"I don't care for the old Council," flashed Sally through her tears. "'Tis that Peggy's cousin thinks that I betrayed him. I thought he was up attic, and he wasn't. I told Peggy to tell him to go there, but she did not hear me. Thee knows my fault, Mrs. Owen," she wailed in an agony of self-reproach. "Thee knows just how froward and saucy I can be, and I was just that way with the sheriff, and--and pert. He spoke of the closet, showing that he knew of it, and I was so sure that Clifford was up attic that I asked the sheriff if I should open the door for him. I did, and there was Clifford," she ended with a fresh burst of tears. "I know just how you feel," interposed Nurse Johnson sympathetically. "And so the prisoner was Clifford? Well, I am sorry that he was taken. Tell us all about it, Peggy." "Yes, lass," spoke David Owen. "Calm thyself as soon as may be, and let me know the matter in detail. I must know all concerning it." Mr. Owen spoke gravely. Well he knew what the feeling was toward those who assisted prisoners of war in escaping. Aiding or abetting the enemy in any way was not tolerated, either in the city or the country at large. The systematic cruelties practiced toward the American prisoners both in the dreadful prison ships and the jails, the barbarities perpetrated toward their countrymen in the South, the harassing of the coasts, the raids of the refugees, the capture of their merchantmen by British privateers; all these things and many others served to keep the hearts of Americans inflamed with rancor toward the English. They were not disposed to overlook any indulgence displayed toward such an enemy. Presently Peggy had so far recovered her usual composure that she was able to relate succinctly all that had occurred. Her father listened attentively. "Why did thee not come to me for aid, lass?" he asked when she had finished the recital. "Why, father, 'twould go hard with thee were it to become known that thee had given aid to a prisoner," answered Peggy. "I wished to keep thee clear of it. Then, too, thee might have deemed it duty to give up my cousin, and I could not bear that; yet I should want thee to do what was right." "I think I understand, lass," he said, "'Twas most ingenious to think of having him come to the door as Sally's escort. I knew not that thou hadst so much of daring in thee to originate such a plan." Peggy flushed scarlet at this. She had suppressed all mention of Fairfax's connection with the matter, wishing not to implicate him. So she stared at her father in an embarrassed silence, uneasy at the praise she did not merit. "But why was he not discovered?" went on David Owen musingly. "The room was searched twice. By the way," turning suddenly toward Fairfax Johnson, "captain, was it not thee who went up there first?"