The overseer laughed aloud—
"I'm darned if I didn't calculate as much," he said; "then I'm sorry to tell you, Mr. Horton, that the young lady's bolted with that Britisher as was so uncommon peart on board the Selma. They left by the St. Louis packet half an hour ago. I thought there was something in the wind, but I'd no authority to stop 'em."
"D—n!" muttered Augustus Horton; "that Englishman has foiled me at every turn. The next packet for St. Louis starts the day after to-morrow. They'll have eight-and-forty hours start of us, and they'll make their way to a Free State."
He walked away from the quay, followed by Silas Craig.
"If there's law in New Orleans," he cried, "I'll have them overtaken, and brought back."
William Bowen stood for some minutes, watching the two men as they walked away.
"I think I managed that job rather neatly," he said, with a malicious chuckle. "I've paid you out, Mr. Augustus Horton, for any impudence I've ever taken from you; and in a couple of hours more, my friend, Silas Craig, you and I will have squared our accounts for the last time."
Augustus and the attorney walked back to the house of the former, after making arrangements for the pursuit of Cora Leslie and her lover. The planter was maddened by his defeat, and utterly merciless to the unhappy girl who had, for a time at least, escaped from his power.
"I'll have her brought back," he cried, "and lashed as a runaway slave. I'll have her advertised in every paper in Louisiana. I'll spend every dollar I possess rather than let her escape me, and I'll make Gilbert Margrave pay dearly for his insolence."
Silas and the planter found Adelaide Horton and Mrs. Montresor seated beneath the veranda on the morning room, which opened into a small garden.