lessened
when, at the appointed time, Vincent came out and handed him two
letters.

"You are to keep these letters, Dan, until I return, or till you hear
that something has happened to me. If you hear that, you are to take one
of these letters to my mother, and take the other yourself to Miss
Kingston. Tell her before you give it her what has happened, as gently
as you can. As for yourself, Dan, you had your letters of freedom long
ago, and I have left you five hundred dollars; so that you can get a
cabin and patch of your own, and settle down when these troubles are
over."

"Let me go with you, master," Dan said, with the tears streaming down
his cheeks. "I would rather be killed with you a hundred times than get
on without you."

"I would take you if I could, Dan; but this is a service that I must do
alone. Good-by, my boy; let us hope that, in three or four days at the
outside, I shall be back here again, safe and sound."

He wrung Dan's hand, and then started at a canter and kept on at that
pace until he reached Richmond. A train with stores was starting for the
south in a few minutes; General Lee's order enabled Vincent to have a
horse-box attached at once, and he was soon speeding on his way. He
alighted at Burksville Junction, and there purchased some rough clothes
for himself and some country-fashioned saddlery for his horse. Then,
after changing his clothes at an inn and putting the fresh saddlery on
his horse, he started.

It was getting late in the afternoon, but he rode on by unfrequented
roads, stopping occasionally to inquire if any of the Federal cavalry
had been seen in the neighborhood, and at last stopped for the night at
a little village inn. As soon as it was daybreak he resumed his journey.
He had purchased at Burksville some colored calico and articles of
female clothing, and fastened the parcel to the back of his saddle. As
he rode forward now he heard constant tales of the passing of parties of
the enemy's cavalry, but he was fortunate enough to get well round to
the rear of the Federal lines before he encountered any of them. Then he
came suddenly upon a troop.

"Where are you going to, and where have you come from?"

"Our farm is a mile away from Union Grove," he said, "and I have been
over to Sussex Courthouse to buy some things for my mother."

"Let me see what you have got there," the officer said. "You are rebels
to a man here, and there's no trusting any of you."

Vincent unfas