Autie, Tom, and Sam huddled in an empty horse stall. The walls of the stall gave them a sense of protection. For now, this was their world. Four wooden walls, a pile of straw, a loaf of bread and slab of meat.
The boys quickly became friends. Sam told them all about life on a Kentucky horse plantation. Tom and Autie listened wide-eyed. While they wouldn’t want to be slaves, the thought of being around the finest horses in the world was beyond their imagination. For the next few hours, nothing separated the boys. They were equal—just boys sharing adventures.
As the hot summer air began to stir with the evening breezes, Emanuel Custer appeared again at the barn door carrying a large straw hat.
“It’s suppertime, boys. I’ve talked to your mother. She is prepared to help. She fed Boston early and put him to bed. He went kicking and screaming but he is asleep now. Autie you take Sam with you and head for the house. Don’t run but don’t dawdle. Sam, you go with Autie. Wear this hat low on your head. If anyone passing near sees you, they’ll think it’s just Autie and Tom coming in from the fields. Thomas, you and I are going to wait here a few minutes. We will walk across the farmyard together.”
The plan went well. Soon the three boys were sitting at the kitchen table with Mother and Father Custer and brother Nevin.
When learning of their unexpected guest, Maria Custer had put extra effort into the farmhouse dinner. All ate ravenously. Sam was unaccustomed to eating at the same table with white people but the hours together in the barn had almost made him forget his position. At first, he sat stiffly at the table, his hands in his lap, his head hanging low, not sure how to behave. But with an elbow or two from his new best friends he soon was eating and chattering as if he’d been an honored guest at their table many times. Emanuel and his wife left the table and went together into the family parlor. Together, the boys cleared the table and cleaned the kitchen. Autie and Tom were impressed with Sam’s ability to know just what needed to be done. Then Mother Custer took the boys upstairs.
“First, Sam, you need some new britches. Here are two pairs Autie has outgrown. Try them on.
“Autie and Tom, you sleep in your room like always. We’ve laid some blankets out on the floor in the corner of our room for Sam. Your father thinks our bedroom will be safest place for Sam tonight.”
+ + +
The night passed peacefully, but the household woke before dawn to the clopping sound of an unusual number of horses on the nearby road. Emanuel stood on the farmhouse porch and saw two teams of men riding back and forth in opposite directions, up and down the road, drifting into the neighboring fields.
“Autie, run to the barn and get a horse ready. I’m going to ride out and see what they are looking for.”
“Pap, you know what they are looking for.”
“Hush, Autie, we’ll let them tell us what they know. It pays to be quiet and listen sometimes,” his father rebuked him.
Autie ran to the barn, and saddled one of the workhorses. He took a second saddle and threw it across the back of a second horse. “I’m going with him,” he thought.
Emanuel Custer looked at Autie with a hint of pride as he saw him leading two horses from the barn. His oldest son was growing up.
Emanuel called into the house.
“Maria, Autie and I are riding out to the road to see what’s going on. Keep the children in the house. All the children,” he added.
It was a short ride to the road, just a hundred yards or so.
“Hello, Emanuel,” one rider greeted him by name. “Are you coming to help?”
“That depends on what the job is. What’s the trouble, boys?”
“We’re looking for runaways. Some Southern fellows rode into Monroe yesterday afternoon on the trail of fugitive slaves. A boy was spotted near here yesterday morning. We’re giving our Southern friends a hand. Mind if we check your barn?”
Emanuel turned to Autie. “Son, you just saddled the horses. Did you notice anyone hiding in the barn.”
“Nothing but horses, cows and chickens in the barn, Pap.”
“Well, Emanuel, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll send a couple of men to check the nooks and crannies. These blackies have been running for weeks and know how to hide.”
“Be my guest, check the house, too, if you like.” Autie felt a chill, but quickly found that his father’s judgment was right.
“No need to disturb the ladies and children.”
He shouted orders to a couple of men.
“Check the Custer barn, fellows, and ride back behind the apple trees.”
Autie saw heavy chains dangling from the rider’s saddle horn. Autie’s heart was in his throat. “He’d known Sam for less than a day but he didn’t want to see him hauled away in chains.”
He watched as his Father mounted the spare horse and chatted with the lead horseman.
Emanuel knew all of the men. Autie had seen several of them at the Custer kitchen table late at night, arguing politics. Autie admired his father’s easy way with people, especially how he could befriend anyone, stand firm for his own ideas, and part friends. Autie glanced nervously now and then toward the farmhouse but noticed that each time he did his father made an effort to draw him into the discussion.
“Why, Autie, here, will be finished with school in another year or two.”
“I’ll be! What are you planning on doing after that, young fellow?”
The two men talked with ease and soon the riders returned from the Custer farmyard.
“No sign of any runaways,” they reported.
“Time to move on. You two like to ride with us?” he asked Emanuel and Autie.
“Sorry, we have to shoe some horses for Monroe’s finest today.”
Both men laughed and the search party rode off.
Emanuel and Autie watched for a few minutes. Emanuel did not break his gaze at the men disappearing from view. At last he spoke. “We have to get Sam on his way as soon as possible. Let’s ride around the edge of our property to make sure there are no stragglers—and then get back to the house.”
+ + +
It was still early and not yet fully light. Breakfast was ready when they returned. Tom and Sam were already eating.
“Boston will sleep another hour or so.” Mother Custer said. “What are you planning, Emanuel?”
“They are looking for him. They know he is nearby. We have to get Sam out of here today,” Emanuel explained. “Father, I have an idea.” Autie interjected. “Usually Tom and I ride Mr. Stanford’s horses back to him. It’s about ten miles up the Detroit River. We take along an extra horse and ride double on the way home. But nobody would think anything if we took a wagonload of vegetables into town to leave at the inn and had Mr. Stanford’s horse tied to the back. Sam is small. We could hide him in the wagon tool box. Before we load the vegetables we’ll put together a small raft from scraps of wood in the barn and we’ll put the raft on the bottom of the wagon. We’ll load the vegetables on top of the raft. No one will notice.”
Autie was getting excited as he fleshed out his plan on the fly.
“We’ll take two of our strongest horses to pull the wagon. We’ll drop our load of vegetables off at the inn in Monroe. We’ll make plenty of small talk about having to drive the wagon up the river to deliver Mr. Stanford’s horse and pick up supplies near Detroit. All the while, Sam is in the toolbox and that’s where he’ll stay until we reach Stanford’s place along the river. The side against the wagon wall is loose and