They had their swim in the creek and got back to the house at dinner time.  Samson had returned and, as they sat down at the table, he told what had happened at the Constable’s house and learned of the passing of Biggs and his friend in the road, followed by Collar on his sorrel mare.

“We must hurry back, but we will have to give the horses a rest,” said Samson.

“And the young people a chance to play checkers?” said Mrs. Brimstead.

“I have no heart for play,” said Annabel, with a sigh.

“The excitement and the sight o’ those poor slaves have taken all the fun out of her,” the woman remarked.

Then Harry asked:  “What have you done with the third slave?”

“She’s been up-stairs, getting washed and dressed,” said Mrs. Brimstead.

As she spoke, the stairway door opened and Bim entered the room—­in a silk gown and slippers.  Sorrow had put its mark upon her face, but had not extinguished her beauty.  All rose from the table.  Harry walked toward her.  She advanced to meet him.  Face to face, they stopped and looked into each other’s eyes.  The moment long desired, the moment endeared and sublimated by the dreams of both, the moment toward which their thoughts had been wont to hasten, after the cares of the day, like brooks coming down from the mountains, had arrived suddenly.  She was in a way prepared for it.  She had taken thought of what she would do and say.  He had not.  Still it made no difference.  This little point of time had been so filled with the power which had flowed into it out of their souls there was no foretelling what they would do when it touched them.  Scarcely a second of that moment was wasted in hesitation, as a matter of fact.  Quickly they fell into each other’s embrace, and the depth of their feeling we may guess when we read in the diary of the rugged and rather stoical Samson that no witness of the scene spoke or moved “until I turned my back upon it for shame of my tears.”

Soon Bim came and kissed Samson’s cheek and said: 

“I am not going to make trouble.  I couldn’t help this.  I heard what he said to you last night.  It made me happy in spite of all my troubles.  I love him but above all I shall try to keep his heart as clean and noble as it has always been.  I really meant to be very strong and upright.  It is all over now.  Forgive us.  We are going to be as respectable as—­as we can.”

Samson pressed her hand and said: 

“You came with the slaves and I guess you heard our talk in the wagon.”

“Yes, I came with the slaves, and was as black as either of them.  We had all suffered.  I should have come alone, but they had been good and faithful to me.  I could not bear to leave them to endure the violence of that man.  We left together one night when he was in a drunken stupor.  We took a boat to Alton and caught The Star of the North to Beardstown—­they traveling as my servants.  There I hired a team and wagon.  It brought us to the grove near your house.”