“Viola, massr. Dat ere quadroon tell me all.”
“So, you are friends with Viola again?”
“Ye, Massr George, we good friend as ebber. ’Twar only my s’picion—I wor wrong. She good gal—she true as de rifle. No more s’picion o’ her, on de part ob Jake—no.”
“I am glad of that. But pray, what has she told you about Arens Ringgold and my sister?”
“She tell me all: she see somethin’ ebbery day.”
“Every day! Why, it is many days since Arens Ringgold has visited here?”
“No, massr; dar you am mistake ’gain: Mass Arens he come to da house ebbery day—a’most ebbery day.”
“Nonsense; I never saw him here. I never heard of his having been, since my return from the fort.”
“But him hab been, for all dat, massr; I see him meseff. He come when you gone out. He be here when we goes a huntin’. I see um come yest’day, when you any Mass Garger wor away to tha volunteers—dat he war sat’n.”
“You astonish me.”