"No, sir. Father has not heard from him in years. He came South long before I was born, but I remembered that he lived here when I was getting father to let me bring the papers."
"Isn"t it strange that you should have remembered it just at that time?"
questioned Butler sharply.
"Why, no," answered the girl regarding him with wide open eyes. "I have heard my father speak of Uncle Ben all my life, and when New Orleans was mentioned I always thought of him. So I said that I was coming to see Uncle Ben when I was truly bringing the papers to Mr. Archer. Father thought it was best."
"I see. What is in the papers?"
"I don"t know, sir." Jeanne looked at him so innocently that he was compelled to believe her.
"Well, you at least, are innocent, I do believe. Now, child, what else did you bring? Anything for your uncle?"
"I brought him some quinine," answered Jeanne half laughing. "Father had it fixed for me in my lunch basket. He said if I should fall in with the rebels and they questioned me too closely I was to own up about it. See!
here is the basket. The quinine is right down in this place."
"I don"t understand about the thing," said the General in a low tone to the Admiral. "The girl is either the most innocent person in the world and everything is exactly as she says, or she is a consummate actress, young as she is."
"General, what in the world do you mean?" queried Farragut.
"I mean," said General Butler sternly, "that it looks very much to me as if some mischief were afloat. John Archer is under arrest for disloyalty to the government. Naturally this makes it bad for the girl."
"Then," said Farragut gravely, "why did you permit him to have those papers?"
"He will not have them long. Did you not notice an Orderly go out after him?"
"I saw a man go out, but I thought nothing of it," was the response.
"That man has his orders. Archer was relieved of the papers as soon as he left the room. I wanted to get all the evidence against him that I could hence I did not tell you about the matter at first. I thought that he might recognize the girl or she him."
"I believe that you are wrong," said Farragut earnestly. "I know nothing of course about Archer, but I would stake my life that what the girl says is true. It would be bold indeed to deliver doc.u.ments serviceable to the enemy under our very noses."
"The very boldness of the scheme would make it successful. Besides, the fellow"s arrest is recent. His accomplices in the North cannot possibly have heard of it as yet. He has been in the service of the Union until suspected of furnishing information to the enemy. You can see why the girl would deliver the papers before us. Another thing, her uncle, Benjamin Vance, is one of the worst rebels in the city."
"What!" cried Farragut.
"Yes."
"But she is too young to enter into any such scheme."
"Ah! you do not know these people as I do. They are perfectly unscrupulous as regards ways and means when it comes to carrying a point. Do you know the girl"s father? I judged not from what you told me of meeting with her."
"No," admitted Farragut. "But she carried a letter to Commodore Porter with a few lines from Wallace at Memphis to me. Really you must be mistaken."
"Letters can be forged," said Butler sententiously. "And sometimes wheedled from officers, as we know to our sorrow. She may be but a tool of persons who hope that her youth will protect her from the consequences.
You must confess that it looks bad. Ah, Johnson," as his Orderly made his appearance, "did you get them?"
"Yes, sir."
Jeanne started forward with a cry of amazement as the Orderly laid upon the table the very papers which she had given John Archer but a short time before.
General Butler spread them before him for inspection.
"You can see for yourself that they contain important information," he said to Farragut. "This thing would be all right if Archer were loyal; otherwise it may show how it happens that the enemy obtains so much information that it should not. The girl is certainly an emissary of the Confederates."
"A what?" cried Jeanne starting forward indignantly, for the General had raised his voice and she had overheard the last words. "What did you say, sir?"
"I said," and the General turned to her abruptly and spoke sternly, "that unless you can prove otherwise, that you are sent with these papers to Archer for the rebels."
"Why, my father sent me," cried the girl blankly. "He is in the employ of the government and so is Mr. Archer."
"Archer was until quite recently, but he is now under arrest on strong suspicion of giving information to the enemy. You see everything is known, child. Tell the truth. Who sent you here?"
"My father," said Jeanne again, looking piteously from one to the other.
"Oh, what does he mean, Admiral? What does he mean?"
"Child," Farragut took her hand kindly. "Tell me truly. What is your father?"
"He is in the employ of the government," reiterated Jeanne vehemently. "He sends communications all over the states, because he told me so. He said that telegraphs were not to be trusted, nor the mails either. For that reason people were sent to the different cities with information about the government."
"That proves nothing," said the General, "unless it can be substantiated.
Why then do you want to visit your uncle--if you are loyal--when he is such a rebel?"
"A rebel?" cried Jeanne recoiling in horror. "Is my uncle a rebel?"
CHAPTER XI
CLEARED OF SUSPICION
The girl stared at them as if unable to believe the evidence of her senses.
"A rebel!" she repeated wildly. "My uncle a rebel? It cannot be!"
Her consternation was so apparent that General Butler almost believed in her. Farragut"s clouded face cleared instantly, and he turned to the other quickly.
"Whatever scheme is afoot that girl knows nothing of it," he said. "Why, Butler, she carries a United States flag in her breast, and you should hear her talk. I am sure that she is as loyal to the Union as either you or I."
"It may be, Admiral. One thing in her favor is the fact that you believe in her. Let me see! How was it that you said she came from Vicksburg?"
"Did I not tell you? She came with Captain Leathers from Memphis. The transport, The Gem, joined us just below Vicksburg. He brought us supplies, and there is absolutely no question with regard to his sentiments. They have been proved over and over again."
"Of course the girl may be all right and everything be just as she says,"
said General Butler again. "As I say the thing in her favor is that she came here to ask for Archer. I suppose it was because she knew no one.
Had she sought her uncle first----"
"I advised her to come here," said Farragut in a low tone. "I told her to find Archer first, and then to seek for her uncle, and she acquiesced without hesitation."