I'm worried to death about it.
What's best to do?"

"Was your name signed to it?"

"No; but my name was on the envelope--an old letter envelope that I had
when we came here."

"Well, Gardner, this is a pretty piece of business! That letter of
course will go very soon to Major Gee's headquarters, and then--there'll
be the devil to pay!"

"The sentinel handed the letter to the officer of the guard. What had I
better say, if they send for me?"

"Say you intended the letter to fall into their hands; that you meant it
as a practical joke, wanted to get up another scare, and see the
Johnnies prick up their ears again."

"But, Colonel, like a fust-class fool I put a ten-dollar Confederate
bill in the envelope. I wanted to give it to Sergeant Smith. That don't
look as if I meant it to fall into their hands--does it?"

"Gardner, this thing has an ugly look. You've knocked our plans of
escape in the head--at least for the present. You've got yourself into a
fix. They'll haul you up to headquarters. They'll prove by the letter
that you've been deep in a plot that would have cost a good many lives.
They're feeling ugly. They may hang or shoot you before sundown, as a
warning to the rest of us to stop these plots to escape. They may send
for you at any minute."

"What had I better say or do?"

"You'd better make yourself scarce for a while, till you've got a
plausible story made up. Better disguise yourself and pass yourself off
as somebody else; so gain time."

"I have it, Colonel; I'll pass myself off as Estabrooks."

Estabrooks was an officer of the 26th Mass., who had escaped at the
crossing of the river Yadkin two weeks previously when we came from
Richmond. Gardner was a handsome man and perhaps the best-dressed
officer in prison; but he now disguised himself.[6] The transformation
was complete. In half an hour a man came to me wearing a slouched hat
and a very ragged suit of Confederate gray. He had been a play-actor
before the war and knew how to conceal his identity. By his voice I
recognized him as Gardner! "Well, Gardner," said I, "this surpasses His
Satanic Majesty; or, as you would say, beats the devil!"--"Colonel," he
replied, "I'm not Gardner. Gardner escaped; escaped at the crossing of
the Yadkin River. I'm Estabrooks, H. L. Estabrooks, 2d Lieutenant, 26th
Mass. Call me Estabrooks if you please."--"All right, Estabrooks it is."

Hardly had we had time to whisper around this change of name, when the