the
purport of my talk with Joe, and he agreed that the course I had
insisted on was the right one, though he feared Punchard would have
a sorry time when he came within the clutches of the man who bore a
long-standing grudge against him. I confess that I had clean
forgotten the matter of the barrel rolling, and being now reminded
of it, felt greatly concerned at having sent poor Joe into the very
jaws of danger, but 'tis idle to repent, and I could only hope that
we should get to the house in time to prevent any irremediable
harm.

'Twas nigh five o'clock when we came to the copse fringing the road
(a rough cart track) from the coast.

Noah went out stealthily to inspect the road for traces of the
convoy, and told us that we were in time; the wagons had not yet
come up. We waited patiently, and I took advantage of the interval
to repeat the instructions I had previously given to the negroes.
About half an hour after our arrival we heard a creaking in the
distance, and soon the convoy came in sight--three six-horsed
wagons, with two negroes in each, and two overseers on horseback,
carrying long whips, and riding side by side in the rear. These two
Cludde and I marked for our own, leaving the negroes to deal with
the men of their color. We two separated from the rest of the
party, so that the attack might be made on the whole line at the
same moment.

When we came opposite to the two riders, I gave a shrill whistle,
and with Cludde at my side dashed from among the trees. So sudden
and unexpected was the assault that the overseers had no time to
defend themselves. Cludde and I hauled them from their saddles and
held them fast while two of the negroes brought from the wagons
ropes wherewith to bind them. The negro drivers let forth a yell
and dropped their reins when the rest of our party sprang out from
the copse. The convoy halted and Uncle Moses in a very little time
made the drivers understand that they must either do what we bade
them or be trussed up and left in the woods. With night approaching
this latter alternative had too many terrors to make it acceptable,
and the men professed themselves willing to render utter obedience,
the more readily in that Vetch and his gang of desperadoes were
well hated by all the hands upon the estate.

One of them, who Uncle Moses told me, was a bad character, we bound
and placed with the overseers in one of the wagons, which we then
drew into the copse out of sight from the