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He says this ain't the fustest time Roush has been seen hangin' 'round the cove." The boy's wooden face betrayed nothing. He did not look at his sister. But suspicions began to troop through his mind. He thought again of the voices he had heard by the river and he remembered that it had become a habit of the girl to disappear for hours in the afternoon. 'Lindy went to her room early.
"He's all de boy I'se got, Marster," rejoined the negress, with an indifference to the matter of justice which had led others of her colour into those subterranean ways where abstract principles are not. "You ain' done furgot 'im, Marster," she added piteously. "He 'uz born jes two mont's atter Miss Lindy turnt me outer hyer en he's jes ez w'ite ez ef'n he b'longed ter w'ite folks."
When I git my answer mebbe I'll go. But I don't 'low to leave till then." "I'll meet ye there if I kin git out. Now go," she begged. The man vanished in the pawpaws. He moved as silently as one of his Indian ancestors. 'Lindy waited, breathless lest her brother should catch sight of him. She knew that if Jimmie saw Roush there would be shooting and one or the other would fall.
At first I saw her dimly, as in a vision, then clearly. I leaped to my feet and went and stood beside her. "The doctor has not come," I said. "Where does he live? I will go for him." She shook her head. "He can do no good. Lindy has procured all the remedies, such as they are. They can only serve to alleviate," she answered. "She cannot withstand this, poor lady."
It was a comfort to him afterward to recall that he submitted to her impulsive caress without any visible irritability. 'Lindy busied herself preparing supper for her father and brother. Ever since her mother died when the child was eleven she had been the family housekeeper. At dusk Clay Clanton came in and stood his rifle in a corner of the room.
Lindy, like many of her race, knew well how to assume airs of importance. Lindy had me down, and she knew it. "Marse Dave," she said, "doan yo' know better'n dat? Yo' know yo' ain't ter talk. Lawsy, I reckon I wouldn't be wuth pizen if she was to hear I let yo' talk." Lindy implied that there was tyranny somewhere. "She?" I asked, "who's she?"
Arter freedom, I hunted up our little gal, an' foun' her. She war a big woman den. Den I com'd right back ter dis place an' foun' Lindy. She hedn't married agin, nuther hed I; so we jis' let de parson marry us out er de book; an' we war mighty glad ter git togedder agin, an' feel hitched togedder fer life."
I may as well have a lift down to the other end of the village." "What do you want to do at the other end of the village?" "I don't want to do anything, but my unlucky fate as a landowner compels me to go over and look at an eel-weir which has just burst. Lindy, come along with me, and cheer me up with one of your ghost stories. You are as good as a Christmas annual."
She looked at Lindy and smiled. "It is because I am an old woman, Lindy," and she lifted her hand to her forehead. "See, my hair is white I shock you, David." Leaning on my shoulder, she led me through a little bedroom in the rear into a tiny garden court beyond, a court teeming with lavish colors and redolent with the scent of flowers.
I had a quaint feeling of unreality as I sank back on the red satin cushions and was borne out of the gate between the lions. Monsieur de St. Gre and Nick walked in front, the faithful Lindy followed, and people paused to stare at us as we passed.
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