g
Ferguson we may make good use of him."

"In what manner, your Lordship?" asked one whose voice I did not
recognize.

"He has come straight from Major Ferguson, as I say; and, loyalist or
rebel, he can find his way back to Gilbert Town."

"But you'll never be trusting him with despatches!" said Lord Rawdon.

"There is no need to trust him. He can be given the despatches with some
hint of their purport, and of how much the king's cause will profit by
their safe delivery."

Again a silence fell upon the group around the lawyers' table, and then
some one--'twas Major Hanger, as I thought--said: "'Tis an unread riddle
for me as yet, my Lord."

Cornwallis laughed. "Where are your wits this morning, gentlemen? If he
be loyal and true, the despatches will go safe enough. If, on the other
hand, he be a rebel and a spy, he will doubtless tamper with them; but
in that case he will none the less ride straight enough to Major
Ferguson's headquarters in the West."

"H'm; your Lordship is still too deep for me," said Tarleton's second in
command. "If he be a rebel and a spy, why, in God's name, should he
carry your Lordship's letters to any but some rag-tag colonel of his own
kidney?"

My Lord laughed again. "Truly, Major, you should go to a dame's school
and learn diplomacy. If we tell him beforehand what our object is, how
could any rebel of them all defeat it more surely than by going to
Ferguson with a garbled message that would make him stand and fight a
losing battle?"

"But, my Lord--the risk!" cut in the commissary-general.

"There need be none. An hour after he sets out we shall send a mounted
detail after him with an Indian tracker to nose out his trail. The
lieutenant in command will carry duplicate despatches. At the worst,
Ireton will guide these followers to Ferguson's rendezvous; and, so far
as we know, he is the only man who knows exactly where to find the
major."

I had heard enough. Under cover of the chorus of bravos raised by Lord
Cornwallis's explication of his plot within a plot, I lifted the
trap-door and made my exit as noiselessly as I had come.

Guessing that no time would be lost in putting the plan into action, I
made haste to be found inquiring hither and yon for the
commander-in-chief when my Lord and his suite came down the outer stair;
and when we were met I was quickly told of my assignment to courier
duty.

"Make your preparations to take the road within the hour, and report to
me