re hunt for a spy. This woman troubled him; he
wished to know who and what she was and why she, a girl, had undertaken
a task so unfitting. Yet war, he remembered, is a destroyer of
conventions, and the mighty upheaval through which the country was going
could account for anything.

He found on the third day his reward in another glimpse of the elusive
and now tantalizing brown figure under the brow of Shockoe Hill,
strolling along casually, as if the beauty of the day and the free air
of the heavens alone attracted.

The brown dress had been changed, but the brown cloak remained the same,
and Prescott felt a pang of remorse lest he had done an injustice to a
woman who looked so innocent. Until this moment he had never seen her
face distinctly, save one glimpse, but now the brown hood that she wore
was thrown back a little and there shone beneath it clear eyes of
darkest blue, illuminating a face as young, as pure, as delicate in
outline as he could have wished for in a sister of his own. No harm
could be there. A woman who looked like that could not be engaged upon
an errand such as he suspected, and he would leave her undisturbed.

But, second thought came. He put together again all the circumstances,
the occasions upon which he had seen her, especially that day of the
Morgan reception, and his suspicions returned. So he followed her again,
at a distance now, lest she should see him, and was led a long and
winding chase about the capital.

He did not believe that she knew of his presence, and these vague
meanderings through the streets of Richmond confirmed his belief. No
one with a clear conscience would leave such crooked tracks, and what
other purpose could she have now save to escape observation until the
vigilance of the sentinels, on edge over the robbery, should relax a
little and she could escape through the cordon of guards that belted in
Richmond.

She passed at last into an obscure side street and there entered a
little brown wooden cottage. Prescott, watching from the corner, saw her
disappear within, and he resolved that he would see her, too, when she
came out again. Therefore he remained at the corner or near it,
sauntering about now and then to avoid notice, but always keeping within
a narrow circle and never losing sight of the house.

He was aware that he might remain there a long time, but he had a stiff
will and he was bent upon solving this problem which puzzled and
irritated him.

It was