the offender would have occasion to beware of me in the
future.
The fact, however, that I was travelling under credentials from General Winder, and was in a manner an attaché of the Secret Service Department, rendered it not improbable that this was an application for me to undertake some such enterprise as I for a long time had been ardently desirous of engaging in. The more I considered the matter, the more I was disposed to take this view of it, and accordingly, at the hour named, I was promptly at the rendezvous, wondering what the result of the adventure would be.
A Mysterious Conference.
My surmise proved to be correct. I had scarcely arrived at the corner of the square, when my correspondent, who I discovered was Lieutenant Shorter, of Arkansas, advanced towards me, and said, "Good evening. I am glad to see you. How have you been?"
"I am quite well," I replied ; and waited for him to introduce the subject concerning which he was evidently desirous of conversing with me.
After a few inconsequential remarks on either side, he said,
"I see that you received my note."
"Yes."
"Well, you must excuse me for asking for a secret interview like this, but the matter I wanted to talk to you about is of great importance, and, as in these times, we don't know whom to trust, it was necessary that I should have an opportunity to carry on our conversation without danger of being watched or overheard. You have had considerable experience in running through the lines, and in spy and secret service duty, have you not?"
"Yes," I replied; "I have done something in that line."
"You have usually been tolerably lucky, haven't you ? "
"Yes, I have had reasonably good luck. I got caught once in New Orleans, but that was because the parties to whom I had delivered my despatches were captured. Butler tried his hand at frightening me, but he did not succeed very well, and I managed to slip away from him before he had any positive evidence against me which would have justified him in treating me as a spy."
"Well, you're just the kind I want, for I have a job on hand
