Flash For Freedom!

and then a man's figure loomed up at the head of the stair. I heard Mandeville shout: 'Stop him!' and although I tried to dodge the upraised riding crop I wasn't quick enough. Something smashed against my forehead, knocking me backwards; the white ceiling spun dizzily above me, and then I was falling into nothing.

I can't have been unconscious more than a few minutes, but when I came to my own leather belt was round my wrists, blood was caking one of my eye-lids, and there was an unholy pain in my brow. I was lying at the foot of the staircase, and a man was hestriding me, one of his booted feet planted on my ankle. There was a tremendous hubbub of voices, with Mandeville yelling blue murder and others trying to quieten him. I turned my head; two or three men were holding him back, and when he saw me conscious be waved his arms and shouted:

'You slimy bastard! You stinkin' hound! I'll have your heart's blood for this! I'll crucify you! Let me at him, boys, an' I'll tear his dirty innards out!'

They struggled with him, and one of them sings out:

'Get that feller outa here, Luke — quick now! afore he gits done a mischief! Damn ye, Mandevile, won't ye hold still!'

'I'll murder him! I'll butcher him 'sif he was a hog! Oh, turn me loose, boys! He's dishonoured me! He's bin an' tried to ravish my wife, my dear Annie, pore defenceless little critter! You got to let me at him!'

The man above me chuckled, leaned down and grabbed me by the waistband, and with surprising strength dragged me across the hall and threw me bodily through a doorway. Then he stepped into the room, shut the door, and growled:

'Now you just lie there easy, friend, or it'll be the worse fer you.'

He had a whip in one hand, and I guessed he was the fellow who had hit me. He was a tall, rangy chap, with a heavy moustache and bright grey eyes which surveyed me sardonically as he went on:

'Layin' still oughtn't to be no hardship fer you; I reckon you're a right smart hand at layin'. Mandeville seems to think so, anyways.' And he nodded to the door, beyond which we could hear Mandeville still roaring.

I was getting my wits back, and they told me that this fellow wasn't unfriendly.

'For heaven's sake, sir!' I cried. 'Cut me loose! I can explain, I promise you! Mandevile is mistaken, believe —'

'Well, now, I reckon he is. Leastways, 'bout his little lady gittin' ravished. I seen her, an' a less ravished- lookin' female I never clapped eyes on. Say, ain't she a sight when she's nekkid, though; mighty trim little tail.' He laughed, and leaned down towards me. 'Tell me, friend — what she like in the hay? I often fancied —'

'Cut me free! I assure you I can explain —'

'Well, can ye now? I would doubt that, I really would.' He laughed again. 'An' if I was Mandeville, I wouldn't listen. I'd cut your goddamned throat here an' now, yessir. Hold on, though; sound like he's comin' to do it his own self.'

I struggled on to my knees as the tumult in the hall increased; it sounded as though Mandeville's friends were still having to restrain him by main force. I knelt there, quaking, and pleading with Luke to cut me free, but he shook me off, and when I persisted he kicked me flat on my back.

'Didn't I tell ye to lay still? Any more out o' you an' I'll take this hide to ye.' He laughed again, and I suddenly realised that his good humour was not at all friendly, as I'd supposed. He was just enjoying himself.

I didn't dare move after that, but lay shaking with dread, and then after what seemed an age the door opened and the others came in. Mandeville was in the lead, panting and dishevelled, but he seemed to have himself in hand for the moment. Not that that was any consolation; I hope I never see eyes glaring at me like that again.

'You!' says he, and it was like the growl of a beast. 'I going to kill you! D'ye hear that now? Kill you for the sneakin' scum you are. Yes sir, I goin' to watch you die for what you done!' There was froth at the corner of his mouth; he was appalling. 'But before I do, you goin' to tell these here gennehuen somethin' — you goin' to confess to 'em that you tried to rape my wife! That so, isn't it! You snuck up there, an' you tuk her unawares, an' try to ravish her.' He paused, livid. 'Now, then — you tell 'em it was so.'

Terrified, I stared at the man, but I couldn't have spoken for the life of me, and suddenly he lost control and flung himself at me, kicking and clawing. The others hauled him back, and Luke says:

'It don't signify a damn thing, John! Hold him off, you fellows! You think you're goin' to get the truth out of him? Anyways, we know he tried to rape your good lady — don't we boys? We're all satisfied, I reckon.'

He knew it was a lie, and so did they, but they chorused assent, and eventually it pacified Mandeville, at least to the point where his only interest lay in disposing of me.

'I ought to burn you alive!' he snarled. 'I ought to nail you to a tree an' have the niggers geld you. In fact, that's just what I'll do! I'll —'

'Hold on there, fohn,' says Luke. 'This is jus' wild talk. You can't murder him thataway —'

'Why cain't I? After what he done?'

'Because word'd git out — an' it don't do to murder a man, even if he is a rapin', stinkin' skunk —'

'I'm not!' I cried. 'I swear I'm not!'

'You shet up,' says Luke. 'Fact is, John Mandeville, while I don't deny he's got killin' comin' to him, I don't see how you can do it lessn you fight him, on the square.'

'Fight him!' shouts Mandeville. 'Damned if I do. He ain't deservin' anythin' but execution!'

'Well, now, ain't I a-tellin' you it cain't be done? Even ifn you hang him, or cut his throat, or shoot him — how you gonna be sure word ain't gonna git out?'

'Who's to tell, Luke Johnson? They's on'y us here —'

'An' niggers, with mighty long ears. No, sir, unless you fight him, which you ain't willin' to do, and cain't say as I blame you, for he don't deserve the consideration — well, then we got to study out some way of givin' him what's comin' to him.'

They argued on, and I listened in horror as they discussed means of slaughtering me — for that was what they meant to do, not a doubt. God, the value men place on a rogered woman. I tried to intervene, pleading to be heard, but Mandeville smashed me in the face, and Luke stuck a gag in my mouth, and then they went on with their dreadful discussion. It was terrible, but all I could do was listen, until one of them motioned the others away, and they fell to talking in lowered voices, and all I could catch was snatches and words like 'Alabama' and 'Tombigbee river', and 'very place for him', and 'no, I reckon there ain't no risk — who's to know? ', and then they laughed, and presently Mandevile came over to me.

'Well, Mr Arnold,' says he, smiling like a hyena, 'I got good news for you. Yes sir, mighty good. We ain't goin' to kill you — how you like that? No, sir, we value you a mite too high for that, I reckon. You're a sneakin' varmint that took advantage of a man's hospitality to try and steal his honour — we got suthin' better for you than jus' killin'. You like to hear about it?'

I wanted to stop my ears, but I couldn't. Mandeville smirked and went on.

'One of my friends here, he got a prime idea. His cousin a planter over to Alabama — quite a ways from here. Now my friend goin' over that way, takin' a runaway back to another place, and he ready to 'blige me by takin' you a stage farther, to his cousin's plantation. Nobody see you leave here, nobody see you git there. An' when you do, you know what goin' to happen to you?' Suddenly he spat in my face. 'You goin' to be stripped an' put in the cane- fields, 'long with the niggers! You pretty dark now — I seen mustees as light as you — an' by the time you laboured in the sun a spell, you brown up pretty good I reckon. An' there you'll be, Slave Arnold, see? You won't be dead, but you'll wish you were! Ain't nobody ever goin' to see you, on account it a lonely place, an' no one ever go there — ifn they do, why you just a crazy mustee! Nobody know you here, nobody ever ask for you. An' you never escape-on account no nigger ever run from that plantation — swamps an' dogs always git 'em. So you safe there for life, see? You think you'll enjoy that life, Slave Arnold?' He stood up and kicked me savagely. 'Now, ain't that a whole heap better'n jus' killin' you, quick an' easy?'

I couldn't believe my ears; I must be dreaming the whole ghastly thing. I writhed and tried to spit the gag out — tried to beg for mercy with my eyes, but it was useless. They laughed at my struggles, and then they tied my feet and threw me into a cupboard. Before they shut the door, Luke leaned over me with his friendly grin, and said softly:

'Reckon you'll count it a pretty dear ride you had, friend. Was she good? I hope for your sake she was, 'cos she's the last white woman you'll ever see, you dirty Texian bastard!'

I couldn't believe what I'd heard — I still find it incredible. That white men — civiised white men, could doom