"Hide me, quick! De houn's is aftah me, honey. I Ve jes' waded de crick, and dey 've lost de trail. Quick, missus; an' I'll sarve ye forever!"
The low baying of the bloodhounds proclaimed that they were again on the trail.
"Climb in here! Be quick!" exclaimed Mrs. Ranger, making room for the quaking fugitive. "I've never tried to sleep with a nigger and her baby, but I can stand it if I have to," she said to herself, as the refugee took the place assigned to her.
"What in thunder are you up to now?" asked her husband when he looked in upon his wife and children in the morning and discovered the dusky intruder.
"Trying to help you to circumvent the institution you are so ready to fight, which, as you say, is wrong, and no contingency can make right," replied his wife, her cheeks and eyes aglow with mingled satisfaction and excitement.
IX
THE CAPTAIN DEFENDS THE LAW,
ON'T you know it's against the laws of your country to harbor a runaway nigger?" asked the Captain, in genuine alarm. "We'll never get off o' Missouri soil in this world if we're caught hiding this wench and her pickaninny among our traps. She's got to get away from here in a hurry."
"So far as the laws go, I don't care a rap, John. I, nor no other woman, ever took a hand in making any of 'em. And as for Missouri soil, it's good enough for anybody. I 'm quite enamored of it; and I feel perfectly willing to stay here as long as I live."
