“Now, you’re not to talk, you know,” Olympia said, with matronly decision, “I shall remain here to mesmerize you into repose.  You know I am a magnetic person.  Be perfectly quiet, and keep your eyes off me.  They make me nervous.”

“I can only keep my eyes away on condition you put your hand in mine, Then the magnetic current can have full play.”

“My impression is that you have not been ill at all.  I believe you have been shamming, to escape the harder lines of the prison.  Very well, you needn’t answer.  I’ll take that shake of the head as denial and proof for want of better.  Now, I will give you the history of our doings since I saw you at Fairfax Court-House in January.  I got home safe.  I found mamma in painful excitement.”

He moved impatiently, and said, beseechingly: 

“But tell me how you got here so soon.  How did you learn I was here?  Jack told you when he got my letter?”

“O Vincent, that was what I was coming to!  Jack has never been seen or heard from since he escaped from your troops near the Warrick.  I did not know you had written.  I got a letter from Rosa yesterday morning and went at once to the War Department, where we have a good friend—­”

“I can’t understand it.  All these things are done with system in an army like yours.  Men can’t disappear like this, leaving no record.  I’ll stake my head there’s foul play, if the boys can’t be found.  Have you made inquiry in the company on duty where Jack and his companions got into your lines?”

She explained all the efforts that had been made—­how Brodie had been baffled, and how letters had been sent to the commanding officer at Fort Monroe.

“We had begun to think that Jack had been recaptured; but surely, if he were, you would have known of it.”

“Of course I should.”

“Then that confines the search to our own lines.  I can not make myself believe that Jack is dead, though mamma has nearly made up her mind to it.  The mysterious part of the affair is, that we can not find one of the men who escaped with Jack, though it was announced in the papers weeks ago that a party of them had arrived at Fort Monroe.”

“And young ’Perley’?”

“He, too, we can get no trace of.”

“Good heavens!  I’m glad Rosa doesn’t know that; she’d be in every camp and hospital in the North until she had found her sweetheart.”

“That sounds something like a reflection on us—­mamma and me.”

“Ah! never.  What I mean is, that Rosa is such an impulsive, silly child, she would do all sorts of imprudent things.  How could you do such a thing?  Preposterous!”

“Well, I began it yesterday morning.  As I said, so soon as I read Rosa’s letter, I went to headquarters, where we have a good friend and gave my word for your safe keeping.  You are to be our prisoner; but if you escape you will get us into trouble, for we are none too well considered by the folks in power.”