nto a private consultation, while I kept
my place upon the counter, though gradually moving back to the
further edge of it. I saw the crisis was at hand, for smothered but
angry argument was going on in knots of men all over the room; my
life was suspended upon a breath, and I was utterly powerless to
change the decision, whatever it might be; but I must say that my
nerves were steady and my hand untrembling,--the unwonted calmness
of one who knew that death was inevitable if they should decide in
the affirmative on the charge, and who was determined to defend
himself to the last, as I well knew any death, they could _there_
inflict, was better than to fall into their hands to be tormented by
their hellish hate.

During the consultation, one Butler Cavins, who had a good deal of
influence (he owned about twenty slaves), left the grocery with five
or six others and was absent about ten minutes. He returned with a
coil of rope upon his arm, elbowing his way through the crowd, and
exclaimed, "Gentlemen, I am in favor of hanging him. He is a nice,
innocent young man. He is far safer for heaven now than when he
learns to drink, swear, and be as hardened an old sinner as I am." I
could not, even at the peril of life, refrain from retorting: "That,
sir, is the only truth I have heard from you to-night." My friends,
yet few, and feeble in the advocacy of my cause, seemed slightly
encouraged by this rebuff, and gained the ear of the rabble for a
little. Cavins could not be silenced. "This is a fine lariat, boys;
it has swung two abolitionists. I guess it will hold another. Come
on, boys," and a general gathering up in the form of a semicircle,
crowding nearer the counter, occurred. At the same moment jumping
back off the counter and displaying two six-shooters, I said, "If
that's your game, come on; some of you shall go with me to the other
world! The first man that makes another step toward me is a dead
man." There was one moment of dread suspense and breathless
stillness; hands were tightened on daggers and pistols, but no hand
was raised. The whole pack stood at bay, convinced that any attempt
to take me would send several of them to certain death. My friends,
who had kept somewhat together, now ranged themselves against the
counter before me, facing the crowd, and Buck Scruggs said, "He has
not been convicted, and he shall not be touched." James Niel and
Dempsey Jones, the other two who had aided in my arrest, joined
Scrug