The two English ladies, both mother and daughter, found much to interest them in Maud Leonardo.  She seemed to be a strange girl, a rough diamond, with all the tact and ready invention of her mulatto mother, and all the fire of her Spanish father.  They soon learned that this was not Captain Ratlin’s first visit to the coast, and that her father, as well as herself, considered him the finest seaman and gentleman in the coast trade.  It was impossible not to see with what feeling Maud the Quadroon dwelt upon the good qualities of him she referred to, declaring that he was a father to all the people he took away in his ship, and how kind he was to them; that he always knocked off their shackles at once and made friends of them by real kindness.

Mrs. Huntington, to say nothing of her daughter, saw something more than mere honest admiration in the enthusiastic girl’s remarks about the young commander, and the mother shrewdly determined to question her upon the theme, and to weigh well her answers.

“Captain Ratlin is very friendly to you, I suppose, Maud?” said Mrs. Huntington.

“He is friendly to father, and that is the same thing,” she replied, simply.

“Has he not brought you presents across the ocean?” continued the mother.

“One,” said Maud, with evident pleasure, rolling back a long sleeve, and discovering to her new-made friends a rich golden bracelet, set with pearls, a rare and beautiful ornament.

“This is indeed beautiful,” said the mother.

Mrs. Huntington examined the jewel, while her daughter turned thoughtfully away!  She could not he mistaken; she saw at once that this rude, uncultivated girl loved the commander of the “Sea Witch,” nor did she wonder at such a fact; but yet she found herself musing and asking within her own mind whether such a being could make him happy as a wife.  She felt that he was worthy of better companionship, and that, notwithstanding Maud evidently loved him, he could hardly entertain any peculiar regard for her.  Could he have deceived the girl? she thought.  No, deceit was no part of his nature; that she felt sure of, and thus she mused alone to herself, placing the relationship of the two in all manner of lights, until she saw him again.

Having moored the “Sea Witch” safely amid the jungle of one of the many winding rivers that indent the coast of Africa, and sent down her upper spars to prevent her from being discovered by any exhibition of the top-hamper above the trees and jungle growth, Captain Ratlin left his crew under charge of the first officer, Mr. Faulkner, and returned once more to the seaboard and the establishment of Don Leonardo.  Here it would be necessary for him to remain for a week or more, while the Spaniard sent his runners inland to the chiefs of the various coast tribes to forward the prisoners of war to his barracoons.  This period of time was passed in various domestic amusements, in observing the sports and games of the natives, their habits, and studying their nationalities—­for the slaves in Don Leonardo’s barracoons represented a score of different tribes, each characteristic of its origin.