"Late in November."
"Yes, I was one of them. I escaped from Richmond. Jack and young Perley got me out of the tobacco warehouse. We reached the Warrick after a hard week of marching and hiding, and the boys were alive and well when we reached the Union outpost. I was last to cross the bridge, and as I plunged into the thick bushes a bullet struck me, I knew no more until I found myself here. I had agents at Fort Monroe waiting for me. They probably forwarded me at once. But I don't understand how there can be any difficulty in tracing the two boys. Haven't they written?"
"Not a line, not a word concerning them has been heard. Mrs. Sprague sent agents so soon as the Herald paragraph was shown to Olympia. They are in Washington now on the quest. It was there we got track of you—before you were sent here,"'
"Why was I sent here?"
Kate was about to speak. Again the shadow of her first fear—again the dread of some malevolent purpose on her father's part—choked her speech.
"I—I—don't know," she faltered.
"Who came with me?"
"My father."
"Ah!" Jones's eyes were penetrating her now. She felt the questioning in them, and turned her face to the clinging folds of the veil.
"Miss Boone, you seem to be deeply interested in these boys. Are you really their friend?"