him the Bible, he understood why the lawyer had gone expressionless. The chapter was one of those col ections of begats that crop up every now and then, and ful of names more obscure than most.
Having no choice, he gulped and plunged in, ' 'And of the sons of Issachar, Tola, and Puah, Jashub, and Shimron, four. And the sons of Tola: Uzzi, and Rephaiah, and Jeriel, and Jahmai, and Ibsam, and Shemuel....'
' He read slowly and carefully, often pausing to sound out an unfamiliar name. He knew he sometimes stumbled, and hated himself for it, but Judge Scott had set too wicked a trap for him to escape unscathed.
He fought his way through the sons of Bilhan (Jeush, Benjamin, Ehud, Chenanah, Zethan, Tarshish, and Ahishahar), the sons of Shemida (Ahian, Shechem, Likhi, and Aniam), and the sons of Asher (Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah, to say nothing of their sister, Serah). He almost broke down on Pasach, Bimhal, and Asvath (the sons of Japhlet).
But his voice rose in triumph as he came at last to the sons of Ul a, Arab, and Hanniel, and Rizia.
' 'Al these,' ' he finished, ' 'were the children of Asher, heads of the fathers' houses, choice and mighty men of valour, chiefs of princes. And the number of them reckoned by genealogy for service in war was twenty and six thousand men.'
He closed the Bible. The courtroom was very quiet.; Douglas walked up and took the book from him. Judge Scott looked down at his hands, up to the plaster of the ceiling, anywhere but at Jeremiah.
'I think you can go back to our table now, Jeremiah,'
Douglas murmured.
Jeremiah's feet hardly seemed to touch the ground as he returned to his place. He heard Caleb Gil en whisper to his father, 'I'm so sorry, sir. It's my fault he can read at al . I went and put ideas in his head, and see the thanks we get.'
There was enough truth in that to sting, a little. Yes, Caleb had taught Jeremiah to read, but he was forgetting, the way that was so easy for someone used to thinking of people as belongings, that Jeremiah had wanted to be free long before he could pick out the word 'liberty' on the printed page. Caleb had been willing enough to help last wmmer, when Jeremiah's goal seemed indefinitely far away. Now that it was here, Caleb was finding he did not like it so well.
'Mr. Hayes.' Judge Kemble said, and then again, more crisply, 'Mr.
Hayes?'
Jeremiah had thought Hayes would have to give in despite having worked so long for Douglas, he was still naive about lawyers. Hayes slowly rose, long and angular.
He made a production out of stretching.
'Begging your excellency's pardon,' he said, perfectly leif-possessed. 'I was woolgathering there. In considering this case, you must remember that it bears on not a single individual but, by the census of '98, close to a mil ion persons of African descent. What of their masters' property lights. Further, assuming that by some mischance they could become free, how are they to provide for themselves?
And how will they take their place in a society of free men?
Freedom bestowed as a gift will mean nothing to them, as they will have done nothing to earn it.'
judge Hardesty nodded thoughtfully. That frightened Jeremiah, who had come to think of the quiet judg as on his side. 'What are we going to do?' he asked. Douglas might as well not have heard him. He waited till he was sure Hayes had finished, then heaved his bulk up.
'When a man shifts his argument from principle to expediency,' he remarked, 'trust neither. My learned oponent is looking to sow panic where none need exist; he speaks as if we were on the point of civil war. Why do we have courts, if not to treat our abuses before we need the medicine solders give?'
'Very pretty,' Hayes said. 'You answer none of the points I raised, but very pretty nonetheless.'
'Had you not interrupted me, I would have answered,' D Douglas replied sweetly. 'I don't presume to make the law, but I can offer some suggestions. You quoted the ancients when it suited your purpose.
They had their ways of dealing with freed men, and of easing them into the life of the state. Perhaps some of the first generation would remain as clients to their one-time masters, working for a wage for some length of time before severing all obligations. Given a few years and good will, the thing can be done painlessly.'
Hearing Douglas propose curtailing his freedom made Jeremiah scowl. He hated the thought of going back to work for the Gillens, even as a free man. But a moment's reflection reminded him that before he had been willing enough to stay on as a slave, so long as he was treated well and had some hope of buying his liberty one day. He had run away from maltreatment, not slavery.
And, he realized, other blacks would not face the problem of ex-owners with grudges as deep-seated as the Gil ens' against him. Or would they?
Zachary Hayes might have picked the thought from his brain.
'Painlessly, eh?' he sneered, turning Douglas's word against him.
'You can make all the laws you like, sir, but how do you propose making the good white men who built the Federated Commonwealths accept their niggers as their equals?' There was the heart of things, dragged out naked and bleeding.
Before Douglas could get up to respond, Jeremiah found himself on his feet. 'Your excellencies, can I say something?'
Judge Kemble glanced toward Douglas, who looked startled but shrugged.
'Is it germane?' the judge asked sternly.
'Sir?'
'Does it apply? Has it a bearing on the case here?'
'Oh. Yes, sir, that it does. Indeed it does.'
