ms to have shot Beau but no one seems to believe her. All the black men with empty shotguns gather on the "gary" or the porch. Here they sit and wait for Mapes the sheriff to come. By know there are at least 13 aged black men sitting on the porch with shotguns. As Mapes arrives he questions each of the men with shotguns and they all claim that they put the one fatal wound into Beau. All of them give a good reason why they shot Beau but Mapes still believes that Mathu shot him because he is the only real man around who would have the nerve to do such a thing. Tucker, one of the old men on the porch tell Mapes that he shot Beau for revenge because Tucker was forced by Beau to beat his own brother with a piece of sugar cane after he had won a race to Beau that he was not supposed to win. This was just one of the many pitiful stories the black told Mapes. The group pretty much sat on the porch all day accompanied by a few neighbors and relatives waiting for Fix, Beaus father to come and try to lynch the men. Fix was known around these parts for abusing blacks that crossed his path and with the act of killing his son he was sure to show up. This is where the novel takes an interesting twist and Fix's other son is brought into the plot.
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