Page:The traitor; a story of the fall of the invisible empire (IA traitorstoryoffa00dixo).pdf/245

 arms roun' yo neck. She kiss you an' blindfold ye wid her curly hair an' slip de knife from her bosom an' stab you froo de heart! Mammy's baby! Mammy's baby!"

The black woman's voice sank to a weird whisper full of tears and wild half-savage music as she seized John's hand.

"Don't come to de house no mo,' Marse John!" she pleaded.

"And why not?" he asked sharply.

"Case I look again in de vision an' I see her face plain—an' it wuz hers!"

"Whose?"

"Miss Stella, honey—I warns ye! she doan lub my baby—keep away from her!"

"Rubbish, Aunt Julie Ann; you've been having a nightmare."

"I see it all, des ez plain ez I sees you now—I warns ye!"

"I'll risk it," John laughed. "I'm hoping for good news to-morrow—please say your prayers for me to-night."

Yet in spite of his culture and the inheritance of centuries of knowledge, the voodoo message of his old nurse shrouded his spirit in deeper gloom. He walked home with a new sense of dread in his heart, wondering what answer she would send him to-morrow.