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The constable's little eyes twinkled as he heard Throgmartin roaring with laughter and sputtering appreciative oaths. At that moment a ringing of the bell jarred the ears of both telephonists. A voice asked for Dr. Jallup. It was an ill time to interrupt two gentlemen. The flair of a jest is lost in a pause.
Cicero Throgmartin, for whom Tump was working, cautioning Throgmartin to make sure that Tump Pack was in the sleeping-shack every night, as he might get wind of the wedding and take a notion to bolt and stop it. "You know, you can't tell what a fool nigger'll do," finished Bobbs.
Throgmartin was mildly amused, promised the necessary precautions, and said: "It looks like Peter has put one over on Tump, and maybe a college education does help a nigger some, after all." The constable thought it was just luck. "Well, I dunno," said Throgmartin, who was a philosopher, and inclined to view every matter from various angles. "Peter may of worked this out somehow."
Y' see, Mr. Throgmartin tried to hire Tump to pick cotton. Tump didn't haf to, because he'd jes shot fo' natchels in a crap game. So to-day, when Tump starts over heah wid his gun, Mr. Bobbs 'resses Tump. Mr. Throgmartin bails him out, so now Tump's gone to pick cotton fuh Mr. Throgmartin to pay off'n his fine."
"Have you heard what Henry Hooker done to Siner in the land deal?" Throgmartin said he had. "No, I don't mean that. I mean Henry's last wrinkle in garnisheeing old Ca'line's estate in his bank for the rest of the purchase money on the Dilihay place." There was a pause. "You don't mean it!" "Damn 'f I don't."
"Well," opined Throgmartin, charitably, "the old man livin' there all by himself I reckon even a nigger is some comp'ny. They're funny damn things, niggers is; never know a care nor trouble. Lord! I wish I was as care-free as they are!" "Don't you, though!" agreed the constable, with the weight of the white man's burden on his shoulders.
"But, say," objected Throgmartin, who was something of a lawyer himself, as, indeed, all Southern men are, "I thought the Sons and Daughters of Benevolence owed Hooker, not Peter Siner, nor Ca'line's estate." "Well, it is the Sons and Daughters, but Ca'line was one of 'em, and they ain't no limited li'bility 'sociation. Henry can jump on anything any of 'em's got.
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