“Were you ever drunk and disorderly, Lieutenant Castner?” I asked. “If so, you may have had to borrow a suit of clothes yourself before now. And possibly the loan of a friend’s room to sober up in. And after such an experience, I dare say you would not care to be recognized by your friend’s friend in the morning when you were making your escape.” “Then they were your clothes?” persisted Castner, laughing now with me. “You asked me if he came naked: he did not, but he might have gone that way, but for my generosity. Are you quite satisfied, Mr. Castner?” “I am obliged to be,” he said musingly. “Oh, no,” I said. “You may go up to my room and see the gentleman’s castoff clothes, if you wish--though they are not over-pretty to look at. In fact you may have everything but his name, which I feel in duty bound not to disclose. If I hint that he is a near relative of--” “I beg your pardon,” said the lieutenant, almost shamefacedly, I thought; and then I took my turn at him. It is always well, when you have your enemy on the run, to press him closely lest he turn on you like the Parthians of old. “How close were you behind us last night, when we came in, Lieutenant?--and how long did you have to listen at my door to have your suspicions aroused?” He pushed his chair back, and tried to laugh it off, but I would not let him go. “No, you must not laugh,” I said soberly. “I am not over-quarrelsome, I think, nor do I make too little of your many kindnesses to me. But you can add greatly to my obligations, Mr. Castner, if you will remember that there are gentlemen in Virginia as well as in the king’s army.” By this time he was apologizing in good earnest, and when he had gone far enough to be quite out of sight and hearing of the danger point, I forgave him most magnanimously, and drew my first real breath of assurance. His breakfast finished, Castner would not stay to smoke a pipe with me before the fire. His reason for haste added nothing to my comfort. He told me that Major Simcoe was expected from the fleet, and that he must go to the landing-place to meet him on Sir Henry Clinton’s behalf. This set me to thinking of how I might best throw up a hasty shelter against the storm the major’s coming would doubtless raise in my quarter of the heavens. By all the military canons I should presently have to go and present my duty to Arnold, and I thought it would be well to do this before Major Simcoe could precede me. Though as for this, I was like a hound in leash, with only so far to run before the cord should choke me, anyway.