Under Fire: A Tale of the Shenandoah Valley — page 215: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

208 | CONCLUSION. CHAPTER XL. CONCLUSION ° ‘Vou penetrate my disguise easy enough now; but on the field of battle you did not recognize me,?’ said the girl, sinking into a chair. “Vou deceived Colonel Trafton as well,’? returned the captain. ‘‘But how did you come to visit the battle-field in this guise, Bertha? I am bursting with curlosity.’’ ‘‘T can explain in a few words. I wished to visit a neighbor who lives some miles down the road. Know- -ing the country was full of hard characters, assumed this disguise for safety. It was on my return that curiosity led me to the victorious camp of the Con- federates. It was by accident that Isaw you in the hands of Mosby’s men. I planned to save you because —well, because we were pretty good friends, you know. I did not suspect murder was meditated. It was only to save you from a Southern prison that I planned your release; but it seems my clever device saved your life. ‘‘Being pretty well acquainted with the country, I _ led the squad into the Union lines before they were aware of what was being done.”’ The maiden’s explanation was of deeper moment than would at first seem. Bertha, with her fierce Southern proclivities, would not go thus out of her way to serve a Union officer unless her heart was in the act. Captain Chetwood realized this. | ‘““Bertha,’’ he said, softly, while his whole soul _ was teflected in his ardent gaze, ‘‘tell me, darling, that all that I have suffered during the last four years m ~~ comic 700 ‘S.cO