r-stealer, and what my
fate would be if once caught in the act. Yet the die was already cast;
I had pledged myself to action; was fully committed to the attempted
rescue of Rene Beaucaire, and no thought of any retreat once occurred
to me. I opened the door cautiously, glancing out into the night, to
thus assure myself we were alone, closed it again, and came back. The
negro still remained seated on the edge of the bed, digging his toes
into the hard earth of the floor.

"Pete," I began earnestly. "You trust me, don't you? You do not
suspect me of being any slave-hunter?"

"No, sah, Massa Knox, I ain't 'feared o' yer--yers one o' dem
down-easterners."

"Well, not exactly that. I came from a slave state, but my family is
of New England blood and breeding. I am just as much your friend as
though you were white. Now you and I have got a hard job before us."

"Yas, sah, we sure has."

"And the first thing we have got to do, is to trust each other. Now I
am going to ask you a question--is that the best way for us to go, up
the Illinois?"

He was slow to answer, evidently turning the whole matter over in his
mind. I waited impatiently, feeling the delay to be a serious loss of
time.

"Well then, let me put this differently. Have you ever assisted any
slaves to run away from Missouri?"

"Well, Massa Knox, I reckon thet maybe I knew'd 'bout som' gittin'
a-way--'pears like I did, sah."

"And these escaped by way of the Illinois?"

His dumb, almost pathetic eyes met mine pleadingly, but some expression
of my face served to yield him courage.

"I--I reckon I--I don't know much 'bout all dis, Massa Knox," he
stammered doubtfully, his hands locking and unlocking nervously. "I--I
sure don'; an' fer de mattah o' dat, ther ain't nobody whut does, sah.
All I does know, fer sure, is dat if a nigger onct gets as fer as a
certain white man up de ribber, 'bout whar de mouth ob de Illinois is,
he's got a mighty good chance fer ter reach Canada. De next place whar
he's most likely ter stop is Beardstown, long wid som' sorter preacher
whut lives thar. An' thet's as fer as dey ever done tol' me, sah."

"About this first white man--the one near the mouth of the Illinois--do
you know his name?"

Pete rose to his feet, and crossed the room to where I stood, bending
down until his lips were close to my ear. His answer was spoken in a
thick whisper.

"Massa Knox, I never did 'spect to say dis ter no white man, but i