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He stepped to the table, returned his own six-guns to their holsters and then reached out and seized Major Stover by the collar. He shook him like a rat as he jerked him to his feet. "Well, majah, as yo' calls yo'self," he drawled, "looks like the surprise worked the othah way round!" Stover's flabby face was blue-gray. His knees gave way under him and his coarse lips were twitching.
Yes, seh, Mahstah Majah Ah laid Ah'd brek it grajally an' Ah suttingly did have that lady a-thinkin' ve'y highly of yo' at th' time of yo' entrance, seh, yes, seh!" And so began the time of Miss Caroline among us, one effect the more of Fate's mad trickery. It was my privilege to be more intimately aware of her concerns than was the town at large.
"Clem," I said frigidly, "tell me just what you said to Mrs. Lansdale about me." He paltered, shifting on his feet, his brow contracted in perplexity, as if I had propounded some intricate trifle of the higher mathematics. "Huh! Wha what's that yo'-all is a-sayin', Mahstah Majah?" "Stop that, now! I needn't tell you twice what I said. Out with it!"
In the days that followed I saw that Clem was regarding me with an embarrassed, troubled look. Something of weight lay upon his mind. Nor was it easy, to make him speak, but I achieved this at last. "Well, seh, Mahstah Majah, yo'-all see, Ah ain't eveh told Miss Cahline that yo's a Majah in th' Nawthun ahmy." "No?" I said. "No, seh; Ah ain't even said yo's been a common soljah." "Well?"
Then she stands theh at th' head of th' staihs an' she faulted me yes, seh she threaten me, Mahstah Majah, an' she tek mah clothes away, an' so on an' so fothe. Then Ah huhd huh a' mekin' th' fiah an' then she brung this yeh cawfee an' she done mek it that foolish that Ah can't tech it. Yes, seh, she plumb ruined that theh cawfee, that's what she done!" His tone was peevish.
Yes, seh, we all go'n' a' have a raght tolable homeplace." Then my grievance prompted me. "Yes, and who's going to get my breakfast and dinner for me, then?" I asked with a dark look, but he beamed upon me placatingly. "Oh, Ah's still go'n' a' do fo yo', Mahstah Majah. Ah steddied huh all out twell she's plumb systemous.
Saulisbury appealed to the Major. "Majah, what have you done with our ice-cream cow?" "She went dry during the winter," said the Major; "no demand on her. 'Supply regulated by the demand, you know." They drifted on into the horse barn. "We're in Ramsey's domain now," said the Major, looking at Arthur, who stood with his hand on the hip of one of the big gray horses.
Also, in the outer ranks of skepticism, Major Dabney's foreman and horse-trader, Japheth Pettigrass, found a place. On the opposite bank of the stream were the few negroes owning Major Dabney now as "Majah Boss," as some of them, most of them, in fact had once owned him as "Mawstuh Majah"; and mingling freely with them were the laborers, white and black, from the Gordon iron-furnace.
"Don't you know it's against orders?" "Chickens" stammered out a denial, when the Major, making a sudden grab at the front of his blouse, tore it open, and out fell two plump pullets. "Stealing hens, hey?" said the Major. "You'll go to the clink for this." "Ah didn't dun steal 'em, Majah," said "Chickens," with brazen effrontery. "Ah 'clar to goodness Ah didn't know dem pullets was dar.
Presently a clerk addressed as "Majah Tunnah," the man who was superintending these operations, and I scanned him with increased interest, as I knew then that he was the ill-famed Dick Turner, hated all over the North for his brutality to our prisoners. He looked as if he deserved his reputation.
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