As I understand it, he has the reputation of being a harmless, peaceable fellow not very bright but always good-natured.

He never resented an injury, was never known to quarrel with anyone, took what was given him and said thank you.

He loved Colonel Gaylord and watched over his interests as jealously as a dog.

Well now, is a man who has had this reputation all his life, a man whom everybody trusts, very likely to go off the hook as suddenly as that and--with no conceivable motive--brutally kill the master he has served so faithfully?
A man's future is in a large measure determined by his past." "That may all be true enough," I said, "but it is very possible that people were deceived in Mose.

I have been suspicious of him from the moment I laid eyes on him.