Chapter 10
Several of the Hitts� neighbors heard Jedediah�s shot early that morning, along with the report of the Sharpes� rifle that killed him. But few thought much of the twin sounds that echoed across the hills. Hunters were often out at this time of year.
Reuben Morrison was the first to bring the news. Reuben lived a little way up the hollow from Jedediah, and sometimes traded him eggs and butter when he was thirsty. He had heard that Jedediah had pulled out of the moonshining way of business, but surmised that he might still have a few jars handy, just to help old friends. He rode up to the Hitt cabin not long after dawn in a cautious sort of way, moving slow and careful, because he knew that Jedediah had turned mighty suspicious since Joe�s shambush. But he was in no way prepared for what he found.
Capitola Hitt had dragged some planks and logs together in the makings of an impromptu bonfire, and installed Jedediah�s dead body on top, leaning against an upright plank as though in repose. She had crowned him with a wreath of turkey feathers, and folded his arms around the corpse of a dead opossum, with an equally dead skunk at his feet. Yet Reuben stared at her, rather than at her late husband, for Capitola was almost totally naked. She had crowned herself with the head and skin of one of Jedediah�s hunting dogs, and the dog�s carcass lay on his funeral pyre at his feet. She had smeared her face and breasts with its blood, and now held its front paws on her shoulders with one hand, whilst she gyrated in front of the pyre, shaking a heavy stick also crowned with feathers, keening to herself in a long low monotone. The other Hitt dogs sat watching her in a semi-circle, for all the world as though they were mourners, or possibly devilish acolytes.
�I didn� stand there no more than a moment.� Reuben was telling his news to Preacher Conover, for he had ridden straight into Coates with the news of his discovery. �She was jes� like the devil hisself, I swannee�.
Conover frowned. He had always mistrusted Jedediah�s wife - she had too much of a dark air about her. He knew that Jedediah had found her somewhere down along the Mississippi, whilst working as a hand on a flatboat, and he judged her to have more than something of a hoodoo look in her eyes. He had also heard it whispered that she could bewitch people into madness, and even to their death.
�I�ll go call the Sheriff.� He spoke forcefully, automatically taking on the leadership of his flock.
�Yo� want me to roust out the neighbours?�
Conover barely hesitated. �Yup. Get every able-bodied man yo� kin, and marshal them up, jes� where the track to the Hitts turns off. Don�t go pressin� in thar�, some might want to do wicked things.� It was plain that the word �lynching� had formed in his mind. �Jes� tell them to hide and wait, so they�re ready for when Joe gets thar�. Mebbe set them to prayin� real quiet, that�ll call down the Spirit. I�ll ride up with Joe, we�ll meet up, and we�ll cast the devil out of that woman, jes� see if we don�t.�
Reuben rode off, and Conover hurried to Wilkes� office. He knew instinctively that the situation called for leadership, with a man of God at the helm. He would strive mightily in the name of the Lord, and the Lord would reward him many times over. Coates would watch, and Coates would marvel, and those forces claiming to follow the true way in their bid to tempt members of his congregation away to the altars of sin, men like Pastor Macdonald, would be wholly overcome.
However Wilkes seemed very little surprised when Conover burst into his office with his shocking news, and Conover was almost taken aback for a moment. The sheriff was seated behind his desk, with his feet up, chewing comfortably, and there was a certain odor in the air, a the smell of chewing tobacco mixed with something that Conover might have taken, excepting he knew Wilkes to be a man of strong and upright principles, to be the smell of raw whisky. But then he judged that the sheriff might still be in that comfortable state where some men shelter after they have eaten, and it was not long past a Tennessee breakfast time.
�We got to git out thar�.� He spoke urgently. This was a matter far more important than the well being of the sheriff�s digestion.
Wilkes reluctantly shook off the state of euphoria that Zack Benton and a very generous glass of �shine had begun to build in him. Benton had passed through his office only minutes before, seeking eighty dollars in blood money, and Joe�s heart had lifted on paying him out, in the certain knowledge that he could now hold his head high again. The old man was dead, the son could follow. Now Conover wanted to complicate matters. But a sheriff is a sheriff, with a duty to enforce the law, and make sure that things are done in due and proper fashion.
He swung his legs down from his desk, got to his feet, and spoke crisply. �Let�s go.�
However he decided against passing the news of Jedediah�s death along as he buckled on his gun belt. Others would bring the news to Coates, and the whole town would be buzzing soon enough. Conover�s posse would serve the law well enough under his command, and he dearly wanted to see Jedediah�s face in death before he burned away.
He counted without Reuben Morrison. Reuben was a loquacious man by Tennessee standards, and a man who always relished a chance to make a stir. He knew Uriah Hitt had taken work at the railroad depot, and he stopped at the depot building before taking off on his way back to the Hitt cabin.
He found the dispatcher talking to a couple of brawny Irishmen.
�Somebody�s gone �n killed ol� man Hitt.� He spoke quickly, anxious to get the news off his chest and be on his way. He did not want to have to break his tidings to Uriah. The Hitts were unpredictable folk. �Joe Wilkes an� Preacher Conover gonna ride a posse up thar�, �cos ol� Miz Hitt gone taken leave of her senses.� And with that he was gone.
The dispatcher broke off gossiping to run and tell Uriah.
Uriah stared at the man in disbelief. �Dead? How kin thet be?�
�He sed somebody gone �n killed him.� The dispatcher stepped back a couple of paces. He judged that Uriah might well fire up when he made sense of the news, and he did not want to find himself in the path of a tornado.
He misjudged a little. Uriah did not react immediately. But there was something in his eyes of a volcano about to explode, a simmering fire building.
�I�ll go ask Mr. Evered for time off.�
He pushed his way abruptly past the dispatcher into the depot building, pushing open the door to Evered�s office without ceremony.
Evered looked up in surprise from a pile of papers. David Kingman was away down in Nashville for a couple of days, talking to his counterparts at the Louisville and Nashville Railroad about developing traffic through Coates.
Uriah touched the brim of his felt hat. �I gotta go, sir. Man came down, sed my father�s bin killed.�
�Killed?�
But Uriah had already turned to leave. Evered leaped to his feet to follow him, catching him at the door. �Wait for a moment.�
Uriah stared at him. His black eyes were hard and unseeing.
�I�ll raise an escort.� Evered spoke quickly. �Go tell Mrs. Hitt, and I�ll send a buggy to collect her. I�ll get some men, and ride up with you.�
Uriah snorted impatiently. Now he was like a bull readying himself for combat. �Someone�s done fer my father. He was my blood. This is family matters.�
�Whoever killed your father may want you in their sights.� Evered placed his hand on Uriah�s sleeve, despite the fact that it was thick with coal dust. �I�m going with you.�
The Chesapeake & Nashville agent mobilized his escort in just five minutes. Fortunately the railroad kept a number of good horses at the depot to serve its business in and around the town, and Evered was well-liked amongst the C&N�s employees. He quickly singled out half a dozen men to ride with him, unchained the depot�s gun rack, a relic of more lawless days gone past, to arm them, and met Uriah as he was bidding Iris farewell.
Iris stood outside her cottage behind the Kingman�s house as her husband rode off with Evered, and felt a sense of foreboding. She harbored no tears for Jedediah, but she feared what might happen to the father of her unborn child. She waited until the riders melted away into the grey morning mist, and then hurried down to the Kingman�s house to tell Franny.
Franny was breakfasting with her mother and her children. Turner Evered had already found an excellent cook for the Kingmans in the large person of Eulalia Ironside, a jolly middle-aged black woman with a gift for baking quite the lightest biscuits anyone might desire.
Iris knocked politely at the kitchen door, even though she knew it was not locked. She thought of people in Coates as city people, with City ways.
Eulalia pushed the door wide, and then halted, staring at her. �Why, honey, whass� gwine on?�
�I must talk to Franny.� Now Iris was close to tears.
Eulaliah stepped quickly out of her way. �Y�all go right on in.�
She let Iris make her own way into the Kingmans� breakfast room. Iris and Franny were already good friends, for Franny kept a motherly eye on the sixteen-year-old mother-to-be, as she now was, having traveled something of a similar path herself, marrying at seventeen, before having three baby girls in quick succession. Her mother, Evelyn Iverson, had urged her to wait, because Franny had always been of a delicate disposition. But Franny had matched weakness in her flesh with strength in her spirit, and been as determined as she was delicate. She had wanted to become Mrs. Kingman, and she had brooked no barriers.
Now she was determined to raise Iris up from her country ruck. �She�s a good girl�, she had just been telling her mother. �She�s the sort of girl I would like to have care for my little darlings when I am gone.�
Evelyn Iverson had frowned at her words. Franny had begun talking much too frequently about dying of late, and each time she mentioned the subject a cold finger touched her mother�s heart.
�You�re going to get better, my darling,� she had assured her daughter in a gently reproving tone. But neither of them believed her words.
�She is willing, and she works hard,� Franny had continued. �David will thrive, between her and �Lalia, and find himself a Southern belle with ever so many acres of tobacco, and cotton, and willing colo.0red people to work them.� Franny had been raised on books like �Little Women� and �Uncle Tom�s Cabin� and believed firmly that goodwill always led seamlessly onto good fortune.
Her mother had sighed. She imagined Iris would have enough on her plate after giving birth to occupy herself fully, and she did not see her husband taking kindly to any attempt to groom his wife.
The door from the kitchen opened, and both women looked up. Iris stood there, and she was in tears.
�What is it, my dear?� Franny pulled herself to her feet, holding to the table for support.
�Uriah, ma�am.� Iris spoke in a voice punctuated by sobs. �Somebody�s gone �n killed his Paw.�
�What?� Both women at the table spoke in astonishment at the same time.
�Yes, ma�am. He�s gone back to strengthen his mother.�
Evelyn Iverson looked alarmed. The whole of Coates had discussed Joe�s shambush backwards and forwards in great detail, and the whole community had been waiting for Joe Wilkes to move, because the sheriff was known for a vindictive man when crossed. �He hasn�t gone by himself, has he?�
�No�mm, he ain�t. Mr. Evered raised an escort at the depot. They�re sending a buggy to tek me up thar�.�
�We�ll go with you.� Franny spoke quickly, lifting her hand as her mother opened her mouth. �We�ll ride with Iris, mother, and bear witness to what we discover.�
Evelyn Iverson thought of protesting, and was then quiet. She knew her daughter too well to try and argue with her. Good fur coats and woolen blankets, feet well shod in galoshes, and warm scarves up around their ears and cocooning their hair were the only way forward. She nodded, heading for the door to the staircase to tell Doris to to liaise with Eulalia over caring for the girls whilst they were out. She knew that it was something like eight miles up to the Hitt cabin, and imagined they would be out most of the day.
Sheriff Wilkes and Preacher Conover rode hard, reaching the Hitt cabin in just over an hour. They found the posse mustered up by Reuben Morrison waiting for them at the edge of the dirt road serving the hollow, and Conover immediately seized the initiative by holding an impromptu roadside service to rally the gathered men behind him. He preached in a low voice, warning his hearers of the power of evil they were about to confront, and the faces of the men were grim, because they knew they were about to take on the devil himself. Several fingered lengths of rope attached to their saddles, and it was plain that they did not intend Jedediah to die on his own.
Then the assembled men prayed together in low voices that rumbled in the dawn light like the mutterings of a distant thunderstorm. Joe Wilkes prayed along with the rest, though he considered within himself that this should have been a sheriff matter. But he had come to see Jedediah�s corpse, and� knew that would be satisfaction enough.
The men finished praying, and for a moment all was silent. Conover raised himself in his saddle. �Let us now advance and do the work of the Lord!�
It was a battle cry. The gathered men fanned out on their horses across the open land surrounding the Hitt cabin to form a rough circle, circling round, and closing in as they circled. Capitola now lay crumpled into a ragged heap at the foot of her pyre, quite motionless, as though in a faint or a stupor. The pyre itself had burned only partially, leaving Jedediah�s corpse untouched, as though the dark hereafter to which she had destined it had turned it back in refusal. The men on horseback halted, to look down on her, some in disgust, and some in fear, and she stirred, and then started up, scrabbling awkwardly to her feet. She still held her staff crowned with turkey feathers, and her face was black with the blood of the dead hound perched on her head, its corpse trailing down over her back.
�Yo� killed my man!� Her voice rose, midway between a shout and a scream.
�Silence, woman!� Conover�s voice was stentorian. He rode forward, stopping a little way short of her. �You are an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, and we are come to cleanse this place.�
Wilkes rode forward to stand his horse beside the preacher�s. This was the moment for which he had been waiting, and the triumph which he deserved.
Capitola glared at the two men. �I curse you, Mr. Conover, and you, Mr. Sheriffman.� She began to sway, using the words of the curse she had uttered against Iris not so many months since. �Blood turn black and flesh turn blue, my curse on you, since you force me. My curse on your face, my curse on your eyes, my curse on your breath, my curse on your sighs��
Conover forced his horse towards her, trampling her down. �Silence, woman, in the name of Jay-sus!�
Wilkes noted that two men had already tossed a length of rope over the outstretched bough of a tree close to the cabin and begun testing it for load-bearing. He smiled grimly. One Hitt dead, and another ready for the Devil.
Suddenly a shot cracked in the air, and then a second. The assembled men stiffened, for the two shots had been fired on two sides of them.
Uriah Hitt rode up from the track into the center of the circle, with Turner Evered at his side. Uriah got down from his horse, and walked slowly towards his mother, shucking off his coal-stained jacket as he walked towards her.
�Come away, Maw.� His voice was gentle, almost tender. �This ain�t the right way to do it.�
Capitola rose to her feet and Conover made as though to ride her down again, but Evered blocked his way, and now Evered held a double-barreled shotgun balanced against his saddle. �No, sir. Desist.�
The gathered men hesitated, and the two men with the rope let it fall to the ground. Evered raised himself in his stirrups, speaking sternly to them all. �I have men surrounding this place, and mean serious business if you remain where you are not wanted.�
The gathered men hesitated, and looked at each other. They had come to see blood, and blood was what they wanted. But they had also heard the two shots, and they did not know how many besieged them, or where the besiegers were placed. It is one thing to savor the death of a witch, and quite another to die to no purpose at all. They hesitated, and then they began to drift away.
Zack Benton licked his lips. He had trailed Uriah Hitt and Evered up from Coates, but Hitt had been a moving target, and too much surrounded by the others. Now his target was on foot, and clearly visible. He dismounted, and found himself a new patch of grass. He had marked the placing of Evered�s men, and the nearest was a little way from him. He settled into the grass, adjusting the sight on his Sharpes rifle. �One bullet, one man�, he muttered to himself.
Conover fretted in his saddle. He was watching a mighty victory slip from his fingers. He swung his leg over his pommel and slipped from his horse to the ground. Evered might cut him down if he tried force again, but the Lord held other weapons in his armory. He had a duty to cast this devil out, and cast it out he would. He advanced on Capitola, moving almost at Uriah�s side, his hand raised in invocation to heaven. Uriah made as though to push him away, and he lurched over, a step behind him.
Benton fired, and his bullet struck true. The shot snapped Conover�s spine, and the preacher fell instantly, dying with a look of total surprise on his face, his words cut short in the sharp morning air. Benton was already on his horse and riding hell for leather out of it as Evered dismounted to look at Conover�s body.
Iris arrived with Franny and Evelyn Iverson as men began to gather around the dead preacher. Uriah was now talking gently to Capitola as a man might talk to a fractious horse. He had covered her nakedness with his jacket, and she had let the skin of the dead hound fall away from her. Both were temporarily quite forgotten.
Iris walked towards them, leaving the two other women in the buggy. Capitola watched her, but now seemed quietened, as though her son had stayed whatever force had possessed her.
Iris stopped. �I�m sorry, Maw.�
Her words seemed to ignite some hidden force in Capitola. Uriah�s mother held up her staff and suddenly rammed it at Iris, aiming with all her strength for her belly. She struck two, perhaps three blows, before Uriah wrestled her away. Iris began to� scream, rolling around on the ground and balling up into a fetal position in her agony, enacting a dreadful parody of birth as the two women in the spring wagon hurried to help her.
Uriah turned to look down at his wife, and realized that his mother had slipped out of his grasp. Three curses had been cursed, and two had come to fruition.
Evered�s men were now gathered around Conover�s body. They turned to stare down at Iris, twisting and turning on the ground, as though at an animal in pain. Uriah did not move. He seemed caught up in some kind of trance. But Evelyn and Franny were already kneeling at Iris� side. Evelyn had some knowledge of nursing, and was fumbling in Iris�s clothing. Then she looked up, searching for Evered. �Get these men away, and bring the wagon here.� Her voice was sharp.
She busied herself for a moment, and then stood up, and her hands were covered in blood. �I need water, and clean cloths.� Two of Evered�s men hurried to the Hitt cabin, and she knelt again. After a moment she took something wrapped in a cloth, and Evered saw that she was weeping. �Get Iris onto the wagon. I will take her back to Coates and summon Doctor Carter.�
She glanced at Uriah, opening her mouth as though to speak, and then closed it again. Evered�s men lifted Iris into the back of the wagon, and she covered Iris with her coat. A moment later the wagon was gone.
Evered took a deep breath. He had two corpses on his hands, and no clear idea of what to do with them. He touched Uriah�s arm. �We�d better ride back.�
Uriah shivered, as though he had been very cold. �I�ll bury ma Paw.�
Evered thought for a moment, and nodded. �We�ll help you.�
He watched as his men helped Uriah dig a grave, and then signed to them to pull back as Uriah looked down in silence on his father�s corpse. Conover�s body had already been lashed across the back of his horse. Uriah did not speak, but after a moment he picked up a shovel and began to fill the grave again.
Evered wait until he had finished, and watched him remount. �I�ll fetch Pastor Macdonald up here tomorrow to send him to the next world properly.�
Uriah did not reply, only tightening his reins. They rode off in silence.
News of Preacher Conover�s death, and the dreadful witchcraft enacted up at the Hitt cabin, spread all over Coates like wildfire on Evered�s return. Two of his men took Conover�s body to the Baptist chapel, and a small crowd gathered outside the Kingmans� house, for Franny and her mother had already insisted on taking Iris in with them, enlisting Eulalia�s help to carry Iris up to a spare bedroom. Evelyn Iverson washed her again whilst waiting for Doctor Carter to arrive, before dressing her in one of her own nightdresses. Iris seemed lost, drifting in and out of consciousness. Eulalia reported that Uriah had taken up guard outside the house, as though waiting for Iris to return to him.
�He must wait out there until Doctor Carter has been.� Evelyn spoke decisively. She judged that Iris needed sleep more than anything. �I will speak to him.�
But her sharpness softened as she came out of the house, for Uriah�s face was haggard, and his eyes seemed to have sunk back into his face.
He took off his hat, holding it in his two hands. �I�ve come for ma wife, ma�am.�
Evelyn shook her head gently. �I think you must wait until Doctor Carter has been.�
It was as though she had not spoken.
�I want to take her home, ma�am.� Uriah�s voice was flat, and drained of life.
Fortunately Doctor Carter arrived at that very moment. He was a tall man, with a bit of a stoop, dressed in a black suit and carrying a large black leather bag, with an old-fashioned black stovepipe hat on his head. He was also a good man, well-respected by all who knew him.
��Let me have a look at her, son.�
�I want to take her home.�
�You will, son. But not quite yet.�
Doctor Carter stepped past him into the house. Uriah made no move to follow, standing on the porch step as though waiting for Iris to come out to him.
He was still there an hour later, when Doctor Carter came back out. The good doctor had prescribed a strong dose of tincture of laudanum, and stayed to watch Evelyn hold it to Iris� lips and Iris fall back on her pillows into a drugged sleep. He looked tired and drawn, and his black jacket was stained even darker in places with fresh blood.
�She�s gonna mend, son.�
Uriah stared at him vacantly.
�You better go get a drink.� Doctor Carter wiped a tired hand across his eyes. �I guess we could both do with one.�
Uriah shook his head. �My Maw tried to kill her.�
�She�ll bear you another son one day.�
�One day?�
�She�s a strong girl.�
�And my son?�
Doctor Carter sighed. �I�m sorry.�
Uriah turned away with a strangled sound. It is a hard thing for a man to lose his first-born, the son on whom he has placed so much hope. But it is a frightful thing when he has seen his first-born killed in the womb by his own mother. He began to walk back towards the depot. He could count on little now but work to see him through his torment, and only work, hard physical labour, offered anything by way of distraction. He would work, until labour forced him into unconsciousness, and then he would have to face his dreams, and he knew that all his dreams would take the form of nightmares.