Benja worked as a hoggee on a canalboat where he met and befriended Lundius, who patiently taught him the ways of nature and protected him from the crueler ways of men. One night Benja discovered that Lundius, a former slave, was smuggling fugitive slaves through the Underground Railroad. When Benja offered his help in the cause of freedom, he didn't know that one frightening morning he would be faced with saving the life of a fugitive he believed to be a coward and that Lundius wouldn't be there to help him.