Nash nodded. “I have denied nothing,” he said. “Miss Breen’s statements are perfectly correct.”

In a puzzled way he waited for her to continue.

“Several days ago Mr. Nash saved my life,” the girl resumed. “It was then, half crazed by what I had gone through, that I confessed everything to him. I told him who I was, and what I had done.”

“That was before his arrest?” leaped to Sigsbee’s lips.

“Yes, before his arrest.”

Sigsbee shrugged. “It’s a wonder, carried away by your feelings for this man, that you didn’t urge him to escape,” he said.

“That is exactly what I did do, Mr. Sigsbee.

The politician stared. “You—you tried to——”

“I told him the truth, and urged him to get away before he was arrested. Not only then did I plead with him, but I went into camp an hour before his arrest and begged him to leave.”

“What prevented him from doing so?” asked the president.