And what a strange scene was this, in which the solitary girl-mariner was out upon the lonely sea.
The broad canopy of heaven, of that deep, dark, intense blue of cloudless night, was thickly studded with myriads of stars, whose reflection in the mirror of the sea seemed other living stars disporting themselves amid the waves. Far away over the wide waters, darker lines upon the dark sea suggested the distant shores and headlands of the main. Straight before her flying boat, two black points, miles apart, indicated the entrance to the mouth of the Potomac River. She steered for the lower, or Smith’s Point.
Under happier circumstances, the lonely night ride over the dark waters would have charmed the fancy of the fearless and adventurous girl. Now her only emotion was one of anxiety and haste. Taking Smith’s Point for her “polar star,” she gave all her sail to the wind. The boat flew over the water. I dare scarcely say in how marvelously short a time she reached this cape. This was the longest part of her voyage.
Hugging the Northumberland coast, she soon reached and doubled Plover’s Point, and ran up into the little cove, the usual landing place, and pushed her boat upon the sands.
She next sprang out, secured the boat to a post, and began to climb the steep bank, that was thickly covered with a growth of pines, from which the place took its name.
Here danger of another and more appalling form threatened her. Fugitive slaves, than whom a more dangerous banditti can nowhere be found, were known to infest this coast, where by day they hid in caves and holes, and by night prowled about like wild beasts in search of food or prey. More than to meet the wildcat or the wolf, that were not yet banished from these woods, the maiden dreaded to encounter one of these famished and desperate human beasts! Lifting her heart in prayer to God for assistance, she passed courageously on her dark and dangerous way; starting at the sound of her own light footsteps upon some crackling, fallen branch, and holding her breath at the slight noise made by the moving of a rabbit or a bird in the foliage. At last she reached the summit of the wooded hill, and came out of the pine thicket on to the meadow. Then there was a fence to climb, a field to cross, and a gate to open before she reached the wooded lawn fronting the house. There the last peril, that of the watchdogs, awaited her. One mastiff barked furiously as she approached the gate; as she opened it, the whole pack broke in full cry upon her.
She paused and stood still, holding out one hand, and saying, gently:
“Why, Ponto! Why, Fido! What is the matter, good boys?”
The two foremost recognized and fawned upon her, and under their protection, as it were, she walked on through the excited pack, that, one by one, dropped gently under her influence, and walked quietly by her side.
So she reached the front of the house, passed up the piazza, and rang the bell. Peal upon peal she rung before she could make any one in that quiet house hear.