The Whiskey Rebel

I was by myself, preparing a stew for our evening meal, when the dog began to bark excitedly. We kept it tied up near the entrance to the cabin, lest it run off, but the disadvantage to this system was that it could not prevent a stranger from entering. I heard the alarm, however, and prepared myself just as the door to the cabin swung hard inward, and there stood Tindall, flanked on either side by Hendry and Phineas.

Hendry observed my expression of surprise and disorder and laughed cruelly. “Looks like we caught her making us some di

Tindall came in after him, clutching his fowling piece and gri

Tindall strolled about the cabin with an arrogance only to be found in a man taking what is not his. He looked into the pot, he looked at the pantry. He peered at our bed and smirked.

“Where is your husband, Joan? He ought not to leave you alone like this.”

“It is Mrs. Maycott, and he is about the property. He will be home shortly. I shall inform him you called.”

“If he is to be home shortly, my dear, I’ll just make myself comfortable right here and wait awhile. You want to get comfortable, Hendry?”

“I believe I do. I take my comfort where I can get it.”

Something was different now. They were not here to bluster or to frighten but for something else. I dared not to consider what.

“I must ask you to leave now,” I managed.

“Well, that’s a fu

“Every man with a still in the four counties owes you now,” I said. “I have not heard anything yet of you trying to collect.”

“Your husband is a special case, making trouble with his new methods. Now, I’ve been so good as to apply some of his rent money to that debt, but then you know what happens? It means he hasn’t paid his rent. And if a man hasn’t paid his rent, then do you know what happens to the land he’s renting?”

“Get out,” I said again.

“No, that’s not right, Joan. That’s not it at all. The land goes back to the landlord, and that landlord has a right, some might even say a responsibility, to toss that man off his property so he might learn to be industrious. Do you know what happens to the land he’s renting?”

“Get out,” I said again.

Phineas continued to look out the window. “Bitch,” he said, without turning his head.

“An industrious man might have been clearing this land, doing something useful with his time, rather than making whiskey, which can’t make him money and can only bring him debt.”

I took several steps closer to him. “You think your money and your toadeaters are going to keep you safe if you stir the ire of the settlers here? These are rough men with nothing but their strength and pride and resentment, principally for you.”

Phineas did not move, did not turn, though he continued to mutter. Hendry took several steps toward me. I do not know what I thought he was going to do, but he appeared to me a monstrous face, the red skin under his scraggly beard glowing in the light of our fire, his eyes moist with excitement.

“This’s been coming,” he said. I could not react quickly enough to prevent it. He balled his fist and struck me directly in my belly. The pain hit me like a wall of water from a broken dam-it was vast and overpowering, and for a time I was lost in it. I fell to my hands and knees, gagged, vomited upon the floor. My bo

“Careful,” Tindall said. “We’ve spoken about your temper.”

The smell of my own vomit overwhelmed me. I gagged again, but nothing came forth. I had been expecting something terrible, yes, but not brutal unadorned violence. If they would do this, they would stop at nothing. Ugly lights danced before my eyes. “Please,” I gasped.

“What is it?” Tindall asked me. “You talk like a man, but you don’t know what pain and fear are. I reckon you’re finding out, though.”

“Please,” I said again. “I am with child.” This, I thought, could not but excite their mercy, or at least their pity. Tindall was a monster, but he could not be such a monster as to assault a woman with child.

“Ain’t that something?” Tindall asked. “Well, a woman with child won’t want another blow to her belly, I suppose. That would be what I imagine. Do you imagine that, Hendry?”

“I don’t know if I do,” he said, his foxlike face seeming to grow sharper. “But maybe.”

“Git her dress off,” Phineas said. “Git it unbuttoned, like you said.”

I pushed myself to my feet. I felt the heat of tears in my eyes, the sourness of my purging in my mouth. “What kind of devil are you?”

“I’m a devil from Virginia, my good lady, and I take what I want if I can. That is the true vision of America, the one I fought for. The principles of the Revolution have made me a king in Pittsburgh.”

“You go too far,” I said.

“I go where I like. Now, should I ask Hendry to strike you once more? Maybe we can do something about that troubling thing that grows within you.”

Involuntarily, I put my hands across my belly.

“Or,” said Tindall, “we can make a different arrangement. I’ll allow you and your husband to remain here, and I will make certain Hendry strikes you no more, but in return I must ask you show me some consideration. You know what I speak of, don’t you, Joan? Let us go from here, the two of us. We shall leave your husband in peace, let him tinker with his whiskey. I shall overlook his rent in arrears. I shall even wink at his whiskey tax for him this year.”

“Why?” I gasped, my voice low. I struggled to keep myself calm. “Why do you do this to me? Why me above others? I ca

“Because the others have already given me what I like,” he said, his voice cold. “You defy me. Your husband defies me. Your friends defy me. I ca

“I would rather die,” I said, and I may have meant it.

“Oh, I don’t think so. In a moment or two, you will be imploring me to have you on the terms I mentioned. But if you vex me, if you are impertinent, I may have to alter the terms.”

I forced myself to stand erect, to thrust out my chin, to show him my pride and my anger. “Not on any terms.”

“I do like how she thrusts out her bosoms at me, but it shall not be enough. Hendry, would you please show this woman that I am not a man to be taken lightly.”

I put my hands inside my apron. “Please,” I said.

“I’ll have my turn too,” Hendry said. “When the colonel’s done, I’ll have my turn. And Phineas. He’s been waiting.”

“I been waiting,” he said, staring out the window.

Hendry had only taken three steps toward me when I pulled the trigger. I was not so foolish as to take out my gun. I was outnumbered and could not compete with their strength. Even with the firearm, my chances were not good. If I wished to live I needed to depend upon trickery. I fired through my apron, and the ball struck Hendry in his neck.

I could not imagine how Andrew had so calmly fired his pistol under the table at the braves. The weapon bucked wildly in my hand, jerking back and striking my hip almost hard enough that I feared I’d broken bone. Heat burst around my hand. My apron caught fire, but I patted it out quickly. I staggered two steps back and looked up and saw Hendry put his hand to his neck, slapping it as though a mosquito had landed upon him. Blood flowed heavily through his fingers, thick and almost black. “That ain’t right,” he said. Then he fell.