Page:Fifty Years in Chains, or the Life of an American Slave.djvu/170

168 minutes he told me he, now more than ever, suspected me to be the murderer, but he would go with me and see if I had told the truth. When we arrived at the great house, some members of the family had not yet gone to bed, having been kept up by the arrival of several gentlemen who had been searching the woods all day for the lost lady, and who had come here to seek lodgings when it was near midnight. My master was in bed, but was called up and listened attentively to my story — at the close of which he shook his head, and said with an oath, "You, I believe you to be the murderer; but we will go and see if all you say is a lie; if it is, the torments of will be pleasure to what awaits you. You have escaped once, but you will not get off a second time." I now found that somebody must die; and if the guilty could not be found, the innocent would have to atone for them. The manner in which my master had delivered his words, assured me that the life of somebody must be taken.

This new danger aroused my energies — and I told them that I was ready to go, and take the consequences. Accordingly, the overseer, my young master, and three other gentlemen, immediately set out with me. It was agreed that we should all travel on foot, the overseer and I going a few paces in advance of the others. We proceeded silently, but rapidly, on our