# Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad/Chapter II

CHAPTER II.
CAR—R. R. CONDUCTOR’S ADVICE—FRIENDS IN NEED—SAFE
On a dark night in January, 1858, about midnight, we were aroused by heavy steps on the piazza, and the signal of the express train of the U. G. R. R. On opening the door we saw the laughing face of the conductor from the second station west, and above his head, (he was a short man,) the face of a terribly frightened negro. “Here,” said the conductor, “is something to be done in a hurry; this is a valuable feller, I tell ye, and his master is close at his heels. You can’t conceal him here, for the old man will be down on you before morning. He’s a valuable feller, and they are sharp on his tracks.”
We had a live engine in the barn, with a light car on runners, and the first impulse was to fire up and run to the next station, where friend Andrew and his good wife had a way of circumventing slave catchers in a manner peculiar to themselves, of which more may be said at another time. This plan was, however, rejected as unsafe.
On consultation it was decided that he should be lodged in an old house back in a field, on the skirts of the village, the house belonging to an old sailor, who had been converted from so-called Democracy to humanity, by having, while commanding a vessel on Lake Erie, been pressed into service in connection with the ​U. G. R. R. The Captain had been educated to believe in the so-called Democratic doctrine, “that slavery is the chief corner-stone of free institutions,” but if I were to tell his experience in running his first train on this road, you would agree with me that the secrets of our officers would be safe in his hands. I may do so some time.
Dan had been forwarded from Corning to Dunkirk on a freight car, and on his arrival in the evening, the agent to whom he was consigned bought his ticket to Buffalo, and seated him behind the door at the rear end of the car. Just as it was starting two men came in and took seats near the other end of the car, their backs toward him. One of them was his master, and the other a celebrated slave hunter. When the conductor came for his ticket, Dan said to him, “Master, will you please stop and let me get off?” Conductor said, “are you afraid of those fellows with the red whiskers?” “Yes,” said Dan, “I know ’em.” “ Do they know you are here?” “Guess not,” said Dan. “Well, follow me, said the conductor. Taking Dan into another car, he told him to step off as soon as the train stopped, and go behind a woodpile, and the depot agent would find him as soon as the train started, and tell him where to go. The conductor told the agent, at Silver Creek, who found him as soon as the train started, so scared that he could hardly stand or speak, and sent a boy with him to a Democratic Deacon, Andrews, and he, without knowing it, put him again on the line of the U. G. R. R. in Arkwright, by giving him in charge of a colored man, John Little. The next night the wide-awake conductor, farmer Cranston, near Forestville, arrived at our station near 12 o’clock, as above stated.
Dan was warmed and fed, and secreted in the old house until it was deemed safe for him to go on, supposing the ​pursuers to have lost the track and abandoned the search. But not so; their spies -were on the line watching every little skiff in Black Bock harbor, when friend Andrew, just at daylight, having signaled the boatmen, left his carriage in a back street, and led Dan through a narrow lane to where a boat lay hid, and out of the water. It was launched in a moment, and Dan and two boatmen were on their way to Canada before the spies watching the other boats could give the alarm.
While friend A. stood on the shore watching the fugitive as he landed on the Canada side, the slave hunters arrived on the spot, and seeing an honest looking face under a broad brim, inquired if he had seen a “nigger” starting from somewhere along there in a boat. Being answered in the affirmative, with a pretty good description of him, and the remark that “he is safe now, for he has just landed under the flag of Old England,” they came out on the old man with a terrible volley of oaths, threats and imprecations. His cool answer was, “Friend, inasmuch as such conversation can avail thee nothing, would it not be wise to say no more about it? Farewell;” and he went to his carriage and started homeward.
Dan came back and worked for the Captain the next summer. Afterwards he attended school, and when the 112th Regiment went to the front, from this county, Dan went as waiter for an officer.