How can it be done?
On the average at this time of year there isn't a steamboat along here once a month.

If we did get them onto a boat they would have to travel straight south as far as the Ohio.

Kirby wouldn't be more than a day or two behind them, with friends on every boat on the river.

Illinois is no free state for fugitive slaves--they might just as well be caught in Missouri as over there.

There is not one chance in a thousand that they make it." "And less than that, if they remain here for Kirby to get his hands on," I retorted bitterly.