Doane opened the envelope. She could see that there was another letter
enclosed, as well as the one which the tall man was reading with such
interest.
When he had finished reading the letter he tore it into a great many
small pieces. Then he put the enclosed envelope carefully in an inner
pocket.
"So you brought me this letter from the fort. Well, you have done what I
hope may prove a great service to the Stars and Stripes. I thank you,"
he said, looking with smiling eyes at the tired little figure in the
brown cape.
Then he asked Sylvia her name, and she told him that no one, not even
her dear mother, knew that she had brought the message. Before they had
finished their talk he had heard all about the blue cockades that the
girls had worn at Miss Patten's school, and of Sylvia's refusal to
salute the palmetto flag.
"You see I couldn't do that, because it would mean that I believed that
Estralla ought to be a slave, and of course I don't believe such a
dreadful thing," she explained. So then Mr. Doane heard all about
Estralla and Aunt Connie.
Sylvia decided that she liked Mr. Doane even better than Captain
Carleton. And when he told her again that by her courage in bringing him
the message from the fort, and by her silence in regard to it, that she
had done him a great service, as well as a service to those whose only
wish for South Carolina was that the State should free herself from
slavery, Sylvia forgot all about the long walk through the shadowy
streets.
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