stion now. Night and the sacred mantle of their evident suffering
will shield them from observation or question.

The colonel draws deeper into the shade of the barn. It seems a
sacrilege now to be thus spying upon their movements, and he is ashamed
of the impulse that kept him there. He decides to leave the yard and
betake himself to his lodgings, when he is suddenly aware of a dark
object rising from under the back porch. Stealthily and slowly the
figure comes crouching out into the open yard, coming towards where the
colonel stands in the shadow of the black out-buildings; and then, when
close by the pump where he stood but a moment before, it rises to its
full height, and draws a long breath of relief. It is a man in a soft
black-felt hat, with a heavy, dark beard, and wearing one of the biggest
of the great circular capes that make a part of the officer's overcoat,
and are most frequently worn without the coat itself, unless the weather
be severe.

The colonel is unarmed; his pistols are over at the room he temporarily
occupies in town; he is suffering from recent injury, and one arm is
practically good for nothing, but he loses no time in lamenting these
points. The slight form of the girl approaches the window at this very
instant as though to pick up some object on the sill, then disappears,
and the light vanishes from the room. From the figure at the pump he
hears a stifled exclamation of surprise, but no articulate word; and
before the figure has time to recover he stands close beside it and his
voice breaks the stillness of the night.

"Your name, sir, and your regiment? I am Colonel Putnam."

He has laid his hand on the broad shoulder under the cloak and plainly
feels the start and thrill with which his words are greeted. He even
fancies he can hear the stifled word "God!" The man seems stricken
dumb, and more sharply the colonel begins his stern query a second time,
but gets no farther than "Your name," when, with a violent wrench, the
stranger is free; he makes a spring, trips over some loose rubbish, and
goes crashing to earth.

"The guard!" yells the colonel, as he throws himself upon him, but the
man is up in an instant, hurls off his antagonist, and, this time, leaps
off into the darkness in comparative safety. But he has left a clew
behind. As the soldiers of the provost guard come running around into
the yard and the windows are thrown up and eager heads peer forth in
excited inquiry, Colonel Pu