hosses?' an'
showed her whar to hide outside de groun's until de races was ober, when
I'd gib her one. I knew de colonel 'lowed to send me home wid Challenger
dat night, and, do' it was mighty resky, _I_ 'lowed to take dat chile wid
me. Dat war de fus' race dat Challenger lost dat season, but I didn' put
him t'roo' his best paces, for I t'ought likely dar might be need ob tall
runnin' dat night, an' I didn' want him to play out den. De colonel war
mightily outed, fur de stakes was heavy, an' I was sorry 'nuff to see him
lose. He tole me I'd got to ride libelier dan dat ef I meant to git to de
Leavenworth ferry 'fo' de boat made its last trip for de day; and I knowed
dat as well as he did.

"I foun' little John Brown waitin' fur me jus' whar I tole her to hide:
she was too skeered to go home, fur she knowed dey would gib her a lickin'
fur runnin' away. I took her up befo' me on de hoss, an' we started fur
home, 'Pears like de road from Platte City to de Leavenworth ferry's jus'
'bout de lonesomes' in dis yeah worl', an' I hadn't trabelled more'n five
mile 'fore I knew I was follered. I could hear de clappetty, clappetty ob
de hosses a good piece behin' me, an' one place whar de road stretched
middlin' straight for nigh a half mile along de bluffs I see 'em, as many
as five men, a-ridin' like mad an' a-shakin' carbines in de arr. Den I
knowed dat dey was eder after John Brown or Challenger; an', hoss-thieves
_or_ kidnappers, I knew it would far' jus' about de same wid me. '_Go for
true_,' says I to Challenger; an' den I wraps John Brown in de
hoss-blanket so dey couldn't rightly tell what it was I was a-carryin'.
We'd a won de stakes easy ef I'd made Challenger lif' up his heels on de
track de way he did on dat ar road. De sun went down an' de moon riz, an'
I t'ink likely we trod on as many as twenty squirrels: dey didn' hab time
to cl'ar de road after dey heard us a-comin'. I rode into Slab Town jus'
about ten minutes ahead of my follerers, an' den I foun' dat de wus' dat
could happen had happened. De Ella had made her las' trip, an' was tied up
to de Kansas sho'. Dar wan't no time fur considerin' de matter. I see a
flatboat hauled up on de bank, an' I shubbed her off, led Challenger onto
her, an' poled her off into de ribber. Challenger didn' want to go
aboard, nohow--he knowed it wan't safe--but I struck him de fus' blow I
ebber gin a hoss of his blood, an' we were pretty well out in de current
when de Missourians come