“Find a good many changes since you went away, I guess?” His voice was full of insolence, and his face wore a provoking smile. Middleton was trying to control himself. Leech misinterpreted his silence.
“Some of your friends sort of gone down the hill?” He nodded his head in the direction of the jail beyond the court-green. His insolence was intolerable.
“Are you trying to be insolent to me?” demanded Middleton. He stepped up close in front of Leech. “If you are, you are making a mistake.” His manner and his face, as he looked Leech in the eyes, abashed even him, and he changed his tone. He did not mean to offend him, he said; he was only “jesting when he called them his friends.”
“I don’t wish to be jested with,” said Middleton, coldly, turning away.
As Leech went on he smiled to himself. “Ah, my young man, times are changed,” he muttered to himself, softly; “and if you stay here long you’ll find it out!”
Middleton concluded his purchase, and the following evening rode his new horse up to Dr. Cary’s.
That day Leech called Moses into his office. “I see your friend Captain Middleton is back?” he said. Moses uttered a sound that was half a laugh, half a snarl.
“Yas—all dat comes don’ go, and all dat goes don’ come”; he snickered.
“You better not fool with him,” said Leech. “He knows how to manage you.” He made a gesture, as if he were cutting, with a whip, and laughed, tauntingly.