"Yes, and the nigger too. It's Miss Salome Poillon, and she lives at S---- plantation, across the river," was the answer. "Then she is a resident here, and there is no danger of their being spies?" put in the cautious one. "Lord, no! Why, she's the biggest Rebel 'round. So's all the family, an' she's got a Rebel lover," replied my champion emphatically, adding the last fact as if it were a clincher. That settled it, and the two officers then came over to the carriage and told me I was at liberty to go on, and regretted that they had been obliged to stop me at all. I thanked them, and asked if I would have much difficulty in getting through. "I am afraid so," replied the one who had first met me. "This is your most direct route, is it not?" asked the older officer, on whom the rest of the conversation devolved. "It is much the nearest way," I replied. "It leads directly on, near where a considerable body of our troops are, yet I think it will be safer for you to keep it than to try side roads, where you would be constantly stopped. I will give you a note to the general in command, and a pass, which will aid you until you reach him. He will likely give you an escort for some distance," he added, writing as he spoke. When he handed me the papers, I asked him about the positions of the Yankees, and in answering he told me also something new about how Luce's army was located, which was one of the clues that I wanted to learn. I had no idea of using the papers unless I should fail in all efforts to find Captain DeLacy. I told Ned not to refer to them in any way or to our encounter, while he should be separated from me, and impressed on him that he was not to get out of the buggy if he could help it, or leave the horses one moment unless dragged away by force. I regretted that we had run into the camp, for it took valuable time, and it did not make me feel any better about it to know that it had happened through my own carelessness. If I had been watching out, as I ought to have been, I would have noticed the fires in time to have avoided them by making a detour, and I believed that I could have gotten later the valuable bit of information the talkative officer had given me. CHAPTER XI. The encounter had one good result, however. It got us over our stage fright, as it were, and rather raised us up to the grand climax. We had driven nearly three miles farther before we ran into the Rebel camp again. When we finally found ourselves making our way under guard to General Dare's headquarters, we were far more composed than we could possibly have been had we not already had some experience.