The men saluted, and departed at once. The galloping of their horses
soon died away in the distance. "Now for this beldam," said Whately,
sternly, as Aun' Jinkey approached, tottering in her excess of fear
and accompanied by Perkins.

Miss Lou saw that her cousin was terribly excited; indeed, that he
fairly trembled with passion. She was scarcely less stirred herself,
for she possessed much of the hot blood of her kindled, and during
the last twenty-four hours nearly all that had, occurred tended to
fire her spirit. Now that she saw her own dear old mammy led
cowering under the hostile eyes of every one, she was almost beside
herself with pity and anger. Unaccustomed to conventional restraint,
reacting from long years of repression, a child still in some
respects, in others a passionate woman revolting at a fate from
which her whole nature shrank, she was carried far above and beyond
her normal condition, and was capable of following her impulses,
whatever they might be.

Aun' Jinkey turned her eyes appealingly, and was awed, even in that
terrible moment, by the intensity of the girl's expression, as she
half consciously drew nearer and nearer. The field-hands, deeply
excited, had also edged up from the quarters. Mr. Baron and his
overseer observed yet tolerated this, thinking that it might be just
as well to have the negroes learn from Aun' Jinkey's experience that
authority would still be sternly enforced.

Whately's headlong temperament was so overcome by anger that he
noted nothing except the presence of one whom he believed the aider
and abetter in his great loss, for a favorite and trusty horse is
one of the dearest possessions of a cavalryman.