Page:By Sanction of Law.pdf/283

 pulled a gun and made the family turn back to the old house."

"Why didn't your friend go on to the new place?"

"Go on. Lordy. Ef he had gone on he'd a' gone on plumb into eternity. That white man would a' shot up that whole family and got scot free.—He'd a' shot that family to death then claimed he was assaulted and nothing would a' been done about it.

"Colored folks have got no rights out here," he continued. "The young folks get restless and go away. The old folks, born here, are afraid to move for fear of worse.—They stay. They rent on shares or lease and the shares never run up enough to pay bills, and so the leases never run out."

"You don't mean to say the white landlords cheat."

"Oh, no. They don't cheat. The figures never run right and the land never produces enough. You never heard the saying, 'ought's a ought, and a figger's a figger; all fur the white man, none for the nigger.' Well, that's about the way things run in the country. If a black man questions the figures of his landlord, that black man is impudent and must be put in his place, by the lash or the bullet, or the rope. What can we do?"

Sensing the hopelessness of the question and the futility of an answer, Bennet remained silent. They had just passed through a swampy stretch of roadway bordered by a thick growth of gall berry bushes when suddenly there smote their ears a most unearthly scream. It seemed, not like one in pain but more in fright and horror.