The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-11-08
to take advantage OF the rrIghtrul means
thus placed at his disposal for my un.

to take advantage OF the rrIghtrul means
thus placed at his disposal for my un.
doing. I knew that the scent Of those
animals approaches as close to the mar.
velous as anything In this world. It
was impossible for me to shake of the
brute or brutes flor there WAS no saying
! whether there was one or more on my
track except by taking to the water,
and knew not whether there was a
stream within miles Of me- nor could !
guess which way to turn to search for
one.
These descendants of the man hunters
Of slavery days would trail a fugitive
into the widest recesses Of a swamp
and compel him to escape rending by
climbing a tree, where his pursuers
could capture him at their leisure. I
drew my revolver and with something
Of the panic shown by Erastus turned
toward the wood which doomed in
front and plunged into Black Mans
swamp, intent only upon getting away
from my enemy, who was to be dreaded
more than jungle tiger.
The ground was soft and spongy, the
best in the world for trailing, and none
could have known better than that the
brute would soon be on my heels.
If there is but one, or possibly two"
I reflected, II will settle him with my
revolver"
The bsying sounded at intervals, and
I fanoied it came from one animal,
though there could. we'll be several
whose cries were similar. The men
who accompanied the hound did 60 in
silence. There was no call for them to
waste their strength in shouting.
I thrsshed ahead. sometimes catching
my feet In the wirelike vines, with the
branches switching my face and q larger
limb occasionally compelling me to
change my course, but all the time
was plunging deeper into the swamp
which had served more than one run
away slave in the past.
The terrifying danger, leaving out Of
account the dog, was from the men at
his heels. It had been announced by
Jim DUNCAN, leader Of the mob, that I
was to be shot down if I tried to escape
from my captors, and ! had not only
made the attempt, but had we'll nigh
succeeded. Consequently they would
make short work of me, and Cy Wal.
ters would not hesitate to give me
variation Of the "witch's parole" as
he had done in the case Of more than
one miserable wretch in wartimes.
I had run barely 400 yards when I
heard the bloodhound thrashing behind
me. He was on my trail and emitted a
bay which fancied contained a note of
exultation in its horrible discord. Ger
tainly 1t was warranted.
To my surprise, the ground suddenly
sloped upward, and before / suspected
anything Of the kind I debouched into
q small clearing less than half an acre
In extent, in the middle Of which was
q pile of logs, evidently the ruins Of
some cabin that had tumbled to pieces
through the lapse of time and the wear
Of weather.
With that instructive longing to de-
fer the final calamity I ran swiftly
across the open space to the pile Of logs,
where I paused, revolver in hand. and
looked back. Since a meeting with the
dog was inevitable there could be no
better place than the logs in the middle
Of the clearing.
"The men must be some distance be-
hind him-ahr' ,.-....-
Matters went with rush. had not
stood more than three minutes, painting,
at bay when the hound burst into sight
On the edge Of the clearing and charged
straight for mo like meteor.
10 Be tontinued.)