‘Found a sentry alongside your boat!’ repeated General Shields. ‘I thought you had moored it well above the line.’ ‘So I thought myself, sir,’ answered Hopkins; ‘but evidently I was in error, for there the sentry was.’ ‘But you had the word,’ said Shields in a puzzled voice. ‘Of course, sir; but I’m afraid I behaved rather foolishly, for, having an idea that all was not right, I gave the wrong word, and that made the fellow so suspicious of me, that even when I gave him the right word afterwards, he would have none of me.’ ‘You might have explained your business, then,’ suggested the general, ‘rather than have incurred this aggravating delay.’ ‘That is just what I did sir,’ protested Hopkins. ‘I even went the length of showing him the despatch, and when he seized it’—— ‘What!’ vociferated the general. ‘Do you mean to say that the despatch is no longer in your possession?’ ‘Hear me out, sir,’ said Hopkins uncomfortably, for he felt that at the very best he made a ridiculous appearance in the affair. ‘I merely held the despatch before his eyes, when he instantly seized it and declared that it must be a bogus document, and I myself a rebel spy.’ ‘Then why did you not recover the document by force?’ demanded the general sternly. ‘He had already disarmed me, sir. I was completely at the mercy of his bayonet.’ ‘Well, well,’ muttered the general irritably. ‘Go on.’ ‘He was for detaining me until the arrival of the rounds; but I gave him my word that I was not a rebel spy, and, with great reluctance, he at last permitted me to depart to obtain evidence of my identity.’ ‘Retaining the document,’ mused General Shields. ‘Why did you not appeal to some of the sentries higher up?’ ‘You forget, sir, they imagined themselves driven in, and had all returned to the camp.’ ‘Then why had this fellow not followed their example?’ inquired General Shields sharply. ‘I asked him the same question, sir, and his reply was that there he had been placed, and there he meant to stay.’ General Shields reflected. ‘I will go with you myself, captain,’ he said at last. ‘You have either been dealing with a very staunch soldier, or a most accomplished rogue. Pray Heaven you have not been fooled in this business.’ ‘Oh, I should say not,’ answered Hopkins confidently. ‘The fellow was staunch, as you say, and a bit pig-headed—indeed you might call it thick-headed—but he was not fooling me.’ ‘We shall see,’ answered the general drily. ‘It is an awkward business, very.—Major Wheeler,’ he added, turning to a staff officer, who stood close beside him, ‘order a corporal and ten men to follow me, fifty paces in the rear.—Now, Captain Hopkins.’ They walked rapidly across the fields, followed by the corporal and his men, and as they neared the river belt the general said: ‘You are sure you can go straight to the place?’ ‘Certain, sir,’ was the reply. ‘See, here is where I broke cover on my way back. We have only to follow the trail I made as I ran.’