give me de shivers eve'y time I go in dar. De cheers
set dar like dey waitin' fer ter make somebody feel like dey ain't
welcome, an' dat ar sofy look like a coolin'-board."

Mr. Sanders was very much at home in the Major's house; he had dandled
Vallie on his knee when she was a baby; and he had made the Major's
troubles his own as far as he could. Consequently the greeting he
received was as cordial as he could have desired. "Major," he said, when
he found opportunity to state the nature of his business, "do you know
young Gabe Tolliver?"

"Mighty well--mighty well," responded Major Perdue, "and a fine boy he
is. He'll make his mark some day."

"Not onless we do somethin' to help him out. They ain't no way in the
world he can prove that he didn't kill that feller Hotchkiss. Ike Varner
done the killin', but he's gone, an' I think his wife is fixin' to go to
Atlanta. They've got the dead wood on Gabriel. They ain't no case at all
ag'in the rest; but you know how Gabriel is--he goes moonin' about in
the fields both day an' night, an' it's mighty hard for to put your
finger on him when you want him. An' to make it wuss, Hotchkiss called
his name more'n once before he died. It looks black for Gabriel, an' we
must do somethin' for him."

Major Perdue leaned forward a little, a frown on his face, and stretched
forth his left hand, in the palm of which he placed the forefinger of
his right. "I'll tell you what, Mr. Sanders, I'm just as much obliged to
you for coming to me as if you had saved me from drowning. I have come
to the point where I can't hold in much longer, and maybe you'll keep me
from making a fool of myself. I'll say beforehand, I don't care what
your plan is; I don't care to know it--just count on me."

"And where do I come in?" Colonel Blasengame inquired.

"Right by my side," responded Major Perdue.

Without further preliminaries, Mr. Sanders set forth the details of the
programme that had arranged itself in his mind, and when he was through,
Major Perdue leaned back in his chair, and gazed with admiration at the
bland and child-like countenance of this Georgia cracker. The innocence
of childhood shone in Mr. Sanders's blue eyes.

"I swear, Mr. Sanders, I'm sorry I didn't have the pleasure of serving
with you in Virginia. If there is anything in this world that I like
it's a man with a head on him, and that's what you've got. You can count
on us if we are alive. I don't know how Bolivar feels about it,