Presently, we reached a place where we were detained three hours. While waiting here, the master of that negro whom we chased in the swamp, and whom I have before mentioned as having a basket of corn strapped to his back, stepped aboard of the train. He came forward smiling, and, taking us by the hand, told us what a fierce chase he had had after us. He then asked us if he should call the negro in, and on receiving an affirmative answer, did so.
I asked, with the permission of his master, why he ran from us in the swamp.
“Kase, sah, I thought you wuz Tom Jimmer son, an’ he said he’d shoot me if he ever had a chance.”
This negro seemed excessively ignorant; but this is a habit with them all, as a general thing, when their masters are present.
“Where in the d——l did you hide,” asked the owner of this slave, “when we were after you?”
“Where did you look?” queried I.
“Well,” said he, “when the boy came in and told me that he had seen you in the swamp, I went down to the soldiers who were hunting you on the river, and put them on the lookout. Then I returned and started out all the dogs in the neighborhood. One of these, an old hound, that belonged to Tom Brown, never before failed to bring to us his game within a short time after he took the tracks. In two hours, sixteen of us, with the two negroes and the hounds, were after you hot-footed. Not long after we put the dogs on your track, they got confused, and ran my own boy up to the house. I called them back, and in returning, Brown’s old dog struck round a fence, as we thought, on your track. He kept on the branch back of my field, and there crossed and went up the creek, with the whole pack at his heels. We followed after, and found that he crossed the water again, and came down the other side to where he crossed the first time. There the scent was lost, and the dogs gave it up. We hunted round there till nearly night, and not finding any one, went down to the river to guard it. When we got there, the corporal advised me, with six or eight others, to go up the river and take another hunt; but, of course, it brought no good.”
My comrade here informed the narrator how we had been lying concealed under the palm-leaves, and watching all their motions, at a distance of not over a hundred yards or so. This astonished him very much; so much so, indeed, that he seemed to doubt it, until Collins repeated to him the identical expressions used on that occasion by himself, his companions, and the soldiers. He then turned to the sheriff and said with an oath:
“I’ve hunted bear, and deer, and fox, and never failed; but these Yankees fooled me bad.”