He had leapt over the
rail of the veranda, and I halted for a moment, supposing that he
must at least twist his ankles after a fall of some fifteen feet.
But I was amazed to see him swarming down one of the pillars that
supported the veranda.
I followed him in desperate haste, but the fellow was always very
light and nimble, and the fear of death lent him a marvelous new
agility. My heavier frame was slower in descending; yet I could not
have been much more than fifteen seconds behind him; but he had
vanished. There were bushes and palms growing to within a few feet
of the house. I ran among them, but could not hear his footsteps,
nor had I any means of judging of the direction of his flight. Mad
with disappointment, I rushed blindly on, and in a moment collided
with a man, whom seizing, I knew by the howl he emitted, no less
than by the feel of his bare skin, that I had laid hands on a
negro.
"Which way did he run?" I cried, shaking the man in my hot
impatience.
"Oh, Massa, I dunno nuffin'," said the trembling wretch.
I hurled him aside and sped off again, very soon encountering other
negroes, who in spite of their dread of the dark, had been drawn
from their huts, I doubt not, by the noise of the altercation.
"Where is your mistress?" I asked one of them.
He could tell me nothing. I asked the same question of another man
whom I met within a few yards.
"I see Missy going to Massa Wilkins' house," he said.
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