It was heavy going across this sagging morass.  Uncle Moses told me that we were in no danger of sinking into it so long as we took short and rapid steps; but we were both mightily fatigued, and my feet as I lifted them seemed heavy as lead.  The negro was in far worse case than I, and had I not grasped him firmly by the arm and fairly pulled him along, I think he would never have gained the other side.  Towards the middle the surface of the swamp was nothing but liquid ooze, and once or twice, in spite of our swamp shoes, we sank in it up to the ankles.  But at length we reached more solid ground; then Uncle Moses said we must strike off to the right, and after a tramp of two miles or thereabouts we should come to a well-concealed spot where he had no doubt we should find fugitives of his color.

As we neared the place he put his fingers to his mouth and blew a whistle of three quick notes that reminded me of the piping of a thrush.  And immediately I started back:  a black man had risen almost from beneath our feet.  So well hidden was he in a low-growing bush that we might have passed within a yard of him and been none the wiser.  I perceived that he carried a long knife in his hand.

“Hi, Sam!” said Uncle Moses, stepping in advance of me.

I stood leaning on one of the muskets while the two men spoke together in tones too low to reach my ears.  But I knew from his gestures and his manner of looking at me that the stranger was loath to comply with the request Uncle Moses was putting to him.  His demeanor said, as plainly as words, that he distrusted me; I was a white man, and doubtless the poor runagate had too much reason to regard all white men as his enemies.  But Uncle Moses took him by the arm and appeared to plead with him; and by and by the man left us and went away.

“Him gone to ask his brudders if we may go where dey are,” said Uncle Moses, coming to my side.

Then he flung himself on the ground and lay at full length upon his face, with his arms outstretched in an attitude of utter prostration.  I sat down by him, clasping my knees, and mused with down-bent head.

After what seemed a long while the negro returned and told us that we might accompany him.  He led us back toward the swamp, threading his way through the rank vegetation along an invisible path that wound about like the coils of a snake in most bewildering wise.  But it was firm to the tread, and his bare feet had no need of swamp shoes.  Finally we came to a little island copse slightly above the general level, and there, well screened from view, we found a group of about a dozen negroes.  They had constructed for themselves little huts of grass and branches of trees, and in the midst a pot was boiling on a fire of sticks.  They cried a greeting to Uncle Moses, and I was not a little amazed when one of them came grinning up to me and said: 

“Massa Bold, we bofe free now.  Huh! dat debbil nebber cotch us no mo’.”