“Robert,” Eugene said at length, straightening from his dejected stupor on the cot, “did you see that nigger?”
“What nigger?” Robert said stupidly.
“Why, the nigger they tried to put in here with me!” he said.
“Why, I didn’t see any nigger, Gene,” said Robert, in a hoarse and drunken tone of mild and melancholy protest. “When was this?”
“Why, Robert!” the other boy now cried in an excited voice and with a feeling of hideous dread inside him. “You were right here all the time! Didn’t you hear us?”
“Why no, Eugene,” Robert answered in a slow protesting voice that had dull wonder and surprise in it. “I didn’t hear anything,” he said.
“Why, my God, Robert!” Eugene now cried excitedly, and even with a kind of frenzy in his tone. “You must have heard us! Why, we were fighting here for ten minutes!” he said, for the time of the struggle now seemed at least that long to him.
“Who?” said Robert, dully and stupidly.
“Why, me and those two big cops!” he cried. “Good God, Robert, didn’t you see us?—didn’t you hear us?—butting and kicking like a goat—hitting me over the head, trying to make me turn a-loose!” he cried in an excited, almost incoherent tone.
“Who did?” Robert stupidly inquired.
“Why—those two big cops, Robert—that’s who! Good God, do you mean to tell me that you never heard us when we were cursing and butting away there right in front of you?”
“I didn’t hear anything—I thought you said a nigger,” he said in a stupid and confused tone.
“Why, Robert, that’s what I’m telling you!” Eugene shouted. “They had him in here—”
“Where?”
“Why, in the cell! They were trying to put me in here with him! That’s what the trouble was about!” he said.
“Why, Eugene,” Robert said with an uneasy and troubled laugh, which yet had a note of good-natured derision in it that was maddening, “I didn’t see any nigger. Did you, Emmet? I was right here all the time and I didn’t hear any trouble…. You’ve been dreaming,” Robert now said, with a conviction in his tone that goaded the other boy almost past endurance, and yet struck a knife of cold terror into his heart. And he began to laugh hoarsely his annoying and derisive laugh, as he shook his head, and said: “Lord! Lord!—He’s in there seeing niggers and policemen
