“You tole me dat Dazzle promise to marry you--is dat so?”
“Naw, suh. Me an’ Dazzle et a little dinner togedder, but dar ain’t nothin’ to dat.”
“Dat leaves jes’ Limit Lark fer you to marry--ain’t dat so?” Skeeter asked.
“You done got yo’ license to marry Limit, Ticky,” Skeeter said. “Now, fer goodness sake don’t ax nobody else!”
“I won’t,” Tick promised. “I’s mighty glad we’s done shaved ’em down to jes’ me an’ one woman.”
There was a loud knock upon the front door, and some one on the outside shook it violently, trying to get in.
“Git over dar an’ crawl under de bar, Ticky,” Skeeter whispered. “Dar ain’t no tellin’ whut is gwine happen now!”
When Tick was hidden, Skeeter tiptoed to the door and opened it very cautiously.
“Dis here is Vakey Vapp,” a woman’s voice announced in high, shrill tones. “Lemme in, I got somepin to say offen my mind!”
“Come in, Vakey,” Skeeter said in propitiating tones. “I’s de onliest one here.”
“Tick is gittin’ ready to die,” Skeeter answered evasively. “Doc Moseley is he’pin’ him along.”
“I come here to tell Tick dat he better make a good job of dyin’, an’ drap off real soon,” Vakey bellowed. “Ef he don’t, I’s gwine meet him in de big road an’ cyarve his gizzard an’ his backbone out!”
“Whut’s done made you mad?” Skeeter asked in surprised tones.
“Dat nigger is done monkeyed wid my affectations,” Vakey howled.
“It don’t hurt me none, but it’s shore bad fer Tick!” Vakey said in a deadly tone.
Then they sat for a long time in silence, while Vakey Vapp breathed deeply with a heaving breast, like a motion-picture star. At last she stood up to go.
“I comed here to gib Ticky Hush a dyin’ message, Skeeter,” she announced. “I’s sorry he ain’t here. But ef Doc Moseley makes a mistake an’ cures Tick, well, I’s gwine bestow my dyin’ message wid de edge of a sharp razor. Good-by!”
When the door closed behind her, Tick stood up from his hiding-place, showing a face full of tragedy and despair.
“We forgot all about dat one, Skeeter,” he mourned. “Oh, lawdy! Ef I ever gits outen dis mess, I ain’t gwine mess wid mattermony no more!”
Early the next morning, Colonel Tom Gaitskill heard from Hitch Diamond, who worked about his place, that Tick Hush had been held up, robbed, and shot to death.