Snowball struggled out of his few bits of loose clothing and, clad only in trunks, disappeared beneath the surface of the lake.
A moment later he came to the surface.
“Got it?” Those eyes again.
“N—no, sir.” The black boy’s teeth chattered. “Nothin’ down there. Not nothin’ at all.”
“Go down again. You got poor eyes!” The man made a move. Snowball disappeared.
He came up again sputtering. “Hain’t nothin’. Tellin’ y’ th’ truth, sir. Just nothin’ at all.”
The stranger made a threatening move. Snowball was about to disappear once more, when a shrill laugh came rippling across the rocks.
The man turned, startled, then frowned.
“What’s pleasing you, sister?” He addressed this remark to a slim girl in a faded bathing suit, seated on a rock a hundred feet away.
“Snowball’s right.” The girl laughed again. “Nothing down there. Nothing at all.”