r?"

"Oh, it may not be quite so bad as you think," said Harding, reading the
whole of his friend's thought. "Who knows?--that secesh flag may be a
trophy won by one of our soldiers, and brought or sent home."

"Humph!" said Tom, significantly. "That won't do, Harding! If the flag
was a trophy, and in the house of a loyal man, it would not be quite so
neatly draped on the wall, with the lodge emblem of the Knights of the
Golden Circle under it!"

"Phew!" said Harding, "is that really the emblem?"

"_The_ emblem, and nothing else," answered Leslie. "There is mischief in
that house, and the nest must be looked after."

Suddenly, and while the two friends yet looked, there were dark shadows
flung on the white curtain, as if of moving figures, and then one
shadow, as if of a human arm, began to move up and down on the curtain
and kept moving steadily. Directly there was one quick sharp scream,
followed by no other sound, though both listened intently. Then a figure
came to the window, and apparently looked out, disappearing again in a
moment and leaving every thing as before.

"By George, I cannot stand this!" said Leslie.

"Nor I," said Harding, moved by quite a different feeling. "I am getting
sleepy and must go home."

"Must you?" said Tom Leslie. "Well, you are not going a step. You cannot
be spared just yet. Do you see that tree?"

Harding had seen the tree for some minutes--a tall one with wide
branches, standing a little to the left of the window. But he did not
see anything special in the tree, while Leslie did, and that made the
great difference.

"I am going on a perilous expedition," continued Leslie, in a bantering
tone, but his voice sinking lower, almost without his being aware of the
fact, and jerking off his boots meanwhile on the sidewalk. "If I never
come back, comfort my bereaved wife and children. If I break my neck,
see me comfortably buried, _without_ a coroner's inquest if possible."

"What are you going to do?" asked Harding, with a faint premonition,
however, of his intention.

"I am going to get a peep in at that window," was the reply, "or I am
going to break the most precious neck in America in making the attempt.
I used to be able to climb, though some years ago. Keep still, here
goes!"

There seemed to be at the moment no passers in the street, and Harding's
anxious gaze around showed no policeman in the vicinity. By the time he
had fairly spoken the last words, Leslie had throw