"Y'--yass'm--no'm'm! Mustn' it?"

"No, in any case you must do as I tell you."

"Oh, o' co'se! yass'm!"

"So promise, now, that in any pinch you'll try first to save your son."

"Yass'm." A pang of duplicity showed in her uplifted glance, yet she
murmured again: "Yass'm, I promise you dat." Nevertheless, I had my
doubts.

A hum of voices told us my two anglers were approaching, and with
Rebecca's quieting hand on the pusillanimous Robelia we drew into
hiding and saw them cross the corner of a clearing and vanish again
downstream. Then, hearing the coach, we went to meet it.

Both messengers were on the box. Euonymus passed me my bundle of
stuff. The coach turned round. Bidding Euonymus stay on the box I had
Rebecca and Robelia take the front seat inside. Following in I
remarked: "Good boy, that of yours, Luke."

Luke bowed so reverently that I saw Euonymus's belief in me was not his
alone. "We thaynk de Lawd," Luke replied, "fo' boy an' gal alike; de
good Lawd sawnt 'em bofe."

"Yet extra thanks for the son wouldn't hurt."

Robelia buried a sob of laughter in the nearest cushion, and as we
rolled away gaped at me with a face on which a dozen flies danced and