it's been a
pow'ful long time, honey! A long time!" and with outstretched hands, as
he took a battered hat from his head, he approached her. Alice screamed
and got behind the table.

CHAPTER X

THE MOTOR RACES

With wildly beating heart, Alice watched the approach of the colored man,
and then, somehow or other, it came to her in a flash that she need not
fear him.

His bearing was most deferential, as of some old slave toward a cherished
mistress. His manner was gentle and, after advancing a short distance
toward her, he stopped, bowed again, placed his battered hat over his
heart, and said:

"I knowed I'd find yo' some day, Missie, an' now I has. Yo' ain't gwine
t' send po' ole Jake away; is yo', Missie?"

Alice, having repressed the desire to scream, was now more calm and, as
quietly as she could she said:

"You must go out of here, Jake. Go out, and I will come out, too."

"Yes'm, Missie, dat's what I'll do," he said. "Ole Jake'll do jest as his
missis says. Oh, but it' pow'ful good t' see you' once mo', Missie!"

"You must go now," repeated Alice, firmly.

And, without another word, he turned and shuffled out. But he had no
sooner reached the entrance to the dungeon than Alice, who had remained
behind the table, not knowing whether to go out or not, saw the old
colored man seized by a soldier--one of those detailed at the fort.

"Here now, Jake!" the soldier exclaimed, "haven't I told you time and
again to keep away from here? You know you haven't any right to come in
this part of the fort!"

"Yais, sah, Cunnel, I knows it, sah," replied the aged negro, with a low
bow. "But yo' see, I done found mah li'l Missie what I'se been lookin'
fo' so long! Dat's why I come heah!"

"Great Scott! Have you been bothering some of the women visitors?" cried
the soldier and, wheeling about on his heel, he hurried into the dungeon,
which Alice had just decided to leave. He met her coming out, and by her
agitated manner must have guessed that something had happened.

"I beg your pardon, Miss," began the soldier, with a salute, "but has old
Jake annoyed you?"

"Oh, not at all," she answered, as calmly as she could. "He only startled
me for a moment; that is all. I was here alone, foolishly, perhaps--"

"Oh, no, that's all right," interrupted the soldier. "We want the
visitors to go about as they please, alone or in company. Old Jake's as
harmless as a kitten. He isn't just right up here," he said, touching