“Abram is a strange negro?”
“Yes.”
Then Aggie was called in to tell her story. Abram had taken the hatchet and had gone toward the railroad for brush to make a broom. She had taken the dog and gone into the broom-grass to catch a fowl, and the last she had seen of her mistress she was walking toward the dam, which was then above the water.
“How long were you gone after the chicken?”
“I dun'no', suh; but I run um clean to de woods 'fo' I ketch um, en I walk back slow 'kase I tired.”
“Were you gone an hour?”
“I spec so, suh, 'kase when I done ketch de chicken I stop fuh pick up some light-wood I see wey Abram been cuttin' wood yistiddy.”
“And your mistress was not here when you came back—nor Abram?”
“No, suh, nobody; en 'e wuz so lonesome I come en look in dis house fuh Miss Nellie, but 'e ent deyyer; en I look in de bush fuh Abram, but I ent see um nudder. En de dawg run to de water en howl en ba'k en ba'k tay I tie um up in de kitchen.”
“And was the boat tied to the stake this morning?”