Part 25 (1/2)
”Who was the hackman who drove them away?” demanded Sam.
The old woman started, but swiftly recovered her composure, if such it could be called, and flourished her stick wildly.
”Tell you what, buckra,” she yelled; ”you go 'way. No bodder me no mo'.
Me, Mother Jenny,' 'spectable woman. Wha' yo' t'ink, buckra, yo' fren'
come to harm by my place?”
”I didn't say so. I merely asked the name of the hackman who drove them away?”
Sam knew how important it was to keep his temper with the old crone.
”How much it wort' yo' fo' me to impart dat imflumation?” asked the old woman, leering hideously through a cloud of smoke she blew out of her wrinkled old lips.
”I'll pay you well for it,” struck in De Garros, who had cabled for and received a large remittance. Poor Sam was almost ”broke.”
”Fi' dollar?”
De Garros nodded. The old hag stretched out a shriveled claw.
”Gib me de money, buckra,” she croaked; ”gib me de money here in dis hand.”
”There you are,” said De Garros with a gesture of disgust and annoyance.
The aged crone burst into a scream of wild laughter. She shook with mirth and then shrilled out in her high, cracked voice:
”He drove a brown horse, dat's all I know. Now go look fo' him yo'
ownselves!”
CHAPTER x.x.xI
LOOK FOR A WHITE HORSE
It was useless to try to recover the money, and the two friends had to walk off minus five dollars and followed by the derisive laughter of the hag.
”At all events, she gave us one clew,” said Sam hopefully; ”the man drove a brown horse. We must look for every driver in Kingston with a brown horse.”
”As it so happens,” commented De Garros, ”that is no clew at all, for I happened to notice that the equine in question was a white one.”
”Better still. A white horse should be easier to run down than a brown one,” declared Sam. ”Hullo, there goes one now!”
They halted the driver, but he declared he knew nothing of the matter, having been out in the suburbs all the morning.
”Oh, well, there must be other white horses,” said Sam, as the man drove off and they turned to take up the quest afresh.
”I believe, too, I'd remember the driver if I saw him again,” said De Garros.
”Better and better. I'll bet we'll have good old Jack back with us before night,” declared Sam hopefully. ”At all events, we've got something to work on now.”