"What sort of a company have you?"
"One we-uns got up yesterday and last night while them houses was burnin'. Minute men, you know, who are ready to grab their guns an' fight in a minute. Bud wanted to capting the company, but we-uns put in another feller, an' mebbe that makes him madder t'wards the boys than he would be if he was capting."
"Very likely; and it is a good idea to pound them for it. What was the reason he wouldn't listen when you proposed to let Rodney go?"
"Kase Rodney an' that Graham boy was the fellers that offered to give him a hunderd dollars if he would show them where that underground railroad was that used to tote the niggers off to Canady," replied Caleb. "Bud says they needn't think they're ever goin' to come back to the 'cademy less'n he gets them hunderd dollars. He looked for the railroad in good faith, an' allows that he'd oughter be paid for his time an' trouble."
"And this is the way he takes to get his pay, is it? Well, he must have it, and if I have any influence with the boys he will get more than he asks for. But why did you come here to tell us this?"
"Kase Bud sont me up here to get the money."
"You know right where he is, I suppose?"
"I do, for a fac'."
"Are there many men with him?"
"Nobody but jest Silas Walker. The rest of the company wouldn't have nothing to do with it, an' so they went home."