ome
might be when he showed his safe-guard to his own army's lines there
would be a delay and searching questions and more of the old insults
which always made his blood boil--which always made the increasing
burden of despair still harder to bear. But there was no use in putting
off the trial--Virgie had slipped away in spite of every whispered
remonstrance and now that she was there in the center of that group of
guffawing Yankees, there, too, was the only place for him. And so, he
stepped out swiftly and faced the enemy.

"Hah!" shouted Dudley, looking up at the sound of branches crackling
underfoot. "A Johnnie Reb, eh--walking right into camp! That's right,
Harry, keep him covered."

He looked Cary over from head to foot with a sneer at his tattered
uniform.

"Well, sir," he asked, "who are you?"

"A Confederate officer," was the quiet reply, "acting as escort for this
child. We are on our way to Richmond."

Cary's hand went into the breast of his coat and he drew out a folded
paper.

"Here is my authority for entering your lines--a pass signed by
Lieutenant-Colonel Morrison."

At the sound of the name Corporal Dudley started and quickly took the
paper. But before he opened it he gave Cary a keen look which, to the
Confederate officer, did not bode well for the prospect of immediate
release. It seemed as if the man's sharp wits had suddenly seized on
something which he could profitably turn to his own account.

With his back turned on Cary and Virgie the Corporal unfolded the pass
and studied it carefully, while the troopers gathered behind him and
tried to read its contents over his shoulder.

"Pwhat does it say?" asked the young Irishman, Harry O'Connell, who had
covered Cary with his carbine. "'Tis a precious bit of paper, bedad--if
it passes him through _me_."

"It says: 'Pass Virginia Cary and escort through all Federal lines, and
assist them as far as possible in reaching Richmond,'" read the
Corporal.

Deep in thought he turned the paper over and studied the name on the
back. At the sight of the signature there his mouth fell open and he
uttered a shout of surprise. His eyes brightened and he stepped back
from the group and threw up his head with a look of triumph on his dark
face. He struck the paper a slap with the back of his hand.

"Morrison on _one_ side--and 'Old Bob' on the _other_" he exclaimed.
"What luck! What a _find_."

"How so--a find?"

The man who had had to put his own brot