Page:The woman in battle .djvu/480

428 At the appointed time, Colonel Baker made his appearance, and said " Good morning " with a pleasant smile, in which there was apparently not a shade of malice or unfriendliness.

After asking me how I had liked the play, and making a few other unimportant remarks, he said, " Well, my little woman, I have made up my mind to let you try your skill as a detective once more, if you are in the same mind you were yesterday."

"Yes," I replied, "I am just as anxious now as I was then, and I think I can not only find that spy for you, but that I can discover whether there really is any intention among the rebel prisoners to make a break."

"That is just what I want you to do. I think that a woman can manage a job of this kind better than a man anyhow, and I believe that you are just the woman to manage it in first-rate style."

"Thank you, colonel; I can at least try." "Yes, that's it; try and find out all you can. I want you to pick out this man for me if he is at Johnson's Island, as you seem to think he is, and if you succeed in finding him, telegraph to me immediately. If he is not at Johnson's Island, you had better try and find out if any of the prisoners know anything about him; it is possible, you know, that he may be in some other prison, or, indeed, that he may have escaped. At all events, make every effort to find him."

"You know, colonel, I am acquainted with a good many people down South, and I may come across somebody I know, or somebody that knows somebody I know, and by representing myself as a disguised Confederate, I may be able to get the prisoners to talk plainer than they would to a stranger or a new visitor."

"Well, I will leave it to you to manage the thing the best way you can think of. It would not be a bad idea, however, if you were to pass yourself off as a Confederate secret-service agent, and if you were to intimate that something was likely to be done soon to procure the release of the prisoners, you might be able to induce them to say whether they have any plans of their own, or whether they are in communication with any one outside."

"That is about my idea of working; but the only diffi-