when skeeter butts returned to the hen-scratch saloon, he found his three friends at the table, listening with the most intense interest to the speech of the stranger recently arrived among them, red cutt.
they were so intent upon his words that skeeter regretted his absence from the saloon. he felt that he had missed something of the utmost importance, for he had never seen his three friends more excited than they were at that particular moment. skeeter paused at the door and listened. red cutt was speaking.
“de fust time i ever saw anybody go up in de air wus at a county fair. dar wus a balloon tied on de end of a rope, an’ a white man wus in charge, and he let eve’ybody whut had a dollar go up in de air as fur as de rope went.”
“how many foots could you go up?” vinegar inquired.
“one thousand foots,” red cutt informed him. “dat is as fur as de rope stretched. of co’se if de rope broke, i imagines a nigger might hab went a heap farther, but dey wouldn’t charged him nothin’ fer dat extry trip.”
“an’ did you go up in it?” hitch diamond asked.
“naw, i didn’t hab no dollar; but i made up my mind right dar dat some day i wus gwine up.”
skeeter butts joined the company at this point, sat down and lighted a cigarette, leaned back and asked with great nonchalance:
“how long has you been tryin’ to fly, brudder red cutt?”
“i been at it for the last ’leven or twelve months. is you had any expe’unce flyin’?”
“naw, suh, i ain’t had much to speak about,” skeeter butts replied. “of co’se, i took a few little flies when i wus in de army, but i didn’t run de machine myself, an’ i don’t know very much about it.”
“i’m glad to hear you say dat, skeeter,” red cutt responded. “you see, my bizzness jes’ now is travelin’ through de country teachin’ cullud folks how to fly dese machines. de gover’ment of the nunited states is makin’ about a million of dese airships eve’y week. as soon as de war is over dey won’t have no need for dem airships in de europe war, an’ dey will have about forty millions dat dey will want to sell cheap.”
“dat sounds good to me,” skeeter butts said in pleased anticipation. “i always has wanted one of dem things.”
“well, you kin git you one,” red cutt said. “a good hand-me-down airship—dis here gover’ment will be mighty nigh givin’ ’em away, because dey won’t have no whar to keep ’em atter de war is over.”
“i’ll shore git me one,” hitch diamond said in a loud voice.
red cutt looked at him and nodded his head approvingly.
“i’ll git me one,” vinegar atts proclaimed.
“put me down for one, de best one you got,” skeeter butts announced.
“i ain’t sellin’ ’em, nigger,” red cutt laughed. “i learns fellers how to fly in ’em. the gover’ment ain’t gwine deliver ’em to you. dey will all be landed at de same place on de gulf of mexico, an’ eve’y nigger has got to go git his own an’ pick out of the bunch de one dat he wants.”
“you means dat we got to fly our own machine home?” skeeter butts inquired.
“suttingly,” red cutt answered.
“gosh! i reckon we does need lessons in flyin’,” vinegar atts proclaimed.
“one dollar, per lesson, each nigger,” red cutt announced in a businesslike tone.
“how many niggers is allowed to learn at one time?” skeeter inquired.
“one hundred niggers. we organizes de high exalted nigger flyin’ club, and we all takes lessons at the same time.”
“when is we gwine organize dis club?” skeeter butts inquired.
“it will suit me best if we organizes to-night,” red cutt replied. “because, you see, i ain’t got so awful long to stay at any one place.”
“i kin fix dat,” hitch diamond growled. “de nights of darkness lodge meets to-night. we has got a little mo’ dan one hundred members, but dar never wus a lodge full of niggers whar all of ’em had one dollar per each at one time. so i imagines dat when we sends out word dat eve’y nigger dat comes to de lodge to-night must have a dollar fer a special puppus dar won’t be mo’ dan one hunderd dat will see deir way clear to come.”
“we might take our fust lesson at de lodge to-night, atter we completes de organization,” red cutt suggested.
“dat will suit me perzackly,” hitch rumbled. “i’s de presidunt of de nights of darkness lodge, and i’ll give de word, an’ whut i says goes.”
red cutt reached to his hip-pocket and brought forth a red-covered book and laid it on the table before them. vinegar atts leaned over and gazed at the title of the book—“how to fly.” he opened to the title-page of the volume and beheld a picture of a man dressed in the aviator costume, with his goggles pushed back on his forehead, his mouth wide-spread in a happy grin.
“somepin shore tickles dis flyin’-man,” he chuckled. “i wonder is he so awful pleased wid himself because he is gwine up or because he has jes’ come down?”
“as fer as i am concerned,” skeeter cackled, “i think i could pull a bigger grin atter i done come down dan i could ef i wus jes’ gwine up.”
“atter you has studied dis book a while, an’ tuck a few lessons in runnin’ de machine, you will laugh de most at de chance of gwine up,” red told him.
he handed the book to vinegar opened at the preface, and said:
“read whut it says at the fust openin’ of de book.”
the colored clergyman leaned back and gazed at the page, reading aloud, giving to the words his peculiar african pronunciation.
“‘wid a desire to train an aviator into proper capability so dat he may, when embarkin’ on his career, have skillful an’ complete knowledge of his perfession——’”
“dat’s de word!” red proclaimed. “skillful an’ complete knowledge of his perfession!”
“‘an’ fly widout dose disasterous an’ unnervin’ consequences—’” vinegar resumed but was instantly interrupted.
“dat’s de sentence whut suits me best,” skeeter announced. “i don’t want no disasterous an’ unnervin’ consequences when i gits up in de air.”
“dis here am de very book dat shows you how not to have ’em,” red cutt said. “an’ dis is de rule dat we go by.”
he rapidly turned over the pages of the preface, indicating a place on the page, and allowed vinegar to resume his reading.
“‘do not rush students through deir trainin’. haste makes waste. dis fack should be inscribed on de door of every hangar.’”
“hanger!” figger bush exclaimed. “how come dat book speaks about hangin’? i thought we wus talkin’ about flyin’, an’ now you done got off de subjeck.”
the other three negroes looked at red cutt rebukingly, as if they also thought that he had brought into the matter of flying a theme which no negro in the south cares to discuss. he is willing to walk, to run, to swim or fly, but he has an insuperable aversion to hanging.
“dat shows dat you niggers have got a heap to learn,” red cutt laughed. “a hangar is jes’ like a stable. you keeps a buggy in de stable, an’ a automobile in de garage, an’ a airplane in a hangar.”
“mebbe so,” skeeter said in a dissatisfied tone. “but i don’t like dat word, jes’ de same.”
“dar ain’t no noose to dis hangar i speaks of,” red cutt assured him.
“no noose is good noose,” skeeter proclaimed. “but i don’t like dat word.”
“don’t let a word pester you,” red cutt laughed as he rose to his feet and picked up his hat. “meet me at de nights of darkness lodge to-night an’ i’ll tell you some things dat will git on your squeamishness heap wuss dan a word.”
“we will all be dar!” the quartet chorused.
“all you got to do is to be dar wid yo’ dollar,” red cutt answered as he stepped through the green-baize door of the saloon.
