I went nigh
enough to see the videttes settin' on their hosses in the main road.
This here ain't no road; it just goes up to a nigger quarters. I've got
one o' the niggers to show us the way."
"Where is he?" whispered Mary; but before her companion could answer, a
tattered form moved from behind a bush a little in advance and started
ahead in the path, walking and beckoning. Presently they turned into a
clear, open forest, and followed the long, rapid, swinging stride of the
negro for nearly an hour. Then they halted on the bank of a deep, narrow
stream. The negro made a motion for them to keep well to the right when
they should enter the water. The white man softly lifted Alice to his
arms, directed and assisted Mary to kneel in her saddle, with her skirts
gathered carefully under her, and so they went down into the cold
stream, the negro first, with arms outstretched above the flood; then
Mary, and then the white man,--or, let us say plainly, the spy--with the
unawakened child on his breast. And so they rose out of it on the
farther side without a shoe or garment wet, save the rags of their dark
guide.
Pages:
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128