Massa de Noyan am one ob de Bienvilles, sah." "De Noyan?
De Noyan ?" I repeated the unfamiliar name over slowly, with a feeling of relief.

"Most certainly I never before heard other." "I dunno nothin' 'tall 'bout dat, Massa, but suah's you born dat am her name and Massa's; an' you is de bery man she done sent me after, fer I nebber onct took my eyes off you all dis time." There remained no reasonable doubt as to the fellow's sincerity.

His face was a picture of disinterested earnestness as he fronted me; yet I hesitated, eying him closely, half inclined to think him the unsuspecting representative of some rogue.

That was a time and place where one of my birth needed to practise caution; racial rivalry ran so high throughout all the sparsely settled province that any misunderstanding between an English stranger and either Frenchman or Spaniard was certain to involve serious results.

We of Northern blood were bitterly envied because of commercial supremacy.