“Never in my life.”
“How do you know then where you are?” asked the mountaineer.
“Because the right way to avoid questions is to ask none. So I took care to know all about the road, and the country, and the place, before I left home.”
“And who told you all about it?”
“Suppose I should tell you,” answered the young man, “that Van Courtlandt had a map of the country made, and gave it to me.”
“I should say you were a traitor to him, or a spy upon us,” was the stern reply.
At the same moment, a startled hum was heard from the crowd, and the press moved and swayed for an instant, as if a sort of spasm had pervaded the whole mass.
“You are a good hand at questioning,” said the youth, with a smile, “but without asking a single question, I have found out all I wanted to know.”
“And what was that?” asked the other.
“Whether you were friends to the Yorkers and Yankees, or to poor old Virginia.”