"Perhaps he may reduce them if you see him."
With these beseeching words, with tearful eyes that brought tears to the eyes of the colonel as well, the colonel said at once:
"I think you ought to comply with Fairbanks's request, and stay over one more trip. You can stop with us and be welcome. If you choose to call on Dr. Field, as Fairbanks has suggested, you can do so; but I reckon it's your duty to see his lawyer."
Dr. Field was a practical abolitionist. Like Dr. Brisbane and James G. Birney, he emancipated his own slaves, and left Louisville on account of slavery, and made a home in Jeffersonville, on the Indiana side of the river.
As it was now ten minutes, double the time suggested by the jailer while we were on our way to the jail, I turned to the keeper, and told him as my interview was prolonged beyond its limit, I would go; and on taking leave of Calvin he pointed to four men standing a few feet from him, and said, "Do you know those men?"
I looked up and nodded to them a recognition. They were fugitives who had been recaptured by virtue of the fugitive slave law passed in 1850, some of whom had made their escape from slavery many years before. One, whose name was Baker, with whom I was well acquainted, had hair straighter and skin fairer than very many of our Anglo-Saxon race. These four answered to the nod, smiling through their tears. They had enjoyed a taste of freedom, and now were to be hurled back to a dark life of bondage more bitter to them than ever before. But not a word could I utter to them. The slight bow, as I was turning away, was all; and yet that was sufficient to set on fire a world of iniquity in the four officers in front of the iron grates through which we conversed with Calvin Fairbanks. These officers beckoned to the jailer as we were passing through to the outer gate, and upon his opening it, he said, "Will you please pass through the yard into our apartments alone?"
"Certainly," I responded; and turning to me, he remarked, "Those officers beckoned to see me a moment."
I drew my arm from his, that he had so politely tendered in going to and from Calvin. In passing through the yard I met their slave man, who said, in a low tone, "Did you see Fairbanks?"
I answered, in a like tone, "I did."
"Glory!" he cried, just loud enough for me to hear.