the other "nigger" who was with the company, Coffin should have
half the reward. How the young Quaker outwitted the tyrant,
gained his point, sent Jack on his way to liberty, and at the
same time retained the confidence of Osborne so that upon their
return home he was definitely engaged to assist Osborne in
finding Sam, is a fascinating story. The abolitionist won from
the slaveholder the doubtful compliment that "there was not a man
in that neighborhood worth a d--n to help him hunt his negro
except young Levi Coffin."

Sam was perfectly safe so long as Levi Coffin was guide for the
hunting-party, but matters were becoming desperate. For the
fugitive something had to be done. Another family was planning to
move to Indiana, and in their wagon Sam was to be concealed and
thus conveyed to a free State. The business had now become
serious. The laws of the State affixed the death penalty for
stealing a slave. At night when young Coffin and his father, with
Sam, were on their way to complete arrangements for the
departure, horsemen appeared in the road near by. They had only
time to throw themselves flat on the ground behind a log. From
the conversation overheard, they were assured that they had
narrowly escaped the night-riders on the lookout for stray
negroes. The next year, 1822, Coffin himself joined a party going
to Indiana by the southern route through Tennessee and Kentucky.
In the latter State they were at one time overtaken by men who
professed to be looking for a pet dog, but whose real purpose was
to recover runaway slaves. They insisted upon examining the
contents of the wagons, for in this way only a short time
previous a fugitive had been captured.