“All right,” and the colored man walked back. Soon another attempted to pass on the opposite side of the way.
“Where are you going?” shouted Baker.
“Going about my business!”
(A fearful oath). “You’d better go back, or I’ll shoot you!”
The young man retreated precipitately, and hid in a back yard.
Soon after this the attack opened, and Mann Harris sat in a back room of his home, listening to the terrible sounds for hours; or with unshod feet crept across the floor lest a footfall might be heard by some lurking foe, and watched the flashing of guns from the windows of the armory.
Then followed the booming of cannon. “Good God!” he exclaimed, “we is all done killed! They will shoot down every house in the town! But I’ll have to take it as it comes.”
He heard the shout, “Here they come! Here they come!” and heard Baker and his friends fire upon the negroes as they crossed the street, and Doc’s men fire in return.
Four times after this the cannon shook the windows, as it belched forth its canister, and sent terror through the town and surrounding country.