m Winchester for the mail and supplies brought
by the regular train, which had arrived several hours ahead of them.

"Captain Gurley was very much excited when the conductor told him the
Misses Newton, whom he had come to meet, were detained at Harper's
Ferry," continued the officer. "He had to return to Winchester. He said
he would ride back here, or send an escort for you if he learned by
wire to Harper's Ferry that the ladies would reach here to-night."

"Is there any conveyance I can get to take these ladies over to
Winchester?" inquired Goddard.

"Ole Miss Page sent her mules an' road wagon," volunteered the station
master, "for them. Captain Gurley left your hoss hitched under the shed
across the street, Major, thinkin' if you came through sooner than he
could get back you'd want him. I reckon you'll find Miss Page's
worthless nigger boy asleep in the shed, too, 'cause I tole him he
couldn't loaf 'round here."

"I will stay with the ladies, Bob," said Lloyd. "You and Symonds go for
your horse and the mules."

Goddard turned over an empty crate. "Better sit on this, Miss Metoaca,"
he advised, noting the lines of fatigue in the spinster's haggard face.
"There is room for you, too, Miss Nancy. Symonds, come with me," and
the two men hastened across the road to the tumbled down shed.

Goddard's mare, Brown Betty, welcomed him with a whinny of delight, and
he stopped a moment to caress her. The mules, harnessed to an open
two-seated wagon, were hitched beside his horse, but there was no sign
of the negro driver.

"You will have to drive them, Symonds," said Goddard, pulling the
blanket off his mare, and tightening the saddle girths. "Here,
Sergeant," as that worthy approached, "help back these mules out into
the street."

It took some moments to induce the mules to move at all, but by dint of
much whipping and shouting the animals were finally made to mind. Once
out of the shed, Symonds had no difficulty in driving up to the depot,
where Goddard soon joined him, leading his horse.

"The darky has disappeared," he explained briefly to Miss Metoaca, as
he helped her and Nancy into the back seat and covered them with the
warm laprobes that were in the bottom of the wagon.

"Captain Lloyd," Miss Metoaca leaned forward with the inborn breeding
inherited from generations of gentle blood, "you appear to have no way
of reaching Winchester except by foot. May I offer you the fourth seat
in this wagon?"

Lloyd colo