as ours has been formed amid so much suffering and hardship, courage and
danger, that it is not to be broken in a day. We may come back soon
from Montgomery, Julie, but I see war, a great and terrible war, a war,
by the side of which those we have had, will dwindle to mere skirmishes.
I shut my eyes, but it makes no difference. I see it close at hand,
just the same."

Madame Delaunay sighed.

"And you, Major St. Hilaire?" she said.

"There may be a great war, Madame Delaunay," he said, "I fear that
Colonel Talbot is right, but we shall win it."

Colonel Talbot said nothing more, nor did Madame Delaunay. Presently
she went back into the house. After a long silence the colonel said:

"If I were not sure that our friend Shepard had left Charleston long
since, I should say that the figure now passing in the street is his."

A small lawn filled with shrubbery stretched before the house, but from
the piazza they could see into the street. Harry, too, caught a glimpse
of a passing figure, and like the colonel he was sure that it was
Shepard.

"It is certainly he!" he exclaimed.

"After him!" cried Colonel Talbot, instantly all action. "As sure as we
live that man is a spy, drawing maps of our fortifications, and I should
have warned the Government before."