Hamilton nodded slowly.
“You have put your finger most accurately on the binding strand in the miserable knot. If the chief traitor could be apprehended and brought to justice, it would not only stay the epidemic of desertion, it might also convince Sir Henry that we are not to be treated as rebels beyond the pale of honest warfare.”
“Truly,” I agreed. “I wonder it hasn’t been done before this.”
“It has been tried, Captain Page. Let me tell you a thing that is thus far known only to our general, to Major Lee and myself. You have heard of the desertion of a certain sergeant from our army?”
I bowed, saying that I had and knew the man’s name.
“This sergeant posed as a deserter only for the better concealment of his purpose; he went upon this very errand we are speaking of. He is in New York now, and is not only unable to accomplish his object, but is in hourly danger of apprehension and death as a spy.”
“Pardon me, Colonel Hamilton,” I broke in, “but you should not have sent, as they say, a boy to mill. This man would be helpless if only for the reason that he comes from the ranks. Arnold was always a stickler for the state and grandeur of his office; a common soldier could never get near enough to plot against him.”
“Again you have touched upon the heart of the matter, Captain Page. The commander-in-chief suffered the sergeant to go in the first instance (he volunteered for the enterprise, you understand) because he was only a sergeant, and it was not thought to be an errand upon which a commissioned officer could honorably go. But now the affair is all in confusion. The enterprise promises to fail, and our man may easily lose his life on the gallows.”
I rose to terminate the interview.
“Are there any special instructions for me, Colonel Hamilton?” I asked.