"Because for the first time you made me see things as you see them—I got a glimpse of the inside——"
"Then I won you—didn't I?" the President cried with elation. "I've been talking to you just to keep my courage up—just to save my own soul from the hell of despair. But you've lifted me up. If I can win you I can win the others if I could only get their ear. All I need is a little time. And I'm going to fight for it. Every act of my life in this great office will stand the test of time because I've put my immortal soul into the struggle without one thought of saving myself.
"I've told you the truth, and the truth has turned a murderer into my friend. If only the people can know—can have time to think, I'll win. You thought me an ambitious tyrant—now, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"Great God!—I had my ambitions, yes—as every American boy worth his salt has. And I dared to dream this vision of the White House—I, the humblest of the humble, born in a lowly pioneer's cabin in the woods of Kentucky. My dream came true, and where is its glory? Ashes and blood. And I, to whom the sight of blood is an agony unendurable, have lived with aching heart through it all and envied the dead their rest on your battlefields——"
He stopped suddenly and fixed John with a keen look:
"You'll stand by me, now, boy, through thick and thin?"
"I'd count it an honor to die for you——"
"All right. I give you the chance. I'm going to send you on a dangerous mission. I need but two things to sweep the country in this election and preserve the Union—a single big victory in the field to lift the people out of the dumps and make them see things as they are, and a declaration from Mr. Davis that there can be no peace save in division. I know that he holds that position, but the people in the North doubt it. I've sent Jaquess and Gilmore there to obtain his declaration. Technically they are spies. They may be executed or imprisoned and held to the end of the war. They go as private citizens of the North who desire peace.
"I want another man in Richmond whose identity will be unknown to report the results of that meeting in case they are imprisoned. You must go as a spy at the double risk of your life——"