distinguish no sign of the boatman left in
charge, but, even as I lay there, breathless and uncertain, he suddenly
revealed his presence by lighting a lantern in the stern. The
illumination was feeble enough, yet sufficient to expose to view the
small, unprotected engine aft, and also the fact that all forward of
the little cockpit in which it stood, the entire craft was decked over.
The fellow was busily engaged in overhauling the machinery, leaning far
forward, his body indistinct, the lantern swinging in one hand, with
entire attention devoted to his task. Occasionally, as he lifted his
head for some purpose, the dim radiance fell upon his face, revealing
the unmistakable countenance of a mulatto, a fellow of medium size,
broad of cheek with unusually full lips, and a fringe of whisker
turning gray. Somehow this revelation that he was a negro, and not a
white man, brought with it to me an additional confidence in success.
I inclined my head and whispered in the girl's ear:

"You are not to move from here until I call. This is to be my part of
the work, handling that lad. I am going now."

"He is colored, is he not, a slave?"

"We can only guess as to that. But he does not look to me like a hard
proposition. If I can only reach the boat without being seen, the rest
will be easy. Now is the proper time, while he is busy tinkering with
the engine. You will stay here?"

"Yes, of course; I--I could be of no help."

She suddenly held out her hand, as though impelled to the action of
some swift impulse, and the warm pressure of her fingers meant more
than words. I could not see the expression on her face, yet knew the
slender body was trembling nervously.

"Surely you are not afraid?"

"Oh, no; it is not that--I--I am all unstrung. You must not think of
me, at all."

This was far easier said than done, however, for she was more in my
mind as I crept forward than the indistinct figure below in the boat.
It was becoming a constant struggle already--indeed, had been from the
first--to hold her for what I actually knew her to be--negress, a
slave, desperately seeking to escape from her master. The soft,
refined voice, the choice use of language, the purity of her thought
and expression, the girlish face as I had seen it under the light, all
combined to continually blind me to the real truth. I could not even
force myself to act toward her from any standpoint other than that of
equality, or regard her as i