“As little as may be, and I might say that I don’t care to know more.”
“Then my task is the easier,” I said. “I had the honor of knowing the general’s wife when she was Mistress Margaret Shippen, of Philadelphia. I may tell you, without breaching her confidence, or the general’s, that I was entrusted with a message for her last night. She gave me no answer at the time; but later, learning, possibly, of the change in the sailing orders, it is not beyond belief that she would wish to communicate again with her husband, is it?”
“I suppose not,” he agreed. “But are you trying to tell me that Mistress Arnold’s messenger came naked, and had to borrow your clothes to return in?”
I laughed heartily at this.
“Were you ever drunk and disorderly, Lieutenant Castner?” I asked. “If so, you may have had to borrow a suit of clothes yourself before now. And possibly the loan of a friend’s room to sober up in. And after such an experience, I dare say you would not care to be recognized by your friend’s friend in the morning when you were making your escape.”
“Then they were your clothes?” persisted Castner, laughing now with me.
“You asked me if he came naked: he did not, but he might have gone that way, but for my generosity. Are you quite satisfied, Mr. Castner?”
“I am obliged to be,” he said musingly.
“Oh, no,” I said. “You may go up to my room and see the gentleman’s castoff clothes, if you wish—though they are not over-pretty to look at. In fact you may have everything but his name, which I feel in duty bound not to disclose. If I hint that he is a near relative of—”
“I beg your pardon,” said the lieutenant, almost shamefacedly, I thought; and then I took my turn at him. It is always well, when you have your enemy on the run, to press him closely lest he turn on you like the Parthians of old.