They Have Killed Papa Dead! by Anthony Pitch

Author:Anthony Pitch [PITCH, ANTHONY S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-58642-163-2
Publisher: Steerforth Press
Published: 2008-12-30T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

“You Must Get Him Across”

John Wilkes Booth and David Herold had lost valuable time in distancing themselves from Washington by taking the detour to Samuel Mudd's house. Herold had warned against veering off course and was vindicated soon after they left the doctor's property, for the two men were now in unfamiliar territory. For all of Herold's vaunted knowledge of the sprawling county, he had never been in this specific sector, and because the sun had already set, he did not even know east from west. The luckless pair had lost the option of continuing through Bryantown after Mudd told them it was overrun by the military, with guards blocking entrances and exits.

Lost and bewildered, Herold found himself back among the cluster of farms near Samuel Mudd's home, hoping to get his bearings from any passing resident. By chance he came upon Electus Thomas, a black employee of Mudd's father, who stopped to talk with Herold while his wife and two other men walked on. In the fading light Thomas recognized Herold as the man he had seen twice that afternoon, when Herold rode toward Bryantown then returned along the same quiet country road. The fugitive had hitched his horse out of view and was on foot.

“Uncle, where am I at?” Herold asked.

Thomas told him he was on the property of Henry L. Mudd.

“Where does the sun rise and where does it set?” Herold inquired.

Thomas explained as best he could.

“I wonder, could I stay tonight?” Herold asked.

“I don't know. I think old master's gone over to the doctor's,” the farmhand replied.

“I think I won't bother anyone tonight,” Herold concluded. “Isn't there a large swamp near here?”

“Yes,” said Thomas, pointing the way past the tobacco barn.

“Well, I will take the swamp,” Herold replied ambivalently, either to mislead Thomas or to indicate an intention to continue south, with the swamp close by as a marker. Apparently satisfied that he had recovered his bearings, Herold walked away, remarking, “When I get to the Bryantown bridges, I know them.”

By now it was dark, and Thomas lost sight of the stranger even before he reached the tobacco barn.1

Compelled by darkness to slow their pace in alien terrain, the conspirators skirted the treacherous swamp, keeping to the east of it as they plodded south. About 9 PM they came upon another black man, Oswald Swan, walking near his home about two and a half miles southeast of Bryantown.2 Swan had already heard about the assassination but had no inkling the strangers might be connected. It was too dark to distinguish anyone's features. Only when they dismounted at Swan's home did he observe “a small man” and another with a lame left leg, supporting himself on a crutch. Swan gave them bread and whiskey, and they offered him two dollars to lead them to the home of another man two miles away, but they then changed their minds and upped the payment to five dollars if he would guide them more than double the distance, through the swamp, to the residence of Samuel Cox.

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