r!" exclaimed Bud, in accents of disgust. "'Tain't a
hant that'll run after you, all dressed up in white, an' retch out its
hands to grab--"

"Don't, don't!" cried his wife, shuddering perceptibly and covering her
eyes with her hands to shut out the picture that Bud's words had
conjured up. "Don't talk that a-way."

"Well, then, an outbreak is a-a-thing where the niggers an'
babolitionists run around, whoopin' an' yellin' like they was wild
Injuns, shootin' the men an' scalpin' the women folks an' burnin' an'
stealin'," said Bud. "That's what an outbreak is, an' you can see for
yourself what will happen to us if one of 'em gets loose in Barrington.
I wish't somebody would come along from over town so't I could ax him
how things is goin' there."

But no one came, and for long hours Bud Goble sat there, listening and
peering into the darkness, and in momentary expectation of hearing or
seeing something alarming. About midnight, however, the excitement
began. At that hour Bud mustered up courage enough to start on a trip
around the cabin, and when he got to the back of it, where he could look
through the tops of the trees toward Mr. Riley's house, he stopped as if
he had suddenly been deprived of the power to go a step farther. The sky
in that direction was glowing with a brighter red than he had ever seen
at sunset, and the longer he looked at it, the brighter it grew. Beyond
a doubt Mr. Riley's house was on fire. When this thought flashed through
Bud's mind, the cold chills crept all over him, and instead of hastening
to render what assistance he could in saving the planter's property, he
turned and ran into the cabin, banging the door behind him, and dropped
the heavy bar to its place.

"Good lands!" exclaimed Mrs. Goble, whom her husband, in his excitement
and terror had upset, chair and all, in front of the fireplace.

"Don't stop to talk, old woman," said Bud, in a hoarse whisper, "but get
up an' fly around an' do something. The outbreak has come like I told
you it would. Riley's house is a mask of fire. If you don't b'lieve it
peep through this yer crack."

For a minute or two the deep silence that reigned in the cabin was
broken only by the hurried breathing of its frightened inmates, and then
there came a sound from the outside--a quick, heavy step on the hard
ground, followed by the fumbling of a hand for the latchstring. Bud's
face grew as white as a sheet, his knees trembled under him, and the
muzzle of