find out about the killing of that feller
Hotchkiss."

"You may well call it killin', William, bekaze Friend Hotchkiss was
stone dead a few hours arter the fatal shot was fired," declared Judge
Butts.

"Where was the killin' done?" inquired Mr. Sanders. He addressed himself
to Mrs. Butts, but Mahlon made reply.

"We found him, William, right spang in front of Ike Varner's
cabin--right thar, an' nowhar else. He war doin' his level best for to
git on his feet, an' he tried to talk, but not more than two or three
words did he say."

"Well, what did he say?" inquired Mr. Sanders.

"It was the same thing ever' time--'Why, Tolliver, Tolliver'--them was
his very words."

"Are you right certain about that, Mahlon?" asked Mr. Sanders.

"As certain an' shore, William, as I am that I'm settin' here. Ef he
said it once, he said it a dozen times."

"I reckon maybe he had been talking with young Tolliver before he came
from town," remarked Mrs. Butts, noting Mr. Sanders's serious
countenance.

"Whar was he wounded, Becky?" asked Mr. Sanders.

"Between the left ear and the temple."

"Becky's right, William," was the solemn comment of Mahlon. "Yes, sir,
he was hit betwixt the year an' the temple."

"Did you have a doctor?"

"We sent for one, but if he come, we never saw him," Mrs. Butts replied.

"Would you uv believed it, William? An' yit it's the plain truth," said
Mahlon.

"What time was Hotchkiss killed?"

"'Bout half-past ten; maybe a little sooner."

This was all the information Mr. Sanders could get, and it was a great
deal more than he wanted in one particular. He knew that Gabriel
Tolliver was innocent of the killing; but the fact that his name was
called by the dying man was almost as damaging as an ante-mortem
accusation would have been.

Mr. Sanders rode to Ike Varner's cabin, a few hundred yards away. Tying
his horse to the fence on the opposite side of the road, he entered the
house without ceremony.

"Who is that? La! Mr. Sanders, you sho did skeer me," exclaimed Edie.
"Why, when did you come? I would as soon have spected to see a ghost!"

"You'll see 'em here before you're much older," replied Mr. Sanders,
grimly. "They ain't fur off. Wher's Ike?"

"La! ef you know anything about Ike you know more than I does. I ain't
laid eyes on that nigger man, not sence----" She paused, and looked at
Mr. Sanders with a smile.

"Not sence the night Hotchkiss was killed," said Mr. Sanders, completing
he