Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/317

 of the party to search. He was charged with this, but affected the most stolid ignorance of the existence of any such island, or swamp either. When questioned whence he came, and whom he belonged to, he acknowledged himself a runaway from a rice plantation below, who had lately wandered into this vicinity, of which he professed an entire ignorance, declaring himself to be dying of hunger, and not to have eaten any thing hardly for a week — a story to which his plump and comfortable aspect did not give much credit. He acknowledged having heard of Wild Tom, who indeed figured largely in the current legends, white and negro, of all that region; but denied most positively ever having seen him, or knowing any thing of any other runaways.

These protestations, however, did not satisfy, and to make him confess, he was tied up and whipped till he fainted; but while begging for mercy, he still insisted on the truth of his story, and that he had nothing further to tell.

This experiment having failed, he was placed on the stump of a fallen tree, and a rope being put round his neck and fastened to a branch above, he was threatened with instant hanging if he did not confess. Still he continued dogged as ever, when one of the company pushed him off the stump, and allowed him to swing till he grew black in the face. He was then placed back upon the stump, the rope loosened, and himself supported by the two or three slaves who accompanied the party. At length beginning to recover himself, whether out of terror of death, or the confusion of his ideas and the destruction of his self-control by the pressure of blood upon the brain, he began to confess freely enough that he had just come from the swamp island, and that Wild Tom was there; but he denied all knowledge of any other runaways, or that Wild Tom had any body with him.

The prospect of capturing this celebrated outlaw, the glory thus to be gained, and the public service to be rendered, — not to mention the thousand dollars