“But do you not see, Mistress Peggy, that your refusal to disclose the name of the person places you under suspicion?”
“I am a patriot,” she asserted, pleadingly, “loyal and true to my country. I have ever striven to do what I could.”
“Yes; but by your own confession you have given a note to this man, who says that ’tis this very one. We have only your word that ’tis not so. Then, too, you were alone when the warning note was found. It was not soiled nor trampled upon as it would have been had it lain there long. Child, you place yourself under suspicion.”
“’Tis a cruel necessity of war to use spies,” he went on, “but all armies show them small mercy when they are caught. And it should be so. The man, woman, or girl even, acting as one does so at the risk of life.”
Peggy started. He had used almost the same words that John Drayton had used the day they had seen the swinging body of the spy. A shudder shook her. Again she saw the swaying form dangling from the tree. Small mercy was shown a spy. Could she condemn Harriet to such a fate? Beautiful Harriet with her wonderful eyes!
“Friend Washington,” she cried brokenly, “thee does not believe that I would injure thee, or my country, does thee?”
“What am I to think, Miss Peggy?” he asked, ignoring her outstretched hands.
“Give me a little time,” she cried. “Only a little time. Oh, I am sore beset. I know not what to do.”
“Child,” he said with compassion, “I am thinking of a time when a young girl came to me through winter’s snow and cold to plead for the life of her father. Do you remember what she said when I told her that I could not exchange a spy for him, valiant though the deeds of that father had been? She said, ‘I know that thee must refuse me. Thee would be false to thy trust were thee to do otherwise.’ Hath my little maiden whose answer so warmed my heart with its patriotism that I have never forgotten it, changed so that now she shields a spy? I cannot believe it.”
“Thee presses me so hard,” she cried wringing her hands. “Let me have a little time, I entreat thee. It could not matter to let me have until to-morrow. Just until to-morrow, Friend Washington.”
He gazed at her thoughtfully. Her anguish was so apparent that none could help being touched. That there was much behind it all was very evident, and so presently he said: