“Can’t you see, and him in such a sweat? He was starting out to spread it all over the post. Now I reckon you won’t deny, any more, that they go and tell everything they hear, now that you’ve seen it with yo’ own eyes.”
“Well, I don’t like to acknowledge it, Dorcas, but I don’t see how I can consistently stick to my doubts in the face of such overwhelming proof as this dog is furnishing.”
“There, now, you’ve got in yo’ right mind at last! I wonder you can be so stubborn, Marse Tom. But you always was, even when you was little. I’m going now.”
“Look here; tell her that in view of the delay, it is my judgment that she ought to enlarge the accused on his parole.”
“Yes, sir, I’ll tell her. Marse Tom?”
“Well?”
“She can’t get to Soldier Boy, and he stands there all the time, down in the mouth and lonesome; and she says will you shake hands with him and comfort him? Everybody does.”
“It’s a curious kind of lonesomeness; but, all right, I will.”
XI
SEVERAL MONTHS LATER. ANTONIO AND THORNDIKE
“Thorndike, isn’t that Plug you’re riding an asset of the scrap you and Buffalo Bill had with the late Blake Haskins and his pal a few months back?”