So, with
leave-takings, hurried but amicable, our party separated. We, the other
three, proposed to make for our quarters of the last Sunday, and for ten
miles further our kind host rode in our company, absolutely refusing to
turn back till we were in a country that Walter knew right well, and
might be considered comparatively safe; then he left us, proposing to
return home by another and yet more circuitous route, so as to baffle
possible pursuers. He did get home safe, but was arrested within the
same week--not, I trust, before he had moderately chastised that
treacherous contraband--and we met, two months later, in the old
Capitol.
Three hours' more riding brought us within sight of the town, where we
intended to refresh ourselves and our cattle, and, perhaps, to abide for
the night. We relied so implicitly on the hospitality we were certain to
find, that we had provided ourselves with no food of any sort; my flask,
too, had been emptied on the previous night. Fancy our disgust, when we
found the shutters closed, everything carefully locked up, and no living
soul about the place but two helpless little colored persons of tender
age. The whole family had gone out to a sledging "frolic," and would not
return before late at night; it was then past P.
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