“I think,” I said to Ellen, “that we can still call on Marie de Sabrevois to help Nathaniel and help us, too, in spite of where she’s gone. I think she’ll make it possible for us to take Nathaniel away—and immediately.”

“You’re insane, all of you!” Hayes said. “Miss Phipps, go back into the hospital at once.”

“No, Ellen,” I said, “don’t do it! Stay where you are.”

“Go back into the hospital,” Hayes repeated. “Miss Phipps, you’re a part of the British army still. You’re subject to its discipline.”

“That’s not the truth,” Ellen said. “I was held with your army by my aunt. At no time was I a part of it, no more than poor Nathaniel. It’s true I ate your food, but I’ve paid for it by working in this hospital, nursing your soldiers. I won’t be subject to your discipline.”

“She’s going with us,” I told Hayes. “So’s my brother. Have him brought out here.”

Hayes laughed disagreeably.

“Doctor,” I said, “if I’ve learned anything in my life, I’ve learned that arguments over war are as useless as those over politics and love. A man engaged in an unjust war, or pledged to the cause of a worthless politician, or infatuated with the lightest of women, holds to his opinions and dies for them. So I won’t argue with you. I’ll say this, though: if my brother’s guilty of anything, he’s not answerable to you for it: he’s answerable to his own people, and that’s who he’s going to answer to.”

“Not while I’m in charge of this hospital,” Hayes said. “Miss Phipps, did you understand me to say you’re needed inside?”

“Before you go, Ellen,” I said, “I want you to tell Doctor Hayes something.”

She raised her eyes to mine.

“Last year, Ellen, you carried letters from a certain lady to certain other people.”

She nodded. “I carried letters from my aunt, Marie de Sabrevois, to people here, in Albany.”

“If necessary, could you prove that?”

“Oh yes, because Joseph is here, and Joseph was with me. He saw the letters. He saw the answers, too, and read them.”

“The answers, as I recall it,” I said, “were written in a peculiar manner, and referred to other persons in Albany.”

“They were written in onion juice. To read them, we had to heat them. In them we found the names of two hundred persons.”

I turned to Dr. Hayes, and it seemed to me, as he glanced sharply into my face, a quiver of apprehension mingled with his sharpness. I have no doubt the face before him was dark and harsh; I meant to have Nathaniel, and felt no scruples as to how I did it.