rought me back into
Richmond. Why not let me go now?"

"I take you to the house from which you came," he replied.

"That is your Southern chivalry," she said, "the chivalry of which I
have heard so much."

He was stung by the keen irony in her tone. She had seemed to him, for
awhile, so humble and appealing that he had begun to feel, in a sense,
her protector, and he did not expect a jeer at the expense of himself
and his section. He had been merciful to her, too! He had sacrificed
himself and perhaps injured his cause that he might spare her.

"Is a woman who plays the part of a spy, a part that most men would
scorn, entitled to much consideration?" he asked bluntly.

She regarded him with a cold stare, and her figure stiffened as he had
seen it stiffen once before.

"I am not a spy," she said, "and I may have reasons, powerful reasons,
of which you know nothing, for this attempted flight from Richmond
to-night," she replied; "but that does not mean that I will explain them
to you."

Prescott stiffened in his turn and said with equal coldness:

"I request you, Madam or Miss, whichever you may be, to come with me at
once, as we waste time here."

He led the way through the silent city, lying then under the moonlight,
back to the little street in which stood the wooden cottage, neither
speaking on the way. They passed nobody, not even a dog howled at them,
and when they stood before the cottage it, too, was dark and silent.
Then Prescott said:

"I do not know who lives there and I do not know who you are, but I
shall consider my task ended, for the present at least, when its doors
hide you from me."

He spoke in the cold, indifferent tone that he had assumed when he
detected the irony in her voice. But now she changed again.

"Perhaps I owe you some thanks, Captain Prescott," she said.

"Perhaps, but you need not give them. I trust, madam, and I do not say
it with any intent of impoliteness, that we shall never meet again."

"You speak wisely, Captain Prescott," she said.

But she raised the hood that hid her brow and gave him a glance from
dark blue eyes that a second time brought to Prescott that strange
tremour at once a cause of surprise and anger. Then she opened the door
of the cottage and disappeared within.

He stood for a few moments in the street looking at the little house and
then he hurried to his home.

CHAPTER VII

THE COTTAGE IN THE SIDE STREET

Prescott rose the next morn