attention was first drawn to General Arnold."

"You suspected him before our conversation. You, yourself, heard it from
his own lips in the garden."

"Yes, I did. But the note!"

"What note?"

"The note you gave me to read."

"Peggy's letter which I found at her house?"

"The same. Have I never told you?"

"Never!" was the slow response. "You know you returned it to me without
comment."

He was puzzled. For he wondered how he had failed to acquaint her with
so important an item.

"When you allowed me to take that letter you furnished me with my first
clew."

She aroused herself and looked seriously at him.

"I?... Why.... I never read it. What did it contain? I had supposed it
to be a personal letter."

"And so it was,--apparently. It proved to be a letter from one of
Peggy's New York friends."

"A Mischienza friend, undoubtedly."

"Yes, Captain Cathcart. But it contained more. There was a cipher
message."

"In cipher?" Then after a moment. "Did she know of it?"

"I am inclined to think that she did. Otherwise it would not have been
directed to her."

This was news indeed. No longer did she recline against the seat of the
canoe, but raised herself upright.

"How did you ever discover it?"

"My first reading of the note filled me with suspicion. Its tone was too
impersonal. When I asked for it, I was impelled by the sole desire to
study it the more carefully at my own leisure. That night I found
certain markings over some of the letters. These I jotted down and
rearranged until I had found the hidden message."

She gazed at him in wonder.

"It was directed to her, I presume, because of her friendship with the
Military Governor; and carried the suggestion that His Excellency be
interested in the proposed formation of the Regiment. From that moment
my energies were directed to one sole end. I watched Arnold and those
whom he was wont to entertain. Eventually the trail narrowed down to
Peggy and Anderson."

She drew a deep breath, but said nothing.

"The night I played the spy in the park my theory was confirmed."

"Yes, you told me of that incident. It was not far from here."

She turned to search the distance behind her.

"No. Just down the shore behind his great house." He pointed with his
finger in the direction of Mount Pleasant.

"And Peggy was a party to the conspiracy!" she exclaimed with an audible
sigh.

"She exercised her influence over Arnold from the start. She and
Ande