Moreover, Mrs. Ware was not well, and declared she would be glad to return home. She related briefly that Jeff and Emily had divided the estate, two thirds of which, according to their father’s will, belonged to the brother. Emily had chosen some land and a number of slaves and, as her husband already has as many negroes as he needed, it was their intention to realize upon these at once and put the money into improvements upon his estate.
“They’ll be sold ‘down south,’ I suppose,” said Rhoda, as she read the letter aloud to her father.
“Very likely. Those big cotton, cane and rice plantations are an insatiable market for slaves. They can’t get enough labor. That is why the South is so anxious to reopen the African slave trade. It’s an open secret, which the North winks at, as it does at everything the South chooses to do, that the traffic is already going on. Since the Dred Scott decision there is nothing they stop at. It’s a pity Chad Wallace or Alexander Wilson isn’t in the neighborhood of Fairmount just now. If they were, Emily’s husband wouldn’t be able to make so many improvements!”
A few days later Dr. Ware called Rhoda into his office, anxiety in his demeanor. “I’ve just received this letter from Wilson,” he exclaimed, “written in Louisville. See what he says:
“‘Dear Friend Ware: Am sending you to-day by express one blackbird, a fine specimen, securely boxed. I was fortunate enough to secure a live one, as I knew you would find the specimen more interesting alive than dead.’”
“Father!” cried Rhoda, her eyes wide and horrified. “He’s sent some one in a box! All the way from Louisville! Oh, we must see about it at once!”
“The letter was evidently written in great haste,” Dr. Ware continued, “on a dirty scrap of paper and,—yes, it was mailed on the boat.”
“Then the box came on the steamboat with the letter!”
“Yes, and will be at the express office now. Jim must take the spring wagon and go after it.”
Rhoda waited in extreme anxiety for Jim’s return, fearful lest the poor creature should be dead in the box. Even Dr. Ware showed a lessening of his usual calm. They said little to each other during the man’s absence, but together made ready everything that might be necessary if the “blackbird” should be unconscious. They knew of more than one daring escape from slavery by similar methods. And they knew too of the recent release from a southern penitentiary, after an eight years’ term, of a man who had been convicted of attempting to rescue a slave by this same means.