examining his captive with a grin of
satisfaction; when the latter, in a weak voice, made a humble request.

"I wish you would put on my cap."

"Wiv all de pleasure in de wuld, sar."

The cap had been thrown off purposely. Unsuspecting old Toby! The pistol
was in his pocket. He stooped to pick up the cap and place it on
Sprowl's head; when, like a jumping devil in a box when the cover is
touched, up leaped Lysander on his legs, knocking him down with the
handcuffs, and springing over him.

Before the old man was fully aware of what had happened, and long before
he had regained his feet, Lysander was in the thickets. In his hurry he
thrust his wife remorselessly from the ledge before him, and flung her
rudely down upon the sharp boughs and stones, as he sped by her. There
Toby found her, when he came too late with his pistol. Her hands were
cut; but she did not care for her hands. Ingratitude wounds more cruelly
than sharp-edged rocks.

Penn had judged correctly in two particulars. Deslow had turned traitor.
And the personage in the new uniform down by the ravine was
Lieutenant-Colonel Bythewood.

Deslow had gone straight to head-quarters after quitting Withers the
previous night, given himself up, taken the oath of allegiance to the
confederacy, and engaged to join the army or provide a substitute. As if
this were not enough, he had also been required to expose the secret
retreat of his late companions. To this, we know not whether
reluctantly, he had consented; and it was this act of treachery that had
brought Silas Ropes to the sink, and Bythewood to the ravine.

Advantage had been taken of the fog in the morning to march back again,
up the mountain, the men who had marched down, baffled and inglorious,
after the wild-goose chase Carl led them the night before. Bythewood
commanded the expedition at his own request, being particularly
interested in two persons it was designed to capture--Virginia and Pomp.
It is supposed that he took a sinister interest in Penn also.

But Bythewood was not anxious to deprive Ropes of his laurels; and
perhaps he felt himself to be too fine a gentleman to mix in a vulgar
fight. He accordingly sent Ropes forward to surprise the patriots at the
sink, while he moved with a small force cautiously up towards Gad's
Leap, with two objects in view. One was, to make some discovery, if
possible, with regard to the missing Lysander; the other, to intercept
the retreat of the fugitives, sho