James Fenimore Cooper's Frontier: The Pioneers as History

Chapter 34:

 [Natty Jailed] Natty is placed in the stocks; Ben Pump insists on joining him there, 

and seeks to console him. When Hiram Doolittle comes by to gloat, Ben grabs his legs and 

knocks him down. When the hour is over, both Natty and Ben are locked up in the jail, where 

Oliver Edwards comes to confer with them through the barred window. 

Chapter 35:

 [A Jail Break] That evening Elizabeth and Judge Temple argue about the justice of 

Natty's conviction, the Judge insisting that he could not interfere with justice even though Natty 

had saved his daughter's life, and Elizabeth arguing the inhumanity of the result. The Judge gives 

Elizabeth two hundred dollars to pay Natty's fine and ease his condition, and she and Louisa set 

out to visit Natty in jail. Near it they encounter an ox cart driven by Oliver Edwards in disguise. 

They are admitted to the jail, where Natty refuses the money, but admits that Edwards plans to 

rescue him through a hole cut in the logs. He asks that Elizabeth buy some gunpowder, and meet 

him with it at noon the next day on top of Mount Vision. Elizabeth agrees, and helps him and 

Ben escape. The escape is soon discovered, and a posse formed to search the mountains.