FROM all the windows of Coloured Odd Fellows' Hall, on the upper floor
of the two-story building at the corner of Oak and Tennessee Streets,
streamed Jacob's ladders of radiance, which slanted outward and downward
into the wet night. Along with these crossbarred shafts of lights,
sounds as of singing and jubilation percolated through the blurry panes.
It was not yet eleven o'clock, the date being December thirty-first; but
the New Year's watch service, held under the auspices of Castle Camp,
Number 1008, Afro-American Order of Supreme Kings of the Universe, had
been going on quite some time and was going stronger every minute.
Odd Fellows' Hall had been especially engaged and partially decorated
for this occasion. Already it was nearly filled; but between now and
midnight it would be fuller, and at a still later time would doubtlessly
attain the superlatively impossible by being fuller than fullest.
From all directions, out of the darkness, came belated members of the
officiating fraternity, protecting their regalias under umbrellas,
and accompanied by wives and families if married, or by lady and other
friends if otherwise. With his sword clanking impressively at his flank
and his beplumed helmet nodding grandly as he walked, each Supreme
King of the Universe bore himself with an austere and solemn mien, as
befitting the rôle he played--of host to the multitude--and the uniform
that adorned his form.
Later, after the young year had appropriately been ushered in, when the
refreshments were being served, he might unbend somewhat. But not
now. Now every Supreme King was what he was, wearing his dignity as a
becoming and suitable garment. This attitude of the affiliated brethren
affected by contagion those who came with them as their guests. There
was a stateliness and a formality in the greetings which passed between
this one and that one as the groups converged into the doorway, set in
the middle front of the building, and by pairs and by squads ascended
the stairs.
“Good evenin', Sist' Fontleroy. I trusts things is goin' toler'ble well
wid you, ma'am?”
“Satisfactory, Br'er Grider--thank de good Lawd! How's all at yore own
place of residence?”
“Git th'ough de C'ris'mus all right, Mizz Hillman?”
“Yas, suh; 'bout de same ez whut I always does, Mist' Duiguid.”
“Well, ole yeah's purty nigh gone frum us, Elder; ain't it de truth?”
“Most doubtless is. An' now yere come 'nother! We don't git no younger,
sister, does we?”
“Dat we don't, sholy!”
The ceremonial reserve of the moment would make the jollifying all the
sweeter after the clocks struck and the whistles began to blow.
There was one late arrival, though, who came along alone, wearing a
downcast countenance and an air of abstraction, and speaking to none
who encountered him on the way or at the portal. This one was Jeff
Poindexter; but a vastly different Jeff from the customary Jeff. Usually
he moved with a jaunty gait, his elbows out and his head canted
back; and on the slightest provocation his feet cut scallops and
double-shuffles and pigeonwings against the earth. Now his heels scraped
and his toes dragged; and the gladsome raiment that covered his person
gave him no joy, but only an added sense of resentment against the
prevalent scheme of mundane existence.
An unseen weight bowed his shoulders down, and beneath the wide
lapels of an almost white waistcoat his heart was like unto a chunk of
tombstone in his bosom. For the current light of his eyes, Miss Ophelia
Stubblefield, had accepted the company of a new and most formidable
rival for this festive occasion. Wherefore an embodiment of sorrow
walked hand in hand with Jeff.
After this blow descended all the taste of delectable anticipation
in his mouth had turned to gall and to wormwood. Of what use now the
costume he had been at such pains to accumulate from kindly white
gentlemen, for whom Jeff in spare moments did odd jobs of valeting--the
long, shiny frock coat here; the only slightly spotted grey-blue
trousers there; the almost clean brown derby hat in another quarter; the
winged collar and the puff necktie in yet a fourth? Of what value to him
would be the looks of envy and admiration sure to be bestowed upon
the pair of new, shiny and excessively painful patent-leather shoes,
specially acquired and specially treasured for this event?
He had bought those shoes, with an utter disregard for expense, before
he dreamed that another would bring Ophelia to the watch party. With her
at his side, his soul would have risen exultant and triumphant above
the discomfort of cramped-up toes and pinched-in heels. Now, at each
dragging step, he was aware that his feet hurt him. Indeed, for Jeff
there was at that moment no balm to be found throughout all Gilead, and
in his ointment dead flies abounded thickly.
It added to his unhappiness that the lady might and doubtlessly would
rest under a misapprehension regarding his failure to invite her to
share with him the pleasures of the night. He had not asked her to be
his company; had not even broached the subject to her. For this seeming
neglect there had been a good and sufficient reason--one hundred and
ninety pounds of a chocolate-coloured reason. Seven days before, on
Christmas Eve, Jeff had been currying Mittie May, the white mare of
Judge Priest, in the stable back of the Priest place, when he heard
somebody whistle in the alley behind the stable and then heard his name
called. He had stepped outside to find one Smooth Crumbaugh leaning upon
the alley gate.
“Hello, Smoothy!” Jeff had hailed with a smart and prompt cordiality.
It was not that he felt any deep warmth of feeling for Smooth, but that
it was prudent to counterfeit the same. All in Smooth's circle deported
themselves toward Smooth with a profound regard and, if Smooth seemed
out of sorts, displayed almost an affection for him, whether they felt
it or not. 'Twere safer thus.
With characteristic brusqueness, Smooth entirely disregarded the
greeting.
“Come yere to me, little nigger!” he said out of one corner of his lips,
at the same time fixing a lowering stare upon Jeff. Then, as Jeff still
stood, filled with sudden misgivings: “Come yere quick w'en I speaks!
Want me to come on in dat yard after you?”
Jeff was conscious of no act of wrongdoing toward Smooth Crumbaugh. With
Jeff, discretion was not only the greater part of fighting valour but
practically was all of it. Nevertheless, he was glad, as he obeyed the
summons and, with a placating smile fixed upon his face, drew nearer
the paling, that he stood on the sanctuary ground of a circuit judge's
premises, and that a fence intervened between him and his truculent
caller.
“Comm' right along,” he said with an affected gaiety.
Just the same, he didn't go quite up to the gate. He made his stand
three or four feet inside of it, ready to jump backward or sidewise
should the necessity arise.
“I'se feared I didn't heah you call de fus time,” stated Jeff
ingratiatingly. “I wuzn't studyin' about nobody wantin' me--been wipin'
off our ole mare. 'Sides, I thought you wuz down in Alabam', workin' on
de ole P. and A. Road.”
“Num'mine dat!” said Smooth. “Jes' lis'en to whut I got to say.”
The hostile glare of his eye bored straight into Jeff, making him chilly
in his most important organs. Smooth was part basilisk, but mainly
hyena, with a touch of the man-eating tiger in his composition. “Little
nigger,” he continued grimly, “I come th'ough dis lane on puppus' to
tell you somethin' fur de good of yore health.”
“I's lis'enin',” said Jeff, most politely.
“Heed me clost,” bade Smooth; “heed me dost, an' mebbe you mout live
longer. Who wuz you at de Fust Ward Cullid Baptis' Church wid last
Sunday night? Dat's de fust question.”
“Who--me?”
“Yas; you!”
“Why, lemme see, now,” said Jeff, dissembling. “Seem lak, ez well ez I
reckerleck, I set in de same pew wid quite a number of folkses durin' de
service.”
“I ain't axin' you who you set wid. I's axin' you who you went wid?”
“Oh!” said Jeff, as though enlightened as to the real object of the
inquiry, and still sparring for time. “You means who did I go dere wid,
Smoothy? Well----”
“Wuz it dat Stubblefield gal, or wuzn't it? Answer me, yas or no!”
The tone of the questioner became more ominous, more threatening, with
each passing moment.
“Yas--yas, Smoothy.” He giggled uneasily. “Uh-huh! Dat's who 'twuz.”
“Well, see dat it don't happen ag'in.”
“Huh?”
“You heared whut I said!”
“But I---- But she----”
“See dat it don't happen nary time ag'in.”
“But--but----”
“Say, whut you mean, interrup'in' me whilst I's speakin' wid you fur
yore own good? Shut up dat trap-face of your'n an' lis'en to me,
whut I'm say in': Frum dis hour on, you stay plum' away frum dat gal.
Understan'?”
“Honest, Smoothy, I didn't know you wuz cravin' to be prankin' round wid
Ophelia!”
Jeff spoke with sincerity, from the heart out. In truth, he hadn't
known, else his sleep of nights might have been less sound.
“Dat bein' de case, you better keep yore yeahs open to heah de news,
else you won't have no yeahs. Git me mad an' I's liable to snatch
'em right offen de sides of your haid an' feed 'em to you. I's tuck a
lay-off fur de C'ris'mus. An' endurin' de week I spects to spend de
mos' part of my time enjoyin' dat gal's society. I aims to be wid her
to-night an' to-morrow night an' de nex' night, an' ever' other night
twell I goes back down de road. I aims to tek her to de C'ris'mus tree
doin's at de church on Friday night, an' to de festibul at de church on
Sad'day night, an' to de watch party up at de Odd Fellers' Hall on New
Yeah's Eve. Is dat clear to you?”
“Suttinly is, seein' ez it's you,” assented Jeff, trying to hide his
disappointment under a smile. “Course, Smoothy, ef you craves a young
lady's company fur a week or so, I don't know nobody dat's mo' entitled
to it'n whut you is. Jes' a word frum you is plenty fur me. You done
told me how you feels; dat's ample.”
“No, 'tain't!” growled Smooth. “I got somethin' mo' to tell you. Frum
now on, all de time I's in dis town I don't want to heah of you speakin'
wid dat gal, or telephonin' to her, or writin' her ary note, or sendin'
ary message to her house. Ef you do I's gwine find out 'bout it; an' den
I's gwine lay fur you an' strip a whole lot of dark meat offen you wid
a razor or somethin'. I won't leave nothin' of you but jes' a framework.
Now den, it's up to you! Does you want to go round fur de rest of yore
days lookin' lak a scaffoldin', or doesn't you?”
“Smoothy,” protested Jeff, “I ain't got no quarrel wid you. I ain't
aimin' to git in no rookus wid nobody a-tall--let alone 'tis you. But
s'posen'”--he added this desperately--“s'posen' now I should happen
to meet up wid her on de street. Fur politeness' sake I's natchelly
'bleeged to speak wid her, ain't I--even ef 'tain't nothin' more'n jes'
passin' de time of day?”
“Is dat so?” said Smooth in mock surprise. “Well, suit yo'se'f; suit
yo'se'f. Only, de words you speaks wid her better be yore farewell
message to de world. Ef anythin' happen to you now, sech ez a fun'el,
hit's yore own fault--you done had yore warnin' frum headquarters. I
ain't got no mo' time to be wastin' on a puny little scrap of nigger
sech ez you is. I's on my way now. But jes' remember whut I been tellin'
you an' govern yo'se'f 'cordin'ly.” And with that the bully turned away,
leaving poor Jeff to most discomforting reflections amid the ruins of
his suddenly blasted romance.
The full scope of his rival's design stood so clearly revealed that it
left to its victim no loophole of escape whatsoever. Not only was he
to be debarred, by the instinct of self-preservation, from seeking the
presence of Ophelia during the most joyous and the most socially crowded
week of the entire year; not only were all his pleasant dreams dashed
and smashed, but, furthermore, he might not even make excuses to her for
what would appear in her eyes as an abrupt and unreasonable cessation
of sentimental interest on his part, save and except it be done at dire
peril to his corporeal well-being and his physical intactness.
Above all things, Jeff Poindexter coveted to stay in one piece. And
Smooth Crumbaugh was one who nearly always kept his word--especially
when that word involved threats against any who stood between him and
his personal ambitions.
Jeff, watching the broad retreating back of Smooth, as Smooth swaggered
out of the alley, fetched little moans of acute despair. To him remained
but one poor morsel of consolation--no outsider had been a witness to
his interview with the bad man. Unless the bad man bragged round, none
need know how abject had been Jeff's capitulation.
Solitary, melancholy, a prey to conflicting emotions, Jeff Poindexter
climbed the stairs leading up to Odd Fellows' Hall, at the heels of a
family group of celebrants. Until the last minute he hadn't meant to
come; but something drew him hither, even as the moth to the flame is
drawn. He paid his fifty cents to the Most High Grand Outer Guardian,
who was stationed at the door in the capacity of ticket taker and cash
collector, and entered in, to find sitting-down space pretty much all
occupied and standing room rapidly being preempted--especially round the
walls and at the back of the long assembly room.
Outside, the air was muggy with the clinging dampness of a rainy, mild
winter's night; a weak foretaste of the heightened mugginess' within.
Nearly always, in our part of the South, the first real cold snap came
with the New Year; but, as yet, there were no signs of its approach.
Inside, thanks to a big potbellied stove, choked with hot coals, and to
the added circumstance of all the windows being closed, the temperature
was somewhere up round eighty; which was as it should be. When the
coloured race sets itself to enjoy itself, it desires warmth, and plenty
of it.
This crowd was hot and therefore happy. Trickles of perspiration,
coursing downward, streaked the rice powder upon the cheeks of many
mezzotint damosels, and made to glisten the faces of the chrome-shaded
gallants who squired them.
On the platform at the far end of the hall, beneath crossed flags,
sat the principal officiating dignitaries, three in number--first, the
Imperial Grand Potentate of the lodge, holder of an office corresponding
to president elsewhere, but invested with rather more grandeur than
commonly appertains to a presidency; then the second in command, known
formally as First Vice Imperial Grand Potentate; and thirdly, the
Reverend Potiphar Grasty, pastor of First Ward Church.
Facing these three and, in turn, faced by them, sat on the front seats
the Supreme Kings, temporarily detached from their kinspeople and
well-wishers, who, with the populace generally, filled the serried rows
of chairs and benches behind the uniformed ranks.
At the rear, near the main entrance, in a cleared space, stood two long
trestles bearing the refreshments, of which, at a suitable moment, all
and sundry would be invited to partake. The feast plainly would be a
rich and abundant one, including, as it did, such items as cream puffs,
ham sandwiches, Frankfurters, bananas, and soda pop of the three more
popular varieties--lemon, sarsaparilla and strawberry--in seemingly
unlimited quantities.
Sister Eldora Menifee, by title Queen Bee of the Ladies' Royal Auxiliary
of the Supreme Kings, had charge of the collation, its arrangement
and its decorations. She hovered about her handiwork, a mighty, black
mountain, vigilant to frown away any who might undertake any clandestine
poaching. The display of napery and table linen was most ample; and why
not? Didn't Sister Menifee do the washing for the biggest white folks'
boarding house in town?
With an eye filmed and morose, Jeff Poindexter, pausing at the rear,
comprehended this festive scene. Then, as his gaze ran to and fro, he
saw that which he dreaded to see and yet sought to behold. He saw Smooth
Crum-baugh sitting with Ophelia on the right side of the hall, well up
toward the front. Their backs were to him; their heads inclined sidewise
toward a common centre.
The loose fold of flesh in Smooth's bull neck pouched down over his
glistening collar as he slanted one shoulder to whisper sweet somethings
in Ophelia's ear. They must have been sweet somethings, and witty
withal; for at once the lady gave vent to a clear soprano giggle.
Her mirthful outburst rose above the babble of voices and, floating
backward, pierced Jeff Poindexter's bosom as with darts and javelins;
and jealousy, meantime, like the Spartan boy's fox, gnawed at his
inwards.
The sight and the sound, taken together, made Jeff Poindexter desperate
almost to the point of outright recklessness--almost, but not quite. He
noted the fortuitous circumstance of a vacant chair directly behind the
pair he watched. Surely now Smooth Crumbaugh would start no disturbance
here. Surely--so Jeff reasoned it--time, place, occasion and the present
company, all would operate and cooperate to curb Smooth's chronic
belligerency.
If only for a fleeting period, Jeff longed to venture within
conversational distance of Ophelia; to bask for a spell in one of her
brilliant smiles; to prove to her by covert looks, if not by whispered
words, that there were no ill feelings; to give her an opportunity for
visual appreciation of his housings; and, most of all, subtly to convey
the suggestion that it was bodily indisposition which had caused him to
absent himself from her presence throughout the Christmas. Under cover
of his hand he rehearsed a deep cough, and simultaneously began to inch
his way along an aisle toward the coveted seat in the adjacent rear of
the couple.
The programme proper was well under way; it had begun auspiciously and
it promised much. There had been a prayer and a welcoming address by the
Imperial Grand Potentate, and now there was singing. Starting shortly,
the annual memorial service for any member or members who had departed
this life during the preceding twelve months would follow; this lasting
until five minutes before midnight. Then all the lights would be turned
out, and the gathering would sit in darkness, singing some lugubriously
appropriate song as a vocal valedictory for the passing year until
the first stroke of midnight, when the lights would flash on again.
Thereafter would follow the strictly social phases of the watch party.
Almost until the last it had seemed that the memorial exercises would
have to be foregone for lack of material to work on. But at the eleventh
hour, as it were, Red Hoss Shackleford, who always heretofore had been a
disappointment to everybody, had greatly obliged, and, at the same time,
disproved the oft-repeated assertion that one born for hanging can never
be drowned, by falling overboard off the tugboat _Giles C. Jordan_.
This tragedy had occurred at a late hour of the evening of December
twenty-sixth, when the _Giles C. Jordan_ was forty miles up Tennessee
River on a crosstie-towing venture, and while Red Hoss Shackleford, who
had shipped aboard her as cook and general roustabout, was yet overcome
by the potent elements of his Christmas celebration, self-administered
internally in liquid form.
At least such were the tidings borne by the captain and surviving crew
upon their return to port on the twenty-ninth instant. Whereupon the
Supreme Kings had seized upon the opportunity thus vouchsafed as a free
gift of a frequently inscrutable Providence.
To be sure, the late Shackleford was not exactly a member in good
standing. Two years before, in a fine fervour of enthusiasm induced by
the splendour of the uniforms worn at the funeral turnout of a departed
brother, Red Hoss had joined the lodge. He had fallen behind in his
dues, and, to all intents and purposes, had been expunged from the
rolls. Red Hoss generally was in arrears, anyhow, except for those
obligations he owed the county chain gang. Those were debts he always
paid--if they could catch him.
None the less, certain points were waived by acclamation, following the
receipt of the news of his taking-off. It was agreed that one Red
Hoss Shackleford dead at such time was worth ten Red Hoss Shacklefords
living. His memory was to be perpetuated, thereby lending to the
programme precisely that touch of seriousness which was needed to round
it out and make of it a thing complete and adequate.
To add to the effect, his sole surviving relative, a half sister, by
name Sister Rosalie Shackleford, had a prominent place at the front,
flanking the low platform. It was conceivable, everything considered,
that her loss had been no great one; nevertheless, with a fine theatric
instinct for the unities and the verities, she now deported herself as
one utterly devastated by a grief almost too great to be borne. There
was no mistake about it--when this sister mourned, she mourned!
With her prevalent dark complexion enhanced by enshrouding ells of black
crape, she half lay, half sat in a slumped attitude betokening utter
and complete despondency, and at timely intervals uttered low moans and
sobs. Two friends attended her in a ministering capacity. One fanned her
assiduously. The other, who was of ample girth, provided commodious and
billowy accommodations for her supine form when she slipped back after
swooning dead away. It was expected of Sister Rosalie that she should
faint occasionally and be revived; and so she did.
The ritualistic features of the night had been disposed of and the
singing was in full swing as Jeff Poindexter edged along, pussyfooting
like a house cat, toward the point he sought. Eventually he arrived
there unobserved by the quarry he stalked.
Up to this point fortune had favoured him; none had pre-empted the one
vacant chair, half concealed from general view as it had been by the
adjacent bulk of a very fleshy black woman. With a whispered apology
to her for intruding, Jeff wormed his way in alongside. He let himself
softly down into the seat and began to cough the gentle cough of a quasi
invalid now on the road to recovery.
Together, it would seem, the pair in front of him sensed his presence so
near them. With one accord they swung their heads.
“Evenin', Miss Stubblefield. Evenin', Smoothy,” said Jeff, smiling
wanly, as a convalescent naturally would. “Seein' ez how dis yere cheer
wuz onuccupied, I jes' taken it so's to be out of de draf'. I ain't been
so well dis week--had a little tech of pneumonia, I think 'twuz; an'
so--”
Ophelia's surprised murmur of sympathy was cut short. Smooth Crumbaugh
distorted his gingerbread-coloured countenance into a hideous war mask.
He turned in his place, thrusting his face forward. “Git up outen dat
seat!” he ordered in a low, forceful grumble.
“But de seat ain't taken, Smoothy,” protested Jeff weakly. “I 'lowed I'd
set yere jes' fur a minute or two, account of de draf'.”
“Git up outen dat cheer!” repeated Smooth Crumbaugh in a louder tone.
His shoulders began to hunch and his hands to curl up into fists.
Ophelia's rising agitation was tempered perhaps by the realisation of
the fact that for her favour two persons, both well known and
prominent in their respective spheres of activity, were about to have
words--possibly to exchange threats, or even blows. To be the storm
centre of such a sensation is not always entirely unpleasant, especially
if one be young and personable. She spoke now in a voice clearly audible
to several about her.
“Please, suzz, gen'lemen, both of you be nice an' quiet!” she implored.
“I trusts there ain't goin' be no trouble 'cause of me.”
“'Tain't goin' be no trouble, gal,” stated Smooth, as Jeff sat dumb with
apprehension. “'Tain't goin' be nothin' but a pleasure to me to haul off
an' knock dis little nigger naiked.” He addressed Jeff: “Git up outen
dat cheer, lak I tells you! Start travellin', an' keep on travellin'.
Git plum' out of dis yere buildin'!” Daunted to the very taproots of his
being, Jeff nevertheless strove to save his face. He made pretense that
his cough prevented the utterance of a defiant rejoinder as he rose
and backed out into the aisle and worked his way toward the rear, with
Smooth Crumbaugh's glower following after him. Perhaps the excellence
of his acting may have deceived some, but in his own soul Jeff suffered
amain.
Far back, hard by the refreshment stand, he wriggled himself in behind
an intervening frieze of standees. His judgment warned him that he
should heed Smooth Crumbaugh's wishes and entirely betake himself hence;
but his crushed and bruised spirit revolted against a surrender so
abject and so utter. He told himself he had given up his chair because
he did not care to be sitting down, anyway. Even so, this was a free
country and he would stay a while longer if he wanted to stay. Only, he
meant to keep yards of space and plenty of bystanders between him and
Smooth Crumbaugh. He would be self-effacive, but not absolutely absent.
With an ear dulled by chagrin, he hearkened as the Reverend Grasty rose
and opened his discourse touching on the life and works of the late Red
Hoss Shackleford. The speaker's very first words made it clear to all
that he had come to bury Cæsar--not to praise him. Really, the only
complimentary thing which might truthfully be said of Red Hoss was that
always he had a good appetite. At once the Reverend Grasty manifested
that he meant to adopt no weak and temporising course in his discussion
of the subject in hand. Forthrightly he launched into a stirring recital
of the shortcomings of the deceased; and out of his topic's sins, cut
off in the midst of his impenitence, he builded a vivid lesson to warn
the living.
If one might judge by her behaviour, the lorn half sister resented not
the attitude and the language of the orator. She forgot to faint and she
sat erect. Presently she was chanting an accompaniment to his shouted
illustrations.
“Oh, my pore lost brother, sunken in de cold waters.” She quavered in a
fine camp-meeting tremolo. “Oh, my pore onworthy brother, whut we gwine
do 'bout you now?”
Fervently deep amens began to arise from other quarters, punctuating
the laments of Sister Rosalie and the louder outpourings of the Reverend
Grasty. The memorial service was turning out to be the high point of the
watch party.
In spite of personal distractions, Jeff was carried away by the dramatic
intensity of the scene. Forgetting momentarily his own trouble, he
shoved forward, the better to see and hear. A menacing growl in his off
ear brought him back to earth with a jolt. It was the dread voice of
Smooth Crumbaugh, speaking from a distance not of yards but of inches.
And now, as Jeff turned his head, Smooth's outjutted underlip was almost
brushing the tip of his nose.
“Thought I tole you to git plum' outen dis hall!” quoth Smooth; and
his voice, more than before, was freighted with the menace of dire
catastrophe, imminent and impending.
Jeff didn't dare reply in regular words. He muttered unintelligible
sounds beneath his breath, seeking the while to draw away.
“Quit mumblin'!” ordered Smooth. “You's liable to mumble up somethin'
I don't keer to heah, an' den I'll tek an' jes' natchelly mek a set of
nigger shoestrings outen you. B'lieve I'll do hit anyway--right now!”
One of his hands--the left one--closed en-twiningly in Jeff's coat
collar. His right stole back toward his hip pocket--the pocket wherein
Smooth was reputed to carry his razor. Jeff felt dark wings fanning his
clammy brow.
“Speak up an' say whut you got to say whilst you is got de breath to say
hit,” said the bad man.
“I--I wus jes' fixin' to go, Smoothy,” his voice squeaked.
“Naw, you wuzn't. Ain't I been watchin' you, hangin' round back yere
whar you thought I couldn't see you. Now den----”
A uniformed and helmeted form bulged in between them, breaking Smooth's
hold on Jeff. The disturbance had drawn the Most High Grand Outer
Guardian away from his post at the door.
“Yere! Dat'll be 'bout all!” stated this functionary in a voice of
authority. “Go on outside, you two, ef you wants to argify wid one nurr.
Dis ain't no place to be 'sputin'.” He gave a violent start of
surprise and his voice trailed off to nothingness. Until now he had not
recognised Jeff's adversary.
“Who you talkin' to, Mistah Monkey Clothes?”
Smooth swung on the officer, ready in his present state of feeling
to carve up one or a dozen. An ingratiating smile split the nervous
countenance of the Most High Grand Outer Guardian. Than to be flirting
with disaster nothing was farther from his desires.
“Scuse me, Mistah Crumbaugh. I didn't know 'twuz you. I begs yore
pardon!” he stated hastily. “Please, ef you don't mind, I'll settle dis
matter fur you.”
He swung round on Jeff, who was making himself smaller by the second.
“Whut you mean,” he demanded, “per-vokin' Mistah Crumbaugh twell he's
jes' about to lose his temper? Ef yore presence yere irritates him, w'y
don't you go on 'way, lak a gen'leman?... Lis'en to dat! Don't you see
you's 'bout to break up de programme?” From the rows of seats nearest
them came indignant Sh-h-hs! Jeff's popped eyes, glaring about him, read
in all visible looks only intense disapproval of him. It was not healthy
to hold Smooth Crumbaugh responsible for the interruption; but poor Jeff
stood in quite a different attitude with the assemblage.
He shrank away, pawing out behind him with both hands for the door.
Partly mollified, but still growling, Smooth started to return to his
seat, all in his way making a clear path for him. Jeff vanished through
the opening like a scared chipmunk.
The Reverend Grasty had not been discommoded by the disturbance in the
rear. He was getting louder every minute. So was Sister Shackleford.
Outside on the landing, Jeff breathed again and paused to master a
trembling tendency as regards his legs, at the same time telling himself
he had not wanted to stay through their old watch party anyhow. It was
a lie; but he kept on telling it to himself over and over again until
he almost believed it. With a bitter smile, reflective of the intense
bitterness in his heart, he looked backward at the blank panels of the
door and reflected that, barring one fascinating exception, he didn't
have a real friend in all that multitude.
Why, if they really wanted to put somebody out, hadn't they clubbed
in and put that tough Smooth Crumbaugh out? Why hadn't twenty-five or
thirty of them formed a volunteer committee on good order and removed
Smooth by force? He would have been glad to enroll as a member of that
committee--as the thirtieth member and in an advisory capacity purely.
Oh, well, what was the use of hanging round a place where true gentility
was neither recognised nor appreciated? These here Supreme Kings
couldn't possibly last much longer, anyway--running things the way they
did. He might as well go on about his business. Reluctantly, making
compromise with his outraged dignity at every step, and rent between
a hankering to linger on and a conviction that if he did linger a most
evil thing surely would befall him, Jeff limped in his creaking new
shoes down the empty stairs, descending yard by yard into a Slough of
Despond.
At the foot of the steps he stopped again, fumbling in his pockets. The
jangled state of his nerves demanded the sooth of nicotine. From one
pocket he exhumed nearly half of a cigar and from the other a box of
matches. He inserted the cigar between his lips and undertook to strike
a light. These were a new kind of matches--long, thick ones, with big
white-and-black heads. Judge Priest had brought home a supply of
them the day before, and Jeff, attracted vaguely by their novelty of
appearance and their augmented size, had been moved to borrow a box of
them off the dining-room sideboard without mentioning the matter to any
one.
The misanthrope drew one of the big matches down the plastered side of
the entryway. It sputtered and snapped under the friction of the stroke,
but declined to burst into flame. Jeff cast it away and tried another,
with no different result, except that the stick part snapped off short.
Either the prevalent dampness had adversely affected them or they were
defective and untrustworthy by reason of some flaw in their manufacture.
But he noted that both matches had left queer luminous streaks upon the
dingy wall.
Morbidly reflecting that in this night of his bad luck he was to be
denied even the small solace of a smoke, Jeff absently fingered a third
match between his fingers, plucking at its bulbous tip with a thumb
nail. Instantly the effect of this was such as mildly to startle him;
for at once on his finger ends appeared a strange spectral glow, as
though he had been fondling some new and especially well-illuminated
breed of lightning bug in his naked hand.
At any other time, almost, this phenomenon, so simply accomplished,
would have set Jeff's nimble fancy at work devising experimental means
of entertainment to be derived therefrom; but now and here, in
his existent frame of thought, the discovery gave him no pleasure
whatsoever.
He pouched cigar butt and matches, and stepped forth from the
stair passage into the drizzle. Out of the darkness a figure reeled
unsteadily. It bumped into him with such violence as to drive him back
into the doorway, and then caromed off, rocking on its heels to regain
its balance. Jeff made out that the awk-ward one was a person of his own
colour and sex.
“Whut's ailin' you, man?” he demanded irritably. “Ain't a whole sidewalk
wide 'nuff fur you, widout you tryin' to knock folkses down?”
“Huh?”
The wavering pedestrian exhaled a thick grunt, which brought with it
an aroma of stick gin. He tottered forward again, throwing out his
clutching hands for some support.
“Go on 'way frum me!”
Jeff flung out an arm to fend the other off; but the gesture froze solid
while yet his elbow was crooked, and Jeff cowered back, transfixed and
limber with terror, too scared to run, too weak to cry out.
For there, centred in the dim half-light that streamed down from above,
swaying on his legs and dripping moisture, as befitting one who had
but lately met a watery end, stood the mortal remains of the late
unlamented--whom even now they were most unkindly commemorating
upstairs--Red Hoss Shackleford, deceased. There was no doubt about
it. Red Hoss' embodied spirit, with the restless malignity of a soul
accursed, had come back to attend its own memorial service!
Jeff's jaws opened and refused to close. His throat locked on a howl,
and that howl emerged as a thin, faint wheeze. The filling inside his
knee joints turned to a marrowy jelly. His scalp crawled on his skull.
The ghost grabbed him in a fumbling embrace; and even as Jeff, in an
intensified spasm of terror, wrestled to be free of that awful clutch,
he realised that this ghost was entirely too solid for a regular ghost.
Besides, there was that smell of gin. Ghosts did not drink--or did they?
He found his voice--part of it.
“Shacky, ain't you daid?” he pleaded in croaking accents. “Fur Gawd's
sake, tell me de truth--ain't you sho-'nuff daid?”
“Who say I'm daid?” demanded Red Hoss with maudlin truculence. Then
instantly his tone became plaintive: “How come ever'whars I goes
to-night dey axes me is I daid? Does I look daid? Does I act daid?”
“Wait a minute, Shacky--lemme think.” And now Jeff, well recovered, was
holding the ex-apparition upright. “You sorter taken me by s'prise; but
lemme think.”
Already, as his self-possession came back to him, the germ of a
splendid, dazzling idea took root and sprouted in his brain.
Still supporting the burden of the miraculously restored Red Hoss, he
glanced over his shoulder up the hallway. There was no one visible; none
other shared this marvellous secret with him. As quickly as might be,
he guided the uncertain form of Red Hoss away from the doorway and round
the corner into the black shadows at the side of the building, where
rain dripped on them from the eaves above.
That made no difference. Red Hoss was wet through, and in this moment
any slight dam-age from dampness to his own vanities of wardrobe meant
nothing at all to Jeff. He propped Red Hoss against the brick wall and
steadied him there. And when he spoke, he spoke low; but, also, he spoke
fast. Time was a precious commodity right now.
“Red Hoss,” he said, “I's yore friend, ez you knows full well. Now tell
me: How come you didn't git drownded in de river?”
“Me? Huh! Dey ain't nary river ever been dug deep 'nuff to drownd me
in,” Red Hoss was replying with drunken boastfulness. “Here's de way
'twuz: Come de night after C'ris'mus, I finds myse'f a little bit
overtuck wid licker. So I lays down on de b'iler deck of dat dere
tugboat, takin' a little nap. I reckin I must 'a' roll over in my
sleep, 'ca'se all of a sudden I 'scovers myse'f in de middle of dat ole
Tennessee River; an' dat tugboat, she's agoin' 'long upstream same ez
ef de w'ite folks is sayin' to deyse'ves: 'Well, one nigger mo' or less
don't make no diff'ence in good times lak dese.'
“I treads water an' I yells; but she keep right on movin'. So den I jes'
swims an' swims, an' swims some mo'; an' dat river sut-tinly is cold
to my skin. After a spell I lands ashore whar dey's some thick-kinder
woods; an' I walks back an' fo'th th'ough dem woods, tryin' to keep frum
freezin' to death.
“Long 'bout daylight I comes to a tie camp whar two w'ite men is got a
gang of niggers git-tin' out crossties, an' I yells an' knocks on de
do' of de shack twell I rousts 'em all up. Dey lemme in; an' dey ax me a
whole passel of fool questions 'bout whar'bouts is I come frum, an' whut
is I doin' dar, an' dey kindle up a big fire an' I dries myse'f out; an'
den bimeby dey feeds me a meal of vittles. W'en I gits ready to start
frum dar, 'long about de middle of de day, one of de w'ite men gives me
six bits to pay my way back yere on de railroad.
“But jes' after I leaves de camp to walk to de railroad, w'ich is eight
miles 'way, I runs into a bunch of de hands, hid out in de woods a
little piece, shootin' craps; an' I stops. So presently my six bits is
gone. So den I goes on to de railroad afoot; an', not havin' no money
nor nothin', I has to beat my way home. I rides on de brake beams a
spell, an' den de brakeman he spies me; an' he th'ows me off; and de
las' eighteen miles I has to walk all de way--an' hit a-rainin'!”
“W'en did you git yere? I means w'en did you hit town?”
“'Bout a hour ago--or mebbe 'twuz a hour an' a half.”
With usage, Red Hoss' powers for coherent speech were improving.
“So, fust off, I goes down to de river whar dat tugboat is tied up to
see whut chance dey is, dat time of night, of my drawin' whut money is
coinin' to me. But de cabin is all dark an' t'ain't nobody aboard her
'cep'in' de nigger night watchman; an' he's settin' down back in de
ingine room, sound asleep. I walks back to whar he is an' I says to him,
I says: 'Hello, nigger!'--jes' lak dat. An' he open his eyes an' gimme
jes' one look; an' den he give out one yell, an' den he ain't dere no
mo'. I kin heah his footsteps goin' up de levee, scatterin' gravels lak
a ole hen scratching but dat nigger is plum' gone. He act lak he seen a
ha'nt, or somethin'.
“So den, de nex' thing I does, I goes up de wharf to de house whar my
ha'f sister, Rosalie--you knows dat 'ooman?--does cookin' fur a w'ite
fambly; an' I goes round de house an' knocks at de kitchen do', but
t'ain't nobody answers. I keeps on knockin', an' after a spell de boss
of de house, a w'ite man, name of Futrell, he come out on de back po'ch
in his night-clo'es, wid a lamp in his hand, an' he suttinly do act
'stonished to see me standin' dar; an' he ax me p'intedly ain't I
drownded; an' I tells him No, suh; suttinly I ain't drownded! An' I ax
him whar is Rosalie. An' he say, ef she ain't in her cabin in de yard,
he reckon she must 'a' come on up yere to dis yere hall fur some kind
of nigger doin's. Dat's de fust I knows 'bout her livin' on de Futrell
place.
“So I goes out to de cabin in de yard; but she done gone, leavin' de do'
unlocked an' on de jar. So I goes in an' meks a light an' looks 'bout
me; an' I finds sixty cents under a mat on de washstand, w'ich on my
way yere I spends dat sixty cents fur gin at de Bleedin' Heart Saloon,
'ca'se I's wet to de skin, ez you kin see fur yo'se'f. An' so den I meks
my way to dis hall, 'ca'se I p'intedly does aim to drag dat dere 'ooman
out an' ax her whut put it into her fool haid to go all round town
tellin' folkses I's drownded w'en she know, her ownse'f, dey ain't nary
river ever been dug deep 'nuff to drownd me in.”
His voice became complaining now, rather than indignant:
“Fur de las' ha'f hour, mo' or less, I been tryin' to git up dem
stepses. But seem lak dem stepses is a heap mo' steeper'n whut dey used
to be. Whut mek 'em steepen dem stepses fur, Jeff?”
A sudden drowsiness overcame the narrator and he sought to slump down
against the wall. But Jeff upheld him, against his will; and a minute
later Jeff's words had roused him out of his gin-born daze:
“Lis'en to me, Red Hoss; lis'en! I jes' come down frum up dere. I come
away; 'ca'se I's yore friend, an' I jes' natchelly couldn't bear to set
dere no longer an' heah 'em scandalise you de way dey's doin'.”
“Scandalise me! Who's scandalisin' me?”
“Ever'body is; but specially de pastor of de Fust Ward Church--yas, suh;
he's de main scandaliser. An' dat sister of your'n, she's settin' there
harkin' to him, same ez ef he wuz tellin' her some good news.”
“Lemme go! Lemme go! I lay I'll learn dem niggers to be 'stroyin' my
good name behine my back!”
The victim of calumny, all wide-awake now, wrestled to be free of the
detaining hands. After a little, though, he suffered his form to relax
and his struggles to abate as Jeff poured agreeable advice upon him.
“Wait a minute, Shacky--jes' wait a minute! I got a better scheme 'n
whut dat one is. 'Sides, you couldn't git past de do'--whole place up
dere is jest jammed an' blocked off wid people. Come on now wid me.
We'll go in by de back way, whar de stepses ain't so steep ez dey is
round yere in front. You an' me'll go up dat way, tippytoe, so ez not to
mek no noise; and we'll wait in dat little hall behine de flatform--you
knows de hall I means--de one whar dey perpares de candidates fur
'nitiation?”
Red Hoss nodded.
“I knows it full well. Been dere oncet. And den whut?” he inquired.
“Den we'll wait twell dey turns de lights out; dey's aimin' to turn 'em
out in a mighty few minutes to welcome in de New Yeah in de darkness.
An' jes' w'en dey does dat I'll open de do', an' you step out on de
flatform an' say: 'Heah I is!' At dat I'll switch on de lights right
quick; an' den--don't you see?--you'll be standin' right dere in full
view, up on de flatform, whar you kin tell dat preacher whut you thinks
of him.”
“I ain't 'lowin' to tell him nothin'--I 'low to jes' haul off an' bust
him one, an' peel his nappy haid fur him!” avowed Red Hoss.
“Suit yo'se'f about dat,” conceded Jeff; “but how do de res' of de plan
seem to strike you?”
“You's my friend--seem lak you's de onlies' friend whut I got lef in
de world,” stated Red Hoss. “An' so I does lak you says--up to a suttin
point; but frum den on I's gwine cut loose an' be rough. Come on, Jeff!
Show me de way! Dat's all I axes you--jes' show me de way!”
“Hole still a minute--we got time yit to spare,” counselled Jeff; on top
of his first inspiration a second one had burgeoned forth. “Fust off,
lemme wipe de rain an' de cinders offen you--yore face is powerful
dirty.”
Obediently Red Hoss offered his features for renovation. From his pocket
Jeff hauled out a handkerchief; hauled something else out, too--only Red
Hoss didn't see that. He made pretense of wrapping a forefinger in the
handkerchief; but it was not a finger tip that carefully encircled both
of Red Hoss' blinking eyes, pressing firmly against the moist black
flesh, and then outlined his nose and passed in rings round his mouth,
above the upper lip and below the lower one.
“Hole up!” protested Red Hoss. “You's rubbin' too hard. Yore finger nail
hurts me.”
“Stay still!” urged Jeff. “I's 'most th'ough.” Craftily, with a fresh
match, he touched the outer and the inner corners of Red Hoss' eyes and
the lobes of his ears; and then he drew off, almost appalled himself by
the ghastliness of his own handicraft, as revealed in the dark.
“Come along, Red Hoss. An' don't furgit whut you's goin' to say w'en I
opens de hall do' fur you.”
“Ain't furgittin' nothin',” promised Red Hoss.
Their two figures, closely interwoven--one steering and supporting; the
other being steered and being supported--passed in the murk round the
back corner of Odd Fellows' Hall, to bring up at the foot of a flight of
rough wooden stairs, built on against the wall for added protection and
as an added means of exit from the upper floor in case of fire, fight or
flight. Here the hardest part of Jeff's job began. He had to boost Red
Hoss up, step by step.
Above, the most successful watch party ever conducted under the auspices
of the Supreme Kings of the Universe had progressed almost to its
apogee. It was now six minutes before the hour when, according to no
less an authority than the late Bard of Avon, churchyards yawn and
graves give up their sheeted dead. The principal orator, with his high
collar quite wilted down and his face, behind his spectacles, slick and
shiny with sweat, reached his conclusion, following a burst of eloquence
so powerful that his hearers almost could hear the Tophet fires
crackling beneath their tingling feet.
“An' now, my dearly beloved sistern an' brethem,” he proclaimed, in a
short peroration to his longer one--“an' now I commands you to think on
the fix this pore transgressor must be in at this very minute, cut off
ez he wuz in the midst of his sins an' his shortcomin'ses. Think on
yore own sins an' yore own shortcomin'ses. Think, an' think hard! Think,
an' think copious!”
His voice swung downward to the more subdued cadence of the
semiconversational tone: “The hour of midnight is 'most at hand. In
acco'dance wid the programme I shell now turn off the lights, an' this
gatherin' will set in the solemn communion of darkness fur five minutes,
till the New Yeah comes.”
He stepped three paces backward and turned a plug set in the wall close
to the door jam. All over the hall the bulbs winked out. Nothing was to
be seen, and for a few seconds nothing was heard except the sound of the
minister's shuffling movements as he felt his way back to his place at
the front of the platform, and, below him, in the body of the hall, the
nervous rustle of many swaying bodies and of twice as many scuffling
feet.
On the far side of the closed rear door crouched Jeff, breathless from
his recent exertions, panting whispered admonitions in the ear of his
co-conspirator. Red Hoss was impatient to lunge forward. He wanted
to surge in right now. But Jeff held fast to him. Jeff could sense a
psychological moment, even if he could not pronounce one.
“Wait jes' one secont mo'--please, Red Hoss!” he entreated. “Wait twell
I opens dis yere do' fur you. Den you bulge right in an' speak up de
words 'Here I is!' loud an' clear. You won't furgit'dat part, will you?”
“'On't furgit nothin'!” muttered Red Hoss. “Jes' watch my smoke--dat's
all!”
With his ear against a thin panel, Jeff listened; listened--and smiled.
Through the barrier he heard the preacher's voice saying:
“All present will now unite in singin' the hymn w'ich begins: Hark! From
the Tombs a Doleful Soun'!”
Softly, oh, so softly, Jeff's fingers turned the doorknob; gently, very
gently, he drew the door itself half open; with the whispered admonition
“Now, boy, now!” he swiftly but silently propelled Red Hoss, face
forward, through the opening.
The Reverend Grasty stood waiting for the first words of the hymn to
uprise from below him in a mighty swing. But from that unseen gathering
down in front a very different sound came--a sound that was part a gasp
of stupefaction, part a groan of abject distress. For the rest saw what
the minister, as yet, did not see, by reason of his back being to the
wall, where-as they faced it. They saw, floating against a background
of black nothingness, a face limned in wavering pulsing lines of a most
ghastly witch fire--nose and brow and chin and ears, wide mouth and
glaring eyes, all wreathed about by that unearthly graveyard glow.
In that same flash of space Jeff Poindexter's hand had found the switch,
set in the wall hard by the door casing, and had flipped the lights
on. And now before them they beheld the form of the late Red Hoss
Shackleford, his face seamed with livid greyish streaks, his garments
all adrip, his arms outspread, his eyes like balls of flame, and his
lips agleam with a palish blush, as though he had hither come direct
from feasting on the hot coals of Perdition, without stopping to wipe
his mouth. And then he opened that fearsome scupper of a mouth, and in
a voice thickened and muddy--the proper voice for one who had lain for
days in river ooze--he spoke the words:
“Here I is!” That was all he said. But that was enough.
It is believed that the Reverend Grasty was the first to move. Naturally
he would be among the first, anyhow, he being the nearest of all to the
risen form of the dead. He spread himself like an eagle and soared away
from there; and when he lit, he lit a-running. Indeed, so high did he
jump and so far outward that, though he started with a handicap, few
there were who beat him in the race to the door.
Smooth Crumbaugh was one who beat him. Smooth feared neither man nor
beast nor devil; but ha'nts were something else! He took a flying start,
spuming the floor as he rose up over chairs and their recent occupants.
Without checking speed, he clove a path straight through the centre of
Sister Eldora Menifee's refreshment department; and on the stairway,
going down, he passed the Most High Grand Outer Guardian as though the
Most High Grand Outer Guardian had been standing still.
It was after he struck the sidewalk, though, and felt the solid bricks
beneath his winged feet, that Smooth really started to move along.
For some ten furlongs he had strong competition, but he was leading by
several lengths when he crossed Yazoo Street, eight blocks away, with
the field tailing out behind him for a matter of half a mile or so.
I might add that Sister Rosalie Shackleford, hampered though she was by
skirts and the trappings of woe, nevertheless finished inside the money
herself.
Jefferson Poindexter, calm, smiling and debonair, picked his way
daintily among overthrown chairs and through a litter of hats, helmets,
umbrellas and swords across the hall to Ophelia, who, helpless with
shock, was plastered, prone and flat on the floor, close up against the
side wall, where Smooth had flung her as he launched himself in flight.
Right gallantly Jeff raised her to her feet and supported her; and
right mainfully she clung to him, inclosing herself, all distracted and
aquiver, within the circle of his comforting arms. Already they were
almost alone and within a space of moments would be entirely so, except
for one fat auntie, lying in a dead faint under the wrecked snack stand.
Also there still remained Red Hoss Shackleford, who wavered to and fro
upon the platform, with a hand to his bewildered brow, trying foggily
to figure out just how he had been thwarted of his just retribution upon
the persons of those vanished arch-detractors of him. He had had his
revenge--had it sugar-sweet and brimming over--only he didn't know it
yet.
“Oh, Jeffy,” gasped Ophelia, “wuzn't you skeered too?”
“Who--me?” proclaimed Jeff. “Me skeered of a wet nigger, full of stick
gin? Fair lady, mebbe I don't keer so much fur gittin' my clothes all
mussed up fightin' wid bully niggers, but I ain't never run frum no
ghostes yit; an' I don't never aim to, neither--not 'thout waitin' round
long 'nuff to find out fust w'ether hit's a real ghost or not. Dat's
me!”
“Oh, Jeffy, you suttinly is de bravest man I knows!” she answered back
in muffled tones, with her head on his white waistcoat.
At this moment precisely the town clock sounded the first stroke of
twelve, and all the steam whistles in town let go, blasting out shrilly;
and all the giant firecrackers in town began bursting in loud acclaim of
the New Year. But what the triumphant, proud, conquering Jeff heard was
his Ophelia, speaking to him soul to soul.