Tom, therefore, remained behind, with a few who had
learned of him to pray, and offered up prayers for the es-
cape of the fugitives.

When Legree returned, baffled and disappointed, all the
long-working hatred of his soul towards his slave began to
gather in a deadly and desperate form. Had not this man
braved him, -- steadily, powerfully, resistlessly, -- ever since
he bought him? Was there not a spirit in him which, si-
lent as it was, burned on him like the fires of perdition?

"I hate him!" said Legree, that night, as he sat up in
his bed; "I hate him! And is n't he MINE? Can't I do
what I like with him? Who 's to hinder, I wonder?"

And Legree clinched his fist, and shook it, as if he had
something in his hands that he, could rend in pieces.

But, then, Tom was a faithful, valuable servant; and, al-
though Legree hated him the more for that, yet the consid-
eration was still somewhat of a restraint to him.

The next morning, he determined to say nothing, as yet;
to assemble a party, from some neighboring plantations,
with dogs and guns; to surround the swamp, and go about
the hunt systematically. If it succeeded, well and good;
if not, he would summon Tom before him, and -- his teeth
clinched and his blood boiled -- then he would break that
fellow down, or -- there was a dire inward whisper, to
which his soul assented.

Ye say that the interest of the master is a sufficient safe-
guard for the slave. In the fury of man's mad will, he will
wittingly, and with open eye, sell his own soul to the devil
to gain his ends; and will he be more careful of his neigh-
bor's body?

"Well," said Cassy, the next day, from the garret, as
she reconnoitred through the knot-hole, "the hunt 's going
to begin again, to-day!"

Three or four mounted horsemen were curvetting about,
on the space front of the house; and one or two leashes of
strange dogs were struggling with the negroes who held
them, baying and barking at each other.

The men are, two of them, overseers of plantations in the
vicinity; and others were some of Legree's associates at
the tavern-bar of a neighboring city, who had come for the
interest of the sport. A more hard-favored set, perhaps,
could not be imagined. Legree was serving brandy, pro-

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