CHAPTER XX.
THE HERO OF MANY ADVENTURES.
Jerome had scarcely passed the prison-gates, ere he reproached himself for having taken such a step.

There seemed to him no hope of escape out of the State, and what was a few hours or days at most, of life to him, when, by obtaining it, another had been sacrificed.

He was on the eve of returning, when he thought of the last words uttered by Clotelle.
"Be brave and determined, and you will still be free." The words sounded like a charm in his ears and he went boldly forward.
Clotelle had provided a suit of men's clothes and had placed them where her lover could get them, if he should succeed in getting out.
Returning to Mr.Wilson's barn, the fugitive changed his apparel, and again retraced his steps into the street.

To reach the Free States by travelling by night and lying by during the day, from a State so far south as Mississippi, no one would think for a moment of attempting to escape.

To remain in the city would be a suicidal step.