felt
soreness or a twinge of pain in it. I leave it for others to explain. I
simply state the facts.

After we had settled down in our hiding place we saw a number of people
coming up the road, evidently from the ferry, and our three soldiers
were among them. From their talk as they passed us we gathered that the
ferry-boat had come over, but would not go back again before morning,
and we concluded that the three soldiers were going to some place to
stay over night.

After these people had passed, I set out to hunt up some negro who could
help us get over the river. As I crossed the road I saw a darkey driving
a wagon toward the ferry, and I stopped to speak to him. Before I had a
chance to say more than a few words the man's master rode into view, and
I had to go on talking to avoid casting suspicion by sudden
disappearance.

When the master rode up I talked with him, telling him what I had told
the soldiers, and saying that we had given up seeing the boat until we
had seen the people coming up from the ferry, when I had left my
friends, to see if we could cross that evening.

We all traveled down the road together, and the negro's master showed me
where the ferryman lived, a little way off the road, and went up to the
house with me. He and the ferryman were acquainted, and, while they
talked, I went coolly up on the piazza of the house and sat down,
turning over in my mind the question of what I should tell that
ferryman.

If I stuck to my story, as told to the soldiers, I had no excuse for a
special crossing, which I wanted to urge, and we should run great risk
of discovery if we waited and crossed with the others. As I studied the
face of the ferryman I decided upon my course of action, and when the
old gentleman who was talking to him had left to arrange for the care of
his wagon and animals for the night I gave the ferryman no chance to
think or question, but took him around to the side of the house, where
we could not be overheard by anyone in the building, and transfixed him
by saying:

"I am an escaped Yankee prisoner from Camp Ford, Texas, and have been
water-bound on the river for two days. I have come to have you either
ferry me over the river or capture me."

The man seemed to be dumbfounded, and he stared at me in perfect
amazement, without speaking a word.

I told him that I had no honeyed promises to make, that the only
inducement there had been for me to attempt such a hazardous trip in the