Horace Townsend and Margaret Hayley--A strange Rencontre in the Parlor--Another Rencontre, equally strange but less pleasant--How Clara Vanderlyn faded away from the Mountains--And how the Comanche Rider "played baby" and disappeared 370 CHAPTER XIX. A strange Character at breakfast--"The Rambler," and his Antecedents--What Horace Townsend heard about Fate--Going up to Pic-nic on Mount Willard--The Plateau, the Rope and the Swing--Spreading the Banquet--The dinner-call and a cry which answered it--A fearful situation. 392 CHAPTER XX. Suspense in danger, in two Senses--Horace Townsend with a Swing-rope--An invitation to Captain Hector Coles--A fearful piece of Amateur Gymnastics--Going down into the Schute--Success or Failure?--The event, and Margaret Hayley's madness--Two unfortunate Declarations 410 CHAPTER XXI. The bearer of a Disgraced Name in England--A strange Quest and a strange Unrest--Hurrying over to Ireland--Too late for the Packet--The little Despatch-steamer--Henry Fitzmaurice, the journalist--The peril of the Emerald, and the end of all Quests save one 432 CHAPTER XXII. Pleasanton's advance on Culpeper--Crossing the Rappahannock--The fight and the calamity of Rawson's Cross-Roads--Taking of Culpeper--Pleasanton's Volunteer Aide--Townsend versus Coles--The meeting of Two who loved each other--And the Little Ride they took together 452 CHAPTER XXIII. Once more at West Philadelphia--September and Change--Last glimpses of Kitty Hood and Dick Compton--Robert Brand and his invited Guest--The news of Death--Old Elspeth Graeme as a Seeress--The dispatch from Alexandria--The Quest of Brand and Margaret Hayley 478 CHAPTER XXIV. In the Hospital at Alexandria--The wounded Man and his Nurse--Who was Horace Townsend?--A Mystery explained--How Eleanor Hill went back to Dr. Pomeroy's--One word more of the Comanche Rider--Conclusion 490 THE COWARD. CHAPTER I. A JUNE MORNING OF EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THREE--GLIMPSES OF WEST PHILADELPHIA--THE DAYS BEFORE GETTYSBURG--THE TWO ON THE PIAZZA--MARGARET HAYLEY AND ELSIE BRAND--AN EMBRACE AND A DIFFERENCE--FORESHADOWINGS OF CARLTON BRAND, BROTHER AND LOVER.