dare to hire such a man, for this overseer was so strong that Cavil would soon forget who was man and who was master.
"Many have called me their master," said the stranger. "I knew that you would recognize me at once for what I am."
How had the man known the words that Cavil thought in the hidden reaches of his mind? "Then you are an overseer?"
"Just as there was one who was once called, not a master, but simply Master, so am I not an overseer, but the Overseer.
"Why did you come here?"
"Because you called for me."
"How could I call for you, when I never saw you before in my life?"
"If you call for the unseen, Cavil Planter, then of course you will see what you never saw before."
Only now did Cavil fully understand what sort of vision it was he saw, there in his own burly curing shed. A man whom many called their master, come in answer to his prayer.
"Lord Jesus!" cried Cavil.
At once the Overseer recoiled, putting up his hand as if to fend off Cavil's words. "It is forbidden for any man to call me by that name!" he cried.
In terror, Cavil bowed hishead to the dirt. "Forgive me, Overseer! But if I am unworthy to say your name, how is it I can look upon your face? Or am I doomed to die today, unforgiven for my sins?"
"Woe unto you, fool," said the Overseer. "Do you really believe that you have looked upon my face?"
Cavil lifted his head and looked at the man. "I see your eyes even now, looking down at me."
"You see the face that you invented for me in your own mind, the body conjured out of your own imagination. Your feeble wits could never comprehend what you saw, if you saw what I truly am. So your sanity protects itself by devising its own mask to put upon me. If you see me as an Overseer, it is because that is the guise you recognize as having the greatness and power I possess. It is the form that you at once love and fear, the shape that makes you worship and recoil. I have been called by many names. Angel of Light and Walking Man, Sudden Stranger and Bright Visitor, Hidden One and Lion of War, Unmaker of Iron and Water-bearer. Today you have called me Overseer, and so, to you, that is my name."
"Can I ever know your true name, or see your true face, Overseer?"
The Overseer's face became dark and terrible, and he opened his mouth as if to howl. "Only one soul alive in all the world has ever seen my true shape, and that one will surely die!"
The mighty words came like dry thunder and shook Cavil Planter to his very root, so that he gripped the dirt of the shed floor lest he fly off into the air like dust whipped away in the wind before the storm. "Do not strike me dead for my impertinence!" cried Cavil.
The Overseer's answer came gentle as morning sunlight. "Strike you dead? How could I, when you are a man I have chosen to receive my most secret teachings, a gospel unknown to priest or minister."
"Me?"
"Already I have been teaching you, and you understood. I know you desire to do as I command. But you lack faith. You are not yet completely mine."
Cavil's heart leapt within him. Could it be that the Overseer meant to give him what he gave to Abraham? "Overseer, I am unworthy."
"Of course you are unworthy. None is worthy of me, no, not one soul upon this earth. But still, if you obey, you may find favor in my eyes."
Oh, he will! cried Cavil in his heart, yes, he will give me the woman! "Whatever you command, Overseer."
"Do you think I would give you Hagar because of your foolish lust and your hunger for a child? There is a greater purpose. These Black people are surely the sons and daughters of God, but in Africa they lived under the power of the devil. That terrible destroyer has polluted their blood - why else do you think they are Black? I can never save them as long as each generation is born pure Black, for then the devil owns them. How can I reclaim them as my own, unless you help me?"
"Will my child be born White then, if I take the girl?"
"What matters to me is that the child will not be born pure Black.