Page:By Sanction of Law.pdf/357

 "Don't you think you'll be hanged for such a crime?" Bennet asked.

"I hang, for killing you? Never. We don't do things that way down here. We can stand for black men down here for we can keep them in their places. For your kind, though, there's no sympathy. You're to damned fresh and uppish."

"I am a man the same as you."

"You can never be a white man."

"No, from what Lida tells me, neither can you.—Neither can you.—Neither can any of us. We're all of mixed blood."

Elvin winced at this. Bennet followed this up. "You called me a coward. It is you who'd play the coward to shoot down in cold blood a defenseless woman after you had shot the only one here to protect her."

"You protect her? Ha-ha-ha. That's'a joke."

"Not so much of a joke as you think. It seems that you did not give her the protection and sympathy a brother should. You would have had her married off to one not to her liking, not to please her, but to please yourselves."

"That's a lie. It was to prevent her disgracing the name of Lauriston."

"Bennet is a name as much honored as yours."

"Not here. And we southerners stick together."

"Yes, even in murder.—Tell you what, though. I've no weapon with which to defend myself. I don't want any. You called me a coward. I'm going to see who's the coward. Here's a fair proposition. Shoot us down in cold