Many curious heads looked out as the sheriff and his men--six men besides
Green from the station--got off; then the train rumbled away in the
darkness toward the surging, turbulent river, and the crowd moved toward
the house.
Mr. Morris told of his absence in town on business. That Abram had been
hired first as a field-hand; and that later, after his marriage, he had
taken Abram from the field to look after his horse and to do the heavier
work about the house and yard.
"And the woman Aggie is trust-worthy?"
"I am sure of it; she used to belong to us."
"Abram is a strange negro?"
"Yes."
Then Aggie was called in to tell her story. Abram had taken the hatchet and
had gone toward the railroad for brush to make a broom. She had taken the
dog and gone into the broom-grass to catch a fowl, and the last she had
seen of her mistress she was walking toward the dam, which was then above
the water.
"How long were you gone after the chicken?"
"I dun'no', suh; but I run um clean to de woods 'fo' I ketch um, en I walk
back slow 'kase I tired."
"Were you gone an hour?"
"I spec so, suh, 'kase when I done ketch de chicken I stop fuh pick up some
light-wood I see wey Abram been cuttin' wood yistiddy.
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