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their faces when they find out what we have done!"
"May I tell the crew?"
"By all means. No way that they can tell anyone else now."
After a stunned silence there were shouts of joy and many a rebel yell.
The watch below was woken by the cries, reacted with fear.
"What's happened?"
"Have we been hit?"
The door opened and a sailor poked his head in and shouted.
"It'sIreland we're invading, boys Mexicowas just a ruse! We're going to hit
the Brits right in their back yard!"
The ships heeled as their wheels were swung over, their wakes cutting curved
arcs in the water as they turned towards the east.
But inJackson,Mississippi , there was little thought of the distant war
between other nations. Here were the victims of the generations-old race war
that still divided this nation. The three men on the church porch were still
dazed by the suddenness of events. They had carried the dead man off the road
and stretched him out on the bare splintered boards of the porch.
"I don't understand. How did this happen?" ReverendLomax asked.
"They dragged me from ma' bed,"Bradford said. "Gonnalynch me 'cause I
wouldn't chop cotton. Got a noose, den the shooting..."
"I heard them arrive," L.D. Lewis said. "They weren't keeping it quiet. Guess
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they wanted the whole countryside to know what they were doing. Putting the
Negroes back where they belonged. Right at the bottom of the heap. If they
were just shouting, maybe burning a cross, I wouldn't have done anything. But
they were going to hang this man right in front of the church. Then burn the
church and the Freedmen's Bureau down. When I shouted a warning they just
started shooting. All I could do was fire back. Emptied my magazine. They must
have thought from all those bullets flying by that there was a whole platoon
in here. They hightailed out of here. It's one thing to attack the helpless
hiding behind a hood another thing altogether to stand up to rifle fire. Now
we've got to do something about this mess. You're sure about who this
nightrider is what got killed?"
"That's him all right. That is Mr. Jefferson Davis. The one who was president
of the Confederacy. Maybe we ought to take him into the church, not leave him
lying out here."
L.D. was not impressed as he picked the dead man up under the arms and
dragged him inside. Then he went back to the street and found the white hood;
lifted the corpse's head and pulled it on. "That was the way we found him,
that's the way that it's going to be. Now he is just one more of the dead,
rightly enough. And so will we be if we don't move fast. Is there a swamp,
maybe a river close by?"
"Creek about a half-mile that way, runs into thePearl River ."
"Do you know the way there,Bradford ? Can you find it in the dark?"
"Shore enough can," the man mumbled, still stunned by the night's events.
"Good. Then you and I are going to go there, dump this gun and all the
ammunition in the deepest spot. You got much family here, Bradford?"
"There's just me and my daddy since..."
"I'm sorry, but he'll just have to get on without you for a good while.
That's better than your being hung. The reverend will make your good-byes for
you. Later, maybe, you can send for him."
"Ah don't catchyuhmeanin '..."
"You and I are leaving here now and you are not going to come back. You are a
dead man in this town the second that you are spotted. We are going to get rid
of this gun and the ammunition, and then we are going to keep on going. When I
came in on the train I saw a marshaling yard just outside of the city place
where there are lots of tracks and trains. Can you find it in the dark?"
"Shore can."
"Then let's go. Now it's up to you, reverend, to report this to the police.
Here is what you want to know happened. You heard firing near your church,
woke up, got your gun and came to see what was happening. Everyone was gone.
But you found the dead man lying in the road. That's close enough to the truth
to jibe with your conscience. You won't be lying just leaving out some things
in order to saveBradford's life. Then, after seeing the dead man, you went
inside where you wrote a note saying there had been a killing. Went to the
nearest house, woke them up, sent a boy running with it into town. Isn't that
what you would do?"
"Yes, that is what I would do. But..."
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"No buts. That's all you know and that is all you are going to say. But give
us at least a half an hour's lead before you send the note. I want us on a
freight train and as far away from here as we can get by the time the sun
comes up. I'm sorry about what has happened. I didn't mean it to end this way.
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