"And you must remember that it was through your coöperation that my attention was first drawn to General Arnold."
"You suspected him before our conversation. You, yourself, heard it from his own lips in the garden."
"Peggy's letter which I found at her house?"
"Never!" was the slow response. "You know you returned it to me without comment."
He was puzzled. For he wondered how he had failed to acquaint her with so important an item.
"When you allowed me to take that letter you furnished me with my first clew."
She aroused herself and looked seriously at him.
"I?... Why.... I never read it. What did it contain? I had supposed it to be a personal letter."
"And so it was,--apparently. It proved to be a letter from one of Peggy's New York friends."
"Yes, Captain Cathcart. But it contained more. There was a cipher message."
"In cipher?" Then after a moment. "Did she know of it?"
"I am inclined to think that she did. Otherwise it would not have been directed to her."
This was news indeed. No longer did she recline against the seat of the canoe, but raised herself upright.
"My first reading of the note filled me with suspicion. Its tone was too impersonal. When I asked for it, I was impelled by the sole desire to study it the more carefully at my own leisure. That night I found certain markings over some of the letters. These I jotted down and rearranged until I had found the hidden message."
"It was directed to her, I presume, because of her friendship with the Military Governor; and carried the suggestion that His Excellency be interested in the proposed formation of the Regiment. From that moment my energies were directed to one sole end. I watched Arnold and those whom he was wont to entertain. Eventually the trail narrowed down to Peggy and Anderson."
She drew a deep breath, but said nothing.
"The night I played the spy in the park my theory was confirmed."
"Yes, you told me of that incident. It was not far from here."
She turned to search the distance behind her.
"No. Just down the shore behind his great house." He pointed with his finger in the direction of Mount Pleasant.
"And Peggy was a party to the conspiracy!" she exclaimed with an audible sigh.
"She exercised her influence over Arnold from the start. She and Anderson were in perfect accord."