* * * * *

In a frontier newspaper of that time it is recorded that the minister and his dog kept the slaver on the roof all day, vainly trying with prayer and exhortation to convert his soul.  The man stopped swearing before dinner and on his promise not again to violate the commandment a good meal was handed up to him.  He was liberated at sundown and spent the night with Brimstead.

“Who is that big sucker who grabbed my friend?” the stranger asked Brimstead.

“His name is Samson Traylor.  Comes from Vermont,” was the answer.

“He’s the dog-gonedest steam engyne of a man I ever see, ’pon my word,” said the stranger.

“An’ he’s about the gentlest, womern hearted critter that ever drawed the breath o’ life,” said Brimstead.

“If he don’t look out ’Liph Biggs’ll kill him—­certain.”

Samson spoke not more than a dozen words on his way back to New Salem.  Amazed and a little shocked by his own conduct, he sat thinking.  After all he had heard and seen, the threat of the young upstart had provoked him beyond his power of endurance.  Trained to the love of liberty and justice, the sensitive mind of the New Englander had been hurt by the story of the fugitives.  Upon this hurt the young man had poured the turpentine of haughty, imperial manners.  In all the strange adventure it seemed to him that he had felt the urge of God—­in the letter of Lovejoy, in the prayers of the negro woman and the minister, in his own wrath.  The more he thought of it the less inclined he was to reproach himself for his violence.  Slavery was a relic of ancient imperialism.  It had no right in free America.  There could be no peace with it save for a little time.  He would write to his friends of what he had learned of the brutalities of slavery.  The Missourians would tell their friends of the lawless and violent men of the North, who cared not a fig for the property rights of a southerner.  The stories would travel like fire in dry grass.

So, swiftly, the thoughts of men were being prepared for the great battle lines of the future.  Samson saw the peril of it.

As they rode along young Mr. Biggs took a flask half full of whisky from his pocket and offered it to Samson.  The latter refused this tender of courtesy and the young man drank alone.  He complained of pain and Samson made a sling of his muffler and put it over the neck and arm of the injured Biggs and drove with care to avoid jolting.  For the first time Samson took a careful and sympathetic look at him.  He was a handsome youth, about six feet tall, with dark eyes and hair and a small black mustache and teeth very white and even.

In New Salem Samson took him to Dr. Allen’s office and helped the doctor in setting the broken bone.  Then he went to Offut’s store and found Abe reading his law book and gave him an account of his adventure.