Theo suggested they first get the Grover boy, Jimmy, and the sheriff’s son-in-law, Red Porter, then Johnny Rutledge. They would take the men to an abandon mine, six miles from the farm. Theo and Samuel used to play there as boys. They would torture the names from them and go after the rest. They would kill them all. What they had done was evil and evil men should be wiped from the face of the earth.
“We’ll need to do this quickly and secretly. We don’t want word to spread about the missing three.” Theo said, looking around the room at the men. Henry and Victor set out to find the Grover boy, Ben and Theo went after Johnny and Charlie and Carl went after Red. They road out from the farm with as much speed and stealth as they could manage. Each of the men were fast asleep in their beds, they had stayed out all night and it was Sunday so they didn’t have to rise early.
Victor stood watch while Henry crept through Jimmy’s window; the young man lived in a small cabin on his father’s property. It was known that he brought women to his bed and so he lived there, so his mother wouldn’t find out. Henry pulled the young man up waking him, but struck him with a deadly blow and knocked the man unconscious before he could utter a sound. He and Victor were off the farm before anyone was the wiser. Providence was with them, there was a heavy fog that covered their activity. The air was heavy with vapor, droplets covered Henry’s bald pate.
Ben and Theo went to the Rutledge place but could not find Johnny without raising a ruckus. The men crept around the place and looked in windows, but Johnny was nowhere to be seen. Frustrated, Theo and Ben left the farm empty handed. Heading to the abandoned mine to meet the others. Carl and Charlie had better luck, they rode out to Porter’s house and found the Johnny and Red out in the barn, passed out drunk. Their horses still saddled, nibbling on hay. Blood covered their clothes, the blood of their children. It was all they could do not to kill them right there and then. Taking a spade, Carl bashed them both drunks on their heads, neither regaining consciousness, never knowing what hit them.
Loading both men onto their horses, Carl and Charlie quietly led them out of the barn. They went through the woods, staying off the road for fear someone would see them. The sun was climbing higher in the sky and the fog had evaporated before they reached the mine. Going through a grove of saplings, they came to the mouth of the abandon mine. Everyone was there, their horses tethered to a clump of bushes.
Henry helped pull down the limp form off the horse and dragged the unconscious man into the cave. Charlie helped Carl pulled down the other man and both dragged him in as well. Theo handed a bucket of water to Victor and Victor threw it on all three men, reviving them. Confused at first, the men shook their heads to clear them. Jimmy was the first to grasp the situation, he had known who the two men were and he recognized their fathers. Fear skittered through him as he looked from man to man.
“You know it’s against the law for a nigger to touch a white man. You’re in big trouble boy.” Jimmy said with false bravado. Henry merely smiled down at the fool, he brought an iron from behind his back. He walked over to a low fire that Theo had built and placed the iron into it. All three men watched fixated on the fire and the iron poker. The captive men then looked around the group of men that surrounded them. Theo nodded to Ben and Carl, who began to cut the clothes away from the young men.
With their hands and feet tied tight, they could do little but struggle against their bonds. Their bodies were covered in sweat, the stench of fear was cloying in the old mine. The young men yelling for Theo to release them.
“My father-in-law will see all you bastards hung. Specially you niggers.” He spat. Their shouts, threats and pleading fell on deaf ears.
Henry walked up to Jimmy holding the glowing iron, the smell of hot metal palatable. Theo asked in a deadly voice, “Who helped you kill those young men? Who were the other five? Answer or my friend here will apply that hot iron to your manhood.”
Shock registered on all three men, they stared at Jimmy, waiting to see what he would do. Before anyone knew what happened, Henry stepped forward and applied the sizzling poker to Jimmy’s unprotected penis. His high-pitched scream echoed off the mine’s walls, causing dust to filter down. Red Porter vomited all over his chest, and started to sob. It was several minutes before Jimmy stopped screaming. Tears flowed from his red eyes, mixed with snot on his face. He too had vomited, screaming again, when the acid from his vomit hit his blistered penis.
Henry took a step to Red, who screamed and tried to scuttle back, away from the glowing poker. Theo asked him once more and was gratified when a list of names tumbled out of Red, he was hysterical and babbled. Johnny was openly crying, his whole body vibrated, he had pissed
