HALO OF SPEARS

Wilful and wantonly wasteful of a guaranteed birthright David Mayfield refuses help from his Alabama home when he is accused of -- and pleads guilty to -- the murder of Clytee Mawson, the young, kind wife of Florida moonshiner Tom. Sentenced to the chain gang which is leased to the Ivy Naval Stores Company for convict labor, David learns the indignities, the degradation and the humiliations forced on his whole group. He learns too of the pine forests destroyed for turpentine, and his need to be punished gradually disappears when his will to survive drives him to try to escape to help the Negro Booker, and in turn, with his innocence established, to be of aid to the demon-possessed woods captain, Durrance. The theme of expiation is luridly lit by the malpractices to convicts in the late 1890's, with narrative often giving way to shock.