d word," he said, after a moment, "but if you are John Crawford, who
brought Marion Hobart safely away from Glendale, in Virginia, you are
licensed to say almost anything."

Tom Leslie spoke.

"Where shall I meet you next, Ralston?"

"That depends upon where you follow me," said the Virginian, in a tone
of dignified pleasantry which came near bringing the blood to Leslie's
cheek as it had lately been brought to that of the Virginian. The
journalist shook off the feeling, however, and laughed.

"Well, we _have_ followed you, of course," he said--"perhaps played
_spy_ upon you. But if I am not mistaken, I saw you playing very nearly
the same game on Goat Island and at the Cataract."

The Virginian echoed the laugh.

"Fairly hit back," he said. "I _have_ played the spy, more than once.
Who has not, I wonder?"

"What are you to-night?" asked Leslie, with a marked banter in his tone.
"It is none of my business, of course, here on Canadian ground, but the
other day, on Goat Island, you were--"

"A loyal American," answered Ralston, interrupting him. "To-night, and
on Canadian ground, I am a loyal _Virginian_, true to my own State,
first, last and forever."

"By George! I thought so all the while!" said Leslie, though there was
certainly no anger in his tone. (It is a matter of doubt whether within
the preceding few days that young man had not found himself so
pleasantly situated in some regards, as to be incapable of becoming very
easily vexed, even for the sake of _patriotism_).

"We differ on the national question, and I suppose conscientiously,"
said Ralston. "I hold the extreme doctrine of State Rights, and you that
of centralization. I am a rebel--you are a loyalist. All right--don't
let us quarrel, especially as we have been friends and as you are
certainly a jolly good fellow and I _ought_ to be."

"I ought to hate you and wish for your extermination," said Leslie, in
the same frank tone; "and if I heard you professing the same sentiments
at the St. Nicholas I should certainly help send you to Fort Lafayette.
And yet I rather like you, in spite of the fact that I believe you have
been concerned in some of the nests of secession in New York, through
which the enemy--that's your friends!--obtained knowledge of all that
was going on at the North."

"Never nearer right in your life!" said the Virginian. "In fact you are
more nearly correct than even you imagine. One of the reasons why the
Union cause can nev