back into the Territory. For
the moment the audacity of the crime stunned the frontier. He had
figured on this hour of uncertainty and amazement to make good his
escape. He knew that he could depend on the people along the way to Iowa
to protect the ten slaves which he had brought out of Missouri.

The press of Kansas unanimously condemned the outrage. Brown knew they
would. He could spit in their faces now. He was done with Kansas. His
caravan was moving toward the North; his eyes were fixed on the hills of
Virginia.

His experiment had been a success.

The President of the United States, James Buchanan, offered a reward
of $250 for his arrest. The Governor of Missouri raised the reward to
$3,000. The press flashed the news of the daring rescue of ten slaves by
old John Brown. He regained in a day his lost prestige. The stories of
the robberies which accompanied the rescue were denied as Border Ruffian
lies, as "Shubel Morgan" knew they would be denied.

His enterprise had met every test. He got his slaves safely through to
Canada and started a reign of terror. The effect of the raid into a
Slave State had tested his theory of direct, bloodstained action as the
solution and the only solution of the problem.

The occasional frowns of pious people on his methods caused him no
uneasiness or doubt. He was a man of daily prayer. He was on more
intimate terms with God than his critics.

The one fly in the ointment of his triumph was the cold reception given
him by the religious settlement at Tabor, Iowa. These good people had
treated him as a prophet of God in times past and his caravan had headed
for Tabor as their first resting place.

He entered the village with a song of triumph. He would exhibit his
freed slaves before the Church and join with the congregation in a hymn
of praise to God.

But the news of his coming had reached Tabor before his arrival. They
had heard of the stealing of the oxen, the horses, the mules, the
wagons.

They had also heard of the murder of David Cruise. Brown had denied the
Pottawattomie crimes and they had believed him. This murder he could
not deny. They had not yet reached the point of justifying murder in an
unlawful rescue. These pious folks also had a decided prejudice against
a horse thief, however religious his training and eloquent his prayers.

When his caravan of stolen wagons, horses and provisions, moved slowly
into the village, a curious but cold crowd gazed in silen