There was a most solemn expression on his host's face. Griffith laughed heartily again. The President was gazing straight before him.
"I don't know where that man came from, and I don't know where he went to, but he won that knife fair and square. I was a good deal of a beauty compared to him!"
The very muscles of his face twinkled with humor. No one would have felt the homeliness of his face, lit as it now was in its splendid ruggedness, with the light and glory of a great and tender soul playing with its own freaks of fancy.
But before the laugh had died out of Griffith's voice, the whole manner of the President had changed. He had opened the pen-knife and was drawing the point of the blade down a line on the large map which lay on the table beside him.
"Morton tells me that you used to be a circuit-rider down in these mountains here, and that you know every pass, defile and ford in the State." He looked straight at Griffith and ran his great, bony hand over his head and face, but went hastily on: "I know how that is myself. Used to be a knight of the saddlebags out in Illinois, along about the same time--only my circuit was legal and yours was clerical. I carried Blackstone in my saddlebags--after I got able to own a copy--and you had a Bible, I reckon--volumes of the law in both cases! Let me see. How long ago was that?"
"I began in twenty-nine, Mr. President, and rode circuit for ten years. Then I was located and transferred the regular way each one or two years up to fifty-three. That--year--I--left--my--native--state."
Mr. Lincoln noticed the hesitancy in the last words, the change in the tone, the touch of sadness. He inferred at once that what Senator Morton had told him of this man's loyalty had had something to do with his leaving the old home.
"Found it healthier for you to go West, did you? Traveled toward the setting sun. Wanted to keep in the daylight as long as you could; but I see you took the memory of the dear old home with you. Have you never been back?"
"I don't look like much of an outlaw, do I, Mr. Lincoln?" asked Griffith, with a sad smile.
"Can't say I would take you for one, no." The President turned a full, long, searching look upon him.
"Well, I have never been back--home--I--I left two freed slaves in the State when I came away, and, you know----"