marched her down the street.

"Making off with an officer's coat," he said, after what seemed a very
long time to the frightened girl. "What's your name?"

Betty made no response. She resolved that no one should ever know that
Betty Hastings had been suspected of such a dreadful thing as taking
what she had no right to take.

"Won't speak, eh? Well, I'll take you to Captain De Lance and see what
he has to say to you," said the soldier, and the silent little girl,
still holding the scarlet coat, was led down one street after another
until she saw the shining waters of the Schuylkill River before her, and
the soldier led her up the steps of an old stone house whose garden ran
down to the river. The soldier was evidently familiar with the house,
for he pushed open the door and led Betty into a big pleasant room, and
motioned toward a comfortable chair.

"You can sit there until the captain comes in; and you had best tell me
your name. 'Twill do you no good to sulk," he said, taking the coat from
her reluctant grasp. But Betty only set her lips more firmly. She
resolved not to speak, no matter what might befall her.

"Very well, Miss. I'll leave you to find your tongue," said the soldier,
laying the coat carefully over a chair and leaving the room. Betty heard
him turn the key in the lock. She was tired, and leaned back in the
cushioned chair, hardly realizing what had befallen her. She could hear
steps now and then outside the door, and every moment expected that it
would open and the captain of whom the soldier had spoken would appear.

But the room grew shadowy in the deepening twilight and no one came
near. Betty's thoughts flew homeward to the candle-lit dining-room where
Dinah, the Hastings' colored servant, would be spreading the table for
supper, and Betty realized that she was very hungry.

She left her seat and tiptoed toward a long window at the further end of
the room. The window looked out into the garden, and Betty instantly
realized that it swung in on hinges and was not fastened, and that it
would be an easy matter to let herself down to the ground.

"I must take the coat," she thought, and crept back to the chair where
the scarlet coat lay. In a moment she was back at the window and had
dropped the coat to the ground; and now, grasping the window sill with
both hands, she let herself carefully down. Picking up the coat, and
keeping close in the shadow of the house, Betty made her way until she
was n