100 Word Challenge - Countenance

What follows is offered in response to Velvet Verbosity's 100 Word Challenge. The challenge, this week, is "Countenacne".


 

Jake Busters stood in the back of the buckboard, a thick rope around his neck and over a branch of the stout oak at the edge of town. In the torchlight, the beads of sweat made his face glisten.

The hooded leader spoke. "Jake, you wuz seen eyein' a white woman. Ain't nuthin' fer it but ta get this over with. Say yer prayers."

With that, his hand raised to swat the horse.

Suddenly, a shot rang out from behind the hooded crowd.

Judge McCurdy shouted, "I will not countenance such a travesty of Justice."

The crowd grudgingly melted away.

Ndinombethe.