e doorway.

"Is the coast clear?" he whispered.

"All clear," Samson answered, in a low tone.

"I'll be back in a minute," said the negro, as he disappeared in the
darkness, returning presently with two women, both very black. They sat
down in the dim light of the cabin.

"Are you hungry?" Sarah asked.

"We have had only a little bread and butter to-day, madame," said the
mulatto, whose speech and manners were like those of an educated white
man of the South.

"I'll get you something," said Sarah, as she opened the cupboard.

"I think we had better not stop to eat now, madame," said the negro. "We
will be followed and they may reach here any minute."

Harry, who had been awakened by the arrival of the strangers, came down
the ladder.

"These are fugitive slaves on their way north," said Samson. "Take them
out to the stack. I'll bring some food in a few minutes."

Harry conducted them to their hiding-place, and when they had entered it,
he brought a ladder and opened the top of the stack. A hooped shaft in
the middle of it led to a point near its top and provided ventilation.
Then he crawled in at the entrance, through which Samson passed a pail
of food, a jug of water and some buffalo hides. Harry sat with them for
a few moments in the black darkness of the stack room to learn whence
they had come and whither they wished to go.

"We are from St. Louis, suh," the mulatto answered. "We are on our way to
Canada. Our next station is the house of John Peasley, in Tazewell
County."

"Do you know a man of the name of Eliphalet Biggs who lives in St.
Louis?" Harry asked.

"Yes, suh; I see him often, suh," the negro answered.

"What kind of a man is he?"

"Good when he is sober, suh, but a brute when he is drunk."

"Is he cruel to his wife?"

"He beats her with a whip, suh."

"My God!" Harry exclaimed. "Why don't she leave him?"

"She has left him, suh. She is staying with a friend. It has been hard
for her to get away. She has been a slave, too."

Harry's voice trembled with emotion when he answered:

"I am sure that none of her friends knew how she was being treated."

"I suppose that she was hoping an' praying, suh, that he would change."

"I think that one of us will take you to Peasley's to-morrow night," said
Harry. "Meanwhile I hope you get a good rest."

With that he left them, filled the mouth of the cave with hay and went
into the house. There he told his good friends of what he had heard.