He held her eyes with his own for a moment, then let them go. "Some day you will know," he said. She turned from him and held out her hands to Sir Charles. He hurried to her and she clung to him. "Take me away," she said in a whisper. "Take me home." He put his arm about her. "You are faint," he said tenderly. "Come! the air will revive you." Supporting her on his arm, he guided her from the house. As they passed the body stretched across the threshold, the skirt of her robe touched the blood in which it was lying. She saw it and shuddered. "Blood is upon me!" she said. "It is an omen!" "A good one, then," said her companion coolly, "for it is the blood of a fanatic traitor. Think not of it." He turned at the threshold and cast a careless glance back into the tobacco house. "Woodson, get rid of this carrion, and bring these men quietly to the great house, where your master will deal with them." *CHAPTER XXIII* *THE QUESTION* "We know all but two things, but those are the most important of all," said the Governor, tapping his jeweled fingers against the table. "It is much to be regretted," said the Surveyor-General, "that the presence of the young lady was so soon discovered. Otherwise—" "Otherwise we might have had further information on more than one subject," said the Governor dryly. "We must make the best of what we have," continued Carrington calmly. "After all, it is enough." The Governor rose and began to pace the floor, his head thoughtfully bent, his unwounded hand tugging at the curls of his periwig. "It is not enough," he said at length, pausing before the great table around which the company were seated. "Thanks to the gallant daughter of the gallant Verneys,"—a bow and smile to Patricia, sitting enthroned in the great chair in their midst,—"we know much, but it is not enough. These rogues have set a day upon which to rise; they have appointed a place to which they are to resort. That day may be to-morrow, that place any point in any one of a dozen counties." "I apprehend that the cockatrice was to be hatched near by," said Sir Charles. "It is the likeliest thing," answered the Governor, "seeing that their ringleader belongs to this plantation. But we do not know. And there may not be time to reach the planters, to give them warning, to arrest these d—d traitors, scattered as they are from the James to Rappahannock, and from Henricus to the Chesapeake. It might be best to assemble the trainbands at this cursed spot if it can be found, and to await their coming in force. But to know neither time nor place—to start a hue and cry and have the storm burst before it reaches ten plantations—to guard one point and see fire rise at another a dozen leagues away—impossible! Gentlemen, we must come at the heart of this matter!" "It is most advisable," said Colonel Verney gravely. "Examine the prisoners again," suggested Sir Charles.