Roxy Hastings — page 116: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ROXY HASTINGS. 107 along the river shore, and, perhaps, are coming for that very purpose now.” “I guess dey are, Massa Lee. °*T'would be jes’ like ’em, dat would. Dat ‘provo’is de wide-awakest feller I ever seed. But here comes de boat. Hallelujah! Amen!” There was the boat, sure enough. Jake stopped a little way from them, and let out his grandson, Josh, whom he was unwilling to trust. ‘‘You go up to de house, boy; I fasten de boat,” he said. Josh went willingly enough, and Luke and Alfred were oie in the boat, with their baskets of provisions beside them. “ Have you paid him ?” asked Lee, who seemed to forget nothing. ~ Yes, eberyting, and twenty dollars to pay for de old skiff, which ain’t worth ten.” Alfred shook hands with the old man, slipped another piece of gold into his palm, and then pushed off the skiff. “You let me row,” whispered Luke. “We must go mighty slow and still. Dll git her out in de stream, and let her drop down wid de current till we git a good way out de town.” CHAPTER XX. LEE’S RECEPTION. Poor Luke was not mistaken about the “pummeling” in reserve for Dinah, who had had no time-to clear away the proofs of her complicity in the plot for escape, before Hess and another soldier burst furiousy into her cabin. There lay the priestly garments which Alfred had dis- earded, while a general state of disorder in the room, to- gether with the old woman’s abject terror at the sight of the men, left no room for doubting her privity to the whole affair. But Dine was quick-witted, and she was willing to “abide bonds and imprisonment,” if necessary, to. save young Lee from the gallows. She knew the importance of gaining time, if it were but a few minutes, and she played her part accordingly. Hess seized her roughly by the arm, shook her violently, and with thick-coming vituperations demanded where Luke and the lieutenant were. Getting no answer but groans and prayers, he seized the lamp, and, drawing a re- cS abs Pee | | cComirchoo . : i : , - Ms : neh ek, ee ee =e \e fae a €om