s to
nothing."

"True," said Prescott, but he intended a further inquiry into the matter
on his own account, and this he undertook as soon as he was free from
others. He was perhaps better fitted than any one else in Richmond for
the search, because he had sufficient basis upon which to build a plan
that might or might not lead to a definite issue.

He went at once to the building in which the President had his office,
where, despite the robbery of the day before, he roamed about among the
rooms and halls almost as he pleased, inquiring and making suggestions
which might draw from the attendants facts to them of slight importance.
Yes, visitors had been there the day before, chiefly ladies, some from
the farther South, drawn by veneration for their beloved President and a
wish to see the severe and simple offices from which the destiny of
eleven great States and the fate of the mightiest war the world had ever
known was directed.

And who were the ladies? If their names were not known, could not a
description of their appearance be given? But no one had any definite
memory on these points; they were just like other sightseers. Was there
a tall woman with a brown cloak among them? Prescott put this question
to several people, but drew no affirmative reply until he found an old
coloured man who swept the halls. The sweeper thought that he did
remember seeing such a figure on the lower floor, but he was not sure,
and with that Prescott was forced to be content.

He felt that his search had not been wholly in vain, leading as it did
to what might be called the shadow of a clue, and he resolved to
continue it. There had been leaks before in the Confederacy, some by
chance and some by design, notably an instance of the former when Lee's
message to his lieutenant was lost by the messenger and found by a
Northern sympathizer, thus informing his opponents of his plan and
compelling him to fight the costly battle of Antietam. If he pursued
this matter and prevented its ultimate issue, he might save the
Confederacy far more than he could otherwise.

Richmond was a small city, difficult of entrance without a pass, and for
two or three days Prescott, abandoning the society of his friends, trod
its streets industriously, not neglecting the smallest and meanest among
them, seeking always a tall figure in a brown dress and brown cloak. It
became an obsession with him, and, as he now recognized, there was even
more in it than a me