“That is all!” She folded up the paper and sat looking away over the meadow, as did the others, in the awed silence that followed naturally the receipt of this message of one whose fate could be only too well guessed.
“And he never came back?” half-whispered Doris, at last.
“No, he never came back,” answered Miss Camilla softly. “I haven’t a doubt but that he met the fate he so surely predicted. I have been thinking back and reading back over the events of that period, and I can pretty well reconstruct what must have happened. It was in the month of June of 1863, when Lee suddenly invaded Pennsylvania. From that time until his defeat at Gettysburg, there was the greatest panic all through this region, and every one was certain that it spelt ruin for the entire North, especially Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I suppose my brother was with his army and had made his way over home here to get or communicate news. How he came or went, I cannot imagine, and never shall know. But I can easily see how his fate would be certain were he seen by any of the Federal authorities in a Confederate uniform. Probably no explanation would save him, with many of them. For that was the risk run by every scout, to be the prey of friend and foe alike, unless he could get hold of the highest authority in time. He doubtless lies in an unknown grave, either in this state or in Pennsylvania.”
“But—your father?” hesitated Sally. “Do you—do you think anything queer—happened to him?”
“That I shall never know either,” answered Miss Camilla. “His symptoms looked to me like apoplexy, at the time. Now that I think it over, they might possibly have been caused by some slow and subtle poison having a gradually paralyzing effect. You see, my brother says he had seen some of the Confederate spies that day. Perhaps they had begun to suspect him, and had taken this means to get him out of the way. I cannot tell. As I could not get a doctor at the time, the village doctor, who had known us all our lives, took my word for it next day that it was apoplexy. But, whatever it may have been, I know that they both died in the service of the country they loved, and that is enough for me. It has removed the burden of many years of grief and shame from my shoulders. I can once more lift up my head among my fellow-countrymen!”
And Miss Camilla did actually radiate happiness with her whole attractive personality.
“But I cannot make any meaning out of that queer last line,” mused Sally after a time. “Will you read it to us again, Miss Camilla, please?”
And Miss Camilla repeated the odd message,—“ ‘In case you should forget, or Father does not tell you, right hand side from house, behind twenty-seven.’ ”
“Now what in the world can that all mean?” she demanded. “At first I thought perhaps it might mean where they had hidden the code, but that couldn’t be because we found that under the old mattress in the cave. Your brother probably went out that way that night and left it there on the way.”
“Wait a minute,” suddenly interrupted Doris. “Do you remember just before the end he says, ‘do not be surprised at the state of the house. Unavoidable but all right.’ Now what could he mean by that? Do you know what I think? I believe he was apologizing because things seemed so upset and—and many of the valuable things were missing, as Miss Camilla said. If there was such excitement about, and fear of Lee’s invasion, why isn’t it possible that they hid those valuable things somewhere, so they would be safe, whatever happened, and this was to tell her, without speaking too plainly, that it was all right? The brother thought his father would explain, but in case he didn’t, or it was forgotten, he gave the clue where to find them.”