"Yes, I have!"
"Why did you do that?"
"Why, captain, ye see the black sneak got skeered and turned almost white, and shivered like a poodle when he's going to ketch a licking. And sez I to him, you dog or rascal, what are you skeered about? And when he tried to speak his teeth rattled so that I thought it was a wagon coming over the mountain. Then he jumped on one of the horses and sez 'I'm g'wan back!' So I just tapped him on the head with the but of my gun, and I'll be blasted if the critter didn't get right off the horse and lay down without my telling him to do it. But, I didn't want to kill the black skin; I didn't think his pate was so soft. Niggers generally ain't."
"What was the fellow frightened about?"
"I don't know, captain, except it was the dark!"
The officers exchanged glances, and Hayward said in an under tone:
"It was just as I should have expected Nettleton to act!" Then turning to William he said:
"Go back to the horses, and don't kill any one else to-night!"
"I won't, captain, unless they are enemies or cowards," replied William, as he turned to depart.
"I would trust that fellow with my life," said Hayward, gazing after Nettleton.