I laid my hand on the Colonel's arm, to draw him back, saying as I did so: 'There's danger in him! I know it Let him go, and he shall ask your pardon.'
'I shan't ax his pardon,' cried the black, 'leff him and me be, sar; we'll fix dis ourselfs.'
'Don't interfere, Mr. K——,' said my host, with perfect coolness, but with a face pallid with rage. 'Let me govern my own plantation.'
'As you say, sir,' I replied, stepping back a few paces; 'but I warn you—there is danger in him!'
Taking no notice of my remark, the Colonel turned to the trembling negroes, and said: 'One of you go to the house and bring my pistols.'
'You kin shoot me, ef you likes,' said Jim, with a fierce, grim smile; 'but I'll take you to h—l wid me, shore. You knows WE won't stand a blow!'
The Colonel, at the allusion to their relationship, started as if shot, and turning furiously on the negro, yelled out: 'I'll shoot you for that, you d—d nigger, by——.'
'It 'pears ter me, Cunnel, ye've hed 'bout nuff shootin' 'round har, lately; better stop thet sort o' bis'ness; it moight give ye a sore throat,' said the long, lean, loose-jointed stump-speaker of the previous Sunday, as he entered the cabin and strode directly up to my host.
'What brought you here, you d—d insolent hound?' cried the Colonel, turning fiercely on the new-comer.
'Wal, I cum to du ye a naboorly turn—I've kotched two on yer niggers down ter my still, an' I want ye ter take 'em 'way,' returned the corn-cracker, with the utmost coolness.