either would he
rebuff the blue-coat whose palm was tinged with green. He liked the
provost-marshal because that functionary had twice rescued his bar from
demolition at the hands of a gang of stragglers. He admired Colonel
Putnam as a soldier and a gentleman, but he was enjoying a triumph over
both of them; he had news to tell which seemed to sustain his theory and
defeat theirs as to the identity of the man who left his beard behind
him.

"I am told you knew this Doctor Warren, colonel," he was saying, "and up
to this time I had not spoken of him for reasons which--well, because
he had reasons for asking me to make no mention of his being here. Now,
if he was a Doctor Warren, from the North, and a loyal man, what would
he be doing with a spy?"

"I did not know he saw him at all," said Colonel Putnam, quickly.

"Nor do I; but I do believe that he was here purposely to meet him; that
he, the man you tried to arrest, was here at this house to meet your
friend who followed you out to camp. If Doctor Warren is a loyal man, as
you doubtless believe him, he would have no call to be here to get
papers from a man who could only meet him in disguise. I'm told the
doctor made himself all clear to you as to who he was."

Colonel Putnam's face is a study. He is unquestionably turning pale, and
his eyes are filled with a strange, introspective, puzzled look. He is
startled, too.

"Do you mean to tell me he _did_ have communication with the doctor?" he
asks.

"My wife is ready to swear to it," replies mine host. "Her story is
simply this: She had come down-stairs just as the doctor returned. She
had been sitting with the young lady, who was very nervous and ill at
ease while he was away, and had gone into the kitchen at the back of the
house to get her a cup of tea. She was startled by a rap at the door,
and in walks a man wrapped up in a big military cape. He wore spectacles
and a full black beard, and he took off his hat, and spoke like a
gentleman. He said he desired to see either Doctor Warren or the young
lady at once on business of the utmost importance, and asked her if she
would conduct him up by a rear stairway. My wife told him to go around
to the office, but he replied that he expected that, and hastened to
tell her that it was because there were Union officers in the hallway
that he could not go there. There were personal reasons why he must not
be seen; and she said to him that a man who looked like an officer an