nd in leash, his face
proud and florid, his single, cold, steel-blue eye staring down through
its dusty curtain with a certain malicious arrogance, and his lips set
in a sardonic curve that seemed about to sneer. It was for an instant as
if the pictured figure confronted the young man who stood there, mutely
challenging his entrance into that tomb-like and secret-keeping quiet;
and he gazed back as fixedly, repelled by the craft of the face, yet
subtly attracted. "I wonder who you were," he said. "You were cruel.
Perhaps you were wicked. But you were strong, too."

He returned to the outer hall to find that the negro had carried in his
trunk, and he bade him place it, with the portmanteau, in the room he
had just left. Dusk was falling. The air was full of a faint far chirr
of night insects, like an elfin serenade, and here and there among the
trees pulsed the greenish-yellow spark of a firefly.

"Uncle Jefferson," said Valiant abruptly, "have you a family?"

"No, _suh_. Jes' me en mah ol' 'ooman."

"Can she cook?"

"Cook!" The genial titter again captured his dusky escort. "When she got
de _fixens_, Ah reck'n she de beaten'es cook in dis heah county."

"How much do you earn, driving that hack?"

Uncle Jefferson ruminated. "Well, suh, 'pens on de weddah. Mighty lucky
sometimes dis yeah ef Ah kin pay de groc'ry man."

"How would you both like to live here with me for a while? She could
cook and you could take care of me."

Uncle Jefferson's eyes seemed to turn inward with mingled surprise and
introspection. He shifted from one foot to the other, swallowed
difficultly several times, and said, "Ah ain' nebbah seed yo' befo',
suh."

"Well, I haven't seen you either, have I?"

"Dat's de trufe, suh, 'deed et is! Hyuh, hyuh! Whut Ah means ter say
is dat de ol' 'ooman kain' cook no fancy didoes like what dey eats up
Norf. She kin jes' cook de Ferginey style."

"That sounds good to me," quoth Valiant. "I'll risk it. Now as to
wages--"

"Ah ain' specticulous as ter de wages," said Uncle Jefferson. "Ah
knows er gemman when Ah sees one. 'Sides, ter-day's Friday en et's
baid luck. Ah sho' is troubled in mah min' wheddah we-all kin suit
yo' perpensities, but Ah reck'n we kin take er try ef _yo'_ kin."

"Then it's a bargain," responded Valiant with alacrity. "Can you come at
once?"

"Yas, suh, me en Daph gwineter come ovah fus' thing in de mawnin'. Whut
yo'-all gwineter do fo' yo' suppah?"

"I'll get along," Valia