"What's the matter? Tell me before I murder you!"
"Yassam!" Mandy gasped and again her head was cocked to one side as if
straining her ears for the dreaded sound of Gabriel.
"What's happened?--Tell me!" Jennie stormed.
At last poor Mandy's senses slowly returned. She stared into her young
mistress' face and gasped:
"Yassam--Mr. Castle's killed a Yankee ossifer on de ship an' dey gwine
ter shell--"
"Boom!"
The deep thunder peal of a great gun shook the world. There was no
mistaking the sound of it or its meaning. The fleet had opened fire on
the defenseless town. Mandy's teeth chattered and her voice failed.
And then pandemonium.
Poor old negroes and helpless pickaninnies swarmed into the house for
shelter from the doom of Judgment Day.
"Run--run for your lives--get out of the way of those shells!" Jennie
shouted.
Her three terror-stricken maids huddled by her side in helpless panic.
Her grandmother sprang to her feet and asked in subdued tones:
"What is it, child?"
"The fleet's shelling the town--grandma--you'll be killed--the house'll
be smashed--you must run--run for your life--"
Jennie screamed her warning into the sweet old lady's ears and seized
her by the hand.
"But they can't shell a town full of helpless women and children, my
dear," the grandmother protested gently.
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