“I don’t know how I ever rowed the boat across the river the current was strong and I was trembling.  I couldn’t see a thing there in the dark, but I felt that girl’s eyes.  We didn’t dare to whisper, so I couldn’t tell her how sure I was that Mr. Tabb or some of the others owners would ‘tear me up’ when they found out what I had done.  I just knew they would find out.”

“I was worried, too, about where to put her out of the boat.  I couldn’t ride her across the river all night, and I didn’t know a thing about the other side.  I had heard a lot about it from other slaves but I thought it was just about like Mason County, with slaves and masters, overseers and rawhides; and so, I just knew that if I pulled the boat up and went to asking people where to take her I would get a beating or get killed.”

“I don’t know whether it seemed like a long time or a short time, now—­it’s so long ago; I know it was a long time rowing there in the cold and worryin’.  But it was short, too, ’cause as soon as I did get on the other side the big-eyed, brown-skin girl would be gone.  Well, pretty soon I saw a tall light and I remembered what the old lady had told me about looking for that light and rowing to it.  I did; and when I got up to it, two men reached down and grabbed her; I started tremblin’ all over again, and prayin’.  Then, one of the men took my arm and I just felt down inside of me that the Lord had got ready for me.  ’You hungry, Boy?’ is what he asked me, and if he hadn’t been holdin’ me I think I would have fell backward into the river.”

“That was my first trip; it took me a long time to get over my scared feelin’, but I finally did, and I soon found myself goin’ back across the river, with two and three people, and sometimes a whole boatload.  I got so I used to make three and four trips a month.

“What did my passengers look like?  I can’t tell you any more about it than you can, and you wasn’t there.  After that first girl—­no, I never did see her again—­I never saw my passengers.  I would have to be the “black nights” of the moon when I would carry them, and I would meet ’em out in the open or in a house without a single light.  The only way I knew who they were was to ask them; “What you say?” And they would answer, “Menare.”  I don’t know what that word meant—­it came from the Bible.  I only know that that was the password I used, and all of them that I took over told it to me before I took them.

“I guess you wonder what I did with them after I got them over the river.  Well, there in Ripley was a man named Mr. Rankins; I think the rest of his name was John.  He had a regular station there on his place for escaping slaves.  You see, Ohio was a free state and once they got over the river from Kentucky or Virginia.  Mr. Rankins could strut them all around town, and nobody would bother ’em.  The only reason we used to land quietly at night was so that whoever brought ’em could go back for more, and because we had to be careful that none of the owners had followed us.  Every once in a while they would follow a boat and catch their slaves back.  Sometimes they would shoot at whoever was trying to save the poor devils.