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There were nine of them this time That’s how confident they were that ouldn’t resist What arrogance—to come into the Quarters with this pack of their friends, nine of theroes
“Ricky, go around!” Moody yelled through the“We’ll meet you on the other side!”
“You stay here,” I told her “Your job is to guard Abrahaave up when I placed a snap-load pistol in her hand
I stuck a loaded pistol in each ofaround just in time to stop three men dead in their tracks at the door
I recognized them at once There was Roy, who’d been shot in the arm in the first White Raiders attack, and Leander Purneau froin Best of all was the fat redheadedfellohose nose both barrels of un now pointed This was none other than Henry Wadsworth North, former defendant, murderer
In er and watched his limited supply of brains spatter all over the screen door behind hi the one to end Henry North’s life
But I couldn’t shoot the man like this It just wasn’t in me
His onna do, Corbett, have ain?”
Froht up a small pistol
My finger tightened on the trigger “Drop it or I’ll blow your head off,” I said “Do not doubt me for a second! I want to shoot you!”
He let the pistol drop to the floor All at once hands seized hied him over backwards—
Here they were, the people of the Quarters, bearing guns and knives, pitchforks and sharpened sticks, clublike lengths of straight iron A dozen ing them outside
Gunfire echoed, and I heard more horses—a second wave of Raiders But here ca out of nearly every door in the Quarters, bearing weapons or no weapons at all, swared Raiders down off their horses and set upon them with clubs, rocks, and farm implements
Every blow they struck was violent payback for a lynching, a hanging, a beating, a ainst flesh, the crack of rock striking bone Terrible cries erupted as the colored s of their brothers, the oppression and torture and murder of fathers and friends
I saw Doc Conover swinging a long rifle like a club at a wo her head with both arms Then I saw a man knock Conover senseless with a fireplace poker to his skull