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As Dan had anticipated, the slave-hunters were on the alert; and as the Isabel was standing through a narrow channel between two islands, the two boats, which had chased her in the morning, dashed out from under the lea of one of them. "Take the helm, Cyd, and keep her steady as she is!" said Dan, as he grasped the rifle. "Possifus!" exclaimed Cyd; but he promptly obeyed without further speech.
At Alton, Ill., slave-hunters seized a respectable colored woman, long resident there, who fully believed herself free. She was surrounded by an infuriated company of citizens, and would have been wrenched from her captors' clutch had not they, in their terror, offered to sell her back into freedom. The needed $1,200 was raised in a few minutes, and the agonized creature restored to her family.
This he succeeded in doing; but he had scarcely finished the job, without giving himself time to stow the extra sails, before he saw the boat of the pursuers dashing rapidly towards the Isabel. The slave-hunters had at last made up their minds what to do. They meant to risk the encounter. Just then a sharp flash of lightning illumined the lake, followed by the muttering thunder.
They talked of freedom and the future for an hour, and then they were started by the sound of oars in the distance. The slave-hunters were on their track. Though the Isabel carried all her extra sails, the wind was so light that she made very little progress through the water, and the sound of oars which indicated the approach of a boat was appalling to Dan.
I have already described this fellow Lazim as having been one of the ringleaders in the rebellion of the slave-hunters; and he was almost as notorious a character as Ali Hussein. He was originally himself a slave, and had escaped from his master at Khartoum many years ago, after which he became one of the most determined slave-hunters.
I resolved to work diplomatically, and to keep the slave-hunters' party as a rod above the backs of the natives, until I should discover their real character. Possibly the natives, if entirely relieved from their oppressors, might refuse to acknowledge government taxation! At all events I determined to proceed cautiously. Each house was taxed to pay a small basket of corn every full moon.
She returned to her place of security, and seemed to be satisfied that the hour of peril had passed, for the thunder and the lightning, the dashing waves and the roaring wind, had no terrors compared with those produced by the presence of the slave-hunters. The Isabel labored fearfully in the heavy squall, and it was only by the exercise of all his skill that Dan could keep her right side up.
So long as he did not see his way to utilising this king of slave-hunters, he desired to have him kept out of the way, but when his brilliant genius saw a way of turning his old foe into a friend, he asked for his services.
The race depended entirely upon the character of the boat in which the slave-hunters had embarked. Whatever the result of the pursuit, Dan was fully determined not to be taken himself, nor to permit his friends on board to be taken. With the arms in the cabin, he was confident that he could make a good defence.
Having fully made up my mind to return to Thompson and make such efforts as I could to allay the punishment I expected to receive, I set about perfecting my plans to get there without being apprehended by the slave-hunters, who were then, I have no doubt, hunting for me.
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