Chapter 13 Summary

Before the sheriff arrives at the Burden place, a gathering crowd has already begun to conjecture about the murderer. The assumption and unspoken hope is that some negro has committed the murder and hopefully ravished the body, too. The fire truck arrives, but is useless to put out the fire as there is no water supply to hook up to the hoses. The townspeople are eager to take vengeance for the white woman's death, even though she had been a virtual stranger and a nigger-lover, too. The sheriff does not realize the fire was intentionally set until the countryman finally remembers the drunken man he saw in the hallway of the burning building. The sheriff calls for his deputy to bring him a nigger. The lawmen grab a random black man and drag him into the cabin to be questioned. The sheriff wants...