to Philadelphia. It was twenty-six hours from the time
he left Richmond until his arrival in the City of Brotherly Love. The
notice, "This side up, &c.," did not avail with the different
expressmen, who hesitated not to handle the box in the usual rough
manner common to this class of men. For a while they actually had the
box upside down, and had him on his head for miles. A few days before he
was expected, certain intimation was conveyed to a member of the
Vigilance Committee that a box might be expected by the three o'clock
morning train from the South, which might contain a man. One of the most
serious walks he ever took--and they had not been a few--to meet and
accompany passengers, he took at half past two o'clock that morning to
the depot. Not once, but for more than a score of times, he fancied the
slave would be dead. He anxiously looked while the freight was being
unloaded from the cars, to see if he could recognize a box that might
contain a man; one alone had that appearance, and he confessed it really
seemed as if there was the scent of death about it. But on inquiry, he
soon learned that it was not the one he was looking after, and he was
free to say he experienced a marked sense of relief. That same
afternoon, however, he received from Richmond a telegram, which read
thus, "Your case of goods is shipped and will arrive to-morrow morning."

At this exciting juncture of affairs, Mr. McKim, who had been
engineering this important undertaking, deemed it expedient to change
the programme slightly in one particular at least to insure greater
safety. Instead of having a member of the Committee go again to the
depot for the box, which might excite suspicion, it was decided that it
would be safest to have the express bring it direct to the Anti-Slavery
Office.

But all apprehension of danger did not now disappear, for there was no
room to suppose that Adams' Express office had any sympathy with the
Abolitionist or the fugitive, consequently for Mr. McKim to appear
personally at the express office to give directions with reference to
the coming of a box from Richmond which would be directed to Arch
street, and yet not intended for that street, but for the Anti-Slavery
office at 107 North Fifth street, it needed of course no great
discernment to foresee that a step of this kind was wholly impracticable
and that a more indirect and covert method would have to be adopted. In
this dreadful crisis Mr. McKim, with his us