“I can’t stand any more!”
“John told me that Adoniah was going to get your hide after he got back here, but when he see you was married and had a little baby–––”
“Stop it, Josiah! Do with me as you like, but don’t tell me any more. I’ll go insane!”
“I cal’late what you said about suffering your share is as nigh the truth as you’ve come in many a year. If I’d been intending to give you up to that old woman, do you cal’late I’d brought you in here?”
“Josiah, do you mean that you do not intend to give me up?” asked the crumpled man incredulously. He raised his head and peered across the room.
“Not if you’re willing to obey orders. Others have been suffering, and that’s got to stop.”
“I’ll do anything you say.”
“The fust thing, that Sim Hicks and his gang has got to be choked off.”
“I don’t know what you refer to, but–––”
“Jim, I thought we’d cut out that old green line of pretending. I ain’t going to 369 nibble, so just stop casting it at me. I mean his booze-selling to them boys.”