The night watchman down in the town heard that cry and pulled a pistol from his pocket, firing six times in the air. Running into the court-house, he pulled frantically at the bell-rope, and the wild clangor of the alarm reverberated through the empty streets. Then voices answered:
“Fie-ur-r! Fie-ur-r! Fie-ur-r!”
IV
From their high perch on top of the house, the eight negroes could look down upon the entire village of Tickfall. Appalled by the unexpected outcome of their ruse, they were terrified beyond description as they beheld an entire village suddenly awake from slumber to most intense excitement and activity.
First, they saw the electric lights flash up in every house in Tickfall. A moment later a large shaft of light flared across the darkness as a man opened a door, stepping out in front with shotgun or pistol. A moment later a number of quick flashes of light in front of each house and the sound of shots. It was thus that each man in the village sought to arouse his neighbors, the promiscuous shooting being a fire signal in all Louisiana villages.
Far over in the other end of the town the negroes beheld a great chimney belching glowing sparks from its top, and then from that station a siren-whistle sounded its weird screech, telling the inhabitants of Tickfall that the immense water-pumps were working and the fire-plugs were throbbing, waiting for the attachment of the hose.
In the center of the town two great lights began to whip the darkness, and another siren sounded, indicating that the gasoline fire-engine was leaving its station for its wild run up the hill to the Gaitskill home.
Then from all parts of the town came the honk of auto-horns and the racket of cars running with the muffler open; and the noise of running, shouting men hurrying to the scene, shooting firearms in the air; and the rattle of hose wagons and ladder trucks pulling the steep grade; while on top of the hill, standing on the Gaitskill lawn, was Vinegar Atts, negro preacher, Boanerges, son of thunder, bawling in a voice that would almost wake the dead:
“Fie-ur-r! Fie-ur-r! Fie-ur-r!”
Eight negroes, squatting like monkeys on the top of Colonel Tom Gaitskill’s house prayed to die. They didn’t want to live another minute. They did not think it was worth while. They were in the helpless predicament of some man who has inadvertently started some powerful piece of machinery and does not know how to stop it. They had certainly started something. What the townful of fire-fighters would do to them when they caught them was something they did not care to think about. They preferred to die. If the chariot of the Lord would just swing low, there would be eight eager passengers swinging to the back step, waiting for the invitation: “Come up higher!”