While in
New Orleans, Kirby Buckner is confronted by an elderly
Creole woman who whispers a bizarre warning: "Trouble on Tularoosa Creek!" The woman quickly disappears into a nearby crowd. Buckner immediately realizes that his backwoods homeland is in peril and instantly departs for the Canaan region of his birth. He arrives after midnight and heads out on horseback through the bayou, before reaching the town of Grimesville. En route, he encounters a mysterious "
quadroon girl" named Saul Stark, who has vowed to kill all the whites in Grimesville and set up a black empire in America. Most are apprehensive concerning the imminent "uprising". The scion of an important family, Buckner is looked to for leadership during this time of crisis. The men of Grimesville had already captured a frightened black man, Tope Sorely, and were about to interrogate him when Buckner arrived. One of the men offers a whip for use as coercion but Buckner, against beating the truth from Tope, attempts to calm him instead. Tope is afraid of Stark's wrath should he betray his own master. He fears that Stark will use his magical powers to "put me in de swamp!" Promises of protection persuade Tope to tell them of Stark's ambitions. However, Buckner decides to confront Stark himself. Traveling to Stark's cabin, Buckner finds Stark has left, but instinctively realizes that he placed some sort of supernatural entity within the cabin to guard it and does not enter. As he returns to his fellow townspeople, Buckner once again meets the quadroon girl. "I have made a charm you cannot resist!" she gloats, and deep down Kirby knows this is true. The woman tells him about how, on this very night, she will summon Kirby to her and they'll witness the Dance of the Skull, where he'll be left powerless to resist. The witch woman melts mysteriously into the swamp and Buckner rides away. Along the trail, Buckner meets Jim Braxton, a friend who has come searching for him. Buckner admonishes Braxton about returning to Grimesville, so he can find and face Stark alone. However, Braxton refuses to allow his friend to face this danger on his own. As the sun sets, Buckner feels himself drawn towards the black settlement of Goshen, unable to resist or even speak of the witch's spell to Braxton. He attempts to warn his friend away several times, but to no avail. Arriving at Goshen, both men encounter the witch woman. Buckner is paralyzed by the spell, but Braxton acts out and shoots at her. Once more she vanishes, and they find no body. Suddenly, they're attacked by something in the swamp, which they cannot see clearly, and Jim Braxton is killed. Buckner, totally helpless in the grip of a
voodoo spell, finds himself watching the rites of
Damballah from a grove of trees. The orgiastic rites will climax with Buckner meeting a hideous fate at the hands of Saul Stark. Just then, amid a circle of Stark's followers, the witch appears, her body swaying rhythmically in the Dance of the Skull. Buckner realizes that she is the source of Stark's power, and, at the end of the ceremony, Stark will fully consolidate his power over the black people of the region. However, as the witch finishes her dance she collapses, dead, for Braxton's bullet had struck home, hitting her in the heart. Only her supernatural power had kept her alive this long. As she expires, Buckner feels the spell laid upon him lift. The black people flee in panic, their uprising haulted, as Buckner stalks out of the swamp and kills Stark. Afterwards, Buckner learns the meaning of Tope Sorley's cryptic words: "He'd put me in de swamp!" He discovers that Stark magically altered the appearance of his enemies, transforming them into mindless amphibian horrors. The burden of this terrible knowledge is a secret Buckner does not share with his fellow whites, creating an unspoken bond between himself and the black people of Canaan. ==Background: Kelly the Conjure-man==