En when I come back de glub
is layin' on de step, en de brier, des like Miss Nellie leff um--" She
stopped, and her master straightened himself.
"Well," he said, and his voice was strained and weak.
The servant once more flung her apron over her head, and broke into violent
crying. "Dat's all, Mass Johnnie! dat's all! I dun'no' wey Abram is gone; I
dun'no' what Abram is do! Nobody ent been on de place dis day--dis day but
me--but me! Oh, Lawd! oh, Lawd en Gawd!"
The master stood as if dazed. His face was drawn and gray, and his breath
came in awful gasps. A moment he stood so, then he strode out of the house.
With a howl the dog sprang forward, snapping the cord, and rushed after his
master.
The woman's cries ceased, and without moving from her crouching position
she listened with straining ears to the sounds that reached her from the
stable. In a moment the clatter of horses' hoofs going at a furious pace
swept by, then a dead silence fell. The intense quiet seemed to rouse her,
and going to the door, she looked out. The glow had faded, and the gray
mist was gathering in distinct strata above the marsh and the river.
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