k of Dick
and me as of Fauquier Cary's--as of your father's--old, old friend Come,
now."

They found on the square porch at the back of the house, Colonel
Churchill, the negro Eli, and a white man, roughly dressed. The first,
seated on the steps, his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands,
looked up with a gasp. "Fair, Fair--"

Cary spoke with steadiness "What has brought you here, Eli? Mr. Ludwell
came home last night?"

Eli, trembling violently, and of the ashen hue that a negro takes in
terror, tried to answer, but at first there came only jabbered and
meaningless words. He fell on his knees, and finally became coherent.
"Marse Fair--Marse Fair--ain' I done lif' you bofe in dese ahms w'en you
wuz jes' little fellers--he er lot de oldes' an' you nuttin' but er
baby, toddlin' after him eberywhar he went! Ain' I done ride behin' you
bofe dese yeahs an' yeahs? Oh, Gawd-a-moughty! O Lawd, hab mercy--"

Cary took him by the shoulder. "Eli, stop that crying out and tell me at
once what is the matter! What has happened to Mr. Ludwell?"

"I'll tell you, Fair," answered the Major, in a shaking voice. "The
negro can't do it. Ludwell did not come home last night, and this
morning James Wilson, here, found Saladin--"

"Far up the river road, near my house," said the man upon the steps.
"'Twas just about daybreak. I didn't know, sir, whose horse he was, so I
put him in my stable. Then my son and me and Joe White, a neighbour of
mine, we set out down the river road."

"Oh, _my_ young marster! Oh, _my_ young marster!" wailed Eli. "De
kindes' an' de bes'! Oh, Lawd hab mercy!"

"It was just dawn, sir, and we went down the road--we were on
horseback--quite a good bit of miles. There wasn't any sign until we
came to where Indian Run crosses the road; but on the further side,
where there's a strip of rocks, you know, sir--"

The speaker stopped short. "They found him there, Fair," finished Major
Edward.

The young man turned squarely to the old. "Thank you, sir. You are the
man for me. Was he--is he badly hurt?"

"There's nothing can ever hurt him more, my dear. It is you, and we with
you, who must suffer now. They found him--they found him dead, Fair."

There was a silence; then, "Ludwell--Ludwell dead?" said Cary. "I don't
believe you, Major Churchill."

He turned, walked to a bench that ran along the wall, and sat down.
"Eli, get up from there and stop that camp-meeting wailing! Mr. Wilson,
you perhaps do not y