“Ah, Miss Imogene,” cried Val contritely, “’Twould give me joy—but I should as soon believe Mr. Davis a traitor as you.”
Dorothea, suddenly conscious of some one staring at her, raised her eyes to find April’s gaze fixed on the red velvet ribbon around her wrist, but at the same moment she noticed with a start of surprise that her beautiful cousin wore a thin red girdle about her waist.
CHAPTER VII
THE BAYING OF THE HOUNDS
For a moment or two Dorothea lost all track of the animated conversation on all sides of her, then she became aware that the company were getting up from the table.
“I do hope,” she heard Mrs. May saying, “that we are not going to begin to see spies wherever we look. All this silly talk of Red Strings is the product of some one’s imagination. I don’t believe there is any such society. It’s absurd.”
“I shall not cease to wear a red band about my throat, yet,” Miss Imogene remarked lightly.
“Of course it’s foolish to think that everybody who wears a red ribbon is a Red String,” Hal laughed; “but all the same there is such an organization.”
That seemed to end the matter for the time being. The whole gay party assembled in the great parlors and presently, one after another, near neighbors began to drop in. Among these was a Colonel Ransome of the Confederate Army and he brought news of another prisoner escaped from Andersonville.
“They say the fellow is working north through Georgia,” he ended. “They sent me word to be on the lookout for him, so you boys can keep your eyes open.”