They are ready for any turn of
excitement,--anything for "topping off" with a little amusement; and
to this end they immediately gather round mine host in a party of
pursuit. Romescos-he must make his innocence more imposing-has been
conspicuous during the night, at times expressing sympathy for Mr.
M'Fadden, and again assuring the company that he has known fifty
worse cases cured. In order to make this better understood, he will
pay the doctor's bill if M'Fadden dies. Mine host has no sooner
given the alarm than Romescos expresses superlative surprise. He was
standing in the centre of a conclave of men, whom he harangues on
the particular political points necessary for the candidates to
support in order to maintain the honour of the State; now he listens
to mine host as he recounts the strange absence of the preacher,
pauses and combs his long red beard with his fingers, looks
distrustfully, and then says, with a quaintness that disarmed
suspicion, "Nigger-like!-preacher or angel, nigger will be nigger!
The idea o' makin' the black rascals preachers, thinkin' they won't
run away! Now, fellers, that ar' chap's skulkin' about, not far off,
out among the pines; and here's my two dogs"-he points to his dogs,
stretched on the floor-"what'll scent him and bring him out afore
ten minutes! Don't say a word to Mack about it; don't let it 'scape
yer fly-trap, cos they say he's got a notion o' dying, and suddenly
changed his feelins 'bout nigger tradin'. There's no tellin' how it
would affect the old democrat if he felt he warnt goin' to slip his
breeze.
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