."

It was the truth; it was the sole purport of the note he had sent
through Miss Faulkner. He would not have disclosed his sacrifice; but so
great was the strange domination of this woman still over him, that he
felt compelled to assert his superiority. She fixed her eyes upon him.

"And Miss Faulkner took your message?" she said slowly. "Don't deny it!
No one else could have passed through our lines; and you gave her a
safe conduct through yours. Yes, I might have known it. And this was the
creature they sent me for an ally and confidant!"

For an instant Brant felt the sting of this enforced contrast between
the two women. But he only said,--

"You forget that I did not know you were the spy, nor do I believe that
she suspected you were my wife."

"Why should she?" she said almost fiercely. "I am known among these
people only by the name of Benham---my maiden name. Yes!--you can take
me out, and shoot me under that name, without disgracing yours. Nobody
will know that the Southern spy was the wife of the Northern general!
You see, I have thought even of that!"

"And thinking of that," said Brant slowly, "you have put yourself--I
will not say in my power, for you are in the power of any man in this
camp who may know you, or even hear you speak. Well, let us understand
each other plainly. I do not know how great a sacrifice your devotion to
your cause demands of you; I do know what it seems to demand of me. Hear
me, then! I will do my best to protect you, and get you safely away from
here; but, failing that, I tell you plainly that I shall blow out your
brains and my own together."

She knew that he would do it. Yet her eyes suddenly beamed with a
new and awakening light; she put back her hair again, and half raised
herself upon the pillow, to gaze at his dark, set face.

"And as I shall let no other life but ours be periled in this affair,"
he went on quietly, "and will accompany you myself in some disguise
beyond the lines, we will together take the risks--or the bullets of the
sentries that may save us both all further trouble. An hour or two more
will settle that. Until then your weak condition will excuse you from
any disturbance or intrusion here. The mulatto woman you have sometimes
personated may be still in this house; I will appoint her to attend
you. I suppose you can trust her, for you must personate her again, and
escape in her clothes, while she takes your place in this room as my
prisoner."