ion; and success
attended their efforts. They knew that one false step would jeopardize
their own liberty, and very likely their lives, and utterly destroy
every prospect of carrying out their objects. They knew, too, that they
were matched against the most desperate, daring, and brutal men in the
kidnappers' ranks,--men who, to obtain the proffered reward, would rush
willingly into any enterprise, regardless alike of its character or its
consequences. That this was the deepest, the most thoroughly organized
and best-planned project for man-catching that had been concocted since
the infamous Fugitive Slave Law had gone into operation, they also knew;
and consequently this nest of hornets was approached with great care.
But by walking directly into their camp, watching their plans as they
were developed, and secretly testing every inch of ground on which they
trod, they discovered enough to counterplot these plotters, and to
spring upon them a mine which shook the whole country, and put an end to
man-stealing in Pennsylvania forever.

The trusty agent of this Special Committee, Mr. Samuel Williams, of
Philadelphia,--a man true and faithful to his race, and courageous in
the highest degree,--came to Christiana, travelling most of the way in
company with the very men whom Gorsuch had employed to drag into slavery
four as good men as ever trod the earth. These Philadelphia roughs, with
their Maryland associates, little dreamed that the man who sat by their
side carried with him their inglorious defeat, and the death-warrant of
at least one of their party. Williams listened to their conversation,
and marked well their faces, and, being fully satisfied by their awkward
movements that they were heavily armed, managed to slip out of the cars
at the village of Downington unobserved, and proceeded to
Penningtonville, where he encountered Kline, who had started several
hours in advance of the others. Kline was terribly frightened, as he
knew Williams, and felt that his presence was an omen of ill to his base
designs. He spoke of horse thieves; but Williams replied,--"I know the
kind of horse thieves you are after. They are all gone; and you had
better not go after them."

Kline immediately jumped into his wagon, and rode away, whilst Williams
crossed the country, and arrived at Christiana in advance of him.

The manner in which information of Gorsuch's designs was obtained will
probably ever remain a secret; and I doubt if any o