Page 48 (1/2)

The land was quite gray, the river pearl-colored, and the fireflies

beginning to sparkle, when he rode through the hoates In the dusk of

the world, out of the deeper shadow of the surrounding trees, his house

looked griht had been at the side; all the front was

stark and black with shuttered s He rode to the back of the house

and hallooed to the slaves in the hohter, and one deep voice singing in an unknown tongue

It was but a stone's throw to the nearest cabin, and Haward's call made

itself heard above the babel The noise suddenly lessened, and two or

three negroes, starting up frorass to

horse and rider Quickly as they came, some one within the house was

beforehand with thehted candle, and a voice cried out to knoas wanted

"Wanted!" exclairess into roes pressed forward "Heah I is, Marse Duke! House all

ready for you, but you done sont word"-"I know,--I know," answered Haward ied ht? Or is it Hide?"

The candle e white face

atop of a shaure dressed in some coarse, dark stuff "Neither,

sir," said an expressionless voice "Will it please your Honor to

dis hiro, and,

with Juba at his heels, climbed the five low stone steps and entered the

wide hall running through the house and broken only by the broad, winding

stairway Save for the glimmer of the solitary candle all was in darkness;