"He
was broad of shoulder and comparatively slim at the waist. He must weigh
from two hundred and twenty-five to thirty pounds. As to age, I couldn't
tell you whether he was nearer thirty or forty years. From his agility I
should place him in the thirty-year class."
"Any beard?"
"Smooth-faced."
"Scars?"
"I couldn't see that much in the dark."
"Color of his clothes?"
"Some darkish stuff---that's all I can say."
"Could you pick him out of a crowd of negroes?"
"Not if they were all of the same height and weight," Hazelton admitted.
"Do you think you ever saw him before?" Reade pressed.
"I'm sure that I never have," Harry replied.
"Then he wasn't one of our men in this camp at any time?" Mr. Prenter
interjected.
"We have never had a man in the camp as large as this negro," Harry
rejoined.
"Such a very large black man ought not to be hard for the detectives to
locate," Prenter continued.
"Very good, sir. Then you can let the sleuths have a try at the matter,"
Tom suggested.
"Have you any telegraph blanks here?"
Tom went inside, coming out with a pad of blanks. Mr. Prenter addressed a
dispatch to the head of a detective agency in Mobile.
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