"Yassah--dat's what I tells dem niggers--you gwine ter giv 'em er dose er de revolution----"
"Well, it's done now and I've no more use for this thing--thank God!"
He crossed to the writing desk, laid the revolver on its top and walked to the lounge his face set with a look of brooding intensity:
"Bah! The big battles are all fought inside, Andy! There's where the brave die and cowards run--inside----"
"Yassah!--I got de stuff right here fer de _inside_, sah!" he held up the decanter with a grin.
"From to-night my work outside is done," Norton went on moodily. "And I'm going to be free--free! I'm no longer afraid of one of my servants----"
He dropped into a seat and closed his fists with a gesture of intense emotion.
Andy looked at him in astonishment and asked incredulously:
"Who de debbil say you'se er scared of any nigger? Show dat man ter me--who say dat?"
"I say it!" was the bitter answer. He had been thinking aloud, but now that the negro had heard he didn't care. His soul was sick of subterfuge and lies.
"Yassah! Cose, sah, ef you say dat hit's so, why I say hit's so--but all de same, 'twixt you an' me, I knows tain't so!"
"But from to-night!" Norton cried, ignoring Andy as he sprang to his feet and looked sharply about the room:
"She gone out in de Squar ter hear de news, sah."
"The moment she comes let me know!" he said with sharp emphasis and turned quickly to the door.
"Yassah," Andy answered watching him go with amazement. "De Lawdy, major, you ain't gwine off an' leave dese mint juleps lak dat, is ye?"
"Yes, from to-night I'm the master of my house and myself!"
Andy looked at the tray and then at Norton:
"Well, sah, yer ain't got no objections to me pizinin' mysef, is ye?"
The master surveyed the grinning servant, glanced at the tray, smiled and said:
"No--you'll do it anyhow, so go as far as you like!"
"Yassah!" the negro laughed as Norton turned again. "An' please, sah, won't yer gimme jes a little advice befo' you go?"
Norton turned a puzzled face on the grinning black one:
"Yassah. What I wants ter know, major, is dis. Sposen, sah, dat a gemman got ter take his choice twixt marryin' er lady dat's forcin' herself on 'im, er kill hissef?"
"Yassah! but she's er dangous 'oman, sah! She's a fighter from Fightersville--an' fuddermo', sah, I'se engaged to annudder lady at the same time--an' I'se in lub wid dat one an' skeered er de fust one."