A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton - Michael R. Phillips [81]
A few more shots sounded. Katie saw him give the horse I was sitting on a great swat on the hind end with his whip. The horse lurched forward as McSimmons galloped away after the others.
Katie’s first thought was elation. Then she saw a horrifying sight—there I was dangling helplessly from the tree with the rope cinched tight up around my neck.
“Mayme!” she screamed, dropping the rifle on the ground and running toward me while Emma stood paralyzed in fear.
Katie was about halfway to the oak when Jeremiah came out of the woods and broke into a run after her. She heard him and turned.
“Jeremiah!” she cried. “Go back and bring the horses! Hurry, Jeremiah!”
Where she stood watching from the trees, in the midst of her panic and confusion and fear, Emma understood the urgency in Katie’s voice. She turned and ran for the horses. Before Jeremiah reached her, she had untied them and was running back toward him. He grabbed one set of reins and leapt into the saddle.
Katie ran on toward the oak.
“Mayme … Mayme!” she called, tears filling her eyes.
“Mayme, we’re here now—we’re going to help you.”
But when she reached the tree, she realized there was nothing she could do. I was nearly ready to faint and was barely conscious that she was there at all. My hands were tied behind my back and my windpipe was nearly crushed from the pressure of the rope and I couldn’t make a sound.
“Mayme … Mayme … oh, Mayme—God, help me!” Katie cried frantically, grabbing my feet where they dangled up in the air almost as high as her shoulders. She tried to lift my legs to take the pressure off my neck. But I was so close to unconsciousness, I just hung limp and couldn’t help her.
“Oh, God!” cried Katie. “What should I do?”
By then Jeremiah was flying toward her at a full gallop, followed by Emma, pulling the second horse by the reins.
Jeremiah reined in and walked the horse forward to get it under me. At the same time he was fumbling with his hands, trying to grab hold of me.
“Mayme … Mayme, sit up on the horse!” cried Katie from the ground.
While Jeremiah tried to steady the horse, Katie tried to push my legs over its back. But in the noise and confusion, the horse kept moving about and Jeremiah couldn’t get it to stay still. And all the while I was just hanging there like dead weight, with my neck stretching farther and farther. I could feel the horse and someone trying to grab me, though I had no idea it was Jeremiah.
“Emma,” cried Katie, “the knife! Get the knife. It’s in the saddlebag.”
They kept struggling with the horse and my legs.
“Here it is, Miz Katie,” said Emma as she ran forward.
“Can you climb the tree, Emma?” said Katie.
“Dat I can, Miz Katie. I’s real good at climbin’ an’ I—”
“Then climb up and cut the rope, Emma! Climb faster than you’ve ever climbed before!”
Emma scurried up the trunk with the help of a few low limbs while Katie kept lifting my legs and Jeremiah was trying to hold me up around my waist to take the weight off my neck. In a few seconds Emma was scrambling with the agility of a cat out onto the thick branch with the rope tied around it.
“Be careful, Emma … don’t fall—but hurry!”
Ten or fifteen seconds later the rope gave way. I dropped into Jeremiah’s arms. But the sudden weight of my body made him lose his balance and we both fell off the horse’s back and into a heap on the ground. Frantically Katie struggled with trembling fingers to loosen the noose around my neck as Jeremiah pulled himself out from under me. As she did, Katie saw the ugly, burning gash where the rope had dug into my skin.
Finally she got it loose and the rope off my neck as Emma scampered back to the ground.
“Mayme … oh, Mayme!” said Katie, smothering my face with kisses and trying to wake me up. “Please God … oh, Mayme, don’t be dead!”
She saw Emma running toward her.
“Emma, is there any water anywhere?”
“I don’ know, Miz Katie. I think dere’s a stream ober yonder.”
“Go, Emma—get some water! Get it in anything. Soak the bottom of your dress—anything!”
Again Emma was off like a flash while Katie continued