"I'm like I was gone to sleep all over," he said.
"You'll feel better in a moment. Tell me about Miss Malroy?"
"They done fetched us here last night. I was drivin' Missy into
Raleigh--her and young Mas'r Hazard--when fo' men stop us in the
road."
"Who were they, do you know?" asked Carrington.
"Lawd--what's that?"
Carrington, knife in hand swung about on his heel. A lantern's
light flashed suddenly in his face and Bess Hicks, with a low
startled cry breaking from her lips, paused in the doorway.
Springing forward, Carrington seized her by the wrist.
"Hush!" he grimly warned.
"What are you doin' here?" demanded the girl, as she endeavored
to shake off his hand, but Carrington drew her into the shed, and
closing the door, set his back against it. There was a brief
silence during which Bess regarded the Kentuckian with a kind of
stolid fearlessness. She was the first to speak. "I reckon
you-all have come after Miss Malroy," she observed quietly.
"Then you reckon right," answered Carrington. The girl studied
him from beneath her level brows.
"And you-all think you can take her away from here," she
speculated. "I ain't afraid of yo' knife--you-all might use it
fast enough on a man, but not on me. I'll help you," she added.
Carrington gave her an incredulous glance. "You don't believe
me? What's to hinder my calling for help? That would fetch our
men up from the keel boat. No--yo'-all's knife wouldn't stop
me!"
"Don't be too sure of that," said Carrington sternly.
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