"Perhaps not," said Winder, with a disagreeable smile, "but I am inclined to think that you know a great deal more than you are willing to admit."
"I do not understand you."
"Very well," said the Provost-Marshal, "you will understand me, and all in good time. Do you know gentlemen, I suspected you were all wrong from the start, and you were not keen enough to impose your story upon me? George," he added, turning to one of his men, "go to the hotel, and get the baggage belonging to these gentlemen. We will see if that will throw any further light upon their true character."
The officer departed, and during his absence, General Winder plied them with questions about their mission; their knowledge of Timothy Webster; their visit to Richmond, and in fact about everything imaginable, and all of them showing conclusively that he believed them to be spies, and unworthy of credence. Their satchels were finally brought in, and a rigid examination failed to discover anything to justify his suspicions, and Winder finally left the room, angrily ordering them to remain where they were, and directing his officers and Chase Morton to accompany him.
A few minutes elapsed after their departure, during which the loud voice of Winder could be heard, angrily declaiming against the two men; he then came back again, and addressing my operatives said:
"Gentlemen, your stories don't agree with what I know about you, and we will give you time to think the matter over;" then turning to his deputy he commanded, "Take them away!"
"Where to?" inquired the officer.
"To Henrico Jail," was Winder's response.
They were then conducted to the jail and placed in a room in which six others were confined, where the officers left them to their meditations, which, as may be imagined, were far from pleasant. Not knowing what might be in store for them, and fearing that their presence in Richmond might result in danger to Webster, they resolved to say nothing whatever, and to adhere strictly to the story originally told by them, and then to abide by the consequences, no matter how serious they might be.
During the afternoon of the following day, an officer accompanied by an elder son of Mr. Morton made their appearance at the jail, and he, too, identified the two men, as being concerned in searching his mother's residence in Washington, and endeavored to recall several incidents which had taken place on that occasion. To all of his statements, however, Price and Scully made emphatic denials, and vehemently asserted their entire ignorance of anything connected with the Mortons, or their relations to the Federal government.