She got on horse, and Noah was leading her round about, but dey
cotched him, and den, oh, lor', didn't dey jest beat him!
"Say, Noah, show Massa Bold your po' back."
The man left Uncle Moses, and, coming to me, turned about (he was
naked to the waist) and displayed to my sickened gaze a score of
long, raw wounds upon his back. They had begun to heal; I learned
that his companions had anointed them with grease, and plastered
them with leaves from a plant that grew abundantly in the forest.
"Dat is what Massa Vetch do," he said with a dark look, "and his
friend he look on and cry to him to gib me mo'. He say, teach me a
lesson, and I learn it--oh, yes, I learn it. And now I show how to
teach lesson back."
His pleasant face was darkened with a glare of utter savagery.
"Black man can teach jest as good as white. Come 'long o' me,
massa; I show massa somet'ing."
Wondering, I followed him past the huts, through the copse, into a
little clearing, when I saw a white man stripped to the shirt and
tightly bound to a tree.
"Dat is him!" cried Noah excitedly. "Dat is de white debbil what
say gib me mo'. I teach him lesson: he nebber want no mo'."
His tone already sent a shiver through me, but as he went on to
explain the nature of the lesson he intended, I shuddered with
horror.
"Dis berry night we burn him up!" he cried. "Massa Bold see? We tie
him up to de bough of de tree, and we light a lill fire, jest a
lill one, and first it warm his feet, and den it get bigger, and
creep up and up, and bimeby it come to his head, and den he burn
all up.
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