Covered with blood, he broke from them, rushed from the
house, and plunged in the river close by, exclaiming, "I will
be drowned rather than taken alive." He was pursued, fired
upon repeatedly, ordered to come out of the water, where he
stood immersed to his neck, or "they would blow his brains
out." He replied, "I will die first." They then deliberately
fired at him four or five different times, the last ball
supposed to have struck on his head, for his face was
instantly covered with blood, and he sprang up and shrieked.
The by-standers began to cry "shame" and the kidnappers
retired a short distance for consultation. Bill came out of
the water and lay down on the shore. His pursuers, supposing
him dying, said, "Dead niggers are not worth taking South."
Some one brought and put on him a pair of pantaloons. He was
helped to his feet by a colored man named Rex; on seeing
which, Wynkoop and party headed him and presented their
revolvers, when BILL again ran into the river, "where he
remained upwards of an hour, nothing but his head above
water, covered with blood, and in full view of hundreds who
lined the banks.
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