The Captain and the Candles

James Lang, born to southern aristocracy, the son of a wealthy slave owner had been educated in the best colleges and military school that the south had to offer. Nothing was too good for the Langs; they enjoyed the best clothes, fastest horses, and finest food. James had served with valor in the Mexican War as a Captain in the American Army. However garrison duty after the war proved too boring for the young cavalier leading to his resignation from the military, followed by a few misadventures as a mercenary. A short trip home and a long conversation with a worried senior James Lang found the handsome young officer riding north with the intention of infiltrating and spying on the notorious Rev. John Brown and his army of abolitionists. This mission sounded simple enough to the young military man but his lack of experience with the gang of rabid northern abolitionists and the train crews of the Underground Railroad would prove a daunting task. The south's uneducated runaway slaves knew little of geography but were told in songs and stories to follow the drinking gourd in the sky; which meant to look for the North Star. Walking at night toward the North Star would invariably lead the runaways into a free state where sanctuary could be found. The runaway slaves were also told to look for a single candle burning in windows of the northern houses that might indicate an abolitionistís home where conductors of the Underground Railroad would pass them along to another safe house. James Lang was unfamiliar of the Underground Railroad and the signs of safety. He did however know the fugitive slave laws that made harboring an escaped slave a federal offense. He was also aware of the slave chasers who were well paid to track down and forcibly return slaves to their southern owners. On his arrival to Mt. Zion, Captain James Lang would find a new world; a world of lies, deceit and violence, the likes of which he had never experienced. He would have to learn the rules quickly if he hoped to survive the ordeal that lay ahead. The young Captain would face a test of his religion, a trial of physical pain, but the worst experience would be derived from a broken heart that would plague him the rest of his life.