第26章

Dan escaped questioning, as he had taken up Vincent's horse to the house in readiness for him to start as soon as he had finished breakfast.

All day the searchers rode about the plantation examining every clump of bushes, and assuring themselves that none of them had been used as a place of refuge for the runaway.

, "It's no good, Mr.Jackson," the sheriff said at last."The man may have been here; he ain't here now.The only place we haven't;searched is the house, and you may be quite sure the slaves dare not conceal him there.Too many would get to know it.No, sir, he's made a bolt of it, and you will have to wait now till he is caught by chance, or shot; by some farmer or other in the act of stealing.""I would lay a thousand dollars," Andrew Jackson exclaimed passionately, "that young Wingfield knows something about; his whereabouts, and has lent him a hand!""Well, I should advise you to keep your mouth shut about; it; till you get some positive proof," the sheriff said dryly."I tell you it's no joke to accuse a member of a family like the Wingfields of helping runaway slaves to escape.""I will bide my time," the planter said."You said that some day you would lay hands on Tony dead or alive.You see if some day Idon't lay hands on young Wingfield."Well, it seems, Mr.Jackson," the sheriff remarked with a sneer, for he was out of temper at the ill success of the day's work, "that; he has already laid hands on your son.It seems to me quite as likely that he will lay hands on you as you on him."Two days afterward as Vincent was riding through the streets of Richmond he saw to his surprise Andrew Jackson in close conversation with Jonas Pearson.

"I wonder what those two fellows are talking about?" he said to himself."I expect; Jackson is trying to pump Pearson as to the doings at the Orangery.I don't like that; fellow, and never shall, and he is just the sort of man to do one a bad turn if he had the chance.However, as I have never spoken to him about; that affair from beginning to end, I don't see that he can do any mischief if he wants to."Andrew Jackson, however, had obtained information which he considered valuable.He learned that Vincent had been away in a boat for five days, and that his mother had been very uneasy about him.He also learned that the boat was one belonging to Mr.

Furniss, and that it was only quite lately that Vincent had taken to going out sailing.

After considerable trouble he succeeded in getting at one of the slaves upon Mr.Furniss' plantation.But he could only learn from him that Vincent had been unaccompanied when he went out in the boat either by young Furniss or by any of the plantation hands;that he had taken with him only his own slave, and had come and gone as he chose, taking out and fastening up the boat himself, so that no one could say when he had gone out;, except; that his horse was put up at the stables.The slave said that certainly the horse bad only stood there on two or three occasions, and then only for a few hours, and that unless Mr.Wingfield had walked over he could never have had the boat out all night, as the horse certainly had not stood all night in the stables.

Andrew Jackson talked the matter over with his son, and both agreed that Vincent's conduct; was suspicious His own people said he had been away for five days in the boat.The people at Furniss'

knew nothing about this, and therefore there must be some mystery about it, and they doubted not that; that mystery was connected with the runaway slave, and they guessed that he had either taken Tony and landed him near the mouth of the York River on the northern shore, or that he had put him on beard a ship.They agreed, however, that whatever their suspicious, they had not sufficient grounds for openly accusing Vincent of aiding their runaway.