Part 45 (1/2)

”What a dangerous character you have become!” said Judithe, turning to her messenger with an amused smile. ”I feared that beard would make you look like a pirate, but I never suspected _this_ of you--and you say,” she added, turning to Masterson, ”that my poor maid is also under suspicion? It is ridiculous, abominable! I must see to it at once. The girl will be frightened horribly among such evidences of your Southern chivalry,” and she shrugged her shoulders with a little gesture of disdain. ”And what, pray, do you intend doing with my sailor here?”

The man had been staring at Masterson as though astounded at the accusations. But he did not speak, and the Confederate agent never took his eyes off him.

”Ask him his name,” he suggested, softly, to Masterson, who took paper and pencil from the desk and handed it to the suspect. ”Write your name there,” he said, and when it was quickly, good naturedly done, the self-appointed judge read it and turned to Judithe.

”Madame Caron, will you please tell me this man's name?” and the messenger himself stared when she replied, haughtily:

”No, Captain Masterson, I will not!”

”Ah, you absolutely refuse, Madame?”

”I do; you have accused my employe of being a spy, but your att.i.tude suggests that it is not he, but myself, whom you suspect.”

”Madame, you cannot comprehend the seriousness of the situation,” and Masterson had difficulty in keeping his patience. ”Every one he speaks with, everything concerning him is of interest. These are war times, Madame Caron, and the case will not admit of either delays or special courtesies. I shall have to ask you for the paper he placed in your hands as I entered the room.”

Judithe picked up the paper without a word and reached it to him, with the languid air of one bored by the entire affair.

He glanced at it and handed it back. As he did so he perceived an unfinished letter on the desk. In a moment his suspicions were aroused; that important letter in the mail bag!

”You did not complete the letter you were writing?”

”No,” and she lifted it from the desk and held it towards him. ”You perceive! I was so careless as to blot the paper; do you wish to examine that?”

His face flushed at the mockery of her tone and glance. He felt it more keenly, that the eyes of Monroe were on him. The task before him was difficult enough without that additional annoyance.

”No, Madame,” he replied, stiffly, ”but the situation is such that I feel justified in asking the contents of the envelope you sealed and gave to the servant.”

”But that is a private letter,” she protested, as he took it from the mail bag; ”it can be of no use to any government or its agents.”

”That can best be determined by reading it, Madame. It certainly cannot go out in this mail unless it is examined.”

”By you?--oh!” And Judithe put out her hand in protest.

”Captain Masterson!”

”Sir!” and Masterson turned on Monroe, who had spoken for the first time. As he did so Judithe deliberately leaned forward and s.n.a.t.c.hed the letter from his hand.

”You shall not read it!” she said, decidedly, and just then Evilena and her brother came along the veranda, and with them Delaven. Judithe moved swiftly to the window before any one else could speak.

”Colonel McVeigh, I appeal to you,” and involuntarily she reached out her hand, which he took in his as he entered the room. ”This--gentleman--on some political pretense, insists that I submit to such examinations as spies are subject to. I have been accused in the presence of these people, and in their presence I demand an apology for this attempt to examine my private, personal letters.”

”Captain Masterson!” and the blue steel of McVeigh's eyes flashed in anger and rebuke. But Masterson, strong in his a.s.surance of right, held up his hand.

”You don't understand the situation, Colonel. That man is suspected of being the a.s.sistant to a most dangerous, unknown spy within our lines.

He has been followed from Beaufort by a Confederate secret service agent, whom he tried to escape by doubling on the road, taking by-ways, riding fully twenty miles out of his course, to reach this point un.o.bserved.”

For the first time the suspected man spoke, and it was to Judithe.