from the table, and the
Colonel, striding up and down the apartment, exclaimed,--

'Is he mad? The everlasting fool! Why in h---- has he come back?'

'Oh, don't ye hurt him, massa,' said the black cook, wringing her hands.
'Sam hab ben bad, bery bad, but he won't be so no more.'

'Stop your noise, aunty,' said the Colonel, but with no harshness in his
tone. 'I shall do what I think right.'

'Send for him, David,' said Madam P----; 'let us hear what he has to
say. He would not come back if he meant to be ugly.'

'_Send_ for him, Alice!' replied my host. 'He's prouder than Lucifer,
and would send me word to come to _him_. I will go. Will you accompany
me, Mr. K----? You'll hear what a runaway nigger thinks of slavery: Sam
has the gift of speech, and uses it regardless of persons.'

'Yes, sir, I'll go with pleasure.'

Supper being over, we went. It was about an hour after nightfall when we
emerged from the door of the mansion and took our way to the negro
quarters. The full moon had risen half way above the horizon, and the
dark pines cast their shadows around the little collection of negro
huts, which straggled about through the woods for the distance of a
third of a mile. It was dark, but I could distinguish the figure of a
man striding along at a rapid pace a few hundred yards in advance of us.

'Isn't that Moye?' I asked the Colonel, directing his attention to the
receding figure.

'I reckon so; that's his gait. He's had a lesson to-day that'll do him
good.'

'I don't like that man's looks,' I replied, carelessly; 'but I've heard
of singed cats.'

'He _is_ a sneaking d----l,' said the Colonel; 'but he's very valuable
to me. I never had an overseer who got so much work out of the hands.'

'Is he cruel to them?'

'Yes, I reckon he is; but a nigger is like a dog,--you must flog him to
make him like you.'

'I judge your niggers haven't been flogged into liking Moye,' I replied.

'Why, have you heard any of them speak of him?'

'Yes; though, of course, I've made no effort to draw gossip from them. I
had to hear.'

'O yes; I know; there's no end to their gabble; niggers will talk. But
what have you heard?'

'That Moye is to blame in this affair of Sam, and that you don't know
the whole story.'

'What _is_ the whole story?' asked the Colonel, stopping short in the
road; 'tell me before I see Sam.'

I then told him what Jim had recounted to me. He heard me through
attentively, then laughingly exclaim