the house?" he went on, while slowly following
her. "I don't wish to disturb you, but we had a fight with some rebel
skirmishers in the woods, and I thought maybe some of them might have
come in here. In fact, I was pretty sure of it. Are there any of them
here?"

The girl looked at him and said, "No!" He wondered why extreme agitation
made the eyes of some women so limpid and bright.

"Who is here besides yourself?"

By this time his pursuit had driven her to the end of the hall, and she
remained there with her back to the wall and her hands still behind her.
When she answered this question, she did not look at him but down at the
floor. She cleared her voice and then said, "There is no one here."

"No one?"

She lifted her eyes to him in that appeal that the human being must make
even to falling trees, crashing bowlders, the sea in a storm, and said,
"No, no, there is no one here." He could plainly see her tremble.

Of a sudden he bethought him that she continually kept her hands behind
her. As he recalled her air when first discovered, he remembered she
appeared precisely as a child detected at one of the crimes of
childhood. Moreover, she had always backed away from him. He thought now
that she was concealing something which was an evidence of the presence
of the enemy in the house.

"What are you holding behind you?" he said suddenly.

She gave a little quick moan, as if some grim hand had throttled her.

"What are you holding behind you?"

"Oh, nothing--please. I am not holding anything behind me; indeed I'm
not."

"Very well. Hold your hands out in front of you, then."

"Oh, indeed, I'm not holding anything behind me. Indeed, I'm not."

"Well," he began. Then he paused, and remained for a moment dubious.
Finally, he laughed. "Well, I shall have my men search the house,
anyhow. I'm sorry to trouble you, but I feel sure that there is some one
here whom we want." He turned to the corporal, who with the other men
was gaping quietly in at the door, and said, "Jones, go through the
house."

As for himself, he remained planted in front of the girl, for she
evidently did not dare to move and allow him to see what she held so
carefully behind her back. So she was his prisoner.

The men rummaged around on the ground floor of the house. Sometimes the
captain called to them, "Try that closet," "Is there any cellar?" But
they found no one, and at last they went trooping toward the stairs
which led to the s