“Then I may go on and tell you where we stand. You know very well, Captain Page, the ill effects of Arnold’s treason and desertion; how the infection is spreading in the rank and file.” I said that I did know. “This infection is like the plague; it must be stamped out at any cost,” he declared, and the deep-welled eyes flashed angrily. “It is a double evil, sapping the honor of our army on the one hand, and bringing us into contempt with the enemy on the other. The remedy must be a sharp lesson, no less to Sir Henry Clinton than to the traitors. Do you see any way in which it can be administered, Captain Page?” “If you could once lay hands on Benedict Arnold,” I suggested. Hamilton nodded slowly. “You have put your finger most accurately on the binding strand in the miserable knot. If the chief traitor could be apprehended and brought to justice, it would not only stay the epidemic of desertion, it might also convince Sir Henry that we are not to be treated as rebels beyond the pale of honest warfare.” “Truly,” I agreed. “I wonder it hasn’t been done before this.” “It has been tried, Captain Page. Let me tell you a thing that is thus far known only to our general, to Major Lee and myself. You have heard of the desertion of a certain sergeant from our army?” I bowed, saying that I had and knew the man’s name. “This sergeant posed as a deserter only for the better concealment of his purpose; he went upon this very errand we are speaking of. He is in New York now, and is not only unable to accomplish his object, but is in hourly danger of apprehension and death as a spy.” “Pardon me, Colonel Hamilton,” I broke in, “but you should not have sent, as they say, a boy to mill. This man would be helpless if only for the reason that he comes from the ranks. Arnold was always a stickler for the state and grandeur of his office; a common soldier could never get near enough to plot against him.” “Again you have touched upon the heart of the matter, Captain Page. The commander-in-chief suffered the sergeant to go in the first instance (he volunteered for the enterprise, you understand) because he was only a sergeant, and it was not thought to be an errand upon which a commissioned officer could honorably go. But now the affair is all in confusion. The enterprise promises to fail, and our man may easily lose his life on the gallows.” I rose to terminate the interview. “Are there any special instructions for me, Colonel Hamilton?” I asked. The general’s aide laughed like a pleased child and bade me sit down again. “What a hot-headed firebrand you are, to be sure, Captain!” he said warmly. “I was certain you would not fail us. Have you no curiosity to learn how the choice fell upon you?” “None whatever,” I replied. “I’m vastly fonder of action than of the whys and wherefores.”