It was late in the afternoon when Mark was challenged by the outposts of the Confederate army. He stated that he was a courier from Missouri, with important dispatches for General Hindman, and demanded that he be conducted to headquarters at once. It was dark before headquarters were reached, but Mark was granted an immediate audience with the General.
"What is your name?" asked the General, as Mark handed him the dispatches.
"Grafton—Mark Grafton."
"I was expecting dispatches, important ones, but from another source. I wonder what these can be?"
He opened them and, glancing at them, exclaimed: "Why, these are the very dispatches I was looking for! I expected them to be delivered by a man named Dupont. How did you come by them?"
"Dupont is dead," replied Mark, solemnly.
"Dupont dead! Great God! How did he die? Was he captured?"
"No." Mark told the full particulars of Dupont's death, and how in his dying moments he had committed the dispatches to him.
"Poor Dupont!" sighed Hindman. "He was my most trusted spy, and he died in the discharge of his duty."
Then, scrutinizing Mark closely, he said: "You have made good time in coming from Chittenden's. Have any trouble?"