aughtily:

"No, Captain Masterson, I will not!"

"Ah, you absolutely refuse, Madame?"

"I do; you have accused my employe of being a spy, but your attitude
suggests that it is not he, but myself, whom you suspect."

"Madame, you cannot comprehend the seriousness of the situation," and
Masterson had difficulty in keeping his patience. "Every one he speaks
with, everything concerning him is of interest. These are war times,
Madame Caron, and the case will not admit of either delays or special
courtesies. I shall have to ask you for the paper he placed in your
hands as I entered the room."

Judithe picked up the paper without a word and reached it to him, with
the languid air of one bored by the entire affair.

He glanced at it and handed it back. As he did so he perceived an
unfinished letter on the desk. In a moment his suspicions were
aroused; that important letter in the mail bag!

"You did not complete the letter you were writing?"

"No," and she lifted it from the desk and held it towards him. "You
perceive! I was so careless as to blot the paper; do you wish to
examine that?"

His face flushed at the mockery of her tone and glance. He felt it
more keenly, that the eyes of Monroe were on him. The task before him
was difficult enough without that additional annoyance.

"No, Madame," he replied, stiffly, "but the situation is such that I
feel justified in asking the contents of the envelope you sealed and
gave to the servant."

"But that is a private letter," she protested, as he took it from the
mail bag; "it can be of no use to any government or its agents."

"That can best be determined by reading it, Madame. It certainly
cannot go out in this mail unless it is examined."

"By you?--oh!" And Judithe put out her hand in protest.

"Captain Masterson!"

"Sir!" and Masterson turned on Monroe, who had spoken for the first
time. As he did so Judithe deliberately leaned forward and snatched
the letter from his hand.

"You shall not read it!" she said, decidedly, and just then Evilena
and her brother came along the veranda, and with them Delaven. Judithe
moved swiftly to the window before any one else could speak.

"Colonel McVeigh, I appeal to you," and involuntarily she reached out her
hand, which he took in his as he entered the room. "This--gentleman--on
some political pretense, insists that I submit to such examinations as
spies are subject to. I have been accused in the presence of these
people,