was able for three or four hundred yards, when I saw distinctly, in the
starlight, a man running nearly toward me. My heart leaped into my
throat, as it were, and I made ready for battle. But the man proved to
be a poor runaway like myself, and the one whom the hounds were after. I
had got into a field, and the runaway passed through the same field
without noticing me. I kept on in an opposite direction from the one
which he had taken, and crossed the fence on the other side of the field
just in time to hear one of the slave-hunters say, "There he is now; I
heard him getting over the fence." I threw myself on the ground and
awaited results. The dogs were "hot" on the other slave's track, and
were running at a great rate, which induced the slave-hunters to think
their companion was mistaken. So, to my great relief and pleasure, they
started on after the hounds. I was nearly exhausted by my exertions
during the night, and as it was now nearly morning I lay on the ground
for a time to rest and recuperate my worn-out energies a little.

In a short time I got up, and after looking around I saw the outlines of
plantation houses in the distance. On going to them I found a
resting-place in a fodder-loft, in the horse-lot of the plantation. I
ensconced myself in the fodder, when I again heard the infernal yelps of
the blood-hounds, and the more infernal yelps of the white pursuers
urging the hounds after the poor runaway. The hounds soon after caught
the poor wretch, whose cries for mercy were heart-rending and piteous.
My situation was perilous; yet I had hopes that the other slave being
run down and caught would save me, from the fact that the hunters were
not aware of the presence of another runaway in the immediate
neighborhood.

The day wore slowly away, and being very weak from hunger and fatigue I
was unable to gain that rest my wasted body required. I slept two or