But Hassan wondered still more, and that was the whole point.

He stood agape, looking from one to the other of us, his fat good-natured face an interrogation mark.
"I go an' tell bwana Tippoo Tib!" he announced, and departed swiftly.
"What's the idea of fish, Fred ?" I asked.
"Oh, just curiosity.

The way of getting information out of colored folk is to get them so frantically curious they've no time to think up lies.

Tobacco would have done as well--anything unexpected.

A bird flying, and a black man lying,--are both of 'em easy to catch or confuse unless they know which way they're heading.