ape before they could surround
us. Nine of our men are missing."

She gave a shudder, then came to us, kissed Tom with more than
ordinary tenderness, grasped my hand affectionately, and finally held
the captain's in a light, momentary clasp.

"You did your best, I'm sure," she said, in a low voice, at the same
time flashing her eyes furtively from one to another as if to detect
whether we hid any part of the news.

We were relieved and charmed at this resigned manner of receiving our
bad tidings, and it gave me, at least, a higher opinion of her
strength of character. This was partly merited, I make no doubt;
though I did not know then that she had reason to reproach herself for
our failure.

"And that's all you have to tell?" she queried. "You didn't discover
what made them so ready for a surprise?"

"No," replied the captain, casually. "Could there have been any
particular reason, think you? To my mind, they have had lessons enough
to make them watchful."

She looked relieved. I suppose she was glad we should not know of her
interview with Philip, and of the imprudent taunts by which she
herself had betrayed the great design.

"Well," said she. "They may not be so watchful another time. We may
try again. Let us wait until I hear from Ned."

But when she stole an interview with Bill Meadows, that worthy had no
communication from Ned; instead thereof, he had news that Captain
Faringfield had disappeared from the rebel camp, and was supposed by
some to have deserted to the British. Something that Meadows knew not
at the time, nor I till long after, was of the treasonable plot
unearthed in the rebel army, and that two or three of the participants
had been punished for the sake of example, and the less guilty ones
drummed out of the camp. This was the result of Philip's presentation
to General Washington of the list of names obtained from Ned, some of
the men named therein having confessed upon interrogation. Philip's
account of the affair made it appear to Washington that his discovery
was due to his accidental meeting with Ned Faringfield, and that
Faringfield's escape was but the unavoidable outcome of the
hand-to-hand fight between the two men--for Philip had meanwhile
ascertained, by a personal search, that Ned had not been too severely
hurt to make good his flight.

Well, there passed a Christmas, and a New Year, in which the
Faringfield house saw some revival of the spirit of gladness that had
formerly