Many conjectures were made, and one or two rather philanthropic
individuals proposed, as a common duty, an attempt to arrest the
fugitives and bring them back. But there were none to second this,
the general sentiment being, that Captain Allen was fully competent
to look after his own affairs. And that he wood look after them, and
promptly too, on his return, none doubted for an instant. As for
Jacob Perkins, no one professed a willingness to stand in his shoes.
The fire-eating Captain would most probably blow that gentleman's
brains out in the heat of his first excitement. Poor Jacob, not a
very courageous man, was almost beside himself with fear, when his
view of the case was confidently asserted. One advised this course
of conduct on the part of Jacob, and another advised that, while all
agreed that it would on no account be safe for him to fall in the
Captain's way immediately on his return. More than a dozen people,
friends of Jacob, were on the alert, to give him the earliest
intelligence of Captain Allen's arrival in S----, that he might hide
himself until the first fearful outbreak of passion was over.
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