ery
reason to believe the ravine unguarded, although pickets were
undoubtedly patrolling the east bank, and there were places we must go
close in under its shadow.

So intent had I been upon this adventure, my mind concentrated on
details, that the personal equation had been entirely forgotten. But now
I began to reflect along that line, yet never for a moment forgetting
our situation, or its peril. I was going down into the neighborhood
where Willifred Hardy lived--to which she had probably already returned.
I was going as an enemy to her cause, guided by an ex-slave of Le
Gaire's. It was rather an odd turn of Fate's wheel, and, while there was
no probability of our meeting, yet the conditions were suggestive. My
eyes were upon the dim form in advance, and I was strongly tempted to
ask if he knew where Major Hardy's plantation was. Beyond doubt he did,
but this was no time for dalliance with love, and I drove the temptation
sternly from me, endeavoring to concentrate my mind on present duty. But
in spite of all Billie would intervene, her blue-gray eyes challenging
me to forget, and the remembrance of her making my step light. I was
going to be near her again, at least, if only for an hour; perhaps,
whether I succeeded or failed, she would hear my name mentioned. Even
that would be better than forgetfulness, and she was one to appreciate a
deed like this. I should like to see her eyes when they told her--when
they spoke my name. I wondered where Captain Le Gaire was, and whether
he had been her escort back through the Confederate lines. Most probably
yes, and perhaps he had remained at the Hardy house, still incapacitated
from duty by the blow I had struck him--an interesting invalid. Even
this thought did not trouble me as it might have done otherwise, for I
believed Billie had already begun to see the real man behind the
fellow's handsome face; if so, then time and companionship would only
widen the breach between them--perhaps my memory also.

It was a hard three hours' travel, practically feeling a passage through
the darkness, for the narrow path extended but little beyond a mile,
after losing which we stumbled forward through a maze of rock and
underbrush. This finally became so dense that the negro veered to the
left, where there was a grassy ledge, along which we made more rapid
progress, although facing greater danger of discovery. However, the
night was black, and to any picket looking down from above the ra