citizens, whatever
their colour, ought to help to preserve peace and good order."

"Yes, sir, so they ought; and I want to do just that; I want to
co-operate, and a whole heap of us want to co-operate with the good
white people to keep down crime and lawlessness. I know there's good
white people who want to see justice done--but they ain't always
strong enough to run things; an' if any one of us coloured folks tells
on another one, he's liable to lose all his frien's. But I believe,
sir, that I can trust you to save me harmless, and to see that nothin'
mo' than justice is done to the coloured man."

"Yes, Taylor, you can trust me to do all that I can, and I think I
have considerable influence. Now, what's on your mind? Do you know who
shot Haines and Mr. Fetters?"

"Well, sir, you're a mighty good guesser. It ain't so much Mr. Fetters
an' Mr. Haines I'm thinkin' about, for that place down the country is
a hell on earth, an' they're the devils that runs it. But there's a
friend of yo'rs in trouble, for something he didn' do, an' I wouldn'
stan' for an innocent man bein' sent to the penitentiary--though many
a po' Negro has been. Yes, sir, I know that Mr. Ben Dudley didn' shoot
them two white men."

"So do I," rejoined the colonel. "Who did?"

"It was Bud Johnson, the man you tried to get away from Mr.
Fetters--yo'r coachman tol' us about it, sir, an' we know how good a
friend of ours you are, from what you've promised us about the school.
An' I wanted you to know, sir. You are our friend, and have showed
confidence in us, and I wanted to prove to you that we are not
ungrateful, an' that we want to be good citizens."

"I had heard," said the colonel, "that Johnson had escaped and left
the county."

"So he had, sir, but he came back. They had 'bused him down at that
place till he swore he'd kill every one that had anything to do with
him. It was Mr. Turner he shot at the first time and he hit young Mr.
Fetters by accident. He stole a gun from ole Mr. Dudley's place at
Mink Run, shot Mr. Fetters with it, and has kept it ever since, and
shot Mr. Haines with it. I suppose they'd 'a' ketched him before, if
it hadn't be'n for suspectin' young Mr. Dudley."

"Where is Johnson now," asked the colonel.

"He's hidin' in an old log cabin down by the swamp back of Mink Run.
He sleeps in the daytime, and goes out at night to get food and watch
for white men from Mr. Fetters's place."

"Does his wife know where he is?"

"