,” said Quashy; ”nebber make him understan'. I gib you a plan. See here. You tie him up hand an' foot; den we go off huntin' by our lone, an' let him lie till we comes back.”

Lawrence shook his head. ”I fear he would kill us on our return. No, we must just go off early in the morning before he wakes, and get Manuela to try her hand at sign-language. She can prevail on him, no doubt, to remain at home.”

”I vill try,” said Manuela, with a laugh.

In pursuance of this plan, Lawrence and Quashy rose before broad daylight the following morning, launched the little canoe they had used the day before, put gun, spears, etcetera, on board, and were about to push off, when one of the boys of the family ran down, and seemed to wish to accompany them.

”We'd better take him,” said Lawrence; ”he's not very big or old, but he seems intelligent enough, and no doubt knows something of his father's haunts and sporting customs.”

”You's right, ma.s.sa,” a.s.sented the negro.

Lawrence made a sign to the lad to embark, and Quashy backed the invitation with--

”Jump aboord, Leetle Cub.”

Instead of obeying, Leetle Cub ran up into the bush, but presently returned with a long stick like a headless lance, a bow and arrows, and an instrument resembling a large grappling anchor, made of wood.

Placing these softly in the canoe, the little fellow, who seemed to be about ten years of age, stepped in, and they all pushed off into the river--getting out of sight of the hut without having roused any one.

Turning into the same stream which they had visited the day before, they pushed past the place where the jaguar had been killed, and entered on an exploration, as Lawrence called it.

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