"Your wishes shall be obeyed to the letter, Major Duncombe."
The employer was formal; the hireling was stiff. His conscience was void of offence, and he would not behave like a man on trial.
"To begin with what you are already aware of," continued the Major, "we have been annoyed of late by the discovery that a regular system of thieving is going on upon this plantation. You know, too, how unsuccessful have been our efforts to track the thieves. I told you yesterday, that besides the depredations in the poultry-yard and the loss of an occasional sheep or pig from the fields, one of the smoke-houses was entered Thursday night, and four or five hams stolen. Night before last the laundress carelessly left out in the garden a quantity of valuable lace and handkerchiefs which had been laid on the grass to bleach in the sun. In the morning everything was gone, also several linen pillow-cases and towels from the line in the yard."
"I had not heard of this last robbery," said Mr. Grigsby, when the speaker paused as for a reply.
The Major's gravity deepened. As he went on he avoided Mr. Grigsby's eye.
"The information was purposely held back for reasons that will appear presently. We agreed, you may recollect, that the guilty parties were most probably the Fogg family. Also that they were aided and abetted by some of my negroes who have access to the keys and are familiar with the habits of the household. My fear now is that the Foggs have made use of other and more unlikely tools. To speak plainly, Mr. Grigsby, I am afraid that they have tampered with your second daughter, and that the freedom she has been allowed in the Greenfield house and grounds has been used by them for their vile and wicked purposes—"
"Major Duncombe!"
The overseer's lank form was drawn up to full height; his deep-set eyes were alight with angry and resentful amazement.
"You are surprised and displeased, Mr. Grigsby, and no wonder. This is a most unpleasant task to me. I like the child. She has the elements of a noble character in her. But I have positive proof of her intimacy with the Fogg tribe. She stops at the house on her way to school; she sits upon the porch and chats familiarly with them on summer afternoons. The elder Fogg woman boasts of her intimacy with your family. Yesterday, after school, Mr. Tayloe asked your daughter, who had been kept in for insubordination and impertinence, to bring him a drink of water from the spring. I met Mrs. Fogg going to the school-house as I was riding by at the same hour, but thought no more of the circumstance until Mr. Tayloe came home last night and told me a shocking story. He was sitting at his desk writing, his watch and chain laid upon his silk handkerchief on the desk beside him, when your daughter, coming up behind him, dashed pail, water and all, over him, and ran away as fast as she could go to the woods. He gave chase, but could not overtake her. Returning to the school-house, he found that his watch and chain and his handkerchief were gone. There seems to be no doubt that your daughter snatched them when she blinded him for the instant with the water. Her confederate must have been waiting for her outside."
The overseer's face was gray and rigid. He cleared his throat as he began to speak.