"I'm not certain that a vizier is a sheikh." "Nor am I, but I'm certain that I want to go home and go to bed. Vikings of the land like ourselves can't stand much luxury. It weakens the tissues, made strong on the march and in the fields." They left the grounds silently and unobserved and soon were in their own quarters, where they slept nearly the whole day. Then they spent three or four days more in the social affairs which were such a keen pleasure to them after such a long deprivation. But wherever they went, and they were in demand everywhere, Harry was always looking for somebody, a man, tall, heavy and broad shouldered, not a man who would come into a room where he was, or who would join a company of people that he had joined, but one who would hang upon the outskirts, and hide behind the corners of buildings or trees. He did not see the shadow, but once or twice he felt that it was there. The officer, Bathurst, told him one night that some important papers had been stolen from the White House of the Confederacy itself. "They pertain to our army," said Bathurst, "and they will be of value to the enemy, if they reach him." "I'm quite certain that the most daring and dangerous of all northern spies is in Richmond," said Harry. Then he told Bathurst of Shepard and of the trails that he had seen among the pines behind Curtis's house. "Do you think this man got our map?" asked Bathurst. "It may have been so. Perhaps he was hidden in the court and when he saw us go out, leaving the map on the table, he slipped in at the window and seized it." "But the court was enclosed. He would have had to go with the paper through the house itself." "That's where my theory fails. I can provide for his taking the paper, but I can't provide for his escape." "I'll tell the General about it. I think you're right, Harry. I've heard of Shepard myself, and he's worth ten thousand men to the Yankees. It's more than that. At such a critical stage of our affairs he might ruin us. We'll make a general search for him. We'll rake the city with a fine tooth comb." The search was made everywhere. Soldiers pried in every possible place, but they found nobody who could not give an adequate account of his presence in Richmond. Harry felt sure nevertheless that Shepard was somewhere in the capital, protected by his infinite daring and resource, and they received the startling news the next day after the search that a messenger sent northward with dispatches for Lee had been attacked only a short distance from the city. He had been struck from behind, and did not see his assailant, but the wound in the head--the man had been found unconscious--and the missing dispatches were sufficient proof.