"I suppose so," he answered. "I draw pay as a soldier; but my business has allers been catching niggers, and that wuz the business of my father before me. Me an' the dogs has done nothin' but hunt niggers, deserters, an' sich, ever sence the war."
"What pay do you draw?" I asked.
"Oh, just common pay," he said. "Pay don't amount to much anyway; but I draw a ration for each of them dogs."
"What kind of a ration?"
"Just the same as a soldier's. But I sell the rations and feed the dogs mostly on alligator meat an' scrapin's. I tell you, stranger," exclaimed he, waxing enthusiastic, "them dogs has catched more niggers an' deserters than all the Provost Marshals in South Carolina."
"But," said I, "have you no compunctions about making a business of hunting down human beings this way?"
"To be honest," said he, "it does go agen the grain to hunt white men, but I do as I'm ordered."
"Then the Confederate government recognizes the use of hounds for this purpose as legitimate warfare, does it?"
"Certainly it does, or how could I draw rations for the dogs?"