Untutored in the ways of the world and fashionable intrigue, yet the Quadroon saw very clearly that through Captain Bramble she might consummate that revenge which she had so signally failed in doing by the agency of the hostile negro tribes she had treacherously brought to her father’s doors.  He had not been long at the factory, therefore, on landing after the duel, before Maud sought a private interview with him, on pretext of communicating to him some information that should be of value to him in connection with his official duty.  To this, of course, the English officer responded at once, shrewdly suspecting at least a portion of the truth, and he therefore met Maud at an appointed spot in the jungle hard by her father’s house.

“You will speak truly in what you tell me, my good girl?” he said sagaciously, as he looked into her dark spirited eyes with admiration he could not avoid.

“Have I anything to gain by a lie?” responded Maud, with a curling lip.

“No, I presume not,” he answered.  “I merely ask from ordinary precaution.  But what do you propose to reveal to me?  Something touching this Captain Ratlin?”

“Ay,” said the girl quickly.  “It is of him I would speak.  You are an English officer, agent of your government, and sent here to suppress this vile traffic?”

“True.”

“And have you suspected nothing since your vessel has been here?”

“I suspect that this Captain Ratlin is in some way connected with the trade.”

“He is, and but now awaits the gathering of a cargo in my father’s barracoons, to sail with them to the West Indies.  It is not his first voyage, either.”

“But where is his vessel? he cannot go to sea without one,” said the Englishman.

“That is what I would reveal to you.  I will discover to you his ship if you swear to arrest him, seize the vessel, and if possible hang him!”

“You are bitter indeed,” said the officer, almost startled at the fiendish expression of the Quadroon’s countenance as she emphasized those two expressive words.

“I have reason to be,” answered Maud, calming her feelings by an effort.

“Has he wronged you?”

“Yes, he loves the white woman whom he brought to my father’s house.”

“Thus far, at all events, my good girl, we have mutual cause for hate, and we will work heartily together.  You know where his vessel lies?”

“I do.”

“Is it far from here?”

“Less than a league.”

“Indeed!  These fellows are cunning,” mused the officer.  “When will you guide me and a party of my people thither?”

“To-night.”

“It is well.  I will be prepared.  Where shall we meet?”

“At the end of the cape, where you and he met a few days since.”

“Where we met?” asked the other, in surprise.  “How knew you of that?”

“I saw it.”

“The duel?”

“Yes.”