and perhaps has a knowledge of your relatives and
friends--indeed, must have. Also, already that wicked Madam Whitworth
entertains suspicions of you. What is it that you will do?"

And after I had asked myself for a second time that question I sat and
looked into the eyes of that Grandmamma Carruthers for many long
moments and had an argument with myself; then I answered to her as I
rose to my feet so that my eyes came more nearly on a level with hers:

"No, Madam Ancestress, born of her whom not an Indian or a fierce bear
could frighten away from her duty of protection to those of her
affections, I will not flee. I will stay here by the side of my Uncle,
the General Robert, and my great chief, that Gouverneur Faulkner, to
fight for their honor and to protect France from robbery. Then, if I
be discovered and can do no more for them, I will go from their
presence quickly in the night and be lost in the trenches of France
before I am detained. And if it be that I am not discovered before all
is made well concerning those mules for transportation of food to the
soldiers of France, then I will still go away to the battlefields of
France before it is discovered by all who have given affection to
Robert Carruthers, that he is a--lie. I will leave love for me and for
France in all of these kind hearts, which will comfort me when I fight
for the Republique, or live for her during long years. I grieve
exceedingly; but I go!"

And after that long conference with myself I called upon the telephone
my Buzz and asked of him that he meet me at the Club of Old Hickory,
of which, after the required time of waiting, I was soon to be an
enrolled member.

And when I told to my Mr. Bumble Bee the fact that in the space of
barely three days the great gentleman of France would be in Hayesville
for the purpose of a visit and the signing of the contracts concerning
our much discussed friend, the mule, he gave a very long and loud
whistle and placed his elbows upon the smoking table between us.

"Well, this does call for hustle," he said as he knocked from his
cigarette the ashes. "What are your plans, L'Aiglon?"

"I do not know what it is best to plan, my Buzz," I answered in
perplexity. "Of course, there must be the official reception by His
Excellency, the Gouverneur Faulkner, upon the evening of their
arrival, but more I cannot think. Also, I am commanded by His
Excellency to consult the beautiful Madam Whitworth as the only
official