Chapter 44: The Trial

It then came time to convene our Kangaroo Court, basically it was a Summary Trial. We’d all been there and seen what was done, we were now simply listening now to closing arguments and passing sentence. The best our intruders could hope for was that Sonya would think of something mitigating to say that might save their lives.

It didn’t take long. I listed the charges again and had Amos tell his side of the story. He recited a pretty simple story, he was walking along inspecting the tomatoes when he was grabbed from behind. He was held, yelled at and whipped when he wouldn’t speak.

It was Michelle’s turn next, she spoke plainly of the crimes of kidnapping and torture. She became more insistent when spelling out the danger that they would be to us if we let them go free. It was pretty compelling.

Sonya got her turn, she spoke mainly of young holder guy and how he was repentant and sorry. She spoke of his manners, how he had fallen in with a bad crowd and even his upbringing. I was dubious but open.

Finally our intruders had their moment. Chubby Whipper went first and doomed himself from the moment he opened his mouth, it seemed he couldn’t help himself and just had to explain that Amos was just a runaway nigger and that what he had been doing was completely legal in Missouri. He wound himself up pretty good and even spoke of revenge. I let him talk just to make his fate easier to carry out. Sonya simply shook her head, apparently he’d just done everything she told him not to do.

Holder got his chance eventually and he threw himself on the mercy of the court and begged for forgiveness. He saved himself.

It was finally my turn and time to end this all.

I called Chubby Whipper forward and announced in a somber voice, “I find you guilty of all charges. After arguments and your own testimony I have to decided to punish you with torture in return for the torture you inflicted. The punishment for attacking and trying to kidnap one of my people is death. Sentence is to be carried out immediately.”

He tried to say something but Matilda stepped forward quickly and sliced off his genitals with her straight razor, she had acted even faster than I expected. He didn’t even realize what had happened yet or felt any pain when she held them up for him to see. A half-heartbeat later the pain hit him and he doubled over, Matilda calmly and smoothly reached down and slit his throat from ear to ear. He died quickly lying in the dirt with his dismembered genitals lying in front of his face.

Matilda frightened me.

Holder boy fainted dead away.

Holder came around eventually and I left him sitting in the dirt while I smoked a cigarette and shared a whiskey with Matilda. Matilda even took a drag off of my cigarette, killing is never as easy as it looks on TV. Sonya was pissed at me again and I supposed next Sunday’s sermon would be on “Thou shalt not kill.”

I figured there would be time for that later, I still had one man to deal with and my cigarette would only last so long.

I help Holder to his feet and called everyone back around.

I stepped forward and announced in a somber voice, “I find you guilty of all charges. After arguments and your own testimony I have to decided to punish you in kind for your crimes. For the crime of torturing my man you shall be tortured in kind with two lashes of the whip. The punishment for attacking and trying to kidnap to send him to slavery the punishment is slavery for you. The whipping sentence is suspended and the slavery sentence is to be carried out immediately.”

I threw him his clothes and shoes and told him to follow me. I had him load the corpse of chubby whipper into the dog cart and took them over to our new Potters Field where we dumped them in a pile. The women had already stripped them and took all their possessions back to camp for later perusal. I walked Holder back to the camp and locked him in an empty stall; Matilda stood guard duty while she continued to work on her sewing.

I went out and buried the bodies with the backhoe and headed back to break a man’s spirit completely.

I brought out my drone and set it on the table. Dusk was upon us and I called everyone around again and then went and got Holder from his stall; it was time for introductions. I fixed a dog collar around his neck and connected a lead to it like he was livestock of some sort, the message wasn’t lost on him. I then led him out to the campfire, the shame and despair on his face was cringeworthy.