isions, we started off, hoping to reach home in three or four hours.
We met with no other adventures by the way. The first person we saw on
approaching our home was our father. We told him of our discovery of
the apparently dying black, and that the dominie had remained behind to
take care of the poor fellow.

"Mr Tidey has done as I would have had him, and acted the part of the
good Samaritan. We'll send the waggon off at once, to bring him and the
negro in," said my father.

Though I wanted to go too, our father declared that we looked so much
knocked up from our long tramp and sleepless nights, that we must turn
in and get some rest, and he said that he would despatch Peter, who knew
the country better than we did, for the purpose.

CHAPTER THREE.

ARRIVAL OF THE WAGGON--WHY DIO RAN AWAY--HOW TO ACT FOR THE BEST--
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY--WHAT BIDDY O'TOOLE MEANT TO DO--KATHLEEN AND DIO--
BIDDY'S INTERVIEW WITH THE STRANGERS--DIO'S PURSUERS--A FORTUNATE
ARRIVAL--TEACHING THE BLACK TO READ--GOOD WORDS--AN INTERRUPTED LESSON--
THE ALARM--MAN-HUNTERS--EVERY MAN'S HOUSE HIS CASTLE--WATCHING THE
STRANGERS--AN AGREEABLE SURPRISE--MR. MCDERMONT--MY MOTHER'S
APPREHENSIONS OF DANGER--OUR GARRISON INCREASED.

The first thing I did the next morning on getting up was to hurry out to
ascertain if Mr Tidey and the negro had arrived, and was much
disappointed to find that the waggon had not come back. Breakfast was
over, and still it did not appear. My mother suggested that possibly
the black was too weak to be removed. When I told my father of the two
men we had fallen in with, in search of a runaway slave, he looked
grave, remarking--

"Possibly the fellows on their return may have fallen in with the
waggon, and if so, they have carried off it and its occupants."

"I don't think Mr Tidey would allow himself to be captured by only two
men, or would surrender the black of whom he had taken charge," I
remarked.

"He is not likely to submit himself to be made prisoner, I grant, unless
he should have been wounded, but possibly he may not have felt himself
called on to fight for a stranger, should the men in search of the slave
be able to prove that he belongs to them or their employer," answered my
father. "However, I'll set out to try to ascertain what has happened;
saddle Swiftsure, Mike, while I get ready."

As I was on my way to the field in which our horses grazed, I heard Dan
shout out--

"Here comes the wag