hout warning. On inquiry,
I found the negro had told me the truth, and must confess I was not a
little astonished at it. But a few hours previously, I had left Edmonds,
apparently well; now he was a corpse! The thought gave me a shade of
melancholy, especially as I knew and felt that he had been cut down in
guilt; for that he was both a robber and a murderer I could not for a
moment doubt.

I made some inquiry about the amount of money left by Edmonds, and
discovered that after paying all the expenses of his funeral, the amount
of nine hundred dollars would be left, which, according to his request
just before his death, was to be sent to his friends in Savanna,
Georgia.

Not long after I got back to the Point, when walking out alone, the dumb
negro joined me, and motioned me to follow him: I did so, without
hesitation. We had not gone far out of the way, before he placed himself
near me, and, to my surprise, spoke to me as plainly and distinctly as
any one could. He said he knew he would surprise me when he talked like
other folks; but he would give me a good reason for having seemed to be
dumb. He then gave me a sketch of his chequered career. He was once a
slave, but had been a free man between thirty and forty years. At the
age of twenty, he was purchased from his master, at Petersburg,
Virginia, to save his life, by a band of outlaws of which he became a
member, in a servile capacity. These men had freed him, soon after they
purchased him from his master, and in consideration he had taken the
oath as one of their gang, and had sworn, with other things, to appear
to be deaf and dumb, so long as he should live--the penalty for any
forgetfulness, or otherwise, that should betray that he could either
speak or hear, being death! That he had been educated to this end; that
the band had men who could converse with him readily by signs, and that
he had been so much accustomed to communicate his thoughts in that
manner, that it had become second nature. He told me he was now
determined to go to Canada, where he proposed remaining for the balance
of his life. I asked him how he meant to go? His reply was, that he
should make the journey by land; that he knew every foot of the route,
and had hundreds of warm friends all the way along. He further said that
he could communicate to me a secret, which he thought it would be better
for me to keep--and this is the first time I have ever publicly revealed
it.

The secret was, tha