“Oh, yes—of course. I might have known she was not there. She might have been questioned, and she would surely have contradicted Moses, and insisted on the silver being produced.”
“Oh, yes; so she would. Dem w’ite men f’om de Norf knowed dat, too, ’caze dey ax w’ere she war; an’ my ole man sweared his soul to Satan as she had gone to Washington city on a visit to de Presiden’. An’ den dey tackled me, an’ cross question ob me like a murder trial. But dey didn’ get nuffin out’n me—no, sah! I were a better han’ at pi’us frodes dan my ole man, an’ I sweared my soul to partition as all de silber had been sol’ fo’ ’visions in de wah, an’ I didn’ fink no harm o’ tellin’ pi’us frodes to dem heethun fo’ my ole mist’ess’s sake. My conshence has got good sense, it has. Well, dey s’arched up, an’ dey s’arched down, but, Lor’, dey couldn’ fin’ nuffin. An’ wa’n’t I glad! An’ me an’ my ole man look at one anodder, an’ he look werry onhappy. His conshence wa’n’t sensible.”
Harcourt said nothing to try to enlighten Martha’s mind on this subject. He knew it would be of no earthly use.
After a pause Martha resumed:
“Well, sah, w’en eberyt’ing got settled down, an’ de Wyn’ops bought de ole house an’ lan’, an’ mos’ ob de furnitur’, an’ we was tryin’ to make ole mist’ess comfo’table in de cabin——”
“Why didn’t you get somebody to write to me?” Harcourt interrupted.
“Ole mist’ess wouldn’ year to it. She say, ole mist’ess say, yo’ wasn’ to know nuffin ’tall ’bout de sale, fear yo’d come yunnin’ yere ’fo’ yo’ tarm was out. She yighted letters to yo’ ebery week, didn’t she? I knowed she sent letters to de pos’ office at Logwood ebery free four days by my ole man.”
“Yes, she wrote to me, but she never told me of the change; nor did I hear of it until I came home that summer vacation. But go on.”
“I was gwine to say, young marse, ef it hadn’t been fo’ dat hidden silber, ole mist’ess would ’a’ suffered want. Yes, sah, she would! My po’ ole man were ’ployed cart drivin’ fo’ de Wyn’ops, but dough dey paid well, de work wa’n’t stiddy, an’ it wa’n’t ’nough to keep ole mist’ess in comforts. So de silber was took out’n its hole, little by little, in de dead ob night, an’ sol’ to buy ’visions.”
“How did Moses manage to dispose of it without detection?”