I fear they have been persuaded away,
to be abused and sold out of Maryland."
Jimmy Phoebus looked up at the sighing trees and over the wide facade
of Teackle Hall, and exclaimed "by smoke!" several times before he made
his conclusions.
"Miss Vesty," he said, finally, "send for your father to come home
immediately. People will not understand how Joe Johnson, outlaw as he
is, dared to rob a Maryland judge of his house servants, Johnson himself
bein' a Marylander, unless they had some understanding. Your sudden
marriage, an' your pappy's embarrassments, will be put together, by
smoke! an' thar is some blunt enough to say that when Jedge Custis is
hard up, he'll git money anyhow!"
The charge, made with an honest man's want of skill, battered down all
explanations.
"I confess it," said Vesta. "Papa's going away on a Sunday, and these
people disappearing on Sunday night, might excite idle comment. It might
be said that he endeavored to sell some of his property before his
creditor could seize it."
"I have seen you about yer since you was a baby, Vesty, an' Ellenora
says you're better game an' heart than these 'ristocrats, fur who I
never keered! That's why I take the liberty of calling you Vesty. Now,
let me tell you about your niggers. If they was a-gwyn to freedom in a
white man's keer, I wouldn't stop 'em to be cap'n of a man-of-war. But
Joe Johnson, supposin' that he's got of 'em, is a demon.
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