Page:Rowland--In the shadow.djvu/254



OR three days the orgy continued. The end of a week saw some few racked revelers still haunting the place; three nights of such terrific debauchery was the limit of the endurance of most of the participants. Daytimes they withdrew into temporary lairs; huts, hiding places; nights they drank, danced, gorged themselves with animal food; the last alone a debauch for a negro accustomed to a diet of fruit, fish, and cereals. Jules found himself alone at the villa; Célèstine had disappeared with the others. Jules guessed where they had gone; he had listened half the night to the bamboula; had heard faint, frantic cries, and smelt the wood smoke. When his master failed to return late upon the following day the little Frenchman became anxious, less alarmed for Dessalines' safety than for the result of his absence at such a time; a time when action meant all; when any moment might bring the expected summons. He wondered that the Fouchères dared leave their house thus open and deserted. He did not know that Fouchère was the grandson of a vaudoux priestess; that not the hardiest thief upon the island would have dared rest covetous eyes upon the property of the descendant of a mama-loi.

Late in the afternoon his anxiety overcame his prudence. He saddled his master's great horse and rode down the mountain. A man directed him to the house of 244