er's
dwelling, and he then gave me an unasked promise to assist me."

"Yes; but do you know him?--that is, why do you think he has the
power, or what reason have you for believing he will remember his
word?"

"If there ever was the stamp of truth or simple honest benevolence in
the countenance of man, it shone in his," said Henry; "besides,
Dunwoodie has powerful friends in the rebel army, and it would be
better that I take the chance where I am, than thus to expose you to
certain death, if detected."

"Captain Wharton," said Birch, "if I fail, you all fail. No Harper nor
Dunwoodie can save your life; unless you get out with me, and that
within the hour, you die to-morrow on the gallows of a murderer. Caesar
met me as he was going on his errand this morning, and with him I
laid the plan which, if executed as I wish, will save you--otherwise
you are lost; and again I tell you, that no power on earth, not even
Washington, can save you."

"I submit," said the prisoner, yielding to his earnest manner, and
goaded by his fears that were thus awakened anew.

The peddler beckoned him to be silent, and walking to the door, opened
it, with the stiff, formal air with which he had entered the
apartment.

"Friend, let no one enter," he said to the sentinel; "we are about to
go to prayer, and would wish to be alone."

"I don't know that any will wish to interrupt you," returned the
soldier, with a waggish leer of the eye; "but, should they be so
disposed, I have no power to stop them, if they be of the prisoner's
friends."

"Have you not the fear of God before your eyes?" said the pretended
priest. "I tell you, as you will dread punishment at the last day, to
let none of the idolatrous communion enter, to mingle in the prayers
of the righteous."

"If you want to be alone, have you no knife to stick over the
door-latch, that you must have a troop of horse to guard your
meeting-house?"

The peddler took the hint, and closed the door immediately, using the
precaution suggested by the dragoon.

"A faint heart, Captain Wharton, would do but little here. Come, here
is a black shroud for your good-looking countenance," taking, at the
same time, a parchment mask, and fitting it to the face of Henry. "The
master and the man must change places for a season."

"I don't t'ink he look a bit like me," said Caesar, with disgust, as he
surveyed his young master with his new complexion.

"Stop a minute, Caesar," said the peddler, w