hesitate to do so."

"I do not hesitate, sir," replied Sam, "if, after hearing my plan, you
think me competent for the business."

"Very well then," replied the general, "when will you be ready to lay
your plan before me?"

"I am ready now, sir," said Sam, "so far at least as the general plan
is concerned; little things will have to be dealt with as they
arise."

"Certainly. What is your plan in outline?"

"To go to Florida on a trapping and fishing excursion. I am not a
soldier yet, and may go, if I like, peacefully into the territory of a
friendly nation. I can take some of my boys with me, and camp by the
water side. I can easily go into Pensacola and find out what is going
on there. I shouldn't wish to be a spy, general, but this is scarcely
that, I think. The enemy has been received by a power professing to be
friendly. That power has given us no notice of hostility, and until
that is done I see no impropriety in going into his territory for
information not about his affairs at all, unless he is proving
treacherous, which would entitle us to do that, but about those of our
enemy, whom he should regard as an invader, however he may regard him
in fact."

"You've read some law, I see," said the general.

"No sir," replied Sam, blushing to think how he had been expounding to