They came upon Shields Green and Kagi leaving the cave. Over their shoulders were fishing poles. Douglass spoke.
“Shields, I am leaving. Are you going back with me?”
John Brown spoke, the words coming easily, a simple explanation.
“Both of you know that Douglass disagrees with my plan. He says we’ll fail at Harper’s Ferry—that none of us will come out alive.” He paused a moment and then said, “Maybe he is right.”
Douglass waited, but still Shields Green only looked at him. At last he asked, “Well, Shields?”
“The Emperor” shifted the fishing rod in his hand. Then his eyes turned toward John Brown. Douglass knew even before he spoke. Shields looked him full in the face and said, “Ah t’ink Ah goes wid tha old man!”
And he and Kagi turned away and went off down to the stream.
Brown held his hand a moment before speaking.
“Go quickly now, and go without regrets. You have your job to do and I have mine.”
Douglass did not look back as he stumbled over the wet, slippery rocks. Never in his life had he felt so desolate, never had a day seemed so bleak and empty, as alone he went down the mountain to live for freedom. He had left John Brown and Shields Green to die for freedom. Whose was the better part?