“Good-by ma honey! I’ve run out of money
Good-by, ma honey—I’m gone!”
Before the mandolin, which Hitch hurled from him, had struck the ground, he and Vinegar were half-way across the clearing and a race-horse could not have caught them for their first mile of travel back to town.
Pounding up the street toward the Tickfall courthouse, Hitch Diamond spoke for the first time in seven miles:
“Elder Atts, I don’t b’lieve you really favors furin missions!”
VII
ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS
Colonel Tom Gaitskill and Dr. Sentelle stood on the street in front of the court house discussing the missionary meeting of the evening before and the sudden departure of Diada.
“Do you think Diada’s visit will quicken the missionary activities of the women of our church?” Dr. Sentelle laughed.
“Who knows?” Gaitskill grinned. “She certainly made an impression on me! An escaped heathen running at large in the vicinity of Tickfall might quicken all kinds of activities——”
Their attention was diverted by the sight of two negroes who stumbled down the middle of the street in the last stages of exhaustion, puffing like steamboats, covered with swamp-mud, their garments torn to shreds by their flight through the vines and underbrush.
“Hey—Hitch!” Gaitskill called.