“My name is Doom now,” Doom said. “It was given me by a French chief in New Orleans. In French talking, Doo-um; in our talking, Doom.”
“What does it mean?” Herman Basket said.
He said how Doom looked at him for a while. “It means the Man,” Doom said.
Herman Basket told how they thought about that. He said they stood there in the dark, with the other puppies in the box, the ones that Doom hadn’t used, whimpering and scuffing, and the light of the pine knot shining on the eyeballs of the black people and on Doom’s gold coat and on the puppy that had died.
“You cannot be the Man,” Herman Basket said. “You are only on the sister’s side. And the Man has a brother and a son.”
“That’s right,” Doom said. “But if I were the Man, I would give Craw-ford those black people. I would give Herman something, too. For every black man I gave Crawford, I would give Herman a horse, if I were the Man.”
“Craw-ford only wants this woman,” Herman Basket said.
“I would give Herman six horses, anyway,” Doom said. “But maybe the Man has already given Herman a horse.”
“No,” Herman Basket said. “My ghost is still walking.”
It took them three days to reach the Plantation. They camped on the road at night. Herman Basket said that they did not talk.
They reached the Plantation on the third day. He said that the Man was not very glad to see Doom, even though Doom brought a present of candy for the Man’s son. Doom had something for all his kinsfolk, even for the Man’s brother. The Man’s brother lived by himself in a cabin by the creek. His name was Sometimes-Wakeup. Sometimes the People took him food. The rest of the time they didn’t see him.
Herman Basket told how he and pappy went with Doom to visit Sometimes-Wakeup in his cabin. It was at night, and Doom told Herman Basket to close the door. Then Doom took the puppy from pappy and set it on the floor and made a bullet of bread and the New Orleans salt for Sometimes-Wakeup to see how it worked. When they left, Herman Basket said how Sometimes-Wakeup burned a stick and covered his head with the blanket.
That was the first night that Doom was at home. On the next day Herman Basket told how the Man began to act strange at his food, and died before the doctor could get there and burn sticks. When the Willow-Bearer went to fetch the Man’s son to be the Man, they found that he had acted strange and then died too.
“Now Sometimes-Wakeup will have to be the Man,” pappy said.
So the Willow-Bearer went to fetch Sometimes-Wakeup to come and be the Man. The Willow-Bearer came back soon. “Sometimes-Wakeup does not want to be the Man,” the Willow-Bearer said. “He is sitting in his cabin with his head in his blanket.”
“Then Ikkemotubbe will have to be the Man,” pappy said.
So Doom was the Man. But Herman Basket said that pappy’s ghost would not be easy. Herman Basket said he told pappy to give Doom a little time. “I am still walking,” Herman Basket said.
“But this is a serious matter with me,” pappy said.
He said that at last pappy went to Doom, before the Man and his son had entered the earth, before the eating and the horse-racing were over. “What woman?” Doom said.
“You said that when you were the Man,” pappy said. Herman Basket said that Doom looked at pappy but that pappy was not looking at Doom.
“I think you don’t trust me,” Doom said. Herman Basket said how pappy did not look at Doom. “I think you still believe that that puppy was sick,” Doom said. “Think about it.”
Herman Basket said that pappy thought.
“What do you think now?” Doom said.
But Herman Basket said that pappy still did not look at Doom. “I think it was a well dog,” pappy said.
III
At last the eating and the horse-racing were over and the Man and his son had entered the earth. Then Doom said, “Tomorrow we will go and fetch the steamboat.” Herman Basket told how Doom had been talking about the steamboat ever since he became the Man, and about how the House was not big enough. So that evening Doom said, “Tomorrow we will go and fetch the steamboat that died in the river.”
Herman Basket said how the steamboat was twelve miles away, and that it could not even swim in the water. So the next morning there was no one in the Plantation except Doom and the black people. He told how it took Doom all that day to find the People. Doom used the dogs, and he found some of the People in hollow logs in the creek bottom. That night he made all the men sleep in the House. He kept the dogs in the House, too.
Herman Basket told how he heard Doom and pappy talking in the dark. “I don’t think you trust me,” Doom said.
“I trust you,” pappy said.
“That is what I would advise,” Doom said.
“I wish you could advise that to my ghost,” pappy said.
The next morning they went to the steamboat. The women and the black people walked. The men rode in the wagons, with Doom following behind with the dogs.
The steamboat was lying on its side on the sand-bar. When they came to it, there were three white men on it. “Now we can go back home,” pappy said.
But Doom talked to the white men. “Does this steamboat belong to you?” Doom said.
“It does not belong to you,” the white men said. And though they had guns, Herman Basket said they did not look like men who would own a boat.
“Shall we kill them?” he said to Doom. But he said that Doom was still talking to the men on the steamboat.
“What will you take for it?” Doom said.
“What will you give for it?” the white men said.
“It is dead,” Doom said. “It’s not worth much.”
“Will you give ten black people?” the white men said.
“All right,” Doom said. “Let the black people who came with me from the Big River come forward.” They came forward, the five men and the woman. “Let four more black people come forward.” Four more came forward. “You are now to eat of the corn of those white men yonder,” Doom said. “May it nourish you.” The white men went away, the ten black people following them. “Now,” Doom said, “let us make the steamboat get up and walk.”
Herman Basket said that he and pappy did not go into the river with the others, because pappy said to go aside and talk. They went aside. Pappy talked, but Herman Basket said that he said he did not think it was right to kill white men, but pappy said how they could fill the white men with rocks and sink them in the river and nobody would find them.
So Herman Basket said they overtook the three white men and the ten black people, then they turned back toward the boat. Just before they came to the steamboat, pappy said to the black men: “Go on to the Man. Go and help make the steamboat get up and walk. I will take this woman on home.”
“This woman is my wife,” one of the black men said. “I want her to stay with me.”
“Do you want to be arranged in the river with rocks in your inside too?” pappy said to the black man.
“Do you want to be arranged in the river yourself?” the black man said to pappy. “There are two of you, and nine of us.”
Herman Basket said that pappy thought. Then pappy said, “Let us go to the steamboat and help the Man.”
They went to the steamboat. But Herman Basket said that Doom did not notice the ten black people until it was time to return to the Plantation. Herman Basket told how Doom looked at the black people, then looked at pappy. “It seems that the white men did not want these black people,” Doom said.
“So it seems,” pappy said.
“The white men went away, did they?” Doom said.
“So it seems,” pappy said.
Herman Basket told how every night Doom would make all the men sleep in the House, with the dogs in the House too, and how each morning they would return to the steamboat in the wagons. The wagons would not hold everybody, so after the second day the women stayed at home.
But it was three days before Doom noticed that pappy was staying at home too. Herman Basket said that the woman’s husband may have told Doom. “Craw-ford hurt his back lifting the steamboat,” Herman Basket said he told Doom. “He said he would stay at the Plantation and sit with his feet in the Hot Spring so that the sickness in his back could return to the earth.”
“That is a good idea,” Doom said. “He has been doing this for three days, has he? Then the sickness should be down in his legs by now.”
When they returned to the Plantation that night, Doom sent for pappy. He asked pappy if the sickness had moved. Pappy said how the sickness moved very slow. “You must sit in the Spring more,” Doom said.
“That is what I think,” pappy said.
“Suppose you sit in the Spring at night too,” Doom said.
“The night air will make it worse,” pappy said.
“Not with a fire there,” Doom said. “I will send one of the black people with you to keep the fire burning.”
“Which one of
