Litchfield enquirer., 1881-08-18

I been king of his house and of the Point for So long time, had evidently never even thought of the probability of such an intrusion as was now presented to him, and he was amazed at
 what he considered to be the unwarrantable assurance the stranger. However, he recov- cred himself smartly, and asked the new man if he had any written credentials.
 Certainly" replied he, pulnng out docu- ment all wet with salt water. 'Here is let ter from Messrs Flint Brothers, of which,
 no doubt, you will have a copy in your mail bag
 Jackson took the letter and opened it, and seemed to read i: slowly to himself. All at once he started, looked at the new agent, ad | vanced step or two toward him, muttering, ] "Bransome, Bransome," then stopped and asked him in a strange. constrained voice, '1s your name Bransome ?"
 ''Yes." replied the latter, astopished at the l old mans question. H
 s1 knew a Bransome once," said Jackson, l steadily, land he was scoundrel."
 For moment the two men looked at each l other-Jackson with gleam of hatred in his eyes, while Bransome had curiously fright ened expression on his face, which blanched slightly. But he quickly resumed his con- posture and peremptory way, and said, ''Shew me a room; I must get these wet things off | me-"
 As, however, he addressed himself this time | to me rather than to Jackson-who, indeed, regarded him no longer, but stood with the letter loose in his hand. looking at the floor of the room, as if in deep meditation-I showed him into my own room, where ordered his | trunks to be brought. These, of course, were wet but he found some things in the middle of them that were not more than slightly damp i and with the help of pairof old canvas trous- 1 CTS of mine he managed to make his appear ance at dinner time. @2s's7 2 r aszsss - s7- .-
 Jackson was not at the meal. He had left
 the house shortly after his interview with the
 new agent, and had, fancied, gone on one of his solitary rambles. At any rate he did not
 return until late at night. l thought Mir. Bransome seemed to be some-
 what relieved when he saw that the old man
 was not coming and he became more affable | than had expected him to be, and reinquish- ed his arrogant style altogether when he be- gan to question me about Jackson-who he
 was? what had he been? how long he had
 lived on the coast? To all which questions 1
 returned cautious answers, remembering that
 was under promise to the old man not to re- peat his story.
 By the next morning, to my surprise, Jack son appeared to have become reconciled to the
 fact that he had been superseded by a man
 who knew nothing of the coast, and of his own accord he offered to tell Mir. Bransome
 the clues to the letter-locks on the doors of 1 IllC VdTIOuS SIOIC-EOOHo1 IOI "C Ou tAO SOdSI
 used none but letter-locks, which are locks
 that do not req uire key to open them. But MT. Bracsome expressed, most politely, wish
 that Jackson should consider himself still in
 charge of the factory, at any rate untill the
 whole estate of the unfortunate Flint Brothers
 could be wound up, and he trusted that his
 presence would make no difference to him.
 This was change on the part of both men
 from the manners of the previous day, and
 yet cnnld not help thinking that each but ill
 concealed his aversion to the other.
 Months now slipped away, and Mir. Bran-
 some was occupied in going up and down the
 coast in a little steamer, shutting up factory
 after factory, transferring their goods to ours
 and getting himself much disliked by all the
 Europeans under him and hated by the na-
 tives, especially by the boat-boys, who were a
 pseaaI e 6e pa by of sRs He bsd of
 course been obliged to order the dismissal of
 many of them. and this was one reason why they hated him; but the chief cause was his treatment of Sooka, the pGtrGO. That man
 never forgave MT. Bransome for beating him so uniustly, and the news of the deed had travelled very quickly, as news does in savage countries, SO that think nearly all Sooka's countrymen knew of the act and resented l it.
 Mir. Bransome was quite unaware of the antipathy he had thus created toward himself, except so far as Sooka was concerned, and him he never employed when he had to go off l to vessels or land from them, but always went | in the other boat belonging to the factory,
 which was steered by much younger negro. h addition to humbling Sooka in this way,
 Bransome took the opportunity of disgracing | him whenever he could do so. Therefore, one day when two pices of cloth from the cargo- room were found in the boatmen's huts, it was no surprise to me that Sooka was at once fast | ened upon by MT. Bransome at the thief who | had stolen them, and that he was tied to the l fogg ting post in the middle of the yard, and sentenced to receive fifty lashes with the cat that was kept for such purpose, and all with out any inquiry being made. In vain did the unfortunate man protest his innocence. A swarthy Krootboy from Cape Coast laid the cat on his brown shoulders right willingly, for he also was an enemy of Sooka's; and in few minutes the poor fellows flesh was cut and. | scored as if by knife
 After the hogging was over MT. Bransome amused himself by getting out his rifle and 1 firing fancy shots at Sooka. still tied to the post-that is, he tried to put the bullets as l close to the poor wretch as he could without actually wounding him. To negro, with his dread of firearms, this was little short of l absolute torture. and at each discharge Sooka writhed and crouched as close to the ground as he could, while his wide-opened eyes and | mouth, and face of almost slate-colOr, show l ed how terribly frightened he was. To Mir. Bransome it appeared to be fine sport, for he | fired at least twenty shots at the man before he shouldered his rifle and went in doors. Jack son said nothing to this stupid exhibition of temper, but as soon as it was over he had l Sooka released and knew he attended to his wounds himself, and poured friar's balsam | into them, and covered his back with a soft 1 shirt-for all which, no doubt, the negro was 1 afterward grateful. Whether MT. Bransome | got to know of thIs, and was offended at it, | do not know, but shortly afterward he ceased 1 to live with us. l There was between the factory and the sea, and little to the right of the former, small wooden cottage which had been allowed to | fall into dilapidated state from want of some one to live in it. This MT. Bransome gave orders to the native carpenters to repair and make weather-ti tight; and when they had dcne so, he caused a quantity of furniture to be brought from St. Paul De Loanda and placed within It. Then he transferred himself and his baggage to the cottage. Jackson displayed complete indifference to this change on the part of the agent. In fact, there had bee ever since the arrived of the latter upon the Point, and Tn spite of appar- ent friendliness, a perceptible breach, widen ing daily, between the two men. As to the reason of this had my own suspicious, for l had made the discovery that Jackson had for some time past been drinking very heavi- ly. W q4 l In addition to the.brandy which we white men had for our own use, I had, to my horror found that he was secretly drinking the coarse and fiery rum that was sold to the natives and as remembered the mutterings and l meanings that that had formerly alarmed me l wondered that 1 had not guessed the cause of them at the time but until the arrival of Mir. Branson,e, Jackson had always kept charge of the spirits himself, and he was such 1 secret old fellow that there was no knowing l l what he bad then taken. Now that I was aware of his failing; was very sorry for tue old sailor; for on such 8 coast and in such a 1 climate there was only one end to it; and al- |