II.
Night, sable goddess, had spread her curtain over earth, and the valleys amid the Alleghenies were sleeping in quiet, when Charley, crawling from his couch, so stealthily, indeed, as not to disturb the early slumbers of his mother, crept softly to the stable, saddled his master’s best steed, noiselessly led it to the public highway beyond the mansion, and, turning its head toward the realm of freedom, mounted, and giving the noble beast the rein, was soon moving with such velocity as to place fifty miles between him and his master and mother by the time the first gray tinge of morning began to break along the eastern hills. Hiding deep into a wooded ravine he secured the horse for the day, and then betook himself to sleep. At evening he unloosed the beast stripping it of saddle and bridle, and then betook himself to the woods and by-ways, shunning all towns and subsisting on green corn and such fruits as he could find for a period of fifteen days, when, weary and forlorn, he entered Wheeling just before daylight. An utter stranger, and almost perishing with hunger, he knew not what to do, but seeing a light in the bar-room of the City Hotel he resolved to enter, hoping to find some attendant of his own race, to whom he could appeal for food and assistance across the river. Instead of an attaché, the landlord was himself already astir. Though residing on sacred soil and in many respects a typical Virginian, mine host kept only hired servants, and though in no wise disposed to discuss the merits of the peculiar institution pro or con, he was often able to make wise suggestions to the thoughtless or inconsiderate of both sections who might temporarily be his guests.
Once fairly within and under the scrutinizing gaze of this man, Charley made bold to ask for bread.
“Bread, you want, do you, you black runaway?” said the landlord rather roughly.
“I’ze no runa—”
“Yes you are you black rascal. Come go with me and I’ll show you something.”
Instinctively following the footsteps of the landlord, Charley was led to the stable where he recognized at once his master’s horse. Then the man took a paper from his pocket and read a complete description of him, and closed by saying: “You are this Charley and your master will give $500 to any man who will return you.”
Seeing he was caught, Charley pleaded, “O Lor,’ Massa, doan gib me up.”
“No, I’ll not; your master is close at hand. Do you see that house across the lot yonder?”
“Yes, Massa, I sees.”
“Well, you go there quick. Tell them I sent you and that they must take care of you. Go right in at the back door. Be quick or you’ll be caught.”
With both heart and feet a-bound, Charley made for the designated place. He found only a woman, sick upon her bed. Ere he had fairly made his errand known, there was heard the sound of horses’ feet upon the street, and looking out, Charley saw his master and another man coming at full speed, and began to cry.
“Get under the bed, quick, and keep perfectly still,” said the woman; a command which was obeyed without questioning. Catching up her baby, the woman gave it a tumble which set it to crying like mad. Just then the master thrust his head in at the door and inquired, “Have you seen a young nigger come in here?”
“Hush h-u!” “Wah ka-wa!” “What did!” “Wha-ka wa wa!” “hush there—did you say?” “Ka-wha wa wah.”
“I say did”—“ka wha ka wha wa!” “did you see a young nigger come in here?”
“We wha ke wah wa!” “hush-t-h-e-re!”—“husband is”—“we wa wah!”—“at the barn!”—“we wa ah!”—“he can tell you!”—“wa we wah ke wha!” and the door was slammed to by the disgusted Southeron.
Whilst the trio were hastening to the barn, Charley, in obedience to the woman’s directions, hastily ascended a ladder in the corner of the room, which he drew up, and placed a board in such a way as to obliterate all appearance of an opening in the floor.
The conference at the barn was short, and away went the riders up the road in hot pursuit of a mythical nigger the man at the barn had seen running in that direction not half an hour before.
In a few minutes the husband returned to the house, milk pail in hand, but entirely ignorant of what had transpired within. “What about the boy, wife, those men were enquiring about? I supposed they were in pursuit of some one, so I sent them up the road after an imaginary man,” he said.
“Well, I don’t know anything about your imaginary man, but I know about the boy,” replied the wife.
“Well, where is he?”
“He went from under my bed up the ladder whilst the men were going for you. Baby helped the matter mightily. Now you must carry the poor fellow something to eat.”
As soon as it was deemed safe, the ladder was let down, and Charley was supplied with a hearty breakfast, and then bidden to make himself comfortable for the day, a thing he was not slow to do, as he had slept little since his flight began. When evening came, he was called down, and after a bountiful supper, which was dispatched in silence, he was taken to the road where three horses were standing. On one of these a man was already seated; the second Charley was bidden to mount, and into the saddle of the third his kind host vaulted.
Moving around the town, they came to a road leading northward, Charley’s feelings alternately ebbing and flowing between fear and hope, for, notwithstanding the kindness of his host and hostess, he could but fear that he was to be given up for the $500.
Proceeding some distance up the river, the horses were hitched in some bushes and the party descended to the river, where a boat was loosened and Charley was bidden to enter. When all were seated, the little craft pushed out into the stream, and soon Charley and his host stepped onto the other shore. Going up the bank into a public highway, the man placed in his hands some little articles of clothing and some bread, and then, pointing with the index finger, said: “Yonder is the North Star; you are now in a free state and may go forward; may God bless you; good-by;” and before Charley, in his astonishment, could utter a word, he was gone. A few moments the fugitive stood in a reverie which was broken by the splash of the oar in the river below, and he awoke to the consciousness that he was again alone. On the one hand was the beautiful river, whose outline he could dimly see; on the other were far-reaching fields, with no habitation looming up in the darkness, and above him was the star bespangled sky, among whose myriad twinklers he looked in vain for the one which had so recently been pointed out to him. Alas, the defectiveness of his education! whilst others of his kind had been diligent in securing a definite knowledge of this loadstone of the Heavens, he had been happy in the discharge of the light duties of his childhood home, never once thinking of flight until the fact of his sale was broken to him by his mother, and then there was no time for schooling. The dazed condition in which he now found himself from the revelations of the past hour caused him to look up to the starry firmament as into vacancy, finding nothing with which to guide himself. At length he proceeded a short distance, but becoming bewildered he sat down and soon fell asleep and dreamed that two men came and were putting him in jail. His struggles and resistance wakened him, and he set out and proceeded as best he could in the darkness. Just at daylight he espied a piece of paper nailed to a fence.
Approaching it he perceived it had upon it the picture of a negro running, and in every way looked like the one the landlord had shown him in the barn. Whilst standing thus before the picture, wrapped in thought as to what to do next, he felt a hand laid upon his shoulder, and turning saw a man with a very broad-brimmed hat and so peculiarly clothed as he had never seen one before. He was about to run when the man said: “Stop, friend, thee need not run. What have we here?” and reading the bill, he at once remarked: “Why, friend, this means thee, and thy master is ready to pay any man $500, who will place thee in his hands. Come with me or somebody may enrich himself at thy expense.”
There was something so kind and frank in the manner and words of the man that Charley followed him to a retreat deep in the woods. Seeing that he had bread with him, the stranger said: “Keep quiet and I will bring thee more food to-night,” and immediately left.
As was customary in other cases, hand-bills minutely describing Charley had been widely distributed, and, of course, read by everybody, and it being a free country everybody had a right to apply the information gained as he saw fit. So it was that when Charley’s master crossed into Ohio twelve hours after his chattel, and proceeded northward, he found no lack of persons who had seen just such a person that very day. Even our friend of the early morning described him minutely and had seen him wending his way into the interior only a few hours before, bearing with him a little bundle. As the route at this season of the year was supposed to be towards Sandusky or Detroit, the pursuers were decoyed on by the way of Carrollton, Allian and Ravenna towards the lake, by the smooth stories of men who had seen him only a day or two before—but only on paper. Wearied, however, they at length committed his capture to the hands of the organized set of biped hounds which infested the whole south shore from Detroit to Buffalo, and returned homeward.
When Charley’s friend returned to him in the evening, he informed him of the little interview he had had with his master, and that it would be necessary for him to remain some time in his charge. He was consequently taken to a more comfortable hiding place, and after the lapse of some three weeks was forwarded by way of New Lisbon, Poland, and Indian Run, to Meadville, and thence by way of Cambridge and Union to the parsonage at Wattsburg.