It was dreary waiting in the stuffy room. Miss Metoaca, who had resigned herself to the inevitable after her recent explosion, was busy knitting a talma, a round cape which, like Penelope's web, seemed to the uninitiated to have no beginning and no end. She always carried it with her in a voluminous pocket as she hated to be idle. Nancy, busy with her own thoughts, sat gazing abstractedly at the dingy wall. The tread of the sentries could be distinctly heard as they tramped back and forth before the windows and door. The sergeant and Symonds sat by the entrance, watching their prisoners closely. The piercing shriek of a locomotive broke the stillness, and soon with a grinding of brakes the special train came to a standstill in front of the depot. Symonds and Lieutenant Field, of the Provost Guard, met Lloyd as he jumped to the platform.
"Miss Newton and her niece are in the waiting room, Captain Lloyd," reported the lieutenant, "under guard. Their luggage is in the station master's room awaiting your inspection."
"Good!" Lloyd's tone of satisfaction made Goddard's blood boil. Lloyd turned to his silent friend, and held out his hand. "How are you, Bob?"
Goddard ignored the outstretched hand and the cordial greeting.
"What do you mean by this high-handed outrage, Captain Lloyd?" he demanded bitterly.
Lloyd's eyes flashed. "Do not stretch my friendship too far, Bob. Your apparent infatuation for that rebel spy"—Goddard winced perceptibly, and his color heightened—"blinds your judgment. I give you fair warning, sir, that if you interfere in any way in this affair you will be placed in close arrest."
Without a word Goddard turned on his heel and walked to the further end of the platform. Lloyd returned to the car, and joined two women who stood waiting patiently by its side.
"This way, Miss Watt," and followed by both women he led the way to the waiting room. Lieutenant Field threw open the door.
"Captain Lloyd," he announced.
Miss Metoaca's busy fingers stopped and she surveyed the newcomer from head to foot, but Nancy never turned in his direction.