right, massa; but you walk behind aways, for if we meet any one, and
dey see me wid a white man, dey'll take me back agin, sure."

So we started on, and after walking about two miles came to a small cabin
in the woods. My guide went in and called out the owner, who proved to be
an intelligent looking mulatto, and who said he was "Free Mitchell."

I told him who I was and who had directed me to him, and asked him if he
could keep and feed me for a few days, telling him that I had plenty of
money to pay for the trouble I should cause him. But he said he would not
dare even to let me in his yard, for he was already suspected of secreting
fugitives; and there was a Yankee schoolmaster living just beyond, who
kept a pack of hounds, and hunted around his house every two or three
days, and if he found any tracks leading into his yard they would hang him
right quick. He advised me not to make any stops until I got safely beyond
those hounds. He had nothing cooked up to give me a bite to eat, so I
thought I would start on and get beyond those dogs, and try for some safer
place.

About a mile beyond this cabin I saw a house back from the road, and a
pack of hounds commenced a fearful baying before I was within a quarter of
a mile of the premises. Knowing the keenness of scent possessed by those
brutes, I made a detour of about half a mile, and got into a marshy piece
of ground covered with alders. Through this I tramped some distance, half
way to my knees in the soft mud, and tearing myself on the bushes, until I
finally came out on the road again, out of hearing of the dogs. I soon
came to a place where the road crossed the railroad again and, thinking
that my comrades must come on one or the other of these, I sat down on a
pile of ties beside the track to rest and wait for them.

It was now nearly midnight and the moon was shining bright, while all
around was still as death. Just behind me on the railroad was quite a
deep cut and, after waiting some time, I heard some one approaching from
that direction, their steps on the railroad ties resounding on the still
night air with a wonderful distinctness. Thinking it must be my comrades,
as no one else would be likely to be out at that time of night, I sat
still and waited for them to come up.

Suddenly, a large powerful looking man emerged from the shade of the cut,
and was so near before I saw him, that I could not have escaped detection
if I had tried. Thinking to have the fir