Over in the far end of the big lumber yard a second whistle shrilled, the call of a night watchman, followed by the crack! crack! crack! of an automatic pistol. Then the big mill whistle roared its warning through the town and reverberated down the river and echoed from the woods, and deafened and terrified Hitch Diamond by its sinister call to the people of Sawtown to rouse themselves.
From the great number of little houses where the employees of the mill lived men issued forth, brandishing firearms and calling to each other as they ran. The electric lights in the mill flashed up, and in a brief time an immense crowd had congregated.
Hitch could hear their excited questions and answers.
“What’s the matter?”
“Commissary store has been robbed and night watchman killed!”
“Who did it?”
“A nigger!”
“No! Two niggers!”
There was a moment of silence while the crowd considered this. Then a roar:
“Find them niggers and mob ’em! Come on!”