Denmark thought about this. A White man somewhere with his soul trapped outside his body. “You thinking maybe we ought to find him?”

“How much him I catch here?” Gullah Joe asked. “Black people soul, I take name, I take anger, I take sad, all the rest stay body. But the White man, how much he send out, how much he give me?” He went to his table, where a hundred secrets sat in jars and little boxes. He opened one, then another, rejecting each until he found a box with a fine white powder in it. He grinned and picked up a pinch of it between his fingers. Then he walked to the edge of the original circle, where the devil-man was trapped. He parted his fingers as he blew the powder sharply. The fine grey dust quickly filled the exact dimensions of the circle, swirling right up to the edges but never drifting out. Denmark saw a tiny light, like a mosquito with a firefly’s tail, changing colors as it darted about within the cloud.

“That’s him?” asked Denmark.

“He got him power,” said Gullah Joe, his voice filled with awe.

“How can you tell?”

“You so far off, you see him, right?”

“Sure, I saw him. Like a firefly.”

Gullah Joe laughed. “You so blind! He like a star. Bright star. We got trouble in this circle. He be find a way out! And then he be mad.”

“Then let’s get out of here,” said Denmark. “I don’t want him clipping me open like that net.”

“No problem,” said Gullah Joe.

“You mean you can keep him from getting out?”

“I got my best circle hold him. She strong enough? I don’t know. But I don’t got no better, so... maybe we dead, maybe we safe.” Gullah Joe shrugged. “No problem.”

“Well it matters to me!” cried Denmark.

“Be maybe you better go,” said Gullah Joe, grinning. “You go find out what house got him a man, him eyes open, nobody inside.”

“White man?”

“You think Black man break a name-string?” asked Gullah Joe contemptuously.

“Not all Black men be good,” said Denmark.

“Black men all be on our side,” said Gullah Joe.

Denmark laughed rudely. “That the stupidest thing you said since I know you.”

Gullah Joe looked at him oddly. “I know what I know.”

“Oh, they on your side now, Joe, cause you got their name-strings in a bag, you keeping them happy. But that don’t mean they on your side, you fool. White master got them all so scared they want to please him, like little puppy dogs. They not telling now cause what if the White man take their soul? But they ain’t on your side. They on their master’s side.”

“You think you the only smart man?” asked Joe, annoyed.

“I seen it a thousand times. Blacks betraying Blacks, each time hoping the master will like them better than the other slaves, treat them good. You watch.”

“I be do this long time, lots of year now,” said Gullah Joe. “Black people know what I got here, they never turn against me.”