But the little
bit of a laugh he turned against Billy Harden was
only on the surface, like a straw floating on a whirl-
pool. These men was here fur business.
Buck Hightower jumps up and says:
"Will, I'm getting tired of this court foolishness.
The question is, Does this man come into this
county and do what he has done and get out again?
We know all about him. He sneaked in here and
gave out he was here to turn the niggers white--
that he was some kind of a new-fangled Jesus sent
especially to niggers, which is blasphemy in itself--
and he's got 'em stirred up. They're boilin' and
festerin' with notions of equality till we're lucky
if we don't have to lynch a dozen of 'em, like they
did in Atlanta last summer, to get 'em back into
their places again. Do we save ourselves more
trouble by stringing him up as a warning to the
negroes? Or do we invite trouble by turning him
loose? Which? All it needs is a vote."
And he set down agin. You could see he had
made a hit with the boys. They was a kind of a
growl rolled around the room. The feelings in
that place was getting stronger and stronger. I
was scared, but trying not to show it. My fingers
kept feeling around in my pocket fur something
that wasn't there. But my brain couldn't remember
what my fingers was feeling fur.
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