Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/380

 restraint on the crowd of licentious idlers, callous speculators, and anxious inquirers after human conveniences, to whose inspection, and now gross, now rude, and now teasing inquisition she, in common with the rest, was subjected.

The present, however, was not a moment to give way to feeling. It was necessary to act. Summoning up all my energies, I rapidly considered with myself what course I best might adopt. To draw Cassy's attention to myself in any way would be a hazardous operation; for I felt certain that as I had recognized her, so she would not fail to recognize me; and so public and peculiar a place as a slave auction room was hardly a desirable spot for our first interview, which, coming upon her with even greater surprise than upon myself, might have led to a scene very embarrassing, if not hazardous.

Looking round the room, as these thoughts ran through my mind, whom should I see — as if fortune or providence had determined to favor me — but my late acquaintance, Mr John. Colter, who was walking about the room examining the various groups of slaves, especially the females, with the air — to use his own expression — of both connoisseur and amateur, and with pretty evident indications of his own opinion as to his special competency to pass judgment as to the value of the article.

Catching my eye almost at the same instant that mine rested on him, he approached me with an air of much interest, and inquired what I did there, and what had been the success of my Mississippi travels? "I feared," he added, in a low tone, "when I read the account of that hanging affair in the newspapers, that I had got you into a scrape. I am glad to find you know how to take care of yourself. Here in the south-west it is pretty necessary to have one's eye teeth cut, and one's eyes open."

"You are just the man," I answered, "whom I wanted to see. Your assistance may now be invaluable tome. I have found her! She's here!"