“Your black list?”
“Yes, already mostly made out for operations. But what is there to startle you in that?”
“Nothing; and yet I cannot forbear asking if that list includes one in whose family you may guess I feel some interest.”
“I fear so, and regret that the proofs are so strong as to require it.”
“Could not action in that case be deferred? An angel is pleading with him to remain neutral.”
“If she were a whig angel, Woodburn, I know not——”
“She is, she is—firmly, devotedly.”
“Indeed! Well, for your sake, Woodburn, I am glad of it. And as the political hue of petticoats has already been permitted to have an influence, in some instances of the kind, in making up the list, it may have in this case. But the old man's enmity to our cause is so notorious, that I fear his estate must go, though the daughter, if she prove true, will not be forgotten on the question of a future restoration of her share of the property. But I am neglecting my chief business with you. We have fixed your present destination for the other side of the mountain, where among your old acquaintances, it was thought, you could raise a company most expeditiously.”
“But where is the money to come from to pay my recruits: Even in case these estates are sold, who among us, these times, has money to purchase them?”
“The answer to that question involves a secret which is known to but a few of us, and which must not be further revealed. Suffice it that there is yet among us abundance of money, besides the British gold that is beginning to be scattered along our border to meet our present requirements. You will be supplied in season.”