minute's time, unnecessarily.

Hines turned to me and said, Go to your quarters; I will settle with you
in the morning.

Now began new trials. My duty and my Christianity instructed me to face
the undeserved and unjust punishment manfully. The devil and my human
nature told me to run away. I became weak. The fear of the disgrace of a
whipping was too much for me, and I succumbed to the evil one.

I made such arrangements as I could, and concealed myself on the
plantation, before daylight the next morning, so that I could take an
early start in the night and travel behind my pursuers instead of before
them. My wife knew of my hiding-place, and when night came she sought me
and reported what had been done for my capture.

Hines seemed, she said, to be more cheerful than usual in the morning
when he found I was gone, and hastened to report the good news, as he
thought, to Mr. Thompson. After some conversation between them it was
determined by my master to obtain the services of a professional
slave-hunter, and follow me with hounds. The slave-hunter was sent for
and came with his pack of dogs that same day about noon. The hunt was
immediately begun, and the country was then being scoured in all
directions for my tracks.

This information put me on my guard, and gave me time to consider what
direction I had better take in my flight. I had provide myself a
preparation called "smut" among the negroes, which, when spread thinly
on the soles of the shoes or feet, destroyed that peculiar scent by
which blood-hounds are enabled to follow the trail of a man or a beast.