The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-05-05

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My last hope almost gone when | saw my
husband coming in, and l cried to him, Save
me! save me, darling" He had a rope in his
hand, and, before L could understand it, he had
slipped it over my neck and choked me-
Your own husbandl | can't believe it, to
save my life"
Il didn't believe it, neither, till heard him
say, when they loosened the slip-kno that had
stranged me-the voice was his had trusted so
| much; | never could forget it-'Eben, he said
I've took down every mole and spot on her body
aud swear to EN-, for I've learned EN- by
heart, and you won't have no trouble IN selln
her. as she can't testify.
THE imp of Pangymonum" Jimmy cried
He had married you TO note down your marks
and by EN- swear you to be a saveH
The white man tried to sell me to a farmer
and then l told what had heard them say. He
believed me. and told them the Mayor of Phila
delphia had reward out tor them, for lidnap
pin free people already. Then they talked to
gether-a little scared they was-and tied me
again, and brought me on a cart through the
woods to the river and fetched me here; and
chained me, and told me if ever said 1 was free
to another man, they meant to sell my baby and
to drown me in the river
She finished with chilly tremor and low
wall like an infant, but the sailor passed her
baby into her arms to engage her, and said:
''The Lord is still a-countin' of his sparrows,
or | wouldn't have been on this Grand by
smoke! To drift yer. hangin senseless to that
old scow, must have been to save you. Mary.
This is island where they chains up property,
1 reckon, that is bein' follered up too close.
Times very precious, Mary, but I've got a sail
ors knife yer. an I'll stay to cut the staple out
O. this ole pine if they come and kill me. You
take an wash my face off outen that water
trough while bite bit of the bacon"
He took the child again and amused it while
the woman carefully cleaned his wound and
rebandaged it so that he could breathe and see
and eat, though the cotton folds wrapped in
much of his face like mask He then exam
amlned the the chain again, especially where 1t
was riveted at the feet, and lifted large iron
ball weighing several pounds, which was also
affixed to her ankle. so that she could not climb
the tree. He, ankle was found blstered by the
red-hot rivet being smithed so barbarously close
to the flesh.
Don't leave me. OH don't leave me here to
die" the woman pleaded as he started into the
woods.
I'll stay by you an we'll die together, if we
must; but it's not my idee to die at all, Mary.
I'm goin to bring that air ashore while [
cut hickory if can find one, to break this
yer chain
Plunging again into the mud nearly to his
waist. Phebus pulled the scow up into the woods
and had barely concealed himself when he saw
come out of the creek below Twiford's house
cat-b boat like the Ellenora Dennis. and stand to-
ward the island in the cripple.
THE tides agin EN-, an they must make a
tack to get YER" Jimmy muttered; but I'm
afraid this knife will have to go to the heart
of some son of Pangymonum in ten minutes, or
Ellenory Dennis never agin be pestered by her
ugly lover"
He was seized with a certain frenzy of strength
and discernment at the danger he was in, and
as he carried the scow onward and across the
woodland island heavy as it was, he also noted a
single small hickory tree on that further margin,
and threw himself against it and bent it down.
and plunged his knife into the stralning fibers so
that it cracked and splintered in his hand. He
leaped to the tree and scaled 1t as he had often
climbed a mast, and he thrust the sapling under
the staple, trimming the point down with the
knife as he clutched the tree by his knees, and
then, catching the young hickory like lever
he dropped down the pine trunk and got his
shoulder under the saping and brought the
weight of his body desperately against it, The
staple bent upward in the tree but did not
loosen.
At that instant the scraping of boat upon the
mud was heard, and the black woman fell upon
her knees.
'.Prav. but do it soft, Jimmy whispered, IAN
not cry from the child or thereu be
DER
He had rapidly trimmed the hickory stem of
it's branches as he spoke, SO that it could pene
trate the arborage from the tree above, and
climbing higher, like a cat, he worked the point
of the lever downward into the crooked
staple, and threw himself out of the tree against
the sapling, which bent like u bow nearly double,
but would not break and as the staple yielded
and few out, the chain and the deliverer fell to-
gether on the soft pine litter.
''Hark!' exclaimed voice through the woods
What was tl asked another voice.
Gomez PhPbus murmured, and gathered to-
gether the woman the child, and the chain and
ball, and stepped long and silent rabbits
leaps, through the awe hushed pines, carrying
the whole burden on his shoulders.
lie sat them in the scow, vhich sank to the
edges, and covered 10y protrudiug point of
woods pushed off into the deep river. yet guild
ing the fFail vessel i'll to the sides Of the stream,
away from the influence of tho out running tide.
As the scow turned the first crease or elbow in
the river. it began to sink
IF You makea sound you are a slave fur life"
4
and began to swim with his hand upon the stern.
As he did this straining every muscle of his
cOuntenance to keep afoat the wound in his
cheek began to bleed again, and he felt his
strength going Down, down he began to settle,
till the water reached his nOstrs and the woman
heard him sigh as he was sinking:
ia do tan die-agin- fur-Ellenory. God
bless her"
down, and throw mother and child into the
stream, and the child was gone beneath the sur
face before the woman could catch herself upon
a sunken branch Of imbedded tree; and, as
she gasped there the body Of the pungy captain
swept past her. and she caught him by the hair,
and he elutehed her with the drowning instinct,
and down they went together, like husband and
WIFE in natures contempt of distinction between
living worms
They went down to the very bottom, but not to
drown for the old tree having fallen where it
grew in other years, was sustained upon its
limbs, and made an invisible yet sure pathway
to the shore The long chain ana the iron ball
fastened to the colored womans foot however,
deprived her for few moments of all power to
step along the slippery, submerged trunk, and
with her soul full of agony for her child, which
she no longer saw she was about to let go of her
delverers body and throw herself also into the
river, to die with Them when the old scow hay
ing enlptied itself of the water, reappeared at
the surface and struck the woman Il buoyant
blow that altered the course of her thought.
Poor brave man. the woman easped, Hes
got a wife. maybe He said God bless her. an
he give his life for poor creature like me.
God has took my baby, l can't do nothing for it
now, but maybe can save this mans life before
die
Indifferent to her personal fate she drew intel
ligence from her spirit of sacrifice which is the
only thing better than learning. She pushed the
seow down and under Phoebus with her remain