ison."

Marcy rode away, wondering if he had done wrong in letting those young
rebels see that he was so well posted. If he had made a mistake in
speaking so plainly it was too late to mourn over it now. He wished he
might have opportunity to exchange a few words with Aleck Webster, and
sometimes, during the week that followed, he was strongly tempted to
ride by his house in the hope of seeing him there; but prudence always
interposed in time to keep him from doing anything so rash. Then he
waited and hoped for a sign from some of the other members of the band;
but, although he was sure that he met and spoke to them every day in the
post-office, they said no word to him that could not have been uttered
in the presence of a third party, nor did they give him a chance to
speak to them in private. Marcy told himself that it was little short of
maddening to live in this way to know that there were enemies all about
him and not a single old-time friend of his family to whom he could go
for advice or comfort. The state of suspense he was in day and night was
hard to bear, and Marcy was almost ready to do some desperate deed to
bring it to an end.

A few days more passed and once more Colonel Shelby and Captain
Beardsley came to visit the family. This was nothing unusual, for they
and others often came now to keep up an appearance of friendship, and to
inquire if there was any way in which they could be of assistance to
Mrs. Gray. They stayed an hour, and when they went away, and Marcy and
his mother reviewed the conversation that had taken place during the
visit, to see if they had been entrapped into saying anything they ought
not to have said, the only news they remembered to have heard was that
Shelby and Beardsley, and some others whose names they mentioned, were
going down to the Island to inspect the works, and see how their hands
were getting along under their military overseers. They would probably
be gone three or four days, and if Marcy or his mother desired to send a
word of remembrance to any faithful old servant, they should be pleased
to take it.

"I am getting heartily tired of visits of this sort," said Marcy. "I
wish they would keep away, and let us alone, for I don't care to talk to
men I have to watch all the time. I am afraid there is something back of
these friendly calls."

There was something back of this one at any rate--something that was
very like a tragedy; and the first act was performed that n