"Good." The Secretary paused and studied his man a moment.
"I introduced you to the girl not merely to obtain an invaluable witness
to your credentials should they be questioned--but for a double
purpose."
Socola nodded.
"I guessed as much."
"She's bright, young, pretty, and you can pass the time pleasantly in
her company. The association will place you in a strong position. Her
father is a fool--the storm petrel of Secession. He has the biggest
mouth in America, barring none. His mouth is so huge, they'll never find
a muzzle big enough if they could get men enough around him to put it
on. He's bound to land somewhere high in the councils of the coming
Confederacy--"
"There'll be one?"
Holt smiled.
"You doubt it?"
"It may be bluster after all."
"Men of the Davis type don't bluster, my boy. They are to meet at
Montgomery, Alabama, on February fourth. They'll organize the Cotton
States into a Southern Confederacy. If they can win Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas, they may gobble Maryland, Kentucky,
and Missouri--all Slave States. If they get them all--they'll win
without a fight, and reconstruct the Union on their own terms; if they
don't--well, we'll see what we'll see--"
"And you wish?"
"That you get for me--and get quickly--inside information of what is
done and what is proposed to be done at Montgomery.
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