They left their cottage in the darkness before dawn.
## The First Train: Macon to Savannah
Macon to Savannah was the first leg. They traveled separately, because that was the premise of the disguise: Ellen rode in the first-class carriage as William Johnson, the invalid gentleman. William rode in the car designated for Black passengers — segregated by law, as the railroads of the antebellum South required.
The first near-disaster came before the train had left the station.
William Craft spotted his former cabinetmaker employer on the platform, walking along the train and looking in at the windows. The man had given William his pass; if he found William on this train, the questions would begin, and the questions could unravel everything. William held still. The train pulled out before the man reached his car.
On the same train, something was happening in the first-class carriage that William couldn’t see. Ellen had been seated beside a man she recognized — Mr. Cray, a close friend of Dr. Collins, the man who enslaved her. Cray knew her. If he looked at her carefully, spoke to her, addressed her by name — the disguise would be finished before it had properly begun.
Ellen’s response was immediate and the only one available: she feigned deafness. When Cray spoke to her, she did not respond. He persisted a little, trying different approaches, apparently puzzled by this peculiar invalid who seemed unable to hear anything. Ellen maintained her distance, her gaze, her silence. Eventually Cray gave up.
She arrived in Savannah still intact, still William Johnson.