"I regret it, madame," resumed Dick, "but we must search the house thoroughly." "Proceed," she said again in that tone of finality. "Take the men and look carefully through every room," said Dick to the sergeant. "I will remain here." Whitley and the troopers withdrew quietly. When the last of them had disappeared he walked to one of the windows and looked out. He saw his mounted men beyond the rose garden on guard, and he knew that they were as vigilant on the other sides of the house. The sharpshooter could not escape, and he was firmly resolved not to go without him. Yet his conscience hurt him. It was hard, too, to wait there, while the woman said not a word, but knitted on as placidly as if he did not exist. "Madame," he said at last, "I pray that you do not regard this as an intrusion. The uses of war are hard. We must search. No one can regret it more than I do, in particular since I am really a Southerner myself, a Kentuckian." "A traitor then as well as an enemy." Dick flushed deeply, and again there was angry blood in his veins, but he restrained his temper. "You must at least allow to a man the liberty of choice," he said. "Provided he has the intelligence and honesty to choose right." Dick flushed again and bit his lip. And yet he felt that a woman who had lost two sons before Northern bullets might well be unforgiving. There was nothing more for him to say, and while he turned back to the window the knitting needles resumed their click, click. He waited a full ten minutes and he knew that the sergeant and his men were searching the house thoroughly. Nothing could escape the notice of Whitley, and he would surely find the sharpshooter. Then he heard their footsteps on a stairway and in another minute they entered the great room. The face of the sergeant clearly showed disappointment. "There's nobody in the house," he said, "or, if he is he's so cleverly hidden, that we haven't been able to find him--that is so far. Perhaps Madame here can tell us something." "I know nothing," she said, "but if I knew anything I would not tell it to you." The sergeant smiled sourly, but Dick said: "We must look again. The man could not have escaped with the guard that we've set around the house." The sergeant and his men made another search. They penetrated every place in which a human being could possibly hide. They thrust their rifle barrels up the chimneys, and they turned down the bed covers, but again they found nothing. Dick meanwhile remained as before in the large room, covertly watching the woman, lest she give a signal to the rifleman who must be somewhere.