I fancy each morning he will come before night, and
each night that he may waken me in the morning. I have been living in
that delightful hopefulness for a week."

Lena called them and they went out to the rustic seat circling the
great live oak at the foot of the steps. The others were there, and
the Judge was preparing to drive the three miles home with his sister.
Now that the invalid was better, and the wanderer returned from
Mobile, Aunt Sajane bethought herself of the possible sixes and sevens
of her own establishment, and drove away with promises of frequent
visits on both sides.

Long after the others had retired for the night Judithe's light
burned, and there was little of the careless butterfly of fashion
in her manner as she examined one after another of the letters brought
her by the last mail, and wrote replies to some she meant to take to
the office herself during her early morning ride; it was so
delightful to have an errand, and Pluto had shown her the road.
After all the others were done she picked up again the communication
she had shown to Mrs. McVeigh--the report from the yacht master, and
from the same envelope extracted a soft silken slip of paper with
marks peculiar--apparently mere senseless scratches of a thoughtless
pen, but it was over that paper and the reply most of the evening
was spent. It was the most ancient method of secret writing known
to history, yet, apparently, so meaningless that it might pass
unnoticed even by the alert, or be turned aside as the ambitious
scrawlings of a little child.

Each word as deciphered she had pencilled on a slip of paper, and when
complete it read:

"Courant brings word McV. is likely to be of special interest. If he
travels with guard we can't interfere on road from coast, and you
will be only hope. A guard of Federals will be landed north of
Beaufort and await your orders. Messenger will communicate soon as
movements are known. You may expect Pierson. We await your orders or
any suggestions."

There was no signature. Her orders or suggestions were written in the
same cipher, and required much more time and thought than had been
given to the buying and freeing of Pluto's pickaninny, after which she
destroyed all unnecessary writings, and retired with the satisfied
feeling of good work done and better in prospect, and in a short time
was sleeping the calm, sweet sleep of a conscienceless child.

She rode even further next morning than she had the