idol of the army, and I fear that his defection will create a
great change of heart."

"The army will be better off without him," said Mrs. Allison.

"I agree with you," was the reply. "But the people may decide in a
different manner. There is reason for worry."

"What was the effect of Lee's attempted treason?" spoke up Marjorie.
"The people loathe him, and he will die an outcast."

"There is no punishment too severe for Lee. He has been from the start
nothing but a selfish adventurer. But the cases are not parallel. Lee
was never popular with the army. Arnold, you must remember, was the most
successful leader in the field and the officer most prized by the
Commander-in-chief."

"Nevertheless he will sink as fast as he climbed, I think. The country
must not tolerate a traitor."

"Must not! But will not the circumstance alter the case? I say that
unless the proofs of Arnold's treason are irrefutable, the people will
be slow to believe. I don't like it. I don't."

There was some logic in his argument which began to impress Marjorie.
Arnold could exercise a tremendous amount of influence over the army.
Whether the strings of loyalty which had united their hearts with his
would be now snapped by his act of perfidy was the mooted question. As a
matter of fact a spirit of mutiny already was beginning to make itself
manifest. The soldiers of Pennsylvania who were encamped on the heights
of Morristown marched out of camp the following January and set out for
Philadelphia. They were rebuked by Washington, who sent a letter by
General Wayne, whereupon they returned to their posts. Later in the same
month another mutiny occurred among the New Jersey troops, but this,
too, was quickly suppressed. Just how much responsibility for these
uprisings might be traced to the treason of Arnold can not be estimated.
There is no question, however, that his act was not wholly unproductive
of its psychological effects.

"I feel so sorry for Peggy," Marjorie sighed.

"The young wife has a sore burden thrown upon her. A sorry day it was
when she met him," was Mrs. Allison's comment.

"Strange, I never suspected Peggy for a moment," Marjorie said. "I had
been raised with her and thought we knew each other. I am sorry, very
sorry."

"We do not know how much she is concerned with this," announced Mr.
Allison, "but her ambition knew no restraint or limitation. She has her
peerage now."

"And her husband?"

"The grave of a traitor,