Glacier County chief., 1939-11-03
CHAPTER xv-Continued

CHAPTER XV-COntlnued
Is
Seven men in all: seven men with
leathern skins; calloused, overlarge
hands, stolid faces, unkempt hair
and more-or-less tattered clothes;
men who had been born in the
swamp and raised there; who titled
tiny tracts of clayey earth when the
spirit moved; who had ruined their
digestions with too much fresh pork;
who fished indifferently for porgie
and mullet and eel and sucker and
sunfish; who shot-in season-deer,
possum, coon, rabbit, squirrel, duck,
quail and turkey; who accepted the
gray drabness of Big Moccasin
Swamp as the only thing they knew;
whose private lives were sodden
and, on occasion, unesthetically i'm
moral but who prayed loudly
and frequently and considered them
selves very virtuous men indeed.
The assembled crusaders APP
peared to be startlingly indifferent
to the fact that they were about to
take human life. All except one lit
tie mana man smaller even than
Glenn Ross-who had been quaffing
sparingly from the jug and whose
beady eyes moved furtively from
face to face, as though to find an
ally in his contemplated desertion.
He said, whiningly, "You reckon
there amt no danger, jeff"
Who's a-goin' to know we done
it?''
Somebody's i'ble to suspeck,
amt they?"
''Naaa! Whole county will say
Thank You when we finish"
but jeff :"
"Ain't gittin' skeered, are your"
moo. But if anything went
wrong
''Nothin' amt goin' wrong"
"S'posin' s'posin' there's
trouble?"
"Ain't a-goin' to be no trouble.
We got guns an a rope. We take
him out an string him up. Oh, if
things look mean, gun can go off
kind of accidental - an Barney
Hamilton will be just as dead. Don't
the Good Book say "A life TO- a
life?'"
at sho' do"
"Ain't we been commanded to do
this by the preachers?"
"Yeh -. but they didn't ezackly
say nothin' bout no lynchin'."
can BESIDES" stated jeff, eff the
Shelf was to git set on making
trouble TO somebody. he'd arrest
these city folks. Not u.s."
You reckon"
''1'm sure. We got votes"
Mob spirit. Courage of numbers.
Colossal ignorance and stupid piety.
Class hatred. Sense of security
Stimulus of raw whiskey. Right
eousness. False logic. Herd instinct.
Leadership. Grim hysteria.
Thus mobs have always been ere.
ated; thus they are aroused to peaks
of insensate, homicidal fury. Thus
they justify the unjustifiable. And
dusk-closing down over Big Mecca
sin Swamp-cast sinister shadows
and evil invitation.
appeared. humping nervously over
the corduroy road. Dan Creedon and
Babe Henkel stepped out. Babe was
dressed in unobtrusive brown. Her
lips were tight and there was high
unn atural color in her cheeks.
Babe stared at the swamp an
gels. But she said nothing, gave
no sign of approval or disapproval.
It was Dan Creedon who talked. He
asked, Everything ready. Butler?"
81 reckon"
''When do we go?"
Mot yit awhile. Got to wait ontil
they have a chance to finish sup
per-
'.Why?"
"Give the darkies a chance to git
away. We don't crave to be seen
by nobody"
"How do we get there?"
''Walk. 'Tain't fur
80. K" Dan Creedon Joined Babe
and spoke in whisper. "What
lousy gang"
Babe said, briefly, They'll do"
"Yeh r. they'll do anything"
Their, You're not changing your
mind. Babe?"
Her eyes were like ice. Barney
Hamilton didn't give Kirk a chance
to change his mind"
They seated themselves on the top
step of the dog-trot; near-yet not
too near-the swamp angels. They
refused the proffered jug. They sat
and stared into the pines, into the
impene.rable darkness of the swamp
fel. the night close in on them
like some thing tangible. Like black
velvet. Heard the voice of the
swamp: hoa,se croaking of frogs,
chirping of crickets other
sounds; vague, scarcely discernible
symphony OF death.
The swamp angels drank steadily.
Drank until their bra..s were cloud
ed and their emotions aroused. They
talked among themselves, in low
voices, tanning their courage to