Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/231

 him down and bound his hands. They did the same with me; and one of them having produced a piece of rope from his saddle-bags, they made halters of it, which they put about our necks, and by the application of their whips, they compelled us to keep up with their horses.

Tn about half an hour, we came to a mean and forlorn-looking cabin, by the road-side. It appeared to be a sort of inn, or tavern; and here we were to lodge. The only persons about the house seemed to be the landlady herself and a little daughter some ten or twelve years old. The whole appearance of the place bore evident marks of discomfort and poverty. Our captors had no sooner provided for their horses, than they called for chains; — trace-chains they said, or in fact any thing in the shape of a chain, would answer their purpose. But much to their disappointment, the landlady declared that she had nothing of the sort. However she procured some old rope; and having secured us as effectually as they could, they made us sit down in the passage.

The landlady told them, that in all probability, we were runaways; for the neighborhood had lately been much troubled by them. A company of five or six men, she said, had gone out two or three nights since on purpose to hunt up the rascals, and had unexpectedly come upon quite a party, asleep in the woods around a fire.

The gang seemed too large to be easily taken, but it was resolved that the fellows should not escape; especially as the man whose slaves they were supposed to be, and who was one of the party, openly declared that he had rather they were all shot, than to have them wandering about the country useless to him, and mischievous to his neighbors.

The company separated and each man approached from a different point. Upon a given signal, all fired; and then putting spurs to their horses, they rode off and returned home each by himself. Nobody had stopped to see what execution was done; but as the men were all good shots, it was supposed that most of the runaways were either killed or desperately wounded; and as our clothes were bloody, and one of us was hurt, she thought it likely, she said, that we belonged to that same gang.