Now, what's on your mind? Do you know who
shot Haines and Mr. Fetters?"
"Well, sir, you're a mighty good guesser. It ain't so much Mr. Fetters
an' Mr. Haines I'm thinkin' about, for that place down the country is
a hell on earth, an' they're the devils that runs it. But there's a
friend of yo'rs in trouble, for something he didn' do, an' I wouldn'
stan' for an innocent man bein' sent to the penitentiary--though many
a po' Negro has been. Yes, sir, I know that Mr. Ben Dudley didn' shoot
them two white men."
"So do I," rejoined the colonel. "Who did?"
"It was Bud Johnson, the man you tried to get away from Mr.
Fetters--yo'r coachman tol' us about it, sir, an' we know how good a
friend of ours you are, from what you've promised us about the school.
An' I wanted you to know, sir. You are our friend, and have showed
confidence in us, and I wanted to prove to you that we are not
ungrateful, an' that we want to be good citizens."
"I had heard," said the colonel, "that Johnson had escaped and left
the county."
"So he had, sir, but he came back. They had 'bused him down at that
place till he swore he'd kill every one that had anything to do with
him. It was Mr. Turner he shot at the first time and he hit young Mr.
Fetters by accident. He stole a gun from ole Mr. Dudley's place at
Mink Run, shot Mr. Fetters with it, and has kept it ever since, and
shot Mr. Haines with it. I suppose they'd 'a' ketched him before, if
it hadn't be'n for suspectin' young Mr.
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