“I don’t know—­but you is.  Dat’s my opinion, anyways.  But nemmine ’bout dat.  When I seed dat man I ’uz dat sk’yerd dat I could sca’cely wobble home.  Den I give a nigger man a dollar for dese clo’es, en I ain’t be’in in a house sence, night ner day, till now.  I blacked my face en laid hid in de cellar of a ole house dat’s burnt down, daytimes, en robbed de sugar hogsheads en grain sacks on de wharf, nights, to git somethin’ to eat, en never dast to try to buy noth’n’, en I’s ‘mos’ starved.  En I never dast to come near dis place till dis rainy night, when dey ain’t no people roun’ sca’cely.  But tonight I be’n a-stanin’ in de dark alley ever sence night come, waitin’ for you to go by.  En here I is.”

She fell to thinking.  Presently she said: 

“You seed dat man at noon, las’ Monday?”

“Yes.”

“I seed him de middle o’ dat arternoon.  He hunted you up, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Did he give you de bill dat time?”

“No, he hadn’t got it printed yet.”

Roxana darted a suspicious glance at him.

“Did you he’p him fix up de bill?”

Tom cursed himself for making that stupid blunder, and tried to rectify it by saying he remember now that it WAS at noon Monday that the man gave him the bill.  Roxana said: 

“You’s lyin’ ag’in, sho.”  Then she straightened up and raised her finger: 

“Now den!  I’s gwine to ask you a question, en I wants to know how you’s gwine to git aroun’ it.  You knowed he ’uz arter me; en if you run off, ‘stid o’ stayin’ here to he’p him, he’d know dey ‘uz somethin’ wrong ’bout dis business, en den he would inquire ’bout you, en dat would take him to yo’ uncle, en yo’ uncle would read de bill en see dat you be’n sellin’ a free nigger down de river, en you know HIM, I reckon!  He’d t’ar up de will en kick you outen de house.  Now, den, you answer me dis question:  hain’t you tole dat man dat I would be sho’ to come here, en den you would fix it so he could set a trap en ketch me?”

Tom recognized that neither lies nor arguments could help him any longer—­he was in a vise, with the screw turned on, and out of it there was no budging.  His face began to take on an ugly look, and presently he said, with a snarl: 

“Well, what could I do?  You see, yourself, that I was in his grip and couldn’t get out.”

Roxy scorched him with a scornful gaze awhile, then she said: 

“What could you do?  You could be Judas to yo’ own mother to save yo’ wuthless hide!  Would anybody b’lieve it?  No—­a dog couldn’t!  You is de lowdownest orneriest hound dat was ever pup’d into dis worl’—­en I’s ’sponsible for it!”—­and she spat on him.

He made no effort to resent this.  Roxy reflected a moment, then she said: 

“Now I’ll tell you what you’s gwine to do.  You’s gwine to give dat man de money dat you’s got laid up, en make him wait till you kin go to de judge en git de res’ en buy me free agin.”