during the winter. It is a sad thing the way this war has divided
families. Has Mistress Claire any Colonial sentiments?"

"How the devil do I know! She would not be likely to air them before me.
I don't know what fool trick you played on her last night, but she's on
the right side just the same."

"I think so, too."

His manner was so disagreeable that I instantly determined to have an
end. I had more important work before me than quarrelling with this
fellow, and, somehow, his claimed intimacy with Mistress Mortimer grated
upon me strangely.

"If that is all you requested an interview for, Captain Grant," I said
coldly, "I'll trouble you to return to your men."

I followed him closely back toward the fire, and neither spoke until we
reached the guard-lines. Then he turned his face toward me.

"Have you a party out after the lieutenant?"

"No; probably he ran into our horse guard across the creek. If not, the
three who are reported to have got away can do us no harm. Why are you so
interested?"

"That is my affair," he replied, insolently, and walked across the open
square, with shoulders squared.

Irritated that I had even condescended to question him, I turned back up
the road to where the men were yet busy about the wagons, spoke a few
words to Duval, he explaining to me the best route toward the river
crossing at Burlington, and then swung into the saddle and sent the black
forward to the crest of the ridge. The animal was restive, and hard to
control; I cast a single glance backward to where the blaze of the fires
lit up the busy figures below, and then plunged forward into the black
night, unable to see the road, but trusting the instincts of the horse.

I permitted the animal to go his own gait, and for a mile or more he kept
up a hot gallop, finally tiring to a trot. By this time my eyes had
accustomed themselves sufficiently to the gloom so as to dimly perceive
the outline of the highway, and the contour of the surrounding country.
It was not a thickly settled region, although we passed two houses, and
several cultivated fields, the latter unfenced. Duval had spoken of a
turn to the westward, but I perceived no branching of the road, and began
to wonder if we had not passed the spot during that first rush. So far as
I could judge from the few stars visible we were travelling almost due
north. However, I was certainly getting farther away from the British
lines, and could swing to the left at daylig