And then they was another
hullabaloo, some yelling "no!" And the colonel, very
patient, rolls himself another smoke and lights it
from the butt of the first one. But finally they
quiets down enough so Will can put it to a vote.
Which vote goes fur the colonel to speak.
"Boys," he begins very quiet, "I wouldn't lynch
this man. In the first place it will look bad in
the newspapers, and--"
"The newspapers be d---d!" says some one.
"And in the second place," goes on the colonel,
"it would be against the law, and--"
"The law be d----d!" says Buck Hightower.
"There's a higher law!" says Grimes.
"Against the law," says the colonel, rising up
and throwing away his cigarette, and getting inter-
ested.
"I know how you feel about all this negro busi-
ness. And I feel the same way. We all know that
we must be the negros' masters. Grimes there
found that out when he came South, and the
idea pleased him so he hasn't been able to talk
about anything else since. Grimes has turned into
what the Northern newspapers think a typical
Southerner is.
"Boys, this thing of lynching gets to be a habit.
There's been a negro lynched to-day. He's the
third in this county in five years. They all needed
killing. If the thing stopped there I wouldn't care
so much.
Pages:
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269