CHAPTER IX

TANGLING THREADS


My surprise at this unexpected reference to the Lady of the Blended Rose,
almost prevented utterance. What could this partisan ranger know of the
girl? How could he even have identified her from my vague reference?

"Why do you say that?" I asked eagerly. "I did not mention the lady's
name."

"There was no cause for you to do so," and the grim mouth smiled. "No one
else in Philadelphia would have turned the trick so neatly; besides the
fact that your opponent was Grant would have revealed the identity of the
girl."

"You know them both then?"

"Fairly well; he was a boy in these parts, an' I have shod his riding
horse many a time. A headstrong, domineering, spoiled lad he was, and
quarrelsome. Once I gave him a sound thrashing in this very shop, an'
when his father called me to task for it the next day he went home with a
broken collar-bone. That was ten years before the war, an' we have not
spoken pleasantly since. A hard man was Frederick Grant, an' none of his
blood ever forgave an injury. Once the boy's company of Queen's Rangers
raided this shop, but fortunately I was not here."