He
finally left the matter of finding Fetters to Caxton, who ascertained
that Fetters would be in attendance at court during a certain week, at
Carthage, the county seat of the adjoining county, where the colonel
had been once before to inspect a cotton mill. Thither the colonel
went on the day of the opening of court. His train reached town toward
noon and he went over to the hotel. He wondered if he would find the
proprietor sitting where he had found him some weeks before. But the
buggy was gone from before the piazza, and there was a new face behind
the desk. The colonel registered, left word that he would be in to
dinner, and then went over to the court house, which lay behind the
trees across the square.
The court house was an old, square, hip-roofed brick structure, whose
walls, whitewashed the year before, had been splotched and discoloured
by the weather. From one side, under the eaves, projected a beam,
which supported a bell rung by a rope from the window below. A hall
ran through the centre, on either side of which were the county
offices, while the court room with a judge's room and jury room,
occupied the upper floor.
The colonel made his way across the square, which showed the usual
signs of court being in session. There were buggies hitched to trees
and posts here and there, a few Negroes sleeping in the sun, and
several old coloured women with little stands for the sale of cakes,
and fried fish, and cider.
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