I hope that by this time the man is hundreds of miles away.

He was brutally treated by a brutal master, who, I believe, deliberately set to work to make him run away, so that he could hunt him down and punish him.

I presume, sir, you do not wish to search this house, and you do not suppose that the man is hidden here.

As to the slave-huts and the plantation, you can, of course, search them thoroughly; but as it is now more than a fortnight since the man escaped, it is not likely you will find him hiding within a few miles of his master's plantation." So saying, she went into the house and shut the door behind her.
Mr.Jackson ground his teeth with rage, but the sheriff rode off toward the slave-huts without a word.

The position of Mrs.Wingfield of the Orangery, connected as she was with half the old families of Virginia, and herself a large slave-owner, was beyond suspicion, and no one would venture to suggest that such a lady could have the smallest sympathy for a runaway slave.
"She was down upon you pretty hot, Mr.Jackson," the sheriff said as they rode off.