“I’m nothin’ but a ole niggah man, Doctah Atkinson, sah,” he said. “It ain’t for myself I’se intrudin’ on ye; it’s cos dar wasn’t time to go fer Marse De Willoughby that could talk it like it oughter be. I jes’ had to push my ole niggah self in, fear you’d be gone an’ we’d nevah set eyes on you agin.”
“Walk along by me,” said the Doctor. “What about the De Willoughbys; I thought they were all dead.”
“All but Marse Thomas and Marse Rupert. Dey’s yere ’tendin’ to de claim. Has you done heern ’bout de claim, Doctah Atkinson?”
“No,” the Doctor answered. “I have been in too far out West.”
Whereupon Matt plunged into the story of the “gol’ mines,” and the difficulties which had presented themselves in the pathway of the claimant, and the necessity for the production of testimony which would disprove the charge of disloyalty. The detail was not very clear, but it had the effect of carrying Dr. Williams Atkinson back to certain good old days in Delisleville, before his beloved South had been laid low and he had been driven far afield to live among strangers, an alien. For that reason he found himself moved by the recital and listened to it to its end.
“But what has this to do with me?” he asked. “What do you want of me?”
“When I seed you, sah,” Uncle Matt explained, “it all come back to me in a minnit, how you an’ de Judge pass shots ’bout dat flag; how you axed him to a dinner-party, an’ dar was a Confed’ate officer dar—an’ a Confed’ate flag hung up over de table, an’ de Judge when he seed it he ’fused p’int blank to set down to de table, an’ it ended in you goin’ out in de gyardin’ an’ changin’ shots.”
“Yes, damn it all,” cried Dr. Atkinson, but melted the next moment. “The poor old fellow is dead,” he said, “an’ he died in disgrace and without friends.”
“Yes,” Uncle Matt protested, eagerly; “without a single friend, an’ all ’lone ’ceptin’ of Marse Rupert—all ’lone. An’ it was ’cos he was so strong for de Union—an’ now de Guv’ment won’t let his fambly have his money ’cos dey’s tryin’ to prove him destructively disloyal—when he changed shots with his bes’ friend ’cos he wouldn’t set under de Confed’ate flag.”