Lincoln, the unknown

LINCOLN THE UNKNOWN• 223from a hat-box, fashioned a rude crutch for the cripple, andgave him a shoe to travel with.Booth slept all that day at Dr. Mudd's house, but as twilightdrew on he edged out of the bed painfully. Refusing to eatanything, he shaved off his handsome mustache, threw a longgray shawl around his shoulders so that the end of it wouldcover the telltale initials tattooed upon his right hand, disguisedhimself with a set of false whiskers, and paid the doctor twentyfivedollars in greenbacks. Then once more he and Heroldmounted their horses and headed for the river of their hopes.But directly across their path lay the great Zekiah Swamp, ahuge bog matted with brush and dogwood, oozy with mud andslimy with stagnant pools—the home of lizards and snakes. Inthe darkness the two riders missed their way and for hourswandered about, lost.Late in the night they were rescued by a negro, OswaldSwarm. The pain in Booth's leg was so excruciating now thathe couldn't sit astride his horse; so he gave Swarm seven dollarsto haul him the rest of the night in his wagon, and as dawn wasbreaking on Easter Sunday the driver halted his white mulesbefore "Rich Hill," the home of a wealthy, well-known Confederate,Captain Cox.Thus ended the first lap of Booth's futile race for life.Booth told Captain Cox who he was and what he had done;and, to prove his identity, he showed his initials tattooed inIndia ink on his hand.He implored Captain Cox, in the name of his mother, not tobetray him, pleading that he was sick and crippled and suffering,and declaring that he had done what he thought was bestfor the South.Booth was in such a condition now that he couldn't travelany farther, either on horseback or by wagon; so Captain Coxhid the two fugitives in a thicket of pines near his house. Theplace was more than a thicket, it was a veritable jungle denselyundergrown with laurel and holly; and there, for the next sixdays and five nights, the fugitives waited for Booth's woundedleg to improve enough to permit them to continue their flight.Captain Cox had a foster-brother, Thomas A. Jones. Joneswas a slave-owner, and for years he had been an active agentof the Confederate Government, ferrying fugitives and contrabandmail across the Potomac. Captain Cox urged Jones to lookafter Herold and Booth; so every morning he brought them food