"She wa'n't exactly old and she wa'n't young by no manner of
means; I remember saying to myself, that child ain't yo's, whose
ever it is. Well, sir, I was willing enough to talk, but she
wa'n't, she hardly spoke until we came to the red gate, when she
says, 'Stop, if you please, I'll walk the rest of the way.' Mind
you, she'd known without a word from me we were at the Barony.
She give me a dollar, and the last I seen of her she was hurrying
through the rain toting the child in her arms."

Mr. Crenshaw took up the narrative.

"The niggers say the old general almost had a fit when he saw
her. Aunt Alsidia let her into the house; I reckon if Joe had
been alive she wouldn't have got inside that door, spite of the
night!"

"Well?" said Bladen.

"When morning come she was gone, but the child done stayed
behind; we always reckoned the lady walked back to Fayetteville
sometime befo' day and took the stage. I've heard Aunt Alsidia
tell as how the old general said that morning, pale and shaking
like, 'You'll find a boy asleep in the red room; he's to be fed
and cared fo', but keep him out of my sight. His name is
Hannibal Wayne Hazard.' That is all the general ever said on the
matter. He never would see the boy, never asked after him even,
and the boy lived in the back of the house, with the niggers to
look after him. Now, sir, you know as much as we know, which is
just next door to nothing."