"How did you know all this, boy?"
"I was out coon-hunting when I heerd them talking, and I listened and
heerd all about it. And as I couldn't find any coons, I follyed arter
them; and their horses was tired, as they kept on complainin' to each
other. And so they went slow and I could keep up long of 'em."
"How far did you follow them?"
"Well, Marster! I couldn't help it! I follyed of 'em all night."
"And they never discovered you?"
"No, sar, they never did. I was barefooted and didn't make no noise,
and keeped nigh the bushes on the roadside, and so they never found me
out."
"And where did you part from them?"
"Well, Marster, I didn't part from 'em till I seed whar they stopped.
And if you'll take me up behind you, I'll show you the way to the place
where they are hiding. It an't fur from here, not so very fur, I mean."
"Oh! ho! that is good! So, so, my run-a-ways! I shall nab you, shall I?"
exclaimed Purley in triumph, as he beckoned the negro imp to jump up
behind him.
"But stop!" said Robert Munson, in an agony of terror for the safety of
Sybil Berners. "Stop! What are you about to do? You are about to abduct
Farmer Nye's slave!"
"Do you belong to Farmer Nye, boy? Though it don't matter a bit who you
belong to. I'll take anybody I can lay hold of to guide me to the
hiding-place of my prisoner--in the name of the Commonwealth of
Virginia," said this new bailiff, who seemed to think that formula of
words, like an absolute monarch's signet ring, was warranty for every
sort of proceeding.
"But I don't belong to nobody. I's fee, and so's mammy. We an't got no
master, and I an't got no daddy to lord it over me!" put in the boy.
"That's right, jump up behind," said the elder bailiff. And as soon as
little Bill was safely perched up in the rear of his patron, the latter
put spurs to his horse and gallopped off at full speed.
They went down the left hand, or south fork of the cross-roads, and
gallopped on until they reached the branch road leading west. They
turned into that road and pursued it mile after mile, through field and
forest, mountain pass and valley plain, until, late in the afternoon,
they reached another mountain range, and heard the roaring of a great
torrent. They entered the black gap, and slowly and cautiously made
their way through it. By the time they had emerged from the pass, the
night was pitch dark.