That queer-looking darky, Chunk, is my best hope now unless it
is Miss Lou. Droll, wasn't it, that I should take her for an angel?
What queer thoughts a fellow has when within half an inch of the
seamy side of life! Hanged if I deserve such an awakening as I
thought was blessing my eyes on the other side. From the way I ache,
the other side mayn't be far off yet. Like enough hours will pass
before Chunk comes back, and I must try to propitiate his grandam."
He crawled painfully to the trap-door and, finding a chink in the
boards, looked down into the apartment below. Aun' Jinkey was
smoking as composedly it might seem as if a terrible Yankee, never
seen before, was not over her head, and a band of Confederates who
would have made him a prisoner and punished her were only a few rods
away. A close observer, however, might have noticed that she was not
enjoying languid whiffs, as had been the case in the afternoon. The
old woman had put guile into her pipe as well as tobacco, and she
hoped its smoke would blind suspicious eyes if any were hunting for
a stray Yankee.
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