strong steady strokes of the woman soon pulled them
out upon the waters of Lake Ponchartrain.

"We got by all right, lill' missy, didn't we?" chuckled she.

"Yes," assented Jeanne. "Is it far, Feliciane?"

"A long way," was the response. "We won't git back 'tel de mohnin'."

"Until morning?" echoed Jeanne in dismay. "Will we have to be out in this
rain all that time?"

"Yes, honey. It's bes' fer it ter rain. De Yanks can't see yer den. Missus
she laikes fer it ter rain when she go."

"Does she ever go?" asked Jeanne sitting up very straight. "I thought that
she was afraid to go."

"De Madame ain't 'fraid ob nuffin," was the emphatic reply. "She usen ter
go often. She done carried heaps ob things ter de rebs."

"But it has been because of her brother, Feliciane," said Jeanne, gently
trying not to condemn her aunt too severely.

"Huh brudder? What brudder? She ain't got no brudder. What you talkin'
'bout?"

"Oh, Feliciane, aren't we carrying food and medicine to her poor wounded
brother, Auguste?"

"What makes you think dat, chile? Massa Auguste killed long time ago when
de wah fust beginned. 'Couhse we ain't takin' things ter huh brudder.
We's carryin' news ter de Massa Gin'ral dat de Yanks gwine ter 'tack him."

"Then," said Jeanne bitterly. "I have been fooled. I will give no aid to
the enemy. Turn this boat back, Feliciane."

"Not ef I knows myself, honey. I done want no whoppin'. Madame Vance sent
me, an' I'se gwine ter do what she say. What'd yer kum fer ef yer didn't
want ter holpe dem?"

"Because I did not know what I was doing. Madame told me it was to take
food to her wounded brother."

"She's a great one fer pullin' de wool ober de eyes," chuckled the
negress. "Missus kum nigh gittin' ketched de las' time she kummed, so
den she sent you."

"Oh!" Jeanne sat very still, her heart heavy with what she had heard.
Truthful herself, the knowledge that her aunt could stoop to such
duplicity filled her with anguish. Her eyes were fast opening to the
fact that the sweetness of the lady and her honeyed words masked a cruel,
treacherous nature, and unaccustomed as she was to deceit of any sort
she was weighed down by the discovery.

"Feliciane," she said coaxingly. "I will give you more money than you ever
had in all your life before if you will turn this boat back."

"No, missy. Yer can't hiah me ter do nuffin ob dat kine," came the
relentless tones of the darky. "Feliciane knows what's good fer huh