Patricia Whittle, Contributor

They stood there with the first rays of the sun glaring angrily at them, the tell-tale tools of their gruesome act still clutched in their hands. Now guilt was written all over their faces. They wished that the dreadful deed could be retracted, but alas, that was not possible.

Mass Frain looked at the guilty knot of men, and his eyes were drawn to the bloody bundle close- by. He emitted a deep, mournful howl before everything went black.

Yesterday, he was a happy man, a proud man. His nephew had written to tell him that he was coming to spend two weeks of his summer holidays with him. Mass Frain gave him directions to his house and John drove to see him, arriving late in the evening.

John was a brilliant final-year student at the University of Technology. He was on his way to being a successful lawyer. He grew up in Kingston, but loved the countryside. He had just finished his exams and wanted to chill out.

That very night Mass Sam's goat wandered into Mass Frain's yard. Mass Frain recognised the goat immediately and decided to return it to Mass Sam the following morning.

Meanwhile Mass Sam missed his goat and raised an alarm. His neighbours who were fed up with the constant robberies by elusive crooks, came out to help him search for the goat.

John was an early riser. He loved to jog early in the mornings to keep fit. On getting up, he offered to take the goat to Mass Sam, since he would be passing that way. Mass Frain untied the goat and watched as John jogged up the road with the goat in lazy pursuit.

John had not jogged far before he encountered the group of men. They were armed with sticks, machetes and stones. As they advanced towards him, he realised that something terrible was afoot.

"Si di tiefing goat tief!" one of them shouted. "We ketch him red-handed wid Mass Sam goat!"

"No, you are mistaken," John tried to correct them, but their angry shouts drowned his voice. "I'm returning the goat to the owner!" he tried again, but his pleas fell upon deaf ears.

They beat, kicked and even chopped him. All the pent-up anger they harboured for the thieves was converted into blows which were unleashed on poor John. The more he cried out, the more they beat him. They did not stop until his body lay still.

One man took the goat and led it to Mass Sam's yard, proud to tell him that they had recovered his goat and caught the thief.

When Mass Frain did not see John return, he went to look for him. He saw the men, who immediately informed him that they had caught a goat thief.

"Wi catch the thiefing old toad red-handed. We catch him running away wid di man goat," they told him.

"You idiots! That was no thief! That was mi nephew!" shouted Mass Frain. "Where is he now?"

His heart sank as his eyes encountered the bloody bundle by the side of the road. The guilty knot of men now realised their fatal error, but the dreadful deed was already done. They had murdered an innocent young man, because they decided to take the law into their own hands.