human
My sinful friend, said he,
gpt
I'll give you five hundred dollars to let me off--you may holler for help and tie my hand, and--
human
No use--speak quick, hissed the preacher--
gpt
Stephen Wardelow,
human
What!
gpt
Stephen Wardelow, replied the thief.
human
But I haven't got any messages to send to anybody. I haven't a relative in the world, and nobody would care if I was dead. I might as well go now as any time. Hit square when yo _do_ let me have it--that's all!
gpt
Where's your parents?
human
Dead, I reckon, the thief answered.
gpt
Leastways, I know mother is, and dad lived in a fever an' aguerish place, an' I s'pose he's gone, too, before this.
human
Where did he live?
gpt
I don't know--some new settlement somewheres in Illinois. I got lost in the river when I was a little boy, an' was picked up by a tradin'-boat an' sold for a nearly-white nigger--I s'pose I _was_ pretty dark.
human
Not wishin' to interfere in a fair fight--it's me, parson, Sheriff Peters--not wishin' to interfere in a fair fight, I've been a-lookin' on here, where I'd tracked the thief myself, and would have grabbed him if you hadn't been about half a minute ahead of me. And if you want to know my honest opinion--my professional opinion--it's just this: There was stuff for a splendid sheriff spiled when you went a-preachin'. How you'd get along when it come to collectin' taxes, I don't know, never havin' been at any meetin' where you took up a collection; but when it come to an arrest, you'd be just chain-lightning ground down to a pint. The pris'ner's yours, and so's all the rewards that's offered for him, though they're not offered for a man of the name _he_ gives. But, honest, now, don't you think there's a chance of mitigatin' circumstances in his case? Let's talk it over--I'll help you tie him so he can't slip you.