At the corner table by the window, Adam Cramer sat with his hands folded.

Someone said, “It’s ten of.”

Niesen muttered “Sweet Lord” under his breath, removed a handkerchief and knotted it about his neck.

Five minutes passed.

Then the door of the café opened, and Danny Humboldt came in.

His face was red, and he was gasping for breath.

“Happened,” he said.

Adam Cramer glanced at him sharply, frowned secretly, and said: “Go easy, Danny. We don’t know what you’re talking about. What has happened?”

Danny Humboldt grinned.

“Go easy.”

Of the other men, only Carey showed any interest in the boy. He exchanged a glance with Adam and moved his chair around.

“Nigger at school tried to rape a girl!” Danny Humboldt said excitedly.

“What?” The Rev. Lorenzo Niesen came instantly out of his lethargy. Again, his features were hawk-sharp.

“Nigger. You know, one called Joe Green.”

Adam Cramer walked over to the boy and put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you joking?” he said.

“Hell, no. Happened twenty minutes ago. Ella McDaniel, you know her, the fella who’s in the hospital’s daughter.”

“Yeah?” Phil Dongen came over.

“Well, everybody heard this hollering, this screaming, you know? And she come running into Mr. Crandall’s room, and her shirt was ripped and she was crying. What it was, she was getting some supplies for—”

“I knew it’d happen!” Joan said, in a tone of finality. “Harold, you hear that? Nigger tried to rape a white girl over to the school!”

“Where is he?” Dongen asked.

“Principal’s office,” Danny Humboldt said. “They got him locked up there.”

“Well,” Adam Cramer said, “this is precisely what we’ve been afraid of, isn’t it?” He shot Carey a glance. Carey nodded. The exchange went unnoticed by the others. “Are we going to do something about it?” he demanded suddenly.

Niesen slammed his hand palm-downward on the table. “God damn!” he said.

Adam Cramer pointed at the little man. “All right,” he said, “go and get every member of SNAP you can find—you, too, Phil. Right now. Tell ’em what come up. Tell ’em to meet here as quick as they can; right away.”

“Lot of them won’t,” Dongen said. “People been reading that newspaper. People been quitting, on account of—”

“Don’t any of that matter now,” Adam Cramer said. “You just tell ’em what happened at the school, and they’ll come. They’ll come. Danny, you go on back. Round up as many kids as you can. Buck a head. Guarantee.”

Danny Humboldt winked and ran outside.

Bart Carey wiped his forehead with a paper napkin and rolled the napkin into a hall. “It better work,” he said, when the others had gone.

“It will,” Adam Cramer said. He stared at the big man for a moment, then added, “If you keep your mouth shut. If you don’t start trying to think on your own any more.”