The next morning he looked refreshed, but still his strength was wasted by his great physical exertion and mental excitement; and Thomas[4] thought he had better rest a few days till he grew stronger and better prepared to travel; for Thomas[5] noticed that he was nervous, starting at the sound of every noise, and often turning his head to the door with an anxious, frightened look.

Thomas would have gladly given him shelter and work, and given him just wages, but he dared not do so.  He was an American citizen it is true, but at that time slavery reigned over the North and ruled over the South, and he had not the power under the law of the land to give domicile, and break his bread to that poor, hunted and flying man; for even then they were hunting in the South and sending out their human bloodhounds to search for him in the North.

Throughout the length and breadth of the land, from the summit of the rainbow-crowned Niagara to the swollen waters of the Mexican Gulf; from the golden gates of sunrise to the gorgeous portals of departing day, there was not a hill so high, a forest so secluded, a glen so sequestered, nor mountain so steep, that he knew he could not be tracked and hailed in the name of the general government.

“What’s the news, friend Carpenter? any new arrivals?” said Josiah Collins in a low voice to Thomas.

“Yes, a very interesting case; can’t you come over?”

“Yes, after breakfast.  By the way, you must be a little more cautious than usual.  Charley came home last night, and brought a young friend with him from college.  I think from his conversation that he is either a Southerner himself, or in deep sympathy with the South.”

Both men spoke in low tones, for although they were Northerners, they were talking about a subject on which they were compelled to speak with bated breaths.

After breakfast Josiah came over, but Moses seemed so heavy and over wearied that they did not care to disturb him.  There was a look of dejection and intense sadness on the thin worn face, and a hungry look in the mournful eyes, as if his soul had been starving for kindness and sympathy.  Sometimes he would forget his situation, and speak hopefully of the future, but still there was a weariness that he could not shake off, a languor that seemed to pervade every nerve and muscle.

Thomas thought it was the natural reaction of the deep excitement, through which he just passed, that the tension of his nerves had been too great, but that a few days rest and quiet would restore him to his normal condition; but that hope soon died away.

The tension, excitement, and consequent exhaustion had been too much.  Reason tottered on its throne, and he became a raving maniac; in his moments of delirium he would imagine that he was escaping from slavery; that the pursuers were upon his back; that they had caught him, and were rebinding him about to take him back to slavery, and then it was heartrending to hear him beg, and plead to be carried to Thomas Carpenter’s.