"Boys, if those men attempt to take our horses by the bits, and I say, Fire! will you do it?"
"Yes, sah."
Said I, "Hughes, be careful, be careful. Your excitement will betray us if you are not very careful."
"We don't know what rabble we are going to meet, and I propose to be ready fur 'em."
"There is nothing known of this company, and I know we are safe."
"I don't know it; and if they make the first move to stop us, be ready, boys."
"All ready."
There were two six-shooters behind me, and one in the hand of Hughes, that I feared much more than all the slave-holders in Kentucky.
But we were soon relieved by the remark of one, as we were passing, "It was well we stopped that bent from falling, or't would have killed Smith as dead as a hammer." We found by this that they had been to the raising of a building, and a number of them were more than half drunk.
After going a mile or two farther, and our excitement was over, I took leave of our company, with a charge to keep quiet and all would be well, and returned to Levi Coffin's by twelve o'clock. The following morning we received a good report from our conductor, Hughes, of the safe delivery of this valuable freight in the Quaker settlement depot, where they were forwarded to Canada.