"Mr. Booth, I haven't seen you for a long time, I heard that you have been sick recently, are you feeling better?" At Ford's Theatre, a staff member who saw the famous actor John Wilkes Booth, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, greeted him warmly.

Booth replied vaguely: "Oh, I've had a little illness lately, but I'm almost fine, so I'm going to the theater today to feel the atmosphere and find out what I'm like." ”

"That's great, but there are so many ladies and ladies waiting for you to come back on stage." In fact, the staff's words are not all compliments, Booth himself was born in a famous drama family, with superb acting skills, steady typhoon, and tall and handsome, so he is indeed the object of pursuit by many female theater fans.

Booth nodded perfunctorily and said, "Well, I will definitely try not to disappoint the audience." By the way, I have a few friends who came to the box to watch the show today, so I'm going to say hello. ”

"Okay, Mr. Booth, you're busy!" The staff left in amusement.

It wasn't until he was away from the staff that Booth breathed a sigh of relief, although he just had a very polite conversation just now, but it made his nervous back of the senior actor sweat, this is because today he is not here to adapt to the atmosphere of the theater or to accompany friends, he is going to do a big thing today, a big event that will shock the United States and even the world if he succeeds, that is, to assassinate the president!

Booth was also deliberate in making this decision, and even he had put life and death on the line, because he was a staunch supporter of the Confederate and a fanatical slave at heart. During the Civil War, Booth worked with a group of people who worked in the shadows, including his childhood friends Mitchell Olaulin and Sam Arnold, George Atswold, a horse-drawn carriage maker in Maryland, David Herold, a 23-year-old pharmacy employee, Louis Powell, a former Confederate soldier, and John Zarat, who had provided intelligence to the Confederate Army. The group had plotted a plan to kidnap Lincoln in exchange for captured Southern fighters in an apartment in Washington, but unfortunately died before it could begin.

After learning that the Confederate army had officially surrendered, Booth felt that his whole life was gloomy, and he had no heart to act, so he stayed at home all day and drank to drown his sorrows, until he went to Ford's Theatre at noon today to get the letter, and accidentally learned that Lincoln and Grant would be present at tonight's show, so a bold idea was born.

Booth cautiously walked in the direction of the box, and said that he was lucky enough to-day, not only that John Pike, the policeman who was in charge of guarding the hall, had no interest in theater, so he was lazy and hid in another room to drink; And the lock on the box was already broken, but the theater management didn't know about it, so Booth gently pushed the door open and blended in.

This series of smooth processes made Booth excited, and he thought that God was going to defend the position of the white man with his own hand, to eradicate Lincoln, the traitor among the white people, and for a while, Booth even developed a sense of mission and sacredness, which made him feel a little dizzy.

But just when he barely regained his composure and just took out the gun, he was horrified to find that there were already four or five guns pointed at his head, chest and abdomen, and a middle-aged man said to him with a smile: "This gentleman, please put down the gun in your hand, I think we need to have a good talk." ”

This middle-aged man naturally won't be someone else, it's Downing who accompanied Lincoln to watch the play together, to be honest, his mood was very complicated before Booth appeared, and he didn't know whether to hope for Booth's arrival or hope that Booth wouldn't come, hoping that Booth wouldn't come naturally because he didn't want Lincoln to have an accident, but if Booth really didn't come, wouldn't that prove that he was deceiving the president? Although the United States is not guilty of bullying the monarch, it is not a good thing anyway!

Therefore, after Booth appeared, Downing immediately opened his mouth to ask him first, but unfortunately I don't know if it was because it was just in time for this "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to reach its climax, so the applause and laughter of the audience outside were too loud and covered up Downing's words, or Booth was already shocked by this scene, in short, he didn't hear a word, just stood there stupidly, his face was pale, his eyes were dull, sweat was like rain, and he was trembling.

In fact, he can't be blamed for this, after all, he is not a professional killer, so his psychological quality is naturally not so good, and it took a long time before he eased up and asked calmly: "What are you doing here?" Why are you pointing a gun at me? Am I breaking the law? ”

Downing chuckled, pointed to the pistol in Booth's hand and said, "If nothing else, how do you want to explain the fact that you have entered the presidential box without anyone's permission and are still holding a murder weapon?" ”

"I, how do I know this is the presidential box, I'm just going the wrong way, why haven't I gotten lost? And what's wrong with guns? Doesn't the United States allow private gun ownership? I also have a gun license! Booth stubbornly explained.

At this time, the captain of Lincoln's bodyguard, who had learned about the situation with the theater manager who came to inquire, replaced Downing, and said to Booth with a cold snort: "Mr. Booth, I asked Manager George just now, you have been performing at Ford's Theatre for ten years, and now you tell me that you are lost here, do you think I will believe it?" It is also said that when you came to the theater this morning to pick up your mail, you asked several people about Mr. President's itinerary for this evening. ”

"Whatever you do with me, anyway, there is no hope for the current United States under the rule of this tyrant!" Booth held his head high, looking like a righteous man.

Downing knew that after Booth had successfully assassinated Lincoln, he shouted, "This is the fate of all tyrants!" This is a famous Virginia saying, so it was not surprising that he was called Lincoln the tyrant, but there was a very urgent matter that had to be clarified immediately, so he hurriedly asked Booth: "Do you still have accomplices to assassinate Mr. Johnson and Mr. Seward?" Where are they now, hurry up and say! ”

PS: To be honest, I'm a writer who doesn't like to subscribe very much, I think the book still has to rely on the quality to speak, if you write well, readers will naturally subscribe to support, and if you don't write well, you don't have the face to ask for subscriptions. Originally, I thought that the recent decline in subscriptions was because I didn't write a copy of "Running for Governor", but after chatting with a few readers today, I realized that there are still many people who are fattening, so here I implore friends who raise books to give an automatic subscription, otherwise the books will be raised to death......