th Benjamin I am sure it was our messenger."

"But you don't know--you don't know!" Betty sighed.

The President bent and touched her shoulder gently:

"Come, dear, it's not like you to despair----"

The girl smiled wanly.

"How long since any message arrived from General Sherman?"

"Three days, my child. I know the hole he went in at, but I can't tell
where he's going to come out----"

"If he ever comes out," Betty broke in bitterly.

"Oh, he'll come out somewhere!" the President laughed. "It's a habit of
his. I've watched him for months--sometimes I can't hear from him for a
week--but he always bobs up again and comes out with a whoop, too----"

"But we've no news!" she interrupted.

"No news has always been good news from Sherman----"

He paused and looked at his watch:

"Wait here. I'll be back in a few moments. We're bound to hear something
to-day. I've an engagement with my Committee of Undertakers. They are
waiting for me to deliver my corpse to them--and they are very restless
about it because I haven't given up sooner, I'm full of foolish hopes.
I'm going to adjourn them until we can get a message of some kind----"

He returned in half an hour and sat in silence for a long time listening
to the steady, sharp click of the telegraph keys.

Betty was too blue to talk--too heartsick to move.

At last the tall figure rose and walked back among the operators. They
knew that he was waiting for the magic call, "Atlanta, Georgia." It had
been three years and more since that heading for a message had flashed
over their wires. Every ear was keen to catch it.

The President bent over the table of Southern wires and silently
watched:

"You can't strain a little message through for me, can you, my boy?"

The operator smiled:

"I wish I could, sir."

The President returned to the front room and shook his head to Betty:

"Nothing."

"He entered Atlanta a spy, didn't he?" she said despairingly.

"Yes--of course."

"They couldn't execute him without our knowing it, could they?"

"If they trap him--yes--but he's a very intelligent young man. He'll be
too smart for them. I feel it. I know it----"

He stopped and looked at her quizzically:

"I've a sort of second sight that tells me such things. I saw General
Sickles in the hospital after Gettysburg. They said he couldn't live. I
told him he would get well and he did."

Again the President returned restlessly to the operator's room and Betty
follo