“No, not zacly; but I go right near.”
“Well, Uncle,” said I, “I am going to Free Mitchell’s, and if you show me to his house, here is a dollar for you.”
“All 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 first word, I raised up before he discovered me, and sung out:
“Hello!”
“Good evening,” said he, very civilly.