"I suppose you knew those two men?"

"Yes."

"And that I have put it out of their power to help you?"

"I do."

There was something so strangely submissive in her voice that he again
looked suspiciously at her. But he was shocked to see that she was quite
pale now, and that the fire had gone out of her dark eyes.

"Then I may tell you what is my plan to save you. But, first, you must
find this mulatto woman who has acted as your double."

"She is here."

"Here?"

"Yes."

"How do you know it?" he asked, in quick suspicion.

"She was not to leave this place until she knew I was safe within our
lines. I have some friends who are faithful to me." After a pause she
added, "She has been here already."

He looked at her, startled. "Impossible--I"--

"You locked the door. Yes! but she has a second key. And even if she had
not, there is another entrance from that closet. You do not know this
house: you have been here two weeks; I spent two years of my life, as a
girl, in this room."

An indescribable sensation came over him; he remembered how he had felt
when he first occupied it; this was followed by a keen sense of shame
on reflecting that he had been, ever since, but a helpless puppet in the
power of his enemies, and that she could have escaped if she would, even
now.

"Perhaps," he said grimly, "you have already arranged your plans?"

She looked at him with a singular reproachfulness even in her
submission.

"I have only told her to be ready to change clothes with me and help me
color my face and hands at the time appointed. I have left the rest to
you."

"Then this is my plan. I have changed only a detail. You and she must
both leave this house at the same time, by different exits, but one of
them must be private--and unknown to my men. Do you know of such a one?"

"Yes," she said, "in the rear of the negro quarters."

"Good," he replied, "that will be your way out. She will leave here,
publicly, through the parade, armed with a pass from me. She will be
overhauled and challenged by the first sentry near the guardhouse, below
the wall. She will be subjected to some delay and scrutiny, which she
will, however, be able to pass better than you would. This will create
the momentary diversion that we require. In the mean time, you will have
left the house by the rear, and you will then keep in the shadow of the
hedge until you can drop down along the Run, where it empties into the
swamp. That," he conti