,' he said to me, 'be sure that you do
not drop her anywhere along the coast of my own state of Kentucky;
for if you do, she will untie the sack and swim ashore into my
constituency, where I have trouble enough without the Countess St.
Auban, active abolitionist, to increase it. Trouble '--said he to
me--'thy name is Josephine St. Auban!'

"My dear lady, to that last, I agree. But, there you have my
orders. You are, as may be seen, close to the throne, so far as we
have thrones in this country."

"Then I am safe until we get below the Kentucky shore?" she queried
calmly.

"I beg you not to feel disturbed,--" he began.

"Will you set me down at Louisville?"

"Madam, I can not."

"You have not been hampered with extraordinary orders. You have
just said, the carte blanche is in your hands."

"I have no stricter orders at any time than those I take from my
own conscience, Madam. I must act for your own good as well as for
that of others."

Her lip curled now. "Then not even this country is free! Even
here there are secret tribunals. Even here there are hired bravos."

"Ah, Madam, please, not that! I beg of you--"

"Excellently kind of you all, to care so tenderly for me--and
yourselves! I, only a woman, living openly, with ill will for
none, paying ray own way, violating no law of the land--"

"Your words are very bitter, Madam."

"The more bitter because they are true. You will release me then
at Cairo, below?"

"I can not promise, Madam. You would be back in Washington by the
first boats and trains."

"So, the plot runs yet further? Perhaps you do not stop this side
the outer ways of the Mississippi? Say, St. Louis, New Orleans?"

"Perhaps even beyond those points," he rejoined grimly. "I make no
promises, since you yourself make none."

"What are your plans, out there, beyond?"

"You ask it frankly, and with equal frankness I say I do not know.
Indeed, I am not fully advised in all this matter. It was
imperative to get you out of Washington, and if so, it is equally
imperative to keep you out of Washington. At least for a time I am
obliged to construe my carte blanche in that way, my dear lady.
And as I say, my conscience is my strictest officer."

"Yes," she said, studying his face calmly with her steady dark eyes.

It was a face sensitive, although bony and lined; stern, though its
owner still was young. She noticed the reddish hair and beard, the
florid skin, the blue eye