Part 63 (1/2)

Cook had been recognized by a neighbor as he drove Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton's wagon across the Maryland bridge at dawn. A committee of citizens came to cross-examine her.

She faced them with blanched cheeks.

”My husband, an Abolitionist!” she gasped.

”He's with those murderers and robbers.”

She turned on the men like a young tigress.

”You're lying--I tell you!”

For an hour they tried to drag from her a confession of his plans. They left at last convinced that she knew nothing, that she suspected nothing of his real life. She had fought them bravely to the last. In her soul of souls she knew the hideous truth. She recalled the strange yearning with which he had looked at her as he left Sunday morning. She saw the bottom of the gulf at last.

With a cry of anguish and despair she sank to the floor in a faint.

She stirred with one thought tearing at her heart. Had they killed or captured him? She rose, dressed and joined the crowd that surged through the streets. The Rifle Works had been captured, Kagi was dead, the other two wounded, one fatally, the other a prisoner. No trace of her husband had been found. He had not reentered the town from the Maryland side.

She walked to the bridge and found it guarded by armed citizens. Tears of joy filled her eyes.

”He can't get back now!” she breathed.

She hurried to her room, fell on her knees and prayed:

”Oh, dear Lord Jesus, I've tried to be a good and faithful wife. My man has loved me tenderly and truly. Save him, oh, Lord! Don't let him come back now into this den of howling beasts. They'll tear him to pieces.

And I can't endure it. I can't. I can't. Have pity, Lord. I'm just a poor, heart-broken wife!”

Through six days of terror and excitement, of surging crowds and marching soldiers, the s.h.i.+vering figure watched through her window--and silently prayed. A guard had been set at her house to catch her husband if he dared to return. She laughed softly.

He would not return! She had asked G.o.d not to let him. She was asking him now with every breath she breathed. G.o.d would not forget her. He would answer her prayers. She knew it. G.o.d is love.

She had begun to sleep again at night. Her man was safe in the mountains of Pennsylvania. The Governor of Virginia had set a price on his head.

Men were scouring the hills hunting, as they hunt wild beasts, but G.o.d would save him. She had seen His s.h.i.+ning face in prayer and He had promised.

And then the blow fell.

Far down the street she caught the roar of a mob. Its cries came faintly at first and then they grew to fierce oaths and brutal shouts.

A man stopped in front of her house and spoke to the guard.

”They've got him!”

”Who?”

”Cook!”

”The d.a.m.ned beast, the spy, the traitor!”

”Where are they takin' him?”

”To the jail at Charlestown.”