“I believe that’s his name,” said Arrelsford.
“And you suspect him of something?”
Mr. Arrelsford lowered his voice still further and assumed an air of great importance.
“We don’t merely suspect him; we know what he has done.”
“And what has he done, sir?”
“He has been down to Libby Prison under pretence of selling things to the Yankees we’ve got in there, and he now has on his person a written communication from one of them which he intends to deliver to some Yankee spy or agent, here in Richmond.”
Mrs. Varney gasped in astonishment at this tremendous charge, which was made in Arrelsford’s most impressive manner.
“I don’t believe it,” she said at last. “He has been in the family for years; he wouldn’t dare.”
Arrelsford shook his head.
“I am afraid it is true,” he said.