The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-02-09


Mr.. Topmark's debt, and Enoch Annis
whom Teddy called familiarly Nocb.
All these Teddy kept uproariously go
ing By midnight. what with his wit
and whisky, they were drunken ripe fol
any sort of adventure-all, that is, save
Annis He had grown more sober and
saturnine apparently with each glass.
Indeed, he said contemptuously aside,
"Teddy was blame slow in bringin
things to head" But Teddy answered
only with a wink and an explosive gig
gle, then struck up wildly:
"Cyarve dat possumi Cyarve dat possum
Cyarve an cook dat possum, chilluns!
Cyarve him ter de hearth"
Then ingeniously he led the talk to
night rulings and raidings, repeating
vaingloriously tales caught from his
elder brothers of what he called pat
ter rollin" in the slave times and later
with the Kuklux. 1t must have been
fun alive, he said. 'Say, now, why not
try jest er little of it? Niggers a.plenty
scattered all round the country, an good
men and horses jest goin ter waste at
the sto'. All fellers that air game hole
up the right hand, b'Georgel" Every
body was game. Just wait till he could
get out few things. The fun should
be had in style-yes, if it broke the
store. Topknot? Hang Topknotl Who
was he anyway? Besides he was so love
crazy he "wouldn't never know it eff
half the stock was taken, let lone jest
ernough white stuff an black ter dress
the Kukluxers like they oughter be.
Fact, it'd be the best sort er joke, an
Of the ole man dares ter cheep--why,
tell him ter go ter Halifax"
Some half an hour later there was
grotesque procession down the road and
over the creek. Two and two the men
rode, their horses half covered with
white cloth. The riders had black cloths
over the face and carried stout sticks,
from which other cloths, black and
white, L0ated and tapped as they moved
along. Teddy, riding in the rear with
Noch, gave low, satisfied whistle.
Huh! Don't b'leeve the ra-ale Kuklux
looked any horribler'n us fellers," he
said. "Hey, thar, all er you! Stop yere
at the creek an git your mouths full or
gravel. Then the devil that owns you
CANT tell by listenin who you air. +"
When they were again in motion.
Noch rode at the head, and Teddy
brought up the rear. They had changed
face and were going straight toward
Roscoe. When some one asked confused
ly where they were bound and who was
to be disciplined, Noch answered, with
an oath, "Oh, We'll show you befo' we
tell you.''
Then they rode in silence for ten
minutes or more. Speech was not easy
with those Disgusting pebbles More
than one Of the gang made to spit them
out and discourse with drunken gravity,
but was stopped by the man at his ell
bow. Presently Noch fell back and
spoke with Teddy in a hushed under
tone. The conference was brief, and at
the end Teddy said: "No whence. Re-
that Dove all things. We jest
wanter make the witch woman swaller
some er her own stuff, then take her ter
the swamp an leave her. Mayby she'll
find herself; mayby she won't That's
none er our lookout. I"
"The swamp!" Noch echoed. cit is
or good place an convenient. Nobody
never thinks nothin out er the common
ef they do ses buzzards a-flyin round
over it,
In little while they began to ride
in Indian file along an overgrown path.
1t came out upon tho brink Of the spring
before Aunt Phemy's cabin. There was
D little clear space set with grass about
the well head, and there they saw what
spurred them TO swifter action. Though
the moonshine flooded it, leaping fire
glowed at the waters edge. 1t was new.
y kindled and fed with dry thorns. Be-
fore it, with "a thorn in the breast, hung
\ waxen image slowly wasting in the |
heat. 1t had been so placed that the |
moon shadow of it fell in the grave
posture, feet to the sunrise, head to the
sunset. Aunt Phemy stood watching
the melting away. Now |
md again she muttered strange, guttur- |
II words and cast fresh thorns upon the |
ire.
cts the full er the moon ternight.
She's workin the dead man conjure
hos er gum" Teddy said, his teeth
He would have run away at
moe, for all his masking, but Noch's
,and fell over his in grip he dared not
"It's all the better. We've caught
Ter in the sct," be said in Teddy's ear.
\ horse neished impatiently. Aunt
'hsmy looked up. saw the grotesque
nummers, and with one sweep Of her
cot scattered the fire, then darted to-
Yard her house. But before she had
made three steps Nooh had gripped her
houlders, her throat, and was bearing
er earthward in spite of her struggles,
aging over his shoulder to Teddy: go
q. Find her bags an bottles Well
erve her as she does the rest or the
world"
The old woman writhed and moaned.
he could make no other outcry. They
ad borne her to her threshold. She
Guild hear them rummaging within.