It had often been my lot to fight the animals and the elements, but now
for the first time I faced my fellow-creatures, every one my superior
in experience of the world, and every one apparently my inferior in
muscle. As I glanced them over I knew that I was strong enough to
break most of them up like so many corn-stalks. I could have shouted
as depression left me, and glorious life throbbed along every muscle
of each limb. There was not a weak spot in my body. My eye was so true
that a man might have indicated a spot twenty feet distant and I could
have jumped cleanly upon that mark. I was exhilarated as I stood in the
doorway, with the whole camp against me. I was soon to learn how fickle
a crowd can be.
Behind me stood Akshelah, so that her breath caressed my neck. I put
out my hand and pushed her back. The factor stood against the side
wall, peering into the passage, fetching breath suddenly.
“I guess you’ll quit, an’ give over the gal, stranger,” a big-bodied
man confronted and advised me.
“She’s mine,” I said, and I was glad to find my voice steady and clear.
“She’s come around here,” went on the representative of public
opinion. “An’ now she’s a-comin’ down to the saloon to dance to us.”
“I’ll see you all darned,” I said quietly.
A babel of tongues hummed round my head. A mighty shadow appeared to
fall, and for one moment I cooled and weakened. A huge negro pushed
aside the big-bodied man, and stood within hand-grip of me. He was
a hideous creature, his face scarred, his front teeth gone, one ear
frozen off, and when he moved I saw that his mighty body was supple and
packed with muscle. He wore a loose cotton shirt and white pants, which
exaggerated his great size. This apparition glowed upon me with small
malevolent eyes, and said:
“’Pears like, stranger, you forgot hittin’ dis chile. Hit him on de
nose an’ eye. You take what you give, eh?”