"Would those dogs have bitten us, if you had not called them off?" I asked.
The fellow grinned as he replied: "I reckon they might; right smart, too. I've seen them hounds eat niggers, and I reckon they wouldn't know the difference atween them and you uns. You uns wuz green to take to the bayou," he again remarked.
"Why?" I asked.
"Well, if you traveled there for fun, it wuz all right; but if you did it to throw the dogs off the scent it wuz d——d green, for dogs will follow the scent in stagnant water as well as on dry land."
"How would it be in a running stream?" I asked.
"Well, ef you are in a running stream, ef you travel up and the dogs are close on your trail, they kin foller; but ef you travel down, they can't. But," he added, "ef you go down, and the dogs is throwed off the scent, then I kin foller, fer then I know you've gone down."
"How about rain?" I asked.
"A rain gits us," he replied. "It kinder washes out all the scent."
"Are you a soldier?" I asked.