Page:The woman in battle .djvu/577

Rh smiled, and said, "So am I. I intended to have his body, dead or alive, or a mighty good substitute for it, for no common criminal is worth the reward."

This was a very queer expression, and it set me to thinking, and to studying certain phases of Baker's character more closely than I had ever done before.

The colonel and his friend then left. I was to have until nine o'clock the next morning to decide whether I would undertake the business he desired me to or not. The next morning, before Baker came, I received my mail, and in it a letter from my brother, who expected to be in New York in a few days with his wife and child. He proposed that, as we were the sole remnants of our family, we should continue with each other in the future, and intimating that, considering the present distracted state of the country, it would, perhaps, be best for us to go to Europe for a time, until things quieted down somewhat.

This letter decided me upon what course to pursue, and I determined to accept the commission from Baker, thinking by so doing I would more effectually prevent any of his detectives discovering my identity, while so soon as my brother and his family arrived, we would proceed across the Atlantic without further delay, and remain there until the time should come when no one would have any object in troubling us.

The army of Joe Johnston, like that of Lee, had been surrendered, and it was evident to me that the war was practically at an end, although I thought it not impossible that it might be prolonged in a desultory manner for some time yet in the West and South-west. I could plainly see, however, that further fighting would do no good, and that the Confederate cause being lost, my mission in connection with it was at an end, and my sole duty now was to consider my own welfare and that of my family.

All the bright dreams of four years ago had vanished into nothingness, and yet I could not regret having played the part I did. I loved the South and its people with a greater intensity than ever, while at the same time many of my prejudices against the North had been beaten down by my intercourse with its people during the past eighteen months. There were good and bad in both sections, and I believed that