THE PRETENDER
MARIANNE:
Hang him? Young Williams?
JESSE:
Hang him.
MARIANNE:
You can't do that!
JESSE:
We'll see about that.
MARIANNE:
You're mad, Jesse....
(A pause.)
549
JESSE:
(pacing the room)
Mad, eh, because I want the same satisfac–
tion a white man would want if a nigger had taken his wife! Mad,
eh? We'll see about that.... No, it's never been done before in this
or in any state of the South, never has a white man had to pay like
that for touching a colored girl. ... Well, it had to happen some
time.... And if I can't take pride in my wife now, at least I'll
be
able to take pride in the lengths to which I am willing to go for her,
and for my race....
(He yields to the idea more and more, and, de–
lighted with it, becomes more intense.)
Yes, we'll hang Young Wil–
liams....
(A pause.)
Here Williams, we've got your house surrounded.
This is Jesse Prince speaking. That's right, Jesse Prince.... You've
heard of him and you know his wife. Well, that's what you're going
to have to pay for now, for knowing Jesse Prince's wife.... I've
got Sam Hollis with me and Hardy Jones and Al Murray, and we're
all of us armed. Come out now quiely or we'll go in and get you. No
use trying to telephone for help. We've cut the wires! Nothing you
can do now but suffer for a while, like many a poor nigger has been
made to suffer, and for less than you did. . . . Come out, Young
Williams! Come out, you big white buck... ! Come out and pay for
meddling with the wifely honor of a colonial lady! We've got the gas
to burn you with and a whip to split your back and a fine rope to
break your neck, after our other attentions. I promise you that what–
ever has been done to a nigger, that will now be done to you....
MARIANNE:
Have you gone out of your mind?
JESSE:
Who knows? Anyway, that's the way it is. That is what is go–
ing to happen. I'll just ring up Sam Hollis and get him to pick up
Al Murray and Hardy Jones.
He moves toward the telephone on the desk, pushing
MARIANNE
aside.
Out of my way, Woman. Did you think you could tell me a story like
that and that I'd just write it off to bad luck and the indignities regu–
larly done my race ... ? No, Marianne ... you just didn't under–
stand me if you thought that....
MARIANNE:
But you can't lynch a white man.
(A pause.)
I don't want
you to lynch Young Williams.. .. I don't want you to, Jesse.
JESSE:
I'll answer you with the words of a noble Negro in literature,
