Isabey rose to his feet, and the words burst from him without his volition. “Mrs. Neville Tremaine!” he said.
“Yes,” replied General Farrington briefly. Isabey sat down again.
“It is a most infamous lie—!” he began, and then stopped. His head was in a whirl. He longed to knock down his commanding officer so coolly voicing this odious charge against the woman Isabey loved and respected above all women in the world.
“Mind you,” said General Farrington, still quietly, “I am not fully committed to the belief in Mrs. Neville Tremaine’s guilt. I am, however, inclined to think that she is used as an unconscious tool by unprincipled persons. She is in constant communication with her husband—that I know—and I believe that through her information leaks out which is extremely dangerous to us. I have talked with Colonel Gratiot since his exchange, and there is not the slightest doubt that some signaling was going on the night he was captured. It is significant that Mrs. Neville Tremaine was out of the way both times the Federals made an incursion by night upon Harrowby.”
“The first time,” replied Isabey coolly, “she was absent because she was assisting in my escape; but for her I should certainly have been captured.”
“Very likely, and I have considered that circumstance. But the night Colonel Gratiot was captured she was also not to be found. However, in these conflicting circumstances I determined to make a test myself. I wrote to Colonel Tremaine a fortnight ago, saying that I should spend last night at Harrowby, and contrived to get the note to him through reliable hands. Of course I never had the slightest intention of going, and to-night I received information that last night a Federal gunboat came up the river again, landed a force with much secrecy and dispatch, and would certainly have got me if I had been there. That settled it as far as Mrs. Neville Tremaine is concerned.”
“But it is probable that everyone on the plantation, black and white, knew that you were expected,” replied Isabey, still composed and self-controlled.
“That is true, and I can’t arrest everybody, black and white, on the plantation. Whether Mrs. Neville Tremaine is giving information to the enemy or not I am not prepared to say, but I think that prudence imperatively demands that—that—” General Farrington got up and walked up and down the narrow room, came back again, and then, looking Isabey full in the eye, he said “—that Mrs. Neville Tremaine be quietly arrested and sent into the enemy’s lines; and it is you whom I desire to do this.”
“I of all men in the world! My relatives have received the hospitality of the Harrowby family for more than a year. There is no woman on earth whom I respect so much as I do Mrs. Neville Tremaine.” Isabey stopped, conscious that the words and his tone had revealed something. One look into General Farrington’s keen eyes showed that he understood the full meaning of the admission.
“No doubt it would be a most painful duty to you, but it is equally painful to others. You are the third officer whom I have sent for this evening to do this piece of business, and each of the others asked me to reconsider. Then your name occurred to me. I wondered I had not thought of it before. You are peculiarly well situated to do it. You are, I believe, intimate with both of Colonel Tremaine’s sons, and you could readily make it appear that you have been designated merely to escort Mrs. Neville Tremaine within the Federal lines in order that she may join her husband. You have the tact and judgment to allay any suspicion which might arise in the minds of Colonel Tremaine and his family, and the fact that your relatives are guests at Harrowby would make it seem the most natural thing in the world that you should be the one chosen to escort Mrs. Neville Tremaine. You will approach the Federal lines under flag of truce, and everything possible will be done to make it appear that Mrs. Neville Tremaine is going of her own free will to her husband. But you must not forget, Captain Isabey, that you will be performing a military duty, and that Mrs. Neville Tremaine must be closely watched, and not the slightest opportunity given her to communicate with the enemy until she is safely within their lines.”