CHAPTER XXXVI.
ARRANGEMENTS FOR A WESTERN TRIP.
I return to Washington for the Purpose of reporting to Colonel Baker. Apprehensions with Regard to the Kind of Reception I am likely to have from him. The Colonel amiable, and apparently unsuspicious. I give him an Account of my Richmond Trip, and receive his Congratulations. General A. calls on me, and he, Baker, and I go to the Theatre. A Supper at the Grand Hotel. Baker calls on me the next Morning, and proposes that I shall visit the Military Prisons at John son's Island and elsewhere, for the Purpose of discovering whether the Confederate Prisoners have any Intentions of escaping. I accept the Commission, and start for the West. Reflections on the Military and Political Situations.
'N my return from Canada, I went first to New York, where I delivered such matters as had been committed to my care for my associates there, and after a conference with them, hurried on to Washington, for the purpose of seeing Colonel Baker.
It was not without many apprehensions that I con cluded to face the colonel again, for I did not know how much information he might have about me by this time, and it really seemed like walking into the lion's den. That his officers were aware of some of my movements, as they were following me up rather too closely for comfort, was certain; but whether they had yet succeeded in identifying the rebel spy and secret-service agent with the woman whom Baker had employed to go on a confidential mission to Richmond, was not so clear. Taking all things into consideration, I concluded that Baker and his men must be rather in a mist about me j for the detective, whom I had met on the cars, was evidently working some what in the dark, which could hardly have been the case had his chief suspected me of playing a double game with him.
If Baker, however, had the least suspicion with regard to
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