"About the sixth day out we slept on a mountain which overlooked Ole Forge, near Chambersburg, Pa., where Cook was determined to go down for food, which he did, and never returned, and as you know, was captured and will soon share the fate of others at Charlestown.
"Marriam was now so weak that he could go no further, and I at a great risk, got him down to Chambersburg, where he boarded a train without detection. Then we were but three."
"Fearing that Cook might be forced to reveal our whereabouts and intentions, we traveled all that night back towards the hill from whence we came, making our course as zigzag as possible, so detectives would be unable to design our intentions or lay in wait for us.
"The third day after Cook's capture, an old lady hunting nuts in the woods came spank upon us, while we were sleeping in the sun. We were still near Chambersburg and from what she had heard she knew who we were, and told us so. To kill her would be wrong, to let her go back and report would be dangerous; but she soon put us at ease by telling about her abolition friends in Massachusetts and how her son, with whom she lived, and all her neighbors would help us on the way.
"We trusted her and at dark we found ourselves in her son's home eating chicken-pie and drinking hot coffee, which we had not partaken of in ten days. Soon another sympathizer came in and the two men arranged to take us on our journey as far as they could before morning.
"When we were small, father used to tell us children about the angels and I formed the idea that they were sweet, lovely and looked beautiful, but oh, Mr. Thompson, that dear old lady, I wish you could have seen her just as she looked to me that night, stepping around so softly to make us comfortable. Why, Thompson, she seemed so handsome, while looking through my tears I actually think she might have been an angel which God sent to comfort us. When we were ready to start, she put her arm around each of our necks and kissed us, saying, 'We will play that I am your mother, just for tonight.'
"Acting on our host's guarantee, we rode boldly down through Chambersburg, where Cook had just been taken, but all was well. At break of day, when about forty-five miles away, we jumped out with our luggage, eight loaves of bread and part of a boiled ham, and fled into the woods.
"Now we found ourselves among the Quakers, who fed and protected us, and in a few days we separated, I working my way to you, and here I am tonight.
"Father taught his followers that the move on Harper's Ferry would precipitate conditions which would free the slaves. If, as we believe, God was leading him, it surely will, for dark as it appears to us today, it may be all right when viewed by the coming generations."
Then in a voice, just like old John Brown himself, Owen softly sang a verse of the hymn, "God Moves in a Mysterious Way His Wonders to Perform." We rode a little way in silence and again he struck up: