"
"To Salem--why Salem?"
"Because Calhoun is there fighting the Maroons in that district. The
Maroons first captured the ladies of Salem as they rode in the woods.
They were beaten at that game by Calhoun and four men; the ladies then
were freed and taken back to Salem. Then the storm burst on Salem--
burst, but did not overwhelm. Calhoun saved the situation there; and
when his hounds arrive at Salem he will range over the whole country.
It is against the ideas of the people of England, but it does our work
in Jamaica as nothing else could. It was a stroke of genius, the hounds,
your honour!"
Lord Mallow was at once relieved and nonplussed. No doubt the policy of
the hounds was useful, and it might save his own goose, but it was, in a
sense, un-English to hunt the wild man with hounds. Yet was it un-
English? What was the difference between a sword and a good sharp tooth
save that the sword struck and let go and the tooth struck and held on?
It had been said in England that to hunt negroes with hounds was
barbarous and cowardly; but criminals were hunted with bloodhounds
in all civilized countries; and as for cowardice, the man who had sent
for these hounds was as brave as any old crusader! No, Dyck Calhoun
could not be charged with cowardice, and his policy of the hounds might
save the island and the administration in the end.
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