At this fearful pass a sublime scene was enacted. "Sirs!" said a
voice,--it was Jim's voice, and in it sounded something so earnest and
strange, that the men involuntarily turned their heads to look at him.
Then this man stood up,--a black man,--a little while before a
slave,--the great muscles swollen and gnarled with unpaid toil, the
marks of the lash and the branding-iron yet plain upon his person, the
shadows of a lifetime of wrongs and sufferings looking out of his eyes.
"Sirs!" he said, simply, "somebody's got to die to get us out of dis,
and it may as well be me,"--plunged overboard, put his toil-hardened
shoulders to the boat; a struggle, a gasp, a mighty wrench,--pushed it
off clear; then fell, face foremost, pierced by a dozen bullets. Free at
last!
CHAPTER XVI
"_Ye died to live._"
BOKER
The next day Jim was recounting this scene to some men in camp,
describing it with feeling and earnestness, and winding up the narration
by the declaration, "and the first man that says a nigger ain't as good
as a white man, and a damn'd sight better'n those graybacks over yonder,
well"--
"Well, suppose he does?"--interrupted one of the men.
"O, nothing, Billy Dodge,--only he and I'll have a few words to pass on
the subject, that's all"; doubling up his fist and examining the big
cords and muscles on it with curious and well-satisfied interest.
Pages:
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187