The sound of dogs barking in the night woke Jacob and Two Rivers from their sleep. Puzzled, they stepped from their cabin to see what was afoot. To the south they saw a lone figure running as if his life depended on it. And indeed it did. Seeing a place of hiding, he ran up to their cabin to beg for his life.
“Please, suh, you gots to hide me. Theys a-gonna kill me if they finds me. You gots to hide me, you just gots to!”Jacob looked over at Two Rivers, the measure of his resolve written in his face. He was not about to let this man to be given back over into torment. Two Rivers saw that his friend would not be dissuaded and nodded his assent. Jacob turned back to the running man.
“Come with me,” he said. “We will take care of that pack of mad dogs.”The three men stepped into the cabin. Cassius ran into the corner, kneeled and prayed for deliverance. Two Rivers picked up a shotgun and placed shells into the breeches of two barrels. Jacob went over to the shelf and took the largest Bible from it. He opened it and took from its hollowed insides a Colt .45 Peacemaker.
“That is a very strange verse from the scriptures you found there Reverend,” Two Rivers said. “What book is that from?”Jacob loaded his pistol and cocked it. “The Book of Exodus,” he replied. Howling like demons and barking louder than their dogs, the drunken overseers tore through the night. Glad for the chance to have a little fun, their taunts echoed across the plains.
“We’re gonna get you nigger! We’re gonna get you and string you up! Show that pretty little wife o’ yours what happens to crazy niggers ‘at think they’re rabbits!”
The thunder of Jacob’s warning shot stopped them dead in their tracks. Shaken from their revelry, the overseers found themselves staring into three gun barrels held by two men whose eyes gleamed with the coldness of steel. Jacob gave them another warning.
“You men have stepped onto free soil, and no one will be strung up today. I strongly suggest that you turn around and go back the way you came, or else it will be you who find your graves on this night.”
Their spokesman moved forward from the pack. “You gonna kill all of us then college boy? We got guns too; you ain’t gonna pull that off before we kill you like the nigger-loving trash you are.”
The cold, mechanical click of Jacob’s hammer sliding back into place warned the overseer’s foreman from continuing. “Perhaps not, but I will kill the next man who comes any closer. The man you seek enjoys the protection of this roof, and I am willing to die before I see one of God’s children chained and whipped like an animal.”
The overseers looked one to the other. They decided that today was not a good day to die. Their spokesman gave a warning shot of his own before the pack rode out.
“Stranger, I don’t know who the hell you are but you just bought yourself a whole heap o’ trouble. You just crossed Master Jones, and he always gets what’s his. You just better watch your step, ‘cause you ain’t heard the last of this, not by a long shot. Come on boys.”
Their dogs called off, the overseers melted back into the darkness of the night. Breathing a sigh of relief, Jacob and Two Rivers lowered their weapons. They eased their respective hammers out of firing position, although they would remain loaded on that night and many more to come. Their battle won, the two comrades retired into their cabin. But they would sleep with one eye open, as the war had only just begun.
