"Has the colonel many friends here?"

"Mos' de ole ones bin done gone, sah, and de Kernel don' cotton to
de new. He don' mix much in sassiety till de bank settlements bin
gone done. Skuse me, sah!--but you don' happen to know when dat
is? It would be a pow'ful heap off de Kernel's mind if it was
done. Bein' a high and mighty man in committees up dah in
Sacramento, sah, I didn't know but what yo' might know as it might
come befo' yo'."

"I'll see about it," said Paul, with an odd, abstracted smile.

"Shampoo dis mornen', sah?"

"Nothing more in this line," said Paul, rising from his chair, "but
something more, perhaps, in the line of your other duties. You're
a good barber for the public, George, and I don't take back what I
said about your future; but JUST NOW I think the colonel wants all
your service. He's not at all well. Take this," he said, putting
a twenty-dollar gold piece in the astonished servant's hand, "and
for the next three or four days drop the shop, and under some
pretext or another arrange to be with him. That money will cover
what you lose here, and as soon as the colonel's all right again
you can come back to work. But are you not afraid of being
recognized by some one?"

"No, sah, dat's just it. On'y strangers dat don't know no better
come yere."

"But suppose your master should drop in? It's quite convenient to