‘No,’ got out the captain between his struggles for breath; ‘only a leather-headed sentry—a question of identity—won’t let me pass—send some one back with me.’
‘Take time to breathe, sir, and you will be better able to explain yourself,’ fumed General Shields, adding inconsistently: ‘Go on, sir. Don’t keep me waiting all day. Let me hear your news.’
The captain drew a few deep inspirations and felt better. ‘General,’ he said, ‘there is nothing wrong; only a little provoking delay. I found a sentry just about where I had moored my boat, and because I was in civilian dress, he refused to allow me to pass.’
‘Found a sentry alongside your boat!’ repeated General Shields. ‘I thought you had moored it well above the line.’
‘So I thought myself, sir,’ answered Hopkins; ‘but evidently I was in error, for there the sentry was.’
‘But you had the word,’ said Shields in a puzzled voice.
‘Of course, sir; but I’m afraid I behaved rather foolishly, for, having an idea that all was not right, I gave the wrong word, and that made the fellow so suspicious of me, that even when I gave him the right word afterwards, he would have none of me.’
‘You might have explained your business, then,’ suggested the general, ‘rather than have incurred this aggravating delay.’
‘That is just what I did sir,’ protested Hopkins. ‘I even went the length of showing him the despatch, and when he seized it’——
‘What!’ vociferated the general. ‘Do you mean to say that the despatch is no longer in your possession?’
‘Hear me out, sir,’ said Hopkins uncomfortably, for he felt that at the very best he made a ridiculous appearance in the affair. ‘I merely held the despatch before his eyes, when he instantly seized it and declared that it must be a bogus document, and I myself a rebel spy.’
‘Then why did you not recover the document by force?’ demanded the general sternly.
‘He had already disarmed me, sir. I was completely at the mercy of his bayonet.’
‘Well, well,’ muttered the general irritably. ‘Go on.’
‘He was for detaining me until the arrival of the rounds; but I gave him my word that I was not a rebel spy, and, with great reluctance, he at last permitted me to depart to obtain evidence of my identity.’
‘Retaining the document,’ mused General Shields. ‘Why did you not appeal to some of the sentries higher up?’