After supper it was not long before everybody was sleepy.  I occupied the room with the school teacher.  In a few minutes after we got into the room he was in bed and asleep; but I took advantage of the unusual luxury of a lamp which gave light, and sat looking over my notes and jotting down some ideas which were still fresh in my mind.  Suddenly I became conscious of that sense of alarm which is always aroused by the sound of hurrying footsteps on the silence of the night.  I stopped work and looked at my watch.  It was after eleven.  I listened, straining every nerve to hear above the tumult of my quickening pulse.  I caught the murmur of voices, then the gallop of a horse, then of another and another.  Now thoroughly alarmed, I woke my companion, and together we both listened.  After a moment he put out the light and softly opened the window-blind, and we cautiously peeped out.  We saw men moving in one direction, and from the mutterings we vaguely caught the rumor that some terrible crime had been committed.  I put on my coat and hat.  My friend did all in his power to dissuade me from venturing out, but it was impossible for me to remain in the house under such tense excitement.  My nerves would not have stood it.  Perhaps what bravery I exercised in going out was due to the fact that I felt sure my identity as a colored man had not yet become known in the town.

I went out and, following the drift, reached the railroad station.  There was gathered there a crowd of men, all white, and others were steadily arriving, seemingly from all the surrounding country.  How did the news spread so quickly?  I watched these men moving under the yellow glare of the kerosene lamps about the station, stern, comparatively silent, all of them armed, some of them in boots and spurs; fierce, determined men.  I had come to know the type well, blond, tall, and lean, with ragged mustache and beard, and glittering gray eyes.  At the first suggestion of daylight they began to disperse in groups, going in several directions.  There was no extra noise or excitement, no loud talking, only swift, sharp words of command given by those who seemed to be accepted as leaders by mutual understanding.  In fact, the impression made upon me was that everything was being done in quite an orderly manner.  In spite of so many leaving, the crowd around the station continued to grow; at sunrise there were a great many women and children.  By this time I also noticed some colored people; a few seemed to be going about customary tasks; several were standing on the outskirts of the crowd; but the gathering of Negroes usually seen in such towns was missing.