“For the last time! Will you be warned by me?”

“I don’t understand,” he said. “And I would much prefer to go on. But to do so would apparently worry you; and I have no desire to do that.”

“Go now,” she said, eagerly. “Don’t stay. I will ride forward and explain your disappearance as best I can.”

He wheeled his horse and rode back along the road; pausing at a little distance he heard the voice of Lieutenant Camp as he loudly gave the countersign; and again as the lieutenant made an angry exclamation. For a time George expected that the young officer would ride back in search of him; but this did not happen, and in a short space he heard brother and sister pass the sentries, and then all was silent.

The girl’s meaning was shadowy and mysterious; he could not conceive, even in part, what danger could threaten him in the city that did not also threaten them.

“Why, not so much, by far,” he told himself. But then in a moment came another[128] thought. “It is possible,” he reflected, “that she fancies her brother’s known rank in the American army will serve to save him; and that I, being a stranger, would fall under suspicion.”

[128]

However, still another thought upset the preceding one.

“She heard me, only yesterday, declaring that I bore dispatches from Boston to General Putnam. That must have convinced her that I, too, am fairly well known.”

For some time he sat in the saddle pondering this puzzle but at last he gave it up.

“No matter what her meaning,” he told himself, cheerfully, “there has been no harm in doing what she requested. It is not as though the brother were unknown to me. I can pick him up at any time—to-morrow perhaps—and resume the matter just where it was broken off to-night at the inn.”

Riding back some little distance he found a road that led westward and brought him to Broadway; and then, after passing the guard, he made his way to the “King’s Arms” and went quietly to bed.

[129]

CHAPTER IX IN WHICH GEORGE PRENTISS RECEIVES AN INVITATION

Next morning George Prentiss made his way to General Putnam’s headquarters at the foot of Broadway; and, as he went, there was at first some doubt in his 

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