, groping about, Jethro noticed the pieces of rope
that had served to bind The Panther, and which no one had deemed
valuable enough to be removed. Other pieces of board and a few fragments
of articles were scattered around, but none was of any account. Jethro
flung down his big armful of linen at the bow, and, sitting upon them,
gave himself over to characteristic meditation.

There is no intellect so dull through which some bright thought does not
now and then flash. It may come and go too quickly to be turned to
account, but, all the same, it is that mystic throb which proves that
all human souls are beating in unison with the divinity that created
them.

Sitting thus at the prow of the flatboat, meditating upon the strange
occurrences through which he had passed since leaving his old home in
Virginia, a scheme gradually assumed definite form in the brain of
Jethro Juggens, whose brilliancy and originality startled even himself.

And yet, when it comes to be analyzed, there was really nothing
startling and brilliant in it. The wonder would have been, if any
person, with a modicum of sense, could have held his place under similar
circumstances and not thought of that which gradually worked its way
into his consciousness.

There were the poles used in handling the flatboat; there were bits of
rope scattered about the bottom of the craft. He was sitting upon almost
half a score of tough, thin sheets of linen; he was the possessor of a
sharp knife and was dextrous in its use; and the wind was blowing almost
a gale from the west, and therefore directly up stream; why not sail the
flatboat up the Ohio?

This was the question which at first held the youth breathless with the
very grandeur and magnitude of the scheme; but, as fully considered, it
became simple and more practical.

Jethro was far from suspecting the real use to which his scheme could be
possibly put. He knew and suspected nothing of the desperate straits in
which his friends were placed at that very hour. He had an altogether
different project in view.

"Dey're pickin' dar way frough de woods, whar it's dark, and habing all
sorts ob trouble. Dey can't see tings, and dat makes it wusser; de one
dat's walkin' at de head will be sartin to hab a limb cotch him under
his chin and raise him off his feet; den he'll feel like sw'aring, but
will be afeared to do so, 'cause de heathen might oberhear him and stop
him, and make him explanify de meanin' of his disc