"Was the man pale? Did he have long black hair?"
"Long black hair," answered the blacksmith, "but his cheeks were red. He seemed excited. While I was replacing the shoe his horse had cast, he kept drinking brandy from a bottle he carried. He never gave me none of it," the man added with an injured air.
"Did he say anything?"
"Yes, sir. He said I'd hear great news later today, that the Southerners had won their greatest victory. I asked him where and he swore at me and told me to shut up. But he gave me a silver dollar. Perhaps it's bad. Is it?"
The blacksmith pulled out of his grimy pocket a dollar and showed it to the captain.
"Do you know who that man was?" was the stern command.
"No, sir, o' course I don't. I s'pose he was Mr. Barnard."
"He was Judas. He has murdered Abraham Lincoln. And he has given you one of the forty pieces of silver."
With wild-eyed horror, the smith started back. He flung the accursed dollar far into the Potomac.
"God's curse go with it," he cried. "Captain, the man went straight down the river road. He gave his horse a cut with his whip 'n he yelled 'Carry me back to ole Virginny!' and he went off lickety-split. He ain't half-an-hour ahead of you."