It was too dark to enable Noel to determine whether or not the man was a soldier. He halted abruptly, and, prepared to flee instantly if occasion should demand, eagerly watched the approaching stranger. As yet he apparently was unaware of the presence of Noel in the road. Suddenly, however, he glanced in the direction of the young soldier.
The man's alarm was so manifest at his discovery that under other circumstances Noel would have laughed heartily. The light was sufficiently strong to enable him to see now that the man was not a soldier, and a moment later, when the stranger spoke, the young soldier's fears were relieved when it became manifest that he was a negro.
"Who dat? Who dat?" asked the colored man as he stopped abruptly.
"Where did you come from?" demanded Noel, striving to speak sternly.
"Yas, suh! Yas, suh!" replied the negro. "Is yo' all come from—" Whatever the place from which the negro thought he came, he did not complete his sentence, and consequently Noel was left in ignorance.
"Who lives here?" demanded Noel.
"Massa Hilton."
"Is he home?"
"No, suh. Yas, suh. I don' jest 'member whether he's home or not," stammered the negro.
Noel's experiences with Long John had made him somewhat suspicious of the colored people of the region. He decided that he would be extremely cautious, and at once said, "In which direction are you going?"