perhaps, take his compass and one of his sons,
and proceed to run an imaginary line right through the very spot on
which that conclave had assembled, and when he came up to them, he would
naturally pause and have some talk with them, learning their news, and,
at last, all their plans perfectly; and having thus completed his real
survey he would resume his imaginary one, and run on his line till he
was out of sight.

When I expressed surprise that he could live in Kansas at all, with
a price set upon his head, and so large a number, including the
authorities, exasperated against him, he accounted for it by saying, "It
is perfectly well understood that I will not be taken." Much of the time
for some years he has had to skulk in swamps, suffering from poverty and
from sickness, which was the consequence of exposure, befriended only
by Indians and a few whites. But though it might be known that he was
lurking in a particular swamp, his foes commonly did not care to go
in after him. He could even come out into a town where there were more
Border Ruffians than Free State men, and transact some business, without
delaying long, and yet not be molested; for, said he, "No little handful
of men were willing to undertake it, and a large body could not be got
together in season."

As for his recent failure, we do not know the facts about it. It was
evidently far from being a wild and desperate attempt. His enemy, Mr.
Vallandigham, is compelled to say, that "it was among the best planned
executed conspiracies that ever failed."

Not to mention his other successes, was it a failure, or did it show a
want of good management, to deliver from bondage a dozen human beings,
and walk off with them by broad daylight, for weeks if not months, at a
leisurely pace, through one State after another, for half the length of
the North, conspicuous to all parties, with a price set upon his head,
going into a court-room on his way and telling what he had done, thus
convincing Missouri that it was not profitable to try to hold slaves
in his neighborhood?--and this, not because the government menials were
lenient, but because they were afraid of him.

Yet he did not attribute his success, foolishly, to "his star," or to
any magic. He said, truly, that the reason why such greatly superior
numbers quailed before him was, as one of his prisoners confessed,
because they lacked a cause,--a kind of armor which he and his party
never lacked. When the time