“’Twas you that shot his father’s gamekeeper then?” he asked; but Daniel denied it.
“It looked bad against me—so bad that I didn’t stop to talk about it, but got clear off. Time will show ’twas no work of mine, however; an’ this man, as have knowed me from my youth up, ought to be my friend—not my enemy. But since he’m against me, I’m against him, an’ I’d cut his throat to-morrow if I got the chance.”
The overseer nodded and turned to Jesse Hagan. Jesse had brought a gun out of his dwelling, and now deliberately pointed it at Daniel.
“Shall I shoot dis gem’man?” he inquired with his finger on the trigger. “Him berry rude young man walk in my garden widdout saying ‘please,’ an’ eat my bananas.”
“Stop!” answered Ford. “This sailor is a friend. At least I think so. No, don’t shoot him. Let him come in and give him something to eat. He’s hungry.”
“Lucky Massa Ford speak for you, Marse sailor-man—else you food for de ‘John Crows’ dis minute. But he say ‘eat’; so you eat instead ob being eaten, sar.”
Then Daniel entered the Obi Man’s hut with Jabez Ford and old Jesse.