"The more bitter because they are true. You will release me then
at Cairo, below?"

"I can not promise, Madam. You would be back in Washington by the
first boats and trains."

"So, the plot runs yet further? Perhaps you do not stop this side
the outer ways of the Mississippi? Say, St. Louis, New Orleans?"

"Perhaps even beyond those points," he rejoined grimly. "I make no
promises, since you yourself make none."

"What are your plans, out there, beyond?"

"You ask it frankly, and with equal frankness I say I do not know.
Indeed, I am not fully advised in all this matter. It was
imperative to get you out of Washington, and if so, it is equally
imperative to keep you out of Washington. At least for a time I am
obliged to construe my carte blanche in that way, my dear lady.
And as I say, my conscience is my strictest officer."

"Yes," she said, studying his face calmly with her steady dark eyes.

It was a face sensitive, although bony and lined; stern, though its
owner still was young. She noticed the reddish hair and beard, the
florid skin, the blue eye set deep--a fighting eye, yet that of a
visionary.

"You are a fanatic," she said.