en pleasure
to them after such a long deprivation. But wherever they went, and they
were in demand everywhere, Harry was always looking for somebody, a man,
tall, heavy and broad shouldered, not a man who would come into a room
where he was, or who would join a company of people that he had joined,
but one who would hang upon the outskirts, and hide behind the corners of
buildings or trees. He did not see the shadow, but once or twice he felt
that it was there.

The officer, Bathurst, told him one night that some important papers had
been stolen from the White House of the Confederacy itself.

"They pertain to our army," said Bathurst, "and they will be of value to
the enemy, if they reach him."

"I'm quite certain that the most daring and dangerous of all northern
spies is in Richmond," said Harry.

Then he told Bathurst of Shepard and of the trails that he had seen among
the pines behind Curtis's house.

"Do you think this man got our map?" asked Bathurst.

"It may have been so. Perhaps he was hidden in the court and when he saw
us go out, leaving the map on the table, he slipped in at the window and
seized it."

"But the court was enclosed. He would have had to go with the paper
through the house itself."

"That's where my theory fails. I can provide for his taking the paper,
but I can't provide for his escape."

"I'll tell the General about it. I think you're right, Harry. I've
heard of Shepard myself, and he's worth ten thousand men to the Yankees.
It's more than that. At such a critical stage of our affairs he might
ruin us. We'll make a general search for him. We'll rake the city with
a fine tooth comb."

The search was made everywhere. Soldiers pried in every possible place,
but they found nobody who could not give an adequate account of his
presence in Richmond. Harry felt sure nevertheless that Shepard was
somewhere in the capital, protected by his infinite daring and resource,
and they received the startling news the next day after the search that a
messenger sent northward with dispatches for Lee had been attacked only
a short distance from the city. He had been struck from behind, and did
not see his assailant, but the wound in the head--the man had been found
unconscious--and the missing dispatches were sufficient proof.

A night later precious documents were purloined from the office of the
Secretary of War and a list of important earthworks on the North and
South Carolina coast