you
off this time. Oh, you needn't look so smiling; you are to be punished,
and that heavily. You are to be responsible for this young woman. You
are to take charge of her and restore her to her own people--mind you,
to her own people. You are responsible to me, and I reckon you know
what that means; if you don't you can just ask somebody that knows me."

I knew what it meant well enough, and I knew what his words meant. "The
lady is as safe with me, General, as if she were in her mother's arms."

"Now, that's the way to talk, and I believe you," said General Forrest.

All this time Jane Ryder had said not a word. She sat very quietly, but
there was not a sign of gloom or dejection in her face. But uneasiness
looked from her eyes. She spoke presently, while General Forrest was
looking through a large morocco memorandum-book that was a little the
worse for wear. "If you please," she said, "I should like to go back to
my friends to-night, if they are not all killed. They can do you no
harm even if they are alive. They are only a couple of women."

"Well, they are not killed," replied General Forrest without looking
up. "Wimmen make war on me and do a lot of damage, but I don't make war
on them. I'm letting you off on a technicality, Miss Ryder. You are not
a spy; you have never been inside my lines until to-night; and yet you
were in a fair way to find out a good many things that the other side
would like to know."

"I never found out as much as I'd like to know," she replied; "and
since he came bothering me I haven't found out anything."

Apparently General Forrest ignored the remark. He turned to me with a
slip of paper in his hand. "You'll have to change your name, Shannon.
This passport is made out to someone else. Read it."

He handed it to me, and I read aloud: "The bearer of this, Captain
Francis Leroy, is authorized to pass in and out the Federal lines,
night or day, without let or hindrance." It was signed by a great man
at Washington and counter-signed by one almost as great.

"Why, that belongs to me," said Jane Ryder; "where did you find it?"

"I reckon it's just a duplicate," said the General, smiling. "I've had
it some time."

A little frown of perplexity appeared above Jane Ryder's eyes, and if
it had never gone away until she solved the mystery of this passport it
would have been there yet, for neither one of us ever knew where
General Forrest obtained the precious document.

"You will want to