"Now you might talk to me with all the freedom you like, but I'd
recommend you were cautious with strangers. There have been
those who've talked freely that have been advised to keep still
or harm would come of it."

"And did harm come of it?" asked the judge.

"They always kept still."

"What do you mean by talking freely?"

"Like asking how so and so got the money to buy his last batch of
niggers," explained Mr. Saul rather vaguely.

"And Colonel Fentress is one of those about whose affairs it is
best not to show too much curiosity?"

"He is, decidedly. His friends appear to set a heap by him.
Another of his particular intimates is a gentleman by the name of
Murrell."

The judge nodded.

"I've met him," he said briefly. "Does he belong hereabouts?"

"No, hardly; he seems to hold a sort of roving commission. His
home is, I believe, near Denmark, in Madison County."

"What's his antecedents?"