“You did not tell him?” cried Harriet, as though she could not believe her ears. “Why, Peggy Owen, how could you get out of it? He would believe that you were the guilty one if you did not.” “So he told me, Harriet. But I had promised thee; and then, and then, though thee does not deserve it, I could not help but think of that spy we saw—— But, Harriet, I asked him to give me a little time, and I thought that I would ask thee to return my promise, because I cannot submit to rest under the implication of having tried to injure General Washington. Thee must give me back my word, my cousin.” “And if I do not?” asked Harriet anxiously. “I am going to father with the whole matter. I shall do that anyway. The general claims that I was tricked, and I was, most shamefully. That letter was not the one that thee let me read. And the letter telling of the attack was thine. I see it all—why thee rode ahead to warn the governor and the garrison, and everything. The time has come, Harriet, when thou shalt tell me why thou hast come here to act as a spy. Why hast thou used us, thy kinspeople, to mask such plots as thou hast been in against our own friends? Have we used thee unkindly? Or discourteously? Why should thee treat us so, my cousin?” [Illustration: “WHY SHOULD THEE PLAY THE SPY?”] “I did not mean to, Peggy,” returned Harriet with her old manner of affection. “Do you not remember that I said this morning that I was sorry that I let you send it? And I am. I am. But John Drayton was to be with us, and he watched me so that I feared that he would see me. Truly, I am sorry, Peggy.” She spoke with evident sincerity so that Peggy believed her. “Harriet,” she said, “tell me why thou hast done this? Why should thee play the spy?” Harriet shivered at the word. “I am cold,” she said. “Let us get into bed, Peggy. I am cold.” Without a word of protest Peggy helped her to undress, but she herself climbed into the four-poster without disrobing. Harriet pulled the many colored counterpanes about her and snuggled down into the thick feather bed. “Peggy,” she said presently, “I know ’tis thought most indelicate for a female to engage in such enterprise as spying, but would you not take any risk for your country if you thought it would benefit her?” “Yes,” assented her cousin. “I would.” “That and one other thing is the reason that I have become one,” said Harriet. “We English believe that you Americans are wrong about the war. We are loyal to our king, and fight to keep the colonies which rightfully belong to him. I came with my brother, Clifford, over here, and both of us were full of enthusiasm for His Majesty. We determined to do anything that would help him to put down the rebellion, and so believing offered our services to Sir Henry Clinton.