Page:Milady at Arms (1937).pdf/103

 Her guard poked her in the side with the butt of his musket. "Forward!" he ordered roughly.

Sally faced the door and moved forward upon leaden feet. Her eyes were open and set and staring. But halfway across the room the heavy door into the hall was thrust violently open and a soldier stepped inside. "General Howe!" he bawled, and stood aside, petrified into immobility after he had presented arms.

The two men behind the table barely had time to exchange guilty glances when a fine-looking man in full-dress uniform, followed by a gay party of ladies and gentlemen, swept across the threshold. Sally, meeting the former face to face, stopped automatically until he had stepped around her, then continued upon her unseeing way to the door. Both Stockton and Cunningham saluted; and the marshal, assuming an air of delighted surprise, moved to meet his superior.

"How now. Marshal Cunningham!" greeted Howe, his keen glance taking in every detail of the scene. He stepped behind the table into Cunningham's place and nodded sharply. "Halt the maid!" he snapped.

The guard touched Sally upon the shoulder and she stopped.

"Ye were engaged wi' this girl?" asked the British general.

"She is a Newark maid, a servant i' a rebel fam-