ng on the floor of her house, a key
which she had worn suspended on a ribbon round her neck.

She rocked herself back and forth on the cot, her head throbbing, her
mouth parched, tears in her eyes. To the white people, she thought, it
did not matter much, but to her the fact that she and Perry had intended
to get married was the biggest thing in her life.

"I don't know; I don't know," her thoughts ran bitterly. "Ef Perry tuk
dat key away fum me, he mus' done gawn to dat house--an' he wuz full uv
likker. Ef he ain' done tuk dat key fum me an' den later flung it back on
de flo' uv my house, who did do it?"

She sobbed afresh.

"He is one mean nigger when he gits too much likker in him. Ain' nobody
knows dat better'n I does. An' he sayed somethin' las' night 'bout
gittin' a whole lot uv money. He--"

She moaned and flung herself backward on the cot.

"Gawd have mussy! Gawd have mussy! I done remembuhed. I done remembuhed.
He done say somethin' 'bout dat white woman's gol' an' jewelery. Gawd!
Dat's whut he done. He done it! Dat's why he wuz fightin' me. He wuz
tryin' to git dat kitchen key. An' he got it! He got it! Ef he done kilt
dat woman, de white folks goin' to git him sho'ly--sho'ly. An' him an' me
ain' nevuh gwine git married--nevuh. Dey'll kill him or dey'll sen' him
to dat pen. Aw, my Gawd! My Gawd!"

She sat up again and began to think about Mrs. Withers, how well the
slain woman had treated her, how kindly. From that, her thoughts went to
ghosts. She fell to trembling and moaning in an audible key. It was not
long before a warden, awakened by her cries of terror, had to visit her
and threaten bodily punishment if she did not keep quiet.

After a while, she relapsed into her quiet sobbing.

"I think maybe he done tuk dat key. I knows he done lef' me durin' de
night, an' I b'lieve he done come back. But I ain't gwine say nothin'.
Maybe I don' know. Maybe I is mistuk. De whole thing done got too mix' up
fuh me. Maybe he kilt her an' maybe he ain' been nigh de place. But I
wish I coul' know. My holy Lawd! I wish I done know all dat done happen.

"Dat key fallin' on de flo'. Who done drap it dar ef Perry ain' drapped
it? Dat's whut I'd like to know. Ef he ain' had dat key, ain' nobody
had it."

She lay down, weeping and sobbing from unhappiness and terror. Bristow
and Greenleaf would have given much to have known her suspicions,
suspicions which amounted to a moral certainty.

On the sleeping porch of N