“'I am greatly surprised at you, sir,' said the Doctor. 'I thought you were one of our truest men?'
“'So I am,' responded the Captain. 'But, Doctor, we had better not discuss this matter further. I shall obey my orders; but please excuse me from anything more than to do so in the direction of which you were speaking.'
“During this discussion Jackson had remained silent. The Doctor, turning to him, said:
“'Mr. Jackson, what are your views on the subjects under discussion?'
“To this Jackson replied that, being unacquainted with the usages of war, he was not competent to decide, but he thought while all parties implicitly obey orders, he did not see that individual opinions cut very much of a figure in the operations of a great war.
“Thomlinson said that was the most sensible solution of the question; that he presumed there were a great many questions upon which we might all have very different shades of opinion.
“'But, Doctor,' said Jackson, 'there is a difficulty in my mind as to how you are to carry out your proposed plan.'
“'Not the slightest difficulty, sir. I have already made arrangements with all the smallpox hospitals of England, so that instead of destroying or burying in the ground the towels, sheets, covers, blankets, and under-clothing, they are all to be boxed up tightly and covered with clean blankets and sent to an out-of-the-way place which I have prepared.
“I am to pay for them on delivery. I have persons employed, all of whom have passed through the most malignant forms of the disease. They are collecting and having brought to this out-house those infected goods. When I have a sufficient quantity of them I shall purchase a large amount of material used by soldiers, such as handkerchiefs, stockings, underwear, sheets for hospitals, etc., mix them with the infected goods, box them up and ship them to the Sanitary Commission in New York by way of Canada for distribution to the Union Soldiers, post hospitals, and sanitariums. I shall go to the Charity Hospital Association here and get permission to send them in their name; in fact, I have the permission now. They, of course, do not know they are infected goods, but I have given them the list of goods I intend to purchase, and they will give me the letter I wish, turning the goods over to me as their agent to take them to New York and present them to the Sanitary Commission for the Union armies. I have given to them the name of James Churchill, of London.'
“'But, Doctor, how will you take them on board ship without danger to the people on the vessel?'