med sincere as well as fervent, Sam
whipped up the horses and soon reached the house. A Negro boy came out
to meet them.

"Is Mr. Fetters at home," inquired the colonel?

"I--_I_ don' know, suh--I--I'll ax Mars' Turner. _He's_ hyuh."

He disappeared round the house and in a few minutes returned with
Turner, with whom the colonel exchanged curt nods.

"I wish to see Mr. Fetters," said the colonel.

"Well, you can't see him."

"Why not?"

"Because he ain't here. He left for the capital this mornin', to be
gone a week. You'll be havin' a fine drive, down here and back."

The colonel ignored the taunt.

"When will Mr. Fetters return?" he inquired.

"I'm shore I don't know. He don't tell me his secrets. But I'll tell
_you_, Colonel French, that if you're after that nigger, you're
wastin' your time. He's in Haines's gang, and Haines loves him so well
that Mr. Fetters has to keep Bud in order to keep Haines. There's no
accountin' for these vi'lent affections, but they're human natur', and
they have to be 'umoured."

"I'll talk to your _master_," rejoined the colonel, restraining his
indignation and turning away.

Turner looked after him vindictively.

"He'll talk to my _master_, like as if I was a nigger! It'll be a long
time before he talks to Fetters, if that's who he means--if I can
prevent it. Not that it would make any difference, but I'll just keep
him on the anxious seat."

It was nearing noon, but the colonel had received no invitation to
stop, or eat, or feed his horses. He ordered Sam to turn and drive
back the way they had come.

As they neared the group of labourers they had passed before, the
colonel saw four Negroes, in response to an imperative gesture from
the overseer, seize one of their number, a short, thickset fellow,
overpower some small resistance which he seemed to make, throw him
down with his face to the ground, and sit upon his extremities while
the overseer applied the broad leathern thong vigorously to his bare
back.

The colonel reached over and pulled the reins mechanically. His
instinct was to interfere; had he been near enough to recognise in the
Negro the object of his visit, Bud Johnson, and in the overseer the
ex-constable, Haines, he might have yielded to the impulse. But on
second thought he realised that he had neither authority nor strength
to make good his interference. For aught he knew, the performance
might be strictly according to law. So, fighting a feeling of