Liberating Atlantis

If he'd hoped to impress his wife-and he had-he failed. "Well, la-de-da!" Helen said. "And Consul Stafford, he's from Cosquer, down here on this side of the slave line. He's a planter his own self. He's got a bigger place than this here one, and he works more slaves'n Master Henry ever dreamt of owning. Gotta have both them fellas on the same side to do us any good." Negroes and copperskins in bondage could no more vote than they could fly, which didn't keep them from paying attention to Atlantean politics.

Frederick gri

"An' the soldiers come, an' they start killin' niggers an' mudfaces. It's happened before," Helen agreed.

"It has," Frederick agreed. "But I bet it won't happen this time, on account of all Consul Newton's got to do is, he's got to say, 'I veto it,' and nobody goes anywhere."

"He do that?" Helen didn't sound as if she believed it. And she knew why she didn't: "Even white folks who don't like slavery, that don't mean they do like niggers an' mudfaces. The whites down here start screamin' loud enough…"

She had a point. Frederick would have been much happier if she didn't, but she did. He paused a while in thought, listening to mosquitoes buzz and to more distant crickets trill and frogs squeak and croak. At last, he answered, "What we got to do is, we got to fight clean, like it's a war, not an uprising. Can't go killing women and children for the fun of it, the way they do in uprisings." Can't go raping white women for the fun of it, either, he thought. That happened in every slave revolt. What vengeance was more basic?

"Reckon it'd make any difference?" Helen still sounded dubious.

"Bound to make some," Frederick said.

"Reckon slaves with guns in their hands'll want to let them folks go?" She knew which questions to ask, all right.

"They will if their commanders make 'em," Frederick answered. And then, just before sleep took him at last, he added, "If I make 'em." He was ready. Whether anyone else was… he'd find out.

IV

Matthew blew the horn again the next morning. As Frederick came out to eat breakfast and go on to the fields, he looked at the overseer in a whole new way. He had to be careful not to let it show. Matthew took it for granted that he could hit or whip Frederick, or any other slave, without worrying about reprisal. If he realized Frederick didn't take it for granted, he would do his best to kill him right away. And he could, if he got any kind of chance. He had his switch and a knife with a blade long enough to gut a man like a hog. Frederick didn't think he was a coward, either. Life would have been simpler if he were, but no.

There was plenty to eat. Fewer and fewer field hands came out to work, but the cooks went on making as much as they always had. More than one slave patted his belly and gri

And so did Henry Barford. The planter looked like a man bathing in hellfire when he came out onto the front porch. Eyes wild, he pointed at one of the cavalrymen guarding the precious wagons. "Where's that lieutenant of yours, the God-damned son of a bitch bastard?"

"Sir, Lieutenant Torrance is sick. He's mighty sick," the trooper answered. "He can't see anybody right now. What's the matter?"

"What's the matter? What's the God-damned matter?" Barford howled. "My wife is puking up this horrible black gunk-looks like coffee grounds-and you ask me what's the matter? Your miserable, stinking lieutenant is what's the matter, that's what! Bringing the yellow jack to my plantation! I don't want to see the lousy bugger. I want to horsewhip him!"

"Well, sir, if it makes you feel any better, he's heaving up black stuff, too," the soldier said. "I don't think he's going to pull through."

"Too bad," Barford said, which surprised Frederick till he added, "I wanted to kill him with my own hands. But I reckon the yellow jack'll have to do. Though why a merciful God would take my sweet Clotilde, too…" He turned and lurched back into the big house.

Sweet? Frederick shook his head. Mistress Clotilde was about as sweet as vinegar. She was the one who'd wanted to give him more lashes than Master Henry. That was just like her, too. Did her husband really believe what he was saying, or was he trying to make the trooper feel worse?

From inside the house, Barford shouted, "I'll sue the government for every last eagle it's got! You wait and see if I don't!"

The cavalryman only shrugged. He scratched his nose, as if to say it was no skin off that organ. Unless the planter came out shooting-or unless the soldier got yellow fever-it wasn't his worry.

"Come on," Matthew called to the field hands. "Grab your tools. The work doesn't go away. The work never goes away. I know we're shorthanded, but we've got to keep at it. Otherwise, the harvest'll be bad, and then we'll all go hungry."

He wouldn't. Master Henry would yell at him, but that was all. The field hands really might go hungry in a bad year. Or Barford might have to sell some of them, which would be almost as rough. Frederick snorted quietly. He had other things on his own mind besides what the master might do after a bad harvest.

"You ain't said anything to anybody," Helen said as they walked out to the cotton field with tools on their shoulders. Hopefully, she added, "You gone and changed your mind?"

"Nope. Not me," Frederick answered. People said stubborn as a Radcliff. By that standard alone, he might have guessed he shared blood with one of the First Consuls. Even Henry Barford had sometimes seemed more proud than a

Helen clicked her tongue between her teeth. "Oh, Fred, what are you go

Burn my bridges, Frederick thought. But that wasn't what she wanted to hear. All he said was, "What I've got to do."

Helen shook her head, but she didn't say anything more, either. Maybe she hoped he would change his mind once they settled down to work. Part of him hoped the same thing: the part that had lived a quiet, pretty easy life all the way up into middle age. Well, his life wasn't quiet or easy any more. By all the signs, it never would be again. And if it wouldn't, why not act the way Sam-son had in the Philistines' temple? What did you have to lose?

He worked for a while, chopping and moving forward, chopping and moving forward. By now he had no trouble keeping up with the slaves working the rows of cotton to either side of him. He methodically weeded till Matthew came along to see how he was doing.

"Going all right, Frederick?" the overseer asked.

Frederick straightened and stretched, though he kept both hands on the hoe handle. "Not too bad, sir."

"Back easing up?"

"A bit." Frederick stretched again.

Matthew nodded, more to himself than to the Negro in front of him. "Told you it would. Whippings are like that."

Yes, he thought of them as nothing more than a rather unpleasant part of plantation routine. And so they were-if you held the whip. If you were on the other end… Frederick's hands tightened.

Some of what was going through his mind must have shown on his face at last. "You don't want to look at me that way," Matthew warned. "You don't want to look at me that way, by God!" He started to raise the switch, then seemed to realize it wouldn't be enough. He dropped it and grabbed for his knife instead.