"If he had let you go off with a thieving yellow coon like that other nigger, you might say Adam was unkind--kindest thing he could do to beat you!" She was so pretty she could not believe any man would really side with her husband against her. "Oh, yes, Marse Neil, suh; I don't go for to say as a darkie shouldn't beat his wife--any decen' Durgan nigger would, suh; but the thing that's low down, an' dreffle mean, an' no account 'bout Adam is that he don't know when to stop. Lickin'--that's all right, suh; but when a nigger goes on so long, an' me yellin' on him all the time--oh, Adam, he's a low down feller an' dreffle mean." "You did more yelling than he did beating. He was crying all the time. I don't believe he hurt you--but go on." Her tears were unfeigned: she cared only to regain Durgan's good-will. "Go on with what, suh?" "With what you were telling me." There had certainly been no sequence discernible. "Well, marsa, a poor girl's like me don't go for to tell lies for nothin'. Nex' time Adam holds a stick over me, I's got the States prison to hold over him. An' you's mistaken, marsa, honey, in sayin' as he didn't maul me black an' blue, for he did, suh--not that it wasn't right an' just this time, as you say so, marsa; but for nex' time I mus' have a way for to 'scuse myself to him. So you won't go for to tell him it isn't hangin', will you, marsa, honey, suh?" The softness and assumed penitence of the low wail with which she ended made Durgan laugh aloud. "Look here. Look me straight in the face!" She could do that very well, raising her soft, doe-like eyes to his, then fringing them with her lashes as an accomplished beauty might. Durgan was so angry with her on Adam's account, that he forgot that his first object was to secure her silence. "You've got a good husband and a good home. If you ar'n't good to Adam after this, I'll despise you. Do you understand?" "Don't speak to me so sharp, marsa." There was already a little edge of malice in the velvet of her voice. "Now, about these letters--if I catch you ever speaking of them again, I'll tell Adam you've lied to him, and why. I'll tell him all about you, and he'll never trust you again. Do you understand?" "An' if I don't tell nothin' you ain't disposed on, Marse Neil, honey?" "Then I'll be kind to you, and let Adam think you're better than you are." But the negress, turning to her work in the hut, no longer moved about him with liquid eyes and joyful steps, as a happy spaniel does. Beneath her calmer demeanor he saw the shade of sullenness, and still heard the edge of malice in her voice. "I have been a fool," thought he. "She would have managed better in my place." Then he dismissed her from his thoughts. Chapter IX THE SPECTRE IN THE FOREST