Who goes there?

by B. K. Benson

But how could I make a statement? How could I know what to say to a party of Confederates? I laughed at the question, and especially at the thought which had caused it. I had actually forgotten, for the moment, that I was a real Confederate, and had begun to imagine that I had been a Federal trying to get into the Confederate lines, and whom the Doctor was helping to do so.

But, was the Doctor a Confederate? He must have been a Confederate. If so, what was he, too, doing in the Federal camp? He, too, a spy? He and I were allies? Possibly.

But is it not more likely that he was deceived in me? Did he not think me a Union soldier? If so, he thought that he was helping me to play the spy in the interest of the Federals.

What, then? Why, then the Doctor was, after all, a surgeon in the Union army.

But I knew that the Doctor was thoroughly opposed to war; he would not fight; he took no side; he even argued with me ... God! what was it that he argued? And what in me was he arguing against? He had contended--I remember it--that the war would destroy slavery, and that was what he wanted to be done; and I had contended that the Union was pledged by the Constitution to protect slavery, and all I wanted was the preservation of the Union.

A cold shudder came through me.

In an instant I could see better. Such talk had been part of my plan. I had even succeeded in blinding the Doctor. Yet this thought gave little pleasure. To have deceived the Doctor! I had thought him too wise to allow himself to be deceived.

Yet any man may be cheated at times. But, had I lent myself to a course which had cheated Dr. Khayme? This was hard to believe. I became bewildered again. No matter which way I looked, there was a tangle. I have not got to the bottom of this thing.

Of two things one must be true: first, Dr. Khayme is a Confederate and my ally; second, I have been such a skilful spy that I have deceived him with all his wisdom and all my reluctance to deceive him. Which of these two things is true?

Let me look again at the first. I am sure that the Doctor was in some way attached to the army. What army? I know. I know not only that it was the Union army, but I know even that it was McClellan's army. I remember now the Doctor's telling me about movements that McClellan would make. These things happened in McClellan's army while I was a spy. To suppose that the Doctor was my ally comports with his giving me information of McClellan's movements. He was a surgeon, and, of course, a Confederate; he certainly was from Charleston, and must have been a Confederate. But, on the other hand, I remember clearly his great hostility to slavery, and his hostility, no less great, to war. From this it seems that he could not have been a Confederate.