The Greyhound covered the distance to Boston much quicker than some aboard would have chosen. Captain Bier, for example, hated the thought of arrival, for he knew that he would be transferred almost immediately to one of the prisons reserved for naval officers. It would not be a pleasant experience, and he dreaded the thought of it.
Leah and Jeff had spoken briefly about the future, but neither had any idea of what to expect. So far, no one had mentioned Jeff’s being a member of the Confederate army, and they were both hopeful that this would never come out.
Lieutenant Hardinge wished that his assignment were to sail the ship all the way to the North Pole—for that would give him more time to court Belle Boyd. He was fearful for Belle’s future, knowing it was entirely possible that a military court could sentence her to another term in prison.
Belle had never been charmed by a man as she had been by Sam Hardinge. She knew men very well, and—despite her apparent willfulness and oftentimes flamboyant behavior—she saw in the young sailor a man who had deep feelings and was steady and reliable. She, too, worried about her fate when they got to Boston.
They arrived at Boston harbor one morning and by noon were docked.
Belle came to Leah’s cabin early, which surprised the younger girl considerably.
“I’ve got to talk to you, Leah,” Belle said. She paced the floor nervously.
“What is it, Belle?” Leah asked. She thought for a moment and said, “Are you worried about what’s going to happen to you?”
“Oh, that will be all right, I suppose,” Belle said. She looked as though she had not slept well. Now she glanced up with a strange expression on her face. “What would you think,” she asked slowly, “if I told you that I had fallen in love with Sam Hardinge?”
Leah’s eyes opened wide, but she said almost at once, “I wouldn’t be too surprised, Belle.”
“You wouldn’t?”
“Why, of course not. You’re not such a good actress as you might think.” Leah smiled. “You light up like a lamp every time he comes into the room.”
“Oh, I certainly do not!”
“Yes, you do,” Leah argued. “And he does the same every time he sees you.”
Leah’s cabin was so small that Belle had little room to pace. She picked nervously at the fabric of her dress, and a long silence ran on. “Oh, it’s all foolishness, I suppose. But if he asks me to marry him, I’d have a hard time giving him an answer.”
Leah was amazed. “You mean you might marry him?”
“He’s a very attractive man.”
“But he’s not a Confederate.”
“I know that, and of course that should make it impossible. But it still would be a hard matter for me to decide.”
“What would your people say?”
“I know what the whole South would say,” Belle said. “That I was a traitor—I’d joined myself to the enemy. And I guess they’d be right.”
“Somehow I don’t think of Ensign Hardinge as a bad man,” Leah said gently. “As a matter of fact, he’s a very good man. There are good people from the North, you know.”
Belle Boyd did not answer at once.
Leah knew Belle had formed the habit of thinking of all Southerners as good and all Northerners as evil, even though she was wise enough to know that this was not so.
“Oh, Leah, I’m so unhappy!”
“Do you think that he loves you?” Leah asked cautiously.
“Yes, he does. I know he does, and that bothers me too.”
“It never bothered you before. You always liked to have men in love with you. You’ve said so to me many times.”
“And it wasn’t right! Love isn’t a game. I’ve been wrong, flirting the way I have. I know I’ve made some young men pretty unhappy. Now it’s my turn. I suppose it’s only right.”
For a long time, Leah sat listening. Belle wanted to talk, and she let her feelings pour out in a way she never had before.
Finally, the Rebel Spy took out her handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes. “Look at me, crying over a man! Never thought it would come to that.” She got up and left the cabin without saying another word.
“I think she really cares for him,” Leah said aloud. “But she’d be in a lot of trouble if she married him, and I guess he would be too.”
Later that afternoon, Leah was walking the deck as she often did. The deck was swarming with people from Boston.
Jeff soon came up to stand beside her. “Look at that! They’ve all come on board to see the famous Belle Boyd.”
“Oh! I thought they’d come to see the ship.”
“Well, that too. The Greyhound’s a pretty famous ship, but it’s mostly Belle they came to see, I guess. She’s very famous.”
Leah turned to him. “I’m worried about her. I pray they don’t send her to prison.”
“You’d better pray that for the captain too. He asked me to pray for him, and I told him …” Jeff’s face fell, and he shuffled his feet slightly “… I told him he’d better ask you to pray for him. That you were pretty good at it.”
“Why, what a nice thing to say, Jeff. It’s not true, of course.”
Jeff looked up. “Yes, it is true. I know it now better than I ever did.”
Leah smiled and started to speak, but he interrupted. “I’m worried about the captain. He really may have to go to prison.”
“I’ve been thinking about him too. He’s such a nice man. I wish we could do something!”
“I think we ought to try,” Jeff said, his face growing stubborn.
“Try what?”
“Try to get him off this ship—help him escape.”
“Why, we’re prisoners ourselves.”
“Yeah, but I don’t think they’re gonna put us in jail.” Then Jeff said cautiously, his eyes glowing, “Let’s go talk to Miss Belle. She’s had lots of experience, being a spy and all. I bet she can think of some way to get the captain out of here.”
Leah thought for a moment, then nodded. “Well, it can’t hurt to try. Let’s go see her quick—before they take her away.”
Belle Boyd listened to them carefully. “We’ve got to do something,” she agreed. “Let me think about it. Ensign Hardinge told me that we’d be leaving the ship tomorrow. We’ll have to do something quickly.”
And here the fire and zeal that had made her famous all over the land became apparent. Her eyes glowed, and her chin looked determined. “Come along,” she said. “Let’s go find the captain. Something can be done, I am sure.”
“I just don’t think it can be done, Miss Belle.” Captain Bier seemed touched that Jeff and the girls had thoughts of finding a way for him to escape, but he had little confidence that any attempt would work.
“Why, there’s always a way to do things, Captain,” Belle insisted. “Men get out of prison camps all the time.”
“A ship is different, Miss Belle.”
“No, it’s just another kind of prison camp. It can be done.”
“I think we ought to try, Captain,” Jeff spoke up. “It’ll be harder to get out of almost any prison camp than it will be to escape from the Greyhound.”
Captain Bier scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Well, there’s something in that. Those camps are tough. But I still don’t see how anything can be done.”
Belle leaned forward and said intently, “There’s a little boat on the stern of the ship.”
“Yes, the dory. But getting to it would be the trouble. There will be guards on deck.”
“Not too many, I think,” Belle insisted.
“Nobody’s really expecting you to try to escape,” Leah urged. “You can catch them off guard.”
“Well, let’s see …” Captain Bier began to get interested. “There’s one guard outside the door of this cabin. It’s never left unguarded. You’d have to find a way to get him out of the way.”
Belle smiled, her blue gray eyes gleaming. “I think I have an answer for that, Captain.”
“But—how?”
“He’s a man, isn’t he?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“I’ve gotten men to do things before, Captain.” Belle smiled with confidence. “That part won’t be hard.”
“Well, then the officers will have to be out of the way—away from the stern.”
“We’ll just have to hope they are.” Leah nodded. “They usually stay in the bow, don’t they?”
“Come to think of it, they do.”
Belle thought hard, then said, “Is it hard to get the dory into the water?”
“Well, it takes a little time—and it’s noisy.”
“We’ll have to get it down—maybe John Pollard will help.”
Bier shook his head. “We’d be noticed. We couldn’t do it without someone seeing us.”
“Have some faith, Captain,” Belle urged. “We’ve got to try—even if we don’t succeed. I can put up with anything but quitting!”
Bier’s eyes gleamed with humor and admiration. “I’ll bet you gave your captors a hard time when you were held in Old Capitol Prison, didn’t you, Miss Belle?”
Belle laughed aloud. “I did! They were glad to be rid of me.”
“What did you do, Miss Belle?” Jeff asked.
“They put me in a room on the second floor. The first day some fool of a Union officer came to force me to take the oath of allegiance. I told him to leave my quarters—and I said it loud enough so that the other prisoners heard. They cheered like anything!”
“Was it very hard—being in prison?”
“Not for me. They fed me well, and the Washington secessionists managed to smuggle all kinds of good food to me. I shared it with the others, of course. The first time Major Doster called on me, I was eating peaches and reading Harper’s magazine. I told him that I could stay there if the Yankees could afford to keep me. It made him very angry.”
“What else did you do?” Bier asked.
“Oh, I gave them a concert nearly every night—all good Southern songs, of course. I always sang ‘Maryland, My Maryland,’ and I sang the line ‘I scorn the Northern scum’ at the top of my lungs!”
“Did they try to make you stop?” Leah asked.
“Yes, but I just said, ‘I shan’t do it,’ and sang louder.”
“I don’t see how you got by with it.” Bier shook his head.
“I always took a broom and swept the floor whenever the Yankee guards came in. It made them furious.”
“I’ll bet it did!”
“And I went to church every Sunday—but I went with a Confederate flag sewed on the bosom of my dress. Oh, my, that did insult them!”
“You’re a caution, Belle Boyd,” Bier said. “All right, we’ll try it. Make whatever plans you can—and have John Pollard help you.”
“You be ready to go at any hour.” Belle got up to leave. “We’ll get you out of this yet!”
“Do you really think it’ll work, Belle?” Leah asked as they walked back to their cabins.
Belle smiled, her eyes gleaming. Obviously this was exactly the sort of thing she loved! “We’ll do it, Leah—all we have to do is hold our heads up and show a little spunk!”