Alexandria, where you
will, of course, be taken in the first place. He says he's got some
money of yours; but I have insisted on his taking another fifty dollars,
which you can repay me when we next meet. As he will not have to ask
for work, he may escape the usual lot of runaways, who are generally
pounced upon and set to work on the fortifications of Alexandria and
Washington.

"He intends to find out what prison you are taken to, and to follow you,
with some vague idea of being able to aid you to escape. As he cannot
write, he has asked me to write this letter to you, telling you what his
idea is. He will give it to you when he finds an opportunity, and he
wishes you to give him an answer, making any suggestion that may occur
to you as to the best way of his setting about it. He says that he shall
make acquaintances among the negroes North, and will find someone who
will read your note to him and write you an answer. I have told him that
if he is caught at the game he is likely to be inside a prison a bit
longer than you are, even if worse doesn't befall him. However, he makes
light of this, and is bent upon carrying out his plans, and I can only
hope he will succeed.

"I have just heard that we shall fall back across the Rappahannock
to-morrow, and I imagine there will not be much hard fighting again
until spring, long before which I hope you will be in your place among
us again. We lost twenty-three men and two officers (Ketler and Sumner)
yesterday. Good-by, old fellow! I need not say keep up your spirits, for
that you are pretty sure to do.

"Yours truly,
"James Sinclair."

After the first start at seeing Dan, Vincent was scarcely surprised, for
he had often thought over what the boy would do, and had fancied that
while, if he supposed him dead, he would go straight back to the
Orangery, it was quite possible that, should he hear that he was a
prisoner, Dan might take it into his head to endeavor to join him. As to
his making his escape, that did not appear to be a very difficult
undertaking now that he had a friend outside. The watch kept up was not
a very vigilant one, for such numbers of prisoners were taken on both
sides that they were not regarded as of very great importance, and
indeed the difficulty lay rather in making across the country to the
Southern border than in escaping from prison; for with a friend outside,
with a disguise in readiness, that matter was comparatively easy. All
that was requi