diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 12532-0.txt | 10470 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 12532-h/12532-h.htm | 14848 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/12532-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 200104 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/12532-h/12532-h.htm | 15262 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/12532.txt | 10861 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/12532.zip | bin | 0 -> 196642 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/old/12532-20040605.txt | 10725 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/old/12532-20040605.zip | bin | 0 -> 196617 bytes |
11 files changed, 62182 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/12532-0.txt b/12532-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0337b18 --- /dev/null +++ b/12532-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10470 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12532 *** + +THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS + +A STORY OF LEE'S GREAT STAND + +by JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER + + + + +FOREWORD + + +"The Shades of the Wilderness" is the seventh volume of the Civil War +Series, of which the predecessors have been "The Guns of Bull Run," +"The Guns of Shiloh," "The Scouts of Stonewall," "The Sword of +Antietam", "The Star of Gettysburg" and "The Rock of Chickamauga." The +romance in this story reverts to the Southern side and deals with the +fortunes of Harry Kenton and his friends. It takes them on the retreat +from Gettysburg, gives the hero a short period of social life in +Richmond, describes the great battles of the Wilderness and +Spottsylvania, and ends with the deadlock in the trenches before +Petersburg. + + + + +THE CIVIL WAR SERIES + + + VOLUMES IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES + + THE GUNS OF BULL RUN. + THE GUNS OF SHILOH. + THE SCOUTS OF STONEWALL. + THE SWORD OF ANTIETAM. + THE STAR OF GETTYSBURG. + THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA. + THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS. + THE TREE OF APPOMATTOX. + + + PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES + + HARRY KENTON, A Lad Who Fights on the Southern Side. + DICK MASON, Cousin of Harry Kenton, Who Fights on the Northern Side. + COLONEL GEORGE KENTON, Father of Harry Kenton. + MRS. MASON, Mother of Dick Mason. + JULIANA, Mrs. Mason's Devoted Colored Servant. + COLONEL ARTHUR WINCHESTER, Dick Mason's Regimental Commander. + COLONEL LEONIDAS TALBOT, Commander of the Invincibles, + a Southern Regiment. + LIEUTENANT COLONEL HECTOR ST. HILAIRE, Second in Command of the + Invincibles. + ALAN HERTFORD, A Northern Cavalry Leader. + PHILIP SHERBURNE, A Southern Cavalry Leader. + WILLIAM J. SHEPARD, A Northern Spy. + DANIEL WHITLEY, A Northern Sergeant and Veteran of the Plains. + GEORGE WARNER, A Vermont Youth Who Loves Mathematics. + FRANK PENNINGTON, A Nebraska Youth, Friend of Dick Mason. + ARTHUR ST. CLAIR, A Native of Charleston, Friend of Harry Kenton. + TOM LANGDON, Friend of Harry Kenton. + GEORGE DALTON, Friend of Harry Kenton. + BILL SKELLY, Mountaineer and Guerrilla. + TOM SLADE, A Guerrilla Chief. + SAM JARVIS, The Singing Mountaineer. + IKE SIMMONS, Jarvis' Nephew. + AUNT "SUSE," A Centenarian and Prophetess. + BILL PETTY, A Mountaineer and Guide. + JULIEN DE LANGEAIS, A Musician and Soldier from Louisiana. + JOHN CARRINGTON, Famous Northern Artillery Officer. + DR. RUSSELL, Principal of the Pendleton School. + ARTHUR TRAVERS, A Lawyer. + JAMES BERTRAND, A Messenger from the South. + JOHN NEWCOMB, A Pennsylvania Colonel. + JOHN MARKHAM, A Northern Officer. + JOHN WATSON, A Northern Contractor. + WILLIAM CURTIS, A Southern Merchant and Blockade Runner. + MRS. CURTIS, Wife of William Curtis. + HENRIETTA CARDEN, A Seamstress in Richmond. + DICK JONES, A North Carolina Mountaineer. + VICTOR WOODVILLE, A Young Mississippi Officer. + JOHN WOODVILLE, Father of Victor Woodville. + CHARLES WOODVILLE, Uncle of Victor Woodville. + COLONEL BEDFORD, A Northern Officer. + CHARLES GORDON, A Southern Staff Officer. + JOHN LANHAM, An Editor. + JUDGE KENDRICK, A Lawyer. + MR. CULVER, A State Senator. + MR. BRACKEN, A Tobacco Grower. + ARTHUR WHITRIDGE, A State Senator. + + + HISTORICAL CHARACTERS + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States. + JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of the Southern Confederacy. + JUDAH P. BENJAMIN, Member of the Confederate Cabinet. + U. S. GRANT, Northern Commander. + ROBERT E. LEE, Southern Commander. + STONEWALL JACKSON, Southern General. + PHILIP H. SHERIDAN, Northern General. + GEORGE H. THOMAS, "The Rock of Chickamauga." + ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON, Southern General. + A. P. HILL, Southern General. + W. S. HANCOCK, Northern General. + GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, Northern General. + AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE, Northern General. + TURNER ASHBY, Southern Cavalry Leader. + J. E. B. STUART, Southern Cavalry Leader. + JOSEPH HOOKER, Northern General. + RICHARD S. EWELL, Southern General. + JUBAL EARLY, Southern General. + WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS, Northern General. + SIMON BOLIVAR BUCKNER, Southern General. + LEONIDAS POLK, Southern General and Bishop. + BRAXTON BRAGG, Southern General. + NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST, Southern Cavalry Leader. + JOHN MORGAN, Southern Cavalry Leader. + GEORGE J. MEADE, Northern General. + DON CARLOS BUELL, Northern General. + W. T. SHERMAN, Northern General. + JAMES LONGSTREET, Southern General. + P. G. T. BEAUREGARD, Southern General. + WILLIAM L. YANCEY, Alabama Orator. + JAMES A. GARFIELD, Northern General, afterwards President of + the United States. + + And many others + + + IMPORTANT BATTLES DESCRIBED IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES + + BULL RUN + KERNSTOWN + CROSS KEYS + WINCHESTER + PORT REPUBLIC + THE SEVEN DAYS + MILL SPRING + FORT DONELSON + SHILOH + PERRYVILLE + STONE RIVER + THE SECOND MANASSAS + ANTIETAM + FREDERICKSBURG + CHANCELLORSVILLE + GETTYSBURG + CHAMPION HILL + VICKSBURG + CHICKAMAUGA + MISSIONARY RIDGE + THE WILDERNESS + SPOTTSYLVANIA + COLD HARBOR + FISHER'S HILL + CEDAR CREEK + APPOMATTOX + + + +CONTENTS + + I. THE SOUTHERN RETREAT + + II. THE NORTHERN SPY + + III. THE FLOODED RIVER + + IV. A HERALD TO LEE + + V. THE DANGEROUS ROAD + + VI. TESTS OF COURAGE + + VII. IN THE WAGON + + VIII. THE CROSSING + + IX. IN SOCIETY + + X. THE MISSING PAPER + + XI. A VAIN PURSUIT + + XII. IN WINTER QUARTERS + + XIII. THE COMING OF GRANT + + XIV. THE GHOSTLY RIDE + + XV. THE WILDERNESS + + XVI. SPOTTSYLVANIA + + + + +THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE SOUTHERN RETREAT + + +A train of wagons and men wound slowly over the hills in the darkness +and rain toward the South. In the wagons lay fourteen or fifteen +thousand wounded soldiers, but they made little noise, as the wheels +sank suddenly in the mud or bumped over stones. Although the vast +majority of them were young, boys or not much more, they had learned to +be masters of themselves, and they suffered in silence, save when some +one, lost in fever, uttered a groan. + +But the chief sound was a blended note made by the turning of wheels, +and the hoofs of horses sinking in the soft earth. The officers gave +but few orders, and the cavalrymen who rode on either flank looked +solicitously into the wagons now and then to see how their wounded +friends fared, though they seldom spoke. The darkness they did not +mind, because they were used to it, and the rain and the coolness were +a relief, after three days of the fiercest battle the American +continent had ever known, fought in the hottest days that the troops +could recall. + +Thus Lee's army drew its long length from the fatal field of +Gettysburg, although his valiant brigades did not yet know that the +clump of trees upon Cemetery Hill had marked the high tide of the +Confederacy. All that memorable Fourth of July, following the close of +the battle they had lain, facing Meade and challenging him to come on, +confident that while the invasion of the North was over they could beat +back once more the invasion of the South. + +They had no word of complaint against their great commander, Lee. The +faith in him, which was so high, remained unbroken, as it was destined +to remain so to the last. But men began to whisper to one another, and +say if only Jackson had been there. They mourned anew that terrible +evening in the Wilderness when Lee had lost his mighty lieutenant, his +striking arm, the invincible Stonewall. If the man in the old slouch +hat had only been with Lee on Seminary Ridge it would now be the army +of Meade retreating farther into the North, and they would be pursuing. +That belief was destined to sink deep in the soul of the South, and +remain there long after the Confederacy was but a name. + +The same thought was often in the mind of Harry Kenton, as he rode near +the rear of the column, whence he had been sent by Lee to observe and +then to report. It was far after midnight now, and the last of the +Southern army could not leave Seminary Ridge before morning. But Harry +could detect no sign of pursuit. Now and then, a distant gun boomed, +and the thunder muttered on the horizon, as if in answer. But there +was nothing to indicate that the Army of the Potomac was moving from +Gettysburg in pursuit, although the President in Washington, his heart +filled with bitterness, was vainly asking why his army would not reap +the fruits of a victory won so hardly. Fifty thousand men had fallen +on the hills and in the valleys about Gettysburg, and it seemed, for +the time, that nothing would come of such a slaughter. But the +Northern army had suffered immense losses, and Lee and his men were +ready to fight again if attacked. Perhaps it was wiser to remain +content upon the field with their sanguinary success. At least, Meade +and his generals thought so. + +Harry, toward morning came upon St. Clair and Langdon riding together. +Both had been wounded slightly, but their hurts had not kept them from +the saddle, and they were in cheerful mood. + +"You've been further back than we, Harry," said St. Clair. "Is Meade +hot upon our track? We hear the throb of a cannon now and then." + +"It doesn't mean anything. Meade hasn't moved. While we didn't win we +struck the Yankees such a mighty blow that they'll have to rest, and +breathe a while before they follow." + +"And I guess we need a little resting and breathing ourselves," said +Langdon frankly. "There were times when I thought the whole world had +just turned itself into a volcano of fire." + +"But we'll come back again," said St. Clair. "We'll make these +Pennsylvania Dutchmen take notice of us a second time." + +"That's the right spirit," said Langdon. "Arthur had nearly all of his +fine uniform shot off him, but he's managed to fasten the pieces +together, and ride on, just as if it were brand new." + +But Harry was silent. The prescient spirit of his famous great +grandfather, Henry Ware, had descended upon his valiant great grandson. +Hope had not gone from him, but it did not enter his mind that they +should invade Pennsylvania again. + +"I'm glad to leave Gettysburg," he said. "More good men of ours have +fallen there than anywhere else." + +"That's true," said St. Clair, "but Marse Bob will win for us, anyhow. +You don't think any of these Union generals here in the East can whip +our Lee, do you?" + +"Of course not!" said Happy Tom. "Besides, Lee has me to help him." + +"How are Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire?" asked +Harry. + +"Sound asleep, both of 'em," replied St. Clair. "And it's a strange +thing, too. They were sitting in a wagon, having resumed that game of +chess which they began in the Valley of Virginia, but they were so +exhausted that both fell sound asleep while playing. They are sitting +upright, as they sleep, and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire's thumb and +forefinger rest upon a white pawn that he intended to move." + +"I hope they won't be jarred out of their rest and that they'll sleep +on," said Harry. "Nobody deserves it more." + +He waved a hand to his friends and continued his ride toward the rear. +The column passed slowly on in silence. Now and then gusts of rain +lashed across his face, but he liked the feeling. It was a fillip to +his blood, and his nerves began to recover from the tremendous strain +and excitement of the last four days. + +Obeying his orders he rode almost directly back toward the field of +Gettysburg from which the Southern forces were still marching. A +friendly voice from a little wood hailed him, and he recognized it at +once as that of Sherburne, who sat his horse alone among the trees. + +"Come here, Harry," he said. + +"Glad to find you alive, Sherburne. Where's your troop?" + +"What's left of it is on ahead. I'll join the men in a few minutes. +But look back there!" + +Harry from the knoll, which was higher than he had thought, gazed upon +a vast and dusky panorama. Once more the field of Gettysburg swam +before him, not now in fire and smoke, but in vapors and misty rain. +When he shut his eyes he saw again the great armies charging on the +slopes, the blazing fire from hundreds of cannon and a hundred thousand +rifles. There, too, went Pickett's brigades, devoted to death but never +flinching. A sob burst from his throat, and he opened his eyes again. + +"You feel about it as I do," said Sherburne. "We'll never come back +into the North." + +"It isn't merely a feeling within me, I know it." + +"So do I, but we can still hold Virginia." + +"I think so, too. Come, we'd better turn. There goes the field of +Gettysburg. The rain and mist have blotted it out." + +The panorama, the most terrible upon which Harry had ever looked, +vanished in the darkness. The two rode slowly from the knoll and into +the road. + +"It will be daylight in an hour," said Sherburne, "and by that time the +last of our men will be gone." + +"And I must hasten to our commander-in-chief," said Harry. + +"How is he?" asked Sherburne. "Does he seem downcast?" + +"No, he holds his head as high as ever, and cheers the men. They say +that Pickett's charge was a glorious mistake, but he takes all the +blame for it, if there is any. He doesn't criticize any of his +generals." + +"Only a man of the greatest moral grandeur could act like that. It's +because of such things that our people, boys, officers and all, will +follow him to the death." + +"Good-by, Sherburne," said Harry. "Hope I'll see you again soon." + +He urged his horse into a faster gait, anxious to overtake Lee and +report that all was well with the rear guard. He noticed once more, +and with the greatest care that long line of the wounded and the +unwounded, winding sixteen miles across the hills from Gettysburg to +Chambersburg, and his mind was full of grave thoughts. More than two +years in the very thick of the greatest war, then known, were +sufficient to make a boy a man, at least in intellect and +responsibility. + +Harry saw very clearly, as he rode beside the retreating but valiant +army that had failed in its great attempt, that their role would be the +defensive. For a little while he was sunk in deep depression. Then +invincible youth conquered anew, and hope sprang up again. The night +was at the darkest, but dawn was not far away. Fugitive gusts of wind +drenched him once more, but he did not mind it, nor did he pay any +attention to the occasional growl of a distant gun. He was strong in +the belief that Meade would not pursue--at least not yet. A general +who had just lost nearly one-third of his own army was not in much +condition to follow his enemy. + +He urged his horse to increased speed, and pressed on toward the head +of the column. The rain ceased and cool puffs of wind came out of the +east. Then the blackness there turned to gray, which soon deepened into +silver. Through the silver veil shot a bolt of red fire, and the sun +came over the hills. + +Although the green world had been touched with brown by the hot sun of +July it looked fresh and beautiful to Harry. The brown in the morning +sunlight was a rosy red, and the winds of dawn were charged with life. +His horse, too, felt the change and it was easy now to force him into a +gallop toward a fire on a low hill, which Harry felt sure had been +built to cook breakfast for their great commander. + +As he approached he saw Lee and his generals standing before the blaze, +some eating, and others drinking. An orderly, near by, held the +commander's famous horse, Traveller, and two or three horses belonging +to the other generals were trying to find a little grass between the +stony outcrops of the hills. Harry felt an overwhelming curiosity, but +he kept it in restraint, dismounting at a little distance, and +approaching on foot. + +He could not observe much change in the general's appearance. His +handsome gray suit was as neat as ever, and the three stars, the only +marks of his rank that he wore, shone untarnished upon his collar. The +dignified and cheerful manner that marked him before Gettysburg marked +him also afterward. To Harry, so young and so thoroughly charged with +the emotions of his time and section, he was a figure to be approached +with veneration. + +He saw the stalwart and bearded Longstreet and other generals whom he +knew, among them the brilliant Stuart in his brilliant plumage, but +rather quiet and subdued in manner now, since he had not come to +Gettysburg as soon as he was needed. Harry hung back a little, fearing +lest he might be regarded as thrusting himself into a company so much +his superior in rank, but Lee saw him and beckoned to him. + +"I sent you back toward Gettysburg to report on our withdrawal, +Lieutenant Kenton," he said. + +"Yes, sir. I returned all the way to the field. The last of our +troops should be leaving there just about now. The Northern army had +made no preparation for immediate pursuit." + +"Your report agrees with all the others that I have received. How long +have you been without sleep?" + +"I don't know, sir," he said at last. "I can't remember. Maybe it has +been two or three days." + +Stuart, who held a cup of coffee in his hand, laughed. "The times have +been such that there are generals as well as lieutenants," he said, +"who can't remember when they've slept." + +"You're exhausted, my lad," said Lee gravely and kindly, "and there's +nothing more you can do for us just now. Take some breakfast with us, +and then you must sleep in one of the wagons. An orderly will look +after your horse." + +Lee handed him a cup of coffee with his own hand, and Harry, thanking +him, withdrew to the outer fringe of the little group, where he took +his breakfast, amazed to find how hungry he was, although he had not +thought of food before. Then without a word, as he saw that the +generals were engrossed in a conference, he withdrew. + +"You'll find Lieutenant Dalton of the staff in the covered wagon over +there," said the orderly who had taken his horse. "The general sent +him to it more'n two hours ago." + +"Then I'll be inside it in less than two minutes," said Harry. + +But with rest in sight he collapsed suddenly. His head fell forward of +its own weight. His feet became lead. Everything swam before his +eyes. He felt that he must sleep or die. But he managed to drag +himself to the wagon and climbed inside. Dalton lay in the center of +it so sound asleep that he was like one dead. Harry rolled him to one +side, making room for himself, and lay down beside him. Then his eyes +closed, and he, too, slept so soundly that he also looked like one dead. + +He was awakened by Dalton pulling at him. The young Virginian was +sitting up and looking at Harry with curiosity. He clapped his hands +when the Kentuckian opened his eyes. + +"Now I know that you're not dead," he said. "When I woke up and found +you lying beside me I thought they had just put your body in here for +safekeeping. As that's not the case, kindly explain to me and at once +what you're doing in my wagon." + +"I'm waking up just at present, but for an hour or two before that I +was sleeping." + +"Hour or two? Hour or two? Hear him! An orderly who I know is no +liar told me that you got in here just after dawn. Now kindly lift +that canvasflap, look out and tell me what you see." + +Harry did as he was told, and was amazed. The same rolling landscape +still met his eyes, and the sun was just about as high in the sky as it +was when he had climbed into the wagon. But it was in the west now +instead of the east. + +"See and know, young man!" said Dalton, paternally. "The entire day +has elapsed and here you have lain in ignorant slumber, careless of +everything, reckless of what might happen to the army. For twelve +hours General Lee has been without your advice, and how, lacking it, he +has got this far, Heaven alone knows." + +"It seems that he's pulled through, and, since I'm now awake, you can +hurry to him and tell him I'm ready to furnish the right plans to stop +the forthcoming Yankee invasion." + +"They'll keep another day, but we've certainly had a good sleep, Harry." + +"Yes, a provision or ammunition wagon isn't a bad place for a wornout +soldier. I remember I slept in another such as this in the Valley of +Virginia, when we were with Jackson." + +He stopped suddenly and choked. He could not mention the name of +Jackson, until long afterward, without something rising in his throat. + +The driver obscured a good deal of the front view, but he suddenly +turned a rubicund and smiling face upon them. + +"Waked up, hev ye?" he exclaimed. "Wa'al it's about time. I've looked +back from time to time an' I wuzn't at all shore whether you two +gen'rals wuz alive or dead. Sometimes when the wagon slanted a lot you +would roll over each other, but it didn't seem to make no diffunce. +Pow'ful good sleepers you are." + +"Yes," said Harry. "We're two of the original Seven Sleepers." + +"I don't doubt that you are two, but they wuz more'n seven." + +"How do you know?" + +"'Cause at least seven thousand in this train have been sleepin' as +hard as you wuz. I guess you mean the 'rig'nal Seventy Thousand +Sleepers." + +Harry's spirits had returned after his long sleep. He was a lad again. +The weight of Gettysburg no longer rested upon him. The Army of +Northern Virginia had merely made a single failure. It would strike +again and again, as hard as ever. + +"It's true that we've been slumbering," he said, "but we're as wide +awake now as ever, Mr. Driver." + +"My name ain't Driver," said the man. + +"Then what is it?" + +"Jones, Dick Jones, which I hold to be a right proper name." + +"Not romantic, but short, simple and satisfying." + +"I reckon so. Leastways, I've never wanted to change it. I'm from +No'th Calliny, an' I've been followin' Bobby Lee a pow'ful long +distance from home. Fine country up here in Pennsylvany, but I'd +ruther be back in them No'th Calliny mountains. You two young gen'rals +may think it's an easy an' safe job drivin' a wagon loaded with +ammunition. But s'pose you have to drive it right under fire, as you +most often have to do, an' then if a shell or somethin' like it hits +your wagon the whole thing goes off kerplunk, an' whar are you?" + +"It's a sudden an' easy death," said Dalton, philosophically. + +"Too sudden an' too easy. I don't mind tellin' you that seein' men +killed an' wounded is a spo't that's beginnin' to pall on me. Reckon +I've had enough of it to last me for the next thousand years. I've +forgot, if I ever knowed, what this war wuz started about. Say, young +fellers, I've got a wife back thar, a high-steppin', fine-lookin' gal +not more'n twenty years old--I'm just twenty-five myself, an' we've got +a year-old baby the cutest that wuz ever born. Now, when I wuz lookin' +at that charge of Pickett's men, an' the whole world wuz blazin' with +fire, an' all the skies wuz rainin' steel and lead, an' whar grass +growed before, nothin' but bayonets wuz growin' then, do you know what +I seed sometimes?" + +"What was it?" asked Harry. + +"Fur a secon' all that hell of fire an' smoke an' killin' would float +away, an' I seed our mountain, with the cove, an' the trees, an' the +green grass growin' in it, an' the branch, with the water so clear you +could see your face in it, runnin' down the center, an' thar at the +head of the cove my cabin, not much uv a buildin' to look at, no +towerin' mansion, but just a stout two-room log cabin that the snows +an' hails of winter can't break into, an' in the door wuz standin' Mary +with the hair flyin' about her face, an' her eyes shinin', with the +little feller in her arms, lookin' at me 'way off as I come walkin' +fast down the cove toward 'em, returnin' from the big war." + +There was a moment's silence, and Dalton said gruffly to hide his +feelings: + +"Dick Jones, by the time this war is over, and you go walking down the +cove toward your home, a man with mustache and side whiskers will come +forward to meet you, and he'll be that son of yours." + +But Dick Jones cheerfully shook his head. + +"The war ain't goin' to last that long," he said confidently, "an' I +ain't goin' to git killed. What I saw will come true, 'cause I feel it +so strong." + +"There ought to be a general law forbidding a man with a young wife and +baby to go to a war," said Harry. + +"But they ain't no sich law," said Dick Jones, in his optimistic tone, +"an' so we needn't worry 'bout it. But if you two gen'rals should +happen along through the mountains uv western No'th Calliny after the +war I'd like fur you to come to my cabin, an' see Mary an' the baby an' +me. Our cove is named Jones' Cove, after my father, an' the branch that +runs through it runs into Jones' Creek, an' Jones' Creek runs into the +Yadkin River an' our county is Yadkin. Oh, you could find it plumb +easy, if two sich great gen'rals as you wuzn't ashamed to eat sweet +pertaters an' ham an' turkey an' co'n pone with a wagon driver like me." + +Harry saw, despite his playful method of calling them generals, that he +was thoroughly in earnest, and he was more moved than he would have +been willing to confess. + +"Too proud!" he said. "Why, we'd be glad!" + +"Mebbe your road will lead that way," said Jones. "An' ef you do, jest +remember that the skillet's on the fire, an' the latch string is +hangin' outside the do'." + +The allusion to the mountains made Harry's mind travel far back, over +an almost interminable space of time now, it seemed, when he was yet a +novice in war, to the home of Sam Jarvis, deep in the Kentucky +mountains, and the old, old woman who had said to him as he left: "You +will come again, and you will be thin and pale, and in rags, and you +will fall at the door. I see you coming with these two eyes of mine." + +A little shiver passed over him. He knew that no one could penetrate +the future, but he shivered nevertheless, and he found himself saying +mechanically: + +"It's likely that I'll return through the mountains, and if so I'll +look you up at that home in the cove on the brook that runs into Jones' +Creek." + +"That bein' settled," said Jones, "what do you gen'rals reckon to do +jest now, after havin' finished your big sleep?" + +"Your wagon is about to lose the first two passengers it has ever +carried," replied Harry. "Orderlies have our horses somewhere. We +belong on the staff of General Lee." + +"An' you see him an' hear him talk every day? Some people are pow'ful +lucky. I guess you'll say a lot about it when you're old men." + +"We're going to say a lot about it while we're young men. Good-by, Mr. +Jones. We've been in some good hotels, but we never slept better in +any of them than we have in this moving one of yours." + +"Good-by, you're always welcome to it. I think Marse Bob is on ahead." + +The two left the wagon and took to a path beside the road, which was +muddy and rutted deeply by innumerable hoofs and wheels. But grass and +foliage were now dry after the heavy rains that followed the Battle of +Gettysburg, and the sun was shining in late splendor. The army, taking +the lack of pursuit and attack as proof that the enemy had suffered as +much as they, if not more, was in good spirits, and many of the men +sang their marching songs. A band ahead of them suddenly began to play +mellow music, "Partant Pour La Syrie," and other old French songs. The +airs became gay, festive, uplifting to the soul, and they tickled the +feet of the young men. + +"The Cajun band!" exclaimed Harry. "It never occurred to me that they +weren't all dead, and here they are, playing us into happiness!" + +"And the Invincibles, or what's left of them, won't be far away," said +Dalton. + +They walked on a little more briskly and beside them the vast length of +the unsuccessful army still trailed its slow way back into the South. +The sun was setting in uncommon magnificence, clothing everything in a +shower of gold, through which the lilting notes of the music came to +Harry and Dalton's ears. Presently the two saw them, the short, dark +men from far Louisiana, not so many as they had been, but playing with +all the fervor of old, putting their Latin souls into their music. + +"And there are the Invincibles just ahead of them!" exclaimed Dalton. +"The two colonels have left the wagon and are riding with their men. +See, how erect they sit." + +"I do see them, and they're a good sight to see," said Harry. "I hope +they'll live to finish that chess game." + +"And fifty years afterward, too." + +A shout of joy burst from the road, and a tall young man, slender, dark +and handsome, rushed out, and, seizing the hands of first one and then +the other, shook them eagerly, his dark eyes glittering with happy +surprise. + +"Kenton! Dalton!" he exclaimed. "Both alive! Both well!" + +It was young Julien de Langeais, the kinsman of Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire, and he too was unhurt. The lads returned his grasp +warmly. They could not have kept from liking him had they tried, and +they certainly did not wish to try. + +"You don't know how it rejoices me to see you," said Julien, speaking +very fast. "I was sad! very sad! Some of my best friends have +perished back there in those inhospitable Pennsylvania hills, and while +the band was playing it made me think of the homes they will never see +any more! Don't think I'm effusive and that I show grief too much, but +my heart has been very heavy! Alas, for the brave lads!" + +"Come, come, de Langeais," said Harry, putting his hand on his +shoulder. "You've no need to apologize for sorrow. God knows we all +have enough of it, but a lot of us are still alive and here's an army +ready to fight again, whenever the enemy says the word." + +"True! True!" exclaimed de Langeais, changing at once from shadow to +sunshine. "And when we're back in Virginia we'll turn our faces once +more to our foe!" + +He took a step or two on the grass in time to the music which was now +that of a dance, and the brilliant beams of the setting sun showed a +face without a care. Invincible youth and the invincible gayety of the +part of the South that was French were supreme again. Dalton, looking +at him, shook his Presbyterian head. Yet his eyes expressed admiration. + +"I know your feelings," said Harry to the Virginian. + +"Well, what are they?" + +"You don't approve of de Langeais' lightness, which in your stern code +you would call levity, and yet you envy him possession of it. You +don't think it's right to be joyous, without a care, and yet you know +it would be mighty pleasant. You criticize de Langeais a little, but +you feel it would be a gorgeous thing to have that joyous spirit of +his." + +Dalton laughed. + +"You're pretty near the truth," he said. "I haven't known de Langeais +so very long, but if he were to get killed I'd feel that I had lost a +younger brother." + +"So would I." + +Two immaculate youths, riding excellent horses, approached them, and +favored them with a long and supercilious stare. + +"Can the large fair person be Lieutenant Kenton of the staff of the +commander-in-chief?" asked St. Clair. + +"It can be and it is, although we did not think to see him again so +soon," replied Happy Tom Langdon, "and the other--I do not allude to de +Langeais--is that spruce and devout young man, Lieutenant George +Dalton, also of the staff of the commander-in-chief." + +"Why do we find them in such humble plight, walking on weary feet in a +path beside the road?" + +"For the most excellent reason in the world, Arthur." + +"And what may that reason be, Tom?" + +"Because at last they have come down to their proper station in life, +just as surely as water finds its level." + +"But we'll not treat them too sternly. We must remember that they also +serve who walk and wait." + +But St. Clair and Langdon, their chaff over, gave them happy greeting, +and told them that the two colonels would be rejoiced to see them +again, if they could spare a few minutes before rejoining their +commander. + +"And here is an orderly with both your horses," said St. Clair, "so, +under the circumstances, we'll sink our pride and let you ride with us." + +De Langeais, with a cheerful farewell until the next day, returned to +his command, and Harry and Dalton, mounting, were in a few minutes +beside the Invincibles. Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire turned their horses from the road into the path and +saluted them with warmth. + +"We caught a glimpse of you just after our departure, Harry," said +Colonel Talbot, "but we did not know what had happened since. There is +always a certain amount of risk attending the removal of a great army." + +"I am glad, Leonidas, that you used the word 'removal' to describe our +operations after our great victory at Gettysburg," said +Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. "I have been feeling about for the +right word or phrase myself, but you have found it first." + +"Do you think it was a victory, sir?" asked Harry. + +"Undoubtedly. We have won several vast and brilliant triumphs, but +this is the greatest of them all. We have gone far into the enemy's +country, where we have struck him a terrible blow, and now, of our own +choice--understand it is of our own choice--we withdraw and challenge +him to come and repeat on our own soil our exploit if he can. It is +like a skilled and daring prize fighter who leaps back and laughingly +bids his foe come on. Am I not right, Leonidas?" + +"Neither Aristotle nor Plato was ever more right, Hector, old friend. +Usually there is more to a grave affair than appears upon the surface. +We could have gone on, after the battle, to Philadelphia, had we +chosen, but it was not alone a question of military might that General +Lee had to decide. He was bound to give weight to some very subtle +considerations. You boys remember your Roman history, do you not?" + +"Fragments of it, sir," replied Harry. + +"Then you will recall that Hannibal, a fine general, to be named +worthily with our great Lee so far as military movements are concerned, +after famous victories over greatly superior numbers of Romans, went +into camp at Capua, crowded with beauty, wine and games, and the +soldiers became enervated. Their fiber was weakened and their bodies +softened. They were quicker to heed the call to a banquet than the +call to arms." + +"Unless it was the arms of beauty, Leonidas." + +"Well spoken, Hector. The correction is most important, and I accept +it. But to take up again the main thread of my discourse. General Lee +undoubtedly had the example of the Carthaginian army and Capua in mind +when he left Gettysburg and returned toward the South. Philadelphia is +a great city, far larger and richer than any in our section. It is +filled with magnificent houses, beautiful women, luxury of every +description, ease and softness. Our brave lads, crowned with mighty +exploits and arriving there as conquerors, would have been received +with immense admiration, although we are official enemies. And the +head of youth is easily turned. The Army of Northern Virginia, +emerging from Philadelphia, to achieve the conquest of New York and +Boston would not be the army that it is to-day. It would lack some of +that fire and dash, some of the extraordinary courage and tenacity +which have enabled it to surpass the deeds of the veterans of Hannibal +and Napoleon." + +"But, sir, I've heard that the people of Philadelphia are mostly +Quakers, very sober in dress and manner." + +"Harry, my lad, when you've lived as long as I have you will know that +a merry heart may beat beneath a plain brown dress, and that an ugly +hood cannot wholly hide a sweet and saucy face. The girls--God bless +'em--have been the same in all lands since the world began, and will +continue so to the end. While this war is on you boys cannot go +a-courting, either in the North or South. Am I not right, Hector, old +friend?" + +"Right, as always, Leonidas. I perceive, though, that the sun is about +to set; not a new thing, I admit, but we must not delay our young +friends, when the general perhaps needs them." + +"Well spoken again, Hector. You are an unfailing fount of wisdom. Good +night, my brave lads. Not many of the Invincibles are left, but every +one of them is a true friend of you both." + +As they rode across the darkening fields Harry and Dalton knew that the +colonel spoke the truth about the Invincibles. + +"I like a faith such as theirs," said Dalton. + +"Yes, it can often turn defeat into real victory." + +They quickly found the general's headquarters, and as usual, whenever +the weather permitted, he had made arrangements to sleep in the open +air, his blankets spread upon soft boughs. Harry and Dalton, having +slept all day, would be on night duty, and after supper they sat at a +little distance, awaiting orders. + +Coolness had come with the dark. A good moon and swarms of bright +stars rode in the heavens, turning the skies to misty silver, and +softening the scars of the army, which now lay encamped over a great +space. Lee was talking with Stuart, who evidently had just arrived +from a swift ride, as an orderly near by was holding his horse, covered +with foam. The famous cavalryman was clothed in his gorgeous best. +His hat was heavy with gold braid, and the broad sash about his waist +was heavy with gold, also. Dandy he was, but brilliant cavalryman and +great soldier too! Both friend and foe had said so. + +Harry, sitting on the grass, with his back against a tree, watched the +two generals as they talked long and earnestly. Now and then Stuart +nervously switched the tops of his own high riding boots with the +little whip that he carried, but the face of Lee, revealed clearly in +the near twilight, remained grave and impassive. + +After a long while Stuart mounted and rode away, and Sherburne, who had +been sitting among the trees on the far side of the fire, came over and +joined Harry and Dalton. He too was very grave. + +"Do you know what has happened?" he said in a low tone to the two lads. + +"Yes, there was a big battle at Gettysburg, and as we failed to win it +we're now retreating," replied Harry. + +"That's true as far as it goes, but it's not all. We've heard--and the +news is correct beyond a doubt--that Grant has taken Vicksburg and +Pemberton's army with it." + +"Good God, Sherburne, it can't be so!" + +"It shouldn't be so, but it is! Oh, why did Pemberton let himself be +trapped in such a way! A whole army of ours lost and our greatest +fortress in the West taken! Why, the Yankee men-of-war can steam up +the Mississippi untouched, all the way from the Gulf to Minnesota." + +Harry and Dalton were appalled, and, for a little while, were silent. + +"I knew that man Grant would do something terrible to us," Harry said +at last. "I've heard from my people in Kentucky what sort of a general +he is. My father was at Shiloh, where we had a great victory on, but +Grant wouldn't admit it, and held on, until another Union army came up +and turned our victory into defeat. My cousin, Dick Mason, has been +with Grant a lot, and I used to get a letter from him now and then, +even if he is in the Yankee army. He says that when Grant takes hold +of a thing he never lets go, and that he'll win the war for his side." + +"Your cousin may be right about Grant's hanging on," said Dalton with +sudden angry emphasis, "but neither he nor anybody else will win this +war for the Yankees. We've lost Vicksburg, and an army with it, and +we've retreated from Gettysburg, with enough men fallen there to make +another army, but they'll never break through the iron front of Lee and +his veterans." + +"Hope you're right," said Sherburne, "but I'm off now. I'm in the +saddle all night with my troop. We've got to watch the Yankee cavalry. +Custer and Pleasanton and the rest of them have learned to ride in a +way that won't let Jeb Stuart himself do any nodding." + +He cantered off and the lads sat under the trees, ready for possible +orders. They saw the fire die. They heard the murmur of the camp +sink. Lee lay down on his bed of boughs, other generals withdrew to +similar beds or to tents, and the two boys still sat under the trees, +waiting and watching, and never knowing at what moment they would be +needed. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE NORTHERN SPY + + +But the night remained very quiet. Harry and Dalton, growing tired of +sitting, walked about the camp, and looked again to their horses, +which, saddled and bridled, were nevertheless allowed to nip the grass +as best they could at the end of their lariats. The last embers of the +fire went out, but the moon and stars remained bright, and they saw +dimly the sleeping forms of Lee and his generals. Harry, who had seen +nothing strange in Meade's lack of pursuit, now wondered at it. Surely +when the news of Vicksburg came the exultant Army of the Potomac would +follow, and try to deliver a crushing blow. + +It was revealed to him as he stood silent in the moonlight that a gulf +had suddenly yawned before the South. The slash of Grant's sword in +the West had been terrible, and the wound that it made could not be +cured easily. And the Army of Northern Virginia had not only failed in +its supreme attempt, but a great river now flowed between it and +Virginia. If the Northern leaders, gathering courage anew, should hurl +their masses upon Lee's retreating force, neither skill nor courage +might avail to save them. He suddenly beheld the situation in all its +desperation; he shivered from head to foot. + +Dalton saw the muscles of Harry's face quivering, and he noticed a +pallor that came for an instant. + +"I understand," he said. "I had thought of it already. If a Northern +general like Lee or Stonewall Jackson were behind us we might never get +back across the Potomac. It's somewhat the same position that we were +in after Antietam." + +"But we've no Stonewall Jackson now to help us." + +Again that lump rose in Harry's throat. The vision of the sober figure +on Little Sorrel, leading his brigades to victory, came before him, but +it was a vision only. + +"It's strange that we've not come in contact with their scouts or +cavalry," he said. "In that fight with Pleasanton we saw what horsemen +they've become, and a force of some kind must be hanging on our rear." + +"If it's there, Sherburne and his troop will find it." + +"I think I can detect signs of the enemy now," said Harry, putting his +glasses to his eyes. "See that hill far behind us. Can't you catch +the gleam of lights on it?" + +"I think I can," replied Dalton, also using glasses. "Four lights are +there, and they are winking, doubtless to lights on another hill too +far away for us to see." + +"It shows that the enemy at least is watching, and that while we may +retreat unattacked it will not be unobserved. Hark! do you hear that, +George? It's rifle shots, isn't it?" + +"Yes, and a lot of 'em, but they're a long distance away. I don't +think we could hear 'em at all if it were not night time." + +"But it means something! There they go again! I believe it's a heavy +skirmish and it's in the direction in which Sherburne rode." + +"The general's up. It's likely that one of us will be sent to see what +it's all about." + +General Lee and his whole staff had risen and were listening +attentively. The faint sound of many shots still came, and then a +sharper, more penetrating crash, as if light field guns were at work. +The commander beckoned to Harry. + +"Ride toward it," he said briefly, "and return with a report as soon as +you can." + +Harry touched his cap, sprang upon his horse and galloped away. He +knew that other messengers would be dispatched also, but, as he had +been sent first, he wished to arrive first. He found a path among the +trees along which he could make good speed, and, keeping his mind fixed +on the firing, he sped forward. + +Thousands of soldiers lay asleep in the woods and fields on either side +of him, but the thud of the horse's hoofs awakened few of them. Nor +did the firing disturb them. They had fought a great battle three days +long, and then after a tense day of waiting under arms, they had +marched hard. What to them was the noise made by an affair of outposts, +when they had heard so long the firing of a hundred and fifty thousand +rifles and three or four hundred big guns? Not one in a hundred stood +up to see. + +The country grew rougher, and Harry was compelled to draw his horse +down to a walk. But the firing, a half-mile or more ahead, maintained +its volume, and as he approached through thick underbrush, being able +to find no other way, he dismounted and led his horse. Presently he +saw beads of flame appearing among the bushes, seen a moment, then gone +like a firefly, and as he went further he heard voices. He had no +doubt that it was the Southern pickets in the undergrowth, and, calling +softly, he received confirmatory replies. + +A rifleman, a tall, slender fellow in ragged butternut, appeared beside +him, and, recognizing Harry's near-gray uniform as that of an officer, +said: + +"They're dismounted cavalry on the other side of a creek that runs +along over there among the bushes. I don't think they mean any real +attack. They expect to sting us a little an' find out what we're about." + +"Seems likely to me too. They aren't strong enough, of course, for an +attempt at rushing us. What troops are in here in the woods on our +side?" + +"Captain Sherburne's cavalry, sir. They're a bit to our right, an' +they're dismounted too. You'll find the captain himself on a little +knoll about a hundred yards away." + +"Thanks," said Harry, and leading his horse he reached the knoll, to +find the rifleman's statement correct. Sherburne was kneeling behind +some bushes, trying with the aid of glasses and moonlight to pick out +the enemy. + +"That you, Harry?" he said, glancing back. + +"Yes, Captain. The general has sent me to see what you and the rest of +you noisy fellows are doing." + +"Shooting across a creek at an enemy who first shot at us. It's only +under provocation that we've roused the general and his staff from +sleep. Use your glasses and see what you can make out in those bushes +on the other side! Keep down, Harry! For Heaven's sake keep down! +That bullet didn't miss you more than three inches. You wouldn't be +much loss to the army, of course, but you're my personal friend." + +"Thanks for your advice. I intend to stay so far down that I'll lie +almost flat." + +He meant to keep his word, too. The warning had been a stern one. +Evidently the sharpshooters who lay in the thickets on the Union side +of the creek were of the first quality. + +"There's considerable moonlight," whispered Sherburne, "and you mustn't +expose an inch of your face. I take it that we have Custer's cavalry +over there, mixed with a lot of scouts and skirmishers from the +Northwest, Michigan and Wisconsin, most likely. They're the boys who +can use the rifles in the woods. Had to do it before they came here, +and they're a bad lot to go up against." + +"It's a pretty heavy fire for a mere scouting party. If they want to +discover our location they can do it without wasting so much powder and +lead." + +"I think it's more than a scout. They must have discovered long since +just where we are. I imagine they mean to shake our nerve by constant +buzzing and stinging. I fancy that Meade and his generals after +deciding not to pursue us have changed their minds, perhaps under +pressure from Washington, and mean to cut us off if they can." + +"A little late." + +"But not too late. We're still in the enemy's country. The whole +population is dead against us, and we can't make a move that isn't +known within an hour to the Union leaders. I tell you, Harry, that if +we didn't have a Lee to lead I'd be afraid that we'd never get out of +Pennsylvania." + +"But we have a Lee and the question is settled. What a volley that +was! Didn't you feel the twigs and leaves falling on your face?" + +"Yes, it went directly over our heads. It's a good thing we're lying +so close. Perhaps they intend to force a passage of the creek and +stampede at least a portion of our camp." + +"And you're here to prevent it." + +"I am. They can't cross that creek in face of our fire. We're good +night-hawks. Every boy in the South knows the night and the woods, and +here in the bush we're something like Indians." + +"I'm the descendant of a famous Indian fighter myself," said Harry. And +there, surrounded by deep gloom and danger, the spirit of his mighty +ancestor, the great Henry Ware, descended upon him once more. An +orderly had taken their horses to the rear, where they would be out of +range of the bullets, and, as they crouched low in the bushes, +Sherburne looked curiously at him. + +Harry's face as he turned from the soldier to the Indian fighter of old +had changed. To Sherburne's fascinated gaze the eyes seemed amazingly +vivid and bright, like those of one who has learned to see in the dark. +The complexion was redder--Henry Ware had always burned red instead of +brown--like that of one who sleeps oftener in the open air than in a +house. His whole look was dominant, compelling and fierce, as he +leaned on his elbows and studied the opposing thickets through his +glasses. + +The glasses even did not destroy the illusion. To Sherburne, who had +learned Harry's family history, the great Henry Ware was alive, and in +the flesh before him. He felt with all the certainty of truth that the +Union skirmishers in the thicket could not escape the keen eyes that +sought them out. + +"I can see at least twenty men creeping about among the bushes, and +seeking chances for shots," whispered Harry. + +"I knew that you would see them." + +It was Harry's turn to give a look of curiosity. + +"What do you mean, Captain?" he asked. + +"I knew that you had good eyes and I believed that with the aid of the +glasses you would be able to trace figures, despite the shelter of the +bushes. Study the undergrowth again, will you, Harry, and tell me what +more you can see there?" + +"I don't need to study it. I can tell at one look that they're +gathering a force. Maybe they mean to rush the creek at a shallow +place." + +"Is that force moving in any direction?" + +"Yes, it's going down the creek." + +"Then we'll go down the creek with it. We mustn't be lacking in +hospitality." + +Sherburne drew a whistle from his pocket and blew a low call upon it. +Scores of shadowy figures rose from the undergrowth, and followed his +lead down the stream. Harry was still able to see that the force on +the other side was increasing largely in numbers, but Sherburne +reminded him that his duties, as far as the coming skirmish was +concerned, were over. + +"General Lee didn't send you here to get killed," he said. "He wants +you instead to report how many of us get killed. You know that while +the general is a kind man he can be stern, too, and you're not to take +the risk. The orderly is behind that hill with your horse and mine." + +Harry, with a sigh, fell back toward the hill. But he did not yet go +behind it, where the orderly stood. Instead he lay down among the +trees on the slope, where he could watch what was going forward, and +once more his face turned to the likeness of the great Indian fighter. + +He saw Sherburne's dismounted troop and others, perhaps five hundred in +all, moving slowly among the bushes parallel with the stream, and he +saw a force which he surmised to be of about equal size, creeping along +in the undergrowth on the other side. He followed both bodies with his +glasses. With long looking everything became clearer and clearer. The +moonlight had to him almost the brilliancy of day. + +His eyes followed the Union force, until it came to a point where the +creek ran shallow over pebbles. Then the Union leader raised his +sword, uttered a cry of command, and the whole force dashed at the +ford. The cry met its response in an order from Sherburne, and the +thickets flamed with the Southern rifles. + +The advantage was wholly with the South, standing on the defense in +dark undergrowth, and the Union troop, despite its desperate attempts +at the ford, was beaten back with great loss. + +Harry waited until the result was sure, and then he walked slowly over +the hill toward the point, where the orderly was waiting with the +horses. The man, who knew him, handed him the reins of his mount, +saying at the same time: + +"I've a note for you, sir." + +"For me?" + +"Yes, sir. It was handed to me about fifteen minutes ago by a large +man in our uniform, whom I didn't know." + +"Probably a dispatch that I'm to carry to General Lee." + +"No, sir. It's addressed to you." + +The note was written in pencil on a piece of coarse gray paper, folded +several times, but with a face large enough to show Harry's name upon +it. He wondered, but said nothing to the sentinel, and did not look at +the note again, until he had ridden some distance. + +He stopped in a little glade where the moonlight fell clearly. He +still heard scattered firing behind him, but he knew that the skirmish +was in reality over, and he concluded that no further attempt by Union +detachments to advance would be made in the face of such vigilance. He +could report to General Lee that the rear of his army was safe. So he +would delay and look at the letter that had come to him out of the +mysterious darkness. + +The superscription was in a large, bold hand, and read: + + + LIEUTENANT HARRY KENTON, + STAFF OF GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, C. S. A., + COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, + ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA. + + +He felt instinctively that something uncommon was coming, and, as most +people do when they are puzzled at the appearance of a letter, he +looked at it some seconds before opening it. Then he read: + +MR. KENTON: + +I have warned you twice before, once when Jefferson Davis was +inaugurated at Montgomery, and once again in Virginia. I told you that +the South could never win. I told you that she might achieve brilliant +victories, and she may achieve them even yet, but they will avail her +nothing. Victories permit her to maintain her position for the time +being, but they do not enable her to advance. A single defeat causes +her to lose ground that she can never regain. + +I tell you this as a warning. Although your enemy, I have seen you +more than once and talked with you. I like you and would save your +life if I could. I would induce you, if I could, to leave the army and +return to your home, but that I know to be impossible. So, I merely +tell you that you are fighting for a cause now lost. Perhaps it is +pride on my part to remind you that my early predictions have come +true, and perhaps it is a wish that the thought I may plant in your +mind will spread to others. You have lost at Gettysburg a hope and an +offensive that you can never regain, and Grant at Vicksburg has given a +death blow to the Western half of the Confederacy. + +As for you, I wish you well. + + WILLIAM J. SHEPARD. + + +Harry stared in amazement at this extraordinary communication, and read +it over two or three times. He was not surprised that Shepard should +be near, and that he should have been inside the Confederate lines, but +that he should leave a letter, and such a letter, for him was uncanny. +His first feeling, wonder, was succeeded by anger. Did Shepard really +think that he could influence him in such a way, that he could plant in +his mind a thought that would spread to others of his age and rank and +weaken the cause for which he fought? It was a singular idea, but +Shepard was a singular man. + +But perhaps pride in recalling the prediction that he had made long ago +was Shepard's stronger motive, and Harry took fire at that also. The +Confederacy was not beaten. A single defeat--no, it was not a defeat, +merely a failure to win--was not mortal, and as for the West, the +Confederacy would gather itself together there and overwhelm Grant! + +Then came a new emotion, a kind of gratitude to Shepard. The man was +really a friend, and would do him a service, if it could be done, +without injuring his own cause! He could not feel any doubt of it, +else the spy would not have taken the risk to send him such a letter. +He read it for the last time, then tore it into little pieces which he +entrusted to the winds. + +The firing behind him had died completely, and there was no sound but +the rustle of dry leaves in the light wind, nothing to tell that there +had been sharp fighting along the creek, and that men lay dead in the +forest. The moon and the stars clothed everything in a whitish light, +that seemed surcharged with a powerful essence, and this essence was +danger. + +The spirit of the great forest ranger descended upon him once more, and +he read the omens, all of which were sinister. He foresaw terrible +campaigns, mighty battles in the forest, and a roll of the dead so long +that it seemed to stretch away into infinity. + +Then he shook himself violently, cast off the spell, and rode rapidly +back with his report. Lee had risen and was standing under a tree. He +was fully dressed and his uniform was trim and unwrinkled. Harry +thought anew as he rode up, what a magnificent figure he was. He was +the only great man he ever saw who really looked his greatness. +Nothing could stir that calm. Nothing could break down that loftiness +of manner. Harry was destined to feel then, as he felt many times +afterward, that without him the South had never a chance. And the +choking came in his throat again, as he thought of him who was gone, of +him who had been the right arm of victory, the hammer of Thor. + +But he hid all these feelings as he quickly dismounted and saluted the +commander-in-chief. + +"What have you seen, Lieutenant Kenton?" asked Lee. + +"A considerable detachment of the enemy tried to force the passage of +the creek in our right rear. They were met by Captain Sherburne's +troop dismounted, and three companies of infantry, and were driven back +after a sharp fight." + +"Very good. Captain Sherburne is an alert officer." + +He turned away, and Harry, giving his horse to an orderly, again +resumed his old position under a tree, out of hearing of the generals, +but in sight. Dalton was not there, but he knew that skirmishing had +occurred in other directions, and doubtless the Virginian had been sent +on an errand like his own. + +He had a sense of rest and realization as he leaned back against the +tree. But it was mental tension, not physical, for which relief came, +and Shepard, much more than the battle at the creek, was in his +thoughts. + +The strong personality of the spy and his seeming omniscience oppressed +him again. Apparently he was able to go anywhere, and nothing could be +hidden from him. He might be somewhere in the circling shadows at that +very moment, watching Lee and his lieutenants. His pulses leaped. +Shepard had achieved an extraordinary influence over him, and he was +prepared to believe the impossible. + +He stood up and stared into the bushes, but sentinels stood there, and +no human being could pass their ring unseen. Presently Dalton came, +made a brief report to General Lee and joined his comrade. Harry was +glad of his arrival. The presence of a comrade brought him back to +earth and earth's realities. The sinister shadows that oppressed him +melted away and he saw only the ordinary darkness of a summer night. + +The two sat side by side. Dalton perhaps drew as much strength as +Harry from the comradeship, and they watched other messengers arrive +with dispatches, some of whom rolled themselves in their blankets at +once, and went to sleep, although three, who had evidently slept in the +day, joined Harry and Dalton in their vigil. + +Harry saw that the commander-in-chief was holding a council at that +hour, nearer morning than midnight. A general kicked some of the +pieces of burned wood together and fanned them into a light flame, +enough to take away the slight chill that was coming with the morning. +The men stood around it, and talked a long time, although it seemed to +Harry that Lee said least. Nevertheless his tall figure dominated them +all. Now and then Harry saw his face in the starshine, and it bore its +habitual grave and impassive look. + +The youth did not hear a word that was said, but his imaginative power +enabled him to put himself in the place of the commander-in-chief. He +knew that no man, however great his courage, could fail to appreciate +his position in the heart of a hostile country, with a lost field +behind him, and with superior numbers hovering somewhere in his rear or +on his flank. He realized then to the full the critical nature of +their position and what a mighty task Lee had to save the army. + +One of his young comrades whispered to him that the Potomac, the +barrier between North and South, was rising, flooded by heavy rains in +both mountains and lowlands, and that a body of Northern cavalry had +already destroyed a pontoon bridge built by the South across it. They +might be hemmed in, with their backs to an unfordable river, and an +enemy two or three times as numerous in front. + +"Don't you worry," whispered Dalton, with sublime confidence. "The +general will take us to Virginia." + +Harry projected his imagination once more. He sought to put himself in +the place of Lee, receiving all the reports and studying them, trying +to measure space that could not be measured, and to weigh a total that +could not be weighed. Greatness and responsibility were compelled to +pay thrice over for themselves, and he was glad that he was only a +young lieutenant, the chief business of whom was to fetch and carry +orders. + +Shafts of sunlight were piercing the eastern foliage when the council +broke up, and shortly after daylight the Southern army was again on the +march, with Northern cavalry and riflemen hanging on its flanks and +rear. Harry was permitted to rejoin, for a while, his friends of the +Invincibles and he found Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire riding very erect, a fine color in their faces. + +"You come from headquarters, Harry, and therefore you are omniscient," +said Colonel Talbot. "We heard firing in the night. What did it mean?" + +"Only skirmishers, Colonel. I think they wanted to annoy us, but they +paid the price." + +"Inevitably. Our general is as dangerous in retreat as in advance. I +fancy that General Meade will not bring up his lagging forces until we +near the Potomac." + +"They say it's rising, sir, and that it will be very hard to cross." + +"That creates a difficulty but not an impossibility. Ordinary men +yield to difficulties, men like our commander-in-chief are overcome +only by impossibilities. But the further we go, Harry, the more +reconciled I grow to our withdrawal. I have seen scarcely a friendly +face among the population. I would not have us thrust ourselves upon +people who do not like us. It would go very hard with our kindly +Southern nature to have to rule by force over people who are in fact +our brethren. Defensive wars are the just wars, and perhaps it will be +really better for us to retire to Virginia and protect its sacred soil +from the tread of the invader. Eh, Hector?" + +"Right, as usual, Leonidas. The reasons for our retirement are most +excellent. We have already spoken of the fact that Philadelphia might +prove a Capua for our young troops, and now we are relieved from the +chance of appearing as oppressors. It can never be said of us by the +people of Pennsylvania that we were tyrants. It's an invidious task to +rule over the unwilling, even when one rules with justice and wisdom. +It's strange, perhaps, Leonidas, but it's a universal truth, that +people would rather be ruled by themselves in a second rate manner than +by the foreigner in a first rate manner. Now, the government of our +states is attacked by Northern critics, but such as it is, it is ours +and it's our first choice. Do we bore you, Harry?" + +"Not at all, sir. I never listen to either you or Colonel Talbot +without learning something." + +The two colonels bowed politely. + +"I have wished for some time to speak to you about a certain matter, +Hector," said Colonel Talbot. + +"What is it, Leonidas?" + +"During the height of that tremendous artillery fire from Little Round +Top I was at a spot where I could see the artillerymen very well +whenever the smoke lifted. Several times, I noticed an officer +directing the fire of the guns, and I don't think I could have been +mistaken in his identity." + +"No, Leonidas, you were not. I too observed him, and we could not +possibly be mistaken. It was John Carrington, of course." + +"Dear old John Carrington, who was with us at West Point, the greatest +artilleryman in the world. And he was facing us, when the fortunes of +the South were turning on a hair. If any other man had been there, +directing those guns, we might have taken Cemetery Hill." + +"That's true, Leonidas, but it was not possible for any other man to be +in such a place at such a time. Granting that such a crisis should +arise and that it should arise at Gettysburg you and I would have known +long before that John would be there with the guns to stop us. Why, we +saw that quality in him all the years we were with him at West Point. +The world has never seen and never will see another such artilleryman +as John Carrington." + +"Good old John. I hope he wasn't killed." + +"And I hope so too, from the bottom of my heart. But we'll know before +many days." + +"How will you find out?" asked Harry curiously. + +Both colonels laughed genially. + +"Because he will send us signs, unmistakable signs," replied Colonel +Talbot. + +"I don't understand, sir." + +"His signs will be shells, shrapnel and solid shot. We may not have a +battle this week or next week, but a big one is bound to come some time +or other and then if any section of the Northern artillery shows +uncommon deadliness and precision we'll know that Carrington is there. +Why, we can recognize his presence as readily as the deer scents the +hunter. We'll have many notes to compare with him when the war is over." + +Harry sincerely hoped that the three would meet in friendship around +some festive table, and he was moved by the affection and admiration +the two colonels held for Carrington. Doubtless the great +artilleryman's feelings toward them were the same. + +They went into camp once more that night in a pleasant rolling country +of high hills, rich valleys, scattered forests, and swift streams of +clear water. Harry liked this Northern land, which was yet not so far +from the South. It was not more beautiful than his own Kentucky, but +it was much trimmer and neater than the states toward the Gulf. He saw +all about him the evidences of free labor, the proof that man worked +more readily, and with better results, when success or failure were all +his own. + +He was too young to spend much time in concentrated thinking, but as he +looked upon the neat Pennsylvania houses and farms and the cultivated +fields he felt the curse of black slavery in the South, but he felt +also that it was for the South itself to abolish it, and not for the +armed hand of the outsider, an outsider to whom its removal meant no +financial loss and dislocation. + +Despite himself his mind dwelt upon these things longer than before. He +disliked slavery, his father disliked it, and nearly all their friends +and relatives, and here they were fighting for it, as one of the two +great reasons of the Civil War. He felt anew how strangely things come +about, and that even the wisest cannot always choose their own courses +as they wish them. + +A fire, chiefly for cooking purposes, had been built for the general +and his staff in a cove surrounded by trees. A small cold spring +gushed from the side of a hill, flowed down the center of the cove, and +then made its way through the trees into the wider world beyond. It +was a fine little spring, and before the general came, the younger +members of the staff knelt and drank deeply at it. It brought thoughts +of home to all these young rovers of the woods, who had drunk a +thousand times before at just such springs as this. + +Soon Lee and his generals sat there on the stones or on the moss. +Longstreet, Stuart, Pickett, Alexander, Ewell, Early, Hill and many +others, some suffering from wounds, were with their commander, while +the young officers who were to fetch and carry sat on the fringe in the +woods, or stretched themselves on the turf. + +Harry was in the group, but except in extreme emergency he would not be +on duty that night, as he had already been twenty-four hours in the +saddle. Nevertheless he was not yet sleepy, and lying on his blanket, +he watched the leaders confer, as they had conferred every other night +since the Battle of Gettysburg. He was aware, too, that the air was +heavy with suspense and anxiety. He breathed it in at every breath. +Cruel doubt was not shown by words or actions, but it was an atmosphere +which one could not mistake. + +Word had been brought in the afternoon by hard riders of Stuart that +the Potomac was still rising. It could not be forded and the active +Northern cavalry was in between, keeping advanced parties of the +Southern army from laying pontoons. Every day made the situation more +desperate, and it could not be hidden from the soldiers, who, +nevertheless, marched cheerfully on, in the sublime faith that Lee +would carry them through. + +Harry knew that if the Army of the Potomac was not active in pursuit +its cavalrymen and skirmishers were. As on the night before, he heard +the faint report of shots, and he knew that rough work was going +forward along the doubtful line, where the fringes of the two armies +almost met. But hardened so much was he that he fell asleep while the +generals were still in anxious council, and the fitful firing continued +in the distant dark. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FLOODED RIVER + + +Harry and Dalton were aroused before daylight by Colonel Peyton of +Lee's staff, with instructions to mount at once, and join a strong +detachment, ready to go ahead and clear a way. Sherburne's troop would +lead. The Invincibles, for whom mounts had been obtained, would follow. +There were fragments of other regiments, the whole force amounting to +about fifteen hundred men, under the command of Sherburne, who had been +raised the preceding afternoon to the rank of Colonel, and whose skill +and valor were so well known that such veterans as Colonel Talbot and +Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire were glad to serve under him. Harry and +Dalton would represent the commander-in-chief, and would return +whenever Colonel Sherburne thought fit to report to him. + +Harry was glad to go. While he had his periods of intense thought, and +his character was serious, he was like his great ancestor, essentially +a creature of action. His blood flowed more swiftly with the beat of +his horse's hoofs, and his spirits rose as the free air of the fields +and forests rushed past him. Moreover he was extremely anxious to see +what lay ahead. If barriers were there he wanted to look upon them. If +the Union cavalry were trying to keep them from laying bridges across +the Potomac he wanted to help drive them away. + +Harry and Dalton had a right as aides and messengers of Lee to ride +with Sherburne, but before they joined him they rode among the +Invincibles, who were in great feather, because they too, for the time +being, rode, and toiled in neither dust nor mud. + +"Colonel Sherburne may think a good deal of his own immediate troop," +said St. Clair to Harry, "but if the men of the Invincibles could +achieve so much on foot they'll truly deserve their name on horseback. +Where is this enemy of ours? Lead us to him." + +"You'll find him soon enough," said Harry. "You South Carolina talkers +have learned many times that the Yankees will fight." + +"Yes, Harry, I admit it freely. But you must admit on your part that +the South Carolinians will fight as well as talk, although at present +most of the South Carolinians in this regiment are Virginians." + +"But not our colonel and lieutenant-colonel," said Happy Tom. "Real +old South Carolina still leads." + +"May they always lead!" said Harry heartily, looking at the two gray +figures. + +"Tell Colonel Sherburne," said Happy Tom, who was in splendid spirits, +"that we congratulate him on his promotion and are ready to obey him +without question." + +"All right. He'll be glad to know that he has your approval." + +"He might have the approval of worse men. I feel surging within me the +talents of a great general, but I'm too young to get 'em recognized." + +"You'll have to wait until the sections are not fighting each other, +but are united against a common foe. But meanwhile I'll tell Colonel +Sherburne that if he gets into a tight pinch not to lose heart as you +are here." + +Saluting Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire, Harry and +Dalton rode to the head of the column, where Sherburne led. They ate +their breakfast on horseback, and went swiftly down a valley in the +general direction of the Potomac. The dawn had broadened into full +morning, clear and bright, save for a small cloud that hung low in the +southwest, which Sherburne noticed with a frown. + +"That's a little cloud and it looks innocent," he said to Harry, "but I +don't like it." + +"Why not?" + +"Because in the ten minutes that I've been watching it I've been able +to notice growth. I'm weather-wise and we may have more rain. More +rain means a higher Potomac. A higher Potomac means more difficulty in +crossing it. More difficulty in crossing it means more danger of our +destruction, and our destruction would mean the end of the Confederacy." + +He spoke with deadly earnestness as he continued to look at the tiny +dusky spot on the western sky. Harry had a feeling of awe. Again he +realized that such mighty issues could turn upon a single hair. The +increase or decrease of that black splotch might mean the death or life +of the Confederacy. As he rode he watched it. + +His heart sank slowly. The little baby cloud, looking so harmless, was +growing. He said to himself in anger that it was not, but he knew that +it was. Black at the center, it radiated in every direction until it +became pale gray at the edges, and by and by, as it still spread, it +gave to the southwest an aspect that was distinctly sinister. + +Sherburne shook his head and the gravity of his face increased. As the +cloud grew alarm grew with it in his mind. + +"Maybe it will pass," said Harry hopefully. + +"I don't think so. It's not moving away. It just hangs there and +grows and grows. You're a woodsman, Harry, and you ought to feel it. +Don't you think the atmosphere has changed?" + +"I didn't have the courage to say so until you asked me, but it's +damper. If I were posing as a prophet I should say that we're going to +have rain." + +"And so should I. Usually at this period of the year in our country we +want rain, but now we dread it like a pestilence. At any other time +the Potomac could rise or fall, whenever it pleased, for all I cared, +but now it's life and death." + +"Our doubts are decided and we've lost. Look, sir the whole southwest +is dark now!" + +"And here come the first drops!" + +Sherburne sent hurried orders among the men to keep their ammunition +and weapons dry, and then they bent their heads to the storm which +would beat almost directly in their faces. Soon it came without much +preliminary thunder and lightning. The morning that had been warm +turned cold and the rain poured hard upon them. Most of the horsemen +were wet through in a short time, and they shivered in their sodden +uniforms, but it was a condition to which they were used, and they +thought little of themselves but nearly all the while of the Potomac. + +Few words were spoken. The only sounds were the driving of the rain +and the thud of many hoofs in the mud. Harry often saw misty figures +among the trees on the hills, and he knew that they were watched by +hostile eyes as the Northern armies in Virginia, were always watched +with the same hostility. It was impossible for Lee's men to make any +secret march. The population, intensely loyal to the Union, promptly +carried news of it to Meade or his generals. + +Twice he pointed out the watchers to Sherburne who merely shrugged his +shoulders. + +"I might send out men and cut off a few of them," he said, "but for +what good? Hundreds more would be left and we'd merely be burdened +with useless prisoners. Here's a creek ahead, Harry, and look how +muddy and foamy it is! It's probably raining harder higher up in the +hills than it is here, and all these creeks and brooks go to swell the +Potomac." + +The swift water rose beyond their stirrups and there was a vast +splashing as fifteen hundred men rode through the creek. It was a land +of many streams, and a few miles farther on they crossed another, +equally swollen and swift. + +They had hoped that the rain, like the sudden violence of a summer +shower, would pass soon, but the skies remained a solid gray and it +settled into a steady solemn pour, cold and threatening, and promising +to continue all day long. They could see that every stream they +crossed was far above its normal mark, and the last hope that they +might find the Potomac low enough for fording disappeared. + +The watchers on the hills were still there, despite the rain, but they +did no sharpshooting. Nor did the Southern force do damage to anybody +or anything, as it passed. Near noon Sherburne resolved to build a +fire in a cove protected by cliffs and heavy timber, and give his men +warm food lest they become dispirited. + +It was a task to set the wet wood, but the men of his command, used to +forest life, soon mastered it. Then they threw on boughs and whole +tree trunks, until a great bonfire blazed and roared merrily, thrusting +out innumerable tongues of red and friendly flame. + +"Is there anything more beautiful than a fine fire at such a time?" +said St. Clair to Harry. "As it blazes and eats into the wood it +crackles and those crackling sounds are words." + +"What do the words say?" + +"They say, 'Come here and stand before me. So long as you respect me +and don't come too close I'll do you nothing but good. I'll warm you +and I'll dry you. I'll drive the wet from your skin and your clothes, +and I'll chase the cold out of your body and bones. I'll take hold of +your depressed and sunken heart and lift it up again. Where you saw +only gray and black I'll make you see gold and red. I'll warm and cook +your food for you, giving you fresh life and strength. With my +crackling coals and my leaping flames I'll change your world of despair +into a world of hope.'" + +"Hear! Hear!" said Happy Tom. "Arthur has turned from a sodden +soldier into a giddy poet! Is any more poetry left in the barrel, +Arthur?" + +"Plenty, but I won't turn on the tap again to-day. I've translated for +you. I've shown you where beauty and happiness lie, and you must do +the rest for yourself." + +They crowded about the huge fire which ran the entire length of the +cove, and watched the cooks who had brought their supplies on +horseback. Great quantities of coffee were made, and they had bacon and +hard biscuits. + +Although the rain still reached them in the cove they forgot it as they +ate the good food--any food was good to them--and drank cup after cup +of hot coffee. Youthful spirits rose once more. It wasn't such a bad +day after all! It had rained many times before and people still lived. +Also, the Potomac had risen many times before, but it always fell +again. They were riding to clear the way for Lee's invincible army +which could go wherever it wanted to go. + +"Men on horseback looking at us!" hailed Happy Tom. "About fifty on a +low hill on our right. Look like Yankee cavalrymen. Wonder what they +take us for anyway!" + +Harry, St. Clair, Langdon and Dalton walked to the edge of the cove, +every one holding a cup of hot coffee in his hand. Sherburne was +already there and with his glasses was examining the strange group, as +well as he could through the sweeping rain. + +"A scouting party undoubtedly," he said, "but weather has made their +uniforms and ours look just about alike. It's equally certain though +that they're Yankees. No troop of ours so small would be found here." + +Harry was also watching them through glasses, and he took particular +note of one stalwart figure mounted upon a powerful horse. The +distance was too great to recognize the face, but he knew the swing of +the broad shoulders. It was Shepard and once more he had the uneasy +feeling winch the man always inspired in him. He appeared and +reappeared with such facility, and he was so absolutely trackless that +he had begun to appear to him as omniscient. Of course the man knew +all about Sherburne's advance and could readily surmise its purpose. + +"They're an impudent lot to sit there staring at us in that +supercilious manner," said Colonel Talbot. "Shall I take the +Invincibles, sir, and teach them a lesson?" + +Sherburne smiled and shook his head. + +"No, Colonel," he said, "although I thank you for the offer. They'd +melt away before you and we'd merely waste our energies. Let them look +as much as they please, and now that the boys have eaten their bread +and bacon and drunk their coffee, and are giants again, we'll ride on +toward the Potomac." + +"Do we reach it to-day, sir?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +"Not before to-morrow afternoon, even if we should not be interrupted. +This is the enemy's country and we may run at any time into a force as +large as our own if not larger." + +"Thank you for the information, Colonel Sherburne. My ignorance of +geography may appear astonishing to you, although we had to study it +very hard at West Point. But I admit my weakness and I add, as perhaps +some excuse, that I have lately devoted very little attention to the +Northern states. It did not seem worth my time to spend much study on +the rivers, and creeks and mountains of what is to be a foreign +country--although I may never be able to think of John Carrington and +many other of my old friends in the army as the foreigners they're sure +to become. Has the thought ever occurred to you, Colonel, that by our +victories we're making a tremendous lot of foreigners in America?" + +"It has, Colonel Talbot, but I can't say that the thought has ever been +a particularly happy one." + +"It's the Yankees who are being made into foreigners," said +Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. "The gallant Southern people, of +course, remain what they are." + +"They're going," said Harry. "They've seen enough of us." + +The distant troop disappeared over the crest of the hill. Harry had +noticed that Shepard led the way as if he were the ruling spirit, but +he did not consider it necessary to say anything to the others about +him. The trumpet blew and Sherburne's force, mounting, rode away from +the cove. Harry cast one regretful glance back at the splendid fire +which still glowed there, and then resigned himself to the cold and +rain. + +They did not stop again until far in the night. The rain ceased, but +the whole earth was sodden and the trees on the low ridge, on which +Sherburne camped, dripped with water. Spies might be all around them, +but for the sake of physical comfort and the courage that he knew would +come with it, he ordered another big fire built. Vigilant riflemen +took turns in beating up the forests and fields for possible enemies, +but the young officers once more enjoyed the luxury of the fire. Their +clothing was dried thoroughly, and their tough and sinewy frames +recovered all their strength and elasticity. + +"To enjoy being dry it is well to have been wet," said Dalton +sententiously. + +"That's just like you, you old Presbyterian," said Happy Tom. "I +suppose you'll argue next that you can't enjoy Heaven unless you've +first burned in the other place for a thousand years." + +"There may be something in that," said Dalton gravely, "although the +test, of course, would be an extremely severe one." + +"I know which way you're headed, George." + +"Then tell me, because I don't know myself." + +"As soon as this war is over you'll enter the ministry, and no sin will +get by you, not even those nice little ones that all of us like to +forgive." + +"Maybe you're right, Happy, and if I do go into the ministry I shall at +once begin long and earnest preparation for the task which would +necessarily be the most difficult of my life." + +"And may I make so bold as to inquire what it is, George?" + +"Your conversion, Happy." + +Langdon grinned. + +"But why do you want to convert me, George? I'm perfectly happy as I +am." + +"For your own well being, Tom. Your happiness is nothing to me, but I +want to make you good." + +Both laughed the easy laugh of youth, but Harry looked long at Dalton. +He thought that he detected in him much of the spirit of Stonewall +Jackson, and that here was one who had in him the makings of a great +minister. The thought lingered with him. + +St. Clair was carefully smoothing out his uniform and brushing from it +the least particle of mud. His first preoccupation always asserted +itself at the earliest opportunity, and in a very short time he was the +neatest looking man in the entire force. Harry, although he often +jested with him about it, secretly admired this characteristic of St. +Clair's. + +"You boys sleep while you can," said Sherburne, "because we can't +afford to linger in this region. Our safety lies in rapid marching, +giving the enemy no chance to gather a large force and trap us. Make +the best of your time because we're up and away an hour after midnight." + +The young officers were asleep within ten minutes, but the vigilant +riflemen patrolled the country in a wide circuit about them. Sherburne +himself, although worn by hard riding, slept but little. Anxiety kept +his eyes open. He knew that his task to find a passage for the army +across the swollen Potomac was of the utmost importance and he meant to +achieve it. He understood to the full the dangerous position in which +the chief army of the Confederacy stood. His own force might be +attacked at any moment by overwhelming numbers and be cut off and +destroyed or captured, but he also knew the quality of the men he led, +and he believed they were equal to any task. + +As he sat by the fire thinking somberly, a figure in the brush no great +distance away was watching him. Shepard, the spy, in the darkness had +passed with ease between the sentinels, using the skill of an Indian in +stalking or approaching, and now, lying well hidden, almost flat upon +his stomach, he surveyed the camp. He looked at Sherburne, sitting on +a log and brooding, and he made out Harry's figure wrapped in a blanket +and lying with his feet to the fire. + +Shepard's mind was powerfully affected. An intense patriot, something +remote and solitary in his nature had caused him to undertake this most +dangerous of all trades, to which he brought an intellectual power and +comprehension that few spies possess. As Harry had discovered long +since, he was a most uncommon man. + +Now Shepard as he gazed at this little group felt no hatred for them or +their men. He had devoted his life to the task of keeping the Union +intact. His work must be carried out in obscure ways. He could never +hope for material reward, and if he perished it would be in some +out-of-the-way corner, perhaps at the end of a rope, a man known to so +few that there would be none to forget him. And yet his patriotism was +so great and of such a fine quality that he viewed his enemies around +the fire as his brethren. He felt confident that the armies of the +North would bring them back into the Union, and when that occurred they +must come as Americans on an equal footing with other Americans. They +could not be in the Union and not of it. + +But Shepard's feeling for his official enemies would not keep him from +acting against them with all the skill, courage and daring that he +possessed in such supreme measure. He knew that it was Sherburne's +task to open a way for the Army of Northern Virginia to the Potomac and +to find a ford, or, in cooperation with some other force, to build a +bridge. It was for him to defeat the plan if he could. + +While the rain all the day before had brought gloom to the hearts of +Sherburne and his men it had filled his with joy, as he thought of the +innumerable brooks and creeks that were pouring their swollen waters +into the Potomac, already swollen too. He meant now to follow +Sherburne's force, see what plan it would attempt, what point, perhaps, +it would select for the bridge, and then bring the Union brigades in +haste to defeat it. + +It is said that men often feel when they are watched, although the +watcher is invisible, but it was not so in Sherburne's case. He did +not in the least suspect the presence of Shepard or of any foe, and the +spy, after he had seen all he wished, withdrew, with the same stealth +that had marked his coming. + +An hour after midnight all were awakened and they rode away. The next +day they reached the Potomac near Williamsport, where their pontoon +bridge had been destroyed, and looked upon the wide stream of the +Potomac, far too deep for fording. + +"If General Lee is attacked on the banks of this river by greatly +superior forces," said Sherburne, "he'll have no time to build bridges. +If we didn't happen to be victorious our forces would have to scatter +into the mountains, where they could be hunted down, man by man." + +"But such a thing as that is unthinkable, sir," said Harry. "We may +not win always, but here in the East we never lose. Remember Antietam +and the river at our back." + +"Right you are, Harry," said Sherburne more cheerfully. "The general +will get us out of this, and here is where we must cross. The river +may run down enough in two or three days to permit of fording. God +grant that it will!" + +"And so say I!" repeated Harry with emphasis. + +"I mean to hold this place for our army," continued Sherburne. + +"A reserved seat, so to speak." + +"Yes, that's it. We must keep the country cleared until our main force +comes up. It shouldn't be difficult. I haven't heard of any +considerable body of Union troops between us and the river." + +They made camp rapidly in a strong position, built their fires for +cooking, set their horses to grazing and awaited what would come. It +was a dry, clear night, and Harry, who had no duties, save to ride with +a message at the vital moment, looked at once for his friends, the +Invincibles. + +St. Clair met him and held up a warning hand, while Happy touched his +lip with his finger. Before the double injunction of silence and +caution, Harry whispered: + +"What's happened?" + +"A tragedy," replied St. Clair. + +"And a victory, too," said Happy Tom. + +"I don't understand," said Harry. + +"Then look and you will," said St. Clair. + +He pointed to a small clear space in which Colonel Leonidas Talbot and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sat on their blankets facing each +other with an empty cracker box between them, upon which their chess +men were spread. The firelight plainly revealed a look of dismay upon +the face of Colonel Talbot, and with equal plainness a triumphant +expression upon that of Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. + +"Colonel Talbot has lost his remaining knight," whispered St. Clair. "I +don't know how it came about, but when the event occurred we heard them +both utter a cry. Listen!" + +"I fail even yet, Hector, to see just how it occurred." said Colonel +Talbot. + +"But it has occurred, Leonidas, and that's the main thing. A general +in battle does not always know how he is whipped, but the whipping +hurts just as much." + +"You should not show too much elation over your triumph, Hector. +Remember that he laughs best who laughs last." + +"I take my laugh whenever I can, Leonidas, because no one knows who is +going to laugh last. It may be that he who laughs in the present will +also laugh at the end. What do you mean by that move, Leonidas?" + +"That to you is a mystery, Hector. It's like one of Stonewall +Jackson's flanking marches, and in due time the secret will be revealed +with terrible results." + +"Pshaw, Leonidas, you can't frighten a veteran like me. That for your +move, and here's mine in reply." + +The two gray heads bent lower over the board as the colonels made move +after move. The youths standing in the shadow of the trees watched +until the second time that night the two uttered a simultaneous cry. +But they were very different in quality. Now Colonel Talbot's +expressed victory and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire's consternation. + +"Your bishop, Hector!" exclaimed Colonel Talbot. "Pious and able +gentleman as he is, an honor to his cloth, he is nevertheless my +captive." + +"I admit that it was most unexpected, Leonidas. You have matched my +victory with one of yours. It was indeed most skillful and I don't yet +see what led to it." + +"Did I not warn you a little while ago that you couldn't frighten me? I +prepared a trap for you, and thus I rise from defeat to victory." + +"At any rate we are about even on the evening's work, Leonidas, and we +have made more progress than for the whole six months preceding. It +seems likely now that we can finish our game soon." + +A sudden crash of rifle fire toward the east and from a point not +distant told them no. They rose to their feet, but they put the +chessmen away very deliberately, while the young officers hastened to +their posts. The fire continued and spread about them in a half circle, +accompanied now and then by the deeper note of a light field gun. +Sherburne made his dispositions rapidly. All the men remained on foot, +but a certain number were told off to hold the horses in the center of +the camp. + +"We're attacked by a large force," said Sherburne, "Our scouts gave us +warning in time. Evidently they wish to drive us away from here +because this will be the ford in case the river falls in time." + +"Then you look for a sharp fight?" + +"Without question. And remember that you're to avoid all risk if you +can. It's not your business to get shot here, but it is your business, +and your highly important business, to ride back to General Lee with +the news of what's happening. In order to do that it's necessary for +you to remain alive." + +"I obey orders," said Harry reluctantly. + +"Of course you do. Keep back with the men who are holding the horses. +That fire is growing fast! I'm glad we were able to find a camp so +defensible as this hill." + +He hurried away to watch his lines and Harry remained at his station +near the horses, where Dalton was compelled by the same responsibility +to stay with him. It was the first time that Harry had been forced to +remain a mere spectator of a battle raging around him, and while not +one who sought danger for danger's sake, it was hard work to control +himself and remain quiet and unmoved. + +"I suspect they're trying to cut us off completely from our own army," +he said to Dalton. + +"Seems likely to me, too," said Dalton. "Wipe us out here, and hold +the river for themselves. Our scouts assured us that there was no +large force of the enemy in this region. It must have been gathered in +great haste." + +"In whatever way it was gathered, it's here, that's sure." + +There was a good moon now, and, using his glasses, Harry saw many +details of the battle. The attack was being pressed with great vigor +and courage. He saw in a valley numerous bodies of cavalry, firing +their carbines, and he saw two batteries, of eight light guns each, +move forward for a better range. Soon their shells were exploding near +the hill on which Harry stood, and the fire of the rifles, unbroken +now, grew rapidly in volume. + +But the men under Sherburne, youthful though most of them might be, +were veterans. They knew every trick of war, and columns of infantry +swept forward to meet the attack, preceded by the skirmishers, who took +heavy toll of the foe. + +"If they'd been able to make it a surprise they might have rushed us," +said Harry. + +"Nobody catches Sherburne sleeping," said Dalton. + +"That's true, and because they can't they won't be able to overcome him +here. Now there go our rifles! Listen to that crash. I fancy that +about a thousand were fired together, and they weren't fired for +nothing." + +"No," said Dalton, "but the Yankees don't give way. You can see by +their line of fire that they're still coming. Look there! A powerful +body of horse is charging!" + +It was unusual to see cavalry attack at night, and the spectacle was +remarkable, as the moonlight fell on the raised sabers. But the +defiant rebel yell, long and fierce, rose from the thicket, and, as the +rifles crashed, the entire front of the charging column was burned +away, as if by a stroke of lightning. But after a moment of hesitation +they came on, only to ride deeper into a rifle fire which emptied +saddles so fast that they were at last compelled to turn and gallop +away. + +"Brave men," said Harry. "A gallant charge, but it had to meet too +many Southern rifles, aimed by men who know how to shoot." + +"But their infantry are advancing through that wood," said Dalton. +"Hear them cheering above the rifle fire!" + +The Northern shout rang through the forest, and the rebel yell, again +full of defiance, replied. The cavalry had been driven off, but the +infantry and artillery were far from beaten. The sixteen guns of the +two batteries were massed on a hill and they began to sweep the +Southern lines with a storm of shells and shrapnel. The forest and the +dark were no protection, because the guns searched every point of the +Southern line with their fire. Sherburne's men were forced to give +ground, before cannon served with such deadly effect. + +"What will the colonel do?" asked Dalton. "The big guns give the +Yankees the advantage." + +"He'll go straight to the heart of the trouble," said Harry. "He'll +attack the guns themselves." + +He did not know actually in what manner Sherburne would proceed, but he +was quite sure that such would be his course. The wary Southern leader +instantly detailed a swarm of his best riflemen to creep through the +woods toward the cannon. In a few minutes the gunners themselves were +under the fire of hidden marksmen who shot surpassingly well. The +gunners, the cannoneers, the spongers, the rammers and the ammunition +passers were cut down with deadly certainty. + +The captain of the guns, knowing that the terrible rifle fire was +coming from the thickets, deluged the woods and bushes with shells and +shrapnel, but the riflemen lay close, hugging the ground, and although +a few were killed and more wounded, the vast majority crept closer and +closer, shooting straight and true in the moonlight. The fire from the +batteries became scattered and wild. Their crews were cut down so fast +that not enough men were left to work the guns, and their commander +reluctantly gave the order to withdraw to a less exposed position. + +"Rifles triumphant over artillery," said Harry, who studied everything +through his glasses; "but of course the dusk helped the riflemen." + +"That's true," said Dalton, "but it takes good men like Sherburne to +use the favoring chances. Now our boys are charging!" + +The tremendous rebel yell swelled through the forest, and the Southern +infantry rushed to the attack. Harry saw that the charge was +successful, and his ears told him so too. The firing moved further and +further away, and soon declined in volume. + +"They've been beaten off," said Harry. + +"At least for the time," said Dalton, "but I've an idea they'll hang on +our front and may attack again in a day or so." + +"How then are you and I to get through and tell General Lee that this +is the place to bridge the Potomac, if it's to be bridged at all?" + +Dalton shook his head. + +"I don't know," he replied, "and I won't think about it until Colonel +Sherburne gives his orders." + +The sounds of battle died in the distant woods. The last shot, whether +from cannon or rifle, was fired, and the Southern troops returned to +their positions, which they began to fortify strongly. Sherburne +appeared presently, his uniform cut by bullets in two or three places, +but his body untouched. He drew Harry and Dalton aside, where their +words could not be heard by anybody else. + +"You two," he said, "were to report to General Lee when I thought fit. +Well, the time has come; Harry, you go first, and, at a suitable +moment, George will follow. We have news of surpassing importance. We +took a number of prisoners in that battle and we were also lucky enough +to rescue several of our men who had been held as captives. We've +learned from them that General Meade, after making up his mind to +pursue, followed straight behind us for a while, but he has now turned +and gone southward in the direction of Frederick. He will cross South +Mountain, advance toward Sharpsburg, and attempt to smash us here, with +our backs to this swollen river. Why, some of the Federal leaders +consider the Army of Northern Virginia as good as destroyed already!" + +He spoke with angry emphasis. + +"But it isn't," said Harry. + +"No, it isn't. Doubtless General Lee will learn from scouts of his own +of General Meade's flanking movement, but we mustn't take the chance. +Moreover, we must tell him that this is the place for our army to +cross. If the river runs down in two or three days we'll have a ford +here." + +"I'm ready to go at any moment," said Harry. "Night helping me, I may +be able to ride through the lines of our enemies out there." + +"No, Harry, you must not go that way. They're so vigilant that you +would not have any possible chance. Nor can you ride. You must leave +your horse behind." + +"What way then must I go, sir?" + +"By the river. We have gathered up a few small boats, used at the +crossing here. You can row, can't you?" + +"Fairly well, sir." + +"'Twill do, because you're not to stay in the boat long. I want you to +drop down the stream until you're well beyond the Federal lines. Then +leave the boat and strike out across the country for General Lee. You +know the way. You can buy or seize a horse, and you must not fail." + +"I will not fail," said Harry confidently. + +"You'll succeed if anybody will, and now you must be off. Your pistols +are loaded, Harry? You may have to use them." + +They did not delay a minute, going down the shelving shore to the +Potomac, where a man held a small boat against the bank. + +"Get in, Harry," said Sherburne. "You'd better drop down three or four +miles, at least. Good-by and good luck." + +He shook hands with his colonel and Dalton, took the oars and pulled +far out into the stream. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A HERALD TO LEE + + +When he swept out upon the sullen bosom of the Potomac, Harry looked +back only once. He saw two dim figures going up the bank, and, at its +crest, a line of lights that showed the presence of the Southern force. +There was no sound of firing, and he judged that the enemy had +withdrawn to a distance of two or three miles. + +The night had turned darker since the battle ceased, and not many stars +were out. Clouds indicated that flurries of rain might come, but he +did not view them now with apprehension. Darkness and rain would help +a herald to Lee. The current was strong, and he did not have to pull +hard, but, observing presently that the far shore was fringed with +bushes, he sent the boat into their shadow. + +He did not anticipate any danger from the southern shore, but the old +inherited caution of the forest runners was strong within him. Under +the hanging bushes he was well hidden, but, in some places, the flood +in the river had turned the current back upon itself, and he was +compelled to pull with vigor on the oars. + +The clouds that had threatened did not develop much, and while the +forests were dark, the surface of the river showed clearly in the faint +moonlight. Any object upon it could be seen from either bank, and +Harry was glad that he had sought the shelter of the overhanging +bushes. He realized now that in this region, which was really the +theater of war, many scouts and skirmishers must be about. + +The bank above him was rather high and quite steep, for which he was +glad, as it afforded protection. A half mile farther down he came to +the mouth of a creek coming in from the South, and just as he passed it +he heard voices on the bank. He held his boat among the bushes on the +cliff and listened. Several men were talking, but he judged them to be +farmers, not soldiers. Yet they talked of the battle that night, and +Harry surmised that they were looking at the lights in the Southern +camp which might yet be visible from the high point on which they +stood. He could not gather from their words whether they were Northern +or Southern sympathizers, but it did not matter, as he had no intention +of speaking to them, hoping only that they would go away in a few +minutes and let him continue his journey unseen. + +His hope speedily came to pass. He heard their voices sinking in the +distance, and leaving the shelter of the bushes he pulled down the +stream once more. Then he found that he had deceived himself about the +clouds. If they had retired, they had merely recoiled, to use the +French phrase, in order to gather again with greater force. + +During his short stay among the bushes at the foot of the cliff the +whole heavens had blackened and the air was surcharged with the heavy +damp and tensity that betoken a coming storm. The lightning blazed +across the river thrice, and he heard a mutter which was not that of +cannon. Then came rain and a rushing wind and the surface of the river +was troubled grievously. It rose up in waves like those of a lake, and +Harry's boat rocked and tumbled so badly that in a few minutes it was +half-full of water. + +Fearing he might sink, carrying with him his great message, he pulled +again, but fiercely now, for the southern bank and the shelter of the +bushes, which, fortunately for him, grew here in the water's edge. He +shoved his boat with all his might among them, as their tops snapped +and crackled in the hurricane. But he knew he was safe there, and he +continued to push until it reached the edge of the land. + +The river would be swollen by another storm, but for the present it did +not bother him greatly. He was more immediately concerned with his +wish to get back to Lee as soon as possible, and he was grateful for +that dense clump of bushes, growing in the very water's edge, because +the wind was blowing like a hurricane and the waves were chasing one +another on the Potomac, like the billows on a lake. He was a fair +oarsman, but it would have taken greater skill than his to have kept +his boat afloat in the tempestuous river. + +The bushes formed an absolute protection. His boat swayed with them, +which saved it from being damaged, and the overhanging lee of the cliff +kept most of the rain from him. He also wrapped about his body the +pair of blankets that he always carried, and he sat there not only in +safety, but with a certain physical pleasure. + +Once more amid surroundings with the like of which Henry Ware had been +so familiar, the soul of his great ancestor seemed to have descended +upon him. Most young officers, no matter how brave or how skilled in +war, would have been awed and alarmed. He had no comrades at his +elbow. There was no light, no friendly sound to encourage him, he was +as truly alone, so far as his present situation was concerned, as any +pioneer had ever been in the heart of the wilderness. But for him +there was pleasure at that moment in being alone. He did not quiver +when the thunder rolled and crashed above his head, and the lightning +blazed in one Titanic sword slash after another across the surface of +the river. Rather, the wilderness and majesty of the scene appealed to +him. Leaning well back in his boat with his blankets closely wrapped +about him, he watched it, and his soul rose with the storm. + +Harry knew from its sudden violence that the rain would soon pass, and +if the waves abated a little he would certainly take his boat into the +river and try his fortunes again. Yet a precious hour was lost, and +nothing could replace it. The thunder ceased by and by and there was +only dim lightning on the far horizon. The waves began to abate, and, +taking off his blankets, he pushed his boat once more into the stream. + +It rocked prodigiously and shipped water, but by strenuous effort he +kept it afloat, and as the wind sank still further he decided that he +would seek the northern shore and disembark as soon as possible. It +would be easier to steal through the thickets than to navigate what +amounted to a wild sea. But the banks were yet too high and steep for +a landing, and he continued to row, keeping now near the middle of the +stream. + +Wind and rain were dying fast, and he heard a sound behind uncommonly +like the distant swish of oars. It sent an unpleasant thrill through +him, because he wished to be alone on the river at that particular +time, but his eyes, tracing a course through all the dusk and gloom, +rested upon another boat, about two hundred yards away, containing a +single occupant. + +A farmer or a riverman, Harry thought, but to his great astonishment +the man suddenly raised himself up a little and shouted to him in a +tremendous voice to halt. Harry had not the least idea of stopping for +anybody. He bent to his oars and rowed swiftly on. Again came that +shout to halt, and it seemed more insolent to him than before. He put +a few more ounces of strength into his arms and shoulders and increased +his speed. + +The pursuer, suddenly drawing in his oars, raised a rifle from the +bottom of his boat, and fired point blank at the fugitive. The bullet +whistled so near Harry that he felt his ear burn, and at first thought +he was hit. He would have been glad to fire back, but his pistols could +not carry like his enemy's rifle, and there was nothing to do but flee. +Once again he sought to draw a few more ounces of energy from his body. +But the man behind him was a much greater oarsman than he and gained +rapidly. The stranger, shouting another command to halt, to which no +attention was paid, fired a second time, and the bullet went through +the side of Harry's boat, barely scraping his knee as it passed. + +His rage became intense. He had been shot at many times in battle, and +many times he had fired his pistols into the opposing masses, but here +upon this river a man sought his life, as the savages of old sought the +hunter. Another glance showed him that pursuer had closed up half the +distance between them, and, snatching one of the pistols from his belt, +he fired. He knew that he had missed, as he saw the water spurt up +beside the boat, but he thought that his bullet and the probability of +more might delay the pursuit. Nevertheless the man came on as boldly +and as fast as ever. If he fired a third time he could scarcely miss +at such short range. + +It seemed to Harry the gift of Heaven, that a whole pack of clouds +should drift above them at that moment, deepening the obscurity and +making the pursuing boat, although it was so near, a shapeless form in +the mist. He could not see the features of the man, but he was able to +discern his large and powerful figure, and he noticed the rhythmic +manner in which his arms and shoulders worked at the oars. Obviously +he had no chance to escape him by flight, and drawing his second pistol +he fired. The bullet struck the boat but did no damage. The man came +on faster than ever. Harry took a desperate resolution, and, whirling +his boat about, he rowed it straight at his pursuer, who was now almost +level with him. He intended to ram and take his chances. His movement +was so quick and unexpected that it succeeded. The bow of his boat, +helped perhaps by a wave, struck the other with such violence that both +were shattered and sank instantly. + +Harry went down with his craft, but in a few seconds came up again, his +mouth and eyes full of muddy water. He was a splendid swimmer, and his +eyes clearing in a moment he looked toward the northern shore, seeking +an easy place for landing. They encountered ten feet away a large +sun-browned face and two burning eyes. + +"Shepard!" Harry gasped. + +"And so it was you, Lieutenant Kenton. Perhaps if I had known it was +you I wouldn't have fired upon you." + +"Don't let that deter you. We're enemies." + +"I merely said 'perhaps!' I like you, but that wouldn't keep me from +stopping you by any method I could from reaching Lee." + +"I'm sure it wouldn't. I like you, too, Mr. Shepard, but we're enemies +here in this river, deadly enemies, and I mean to beat you off." + +"One may mean to do a thing and yet not do it. I'm the larger and the +more powerful. Besides, I'm toughened by superior age. You'd better +surrender, Mr. Kenton. I don't want to do you any bodily harm." + +"I admit that you're larger and stronger, but on land only. I'm the +better swimmer. We're both floating now, but if you'll make a +comparison, Mr. Shepard, you'll find that I'm doing it with the +greatest ease. Take my advice, and swim to the southern bank of the +river while I go to the northern. I say it in all good faith." + +"I've no doubt of that, but the young are likely to over-estimate their +powers. I'm a good swimmer, and you can't escape me." + +"The important point is not whether I can escape you, but whether you +can escape me. Since you have lost your boat and your rifle and we're +in such a treacherous and unstable element as water, I occupy the +superior position. The young may indeed over-estimate their powers, +but in swimming at least I'm a competent critic. For instance, you're +holding your shoulders too high, and you kick too much. You're +splashing water, a useless waste of energy. Now observe me. The +surface of this river is rough. Little waves are yet running upon it, +but I float as easily as a fish, come up to see by the moon what time +it is. It is not egotism on my part, merely a recognition of the +facts, but I warn you, Mr. Shepard, to swim to the other shore and let +me alone." + +The two were not ten feet apart, and, despite the lightness of their +talk, their eyes burned with eagerness and intensity. Harry knew that +Shepard would not dream of turning back. Yet in the water he awaited +the result with a confidence that he would not have felt on land. + +"It's your move, Mr. Shepard," he said. + +The intensity of Shepard's gaze increased, and Harry never took his +eyes from those of his enemy. He intended like a prize fighter to read +there what the man's next effort would be. + +"I don't see that it's my move," said Shepard, as he floated calmly. + +"You're following me for the purpose of capturing me." + +"To capture you, or delay you. Meanwhile, it seems to me that I'm +delaying you very successfully. I can't see that you're making much +progress towards Lee." + +"That depends upon which way this river is flowing. You note that we +float gently with the stream." + +"It's a poor argument. The Potomac flows directly by Washington, and +if we were to float on we'd float into the heart of great Northern +fortresses instead of Lee's camp." + +"That's true as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough. I'm +leaving the river soon. You can have it all then." + +"Thanks, but I think I'll go with you, Lieutenant Kenton." + +"Then come to the bottom!" exclaimed Harry, as he dived forward like a +flash, seized Shepard by the ankles and headed for the bottom of the +river with him. The water gurgled in his eyes and ears and nose, but +he held on for many seconds, despite the man's desperate struggles. +Then he was forced to let go and rise. + +As his head shot above the stream he saw another shooting up in the +same manner about fifteen feet away. Both were choked and gasping, but +Harry managed to say: + +"I didn't intend for you to come up so soon." + +"I suppose not, but perhaps you didn't pause to think that when you +rose I'd rise with you." + +"Yes, that's true. It seems to me that matters grow complicated. Can't +you persuade yourself, Mr. Shepard, to go and leave me alone? I really +have no use for you here." + +"I'd like to oblige you, Lieutenant Kenton, but I intend to see that +you don't reach General Lee." + +"Still harping upon that? It seems to me that you're a stupidly +stubborn man. Don't you know that I'm going anyhow?" + +Harry had never ceased to watch his eyes, and he saw there the signal +of a coming movement. Shepard dived suddenly for him, intending to +repeat his own trick, but the youth was like a fish in the water, and +he darted to the right. The man came up grasping nothing. Harry +laughed. The chagrin of Shepard compelled his amusement, although he +liked the man. + +"I wish you'd go away, Mr. Shepard," he said. "On land you could, +perhaps, overpower me, but in the water I think I'm your master. All +through my boyhood I devoted a great deal of my time to swimming. Dr. +Russell of the Pendleton Academy--but you never knew him--used to say +that if I would swim less and study more I could make greater +pretensions to scholarship." + +Shepard, swimming rather easily, regarded him thoughtfully. + +"While we talk to each other in this more or less polite manner, Mr. +Kenton," he said, "we must not forget that we're in deadly earnest. I +mean to take you, and our scouts mean to take every other messenger who +goes out from Colonel Sherburne's camp. You know, and I know, that if +the Army of Northern Virginia does not reach in a few days that camp, +where there is a ford in ordinary weather, it will be driven up against +the Potomac and we can accumulate such great forces against it that it +cannot possibly escape. Even at Sherburne's place its escape is more +than doubtful, if it has to linger long." + +"Yes, I know these things quite well, Mr. Shepard. I know also, as you +do, that General Meade's army is not in direct pursuit, and, that in a +flanking movement, he is advancing across South Mountain and toward +Sharpsburg. It is a march well calculated and extremely dangerous to +General Lee, if he does not hear of it in time. But he will hear of it +soon enough. A comrade of mine, George Dalton, will tell him. Others +from Colonel Sherburne's camp will tell him, and I mean to tell him +too. I hope to be the first to do so." + +Harry never deceived himself for a moment. He knew that although +Shepard liked him, he would go to the uttermost to stop him, and as for +himself, while he had a friendly feeling for the spy, he meant to use +every weapon he could against him. Realizing that he could not linger +much longer, as the chill of the water was already entering his body, +he swam closer to Shepard, still staring directly into his eyes. How +thankful he was now for those innumerable swimmings in the little river +that ran near Pendleton! Everything learned well justifies itself some +day. + +Although there was but little moonlight they were so close together +that they could see the eyes of each other clearly, and Harry detected +a trace of uneasiness in those of Shepard. A good swimmer, the water +nevertheless was not his element, and although a man of great physique +and extraordinary powers, he longed for the solid earth under his feet. + +Harry drew himself together as if he were going to dive, but instead of +doing so suddenly raised himself in the water and shot forth his +clenched tight fist with all his might. Shepard was taken completely +by surprise and he sank back under the water, leaving a blood stain on +its surface. Harry watched anxiously, but Shepard came up again in a +moment or two, gasping and swimming wildly. The point of his jaw was +presented fairly and Harry struck again as hard as he could in the +water. Shepard with a choked cry went under and Harry, diving forward, +seized his body, bringing it to the surface. + +Shepard was senseless, but getting an arm under his shoulders Harry was +able to swim with him to the northern shore, although it took nearly +all his strength. Then he dragged him out upon the bank, and sank +down, panting, beside him. + +The great Civil War in America, the greatest of all wars until nearly +all the nations of Europe joined in a common slaughter, was a humane +war compared with other wars approaching it in magnitude. It did not +occur to Harry to let Shepard drown, nor did he leave him senseless on +the bank. As soon as his own strength returned he dragged him into a +half-sitting position, and rubbed the palms of his hands. The spy +opened his eyes. + +"Good-by, Mr. Shepard," said Harry. "I'm bound to leave before you +recover fully because then I wouldn't be your match. I'm sorry I had +to hit you so hard, but there was nothing else to do." + +"I don't blame you. It was man against man." + +"The water was in my favor. I'm bound to admit that on land you'd have +won." + +"At any rate I thank you for dragging me out of the river." + +"You'd have done as much for me." + +"So I would, but our personal debts of gratitude can't be allowed to +interfere with our military duty." + +"I know it. Therefore I take a running start. Good-by." + +"We'll meet again." + +"But not on this side of the Potomac. It may happen when the Army of +Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac go into battle on the +other side of the river." + +Harry darted into the forest, and ran for a half-hour. He meant to put +as much distance as possible between Shepard and himself before the +latter's full strength returned. He knew that Shepard would follow, if +he could, but it was not possible to trail one who had a long start +through dark and wet woods. + +He came through the forest and into a meadow surrounded by a rail +fence, on which he sat until his breath came back again. He had +forgotten all about his wet uniform, but the run was really beneficial +to him as it sent the blood leaping through his veins and warmed his +body. + +"So far have I come," said Harry, "but the omens promise a hard march." + +He had his course fixed very clearly, and a veteran now in experience, +he could guide himself easily by the moon and stars. The clouds were +clearing away and a warm wind promised him dry clothing, soon. Long +afterward he thought it a strange coincidence that his cousin, Dick +Mason, in the far South should have been engaged upon an errand very +similar in nature, but different in incident. + +He crossed the meadow, entered an orchard and then came to a narrow +road. The presence of the orchard indicated the proximity of a +farmhouse, and it occurred to Harry that he might buy a horse there. +The farmer was likely to be hostile, but risks must be taken. He drew +his pistols. He knew that neither could be fired after the thorough +wetting in the river, but the farmer would not know that. He saw the +house presently, a comfortable two-story frame building, standing among +fine shade trees. Without hesitation he knocked heavily on the door +with the butt of a pistol. + +He was so anxious to hasten that his blows would have aroused the best +sleeper who ever slept, and the door was quickly opened by an elderly +man, not yet fully awake. + +"I want to buy a horse." + +"Buy a horse? At this time of the night?" + +He was about to slam the door, but Harry put his foot over the sill and +the muzzle of his pistol within six inches of the man's nose. + +"I want to buy a horse," he repeated, "and you want to sell one to me. +I think you realize that fact, don't you?" + +"Yes, I do," replied the man, looking down the muzzle of the big horse +pistol. + +"Come outside and close the door behind you. I know you haven't on +many clothes, but the night's warm, and you need fresh air." + +The man with the muzzle of the pistol still near his nose, obeyed. But +as he looked at the weapon he also had a comprehensive view of the one +who held it. + +"Wet ain't you?" he said. + +"Do you think it necessary to put it in the form of a question?" + +"I don't like to say, unless I'm shore." + +"Where do you keep your horses?" + +"In the barn here to the left. What kind of a horse did you think +you'd keer fur most, stranger?" + +"The biggest, the strongest and fastest you've got" + +"I thought mebbe you'd want one with wings, you 'pear to be in such a +pow'ful hurry. I wish you wouldn't keep that pistol so near to my +nose. 'Sides, you've gethered so much mud an' water 'bout you that you +ain't so very purty to look at!" + +"It's your own mud and water. I didn't bring it into this country with +me." + +"Which means that you don't belong in these parts. I reckon lookin' at +you that you wuz one o' them rebels that went to Gettysburg and then +come back ag'in." + +"Exactly right, Mr. Farmer. I'm an officer in General Lee's army." + +"Then I wuz right 'bout you needin' a horse with wings. An' I guess +all the men in your army need horses with wings. Don't be in such a +tarnal hurry. You're goin' to stay right up here with us, boarders, so +to speak, till the war is over." + +Harry laughed. + +"Kind of you," he said, "but here is the stable and do you open the +stall doors one by one, and let me see the horses. At the first sign +of any trick I pull the trigger." + +"Well, as I don't like violence I'll show you the horses. Here's the +gray mare, five years old, swift but can't last long. This is old +Rube, nigh onto ten, mighty strong, but as balky as a Johnny Reb +hisself. Don't want him! No? Then I think that's about all." + +"No it's not! You open that last stall door at once!" + +The farmer made a wry face, and threw back the door with a slam. Harry +still covering the man with the pistol that couldn't go off, saw a +splendid bay horse about four years old. + +"Holding out on me, were you?" he said. "Did you think a Confederate +officer could be fooled in that manner?" + +"I reckon I oughtn't to have thought so. I've always heard that the +rebels had mighty good eyes for Yankee horseflesh." + +"I'll let that pass, because maybe it's true. Now, saddle and bridle +him quicker than ever before in your life." + +The farmer did so, and Harry took care to see that the girth was secure. + +"At how much did you value this horse?" he asked. + +"I did put him down at two hundred dollars, but I reckon he's worth +nothin' to me now." + +"Here's your money. When General Lee goes through the enemy's country +he pays for what he takes." + +He thrust a roll of good United States bills into the astonished man's +hand, and sprang upon the horse. Then he turned from the stable and +rode swiftly up the road, but not so swiftly that he did not hear a +bullet singing past his ears. A backward glance showed him an elderly +farmer in his night clothes standing on his porch and reloading his +rifle. + +"Well, I can't blame you, I suppose," said Harry. "You can guess +pretty well what I am, and it's your business to stop me." + +But he rode fast enough to be far beyond the range of a second bullet, +and maintained a good pace for a long time, through hilly and wooded +country. His uniform dried upon him, and his hardy form felt no ill +result from the struggle in the river. The horse was strong and +spirited, and Harry knew that he could carry him without weariness to +Lee. He looked upon his mission as already accomplished, but his +ambition to reach the commander-in-chief first was yet strong. + +He rode throughout the rest of the night and dawn and the pangs of +hunger came together. But he decided that he would not turn from his +path to seek food. He would go on straight for Lee and let hunger have +its way. He had a splendid horse under him and he was faring quite as +well as he had a right to expect. He thought of Shepard, and felt pity +for him. The man had only striven to do his duty, and while he had used +force he had been very courteous and polite about it. Harry was bound +to acknowledge that his had been a very chivalrous enemy and only his +superiority in swimming had enabled him to win over Shepard. He was +glad that he had saved him and had left him on the bank, so to speak, +to dry. + +Then Shepard faded away with the mists and vapors that were retreating +before a brilliant dawn. The country was high, rolling, and the +foliage, although much browned by the July sun, which was unusually hot +that year, was still dense. Most of the hills were heavy with forest, +but all the valleys between were fertile and well cultivated. With the +dew of the morning fresh upon it the whole region was refreshing and +soothing to the eye with a look of peace, where in reality there was no +peace. Many thin columns of smoke lying blue against the silver sky +told where farmhouses stood, and hunger suddenly seized upon Harry +again. + +Hunger is natural to youth, and his severe exertions all through the +night had greatly increased it. It became both a pain and a weakness. +His shoulders drooped with fatigue, and he felt that he must have food +or faint by the way. + +He was ashamed of his physical weakness, but he knew that unless he +found food his faintness would increase, and hunger alone would stop +him, where so able a man as Shepard could not. His uniform, faded +anyhow, was so permeated with the dried mud of the river that it would +take a keen eye to tell whether it was Federal or Confederate, and he +need not disclose his identity in this region, which was so strongly +for the Union. He made up his mind quickly and rode for the nearest +farmhouse. + +Harry knew that he was inviting risks. His pistols were still useless +but they would be handy for threats, and he should be able to take care +of himself at a farmhouse. + +The house that he had chosen was only a few hundred yards away, its +white walls visible among trees, and the clatter of his horse's hoofs +brought a man from a barn in the rear. Harry noted him keenly. He was +youngish, stalwart and the look out of his blue eyes was fearless. He +came forward slowly, examining his visitor, and his manner was not +altogether hospitable. Harry decided that he had to deal with a +difficult customer but he had no idea of turning back. + +"Good morning," he said politely. + +"Good morning." + +"I wish some breakfast and I will pay. I've ridden all night in our +service." + +"You've so much dried mud on you that you look as if you'd been passin' +through a river." + +"Correct. That's exactly what happened." + +"But there's none on your horse." + +"He didn't pass with me. I'm willing to answer any reasonable number +of questions, but, as I told you before, I ride on an important +service. I must have breakfast at once, and I'll pay." + +"Whose service? Ours or Reb's?" + +"A military messenger can't answer the chance questions of those by the +roadside. I tell you I want breakfast at once." + +"Fine horse you ride, stranger. How long have you had him?" + +"All this year." + +"Funny. When I saw him last week he belonged to Jim Kendall down by +the Potomac, an' livin' on this very road, too." + +"It isn't half as funny as you think. Hands up! Now call to your wife +as loud as you can to bring me coffee and food at the gate! I know +they're ready in the kitchen. I can smell 'em here. Out with it, call +as fast as and as loud as you can, or off goes the top of your head!" + +Although a horse pistol held in a firm hand was thrust under his nose, +the man's blue eyes glared hate and defiance, and his mouth did not +open. Harry, in his excitement and anger, forgot that the charge in his +weapon was ruined and hence it was no acting with him when his own eyes +blazed down at the other and he fairly shouted: + +"I give you until I can count ten to call your wife! One! two! three! +four! five! six! seven! eight! nine!--" + +"Sophy! Sophy!" cried the farmer, who saw death flaming in the eyes +that looked into his, "Come! Come a-runnin'!" + +A good looking young woman threw open a door and ran, frightened, +toward the gate, where she saw her husband under the pistol muzzle of a +wild and savage looking man on horseback. + +"Sophy," said the farmer, "bring this infernal rebel a cup of coffee +and a plate of bread and meat. If it weren't for his pistol I'd drag +him off his horse and carry him to General Meade, but he's got the drop +on me!" + +"And Sophy," said Harry, who was growing cooler, "you make it a big tin +cup of coffee and you see that the plate is piled high with meat and +bread. Now don't you make one mistake. Don't you come back with any +weapon in your hand in place of food, and don't you fire on me from the +house with the family rifle. You're young and you're good looking, +and, doubtless the widow of our friend here with the upraised hands, +wouldn't have to wait long for another husband just as good as he is." + +The woman paled a little, and Harry knew that some thought of the +family rifle had been in her mind. The husband's glare became +ferocious. + +"You can take your hands down," said Harry. "I've no wish to torture +you, and I'm satisfied now that you're not armed." + +The man dropped his arms and the woman hurried to the kitchen. Harry +did not watch her, but kept his eyes continually upon the man, who he +knew would take advantage of his first careless moment, and spring for +him like a tiger. A pistol that he couldn't fire wouldn't be of much +use to him then. + +But the woman returned with a big tin cup of smoking coffee and a plate +piled high with bread and bacon and beefsteak. It was a welcome sight. +The aspect of the whole world became brighter at once, and the pulse of +hope beat high. But happiness did not make him relax caution. + +"Stand back about ten feet more," he said to the man, "I don't like +your looks." + +"What's the matter with my looks?" + +"It's not exactly your looks I mean, though they're scarcely worthy of +the lady, your wife, but it's rather your attitude or position which +reminds me of a lion or a tiger about to spring upon something it +hates." + +The man, with a savage growl, withdrew a little. + +"I'd like to put a bullet through you," he said. + +"I've no doubt of it, your eyes show it, but before I take a polite +leave of you I want to tell you that I did not steal this horse from +your friend, Jim Kendall. I paid for it at his own valuation." + +"Confederate money that won't be worth a dollar a bale before long." + +"Oh, no, bills that were made and stamped at Washington, and I pay for +this breakfast in silver." + +He dropped it into the hand of the woman, as he took the huge cup of +coffee from her. Then he drank deep and long, and again and again, +draining the last drop of the brown liquid. + +"I hope it's burnt the lining out of your throat," said the man +savagely. + +"It was warm, but I like it that way. It was good indeed, and I'm +sorry, Madame, that you have such a violent and ill-tempered husband. +Maybe your next will be a much better man." + +"John is neither violent nor ill-tempered. He's never said a harsh +word to me since we were married. But he hates the rebels dreadfully." + +"That's too bad. I don't hate him and I'm glad you can give him a good +character. A man's own wife knows best. Now, I'm going to eat this +breakfast as I ride on. You'll find the plate on the fence a quarter +of a mile ahead." + +He bowed to both, and still keeping a wary eye on the man, thrust his +pistol into his belt, and as his horse moved forward at a swift and +easy gait he began to eat with a ravenous appetite. + +A backward glance showed husband and wife still gazing at him. But it +was only for a moment. They ran into the house and a little further on +Harry looked back again. They had reappeared and he almost expected to +hear again the whistle of a rifle shot, fired from a window. But the +distance was much too great, and he devoted renewed attention to the +demands of hunger. + +When he had finished his breakfast he put the plate upon the fence as +he had promised, and, looking back for the last time, he saw an +American flag wave to and fro on the roof of the house. He felt a +thrill of alarm. It must be a signal concerning him and it could be +made only to his enemies. Speaking sharply to his horse, he urged him +into a gallop. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE DANGEROUS ROAD + + +The road led in the general direction of Lee's army and Harry knew that +if he followed it long enough he was bound to reach his commander, but +the two words "long enough" might defeat everything. Undoubtedly a +Federal force was near, or the farmer and his wife would not be +signaling from the roof of their house. + +A plucky couple they were and he gave them all credit, but he was aware +that while he had secured breakfast from them they had put the wolves +upon his trail. There were high hills on both the right and left of +the road, and, as he galloped along he examined them through his +glasses for flags answering the signal on the house. But he saw +nothing and the thickness of the forest indicated that even if the +signals were made there it was not likely he could see them. + +Now he wisely restrained the speed of his horse, so full of strength +and spirit that it seemed willing to run on forever, and brought him +down to a walk. He had an idea that he would soon be pursued, and then +a fresh horse would be worth a dozen tired ones. + +The road continued to run between high, forested hills, splendid for +ambush, and Harry saw what a danger it was not to have knowledge of the +country. He understood how the Union forces in the South were so often +at a loss on ground that was strange to them. + +The road now curved a little to the left, and a few hundred yards ahead +another from the east merged with it. Along this road the forest was +thinner, and upon it, but some distance away, he saw bobbing heads in +caps, twenty, perhaps, in number. He knew at once that they were the +enemy, called by the signal, and leaning forward he spoke in the ear of +his good horse. + +"You and I haven't known each other long," he said, "but we're good +friends. I paid honest and sufficient money for you, when I could have +ridden away on you without paying a cent. I know you have a powerful +frame and that your speed is great. I really believe you're the +fastest runner in all this part of the state. Now, prove it!" + +The horse stretched out his neck, and the road flew behind him, his +body working like a mighty machine perfectly attuned, even to its +minutest part. Harry's words had met a true response. He heard a cry +on the cross road, and the bobbing heads came forward much faster. +Either they had seen him or they had heard the swift beat of his +horse's hoofs. Loud shouts arose, but he saw the uniforms of the men, +and he knew that they belonged to the Northern army. + +He went past the junction of the roads, as if he were flying, but he +was not a bit too soon, as he heard the crack of rifles, and bullets +struck in the earth behind him. He knew that they would follow, hang +on persistently, but he had supreme confidence in the speed and +strength of his horse, and youth rode triumphant. It was youth more +than anything else that made him raise himself a little in his saddle, +look back to his pursuers and fling to them a long, taunting cry, just +as Henry Ware more than once had taunted his Indian pursuers before +disappearing in a flight that their swiftest warriors could not match. + +But the little band of Union troopers clung to the chase. They too had +good horses, and they knew that the man before them was a Southern +messenger, and in those hot July days of 1863 all military messages +carried on the roads north of the Potomac were important. The fate of +an army or a nation might turn upon any one of them, and the lieutenant +who led the little Union troop was aware of it. He was a man of +intelligence and a consuming desire to overtake the lone horseman lay +hold of him. He knew, as well as any general, that since Gettysburg the +fate of the South was verily trembling in the balance, and the +slightest weight somewhere might decide the scales. So he resolved to +hang on through everything and the chances were in his favor. It was +his own country. The Federal troops were everywhere, and any moment he +might have aid in cutting off the fugitive. + +When Harry eased his horse's flight he saw the troop, very distant but +still pursuing, and he read the mind of the Union leader. He was +saving his mounts, trailing merely, in the hope that Harry would +exhaust his own horse, after which he and his men would come on at +great speed. + +Harry looked down at his horse and saw that he was heaving with his +great effort. He knew that he had made a mistake in driving him so +hard at first, and with the courage of which only a young veteran would +have been capable he brought the animal almost to a walk, and +resolutely kept him there, while the enemy gained. When they were +almost within rifle shot he increased his speed again, but he did not +seek for the present to increase his gain. + +As long as their bullets could not reach him his horse should merely go +stride for stride with theirs, and when the last stretch was reached, +he would send forward the brave animal at his utmost speed. His were +the true racing tactics drawn from his native state. He had no doubt +of his ability to leave his pursuers far behind when the time came, but +his true danger was from interference. He too knew that many Union +cavalry troops were abroad, and he watched on either flank for them as +he rode on. At the crest of every little hill he swept the whole +country, but as yet he saw nothing but peaceful farmhouses. + +The day was clear and bright, not so warm as its predecessors, and he +calculated by the sun that he was going straight toward Lee. He knew +that a great army always marched slowly, and he was able to reckon with +accuracy just how far the Army of Northern Virginia had come since +Gettysburg. He should reach it in the morning, with full information +about the Potomac, and the best place for a crossing. + +He arrived at the crest of a hill higher than the others, and saw the +Union troop, about a quarter of a mile behind, stop beside a clump of +tall trees. Their action surprised Harry, who had thought they would +never quit as long as they could find his trail. To his further +surprise he saw one of the men dismount and begin to climb the tallest +of the trees. Then he brought his glasses into play. + +He saw the climber go up, up, until he had reached the last bough that +would support him. Then he drew some thing from his pocket which he +unrolled and began to wave rapidly. It was a flag and through his +powerful glasses Harry clearly saw the Stars and Stripes. It was +evident that they were signaling, but when one signals one usually +signals to somebody. His breath shortened for a moment. He believed +that the man in the tree was talking with his flag about the fugitive. +Where was the one to whom he was talking? + +He looked to both left and right, searching the fields and the forests, +and saw nothing. Then, as he was sweeping his glasses again in a half +curve he caught a glimpse of something straight ahead that made the +great pulse in his throat beat hard. About a mile in front of him +another man in a tree was waving a flag and beneath the tree were +horsemen. + +Harry knew now that the two flags were talking about the Confederate +messenger between. The one behind said: "Look out! He's young, riding +a bay horse and he's coming directly toward you," to which the one in +front replied, "We're waiting. He can't escape us. There are fields +with high fences on either side of the road and if he manages to break +through the fence he's an easy capture in the soft and muddy ground +there." + +Harry thought hard and fast, while the two flags talked so +contemptuously about him. The fields were unquestionably deep with mud +from the heavy rains, but he must try them. It was lucky that he had +seen the flags while both forces were out of rifle shot. He decided +for the western side, sprang from his horse and threw down a few rails. +In a half minute he was back on his horse, leaped him over the fence, +and struck across the field. + +It had been lately plowed and the going was uncommonly heavy. It would +be just as heavy however for his pursuers, and his luck in seeing their +signals would put him out of range before they reached the field. But +it was a wide field and his horse's feet sank so deep in the mud that +he dismounted and led him. When he was two-thirds of the way across a +shout told him that the two forces had met, and had discovered the ruse +of the fugitive. It did not take much intelligence to understand what +he had done, because he was yet in plain sight, and a few of the +cavalrymen took pot shots at him, their bullets falling far short. +Harry in his excited condition laughed at these attempts. Almost +anything was a triumph now. He shook his fist at them and regretted +that he could not send back a defiant shot. + +The cavalrymen conferred a little. Then a part pursued across the +field, and two detachments rode along its side, one to the north and +the other to the south. Harry understood. If the mud held him back +sufficiently they might pass around the field and catch him on the +other side. He continued to lead his horse, encouraging him with words +of entreaty and praise. + +"Come on!" he cried. "You won't let a little mud bother you. You +wouldn't let yourself be overtaken by a lot of half-bred horses not fit +to associate with you?" + +The brave animal responded nobly, and what had been the far edge of the +field was rapidly coming nearer. Beyond it lay woods. But the +flanking movement threatened. The two detachments were passing around +the field on firm ground, and Harry knew that he and his good horse +must hasten. He talked to him continually, boasting about him, and +together they reached the fence, which he threw down in all haste. +Then he led his weary horse out of the mud, sprang upon his back and +galloped into the bushes. + +He knew that the horses passing around the field on firm ground would +be fresh, and that he must find temporary hiding, at least as soon as +he could. He was in deep thickets now and he galloped on, careless how +the bushes scratched him and tore his uniform. The Union cavalry would +surely follow, but he wanted a little breathing time for his horse, and +in eight or ten minutes he stopped in the dense undergrowth. The horse +panted so hard that any one near would have heard him, but there was no +other sound in the thicket. The rest was valuable for both. Harry was +able to concentrate his mind and consider, while the panting of the +horse gradually ceased, and he breathed with regularity. The young +lieutenant patted him on the nose and whispered to him consolingly. + +"Good, old boy," he said, "you've brought me safely so far. I knew +that I could trust you." + +Then he stood quite still, with his hand stroking the horse's nose to +keep him silent. He had heard the first sounds of search. To his +right was the distant beat of hoofs and men's voices. Evidently they +were going to make a thorough search for him, and he decided to resume +his flight, even at the risk of being heard. + +He led the horse again, because the forest was so dense that one could +scarcely ride in it, and he thought, for a while, that he had thrown +off the pursuit, but the voices came again, and now on his left. They +had never relaxed the hunt for an instant. They had a good leader, and +Harry admitted that in his place he would have done the same. + +The country grew rougher, being so steep and hilly that it was not easy +of cultivation, and hence remained clothed in dense forest and +undergrowth. Twice more Harry heard the sound of pursuing voices and +hoofs, and then the noise of running water came to his ears. Twenty +yards farther and he came to a creek flowing between high banks, on +which the forest grew so densely that the sun was scarcely able to +reach the water below. + +The creek at first seemed to be a bar to his advance, but thinking it +over he led his horse carefully down into the stream, mounted him and +rode with the current, which was not more than a foot deep. +Fortunately the creek had a soft bottom and there was no ringing of +hoofs on stones. + +He went slowly, lest the water splash too much, and kept a wary watch +on the banks above, which were growing higher. He did not know where +the creek led, but it offered both a road and concealment, and it +seemed that Providence had put it there for his especial help. + +He rode in the bed of the stream fully an hour, and then emerged from +the hills into a level and comparatively bare country. It was a region +utterly unknown to him, but with his splendid idea of direction and the +sun to guide him he knew his straight course to Lee. The country +before him seemed to be given up wholly to grass, as he noticed neither +corn nor wheat. He saw several farm hands, but decided to keep away +from them. That was no country for the practice of horsemanship by a +lone Confederate soldier, nor did he like to be the fox in a fox hunt. + +Yet the fox he was. He chose a narrow road leading between cedars, and +when he had advanced upon it a few hundred yards he heard the sound of +a trumpet behind him, and at the edge of the woods that he had left. He +saw horsemen in blue emerging and he had no doubt that they were the +same men whom he had eluded in the thickets. + +"Their pursuit of me is getting to be a habit," he said to himself with +the most intense annoyance. "It's a good thing, my brave horse, that +you've had a long rest." + +He shook up the reins and began to gallop. He heard a faint shout in +the distance and saw the troopers in pursuit. But he did not fear them +now. Numerous fences would prevent them from flanking him, and he saw +that the road led on, straight and level. He shook the reins again and +the horse lengthened his stride. + +He felt so exultant that he laughed. It would be easy enough now to +distance this Union troop. Then the laugh died suddenly on his lips. A +bullet whistled so near his face that it almost took away his breath. +An elderly farmer standing in his own door had fired it, and Harry +snatched one of the pistols from his own belt, remembering then with +rage that it could not be fired. He shouted to his horse and made him +run faster. + +A bullet struck the pommel of his saddle and glanced off. A boy in an +orchard had fired it. A load of bird-shot, a handful it seemed to +Harry, flew about his ears. A bent old man who ought to have been +sitting on a porch in a rocking chair had discharged it from the edge +of a wood. A squirrel hunter on a hill took a pot shot at him and +missed. + +Harry was furious with anger. Decidedly this was no place for a +visitor from the South. He did not detect the faintest sign of +hospitality. Men and women alike seemed to dislike him. A powerful +virago hurled a stone at his head, which would have struck him +senseless had it not missed, and a farmer standing by a fence had a +shotgun cocked and ready to be fired as he passed, but Harry, snatching +one of the useless pistols from his belt, hurled it at him with all his +might. It struck the man a glancing blow on the head, felling him as +if he had been shot, and then Harry, thinking quickly, acted with equal +quickness. + +He reined in his horse with such suddenness that he nearly shot from +the saddle. Then he leaped down, seized the shotgun from under the +hands of the fallen man, sprang on his horse and was away again, +sending back a cry of defiance. + +Harry had never before in his life been so furious. To be hunted thus +by a whole countryside, as if he were a mad dog, was intolerable. It +was not only a threat to one's life, it was also an insult to one's +dignity to be treated as an animal. Although he was armed now the +insult continued. The call of the trumpet sounded almost without +ceasing, and the Union troopers uttered many shouts as do those who +chase the fox, although Harry knew that their cries were intended to +rouse the farmers who might head him off. + +The chase grew hotter, but he felt better with the shotgun. It was a +fine double-barreled weapon of the latest make, and he hoped that it +was loaded with buckshot. He was a sharpshooter, and he could give a +good account of any one who came too near. + +Yet with the trumpet shrilling continually behind him the huntsmen +gathered fast on either flank. It was yet the day when nearly every +house in America, outside a town, contained a rifle, and bullets fired +from a distance began to patter around Harry and his horse. The +riflemen were too far away to be reached with the shotgun, and it +seemed inevitable to him that in time a bullet would strike him. He +was truly the fox, and he knew that nothing could save him but forest. + +It was in his favor that the country was so broken and wooded so +heavily, and fixing his eyes on trees a half-mile ahead he raced for +them. If none of this yelling pack dragged him down he felt sure that +he might escape again in the forest. The trees swiftly came nearer, +but the shots on either flank increased. More than ever he felt like +the fox with the hounds all about him, and just one slender chance to +reach the burrow ahead. + +He felt his horse shake and knew that he had been hit. Yet the brave +animal ran on as well as ever, despite the triumphant shout behind, +which showed that he must be leaving a trail of blood. But the woods, +thick and inviting, were near, and he believed that he would reach +them. The horse shook again, much more violently than before, and then +fell to his knees. Harry leaped off, still clutching the shotgun, just +as the brave animal fell over on his side and began to breathe out his +life. + +He heard again that shout of triumph, but he was one who never gave up. +He had alighted easily on his feet. The trees were not more than +fifteen yards away and he disappeared among them as bullets clipped +bark and twigs about him. + +He breathed a deep sigh of thankfulness when he entered the forest. It +was so dense, and there was so much undergrowth that the horsemen could +not follow him there. If they came on foot, and spread out, as they +must, to hunt him, he had the double-barreled shotgun and it was a +deadly weapon. The fox had suddenly become the panther, alert, +powerful, armed with claws that killed. + +Harry went deep into the thickets before he sat down. He had no doubt +that they would follow him, but at present he was out of their sight +and hearing. He felt a mixture of elation and sadness, elation over +his temporary escape, and sadness over the loss of his gallant horse. +But one could not dwell long on regrets at such a time, and, advancing +a little farther, he sat down among the densest bushes that he could +find with the shotgun across his knees. + +Now Harry saw that the horse had really done all that it was possible +for him to do. He had brought him to the wood, and within he would +have been a drawback. A man on foot could conceal himself far more +easily. Everything favored him. There were bushes and vines everywhere +and he could be hidden like a deer in its covert. + +He looked up at the sun shining through the tops of the trees and saw +that he had kept to his true course. His flight had taken him directly +toward Lee at a much faster pace than he would have come otherwise. The +enemy had driven him on his errand at double speed. He felt that he +could spare a little time now, while he waited to see what the pursuit +would do. + +His feeling of exultation was now unalloyed. Deep in the forest with +his foes looking for him in vain, the spirit of Henry Ware was once +more strong within him. He was the reincarnation of the great hunter. +He lay so still, clasping the shotgun, that the little creatures of the +woods were deceived. A squirrel ran up the trunk of an oak six feet +away, and stood fearlessly in a fork with his bushy tail curved over +his back. A small gray bird perched on a bough just over Harry's head +and poured out a volume of song. Farther away sounded the tap tap of a +woodpecker on the bark of a dead tree. + +Harry, although he did not move, was watching and listening with +intense concentration, but his ears now would be his surest signals. +He could not see deep in the thickets, but he could hear any movement +in the underbrush a hundred yards away. So far there was nothing but +the hopping of a rabbit. The bird over his head sang on. There was no +wind among the branches, not even the flutter of leaves to distract his +attention from anything that might come on the ground. + +He rejoiced in this period of rest, of the nerves, rather than purely +physical. He had been keyed so high that now he relaxed entirely, and +soon lay perfectly flat, but with the shotgun still clasped in his +arms. He had a soft couch. Under him were the dead leaves of last +year, and over him was the pleasant gloom of thick foliage, already +turning brown. The bird sang on. His clear and beautiful note came +from a point directly over his head, but Harry could not see his tiny +body among the leaves. He became, for a little while, more interested +in trying to see him than in hearing his pursuers. + +It was annoying that such a volume of sound should come from a body +that could be hidden by a leaf. If a man could shout in proportion to +his own size he might be heard eight to ten miles away. It was an +interesting speculation and he pursued it. While he was pursuing it +his mind relaxed more and more and traveled farther and farther away +from his flight and hiding. Then his heavy eyelids pulled down, and, +while his pursuers yet searched the thickets for him, he slept. + +But his other self, which men had thought of as far back as Socrates, +kept guard. When he had slept an hour a tiny voice in his ear, no +louder than the ticking of a watch, told him to awake, that danger was +near. He obeyed the call, sleep was lifted from him and he opened his +eyes. But with inherited caution he did not move. He still lay flat in +his covert, trusting to his ears, and did not make a leaf move about +him. + +His ears told him that leaves were rustling not very far away, not more +than a hundred feet. His power of hearing was great, and the forest +seemed to make it uncommonly sensitive and delicate. + +He knew that the rustling of the leaves was made by a man walking. By +and by he heard his footfalls, and he knew that he wore heavy boots, or +his feet would not have crushed down in such a decisive manner. He was +looking for something, too, because the footfalls did not go straight +on, but veered about. + +Harry was well aware that it was a Union soldier, and that he was the +object of his search. He was a clumsy man, not used to forests, +because Harry heard him stumble twice, when his feet caught on vines. +Nor was any comrade near, or he would have called to him for the sake +of companionship. Harry judged that he was originally a mill hand, and +he did not feel the least alarm about him, laughing a little at his +clumsiness and awkwardness, as he trod heavily among the bushes, +tripped again on the vines, and came so near falling that he could hear +the rifle rattle when it struck a tree. He did not have the slightest +fear of the man, and at last, raising his head, he took a look. + +All his surmises were justified. He saw a great hulking youth of heavy +and dull countenance, carrying a rifle awkwardly, his place obviously +around some town and not in the depths of a forest, looking for a wary +enemy, who knew more of the wilderness than he could ever learn in all +his life. Harry saw that he was perspiring freely and that he looked +more like the hunted than the hunter. His eyes expressed bewilderment. +He was obviously lonely and apprehensive, not because he was a coward, +but because the situation was so strange to him. + +Besides his rifle he carried a large knapsack, so much distended that +Harry knew it to be full of food. It was this that decided him. A +soldier, like an army, must travel on his stomach, and he wanted that +knapsack. Moreover he meant to get it. He leveled his shotgun and +called in a low tone, but a tone so sharp that it could be heard +distinctly by the one to whom it was addressed: + +"Throw up your hands at once!" + +The man threw them up so abruptly that the rifle fell from his shoulder +into the bushes, and he turned around, staring face toward the point +from which the command had come. Harry saw at once that he was of +foreign birth, probably. The features inclined to the Slav type, +although Slavs were not then common in this country, even in the mill +towns of the North. + +"Are you an American?" asked Harry, standing up. + +"All but two years of my life." + +"The first two years then, as I see you speak good English. What's +your name?" + +"Michael Stanislav." + +"Do you think that anybody named Michael Stanislav has the right to +interfere in the quarrel of the Northern and Southern states? Don't +the Stanislavs have trouble enough in the country where the Stanislavs +grow?" + +The big youth stared at him without understanding. + +"Do you know who I am?" asked Harry, severely. + +"The running rebel that we all look for." + +"Rebels don't run. Besides, there are no rebels. Anyway I'm not the +man you're looking for. My name is Robin Hood." + +"Robin Hood?" + +"Yes, Robin Hood! Didn't you ever hear of him?" + +"Never." + +"Then you have the honor of hearing of him and meeting him at the same +time. As I said, my name is Robin Hood and my trade is that of a +benevolent robber. I lie around in the greenwood, and I don't work. +I've a lot of followers, Friar Tuck and others, but they're away for a +while. They're as much opposed to work as I am. That's why they're my +followers. We're the friends of the poor, because they have nothing we +want, and we're the enemies of the rich because they have a lot we do +want and that we often take. Still, we couldn't get along very well, +if there were no rich for us to rob. It's like taking sugar water from +a maple tree. We won't take too much, because it would kill the tree +and we want to take its sugar water again, and many times. Do you +understand?" + +"Yes," replied the big youth, but Harry knew he didn't. Harry +meanwhile was listening keenly to all that was passing in the forest, +and he was sure that no other soldier had wandered near. It was +perhaps partly a feeling of loneliness on his own part that caused him +to linger in his talk with Michael Stanislav. + +"Michael," he continued, "you appreciate our respective positions, +don't you?" + +"Ah!" said Michael, in a puzzled voice. + +"I've explained carefully to you that I'm Robin Hood, and you at the +present moment represent the rich." + +"I am not rich. Before I turn soldier I work in a mill at Bridgeport." + +"That's all very well, but you can't get out of it by referring to your +past. Just now you are a proxy of the rich, and it's my duty to rob +you." + +The mouth of the big fellow expanded into a wide grin. + +"You won't rob me," he said. "I have not a cent." + +"But I'm going to rob you just the same. Don't you dare to drop a hand +toward the pistols in your belt. If you do I'll blow your head off. +I'm covering you with a double-barreled shotgun. Each barrel contains +about twenty buckshot, and at close range their blast would be so +terrific that you'd make an awful looking corpse." + +"I hold up my hands a long time. Don't want to be any kind of a +corpse." + +"That's the good boy. Steady now. Don't move a muscle. I'm going to +rob you. It's a brief and painless operation, much easier than pulling +a tooth." + +He deftly removed the two pistols and the accompanying ammunition from +the man's belt, placing them in his own. His belt of cartridges he put +on the ground beside the fallen rifle, and then as he felt a glow of +triumph he passed the well-filled knapsack from the stalwart shoulders +of the other to his own shoulders, equally stalwart. + +"Is everything in it first class, Michael?" he demanded with much +severity. + +"The best. Our army feeds well." + +"It's a good thing for you that it's so. Robin Hood is never satisfied +with anything second class, and he's likely to be offended if you offer +it to him. On the whole, Michael, I think I like you and I'm glad you +came this way. But do you care for good advice?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"That's right. Say 'sir' to me. It pleases my robber's heart. Then, +my advice to you is never again to go into the woods alone. All the +forest looks alike to those who don't know it, and you're lost in a +minute. Besides, it's filled with strange and terrible creatures, +Robin Hood--that's me, though I have some redeeming qualities--the +Erymanthean boar, the Hydra-headed monster, Medusa of the snaky locks, +Cyclops, Polyphemus with one awful eye, the deceitful Sirens, the Old +Man of the Mountain, Wodin and Osiris, and, last and most terrible of +all, the Baron Munchausen." + +A flicker of fear appeared in the eyes of the captive. + +"But I'll see that none of these monsters hurt you," said Harry +consolingly. "The open is directly behind you, about a mile. Right +about! Wheel! Well done! Now, you won't see me again, but you'll +hear me giving commands. Forward, march! Quit stumbling! No true +forester ever does! Nor is it necessary for you to run into more than +three trees! Keep going! No, don't curve! Go straight ahead, and +remember that if you look back I shoot!" + +Michael walked swiftly enough. He deemed that on the whole he had +fared well. The great brigand, Robin Hood, had spared his life and he +had lost nothing. The army would replace his weapons and ammunition +and he was glad enough to escape from that terrible forest, even if he +were driven out of it. + +Harry watched him until he was out of sight, and then picking up the +rifle and belt of cartridges he fled on soundless feet deeper into the +forest. Two or three hundred yards away he stopped and heard a great +shouting. Michael, no longer covered by a gun, had realized that +something untoward had happened to him, and he was calling to his +comrades. Harry did not know whether Michael would still call the man +who had held him up, Robin Hood, nor did he care. He had secured an +excellent rifle which would be much more useful to him than a shotgun, +and his course still led straight toward the point where he should find +Lee's army on the march. He felt that he ought to throw away the +shotgun, as two weapons were heavy, but he could not make up his mind +to do so. + +A hundred yards farther and he heard replies to Michael's shouts, and +then several shots, undoubtedly fired by the Union troops themselves, +as signals of alarm. He laughed to himself. Could such men as these +overtake one who was born to the woods, the great grandson of Henry +Ware, the most gifted of the borderers, who in the woods had not only a +sixth sense, but a seventh as well? And his great grandson had +inherited many of his qualities. + +Harry, in the forest, felt only contempt for these youths of Central +Europe who could not tell one point of the compass from another. He +guided his own course by the sun, and continued at a good pace until he +could hear shouts and shots no longer. Then in the dense woods, where +the shadows made a twilight, he came to a tiny stream flowing from +under a rock. He knelt and drank of the cool water, and then he opened +Michael's knapsack. It was truly well filled, and he ate with deep +content. Then he drank again and rested by the side of the pool. + +As he reflected over his journey Harry concluded that Providence had +watched over him so far, but there was much yet to do before he reached +Lee. Providence had a strange way of watching over a man for a while, +and then letting him go. He would neglect no precaution. The forest +would not continue forever and then he must take his chances in the +open. + +Still burning with the desire to be the first to reach Lee, he put the +rifle and the shotgun on either shoulder, and set off at as rapid a +pace as the thickets would permit. But he soon stopped because a sound +almost like that of a wind, but not a wind, came to his ears. There +was a breeze blowing directly toward him, but he paid no attention to +it, because to him most breezes were pleasant and friendly. But the +other sound had in it a quality that was distinctly sinister like the +hissing of a snake. + +Harry paused in wonder and alarm. All his instincts warned him that a +new danger was at hand. The breath of the wind suddenly grew hot, and +sparks carried by it blew past him. He knew, in an instant, that the +forest was on fire behind him and that tinder dry, it would burn fast +and furious. Changing from a walk to a run, he sped forward as swiftly +as he could, while the flames suddenly sprang high, waved and leaped +forward in chase. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +TESTS OF COURAGE + + +Harry did not know how the woods had been set on fire, and he never +knew. He did not credit it to the intent of Michael and his comrades, +but he thought it likely that some of these men, ignorant of the +forest, had built a campfire. His first thought was of himself, and +his second was regret that so fine a stretch of timber should be burned +over for nothing. + +But he knew that he must hurry. Nor could he choose his way. He must +get out of that forest even if he ran directly into the middle of a +Union brigade. The wind was bringing the fire fast. It leaped from +one tree to another, despite the recent rains, gathering volume and +power as it came. Sparks flew in showers, and fragments of burned +twigs rained down. Twice Harry's face was scorched lightly and he had a +fear that one of the blazing twigs would set his hair on fire. He made +another effort, and ran a little faster, knowing full well that his +life was at stake. + +The fire was like a huge beast, and it reached out threatening red +claws to catch him. He was like primeval man, fleeing from one of the +vast monsters, now happily gone from the earth. He was conscious soon +that another not far from him was running in the same way, a man in a +faded blue uniform who had dropped his rifle in the rapidity of his +flight. + +Harry kept one eye on him but the stranger did not see him until they +were nearly out of the wood. Then Harry, with a clear purpose in view, +veered toward him. He saw that they would escape from the fire. Open +fields showed not far ahead, and while the sparks were numerous and +sometimes scorched, the roaring red monster behind them would soon be +at the end of his race. He could not follow them into the open fields. + +When the two emerged from the forest Harry was not more than fifteen +feet from the stranger, who evidently took him for a friend and who was +glad to have a comrade at such a time. They raced across fields in +which the wheat had been cut, and then sank down four or five hundred +yards from the fire, which was crackling and roaring in the woods with +great violence, and sending up leaping flames. + +"I was glad enough to get out of that. Do you think the rebels set it +on fire?" + +"I don't think so, but I was as pleased as you to escape from it, Mr. +Haskell." + +"Why, how did you know my name?" exclaimed the man in wonder. + +"Why should I forget you? I've seen you often enough. Your name is +John Haskell and you belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania." + +"That's right, but I don't seem to recall you." + +"It takes a lot of us some time to clear up our minds wholly after such +a battle as Gettysburg. In some ways I've been in a sort of confused +state myself. I dare say you've seen me often enough." + +"That's likely." + +"Pity you had your horse shot under you, Mr. Haskell. A man who is +carrying important messages at a time like this can't do very well +without his horse." + +"How did you know I'd lost my horse?" + +"Oh, I'm a mind reader. I can tell you a lot now. You carry your +dispatch in the left-hand pocket of your waistcoat, just over your +heart. And it hasn't been long, either, since you lost your horse, +perhaps not more than an hour." + +Haskell stared at him, but Harry's face was innocent. Nevertheless he +had read Haskell's name and regiment on his canteen, cut there with his +own knife. It was a mere guess that he was a dispatch bearer, but he +had located the dispatch, because at the mention of the word "message" +the man's hand had involuntarily gone to his left breast to see if the +dispatch were still there. Boots with little dirt on them indicated +that he had been riding. + +"A mind reader!" said Haskell, with suspicion. "What business has a +mind reader in this war?" + +"He could be of enormous value. If he were a real mind reader he could +tell his general exactly what the opposing general intended to do. I'm +employed at a gigantic salary for that particular purpose." + +"I guess you're trying to be funny. Why do you carry both a rifle and +a shotgun?" + +"In order to hit the target with one, if the other misses. I always +use the rifle first, because if the bullet doesn't get home the +shotgun, spreading its charge over a much wider area, is likely to do +something." + +"Now I know you're trying to be funny. As I'm going about my business +as fast as I can, I'll leave you here." + +"I like you so well that I can't bear to see you go. Don't move. My +rifle covers your heart exactly and you are not more than ten feet +away. I shall have no possible need of the shotgun. Keep your hands +away from your belt. You're in a dangerous position, Mr. Haskell." + +"I believe you're an infernal rebel." + +"Take out the objectionable adjective 'infernal' and you're right. Keep +those hands still, I tell you." + +"What do you want?" + +"Your dispatches! Oh, I must have 'em. Unbutton your coat and +waistcoat and hand 'em to me at once. I hate to take human life, but +war demands a terrible service, and I mean what I say!" + +His voice rang with determination. The man slowly unbuttoned his +waistcoat and took out a folded dispatch. + +"Put it on the ground in front of you. That's right, and don't you +reach for it again. Now, lay your canteen beside it!" + +"What in thunder do you want with my canteen? It's empty!" + +"I can fill it again. This is a well watered country. That's right; +put it beside the dispatch. Now you walk about one hundred yards to +the right with your back to me. If you look around at all I fire, and +I'm a good marksman. Stand there ten minutes, and then you can move +on! That's right! Now march!" + +The man walked away slowly and when he had gone about half the distance +Harry, picking up the dispatch, took flight again across the fields. +Climbing a fence, he looked back and saw the figure of John Haskell, +standing motionless on a hill. He knew that the man was not likely to +remain in that position more than half the allotted time. It was +certain that he would soon turn, despite the risk, but Harry was +already beyond his reach. + +He leaped from the fence, crossed another field and entered a wood. +There he paused among the trees and saw Haskell returning. But when he +had come a little distance, he shook his head doubtfully, and then +walked toward the north. + +"A counsel of wisdom," chuckled Harry, who was going in quite another +direction. "I think I'll read my dispatch now." + +He opened it and blessed his luck. It was from Meade to Pleasanton, +directing him to cut in with all the cavalry he could gather on the +enemy's flank. The Potomac was in great flood and the Army of Northern +Virginia could not possibly cross. If it were harried to the utmost by +the Union cavalry the task of destroying it would be much easier. + +"So it would," said Harry to himself. "But Pleasanton won't get this +dispatch. Providence has not deserted me yet; and it's true that +fortune favors the brave. I'm John Haskell of the Fifth Pennsylvania +and I can prove it." + +He had put the canteen over his shoulder and the name upon it was a +powerful witness in his favor. The dispatch itself was another, and +his faded uniform told nothing. + +Harry had passed through so much that a reckless spirit was growing +upon him, and he had succeeded in so much that he believed he would +continue to succeed. Regretfully he threw the shotgun away, as it +would not appear natural for a messenger to carry it and a rifle too. + +He went forward boldly now, and, when an hour later he saw a detachment +of Union cavalry in a road, he took no measures to avoid them. Instead +he went directly toward the horsemen and hailed them in a loud voice. +They stopped and their leader, a captain, looked inquiringly at Harry, +who was approaching rapidly. + +Harry held up both hands as a sign that he was a friend, and called in +a loud voice: + +"I want a horse! And at once, if you please, sir!" + +He had noticed that three led horses with empty saddles, probably the +result of a brush with the enemy, and he meant to be astride one of +them within a few minutes. + +"You're a cool one," said the captain. "You come walking across the +field, and without a word of explanation you say you want a horse. +Don't you want a carriage too?" + +"I don't need it. But I must have a horse, Captain. I ride with a +message and it must be of great importance because I was told to go +with it at all speed and risk my life for it. I've risked my life +already. My horse was shot by a band of rebels, but luckily it was in +the woods and I escaped on foot." + +As he spoke he craftily moved the canteen around until the inscription +showed clearly in the bright sunlight. The quick eyes of the captain +caught it at once. + +"You do belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania," he said. "Well, you're a +long way from your regiment. It's back of that low mountain over +there, a full forty miles from here, I should say." + +Harry felt a throb of relief. It was his only fear that these men +themselves should belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania, a long chance, but +if it should happen to go against him, fatal to all his plans. + +"I don't want to join my regiment," he said. "I'm looking for General +Pleasanton." + +"General Pleasanton! What can you happen to want with him?" + +Harry gave the officer a wary and suspicious look, and then his eyes +brightened as if he were satisfied. + +"I told you I was riding with a message," he said, "and that message is +for General Pleasanton. It's from General Meade himself and it's no +harm for me to show it to so good a patriot as you." + +"No, I think not," said the captain, flattered by the proof of respect +and confidence. + +Harry took the letter from his pocket. It had been sealed at first, +but the warmth of the original bearer's body with a little help from +Harry later had caused it to come open. + +"Look at that," said Harry proudly as he took out the paper. + +The captain read it, and was mightily impressed. He was, as Harry had +surmised, a thoroughly staunch supporter of the Union. He would not +only furnish this valiant messenger with a good horse, but he would +help him otherwise on his way. + +"Dexter," he called to an orderly, "bring the sorrel mare. She was +ridden by a good man, Mr. Haskell, but he met a sharpshooter's bullet. +Jump up." + +Harry sprang into the saddle, and, astride such a fine piece of +horseflesh, he foresaw a speedy arrival in the camp of General Lee. + +"I'll not only mount you," said the captain, "but we'll see you on the +way. General Pleasanton is on Lee's left flank and, as our course is +in that direction, we'll ride with you, and protect you from stray +rebel sharpshooters." + +Harry could have shouted aloud in anger and disappointment. While the +captain trusted him fully, he would not be much more than a prisoner, +nevertheless. + +"Thank you very much, Captain," he said, "but you needn't trouble +yourself about me. Perhaps I'd better go on ahead. One rides faster +alone." + +"Don't be afraid that we'll hold you back," said the captain, smiling. +"We're one of the hardest riding detachments in General Pleasanton's +whole cavalry corps, and we won't delay you a second. On the contrary, +we know the road so well that we'll save you wandering about and losing +time." + +Harry did not dare to say more. And so Providence, which had been +watching over him so well, had decided now to leave him and watch over +the other fellow. But he had at least one consolation. Pleasanton was +on Lee's flank and their ride did not turn him from the line of his +true objective. Every beat of his horse's hoofs would bring him nearer +to Lee. Invincible youth was invincibly in the saddle again, and he +said confidently to the captain: + +"Let's start." + +"All right. You keep by my side, Haskell. You appear to be brave and +intelligent and I want to ask you questions." + +The tone, though well meant, was patronizing, but Harry did not resent +it. + +"This troop is made up of Massachusetts men, and I'm from Massachusetts +too," continued the captain. "My name is Lester, and I had just +graduated from Harvard when the war began." + +"Good stock up there in Massachusetts," said Harry boldly, "but I've +one objection to you." + +"What's that?" + +"Everything wonderful in our history was done by you. No chance was +left for anybody else." + +"Well, not everything, but almost everything. Good old Massachusetts! +As Webster said, 'There she stands!'" + +"It was mostly New York and Pennsylvania that stood at Gettysburg." + +"Yes, you did very well there." + +"Don't you think, Captain, that a nation or a state is often lucky in +its possession of writers?" + +"I don't catch your drift exactly." + +"I'll make an illustration. I've often wondered what were the Persian +accounts of Marathon and Thermopylae, of Salamis and Plataea. Now most +of our history has been written by Massachusetts men." + +"And you insinuate that they have glorified my state unduly?" + +"The expression is a trifle severe. Let's say that they have dwelled +rather long upon the achievements of Massachusetts and not so long upon +those of New York and Pennsylvania." + +"Then let New York and Pennsylvania go get great writers. No state can +be truly great without them. There's another detachment of ours just +ahead, but we'll talk to them only a minute or two." + +The second detachment reported that Pleasanton, with a heavy cavalry +force, was about six miles farther west and that there was a fair road +all the way. They should overtake him in an hour. + +Harry's heart beat hard. Unless something happened within that hour he +would never reach Lee, and his brain began to work with extraordinary +activity. Plans passed in review before it as rapidly as pictures on a +film, but all were rejected. He was in despair. They were trotting +rapidly down a smooth road. A quarter of an hour passed and then a +half-hour. A low bare hill appeared immediately on their right, and +Harry saw beyond it the tops of trees. + +"Captain Lester," he said, "suppose that you and I ride to the crest of +the hill. You have strong glasses, so have I, and we may see something +worth while. The men will ride on, but we can easily overtake them." + +"Not a bad idea, Haskell," said the captain, still in that slightly +patronizing tone. "I judge by your speech that you're a well educated +man, and you appear to think." + +They rode quickly to the summit, and Lester, putting his glasses to his +eyes, gazed westward over a vast expanse of cultivated country. But +Harry looking immediately down the slope, saw the forest that he wished. + +Lester swept the glasses in a wide circle, looking for Union troops. +His own troop was about a hundred yards ahead and the hoofbeats were +growing fainter. Then Harry's courage almost failed him, but necessity +was instant and cruel. Still he modified the blow, nor did he use any +weapon, save one that nature had given him. + +"Look out!" he cried, and as Lester turned in astonishment he struck +him on the point of the jaw. Even as his fist flashed forward he held +back a little and his full strength was not in the blow. + +Nevertheless it was sufficient to strike Lester senseless, and he slid +from his horse. Harry caught him by the shoulder and eased him in his +fall. Then he lay stretched on his back in the grass like one asleep, +with his horse staring at him. Harry knew that he would revive in a +minute or two, and with a "Farewell, Captain Lester," he galloped down +the slope and into the covering woods. + +He knew that Lester's men, finding that they did not follow, would +quickly come back, and he raced his horse among the trees as fast as he +dared. A couple of miles between him and the hill and he felt safe, at +least so far as the troop of Captain Lester was concerned. Fortune +seemed to have made him a favorite again, but he knew that dangers were +still as thick around him as leaves in Vallombrosa. + +He tied his horse, climbed a tree, and used his glasses. Two miles to +the west the bright sun flashed on long lines of mounted men, obviously +the horsemen of Pleasanton. How was he to get through that cavalry +screen and reach Lee? He did not see a way, but he knew that to find, +one must seek. His desire to get through, intense as it always had +been, was now doubled. He not only carried the news to Lee about the +possible ford, but he also bore Meade's dispatch to Pleasanton, +directing a movement which, if successful, must be most dangerous to +the Army of Northern Virginia. + +He descended the tree and waited a while in the forest. He found a +spring at which he drank, and he filled the canteen. It was a precious +canteen with the name of John Haskell engraved upon it, and he meant +that it should carry him through all dangers into his camp. But he did +not mean to use it yet. If he rode into Pleasanton's ranks they would +merely take his letter to the general, and that would be the failure of +his real mission. + +Night was now not far distant, and, concluding that he had a much +better chance to run the gantlet under its cover, he still waited in +the wood until the twilight came. + +Wrapped in a coil of dangers he was ready to risk anything. Quickness, +resource and boldness, of which the last had been most valuable, had +brought him so far, and, encouraged by success, he rode forward full of +confidence. + +On his right was a small house standing among the usual shade trees, +and, approaching it without hesitation, he spoke to a man who stood in +the yard. + +"Which way is General Pleasanton?" he asked. + +The man hesitated. + +"I belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania," said Harry, pointing to the name +on the canteen, still visible in the twilight. The man's eyes +brightened and he replied: + +"Down there," pointing toward the southwest. + +"I've a message for him and I don't want to run into any of the rebel +raiders." + +"Then you keep away from there," he said, pointing due west. + +"What's the trouble in that direction?" + +"Jim Hurley was here about an hour ago. The whole country is terribly +excited about these big armies marching over it, and he said that our +cavalry was riding on fast. A lot of it was ahead of the rebel army, +but straight there in the west some of the rebel horsemen had spread +out on their own flank. If you went that way in the night you'd be +sure to run right into a nest of 'em." + +"So the Johnnies are west of us, your friend Hurley said. Tell me +again what particular point I have to watch in order to keep away from +them." + +"Almost as straight west as you can make it. A valley running east and +west cuts in there and it's full of the rebels. It's the only place +all along here where they are." + +"And consequently the only place for me to avoid. Thanks. Your +information may save me from capture. Good night." + +"Good night and good luck." + +Harry rode toward the southwest until a dip in the valley hid him from +possible view of the man at the house. Then he turned and rode due +west, determined to reach as soon as possible those "rebel raiders" in +the valley, but fully aware that he must yet use every resource of +skill, courage and patience. + +The twilight turned into night, clear, dry and bright. Unless it was +raining in the mountains the flood in the Potomac could not be +increasing. Here, at last, the conditions were all that he wished. The +captured haversack still contained plenty of food, and, as he rode, he +ate. He had learned long ago that food was as necessary as weapons to +a soldier, and that one should eat when one could. Moreover, he was +always hungry. + +He kept among trees wherever possible, and, as the night grew, and the +stars came out in the dusky blue, he enjoyed the peace. Even though he +searched with his glasses he could not see soldiers anywhere, although +he knew they were in the hollows and the forests. A pleasant breeze +blew, and an owl, reckless of armies, sent forth its lonesome hoot. + +But he kept his horse's head straight for the narrow valley where the +"rebel raiders" rode. He met presently a small detachment of +Connecticut men, but the sight of his canteen and letter was sufficient +for them. Again he rode southwest, merely to turn due west once more, +after he had passed from their sight, and near the head of the valley +he encountered two men in blue on horseback watching. They were alert, +well-built fellows and examined Harry closely, a process to which long +usage had reconciled him. + +"I hear that the rebels are down in that valley, comrade," he said. + +"So they are," replied the elder and larger of the men. "We've got to +ask you who you are and which way you're going." + +"John Haskell, Fifth Pennsylvania, with dispatches from General Meade +to General Pleasanton. They're tremendously important, too, and I've +got to be in a hurry." + +"More haste less speed. You know the old saying. In a time like this +it's sometimes better for a man to know where he's going than it is to +get there, 'cause he may arrive at the wrong place." + +"Good logic, comrade, but I must hurry just the same. Which is my best +way to find General Pleasanton?" + +"Southwest. But I'm bound to tell you a few things first." + +"All right. What are they?" + +"You and I must be kinsfolk." + +"How do you make that out?" + +"Because my name is William Haskell, and I belong to the Fifth +Pennsylvania, the same regiment that you do." + +"Is that so? It's strange that we haven't met before. But funny +things happen in war." + +"So they do. Awfully funny. Now my brother's name is John Haskell, +and you happen to be carrying his canteen, but you've changed looks a +lot in the last few days, Brother John." + +Haskell's voice had been growing more menacing, and Harry, with native +quickness, was ready to act. When he saw the man's pistol flash from +his belt he went over the side of his horse and the bullet whistled +where his body had been. His own rifle cracked in reply, but Haskell's +horse, not he, took the bullet, and, screaming with pain and fright, +ran into the woods as the rider slipped from his back. + +Harry, realizing that his peril was imminent and deadly, fired one of +his pistols at the second man, who fell from his horse, too badly +wounded in the shoulder to take any further part in the fight. + +But Harry found in Haskell an opponent worthy of all his skill and +courage. The Union soldier threw himself upon the ground and fired at +Harry's horse, which instantly jerked the bridle from his hand and fled +as the other had done. Harry dropped flat in the grass and leaves and +listened, his heart thumping. + +But luck had favored him again. He lay in a slight depression and any +bullet fired at him would be sure to go over him unless he raised his +head. He could not see his enemies, but he could depend upon his +wonderful power of hearing, inherited and cultivated, which gave him an +advantage over his opponents. + +He heard the wounded man groan ever so lightly, and then the other +whisper to him, "Are you much hurt, Bill?" The reply came in a moment: +"My right shoulder is put out for the time, and I can't help you now." +Presently he heard the slight sound of the other crawling toward him. +Evidently this Haskell was a fearless fellow, bound to get him, and he +called from the shadow in which he lay. + +"You'd better stop, Haskell! I've got the best pair of ears in all +this region, and I hear you coming! Crawl another step and you meet a +bullet! But I want to tell you first that your interesting brother John +is all right. I didn't kill him. I merely robbed him." + +"Robbed him of what?" + +"Oh, of several things." + +"What things?" + +"They don't concern you, Haskell. These are matters somewhat above +you." + +"They are, are they? Well, maybe they are, but I'm going to see that +you don't get away with the proceeds of your robbery." + +Harry didn't like his tone. It was fierce and resolute, and he +realized once more that he had a man of quality before him. If Haskell +had behaved properly he would have withdrawn with his wounded comrade. +But then he was an obstinate Yankee. + +He raised up ever so little and glanced across the intervening space, +seeing the muzzle of a rifle not many yards away. There could be no +doubt that Haskell was watchful and would continue watching. He drew +his head back again and said: + +"Let's call it a draw. You go back to your army, Mr. Haskell, and I'll +go back to mine." + +"Couldn't think of it. As a matter of fact, I'm with my army now; that +is, I'm in its lines, while you can't reach yours. All I've got to do +is to hold you here, and in the course of time some of our people will +come along and take you." + +"Do you think I'm worth so much trouble?" + +"In a way it's a sort of personal affair with me. You admit having +robbed my brother, and I feel that I must avenge him. He has been +acting as a dispatch rider, and I can make a pretty shrewd guess about +what you took from him. So I think I'll stay here." + +Harry blamed himself bitterly for his careless and unfortunate +expressions. He did not fear the result of a duel with this man, being +the master of woodcraft that he was, but he was losing time, valuable +time, time more precious than gold and diamonds, time heavy with the +fate of armies and a nation. He grew furiously angry at everything, +and angriest at Haskell. + +"Mr. Haskell," he called, "I'm getting tired of your society, and I +make you a polite request to go away." + +"Oh, no, you're not tired. You merely think you are, and I couldn't +consider conceding to your request. It's for your good more than mine. +My society is elevating to any Johnny Reb." + +"Then I warn you that I may have to hurt you." + +"How about getting hurt yourself?" + +Harry was silent. His acute ears brought him the sound of Haskell +moving a little in his own particular hollow. The lonesome owl hooted +twice more, but there was no sound to betoken the approach of Union +troops in the forest. The duel of weapons and wits would have to be +fought out alone by Haskell and himself. + +He went over everything again and again and he concluded that he must +rely upon his superior keenness of ear. He could hear Haskell, but +Haskell could not hear him, and there was Providence once more taking +him into favor. Summer clouds began to drift before the moon, and many +of the stars were veiled. It was possible that Haskell's eyes also +were not as keen as his own. + +When the darkness increased, he began to crawl from the little shallow. +Despite extreme precautions he made a slight noise. A pistol flashed +and a bullet passed over him. It made his muscles quiver, but he +called in a calm voice: + +"Why did you do such a foolish thing as that? You wasted a perfectly +good bullet." + +"Weren't you trying to escape? I thought I heard a movement in the +grass." + +"Wasn't thinking of such a thing. I'm just waiting here to see what +you'll do. Why don't you come on and attack?" + +"I'm satisfied with things as they are. I'll hold you until morning +and then our men will be sure to come and pick you up." + +"Maybe it will be our men who will come and pick you up." + +"Oh, no; they're too busy leaving Gettysburg behind 'em." + +Harry nevertheless had succeeded in leaving the shallow and was now +lying on its farther bank. Then he resumed the task of crawling +forward on his face, and without making any noise, one of the most +difficult feats that a human being is ever called upon to do. + +At the end of a dozen feet, he paused both to rest and to listen. His +acute ears told him that Haskell had not moved from his own place, and +his eyes showed him that the darkness was increasing. Those wonderful, +kindly clouds were thickening before the moon, and the stars in troops +were going out of sight. + +But he did not relax his caution. He knew that he could not afford to +make any sound that would arouse the suspicions of Haskell, and it was +a quarter of an hour before he felt himself absolutely safe. Then he +passed around a big tree and arose behind its trunk, appreciating what +a tremendous luxury it was to be a man and to stand upon one's own feet. + +He had triumphed again! The stars surely were with him. They might +play little tricks upon him now and then to tantalize him, but in the +more important matters they were on his side. He stretched himself +again and again to relieve the terrible stiffness caused by such long +and painful crawling, and then, unable to resist an exultant impulse, +he called loudly: + +"Good-by, Haskell!" + +There was a startled exclamation and a bullet fired at random cut the +leaves twenty yards away. Harry, making no reply, fled swiftly through +the forest toward the valley where the rebel raiders rode. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +IN THE WAGON + + +He ran at first, reckless of impediments, and there was a sound of +crashing as he sped through the bushes. He was not in the least afraid +of Haskell. He had his rifle and pistols and in the woods he was +infinitely the superior. He did not even believe that Haskell would +pursue, but he wanted to get far beyond any possible Federal sentinels +as soon as possible. + +After a flight of a few hundred yards he slackened speed, and began to +go silently. The old instincts and skill of the forester returned to +him. He knew that he was safe from immediate pursuit and now he would +approach his own lines carefully. He was grateful for the chance or +series of chances that always took him toward Lee. It seemed now that +his enemies had merely succeeded in driving him at an increased pace in +the way he wanted to go. + +He was descending a slope, thickly clothed with undergrowth. A few +hundred yards farther his knees suddenly crumpled under him and he sank +down, seized at the same time with a fit of nervous trembling. He had +passed through so many ordeals that strong and seasoned as he was and +high though his spirits, the collapse came all at once. He knew what +was the matter and, quietly stretching himself out, he lay still that +the spell might pass. + +The lonesome owl, probably the same one that he had heard earlier, +began to hoot, and now it was near by. Harry thought he could make out +its dim figure on a branch and he was sure that the red eyes, closed by +day, were watching him, doubtless with a certain contempt at his +weakness. + +"Old man, if you had been chased by the fowler as often as I have," +were the words behind his teeth, addressed to the dim and fluffy +figure, "you wouldn't be sitting up there so calm and cocky. Your +tired head would sink down between your legs, your feathers would be +wet with perspiration and you'd be so tired you'd hardly be able to +hang on to the tree." + +Came again the lonesome hoot of the owl, spreading like a sinister omen +through the forest. It made Harry angry, and, raising himself up a +little, he shook his fist again at the figure on the branch, now +growing clearer in outline. + +"'Bird or devil?'" he quoted. + +The owl hooted once more, the strange ominous cry carrying far in the +silence of the night. + +"Devil it is," said Harry, "and quoth your evil majesty 'never more.' I +won't be scared by a big owl playing the part of the raven. It's not +'nevermore' with me. I've many a good day ahead and don't you dare +tell me I haven't." + +Came the solemn and changeless hoot of the owl in reply. + +Harry's exertions and excitement had brought too much blood to his head +and he was seeing red. He raised himself upon his elbows and stared at +the owl which stared back from red rimmed eyes, cold, emotionless, +implacable. He had been terribly shaken, and now a superstitious +fright overcame him. The raven and the albatross were in his mind and +he murmured under his breath passages from their ominous poems. The +scholar had his raven, the mariner had his albatross and now he alone +in the forest had his owl, to his mind the most terrible bird of the +three. + +Came again that solemn and warning cry, the most depressing of all in +the wilderness, while the changeless and sinister eyes stared steadily +at him. Then Harry remembered that he had a rifle, and he sat up. He +would slay this winged monster. There was light enough for him to draw +a bead, and he was too good a marksman to miss. + +He dropped the muzzle of the rifle in a sudden access of fear as he +remembered the albatross. A shiver ran through every nerve and muscle, +and so heavily was he oppressed that he felt as if he had just escaped +committing murder. He rubbed his hand across his damp forehead and the +act brought him out of that dim world in which he had been living for +the last ten or fifteen minutes. + +"Bird of whatever omen you may be, I'll not shoot you. That's +certain," he said, "but I'll leave you to your melancholy predictions +just as soon as I can." + +He stood up somewhat unsteadily, and renewed the descent of the slope. +Near its foot he came to a brook and bathing his face plentifully in +the cool water he felt wonderfully refreshed. All his strength was +flowing back swiftly. + +Then he entered the valley, pressing straight toward the west, and soon +heard the tread of horses. He knew that they must be the cavalry of +his own army, but he withdrew into the bushes until he was assured. A +dozen men riding slowly and warily came into view, and though the +moonlight was wan he recognized them at once. When they were opposite +him he stepped from his ambush and said: + +"A happy night to you, Colonel Talbot." + +Colonel Leonidas Talbot was a brave man, but seldom in his life had he +been so shaken. + +"Good God, Hector!" he cried. "It's Harry Kenton's ghost!" + +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire turned pale. + +"I don't believe in ghosts, Leonidas," he said, "but this one certainly +looks like that of Harry Kenton." + +"Colonel Talbot," called Harry, "I'm not a ghost. I'm the real Harry +Kenton, hunting for our army." + +"Pale but substantial," said St. Clair, who rode just behind the two +colonels. "He's our old Harry himself, and I'd know him anywhere." + +"No ghost at all and the Yankee bullets can't make him one," said Happy +Tom. + +A weakness seized Harry and a blackness came before his eyes. When he +recovered St. Clair was holding him up, and Colonel Talbot was trying +to pour strong waters down his throat. + +"How long have I been this way?" he asked anxiously. + +"About sixty seconds," replied Colonel Talbot, "but what difference +does it make?" + +"Because I'm in a big hurry to get to General Lee! Oh! Colonel! +Colonel! You must speed me on my way! I've got a message from Colonel +Sherburne to General Lee that means everything, and on the road I +captured another from General Meade to General Pleasanton. Put me on a +horse, won't you, and gallop me to the commander-in-chief!" + +"Are you strong enough to ride alone?" + +"I'm strong enough to do anything now." + +"Then up with you! Here, on Carter's horse! Carter can ride behind +Hubbell! St. Clair, you and Langdon ride on either side of him! You +should reach the commander-in-chief in three-quarters of an hour, +Harry!" + +"And there is no Yankee cavalry in between?" + +"No, they're thick on the slopes above us! You knew that, but here +you're inside our own lines. Judging by your looks you've had quite a +time, Harry. Now hurry on with him, boys!" + +"So I have had, Colonel, but the appearance of you, Lieutenant-Colonel +St. Hilaire and the boys was like a light from Heaven. Good-by!" + +"Good-by!" the two colonels called back, but their voices were already +dying in the distance as Harry and his comrades were now riding rapidly +down the valley, knee to knee, because St. Clair and Langdon meant to +keep very close to him. They saw that he was a little unsteady, and +that his eyes were unnaturally bright. They knew, too, that if he said +he had great news for General Lee he told the truth, and they meant +that he should get there with it in the least time possible. + +The valley opened out before them, broadening considerably as they +advanced. The night was far gone, there was not much moonlight, but +their eyes had grown used to the dark, and they could see well. They +passed sentinels and small detachments of cavalry, to whom St. Clair +and Langdon gave the quick password. They saw fields of wheat stubble +and pastures and crossed two brooks. The curiosity of Langdon and St. +Clair was overwhelming but they restrained it for a long time. They +could tell by his appearance that he had passed through unimaginable +hardships, but they were loath to ask questions. + +An owl on their right hooted, and both of them saw Harry shiver. + +"What makes an owl's cry disturb you so, Harry?" asked Langdon. + +"Because one of them tried to put the hoodoo on me as they say down in +your country, Happy. I was lying back there in the forest on the hill +and the biggest and reddest-eyed owl that was ever born sat on a bough +over head, and kept telling me that I was finished, right at the end of +my rope. But he was a liar, because here I am, with you fellows on +either side of me, inside our lines and riding to the camp of the +commander-in-chief." + +"I think you're a bit shaky, Harry," said St. Clair, "and I don't +wonder at it. If I had been through all I think you've been through +I'd tumble off that horse into the road and die." + +"Has any messenger come from Colonel Sherburne at the river to General +Lee?" + +"Not that I've heard of. No, I'm sure that none's come," replied St. +Clair. + +"Then I'll get to him first. Don't think, Arthur, it's just a foolish +ambition of mine to lead, but the sooner some one reaches the general +the better." + +"We'll see that you're first old man," said Langdon. "It's not more +than a half-hour now." + +But Harry reeled in his saddle. The singular weakness that he had felt +a while back returned, and the road grew dark before him. With a +mighty effort he steadied himself in the saddle and St. Clair heard him +say in a fierce undertone: "I will go through with it!" St. Clair +looked across at Langdon and the signaling look of Happy Tom replied. +They drew in just a little closer. Now and then they talked to him +sharply and briskly, rousing him again and again from the lethargy into +which he was fast sinking. + +"Look! In the woods over there, Harry!" exclaimed St. Clair. "See the +men stretched asleep on the grass! They're the survivors of Pickett's +brigades that charged at Gettysburg." + +"And I was there!" said Harry. "I saw the greatest charge ever made in +the history of the world!" + +He reeled a little toward St. Clair, who caught him by the shoulder and +straightened him in the saddle. + +"Of course you had a pleasant, easy ride from the Potomac," said Happy +Tom, "but I don't understand how as good a horseman as you lost your +horse. I suppose he ran away while you were picking berries by the +roadside." + +"Me pick berries by the roadside, while I'm on such a mission!" +exclaimed Harry indignantly, rousing himself up until his eyes flashed, +which was just what Happy wished. "I didn't see any berries! Besides +I didn't start on a horse. I left in a boat." + +"A boat? Now, Harry, I know you've turned romancer. I guess your +mystic troubles with the owl--if you really saw an owl--have been a +sort of spur to your fancy." + +"Do you mean to say, Tom Langdon, that I didn't see an owl and talk +with him? I tell you I did, and his conversation was a lot more +intelligent than yours, even if it was unpleasant." + +"Of course it was," said St. Clair. "Happy's chief joy in life is +talking. You know how he chatters away, Harry. He hates to sleep, +because then he loses good time that he might use in talk. I'll wager +you anything against anything, Harry, that when the Angel Gabriel blows +his horn Happy will rise out of his grave, shaking his shroud and +furious with anger. He'll hold up the whole resurrection while he +argues with Gabriel that he blew his horn either too late or too early, +or that it was a mighty poor sort of a horn anyhow." + +"I may do all that, Harry," said Happy, "but Arthur is sure to be the +one who will raise the trouble about the shroud. You know how finicky +he is about his clothes. He'll find fault with the quality of his +shroud, and he'll say that it's cut either too short or too long. Then +he'll insist, while all the billions wait, on draping the shroud in the +finest Greek or Roman toga style, before he marches up to his place on +the golden cloud and receives his harp." + +Harry laughed. + +"That'll be old Arthur, sure," he said. Then his head drooped again. +Fatigue was overpowering him. St. Clair and Langdon put a hand on +either shoulder and held him erect, but Harry was so far sunk in +lethargy that he was not conscious of their grasp. Men looked +curiously at the three young officers riding rapidly forward, the one +in the center apparently held on his horse by the other two. + +St. Clair took prompt measures. + +"Harry Kenton!" he called sharply. + +"Here!" + +"Do you know what they do with a sentinel caught asleep?" + +"They shoot him!" + +"What of a messenger, bearing great news who has ridden two or three +days and nights through a thousand dangers, and then becomes +unconscious in his saddle within five hundred yards of his journey's +end?" + +"The stake wouldn't be too good for him," replied Harry as with a +mighty effort he shook himself, both body and mind. Once more his eyes +cleared and once more he sat erect in his saddle without help. + +"I won't fail, Arthur," he said. "Show the way." + +"There's a big tree by the roadside almost straight ahead," said St. +Clair. "General Lee is asleep under that, but he'll be as wide awake +as any man can be a half-minute after you arrive." + +They sprang from their horses, St. Clair spoke quickly with a watching +officer who went at once to awaken Lee. Harry dimly saw the form of +the general who was sleeping on a blanket, spread over small boughs. +Near him a man in brilliant uniform was walking softly back and forth, +and now and then impatiently striking the tops of his high +yellow-topped boots with a little riding whip. Harry knew at once that +it was Stuart, but the cavalry leader had not yet noticed him. + +Harry saw the officer bend over the commander-in-chief, who rose in an +instant to his feet. He was fully dressed and he showed gray in the +dusky light, but he seemed as ever calm and grave. Harry felt +instantly the same swell of courage that the presence of Jackson had +always brought to him. It was Lee, the indomitable, the man of genius, +who could not be beaten. He heard him say to the officer who had +awakened him, "Bring him immediately!" and he stepped forward, +strengthening himself anew and filled with pride that he should be the +first to arrive, as he felt that he certainly now was. + +"Lieutenant Kenton!" said Lee. + +"Yes, sir," said Harry, lifting his cap. + +"You were sent with Colonel Sherburne to see about the fords of the +Potomac." + +"I was, sir." + +"And he has sent you back with the report?" + +"He has, sir. He did not give me any written report for fear that I +might be captured. He did me the honor to say that my verbal message +would be believed." + +"It will. I know you, as I do the other members of my staff. Proceed." + +"The Potomac is in great flood, sir, and the bridge is destroyed. It +can't be crossed until it runs down to its normal depth." + +Harry saw other generals of high rank drawing near. One he recognized +as Longstreet. They were all silent and eager. + +"Colonel Sherburne ordered me to say to you, sir," continued Harry, +"that the best fords would be between Williamsport and Hagerstown when +the river ran down." + +"When did you leave him?" + +"Nearly two days ago, sir." + +"You have made good speed through a country swarming with our enemy. +You are entitled to rest." + +"It's not all, sir?" + +"What else?" + +"On my way I captured a messenger with a letter from General Meade to +General Pleasanton. I have the message, sir." + +He brought forth the paper from his blouse and extended it to General +Lee, who took it eagerly. Some one held up a torch and he read it +aloud to his generals. + +"And so Meade means to trap me," he said, "by coming down on our flank!" + +"Since the river is unfordable he'll have plenty of time to attack us +there," said Longstreet. + +"But will he dare to attack?" said Stuart defiantly. "He was able to +hold his own in defense at Gettysburg, but it's another thing to take +the offensive. We hear that General Meade is cautious and that he +makes many complaints to his government. A complainer is not the kind +of man who can destroy the Army of Northern Virginia." + +"Sometimes it's well to be cautious, General," said Lee. + +Then he turned to Harry and said: + +"Again I commend you." + +Harry saluted proudly, and then fell unconscious at the feet of General +Lee. + +When the young staff officer awoke, he was lying in a wagon which was +moving slowly, with many jolts over a very rough road. It was perhaps +one of these jolts that awoke him, because his eyes still felt very +heavy with sleep. His position was comfortable as he lay on a heap of +blankets, and the sides of the wagon looked familiar. Moreover the +broad back of the driver was not that of a stranger. Moving his head +into a higher place on the blankets he called. + +"Hey you, Dick Jones, where are you taking me?" + +Jones turned his rubicund and kindly face. + +"Don't it beat all how things come about?" he said. "This wagon wasn't +built for passengers, but I have you once and then I have you twice, +sleepin' like a prince on them blankets. I guess if the road wasn't so +rough you'd have slept all the way to Virginia. But I'm proud to have +you as a passenger. They say you've been coverin' yourself with glory. +I don't know about that, but I never before saw a man who was so all +fired tuckered out." + +"Where did you find me?" + +"I didn't exactly find you myself. They say you saluted General Lee so +deep and so strong that you just fell down at his feet an' didn't move, +as if you intended to stay there forever. But four of your friends +brought you to my wagon feet foremost, with orders from General Lee if +I didn't treat you right that I'd get a thousand lashes, be tarred an' +feathered, an' hung an' shot an' burned, an' then be buried alive. For +all of which there was no need, as I'm your friend and would treat you +right anyway." + +"I know you would," laughed Harry. "You can't afford to lose your best +passenger. How long have I been sleeping in this rough train of yours?" + +"Since about three o'clock in the morning." + +"And what time might it be now." + +"Well it might be ten o'clock in the morning or it might be noon, but +it ain't either." + +"Well, then, what time is it?" + +"It's about six o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Kenton, and I judge that +you've slept nigh on to fifteen hours, which is mighty good for a man +who was as tired as you was." + +"And what has the army been doing while I slept?" + +"Oh, it's been marchin' an' marchin' an' marchin'. Can't you hear the +wagons an' the cannons clinkin' an' clankin'? An' the hoofs of the +horses beatin' in the road? An the feet of forty or fifty thousand men +comin' down ker-plunk! ker-plunk! an' all them thousands talkin' off +an' on? Yes, we're still marchin', Mr. Kenton, but we're retreatin' +with all our teeth showin' an' our claws out, sharpened specially. +Most of the boys don't care if Meade would attack us. They'd be glad +of the chance to get even for Gettysburg." + +There was a beat of hoofs and St. Clair rode up by the side of the +wagon. + +"All right again, Harry?" he said cheerfully. "I'm mighty glad of it. +Other messengers have got through from Sherburne, confirming what you +said, but you were the first to arrive and the army already was on the +march because of the news you brought. Dalton arrived about noon, dead +beat. Happy is coming with a horse for you, and you can rejoin the +staff now." + +"Before I leave I'll have to thank Mr. Jones once more," said Harry. +"He runs the best passenger service that I know." + +"Welcome to it any time, either you or your friend," said Jones, +saluting with his whip. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CROSSING + + +Harry left the wagon at midnight and overtook the staff, an orderly +providing him with a good horse. Dalton, who had also been sleeping in +a wagon, came an hour or two later, and the two, as became modest young +officers, rode in the rear of the group that surrounded General Lee. + +Although the darkness had come fully, the Army of Northern Virginia had +not yet stopped. The infantry flanked by cavalry, and, having no fear +of the enemy, marched steadily on. Harry closely observed General Lee, +and although he was well into his fifties he could discern no weakness, +either physical or mental, in the man who had directed the fortunes of +the South in the terrific and unsuccessful three days at Gettysburg and +who had now led his army for nearly a week in a retreat, threatened, at +any moment, with an attack by a veteran force superior in numbers. All +the other generals looked worn and weary, but he alone sat erect, his +hair and beard trimmed neatly, his grave eye showing no sign of +apprehension. + +He seemed once more to Harry--youth is a hero-worshiper--omniscient and +omnipotent. The invasion of the North had failed, and there had been a +terrible loss of good men, officers and soldiers, but, with Lee +standing on the defensive at the head of the Army of Northern Virginia, +in Virginia, the South would be invincible. He had always won there, +and he always would win there. + +Harry sighed, nevertheless. He had two heroes, but one of them was +gone. He thought again if only Stonewall Jackson had been at +Gettysburg. Lee's terrible striking arm would have smitten with the +hammer of Thor. He would have pushed home the attack on the first day, +when the Union vanguard was defeated and demoralized. He would have +crushed the enemy on the second day, leaving no need for that fatal and +terrific charge of Pickett on the third day. + +"You reached the general first," said Dalton, "but I tried my best to +beat you." + +"But I started first, George, old fellow. That gave me the advantage +over you." + +"It's fine of you to say it. The army has quickened its pace since we +came. A part of it, at least, ought to arrive at the river to-morrow, +though their cavalry are skirmishing continually on our flanks. Don't +you hear the rifles?" + +Harry heard them far away to right and left, like the faint buzzing of +wasps, but he had heard the same sound so much that it made no +impression upon him. + +"Let 'em buzz," he said. "They're too distant to reach any of us, and +the Army of Northern Virginia is passing on." + +Those were precious hours. Harry knew much, but he did not divine the +full depths of the suspense, suffered by the people beyond the veil +that clothed the two armies. Lincoln had been continually urging Meade +to pursue and destroy his opponent, and Meade, knowing how formidable +Lee was, and how it had been a matter of touch and go at Gettysburg, +pursued, but not with all the ardor of one sure of triumph. Yet the +man at the White House hoped continually for victory, and the Southern +people feared that his hopes would come true. + +It became sure the next day that they would reach the Potomac before +Meade could attack them in flank, but the scouts brought word that the +Potomac was still a deep and swollen river, impossible to be crossed +unless they could rebuild the bridges. + +Finally the whole army came against the Potomac and it seemed to Harry +that its yellow flood had not diminished one particle since he left. +But Lee acted with energy. Men were set to work at once building a new +bridge near Falling Waters, parts of the ruined pontoon bridges were +recovered, and new boats were built in haste. But while the workmen +toiled the army went into strong positions along the river between +Williamsport and Hagerstown. + +Harry found himself with all of his friends again, and he was proud of +the army's defiant attitude. Meade and the Army of the Potomac were +not far away, it was said, but the youthful veterans of the South were +entirely willing to fight again. The older men, however, knew their +danger. The disproportion of forces would be much greater than at +Gettysburg, and even if they fought a successful defensive action with +their back to the river the Army of the Potomac could bide its time and +await reinforcements. The North would pour forth its numbers without +stint. + +Harry rode to Sherburne with a message of congratulation from General +Lee, who told him that he had selected the possible crossing well, and +that he had shown great skill and valor in holding it until the army +came up. Sherburne's flush of pride showed under his deep tan. + +"I did my best," he said to Harry, who knew the contents of the letter, +"and that's all any of us can do." + +"But General Lee has a way of inspiring us to do our best." + +"It's so, and it's one of the reasons why he's such a great general. +Watch those bridge builders work, Harry! They're certainly putting +their souls and strength into it." + +"And they have need to do so. The scouts say that the Army of the +Potomac will be before us to-morrow. Don't you think the river has +fallen somewhat, Colonel?" + +"A little but look at those clouds over there, Harry. As surely as we +sit here it's going to rain. The rivers were low that we might cross +them on our march into the North, just smoothing our way to Gettysburg, +and now that Gettysburg has happened they're high so we can't get back +to the South. It looks as if luck were against us." + +"But luck has a habit of changing." + +Harry rode back to headquarters, whence he was sent with another +dispatch, to Colonel Talbot, whom he found posted well in advance with +the Invincibles. + +"This note," said the colonel, "bids us to watch thoroughly. General +Meade and his army are expected on our front in the morning, and there +must be no chance for a surprise in the night, say a dash by their +cavalry which would cut up our rear guard or vanguard--upon my soul I +don't know which to call it. Harry, as you can see by the note itself, +you're to remain with us until about midnight, and then make a full +report of all that you and I and the rest of us may have observed upon +this portion of the front or rear, whichever it may be. Meanwhile we +share with you our humble rations." + +Harry was pleased. He was always glad when chance or purpose brought +him again into the company of the Invincibles. St. Clair and Langdon +were his oldest comrades of the war, and they were like brothers to +him. His affection for the two colonels was genuine and deep. If the +two lads were like brothers to him, the colonels were like uncles. + +"Is the Northern vanguard anywhere near?" asked Harry. + +"Skirmishing is going on only four or five miles away," replied Colonel +Leonidas Talbot. "It is likely that the sharp shooters will be picking +off one another all through the night, but it will not disturb us. That +is a great curse of war. It hardens one so for the time being. I'm a +soldier, and I've been one all my life, and I suppose soldiers are +necessary, but I can't get over this feeling. Isn't it the same way +with you, Hector?" + +"Exactly the same, Leonidas," replied Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. +Hilaire. "You and I fought together in Mexico, Leonidas, then on the +plains, and now in this gigantic struggle, but under whatever guise +and, wherever it may be, I find its visage always hideous. I don't +think we soldiers are to blame. We don't make the wars although we +have to fight 'em." + +"Increasing years, Hector, have not dimmed those perceptive faculties +of yours, which I may justly call brilliant." + +"Thanks, Leonidas, you and I have always had a proper conception of the +worth of each other." + +"If you will pardon me for speaking, sir," said St. Clair, "there is +one man I'd like to find, when this war is over." + +"'What is the appearance of this man, Arthur?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +"I don't know exactly how he looks, sir, though I've heard of him +often, and I shall certainly know him when I meet him. You understand, +sir, that, while I've not seen him, he has very remarkable +characteristics of manner." + +"And what may those be, Arthur? Are they so salient that you would +recognize them at once?" + +"Certainly, sir. He has an uncommonly loud voice, which he uses nearly +all the time and without restraint. Words fairly pour from his tongue. +Facts he scorns. He soars aloft on the wings of fancy. Many people +who have listened to him have felt persuaded by his talk, but he is +perhaps not so popular now." + +"An extraordinary person, Arthur. But why are you so anxious to find +him?" + +"Because I wish, sir, to lay upon him the hands of violence. I would +thrash him and beat him until he yelled for mercy, and then I would +thrash him and beat him again. I should want the original pair of +seven-leagued boots, not that I might make such fast time, but that I +might kick him at a single kick from one county to another, and back, +and then over and over past counting. I'd duck him in a river until he +gasped for breath, I'd drag him naked through a briar patch, and then +I'd tar and feather him, and ride him on a rail." + +"Heavens, Arthur! I didn't dream that your nature contained so much +cruelty! Who is this person over whose torture you would gloat like a +red Indian?" + +"It is the man who first said that one Southerner could whip five +Yankees." + +"Arthur," said Colonel Talbot, "your anger is just and becomes you. +When the war is over, if we all are spared we'll form a group and hunt +this fellow until we find him. And then, please God, if the gallows of +Haman is still in existence, we'll hang him on it with promptness and +dispatch. I believe in the due and orderly process of the law, but in +this case lynching is not only justifiable, but it's an honor to the +country." + +"Well spoken, Leonidas! Well spoken!" said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector +St. Hilaire. "I'm glad that Arthur mentioned the matter, and we'll +bear it in mind. You can count upon me." + +"And here is coffee," said Happy Tom. "I made this myself, the camp +cook liking me and giving me a chance. I'd really be a wonderful cook +if I had the proper training, and I may come to it, if we lose the war. +Still, the chance even then is slight, because my father, when red war +showed its edge over the horizon, put all his money in the best British +securities. So we could do no more than lose the plantation." + +"Happy," said Colonel Talbot, gravely rebuking, "I am surprised at your +father. I thought he was a patriot." + +"He is, sir, but he's a financier first, and I may be thankful for it +some day. I'll venture the prediction right now that if we lose this +war not a single Confederate bill will be in the possession of Thomas +Langdon, Sr. Others may have bales of it, worth less per pound than +cotton, but not your humble servant's father, who, I sometimes think, +has lots more sense than your humble servant's father's son." + +Colonel Leonidas Talbot shook his head slowly. + +"Finance is a mystery to me," he said. "In the dear old South that I +have always known, the law, the army and the church were and are +considered the high callings. To speak in fine, rounded periods was +considered the great gift. In my young days, Harry, I went with my +father by stage coach to your own State, Kentucky, to hear that sublime +orator, the great Henry Clay." + +"What was he speaking about, sir?" asked Harry. + +"I don't remember. That's not important. But surely he was the +noblest orator God ever created in His likeness. His words flowing +like music and to be heard by everybody, even those farthest from the +speaker, made my pulse beat hard, and the blood leap in my veins. I +was heart and soul for his cause, whatever it was, and, yet I fear me, +though I do not wish to hurt your feelings, Harry, that the state to +which he was such ornament, has not gone for the South with the whole +spirit that she should have shown. She has not even seceded. I fear +sometimes that you Kentuckians are not altogether Southern. You border +upon the North, and stretching as you do a long distance from east to +west and a comparatively short distance from north to south, you thus +face three Northern States across the Ohio--Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, +and the pull of three against one is strong. You see your position, +don't you? Three Yankee states facing you from the north and only one +Southern state, Tennessee, lying across your whole southern border, +that is three against one. I fear that these odds have had their +effect, because if Kentucky had sent all of her troops to the South, +instead of two-thirds of them to the North, the war would have been won +by us ere this." + +"I admit it," said Harry regretfully. "My own cousin, who was more +like a brother to me, is fighting on the other side. Kentucky troops +on the Union side have kept us from winning great victories, and many +of the Union generals are Kentuckians. I grieve over it, sir, as much +as you do." + +"But you and your people should not take too much blame to yourselves, +Harry," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, who had a very soft +heart. "Think of the many influences to which you were exposed daily. +Think of those three Yankee states sitting there on the other side of +the Ohio--Ohio, Indiana and Illinois--and staring at you so long and so +steadily that, in a way, they exerted a certain hypnotic force upon +you. No, my boy, don't feel badly about it, because the fault, in a +way, is not so much yours as it is that of your neighbors." + +"At any rate," said Happy Tom, with his customary boldness and +frankness, "we're bound to admit that the Yankees beat us at making +money." + +"Which may be more to our credit than theirs," said Colonel Talbot, +with dignity. "I have found it more conducive to integrity and a lofty +mind to serve as an officer at a modest salary in the army rather than +to gain riches in trade." + +"But somebody has to pay the army, sir." + +"Thomas, I regret to tell you that inquiry can be pushed to the point +of vulgarity. I have been content with things as they were, and so +should you be. Ah, there are our brave boys singing that noble battle +song of the South! Listen how it swells! It shows a spirit +unconquerable!" + +Along the great battle front swelled the mighty chorus: + + "Come brothers! Rally for the right! + The bravest of the brave + Sends forth her ringing battle cry + Beside the Atlantic wave! + She leads the way in honor's path; + Come brothers, near and far, + Come rally round the bonnie blue flag + That bears a single star." + +"A fine song! A fine song most truly," said Colonel Talbot. "It +heartens one gloriously!" + +But Harry, usually so quick to respond, strangely enough felt +depression. He felt suddenly in all its truth that they had not only +failed in their invasion, but the escape of the army was yet a matter +of great doubt. The mood was only momentary, however, and he joined +with all his heart as the mighty chorus rolled out another verse: + + "Now Georgia marches to the front + And beside her come + Her sisters by the Mexique sea + With pealing trump and drum, + Till answering back from hill and glen + The rallying cry afar, + A Nation hoists the bonnie blue flag + That bears a single star!" + +They sang it all through, and over again, and then, after a little +silence, came the notes of a trumpet from a far-distant point. It was +played by powerful lungs and the wind was blowing their way but they +heard it distinctly. It was a quaint syncopated tune, but not one of +the Invincibles had any doubt that it came from some daring detachment +of the Union Army. The notes with their odd lilt seemed to swell +through the forest, but it was strange to both of the colonels. + +"Do any of you know it?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +All shook their heads except Harry. + +"What is it, Harry?" asked Talbot. + +"It's a famous poem, sir, the music of which has not often been heard, +but I can translate from music into words the verse that has just been +played: + + "In their ragged regimentals + Stood the old Continentals + Yielding not, + When the grenadiers were lunging + And like hail fell the plunging + Cannon shot; + When the files of the isles + From the smoky night encampment + Bore the banner of the rampant + Unicorn + And grummer, grummer, + Rolled the roll of the drummer, + Through the morn!" + +The bugler played on. It was the same tune, curious, syncopated and +piercing the night shrilly. Whole brigades of the South stood in +silence to listen. + +"What do you think is its meaning?" asked Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire. + +"It's in answer to our song and at the same time a reproach," replied +Harry, who had jumped at once to the right conclusion. "The bugler +intends to remind us that the old Continentals who stood so well were +from both North and South, and perhaps he means, too, that we should +stand together again instead of fighting each other." + +"Then let the North give up at once," snapped Colonel Talbot. + +"But in the trumpeter's opinion that means we should be apart forever." + +"Then let him play on to ears that will not heed." + +But the bugler was riding away. The music came faintly, and then died +in one last sighing note. It left Harry grave and troubled, and he +began to ask himself new questions. If the South succeeded in forcing +a separation, what then? But the talk of his comrades drove the +thought from his mind. Colonel Talbot sent St. Clair, Langdon and a +small party of horsemen forward to see what the close approach of the +daring bugler meant. Harry went with them. + +Scouts in the brushwood quickly told them that a troop of Union cavalry +had appeared in a meadow some distance ahead of them, and that it was +one of their number who had played the song on the bugle. Should they +stalk the detachment and open fire? St. Clair, who was in command, +shook his head. + +"It would mean nothing now," he said, and rode on with his men, knowing +that the watchful Southern sharpshooters were on their flanks. It was +night now, and a bright moon was coming out, enabling them to use their +glasses with effect. + +"There they are!" exclaimed Harry, pointing to the strip of forest on +the far side of the opening, "and there is the bugler, too." + +He was studying the party intently. The brilliant moonlight, and the +strength of his glasses made everything sharp and clear and his gaze +concentrated upon the bugler. He knew that man, his powerful chest and +shoulders, and the well-shaped head on its strong neck. Nor did he +deny to himself that he had a feeling of gladness when he recognized +him. + +"It's none other," he said aloud. + +"None other what?" asked St. Clair. + +"Our warning bugler was Shepard, the Union spy. I can make him out +clearly on his horse with his bugle in his hand. You'll remember my +telling you how I had that fight with him in the river." + +"And perhaps it would have been better for us all if you had finished +him off then." + +"I couldn't have done it, Arthur, nor could you, if you had been in my +place." + +"No, I suppose not, but these Yankees are coming up pretty close. It's +sure proof that Meade's whole army will be here in the morning, and the +bridge won't be built." + +"It may be built, but, if Meade chooses a battle, a battle there will +be. Heavy forces must be very near. You can see them now signaling to +one another from hill to hill." + +"So I do, and this is as far as we ought to go. A hundred yards or two +farther and we'll be in the territory of the enemy's sharpshooters +instead of our own." + +They remained for a while among some bushes, and secured positive +knowledge that the bulk of the Army of the Potomac was drawing near. +Toward midnight Harry returned to his commander-in-chief and found him +awake and in consultation with his generals, under some trees near the +Potomac. Longstreet, Rhodes, Pickett, Early, Anderson, Pender and a +dozen others were there, all of them scarred and tanned by battle, and +most of them bearing wounds. + +Harry stood back, hesitating to invade this circle, even when he came +with dispatches, but the commander-in-chief, catching sight of him, +beckoned. Then, taking off his cap, he walked forward and presented a +note from Colonel Talbot. It was brief, stating that the enemy was +near, and Lee read it aloud to his council. + +"And what were your own observations, Lieutenant Kenton?" asked the +commander-in-chief. + +"As well as I could judge, sir, the enemy will appear on our whole +front soon after daybreak." + +"And will be in great enough force to defeat us." + +"Not while you lead us, sir." + +"A courtier! truly a courtier!" exclaimed Stuart, smoothing the great +feather of his gorgeous hat, which lay upon his knee. + +Harry blushed. + +"It may have had that look," he said, "but I meant my words." + +"Don't tease the lad," said the crippled Ewell. "I knew him well on +Jackson's staff, and he was one of our bravest and best." + +"A jest only," said Stuart. "Don't I know him as well as you, Ewell? +The first time I saw him he was riding alone among many dangers to +bring relief to a beleaguered force of ours." + +"And you furnished that relief, sir," said Harry. + +"Well, so I did, but it was my luck, not merit." + +"Be assured that you have no better friend than General Stuart," said +General Lee, smiling. "You have done your duty well, Lieutenant +Kenton, and as these have been arduous days for you you may withdraw, +and join your young comrades of the staff." + +Harry saluted and retired. Before he was out of ear shot the generals +resumed their eager talk, but they knew, even as Harry himself, that +there was but one thing to do, stand with their backs to the river and +fight, if Meade chose to offer battle. + +He slept heavily, and when he awoke the next day Dalton, who was up +before him, informed him that the Northern army was at hand. Snatching +breakfast, he and Dalton, riding close behind the commander-in-chief, +advanced a little distance and standing upon a knoll surveyed the +thrilling spectacle before them. Far along the front stretched the +Army of the Potomac, horse, foot and guns, come up with its enemy +again. Harry was sure that Meade was there, and with him Hancock and +Buford and Warren and all the other valiant leaders whom they had met +at Gettysburg. It was nine days since the close of the great battle, +and doubtless the North had poured forward many reinforcements, while +the South had none to send. + +Harry appreciated the full danger of their situation, with the larger +army in front of them, and the deep and swollen torrent of the Potomac +behind them. But he did not believe that Meade would attack. Lee had +lost at Gettysburg, but in losing he had inflicted such losses upon his +opponent, that most generals would hesitate to force another battle. +The one who would not have hesitated was consolidating his great +triumph at Vicksburg. Harry often thought afterward what would have +happened had Grant faced Lee that day on the wrong side of the Potomac. + +His opinion that Meade would not attack came from a feeling that might +have been called atmospheric, an atmosphere created by the lack of +initiative on the Union side, no clouds of skirmishers, no attacks of +cavalry, very little rifle firing of any kind, merely generals and +soldiers looking at one another. Harry saw, too, that his own opinion +was that of his superior officer. Watching the commander-in-chief +intently he saw a trace of satisfaction in the blue eyes. Presently +all of them rode back. + +Thus that day passed and then another wore on. Harry and Dalton had +little to do. The whole Army of Northern Virginia was in position, +defiant, challenging even, and the Army of the Potomac made no movement +forward. Harry watched the strange spectacle with an excitement that +he did not allow to appear on his face. It was like many of those +periods in the great battles in which he had taken a part, when the +combat died, though the lull was merely the omen of a struggle, soon to +come more frightful than ever. + +But here the struggle did not come. The hours of the afternoon fell +peacefully away, and the general and soldiers still looked at one +another. + +"They're working on the bridge like mad," said Dalton, who had been +away with a message, "and it will surely be ready in the morning. +Besides, the Potomac is falling fast. You can already see the muddy +lines that it's leaving on its banks." + +"And Meade's chance is slipping, slipping away!" said Harry exultingly. +"In three hours it will be sunset. They can't attack in the night and +to-morrow we'll be gone. Meade has delayed like McClellan at Antietam, +and, doubtless as McClellan did, he thinks our army much larger than it +really is." + +"It's so," said Dalton. "We're to be delivered, and we're to be +delivered without a battle, a battle that we could ill afford, even if +we won it." + +Both were in a state of intense anxiety and they looked many times at +the sun and their watches. Then they searched the hostile army with +their glasses. But nothing of moment was stirring there. Lower and +lower sank the sun, and a great thrill ran through the Army of Northern +Virginia. In both armies the soldiers were intelligent men--not mere +creatures of drill--who thought for themselves, and while those in the +Army of Northern Virginia were ready, even eager to fight if it were +pushed upon them, they knew the great danger of their position. Now +the word ran along the whole line that if they fought at all it would +be on their side of the river. + +Harry and Dalton did not sleep that night. They could not have done so +had the chance been offered. They like others rode all through the +darkness carrying messages to the different commands, insuring exact +cooperation. As the hours of the night passed the aspect of everything +grew better. The river had fallen so fast that it would be fordable +before morning. + +But after midnight the clouds gathered, thunder crashed, lightning +played and the violent rain of a summer storm enveloped them again. +Harry viewed it at first with dismay, and then he found consolation. +The darkness and the storm would cover their retreat, as it had covered +the retreat of their enemy, Hooker, after Chancellorsville. + +Harry and Dalton rode close behind Lee, who sat erect on his white +horse, supervising the first movement of troops over the new and +shaking bridge. Harry noted with amazement that despite his enormous +exertions, physical and mental, and an intense anxiety, continuous for +many days, he did not yet show signs of fatigue. Word had come that a +part of the army was already fording the river, near Williamsport, but +this bridge near Falling Waters was the most important point. General +Lee and his staff sat there on their horses a long time, while the rain +beat unheeded upon them. + +Few scenes are engraved more vividly upon the mind of Harry Kenton than +those dusky hours before the dawn, the flashes of lightning, the almost +incessant rumble of thunder, the turbid and yellow river across which +stretched the bridge, a mere black thread in the darkness, swaying and +dipping and rising and creaking as horse and foot, and batteries and +ammunition wagons passed upon it. + +There were torches, but they flared and smoked in the rain and cast a +light so weak and fitful that Harry could not see the farther shore. +The Army of Northern Virginia marched out upon a shaking bridge and +disappeared in the black gulf beyond. Only the lack of an alarm coming +back showed that it was reaching the farther shore. + +"Dawn will soon be here," said Dalton. + +"So it will," said Harry, "and most of the troops are across. Ah, +there go the Invincibles! Look how they ride!" + +Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire at +the head of their scanty band were just passing. They took off their +hats, and swept a low bow to the great chief who sat silently on his +white horse within a few yards of them. Then, side by side, they rode +upon the shaking bridge, followed by Langdon, St. Clair and their brave +comrades, and disappeared, where the bridge disappeared, in the rain +and mist. + +"Brave men!" murmured Lee. + +Harry, always watching his commander-in-chief, saw now for the first +time signs of fatigue and nervousness. The tremendous strain was +wearing him down. But while the rain still poured and ran in streams +from his gray hair and gray beard, the rear guard of the Army of +Northern Virginia passed upon the bridge, and Stuart, all his plumes +bedraggled, rode up to his chief, a smoking cup of coffee in his hand. + +"Drink this, General, won't you?" he said. + +He seized it, drank all of the coffee eagerly, and then handing back +the cup, said: + +"I never before in my life drank anything that refreshed me so much." + +Then he, with his staff, Stuart and some other generals rode over the +bridge, disappearing in their turn into the darkness and mist that had +swallowed up the others, but emerging, as the others had done, into the +safety of the Southern shore. + +Meade and his generals had held a council the night before but nearly +all the officers advised against attack. This night he made up his +mind to move against Lee anyhow, and was ready at dawn, only to find +the whole Southern army gone. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +IN SOCIETY + + +Harry, when the dawn had fully come, was sent farther away toward the +ford to see if the remainder of the troops had passed, and, when he +returned with the welcome news, the rain had ceased to fall. The army +was rapidly drying itself in the brilliant sunshine, and marched +leisurely on. He felt an immense relief. He knew that a great crisis +had been passed, and, if the Northern armies ever reached Richmond, it +would be a long and sanguinary road. Meade might get across and +attack, but his advantage was gone. + +The same spirit of relief pervaded the ranks, and the men sang their +battle songs. There had been some fighting at one or two of the fords, +but it did not amount to much, and no enemy hung on their rear. But no +stop was made by the staff until noon, when a fire was made and food +was cooked. Then Harry was notified that he and Dalton were to start +that night with dispatches for Richmond. They were to ride through +dangerous country, until they reached a point on the railroad, wholly +within the Southern lines, when they would take a train for the +Confederate capital. + +They were glad to go. They felt sure that no great battles would be +fought while they were gone. Neither army seemed to be in a mood for +further fighting just yet, and they longed for a sight of the little +city that was the heart of the Confederacy. They were tired of the +rifle and march, of cannon and battles. They wished to be a while +where civilized life went on, to hear the bells of churches and to see +the faces of women. + +It seemed to them both that they had lived almost all their lives in +war. Even Jeb Stuart's ball, stopped by the opening guns of a great +battle, was far, far away, and to Harry, it was at least a century +since he had closed his Tacitus in the Pendleton Academy, and put it +away in his desk. That old Roman had written something of battles, but +they were no such struggles as Chancellorsville and Gettysburg had +been. The legions, he admitted in his youthful pride, could fight +well, but they never could have beaten Yank or Reb. + +He and Dalton slept through the afternoon and directly after dark, well +equipped and well-armed, they made their start into the South. But in +going they did not neglect to pass the camp of the Invincibles who were +now in the apex of the army farthest south. They had found an +unusually comfortable place on a grassy plot beside a fine, cool +spring, and most of them were lying down. But Colonel Talbot and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sat on empty kegs, with a board +on an empty box between them. The great game which ran along with the +war had been renewed. St. Clair and Langdon sat on the grass beside +them, watching the contest. + +The two colonels looked up at the sound of hoofs and paused a moment. + +"I'm getting his king into a close corner, Harry," said Colonel Talbot, +"and he'll need a lot of time for thinking. Where are you two going, +or perhaps I shouldn't ask you such a question?" + +"There's no secret about it," replied Harry. "We're going to Richmond +with dispatches." + +"He was incorrect in saying that he was getting my king into a close +corner, as I'll presently show him," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire; "but you boys are lucky. I suppose you'll stay a while in the +capital. You'll sleep in white beds, you'll eat at tables, with +tablecloths on 'em. You'll hear the soft voices of the women and girls +of the South, God bless 'em!" + +"And if you went on to Charleston you'd find just as fine women there," +said Colonel Leonidas Talbot. + +He sighed and a shade of sadness crossed his face. Harry heard and saw +and understood. He remembered a night long, long ago in that heat of +rebellion, when he had looked down from the window of his room, and, in +the dark, had seen two figures, a man and a woman, upon a piazza, +Colonel Talbot and Madame Delaunay, talking softly together. He had +felt then that he was touching almost unconsciously upon the thread of +an old romance. A thread slender and delicate, but yet strong enough +in its very tenderness and delicacy to hold them both. The perfume of +the flowers and of the old romance that night in the town so far away +came back. He was moved, and when his eyes met Colonel Talbot's some +kind of an understanding passed between them. + +"The good are never rewarded," said Happy Tom. + +"How so?" asked Harry. + +"Because the proof of it sits on his horse here before us. Why should +a man like George Dalton be sent to Richmond? A sour Puritan who does +not know how to enjoy a dance or anything else, who looks upon the +beautiful face of a girl as a sin and an abomination, who thinks to be +ugly is to be good, who is by temperament and education unfit to enjoy +anything, while Thomas Langdon, who by the same measurements is fit to +enjoy everything, is left here to hold back the Army of the Potomac. +It's undoubtedly a tribute to my valor, but I don't like it." + +"Thomas," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot, gravely, "you're entirely too +severe with our worthy young friend, Dalton. The bubbles of pleasure +always lie beneath austere and solemn exteriors like his, seeking to +break a way to the surface. The longer the process is delayed the more +numerous the bubbles are and the greater they expand. If scandalous +reports concerning a certain young man in Richmond should reach us here +in the North, relating his unparalleled exploits in the giddier circles +of our gay capital, I should know without the telling that it was our +prim young George Dalton." + +"You never spoke truer words, Leonidas," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector +St. Hilaire. "A little judicious gallantry in youth is good for any +one. It keeps the temperature from going too high. I recall now the +case of Auguste Champigny, who owned an estate in Louisiana, near the +Louisiana estate of the St. Hilaires, and the estates of those cousins +of mine whom I visited, as I told you once. + +"But pardon me. I digress, and to digress is to grow old, so I will +not digress, but remain young, in heart at least. I go back now. I +was speaking of Auguste Champigny, who in youth thought only of making +money and of making his plantation, already great, many times greater. +The blood in his veins was old at twenty-two. He did not love the +vices that the world calls such. But yet there were times, I knew, +when he would have longed to go with the young, because youth cannot be +crushed wholly at twenty-two. There was no escape of the spirits, no +wholesome blood-letting, so to speak, and that which was within him +became corrupt. He acquired riches and more riches, and land and more +land, and at fifty he went to New Orleans, and sought the places where +pleasures abound. But his true blossoming time had passed. The blood +in his veins now became poison. He did the things that twenty should +do, and left undone the things that fifty should do. Ah! Harry, one +of the saddest things in life is the dissipated boy of fifty! He +should have come with us when the first blood of youth was upon him. +He could have found time then for play as well as work. He could have +rowed with us in the slender boats on the river and bayous with Mimi +and Rosalie and Marianne and all those other bright and happy ones. He +could have danced, too. It was no strain, we never danced longer than +two days and two nights without stopping, and the festivals, the gay +fete days, not more than one a week! But it was not Auguste's way. A +man when he should have been a boy, and then, alas! a boy when he +should have been a man!" + +"You speak true words, Hector," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot, "though +at times you seem to me to be rather sentimental. Youth is youth and +it has the pleasures of youth. It is not fitting that a man should be +a boy, but middle-age has pleasures of its own and they are more solid, +perhaps more satisfying than those of youth. I can't conceive of +twenty getting the pleasure out of the noble game of chess that we do. +The most brilliant of your young French Creole dancers never felt the +thrill that I feel when the last move is made and I beat you." + +"Then if you expect to experience that thrill, Leonidas, continue the +pursuit of my king, from which you expect so much, and see what will +happen to you." + +Colonel Talbot looked keenly at the board, and alarm appeared on his +face. He made a rapid retreat with one of his pieces, and Harry and +Dalton, knowing that it was time for them to go, reached down from +their saddles, shook hands with both, then with St. Clair and Happy +Tom, and were soon beyond the bounds of the camp. + +They rode on for many hours in silence. They were in a friendly land +now, but they knew that it was well to be careful, as Federal scouts +and cavalry nevertheless might be encountered at any moment. Two or +three times they turned aside from the road to let detachments of +horsemen pass. They could not tell in the dark and from their hiding +places to which army they belonged, and they were not willing to take +the delay necessary to find out. They merely let them ride by and +resumed their own place on the road. + +Harry told Dalton many more details of his perilous journey from the +river to the camp of the commander-in-chief, and he spoke particularly +of Shepard. + +"Although he's a spy," he said, "I feel that the word scarcely fits +him, he's so much greater than the ordinary spy. That man is worth +more than a brigade of veterans to the North. He's as brave as a lion, +and his craft and cunning are almost superhuman." + +He did not tell that he might easily have put Shepard forever out of +the way, but that his heart had failed him. Yet he did not feel +remorse nor any sense of treachery to his cause. He would do the same +were the same chance to come again. But it seemed to him now that a +duel had begun between Shepard and himself. They had been drifting +into it, either through chance or fate, for a long time. He knew that +he had a most formidable antagonist, but he felt a certain elation in +matching himself against one so strong. + +They rode all night and the next day across the strip of Maryland into +Virginia and once more were among their own people, their undoubted +own. They were now entering the Valley of Virginia where the great +Jackson had leaped into fame, and both Harry and Dalton felt their +hearts warm at the greetings they received. Both armies had marched +over the valley again and again. It was torn and scarred by battle, +and it was destined to be torn and scarred many times more, but its +loyalty to the South stood every test. This too was the region in +which many of the great Virginia leaders were born, and it rejoiced in +the valor of its sons. + +Food and refreshment were offered everywhere to the two young horsemen, +and the women and the old men--not many young men were left--wanted to +hear of Gettysburg. They would not accept it as a defeat. It was +merely a delay, they said. General Lee would march North once more +next year. Harry knew in his heart that the South would never invade +again, that the war would be for her henceforth a purely defensive one, +but he said nothing. He could not discourage people who were so +sanguine. + +Every foot of the way now brought back memories of Jackson. He saw +many familiar places, fields of battle, sites of camps, lines of +advance or retreat, and his heart grew sad within him, because one whom +he admired so much, and for whom he had such a strong affection, was +gone forever, gone when he was needed most. He saw again with all the +vividness of reality that terrible night at Chancellorsville, when the +wounded Jackson lay in the road, his young officers covering his body +with their own to protect him from the shells. + +When they reached the strip of railroad entering Richmond they left +their horses to be sent later, and each took a full seat in the short +train, where he could loosen his belt, and stretch his limbs. It was a +crude coach, by the standards of to-day, but it was a luxury then. +Harry and Dalton enjoyed it, after so much riding horseback, and +watched the pleasant landscape, brown now from the July sun, flow past. + +Their coach did not contain many passengers, several wounded officers +going to Richmond on furlough, some countrymen, carrying provisions to +the capital for sale, and a small, thin, elderly woman in a black +dress, to whom Harry assigned the part of an old maid. He noticed that +her features were fine and she had the appearance of one who had +suffered. When they reached Richmond and their passes were examined, he +hastened to carry her bag for her and to help her off the train. She +thanked him with a smile that made her almost handsome, and quickly +disappeared in the streets of the city. + +"A nice looking old maid," he said to Dalton. + +"How do you know she's an old maid?" + +"I don't know. I suppose it's a certain primness of manner." + +"You can't judge by appearances. Like as not she's been married thirty +years, and it's possible that she may have a family of at least twelve +children." + +"At any rate, we'll never know. But it's good, George, to be here in +Richmond again. It's actually a luxury to see streets and shop +windows, and people in civilian clothing, going about their business." + +"Looks the same way to me, Harry, but we can't delay. We must be off +to the President, with the dispatches from the Army of Northern +Virginia." + +But they did not hurry greatly. They were young and it had been a long +time since they had been in a city of forty thousand inhabitants, where +the shop windows were brilliant to them and nobody on the streets was +shooting at anybody else. It was late July, the great heats were gone +for the time at least, and they were brisk and elated. They paused a +little while in Capitol Square, and looked at the Bell Tower, rising +like a spire, from the crest of which alarms were rung, then at the +fine structure of St. Paul's Church. They intended to go into the +State House now used as the Confederate Capitol, but that must wait +until they reported to President Davis. + +They arrived at the modest building called the White House of the +Confederacy, and, after a short wait in the anteroom, they were +received by the President. They saw a tall, rather spare man, dressed +in a suit of home-knit gray. He received them without either warmth or +coldness. Harry, although it was not the first time he had seen him, +looked at him with intense curiosity. Davis, like Lincoln, was born in +his own State, Kentucky, but like most other Kentuckians, he did not +feel any enthusiasm over the President of the Confederacy. There was +no magnetism. He felt the presence of intellect, but there was no +inspiration in that arid presence. + +A man of Oriental features was sitting near with a great bunch of +papers in his hand. Mr. Davis did not introduce Harry and Dalton to +him, and he remained silent while the President was asking questions of +the messengers. But Harry watched him when he had a chance, interested +strongly in that shrewd, able, Eastern face, the descendant of an +immemorial and intellectual race, the man who while Secretary of State +was trying also to help carry the tremendous burden of Confederate +finance. What was he thinking, as Harry and Dalton answered the +President's questions about the Army of Northern Virginia? + +"You say that you left immediately after our army crossed the Potomac?" +asked the President. + +"Yes, sir," replied Harry. "General Meade could have attacked, but he +remained nearly two days on our front without attempting to do so." + +A thin gray smile flitted over the face of the President of the +Confederacy. + +"General Meade was not beaten at Gettysburg, but I fancy he remembered +it well enough." + +Harry glanced at Benjamin, but his Oriental face was inscrutable. The +lad wondered what was lurking at the back of that strong brain. He was +shrewd enough himself to know that it was not always the generals on +the battlefield who best understood the condition of a state at war, +and often the man who held the purse was the one who measured it best +of all. But Benjamin never said a word, nor did the expression of his +face change a particle. + +"The Army of Northern Virginia is safe," said the President, "and it +will be able to repel all invasion of Virginia. General Lee gives +especial mention of both of you in his letters, and you are not to +return to him at once. You are to remain here a while on furlough, and +if you will go to General Winder he will assign you to quarters." + +Both Harry and Dalton were delighted, and, although thanks were really +due to General Lee, they thanked the President, who smiled dryly. Then +they saluted and withdrew, the President and the Secretary of State +going at once into earnest consultation over the papers Mr. Benjamin +had brought. + +Harry felt that he had left an atmosphere of depression and said so, +when they were outside in the bright sunshine. + +"If you were trying to carry as much as Mr. Davis is carrying you'd be +depressed too," said Dalton. + +"Maybe so, but let's forget it. We've got nothing to do for a few days +but enjoy ourselves. General Winder is to give us quarters, but we're +not to be under his command. What say you to a little trip through the +capitol?" + +"Good enough." + +Congress had adjourned for the day, but they went through the building, +admiring particularly the Houdon Washington, and then strolled again +through the streets, which were so interesting and novel to them. +Richmond was never gayer and brighter. They were sure that the hated +Yankees could never come. For more than two years the Army of Northern +Virginia had been an insuperable bar to their advance, and it would +continue so. + +Harry suddenly lifted his cap as some one passed swiftly, and Dalton +glancing backward saw a small vanishing figure. + +"Who was it?" he asked. + +"The thin little old maid in black whom we saw on the train. She may +have nodded to me when I bowed, but it was such a little nod that I'm +not certain." + +"I rather like your being polite to an insignificant old maid, Harry. +I'd expect you, as a matter of course, to be polite to a young and +pretty girl, overpolite probably." + +"That'll do, George Dalton. I like you best when you're preaching +least. Come, let's go into the hotel and hear what they're talking +about." + +After the custom of the times a large crowd was gathered in the +spacious lobby of Richmond's chief hotel. Among them were the local +celebrities in other things than war, Daniel, Bagby, Pegram, Randolph, +and a half-dozen more, musicians, artists, poets, orators and wits. +People were quite democratic, and Harry and Dalton were free to draw +their chairs near the edge of the group and listen. Pegram, the +humorist, gave them a glance of approval, when he noticed their +uniforms, the deep tan of their faces, their honest eyes and their +compact, strong figures. + +Harry soon learned that a large number of English and French newspapers +had been brought by a blockade runner to Wilmington, North Carolina, +and had just reached the capital, the news of which these men were +discussing with eagerness. + +"We learn that the sympathies of both the French and English +governments are still with us," said Randolph. + +"But these papers were all printed before the news of Vicksburg and +Gettysburg had crossed the Atlantic," said Daniel. + +"England is for us," said Pegram, "only because she likes us little and +the North less. The French Imperialists, too, hate republics, and are +in for anything that will damage them. When we beat off the North, +until she's had enough, and set up our own free and independent +republic, we'll have both England and France annoying us, and demanding +favors, because they were for us in the war. Sympathy is something, +but it doesn't win any battles." + +"A nation has no real friend except itself," said Bagby. "Whatever the +South gets she'll have to get with her own good right arm." + +"I can predict the first great measure to be put through by the +Southern Government after the war." + +"What will it be?" + +"The abolition of slavery." + +"Why, that's one of the things we're fighting to maintain!" + +"Exactly so. You're willing to throw away a thing of your own accord, +when you're not willing to throw it away because another orders you to +do so. Wars are due chiefly to our misunderstanding of human nature." + +Then Pegram turned suddenly to Harry. "You're from the field?" he +said. "From the Army of Northern Virginia?" + +"Yes," replied Harry. "My name is Kenton and I'm a lieutenant on the +staff of General Lee. My friend is George Dalton, also of the +commander-in-chief's staff." + +"Are you from Kentucky?" asked Daniel curiously. + +"Yes, from a little town called Pendleton." + +"Then I fancy that I've met a relative of yours. I returned recently +from a small town in North Georgia, the name of which I may not give, +owing to military reasons, necessary at the present time, and I met +while I was there a splendid tall man of middle years, Colonel George +Kenton of Kentucky." + +"That's my father!" said Harry eagerly. "How was he?" + +"I thought he must be your father. The resemblance, you know. I +should say that if all men were as healthy as he looked there would be +no doctors in the world. He has a fine regiment and he'll be in the +battle that's breeding down there. Grant has taken Vicksburg, as we +all know, but a powerful army of ours is left in that region. It has +to be dealt with before we lose the West." + +"And it will fight like the Army of Northern Virginia," said Harry. "I +know the men of the West. The Yankees win there most of the time, +because we have our great generals in the East and they have theirs in +the West." + +"I've had that thought myself," said Bagby. "We've had men of genius +to lead us in the East, but we don't seem to produce them in the West. +People are always quoting Napoleon's saying that men are nothing, a man +is everything, which I never believed before, but which I'm beginning +to believe now." + +Then the talk veered away from battle and back to social, literary and +artistic affairs, to all of which Harry and Dalton listened eagerly. +Both had minds that responded to the more delicate things of life, and +they were glad to hear something besides war discussed. It was hard +for them to think that everything was going on as usual in Europe, that +new books and operas and songs were being written, and that men and +women were going about their daily affairs in peace. Yet both were +destined to live to see the case reversed, the people of the States +setting the world an example in moderation and restraint, while the +governments of Europe were deluging that continent with blood. + +"If this war should result in our defeat," said Bagby, "we won't get a +fair trial before the world for two or three generations, and maybe +never." + +"Why?" asked Dalton. + +"Because we're not a writing people. Oh, yes, there's Poe, I know, the +nation's greatest literary genius, but even Europe honored him before +the South did. We've devoted our industry and talents to politics, +oratory and war. We don't write books, and we don't have any +newspapers that amount to much. Why, as sure as I'm sitting here, the +moment this war is over New England and New York and Pennsylvania, +particularly New England, will begin to pour out books, telling how the +wicked Southerners brought on the war, what a cruel and low people we +are, the way in which we taught our boys, when they were strong enough, +how to beat slaves to death, and the whole world will believe them. +Maybe the next generation of Southerners will believe them too." + +"Why?" asked Harry. + +"Why? Why? Because we don't have any writers, and won't have any for +a long time! The writer has not been honored among us. Any fellow +with a roaring voice who can get up on the stump and tell his audience +that they're the bravest and best and smartest people on earth is the +man for them. You know that old story of Andy Jackson. Somebody +taunted him with being an uneducated man, so at the close of his next +speech he thundered out: _E pluribus unum! Multum in parvo! Sic +semper tyrannis!_ So it was all over. Old Andy to that audience, and +all the others that heard of it, was the greatest Latin scholar in the +world." + +"But that may apply to the North, too," objected Harry. + +"So it would. Nevertheless they'll write this war, and they'll get +their side of it fastened on the world before our people begin to +write." + +"But if we win we won't care," said Randolph. "Success speaks for +itself. You can squirm and twist all you please, and make all the +excuses for it that you can think up, but there stands success glaring +contemptuously at you. You're like a little boy shooting arrows at the +Sphinx." + +Thus the conversation ran on. Both Harry and Dalton were glad to be in +the company of these men, and to feel that there was something in the +world besides war. All the multifarious interests of peace and +civilization suddenly came crowding back upon them. Harry remembered +Pendleton with its rolling hills, green fields, and clear streams, and +Dalton remembered his own home, much like it, in the Valley of +Virginia, not so far away. + +"Do you remain long in Richmond?" asked Randolph. + +"A week at least," replied Harry. + +"Then you ought to see a little of social life. Mrs. John Curtis, a +leading hostess, gives a reception and a dance to-morrow night. I can +easily procure invitations for both of you, and I know that she would +be glad to have two young officers freshly arrived from our glorious +Army of Northern Virginia." + +"But our clothes!" said Dalton. "We have only a change of uniform +apiece, and they're not fresh by any means." + +All the men laughed. + +"You don't think that Richmond is indulging in gorgeous apparel do +you?" said Daniel. "We never manufactured much ourselves, and since +all the rest of the world is cut off from us where are the clothes to +come from even for the women? Brush up your uniforms all you can and +you'll be more than welcome. Two gallant young officers from the Army +of Northern Virginia! Why, you'll be two Othellos, though white, of +course." + +Harry glanced at Dalton, and Dalton glanced at Harry. Each saw that +the other wanted to go, and Daniel, watching them, smiled. + +"I see that you'll come," he said, "and so it's settled. Have you +quarters yet?" + +"Not yet," replied Harry, "but we'll see about it this afternoon." + +"I'll have the invitations sent to you here at this hotel. All of us +will be there, and we'll see that you two meet everybody." + +Both thanked him profusely. They were about to go, thinking it time to +report to General Winder, when Harry noticed a thin woman in a black +dress, carrying a large basket, and just leaving the hotel desk. He +caught a glimpse of her face and he knew that it was the old maid of +the train. Then something else was impressed upon his mind, something +which he had not noticed at their first meeting, but which came to him +at their second. He had seen a face like hers before, but the +resemblance was so faint and fleeting that he could not place it, +strive as he would. But he was sure that it was there. + +"Who is that woman?" he asked. + +Daniel shook his head and so did Randolph, but Bagby spoke up. + +"Her name is Henrietta Carden," he said, "and she's a seamstress. I've +seen her coming to the hotel often before, bringing new clothes to the +women guests, or taking away old ones to be repaired. I believe that +the ladies account her most skillful. It's likely that she'll be at +the Curtis house, in a surgical capacity, to-morrow night, as a quick +repairer of damaged garments, those fine linen and silk and lace +affairs that we don't know anything about. Mrs. Curtis relies greatly +upon her and I ought to tell you, young gentlemen, that Mr. Curtis is a +most successful blockade runner, though he takes no personal risk +himself. The Curtis house is perhaps the most sumptuous in Richmond. +You'll see no signs of poverty there, though, as I told you, officers +in old and faded clothes are welcome." + +Harry saw Henrietta Carden carrying the large basket of clothes, go out +at a side door, and he felt as if a black shadow like a menace had +passed across the floor. But it was only for an instant. He dismissed +it promptly, as one of those thoughts that come out of nothing, like +idle puffs of summer air. He and Dalton bade a brief farewell to their +new friends and left for the headquarters of General Winder. An +elderly and childless couple named Lanham had volunteered to take two +officers in their house near Capitol Square, and there Harry and Dalton +were sent. + +They could not have found a better place. Mr. and Mrs. Lanham were +quiet people, who gave them an excellent room and a fine supper. Mrs. +Lanham showed a motherly solicitude, and when she heard that they were +going to the Curtis ball on the following night she demanded that their +spare and best uniforms be turned over to her. + +"I can make them look fresh," she insisted, "and your appearance must +be the finest possible. No, don't refuse again. It's a pleasure to me +to do it. When I look at you two, so young and strong and so honest in +manner and speech, I wish that I had sons too, and then again I'm glad +I have not." + +"Why not, Mrs. Lanham?" asked Harry. + +"Because I'd be in deadly fear lest I lose them. They'd go to the +war--I couldn't help it--and they'd surely be killed." + +"We won't grieve over losing what we've never had," smiled Mr. Lanham. +"That's morbid." + +Harry and Dalton did their best to answer all the questions of their +hosts, who they knew would take no pay. The interest of both Mr. and +Mrs. Lanham was increased when they found that their young guests were +on the staff of General Lee and before that had been on the staff of +the great Stonewall Jackson. These two names were mighty in the South, +untouched by any kind of malice or envy, and with legends to cluster +around them as the years passed. + +"And you really saw Stonewall Jackson every day!" said Mrs. Lanham. +"You rode with him, talked with him, and went into battle with him?" + +"I was in all his campaigns, Mrs. Lanham," replied Harry, modestly, but +not without pride. "I was with him in every battle, even to the last, +Chancellorsville. I was one of those who sheltered him from the +shells, when he was shot by our own men. Alas! what an awful mistake. +I--" + +He stopped suddenly. He had choked with emotion, and the tears came +into his eyes. Mrs. Lanham saw, and, understanding, she quickly +changed the subject to Lee. They talked a while after supper, called +dinner now, and then they went up to their room on the second floor. + +It was a handsome room, containing good furniture, including two single +beds. Their baggage had preceded them and everything was in order. Two +large windows, open to admit the fresh air, looked out over Richmond. +On a table stood a pitcher of ice water and glasses. + +"Our lot has certainly been cast in a pleasant place," said Dalton, +taking a chair by one of the windows. + +"You're right," said Harry, sitting in the chair by the other window. +"The Lanhams are fine people, and it's a good house. This is luxury, +isn't it, George, old man?" + +"The real article. We seem to be having luck all around. And we're +going to a big ball to-morrow night, too. Who'd have thought such a +thing possible a week ago?" + +"And we've made friends who'll see that we're not neglected." + +"It's an absolute fact that we've become the favorite children of +fortune." + +"No earthly doubt of it." + +Then ensued a silence, broken at length by a scraping sound as each +moved his chair a little nearer to the window. + +"Close, George," said Harry at length. + +"Yes, a bit hard to breathe." + +"When fellows get used to a thing it's hard to change." + +"Fine room, though, and those are splendid beds." + +"Great on a winter night." + +"You've noticed how the commander-in-chief himself seldom sleeps under +a tent, but takes his blankets to the open?" + +"Wonder how an Indian who has roamed the forest all his life feels when +he's shut up between four walls for the first time." + +"Fancy it's like a prison cell to him." + +"Think so too. But the Lanhams are fine people and they're doing their +best for us." + +"Do you think they'd be offended if I were to take my blankets, and +sleep on the grass in the back yard?" + +"Of course they would. You mustn't think of such a thing. After this +war is over you've got to emerge slowly from barbarism. Do you +remember whether at supper we cut our food with our knives and lifted +it to our mouths with forks, or just tore and lifted with our fingers?" + +"We used knife and fork, each in its proper place. I happened to think +of it and watched myself. You, I suppose, did it through the force of +an ancient habit, recalled by civilized surroundings." + +"I'm glad you remember about it. Now I'm going to bed, and maybe I'll +sleep. I suppose there's no hope of seeing the stars through the roof." + +"None on earth! But my bed is fine and soft. We'd be all right if we +could only lift the roof off the house. I'd like to hear the wind +rubbing the boughs together." + +"Stop it! You make me homesick! We've got no right to be pining for +blankets and the open, when these good people are doing so much for us!" + +Each stretched himself upon his bed, and closed his eyes. They had not +been jesting altogether. So long a life in the open made summer skies +at night welcome, and roofs and walls almost took from them the power +of breathing. + +But the feeling wore away after a while and amid pleasurable thoughts +of the coming ball both fell asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE MISSING PAPER + + +Harry and Dalton did not awake until late the next morning and they +found they had not suffered at all from sleeping between four walls and +under a roof. Their lungs were full of fresh air, and youth with all +its joyous irresponsibility had come back. Harry sprang out of bed. + +"Up! up! old boy!" Harry cried to Dalton. "Don't you hear the bugles +calling? not to battle but to pleasure! There is no enemy in our +front! We don't have to cross a river with an overwhelming army +pressing down upon us! We don't have to ride before the dawn on a +scout which may lead us into a thicket full of hostile riflemen. We're +in a city, boy, and our business now is beauty and pleasure!" + +"Harry," said Dalton, "you ought to go far." + +"Why, George? What induces you to assume the role of a prophet +concerning me?" + +"Because you're so full of life. You're so keen about everything. You +must have a heart and lungs of extra steam power." + +"But I notice you don't say anything about brain power. Maybe you +think it's the quiet, rather silent fellows like yourself, George, who +have an excess of that." + +"None of your irony. Am I not looking forward to this ball as much as +you are? I was a boy when I entered the war, Harry, but two years of +fighting day and night age one terribly. I feel as if I could +patronize any woman under twenty-five, and treat her as quite a simple +young thing." + +"Try it, George, and see what happens to you." + +"Oh, no! I merely said I felt that way. I've too much sense to put it +into action." + +"Do you know, George, that when this war is over it will be really time +for us to be thinking about girls. We'll be quite old enough. They +say that many of the Yankee maidens in Philadelphia and New York are +fine for looks. I wonder if they'll cast a favoring eye on young +Southern officers as our conquering armies go marching down their +streets!" + +"It's too remote. Don't think about it, Harry. Richmond will do us +for the present." + +"But you can let a fellow project his mind into the future." + +"Not so far that we'll be marching as conquerors through Philadelphia +and New York. Let's deal with realities." + +"I've always thought there was something of the Yankee about you, +George, not in political principles--I never question your devotion to +the cause--but in calculating, weighing everything and deciding in +favor of the one that weighs an ounce the most." + +"Are you about through dressing? You've taken a minute longer than the +regular time." + +There was a knock at the door, and, when Dalton opened it a few inches, +a black head announced through the crack that breakfast was ready. + +"See what a disgrace you're bringing upon us," said Dalton. "Delaying +everything. Mrs. Lanham will say that we're two impostors, that such +malingerers cannot possibly belong to the Army of Northern Virginia." + +"Lead on," said Harry. "I'm ready, and I'm hungry as every soldier in +the Southern army always is." + +They had a warm greeting from their hospitable hosts, followed by an +abundant breakfast. Then at Mrs. Lanham's earnest solicitation they +turned over their dress uniforms to her to be repaired and pressed. +Then they went out into the streets again, and spent the whole day +rambling about, enjoying everything with the keen and intense delight +that can come only to the young, and after long abstinence. Richmond +was not depressed. Far from it. There had been a wonderful +transformation since those dark days when the army of McClellan was +near enough to see the spires of its churches. The flood of battle had +rolled far away since then, and it had never come back. It could never +come back. It was true that the Army of Northern Virginia had failed at +Gettysburg, but it was returning to the South unassailed, and was ready +to repeat its former splendid achievements. + +Harry went to the post office, and found there, to his great surprise +and delight, a letter from his father, written three or four days after +Vicksburg. + + +My dear son: [he wrote] + +The news has just come to us that the Army of Northern Virginia, while +performing prodigies of valor, has failed to carry all the Northern +positions at Gettysburg. Only complete success could warrant a further +advance. I assume therefore that General Lee is retreating and I +assume also that you, Harry, my beloved son, are alive, that you came +unharmed out of that terrible battle. It does not seem possible to me +that it could be otherwise. I cannot conceive of you fallen. It may +be that it's because you are my son. The sons of others may fall, but +not mine, just as we know that all others are doomed to die, but get +into the habit of thinking ourselves immortal. So, I address this +letter to you in the full belief that it will reach you somewhere, and +that you will read it. + +You know, of course, of our great loss at Vicksburg. It is disastrous +but not irreparable. We still have a powerful army in the West, hardy, +indomitable, one with which the enemy will have to reckon. As for +myself I have been spared in many battles and I am well. It seems the +sport of chance that you and I, while fighting on the same side, should +have been separated in this war, you in the East and I in the West. +But it has been done by One who knows best, and after all I am glad +that you have been in such close contact with two of the greatest and +highest-minded soldiers of the ages, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. +Lee. I do not think of them merely as soldiers, but as knights and +champions with flaming swords. One of them, alas! is gone, but we have +the other, and if man can conquer he will. Here in the West we repose +our faith in Lee, as surely as do you in the East, you who see his face +and hear his voice every day. + +I have had two or three letters from Pendleton. That part of the State +is for the present outside the area of conflict, though I hear that the +guerilla bands to the east in the mountains still vex and annoy, and +that Skelly is growing bolder. I foresee the time when we shall have +to reckon with this man, who is a mere brigand. + +I hear that the prospects for fruit in our orchards were never finer. +You will remember how you prowled in them when you were a little boy, +Harry, and what a pirate you were among the apples and peaches and +pears and good things that grew on tree and bush and briar in that +beautiful old commonwealth of ours. I often upbraided you then, but I +should like to see you now, far out on a bough as of old, reaching for +a big yellow pear, or a red, red bunch of cherries! Alas! there are +many lads who will never return, who will never see the pear trees and +the cherry trees again, but I repeat I cannot feel that you will be +among them. Who would ever have dreamed when this war began that it +could go so far? More than two years of fierce and deadly battles and +I can see no end. A deadlock and neither side willing to yield! How +glad would be the men who made the war to see both sections back where +they were two and a half years ago! and that's no treason. + + +Water rose in Harry's eyes. He knew how terribly his father's heart +had been torn by the quarrel between North and South, and that he had +thoughts which he did not tell to his son. Harry was beginning at last +to think some of the same thoughts himself. If the South succeeded, +then, after the war, what? Another war later on or reunion. + +The rest of the letter was wholly personal, and in the end it directed +Harry, when writing to him, to address his letters care of the Western +Army under General Bragg. Harry was moved and he responded at once. He +went to the hotel in which he had met the young men who constituted the +leading lights in what was called the Mosaic Club, and, securing +writing materials, made a long reply, which he posted with every hope +that it would soon reach its destination. + +Early in the evening he rejoined Dalton at the house of the Lanhams and +they found that Mrs. Lanham had done wonders with their best uniforms. +When they were dressed in them they felt that it was no harder to +charge the Curtis house than to rush a battery. + +"You young men go early," said Mr. Lanham. "Mrs. Lanham and I will +appear later." + +They departed, daring to practice their dance steps in the street to +the delight of small boys who did not hesitate to chaff them. But +Harry and Dalton did not care. They answered the chaff in kind, and +soon approached the Curtis home, all the windows of which were blazing +with light. + +The house stood in extensive grounds, and lofty white pillars gave it +an imposing appearance. Guests were arriving fast. Most of the men +were military, but there was a fair sprinkling of civilians +nevertheless. The lads saw their friends of the Mosaic Club pass in +just ahead of them, all dressed with extreme care. Generals and +colonels and other officers were in most favor now, but these men, with +their swift and incisive wit and their ability to talk well about +everything, fully made up for the lack of uniform. + +Harry and Dalton, before passing through the side gateway that led to +the house, paused awhile to look at those who came. Many people, and +they ranked among the best in Richmond, walked. They had sent all +their horses to the front long ago to be ridden by cavalrymen or to +draw cannon. Others, not so self-sacrificing, came in heavy carriages +with negroes driving. + +Harry noticed that in many cases the clothing of the men showed a +little white at the seams, and there were cuffs the ends of which had +been trimmed with great care. But it was these whom he respected most. +He remembered that Virginia had not really wanted to go into the war, +and that she had delayed long, but, being in it, she was making supreme +sacrifices. + +And there were many young girls who did not need elaborate dress. In +their simple white or pink, often but cotton, their cheeks showing the +delicate color that is possessed only by the girls in the border states +of the South, they seemed very beautiful to Harry and George, who had +known nothing but camps and armies so long. + +It was the healthy admiration of the brave youth of one sex for the +fair youth of the other, but there was in it a deeper note, too. Age +can stand misfortune. Youth wonders why it is stricken, and Harry felt +as they passed by, bright of face and soft of voice, that the clouds +were gathering heavily over them. + +But he was too young himself for the feeling to endure long. Dalton +was proposing that they go in and they promptly joined the stream of +entering guests. Randolph soon found them and presented them to Mrs. +Curtis, a large woman of middle years, and dignified manner, related to +nearly all the old families of Virginia, and a descendant of a +collateral branch of the Washingtons. Her husband, William Curtis, +seemed to be of a different type, a man of sixty, tall, thin and more +reserved than most Southerners of his time. His thin lips were usually +compressed and his pale blue eyes were lacking in warmth. But the long +strong line of his jaw showed that he was a man of strength and +decision. + +"A Northern bough on a Southern tree," whispered Dalton, as they passed +on. "He comes from some place up the valley and they say that the +North itself has not his superior in financial skill." + +"I did not warm to him at first," said Harry, "but I respect him. As +you know, George, we've put too little stress upon his kind of ability. +We'll need him and more like him when the Confederacy is established. +We'll have to build ourselves up as a great power, and that's done by +trade and manufactures more than by arms." + +"It's so, Harry. But listen to that music!" + +A band of four pieces placed behind flowers and shrubbery was playing. +Here was no blare of trumpets or call of bugles. It was the music of +the dance and the sentimental old songs of the South, nearly all of +which had a sad and wailing note. Harry heard the four black men play +the songs that he had heard Samuel Jarvis sing, deep in the Kentucky +mountains, and his heart beat with an emotion that he could not +understand. Was it a cry for peace? Did his soul tell him that an end +should come to fighting? Then throbbed the music of the lines: + + Soft o'er the fountain lingering falls the Southern moon + Far o'er the mountain breaks the day too soon. + In thy dark eyes' splendor, where the moonlight loves to dwell + Weary looks, yet tender, speak their fond farewell. + Nita, Juanita! Ask thy soul if we should part, + Nita, Juanita! Lean thou on my heart! + +The music of the sad old song throbbed and throbbed, and sank deep into +Harry's heart. At another time he might not have been stirred, but at +this moment he was responsive in every fiber. He saw once more the +green wilderness, and he heard once more the mellow tones of the singer +coming back in far echoes from the gorges. + +"Nita, Juanita! Ask thy soul if we should part," hummed Dalton, but +Harry was still far away in the green wilderness, listening to the +singer of the mountains. Then the singer stopped suddenly, and he was +listening once more to the startling prediction of the old, old woman: + +"I am proud that our house has sheltered you, but it is not for the +last time. You will come again, and you will be thin and pale and in +rags, and you will fall at the door. I see you coming with these two +eyes of mine." + +That prediction had been made a long time ago, years since, it seemed, +but whenever it returned to him, and it returned at most unexpected +times, it lost nothing of its amazing vividness and power; rather they +were increased. Could it be true that the supremely old had a vision +or second sight? Then he rebuked himself angrily. There was nothing +supernatural in this world. + +"Wake up, Harry! What are you thinking about?" whispered Dalton +sharply. "You seem to be dreaming, and here's a house full of pretty +girls, with more than a half-dozen looking at you, the gallant young +officer of the Army of Northern Virginia, the story of whose romantic +exploits had already reached Richmond." + +"I was dreaming and I apologize," said Harry. That minute in which he +had seen so much, so far away, passed utterly, and in another minute +both he and Dalton were dancing with Virginia girls, as fair as dreams +to these two, who had looked so long only upon the tanned faces of +soldiers. + +Both he and Dalton were at home in a half-hour. People in the Old +South then, as in the New South now, are closely united by ties of +kinship which are acknowledged as far as they run. One is usually a +member of a huge clan and has all the privileges that clanship can +confer. Kentucky was the daughter of Virginia, and mother and daughter +were fond of each other, as they are to-day. + +After the third dance Harry was sitting with Rosamond Lawrence of +Petersburg in a window seat. She was a slender blonde girl, and the +dancing had made the pink in her cheeks deepen into a flush. + +"You're from Kentucky, I know," said Miss Lawrence, "but you haven't +yet told me your town." + +"Pendleton. It's small but it's on the map. My father is a colonel in +the Western army." + +"Aren't you a Virginian by blood? Most all Kentuckians are." + +"Partly. My great grandfather, though, was born in Maryland." + +"What was his name, Lieutenant Kenton?" + +"Henry Ware!" + +"Henry Ware! Kentucky's first and greatest governor." + +"Yes, he was my great grandfather. I'm proud to be his descendant." + +"I should think you would be." + +"But his wife, who was Lucy Upton, my great grandmother, was of +Virginia blood, and all of the next two generations intermarried with +people of Virginia stock." + +"Then you are a Kentuckian and a Virginian, too. I knew it! You have +a middle name, haven't you?" + +"Yes." + +"Will you tell me what it is?" + +"Cary." + +The girl laughed. + +"Harry Cary Kenton. Why Cary is one of our best old Virginia names. +Will you tell me too what was your mother's name before she was +married?" + +"Parham." + +"Another. Oh, all this unravels finely. And what was your +grandmother's name?" + +"Brent." + +"Nothing could be more Virginian than Brent. Oh, you're one of us, +Lieutenant Kenton, a real Virginian of the true blood." + +"And heart and soul too!" giving her one of his finest young military +glances. + +She laughed. It was only quick friendship between them and no more, +and a half-hour later he was dancing with another Virginia girl, not so +blonde, but just as handsome, and their talk was quite as friendly. Her +name was Lockridge, and as they sat down near the musicians to rest, +and listen a while, Harry saw a figure, slender and black-robed, pass. +He knew at once who she was, and it had been predicted that he might +meet her there, but she had stirred his curiosity a little, and +thinking he might obtain further information he asked Miss Lockridge: + +"Who is the woman who just passed us?" + +"That's Miss Carden, Miss Henrietta Carden, a sewing woman, very +capable too, who always helps at the big balls. Mrs. Curtis relies +greatly upon her. The door through which she went leads to the ladies' +dressing-room." + +"A native of Richmond?" + +"I don't know. But why are you so curious about a sewing woman, +Lieutenant Kenton?" + +Harry flushed. There was a faint tinge of rebuke in her words, and he +knew that he merited it. + +"It was just an idle question," he replied quickly, and with an air of +indifference. "I noticed her on the train when we came into the +capital, and we are so little used to women that we are inquisitive +about every one whom we see. Why, Miss Lockridge, I didn't realize +until I came to this ball that women could be so extraordinarily +beautiful. Every one of you looks like an angel, just lowered gently +from Heaven." + +"If you're not merely a flatterer then it's long absence that gives +charm. I assure you, Lieutenant Kenton, that we're very, very common +clay. You should see us eat." + +"I'll get you an ice at once." + +"Oh, I don't mean that. I mean substantial things!" + +"A healthy appetite doesn't keep a girl from being an angel." + +"When men marry us they find out that we're not angels." + +"The word 'angel' is with me merely a figure of speech. I don't want +any real angel. I want my wife, if I ever marry, to be thoroughly +human." + +Harry's progress was rapid. A handsome figure and face, and an +ingenuous manner made him a favorite. After midnight he wandered into +a room where older men were smoking and talking. They were mostly +officers, some of high rank, one a general, and they talked of that +which they could never get wholly from their minds, the war. All knew +Harry, and, as he wanted fresh air, they gave him a place by a window +which looked upon a small court. + +Harry was tired. In dancing he had been compelled to bring into play +muscles long unused, and he luxuriated in the cushioned chair, while +the pleasant night breeze blew upon him. They were discussing Lee's +probable plans to meet Meade, who would certainly follow him in time +across the Potomac. They spoke with weight and authority, because they +were experienced men who had been in many battles, and they were here +on furlough, most of them recovering from wounds. + +Harry heard them, but their words were like the flowing of a river. He +paid no heed. They did not bring the war back to him. He was thinking +of the music and of the brilliant faces of the girls whom he loved +collectively. What that Lawrence girl had said was true. He was a +Virginian as well as a Kentuckian, and the Kentuckians and Virginians +were all one big family. All those pretty Virginia girls were his +cousins. It might run to the thirty-second degree, but they were his +cousins just the same, and he would claim them with confidence. + +He smiled and his eyelids drooped a little. It was rather dark +outside, and he was looking directly into the court in which rosebushes +and tall flowering plants grew. A shadow passed. He did not see +whence it came or went, but he sat up and laughed at himself for dozing +and conjuring up phantoms when he was at his first real ball in ages. + +All the civilians had gone out and only five or six of the officers, +the most important, were left. Their talk had grown more eager, and on +the center of the table around which they sat lay a large piece of +white canvas upon which they were drawing a map expressing their +collective opinion. Every detail was agreed upon, after much +discussion, and Harry, as much interested as they, began to watch, +while the lines grew upon the canvas. He ventured no opinion, being so +much younger than the others. + +"We don't know, of course, exactly what General Lee will do," said a +colonel, "but we do know that he's always dangerous. He invariably +acts on the offensive, even if he's retreating. I should think that +he'd strike Meade about here." + +"Not there, but not far from it," said the general. "Make a dot at +that point, Bathurst, and make another dot here about twenty miles to +the east, which represents my opinion." + +Bathurst made the dots and the men, wholly absorbed, bent lower over +their plans, which were growing almost unconsciously into a map, and a +good one too. Harry was as much interested as they, and he still kept +himself in the background, owing to his youth and minor rank. + +The door to the room was open a little and the music, a waltz, came in +a soft ripple from the drawing room. It was rhythmic and languorous, +and Harry's feet would have moved to its tune at any other time, but he +was too deeply absorbed in the conjectures and certainties that they +were drawing with their pencils on the white canvas. + +Many of the details, he knew, were absolutely true, and others he was +quite sure must be true, because these were men of high rank who +carried in their minds the military secrets of the Confederacy. + +"I think we're pretty well agreed on the general nature of the plan," +said Bathurst. "We differ only in details." + +"That's so," said the general, "but we're lingering too long here. God +knows that we see little enough of our women folks, and, when we have +the chance to see them, and feel the touch of their hands, we waste our +time like a lot of fools making military guesses. If I'm not too old +to dance to the tune of the shells I'm not too old to dance to the tune +of the fiddle and the bow. That's a glorious air floating in from the +ballroom. I think I can show some of these youngsters like Kenton here +how to shake a foot." + +"After you, General," laughed Bathurst. "We know your capacity on both +the field and the floor, and how you respond to the shell and the bow. +Come on! The ballroom is calling to us, and I doubt whether we'll +explain to the satisfaction of everybody why we've been away from it so +long. You, too, Harry!" + +They rose in a group and went out hastily. Harry was last, and his +hand was on the bolt of the door, preparatory to closing it, when the +general turned to Bathurst and said: + +"You've that diagram of ours, haven't you, Bathurst? It's not a thing +to be left lying loose." + +"Why, no, sir, I thought you put it in your pocket." + +The general laughed. + +"You're suffering from astigmatism, Bathurst," he said. "Doubtless it +was Colton whom you saw stowing it away. I think we'd better tear it +into little bits as we have no further use for it." + +"But I haven't it, sir," said Colton, a veteran colonel, just +recovering from a wound in the arm. "I supposed of course that one of +the others took it." + +An uneasy look appeared in the general's eyes, but it passed in an +instant. + +"You have it, Morton?" + +"No, sir. Like Bathurst I thought one of the others took it." + +"And you, Kitteridge?" + +"I did not take it, sir." + +"You surely have it, Johnson?" + +"No, sir, I was under the impression that you had taken it away with +you." + +"And you, McCurdy?" + +McCurdy shook his head. + +"Then Kenton, as you were the last to rise, you certainly have it." + +"I was just a looker-on; I did not touch it," said Harry, whose hand +was still on the bolt of the partly opened door. + +The general laughed. + +"Another case of everybody expecting somebody else to do a thing, and +nobody doing it," he said. "Kenton, go back and take it from the +table. In our absorption we've been singularly forgetful, and that plan +must be destroyed at once." + +Harry reentered the room, and in their eagerness all of the officers +followed. Then a simultaneous "Ah!" of dismay burst from them all. +There was nothing on the table. The plan was gone. They looked at one +another, and in the eyes of every one apprehension was growing. + +"The window is partly open," said the general, affecting a laugh, +although it had an uneasy note, "and of course it has blown off the +table. We'll surely find it behind the sofa or a chair." + +They searched the room eagerly, going over every inch of space, every +possible hiding place, but the plan was not there. + +"Perhaps it's in the court," said the general. "It might have +fluttered out there. Raise the sash higher, Kenton. Let nobody make +any noise. We must be as quiet as possible about this. Luckily there's +enough moonlight now for us to find even a small scrap of paper in the +court." + +They stole through the window silently, one by one, and searched every +inch of the court's space. But nothing was in it, save the grass and +the flowers and the rosebushes that belonged there. They returned to +the room, and once more looked at one another in dismay. + +"Shut the window entirely and lock the door, Kenton," said the general. + +Harry did so. Then the general looked at them all, and his face was +set and very firm. + +"We must all be searched," he said. "I know that every one of you is +the soul of honor. I know that not one of you has concealed about his +person this document which has suddenly become so valuable. I know +that not one of you would smuggle through to the enemy such a plan at +any price, no matter how large. Nevertheless we must know beyond the +shadow of a doubt that none of us has the map. And I insist, too, that +I be searched first. Bathurst, Colton, begin!" + +They examined one another carefully in turn. Every pocket or possible +place of concealment was searched. Harry was the last and when they +were done with him the general heaved a huge sigh of relief. + +"We know positively that we are not guilty," he said. "We knew it +before, but now we've proved it. That is off our minds, but the +mystery of the missing map remains. What a strange combination of +circumstances. I think, gentlemen, that we had best say nothing about +it to outsiders. It's certainly to the interest of every one of us not +to do so. It's also to the interest of all of us to watch the best we +can for a solution. You're young, Kenton, but from what I hear of you +you're able to keep your own counsel." + +"You can trust me, sir," said Harry. + +"I know it, and now unlock the door. We've held ourselves prisoners +long enough, and they'll be wondering about us in the ballroom." + +Harry turned the key promptly enough and he was glad to escape from the +room. He felt that he had left behind a sinister atmosphere. He had +not mentioned to the older men the faint shadow that he thought he had +seen crossing the courtyard. But then it was only fancy, nothing more, +an idle figment of the brain! There was the music now, softer and more +tempting than ever, an irresistible call to flying feet, and another +dance with Rosamond Lawrence was due. + +"I thought you weren't coming, Lieutenant Kenton," she said. "Some one +said that you had gone into the smoking-room and that you were talking +war with middle-aged generals and colonels." + +"But I escaped as soon as I could, Miss Rosamond," he said--he was +thinking of the locked door and the universal search. + +"Well, you came just in time. The band is beginning and I was about to +give your dance to that good-looking Lieutenant Dalton." + +"You wouldn't treat me like that! Throw over your cousin in such a +manner! I can't think it!" + +"No, I wouldn't!" + +Then the full swell of the music caught them both, and they glided +away, as light and swift as the melody that bore them on. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A VAIN PURSUIT + + +Youth was strong in Harry, and, while he danced and the music played, +he forgot all about the incident in the smoking-room. With him it was +just one pretty girl after another. He had heart enough for them all, +and only one who was so young and who had been so long on battlefields +could well understand what a keen, even poignant, pleasure it was to be +with them. + +Those were the days when a ball lasted long. Pleasures did not come +often, but when they came they were to be enjoyed to the full. But as +the morning hours grew the manner of the older people became slightly +feverish and unnatural. They were pursuing pleasure and forgetfulness +with so much zeal and energy that it bore the aspect of force rather +than spontaneity. Harry noticed it and divined the cause. Beneath his +high spirits he now felt it himself. It was that looming shadow in the +North and that other in that far Southwest hovering over lost +Vicksburg. Serious men and serious women could not keep these shadows +from their eyes long. + +The incident of the smoking-room and the missing map came back to him +with renewed force. It could not have walked away. They had searched +the room and the court so thoroughly that they would have found it, had +it been there. The disappearance of a document, which men of authority +and knowledge had built up almost unconsciously, puzzled and alarmed +him. + +It was almost day when he and Dalton left. They paid their respects to +Mr. and Mrs. Curtis, and said many good-bys to "the girls they left +behind them." Then they went out into the street, and inhaled great +draughts of the cool night air. + +"A splendid night," said Dalton. + +"Yes, truly," said Harry. + +"I hope you didn't propose to more than six girls." + +"To none. But I love them all together." + +"I'm glad to hear it, because you're entirely too young to marry, and +your occupation is precarious." + +"You needn't be so preachy. You're not more'n a hundred years old +yourself." + +"But I'm two months older than you are and often two months makes a +vast difference, particularly in our cases. I notice about you, Harry, +at times, a certain juvenility which I feel it my duty to repress." + +"Don't do it, George. Let's enjoy it while we can, because as you say +my occupation is precarious and yours is the same." + +They stopped at the corner of the iron fence enclosing the Curtis home, +in which many lights were still shining. It was near a dark alley +opening on the street and running by this side of the house. + +"I'm going to see what's behind Mr. Curtis's house," said Harry. + +Dalton stared at him. + +"What's got into your head, Harry!" he exclaimed. "Do you mean to be a +burglar prowling about the home of the man who has entertained you?" + +Harry hesitated. He was sorry that Dalton was with him. Then he could +have gone on without question, but he must make some excuse to Dalton. + +"George," he said at last, "will you swear to keep a secret, a most +important one which I am pledged to tell to nobody, but which I must +confide in you in order to give a good reason for what I am about to +do." + +"If you are pledged to keep such a secret," replied Dalton, "then don't +explain it to me. Your word is good enough, Harry. Go ahead and do +what you want to do. I'll ask nothing about any of your actions, no +matter how strange it may look." + +"You're a man in a million, George. Come on, your confidence is going +to be tested. Besides, you'll run the danger of being shot." + +But Dalton followed him fearlessly as he led the way down the alley. +Richmond was not lighted then, save along the main streets, and a few +steps took them into the full dark. The brilliant windows threw bright +bands across the lines, but they themselves were in darkness. + +The alley ran through the next street and so did the Curtis grounds. +They were as extensive in the rear of the house as in front, and +contained small pines carefully trimmed, banks of roses and two grape +arbors. Harry could hear no sound of any one stirring among them, but +people, obviously the cooks and other servants, were talking in the big +kitchen at the rear of the house. + +The street itself running in the rear of the building was as well +lighted as it was in front, but Harry saw no one in it save a member of +the city police, who seemed to be keeping a good watch. But as he did +not wish to be observed by the man he waited a little while in the +mouth of the alley, until he had moved on and was out of sight. + +"Now, George," he said, "you and I are going to do a little scouting. +You know I'm descended from the greatest natural scout and trailer ever +known in the West, one whose senses were preternaturally acute, one who +could almost track a bird in the air by its flight." + +"Yes, I've heard of the renowned Henry Ware, and I know that you've +inherited a lot of his skill and intuition. Go ahead. I promised that +I would help you and ask no questions. I keep my word." + +Harry climbed silently over the low fence, and Dalton followed in the +same manner. The light from the street and house did not penetrate the +pines and rosebushes, where Harry quickly found a refuge, Dalton as +usual following him. + +"What next?" whispered Dalton. + +"Now, I do my trailing and scouting, and you help me all you can, +George, but be sure you don't make any noise. There's enough moonlight +filtering through the pines to show the ground to me, but not enough to +disclose us to anybody twenty feet away." + +He dropped to his hands and knees, and, crawling back and forth, began +to examine every inch of ground with minute care, while Dalton stared +at him in amazement. + +"I'd help," whispered Dalton, "if I only knew what you were doing." + +"Suppose, George, that somebody wanted to see the Curtis house, and yet +not be seen, wanted to observe as well as he could, without detection, +what was going on there. He'd watch his chance, jump over the fence as +we have done and enter this group of pines. He could ask no finer +point of observation. We are perfectly hidden and yet we can see the +whole rear of the house and one side of it." + +"So we can. I infer that you are looking for some one who you think +has been acting as a spy." + +"Ah! here we are. The earth is a bit soft by this pine, and I see the +trace of a footstep! And here is another trace, close by it, +undoubtedly the imprint of the other foot. It's as plain as day." + +Dalton knelt, looked at the traces, and shook his head. "I can't make +out any of them," he said. "I see nothing but a slight displacement of +the grass caused by the wind." + +"That's because you haven't my keen eye, an inherited and natural +ability as a trailer, although you may beat me out of sight in other +things. The shape of these traces indicates that they were made by +human feet, and their closeness together shows that the man stood +looking at the house. If he had been walking along they would be much +wider apart." + +He examined the traces again with long and minute care. + +"The toes point toward the house, consequently he was looking at it," +he said. "He was a heavy man, and he stood here a long time, not +moving from his tracks. That's why he left these traces, which are so +clear and evident to me, George, although they're hidden from a blind +man like you." + +"Well, what of it?" + +"Nothing much to you, but a lot to me." + +He rose to his feet and examined the boughs of the pine. + +"As I thought," he whispered with great satisfaction. "Despite his +courage and power over himself, both of which were very great, he +became a little excited. Doubtless he saw something that stirred him +deeply." + +"What under the stars are you talking about, Harry?" + +"See, he broke off three twigs of the pine. Just snapped them in two +with nervous fingers. Here are pieces lying on the ground. Now, a man +does that sort of thing almost unconsciously. He will not reach up for +the twig or down for it, but he breaks it because it presents itself to +him at the corner of his eye. This man was six feet in height or more +and built very powerfully. I think I know him! Yes, I'm sure I know +him! Nor is it at all strange that he should be here." + +"Shall we make a thorough search for him among the pines? You say he's +tall and built powerfully. But maybe the two of us could master him, +and if not we could call for help." + +"Too late, George. He left a long time ago, and he took with him what +he wanted. We needn't look any farther." + +"Lead on, then, King of Trailers and Master of Secrets! If the mighty +Caliph, Haroun al Kenton, wishes to prowl in these grounds, seeking the +heart of some great conspiracy, it is not for his loyal vizier, the +Sheikh Ul Dalton to ask him questions." + +"I'm not certain that a vizier is a sheikh." + +"Nor am I, but I'm certain that I want to go home and go to bed. +Vikings of the land like ourselves can't stand much luxury. It weakens +the tissues, made strong on the march and in the fields." + +They left the grounds silently and unobserved and soon were in their +own quarters, where they slept nearly the whole day. Then they spent +three or four days more in the social affairs which were such a keen +pleasure to them after such a long deprivation. But wherever they +went, and they were in demand everywhere, Harry was always looking for +somebody, a man, tall, heavy and broad shouldered, not a man who would +come into a room where he was, or who would join a company of people +that he had joined, but one who would hang upon the outskirts, and hide +behind the corners of buildings or trees. He did not see the shadow, +but once or twice he felt that it was there. + +The officer, Bathurst, told him one night that some important papers +had been stolen from the White House of the Confederacy itself. + +"They pertain to our army," said Bathurst, "and they will be of value +to the enemy, if they reach him." + +"I'm quite certain that the most daring and dangerous of all northern +spies is in Richmond," said Harry. + +Then he told Bathurst of Shepard and of the trails that he had seen +among the pines behind Curtis's house. + +"Do you think this man got our map?" asked Bathurst. + +"It may have been so. Perhaps he was hidden in the court and when he +saw us go out, leaving the map on the table, he slipped in at the +window and seized it." + +"But the court was enclosed. He would have had to go with the paper +through the house itself." + +"That's where my theory fails. I can provide for his taking the paper, +but I can't provide for his escape." + +"I'll tell the General about it. I think you're right, Harry. I've +heard of Shepard myself, and he's worth ten thousand men to the +Yankees. It's more than that. At such a critical stage of our affairs +he might ruin us. We'll make a general search for him. We'll rake the +city with a fine tooth comb." + +The search was made everywhere. Soldiers pried in every possible +place, but they found nobody who could not give an adequate account of +his presence in Richmond. Harry felt sure nevertheless that Shepard +was somewhere in the capital, protected by his infinite daring and +resource, and they received the startling news the next day after the +search that a messenger sent northward with dispatches for Lee had been +attacked only a short distance from the city. He had been struck from +behind, and did not see his assailant, but the wound in the head--the +man had been found unconscious--and the missing dispatches were +sufficient proof. + +A night later precious documents were purloined from the office of the +Secretary of War and a list of important earthworks on the North and +South Carolina coast disappeared from the office of the Secretary of +the Navy. Alarm spread through all the departments of the Confederacy. +Some one, spy and burglar too, had come into the very capital, and he +was having uncommon success. + +Harry had not the least doubt that it was Shepard, and he was filled +with an ambition to capture this man, whom he really liked. If Shepard +were caught he would certainly be hanged, but then a spy must take his +chances. + +They heard meanwhile that General Lee had gone to a former camp of his +on the Opequan, but that later in response to maneuvers by General +Meade, he moved to a position near Front Royal. No orders came for +Harry or Dalton to rejoin him, and, as a period of inactivity seemed to +be at hand, they were glad to remain a while longer in Richmond. They +still stayed with the Lanhams, who refused to take any pay, although +the two young officers, chipping together, bought for Mrs. Lanham a +little watch which had just come through the blockade from England. + +Thus their days lengthened in Richmond, and, despite the shadow of the +spy and his doings which was over Harry, they were still very pleasant. +The members of the Mosaic Club, although older men, made much of them, +and Harry and Dalton, being youths of sprighty wit, were able to hold +their own in such company. The time had now passed into August, and +they sat one afternoon in the lobby of the big hotel with their new +friends. Richmond without was quiet and blazing in the sun. Harry had +received a second letter from his father from an unnamed point in +Georgia. It did not contain much news, but it was full of +cheerfulness, and it intimated in more than one place that Bragg's army +was going to strike a great blow. + +All eyes were turned toward the West. The opinion had been spreading +in the Confederacy that the chief danger was on that line. It seemed +that the Army of Northern Virginia could take care of anything to the +north and east, but in the south and west affairs did not go well. + +"It's a pity that General Bragg is President Davis' brother-in-law," +said Randolph. + +"Why?" asked Daniel. + +"Then he wouldn't be in command of our Western Army." + +"Bragg's a fighter, though." + +"But not a reaper." + +"What do you mean?" + +"He wins the victory, but lets the enemy take it." + +"It may be so. But to come closer home, what about the Yankee spy in +Richmond? It's an established fact that a man of most uncommon daring +and skill is here." + +"No doubt of it, what's the latest from him?" + +"The house of William Curtis was entered last night and robbed." + +"Robbed of what?" + +"Papers. The man never takes any valuables." + +"But Curtis is not in the government!" + +"No, but he carries on a lot of blockade running, chiefly through +Norfolk and Wilmington. I think the papers related to several blockade +running vessels coming out from England, and of course the Yankee +blockading ships will be ready for them. There's not a trace of the +man who took them." + +"Something is deucedly sinister about it," said Bagby. "It seems to be +the work of one man, and he must have a hiding place in Richmond, but +we can't find it. Kenton, you and Dalton are army officers, supposedly +of intelligence. Now, why don't you find this mysterious terror? Ah, +will you excuse me for a minute! I see Miss Carden leaving the counter +with her basket, and there is no other seamstress in Richmond who can +put the ruffles on a man's finest shirt as she can. She's been doing +work for me for some time." + +He arose, and, leaving them, bowed very politely to the seamstress. Her +face, although thin and lined, was that of an educated woman of strong +character. Harry thought it probable that she was a lady in the +conventional meaning of the word. Many a woman of breeding and culture +was now compelled to earn her own living in the South. She and Bagby +exchanged only a few words, he returning to his chair, and she leaving +the hotel at a side door, walking with dignity. + +"I've seen Miss Carden three times before, once on the train, once at +this hotel and once at Mr. Curtis's house; can you tell me anything +about her?" said Harry. + +"It's an ordinary tale," replied Bagby. "I think she lived well up the +valley and her house being destroyed in some raid of the Federal troops +she came down to the capital to earn a living. She's been doing work +for me and others I know for a year past, and I know she's not been out +of Richmond in that time." + +The talk changed now to the books that had come through from Europe in +the blockade runners. There was a new novel by Dickens and another by +Thackeray, new at least to the South, and the members of the Mosaic +Club were soon deep in criticism and defense. + +Harry strolled away after a while. He did not tell his +friends--nothing was to be gained by telling them--that he was +absolutely sure of the identity of the spy, that it was Shepard. The +question of identity did not matter if they caught him, and his old +feeling that it was a duel between Shepard and himself returned. He +believed that the duty to catch the man had been laid upon him. + +He began to haunt Richmond at all hours of the night. More than once +he had to give explanations to watchmen about public buildings, but he +clung to the task that he had imposed upon himself. He explained to +Dalton and the Virginian found no fault except for Harry's loss of time +that might be devoted to amusement. Harry sometimes rebuked himself +for his own persistency, but Bagby's taunt had stung a little, and he +felt that it applied more to himself than to Dalton. He knew Shepard +and he knew something of his ways. Moreover, his was the blood of the +greatest of all trailers, and it was incumbent upon him to find the +spy. Yet he was trailing in a city and not in a forest. In spite of +everything he clung to his work. + +On a later night about one o'clock in the morning he was near the +building that housed army headquarters, and he noticed a figure come +from some bushes near it. He instantly stepped back into the shadow +and saw a man glance up and down the street, probably to see if it was +clear. It was a night to favor the spy, dark, with heavy clouds and +gusts of rain. + +The figure, evidently satisfied that no one was watching, walked +briskly down the street, and Harry's heart beat hard against his side. +He knew that it was Shepard, the king of spies, against whom he had +matched himself. He could not mistake, despite the darkness, his +figure, his walk and the swing of his powerful shoulders. + +His impulse was to cry for help, to shout that the spy was here, but at +the first sound of his voice Shepard would at once dart into the +shrubbery, and escape through the alleys of Richmond. No, his old +feeling that it was a duel between Shepard and himself was right, and +so they must fight it out. + +Shepard walked swiftly toward the narrower and more obscure streets, +and Harry followed at equal speed. The night grew darker and the rain, +instead of coming in gusts, now fell steadily. Twice Shepard stopped +and looked back. But on each occasion Harry flattened himself against +a plank fence and he did not believe the spy had seen him. + +Then Shepard went faster and his pursuer had difficulty in keeping him +in view. He went through an alley, turned into a street, and Harry ran +in order not to lose sight of him. + +The alley came into the street at a right angle, and, when Harry turned +the corner, a heavy, dark figure thrust itself into his path. + +"Shepard!" he cried. + +"Yes!" said the man, "and I hate to do this, but I must." + +His heavy fist shot out and caught his pursuer on the jaw. Harry saw +stars in constellations, then floated away into blackness, and, when he +came out of it, found himself lying on a bed in a small room. His jaw +was bandaged and very sore, but otherwise he felt all right. A candle +was burning on a table near him and an unshuttered window on the other +side of the room told him that it was still night and raining. + +Harry looked leisurely about the room, into which he had been wafted on +the magic carpet of the Arabian genii, so far as he knew. It was small +and without splendor and he knew at once from the character of its +belongings that it was a woman's room. + +He sat up. His head throbbed, but touching it cautiously he knew that +he had sustained no serious injury. But he felt chagrin, and a lot of +it. Shepard had known that he was following him and had laid a trap, +into which he had walked without hesitation. The man, however, had +spared his life, although he could have killed him as easily as he had +stunned him. Then he laughed bitterly at himself. A duel between them, +he had called it! Shepard wouldn't regard it as much of a duel. + +His head became so dizzy that he lay down again rather abruptly and +began to wonder. What was he doing in a woman's room, and who was the +woman and how had he got there? This would be a great joke for Dalton +and St. Clair and Happy Tom. + +He was fully dressed, except for his boots, and he saw them standing on +the floor against the wall. He surveyed once more the immaculate +neatness of the room. It was certainly a woman's, and most likely that +of an old maid. He sat up again, but his head throbbed so fearfully +that he was compelled to lie down quickly. Shepard had certainly put a +lot in that right hand punch of his and he had obtained a considerable +percentage of revenge for his defeat in the river. + +Then Harry forgot his pain in the intensity of his curiosity. He had +sustained a certain temporary numbing of the faculties from the blow +and his fancy, though vivid now, was vague. He was not at all sure +that he was still in Richmond. The window still showed that it was +night, and the rain was pouring so hard that he could hear it beating +against the walls. At all events, he thought whimsically, he had +secured shelter, though at an uncommon high price. + +He heard a creak, and a door at the end of the room opened, revealing +the figure and the strong, haggard features of Henrietta Carden. +Evidently she had taken off a hood and cloak in an outer room, as there +were rain drops on her hair and her shoes were wet. + +"How are you feeling, Mr. Kenton?" she asked. + +"Full of aches and wonder." + +"Both will pass." + +She smiled, and, although she was not young, Harry thought her +distinctly handsome, when she smiled. + +"I seem to have driven you out of your room and to have taken your bed +from you, Miss Carden," he said, "but I assure you it was +unintentional. I ran against something pretty hard, and since then I +haven't been exactly responsible for what I was doing." + +She smiled again, and this time Harry found the smile positively +winning. + +"I'm responsible for your being here," she said. + +Then she went back to the door and said to some one waiting in the +outer room: + +"You can come in, Lieutenant Dalton. He's all right except for his +headache, and an extraordinary spell of curiosity." + +Dalton stalked solemnly in, and regarded Harry with a stern and +reproving eye. + +"You're a fine fellow," he said. "A lady finds you dripping blood from +the chin, and out of your head, wandering about the street in the +darkness and rain. Fortunately she knows who you are, takes you into +her own house, gives you an opiate or some kind of a drug, binds up +your jaw where some man good and true has hit you with all his goodness +and truth, and then goes for me, your guardian, who should never have +let you out of his sight. I was awakened out of a sound sleep in our +very comfortable room at the Lanham house, and I've come here through a +pouring rain with Miss Carden to see you." + +"I do seem to be the original trouble maker," said Harry. "How did you +happen to find me, Miss Carden?" + +"I was sitting at my window, working very late on a dress that Mrs. +Curtis wants to-morrow. It was not raining hard then, and I could see +very well outside. I saw a dark shadow in the street at the mouth of +the alley. I saw that it was the figure of a man staggering very much. +I ran out and found that it was you, Lieutenant Kenton. You were +bleeding at the chin, where apparently some one had struck you very +hard, and you were so thoroughly dazed that you did not know where you +were or who you were." + +"Yes, he hit me very hard, just as you supposed, Miss Carden," said +Harry, feeling gently his sore and swollen chin. + +"I half led and half dragged you into my house--there was nowhere else +I could take you--and, as you were sinking into a stupor, I managed to +make you lie down on my bed. I bound up your wound, while you were +unconscious, and then I went for Lieutenant Dalton." + +"And she saved your life, too, you young wanderer. No doubt of that," +said Dalton reprovingly. "This is what you get for roaming away from +my care. Lucky you were that an angel like Miss Carden saved you from +dying of exposure. If I didn't know you so well, Harry, I should say +that you had been in some drunken row." + +"Oh, no! not that!" exclaimed Miss Carden. "There was no odor of +liquor on his breath." + +"I was merely joking, Miss Carden," said Dalton. "Old Harry here is +one of the best of boys, and I'm grateful to you for saving him and +coming to me. If there is any way we can repay you we'll do it." + +"I don't want any repayment. We must all help in these times." + +"But we won't forget it. We can't. How are you feeling, Harry?" + +"My head doesn't throb so hard. The jarred works inside are gradually +getting into place, and I think that in a half-hour I can walk again, +that is, resting upon that stout right arm of yours, George." + +"Then we'll go. I've brought an extra coat that will protect you from +the rain." + +"You are welcome to stay here!" exclaimed Miss Carden. "Perhaps you'd +be wiser to do so." + +"We thank you for such generous hospitality," said Dalton gallantly, +"but it will be best for many reasons that we go back to Mrs. Lanham's +as soon as we can. But first can we ask one favor of you, Miss Carden?" + +"Of course." + +"That you say nothing of Mr. Kenton's accident. Remember that he was +on military duty and that in the darkness and rain he fell, striking +upon his jaw." + +"I'll remember it. Our first impression that he had been struck by +somebody was a mistake, of course. You can depend upon me, both of +you. Neither of you was ever in my house. The incident never occurred." + +"But we're just as grateful to you as if it had happened." + +A half-hour later they left the cottage, Miss Carden holding open the +door a little to watch them until they were out of sight. But Harry +had recovered his strength and he was able to walk without Dalton's +assistance, although the Virginian kept close by his side in case of +necessity. + +"Harry," said Dalton, when they were nearly to the Lanham house, "are +you willing to tell what happened?" + +"As nearly as I know. I got upon the trail of that spy who has been +infesting Richmond. I knew at the time that it couldn't have been any +one else. I followed him up an alley, but he waited for me at the +turn, and before I could defend myself he let loose with his right. +When I came drifting back into the world I was lying upon the bed in +Miss Carden's cottage." + +"He showed you some consideration. He might have quietly put you out +of the way with a knife." + +"Shepard and I don't care to kill each other. Each wants to defeat the +other's plans. It's got to be a sort of duel between us." + +"So I see, and he has scored latest." + +"But not last." + +"We'd better stick to the tale about the fall. Such a thing could +happen to anybody in these dark streets. But that Miss Carden is a +fine woman. She showed true human sympathy, and what's more, she gave +help." + +"She's all that," agreed Harry heartily. + +They had their own keys to the Lanham house and slipped in without +awakening anybody. Their explanations the next day were received +without question and in another day Harry's jaw was no longer sore, +though his spirit was. Yet the taking of important documents ceased +suddenly, and Harry was quite sure that his encounter with Shepard had +at least caused him to leave the city. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +IN WINTER QUARTERS + + +Harry was sent a few days later with dispatches from the president to +General Lee, who was still in his camp beside the Opequan. Dalton was +held in the capital for further messages, but Harry was not sorry to +make the journey alone. The stay in Richmond had been very pleasant. +The spirits of youth, confined, had overflowed, but he was beginning to +feel a reaction. One must return soon to the battlefield. This was +merely a lull in the storm which would sweep with greater fury than +ever. The North, encouraged by Gettysburg and Vicksburg, was gathering +vast masses which would soon be hurled upon the South, and Harry knew +how thin the lines there were becoming. + +He thought, too, of Shepard, who was the latest to score in their duel, +and he believed that this man had already sent to the Northern leaders +information beyond value. Harry felt that he must strive in some +manner to make the score even. + +It was late in the summer when he rejoined the Army of Northern +Virginia and delivered the letters to the commander-in-chief, who sat +in the shade of a large tree. Harry observed him closely. He seemed a +little grayer than before the Battle of Gettysburg, but his manner was +as confident as ever. He filled to both eye and mind the measure of a +great general. After asking Harry many questions he dismissed him for a +while, to play, so he said. + +The young Kentuckian at once, and, as a matter of course, sought the +Invincibles. St. Clair and Langdon hailed him with shouts of joy, but +to his great surprise, Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire were not playing chess. + +"We were getting on with the game last night, Harry," explained Colonel +Talbot, "but we came to a point where we were about to develop heat +over a projected move. Then, in order to avoid such a lamentable +occurrence, we decided to postpone further play until to-night. But we +find you looking uncommonly well, Harry. The flesh pots of Egypt have +agreed with you." + +"I had a good time in Richmond, sir, a fine one," replied Harry. "The +people there have certainly been kind to me, as they are to all the +officers of the Army of Northern Virginia." + +"What have you done with the grave Dalton, who was your comrade on your +journey to the capital?" + +"They've kept him there for the present. They think he's stronger +proof against the luxuries and temptations of a city than I am." + +"Youth is youth, and I'm glad that you've had this little fling, Harry. +Perhaps you'll have another, as I think you'll be sent back to Richmond +very soon." + +"What has been going on here, Colonel?" + +"Very little. Nothing, in fact, of any importance. When we crossed +the swollen Potomac, although threatened by an enemy superior to us in +numbers, I felt that we would not be pushed. General Meade has been +deliberate, extremely deliberate in his offensive movements. Up North +they call Gettysburg a great victory, but we're resting here calmly and +peacefully. Hector and I and our young friends have found rural peace +and ease among these Virginia hills and valleys. You, of course, found +Richmond very gay and bright?" + +"Very gay and bright, Colonel, and full of handsome ladies." + +Colonel Talbot sighed and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sighed +also. + +"Hector and I should have been there," said Colonel Talbot. "Although +we've never married, we have a tremendous admiration for the ladies, +and in our best uniforms we're not wholly unpopular among them, eh, +Hector?" + +"Not by any means, Leonidas. We're not as young as Harry here, but I +know that you're a fine figure of a man, and you know that I am. +Moreover, our experience of the dangerous sex is so much greater than +that of mere boys like Harry and Arthur and Tom here, that we know how +to make ourselves much more welcome. You talk to them about frivolous +things, mere chit chat, while we explain grave and important matters to +them." + +"Are you sure, sir," asked St. Clair, "that the ladies don't really +prefer chit chat?" + +"I was not speaking of little girls. I was alluding to those ornaments +of their sex who have arrived at years of discretion. Ah, if Leonidas +and I were only a while in Richmond! It would be the next best thing +to being in Charleston." + +"Maybe the Invincibles will be sent there for a while." + +"Perhaps. I don't foresee any great activity here in the autumn. How +do they regard the Army of Northern Virginia in Richmond now, Harry?" + +"With supreme confidence." + +The talk soon drifted to the people whom Harry had met at the capital, +and then he told of his adventure with Shepard, the spy. + +"He seems to be a most daring man," said Talbot; "not a mere ordinary +spy, but a man of a higher type. I think he's likely to do us great +harm. But the woman, Miss Carden, was surely kind to you. If she +hadn't found you wandering around in the rain you'd have doubtless +dropped down and died. God bless the ladies." + +"And so say we all of us," said Harry. + +He returned to Richmond in a few days, bearing more dispatches, and to +his great delight all that was left of the Invincibles arrived a week +later to recuperate and see a little of the world. St. Clair and Happy +Tom plunged at once and with all the ardor of youth into the gayeties +of social life, and the two colonels followed them at a more dignified +but none the less earnest pace. All four appeared in fine new +uniforms, for which they had saved their money, and they were +conspicuous upon every occasion. + +Harry was again at the Curtis house, and although it was not a great +ball this time the assemblage was numerous, including all his friends. +The two colonels had become especial favorites everywhere, and they +were telling stories of the old South, which Harry had divined was +passing; passing whether the South won or not. + +Although there had been much light talk through the evening and an +abundance of real gayety, nearly every member of the company, +nevertheless, had serious moments. The news from Tennessee and Georgia +was heavy with import. It was vague in some particulars, but it was +definite enough in others to tell that the armies of Rosecrans and +Bragg were approaching each other. All eyes turned to the West. A +great battle could not be long delayed, and a powerful division of the +Army of Northern Virginia under Longstreet had been sent to help Bragg. + +Harry found himself late at night once more in that very room in which +the map had disappeared so mysteriously. The two colonels, St. Clair +and Langdon, and one or two others had drifted in, and the older men +were smoking. Inevitably they talked of the battle which they foresaw +with such certainty, and Harry's anxiety about it was increased, +because he knew his father would be there on one side, and the cousin, +for whom he cared so much, would be on the other. + +"If only General Lee were in command there," said Colonel Talbot, "we +might reckon upon a great and decisive victory." + +"But Bragg is a good general," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. + +"It's not enough to be merely a good general. He must have the soul of +fire that Lee has, and that Jackson had. Bragg is the Southern +McClellan. He is brave enough personally, but he always overrates the +strength of the enemy, and, if he is victorious on the field, he does +not reap the fruits of victory." + +"Where were the armies when we last heard from them?" asked a captain. + +"Bragg was turning north to attack Rosecrans, who stood somewhere +between him and Chattanooga." + +"I'm glad that it's Rosecrans and not Grant who commands the Northern +army there," said Harry. + +"Why?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +"I've studied the manner in which he took Vicksburg, and I've heard +about him from my father, and others. He won't be whipped. He isn't +like the other Northern generals. He hangs on, whatever happens. I +heard some one quoting him as saying that no matter how badly his army +was suffering in battle, the army of the other fellow might be +suffering worse. It seems to me that a general who is able to think +that way is very dangerous." + +"And so he is, Harry," said Colonel Talbot. "I, too, am glad that it's +Rosecrans and not Grant. If there's any news of a battle, we're not in +a bad place to hear it. It's said that Mr. Curtis always knows as soon +as our government what's happened." + +The talk drifted on to another subject and then a hum came from the +larger room. A murmur only, but it struck such an intense and earnest +note that Harry was convinced. + +"It's news of battle! I know it!" he exclaimed. + +They sprang to their feet and hurried into the ballroom. William +Curtis, his habitual calm broken, was standing upon a chair and all the +people had gathered in front of him. A piece of paper, evidently a +telegram, was clutched in his hand. + +"Friends," he said in a strained, but exultant voice, "a great battle +has been fought near Chattanooga on a little river called the +Chickamauga, and we have won a magnificent victory." + +A mighty cheer came from the crowd. + +"The army of Rosecrans, attacked with sudden and invincible force by +Bragg, has been shattered and driven into Chattanooga." + +Another cheer burst forth. + +"No part of the Union army was able to hold fast, save one wing under +Thomas." + +A third mighty cheer arose, but this time Harry did not join in it. He +felt a sudden sinking of the heart at the words, "save one wing under +Thomas." Then the victory was not complete. It could be complete only +when the whole Union army was driven from the field. As long as Thomas +stood, there was a flaw in the triumph. He had heard many times of +this man, Thomas. He had Grant's qualities. He was at his best in +apparent defeat. + +"Is there anything else, Mr. Curtis?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +"That is all my agent sends me concerning its results, but he says that +it lasted two days, and that it was fierce and bloody beyond all +comparison with anything that has happened in the West. He estimated +that the combined losses are between thirty and forty thousand men." + +A heavy silence fell upon them all. The victory was great, but the +price for it was great, too. Yet exultation could not be subdued long. +They were soon smiling over it, and congratulating one another. But +Harry was still unable to share wholly in the joy of victory. + +"Why this gloom in your face, when all the rest of us are so happy?" +asked St. Clair. + +"My father was there. He may have fallen. How do I know?" + +"That's not it. He always comes through. What's the real cause? Out +with it!" + +"You know that part of the dispatch saying, 'No part of the Union army +was able to hold fast save one wing under Thomas.' How about that +wing! You heard, too, what the colonel said about General Bragg. He +always overestimates the strength of the enemy, and while he may win a +victory he will not reap the fruits of it. That wing under Thomas +still may be standing there, protecting all the rest of the Union army." + +"Come now, old Sober Face! This isn't like you. We've won a grand +victory! We've more than paid them back for their Gettysburg." + +Harry rejoiced then with the others, but at times the thought came to +him that Thomas with one wing might yet be standing between Bragg and +complete victory. When he and Dalton went back home--they were again +with the Lanhams--they found the whole population of Richmond ablaze +with triumph. The Yankee army in the West had been routed. Not only +was Chickamauga an offset for Gettysburg, but for Vicksburg as well, +and once more the fortunes of the South were rising toward the zenith. + +Dalton had returned from the army a little later this time than Harry, +but he had joined him at the Lanhams', and he too showed gravity amid +the almost universal rejoicing. + +"I see that you're afraid the next news won't be so complete, Harry," +he said. + +"That's it, George. We don't really know much, except that Thomas was +holding his ground. Oh, if only Stonewall Jackson were there! +Remember how he came down on them at the Second Manassas and at +Chancellorsville! Thomas would be swept off his feet and as Rosecrans +retreated into Chattanooga our army would pour right on his heels!" + +They waited eagerly the next day and the next for news, and while +Richmond was still filled with rejoicings over Chickamauga, Harry saw +that his fears were justified. Thomas stood till the end. Bragg had +not followed Rosecrans into Chattanooga. The South had won a great +battle, but not a decisive victory. The commanding general had not +reaped all the rewards that were his for the taking. Bragg had +justified in every way Colonel Talbot's estimate of him. + +And yet Richmond, like the rest of the South, felt the great uplift of +Chickamauga, the most gigantic battle of the West. It told South as +well as North that the war was far from over. The South could no +longer invade the North, nor could the North invade the South at will. +Even on the northernmost border of the rebelling section the Army of +Northern Virginia under its matchless leader, rested in its camp, +challenging and defiant. + +Harry was glad to return with his friends to the army. His brief +period of festival was over, and his fears for his father had been +relieved by a letter, stating that he had received no serious harm in +the great and terrible battle of Chickamauga. + +After the failure of the armies of Lee and Meade to bring about a +decisive battle at Mine Run, the Army of Northern Virginia established +its autumn and winter headquarters on a jutting spur of the great range +called Clarke's Mountain, Orange Court House lying only a few miles to +the west. The huge camp was made in a wide-open space, surrounded by +dense masses of pines and cedars. Tents were pitched securely, and, +feeling that they were to stay here a long time many of the soldiers +built rude log cabins. + +General Lee himself continued to use his tent, which stood in the +center of the camp, the streets of tents and cabins radiating from it +like the spokes of a wheel. Close about Lee's own tent were others +occupied by Colonel Taylor, his adjutant general, Colonel Peyton, +Colonel Marshall, and other and younger officers, including Harry and +Dalton. A little distance down one of the main avenues, which they +were pleased to call Victory Street, the Invincibles were encamped, and +Harry saw them almost every day. + +The troops were well fed now, and the brooks provided an abundance of +clear water. The days were still warm, but the evenings were cold, +and, inhaling the healing odors of the pines and cedars, wounded +soldiers returned rapidly to health. + +It was a wonderful interval for Harry and his friends associated with +him so closely. Save for the presence of armies, it seemed at times +that there was no war. Deep peace prevailed along the Rapidan and the +slopes of the mountain. It was the longest period of rest that he and +his comrades were to know in the course of the mighty struggle. The +action of the war was now chiefly in the Southwest, where Grant, taking +the place of Rosecrans, was seeking to recover all that was lost at +Chickamauga. + +Harry had another letter from his father, telling him that his own had +been received, and giving personal details of the titanic struggle on +the Chickamauga. He did not speak out directly, but Harry saw in his +words the vain regret that the great opportunity won at Chickamauga at +such a terrible price had not been used. In his belief the whole +Federal army might have been destroyed, and the star of the South would +have risen again to the zenith. + +Here Harry sighed and remembered his own forebodings. Oh, if only a +Stonewall Jackson had been there! His mighty sweep would have driven +Thomas and the rest in a wild rout. A tear rose in his eye as he +remembered his lost hero. He sincerely believed then and always that +the Confederacy would have won had he not fallen on that fatal evening +at Chancellorsville. It was an emotion with him, a permanent emotion +with which logic could not interfere. + +Harry was conscious, too, that the long quiet on the Eastern front was +but a lull. There was nothing to signify peace in it. If the North +had ever felt despair about the war Gettysburg and Vicksburg had +removed every trace of it. He knew that beyond the blue ranges of +mountains, both to east and west, vast preparations were going forward. +The North, the region of great population, of illimitable resources, of +free access to the sea, and of mechanical genius that had counted for +so much in arming her soldiers, was gathering herself for a supreme +effort. The great defeats of the war's first period were to be +ignored, and her armies were to come again, more numerous, better +equipped and perhaps better commanded than ever. + +Nevertheless, his mind was still the mind of youth, and he could not +dwell continuously upon this prospect. The camp in the hills was +pleasant. The heats had passed, and autumn in the full richness of its +coloring had come. The forests blazed in all the brilliancy of red and +yellow and brown. The whole landscape had the color and intensity that +only a North American autumn can know, and the October air had the +freshness and vitality sufficient to make an old man young. + +The great army of youth--it was composed chiefly of boys, like the one +opposing it--enjoyed itself during these comparatively idle months. The +soldiers played rural games, marbles even, pitching the horseshoe, +wrestling, jumping and running. It was to Harry like Hannibal in +winter quarters at Capua, without the Capua. There was certainly no +luxury here. While food was more abundant than for a long time, it was +of the simplest. Instead of dissipation there was a great religious +revival. Ministers of different creeds, but united in a common object, +appeared in the camp, and preached with power and energy. The South +was emotional then and perhaps the war had made it more so. The +ministers secured thousands of converts. All day long the preaching +and singing could be heard through the groves of pine and cedar, and +Harry knew that when the time for battle came they would fight all the +better because of it. Yielding to the enemy was no part of the +Christianity that these ministers preached. + +Harry also saw the growth of the hero-worship accorded to his great +commander. He did not believe that any other general, except perhaps +Napoleon in his earlier career, had ever received such trust and +admiration. Many soldiers who had felt his guiding hand in battle now +saw him for the first time. He had an appearance and manner to inspire +respect, and, back of that, was something much greater, a firm +conviction in the minds of all that he had illimitable patience, a +willingness to accept responsibility, and a military genius that had +never been surpassed. Such was the attitude of the Southern people +toward their great leader then, and, to an even greater degree now, +when his figure, like that of Lincoln, instead of becoming smaller +grows larger as it recedes into the past. + +Harry often rode with him. He seemed to have an especial liking for +the very young members of his staff, or for old private soldiers, +bearded and gray like himself, whom he knew by name. Far in October he +rode down toward the Rapidan where Stuart was encamped, taking with him +only Harry and Dalton. He was mounted on his great white war horse, +Traveller, which the soldiers knew from afar. Cheering arose, but when +he raised his hand in a deprecating way the soldiers, obedient to his +wish, ceased, and they heard only the murmur of many voices, as they +went on. The general made the lads ride, one on his right and the +other on his left hand, and brilliant October coloring and crisp air +seemed to put him in a mood that was far from war. + +"I pine for Arlington," he said at length to Harry, "that ancestral +home of mine that is held by the enemy. I should like to see the +ripening of the crops there. We Virginians of the old stock hold to +the land, and you Kentuckians, who are really of the same race, hold to +it, too." + +"It is true, sir," said Harry. "My father loves the land. After his +retirement from the army, following the Mexican war, he worked harder +upon our place in Kentucky than any slave or hired man. He was going +to free his slaves, but I suppose, sir, that the war has made him feel +different about it." + +"Yes, we're often willing to do things by our own free will, but not +under compulsion. The great Washington himself wrote of the evils of +slave labor. The 'old fields' scattered all over Virginia show what it +has done for this noble commonwealth." + +Harry remembered quite well similar "old fields" in Kentucky. Slaves +were far less numerous there than in Virginia, and he was old enough to +have observed that, in addition to the wrong of slavery, they were a +liability rather than an asset. But he too felt anew the instinctive +rebellion against being compelled to do what he would perhaps do anyhow. + +General Lee talked more of the land and Harry and Dalton listened +respectfully. Harry saw that his commander's heart turned strongly +toward it. He knew that Jefferson had dreamed of the United States as +an agricultural community, having no part in the quarrels of other +nations, but he knew that it was only a dream. The South, the section +that had followed Jefferson's dream, was now at a great disadvantage. +It had no ships, and it did not have the mills to equip it for the +great war it was waging. He realized more keenly than ever the +one-sided nature of the South's development. + +The general turned his horse toward the banks of the Rapidan, and a +resplendent figure came forward to meet him. It was that incarnation +of youth and fantastic knighthood, Jeb Stuart, who had just returned +from a ride toward the north. He wore a new and brilliant uniform and +the usual broad yellow sash about his waist. His tunic was +embroidered, too, and his epaulets were heavy with gold. The thick +gold braid about his hat was tied in a gorgeous loop in front. His +hands were encased in long gloves of the finest buckskin, and he tapped +the high yellow tops of his riding boots with a little whip. + +Harry always felt that Stuart did not really belong to the present. His +place was with the medieval knights who loved gorgeous armor, who +fought by day for the love of it and who sat in the evening on the +castle steps with fair ladies for the love of it, and who in the dark +listened to the troubadours below, also for the love of it. A great +cavalry leader, he shone at his brightest in the chase, and, when there +was no fighting to be done, his were the spirits of a boy, and he was +as quick for a prank as any lad under his own command. + +But Stuart, although he had joked with Jackson, never took any +liberties with Lee. He instantly swept the ground with his plumed hat +and said in his most respectful manner: + +"General, will you honor us by dining with us? We've just returned +from a long ride northward and we've made some captures." + +Lee caught a twinkle in his eye, and he smiled. + +"I see no prisoners, General Stuart," he replied, "and I take it that +your captures do not mean human beings." + +"No, sir, there are other things just now more valuable to us than +prisoners. We raided a little Yankee outpost. Nobody was hurt, but, +sir, we've captured some provisions, the like of which the Army of +Northern Virginia has not tasted in a long time. Would you mind coming +with me and taking a look? And bring Kenton and Dalton with you, if +you don't mind, sir." + +"This indeed sounds tempting," said the commander-in-chief of the Army +of Northern Virginia. "I accept your invitation, General Stuart, in +behalf of myself and my two young aides." + +He dismounted, giving the reins of Traveller to an orderly, and walked +toward Stuart's tent, which was pitched near the river. The "captures" +were heaped in a grassy place. + +"Here, sir," said General Stuart, "are twenty dozen boxes of the finest +French sardines. I haven't tasted sardines in a year and I love them." + +"I've always liked them," said General Lee. + +"And here, sir, are several cases of Yorkshire ham, brought all the way +across the sea--and for us. It isn't as good as our Virginia ham, +which is growing scarce, but we'll like it. And cove oysters, cases +and cases of 'em. I like 'em almost as well as sardines." + +"Most excellent." + +"And real old New England pies, baked, I suppose, in Washington. We +can warm 'em over." + +"I see that you have the fire ready." + +"And jars of preserves, a half-dozen kinds at least, and all of 'em +look as if two likely youngsters like Kenton and Dalton would be +anxious to get at 'em." + +"You judge us rightly, General," said Harry. "We'll show no mercy to +such prisoners as we have here." + +"You wouldn't be boys and you wouldn't be human if you did," rejoined +Stuart, "would they, General?" + +"They would not," replied Lee. "One of the principal recollections of +my boyhood is that I was always hungry. Our regular three meals a day +were not enough for us, however much we ate at one time. Virginia, +like your own Kentucky, Harry, is full of forage, and we moved in +groups. Now, didn't you find a lot of food in the woods and fields?" + +"Oh, yes, sir," rejoined Harry with animation. "I was hungry all the +time, too. An hour after breakfast I was hungry again, and an hour +after dinner, which we had in the middle of the day, I was hungry once +more." + +"But you knew where to go for supplies." + +"Yes, sir; we had berries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, +gooseberries, dewberries, cherries, all of them growing wild although +some of them started tame. And then we could forage for pears, +peaches, plums, damsons, all kinds of apples, paw paws, and then later +for the nuts, hickory nuts, walnuts, chestnuts, hazel nuts, +chinquapins, and a lot more. We could have almost lived in the woods +and fields from early spring until late fall." + +"We did the same in Virginia," said the commander-in-chief. "I've +often thought that our forest Indians did not develop a higher +civilization, because it was so easy for them to live, save in the +depths of a hard winter. They had most of the berries and fruits and +nuts that we white boys had. The woods were full of game, and the +lakes and rivers full of fish. They were not driven by the hard +necessity that creates civilization." + +"Dinner is ready, sir," announced General Stuart, who had been +directing the orderlies. "I can offer you and the others nothing but +boxes and kegs to sit on, but I can assure you that this Northern food, +some of which comes in cans, is excellent." + +The two lads and General Stuart fell to work with energy. General Lee +ate more sparingly. Stuart was a boy himself, talking much and running +over with fun. + +"Have you heard what happened to General Early, sir?" he asked the +commander-in-chief. + +"Not yet." + +"But you will, sir, to-morrow. Early will be slow in sending you that +dispatch. He hasn't had time to write it yet. He's not through +swearing." + +"General Early is a valiant and able man, but I disapprove of his +swearing." + +"Why, sir, 'Old Jube' can't help it. It's a part of his breathing, and +man cannot live without breath. He sent one of his best aides with a +dispatch to General Hill, who is posted some distance away. Passing +through a thick cedar wood the aide was suddenly set upon by a genuine +stage villain, large, dark and powerful, who clubbed him over the head +with the butt of a pistol, and then departed with his dispatch." + +"And what happened then?" + +"The aide returned to General Early with his story, but without his +dispatch. The general believed his account, of course, but he called +him names for allowing himself to be surprised and overcome by a single +Yankee. He cursed until the air for fifty yards about him smelled +strongly of sulphur and brimstone." + +"Did he do anything more?" + +"Yes, General. He sent a duplicate of the dispatch by an aide whom he +said he could trust. In an hour the second man came back with the same +big lump on his head and with the same story. He had been ambushed at +the crossing of a ravine full of small cedars, and the highwayman was +undoubtedly the same, too, a big, powerful fellow, as bold as you +please." + +Harry's pulse throbbed hard for a few moments, when he first heard +mention of the man. The description, not only physical, but of manner +and action as well, answered perfectly. He had not the slightest doubt +that it was Shepard. + +"A daring deed," said General Lee. "We must see that it is not +repeated." + +"But that wasn't all of the tale, sir. While the second man was +sitting on the bank, nursing his broken head, the Yankee Dick Turpin +read the dispatch and saw that it was a duplicate of the first. He +became red-hot with wrath, and talked furiously about the extra and +unnecessary work that General Early was forcing upon him. He ended by +cramming the dispatch into the man's hands, directing him to take it +back, and to tell General Early to stop his foolishness. The aide was +a bit dazed from the blow he received and he delivered that message +word for word. Why, sir, General Early exploded. People who have +heard him swear for years and who know what an artist he is in +swearing, heard him then utter swear words that they had never heard +before, words invented on the spur of the moment, and in the heat of +passion, words full of pith and meaning." + +"And that was all, I suppose?" + +"Not by any means, sir. General Early picked two sharpshooters and +sent them with another copy of the dispatch. They passed the place of +the first hold-up, and next the ravine without seeing anybody. But as +they were riding some distance further on both of their horses were +killed by shots from a small clump of pines. Before they could regain +their feet Dick Turpin came out and covered them with his rifle--it +seems that he had one of those new repeating weapons. + +"The men saw that his eye was so keen and his hand so steady that they +did not dare to move a hand to a pistol. Then as he looked down the +sights of his rifle he lectured them. He told them they were foolish +to come that way, when the two who came before them had found out that +it was a closed road. He said that real soldiers learned by +experience, and would not try again to do what they had learned to be +impossible. + +"Then he said that after all they were not to blame, as they had been +sent by General Early, and he made one of them who had the stub of a +pencil write on the back of the dispatch these words: 'General Jubal +Early, C. S. A.: This has ceased to be a joke. After your first man +was stopped, it was not necessary to do anything more. I have the +dispatch. Why insist on sending duplicate after duplicate?' And the +two had to walk all the way back to General Early with that note, +because they didn't dare make away with the dispatch. + +"I have a certain respect for that man's skill and daring, but General +Early had a series of spells. He retired to his tent and if the +reports are not exaggerated, a continuous muttering like low thunder +came from the tent, and all the cloth of it turned blue from the +lightnings imprisoned inside." + +General Lee himself smiled. + +"It was certainly annoying," he said. "I hope the dispatch was not of +importance." + +"It contained nothing that will help the Yankees, but it shows that the +enemy has some spies--or at least one spy--who are Napoleons at their +trade." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE COMING OF GRANT + + +The little dinner ended. Despite his disapproval of General Early's +swearing, General Lee laughed heartily at further details of the +strange Yankee spy's exploits. But it was well known that in this +particular General Early was the champion of the East. Harry did not +know that in the person of Colonel Charles Woodville, his cousin, Dick +Mason, had encountered one of equal ability in the Southwest. + +Presently General Lee and his two young aides mounted their horses for +the return. The commander-in-chief seemed gayer than usual. He was +always very fond of Stuart, whose high spirits pleased him, and before +his departure he thanked him for his thoughtfulness. + +"Whenever we get any particularly choice shipments from the North I +shall always be pleased to notify you, General, and send you your +share," said Stuart, sweeping the air in front of him again with his +great plumed hat. With his fine, heroic face and his gorgeous uniform +he had never looked more a knight of the Middle Ages. + +General Lee smiled and thanked him again, and then rode soberly back, +followed at a short distance by his two young aides. Although the view +of hills and mountains and valleys and river and brooks was now +magnificent, the sumach burning in red and the leaves vivid in many +colors, Lee, deeply sensitive, like all his rural forbears, to rural +beauty, nevertheless seemed not to notice it, and soon sank into deep +thought. + +It is believed by many that Lee knew then that the Confederacy had +already received a mortal blow. It was not alone sufficient for the +South to win victories. She must keep on winning them, and the failure +at Gettysburg and the defeat at Vicksburg had put her on the defensive +everywhere. Fewer blockade runners were getting through. Above all, +there was less human material upon which to draw. But he roused +himself presently and said to Harry: + +"There was something humorous in the exploits of the man who held up +General Early's messengers, but the fellow is dangerous, exceedingly +dangerous at such a time." + +"I've an idea who he is, sir," said Harry. + +"Indeed! What do you know?" + +Then Harry told nearly all that he knew about Shepard, but not +all--that struggle in the river, and his sparing of the spy and the +filching of the map at the Curtis house, for instance--and the +commander-in-chief listened with great attention. + +"A bold man, uncommonly bold, and it appears uncommonly skilled, too. +We must send out a general alarm, that is, we must have all our own +scouts and spies watching for him." + +Harry said nothing, but he did not believe that anybody would catch +Shepard. The man's achievements had been so startling that they had +created the spell of invincibility. His old belief that he was worth +ten thousand men on the Northern battle line returned. No movement of +the Army of Northern Virginia could escape him, and no lone messenger +could ever be safe from him. + +Lee returned to his camp on Clarke's Mountain, and, a great revival +meeting being in progress, he joined it, sitting with a group of +officers. Fitzhugh Lee, W. H. F. Lee, Jones, Rosser, Wickham, Munford, +Young, Wade Hampton and a dozen others were there. Taylor and Marshall +and Peyton of his staff were also in the company. + +The preacher was a man of singular power and earnestness, and after the +sermon he led the singing himself, in which often thirty or forty +thousand voices joined. It was a moving sight to Harry, all these men, +lads, mostly, but veterans of many fields, united in a chorus mightier +than any other that he had ever heard. It would have pleased Stonewall +Jackson to his inmost soul, and once more, as always, a tear rose to +his eye as he thought of his lost hero. + +Harry and Dalton left their horses with an orderly and came back to the +edge of the great grove, in which the meeting was being held. They had +expected to find St. Clair and Happy Tom there, but not seeing them, +wandered on and finally drifted apart. Harry stood alone for a while +on the outskirts of the throng. They were all singing again, and the +mighty volume of sound rolled through the wood. It was not only a +singular, it was a majestic scene also to Harry. How like unto little +children young soldiers were! and how varied and perplexing were the +problems of human nature! They were singing with the utmost fervor of +Him who had preached continuously of peace, who was willing to turn one +cheek when the other was smitten, and because of their religious zeal +they would rush the very next day into battle, if need be, with +increased fire and zeal. + +He saw a heavily built, powerful man on the outskirts, but some +distance away, singing in a deep rolling voice, but something vaguely +familiar in the figure drew his glance again. He looked long and well +and then began to edge quietly toward the singer, who was clothed in +the faded butternut uniform that so many of the Confederate soldiers +wore. + +The fervor of the singer did not decrease, but Harry noticed that he +too was moving, moving slowly toward the eastern end of the grove, the +same direction that Harry was pursuing. Now he was sure. He would +have called out, but his voice would not have been heard above the vast +volume of sound. He might have pointed out the singer to others, but, +although he felt sure, he did not wish to be laughed at in case of +mistake. But strongest of all was the feeling that it had become a duel +between Shepard and himself. + +He walked slowly on, keeping the man in view, but Shepard, although he +never ceased singing, moved away at about the same pace. Harry +inferred at once that Shepard had seen him and was taking precautions. +The temptation to cry out at the top of his voice that the most +dangerous of all spies was among them was almost irresistible, but it +would only create an uproar in which Shepard could escape easily, +leaving to him a load of ridicule. + +He continued his singular pursuit. Shepard was about a hundred yards +away, and they had made half the circuit of this huge congregation. +Then the spy passed into a narrow belt of pines, and when Harry moved +forward to see him emerge on the other side he failed to reappear. He +hastened to the pines, which led some distance down a little gully, and +he was sure that Shepard had gone that way. He followed fast, but he +could discover no sign. He had vanished utterly, like thin smoke swept +away by a breeze. + +He returned deeply stirred by the appearance and disappearance--easy, +alike--of Shepard. His sense of the man's uncanny powers and of his +danger to the Confederacy was increased. He seemed to come and go +absolutely as he pleased. It was true that in the American Civil War +the opportunities for spies were great. All men spoke the same +language, and all looked very much alike. It was not such a hard task +to enter the opposing lines, but Shepard had shown a daring and success +beyond all comparison. He seemed to have both the seven league boots +and the invisible cloak of very young childhood. He came as he +pleased, and when pursuit came he vanished in thin air. + +Harry bit his lips in chagrin. He felt that Shepard had scored on him +again. It was true that he had been victorious in that fight in the +river, when victory meant so much, but since then Shepard had +triumphed, and it was bitter. He hardened his determination, and +resolved that he would always be on the watch for him. He even felt a +certain glow, because he was one of two in such a conflict of skill and +courage. + +The meeting having been finished, he went down one of the streets of +tents to the camp of the Invincibles. Colonel Leonidas Talbot and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire were not playing chess. Instead +they were sitting on a pine log with Happy Tom and St. Clair and other +officers, listening to young Julien de Langeais, who sat on another +log, playing a violin with surpassing skill. Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire, knowing his prowess as a violinist, had asked him to come and +play for the Invincibles. Now he was playing for them and for several +thousand more who were gathered in the pine woods. + +Young de Langeais sat on a low stump, and the great crowd made a solid +mass around him. But he did not see them, nor the pine woods nor the +heavy cannon sitting on the ridges. He looked instead into a region of +fancy, where the colors were brilliant or gay or tender as he imagined +them. Harry, with no technical knowledge of music but with a great +love of it, recognized at once the touch of a master, and what was +more, the soul of one. + +To him the violin was not great, unless the player was great, but when +the player was great it was the greatest musical instrument of all. He +watched de Langeais' wrapt face, and for him too the thousands of +soldiers, the pines and the cannon on the ridges melted away. He did +not know what the young musician was playing, probably some old French +air or a great lyric outburst of the fiery Verdi, whose music had +already spread through America. + +"A great artist," whispered Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire in his ear. +"He studied at the schools in New Orleans and then for two years in +Paris. But he came back to fight. Nothing could keep Julien from the +army, but he brought his violin with him. We Latins, or at least we +who are called Latins, steep our souls in music. It's not merely +intellectual with us. It's passion, fire, abandonment, triumph and all +the great primitive emotions of the human race." + +Harry's feelings differed somewhat from those of Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire--in character but not in power--and as young de Langeais played +on he began to think what a loss a stray bullet could make. Why should +a great artist be allowed to come on the battle line? There were +hundreds of thousands of common men. One could replace another, but +nobody could replace the genius, a genius in which the whole world +shared. It was not possible for either drill or training to do it, and +yet a little bullet might take away his life as easily as it would that +of a plowboy. They were all alike to the bullets and the shells. + +De Langeais finished, and a great shout of applause arose. The +cheering became so insistent that he was compelled to play again. + +"His family is well-to-do," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire just +before he began playing once more, "and they'll see that he goes back +to Paris for study as soon as the war is over. If they didn't I would." + +It did not seem to occur to Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire that young +de Langeais could be killed, and Harry began to share his confidence. +De Langeais now played the simple songs of the old South, and there was +many a tear in the eyes of war-hardened youth. The sun was setting in +a sea of fire, and the pine forests turned red in its blaze. In the +distance the waters of the Rapidan were crimson, too, and a light wind +out of the west sighed among the pines, forming a subdued chorus to the +violin. + +De Langeais began to play a famous old song of home, and Harry's mind +traveled back on its lingering note to his father's beautiful house and +grounds, close by Pendleton, and all the fine country about it, in +which he and Dick Mason and the boys of their age had roamed. He +remembered all the brooks and ponds and the groves that produced the +best hickory nuts. When should he see them again and would his father +be there, and Dick, and all the other boys of their age! Not all! +Certainly not all, because some were gone already. And yet this +plaintive note of the homes they had left behind, while it brought a +tear to many an eye, made no decrease in martial determination. It +merely hardened their resolution to win the victory all the sooner, and +bring the homecoming march nearer. + +De Langeais ended on a wailing note that died like a faint sigh in the +pine forest. Then he came back to earth, sprang up, and put his violin +in its case. Applause spread out and swelled in a low, thunderous +note, but de Langeais, who was as modest as he was talented, quickly +hid himself among his friends. + +The sun sank behind the blue mountains, and twilight came readily over +the pine and cedar forests. Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire, who had a large tent together, invited the youths to stay +awhile with them as their guests and talk. All the soldiers dispersed +to their own portions of the great camp, and there would be an hour of +quiet and rest, until the camp cooks served supper. + +It had been a lively day for Harry, his emotions had been much stirred, +and now he was glad to sit in the peace of the evening on a stone near +the entrance of the tent, and listen to his friends. War drew comrades +together in closer bonds than those of peace. He was quite sure that +St. Clair, Dalton and Happy Tom were his friends for life, as he was +theirs, and the two colonels seemed to have the same quality of youth. +Simple men, of high faith and honor, they were often childlike in the +ways of the world, their horizons sometimes not so wide as those of the +lads who now sat with them. + +"As I told Harry," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire to Julien, "you +shall have that talent of yours cultivated further after the war. Two +years more of study and you will be among the greatest. You must know, +lads, that for us who are of French descent, Paris is the world's +capital in the arts." + +"And for many of English blood, too," said Colonel Talbot. + +Then they talked of more immediate things, of the war, the armies and +the prospect of the campaigns. Harry, after an hour or so, returned to +headquarters and he found soldiers making a bed for the +commander-in-chief under the largest of the pines. Lee in his +campaigns always preferred to sleep in the open air, when he could, and +it required severe weather to drive him to a tent. Meanwhile he sat by +a small fire--the October nights were growing cold--and talked with +Peyton and other members of his staff. + +Harry and Dalton decided to imitate his example and sleep between the +blankets under the pines. Harry found a soft place, spread his +blankets and in a few minutes slept soundly. In fact, the whole Army +of Northern Virginia was a great family that retired early, slept well +and rose early. + +The next morning there was frost on the grass, but the lads were so +hardy that they took no harm. The autumn deepened. The leaves blazed +for a while in their most vivid colors and then began to fall under the +strong west winds. Brown and wrinkled, they often whirled past in +clouds. The air had a bite in it, and the soldiers built more and +larger fires. + +The Army of Northern Virginia never before had been quiescent so long. +The Army of the Potomac was not such a tremendous distance away, but it +seemed that neither side was willing to attack, and as the autumn +advanced and began to merge into winter the minds of all turned toward +the Southwest. + +For the valiant soldiers encamped on the Virginia hills the news was +not good. Grant, grim and inflexible, was deserving the great name +that was gradually coming to him. He had gathered together all the +broken parts of the army defeated at Chickamauga and was turning Union +defeat into Union victory. + +Winter closed in with the knowledge that Grant had defeated the South +disastrously on Lookout Mountain and all around Chattanooga. +Chickamauga had gone for nothing, the whole flank of the Confederacy +was turned and the Army of Northern Virginia remained the one great +barrier against the invading legions of the North. Yet the confidence +of the men in that army remained undimmed. They felt that on their own +ground, and under such a man as Lee, they were invincible. + +In the course of these months Harry, as a messenger and often as a +secretary, was very close to Lee. He wrote a swift and clear hand, and +took many dispatches. Almost daily messages were sent in one direction +or another and Harry read from them the thoughts of his leader, which +he kept locked in his breast. He knew perhaps better than many an +older officer the precarious condition of the Confederacy. These +letters, which he took from dictation, and the letters from Richmond +that he read to his chief, told him too plainly that the limits of the +Confederacy were shrinking. Its money declined steadily. Happy Tom +said that he had to "swap it pound for pound now to the sutlers for +groceries." Yet it is the historical truth that the heart of the Army +of Northern Virginia never beat with more fearless pride, as the famous +and "bloody" year of '63 was drawing to its close. + +The news arrived that Grant, the Sledge Hammer of the West, had been +put by Lincoln in command of all the armies of the Union, and would +come east to lead the Army of the Potomac in person, with Meade still +as its nominal chief, but subject, like all the others, to his command. + +Harry heard the report with a thrill. He knew now that decisive action +would come soon enough. He had always felt that Meade in front of them +was a wavering foe, and perhaps too cautious. But Grant was of another +kind. He was a pounder. Defeats did not daunt him. He would attack +and then attack again and again, and the diminishing forces of the +Confederacy were ill fitted to stand up against the continued blows of +the hammer. Harry's thrill was partly of apprehension, but whenever he +looked at the steadfast face of his chief his confidence returned. + +Winter passed without much activity and spring began to show its first +buds. The earth was drying, after melting snows and icy rains, and +Harry knew that action would not be delayed much longer. Grant was in +the East now. He had gone in January to St. Louis to visit his +daughter, who lay there very ill, and then, after military delays, he +had reached Washington. + +Harry afterward heard the circumstances of his arrival, so +characteristic of plain and republican America. He came into +Washington by train as a simple passenger, accompanied only by his son, +who was but fourteen years of age. They were not recognized, and +arriving at a hotel, valise in hand, with a crowd of passengers, he +registered in his turn: "U. S. Grant and son, Galena, Ill." The clerk, +not noticing the name, assigned the modest arrival and his boy to a +small room on the fifth floor. Then they moved away, a porter carrying +the valise. But the clerk happened to look again at the register, and +when he saw more clearly he rushed after them with a thousand +apologies. He did not expect the victor of great battles, the +lieutenant-general commanding all the armies of the Union, a battle +front of more than a million men, to come so modestly. + +When Harry heard the story he liked it. It seemed to him to be the +same simple and manly quality that he found in Lee, both worthy of +republican institutions. But he did not have time to think about it +long. The signs were multiplying that the advance would soon come. +The North had never ceased to resound with preparations, and Grant +would march with veterans. All the spies and scouts brought in the +same report. Butler would move up from Fortress Monroe toward Richmond +with thirty thousand men and Grant with a hundred and fifty thousand +would cross the Rapidan, moving by the right flank of Lee until they +could unite and destroy the Confederacy. Such was the plan, said the +scouts and spies in gray. + +Longstreet with his corps had returned from the West and Lee gathered +his force of about sixty thousand men to meet the mighty onslaught--he +alone perhaps divined how mighty it would be--and when he was faced by +the greatest of his adversaries his genius perhaps never shone more +brightly. + +May and the full spring came. It was the third day of the month, and +the camp of the Army of Northern Virginia was as usual. Many of the +young soldiers played games among the trees. Here and there they lay +in groups on the new grass, singing their favorite songs. The cooks +were preparing their suppers over the big fires. Several bands were +playing. Had it not been for the presence of so many weapons the whole +might have been taken for one vast picnic, but Harry, who sat in the +tent of the commander-in-chief, was writing as fast as he could +dispatch after dispatch that the Southern leader was dictating to him. +He knew perfectly well, of course, that the commander-in-chief was +gathering his forces and that they would move quickly for battle. He +knew, too, how inadequate was the equipment of the army. Only a short +time before he had taken from the dictation of his chief a letter to +the President of the Confederacy a part of which ran: + + +My anxiety on the subject of provisions for the army is so great that I +cannot refrain from expressing it to your Excellency. I cannot see how +we can operate with our present supplies. Any derangement in their +arrival or disaster to the railroad would render it impossible for me +to keep the army together and might force a retreat into North +Carolina. There is nothing to be had in this section for men or +animals. We have rations for the troops to-day and to-morrow. I hope +a new supply arrived last night, but I have not yet had a report. + + +Harry had thought long over this letter and he knew from his own +observation its absolute truth. The depleted South was no longer able +to feed its troops well. The abundance of the preceding autumn had +quickly passed, and in winter they were mostly on half rations. + +Lee, better than any other man in the whole South, had understood what +lay before them, and his foes both of the battlefield and of the spirit +have long since done him justice. Less than a week before this eve of +mighty events he had written to a young woman in Virginia, a relative: + + +I dislike to send letters within reach of the enemy, as they might +serve, if captured, to bring distress on others. But you must +sometimes cast your thoughts on the Army of Northern Virginia, and +never forget it in your prayers. It is preparing for a great struggle, +but I pray and trust that the great God, mighty to deliver, will spread +over it His Almighty arms and drive its enemies before it. + + +Harry had seen this letter before its sending, and he was not surprised +now when Lee was sending messengers to all parts of his army. With all +the hero-worshiping quality of youth he was once more deeply grateful +that he should have served on the staffs and been brought into close +personal relations with two men, Stonewall Jackson and Lee, who seemed +to him so great. As he saw it, it was not alone military greatness but +greatness of the soul, which was greater. Both were deeply +religious--Lee, the Episcopalian, and Jackson, the Presbyterian, and it +was a piety that contained no trace of cant. + +Harry felt that the crisis of the great Civil War was at hand. It had +been in the air all that day, and news had come that Grant had broken +up his camps and was crossing the Rapidan with a huge force. He knew +how small in comparison was the army that Lee could bring against him, +and yet he had supreme confidence in the military genius of his chief. + +He had written a letter with which an aide had galloped away, and then +he sat at the little table in the great tent, pen in hand and ink and +paper before him, but Lee was silent. He was dressed as usual with +great neatness and care, though without ostentation. His face had its +usual serious cast, but tinged now with melancholy. Harry knew that he +no longer saw the tent and those around him. His mind dwelled for a +few moments upon his own family and the ancient home that he had loved +so well. + +The interval was very brief. He was back in the present, and the +principal generals for whom he had sent were entering the tent. Hill, +Longstreet, Ewell, Stuart and others came, but they did not stay long. +They talked earnestly with their leader for a little while, and then +every one departed to lead his brigades. + +The secretaries put away pen, ink and paper. Twilight was advancing in +the east and night suddenly fell outside. The songs ceased, the bands +played no more, and there was only the deep rumble of marching men and +moving cannon. + +"We'll ride now, gentlemen," said Lee to his staff. + +Traveller, saddled and bridled, was waiting and the commander-in-chief +sprang into the saddle with all the agility of a young man. The others +mounted, too, Harry and Dalton as usual taking their places modestly in +the rear. + +A regiment, small in numbers but famous throughout the army for valor, +was just passing, and its colonel and its lieutenant-colonel, erect +men, riding splendidly, but gray like Lee, drew their swords and gave +the proud and flashing salute of the saber as they went by. Lee and +his staff almost with involuntary impulse returned the salute in like +fashion. Then the Invincibles passed on, and were lost from view in +the depths of the forest. + +Harry felt a sudden constriction of the heart. He knew that he might +never see Colonel Leonidas Talbot nor Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. +Hilaire again, nor St. Clair, nor Happy Tom either. + +But his friends could not remain long in his mind at such a time. They +were marching, marching swiftly, the presence of the man on the great +white horse seeming to urge them on to greater speed. As the stars +came out Lee's brow, which had been seamed by thought, cleared. His +plan which he had formed in the day was moving well. His three corps +were bearing away toward the old battlefield of Chancellorsville. +Grant would be drawn into the thickets of the Wilderness as Hooker had +been the year before, although a greater than Hooker was now leading +the Army of the Potomac. + +Harry, who foresaw it all, thrilled and shuddered at the remembrance. +It was in there that the great Jackson had fallen in the hour of +supreme triumph. Not far away were the heights of Fredericksburg, +where Burnside had led the bravest of the brave to unavailing +slaughter. As Belgium had been for centuries the cockpit of Europe, so +the wild and sterile region in Virginia that men call the Wilderness +became the cockpit of North America. + + +While Lee and his army were turning into the Wilderness Grant and the +greatest force that the Union had yet assembled were seeking him. It +was composed of men who had tasted alike of victory and defeat, +veterans skilled in all the wiles and stratagems of war, and with +hearts to endure anything. In this host was a veteran regiment that +had come East to serve under Grant as it had served under him so +valiantly in the West. Colonel Winchester rode at its head and beside +him rode his favorite aide, young Richard Mason. Not far away was +Colonel Hertford, with a numerous troop of splendid cavalry. + +Grant, alert and resolved to win, carried in his pocket a letter which +he had received from Lincoln, saying: + + +Not expecting to see you before the spring campaign opens, I wish to +express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up +to this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of your plans +I neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant, +and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints or +restraints upon you. While I am very anxious that any great disaster +or the capture of our men in great numbers should be avoided, I know +these points are less likely to escape your attention than they would +mine. If there is anything wanting which is within my power to give, +do not fail to let me know it. And now, with a brave army and a just +cause, may God sustain you. + + +A noble letter, breathing the loftiest spirit, and showing that moral +grandeur which has been so characteristic of America's greatest men. He +had put all in Grant's hands and he had given to him an army, the like +of which had never been seen until now on the American continent. Never +before had the North poured forth its wealth and energy in such +abundance. + +Four thousand wagons loaded with food and ammunition followed the army, +and there was a perfect system by which a wagon emptied of its contents +was sent back to a depot to be refilled, while a loaded wagon took its +place at the front. Complete telegram equipments, poles, wires, +instruments and all were carried with every division. The wires could +be strung easily and the lieutenant-general could talk to every part of +his army. There were, also, staffs of signalmen, in case the wires +should fail at any time. Grant held in his hand all the resources of +the North, and if he could not win no one could. + +All through the night the hostile armies marched, and before them went +the spies and scouts. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE GHOSTLY RIDE + + +Harry and Dalton kept close together during the long hours of the +ghostly ride. Just ahead of them were Taylor and Marshall and Peyton, +and in front Lee rode in silence. Now and then they passed regiments, +and at other times they would halt and let regiments pass them. Then +the troops, seeing the man sitting on the white horse, would start to +cheer, but always their officers promptly subdued it, and they marched +on feeling more confident than ever that their general was leading them +to victory. + +Many hours passed and still the army marched through the forests. The +trees, however, were dwindling in size and even in the night they saw +that the earth was growing red and sterile. Dense thickets grew +everywhere, and the marching became more difficult. Harry felt a +sudden thrill of awe. + +"George," he whispered, "do you know the country into which we're +riding?" + +"I think I do, Harry. It's the Wilderness." + +"It can't be anything else, George, because I see the ghosts." + +"What are you talking about, Harry? What ghosts?" + +"The thousands and thousands who have fallen in that waste. Why the +Wilderness is so full of dead men that they must walk at night to give +one another room. I only hope that the ghost of Old Jack will ride +before us and show us the way." + +"I almost feel like that, too," admitted Dalton, who, however, was of a +less imaginative mind than Harry. "As sure as I'm sitting in the +saddle we're bound for the Wilderness. Now, what is the day going to +give us?" + +"Marching mostly, I think, and with the next noon will come battle. +Grant doesn't hesitate and hold back. We know that, George." + +"No, it's not his character." + +Morning came and found them still in the forests, seeking the deep +thickets of the Wilderness, and Grant, warned by his scouts and spies, +and most earnestly by one whose skill, daring and judgment were +unequaled, turned from his chosen line of march to meet his enemy. +Once more Lee had selected the field of battle, where his inferiority +in numbers would not count so much against him. + +It was nearly morning when the march ceased, and officers and troops, +save those on guard, lay down in the forest for rest. Harry, a +seasoned veteran, could sleep under any conditions and with a blanket +over him and a saddle for a pillow closed his eyes almost immediately. +Lee and his older aides, Taylor and Peyton and Marshall, slept also. +Around them the brigades, too, lay sleeping. + +A while before dawn a large man in Confederate uniform, using the soft, +lingering speech of the South, appeared almost in the center of the +army of Northern Virginia. He knew all the pass words and told the +officers commanding the watch that the wing under Ewell was advancing +more rapidly than any of the others. Inside the line he could go about +almost as he chose, and one could see little of him, save that he was +large of figure and deeply tanned, like all the rest. + +He approached the little opening in which Lee and his staff lay, +although he kept back from the sentinels who watched over the sleeping +leader. But Shepard knew that it was the great Confederate chieftain +who lay in the shadow of the oak and he could identify him by the +glances of the sentinels so often directed toward the figure. + +There were wild thoughts for a moment or two in the mind of Shepard. A +single bullet fired by an unerring hand would take from the Confederacy +its arm and brain, and then what happened to himself afterward would +not matter at all. And the war would be over in a month or two. But +he put the thought fiercely from him. A spy he was and in his heart +proud of his calling, but no such secret bullet could be fired by him. + +He turned away from the little opening, wandered an hour through the +camp and then, diving into the deep bushes, vanished like a shadow +through the Confederate lines, and was gone to Grant to report that +Lee's army was advancing swiftly to attack, and that the command of +Ewell would come in touch with him first. + +Not long after dawn Harry was again on the march, riding behind his +general. From time to time Lee sent messengers to the various +divisions of his army, four in number, commanded by Longstreet, Early, +Hill and Stuart, the front or Stuart's composed of cavalry. Harry's +own time came, when he received a dispatch of the utmost importance to +take to Ewell. He memorized it first, and, if capture seemed probable, +he was to tear it into bits and throw it away. Harry was glad he was +to go to Ewell. In the great campaign in the valley he had been second +to Jackson, his right arm, as Jackson had been Lee's right arm. Ewell +had lost a leg since then, and his soldiers had to strap him in the +saddle when he led them into battle, but he was as daring and cheerful +as ever, trusted implicitly by Lee. + +Harry with a salute to his chief rode away. Part of the country was +familiar to him and in addition his directions were so explicit that he +could not miss the way. + +The four divisions of the army were in fairly close touch, but in a +country of forests and many waters Northern scouts might come between, +and he rode with caution, his hand ever near the pistol in his belt. +The midday sun however clouded as the afternoon passed on. The +thickets and forests grew more dense. From the distance came now and +then the faint, sweet call of a trumpet, but everything was hidden from +sight by the dense tangle of the Wilderness, a wilderness as wild and +dangerous as any in which Henry Ware had ever fought. How it all came +back to him! Almost exactly a year ago he had ridden into it with +Jackson and here the armies were gathering again. + +Imagination, fancy, always so strong in him, leaped into vivid life. +The year had not passed and he was riding to meet Stonewall Jackson, +who was somewhere ahead, preparing for his great curve about Hooker and +the lightning stroke at Chancellorsville. Rabbits sprang out of the +undergrowth and fled away before his horse's hoofs. In the lonely +wilderness, which nevertheless had little to offer to the hunter, birds +chattered from every tree. Small streams flowed slowly between dense +walls of bushes. Here and there in the protection of the thickets wild +flowers were in early bloom. + +It was spring, fresh spring everywhere, but the bushes and the grass +alike were tinged with red for Harry. The strange mental illusion that +he was riding to Chancellorsville remained with him and he did not seek +to shake it off. He almost expected to see Old Jack ahead on a hill, +bent over a little, and sitting on Little Sorrel, with the old slouch +hat drawn over his eyes. They had talked of the ghost of Jackson +leading them in the Wilderness. He shivered. Could it be so? All the +time he knew it was an illusion, but he permitted it to cast its spell +over him, as one who dreams knowingly. + +And Harry was dreaming back. Old Jack, the earlier of his two heroes, +was leading them. He foresaw the long march through the thickets of +the Wilderness, Stonewall forming the line of battle in the deep roads +late in the evening, almost in sight of Hooker's camp, the sudden rush +of his brigades and then the terrible battle far into the night. + +He shook himself. It was uncanny. The past was the past. Dreams were +thin and vanished stuff. Once more he was in the present and saw +clearly. Old Jack was gone to take his place with the great heroes of +the past, but the Army of Northern Virginia was there, with Lee leading +them, and the most formidable of all the Northern chiefs with the most +formidable of all the Northern armies was before them. + +He heard the distant thud of hoofs and with instinctive caution drew +back into a dense clump of bushes. A half-dozen horsemen were near and +their eager looks in every direction told Harry that they were scouts. +There was little difference then between a well worn uniform of blue or +gray, and they were very close before Harry was able to tell that they +belonged to Grant's army. + +He was devoutly glad that his horse was trained thoroughly and stood +quite still while the Northern scouts passed. A movement of the bushes +would have attracted their attention, and he did not wish to be +captured at any time, least of all on the certain eve of a great +battle. After a battle he always felt an extra regret for those who +had fallen, because they would never know whether they had won or lost. + +They were alert, keen and vigorous men, or lads rather, as young as +himself, and they rode as if they had been Southern youths almost born +in the saddle. Harry was not the only one to notice how the Northern +cavalry under the whip hand of defeat had improved so fast that it was +now a match, man for man, for that of the South. + +The young riders rode on and the tread of their hoofs died in the +undergrowth. Then Harry emerged from his own kindly clump of bushes +and increased his speed, anxious to reach Ewell, without any more of +those encounters. He made good progress through the thickets, and soon +after sundown saw a glow which he took to be that of campfires. He +advanced cautiously, met the Southern sentinels and knew that he was +right. + +The very first of these sentinels was an old soldier of Jackson, who +knew him well. + +"Mr. Kenton!" he exclaimed. + +"Yes, Thorn! It's you!" said Harry without hesitation. + +The soldier was pleased that he should be recognized thus in the dusk, +and he was still more pleased when the young aide leaned down and shook +his hand. + +"I might have known, Thorn, that I'd find you here, rifle on your arm, +watching," he said. + +"Thank you, Mr. Kenton. You'll find the general over there on a log by +the fire." + +Harry dismounted, gave his horse to a soldier and walked into the +glade. Ewell sat alone, his crutch under his arms, his one foot kicking +back the coals, his bald head a white disc in the glow. + +"General Ewell, sir," said Harry. + +General Ewell turned about and when he saw Harry his face clearly +showed gladness. He could not rise easily, but he stretched out a +welcoming hand. + +"Ah! Kenton," he said, "you're a pleasant sight to tired eyes like +mine. You bring back the glorious old days in the valley. So it's a +message from the commander-in-chief?" + +"Yes, sir. Here it is." + +Ewell read it rapidly by the firelight and smiled. + +"He tells us we're nearest to the enemy," he said, "and to hold fast, +if we're attacked. You're to remain with us and report what happens, +but doubtless you knew all this." + +"Yes, I had to commit it to memory before I started." + +"Then stay here with me. I may want to report to General Lee at any +time. The enemy is in our front only three or four miles away. He +knows we're here and it was a villainous surprise to him to find us in +his way. They say this man Grant is a pounder. So is Lee, when the +time comes to pound, but he's that and far more. I tell you, young +man, that General Lee has had to trim a lot of Northern generals. +McClellan and Pope and Burnside and Hooker and Meade have been going to +school to him, and now Grant is qualifying for his class." + +"But Grant is a great general. So our men in the West themselves say." + +"He may be, but Lee is greater, greatest. And, Harry, you and I, who +knew him and loved him, wish that another who alone was fit to ride by +his side was here with him." + +"I wish it from the bottom of my heart," said Harry. + +"Well, well, regrets are useless. Help me up, Harry. I'm only part of +a man, but I can still fight." + +"We saw you do that at Gettysburg," said Harry, as he put his arm under +Ewell's shoulder. Then Ewell took his crutch and they walked to the +far side of the glade, where several officers of his staff gathered +around him. + +"Lieutenant Kenton, whom you all know," said General Ewell, "has +brought a message from the commander-in-chief that we will be attacked +first, and to be on guard. We consider it an honor, do we not, my +lads?" + +"Yes, let them come," they said. + +"Harry, you may want to see the enemy. Clayton, you and Campbell take +him forward through the pickets. But don't go too far. We don't want +to lose three perfectly good young officers before the battle begins. +After that it may be your business to get yourselves shot." + +The two rode nearly two miles to the crest of a hill and then, using +their strong glasses in the moonlight, they were able to see the lights +of a vast camp. + +"We hear that it is Warren's corps," said Clayton. "As General Ewell +doubtless has told you, the enemy know that we're in front, but I don't +believe they know our exact location. I believe we'll be in battle +with those men in the morning." + +Harry thought so too. In truth, it was inevitable. Warren would +advance and Ewell would stand in his way. Yet he slept soundly when he +went back to camp, although he was awakened long before dawn the next +day. Then he ate breakfast, mounted and sat his horse not far away +from Ewell, whom two soldiers had strapped into his saddle, and who was +watching with eager eyes for the sunrise. + +Harry, listening intently, heard no sound in front of them, save the +wind rippling through the dwarfed forests of the Wilderness, and he +knew that no battle had yet begun elsewhere. Sound would come far on +that placid May morning, and it was a certainty that Ewell was nearest +to contact with the enemy. + +But Ewell did not yet move. All his men had been served with early +breakfast, such as it was, and remained in silent masses, partly hidden +by the forest and thickets. The dawn was cold, and Harry felt a little +chill, but it soon passed, as the red edge of the sun showed over the +eastern border of the Wilderness. Then the light spread toward the +zenith, but the golden glow failed to penetrate the somber thickets. + +"It's going to be a good day," said Harry to an aide. + +"A good day for a battle." + +"We'll hear from the Yankees soon. They can't fail to discover our +exact location by sunrise, and they'll fight. Be sure of that." + +It was now nearly six o'clock, and General Ewell, growing impatient, +rode forward a little. Harry followed with his staff. A half-dozen +Southern sharpshooters rose suddenly out of the thickets, and one of +them dared to lay his hands on the reins of the general's horse. But +Ewell was not offended. He looked down at the man and said: + +"What is it, Strother?" + +"Riflemen of the enemy are not more than three or four hundred yards +away. If you go much farther, General, they will certainly see you and +fire upon you." + +"Thanks, Strother. So they've located us?" + +"They're about to do it. They're feeling around. We've seen 'em in +the bushes. We ask you not to go on, General. We wouldn't know what +to do without you. There, sir! They're firing on our pickets!" + +A half-dozen shots came from the front, and then a half-dozen or so in +reply. Harry saw pink flashes, and then spirals of smoke rising. More +shots were fired presently on their right, and then others on their +left. The Northern riflemen were evidently on a long line, and +intended to make a thorough test of their enemy's strength. Harry had +no doubt that Shepard was there. He would surely come to the point +where his enemy was nearest, and his eyes and ears would be the keenest +of all. + +The little skirmish continued for a few minutes, extending along a +winding line of nearly a mile through the thickets. Only two or three +were wounded and nobody killed on the Southern side. Harry understood +thoroughly, as Ewell had said, that the sharpshooters of the enemy were +merely feeling for them. They wanted to know if a strong force was +there, and now they knew. + +The firing ceased, not in dying shots, but abruptly. The Wilderness in +front of them returned to silence, broken only by the rippling leaves. +Harry knew that the Northern sharpshooters had discovered all they +wanted, and were now returning to their leaders. + +Ewell turned his horse and rode back toward the main camp, his staff +following. The cooking fires had been put out, the lines were formed +and every gun was in position. As little noise as possible was +allowed, while they waited for Grant; not for Grant himself, but for +one of his lieutenants, pushed forward by his master hand. + +Harry and most of the staff officers dismounted, holding their horses +by the bridle. The young lieutenant often searched the thickets with +his glasses, but he saw nothing. Nevertheless he knew that the enemy +would come. Grant having set out to find his foe, would never draw +back when he found him. + +A much longer period of silence than he had expected passed. The sun, +flaming red, was moving on toward the zenith, and no sounds of battle +came from either right or left. The suspense became acute, almost +unbearable, and it was made all the more trying by the blindness of +that terrible forest. Harry felt at times as if he would rather fight +in the open fields; but he knew that his commander-in-chief was right +when he drew Grant into the shades of the Wilderness. + +When the suspense became so great that heavy weights seemed to be +pressing upon his nerves, rifle shots were fired in front, and +skirmishers uttered the long, shrill rebel yell. Then above both shots +and shouts rose the far, clear call of a bugle. + +"Here they come!" Harry heard Ewell say to himself, and the next moment +the sound of human voices was drowned in the thunder of great guns and +the crash of fifty thousand rifles. The battle was so sudden and the +charge so swift that it seemed to leap into full volume in an instant. +Warren, a resolute and daring general, led the Northern column and it +struck with such weight and force that the Southern division was driven +back. Harry felt it yielding, as if the ground were sliding under his +feet. + +There was so much flame and smoke that he could not see well, but the +sensation of slipping was distinct. General Ewell was near him, +shouting orders. His hat had fallen off, and his round, bald head had +turned red, either from the rush of blood or the cannon's glare. It +shone like a red dome, but Harry knew that there was no better man in +such a crisis than this veteran lieutenant of Stonewall Jackson. + +The Wilderness, usually so silent, was an inferno now. The battle, +despite its tremendous beginning, increased in violence and fury. +Although Grant himself was not there, the spirit that had animated him +at Shiloh and Vicksburg was. He had communicated it to his generals, +and Warren brought every ounce of his strength into action. The long +line of his bayonets gleamed through the thickets and the Northern +artillery, superb as usual, rained shells upon the Southern army. + +Ewell's men, fighting with all the courage and desperation that they +had shown on so many a field, were driven back further and further. +Ewell, strapped in his saddle, flourishing his sword, his round, bald +head glowing, rode among them, bidding them to stand, that help would +soon come. They continued to go backward, but those veterans of so +many campaigns never lost cohesion nor showed sign of panic. Their own +artillery and rifles replied in full volume. The heads of the charging +columns were blown away, but other men took their places, and Warren's +force came on with undiminished fire and strength. + +Harry wondered if the attack at other points had been made with such +impetuosity, but there was such a roar and crash about him that it was +impossible to hear sounds of battle elsewhere. Men were falling very +fast, but the general was unharmed, and neither the young lieutenant +nor his horse was touched. + +A sudden shout arose, and it was immediately followed by the piercing +rebel yell, swelling wild and fierce above the tumult of the battle. +Help was coming. Regiments in gray were charging down the paths and on +the left flank rose the thunder of hoofs as a formidable body of +cavalry under Sherburne, sabers aloft, swept down on the Northern flank. + +Ewell's entire division stopped its retreat and, reinforced by the new +men, charged directly upon the Northern bayonets. Men met almost face +to face. The saplings and bushes were mown down by cannon and rifles +and the air was full of bursting shells. From time to time Ewell's men +uttered their fierce, defiant yell, and with a great bound of the heart +Harry saw that they were gaining. Warren was being driven back. Two +of his cannon were captured already, and the Southern men, feeling the +glow of the advance after retreat, charged again and again, reckless of +death. But Harry soon saw that ultimate victory here would rest with +the South. The troops of Warren, exhausted by their early rush, were +driven from one position to another by the seasoned veterans who faced +them. The Confederates retained the captured cannon and thrust harder +and harder. It became obvious that Warren must soon fall back to the +main Northern line, and though the battle was still raging with great +fury Ewell beckoned Harry to him. + +"Don't stay here any longer," he shouted in his ear. "Ride to General +Lee and tell him we're victorious at this point for the day at least!" + +Harry saluted and galloped away through the thickets. Behind him the +battle still roared and thundered. A stray shell burst just in front +of him, and another just behind him, but he and his horse were +untouched. Once or twice he glanced back and it looked as if the +Wilderness were on fire, but he knew that it was instead the blaze of +battle. He saw also that Ewell was still moving forward, winning more +ground, and his heart swelled with gladness. + +How proud Jackson would have been had he been able to see the valor and +skill of his old lieutenant! Perhaps his ghost did really hover over +the Wilderness, where a year before he had fallen in the moment of his +greatest triumph! Harry urged his horse into a gallop. All his +faculties now became acute. He was beyond the zone of fire, but the +roar of the battle behind him seemed as loud as ever. Yet it was +steadily moving back on the main Union lines, and there could be no +doubt of Ewell's continued success. + +The curves of the low hills and the thick bushes hid everything from +Harry's sight, as he rode swiftly through the winding paths of the +Wilderness. When the tumult sank at last he heard a new thunder in +front of him, and now he knew that the Southern center under Hill had +been attacked also, and with the greatest fierceness. + +As Harry approached, the roar of the second battle became terrific. +Uncertain where General Lee would now be, he rode through the sleet of +steel, and found Hill engaged with the very flower of the Northern +army. Hancock, the hero of Gettysburg, was making desperate exertions +to crush him, pouring in brigade after brigade, while Sheridan, +regardless of thickets, made charge after charge with his numerous +cavalry. + +Harry remained in the rear on his horse, watching this furious +struggle. The day had become much darker, either from clouds or the +vast volume of smoke, and the thickets were so dense that the officers +often could not see their enemy at all, only their own men who stood +close to them. The struggle was vast, confused, carried on under +appalling conditions. The charging horsemen were sometimes swept from +the saddle by bushes and not by bullets. Infantrymen stepped into a +dark ooze left by spring rains, and pulling themselves out, charged, +black to the waist with mud. Sometimes the field pieces became mired, +and men and horses together dragged them to firmer ground. + +Grant here, as before Ewell, continually reinforced his veterans, but +Hill, although he was not able to advance, held fast. The difficult +nature of the ground that Lee had chosen helped him. In marsh and +thickets it was impossible for the more numerous enemy to outflank him. +Harry saw Hill twice, a slender man, who had suffered severe wounds but +one of the greatest fighters in the Southern army. He had been ordered +to hold the center, and Harry knew now that he would do it, for the day +at least. Night was not very far away, and Grant was making no +progress. + +He rode on in search of Lee and before he was yet beyond the range of +fire he met Dalton, mounted and emerging from the smoke. + +"The commander-in-chief, where is he?" asked Harry. + +"On a little hill not far from here, watching the battle. I'm just +returning with a dispatch from Hill." + +"I saw that Hill was holding his ground." + +"So my dispatch says, and it says also that he will continue to hold +it. You come from Ewell?" + +"Yes, and he has done more than stand fast. He was driven back at +first, but when reinforcements came he drove Warren back in his turn, +and took guns and prisoners." + +"The chief will be glad to hear it. We'll ride together. Look out for +your horse! He may go knee deep into mire at any time. Harry, the +Wilderness looks even more somber to me than it did a year ago when we +fought Chancellorsville." + +"I feel the same way about it. But see, George, how they're fighting! +General Hill is making a great resistance!" + +"Never better. But if you look over those low bushes you can see +General Lee on the hill." + +Harry made out the figure of Lee on Traveller, outlined against the +sky, with about a dozen men sitting on their horses behind him. He +hurried forward as fast as he could. The commander-in-chief was +reading a dispatch, while the fierce struggle in the thickets was going +on, but when Harry saluted and Marshall told him that he had come to +report the general put away the dispatch and said: + +"What news from General Ewell?" + +"General Ewell was at first borne back by the enemy's numbers, but when +help came he returned to the charge, and has been victorious. He has +gained much ground." + +A gleam of triumph shot from Lee's eyes, usually so calm. + +"Well done, Ewell!" he said. "The loss of a leg has not dimmed his +ardor or judgment. I truly believe that if he were to lose the other +one also he would still have himself strapped into the saddle and lead +his men to victory. We thank you for the news you have brought, +Lieutenant Kenton." + +He put his glasses to his eyes and Harry and Dalton as usual withdrew +to the rear of the staff. But they used their glasses also, bringing +nearer to them the different phases of the battle, which now raged +through the Wilderness. They saw at some points the continuous blaze +of guns, and the acrid powder smoke, lying low, was floating through +all the thickets. + +But Harry now knew that the combat, however violent and fierce, was +only a prelude. The sun was already setting, and they could not fight +at night in those wild thickets, where men and guns would become mired +and tangled beyond extrication. The great struggle, with both leaders +hurling in their full forces, would come on the morrow. + +The sun already hung very low, and in the twilight and smoke the +savagery of the Wilderness became fiercer than ever. The dusk gathered +around Lee, but his erect figure and white horse still showed +distinctly through it. Harry, his spirit touched by the tremendous +scenes in the very center of which he stood, regarded him with a fresh +measure of respect and admiration. He was the bulwark of the +Confederacy, and he did not doubt that on the morrow he would stop +Grant as he had stopped the others. + +The darkness increased, sweeping down like a great black pall over the +Wilderness. The battle in the center and on the left died. Lee and +his staff dismounting, prepared for the labors of the night. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE WILDERNESS + + +When night settled down over the Wilderness the two armies lay almost +face to face on a long line. The preliminary battle, on the whole, had +favored the Confederacy. Hill had held his ground and Ewell had +gained, but Grant had immense forces, and, though naturally kind of +heart, he had made up his mind to strike and keep on striking, no +matter what the loss. He could afford to lose two men where the +Confederacy lost one. + +Harry, like many others, felt that this would be the great Northern +general's plan. To-morrow's battle might end in Southern success, but +Grant would be there to fight the following day with undiminished +resolution. He was as sure of this as he was sure that the day would +come. + +The night itself was somber and sinister, the heavens dusky and a raw +chill in the air. Heavy vapors rose from the marshes, and clouds of +smoke from the afternoon's battle floated about over the thickets, +poisoning the air as if with gas, and making the men cough as they +breathed it. It made Harry's heart beat harder than usual, and his +head felt as if it were swollen. Everything seemed clothed in a black +mist with a slightly reddish tint. + +A small fire had been built in a sheltered place for the +commander-in-chief and his staff, and the cooks were preparing the +supper, which was of the simplest kind. While they ate the food and +drank their coffee, the darkness increased, with the faint lights of +other fires showing here and there through it. Around the muddy places +frogs croaked in defiance of armies, and, from distant points, came the +crackling fire of skirmishers prowling in the dusk. + +Harry's horse, saddled and bridled, was tied to a bush not far away. He +knew that it was to be no night of rest for him, or any other member of +the staff. Lee would be sending messages continually. Longstreet, +although he had been marching hard, was not yet up on the right, and he +and his veterans must be present when the shock of Grant's mighty +attack came in the morning. + +Hill, thin and pale, yet suffering from the effects of his wounds, but +burning as usual with the fire of battle, rode up and consulted long +and earnestly with Lee. Presently he went back to his own place nearer +the center, and then Lee began to send away his staff one by one with +messages. Harry was among the last to go, but he bore a dispatch to +Longstreet. + +He had heard that Longstreet had criticized Lee for ordering Pickett's +famous charge at Gettysburg, but if so, Lee had taken no notice of it, +and Longstreet had proved himself the same stalwart fighter as of old. +He and the prompt arrival of his veterans had enabled Bragg to win +Chickamauga, and it was not Longstreet's fault that the advantage +gained there was lost afterward. Now Harry knew that he would be up in +time with his seasoned veterans. + +As the young lieutenant rode away he saw General Lee walking back and +forth before the low fire, his hands clasped behind him, and his eyes +as serious as those of any human being could be. Harry appreciated the +immensity of his task, and in his heart was a sincere pity for the man +who bore so great a burden. He was familiar with the statement that to +Lee had been offered the command of the Northern armies at the +beginning of the war, but believing his first duty was to his State he +had gone with Virginia when Virginia reluctantly went out of the Union. +Truly no one could regret the war more than he, and yet he had struck +giant blows for its success. + +A moment more and the tall figure standing beside the low fire was lost +to sight. Then Harry rode among the thickets in the rear of the +Confederate line and it was a weird and ghastly ride. Now and then his +horse's feet sank in mud, and the frogs still dared to croak around the +pools, making on such a night the most ominous of all sounds. It +seemed a sort of funeral dirge for both North and South, a croak +telling of the ruin and death that were to come on the morrow. + +Damp boughs swept across his face, and the vapors, rising from the +earth and mingled with the battle smoke, were still bitter to the +tongue and poisonous to the breath. Rotten logs crushed beneath his +horse's feet and Harry felt a shiver as if the hoofs had cut through a +body of the dead. Riflemen rose out of the thickets, but he always +gave them the password, and rode on without stopping. + +Then came a space where he met no human being, the gap between Hill and +Longstreet, and now the Wilderness became incredibly lonely and dreary. +Harry felt that if ever a region was haunted by ghosts it was this. The +dead of last year's battle might be lying everywhere, and as the breeze +sprang up the melancholy thickets waved over them. + +He was two-thirds of the way toward the point where he expected to find +Longstreet when he heard the sough of a hoof in the mud behind him. + +Harry listened and hearing the hoof again he was instantly on his +guard. He did not know it, but the character of the night and the wild +aspect of the Wilderness were bringing out all the primeval and +elemental qualities in his nature. He was the great borderer, Henry +Ware, in the Indian-haunted forest, feeling with a sixth sense, even a +seventh sense, the presence of danger. + +He was following a path, scarcely traceable, used by charcoal burners +and wood-cutters, but when he heard the hoof a second time he turned +aside into the deepest of the thickets and halted there. The hoofbeat +came a third time, a little nearer, and then no more. Evidently the +horseman behind him knew that he had turned aside, and was waiting and +watching. He was surely an enemy of great skill and boldness, and it +was equally sure that he was Shepard. Harry never felt a doubt that he +was pursued by the formidable Union spy, and he felt too that he had +never been in greater danger, as Shepard at such a moment would not +spare his best friend. + +But he was not afraid. Danger had become so common that one looked +upon it merely as a risk. Moreover, he was never cooler or more ample +of resource. He dismounted softly, standing beside his horse's head, +holding the reins with one hand and a heavy pistol with the other. He +suspected that Shepard would do the same, but he believed that his eyes +and ears were the keener. The man must have been inside the +Confederate lines all the afternoon. Probably he had seen Harry riding +away, and, deftly appropriating a horse, had followed him. There was +no end to Shepard's ingenuity and daring. + +Harry's horse was trained to stand still indefinitely, and the young +man, with the heavy pistol, who held the reins was also immovable. The +silence about him was so deep that Harry could hear the frogs croaking +at a distant pool. + +He waited a full five minutes, and now, like the wild animals, he +relied more upon ear than eye. He had learned the faculty of +concentration and he bent all his powers upon his hearing. Not the +slightest sound could escape the tightly drawn drums of his ears. + +He was motionless a full ten minutes. Nor did the horse beside him +stir. It was a test of human endurance, the capacity to keep himself +absolutely silent, but with every nerve attuned, while he waited for an +invisible danger. And those minutes were precious, too. The value of +not a single one of them could have been measured or weighed. It was +his duty to reach Longstreet at speed, because the general and his +veterans must be in line in the morning, when the battle was joined. +Yet the incessant duel between Shepard and himself was at its height +again, and he did not yet see how he could end it. + +Harry felt that it must be essentially a struggle of patience, but when +he waited a few minutes longer, the idea to wait with ears close to the +earth, one of the oldest devices of primitive man, occurred to him. It +was fairly dry in the bushes, and he lay down, pressing his ear to the +soil. Then he heard a faint sound, as if some one crawling through the +grass, like a wild animal stalking its prey. It was Shepard, of +course, and then Harry planned his campaign. Shepard had left his +horse, and was endeavoring to reach him by stealth. + +Leaving his own horse, he crept a little to the right, and then rising +carefully in another thicket he picked out every dark spot in the +gloom. He made out presently the figure of a riderless horse, standing +partly behind the trunk of an oak, larger than most of those that grew +in the Wilderness. + +Harry knew that it was Shepard's mount and that Shepard himself was +some distance in front of it creeping toward the thicket which he +supposed sheltered his foe. There was barely enough light for Harry to +see the horse's head and regretfully he raised his heavy pistol. But +it had to be done, and when his aim was true he pulled the trigger. + +The report of the pistol was almost like the roar of a cannon in the +desolate Wilderness and made Harry himself jump. Then he promptly +threw himself flat upon his face. Shepard's answering fire came from a +point about thirty yards in front of the horse, and the bullet passed +very close over Harry's head. It was a marvelous shot to be made +merely at the place from which a sound had come. It all passed in a +flash, and the next moment Harry heard the sound of a horse falling and +kicking a little. Then it too was still. + +He remained only a half minute in the grass. Then he began to creep +back, curving a little in his course, toward his own horse. He did not +believe that Shepard's faculty of hearing was as keen as his own, and +he moved with the greatest deftness. He relied upon the fact that +Shepard had not yet located the horse, and if Harry could reach it +quickly it would not be hard for him, a mounted man, to leave behind +Shepard, dismounted. It might be possible, too, that Shepard had gone +back to see about his own horse, not knowing that it was slain. + +He saw the dusky outline of his horse, and, rising, made two or three +jumps. Then he snatched the rein loose, sprang upon his back, and +lying down upon his neck to avoid bullets, crashed away, reckless of +bushes and briars. He heard one bullet flying near him, but he laughed +in delight and relief as his horse sped on toward Longstreet. + +He did not diminish his speed until he had gone two or three miles, and +then, knowing that Shepard had been left hopelessly behind, even if he +had attempted pursuit, he brought his horse down to a walk, and +laughed. There was a bit of nervous excitement in the laugh. He had +outwitted Shepard again. He had never seen the man, but it did not +enter his mind that it was not he. Each had scored largely over the +other from time to time, but Harry believed that he was at least even. + +He steadied his nerves now and rode calmly toward Longstreet, coming +soon upon his scouts, who informed him that the heavy columns were not +far behind, marching with stalwart step to their appointed place in the +line. But it was Harry's business to see Longstreet himself, and he +continued his way toward the center of the division, where they told +him the general could be found. + +He rode forward and in the moonlight recognized Longstreet at once, a +heavy-set, bearded man, mounted on a strong bay horse. He had a very +small staff, and he was first to notice the young lieutenant advancing. +He knew Harry well, having seen him with Lee at Gettysburg and with +Jackson before. He stopped and said abruptly: + +"You come from the commander-in-chief, do you not?" + +"Yes, sir," replied Harry, "and I've been coming as fast as I could." + +He did not deem it necessary to say anything about his encounter with +Shepard. + +"There has been heavy fighting. What are his orders?" + +Harry told him, also giving him a written message, which the general +read by the light of a torch an aide held. + +"You can tell General Lee that all my men will be in position for +battle before dawn," said the Georgian crisply. + +Even as he spoke, Harry heard the heavy, regular tread of the brigades +marching forward through the Wilderness. He saluted General Longstreet. + +"I shall return at once with your message," he said. + +But Harry, having had one such experience, was resolved not to risk +another. He would make a wider circuit in the rear of the army. +Shepard, on foot, and anxious to avenge his defeat, might be waiting +for him, but he would go around him. So when he started back he made a +wide curve, and soon was in the darkness and silence again. + +He had a good horse and his idea of direction being very clear he rode +swiftly in the direction he had chosen. But his curve was so great +that when he reached the center of it he was so far in the rear of the +army that no sound came from it. If the skirmishers were still firing +the reports of their rifles were lost in the distance. Where he rode +the only noises were those made by the wild animals that inhabited the +Wilderness, creatures that had settled back into their usual haunts +after the armies had passed beyond. + +Once a startled deer sprang from a clump of bushes and crashed away +through the thickets. Rabbits darted from his path, and an owl, +wondering what all the disturbance was about, hooted mournfully from a +bough. + +Long before dawn Harry reached the Southern sentinels in the center and +was then passed to General Lee, who remained at the same camp, sitting +on a log by some smothered coals. Several other members of his staff +had returned already, and the general, looking up when Harry came +forward, merely said: + +"Well!" + +"I have seen General Longstreet, sir," said Harry, "and he bids me tell +you that he and his men will be in position before dawn. He was nearly +up when I left, and he has also sent you this note." + +He handed the note to General Lee, who, bending low over the coals, +read it. + +"Everything goes well," he said with satisfaction. "We shall be ready +for them. What time is it, Peyton?" + +"Five minutes past four o'clock, sir." + +"Then I think the attack should come within an hour." + +"Perhaps before daybreak, sir." + +"Perhaps. And even after the sun begins to rise it will be like +twilight in this gloomy place." + +Grant, in truth, prompt and ready as always, had ordered the advance to +be begun at half-past four, but Meade, asking more time for +arrangements and requesting that it be delayed until six, he had +consented to a postponement until five o'clock and no more. + +Harry had one more message to carry, a short distance only, and on his +return he found the Invincibles posted on the commander-in-chief's +right, and not more than two hundred yards away. + +"You must be a body guard for the general," he said to Colonel Leonidas +Talbot. + +"There could be no greater honor for the Invincibles, nor could General +Lee have a better guard." + +"I'm sure of that, sir." + +"What's happening, Harry? Tell us what's been going on in the night!" + +"Our line of battle has been formed. General Longstreet and his men on +the right are soon to be in touch with General Hill. I returned from +him a little while ago. I can't yet smell the dawn, but I think the +battle will come before then." + +Harry rode back and resumed his place beside Dalton. The troops +everywhere were on their feet, cannon and rifles ready, because it was +a certainty that the two armies would meet very early. + +In fact, the Army of Northern Virginia began to slide slowly forward. +It was not the habit of these troops to await attack. Lee nearly +always had taken the offensive, and the motion of his men was +involuntary. They felt that the enemy was there and they must go to +meet him. + +"What time is it now?" whispered Dalton. + +Harry was barely able to discern the face of his watch. + +"Ten minutes to five," he replied. + +"And the dawn comes early. It won't be long before Grant comes poking +his nose through the Wilderness." + +Harry was silent. A few minutes more, and there was a sudden crackle +of rifles in front of them. + +"The dawn isn't here, but Grant is," said Harry. + +The crackling fire doubled and tripled, and then the fire of the +Southern rifles replied in heavy volume. The lighter field guns opened +with a crash, and the heavier batteries followed with rolling thunder. +Leaves and twigs fell in showers, and men fell with them. The deep +Northern cheer swelled through the Wilderness and the fierce rebel yell +replied. + +Gray dawn, rising as if with effort, over the sodden Wilderness found +two hundred thousand men locked fast in battle. It might have been a +bright sun elsewhere, but not here among the gloomy shades and the pine +barrens. The firing was already so tremendous that the smoke hung low +and thick, directly over the tops of the bushes, and the men, as they +fought, breathed mixed and frightful vapors. + +Both sides fought for a long time in a heavy, smoky dusk, that was +practically night. Officers coming from far points, led, compass in +hand, having no other guide save the roar of battle. As the Southern +leaders had foreseen, Grant was throwing in the full strength of his +powerful army, hoping with superior numbers and better equipment to +crush Lee utterly that day. + +The great Northern artillery was raking the whole Southern front. +Hancock, the superb, was hurling the heavy Northern masses directly +upon the main position of the South. He had half the Army of the +Potomac, and at other points Warren, Wadsworth, Sedgwick and Burnside +were advancing with equal energy and contempt of death. Fiercer and +fiercer grew the conflict. Hancock, remembering how he had held the +fatal hill at Gettysburg, and resolved to win a complete victory now, +poured in regiment after regiment. But in all the fire and smoke and +excitement and danger he did not neglect to keep a cool head. Hearing +that a portion of Longstreet's corps was near, he sent a division and +numerous heavy artillery to attack it, driving it back after a +sanguinary struggle of more than an hour. + +Then he redoubled his attack upon the Southern center, compelling it to +give ground, though slowly. Harry felt that gliding movement backward +and a chill ran through his blood. The heavy masses of Grant and his +powerful artillery were prevailing. The strongest portion of the +Southern army was being forced back, and a gap was cut between Hill and +Longstreet. Had Hancock perceived the gap that he had made he might +have severed the Southern army, inflicting irretrievable retreat, but +the smoke and the dusk of the Wilderness hid it, and the moment passed +into one of the great "Ifs" of history. + +Harry, on horseback, witnessed this conflict, all the more terrible +because of the theater in which it was fought. The batteries and the +riflemen alike were frequently hidden by the thickets. The great banks +of smoke hung low, only to be split apart incessantly by the flashes of +fire from the big guns. But the bullets were more dangerous than the +cannon balls and shells. They whistled and shrieked in thousands and +countless thousands. + +Lee sat on his horse impassive, watching as well as he could the tide +of battle. Messengers covered with smoke and sweat had informed him of +the gap between Hill and Longstreet, and he was dispatching fresh +troops to close it up. Harry saw the Invincibles march by. The two +colonels at their head beheld Lee on his white horse, and their swords +flew from their scabbards as they made a salute in perfect unison. +Close behind them rode St. Clair and Happy Tom, and they too saluted in +like manner. Lee took off his hat in reply and Harry choked. "About to +die, we salute thee," he murmured under his breath. + +Then with a shout the Invincibles, their officers at their head, +plunged into the fire and smoke, and were lost from Harry's view. But +he could not stay there long and wonder at their fate. In a few +minutes he was riding to Longstreet with a message for him to bear +steadily toward Hill, that the gap might be closed entirely, and as +soon as possible. + +He galloped behind the lines, but bullets fell all around him, and +often a shell tore the earth. The air had become more bitter and +poisonous. Fumes from swamps seemed to mingle with the smoke and odors +of burned gunpowder. His lips and his tongue were scorched. But he +kept on, without exhaustion or mishap, and reached Longstreet, who had +divined his message. + +"The line will be solid in a few minutes," he said, and while the +battle was still at its height on the long front he touched hands with +Hill. Then both drove forward with all their might against Hancock, +rushing to the charge, with the Southern fire and recklessness of death +that had proved irresistible on so many fields. The advance, despite +the most desperate efforts of Hancock and his generals, was stopped. +Then he was driven back. All the ground gained at so much cost was +lost and the Southern troops, shouting in exultation, pushed on, +pouring in a terrible rifle fire. Longstreet, in his eagerness, rode a +little ahead of his troops to see the result. Turning back, he was +mistaken in the smoke by his own men for a Northern cavalryman, and +they fired upon him, just as Jackson had been shot down by his own +troops in the dusk at Chancellorsville. + +The leader fell from his horse, wounded severely, and the troops +advancing to victory became confused. The rumor spread that Longstreet +had been killed. There was no one to give orders, and the charge +stopped. Harry and a half-dozen others who had seen the accident or +heard of it, galloped to Lee, who at once rode into the very thick of +the command, giving personal orders and sending his aides right and +left with others. The whole division was reformed under his eye, and +he sent it anew to the attack. + +The battle now closed in with the full strength of both armies. +Hancock strove to keep his place. The valiant Wadsworth had been +killed already. The dense thickets largely nullified Grant's superior +numbers. Lee poured everything on Hancock, who was driven from every +position. Fighting furiously behind a breastwork built the night +before, he was driven from that too. + +Often in the dense shades the soldiers met one another face to face and +furious struggles hand-to-hand ensued. Bushes and trees, set on fire +by the shells, burned slowly like torches put there to light up the +ghastly scene of man's bravery and folly. Jenkins, a Confederate +general, was killed and colonels and majors fell by the dozen. But +neither side would yield, and Grant hurried help to his hard-pressed +troops. + +Harry had been grazed on the shoulder by a bullet, but his horse was +unharmed, and he kept close to Lee, who continued to direct the battle +personally. He knew that they were advancing. Once more the genius of +the great Confederate leader was triumphing. Grant, the redoubtable +and tenacious, despite his numbers, could set no trap for him! Instead +he had been drawn into battle on a field of Lee's own choosing. + +The conflict had now continued for a long time, and was terrible in all +its aspects. It was far past noon, and for miles a dense cloud of +smoke hung over the Wilderness, which was filled with the roar of +cannon, the crash of rifles and the shouts of two hundred thousand men +in deadly conflict. The first meeting of the two great protagonists of +the war, Lee and Grant, was sanguinary and terrible, beyond all +expectation. + +Hundreds fell dead, their bodies lying hidden under the thickets. The +forest burned fiercely here and there, casting circles of lurid light +over the combatants, while the wind rained down charred leaves and +twigs. The fires spread and joined, and at points swept wide areas of +the forest, yet the fury of the battle was not diminished, the two +armies forgetting everything else in their desire to crush each other. + +Harry's horse was killed, as he sat near Lee, but he quickly obtained +another, and not long afterward he was sent with a second message to +Ewell. He rode on a long battle front, not far behind the lines, and +he shuddered with awe as he looked upon the titanic struggle. The +smoke was often so heavy and the bushes so thick that he could not see +the combatants, except when the flame of the firing or the burning +trees lighted up a segment of the circle. + +Halfway to Ewell and he stopped when he saw two familiar figures, +sitting on a log. They were elderly men in uniforms riddled by +bullets. The right arm of one and the left leg of the other were +tightly bandaged. Their faces were very white and it was obvious that +they were sitting there, because they were not strong enough to stand. + +Harry stopped. No message, no matter how important, could have kept +him from stopping. + +"Colonel Talbot! Colonel St. Hilaire!" he cried. + +"Yes, here we are, Harry," replied Colonel Leonidas Talbot in a voice, +thin but full of courage. "Hector has been shot through the leg and +has lost much blood, but I have bound up his wound, and he has done as +much for my arm, which has been bored through from side to side by a +bullet, which must have been as large as my fist." + +"And so for a few minutes," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire, +valiantly, "we must let General Lee conduct the victory alone." + +"And the Invincibles!" exclaimed Harry, horrified. "Are they all gone +but you?" + +"Not at all," replied Colonel Talbot. "There is so much smoke about +that you can't see much, but if it clears a little you will behold +Lieutenant St. Clair and the youth rightly called Happy Tom and some +three score others, lying among the bushes, not far ahead of you, +giving thorough attention to the enemy." + +"And is that all that's left of the Invincibles?" + +"It's a wonder that they're so many. You were right about this man, +Grant, Harry. He's a fighter, and their artillery is numerous and +wonderful. John Carrington himself must be in front of us. We have +not seen him, but the circumstantial evidence is conclusive. Nobody +else in the world could have swept this portion of the Wilderness with +shell and shrapnel in such a manner. Why, he has mowed down the bushes +in long swathes as the scythe takes the grass and he has cut down our +men with them. How does the battle go elsewhere?" + +"We're succeeding. We're driving 'em back. I can stop only a moment +now. I'm on my way to General Ewell." + +"Then hurry. Don't be worried about us. I'll help Hector and Hector +will help me. And do you curve further to the rear, Harry. The worst +thing that a dispatch bearer can do is to get himself shot." + +Waving his hand in farewell Harry galloped away. He knew that Colonel +Talbot had given him sound advice, and he bore back from the front, +coming once more into lonely thickets, although the flash of the battle +was plainly visible in front of him, and its roar filled his ears. Yet +when he rode alone he almost expected to see Shepard rise up before +him, and bid him halt. His encounters with this man had been under +such startling circumstances that it now seemed the rule, and not the +exception, for him to appear at any moment. + +But Shepard did not come. Instead Harry began to see the badly wounded +of his own side drifting to the rear, helping one another as hurt +soldiers learn to do. Two of them he allowed to hang on his stirrups a +little while. + +"They're fighting hard," said one, a long, gaunt Texan, "an' they're so +many they might lap roun' us. This man of theirs, Grant, ain't much of +a fellow to get scared, but I guess Marse Bob will take care of him +just ez he has took care of the others who came into Virginia." + +"They're led in the main attack by Hancock," said the other, a +Virginian. "I caught a glimpse of him through the smoke, just as I had +a view of him for a minute back there by the clump of trees on the +ridge at Gettysburg." + +"Are you one of Pickett's men?" asked Harry. + +"I am, sir, one of the few that's left. I went clear to the clump of +trees and how I got back I've never known. It was a sort of red dream, +in which I couldn't pick out anything in particular, but I was back +with the army, carrying three bullets that the doctors took away from +me, and here I've gathered up two more they'll rob me of in just the +same way." + +He spoke quite cheerfully, and when Harry, curving again, was compelled +to release them, both, although badly wounded, wished him good luck. + +He found General Ewell in front, stamping back and forth on his +crutches, watching the battle with excitement. + +"And so you're here again, Harry. Well it's good news at present!" he +cried. "It seems that their man, Grant, is going to school to Lee just +like the others." + +"But some pupils learn too fast, sir!" + +"That's so, but, Harry, I wish I could see more of the field. An +invisible battle like this shakes my nerves. Batteries that we can't +see send tornadoes of shot and shell among us. Riflemen, by the +thousands, hidden in the thickets rain bullets into our ranks. It's +inhuman, wicked, and our only salvation lies in the fact that it's as +bad for them as it is for us. If we can't see them they can't see us." + +"You can hold your ground here?" + +"Against anything and everything. Tell General Lee that we intend to +eat our suppers on the enemy's ground." + +"That's all he wants to know." + +As Harry rode back he saw that the first fires were spreading, passing +over new portions of the battlefield. Sparks flew in myriads and fine, +thin ashes were mingled with the powder smoke. The small trees, burnt +through, fell with a crash, and the flames ran as if they were alive up +boughs. Other trees fell too, cut through by cannon balls, and some +were actually mown down by sheets of bullets, as if they had been grass. + +His way now led through human wreckage, made all the more appalling by +an approaching twilight, heavy with fumes and smoke, and reddened with +the cannon and rifle blaze. His frightened horse pulled wildly at the +bit, and tried to run away, but Harry held him to the path, although he +stepped more than once in hot ashes and sprang wildly. The dead were +thick too and Harry was in horror lest the hoof of his horse be planted +upon some unheeding face. + +He knew that the day was waning fast and that the dark was due in some +degree to the setting sun, and not wholly to the smoke and ashes. Yet +the fury of the battle was sustained. The southern left maintained the +ground that it had gained, and in the center and right it could not be +driven back. It became obvious to Grant that Lee was not to be beaten +in the Wilderness. His advance suffered from all kinds of +disadvantages. In the swamps and thickets he could mass neither his +guns nor his cannon. Communications were broken, the telegraph wires +could be used but little and as the twilight darkened to night he let +the attack die. + +Harry was back with the commander-in-chief, when the great battle of +the Wilderness, one of the fiercest ever fought, sank under cover of +the night. It was not open and spectacular like Gettysburg, but it had +a gloomy and savage grandeur all its own. Grant had learned, like the +others before him, that he could not drive headlong over Lee, but +sitting in silence by his campfire, chewing his cigar, he had no +thought, unlike the others, of turning back. Nearly twenty thousand of +his men had fallen, but huge resources and a President who supported +him absolutely were behind him and he was merely planning a new method +of attack. + +In the Southern camp there was exultation, but it was qualified and +rather grim. These men, veterans of many battles and able to judge for +themselves, believed that they had won the victory, but they knew that +it was by no means decisive. The numerous foe with his powerful +artillery was still before them. They could see his campfires shining +through the thickets, and their spies told them that, despite his great +losses, there was no sign of retreat in Grant's camp. + +An appalling night settled down on the Wilderness. The North American +Continent never saw one more savage and terrible. Twenty thousand +wounded were scattered through the thickets and dense shades, and +spreading fires soon brought death to many whom the bullets had not +killed at once. The smoke, the mists and vapors gathered into one +dense cloud, that hung low and made everything clammy to the touch. + +Lee stood under the boughs of an oak, and ate food that had been +prepared for him hastily. But, as Harry saw, the act was purely +mechanical. He was watching as well as he could what was going on in +front, and he was giving orders in turns to his aides. Harry's time +had not yet come, and he kept his eyes on his chief. + +There was no exultation in the face of Lee. He had drawn Grant into +the Wilderness and then he had held him fast in a battle of uncommon +size and fierceness. But nothing was decided. He had studied the +career of Grant, and he knew that he had a foe of great qualities with +whom to deal. He would have to fight him again, and fight very soon. +He heard too with a sorrow, hard to conceal, the reports of his own +losses. They were heavy enough and the gaps now made could never be +refilled. The Army of Northern Virginia, which had been such a +powerful instrument in his hands, must fight with ever diminishing +numbers. + +Harry was sent to inquire into the condition of Longstreet, whom he +found weak physically and suffering much pain. But the veteran was +upborne by the success of the day and his belief in ultimate victory. +He bade Harry tell the commander-in-chief that his men were fit to +fight again and better than ever, at the first shoot of dawn. + +Harry rode back in the night, the burning trees serving him for +torches. Nearly all the soldiers were busy. Some were gathering up the +wounded and others were building breastworks. His eyes were reddened +by the powder-smoke, and often the heavy black masses of vapor were +impenetrable, save where the forest burned. Now he came to a region +where the dead and wounded were so thick that he dismounted and led his +horse, lest a hoof be planted upon any one of them. But he noticed +that here as in other battles the wounded made but little complaint. +They suffered in silence, waiting for their comrades to take them away. + +Then he passed around a section of forest that was burning fiercely. +Here Southern and Union soldiers had met on terms of peace and were +making desperate efforts to save their helpless comrades. Harry would +have been glad to give aid himself, but he was too well trained now to +turn aside when he rode for Lee. + +He saw many dark figures passing before the flaming background, and as +he walked more slowly than he thought, he saw one that looked +remarkably familiar to him. It was impossible to see the face, but he +knew the walk and the lift of the shoulders. Discipline gave way to +impulse now, and he ran forward crying: + +"Dick! Dick!" + +Dick Mason, who had just dragged a wounded man beyond the range of the +flames, turned at the sound of the voice. Even had Harry seen his face +at first he would not have known him nor would Dick have known Harry. +Both were black with ashes, smoke and burned gunpowder. But Dick knew +the voice in an instant. Once more were the two cousins to meet in +peace on an unfinished battlefield. + +Each driven by the same impulse stepped forward, and their hands met in +the strong grasp of blood kindred and friendship, which war itself +could not sever. + +"You're alive, Harry!" said Dick. "It seems almost impossible after +what has happened to-day." + +"And you too are all right. Not harmed, I see, though your face is an +African black." + +"I should call your own color dark and smoky." + +"I wasn't sure that you were in the East. When did you come?" + +"With General Grant, and I knew that you were on General Lee's staff. +I've a message to give him by you. Oh! you needn't laugh. It's a good +straight talk." + +"Go ahead then and say it to me." + +"You say to General Lee that it's all over. Tell him to quit and send +his soldiers home. If he doesn't he'll be crushed." + +Harry laughed again and waved his finger at the somber battlefield, +upon which he stood. + +"Does this look like it?" he asked. "We're farther forward to-night +than we were this morning. Wouldn't General Grant be glad if he could +say as much?" + +"It makes no difference. I know you don't believe me, but it's so. The +North is prepared as it never was before. And Grant will hammer and +hammer forever. We know what a man Lee is. The whole North admits it, +but I tell you the sun of the South is setting." + +"You're growing poetical and poetry is no argument." + +"But unlimited men, unlimited cannon and rifles, unlimited ammunition +and supplies and a general who is willing to use them, are. Of course +I know that you can't carry any such message to General Lee, but I feel +it to be the truth." + +"We've a great general and a great army that say, no." + +Nobody paid any attention to the two. It was merely another one of +those occasions when men of the opposing sides stood together amid the +dead and wounded, and talked in friendly fashion. But Harry knew that +he could not delay long. + +"I've got to go, Dick," he said. "And I've a message too, one that I +want you to deliver to General Grant." + +"What is it?" + +"Tell him that we've more than held our own to-day, and that we'll +thrash him like thunder to-morrow, and whenever and wherever he may +choose, no matter what the odds are against us." + +Dick laughed. + +"I see that you won't believe even a little bit of what I tell you," he +said "and maybe if I were in your place I wouldn't either. But it's +true all the same. Good-by, Harry." + +The two hands, covered with battle grime, met again in the strong grasp +of blood kindred and friendship. + +"Take care of yourself, old man!" + +The words, exactly alike, were uttered by the two simultaneously. + +Both were stirred deeply. Harry sprang on his horse, looked back once, +waving his hand, and rode rapidly to General Lee. Later in the night, +he received permission to hunt up the Invincibles, his heart full of +fear that they had perished utterly in the gloomy pit called the +Wilderness, lit now only by the fire of death. + +He left his horse with an orderly and walked toward the point where he +had last seen them. He passed thousands of soldiers, many wounded, but +silent as usual, while the unhurt were sleeping where they had dropped. +The Invincibles were not at the point where he had seen them last, and +the colonels of several scattered regiments could not tell him what had +become of them. But he continued to seek them although the fear was +growing in his heart that the last man of the Invincibles had died +under the Northern cannon. + +His search led toward the enemy's lines. Almost unconsciously he went +in that direction, however, his knowledge of the two colonels telling +him that they would take the same course. He turned into a little +cove, partly sheltered by the dwarfed trees and he heard a thin voice +saying: + +"Nonsense, Leonidas. I scarcely felt it, but yours, old friend, is +pretty bad. You must let me attend to it. Keep still! I'll adjust +the bandage." + +"Hector, why do you make a fuss over me, when I'm only slightly hurt, +and sacrifice yourself, a severely injured man!" + +"With all due respect you'd better let me attend to you both," said a +voice that Harry recognized as St. Clair's. + +"And maybe I could help a little," said another that he knew to be +Happy Tom's. But their voices, like those of the colonels, were weak. +Still he had positive proof that they were alive, and, as his heart +gave a joyful throb or two, he stepped into the glade. There was +enough light for him to see Colonel Leonidas Talbot, and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, sitting side by side on the +grass with their backs against the earthly wall, very pale from loss of +blood, but with heads erect and eyes shining with a certain pride. St. +Clair and Langdon lay on the grass, one with an old handkerchief, +blood-soaked, bound about his head and the other with a bandage tightly +fastened over his left shoulder. Beyond them lay a group of soldiers. + +"Good evening, heroes!" said Harry lightly as he stepped forward. + +He was welcomed with an exclamation of joy from them all. + +"We meet again, Harry," said Colonel Talbot, "and it is the second time +since morning. I fancy that second meetings to-day have not been +common. We have the taste of success in our mouths, but you'll excuse +us for not rising to greet you. We are all more or less affected by +the missiles of the enemy and for some hours at least neither walking +nor standing will be good for us." + +"Mohammed must come to all the mountains," said St. Clair, weakly +holding out a hand. + +Harry greeted them all in turn, and sat down with them. He was +overflowing with sympathy, but it was not needed. + +"A glorious day," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot. + +"Truly," said Harry. + +"A most glorious day," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire. + +"Most truly," said Harry. + +"An especially glorious day for the Invincibles," said Colonel Talbot. + +"The most glorious of all possible days for the Invincibles," said +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire. + +There was an especial emphasis to their words that aroused Harry's +attention. + +"The Invincibles have had many glorious days," he said. "Why should +this be the most glorious of them all?" + +"We went into battle one hundred and forty-seven strong," replied +Colonel Talbot quietly, "and we came out with one hundred and +forty-seven casualties, thirty-nine killed and one hundred and eight +wounded. We lay no claim to valor, exceeding that of many other +regiments in General Lee's glorious army, but we do think we've made a +fairly excellent record. Do you see those men?" + +He pointed to a silent group stretched upon the turf, and Harry nodded. + +"Not one of them has escaped unhurt, but most of us will muster up +strength enough to meet the enemy again to-morrow, when our great +general calls." + +Harry's throat contracted for a moment. + +"I know it, Colonel Talbot," he said. "The Invincibles have proved +themselves truly worthy of their name. General Lee shall hear of this." + +"But in no boastful vein, Harry," said Colonel Talbot. "We would not +have you to speak thus of your friends." + +"I do not have to boast for you. The simple truth is enough. I shall +see that a surgeon comes here at once to attend to your wounded. Good +night, gentlemen." + +"Good night," said the four together. Harry walked back toward General +Lee's headquarters, full of pride in his old comrades. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +SPOTTSYLVANIA + + +Harry secured a little sleep toward morning, and, although his nervous +tension had been very great, when he lay down, he felt greatly +strengthened in body and mind. He awakened Dalton in turn, and the +two, securing a hasty breakfast, sat near the older members of the +staff, awaiting orders. The commander-in-chief was at the edge of the +little glade, talking earnestly with Hill, and several other important +generals. + +Harry often saw through the medium of his own feelings, and the rim of +the sun, beginning to show over the eastern edge of the Wilderness, was +blood red. The same crimson and sinister tinge showed through the west +which was yet in the dusk. But in east and west there were certain +areas of light, where the forest fires yet smoldered. + +Both sides had thrown up hasty breastworks of earth or timber, but the +two armies were unusually silent. A space of perhaps a mile and a half +lay between them, but as the light increased neither moved. There was +no crackle of rifle fire along their fronts. The skirmishers, usually +so active, seemed to be exhausted, and the big guns were at rest. The +fierce and tremendous fighting of the two days before seemed to have +taken all the life out of both North and South. + +Harry, inured to war, understood the reasons for silence and lack of +movement. Grant had been drawn into a region that he did not like, +where he could not use his superior numbers to advantage, and he must +be shuddering at the huge losses he had suffered already. He would +seek better ground. Lee too, was in no condition to take advantage of +his successful defense. The old days when he could send Jackson on a +great turning movement, to fall with all the crushing impact of a +surprise upon the Northern flank, were gone forever. Stuart, the +brilliant cavalryman, was there, but his men were not numerous enough, +and, however brilliant, he was not Jackson. + +The sun rose higher. Midmorning came, and the two armies still lay +close. Harry grew stronger in his opinion that they would not fight +again that day, although he watched, like the others, for any sign of +movement in the Northern camp. + +Noon came, and the same dead silence. The fires had burned themselves +out now and the dusk that had reigned over the Wilderness, before the +battle, recovered its ground, thickened still further by the vast +quantities of smoke still hanging low under a cloudy sky. But the +aspect of the Wilderness itself was more mournful than ever. Coals +smoldered in the burned areas, and now and then puffs of wind picked up +the hot ashes and sent them in the faces of the soldiers. Thickets and +bushes had been cut down by bullets and cannon balls, and lay heaped +together in tangled confusion. Back of the lines, the surgeons, with +aching backs, toiled over the wounded, as they had toiled through the +night. + +Harry saw nearly the whole Southern front. The members of Lee's staff +were busy that day, carrying orders to all his generals to rectify +their lines, and to be prepared, to the last detail, for another +tremendous assault. It was not until the afternoon that he was able to +look up the Invincibles again. The two colonels and the two +lieutenants were doing well, and the colonels were happy. + +"We've already been notified," said Colonel Talbot, "that we're to +retain our organization as a regiment. We're to have about a hundred +new men now, the fragments of destroyed regiments. Of course, they +won't be like the veterans of the Invincibles, but a half-dozen battles +like that of yesterday should lick them into shape." + +"I should think so," said Harry. + +"Do you believe that Grant is retreating?" asked Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire. + +"Our scouts don't say so." + +"Then he is merely putting off the evil day. The sooner he withdraws +the more men he will save. No Yankee general can ever get by General +Lee. Keep that in your mind, Harry Kenton." + +Harry was silent, but rejoicing to find that his friends would soon +recover from their wounds, he went back to his place, and saw all the +afternoon pass, without any movement indicating battle. + +Night came again and the scouts reported to Lee that the Union army was +breaking camp, evidently with the intention of getting out of the +Wilderness and marching to Fredericksburg. Harry was with the general +when he received the news, and he saw him think over it long. Other +scouts brought in the same evidence. + +Harry did not know what the general thought, but as for himself, +although he was too young to say anything, it was incredible that Grant +should retreat. It was not at all in accordance with his character, +now tested on many fields, and his resources also were too great for +withdrawal. + +But the night was very dark and no definite knowledge yet came out of +it. Lee stayed by his little campfire and received reports. Far after +dusk Harry saw the look of doubt disappear from his eyes, and then he +began to send out messengers. It was evident that he had formed his +opinion, and intended to act upon it at once. + +He beckoned to Harry and Dalton, and bade them go together with written +instructions to General Anderson, who had taken the place of General +Longstreet. + +"You will stay with General Anderson subject to his orders," he said, +as Harry and Dalton, saluting, rode toward Anderson's command. + +Their way led through torn, tangled and burned thickets. Sometimes a +horse sprang violently to one side and neighed in pain. His hoof had +come down on earth, yet so hot that it scorched like fire. Now and +then sparks fell upon them, but they pursued their way, disregarding +all obstacles, and delivered their sealed orders to General Anderson, +who at once gathered up his full force, and marched away from the heart +of the Wilderness toward Spottsylvania Court House. + +Harry surmised that Grant was attempting some great turning movement, +and Lee, divining it, was sending Anderson to meet his advance. He +never knew whether it was positive knowledge or a happy guess. + +But he was quite sure that the night's ride was one of the most +singular and sinister ever made by an army. If any troops ever marched +through the infernal regions it was they. In this part of the +Wilderness the fires had been of the worst. Trees still smoldered. In +the hollows, where the bushes had grown thickest, were great beds of +coals. The smoke which the low heavy skies kept close to the earth was +thick and hot. Gusts of wind sent showers of sparks flying, and, +despite the greatest care to protect the ammunition, they marched in +constant danger of explosion. + +Harry thought at one time that General Anderson intended to camp in the +Wilderness for the night, but he soon saw that it was impossible. One +could not camp on hot ground in a smoldering forest. + +"I believe it's a march till day," he said to Dalton. "It's bound to +be. If a man were to lie down here, he'd find himself a mass of cinders +in the morning, and it will take us till daylight and maybe past to get +out of the Wilderness." + +"If he didn't burn to death he'd choke to death. I never breathed such +smoke before." + +"That's because it's mixed with ashes and the fumes of burned +gunpowder. A villainous compound like this can't be called air. How +long is it until dawn?" + +"About three hours, I think." + +"You remember those old Greek stories about somebody or other going +down to Hades, and then having a hard climb out again. We're the +modern imitators. If this isn't Hades then I don't know what it is." + +"It surely is. Phew, but that hurt!" + +"What happened?" + +"I brushed my hand against a burning bush. The result was not happy. +Don't imitate me." + +Dalton's horse leaped to one side, and he had difficulty in keeping the +saddle. His hoof had been planted squarely in the midst of a mass of +hot twigs. + +"The sooner I get out of this Inferno or Hades of a place the happier +I'll be!" said Dalton. + +"I've never seen the like," said Harry, "but there's one thing about it +that makes me glad." + +"And what's the saving grace?" + +"That it's in Virginia and not in Kentucky, though for the matter of +that it couldn't be in Kentucky." + +"And why couldn't it be in Kentucky?" + +"Because there's no such God-forsaken region in all that state of mine." + +"It certainly gets upon one's soul," said Dalton, looking at the gloomy +region, so terribly torn by battle. + +"But if we keep going we're bound to come out of it some time or other." + +"And we're not stopping. A man can't make his bed on a mass of coals, +and there'll be no rest for us until we're clear out of the Wilderness." + +They marched on a long time, and, as day dawned, hundreds of voices +united in a shout of gladness. Behind them were the shades of the +Wilderness, that dismal region reeking with slaughter and ruin, and +before them lay firm soil, and green fields, in all the flush of a +brilliant May morning. + +"Well, we did come out of Hades, Harry," said Dalton. + +"And it does look like Heaven, but the trouble with our Hades, George, +is that the inmates will follow us. Put your glasses to your eyes and +look off there." + +"Horsemen as sure as we're sitting in our own saddles." + +"And Northern horsemen, too. Their uniforms are new enough for me to +tell their color. I take it that Grant's vanguard has moved by our +right flank and has come out of the Wilderness." + +"And our surmises that we were to meet it are right. Spottsylvania +Court House is not far away, and maybe we are bound for it." + +"And maybe the Yankees are too." + +Harry's words were caused by the sound of a distant and scattering +fire. In obedience to an order from Anderson, he and Dalton galloped +forward, and, from a ridge, saw through their glasses a formidable +Union column advancing toward Spottsylvania. As they looked they saw +many men fall and they also saw flashes of flame from bushes and fences +not far from its flank. + +"Our sharpshooters are there," said Harry. And he was right. While +the Union force was advancing in the night Stuart had dismounted many +of his men and using them as skirmishers had incessantly harassed the +march of Grant's vanguard led by Warren. + +"Each army has been trying to catch the other napping," said Dalton. + +"And neither has succeeded," said Harry. + +"Now we make a race for the Spottsylvania ridge," said Dalton. "You +see if we don't! I know this country. It's a strong position there, +and both generals want it." + +Dalton was right. A small Union force had already occupied +Spottsylvania, but the heavy Southern division crossing the narrow, but +deep, river Po, drove it out and seized the defensive position. + +Here they rested, while the masses of the two armies swung toward them, +as if preparing for a new battlefield, one that Harry surveyed with +great interest. They were in a land of numerous and deep rivers. Here +were four spreading out, like the fingers of a human hand, without the +thumb, and uniting at the wrist. The fingers were the Mat, the Ta, the +Po, and the Nye, and the unit when they united was called the Mattopony. + +Lee's army was gathering behind the Po. A large Union force crossed it +on his flank, but, recognizing the danger of such a position, withdrew. +Lee himself came in time. Hill, overcome by illness and old wounds, +was compelled to give up the command of his division, and Early took +his place. Longstreet also was still suffering severely from his +injuries. Lee had but few of the able and daring generals who had +served him in so many fields. But Stuart, the gay and brilliant, the +medieval knight who had such a strong place in the commander-in-chief's +affections, was there. Nor was his plumage one bit less splendid. The +yellow feather stood in his hat. There was no speck or stain on the +broad yellow sash and his undimmed courage was contagious. + +But Harry with his sensitive and imaginative mind, that leaped ahead, +knew their situation to be desperate. His opinion of Grant had proved +to be correct. Although he had found in Lee an opponent far superior +to any other that he had ever faced, the Union general, undaunted by +his repulse and tremendous losses in the Wilderness, was preparing for +a new battle, before the fire from the other had grown cold. + +He knew too that another strong Union army was operating far to the +south of them, in order to cut them off from Richmond, and scouts had +brought word that a powerful force of cavalry was about to circle upon +their flank. The Confederacy was propped up alone by the Army of +Northern Virginia, which having just fought one great battle was about +to begin another, and by its dauntless commander. + +The Southern admiration for Lee, both as the general and as the man, +can never be shaken. How much greater then was the effect that he +created in the mind of impressionable youth, looking upon him with +youth's own eyes in his moments of supreme danger! He was in very +truth to Harry another Hannibal as great, and better. The long list of +his triumphs, as youth counted them, was indeed superior to those of +the great Carthaginian, and he believed that Lee would repel this new +danger. + +Nearly all that day the two armies constructed breastworks which stood +for many years afterward, but neither made any attempt at serious work, +although there was incessant firing by the skirmishers and an +occasional cannon shot. Harry, whether carrying an order or not, had +ample chance to see, and he noted with increasing alarm the growing +masses of the Union army, as they gathered along the Spottsylvania +front. + +"Can we beat them?" "Can we beat them?" was the question that he +continually asked himself. He wondered too where the Winchester +regiment and Dick Mason lay, and where the spy, Shepard, was. But +Shepard was not likely to remain long in one place. Skill and courage +such as his would be used to the utmost in a time like this. Doubtless +he was somewhere in the Confederate lines, discovering for Grant the +relatively small size of the army that opposed him. + +Near dusk and having the time he followed his custom and sought the +Invincibles. Both colonels had recovered considerable strength, and, +although one of them could not walk, he would be helped upon his horse +whenever the battle began, and would ride into the thick of it. But +the faces of St. Clair and Happy Tom glowed and their wounds apparently +were forgotten. + +"Lieutenant Arthur St. Clair and Lieutenant Thomas Langdon are gone +forever," said Colonel Talbot. "In their places we have Major Arthur +St. Clair and Captain Thomas Langdon. All our majors and captains have +been killed, and with our reduced numbers these two will fill their +places, as best they can; and that they can do so most worthily we all +know. They received their promotions this afternoon." + +Harry congratulated them both with the greatest warmth. They were very +young for such rank, but in this war the toll of officers was so great +that men sometimes became generals when they were but little older. + +"Is it to be to-morrow?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +"I think it likely that we'll fight again then," said Harry. + +"And Grant has not yet had enough. He wants a little more of the same, +does he!" + +"It would appear so, sir." + +"Then I take it without consulting General Lee that he is ready to deal +with the Yankees as he dealt with them in the Wilderness." + +"I hope so. Good night." + +"Good night!" they called to him, and Harry returned to the staff. +Taylor, the adjutant general, told him and Dalton to lie down and seek +a little sleep. Harry was not at all averse, as he was completely +exhausted again after the tremendous excitement of the battle, and the +long hours of strain and danger. But his nerves were so much on edge +that he could not yet sleep. His eyes were red and smarting from the +smoke and burned powder, and he felt as if accumulated smoke and dust +encased him like a suit of armor. + +"I'd give a hundred dollars for a good long drink, just as long as I +liked to make it," he groaned, "and I mean a drink of pure cold water, +too." + +"Confederate paper or money?" said Dalton. + +"I mean real money, but at the same time you oughtn't to make invidious +comparisons." + +"Then the money's mine, but you can pay me whenever you feel like it, +which I suppose will be never. There's a spring in the thick woods +just back of your quarters. It flows out from under rocks, at the +distance of several yards makes a deep pool, and then the overflow of +the pool goes on through the forest to the Po. Come on, Harry! We'll +luxuriate and then tell the others." + +Harry found that it was a most glorious spring, indeed; clear and cold. +He and Dalton drank slowly at first, and then deeply. + +"I didn't know I could hold so much," said Dalton. + +"Nor I," said Harry. + +"Let's take another." + +"I'm with you." + +"Let's make it two more." + +"I still follow you." + +"Horace wrote about his old Falernian, and the other wines which he +enjoyed, as he and the leading Roman sports sat around the fountain, +flirting with the girls," said Dalton, "but I don't believe any wine +ever brewed in Latium was the equal of this water." + +"I've always had an idea that Horace wasn't as gay as he pretended to +be, else he wouldn't have written so much about Chloe and her comrades. +I imagine that an old Roman boy would keep pretty quiet about his +dancing and singing, and not publish it to the public." + +"Well, let him be. He's dead and the Romans are dead, and the +Americans are doing their best to kill off one another, but let's +forget it for a few minutes. That pool there is about four feet deep, +the water is clear and the bottom is firm ground; now do you know what +I'm going to do?" + +"Yes, and I'm going to do the same. Bet you even that I beat you into +the water." + +"Taken." + +They threw off their clothes rapidly, but the splashes were +simultaneous as their bodies struck the water. Although the limits of +the pool were narrow they splashed and paddled there for a while, and +it was a long time since they had known such a luxury. Then they +walked out, dried themselves and spread the good news. All night long +the pool was filled with the bathers, following one another in turn. + +The water taken internally and externally soothed Harry's nerves. His +excitement was gone. A great army with which they were sure to fight +on the morrow was not far away, but for the time he was indifferent. +The morrow could take care of itself. It was night, and he had +permission to go to sleep. Hence he slumbered fifteen minutes later. + +He slept almost through the night, and, when he was awakened shortly +before dawn, he found that his strength and elasticity had returned. He +and Dalton went down to the spring again, drank many times, and then +ate breakfast with the older members of the staff, a breakfast that +differed very little from that of the common soldiers. + +Then a day or two of waiting, and watching, and of confused but +terrible fighting ensued. The forests were again set on fire by the +bursting shells and they were not able to rescue many of the wounded +from the flames. Vast clouds again floated over the whole region, +drawing a veil of dusk between the soldiers and the sun. But neither +army was willing to attack the other in full force. + +Grant commanding all the armies of the East was moving meanwhile. A +powerful cavalry division, he heard, had got behind Beauregard, who was +to protect Richmond, and was tearing up an important railway line used +by the Confederacy. The daring Sheridan with another great division of +cavalry had gone around Lee's left and was wrecking another railway, +and with it the rations and medical supplies so necessary to the +Confederates. Grant, recognizing his antagonist's skill and courage +and knowing that to succeed he must destroy the main Southern army, +resolved to attack again with his whole force. + +The day had been comparatively quiet and the Army of Northern Virginia +had devoted nearly the whole time to fortifying with earthworks and +breastworks of logs. The young aides, as they rode on their missions, +could easily see the Northern lines through their glasses. Harry's +heart sank as he observed their extent. The Southern army was sadly +reduced in numbers, and Grant could get reinforcement continually. + +But such is the saving grace of human nature that even in these moments +of suspense, with one terrible battle just over and another about to +begin, soldiers of the Blue and Gray would speak to one another in +friendly fashion in the bushes or across the Po. It was on the banks +of this narrow river that Harry at last saw Shepard once more. He +happened to be on foot that time, the slope being too densely wooded +for his horse, and Shepard hailed him from the other side. + +"Good day, Mr. Kenton. Don't fire! I want to talk," he said, holding +up both hands as a sign of peace. + +"A curious place for talking," Harry could not keep from saying. + +"So it is, but we're not observed here. It was almost inevitable while +the armies remained face to face that we should meet in time. I want +to tell you that I've met your cousin, Richard Mason, here, and his +commanding officer, Colonel Winchester. Oh, I know much more about you +and your relationships than you think." + +"How is Dick?" + +"He has not been hurt, nor has Colonel Winchester. Mr. Mason has +received a letter from his home and your home in Pendleton in Kentucky. +The outlaws to the eastward are troublesome, but the town is occupied +by an efficient Union garrison and is in no danger. His mother and all +of his and your old friends, who did not go to the war, are in good +health. He thought that in my various capacities as ranger, scout and +spy I might meet you, and he asked me, if it so happened, to tell these +things to you." + +"I thank you," said Harry very earnestly, "and I'm truly sorry, Mr. +Shepard, that you and I are on different sides." + +"I suppose it's too late for you to come over to the Union and the true +cause." + +Harry laughed. + +"You know, Mr. Shepard, there are no traitors in this war." + +"I know it. I was merely jesting." + +He slipped into the underbrush and disappeared. Harry confessed to +himself once more that he liked Shepard, but he felt more strongly than +ever that it had become a personal duel between them, and they would +meet yet again in violence. + +That night he had little to do. It was a typical May night in +Virginia, clear and beautiful with an air that would have been a tonic +to the nerves, had it not been for the bitter smoke and odors that yet +lingered from the battle of the Wilderness. + +Before dawn the scouts brought in a rumor that there was a heavy +movement of Federal troops, although they did not know its meaning. It +might portend another flank march by Grant, but a mist that had begun +to rise after midnight hid much from them. The mist deepened into a +fog, which made it harder for the Southern leaders to learn the meaning +of the Northern movement. + +Just as the dawn was beginning to show a little through the fog, +Hancock and Burnside, with many more generals, led a tremendous attack +upon the Southern right center. They had come so silently through the +thickets that for once the Southern leaders were surprised. The Union +veterans, rushing forward in dense columns, stormed and took the +breastworks with the bayonet. + +Many of the Southern troops, sound asleep, awoke to find themselves in +the enemy's hands. Others, having no time to fire them, fought with +clubbed rifles. + +Harry, dozing, was awakened by the terrific uproar. Even before the +dawn had fairly come the battle was raging on a long front. The center +of Lee's army was broken, and the Union troops were pouring into the +gap. Grant had already taken many guns and thousands of prisoners, and +the bulldog of Shiloh and Vicksburg and Chattanooga was hurrying fresh +divisions into the combat to extend and insure his victory. Through +the forests swelled the deep Northern cry of triumph. + +Harry had never before seen the Southern army in such danger, and he +looked at General Lee, who had now mounted Traveller. The turmoil and +confusion in front of them was frightful and indescribable. The Union +troops had occupied an entire Confederate salient, and their generals, +feeling that the moment was theirs, led them on, reckless of life, and +swept everything before them. + +Harry never took his eyes from Lee. The rising sun shot golden beams +through the smoke and disclosed him clearly. His face was calm and his +voice did not shake as he issued his orders with rapidity and +precision. The lion at bay was never more the lion. + +A new line of battle was formed, and the fugitives formed up with it. +Then the Southern troops, uttering once more the fierce rebel yell, +charged directly upon their enemy and under the eye of the great chief +whom they almost worshiped. + +Now Harry for the first time saw his general show excitement. Lee +galloped to the head of one of the Virginia regiments, and ranging his +horse beside the colors snatched off his hat and pointed it at the +enemy. It was a picture which with all the hero worship of youth he +never forgot. It did not even grow dim in his memory--the great leader +on horseback, his hat in his hand, his eyes fiery, his face flushed, +his hand pointing the way to victory or death. + +It was an occasion, too, when the personal presence of a leader meant +everything. Every man knew Lee and tremendous rolling cheers greeted +his arrival, cheers that could be heard above the thunder of cannon and +rifles. It infused new courage into them and they gathered themselves +for the rush upon their victorious foe. + +Gordon of Georgia, spurring through the smoke, seized Lee's horse by +the bridle. He did not mean to have their commander-in-chief +sacrificed in a charge. + +"This is no place for you, General Lee!" he cried. "Go to the rear!" + +Lee did not yet turn, and Gordon shouted: + +"These men are Virginians and Georgians who have never failed. Go +back, I entreat you!" + +Then Gordon turned to the troops and cried, as he rose on his toes in +his stirrups: + +"Men, you will not fail now!" + +Back came the answering shout: + +"No! No!" and the whole mass of troops burst into one thunderous, +echoing cry: + +"Lee to the rear! Lee to the rear! Lee to the rear!" + +Nor would they move until Lee turned and rode back. Then, led by +Gordon, they charged straight upon their foe, who met them with an +equal valor. All day long the battle of Spottsylvania, equal in +fierceness and desperation to that of the Wilderness, swayed to and +fro. To Harry as he remembered them they were much alike. Charge and +defense, defense and charge. Here they gained a little, and there they +lost a little. Now they were stumbling through sanguinary thickets, and +then they rushed across little streams that ran red. + +The firing was rapid and furious to an extraordinary degree. The air +rained shell and bullets. Areas of forest between the two armies were +mowed down. More than one large tree was cut through entirely by rifle +bullets. Other trees here, as in the Wilderness, caught fire and +flamed high. + +Midnight put an end to the battle, with neither gaining the victory and +both claiming it. Harry had lost another horse, killed under him, and +now he walked almost dazed over the terrible field of Spottsylvania, +where nearly thirty thousand men had fallen, and nothing had yet been +decided. + +Yet in Harry's heart the fear of the grim and silent Grant was growing. +The Northern general had fought within a few days two battles, each the +equal of Waterloo, and Harry felt sure that he was preparing for a +third. The combat of the giants was not over, and with an anxious soul +he waited the next dawn. They remained some days longer in the +Wilderness, or the country adjacent to it, and there was much +skirmishing and firing of heavy artillery, but the third great pitched +battle did not come quite as soon as Harry expected. Even Grant, +appalled by the slaughter, hesitated and began to maneuver again by the +flank to get past Lee. Then the fighting between the skirmishers and +heavy detached parties became continuous. + +During the days that immediately followed Harry was much with +Sherburne. The brave colonel was one of Stuart's most trusted officers. +Despite the forests and thickets there was much work for the cavalry to +do, while the two armies circled and circled, each seeking to get the +advantage of the other. + +Sheridan, they heard, was trying to curve about with his horsemen and +reach Richmond, and Stuart, with his cavalry, including Sherburne's, +was sent to intercept him, Harry riding by Sherburne's side. It was +near the close of May, but the air was cool and pleasant, a delight to +breathe after the awful Wilderness. + +Stuart, despite his small numbers, was in his gayest spirits, and when +he overtook the enemy at a little place called Yellow Tavern he +attacked with all his customary fire and vigor. In the height of the +charge, Harry saw him sink suddenly from his horse, shot through the +body. He died not long afterward and the greatest and most brilliant +horseman of the South passed away to join Jackson and so many who had +gone before. Harry was one of the little group who carried the news to +Lee, and he saw how deeply the great leader was affected. So many of +his brave generals had fallen that he was like the head of a family, +bereft. + +Nevertheless the lion still at bay was great and terrible to strike. It +was barely two weeks after Spottsylvania when Lee took up a strong +position at Cold Harbor, and Grant, confident in his numbers and +powerful artillery, attacked straightaway at dawn. + +Harry was in front during that half-hour, the most terrible ever seen +on the American continent, when Northern brigade after brigade charged +to certain death. Lee's men, behind their earthworks, swept the field +with a fire in which nothing could live. The charging columns fairly +melted away before them and when the half-hour was over more than +twelve thousand men in blue lay upon the red field. + +Grant himself was appalled, and the North, which had begun to +anticipate a quick and victorious end of the war, concealed its +disappointment as best it could, and prepared for another campaign. + +Grant and Lee, facing each other, went into trenches along the lines of +Cold Harbor, and the hopes of the young Southern soldiers after the +victory there rose anew. But Harry was not too sanguine, although he +kept his thoughts to himself. + +The officers of the Invincibles had recovered from their wounds, and +Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, +sitting in a trench, resumed their game of chess. + +Colonel Talbot took a pawn, the first man captured by either since +early spring. + +"That was quite a victory," he said. + +"Not important! Not important, Leonidas!" + +"And why not, Hector?" + +"Because you've left the way to your king easier. I shall promptly +move along that road." + +"As Grant moved through the Wilderness." + +"Don't depreciate Grant, Leonidas. He never stops pounding. We've +fought two great battles with him in the Wilderness and a third at Cold +Harbor, but he's still out there facing us. Can't you see the Yankees +with your glasses, Harry?" + +"Yes, sir, quite clearly. They're about to fire a shot from a big gun +in a wood. There it goes!" + +The deep note of the cannon came to them, passed on, and then rolled +back in echoes like a threat. + + + + +Appendix: Transcription notes: + +The following modifications were applied while transcribing the printed +book to etext: + + Chapter 1 + Page 6, para 1, change "criticise" to "criticize", for consistency + Page 20, para 6, fix typo, "calvaryman" + Page 21, para 8, change "things" to "thing" + + Chapter 2 + Page 35, para 2, add missing hyphen in "commander-in-chief" + + Chapter 3 + Page 48, para 1, change "where-ever" to "wherever" + Page 49, para 2, fix typo, period should be comma + Page 49, para 2, change "gaints" to "giants", which is my best guess + as to what it should be + + Chapter 4 + Page 74, para 7, add missing period + + Chapter 7 + Page 124, para 6, fix typo "qouth" + Page 132, para 14, "Pleasonton" should be "Pleasanton" + + Chapter 10 + Page 182, para 5, add missing close-quotes + + Chapter 11 + Page 208, para 6, add missing close-quotes + + Chapter 12 + Page 229, para 3, fix typo, "dulplicate" + + Chapter 13 + Page 245, para 3, change "with" to "was" + + Chapter 14 + Page 260, para 2, removed a badly-misplaced comma + + Chapter 16 + Page 301, para 4, moved a badly-misplaced comma + +Chapter 2, page 34, para 3 contains the phrase "rest and realization". +Probably should be "relaxation", but maybe not, so I left it as is. + +The following words were printed with accented vowels or with the "ae" +ligature, but these few occurrences hardly warrant an 8-bit version of +the text: + cooperation fete reentered Plataea Thermopylae + +As with all the books in this series, there are many instances where +commas seem to be missing or misplaced, but, except as noted above, I +refrained from "fixing" these. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Shades of the Wilderness, by +Joseph A. Altsheler + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12532 *** diff --git a/12532-h/12532-h.htm b/12532-h/12532-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..469d551 --- /dev/null +++ b/12532-h/12532-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,14848 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en"> + +<head> + +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> + +<title> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Shades of the Wilderness, by Joseph A. Altsheler +</title> + +<style type="text/css"> +body { color: black; + background: white; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +p {text-indent: 4% } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.t1 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 200%; + text-align: center } + +p.t2 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 150%; + text-align: center } + +p.t3 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: center } + +p.t3b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t4 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + text-align: center } + +p.t4b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t5 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 60%; + text-align: center } + +h1 { text-align: center } +h2 { text-align: center } +h3 { text-align: center } +h4 { text-align: center } +h5 { text-align: center } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; } + +p.contents {text-indent: -3%; + margin-left: 5% } + +p.thought {text-indent: 0% ; + letter-spacing: 4em ; + text-align: center } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.footnote {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.transnote {text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.intro {font-size: 90% ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.quote {text-indent: 4% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12532 ***</div> + +<h1> +<br /><br /><br /> +THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS +</h1> + +<p class="t3b"> +A STORY OF LEE'S GREAT STAND +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +by JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3b"> +FOREWORD +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +"The Shades of the Wilderness" is the seventh volume of the Civil War +Series, of which the predecessors have been "The Guns of Bull Run," +"The Guns of Shiloh," "The Scouts of Stonewall," "The Sword of +Antietam", "The Star of Gettysburg" and "The Rock of Chickamauga." The +romance in this story reverts to the Southern side and deals with the +fortunes of Harry Kenton and his friends. It takes them on the retreat +from Gettysburg, gives the hero a short period of social life in +Richmond, describes the great battles of the Wilderness and +Spottsylvania, and ends with the deadlock in the trenches before +Petersburg. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +THE CIVIL WAR SERIES +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="noindent"> + VOLUMES IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + THE GUNS OF BULL RUN.<br /> + THE GUNS OF SHILOH.<br /> + THE SCOUTS OF STONEWALL.<br /> + THE SWORD OF ANTIETAM.<br /> + THE STAR OF GETTYSBURG.<br /> + THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA.<br /> + THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS.<br /> + THE TREE OF APPOMATTOX.<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="noindent"> + PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + HARRY KENTON, A Lad Who Fights on the Southern Side.<br /> + DICK MASON, Cousin of Harry Kenton, Who Fights on the Northern Side.<br /> + COLONEL GEORGE KENTON, Father of Harry Kenton.<br /> + MRS. MASON, Mother of Dick Mason.<br /> + JULIANA, Mrs. Mason's Devoted Colored Servant.<br /> + COLONEL ARTHUR WINCHESTER, Dick Mason's Regimental Commander.<br /> + COLONEL LEONIDAS TALBOT, Commander of the Invincibles,<br /> + a Southern Regiment.<br /> + LIEUTENANT COLONEL HECTOR ST. HILAIRE, Second in Command of the<br /> + Invincibles.<br /> + ALAN HERTFORD, A Northern Cavalry Leader.<br /> + PHILIP SHERBURNE, A Southern Cavalry Leader.<br /> + WILLIAM J. SHEPARD, A Northern Spy.<br /> + DANIEL WHITLEY, A Northern Sergeant and Veteran of the Plains.<br /> + GEORGE WARNER, A Vermont Youth Who Loves Mathematics.<br /> + FRANK PENNINGTON, A Nebraska Youth, Friend of Dick Mason.<br /> + ARTHUR ST. CLAIR, A Native of Charleston, Friend of Harry Kenton.<br /> + TOM LANGDON, Friend of Harry Kenton.<br /> + GEORGE DALTON, Friend of Harry Kenton.<br /> + BILL SKELLY, Mountaineer and Guerrilla.<br /> + TOM SLADE, A Guerrilla Chief.<br /> + SAM JARVIS, The Singing Mountaineer.<br /> + IKE SIMMONS, Jarvis' Nephew.<br /> + AUNT "SUSE," A Centenarian and Prophetess.<br /> + BILL PETTY, A Mountaineer and Guide.<br /> + JULIEN DE LANGEAIS, A Musician and Soldier from Louisiana.<br /> + JOHN CARRINGTON, Famous Northern Artillery Officer.<br /> + DR. RUSSELL, Principal of the Pendleton School.<br /> + ARTHUR TRAVERS, A Lawyer.<br /> + JAMES BERTRAND, A Messenger from the South.<br /> + JOHN NEWCOMB, A Pennsylvania Colonel.<br /> + JOHN MARKHAM, A Northern Officer.<br /> + JOHN WATSON, A Northern Contractor.<br /> + WILLIAM CURTIS, A Southern Merchant and Blockade Runner.<br /> + MRS. CURTIS, Wife of William Curtis.<br /> + HENRIETTA CARDEN, A Seamstress in Richmond.<br /> + DICK JONES, A North Carolina Mountaineer.<br /> + VICTOR WOODVILLE, A Young Mississippi Officer.<br /> + JOHN WOODVILLE, Father of Victor Woodville.<br /> + CHARLES WOODVILLE, Uncle of Victor Woodville.<br /> + COLONEL BEDFORD, A Northern Officer.<br /> + CHARLES GORDON, A Southern Staff Officer.<br /> + JOHN LANHAM, An Editor.<br /> + JUDGE KENDRICK, A Lawyer.<br /> + MR. CULVER, A State Senator.<br /> + MR. BRACKEN, A Tobacco Grower.<br /> + ARTHUR WHITRIDGE, A State Senator.<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="noindent"> + HISTORICAL CHARACTERS<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States.<br /> + JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of the Southern Confederacy.<br /> + JUDAH P. BENJAMIN, Member of the Confederate Cabinet.<br /> + U. S. GRANT, Northern Commander.<br /> + ROBERT E. LEE, Southern Commander.<br /> + STONEWALL JACKSON, Southern General.<br /> + PHILIP H. SHERIDAN, Northern General.<br /> + GEORGE H. THOMAS, "The Rock of Chickamauga."<br /> + ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON, Southern General.<br /> + A. P. HILL, Southern General.<br /> + W. S. HANCOCK, Northern General.<br /> + GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, Northern General.<br /> + AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE, Northern General.<br /> + TURNER ASHBY, Southern Cavalry Leader.<br /> + J. E. B. STUART, Southern Cavalry Leader.<br /> + JOSEPH HOOKER, Northern General.<br /> + RICHARD S. EWELL, Southern General.<br /> + JUBAL EARLY, Southern General.<br /> + WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS, Northern General.<br /> + SIMON BOLIVAR BUCKNER, Southern General.<br /> + LEONIDAS POLK, Southern General and Bishop.<br /> + BRAXTON BRAGG, Southern General.<br /> + NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST, Southern Cavalry Leader.<br /> + JOHN MORGAN, Southern Cavalry Leader.<br /> + GEORGE J. MEADE, Northern General.<br /> + DON CARLOS BUELL, Northern General.<br /> + W. T. SHERMAN, Northern General.<br /> + JAMES LONGSTREET, Southern General.<br /> + P. G. T. BEAUREGARD, Southern General.<br /> + WILLIAM L. YANCEY, Alabama Orator.<br /> + JAMES A. GARFIELD, Northern General, afterwards President of<br /> + the United States.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + And many others<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="noindent"> + IMPORTANT BATTLES DESCRIBED IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + BULL RUN<br /> + KERNSTOWN<br /> + CROSS KEYS<br /> + WINCHESTER<br /> + PORT REPUBLIC<br /> + THE SEVEN DAYS<br /> + MILL SPRING<br /> + FORT DONELSON<br /> + SHILOH<br /> + PERRYVILLE<br /> + STONE RIVER<br /> + THE SECOND MANASSAS<br /> + ANTIETAM<br /> + FREDERICKSBURG<br /> + CHANCELLORSVILLE<br /> + GETTYSBURG<br /> + CHAMPION HILL<br /> + VICKSBURG<br /> + CHICKAMAUGA<br /> + MISSIONARY RIDGE<br /> + THE WILDERNESS<br /> + SPOTTSYLVANIA<br /> + COLD HARBOR<br /> + FISHER'S HILL<br /> + CEDAR CREEK<br /> + APPOMATTOX<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3b"> +CONTENTS +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + I. <a href="#chap01">THE SOUTHERN RETREAT</a><br /> + II. <a href="#chap02">THE NORTHERN SPY</a><br /> + III. <a href="#chap03">THE FLOODED RIVER</a><br /> + IV. <a href="#chap04">A HERALD TO LEE</a><br /> + V. <a href="#chap05">THE DANGEROUS ROAD</a><br /> + VI. <a href="#chap06">TESTS OF COURAGE</a><br /> + VII. <a href="#chap07">IN THE WAGON</a><br /> + VIII. <a href="#chap08">THE CROSSING</a><br /> + IX. <a href="#chap09">IN SOCIETY</a><br /> + X. <a href="#chap10">THE MISSING PAPER</a><br /> + XI. <a href="#chap11">A VAIN PURSUIT</a><br /> + XII. <a href="#chap12">IN WINTER QUARTERS</a><br /> + XIII. <a href="#chap13">THE COMING OF GRANT</a><br /> + XIV. <a href="#chap14">THE GHOSTLY RIDE</a><br /> + XV. <a href="#chap15">THE WILDERNESS</a><br /> + XVI. <a href="#chap16">SPOTTSYLVANIA</a><br /> +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t2"> +THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap01"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER I +</h3> + +<h3> +THE SOUTHERN RETREAT +</h3> + +<p> +A train of wagons and men wound slowly over the hills in the darkness +and rain toward the South. In the wagons lay fourteen or fifteen +thousand wounded soldiers, but they made little noise, as the wheels +sank suddenly in the mud or bumped over stones. Although the vast +majority of them were young, boys or not much more, they had learned to +be masters of themselves, and they suffered in silence, save when some +one, lost in fever, uttered a groan. +</p> + +<p> +But the chief sound was a blended note made by the turning of wheels, +and the hoofs of horses sinking in the soft earth. The officers gave +but few orders, and the cavalrymen who rode on either flank looked +solicitously into the wagons now and then to see how their wounded +friends fared, though they seldom spoke. The darkness they did not +mind, because they were used to it, and the rain and the coolness were +a relief, after three days of the fiercest battle the American +continent had ever known, fought in the hottest days that the troops +could recall. +</p> + +<p> +Thus Lee's army drew its long length from the fatal field of +Gettysburg, although his valiant brigades did not yet know that the +clump of trees upon Cemetery Hill had marked the high tide of the +Confederacy. All that memorable Fourth of July, following the close of +the battle they had lain, facing Meade and challenging him to come on, +confident that while the invasion of the North was over they could beat +back once more the invasion of the South. +</p> + +<p> +They had no word of complaint against their great commander, Lee. The +faith in him, which was so high, remained unbroken, as it was destined +to remain so to the last. But men began to whisper to one another, and +say if only Jackson had been there. They mourned anew that terrible +evening in the Wilderness when Lee had lost his mighty lieutenant, his +striking arm, the invincible Stonewall. If the man in the old slouch +hat had only been with Lee on Seminary Ridge it would now be the army +of Meade retreating farther into the North, and they would be pursuing. +That belief was destined to sink deep in the soul of the South, and +remain there long after the Confederacy was but a name. +</p> + +<p> +The same thought was often in the mind of Harry Kenton, as he rode near +the rear of the column, whence he had been sent by Lee to observe and +then to report. It was far after midnight now, and the last of the +Southern army could not leave Seminary Ridge before morning. But Harry +could detect no sign of pursuit. Now and then, a distant gun boomed, +and the thunder muttered on the horizon, as if in answer. But there +was nothing to indicate that the Army of the Potomac was moving from +Gettysburg in pursuit, although the President in Washington, his heart +filled with bitterness, was vainly asking why his army would not reap +the fruits of a victory won so hardly. Fifty thousand men had fallen +on the hills and in the valleys about Gettysburg, and it seemed, for +the time, that nothing would come of such a slaughter. But the +Northern army had suffered immense losses, and Lee and his men were +ready to fight again if attacked. Perhaps it was wiser to remain +content upon the field with their sanguinary success. At least, Meade +and his generals thought so. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, toward morning came upon St. Clair and Langdon riding together. +Both had been wounded slightly, but their hurts had not kept them from +the saddle, and they were in cheerful mood. +</p> + +<p> +"You've been further back than we, Harry," said St. Clair. "Is Meade +hot upon our track? We hear the throb of a cannon now and then." +</p> + +<p> +"It doesn't mean anything. Meade hasn't moved. While we didn't win we +struck the Yankees such a mighty blow that they'll have to rest, and +breathe a while before they follow." +</p> + +<p> +"And I guess we need a little resting and breathing ourselves," said +Langdon frankly. "There were times when I thought the whole world had +just turned itself into a volcano of fire." +</p> + +<p> +"But we'll come back again," said St. Clair. "We'll make these +Pennsylvania Dutchmen take notice of us a second time." +</p> + +<p> +"That's the right spirit," said Langdon. "Arthur had nearly all of his +fine uniform shot off him, but he's managed to fasten the pieces +together, and ride on, just as if it were brand new." +</p> + +<p> +But Harry was silent. The prescient spirit of his famous great +grandfather, Henry Ware, had descended upon his valiant great grandson. +Hope had not gone from him, but it did not enter his mind that they +should invade Pennsylvania again. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm glad to leave Gettysburg," he said. "More good men of ours have +fallen there than anywhere else." +</p> + +<p> +"That's true," said St. Clair, "but Marse Bob will win for us, anyhow. +You don't think any of these Union generals here in the East can whip +our Lee, do you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Of course not!" said Happy Tom. "Besides, Lee has me to help him." +</p> + +<p> +"How are Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire?" asked +Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Sound asleep, both of 'em," replied St. Clair. "And it's a strange +thing, too. They were sitting in a wagon, having resumed that game of +chess which they began in the Valley of Virginia, but they were so +exhausted that both fell sound asleep while playing. They are sitting +upright, as they sleep, and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire's thumb and +forefinger rest upon a white pawn that he intended to move." +</p> + +<p> +"I hope they won't be jarred out of their rest and that they'll sleep +on," said Harry. "Nobody deserves it more." +</p> + +<p> +He waved a hand to his friends and continued his ride toward the rear. +The column passed slowly on in silence. Now and then gusts of rain +lashed across his face, but he liked the feeling. It was a fillip to +his blood, and his nerves began to recover from the tremendous strain +and excitement of the last four days. +</p> + +<p> +Obeying his orders he rode almost directly back toward the field of +Gettysburg from which the Southern forces were still marching. A +friendly voice from a little wood hailed him, and he recognized it at +once as that of Sherburne, who sat his horse alone among the trees. +</p> + +<p> +"Come here, Harry," he said. +</p> + +<p> +"Glad to find you alive, Sherburne. Where's your troop?" +</p> + +<p> +"What's left of it is on ahead. I'll join the men in a few minutes. +But look back there!" +</p> + +<p> +Harry from the knoll, which was higher than he had thought, gazed upon +a vast and dusky panorama. Once more the field of Gettysburg swam +before him, not now in fire and smoke, but in vapors and misty rain. +When he shut his eyes he saw again the great armies charging on the +slopes, the blazing fire from hundreds of cannon and a hundred thousand +rifles. There, too, went Pickett's brigades, devoted to death but never +flinching. A sob burst from his throat, and he opened his eyes again. +</p> + +<p> +"You feel about it as I do," said Sherburne. "We'll never come back +into the North." +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't merely a feeling within me, I know it." +</p> + +<p> +"So do I, but we can still hold Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +"I think so, too. Come, we'd better turn. There goes the field of +Gettysburg. The rain and mist have blotted it out." +</p> + +<p> +The panorama, the most terrible upon which Harry had ever looked, +vanished in the darkness. The two rode slowly from the knoll and into +the road. +</p> + +<p> +"It will be daylight in an hour," said Sherburne, "and by that time the +last of our men will be gone." +</p> + +<p> +"And I must hasten to our commander-in-chief," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"How is he?" asked Sherburne. "Does he seem downcast?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, he holds his head as high as ever, and cheers the men. They say +that Pickett's charge was a glorious mistake, but he takes all the +blame for it, if there is any. He doesn't criticize any of his +generals." +</p> + +<p> +"Only a man of the greatest moral grandeur could act like that. It's +because of such things that our people, boys, officers and all, will +follow him to the death." +</p> + +<p> +"Good-by, Sherburne," said Harry. "Hope I'll see you again soon." +</p> + +<p> +He urged his horse into a faster gait, anxious to overtake Lee and +report that all was well with the rear guard. He noticed once more, +and with the greatest care that long line of the wounded and the +unwounded, winding sixteen miles across the hills from Gettysburg to +Chambersburg, and his mind was full of grave thoughts. More than two +years in the very thick of the greatest war, then known, were +sufficient to make a boy a man, at least in intellect and +responsibility. +</p> + +<p> +Harry saw very clearly, as he rode beside the retreating but valiant +army that had failed in its great attempt, that their role would be the +defensive. For a little while he was sunk in deep depression. Then +invincible youth conquered anew, and hope sprang up again. The night +was at the darkest, but dawn was not far away. Fugitive gusts of wind +drenched him once more, but he did not mind it, nor did he pay any +attention to the occasional growl of a distant gun. He was strong in +the belief that Meade would not pursue—at least not yet. A general +who had just lost nearly one-third of his own army was not in much +condition to follow his enemy. +</p> + +<p> +He urged his horse to increased speed, and pressed on toward the head +of the column. The rain ceased and cool puffs of wind came out of the +east. Then the blackness there turned to gray, which soon deepened into +silver. Through the silver veil shot a bolt of red fire, and the sun +came over the hills. +</p> + +<p> +Although the green world had been touched with brown by the hot sun of +July it looked fresh and beautiful to Harry. The brown in the morning +sunlight was a rosy red, and the winds of dawn were charged with life. +His horse, too, felt the change and it was easy now to force him into a +gallop toward a fire on a low hill, which Harry felt sure had been +built to cook breakfast for their great commander. +</p> + +<p> +As he approached he saw Lee and his generals standing before the blaze, +some eating, and others drinking. An orderly, near by, held the +commander's famous horse, Traveller, and two or three horses belonging +to the other generals were trying to find a little grass between the +stony outcrops of the hills. Harry felt an overwhelming curiosity, but +he kept it in restraint, dismounting at a little distance, and +approaching on foot. +</p> + +<p> +He could not observe much change in the general's appearance. His +handsome gray suit was as neat as ever, and the three stars, the only +marks of his rank that he wore, shone untarnished upon his collar. The +dignified and cheerful manner that marked him before Gettysburg marked +him also afterward. To Harry, so young and so thoroughly charged with +the emotions of his time and section, he was a figure to be approached +with veneration. +</p> + +<p> +He saw the stalwart and bearded Longstreet and other generals whom he +knew, among them the brilliant Stuart in his brilliant plumage, but +rather quiet and subdued in manner now, since he had not come to +Gettysburg as soon as he was needed. Harry hung back a little, fearing +lest he might be regarded as thrusting himself into a company so much +his superior in rank, but Lee saw him and beckoned to him. +</p> + +<p> +"I sent you back toward Gettysburg to report on our withdrawal, +Lieutenant Kenton," he said. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir. I returned all the way to the field. The last of our +troops should be leaving there just about now. The Northern army had +made no preparation for immediate pursuit." +</p> + +<p> +"Your report agrees with all the others that I have received. How long +have you been without sleep?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know, sir," he said at last. "I can't remember. Maybe it has +been two or three days." +</p> + +<p> +Stuart, who held a cup of coffee in his hand, laughed. "The times have +been such that there are generals as well as lieutenants," he said, +"who can't remember when they've slept." +</p> + +<p> +"You're exhausted, my lad," said Lee gravely and kindly, "and there's +nothing more you can do for us just now. Take some breakfast with us, +and then you must sleep in one of the wagons. An orderly will look +after your horse." +</p> + +<p> +Lee handed him a cup of coffee with his own hand, and Harry, thanking +him, withdrew to the outer fringe of the little group, where he took +his breakfast, amazed to find how hungry he was, although he had not +thought of food before. Then without a word, as he saw that the +generals were engrossed in a conference, he withdrew. +</p> + +<p> +"You'll find Lieutenant Dalton of the staff in the covered wagon over +there," said the orderly who had taken his horse. "The general sent +him to it more'n two hours ago." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I'll be inside it in less than two minutes," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +But with rest in sight he collapsed suddenly. His head fell forward of +its own weight. His feet became lead. Everything swam before his +eyes. He felt that he must sleep or die. But he managed to drag +himself to the wagon and climbed inside. Dalton lay in the center of +it so sound asleep that he was like one dead. Harry rolled him to one +side, making room for himself, and lay down beside him. Then his eyes +closed, and he, too, slept so soundly that he also looked like one dead. +</p> + +<p> +He was awakened by Dalton pulling at him. The young Virginian was +sitting up and looking at Harry with curiosity. He clapped his hands +when the Kentuckian opened his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"Now I know that you're not dead," he said. "When I woke up and found +you lying beside me I thought they had just put your body in here for +safekeeping. As that's not the case, kindly explain to me and at once +what you're doing in my wagon." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm waking up just at present, but for an hour or two before that I +was sleeping." +</p> + +<p> +"Hour or two? Hour or two? Hear him! An orderly who I know is no +liar told me that you got in here just after dawn. Now kindly lift +that canvasflap, look out and tell me what you see." +</p> + +<p> +Harry did as he was told, and was amazed. The same rolling landscape +still met his eyes, and the sun was just about as high in the sky as it +was when he had climbed into the wagon. But it was in the west now +instead of the east. +</p> + +<p> +"See and know, young man!" said Dalton, paternally. "The entire day +has elapsed and here you have lain in ignorant slumber, careless of +everything, reckless of what might happen to the army. For twelve +hours General Lee has been without your advice, and how, lacking it, he +has got this far, Heaven alone knows." +</p> + +<p> +"It seems that he's pulled through, and, since I'm now awake, you can +hurry to him and tell him I'm ready to furnish the right plans to stop +the forthcoming Yankee invasion." +</p> + +<p> +"They'll keep another day, but we've certainly had a good sleep, Harry." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, a provision or ammunition wagon isn't a bad place for a wornout +soldier. I remember I slept in another such as this in the Valley of +Virginia, when we were with Jackson." +</p> + +<p> +He stopped suddenly and choked. He could not mention the name of +Jackson, until long afterward, without something rising in his throat. +</p> + +<p> +The driver obscured a good deal of the front view, but he suddenly +turned a rubicund and smiling face upon them. +</p> + +<p> +"Waked up, hev ye?" he exclaimed. "Wa'al it's about time. I've looked +back from time to time an' I wuzn't at all shore whether you two +gen'rals wuz alive or dead. Sometimes when the wagon slanted a lot you +would roll over each other, but it didn't seem to make no diffunce. +Pow'ful good sleepers you are." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," said Harry. "We're two of the original Seven Sleepers." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't doubt that you are two, but they wuz more'n seven." +</p> + +<p> +"How do you know?" +</p> + +<p> +"'Cause at least seven thousand in this train have been sleepin' as +hard as you wuz. I guess you mean the 'rig'nal Seventy Thousand +Sleepers." +</p> + +<p> +Harry's spirits had returned after his long sleep. He was a lad again. +The weight of Gettysburg no longer rested upon him. The Army of +Northern Virginia had merely made a single failure. It would strike +again and again, as hard as ever. +</p> + +<p> +"It's true that we've been slumbering," he said, "but we're as wide +awake now as ever, Mr. Driver." +</p> + +<p> +"My name ain't Driver," said the man. +</p> + +<p> +"Then what is it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Jones, Dick Jones, which I hold to be a right proper name." +</p> + +<p> +"Not romantic, but short, simple and satisfying." +</p> + +<p> +"I reckon so. Leastways, I've never wanted to change it. I'm from +No'th Calliny, an' I've been followin' Bobby Lee a pow'ful long +distance from home. Fine country up here in Pennsylvany, but I'd +ruther be back in them No'th Calliny mountains. You two young gen'rals +may think it's an easy an' safe job drivin' a wagon loaded with +ammunition. But s'pose you have to drive it right under fire, as you +most often have to do, an' then if a shell or somethin' like it hits +your wagon the whole thing goes off kerplunk, an' whar are you?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's a sudden an' easy death," said Dalton, philosophically. +</p> + +<p> +"Too sudden an' too easy. I don't mind tellin' you that seein' men +killed an' wounded is a spo't that's beginnin' to pall on me. Reckon +I've had enough of it to last me for the next thousand years. I've +forgot, if I ever knowed, what this war wuz started about. Say, young +fellers, I've got a wife back thar, a high-steppin', fine-lookin' gal +not more'n twenty years old—I'm just twenty-five myself, an' we've got +a year-old baby the cutest that wuz ever born. Now, when I wuz lookin' +at that charge of Pickett's men, an' the whole world wuz blazin' with +fire, an' all the skies wuz rainin' steel and lead, an' whar grass +growed before, nothin' but bayonets wuz growin' then, do you know what +I seed sometimes?" +</p> + +<p> +"What was it?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Fur a secon' all that hell of fire an' smoke an' killin' would float +away, an' I seed our mountain, with the cove, an' the trees, an' the +green grass growin' in it, an' the branch, with the water so clear you +could see your face in it, runnin' down the center, an' thar at the +head of the cove my cabin, not much uv a buildin' to look at, no +towerin' mansion, but just a stout two-room log cabin that the snows +an' hails of winter can't break into, an' in the door wuz standin' Mary +with the hair flyin' about her face, an' her eyes shinin', with the +little feller in her arms, lookin' at me 'way off as I come walkin' +fast down the cove toward 'em, returnin' from the big war." +</p> + +<p> +There was a moment's silence, and Dalton said gruffly to hide his +feelings: +</p> + +<p> +"Dick Jones, by the time this war is over, and you go walking down the +cove toward your home, a man with mustache and side whiskers will come +forward to meet you, and he'll be that son of yours." +</p> + +<p> +But Dick Jones cheerfully shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +"The war ain't goin' to last that long," he said confidently, "an' I +ain't goin' to git killed. What I saw will come true, 'cause I feel it +so strong." +</p> + +<p> +"There ought to be a general law forbidding a man with a young wife and +baby to go to a war," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"But they ain't no sich law," said Dick Jones, in his optimistic tone, +"an' so we needn't worry 'bout it. But if you two gen'rals should +happen along through the mountains uv western No'th Calliny after the +war I'd like fur you to come to my cabin, an' see Mary an' the baby an' +me. Our cove is named Jones' Cove, after my father, an' the branch that +runs through it runs into Jones' Creek, an' Jones' Creek runs into the +Yadkin River an' our county is Yadkin. Oh, you could find it plumb +easy, if two sich great gen'rals as you wuzn't ashamed to eat sweet +pertaters an' ham an' turkey an' co'n pone with a wagon driver like me." +</p> + +<p> +Harry saw, despite his playful method of calling them generals, that he +was thoroughly in earnest, and he was more moved than he would have +been willing to confess. +</p> + +<p> +"Too proud!" he said. "Why, we'd be glad!" +</p> + +<p> +"Mebbe your road will lead that way," said Jones. "An' ef you do, jest +remember that the skillet's on the fire, an' the latch string is +hangin' outside the do'." +</p> + +<p> +The allusion to the mountains made Harry's mind travel far back, over +an almost interminable space of time now, it seemed, when he was yet a +novice in war, to the home of Sam Jarvis, deep in the Kentucky +mountains, and the old, old woman who had said to him as he left: "You +will come again, and you will be thin and pale, and in rags, and you +will fall at the door. I see you coming with these two eyes of mine." +</p> + +<p> +A little shiver passed over him. He knew that no one could penetrate +the future, but he shivered nevertheless, and he found himself saying +mechanically: +</p> + +<p> +"It's likely that I'll return through the mountains, and if so I'll +look you up at that home in the cove on the brook that runs into Jones' +Creek." +</p> + +<p> +"That bein' settled," said Jones, "what do you gen'rals reckon to do +jest now, after havin' finished your big sleep?" +</p> + +<p> +"Your wagon is about to lose the first two passengers it has ever +carried," replied Harry. "Orderlies have our horses somewhere. We +belong on the staff of General Lee." +</p> + +<p> +"An' you see him an' hear him talk every day? Some people are pow'ful +lucky. I guess you'll say a lot about it when you're old men." +</p> + +<p> +"We're going to say a lot about it while we're young men. Good-by, Mr. +Jones. We've been in some good hotels, but we never slept better in +any of them than we have in this moving one of yours." +</p> + +<p> +"Good-by, you're always welcome to it. I think Marse Bob is on ahead." +</p> + +<p> +The two left the wagon and took to a path beside the road, which was +muddy and rutted deeply by innumerable hoofs and wheels. But grass and +foliage were now dry after the heavy rains that followed the Battle of +Gettysburg, and the sun was shining in late splendor. The army, taking +the lack of pursuit and attack as proof that the enemy had suffered as +much as they, if not more, was in good spirits, and many of the men +sang their marching songs. A band ahead of them suddenly began to play +mellow music, "Partant Pour La Syrie," and other old French songs. The +airs became gay, festive, uplifting to the soul, and they tickled the +feet of the young men. +</p> + +<p> +"The Cajun band!" exclaimed Harry. "It never occurred to me that they +weren't all dead, and here they are, playing us into happiness!" +</p> + +<p> +"And the Invincibles, or what's left of them, won't be far away," said +Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +They walked on a little more briskly and beside them the vast length of +the unsuccessful army still trailed its slow way back into the South. +The sun was setting in uncommon magnificence, clothing everything in a +shower of gold, through which the lilting notes of the music came to +Harry and Dalton's ears. Presently the two saw them, the short, dark +men from far Louisiana, not so many as they had been, but playing with +all the fervor of old, putting their Latin souls into their music. +</p> + +<p> +"And there are the Invincibles just ahead of them!" exclaimed Dalton. +"The two colonels have left the wagon and are riding with their men. +See, how erect they sit." +</p> + +<p> +"I do see them, and they're a good sight to see," said Harry. "I hope +they'll live to finish that chess game." +</p> + +<p> +"And fifty years afterward, too." +</p> + +<p> +A shout of joy burst from the road, and a tall young man, slender, dark +and handsome, rushed out, and, seizing the hands of first one and then +the other, shook them eagerly, his dark eyes glittering with happy +surprise. +</p> + +<p> +"Kenton! Dalton!" he exclaimed. "Both alive! Both well!" +</p> + +<p> +It was young Julien de Langeais, the kinsman of Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire, and he too was unhurt. The lads returned his grasp +warmly. They could not have kept from liking him had they tried, and +they certainly did not wish to try. +</p> + +<p> +"You don't know how it rejoices me to see you," said Julien, speaking +very fast. "I was sad! very sad! Some of my best friends have +perished back there in those inhospitable Pennsylvania hills, and while +the band was playing it made me think of the homes they will never see +any more! Don't think I'm effusive and that I show grief too much, but +my heart has been very heavy! Alas, for the brave lads!" +</p> + +<p> +"Come, come, de Langeais," said Harry, putting his hand on his +shoulder. "You've no need to apologize for sorrow. God knows we all +have enough of it, but a lot of us are still alive and here's an army +ready to fight again, whenever the enemy says the word." +</p> + +<p> +"True! True!" exclaimed de Langeais, changing at once from shadow to +sunshine. "And when we're back in Virginia we'll turn our faces once +more to our foe!" +</p> + +<p> +He took a step or two on the grass in time to the music which was now +that of a dance, and the brilliant beams of the setting sun showed a +face without a care. Invincible youth and the invincible gayety of the +part of the South that was French were supreme again. Dalton, looking +at him, shook his Presbyterian head. Yet his eyes expressed admiration. +</p> + +<p> +"I know your feelings," said Harry to the Virginian. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, what are they?" +</p> + +<p> +"You don't approve of de Langeais' lightness, which in your stern code +you would call levity, and yet you envy him possession of it. You +don't think it's right to be joyous, without a care, and yet you know +it would be mighty pleasant. You criticize de Langeais a little, but +you feel it would be a gorgeous thing to have that joyous spirit of +his." +</p> + +<p> +Dalton laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"You're pretty near the truth," he said. "I haven't known de Langeais +so very long, but if he were to get killed I'd feel that I had lost a +younger brother." +</p> + +<p> +"So would I." +</p> + +<p> +Two immaculate youths, riding excellent horses, approached them, and +favored them with a long and supercilious stare. +</p> + +<p> +"Can the large fair person be Lieutenant Kenton of the staff of the +commander-in-chief?" asked St. Clair. +</p> + +<p> +"It can be and it is, although we did not think to see him again so +soon," replied Happy Tom Langdon, "and the other—I do not allude to de +Langeais—is that spruce and devout young man, Lieutenant George +Dalton, also of the staff of the commander-in-chief." +</p> + +<p> +"Why do we find them in such humble plight, walking on weary feet in a +path beside the road?" +</p> + +<p> +"For the most excellent reason in the world, Arthur." +</p> + +<p> +"And what may that reason be, Tom?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because at last they have come down to their proper station in life, +just as surely as water finds its level." +</p> + +<p> +"But we'll not treat them too sternly. We must remember that they also +serve who walk and wait." +</p> + +<p> +But St. Clair and Langdon, their chaff over, gave them happy greeting, +and told them that the two colonels would be rejoiced to see them +again, if they could spare a few minutes before rejoining their +commander. +</p> + +<p> +"And here is an orderly with both your horses," said St. Clair, "so, +under the circumstances, we'll sink our pride and let you ride with us." +</p> + +<p> +De Langeais, with a cheerful farewell until the next day, returned to +his command, and Harry and Dalton, mounting, were in a few minutes +beside the Invincibles. Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire turned their horses from the road into the path and +saluted them with warmth. +</p> + +<p> +"We caught a glimpse of you just after our departure, Harry," said +Colonel Talbot, "but we did not know what had happened since. There is +always a certain amount of risk attending the removal of a great army." +</p> + +<p> +"I am glad, Leonidas, that you used the word 'removal' to describe our +operations after our great victory at Gettysburg," said +Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. "I have been feeling about for the +right word or phrase myself, but you have found it first." +</p> + +<p> +"Do you think it was a victory, sir?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Undoubtedly. We have won several vast and brilliant triumphs, but +this is the greatest of them all. We have gone far into the enemy's +country, where we have struck him a terrible blow, and now, of our own +choice—understand it is of our own choice—we withdraw and challenge +him to come and repeat on our own soil our exploit if he can. It is +like a skilled and daring prize fighter who leaps back and laughingly +bids his foe come on. Am I not right, Leonidas?" +</p> + +<p> +"Neither Aristotle nor Plato was ever more right, Hector, old friend. +Usually there is more to a grave affair than appears upon the surface. +We could have gone on, after the battle, to Philadelphia, had we +chosen, but it was not alone a question of military might that General +Lee had to decide. He was bound to give weight to some very subtle +considerations. You boys remember your Roman history, do you not?" +</p> + +<p> +"Fragments of it, sir," replied Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Then you will recall that Hannibal, a fine general, to be named +worthily with our great Lee so far as military movements are concerned, +after famous victories over greatly superior numbers of Romans, went +into camp at Capua, crowded with beauty, wine and games, and the +soldiers became enervated. Their fiber was weakened and their bodies +softened. They were quicker to heed the call to a banquet than the +call to arms." +</p> + +<p> +"Unless it was the arms of beauty, Leonidas." +</p> + +<p> +"Well spoken, Hector. The correction is most important, and I accept +it. But to take up again the main thread of my discourse. General Lee +undoubtedly had the example of the Carthaginian army and Capua in mind +when he left Gettysburg and returned toward the South. Philadelphia is +a great city, far larger and richer than any in our section. It is +filled with magnificent houses, beautiful women, luxury of every +description, ease and softness. Our brave lads, crowned with mighty +exploits and arriving there as conquerors, would have been received +with immense admiration, although we are official enemies. And the +head of youth is easily turned. The Army of Northern Virginia, +emerging from Philadelphia, to achieve the conquest of New York and +Boston would not be the army that it is to-day. It would lack some of +that fire and dash, some of the extraordinary courage and tenacity +which have enabled it to surpass the deeds of the veterans of Hannibal +and Napoleon." +</p> + +<p> +"But, sir, I've heard that the people of Philadelphia are mostly +Quakers, very sober in dress and manner." +</p> + +<p> +"Harry, my lad, when you've lived as long as I have you will know that +a merry heart may beat beneath a plain brown dress, and that an ugly +hood cannot wholly hide a sweet and saucy face. The girls—God bless +'em—have been the same in all lands since the world began, and will +continue so to the end. While this war is on you boys cannot go +a-courting, either in the North or South. Am I not right, Hector, old +friend?" +</p> + +<p> +"Right, as always, Leonidas. I perceive, though, that the sun is about +to set; not a new thing, I admit, but we must not delay our young +friends, when the general perhaps needs them." +</p> + +<p> +"Well spoken again, Hector. You are an unfailing fount of wisdom. Good +night, my brave lads. Not many of the Invincibles are left, but every +one of them is a true friend of you both." +</p> + +<p> +As they rode across the darkening fields Harry and Dalton knew that the +colonel spoke the truth about the Invincibles. +</p> + +<p> +"I like a faith such as theirs," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, it can often turn defeat into real victory." +</p> + +<p> +They quickly found the general's headquarters, and as usual, whenever +the weather permitted, he had made arrangements to sleep in the open +air, his blankets spread upon soft boughs. Harry and Dalton, having +slept all day, would be on night duty, and after supper they sat at a +little distance, awaiting orders. +</p> + +<p> +Coolness had come with the dark. A good moon and swarms of bright +stars rode in the heavens, turning the skies to misty silver, and +softening the scars of the army, which now lay encamped over a great +space. Lee was talking with Stuart, who evidently had just arrived +from a swift ride, as an orderly near by was holding his horse, covered +with foam. The famous cavalryman was clothed in his gorgeous best. +His hat was heavy with gold braid, and the broad sash about his waist +was heavy with gold, also. Dandy he was, but brilliant cavalryman and +great soldier too! Both friend and foe had said so. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, sitting on the grass, with his back against a tree, watched the +two generals as they talked long and earnestly. Now and then Stuart +nervously switched the tops of his own high riding boots with the +little whip that he carried, but the face of Lee, revealed clearly in +the near twilight, remained grave and impassive. +</p> + +<p> +After a long while Stuart mounted and rode away, and Sherburne, who had +been sitting among the trees on the far side of the fire, came over and +joined Harry and Dalton. He too was very grave. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you know what has happened?" he said in a low tone to the two lads. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, there was a big battle at Gettysburg, and as we failed to win it +we're now retreating," replied Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"That's true as far as it goes, but it's not all. We've heard—and the +news is correct beyond a doubt—that Grant has taken Vicksburg and +Pemberton's army with it." +</p> + +<p> +"Good God, Sherburne, it can't be so!" +</p> + +<p> +"It shouldn't be so, but it is! Oh, why did Pemberton let himself be +trapped in such a way! A whole army of ours lost and our greatest +fortress in the West taken! Why, the Yankee men-of-war can steam up +the Mississippi untouched, all the way from the Gulf to Minnesota." +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton were appalled, and, for a little while, were silent. +</p> + +<p> +"I knew that man Grant would do something terrible to us," Harry said +at last. "I've heard from my people in Kentucky what sort of a general +he is. My father was at Shiloh, where we had a great victory on, but +Grant wouldn't admit it, and held on, until another Union army came up +and turned our victory into defeat. My cousin, Dick Mason, has been +with Grant a lot, and I used to get a letter from him now and then, +even if he is in the Yankee army. He says that when Grant takes hold +of a thing he never lets go, and that he'll win the war for his side." +</p> + +<p> +"Your cousin may be right about Grant's hanging on," said Dalton with +sudden angry emphasis, "but neither he nor anybody else will win this +war for the Yankees. We've lost Vicksburg, and an army with it, and +we've retreated from Gettysburg, with enough men fallen there to make +another army, but they'll never break through the iron front of Lee and +his veterans." +</p> + +<p> +"Hope you're right," said Sherburne, "but I'm off now. I'm in the +saddle all night with my troop. We've got to watch the Yankee cavalry. +Custer and Pleasanton and the rest of them have learned to ride in a +way that won't let Jeb Stuart himself do any nodding." +</p> + +<p> +He cantered off and the lads sat under the trees, ready for possible +orders. They saw the fire die. They heard the murmur of the camp +sink. Lee lay down on his bed of boughs, other generals withdrew to +similar beds or to tents, and the two boys still sat under the trees, +waiting and watching, and never knowing at what moment they would be +needed. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap02"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER II +</h3> + +<h3> +THE NORTHERN SPY +</h3> + +<p> +But the night remained very quiet. Harry and Dalton, growing tired of +sitting, walked about the camp, and looked again to their horses, +which, saddled and bridled, were nevertheless allowed to nip the grass +as best they could at the end of their lariats. The last embers of the +fire went out, but the moon and stars remained bright, and they saw +dimly the sleeping forms of Lee and his generals. Harry, who had seen +nothing strange in Meade's lack of pursuit, now wondered at it. Surely +when the news of Vicksburg came the exultant Army of the Potomac would +follow, and try to deliver a crushing blow. +</p> + +<p> +It was revealed to him as he stood silent in the moonlight that a gulf +had suddenly yawned before the South. The slash of Grant's sword in +the West had been terrible, and the wound that it made could not be +cured easily. And the Army of Northern Virginia had not only failed in +its supreme attempt, but a great river now flowed between it and +Virginia. If the Northern leaders, gathering courage anew, should hurl +their masses upon Lee's retreating force, neither skill nor courage +might avail to save them. He suddenly beheld the situation in all its +desperation; he shivered from head to foot. +</p> + +<p> +Dalton saw the muscles of Harry's face quivering, and he noticed a +pallor that came for an instant. +</p> + +<p> +"I understand," he said. "I had thought of it already. If a Northern +general like Lee or Stonewall Jackson were behind us we might never get +back across the Potomac. It's somewhat the same position that we were +in after Antietam." +</p> + +<p> +"But we've no Stonewall Jackson now to help us." +</p> + +<p> +Again that lump rose in Harry's throat. The vision of the sober figure +on Little Sorrel, leading his brigades to victory, came before him, but +it was a vision only. +</p> + +<p> +"It's strange that we've not come in contact with their scouts or +cavalry," he said. "In that fight with Pleasanton we saw what horsemen +they've become, and a force of some kind must be hanging on our rear." +</p> + +<p> +"If it's there, Sherburne and his troop will find it." +</p> + +<p> +"I think I can detect signs of the enemy now," said Harry, putting his +glasses to his eyes. "See that hill far behind us. Can't you catch +the gleam of lights on it?" +</p> + +<p> +"I think I can," replied Dalton, also using glasses. "Four lights are +there, and they are winking, doubtless to lights on another hill too +far away for us to see." +</p> + +<p> +"It shows that the enemy at least is watching, and that while we may +retreat unattacked it will not be unobserved. Hark! do you hear that, +George? It's rifle shots, isn't it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, and a lot of 'em, but they're a long distance away. I don't +think we could hear 'em at all if it were not night time." +</p> + +<p> +"But it means something! There they go again! I believe it's a heavy +skirmish and it's in the direction in which Sherburne rode." +</p> + +<p> +"The general's up. It's likely that one of us will be sent to see what +it's all about." +</p> + +<p> +General Lee and his whole staff had risen and were listening +attentively. The faint sound of many shots still came, and then a +sharper, more penetrating crash, as if light field guns were at work. +The commander beckoned to Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Ride toward it," he said briefly, "and return with a report as soon as +you can." +</p> + +<p> +Harry touched his cap, sprang upon his horse and galloped away. He +knew that other messengers would be dispatched also, but, as he had +been sent first, he wished to arrive first. He found a path among the +trees along which he could make good speed, and, keeping his mind fixed +on the firing, he sped forward. +</p> + +<p> +Thousands of soldiers lay asleep in the woods and fields on either side +of him, but the thud of the horse's hoofs awakened few of them. Nor +did the firing disturb them. They had fought a great battle three days +long, and then after a tense day of waiting under arms, they had +marched hard. What to them was the noise made by an affair of outposts, +when they had heard so long the firing of a hundred and fifty thousand +rifles and three or four hundred big guns? Not one in a hundred stood +up to see. +</p> + +<p> +The country grew rougher, and Harry was compelled to draw his horse +down to a walk. But the firing, a half-mile or more ahead, maintained +its volume, and as he approached through thick underbrush, being able +to find no other way, he dismounted and led his horse. Presently he +saw beads of flame appearing among the bushes, seen a moment, then gone +like a firefly, and as he went further he heard voices. He had no +doubt that it was the Southern pickets in the undergrowth, and, calling +softly, he received confirmatory replies. +</p> + +<p> +A rifleman, a tall, slender fellow in ragged butternut, appeared beside +him, and, recognizing Harry's near-gray uniform as that of an officer, +said: +</p> + +<p> +"They're dismounted cavalry on the other side of a creek that runs +along over there among the bushes. I don't think they mean any real +attack. They expect to sting us a little an' find out what we're about." +</p> + +<p> +"Seems likely to me too. They aren't strong enough, of course, for an +attempt at rushing us. What troops are in here in the woods on our +side?" +</p> + +<p> +"Captain Sherburne's cavalry, sir. They're a bit to our right, an' +they're dismounted too. You'll find the captain himself on a little +knoll about a hundred yards away." +</p> + +<p> +"Thanks," said Harry, and leading his horse he reached the knoll, to +find the rifleman's statement correct. Sherburne was kneeling behind +some bushes, trying with the aid of glasses and moonlight to pick out +the enemy. +</p> + +<p> +"That you, Harry?" he said, glancing back. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, Captain. The general has sent me to see what you and the rest of +you noisy fellows are doing." +</p> + +<p> +"Shooting across a creek at an enemy who first shot at us. It's only +under provocation that we've roused the general and his staff from +sleep. Use your glasses and see what you can make out in those bushes +on the other side! Keep down, Harry! For Heaven's sake keep down! +That bullet didn't miss you more than three inches. You wouldn't be +much loss to the army, of course, but you're my personal friend." +</p> + +<p> +"Thanks for your advice. I intend to stay so far down that I'll lie +almost flat." +</p> + +<p> +He meant to keep his word, too. The warning had been a stern one. +Evidently the sharpshooters who lay in the thickets on the Union side +of the creek were of the first quality. +</p> + +<p> +"There's considerable moonlight," whispered Sherburne, "and you mustn't +expose an inch of your face. I take it that we have Custer's cavalry +over there, mixed with a lot of scouts and skirmishers from the +Northwest, Michigan and Wisconsin, most likely. They're the boys who +can use the rifles in the woods. Had to do it before they came here, +and they're a bad lot to go up against." +</p> + +<p> +"It's a pretty heavy fire for a mere scouting party. If they want to +discover our location they can do it without wasting so much powder and +lead." +</p> + +<p> +"I think it's more than a scout. They must have discovered long since +just where we are. I imagine they mean to shake our nerve by constant +buzzing and stinging. I fancy that Meade and his generals after +deciding not to pursue us have changed their minds, perhaps under +pressure from Washington, and mean to cut us off if they can." +</p> + +<p> +"A little late." +</p> + +<p> +"But not too late. We're still in the enemy's country. The whole +population is dead against us, and we can't make a move that isn't +known within an hour to the Union leaders. I tell you, Harry, that if +we didn't have a Lee to lead I'd be afraid that we'd never get out of +Pennsylvania." +</p> + +<p> +"But we have a Lee and the question is settled. What a volley that +was! Didn't you feel the twigs and leaves falling on your face?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, it went directly over our heads. It's a good thing we're lying +so close. Perhaps they intend to force a passage of the creek and +stampede at least a portion of our camp." +</p> + +<p> +"And you're here to prevent it." +</p> + +<p> +"I am. They can't cross that creek in face of our fire. We're good +night-hawks. Every boy in the South knows the night and the woods, and +here in the bush we're something like Indians." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm the descendant of a famous Indian fighter myself," said Harry. And +there, surrounded by deep gloom and danger, the spirit of his mighty +ancestor, the great Henry Ware, descended upon him once more. An +orderly had taken their horses to the rear, where they would be out of +range of the bullets, and, as they crouched low in the bushes, +Sherburne looked curiously at him. +</p> + +<p> +Harry's face as he turned from the soldier to the Indian fighter of old +had changed. To Sherburne's fascinated gaze the eyes seemed amazingly +vivid and bright, like those of one who has learned to see in the dark. +The complexion was redder—Henry Ware had always burned red instead of +brown—like that of one who sleeps oftener in the open air than in a +house. His whole look was dominant, compelling and fierce, as he +leaned on his elbows and studied the opposing thickets through his +glasses. +</p> + +<p> +The glasses even did not destroy the illusion. To Sherburne, who had +learned Harry's family history, the great Henry Ware was alive, and in +the flesh before him. He felt with all the certainty of truth that the +Union skirmishers in the thicket could not escape the keen eyes that +sought them out. +</p> + +<p> +"I can see at least twenty men creeping about among the bushes, and +seeking chances for shots," whispered Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"I knew that you would see them." +</p> + +<p> +It was Harry's turn to give a look of curiosity. +</p> + +<p> +"What do you mean, Captain?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"I knew that you had good eyes and I believed that with the aid of the +glasses you would be able to trace figures, despite the shelter of the +bushes. Study the undergrowth again, will you, Harry, and tell me what +more you can see there?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't need to study it. I can tell at one look that they're +gathering a force. Maybe they mean to rush the creek at a shallow +place." +</p> + +<p> +"Is that force moving in any direction?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, it's going down the creek." +</p> + +<p> +"Then we'll go down the creek with it. We mustn't be lacking in +hospitality." +</p> + +<p> +Sherburne drew a whistle from his pocket and blew a low call upon it. +Scores of shadowy figures rose from the undergrowth, and followed his +lead down the stream. Harry was still able to see that the force on +the other side was increasing largely in numbers, but Sherburne +reminded him that his duties, as far as the coming skirmish was +concerned, were over. +</p> + +<p> +"General Lee didn't send you here to get killed," he said. "He wants +you instead to report how many of us get killed. You know that while +the general is a kind man he can be stern, too, and you're not to take +the risk. The orderly is behind that hill with your horse and mine." +</p> + +<p> +Harry, with a sigh, fell back toward the hill. But he did not yet go +behind it, where the orderly stood. Instead he lay down among the +trees on the slope, where he could watch what was going forward, and +once more his face turned to the likeness of the great Indian fighter. +</p> + +<p> +He saw Sherburne's dismounted troop and others, perhaps five hundred in +all, moving slowly among the bushes parallel with the stream, and he +saw a force which he surmised to be of about equal size, creeping along +in the undergrowth on the other side. He followed both bodies with his +glasses. With long looking everything became clearer and clearer. The +moonlight had to him almost the brilliancy of day. +</p> + +<p> +His eyes followed the Union force, until it came to a point where the +creek ran shallow over pebbles. Then the Union leader raised his +sword, uttered a cry of command, and the whole force dashed at the +ford. The cry met its response in an order from Sherburne, and the +thickets flamed with the Southern rifles. +</p> + +<p> +The advantage was wholly with the South, standing on the defense in +dark undergrowth, and the Union troop, despite its desperate attempts +at the ford, was beaten back with great loss. +</p> + +<p> +Harry waited until the result was sure, and then he walked slowly over +the hill toward the point, where the orderly was waiting with the +horses. The man, who knew him, handed him the reins of his mount, +saying at the same time: +</p> + +<p> +"I've a note for you, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"For me?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir. It was handed to me about fifteen minutes ago by a large +man in our uniform, whom I didn't know." +</p> + +<p> +"Probably a dispatch that I'm to carry to General Lee." +</p> + +<p> +"No, sir. It's addressed to you." +</p> + +<p> +The note was written in pencil on a piece of coarse gray paper, folded +several times, but with a face large enough to show Harry's name upon +it. He wondered, but said nothing to the sentinel, and did not look at +the note again, until he had ridden some distance. +</p> + +<p> +He stopped in a little glade where the moonlight fell clearly. He +still heard scattered firing behind him, but he knew that the skirmish +was in reality over, and he concluded that no further attempt by Union +detachments to advance would be made in the face of such vigilance. He +could report to General Lee that the rear of his army was safe. So he +would delay and look at the letter that had come to him out of the +mysterious darkness. +</p> + +<p> +The superscription was in a large, bold hand, and read: +</p> + +<p><br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + LIEUTENANT HARRY KENTON,<br /> + STAFF OF GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, C. S. A.,<br /> + COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF,<br /> + ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA.<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +He felt instinctively that something uncommon was coming, and, as most +people do when they are puzzled at the appearance of a letter, he +looked at it some seconds before opening it. Then he read: +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="letter"> +MR. KENTON: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +I have warned you twice before, once when Jefferson Davis was +inaugurated at Montgomery, and once again in Virginia. I told you that +the South could never win. I told you that she might achieve brilliant +victories, and she may achieve them even yet, but they will avail her +nothing. Victories permit her to maintain her position for the time +being, but they do not enable her to advance. A single defeat causes +her to lose ground that she can never regain. +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +I tell you this as a warning. Although your enemy, I have seen you +more than once and talked with you. I like you and would save your +life if I could. I would induce you, if I could, to leave the army and +return to your home, but that I know to be impossible. So, I merely +tell you that you are fighting for a cause now lost. Perhaps it is +pride on my part to remind you that my early predictions have come +true, and perhaps it is a wish that the thought I may plant in your +mind will spread to others. You have lost at Gettysburg a hope and an +offensive that you can never regain, and Grant at Vicksburg has given a +death blow to the Western half of the Confederacy. +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +As for you, I wish you well. +</p> + +<p class="letter"> + WILLIAM J. SHEPARD.<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +Harry stared in amazement at this extraordinary communication, and read +it over two or three times. He was not surprised that Shepard should +be near, and that he should have been inside the Confederate lines, but +that he should leave a letter, and such a letter, for him was uncanny. +His first feeling, wonder, was succeeded by anger. Did Shepard really +think that he could influence him in such a way, that he could plant in +his mind a thought that would spread to others of his age and rank and +weaken the cause for which he fought? It was a singular idea, but +Shepard was a singular man. +</p> + +<p> +But perhaps pride in recalling the prediction that he had made long ago +was Shepard's stronger motive, and Harry took fire at that also. The +Confederacy was not beaten. A single defeat—no, it was not a defeat, +merely a failure to win—was not mortal, and as for the West, the +Confederacy would gather itself together there and overwhelm Grant! +</p> + +<p> +Then came a new emotion, a kind of gratitude to Shepard. The man was +really a friend, and would do him a service, if it could be done, +without injuring his own cause! He could not feel any doubt of it, +else the spy would not have taken the risk to send him such a letter. +He read it for the last time, then tore it into little pieces which he +entrusted to the winds. +</p> + +<p> +The firing behind him had died completely, and there was no sound but +the rustle of dry leaves in the light wind, nothing to tell that there +had been sharp fighting along the creek, and that men lay dead in the +forest. The moon and the stars clothed everything in a whitish light, +that seemed surcharged with a powerful essence, and this essence was +danger. +</p> + +<p> +The spirit of the great forest ranger descended upon him once more, and +he read the omens, all of which were sinister. He foresaw terrible +campaigns, mighty battles in the forest, and a roll of the dead so long +that it seemed to stretch away into infinity. +</p> + +<p> +Then he shook himself violently, cast off the spell, and rode rapidly +back with his report. Lee had risen and was standing under a tree. He +was fully dressed and his uniform was trim and unwrinkled. Harry +thought anew as he rode up, what a magnificent figure he was. He was +the only great man he ever saw who really looked his greatness. +Nothing could stir that calm. Nothing could break down that loftiness +of manner. Harry was destined to feel then, as he felt many times +afterward, that without him the South had never a chance. And the +choking came in his throat again, as he thought of him who was gone, of +him who had been the right arm of victory, the hammer of Thor. +</p> + +<p> +But he hid all these feelings as he quickly dismounted and saluted the +commander-in-chief. +</p> + +<p> +"What have you seen, Lieutenant Kenton?" asked Lee. +</p> + +<p> +"A considerable detachment of the enemy tried to force the passage of +the creek in our right rear. They were met by Captain Sherburne's +troop dismounted, and three companies of infantry, and were driven back +after a sharp fight." +</p> + +<p> +"Very good. Captain Sherburne is an alert officer." +</p> + +<p> +He turned away, and Harry, giving his horse to an orderly, again +resumed his old position under a tree, out of hearing of the generals, +but in sight. Dalton was not there, but he knew that skirmishing had +occurred in other directions, and doubtless the Virginian had been sent +on an errand like his own. +</p> + +<p> +He had a sense of rest and realization as he leaned back against the +tree. But it was mental tension, not physical, for which relief came, +and Shepard, much more than the battle at the creek, was in his +thoughts. +</p> + +<p> +The strong personality of the spy and his seeming omniscience oppressed +him again. Apparently he was able to go anywhere, and nothing could be +hidden from him. He might be somewhere in the circling shadows at that +very moment, watching Lee and his lieutenants. His pulses leaped. +Shepard had achieved an extraordinary influence over him, and he was +prepared to believe the impossible. +</p> + +<p> +He stood up and stared into the bushes, but sentinels stood there, and +no human being could pass their ring unseen. Presently Dalton came, +made a brief report to General Lee and joined his comrade. Harry was +glad of his arrival. The presence of a comrade brought him back to +earth and earth's realities. The sinister shadows that oppressed him +melted away and he saw only the ordinary darkness of a summer night. +</p> + +<p> +The two sat side by side. Dalton perhaps drew as much strength as +Harry from the comradeship, and they watched other messengers arrive +with dispatches, some of whom rolled themselves in their blankets at +once, and went to sleep, although three, who had evidently slept in the +day, joined Harry and Dalton in their vigil. +</p> + +<p> +Harry saw that the commander-in-chief was holding a council at that +hour, nearer morning than midnight. A general kicked some of the +pieces of burned wood together and fanned them into a light flame, +enough to take away the slight chill that was coming with the morning. +The men stood around it, and talked a long time, although it seemed to +Harry that Lee said least. Nevertheless his tall figure dominated them +all. Now and then Harry saw his face in the starshine, and it bore its +habitual grave and impassive look. +</p> + +<p> +The youth did not hear a word that was said, but his imaginative power +enabled him to put himself in the place of the commander-in-chief. He +knew that no man, however great his courage, could fail to appreciate +his position in the heart of a hostile country, with a lost field +behind him, and with superior numbers hovering somewhere in his rear or +on his flank. He realized then to the full the critical nature of +their position and what a mighty task Lee had to save the army. +</p> + +<p> +One of his young comrades whispered to him that the Potomac, the +barrier between North and South, was rising, flooded by heavy rains in +both mountains and lowlands, and that a body of Northern cavalry had +already destroyed a pontoon bridge built by the South across it. They +might be hemmed in, with their backs to an unfordable river, and an +enemy two or three times as numerous in front. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't you worry," whispered Dalton, with sublime confidence. "The +general will take us to Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +Harry projected his imagination once more. He sought to put himself in +the place of Lee, receiving all the reports and studying them, trying +to measure space that could not be measured, and to weigh a total that +could not be weighed. Greatness and responsibility were compelled to +pay thrice over for themselves, and he was glad that he was only a +young lieutenant, the chief business of whom was to fetch and carry +orders. +</p> + +<p> +Shafts of sunlight were piercing the eastern foliage when the council +broke up, and shortly after daylight the Southern army was again on the +march, with Northern cavalry and riflemen hanging on its flanks and +rear. Harry was permitted to rejoin, for a while, his friends of the +Invincibles and he found Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire riding very erect, a fine color in their faces. +</p> + +<p> +"You come from headquarters, Harry, and therefore you are omniscient," +said Colonel Talbot. "We heard firing in the night. What did it mean?" +</p> + +<p> +"Only skirmishers, Colonel. I think they wanted to annoy us, but they +paid the price." +</p> + +<p> +"Inevitably. Our general is as dangerous in retreat as in advance. I +fancy that General Meade will not bring up his lagging forces until we +near the Potomac." +</p> + +<p> +"They say it's rising, sir, and that it will be very hard to cross." +</p> + +<p> +"That creates a difficulty but not an impossibility. Ordinary men +yield to difficulties, men like our commander-in-chief are overcome +only by impossibilities. But the further we go, Harry, the more +reconciled I grow to our withdrawal. I have seen scarcely a friendly +face among the population. I would not have us thrust ourselves upon +people who do not like us. It would go very hard with our kindly +Southern nature to have to rule by force over people who are in fact +our brethren. Defensive wars are the just wars, and perhaps it will be +really better for us to retire to Virginia and protect its sacred soil +from the tread of the invader. Eh, Hector?" +</p> + +<p> +"Right, as usual, Leonidas. The reasons for our retirement are most +excellent. We have already spoken of the fact that Philadelphia might +prove a Capua for our young troops, and now we are relieved from the +chance of appearing as oppressors. It can never be said of us by the +people of Pennsylvania that we were tyrants. It's an invidious task to +rule over the unwilling, even when one rules with justice and wisdom. +It's strange, perhaps, Leonidas, but it's a universal truth, that +people would rather be ruled by themselves in a second rate manner than +by the foreigner in a first rate manner. Now, the government of our +states is attacked by Northern critics, but such as it is, it is ours +and it's our first choice. Do we bore you, Harry?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not at all, sir. I never listen to either you or Colonel Talbot +without learning something." +</p> + +<p> +The two colonels bowed politely. +</p> + +<p> +"I have wished for some time to speak to you about a certain matter, +Hector," said Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"What is it, Leonidas?" +</p> + +<p> +"During the height of that tremendous artillery fire from Little Round +Top I was at a spot where I could see the artillerymen very well +whenever the smoke lifted. Several times, I noticed an officer +directing the fire of the guns, and I don't think I could have been +mistaken in his identity." +</p> + +<p> +"No, Leonidas, you were not. I too observed him, and we could not +possibly be mistaken. It was John Carrington, of course." +</p> + +<p> +"Dear old John Carrington, who was with us at West Point, the greatest +artilleryman in the world. And he was facing us, when the fortunes of +the South were turning on a hair. If any other man had been there, +directing those guns, we might have taken Cemetery Hill." +</p> + +<p> +"That's true, Leonidas, but it was not possible for any other man to be +in such a place at such a time. Granting that such a crisis should +arise and that it should arise at Gettysburg you and I would have known +long before that John would be there with the guns to stop us. Why, we +saw that quality in him all the years we were with him at West Point. +The world has never seen and never will see another such artilleryman +as John Carrington." +</p> + +<p> +"Good old John. I hope he wasn't killed." +</p> + +<p> +"And I hope so too, from the bottom of my heart. But we'll know before +many days." +</p> + +<p> +"How will you find out?" asked Harry curiously. +</p> + +<p> +Both colonels laughed genially. +</p> + +<p> +"Because he will send us signs, unmistakable signs," replied Colonel +Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't understand, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"His signs will be shells, shrapnel and solid shot. We may not have a +battle this week or next week, but a big one is bound to come some time +or other and then if any section of the Northern artillery shows +uncommon deadliness and precision we'll know that Carrington is there. +Why, we can recognize his presence as readily as the deer scents the +hunter. We'll have many notes to compare with him when the war is over." +</p> + +<p> +Harry sincerely hoped that the three would meet in friendship around +some festive table, and he was moved by the affection and admiration +the two colonels held for Carrington. Doubtless the great +artilleryman's feelings toward them were the same. +</p> + +<p> +They went into camp once more that night in a pleasant rolling country +of high hills, rich valleys, scattered forests, and swift streams of +clear water. Harry liked this Northern land, which was yet not so far +from the South. It was not more beautiful than his own Kentucky, but +it was much trimmer and neater than the states toward the Gulf. He saw +all about him the evidences of free labor, the proof that man worked +more readily, and with better results, when success or failure were all +his own. +</p> + +<p> +He was too young to spend much time in concentrated thinking, but as he +looked upon the neat Pennsylvania houses and farms and the cultivated +fields he felt the curse of black slavery in the South, but he felt +also that it was for the South itself to abolish it, and not for the +armed hand of the outsider, an outsider to whom its removal meant no +financial loss and dislocation. +</p> + +<p> +Despite himself his mind dwelt upon these things longer than before. He +disliked slavery, his father disliked it, and nearly all their friends +and relatives, and here they were fighting for it, as one of the two +great reasons of the Civil War. He felt anew how strangely things come +about, and that even the wisest cannot always choose their own courses +as they wish them. +</p> + +<p> +A fire, chiefly for cooking purposes, had been built for the general +and his staff in a cove surrounded by trees. A small cold spring +gushed from the side of a hill, flowed down the center of the cove, and +then made its way through the trees into the wider world beyond. It +was a fine little spring, and before the general came, the younger +members of the staff knelt and drank deeply at it. It brought thoughts +of home to all these young rovers of the woods, who had drunk a +thousand times before at just such springs as this. +</p> + +<p> +Soon Lee and his generals sat there on the stones or on the moss. +Longstreet, Stuart, Pickett, Alexander, Ewell, Early, Hill and many +others, some suffering from wounds, were with their commander, while +the young officers who were to fetch and carry sat on the fringe in the +woods, or stretched themselves on the turf. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was in the group, but except in extreme emergency he would not be +on duty that night, as he had already been twenty-four hours in the +saddle. Nevertheless he was not yet sleepy, and lying on his blanket, +he watched the leaders confer, as they had conferred every other night +since the Battle of Gettysburg. He was aware, too, that the air was +heavy with suspense and anxiety. He breathed it in at every breath. +Cruel doubt was not shown by words or actions, but it was an atmosphere +which one could not mistake. +</p> + +<p> +Word had been brought in the afternoon by hard riders of Stuart that +the Potomac was still rising. It could not be forded and the active +Northern cavalry was in between, keeping advanced parties of the +Southern army from laying pontoons. Every day made the situation more +desperate, and it could not be hidden from the soldiers, who, +nevertheless, marched cheerfully on, in the sublime faith that Lee +would carry them through. +</p> + +<p> +Harry knew that if the Army of the Potomac was not active in pursuit +its cavalrymen and skirmishers were. As on the night before, he heard +the faint report of shots, and he knew that rough work was going +forward along the doubtful line, where the fringes of the two armies +almost met. But hardened so much was he that he fell asleep while the +generals were still in anxious council, and the fitful firing continued +in the distant dark. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap03"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER III +</h3> + +<h3> +THE FLOODED RIVER +</h3> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton were aroused before daylight by Colonel Peyton of +Lee's staff, with instructions to mount at once, and join a strong +detachment, ready to go ahead and clear a way. Sherburne's troop would +lead. The Invincibles, for whom mounts had been obtained, would follow. +There were fragments of other regiments, the whole force amounting to +about fifteen hundred men, under the command of Sherburne, who had been +raised the preceding afternoon to the rank of Colonel, and whose skill +and valor were so well known that such veterans as Colonel Talbot and +Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire were glad to serve under him. Harry and +Dalton would represent the commander-in-chief, and would return +whenever Colonel Sherburne thought fit to report to him. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was glad to go. While he had his periods of intense thought, and +his character was serious, he was like his great ancestor, essentially +a creature of action. His blood flowed more swiftly with the beat of +his horse's hoofs, and his spirits rose as the free air of the fields +and forests rushed past him. Moreover he was extremely anxious to see +what lay ahead. If barriers were there he wanted to look upon them. If +the Union cavalry were trying to keep them from laying bridges across +the Potomac he wanted to help drive them away. +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton had a right as aides and messengers of Lee to ride +with Sherburne, but before they joined him they rode among the +Invincibles, who were in great feather, because they too, for the time +being, rode, and toiled in neither dust nor mud. +</p> + +<p> +"Colonel Sherburne may think a good deal of his own immediate troop," +said St. Clair to Harry, "but if the men of the Invincibles could +achieve so much on foot they'll truly deserve their name on horseback. +Where is this enemy of ours? Lead us to him." +</p> + +<p> +"You'll find him soon enough," said Harry. "You South Carolina talkers +have learned many times that the Yankees will fight." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, Harry, I admit it freely. But you must admit on your part that +the South Carolinians will fight as well as talk, although at present +most of the South Carolinians in this regiment are Virginians." +</p> + +<p> +"But not our colonel and lieutenant-colonel," said Happy Tom. "Real +old South Carolina still leads." +</p> + +<p> +"May they always lead!" said Harry heartily, looking at the two gray +figures. +</p> + +<p> +"Tell Colonel Sherburne," said Happy Tom, who was in splendid spirits, +"that we congratulate him on his promotion and are ready to obey him +without question." +</p> + +<p> +"All right. He'll be glad to know that he has your approval." +</p> + +<p> +"He might have the approval of worse men. I feel surging within me the +talents of a great general, but I'm too young to get 'em recognized." +</p> + +<p> +"You'll have to wait until the sections are not fighting each other, +but are united against a common foe. But meanwhile I'll tell Colonel +Sherburne that if he gets into a tight pinch not to lose heart as you +are here." +</p> + +<p> +Saluting Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire, Harry and +Dalton rode to the head of the column, where Sherburne led. They ate +their breakfast on horseback, and went swiftly down a valley in the +general direction of the Potomac. The dawn had broadened into full +morning, clear and bright, save for a small cloud that hung low in the +southwest, which Sherburne noticed with a frown. +</p> + +<p> +"That's a little cloud and it looks innocent," he said to Harry, "but I +don't like it." +</p> + +<p> +"Why not?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because in the ten minutes that I've been watching it I've been able +to notice growth. I'm weather-wise and we may have more rain. More +rain means a higher Potomac. A higher Potomac means more difficulty in +crossing it. More difficulty in crossing it means more danger of our +destruction, and our destruction would mean the end of the Confederacy." +</p> + +<p> +He spoke with deadly earnestness as he continued to look at the tiny +dusky spot on the western sky. Harry had a feeling of awe. Again he +realized that such mighty issues could turn upon a single hair. The +increase or decrease of that black splotch might mean the death or life +of the Confederacy. As he rode he watched it. +</p> + +<p> +His heart sank slowly. The little baby cloud, looking so harmless, was +growing. He said to himself in anger that it was not, but he knew that +it was. Black at the center, it radiated in every direction until it +became pale gray at the edges, and by and by, as it still spread, it +gave to the southwest an aspect that was distinctly sinister. +</p> + +<p> +Sherburne shook his head and the gravity of his face increased. As the +cloud grew alarm grew with it in his mind. +</p> + +<p> +"Maybe it will pass," said Harry hopefully. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't think so. It's not moving away. It just hangs there and +grows and grows. You're a woodsman, Harry, and you ought to feel it. +Don't you think the atmosphere has changed?" +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't have the courage to say so until you asked me, but it's +damper. If I were posing as a prophet I should say that we're going to +have rain." +</p> + +<p> +"And so should I. Usually at this period of the year in our country we +want rain, but now we dread it like a pestilence. At any other time +the Potomac could rise or fall, whenever it pleased, for all I cared, +but now it's life and death." +</p> + +<p> +"Our doubts are decided and we've lost. Look, sir the whole southwest +is dark now!" +</p> + +<p> +"And here come the first drops!" +</p> + +<p> +Sherburne sent hurried orders among the men to keep their ammunition +and weapons dry, and then they bent their heads to the storm which +would beat almost directly in their faces. Soon it came without much +preliminary thunder and lightning. The morning that had been warm +turned cold and the rain poured hard upon them. Most of the horsemen +were wet through in a short time, and they shivered in their sodden +uniforms, but it was a condition to which they were used, and they +thought little of themselves but nearly all the while of the Potomac. +</p> + +<p> +Few words were spoken. The only sounds were the driving of the rain +and the thud of many hoofs in the mud. Harry often saw misty figures +among the trees on the hills, and he knew that they were watched by +hostile eyes as the Northern armies in Virginia, were always watched +with the same hostility. It was impossible for Lee's men to make any +secret march. The population, intensely loyal to the Union, promptly +carried news of it to Meade or his generals. +</p> + +<p> +Twice he pointed out the watchers to Sherburne who merely shrugged his +shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +"I might send out men and cut off a few of them," he said, "but for +what good? Hundreds more would be left and we'd merely be burdened +with useless prisoners. Here's a creek ahead, Harry, and look how +muddy and foamy it is! It's probably raining harder higher up in the +hills than it is here, and all these creeks and brooks go to swell the +Potomac." +</p> + +<p> +The swift water rose beyond their stirrups and there was a vast +splashing as fifteen hundred men rode through the creek. It was a land +of many streams, and a few miles farther on they crossed another, +equally swollen and swift. +</p> + +<p> +They had hoped that the rain, like the sudden violence of a summer +shower, would pass soon, but the skies remained a solid gray and it +settled into a steady solemn pour, cold and threatening, and promising +to continue all day long. They could see that every stream they +crossed was far above its normal mark, and the last hope that they +might find the Potomac low enough for fording disappeared. +</p> + +<p> +The watchers on the hills were still there, despite the rain, but they +did no sharpshooting. Nor did the Southern force do damage to anybody +or anything, as it passed. Near noon Sherburne resolved to build a +fire in a cove protected by cliffs and heavy timber, and give his men +warm food lest they become dispirited. +</p> + +<p> +It was a task to set the wet wood, but the men of his command, used to +forest life, soon mastered it. Then they threw on boughs and whole +tree trunks, until a great bonfire blazed and roared merrily, thrusting +out innumerable tongues of red and friendly flame. +</p> + +<p> +"Is there anything more beautiful than a fine fire at such a time?" +said St. Clair to Harry. "As it blazes and eats into the wood it +crackles and those crackling sounds are words." +</p> + +<p> +"What do the words say?" +</p> + +<p> +"They say, 'Come here and stand before me. So long as you respect me +and don't come too close I'll do you nothing but good. I'll warm you +and I'll dry you. I'll drive the wet from your skin and your clothes, +and I'll chase the cold out of your body and bones. I'll take hold of +your depressed and sunken heart and lift it up again. Where you saw +only gray and black I'll make you see gold and red. I'll warm and cook +your food for you, giving you fresh life and strength. With my +crackling coals and my leaping flames I'll change your world of despair +into a world of hope.'" +</p> + +<p> +"Hear! Hear!" said Happy Tom. "Arthur has turned from a sodden +soldier into a giddy poet! Is any more poetry left in the barrel, +Arthur?" +</p> + +<p> +"Plenty, but I won't turn on the tap again to-day. I've translated for +you. I've shown you where beauty and happiness lie, and you must do +the rest for yourself." +</p> + +<p> +They crowded about the huge fire which ran the entire length of the +cove, and watched the cooks who had brought their supplies on +horseback. Great quantities of coffee were made, and they had bacon and +hard biscuits. +</p> + +<p> +Although the rain still reached them in the cove they forgot it as they +ate the good food—any food was good to them—and drank cup after cup +of hot coffee. Youthful spirits rose once more. It wasn't such a bad +day after all! It had rained many times before and people still lived. +Also, the Potomac had risen many times before, but it always fell +again. They were riding to clear the way for Lee's invincible army +which could go wherever it wanted to go. +</p> + +<p> +"Men on horseback looking at us!" hailed Happy Tom. "About fifty on a +low hill on our right. Look like Yankee cavalrymen. Wonder what they +take us for anyway!" +</p> + +<p> +Harry, St. Clair, Langdon and Dalton walked to the edge of the cove, +every one holding a cup of hot coffee in his hand. Sherburne was +already there and with his glasses was examining the strange group, as +well as he could through the sweeping rain. +</p> + +<p> +"A scouting party undoubtedly," he said, "but weather has made their +uniforms and ours look just about alike. It's equally certain though +that they're Yankees. No troop of ours so small would be found here." +</p> + +<p> +Harry was also watching them through glasses, and he took particular +note of one stalwart figure mounted upon a powerful horse. The +distance was too great to recognize the face, but he knew the swing of +the broad shoulders. It was Shepard and once more he had the uneasy +feeling winch the man always inspired in him. He appeared and +reappeared with such facility, and he was so absolutely trackless that +he had begun to appear to him as omniscient. Of course the man knew +all about Sherburne's advance and could readily surmise its purpose. +</p> + +<p> +"They're an impudent lot to sit there staring at us in that +supercilious manner," said Colonel Talbot. "Shall I take the +Invincibles, sir, and teach them a lesson?" +</p> + +<p> +Sherburne smiled and shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +"No, Colonel," he said, "although I thank you for the offer. They'd +melt away before you and we'd merely waste our energies. Let them look +as much as they please, and now that the boys have eaten their bread +and bacon and drunk their coffee, and are giants again, we'll ride on +toward the Potomac." +</p> + +<p> +"Do we reach it to-day, sir?" asked Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"Not before to-morrow afternoon, even if we should not be interrupted. +This is the enemy's country and we may run at any time into a force as +large as our own if not larger." +</p> + +<p> +"Thank you for the information, Colonel Sherburne. My ignorance of +geography may appear astonishing to you, although we had to study it +very hard at West Point. But I admit my weakness and I add, as perhaps +some excuse, that I have lately devoted very little attention to the +Northern states. It did not seem worth my time to spend much study on +the rivers, and creeks and mountains of what is to be a foreign +country—although I may never be able to think of John Carrington and +many other of my old friends in the army as the foreigners they're sure +to become. Has the thought ever occurred to you, Colonel, that by our +victories we're making a tremendous lot of foreigners in America?" +</p> + +<p> +"It has, Colonel Talbot, but I can't say that the thought has ever been +a particularly happy one." +</p> + +<p> +"It's the Yankees who are being made into foreigners," said +Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. "The gallant Southern people, of +course, remain what they are." +</p> + +<p> +"They're going," said Harry. "They've seen enough of us." +</p> + +<p> +The distant troop disappeared over the crest of the hill. Harry had +noticed that Shepard led the way as if he were the ruling spirit, but +he did not consider it necessary to say anything to the others about +him. The trumpet blew and Sherburne's force, mounting, rode away from +the cove. Harry cast one regretful glance back at the splendid fire +which still glowed there, and then resigned himself to the cold and +rain. +</p> + +<p> +They did not stop again until far in the night. The rain ceased, but +the whole earth was sodden and the trees on the low ridge, on which +Sherburne camped, dripped with water. Spies might be all around them, +but for the sake of physical comfort and the courage that he knew would +come with it, he ordered another big fire built. Vigilant riflemen +took turns in beating up the forests and fields for possible enemies, +but the young officers once more enjoyed the luxury of the fire. Their +clothing was dried thoroughly, and their tough and sinewy frames +recovered all their strength and elasticity. +</p> + +<p> +"To enjoy being dry it is well to have been wet," said Dalton +sententiously. +</p> + +<p> +"That's just like you, you old Presbyterian," said Happy Tom. "I +suppose you'll argue next that you can't enjoy Heaven unless you've +first burned in the other place for a thousand years." +</p> + +<p> +"There may be something in that," said Dalton gravely, "although the +test, of course, would be an extremely severe one." +</p> + +<p> +"I know which way you're headed, George." +</p> + +<p> +"Then tell me, because I don't know myself." +</p> + +<p> +"As soon as this war is over you'll enter the ministry, and no sin will +get by you, not even those nice little ones that all of us like to +forgive." +</p> + +<p> +"Maybe you're right, Happy, and if I do go into the ministry I shall at +once begin long and earnest preparation for the task which would +necessarily be the most difficult of my life." +</p> + +<p> +"And may I make so bold as to inquire what it is, George?" +</p> + +<p> +"Your conversion, Happy." +</p> + +<p> +Langdon grinned. +</p> + +<p> +"But why do you want to convert me, George? I'm perfectly happy as I +am." +</p> + +<p> +"For your own well being, Tom. Your happiness is nothing to me, but I +want to make you good." +</p> + +<p> +Both laughed the easy laugh of youth, but Harry looked long at Dalton. +He thought that he detected in him much of the spirit of Stonewall +Jackson, and that here was one who had in him the makings of a great +minister. The thought lingered with him. +</p> + +<p> +St. Clair was carefully smoothing out his uniform and brushing from it +the least particle of mud. His first preoccupation always asserted +itself at the earliest opportunity, and in a very short time he was the +neatest looking man in the entire force. Harry, although he often +jested with him about it, secretly admired this characteristic of St. +Clair's. +</p> + +<p> +"You boys sleep while you can," said Sherburne, "because we can't +afford to linger in this region. Our safety lies in rapid marching, +giving the enemy no chance to gather a large force and trap us. Make +the best of your time because we're up and away an hour after midnight." +</p> + +<p> +The young officers were asleep within ten minutes, but the vigilant +riflemen patrolled the country in a wide circuit about them. Sherburne +himself, although worn by hard riding, slept but little. Anxiety kept +his eyes open. He knew that his task to find a passage for the army +across the swollen Potomac was of the utmost importance and he meant to +achieve it. He understood to the full the dangerous position in which +the chief army of the Confederacy stood. His own force might be +attacked at any moment by overwhelming numbers and be cut off and +destroyed or captured, but he also knew the quality of the men he led, +and he believed they were equal to any task. +</p> + +<p> +As he sat by the fire thinking somberly, a figure in the brush no great +distance away was watching him. Shepard, the spy, in the darkness had +passed with ease between the sentinels, using the skill of an Indian in +stalking or approaching, and now, lying well hidden, almost flat upon +his stomach, he surveyed the camp. He looked at Sherburne, sitting on +a log and brooding, and he made out Harry's figure wrapped in a blanket +and lying with his feet to the fire. +</p> + +<p> +Shepard's mind was powerfully affected. An intense patriot, something +remote and solitary in his nature had caused him to undertake this most +dangerous of all trades, to which he brought an intellectual power and +comprehension that few spies possess. As Harry had discovered long +since, he was a most uncommon man. +</p> + +<p> +Now Shepard as he gazed at this little group felt no hatred for them or +their men. He had devoted his life to the task of keeping the Union +intact. His work must be carried out in obscure ways. He could never +hope for material reward, and if he perished it would be in some +out-of-the-way corner, perhaps at the end of a rope, a man known to so +few that there would be none to forget him. And yet his patriotism was +so great and of such a fine quality that he viewed his enemies around +the fire as his brethren. He felt confident that the armies of the +North would bring them back into the Union, and when that occurred they +must come as Americans on an equal footing with other Americans. They +could not be in the Union and not of it. +</p> + +<p> +But Shepard's feeling for his official enemies would not keep him from +acting against them with all the skill, courage and daring that he +possessed in such supreme measure. He knew that it was Sherburne's +task to open a way for the Army of Northern Virginia to the Potomac and +to find a ford, or, in cooperation with some other force, to build a +bridge. It was for him to defeat the plan if he could. +</p> + +<p> +While the rain all the day before had brought gloom to the hearts of +Sherburne and his men it had filled his with joy, as he thought of the +innumerable brooks and creeks that were pouring their swollen waters +into the Potomac, already swollen too. He meant now to follow +Sherburne's force, see what plan it would attempt, what point, perhaps, +it would select for the bridge, and then bring the Union brigades in +haste to defeat it. +</p> + +<p> +It is said that men often feel when they are watched, although the +watcher is invisible, but it was not so in Sherburne's case. He did +not in the least suspect the presence of Shepard or of any foe, and the +spy, after he had seen all he wished, withdrew, with the same stealth +that had marked his coming. +</p> + +<p> +An hour after midnight all were awakened and they rode away. The next +day they reached the Potomac near Williamsport, where their pontoon +bridge had been destroyed, and looked upon the wide stream of the +Potomac, far too deep for fording. +</p> + +<p> +"If General Lee is attacked on the banks of this river by greatly +superior forces," said Sherburne, "he'll have no time to build bridges. +If we didn't happen to be victorious our forces would have to scatter +into the mountains, where they could be hunted down, man by man." +</p> + +<p> +"But such a thing as that is unthinkable, sir," said Harry. "We may +not win always, but here in the East we never lose. Remember Antietam +and the river at our back." +</p> + +<p> +"Right you are, Harry," said Sherburne more cheerfully. "The general +will get us out of this, and here is where we must cross. The river +may run down enough in two or three days to permit of fording. God +grant that it will!" +</p> + +<p> +"And so say I!" repeated Harry with emphasis. +</p> + +<p> +"I mean to hold this place for our army," continued Sherburne. +</p> + +<p> +"A reserved seat, so to speak." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, that's it. We must keep the country cleared until our main force +comes up. It shouldn't be difficult. I haven't heard of any +considerable body of Union troops between us and the river." +</p> + +<p> +They made camp rapidly in a strong position, built their fires for +cooking, set their horses to grazing and awaited what would come. It +was a dry, clear night, and Harry, who had no duties, save to ride with +a message at the vital moment, looked at once for his friends, the +Invincibles. +</p> + +<p> +St. Clair met him and held up a warning hand, while Happy touched his +lip with his finger. Before the double injunction of silence and +caution, Harry whispered: +</p> + +<p> +"What's happened?" +</p> + +<p> +"A tragedy," replied St. Clair. +</p> + +<p> +"And a victory, too," said Happy Tom. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't understand," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Then look and you will," said St. Clair. +</p> + +<p> +He pointed to a small clear space in which Colonel Leonidas Talbot and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sat on their blankets facing each +other with an empty cracker box between them, upon which their chess +men were spread. The firelight plainly revealed a look of dismay upon +the face of Colonel Talbot, and with equal plainness a triumphant +expression upon that of Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. +</p> + +<p> +"Colonel Talbot has lost his remaining knight," whispered St. Clair. "I +don't know how it came about, but when the event occurred we heard them +both utter a cry. Listen!" +</p> + +<p> +"I fail even yet, Hector, to see just how it occurred." said Colonel +Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"But it has occurred, Leonidas, and that's the main thing. A general +in battle does not always know how he is whipped, but the whipping +hurts just as much." +</p> + +<p> +"You should not show too much elation over your triumph, Hector. +Remember that he laughs best who laughs last." +</p> + +<p> +"I take my laugh whenever I can, Leonidas, because no one knows who is +going to laugh last. It may be that he who laughs in the present will +also laugh at the end. What do you mean by that move, Leonidas?" +</p> + +<p> +"That to you is a mystery, Hector. It's like one of Stonewall +Jackson's flanking marches, and in due time the secret will be revealed +with terrible results." +</p> + +<p> +"Pshaw, Leonidas, you can't frighten a veteran like me. That for your +move, and here's mine in reply." +</p> + +<p> +The two gray heads bent lower over the board as the colonels made move +after move. The youths standing in the shadow of the trees watched +until the second time that night the two uttered a simultaneous cry. +But they were very different in quality. Now Colonel Talbot's +expressed victory and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire's consternation. +</p> + +<p> +"Your bishop, Hector!" exclaimed Colonel Talbot. "Pious and able +gentleman as he is, an honor to his cloth, he is nevertheless my +captive." +</p> + +<p> +"I admit that it was most unexpected, Leonidas. You have matched my +victory with one of yours. It was indeed most skillful and I don't yet +see what led to it." +</p> + +<p> +"Did I not warn you a little while ago that you couldn't frighten me? I +prepared a trap for you, and thus I rise from defeat to victory." +</p> + +<p> +"At any rate we are about even on the evening's work, Leonidas, and we +have made more progress than for the whole six months preceding. It +seems likely now that we can finish our game soon." +</p> + +<p> +A sudden crash of rifle fire toward the east and from a point not +distant told them no. They rose to their feet, but they put the +chessmen away very deliberately, while the young officers hastened to +their posts. The fire continued and spread about them in a half circle, +accompanied now and then by the deeper note of a light field gun. +Sherburne made his dispositions rapidly. All the men remained on foot, +but a certain number were told off to hold the horses in the center of +the camp. +</p> + +<p> +"We're attacked by a large force," said Sherburne, "Our scouts gave us +warning in time. Evidently they wish to drive us away from here +because this will be the ford in case the river falls in time." +</p> + +<p> +"Then you look for a sharp fight?" +</p> + +<p> +"Without question. And remember that you're to avoid all risk if you +can. It's not your business to get shot here, but it is your business, +and your highly important business, to ride back to General Lee with +the news of what's happening. In order to do that it's necessary for +you to remain alive." +</p> + +<p> +"I obey orders," said Harry reluctantly. +</p> + +<p> +"Of course you do. Keep back with the men who are holding the horses. +That fire is growing fast! I'm glad we were able to find a camp so +defensible as this hill." +</p> + +<p> +He hurried away to watch his lines and Harry remained at his station +near the horses, where Dalton was compelled by the same responsibility +to stay with him. It was the first time that Harry had been forced to +remain a mere spectator of a battle raging around him, and while not +one who sought danger for danger's sake, it was hard work to control +himself and remain quiet and unmoved. +</p> + +<p> +"I suspect they're trying to cut us off completely from our own army," +he said to Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"Seems likely to me, too," said Dalton. "Wipe us out here, and hold +the river for themselves. Our scouts assured us that there was no +large force of the enemy in this region. It must have been gathered in +great haste." +</p> + +<p> +"In whatever way it was gathered, it's here, that's sure." +</p> + +<p> +There was a good moon now, and, using his glasses, Harry saw many +details of the battle. The attack was being pressed with great vigor +and courage. He saw in a valley numerous bodies of cavalry, firing +their carbines, and he saw two batteries, of eight light guns each, +move forward for a better range. Soon their shells were exploding near +the hill on which Harry stood, and the fire of the rifles, unbroken +now, grew rapidly in volume. +</p> + +<p> +But the men under Sherburne, youthful though most of them might be, +were veterans. They knew every trick of war, and columns of infantry +swept forward to meet the attack, preceded by the skirmishers, who took +heavy toll of the foe. +</p> + +<p> +"If they'd been able to make it a surprise they might have rushed us," +said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Nobody catches Sherburne sleeping," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"That's true, and because they can't they won't be able to overcome him +here. Now there go our rifles! Listen to that crash. I fancy that +about a thousand were fired together, and they weren't fired for +nothing." +</p> + +<p> +"No," said Dalton, "but the Yankees don't give way. You can see by +their line of fire that they're still coming. Look there! A powerful +body of horse is charging!" +</p> + +<p> +It was unusual to see cavalry attack at night, and the spectacle was +remarkable, as the moonlight fell on the raised sabers. But the +defiant rebel yell, long and fierce, rose from the thicket, and, as the +rifles crashed, the entire front of the charging column was burned +away, as if by a stroke of lightning. But after a moment of hesitation +they came on, only to ride deeper into a rifle fire which emptied +saddles so fast that they were at last compelled to turn and gallop +away. +</p> + +<p> +"Brave men," said Harry. "A gallant charge, but it had to meet too +many Southern rifles, aimed by men who know how to shoot." +</p> + +<p> +"But their infantry are advancing through that wood," said Dalton. +"Hear them cheering above the rifle fire!" +</p> + +<p> +The Northern shout rang through the forest, and the rebel yell, again +full of defiance, replied. The cavalry had been driven off, but the +infantry and artillery were far from beaten. The sixteen guns of the +two batteries were massed on a hill and they began to sweep the +Southern lines with a storm of shells and shrapnel. The forest and the +dark were no protection, because the guns searched every point of the +Southern line with their fire. Sherburne's men were forced to give +ground, before cannon served with such deadly effect. +</p> + +<p> +"What will the colonel do?" asked Dalton. "The big guns give the +Yankees the advantage." +</p> + +<p> +"He'll go straight to the heart of the trouble," said Harry. "He'll +attack the guns themselves." +</p> + +<p> +He did not know actually in what manner Sherburne would proceed, but he +was quite sure that such would be his course. The wary Southern leader +instantly detailed a swarm of his best riflemen to creep through the +woods toward the cannon. In a few minutes the gunners themselves were +under the fire of hidden marksmen who shot surpassingly well. The +gunners, the cannoneers, the spongers, the rammers and the ammunition +passers were cut down with deadly certainty. +</p> + +<p> +The captain of the guns, knowing that the terrible rifle fire was +coming from the thickets, deluged the woods and bushes with shells and +shrapnel, but the riflemen lay close, hugging the ground, and although +a few were killed and more wounded, the vast majority crept closer and +closer, shooting straight and true in the moonlight. The fire from the +batteries became scattered and wild. Their crews were cut down so fast +that not enough men were left to work the guns, and their commander +reluctantly gave the order to withdraw to a less exposed position. +</p> + +<p> +"Rifles triumphant over artillery," said Harry, who studied everything +through his glasses; "but of course the dusk helped the riflemen." +</p> + +<p> +"That's true," said Dalton, "but it takes good men like Sherburne to +use the favoring chances. Now our boys are charging!" +</p> + +<p> +The tremendous rebel yell swelled through the forest, and the Southern +infantry rushed to the attack. Harry saw that the charge was +successful, and his ears told him so too. The firing moved further and +further away, and soon declined in volume. +</p> + +<p> +"They've been beaten off," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"At least for the time," said Dalton, "but I've an idea they'll hang on +our front and may attack again in a day or so." +</p> + +<p> +"How then are you and I to get through and tell General Lee that this +is the place to bridge the Potomac, if it's to be bridged at all?" +</p> + +<p> +Dalton shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know," he replied, "and I won't think about it until Colonel +Sherburne gives his orders." +</p> + +<p> +The sounds of battle died in the distant woods. The last shot, whether +from cannon or rifle, was fired, and the Southern troops returned to +their positions, which they began to fortify strongly. Sherburne +appeared presently, his uniform cut by bullets in two or three places, +but his body untouched. He drew Harry and Dalton aside, where their +words could not be heard by anybody else. +</p> + +<p> +"You two," he said, "were to report to General Lee when I thought fit. +Well, the time has come; Harry, you go first, and, at a suitable +moment, George will follow. We have news of surpassing importance. We +took a number of prisoners in that battle and we were also lucky enough +to rescue several of our men who had been held as captives. We've +learned from them that General Meade, after making up his mind to +pursue, followed straight behind us for a while, but he has now turned +and gone southward in the direction of Frederick. He will cross South +Mountain, advance toward Sharpsburg, and attempt to smash us here, with +our backs to this swollen river. Why, some of the Federal leaders +consider the Army of Northern Virginia as good as destroyed already!" +</p> + +<p> +He spoke with angry emphasis. +</p> + +<p> +"But it isn't," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"No, it isn't. Doubtless General Lee will learn from scouts of his own +of General Meade's flanking movement, but we mustn't take the chance. +Moreover, we must tell him that this is the place for our army to +cross. If the river runs down in two or three days we'll have a ford +here." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm ready to go at any moment," said Harry. "Night helping me, I may +be able to ride through the lines of our enemies out there." +</p> + +<p> +"No, Harry, you must not go that way. They're so vigilant that you +would not have any possible chance. Nor can you ride. You must leave +your horse behind." +</p> + +<p> +"What way then must I go, sir?" +</p> + +<p> +"By the river. We have gathered up a few small boats, used at the +crossing here. You can row, can't you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Fairly well, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"'Twill do, because you're not to stay in the boat long. I want you to +drop down the stream until you're well beyond the Federal lines. Then +leave the boat and strike out across the country for General Lee. You +know the way. You can buy or seize a horse, and you must not fail." +</p> + +<p> +"I will not fail," said Harry confidently. +</p> + +<p> +"You'll succeed if anybody will, and now you must be off. Your pistols +are loaded, Harry? You may have to use them." +</p> + +<p> +They did not delay a minute, going down the shelving shore to the +Potomac, where a man held a small boat against the bank. +</p> + +<p> +"Get in, Harry," said Sherburne. "You'd better drop down three or four +miles, at least. Good-by and good luck." +</p> + +<p> +He shook hands with his colonel and Dalton, took the oars and pulled +far out into the stream. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap04"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER IV +</h3> + +<h3> +A HERALD TO LEE +</h3> + +<p> +When he swept out upon the sullen bosom of the Potomac, Harry looked +back only once. He saw two dim figures going up the bank, and, at its +crest, a line of lights that showed the presence of the Southern force. +There was no sound of firing, and he judged that the enemy had +withdrawn to a distance of two or three miles. +</p> + +<p> +The night had turned darker since the battle ceased, and not many stars +were out. Clouds indicated that flurries of rain might come, but he +did not view them now with apprehension. Darkness and rain would help +a herald to Lee. The current was strong, and he did not have to pull +hard, but, observing presently that the far shore was fringed with +bushes, he sent the boat into their shadow. +</p> + +<p> +He did not anticipate any danger from the southern shore, but the old +inherited caution of the forest runners was strong within him. Under +the hanging bushes he was well hidden, but, in some places, the flood +in the river had turned the current back upon itself, and he was +compelled to pull with vigor on the oars. +</p> + +<p> +The clouds that had threatened did not develop much, and while the +forests were dark, the surface of the river showed clearly in the faint +moonlight. Any object upon it could be seen from either bank, and +Harry was glad that he had sought the shelter of the overhanging +bushes. He realized now that in this region, which was really the +theater of war, many scouts and skirmishers must be about. +</p> + +<p> +The bank above him was rather high and quite steep, for which he was +glad, as it afforded protection. A half mile farther down he came to +the mouth of a creek coming in from the South, and just as he passed it +he heard voices on the bank. He held his boat among the bushes on the +cliff and listened. Several men were talking, but he judged them to be +farmers, not soldiers. Yet they talked of the battle that night, and +Harry surmised that they were looking at the lights in the Southern +camp which might yet be visible from the high point on which they +stood. He could not gather from their words whether they were Northern +or Southern sympathizers, but it did not matter, as he had no intention +of speaking to them, hoping only that they would go away in a few +minutes and let him continue his journey unseen. +</p> + +<p> +His hope speedily came to pass. He heard their voices sinking in the +distance, and leaving the shelter of the bushes he pulled down the +stream once more. Then he found that he had deceived himself about the +clouds. If they had retired, they had merely recoiled, to use the +French phrase, in order to gather again with greater force. +</p> + +<p> +During his short stay among the bushes at the foot of the cliff the +whole heavens had blackened and the air was surcharged with the heavy +damp and tensity that betoken a coming storm. The lightning blazed +across the river thrice, and he heard a mutter which was not that of +cannon. Then came rain and a rushing wind and the surface of the river +was troubled grievously. It rose up in waves like those of a lake, and +Harry's boat rocked and tumbled so badly that in a few minutes it was +half-full of water. +</p> + +<p> +Fearing he might sink, carrying with him his great message, he pulled +again, but fiercely now, for the southern bank and the shelter of the +bushes, which, fortunately for him, grew here in the water's edge. He +shoved his boat with all his might among them, as their tops snapped +and crackled in the hurricane. But he knew he was safe there, and he +continued to push until it reached the edge of the land. +</p> + +<p> +The river would be swollen by another storm, but for the present it did +not bother him greatly. He was more immediately concerned with his +wish to get back to Lee as soon as possible, and he was grateful for +that dense clump of bushes, growing in the very water's edge, because +the wind was blowing like a hurricane and the waves were chasing one +another on the Potomac, like the billows on a lake. He was a fair +oarsman, but it would have taken greater skill than his to have kept +his boat afloat in the tempestuous river. +</p> + +<p> +The bushes formed an absolute protection. His boat swayed with them, +which saved it from being damaged, and the overhanging lee of the cliff +kept most of the rain from him. He also wrapped about his body the +pair of blankets that he always carried, and he sat there not only in +safety, but with a certain physical pleasure. +</p> + +<p> +Once more amid surroundings with the like of which Henry Ware had been +so familiar, the soul of his great ancestor seemed to have descended +upon him. Most young officers, no matter how brave or how skilled in +war, would have been awed and alarmed. He had no comrades at his +elbow. There was no light, no friendly sound to encourage him, he was +as truly alone, so far as his present situation was concerned, as any +pioneer had ever been in the heart of the wilderness. But for him +there was pleasure at that moment in being alone. He did not quiver +when the thunder rolled and crashed above his head, and the lightning +blazed in one Titanic sword slash after another across the surface of +the river. Rather, the wilderness and majesty of the scene appealed to +him. Leaning well back in his boat with his blankets closely wrapped +about him, he watched it, and his soul rose with the storm. +</p> + +<p> +Harry knew from its sudden violence that the rain would soon pass, and +if the waves abated a little he would certainly take his boat into the +river and try his fortunes again. Yet a precious hour was lost, and +nothing could replace it. The thunder ceased by and by and there was +only dim lightning on the far horizon. The waves began to abate, and, +taking off his blankets, he pushed his boat once more into the stream. +</p> + +<p> +It rocked prodigiously and shipped water, but by strenuous effort he +kept it afloat, and as the wind sank still further he decided that he +would seek the northern shore and disembark as soon as possible. It +would be easier to steal through the thickets than to navigate what +amounted to a wild sea. But the banks were yet too high and steep for +a landing, and he continued to row, keeping now near the middle of the +stream. +</p> + +<p> +Wind and rain were dying fast, and he heard a sound behind uncommonly +like the distant swish of oars. It sent an unpleasant thrill through +him, because he wished to be alone on the river at that particular +time, but his eyes, tracing a course through all the dusk and gloom, +rested upon another boat, about two hundred yards away, containing a +single occupant. +</p> + +<p> +A farmer or a riverman, Harry thought, but to his great astonishment +the man suddenly raised himself up a little and shouted to him in a +tremendous voice to halt. Harry had not the least idea of stopping for +anybody. He bent to his oars and rowed swiftly on. Again came that +shout to halt, and it seemed more insolent to him than before. He put +a few more ounces of strength into his arms and shoulders and increased +his speed. +</p> + +<p> +The pursuer, suddenly drawing in his oars, raised a rifle from the +bottom of his boat, and fired point blank at the fugitive. The bullet +whistled so near Harry that he felt his ear burn, and at first thought +he was hit. He would have been glad to fire back, but his pistols could +not carry like his enemy's rifle, and there was nothing to do but flee. +Once again he sought to draw a few more ounces of energy from his body. +But the man behind him was a much greater oarsman than he and gained +rapidly. The stranger, shouting another command to halt, to which no +attention was paid, fired a second time, and the bullet went through +the side of Harry's boat, barely scraping his knee as it passed. +</p> + +<p> +His rage became intense. He had been shot at many times in battle, and +many times he had fired his pistols into the opposing masses, but here +upon this river a man sought his life, as the savages of old sought the +hunter. Another glance showed him that pursuer had closed up half the +distance between them, and, snatching one of the pistols from his belt, +he fired. He knew that he had missed, as he saw the water spurt up +beside the boat, but he thought that his bullet and the probability of +more might delay the pursuit. Nevertheless the man came on as boldly +and as fast as ever. If he fired a third time he could scarcely miss +at such short range. +</p> + +<p> +It seemed to Harry the gift of Heaven, that a whole pack of clouds +should drift above them at that moment, deepening the obscurity and +making the pursuing boat, although it was so near, a shapeless form in +the mist. He could not see the features of the man, but he was able to +discern his large and powerful figure, and he noticed the rhythmic +manner in which his arms and shoulders worked at the oars. Obviously +he had no chance to escape him by flight, and drawing his second pistol +he fired. The bullet struck the boat but did no damage. The man came +on faster than ever. Harry took a desperate resolution, and, whirling +his boat about, he rowed it straight at his pursuer, who was now almost +level with him. He intended to ram and take his chances. His movement +was so quick and unexpected that it succeeded. The bow of his boat, +helped perhaps by a wave, struck the other with such violence that both +were shattered and sank instantly. +</p> + +<p> +Harry went down with his craft, but in a few seconds came up again, his +mouth and eyes full of muddy water. He was a splendid swimmer, and his +eyes clearing in a moment he looked toward the northern shore, seeking +an easy place for landing. They encountered ten feet away a large +sun-browned face and two burning eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"Shepard!" Harry gasped. +</p> + +<p> +"And so it was you, Lieutenant Kenton. Perhaps if I had known it was +you I wouldn't have fired upon you." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't let that deter you. We're enemies." +</p> + +<p> +"I merely said 'perhaps!' I like you, but that wouldn't keep me from +stopping you by any method I could from reaching Lee." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm sure it wouldn't. I like you, too, Mr. Shepard, but we're enemies +here in this river, deadly enemies, and I mean to beat you off." +</p> + +<p> +"One may mean to do a thing and yet not do it. I'm the larger and the +more powerful. Besides, I'm toughened by superior age. You'd better +surrender, Mr. Kenton. I don't want to do you any bodily harm." +</p> + +<p> +"I admit that you're larger and stronger, but on land only. I'm the +better swimmer. We're both floating now, but if you'll make a +comparison, Mr. Shepard, you'll find that I'm doing it with the +greatest ease. Take my advice, and swim to the southern bank of the +river while I go to the northern. I say it in all good faith." +</p> + +<p> +"I've no doubt of that, but the young are likely to over-estimate their +powers. I'm a good swimmer, and you can't escape me." +</p> + +<p> +"The important point is not whether I can escape you, but whether you +can escape me. Since you have lost your boat and your rifle and we're +in such a treacherous and unstable element as water, I occupy the +superior position. The young may indeed over-estimate their powers, +but in swimming at least I'm a competent critic. For instance, you're +holding your shoulders too high, and you kick too much. You're +splashing water, a useless waste of energy. Now observe me. The +surface of this river is rough. Little waves are yet running upon it, +but I float as easily as a fish, come up to see by the moon what time +it is. It is not egotism on my part, merely a recognition of the +facts, but I warn you, Mr. Shepard, to swim to the other shore and let +me alone." +</p> + +<p> +The two were not ten feet apart, and, despite the lightness of their +talk, their eyes burned with eagerness and intensity. Harry knew that +Shepard would not dream of turning back. Yet in the water he awaited +the result with a confidence that he would not have felt on land. +</p> + +<p> +"It's your move, Mr. Shepard," he said. +</p> + +<p> +The intensity of Shepard's gaze increased, and Harry never took his +eyes from those of his enemy. He intended like a prize fighter to read +there what the man's next effort would be. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't see that it's my move," said Shepard, as he floated calmly. +</p> + +<p> +"You're following me for the purpose of capturing me." +</p> + +<p> +"To capture you, or delay you. Meanwhile, it seems to me that I'm +delaying you very successfully. I can't see that you're making much +progress towards Lee." +</p> + +<p> +"That depends upon which way this river is flowing. You note that we +float gently with the stream." +</p> + +<p> +"It's a poor argument. The Potomac flows directly by Washington, and +if we were to float on we'd float into the heart of great Northern +fortresses instead of Lee's camp." +</p> + +<p> +"That's true as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough. I'm +leaving the river soon. You can have it all then." +</p> + +<p> +"Thanks, but I think I'll go with you, Lieutenant Kenton." +</p> + +<p> +"Then come to the bottom!" exclaimed Harry, as he dived forward like a +flash, seized Shepard by the ankles and headed for the bottom of the +river with him. The water gurgled in his eyes and ears and nose, but +he held on for many seconds, despite the man's desperate struggles. +Then he was forced to let go and rise. +</p> + +<p> +As his head shot above the stream he saw another shooting up in the +same manner about fifteen feet away. Both were choked and gasping, but +Harry managed to say: +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't intend for you to come up so soon." +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose not, but perhaps you didn't pause to think that when you +rose I'd rise with you." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, that's true. It seems to me that matters grow complicated. Can't +you persuade yourself, Mr. Shepard, to go and leave me alone? I really +have no use for you here." +</p> + +<p> +"I'd like to oblige you, Lieutenant Kenton, but I intend to see that +you don't reach General Lee." +</p> + +<p> +"Still harping upon that? It seems to me that you're a stupidly +stubborn man. Don't you know that I'm going anyhow?" +</p> + +<p> +Harry had never ceased to watch his eyes, and he saw there the signal +of a coming movement. Shepard dived suddenly for him, intending to +repeat his own trick, but the youth was like a fish in the water, and +he darted to the right. The man came up grasping nothing. Harry +laughed. The chagrin of Shepard compelled his amusement, although he +liked the man. +</p> + +<p> +"I wish you'd go away, Mr. Shepard," he said. "On land you could, +perhaps, overpower me, but in the water I think I'm your master. All +through my boyhood I devoted a great deal of my time to swimming. Dr. +Russell of the Pendleton Academy—but you never knew him—used to say +that if I would swim less and study more I could make greater +pretensions to scholarship." +</p> + +<p> +Shepard, swimming rather easily, regarded him thoughtfully. +</p> + +<p> +"While we talk to each other in this more or less polite manner, Mr. +Kenton," he said, "we must not forget that we're in deadly earnest. I +mean to take you, and our scouts mean to take every other messenger who +goes out from Colonel Sherburne's camp. You know, and I know, that if +the Army of Northern Virginia does not reach in a few days that camp, +where there is a ford in ordinary weather, it will be driven up against +the Potomac and we can accumulate such great forces against it that it +cannot possibly escape. Even at Sherburne's place its escape is more +than doubtful, if it has to linger long." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I know these things quite well, Mr. Shepard. I know also, as you +do, that General Meade's army is not in direct pursuit, and, that in a +flanking movement, he is advancing across South Mountain and toward +Sharpsburg. It is a march well calculated and extremely dangerous to +General Lee, if he does not hear of it in time. But he will hear of it +soon enough. A comrade of mine, George Dalton, will tell him. Others +from Colonel Sherburne's camp will tell him, and I mean to tell him +too. I hope to be the first to do so." +</p> + +<p> +Harry never deceived himself for a moment. He knew that although +Shepard liked him, he would go to the uttermost to stop him, and as for +himself, while he had a friendly feeling for the spy, he meant to use +every weapon he could against him. Realizing that he could not linger +much longer, as the chill of the water was already entering his body, +he swam closer to Shepard, still staring directly into his eyes. How +thankful he was now for those innumerable swimmings in the little river +that ran near Pendleton! Everything learned well justifies itself some +day. +</p> + +<p> +Although there was but little moonlight they were so close together +that they could see the eyes of each other clearly, and Harry detected +a trace of uneasiness in those of Shepard. A good swimmer, the water +nevertheless was not his element, and although a man of great physique +and extraordinary powers, he longed for the solid earth under his feet. +</p> + +<p> +Harry drew himself together as if he were going to dive, but instead of +doing so suddenly raised himself in the water and shot forth his +clenched tight fist with all his might. Shepard was taken completely +by surprise and he sank back under the water, leaving a blood stain on +its surface. Harry watched anxiously, but Shepard came up again in a +moment or two, gasping and swimming wildly. The point of his jaw was +presented fairly and Harry struck again as hard as he could in the +water. Shepard with a choked cry went under and Harry, diving forward, +seized his body, bringing it to the surface. +</p> + +<p> +Shepard was senseless, but getting an arm under his shoulders Harry was +able to swim with him to the northern shore, although it took nearly +all his strength. Then he dragged him out upon the bank, and sank +down, panting, beside him. +</p> + +<p> +The great Civil War in America, the greatest of all wars until nearly +all the nations of Europe joined in a common slaughter, was a humane +war compared with other wars approaching it in magnitude. It did not +occur to Harry to let Shepard drown, nor did he leave him senseless on +the bank. As soon as his own strength returned he dragged him into a +half-sitting position, and rubbed the palms of his hands. The spy +opened his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"Good-by, Mr. Shepard," said Harry. "I'm bound to leave before you +recover fully because then I wouldn't be your match. I'm sorry I had +to hit you so hard, but there was nothing else to do." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't blame you. It was man against man." +</p> + +<p> +"The water was in my favor. I'm bound to admit that on land you'd have +won." +</p> + +<p> +"At any rate I thank you for dragging me out of the river." +</p> + +<p> +"You'd have done as much for me." +</p> + +<p> +"So I would, but our personal debts of gratitude can't be allowed to +interfere with our military duty." +</p> + +<p> +"I know it. Therefore I take a running start. Good-by." +</p> + +<p> +"We'll meet again." +</p> + +<p> +"But not on this side of the Potomac. It may happen when the Army of +Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac go into battle on the +other side of the river." +</p> + +<p> +Harry darted into the forest, and ran for a half-hour. He meant to put +as much distance as possible between Shepard and himself before the +latter's full strength returned. He knew that Shepard would follow, if +he could, but it was not possible to trail one who had a long start +through dark and wet woods. +</p> + +<p> +He came through the forest and into a meadow surrounded by a rail +fence, on which he sat until his breath came back again. He had +forgotten all about his wet uniform, but the run was really beneficial +to him as it sent the blood leaping through his veins and warmed his +body. +</p> + +<p> +"So far have I come," said Harry, "but the omens promise a hard march." +</p> + +<p> +He had his course fixed very clearly, and a veteran now in experience, +he could guide himself easily by the moon and stars. The clouds were +clearing away and a warm wind promised him dry clothing, soon. Long +afterward he thought it a strange coincidence that his cousin, Dick +Mason, in the far South should have been engaged upon an errand very +similar in nature, but different in incident. +</p> + +<p> +He crossed the meadow, entered an orchard and then came to a narrow +road. The presence of the orchard indicated the proximity of a +farmhouse, and it occurred to Harry that he might buy a horse there. +The farmer was likely to be hostile, but risks must be taken. He drew +his pistols. He knew that neither could be fired after the thorough +wetting in the river, but the farmer would not know that. He saw the +house presently, a comfortable two-story frame building, standing among +fine shade trees. Without hesitation he knocked heavily on the door +with the butt of a pistol. +</p> + +<p> +He was so anxious to hasten that his blows would have aroused the best +sleeper who ever slept, and the door was quickly opened by an elderly +man, not yet fully awake. +</p> + +<p> +"I want to buy a horse." +</p> + +<p> +"Buy a horse? At this time of the night?" +</p> + +<p> +He was about to slam the door, but Harry put his foot over the sill and +the muzzle of his pistol within six inches of the man's nose. +</p> + +<p> +"I want to buy a horse," he repeated, "and you want to sell one to me. +I think you realize that fact, don't you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I do," replied the man, looking down the muzzle of the big horse +pistol. +</p> + +<p> +"Come outside and close the door behind you. I know you haven't on +many clothes, but the night's warm, and you need fresh air." +</p> + +<p> +The man with the muzzle of the pistol still near his nose, obeyed. But +as he looked at the weapon he also had a comprehensive view of the one +who held it. +</p> + +<p> +"Wet ain't you?" he said. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you think it necessary to put it in the form of a question?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't like to say, unless I'm shore." +</p> + +<p> +"Where do you keep your horses?" +</p> + +<p> +"In the barn here to the left. What kind of a horse did you think +you'd keer fur most, stranger?" +</p> + +<p> +"The biggest, the strongest and fastest you've got" +</p> + +<p> +"I thought mebbe you'd want one with wings, you 'pear to be in such a +pow'ful hurry. I wish you wouldn't keep that pistol so near to my +nose. 'Sides, you've gethered so much mud an' water 'bout you that you +ain't so very purty to look at!" +</p> + +<p> +"It's your own mud and water. I didn't bring it into this country with +me." +</p> + +<p> +"Which means that you don't belong in these parts. I reckon lookin' at +you that you wuz one o' them rebels that went to Gettysburg and then +come back ag'in." +</p> + +<p> +"Exactly right, Mr. Farmer. I'm an officer in General Lee's army." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I wuz right 'bout you needin' a horse with wings. An' I guess +all the men in your army need horses with wings. Don't be in such a +tarnal hurry. You're goin' to stay right up here with us, boarders, so +to speak, till the war is over." +</p> + +<p> +Harry laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"Kind of you," he said, "but here is the stable and do you open the +stall doors one by one, and let me see the horses. At the first sign +of any trick I pull the trigger." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, as I don't like violence I'll show you the horses. Here's the +gray mare, five years old, swift but can't last long. This is old +Rube, nigh onto ten, mighty strong, but as balky as a Johnny Reb +hisself. Don't want him! No? Then I think that's about all." +</p> + +<p> +"No it's not! You open that last stall door at once!" +</p> + +<p> +The farmer made a wry face, and threw back the door with a slam. Harry +still covering the man with the pistol that couldn't go off, saw a +splendid bay horse about four years old. +</p> + +<p> +"Holding out on me, were you?" he said. "Did you think a Confederate +officer could be fooled in that manner?" +</p> + +<p> +"I reckon I oughtn't to have thought so. I've always heard that the +rebels had mighty good eyes for Yankee horseflesh." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll let that pass, because maybe it's true. Now, saddle and bridle +him quicker than ever before in your life." +</p> + +<p> +The farmer did so, and Harry took care to see that the girth was secure. +</p> + +<p> +"At how much did you value this horse?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"I did put him down at two hundred dollars, but I reckon he's worth +nothin' to me now." +</p> + +<p> +"Here's your money. When General Lee goes through the enemy's country +he pays for what he takes." +</p> + +<p> +He thrust a roll of good United States bills into the astonished man's +hand, and sprang upon the horse. Then he turned from the stable and +rode swiftly up the road, but not so swiftly that he did not hear a +bullet singing past his ears. A backward glance showed him an elderly +farmer in his night clothes standing on his porch and reloading his +rifle. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I can't blame you, I suppose," said Harry. "You can guess +pretty well what I am, and it's your business to stop me." +</p> + +<p> +But he rode fast enough to be far beyond the range of a second bullet, +and maintained a good pace for a long time, through hilly and wooded +country. His uniform dried upon him, and his hardy form felt no ill +result from the struggle in the river. The horse was strong and +spirited, and Harry knew that he could carry him without weariness to +Lee. He looked upon his mission as already accomplished, but his +ambition to reach the commander-in-chief first was yet strong. +</p> + +<p> +He rode throughout the rest of the night and dawn and the pangs of +hunger came together. But he decided that he would not turn from his +path to seek food. He would go on straight for Lee and let hunger have +its way. He had a splendid horse under him and he was faring quite as +well as he had a right to expect. He thought of Shepard, and felt pity +for him. The man had only striven to do his duty, and while he had used +force he had been very courteous and polite about it. Harry was bound +to acknowledge that his had been a very chivalrous enemy and only his +superiority in swimming had enabled him to win over Shepard. He was +glad that he had saved him and had left him on the bank, so to speak, +to dry. +</p> + +<p> +Then Shepard faded away with the mists and vapors that were retreating +before a brilliant dawn. The country was high, rolling, and the +foliage, although much browned by the July sun, which was unusually hot +that year, was still dense. Most of the hills were heavy with forest, +but all the valleys between were fertile and well cultivated. With the +dew of the morning fresh upon it the whole region was refreshing and +soothing to the eye with a look of peace, where in reality there was no +peace. Many thin columns of smoke lying blue against the silver sky +told where farmhouses stood, and hunger suddenly seized upon Harry +again. +</p> + +<p> +Hunger is natural to youth, and his severe exertions all through the +night had greatly increased it. It became both a pain and a weakness. +His shoulders drooped with fatigue, and he felt that he must have food +or faint by the way. +</p> + +<p> +He was ashamed of his physical weakness, but he knew that unless he +found food his faintness would increase, and hunger alone would stop +him, where so able a man as Shepard could not. His uniform, faded +anyhow, was so permeated with the dried mud of the river that it would +take a keen eye to tell whether it was Federal or Confederate, and he +need not disclose his identity in this region, which was so strongly +for the Union. He made up his mind quickly and rode for the nearest +farmhouse. +</p> + +<p> +Harry knew that he was inviting risks. His pistols were still useless +but they would be handy for threats, and he should be able to take care +of himself at a farmhouse. +</p> + +<p> +The house that he had chosen was only a few hundred yards away, its +white walls visible among trees, and the clatter of his horse's hoofs +brought a man from a barn in the rear. Harry noted him keenly. He was +youngish, stalwart and the look out of his blue eyes was fearless. He +came forward slowly, examining his visitor, and his manner was not +altogether hospitable. Harry decided that he had to deal with a +difficult customer but he had no idea of turning back. +</p> + +<p> +"Good morning," he said politely. +</p> + +<p> +"Good morning." +</p> + +<p> +"I wish some breakfast and I will pay. I've ridden all night in our +service." +</p> + +<p> +"You've so much dried mud on you that you look as if you'd been passin' +through a river." +</p> + +<p> +"Correct. That's exactly what happened." +</p> + +<p> +"But there's none on your horse." +</p> + +<p> +"He didn't pass with me. I'm willing to answer any reasonable number +of questions, but, as I told you before, I ride on an important +service. I must have breakfast at once, and I'll pay." +</p> + +<p> +"Whose service? Ours or Reb's?" +</p> + +<p> +"A military messenger can't answer the chance questions of those by the +roadside. I tell you I want breakfast at once." +</p> + +<p> +"Fine horse you ride, stranger. How long have you had him?" +</p> + +<p> +"All this year." +</p> + +<p> +"Funny. When I saw him last week he belonged to Jim Kendall down by +the Potomac, an' livin' on this very road, too." +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't half as funny as you think. Hands up! Now call to your wife +as loud as you can to bring me coffee and food at the gate! I know +they're ready in the kitchen. I can smell 'em here. Out with it, call +as fast as and as loud as you can, or off goes the top of your head!" +</p> + +<p> +Although a horse pistol held in a firm hand was thrust under his nose, +the man's blue eyes glared hate and defiance, and his mouth did not +open. Harry, in his excitement and anger, forgot that the charge in his +weapon was ruined and hence it was no acting with him when his own eyes +blazed down at the other and he fairly shouted: +</p> + +<p> +"I give you until I can count ten to call your wife! One! two! three! +four! five! six! seven! eight! nine!—" +</p> + +<p> +"Sophy! Sophy!" cried the farmer, who saw death flaming in the eyes +that looked into his, "Come! Come a-runnin'!" +</p> + +<p> +A good looking young woman threw open a door and ran, frightened, +toward the gate, where she saw her husband under the pistol muzzle of a +wild and savage looking man on horseback. +</p> + +<p> +"Sophy," said the farmer, "bring this infernal rebel a cup of coffee +and a plate of bread and meat. If it weren't for his pistol I'd drag +him off his horse and carry him to General Meade, but he's got the drop +on me!" +</p> + +<p> +"And Sophy," said Harry, who was growing cooler, "you make it a big tin +cup of coffee and you see that the plate is piled high with meat and +bread. Now don't you make one mistake. Don't you come back with any +weapon in your hand in place of food, and don't you fire on me from the +house with the family rifle. You're young and you're good looking, +and, doubtless the widow of our friend here with the upraised hands, +wouldn't have to wait long for another husband just as good as he is." +</p> + +<p> +The woman paled a little, and Harry knew that some thought of the +family rifle had been in her mind. The husband's glare became +ferocious. +</p> + +<p> +"You can take your hands down," said Harry. "I've no wish to torture +you, and I'm satisfied now that you're not armed." +</p> + +<p> +The man dropped his arms and the woman hurried to the kitchen. Harry +did not watch her, but kept his eyes continually upon the man, who he +knew would take advantage of his first careless moment, and spring for +him like a tiger. A pistol that he couldn't fire wouldn't be of much +use to him then. +</p> + +<p> +But the woman returned with a big tin cup of smoking coffee and a plate +piled high with bread and bacon and beefsteak. It was a welcome sight. +The aspect of the whole world became brighter at once, and the pulse of +hope beat high. But happiness did not make him relax caution. +</p> + +<p> +"Stand back about ten feet more," he said to the man, "I don't like +your looks." +</p> + +<p> +"What's the matter with my looks?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's not exactly your looks I mean, though they're scarcely worthy of +the lady, your wife, but it's rather your attitude or position which +reminds me of a lion or a tiger about to spring upon something it +hates." +</p> + +<p> +The man, with a savage growl, withdrew a little. +</p> + +<p> +"I'd like to put a bullet through you," he said. +</p> + +<p> +"I've no doubt of it, your eyes show it, but before I take a polite +leave of you I want to tell you that I did not steal this horse from +your friend, Jim Kendall. I paid for it at his own valuation." +</p> + +<p> +"Confederate money that won't be worth a dollar a bale before long." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, no, bills that were made and stamped at Washington, and I pay for +this breakfast in silver." +</p> + +<p> +He dropped it into the hand of the woman, as he took the huge cup of +coffee from her. Then he drank deep and long, and again and again, +draining the last drop of the brown liquid. +</p> + +<p> +"I hope it's burnt the lining out of your throat," said the man +savagely. +</p> + +<p> +"It was warm, but I like it that way. It was good indeed, and I'm +sorry, Madame, that you have such a violent and ill-tempered husband. +Maybe your next will be a much better man." +</p> + +<p> +"John is neither violent nor ill-tempered. He's never said a harsh +word to me since we were married. But he hates the rebels dreadfully." +</p> + +<p> +"That's too bad. I don't hate him and I'm glad you can give him a good +character. A man's own wife knows best. Now, I'm going to eat this +breakfast as I ride on. You'll find the plate on the fence a quarter +of a mile ahead." +</p> + +<p> +He bowed to both, and still keeping a wary eye on the man, thrust his +pistol into his belt, and as his horse moved forward at a swift and +easy gait he began to eat with a ravenous appetite. +</p> + +<p> +A backward glance showed husband and wife still gazing at him. But it +was only for a moment. They ran into the house and a little further on +Harry looked back again. They had reappeared and he almost expected to +hear again the whistle of a rifle shot, fired from a window. But the +distance was much too great, and he devoted renewed attention to the +demands of hunger. +</p> + +<p> +When he had finished his breakfast he put the plate upon the fence as +he had promised, and, looking back for the last time, he saw an +American flag wave to and fro on the roof of the house. He felt a +thrill of alarm. It must be a signal concerning him and it could be +made only to his enemies. Speaking sharply to his horse, he urged him +into a gallop. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap05"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER V +</h3> + +<h3> +THE DANGEROUS ROAD +</h3> + +<p> +The road led in the general direction of Lee's army and Harry knew that +if he followed it long enough he was bound to reach his commander, but +the two words "long enough" might defeat everything. Undoubtedly a +Federal force was near, or the farmer and his wife would not be +signaling from the roof of their house. +</p> + +<p> +A plucky couple they were and he gave them all credit, but he was aware +that while he had secured breakfast from them they had put the wolves +upon his trail. There were high hills on both the right and left of +the road, and, as he galloped along he examined them through his +glasses for flags answering the signal on the house. But he saw +nothing and the thickness of the forest indicated that even if the +signals were made there it was not likely he could see them. +</p> + +<p> +Now he wisely restrained the speed of his horse, so full of strength +and spirit that it seemed willing to run on forever, and brought him +down to a walk. He had an idea that he would soon be pursued, and then +a fresh horse would be worth a dozen tired ones. +</p> + +<p> +The road continued to run between high, forested hills, splendid for +ambush, and Harry saw what a danger it was not to have knowledge of the +country. He understood how the Union forces in the South were so often +at a loss on ground that was strange to them. +</p> + +<p> +The road now curved a little to the left, and a few hundred yards ahead +another from the east merged with it. Along this road the forest was +thinner, and upon it, but some distance away, he saw bobbing heads in +caps, twenty, perhaps, in number. He knew at once that they were the +enemy, called by the signal, and leaning forward he spoke in the ear of +his good horse. +</p> + +<p> +"You and I haven't known each other long," he said, "but we're good +friends. I paid honest and sufficient money for you, when I could have +ridden away on you without paying a cent. I know you have a powerful +frame and that your speed is great. I really believe you're the +fastest runner in all this part of the state. Now, prove it!" +</p> + +<p> +The horse stretched out his neck, and the road flew behind him, his +body working like a mighty machine perfectly attuned, even to its +minutest part. Harry's words had met a true response. He heard a cry +on the cross road, and the bobbing heads came forward much faster. +Either they had seen him or they had heard the swift beat of his +horse's hoofs. Loud shouts arose, but he saw the uniforms of the men, +and he knew that they belonged to the Northern army. +</p> + +<p> +He went past the junction of the roads, as if he were flying, but he +was not a bit too soon, as he heard the crack of rifles, and bullets +struck in the earth behind him. He knew that they would follow, hang +on persistently, but he had supreme confidence in the speed and +strength of his horse, and youth rode triumphant. It was youth more +than anything else that made him raise himself a little in his saddle, +look back to his pursuers and fling to them a long, taunting cry, just +as Henry Ware more than once had taunted his Indian pursuers before +disappearing in a flight that their swiftest warriors could not match. +</p> + +<p> +But the little band of Union troopers clung to the chase. They too had +good horses, and they knew that the man before them was a Southern +messenger, and in those hot July days of 1863 all military messages +carried on the roads north of the Potomac were important. The fate of +an army or a nation might turn upon any one of them, and the lieutenant +who led the little Union troop was aware of it. He was a man of +intelligence and a consuming desire to overtake the lone horseman lay +hold of him. He knew, as well as any general, that since Gettysburg the +fate of the South was verily trembling in the balance, and the +slightest weight somewhere might decide the scales. So he resolved to +hang on through everything and the chances were in his favor. It was +his own country. The Federal troops were everywhere, and any moment he +might have aid in cutting off the fugitive. +</p> + +<p> +When Harry eased his horse's flight he saw the troop, very distant but +still pursuing, and he read the mind of the Union leader. He was +saving his mounts, trailing merely, in the hope that Harry would +exhaust his own horse, after which he and his men would come on at +great speed. +</p> + +<p> +Harry looked down at his horse and saw that he was heaving with his +great effort. He knew that he had made a mistake in driving him so +hard at first, and with the courage of which only a young veteran would +have been capable he brought the animal almost to a walk, and +resolutely kept him there, while the enemy gained. When they were +almost within rifle shot he increased his speed again, but he did not +seek for the present to increase his gain. +</p> + +<p> +As long as their bullets could not reach him his horse should merely go +stride for stride with theirs, and when the last stretch was reached, +he would send forward the brave animal at his utmost speed. His were +the true racing tactics drawn from his native state. He had no doubt +of his ability to leave his pursuers far behind when the time came, but +his true danger was from interference. He too knew that many Union +cavalry troops were abroad, and he watched on either flank for them as +he rode on. At the crest of every little hill he swept the whole +country, but as yet he saw nothing but peaceful farmhouses. +</p> + +<p> +The day was clear and bright, not so warm as its predecessors, and he +calculated by the sun that he was going straight toward Lee. He knew +that a great army always marched slowly, and he was able to reckon with +accuracy just how far the Army of Northern Virginia had come since +Gettysburg. He should reach it in the morning, with full information +about the Potomac, and the best place for a crossing. +</p> + +<p> +He arrived at the crest of a hill higher than the others, and saw the +Union troop, about a quarter of a mile behind, stop beside a clump of +tall trees. Their action surprised Harry, who had thought they would +never quit as long as they could find his trail. To his further +surprise he saw one of the men dismount and begin to climb the tallest +of the trees. Then he brought his glasses into play. +</p> + +<p> +He saw the climber go up, up, until he had reached the last bough that +would support him. Then he drew some thing from his pocket which he +unrolled and began to wave rapidly. It was a flag and through his +powerful glasses Harry clearly saw the Stars and Stripes. It was +evident that they were signaling, but when one signals one usually +signals to somebody. His breath shortened for a moment. He believed +that the man in the tree was talking with his flag about the fugitive. +Where was the one to whom he was talking? +</p> + +<p> +He looked to both left and right, searching the fields and the forests, +and saw nothing. Then, as he was sweeping his glasses again in a half +curve he caught a glimpse of something straight ahead that made the +great pulse in his throat beat hard. About a mile in front of him +another man in a tree was waving a flag and beneath the tree were +horsemen. +</p> + +<p> +Harry knew now that the two flags were talking about the Confederate +messenger between. The one behind said: "Look out! He's young, riding +a bay horse and he's coming directly toward you," to which the one in +front replied, "We're waiting. He can't escape us. There are fields +with high fences on either side of the road and if he manages to break +through the fence he's an easy capture in the soft and muddy ground +there." +</p> + +<p> +Harry thought hard and fast, while the two flags talked so +contemptuously about him. The fields were unquestionably deep with mud +from the heavy rains, but he must try them. It was lucky that he had +seen the flags while both forces were out of rifle shot. He decided +for the western side, sprang from his horse and threw down a few rails. +In a half minute he was back on his horse, leaped him over the fence, +and struck across the field. +</p> + +<p> +It had been lately plowed and the going was uncommonly heavy. It would +be just as heavy however for his pursuers, and his luck in seeing their +signals would put him out of range before they reached the field. But +it was a wide field and his horse's feet sank so deep in the mud that +he dismounted and led him. When he was two-thirds of the way across a +shout told him that the two forces had met, and had discovered the ruse +of the fugitive. It did not take much intelligence to understand what +he had done, because he was yet in plain sight, and a few of the +cavalrymen took pot shots at him, their bullets falling far short. +Harry in his excited condition laughed at these attempts. Almost +anything was a triumph now. He shook his fist at them and regretted +that he could not send back a defiant shot. +</p> + +<p> +The cavalrymen conferred a little. Then a part pursued across the +field, and two detachments rode along its side, one to the north and +the other to the south. Harry understood. If the mud held him back +sufficiently they might pass around the field and catch him on the +other side. He continued to lead his horse, encouraging him with words +of entreaty and praise. +</p> + +<p> +"Come on!" he cried. "You won't let a little mud bother you. You +wouldn't let yourself be overtaken by a lot of half-bred horses not fit +to associate with you?" +</p> + +<p> +The brave animal responded nobly, and what had been the far edge of the +field was rapidly coming nearer. Beyond it lay woods. But the +flanking movement threatened. The two detachments were passing around +the field on firm ground, and Harry knew that he and his good horse +must hasten. He talked to him continually, boasting about him, and +together they reached the fence, which he threw down in all haste. +Then he led his weary horse out of the mud, sprang upon his back and +galloped into the bushes. +</p> + +<p> +He knew that the horses passing around the field on firm ground would +be fresh, and that he must find temporary hiding, at least as soon as +he could. He was in deep thickets now and he galloped on, careless how +the bushes scratched him and tore his uniform. The Union cavalry would +surely follow, but he wanted a little breathing time for his horse, and +in eight or ten minutes he stopped in the dense undergrowth. The horse +panted so hard that any one near would have heard him, but there was no +other sound in the thicket. The rest was valuable for both. Harry was +able to concentrate his mind and consider, while the panting of the +horse gradually ceased, and he breathed with regularity. The young +lieutenant patted him on the nose and whispered to him consolingly. +</p> + +<p> +"Good, old boy," he said, "you've brought me safely so far. I knew +that I could trust you." +</p> + +<p> +Then he stood quite still, with his hand stroking the horse's nose to +keep him silent. He had heard the first sounds of search. To his +right was the distant beat of hoofs and men's voices. Evidently they +were going to make a thorough search for him, and he decided to resume +his flight, even at the risk of being heard. +</p> + +<p> +He led the horse again, because the forest was so dense that one could +scarcely ride in it, and he thought, for a while, that he had thrown +off the pursuit, but the voices came again, and now on his left. They +had never relaxed the hunt for an instant. They had a good leader, and +Harry admitted that in his place he would have done the same. +</p> + +<p> +The country grew rougher, being so steep and hilly that it was not easy +of cultivation, and hence remained clothed in dense forest and +undergrowth. Twice more Harry heard the sound of pursuing voices and +hoofs, and then the noise of running water came to his ears. Twenty +yards farther and he came to a creek flowing between high banks, on +which the forest grew so densely that the sun was scarcely able to +reach the water below. +</p> + +<p> +The creek at first seemed to be a bar to his advance, but thinking it +over he led his horse carefully down into the stream, mounted him and +rode with the current, which was not more than a foot deep. +Fortunately the creek had a soft bottom and there was no ringing of +hoofs on stones. +</p> + +<p> +He went slowly, lest the water splash too much, and kept a wary watch +on the banks above, which were growing higher. He did not know where +the creek led, but it offered both a road and concealment, and it +seemed that Providence had put it there for his especial help. +</p> + +<p> +He rode in the bed of the stream fully an hour, and then emerged from +the hills into a level and comparatively bare country. It was a region +utterly unknown to him, but with his splendid idea of direction and the +sun to guide him he knew his straight course to Lee. The country +before him seemed to be given up wholly to grass, as he noticed neither +corn nor wheat. He saw several farm hands, but decided to keep away +from them. That was no country for the practice of horsemanship by a +lone Confederate soldier, nor did he like to be the fox in a fox hunt. +</p> + +<p> +Yet the fox he was. He chose a narrow road leading between cedars, and +when he had advanced upon it a few hundred yards he heard the sound of +a trumpet behind him, and at the edge of the woods that he had left. He +saw horsemen in blue emerging and he had no doubt that they were the +same men whom he had eluded in the thickets. +</p> + +<p> +"Their pursuit of me is getting to be a habit," he said to himself with +the most intense annoyance. "It's a good thing, my brave horse, that +you've had a long rest." +</p> + +<p> +He shook up the reins and began to gallop. He heard a faint shout in +the distance and saw the troopers in pursuit. But he did not fear them +now. Numerous fences would prevent them from flanking him, and he saw +that the road led on, straight and level. He shook the reins again and +the horse lengthened his stride. +</p> + +<p> +He felt so exultant that he laughed. It would be easy enough now to +distance this Union troop. Then the laugh died suddenly on his lips. A +bullet whistled so near his face that it almost took away his breath. +An elderly farmer standing in his own door had fired it, and Harry +snatched one of the pistols from his own belt, remembering then with +rage that it could not be fired. He shouted to his horse and made him +run faster. +</p> + +<p> +A bullet struck the pommel of his saddle and glanced off. A boy in an +orchard had fired it. A load of bird-shot, a handful it seemed to +Harry, flew about his ears. A bent old man who ought to have been +sitting on a porch in a rocking chair had discharged it from the edge +of a wood. A squirrel hunter on a hill took a pot shot at him and +missed. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was furious with anger. Decidedly this was no place for a +visitor from the South. He did not detect the faintest sign of +hospitality. Men and women alike seemed to dislike him. A powerful +virago hurled a stone at his head, which would have struck him +senseless had it not missed, and a farmer standing by a fence had a +shotgun cocked and ready to be fired as he passed, but Harry, snatching +one of the useless pistols from his belt, hurled it at him with all his +might. It struck the man a glancing blow on the head, felling him as +if he had been shot, and then Harry, thinking quickly, acted with equal +quickness. +</p> + +<p> +He reined in his horse with such suddenness that he nearly shot from +the saddle. Then he leaped down, seized the shotgun from under the +hands of the fallen man, sprang on his horse and was away again, +sending back a cry of defiance. +</p> + +<p> +Harry had never before in his life been so furious. To be hunted thus +by a whole countryside, as if he were a mad dog, was intolerable. It +was not only a threat to one's life, it was also an insult to one's +dignity to be treated as an animal. Although he was armed now the +insult continued. The call of the trumpet sounded almost without +ceasing, and the Union troopers uttered many shouts as do those who +chase the fox, although Harry knew that their cries were intended to +rouse the farmers who might head him off. +</p> + +<p> +The chase grew hotter, but he felt better with the shotgun. It was a +fine double-barreled weapon of the latest make, and he hoped that it +was loaded with buckshot. He was a sharpshooter, and he could give a +good account of any one who came too near. +</p> + +<p> +Yet with the trumpet shrilling continually behind him the huntsmen +gathered fast on either flank. It was yet the day when nearly every +house in America, outside a town, contained a rifle, and bullets fired +from a distance began to patter around Harry and his horse. The +riflemen were too far away to be reached with the shotgun, and it +seemed inevitable to him that in time a bullet would strike him. He +was truly the fox, and he knew that nothing could save him but forest. +</p> + +<p> +It was in his favor that the country was so broken and wooded so +heavily, and fixing his eyes on trees a half-mile ahead he raced for +them. If none of this yelling pack dragged him down he felt sure that +he might escape again in the forest. The trees swiftly came nearer, +but the shots on either flank increased. More than ever he felt like +the fox with the hounds all about him, and just one slender chance to +reach the burrow ahead. +</p> + +<p> +He felt his horse shake and knew that he had been hit. Yet the brave +animal ran on as well as ever, despite the triumphant shout behind, +which showed that he must be leaving a trail of blood. But the woods, +thick and inviting, were near, and he believed that he would reach +them. The horse shook again, much more violently than before, and then +fell to his knees. Harry leaped off, still clutching the shotgun, just +as the brave animal fell over on his side and began to breathe out his +life. +</p> + +<p> +He heard again that shout of triumph, but he was one who never gave up. +He had alighted easily on his feet. The trees were not more than +fifteen yards away and he disappeared among them as bullets clipped +bark and twigs about him. +</p> + +<p> +He breathed a deep sigh of thankfulness when he entered the forest. It +was so dense, and there was so much undergrowth that the horsemen could +not follow him there. If they came on foot, and spread out, as they +must, to hunt him, he had the double-barreled shotgun and it was a +deadly weapon. The fox had suddenly become the panther, alert, +powerful, armed with claws that killed. +</p> + +<p> +Harry went deep into the thickets before he sat down. He had no doubt +that they would follow him, but at present he was out of their sight +and hearing. He felt a mixture of elation and sadness, elation over +his temporary escape, and sadness over the loss of his gallant horse. +But one could not dwell long on regrets at such a time, and, advancing +a little farther, he sat down among the densest bushes that he could +find with the shotgun across his knees. +</p> + +<p> +Now Harry saw that the horse had really done all that it was possible +for him to do. He had brought him to the wood, and within he would +have been a drawback. A man on foot could conceal himself far more +easily. Everything favored him. There were bushes and vines everywhere +and he could be hidden like a deer in its covert. +</p> + +<p> +He looked up at the sun shining through the tops of the trees and saw +that he had kept to his true course. His flight had taken him directly +toward Lee at a much faster pace than he would have come otherwise. The +enemy had driven him on his errand at double speed. He felt that he +could spare a little time now, while he waited to see what the pursuit +would do. +</p> + +<p> +His feeling of exultation was now unalloyed. Deep in the forest with +his foes looking for him in vain, the spirit of Henry Ware was once +more strong within him. He was the reincarnation of the great hunter. +He lay so still, clasping the shotgun, that the little creatures of the +woods were deceived. A squirrel ran up the trunk of an oak six feet +away, and stood fearlessly in a fork with his bushy tail curved over +his back. A small gray bird perched on a bough just over Harry's head +and poured out a volume of song. Farther away sounded the tap tap of a +woodpecker on the bark of a dead tree. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, although he did not move, was watching and listening with +intense concentration, but his ears now would be his surest signals. +He could not see deep in the thickets, but he could hear any movement +in the underbrush a hundred yards away. So far there was nothing but +the hopping of a rabbit. The bird over his head sang on. There was no +wind among the branches, not even the flutter of leaves to distract his +attention from anything that might come on the ground. +</p> + +<p> +He rejoiced in this period of rest, of the nerves, rather than purely +physical. He had been keyed so high that now he relaxed entirely, and +soon lay perfectly flat, but with the shotgun still clasped in his +arms. He had a soft couch. Under him were the dead leaves of last +year, and over him was the pleasant gloom of thick foliage, already +turning brown. The bird sang on. His clear and beautiful note came +from a point directly over his head, but Harry could not see his tiny +body among the leaves. He became, for a little while, more interested +in trying to see him than in hearing his pursuers. +</p> + +<p> +It was annoying that such a volume of sound should come from a body +that could be hidden by a leaf. If a man could shout in proportion to +his own size he might be heard eight to ten miles away. It was an +interesting speculation and he pursued it. While he was pursuing it +his mind relaxed more and more and traveled farther and farther away +from his flight and hiding. Then his heavy eyelids pulled down, and, +while his pursuers yet searched the thickets for him, he slept. +</p> + +<p> +But his other self, which men had thought of as far back as Socrates, +kept guard. When he had slept an hour a tiny voice in his ear, no +louder than the ticking of a watch, told him to awake, that danger was +near. He obeyed the call, sleep was lifted from him and he opened his +eyes. But with inherited caution he did not move. He still lay flat in +his covert, trusting to his ears, and did not make a leaf move about +him. +</p> + +<p> +His ears told him that leaves were rustling not very far away, not more +than a hundred feet. His power of hearing was great, and the forest +seemed to make it uncommonly sensitive and delicate. +</p> + +<p> +He knew that the rustling of the leaves was made by a man walking. By +and by he heard his footfalls, and he knew that he wore heavy boots, or +his feet would not have crushed down in such a decisive manner. He was +looking for something, too, because the footfalls did not go straight +on, but veered about. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was well aware that it was a Union soldier, and that he was the +object of his search. He was a clumsy man, not used to forests, +because Harry heard him stumble twice, when his feet caught on vines. +Nor was any comrade near, or he would have called to him for the sake +of companionship. Harry judged that he was originally a mill hand, and +he did not feel the least alarm about him, laughing a little at his +clumsiness and awkwardness, as he trod heavily among the bushes, +tripped again on the vines, and came so near falling that he could hear +the rifle rattle when it struck a tree. He did not have the slightest +fear of the man, and at last, raising his head, he took a look. +</p> + +<p> +All his surmises were justified. He saw a great hulking youth of heavy +and dull countenance, carrying a rifle awkwardly, his place obviously +around some town and not in the depths of a forest, looking for a wary +enemy, who knew more of the wilderness than he could ever learn in all +his life. Harry saw that he was perspiring freely and that he looked +more like the hunted than the hunter. His eyes expressed bewilderment. +He was obviously lonely and apprehensive, not because he was a coward, +but because the situation was so strange to him. +</p> + +<p> +Besides his rifle he carried a large knapsack, so much distended that +Harry knew it to be full of food. It was this that decided him. A +soldier, like an army, must travel on his stomach, and he wanted that +knapsack. Moreover he meant to get it. He leveled his shotgun and +called in a low tone, but a tone so sharp that it could be heard +distinctly by the one to whom it was addressed: +</p> + +<p> +"Throw up your hands at once!" +</p> + +<p> +The man threw them up so abruptly that the rifle fell from his shoulder +into the bushes, and he turned around, staring face toward the point +from which the command had come. Harry saw at once that he was of +foreign birth, probably. The features inclined to the Slav type, +although Slavs were not then common in this country, even in the mill +towns of the North. +</p> + +<p> +"Are you an American?" asked Harry, standing up. +</p> + +<p> +"All but two years of my life." +</p> + +<p> +"The first two years then, as I see you speak good English. What's +your name?" +</p> + +<p> +"Michael Stanislav." +</p> + +<p> +"Do you think that anybody named Michael Stanislav has the right to +interfere in the quarrel of the Northern and Southern states? Don't +the Stanislavs have trouble enough in the country where the Stanislavs +grow?" +</p> + +<p> +The big youth stared at him without understanding. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you know who I am?" asked Harry, severely. +</p> + +<p> +"The running rebel that we all look for." +</p> + +<p> +"Rebels don't run. Besides, there are no rebels. Anyway I'm not the +man you're looking for. My name is Robin Hood." +</p> + +<p> +"Robin Hood?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, Robin Hood! Didn't you ever hear of him?" +</p> + +<p> +"Never." +</p> + +<p> +"Then you have the honor of hearing of him and meeting him at the same +time. As I said, my name is Robin Hood and my trade is that of a +benevolent robber. I lie around in the greenwood, and I don't work. +I've a lot of followers, Friar Tuck and others, but they're away for a +while. They're as much opposed to work as I am. That's why they're my +followers. We're the friends of the poor, because they have nothing we +want, and we're the enemies of the rich because they have a lot we do +want and that we often take. Still, we couldn't get along very well, +if there were no rich for us to rob. It's like taking sugar water from +a maple tree. We won't take too much, because it would kill the tree +and we want to take its sugar water again, and many times. Do you +understand?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," replied the big youth, but Harry knew he didn't. Harry +meanwhile was listening keenly to all that was passing in the forest, +and he was sure that no other soldier had wandered near. It was +perhaps partly a feeling of loneliness on his own part that caused him +to linger in his talk with Michael Stanislav. +</p> + +<p> +"Michael," he continued, "you appreciate our respective positions, +don't you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Ah!" said Michael, in a puzzled voice. +</p> + +<p> +"I've explained carefully to you that I'm Robin Hood, and you at the +present moment represent the rich." +</p> + +<p> +"I am not rich. Before I turn soldier I work in a mill at Bridgeport." +</p> + +<p> +"That's all very well, but you can't get out of it by referring to your +past. Just now you are a proxy of the rich, and it's my duty to rob +you." +</p> + +<p> +The mouth of the big fellow expanded into a wide grin. +</p> + +<p> +"You won't rob me," he said. "I have not a cent." +</p> + +<p> +"But I'm going to rob you just the same. Don't you dare to drop a hand +toward the pistols in your belt. If you do I'll blow your head off. +I'm covering you with a double-barreled shotgun. Each barrel contains +about twenty buckshot, and at close range their blast would be so +terrific that you'd make an awful looking corpse." +</p> + +<p> +"I hold up my hands a long time. Don't want to be any kind of a +corpse." +</p> + +<p> +"That's the good boy. Steady now. Don't move a muscle. I'm going to +rob you. It's a brief and painless operation, much easier than pulling +a tooth." +</p> + +<p> +He deftly removed the two pistols and the accompanying ammunition from +the man's belt, placing them in his own. His belt of cartridges he put +on the ground beside the fallen rifle, and then as he felt a glow of +triumph he passed the well-filled knapsack from the stalwart shoulders +of the other to his own shoulders, equally stalwart. +</p> + +<p> +"Is everything in it first class, Michael?" he demanded with much +severity. +</p> + +<p> +"The best. Our army feeds well." +</p> + +<p> +"It's a good thing for you that it's so. Robin Hood is never satisfied +with anything second class, and he's likely to be offended if you offer +it to him. On the whole, Michael, I think I like you and I'm glad you +came this way. But do you care for good advice?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"That's right. Say 'sir' to me. It pleases my robber's heart. Then, +my advice to you is never again to go into the woods alone. All the +forest looks alike to those who don't know it, and you're lost in a +minute. Besides, it's filled with strange and terrible creatures, +Robin Hood—that's me, though I have some redeeming qualities—the +Erymanthean boar, the Hydra-headed monster, Medusa of the snaky locks, +Cyclops, Polyphemus with one awful eye, the deceitful Sirens, the Old +Man of the Mountain, Wodin and Osiris, and, last and most terrible of +all, the Baron Munchausen." +</p> + +<p> +A flicker of fear appeared in the eyes of the captive. +</p> + +<p> +"But I'll see that none of these monsters hurt you," said Harry +consolingly. "The open is directly behind you, about a mile. Right +about! Wheel! Well done! Now, you won't see me again, but you'll +hear me giving commands. Forward, march! Quit stumbling! No true +forester ever does! Nor is it necessary for you to run into more than +three trees! Keep going! No, don't curve! Go straight ahead, and +remember that if you look back I shoot!" +</p> + +<p> +Michael walked swiftly enough. He deemed that on the whole he had +fared well. The great brigand, Robin Hood, had spared his life and he +had lost nothing. The army would replace his weapons and ammunition +and he was glad enough to escape from that terrible forest, even if he +were driven out of it. +</p> + +<p> +Harry watched him until he was out of sight, and then picking up the +rifle and belt of cartridges he fled on soundless feet deeper into the +forest. Two or three hundred yards away he stopped and heard a great +shouting. Michael, no longer covered by a gun, had realized that +something untoward had happened to him, and he was calling to his +comrades. Harry did not know whether Michael would still call the man +who had held him up, Robin Hood, nor did he care. He had secured an +excellent rifle which would be much more useful to him than a shotgun, +and his course still led straight toward the point where he should find +Lee's army on the march. He felt that he ought to throw away the +shotgun, as two weapons were heavy, but he could not make up his mind +to do so. +</p> + +<p> +A hundred yards farther and he heard replies to Michael's shouts, and +then several shots, undoubtedly fired by the Union troops themselves, +as signals of alarm. He laughed to himself. Could such men as these +overtake one who was born to the woods, the great grandson of Henry +Ware, the most gifted of the borderers, who in the woods had not only a +sixth sense, but a seventh as well? And his great grandson had +inherited many of his qualities. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, in the forest, felt only contempt for these youths of Central +Europe who could not tell one point of the compass from another. He +guided his own course by the sun, and continued at a good pace until he +could hear shouts and shots no longer. Then in the dense woods, where +the shadows made a twilight, he came to a tiny stream flowing from +under a rock. He knelt and drank of the cool water, and then he opened +Michael's knapsack. It was truly well filled, and he ate with deep +content. Then he drank again and rested by the side of the pool. +</p> + +<p> +As he reflected over his journey Harry concluded that Providence had +watched over him so far, but there was much yet to do before he reached +Lee. Providence had a strange way of watching over a man for a while, +and then letting him go. He would neglect no precaution. The forest +would not continue forever and then he must take his chances in the +open. +</p> + +<p> +Still burning with the desire to be the first to reach Lee, he put the +rifle and the shotgun on either shoulder, and set off at as rapid a +pace as the thickets would permit. But he soon stopped because a sound +almost like that of a wind, but not a wind, came to his ears. There +was a breeze blowing directly toward him, but he paid no attention to +it, because to him most breezes were pleasant and friendly. But the +other sound had in it a quality that was distinctly sinister like the +hissing of a snake. +</p> + +<p> +Harry paused in wonder and alarm. All his instincts warned him that a +new danger was at hand. The breath of the wind suddenly grew hot, and +sparks carried by it blew past him. He knew, in an instant, that the +forest was on fire behind him and that tinder dry, it would burn fast +and furious. Changing from a walk to a run, he sped forward as swiftly +as he could, while the flames suddenly sprang high, waved and leaped +forward in chase. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap06"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER VI +</h3> + +<h3> +TESTS OF COURAGE +</h3> + +<p> +Harry did not know how the woods had been set on fire, and he never +knew. He did not credit it to the intent of Michael and his comrades, +but he thought it likely that some of these men, ignorant of the +forest, had built a campfire. His first thought was of himself, and +his second was regret that so fine a stretch of timber should be burned +over for nothing. +</p> + +<p> +But he knew that he must hurry. Nor could he choose his way. He must +get out of that forest even if he ran directly into the middle of a +Union brigade. The wind was bringing the fire fast. It leaped from +one tree to another, despite the recent rains, gathering volume and +power as it came. Sparks flew in showers, and fragments of burned +twigs rained down. Twice Harry's face was scorched lightly and he had a +fear that one of the blazing twigs would set his hair on fire. He made +another effort, and ran a little faster, knowing full well that his +life was at stake. +</p> + +<p> +The fire was like a huge beast, and it reached out threatening red +claws to catch him. He was like primeval man, fleeing from one of the +vast monsters, now happily gone from the earth. He was conscious soon +that another not far from him was running in the same way, a man in a +faded blue uniform who had dropped his rifle in the rapidity of his +flight. +</p> + +<p> +Harry kept one eye on him but the stranger did not see him until they +were nearly out of the wood. Then Harry, with a clear purpose in view, +veered toward him. He saw that they would escape from the fire. Open +fields showed not far ahead, and while the sparks were numerous and +sometimes scorched, the roaring red monster behind them would soon be +at the end of his race. He could not follow them into the open fields. +</p> + +<p> +When the two emerged from the forest Harry was not more than fifteen +feet from the stranger, who evidently took him for a friend and who was +glad to have a comrade at such a time. They raced across fields in +which the wheat had been cut, and then sank down four or five hundred +yards from the fire, which was crackling and roaring in the woods with +great violence, and sending up leaping flames. +</p> + +<p> +"I was glad enough to get out of that. Do you think the rebels set it +on fire?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't think so, but I was as pleased as you to escape from it, Mr. +Haskell." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, how did you know my name?" exclaimed the man in wonder. +</p> + +<p> +"Why should I forget you? I've seen you often enough. Your name is +John Haskell and you belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania." +</p> + +<p> +"That's right, but I don't seem to recall you." +</p> + +<p> +"It takes a lot of us some time to clear up our minds wholly after such +a battle as Gettysburg. In some ways I've been in a sort of confused +state myself. I dare say you've seen me often enough." +</p> + +<p> +"That's likely." +</p> + +<p> +"Pity you had your horse shot under you, Mr. Haskell. A man who is +carrying important messages at a time like this can't do very well +without his horse." +</p> + +<p> +"How did you know I'd lost my horse?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I'm a mind reader. I can tell you a lot now. You carry your +dispatch in the left-hand pocket of your waistcoat, just over your +heart. And it hasn't been long, either, since you lost your horse, +perhaps not more than an hour." +</p> + +<p> +Haskell stared at him, but Harry's face was innocent. Nevertheless he +had read Haskell's name and regiment on his canteen, cut there with his +own knife. It was a mere guess that he was a dispatch bearer, but he +had located the dispatch, because at the mention of the word "message" +the man's hand had involuntarily gone to his left breast to see if the +dispatch were still there. Boots with little dirt on them indicated +that he had been riding. +</p> + +<p> +"A mind reader!" said Haskell, with suspicion. "What business has a +mind reader in this war?" +</p> + +<p> +"He could be of enormous value. If he were a real mind reader he could +tell his general exactly what the opposing general intended to do. I'm +employed at a gigantic salary for that particular purpose." +</p> + +<p> +"I guess you're trying to be funny. Why do you carry both a rifle and +a shotgun?" +</p> + +<p> +"In order to hit the target with one, if the other misses. I always +use the rifle first, because if the bullet doesn't get home the +shotgun, spreading its charge over a much wider area, is likely to do +something." +</p> + +<p> +"Now I know you're trying to be funny. As I'm going about my business +as fast as I can, I'll leave you here." +</p> + +<p> +"I like you so well that I can't bear to see you go. Don't move. My +rifle covers your heart exactly and you are not more than ten feet +away. I shall have no possible need of the shotgun. Keep your hands +away from your belt. You're in a dangerous position, Mr. Haskell." +</p> + +<p> +"I believe you're an infernal rebel." +</p> + +<p> +"Take out the objectionable adjective 'infernal' and you're right. Keep +those hands still, I tell you." +</p> + +<p> +"What do you want?" +</p> + +<p> +"Your dispatches! Oh, I must have 'em. Unbutton your coat and +waistcoat and hand 'em to me at once. I hate to take human life, but +war demands a terrible service, and I mean what I say!" +</p> + +<p> +His voice rang with determination. The man slowly unbuttoned his +waistcoat and took out a folded dispatch. +</p> + +<p> +"Put it on the ground in front of you. That's right, and don't you +reach for it again. Now, lay your canteen beside it!" +</p> + +<p> +"What in thunder do you want with my canteen? It's empty!" +</p> + +<p> +"I can fill it again. This is a well watered country. That's right; +put it beside the dispatch. Now you walk about one hundred yards to +the right with your back to me. If you look around at all I fire, and +I'm a good marksman. Stand there ten minutes, and then you can move +on! That's right! Now march!" +</p> + +<p> +The man walked away slowly and when he had gone about half the distance +Harry, picking up the dispatch, took flight again across the fields. +Climbing a fence, he looked back and saw the figure of John Haskell, +standing motionless on a hill. He knew that the man was not likely to +remain in that position more than half the allotted time. It was +certain that he would soon turn, despite the risk, but Harry was +already beyond his reach. +</p> + +<p> +He leaped from the fence, crossed another field and entered a wood. +There he paused among the trees and saw Haskell returning. But when he +had come a little distance, he shook his head doubtfully, and then +walked toward the north. +</p> + +<p> +"A counsel of wisdom," chuckled Harry, who was going in quite another +direction. "I think I'll read my dispatch now." +</p> + +<p> +He opened it and blessed his luck. It was from Meade to Pleasanton, +directing him to cut in with all the cavalry he could gather on the +enemy's flank. The Potomac was in great flood and the Army of Northern +Virginia could not possibly cross. If it were harried to the utmost by +the Union cavalry the task of destroying it would be much easier. +</p> + +<p> +"So it would," said Harry to himself. "But Pleasanton won't get this +dispatch. Providence has not deserted me yet; and it's true that +fortune favors the brave. I'm John Haskell of the Fifth Pennsylvania +and I can prove it." +</p> + +<p> +He had put the canteen over his shoulder and the name upon it was a +powerful witness in his favor. The dispatch itself was another, and +his faded uniform told nothing. +</p> + +<p> +Harry had passed through so much that a reckless spirit was growing +upon him, and he had succeeded in so much that he believed he would +continue to succeed. Regretfully he threw the shotgun away, as it +would not appear natural for a messenger to carry it and a rifle too. +</p> + +<p> +He went forward boldly now, and, when an hour later he saw a detachment +of Union cavalry in a road, he took no measures to avoid them. Instead +he went directly toward the horsemen and hailed them in a loud voice. +They stopped and their leader, a captain, looked inquiringly at Harry, +who was approaching rapidly. +</p> + +<p> +Harry held up both hands as a sign that he was a friend, and called in +a loud voice: +</p> + +<p> +"I want a horse! And at once, if you please, sir!" +</p> + +<p> +He had noticed that three led horses with empty saddles, probably the +result of a brush with the enemy, and he meant to be astride one of +them within a few minutes. +</p> + +<p> +"You're a cool one," said the captain. "You come walking across the +field, and without a word of explanation you say you want a horse. +Don't you want a carriage too?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't need it. But I must have a horse, Captain. I ride with a +message and it must be of great importance because I was told to go +with it at all speed and risk my life for it. I've risked my life +already. My horse was shot by a band of rebels, but luckily it was in +the woods and I escaped on foot." +</p> + +<p> +As he spoke he craftily moved the canteen around until the inscription +showed clearly in the bright sunlight. The quick eyes of the captain +caught it at once. +</p> + +<p> +"You do belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania," he said. "Well, you're a +long way from your regiment. It's back of that low mountain over +there, a full forty miles from here, I should say." +</p> + +<p> +Harry felt a throb of relief. It was his only fear that these men +themselves should belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania, a long chance, but +if it should happen to go against him, fatal to all his plans. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't want to join my regiment," he said. "I'm looking for General +Pleasanton." +</p> + +<p> +"General Pleasanton! What can you happen to want with him?" +</p> + +<p> +Harry gave the officer a wary and suspicious look, and then his eyes +brightened as if he were satisfied. +</p> + +<p> +"I told you I was riding with a message," he said, "and that message is +for General Pleasanton. It's from General Meade himself and it's no +harm for me to show it to so good a patriot as you." +</p> + +<p> +"No, I think not," said the captain, flattered by the proof of respect +and confidence. +</p> + +<p> +Harry took the letter from his pocket. It had been sealed at first, +but the warmth of the original bearer's body with a little help from +Harry later had caused it to come open. +</p> + +<p> +"Look at that," said Harry proudly as he took out the paper. +</p> + +<p> +The captain read it, and was mightily impressed. He was, as Harry had +surmised, a thoroughly staunch supporter of the Union. He would not +only furnish this valiant messenger with a good horse, but he would +help him otherwise on his way. +</p> + +<p> +"Dexter," he called to an orderly, "bring the sorrel mare. She was +ridden by a good man, Mr. Haskell, but he met a sharpshooter's bullet. +Jump up." +</p> + +<p> +Harry sprang into the saddle, and, astride such a fine piece of +horseflesh, he foresaw a speedy arrival in the camp of General Lee. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll not only mount you," said the captain, "but we'll see you on the +way. General Pleasanton is on Lee's left flank and, as our course is +in that direction, we'll ride with you, and protect you from stray +rebel sharpshooters." +</p> + +<p> +Harry could have shouted aloud in anger and disappointment. While the +captain trusted him fully, he would not be much more than a prisoner, +nevertheless. +</p> + +<p> +"Thank you very much, Captain," he said, "but you needn't trouble +yourself about me. Perhaps I'd better go on ahead. One rides faster +alone." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't be afraid that we'll hold you back," said the captain, smiling. +"We're one of the hardest riding detachments in General Pleasanton's +whole cavalry corps, and we won't delay you a second. On the contrary, +we know the road so well that we'll save you wandering about and losing +time." +</p> + +<p> +Harry did not dare to say more. And so Providence, which had been +watching over him so well, had decided now to leave him and watch over +the other fellow. But he had at least one consolation. Pleasanton was +on Lee's flank and their ride did not turn him from the line of his +true objective. Every beat of his horse's hoofs would bring him nearer +to Lee. Invincible youth was invincibly in the saddle again, and he +said confidently to the captain: +</p> + +<p> +"Let's start." +</p> + +<p> +"All right. You keep by my side, Haskell. You appear to be brave and +intelligent and I want to ask you questions." +</p> + +<p> +The tone, though well meant, was patronizing, but Harry did not resent +it. +</p> + +<p> +"This troop is made up of Massachusetts men, and I'm from Massachusetts +too," continued the captain. "My name is Lester, and I had just +graduated from Harvard when the war began." +</p> + +<p> +"Good stock up there in Massachusetts," said Harry boldly, "but I've +one objection to you." +</p> + +<p> +"What's that?" +</p> + +<p> +"Everything wonderful in our history was done by you. No chance was +left for anybody else." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, not everything, but almost everything. Good old Massachusetts! +As Webster said, 'There she stands!'" +</p> + +<p> +"It was mostly New York and Pennsylvania that stood at Gettysburg." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, you did very well there." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't you think, Captain, that a nation or a state is often lucky in +its possession of writers?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't catch your drift exactly." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll make an illustration. I've often wondered what were the Persian +accounts of Marathon and Thermopylae, of Salamis and Plataea. Now most +of our history has been written by Massachusetts men." +</p> + +<p> +"And you insinuate that they have glorified my state unduly?" +</p> + +<p> +"The expression is a trifle severe. Let's say that they have dwelled +rather long upon the achievements of Massachusetts and not so long upon +those of New York and Pennsylvania." +</p> + +<p> +"Then let New York and Pennsylvania go get great writers. No state can +be truly great without them. There's another detachment of ours just +ahead, but we'll talk to them only a minute or two." +</p> + +<p> +The second detachment reported that Pleasanton, with a heavy cavalry +force, was about six miles farther west and that there was a fair road +all the way. They should overtake him in an hour. +</p> + +<p> +Harry's heart beat hard. Unless something happened within that hour he +would never reach Lee, and his brain began to work with extraordinary +activity. Plans passed in review before it as rapidly as pictures on a +film, but all were rejected. He was in despair. They were trotting +rapidly down a smooth road. A quarter of an hour passed and then a +half-hour. A low bare hill appeared immediately on their right, and +Harry saw beyond it the tops of trees. +</p> + +<p> +"Captain Lester," he said, "suppose that you and I ride to the crest of +the hill. You have strong glasses, so have I, and we may see something +worth while. The men will ride on, but we can easily overtake them." +</p> + +<p> +"Not a bad idea, Haskell," said the captain, still in that slightly +patronizing tone. "I judge by your speech that you're a well educated +man, and you appear to think." +</p> + +<p> +They rode quickly to the summit, and Lester, putting his glasses to his +eyes, gazed westward over a vast expanse of cultivated country. But +Harry looking immediately down the slope, saw the forest that he wished. +</p> + +<p> +Lester swept the glasses in a wide circle, looking for Union troops. +His own troop was about a hundred yards ahead and the hoofbeats were +growing fainter. Then Harry's courage almost failed him, but necessity +was instant and cruel. Still he modified the blow, nor did he use any +weapon, save one that nature had given him. +</p> + +<p> +"Look out!" he cried, and as Lester turned in astonishment he struck +him on the point of the jaw. Even as his fist flashed forward he held +back a little and his full strength was not in the blow. +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless it was sufficient to strike Lester senseless, and he slid +from his horse. Harry caught him by the shoulder and eased him in his +fall. Then he lay stretched on his back in the grass like one asleep, +with his horse staring at him. Harry knew that he would revive in a +minute or two, and with a "Farewell, Captain Lester," he galloped down +the slope and into the covering woods. +</p> + +<p> +He knew that Lester's men, finding that they did not follow, would +quickly come back, and he raced his horse among the trees as fast as he +dared. A couple of miles between him and the hill and he felt safe, at +least so far as the troop of Captain Lester was concerned. Fortune +seemed to have made him a favorite again, but he knew that dangers were +still as thick around him as leaves in Vallombrosa. +</p> + +<p> +He tied his horse, climbed a tree, and used his glasses. Two miles to +the west the bright sun flashed on long lines of mounted men, obviously +the horsemen of Pleasanton. How was he to get through that cavalry +screen and reach Lee? He did not see a way, but he knew that to find, +one must seek. His desire to get through, intense as it always had +been, was now doubled. He not only carried the news to Lee about the +possible ford, but he also bore Meade's dispatch to Pleasanton, +directing a movement which, if successful, must be most dangerous to +the Army of Northern Virginia. +</p> + +<p> +He descended the tree and waited a while in the forest. He found a +spring at which he drank, and he filled the canteen. It was a precious +canteen with the name of John Haskell engraved upon it, and he meant +that it should carry him through all dangers into his camp. But he did +not mean to use it yet. If he rode into Pleasanton's ranks they would +merely take his letter to the general, and that would be the failure of +his real mission. +</p> + +<p> +Night was now not far distant, and, concluding that he had a much +better chance to run the gantlet under its cover, he still waited in +the wood until the twilight came. +</p> + +<p> +Wrapped in a coil of dangers he was ready to risk anything. Quickness, +resource and boldness, of which the last had been most valuable, had +brought him so far, and, encouraged by success, he rode forward full of +confidence. +</p> + +<p> +On his right was a small house standing among the usual shade trees, +and, approaching it without hesitation, he spoke to a man who stood in +the yard. +</p> + +<p> +"Which way is General Pleasanton?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +The man hesitated. +</p> + +<p> +"I belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania," said Harry, pointing to the name +on the canteen, still visible in the twilight. The man's eyes +brightened and he replied: +</p> + +<p> +"Down there," pointing toward the southwest. +</p> + +<p> +"I've a message for him and I don't want to run into any of the rebel +raiders." +</p> + +<p> +"Then you keep away from there," he said, pointing due west. +</p> + +<p> +"What's the trouble in that direction?" +</p> + +<p> +"Jim Hurley was here about an hour ago. The whole country is terribly +excited about these big armies marching over it, and he said that our +cavalry was riding on fast. A lot of it was ahead of the rebel army, +but straight there in the west some of the rebel horsemen had spread +out on their own flank. If you went that way in the night you'd be +sure to run right into a nest of 'em." +</p> + +<p> +"So the Johnnies are west of us, your friend Hurley said. Tell me +again what particular point I have to watch in order to keep away from +them." +</p> + +<p> +"Almost as straight west as you can make it. A valley running east and +west cuts in there and it's full of the rebels. It's the only place +all along here where they are." +</p> + +<p> +"And consequently the only place for me to avoid. Thanks. Your +information may save me from capture. Good night." +</p> + +<p> +"Good night and good luck." +</p> + +<p> +Harry rode toward the southwest until a dip in the valley hid him from +possible view of the man at the house. Then he turned and rode due +west, determined to reach as soon as possible those "rebel raiders" in +the valley, but fully aware that he must yet use every resource of +skill, courage and patience. +</p> + +<p> +The twilight turned into night, clear, dry and bright. Unless it was +raining in the mountains the flood in the Potomac could not be +increasing. Here, at last, the conditions were all that he wished. The +captured haversack still contained plenty of food, and, as he rode, he +ate. He had learned long ago that food was as necessary as weapons to +a soldier, and that one should eat when one could. Moreover, he was +always hungry. +</p> + +<p> +He kept among trees wherever possible, and, as the night grew, and the +stars came out in the dusky blue, he enjoyed the peace. Even though he +searched with his glasses he could not see soldiers anywhere, although +he knew they were in the hollows and the forests. A pleasant breeze +blew, and an owl, reckless of armies, sent forth its lonesome hoot. +</p> + +<p> +But he kept his horse's head straight for the narrow valley where the +"rebel raiders" rode. He met presently a small detachment of +Connecticut men, but the sight of his canteen and letter was sufficient +for them. Again he rode southwest, merely to turn due west once more, +after he had passed from their sight, and near the head of the valley +he encountered two men in blue on horseback watching. They were alert, +well-built fellows and examined Harry closely, a process to which long +usage had reconciled him. +</p> + +<p> +"I hear that the rebels are down in that valley, comrade," he said. +</p> + +<p> +"So they are," replied the elder and larger of the men. "We've got to +ask you who you are and which way you're going." +</p> + +<p> +"John Haskell, Fifth Pennsylvania, with dispatches from General Meade +to General Pleasanton. They're tremendously important, too, and I've +got to be in a hurry." +</p> + +<p> +"More haste less speed. You know the old saying. In a time like this +it's sometimes better for a man to know where he's going than it is to +get there, 'cause he may arrive at the wrong place." +</p> + +<p> +"Good logic, comrade, but I must hurry just the same. Which is my best +way to find General Pleasanton?" +</p> + +<p> +"Southwest. But I'm bound to tell you a few things first." +</p> + +<p> +"All right. What are they?" +</p> + +<p> +"You and I must be kinsfolk." +</p> + +<p> +"How do you make that out?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because my name is William Haskell, and I belong to the Fifth +Pennsylvania, the same regiment that you do." +</p> + +<p> +"Is that so? It's strange that we haven't met before. But funny +things happen in war." +</p> + +<p> +"So they do. Awfully funny. Now my brother's name is John Haskell, +and you happen to be carrying his canteen, but you've changed looks a +lot in the last few days, Brother John." +</p> + +<p> +Haskell's voice had been growing more menacing, and Harry, with native +quickness, was ready to act. When he saw the man's pistol flash from +his belt he went over the side of his horse and the bullet whistled +where his body had been. His own rifle cracked in reply, but Haskell's +horse, not he, took the bullet, and, screaming with pain and fright, +ran into the woods as the rider slipped from his back. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, realizing that his peril was imminent and deadly, fired one of +his pistols at the second man, who fell from his horse, too badly +wounded in the shoulder to take any further part in the fight. +</p> + +<p> +But Harry found in Haskell an opponent worthy of all his skill and +courage. The Union soldier threw himself upon the ground and fired at +Harry's horse, which instantly jerked the bridle from his hand and fled +as the other had done. Harry dropped flat in the grass and leaves and +listened, his heart thumping. +</p> + +<p> +But luck had favored him again. He lay in a slight depression and any +bullet fired at him would be sure to go over him unless he raised his +head. He could not see his enemies, but he could depend upon his +wonderful power of hearing, inherited and cultivated, which gave him an +advantage over his opponents. +</p> + +<p> +He heard the wounded man groan ever so lightly, and then the other +whisper to him, "Are you much hurt, Bill?" The reply came in a moment: +"My right shoulder is put out for the time, and I can't help you now." +Presently he heard the slight sound of the other crawling toward him. +Evidently this Haskell was a fearless fellow, bound to get him, and he +called from the shadow in which he lay. +</p> + +<p> +"You'd better stop, Haskell! I've got the best pair of ears in all +this region, and I hear you coming! Crawl another step and you meet a +bullet! But I want to tell you first that your interesting brother John +is all right. I didn't kill him. I merely robbed him." +</p> + +<p> +"Robbed him of what?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, of several things." +</p> + +<p> +"What things?" +</p> + +<p> +"They don't concern you, Haskell. These are matters somewhat above +you." +</p> + +<p> +"They are, are they? Well, maybe they are, but I'm going to see that +you don't get away with the proceeds of your robbery." +</p> + +<p> +Harry didn't like his tone. It was fierce and resolute, and he +realized once more that he had a man of quality before him. If Haskell +had behaved properly he would have withdrawn with his wounded comrade. +But then he was an obstinate Yankee. +</p> + +<p> +He raised up ever so little and glanced across the intervening space, +seeing the muzzle of a rifle not many yards away. There could be no +doubt that Haskell was watchful and would continue watching. He drew +his head back again and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Let's call it a draw. You go back to your army, Mr. Haskell, and I'll +go back to mine." +</p> + +<p> +"Couldn't think of it. As a matter of fact, I'm with my army now; that +is, I'm in its lines, while you can't reach yours. All I've got to do +is to hold you here, and in the course of time some of our people will +come along and take you." +</p> + +<p> +"Do you think I'm worth so much trouble?" +</p> + +<p> +"In a way it's a sort of personal affair with me. You admit having +robbed my brother, and I feel that I must avenge him. He has been +acting as a dispatch rider, and I can make a pretty shrewd guess about +what you took from him. So I think I'll stay here." +</p> + +<p> +Harry blamed himself bitterly for his careless and unfortunate +expressions. He did not fear the result of a duel with this man, being +the master of woodcraft that he was, but he was losing time, valuable +time, time more precious than gold and diamonds, time heavy with the +fate of armies and a nation. He grew furiously angry at everything, +and angriest at Haskell. +</p> + +<p> +"Mr. Haskell," he called, "I'm getting tired of your society, and I +make you a polite request to go away." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, no, you're not tired. You merely think you are, and I couldn't +consider conceding to your request. It's for your good more than mine. +My society is elevating to any Johnny Reb." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I warn you that I may have to hurt you." +</p> + +<p> +"How about getting hurt yourself?" +</p> + +<p> +Harry was silent. His acute ears brought him the sound of Haskell +moving a little in his own particular hollow. The lonesome owl hooted +twice more, but there was no sound to betoken the approach of Union +troops in the forest. The duel of weapons and wits would have to be +fought out alone by Haskell and himself. +</p> + +<p> +He went over everything again and again and he concluded that he must +rely upon his superior keenness of ear. He could hear Haskell, but +Haskell could not hear him, and there was Providence once more taking +him into favor. Summer clouds began to drift before the moon, and many +of the stars were veiled. It was possible that Haskell's eyes also +were not as keen as his own. +</p> + +<p> +When the darkness increased, he began to crawl from the little shallow. +Despite extreme precautions he made a slight noise. A pistol flashed +and a bullet passed over him. It made his muscles quiver, but he +called in a calm voice: +</p> + +<p> +"Why did you do such a foolish thing as that? You wasted a perfectly +good bullet." +</p> + +<p> +"Weren't you trying to escape? I thought I heard a movement in the +grass." +</p> + +<p> +"Wasn't thinking of such a thing. I'm just waiting here to see what +you'll do. Why don't you come on and attack?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm satisfied with things as they are. I'll hold you until morning +and then our men will be sure to come and pick you up." +</p> + +<p> +"Maybe it will be our men who will come and pick you up." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, no; they're too busy leaving Gettysburg behind 'em." +</p> + +<p> +Harry nevertheless had succeeded in leaving the shallow and was now +lying on its farther bank. Then he resumed the task of crawling +forward on his face, and without making any noise, one of the most +difficult feats that a human being is ever called upon to do. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of a dozen feet, he paused both to rest and to listen. His +acute ears told him that Haskell had not moved from his own place, and +his eyes showed him that the darkness was increasing. Those wonderful, +kindly clouds were thickening before the moon, and the stars in troops +were going out of sight. +</p> + +<p> +But he did not relax his caution. He knew that he could not afford to +make any sound that would arouse the suspicions of Haskell, and it was +a quarter of an hour before he felt himself absolutely safe. Then he +passed around a big tree and arose behind its trunk, appreciating what +a tremendous luxury it was to be a man and to stand upon one's own feet. +</p> + +<p> +He had triumphed again! The stars surely were with him. They might +play little tricks upon him now and then to tantalize him, but in the +more important matters they were on his side. He stretched himself +again and again to relieve the terrible stiffness caused by such long +and painful crawling, and then, unable to resist an exultant impulse, +he called loudly: +</p> + +<p> +"Good-by, Haskell!" +</p> + +<p> +There was a startled exclamation and a bullet fired at random cut the +leaves twenty yards away. Harry, making no reply, fled swiftly through +the forest toward the valley where the rebel raiders rode. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap07"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER VII +</h3> + +<h3> +IN THE WAGON +</h3> + +<p> +He ran at first, reckless of impediments, and there was a sound of +crashing as he sped through the bushes. He was not in the least afraid +of Haskell. He had his rifle and pistols and in the woods he was +infinitely the superior. He did not even believe that Haskell would +pursue, but he wanted to get far beyond any possible Federal sentinels +as soon as possible. +</p> + +<p> +After a flight of a few hundred yards he slackened speed, and began to +go silently. The old instincts and skill of the forester returned to +him. He knew that he was safe from immediate pursuit and now he would +approach his own lines carefully. He was grateful for the chance or +series of chances that always took him toward Lee. It seemed now that +his enemies had merely succeeded in driving him at an increased pace in +the way he wanted to go. +</p> + +<p> +He was descending a slope, thickly clothed with undergrowth. A few +hundred yards farther his knees suddenly crumpled under him and he sank +down, seized at the same time with a fit of nervous trembling. He had +passed through so many ordeals that strong and seasoned as he was and +high though his spirits, the collapse came all at once. He knew what +was the matter and, quietly stretching himself out, he lay still that +the spell might pass. +</p> + +<p> +The lonesome owl, probably the same one that he had heard earlier, +began to hoot, and now it was near by. Harry thought he could make out +its dim figure on a branch and he was sure that the red eyes, closed by +day, were watching him, doubtless with a certain contempt at his +weakness. +</p> + +<p> +"Old man, if you had been chased by the fowler as often as I have," +were the words behind his teeth, addressed to the dim and fluffy +figure, "you wouldn't be sitting up there so calm and cocky. Your +tired head would sink down between your legs, your feathers would be +wet with perspiration and you'd be so tired you'd hardly be able to +hang on to the tree." +</p> + +<p> +Came again the lonesome hoot of the owl, spreading like a sinister omen +through the forest. It made Harry angry, and, raising himself up a +little, he shook his fist again at the figure on the branch, now +growing clearer in outline. +</p> + +<p> +"'Bird or devil?'" he quoted. +</p> + +<p> +The owl hooted once more, the strange ominous cry carrying far in the +silence of the night. +</p> + +<p> +"Devil it is," said Harry, "and quoth your evil majesty 'never more.' I +won't be scared by a big owl playing the part of the raven. It's not +'nevermore' with me. I've many a good day ahead and don't you dare +tell me I haven't." +</p> + +<p> +Came the solemn and changeless hoot of the owl in reply. +</p> + +<p> +Harry's exertions and excitement had brought too much blood to his head +and he was seeing red. He raised himself upon his elbows and stared at +the owl which stared back from red rimmed eyes, cold, emotionless, +implacable. He had been terribly shaken, and now a superstitious +fright overcame him. The raven and the albatross were in his mind and +he murmured under his breath passages from their ominous poems. The +scholar had his raven, the mariner had his albatross and now he alone +in the forest had his owl, to his mind the most terrible bird of the +three. +</p> + +<p> +Came again that solemn and warning cry, the most depressing of all in +the wilderness, while the changeless and sinister eyes stared steadily +at him. Then Harry remembered that he had a rifle, and he sat up. He +would slay this winged monster. There was light enough for him to draw +a bead, and he was too good a marksman to miss. +</p> + +<p> +He dropped the muzzle of the rifle in a sudden access of fear as he +remembered the albatross. A shiver ran through every nerve and muscle, +and so heavily was he oppressed that he felt as if he had just escaped +committing murder. He rubbed his hand across his damp forehead and the +act brought him out of that dim world in which he had been living for +the last ten or fifteen minutes. +</p> + +<p> +"Bird of whatever omen you may be, I'll not shoot you. That's +certain," he said, "but I'll leave you to your melancholy predictions +just as soon as I can." +</p> + +<p> +He stood up somewhat unsteadily, and renewed the descent of the slope. +Near its foot he came to a brook and bathing his face plentifully in +the cool water he felt wonderfully refreshed. All his strength was +flowing back swiftly. +</p> + +<p> +Then he entered the valley, pressing straight toward the west, and soon +heard the tread of horses. He knew that they must be the cavalry of +his own army, but he withdrew into the bushes until he was assured. A +dozen men riding slowly and warily came into view, and though the +moonlight was wan he recognized them at once. When they were opposite +him he stepped from his ambush and said: +</p> + +<p> +"A happy night to you, Colonel Talbot." +</p> + +<p> +Colonel Leonidas Talbot was a brave man, but seldom in his life had he +been so shaken. +</p> + +<p> +"Good God, Hector!" he cried. "It's Harry Kenton's ghost!" +</p> + +<p> +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire turned pale. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't believe in ghosts, Leonidas," he said, "but this one certainly +looks like that of Harry Kenton." +</p> + +<p> +"Colonel Talbot," called Harry, "I'm not a ghost. I'm the real Harry +Kenton, hunting for our army." +</p> + +<p> +"Pale but substantial," said St. Clair, who rode just behind the two +colonels. "He's our old Harry himself, and I'd know him anywhere." +</p> + +<p> +"No ghost at all and the Yankee bullets can't make him one," said Happy +Tom. +</p> + +<p> +A weakness seized Harry and a blackness came before his eyes. When he +recovered St. Clair was holding him up, and Colonel Talbot was trying +to pour strong waters down his throat. +</p> + +<p> +"How long have I been this way?" he asked anxiously. +</p> + +<p> +"About sixty seconds," replied Colonel Talbot, "but what difference +does it make?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because I'm in a big hurry to get to General Lee! Oh! Colonel! +Colonel! You must speed me on my way! I've got a message from Colonel +Sherburne to General Lee that means everything, and on the road I +captured another from General Meade to General Pleasanton. Put me on a +horse, won't you, and gallop me to the commander-in-chief!" +</p> + +<p> +"Are you strong enough to ride alone?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm strong enough to do anything now." +</p> + +<p> +"Then up with you! Here, on Carter's horse! Carter can ride behind +Hubbell! St. Clair, you and Langdon ride on either side of him! You +should reach the commander-in-chief in three-quarters of an hour, +Harry!" +</p> + +<p> +"And there is no Yankee cavalry in between?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, they're thick on the slopes above us! You knew that, but here +you're inside our own lines. Judging by your looks you've had quite a +time, Harry. Now hurry on with him, boys!" +</p> + +<p> +"So I have had, Colonel, but the appearance of you, Lieutenant-Colonel +St. Hilaire and the boys was like a light from Heaven. Good-by!" +</p> + +<p> +"Good-by!" the two colonels called back, but their voices were already +dying in the distance as Harry and his comrades were now riding rapidly +down the valley, knee to knee, because St. Clair and Langdon meant to +keep very close to him. They saw that he was a little unsteady, and +that his eyes were unnaturally bright. They knew, too, that if he said +he had great news for General Lee he told the truth, and they meant +that he should get there with it in the least time possible. +</p> + +<p> +The valley opened out before them, broadening considerably as they +advanced. The night was far gone, there was not much moonlight, but +their eyes had grown used to the dark, and they could see well. They +passed sentinels and small detachments of cavalry, to whom St. Clair +and Langdon gave the quick password. They saw fields of wheat stubble +and pastures and crossed two brooks. The curiosity of Langdon and St. +Clair was overwhelming but they restrained it for a long time. They +could tell by his appearance that he had passed through unimaginable +hardships, but they were loath to ask questions. +</p> + +<p> +An owl on their right hooted, and both of them saw Harry shiver. +</p> + +<p> +"What makes an owl's cry disturb you so, Harry?" asked Langdon. +</p> + +<p> +"Because one of them tried to put the hoodoo on me as they say down in +your country, Happy. I was lying back there in the forest on the hill +and the biggest and reddest-eyed owl that was ever born sat on a bough +over head, and kept telling me that I was finished, right at the end of +my rope. But he was a liar, because here I am, with you fellows on +either side of me, inside our lines and riding to the camp of the +commander-in-chief." +</p> + +<p> +"I think you're a bit shaky, Harry," said St. Clair, "and I don't +wonder at it. If I had been through all I think you've been through +I'd tumble off that horse into the road and die." +</p> + +<p> +"Has any messenger come from Colonel Sherburne at the river to General +Lee?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not that I've heard of. No, I'm sure that none's come," replied St. +Clair. +</p> + +<p> +"Then I'll get to him first. Don't think, Arthur, it's just a foolish +ambition of mine to lead, but the sooner some one reaches the general +the better." +</p> + +<p> +"We'll see that you're first old man," said Langdon. "It's not more +than a half-hour now." +</p> + +<p> +But Harry reeled in his saddle. The singular weakness that he had felt +a while back returned, and the road grew dark before him. With a +mighty effort he steadied himself in the saddle and St. Clair heard him +say in a fierce undertone: "I will go through with it!" St. Clair +looked across at Langdon and the signaling look of Happy Tom replied. +They drew in just a little closer. Now and then they talked to him +sharply and briskly, rousing him again and again from the lethargy into +which he was fast sinking. +</p> + +<p> +"Look! In the woods over there, Harry!" exclaimed St. Clair. "See the +men stretched asleep on the grass! They're the survivors of Pickett's +brigades that charged at Gettysburg." +</p> + +<p> +"And I was there!" said Harry. "I saw the greatest charge ever made in +the history of the world!" +</p> + +<p> +He reeled a little toward St. Clair, who caught him by the shoulder and +straightened him in the saddle. +</p> + +<p> +"Of course you had a pleasant, easy ride from the Potomac," said Happy +Tom, "but I don't understand how as good a horseman as you lost your +horse. I suppose he ran away while you were picking berries by the +roadside." +</p> + +<p> +"Me pick berries by the roadside, while I'm on such a mission!" +exclaimed Harry indignantly, rousing himself up until his eyes flashed, +which was just what Happy wished. "I didn't see any berries! Besides +I didn't start on a horse. I left in a boat." +</p> + +<p> +"A boat? Now, Harry, I know you've turned romancer. I guess your +mystic troubles with the owl—if you really saw an owl—have been a +sort of spur to your fancy." +</p> + +<p> +"Do you mean to say, Tom Langdon, that I didn't see an owl and talk +with him? I tell you I did, and his conversation was a lot more +intelligent than yours, even if it was unpleasant." +</p> + +<p> +"Of course it was," said St. Clair. "Happy's chief joy in life is +talking. You know how he chatters away, Harry. He hates to sleep, +because then he loses good time that he might use in talk. I'll wager +you anything against anything, Harry, that when the Angel Gabriel blows +his horn Happy will rise out of his grave, shaking his shroud and +furious with anger. He'll hold up the whole resurrection while he +argues with Gabriel that he blew his horn either too late or too early, +or that it was a mighty poor sort of a horn anyhow." +</p> + +<p> +"I may do all that, Harry," said Happy, "but Arthur is sure to be the +one who will raise the trouble about the shroud. You know how finicky +he is about his clothes. He'll find fault with the quality of his +shroud, and he'll say that it's cut either too short or too long. Then +he'll insist, while all the billions wait, on draping the shroud in the +finest Greek or Roman toga style, before he marches up to his place on +the golden cloud and receives his harp." +</p> + +<p> +Harry laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"That'll be old Arthur, sure," he said. Then his head drooped again. +Fatigue was overpowering him. St. Clair and Langdon put a hand on +either shoulder and held him erect, but Harry was so far sunk in +lethargy that he was not conscious of their grasp. Men looked +curiously at the three young officers riding rapidly forward, the one +in the center apparently held on his horse by the other two. +</p> + +<p> +St. Clair took prompt measures. +</p> + +<p> +"Harry Kenton!" he called sharply. +</p> + +<p> +"Here!" +</p> + +<p> +"Do you know what they do with a sentinel caught asleep?" +</p> + +<p> +"They shoot him!" +</p> + +<p> +"What of a messenger, bearing great news who has ridden two or three +days and nights through a thousand dangers, and then becomes +unconscious in his saddle within five hundred yards of his journey's +end?" +</p> + +<p> +"The stake wouldn't be too good for him," replied Harry as with a +mighty effort he shook himself, both body and mind. Once more his eyes +cleared and once more he sat erect in his saddle without help. +</p> + +<p> +"I won't fail, Arthur," he said. "Show the way." +</p> + +<p> +"There's a big tree by the roadside almost straight ahead," said St. +Clair. "General Lee is asleep under that, but he'll be as wide awake +as any man can be a half-minute after you arrive." +</p> + +<p> +They sprang from their horses, St. Clair spoke quickly with a watching +officer who went at once to awaken Lee. Harry dimly saw the form of +the general who was sleeping on a blanket, spread over small boughs. +Near him a man in brilliant uniform was walking softly back and forth, +and now and then impatiently striking the tops of his high +yellow-topped boots with a little riding whip. Harry knew at once that +it was Stuart, but the cavalry leader had not yet noticed him. +</p> + +<p> +Harry saw the officer bend over the commander-in-chief, who rose in an +instant to his feet. He was fully dressed and he showed gray in the +dusky light, but he seemed as ever calm and grave. Harry felt +instantly the same swell of courage that the presence of Jackson had +always brought to him. It was Lee, the indomitable, the man of genius, +who could not be beaten. He heard him say to the officer who had +awakened him, "Bring him immediately!" and he stepped forward, +strengthening himself anew and filled with pride that he should be the +first to arrive, as he felt that he certainly now was. +</p> + +<p> +"Lieutenant Kenton!" said Lee. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir," said Harry, lifting his cap. +</p> + +<p> +"You were sent with Colonel Sherburne to see about the fords of the +Potomac." +</p> + +<p> +"I was, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"And he has sent you back with the report?" +</p> + +<p> +"He has, sir. He did not give me any written report for fear that I +might be captured. He did me the honor to say that my verbal message +would be believed." +</p> + +<p> +"It will. I know you, as I do the other members of my staff. Proceed." +</p> + +<p> +"The Potomac is in great flood, sir, and the bridge is destroyed. It +can't be crossed until it runs down to its normal depth." +</p> + +<p> +Harry saw other generals of high rank drawing near. One he recognized +as Longstreet. They were all silent and eager. +</p> + +<p> +"Colonel Sherburne ordered me to say to you, sir," continued Harry, +"that the best fords would be between Williamsport and Hagerstown when +the river ran down." +</p> + +<p> +"When did you leave him?" +</p> + +<p> +"Nearly two days ago, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"You have made good speed through a country swarming with our enemy. +You are entitled to rest." +</p> + +<p> +"It's not all, sir?" +</p> + +<p> +"What else?" +</p> + +<p> +"On my way I captured a messenger with a letter from General Meade to +General Pleasanton. I have the message, sir." +</p> + +<p> +He brought forth the paper from his blouse and extended it to General +Lee, who took it eagerly. Some one held up a torch and he read it +aloud to his generals. +</p> + +<p> +"And so Meade means to trap me," he said, "by coming down on our flank!" +</p> + +<p> +"Since the river is unfordable he'll have plenty of time to attack us +there," said Longstreet. +</p> + +<p> +"But will he dare to attack?" said Stuart defiantly. "He was able to +hold his own in defense at Gettysburg, but it's another thing to take +the offensive. We hear that General Meade is cautious and that he +makes many complaints to his government. A complainer is not the kind +of man who can destroy the Army of Northern Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +"Sometimes it's well to be cautious, General," said Lee. +</p> + +<p> +Then he turned to Harry and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Again I commend you." +</p> + +<p> +Harry saluted proudly, and then fell unconscious at the feet of General +Lee. +</p> + +<p> +When the young staff officer awoke, he was lying in a wagon which was +moving slowly, with many jolts over a very rough road. It was perhaps +one of these jolts that awoke him, because his eyes still felt very +heavy with sleep. His position was comfortable as he lay on a heap of +blankets, and the sides of the wagon looked familiar. Moreover the +broad back of the driver was not that of a stranger. Moving his head +into a higher place on the blankets he called. +</p> + +<p> +"Hey you, Dick Jones, where are you taking me?" +</p> + +<p> +Jones turned his rubicund and kindly face. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't it beat all how things come about?" he said. "This wagon wasn't +built for passengers, but I have you once and then I have you twice, +sleepin' like a prince on them blankets. I guess if the road wasn't so +rough you'd have slept all the way to Virginia. But I'm proud to have +you as a passenger. They say you've been coverin' yourself with glory. +I don't know about that, but I never before saw a man who was so all +fired tuckered out." +</p> + +<p> +"Where did you find me?" +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't exactly find you myself. They say you saluted General Lee so +deep and so strong that you just fell down at his feet an' didn't move, +as if you intended to stay there forever. But four of your friends +brought you to my wagon feet foremost, with orders from General Lee if +I didn't treat you right that I'd get a thousand lashes, be tarred an' +feathered, an' hung an' shot an' burned, an' then be buried alive. For +all of which there was no need, as I'm your friend and would treat you +right anyway." +</p> + +<p> +"I know you would," laughed Harry. "You can't afford to lose your best +passenger. How long have I been sleeping in this rough train of yours?" +</p> + +<p> +"Since about three o'clock in the morning." +</p> + +<p> +"And what time might it be now." +</p> + +<p> +"Well it might be ten o'clock in the morning or it might be noon, but +it ain't either." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, then, what time is it?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's about six o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Kenton, and I judge that +you've slept nigh on to fifteen hours, which is mighty good for a man +who was as tired as you was." +</p> + +<p> +"And what has the army been doing while I slept?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, it's been marchin' an' marchin' an' marchin'. Can't you hear the +wagons an' the cannons clinkin' an' clankin'? An' the hoofs of the +horses beatin' in the road? An the feet of forty or fifty thousand men +comin' down ker-plunk! ker-plunk! an' all them thousands talkin' off +an' on? Yes, we're still marchin', Mr. Kenton, but we're retreatin' +with all our teeth showin' an' our claws out, sharpened specially. +Most of the boys don't care if Meade would attack us. They'd be glad +of the chance to get even for Gettysburg." +</p> + +<p> +There was a beat of hoofs and St. Clair rode up by the side of the +wagon. +</p> + +<p> +"All right again, Harry?" he said cheerfully. "I'm mighty glad of it. +Other messengers have got through from Sherburne, confirming what you +said, but you were the first to arrive and the army already was on the +march because of the news you brought. Dalton arrived about noon, dead +beat. Happy is coming with a horse for you, and you can rejoin the +staff now." +</p> + +<p> +"Before I leave I'll have to thank Mr. Jones once more," said Harry. +"He runs the best passenger service that I know." +</p> + +<p> +"Welcome to it any time, either you or your friend," said Jones, +saluting with his whip. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap08"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER VIII +</h3> + +<h3> +THE CROSSING +</h3> + +<p> +Harry left the wagon at midnight and overtook the staff, an orderly +providing him with a good horse. Dalton, who had also been sleeping in +a wagon, came an hour or two later, and the two, as became modest young +officers, rode in the rear of the group that surrounded General Lee. +</p> + +<p> +Although the darkness had come fully, the Army of Northern Virginia had +not yet stopped. The infantry flanked by cavalry, and, having no fear +of the enemy, marched steadily on. Harry closely observed General Lee, +and although he was well into his fifties he could discern no weakness, +either physical or mental, in the man who had directed the fortunes of +the South in the terrific and unsuccessful three days at Gettysburg and +who had now led his army for nearly a week in a retreat, threatened, at +any moment, with an attack by a veteran force superior in numbers. All +the other generals looked worn and weary, but he alone sat erect, his +hair and beard trimmed neatly, his grave eye showing no sign of +apprehension. +</p> + +<p> +He seemed once more to Harry—youth is a hero-worshiper—omniscient and +omnipotent. The invasion of the North had failed, and there had been a +terrible loss of good men, officers and soldiers, but, with Lee +standing on the defensive at the head of the Army of Northern Virginia, +in Virginia, the South would be invincible. He had always won there, +and he always would win there. +</p> + +<p> +Harry sighed, nevertheless. He had two heroes, but one of them was +gone. He thought again if only Stonewall Jackson had been at +Gettysburg. Lee's terrible striking arm would have smitten with the +hammer of Thor. He would have pushed home the attack on the first day, +when the Union vanguard was defeated and demoralized. He would have +crushed the enemy on the second day, leaving no need for that fatal and +terrific charge of Pickett on the third day. +</p> + +<p> +"You reached the general first," said Dalton, "but I tried my best to +beat you." +</p> + +<p> +"But I started first, George, old fellow. That gave me the advantage +over you." +</p> + +<p> +"It's fine of you to say it. The army has quickened its pace since we +came. A part of it, at least, ought to arrive at the river to-morrow, +though their cavalry are skirmishing continually on our flanks. Don't +you hear the rifles?" +</p> + +<p> +Harry heard them far away to right and left, like the faint buzzing of +wasps, but he had heard the same sound so much that it made no +impression upon him. +</p> + +<p> +"Let 'em buzz," he said. "They're too distant to reach any of us, and +the Army of Northern Virginia is passing on." +</p> + +<p> +Those were precious hours. Harry knew much, but he did not divine the +full depths of the suspense, suffered by the people beyond the veil +that clothed the two armies. Lincoln had been continually urging Meade +to pursue and destroy his opponent, and Meade, knowing how formidable +Lee was, and how it had been a matter of touch and go at Gettysburg, +pursued, but not with all the ardor of one sure of triumph. Yet the +man at the White House hoped continually for victory, and the Southern +people feared that his hopes would come true. +</p> + +<p> +It became sure the next day that they would reach the Potomac before +Meade could attack them in flank, but the scouts brought word that the +Potomac was still a deep and swollen river, impossible to be crossed +unless they could rebuild the bridges. +</p> + +<p> +Finally the whole army came against the Potomac and it seemed to Harry +that its yellow flood had not diminished one particle since he left. +But Lee acted with energy. Men were set to work at once building a new +bridge near Falling Waters, parts of the ruined pontoon bridges were +recovered, and new boats were built in haste. But while the workmen +toiled the army went into strong positions along the river between +Williamsport and Hagerstown. +</p> + +<p> +Harry found himself with all of his friends again, and he was proud of +the army's defiant attitude. Meade and the Army of the Potomac were +not far away, it was said, but the youthful veterans of the South were +entirely willing to fight again. The older men, however, knew their +danger. The disproportion of forces would be much greater than at +Gettysburg, and even if they fought a successful defensive action with +their back to the river the Army of the Potomac could bide its time and +await reinforcements. The North would pour forth its numbers without +stint. +</p> + +<p> +Harry rode to Sherburne with a message of congratulation from General +Lee, who told him that he had selected the possible crossing well, and +that he had shown great skill and valor in holding it until the army +came up. Sherburne's flush of pride showed under his deep tan. +</p> + +<p> +"I did my best," he said to Harry, who knew the contents of the letter, +"and that's all any of us can do." +</p> + +<p> +"But General Lee has a way of inspiring us to do our best." +</p> + +<p> +"It's so, and it's one of the reasons why he's such a great general. +Watch those bridge builders work, Harry! They're certainly putting +their souls and strength into it." +</p> + +<p> +"And they have need to do so. The scouts say that the Army of the +Potomac will be before us to-morrow. Don't you think the river has +fallen somewhat, Colonel?" +</p> + +<p> +"A little but look at those clouds over there, Harry. As surely as we +sit here it's going to rain. The rivers were low that we might cross +them on our march into the North, just smoothing our way to Gettysburg, +and now that Gettysburg has happened they're high so we can't get back +to the South. It looks as if luck were against us." +</p> + +<p> +"But luck has a habit of changing." +</p> + +<p> +Harry rode back to headquarters, whence he was sent with another +dispatch, to Colonel Talbot, whom he found posted well in advance with +the Invincibles. +</p> + +<p> +"This note," said the colonel, "bids us to watch thoroughly. General +Meade and his army are expected on our front in the morning, and there +must be no chance for a surprise in the night, say a dash by their +cavalry which would cut up our rear guard or vanguard—upon my soul I +don't know which to call it. Harry, as you can see by the note itself, +you're to remain with us until about midnight, and then make a full +report of all that you and I and the rest of us may have observed upon +this portion of the front or rear, whichever it may be. Meanwhile we +share with you our humble rations." +</p> + +<p> +Harry was pleased. He was always glad when chance or purpose brought +him again into the company of the Invincibles. St. Clair and Langdon +were his oldest comrades of the war, and they were like brothers to +him. His affection for the two colonels was genuine and deep. If the +two lads were like brothers to him, the colonels were like uncles. +</p> + +<p> +"Is the Northern vanguard anywhere near?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Skirmishing is going on only four or five miles away," replied Colonel +Leonidas Talbot. "It is likely that the sharp shooters will be picking +off one another all through the night, but it will not disturb us. That +is a great curse of war. It hardens one so for the time being. I'm a +soldier, and I've been one all my life, and I suppose soldiers are +necessary, but I can't get over this feeling. Isn't it the same way +with you, Hector?" +</p> + +<p> +"Exactly the same, Leonidas," replied Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. +Hilaire. "You and I fought together in Mexico, Leonidas, then on the +plains, and now in this gigantic struggle, but under whatever guise +and, wherever it may be, I find its visage always hideous. I don't +think we soldiers are to blame. We don't make the wars although we +have to fight 'em." +</p> + +<p> +"Increasing years, Hector, have not dimmed those perceptive faculties +of yours, which I may justly call brilliant." +</p> + +<p> +"Thanks, Leonidas, you and I have always had a proper conception of the +worth of each other." +</p> + +<p> +"If you will pardon me for speaking, sir," said St. Clair, "there is +one man I'd like to find, when this war is over." +</p> + +<p> +"'What is the appearance of this man, Arthur?" asked Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know exactly how he looks, sir, though I've heard of him +often, and I shall certainly know him when I meet him. You understand, +sir, that, while I've not seen him, he has very remarkable +characteristics of manner." +</p> + +<p> +"And what may those be, Arthur? Are they so salient that you would +recognize them at once?" +</p> + +<p> +"Certainly, sir. He has an uncommonly loud voice, which he uses nearly +all the time and without restraint. Words fairly pour from his tongue. +Facts he scorns. He soars aloft on the wings of fancy. Many people +who have listened to him have felt persuaded by his talk, but he is +perhaps not so popular now." +</p> + +<p> +"An extraordinary person, Arthur. But why are you so anxious to find +him?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because I wish, sir, to lay upon him the hands of violence. I would +thrash him and beat him until he yelled for mercy, and then I would +thrash him and beat him again. I should want the original pair of +seven-leagued boots, not that I might make such fast time, but that I +might kick him at a single kick from one county to another, and back, +and then over and over past counting. I'd duck him in a river until he +gasped for breath, I'd drag him naked through a briar patch, and then +I'd tar and feather him, and ride him on a rail." +</p> + +<p> +"Heavens, Arthur! I didn't dream that your nature contained so much +cruelty! Who is this person over whose torture you would gloat like a +red Indian?" +</p> + +<p> +"It is the man who first said that one Southerner could whip five +Yankees." +</p> + +<p> +"Arthur," said Colonel Talbot, "your anger is just and becomes you. +When the war is over, if we all are spared we'll form a group and hunt +this fellow until we find him. And then, please God, if the gallows of +Haman is still in existence, we'll hang him on it with promptness and +dispatch. I believe in the due and orderly process of the law, but in +this case lynching is not only justifiable, but it's an honor to the +country." +</p> + +<p> +"Well spoken, Leonidas! Well spoken!" said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector +St. Hilaire. "I'm glad that Arthur mentioned the matter, and we'll +bear it in mind. You can count upon me." +</p> + +<p> +"And here is coffee," said Happy Tom. "I made this myself, the camp +cook liking me and giving me a chance. I'd really be a wonderful cook +if I had the proper training, and I may come to it, if we lose the war. +Still, the chance even then is slight, because my father, when red war +showed its edge over the horizon, put all his money in the best British +securities. So we could do no more than lose the plantation." +</p> + +<p> +"Happy," said Colonel Talbot, gravely rebuking, "I am surprised at your +father. I thought he was a patriot." +</p> + +<p> +"He is, sir, but he's a financier first, and I may be thankful for it +some day. I'll venture the prediction right now that if we lose this +war not a single Confederate bill will be in the possession of Thomas +Langdon, Sr. Others may have bales of it, worth less per pound than +cotton, but not your humble servant's father, who, I sometimes think, +has lots more sense than your humble servant's father's son." +</p> + +<p> +Colonel Leonidas Talbot shook his head slowly. +</p> + +<p> +"Finance is a mystery to me," he said. "In the dear old South that I +have always known, the law, the army and the church were and are +considered the high callings. To speak in fine, rounded periods was +considered the great gift. In my young days, Harry, I went with my +father by stage coach to your own State, Kentucky, to hear that sublime +orator, the great Henry Clay." +</p> + +<p> +"What was he speaking about, sir?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't remember. That's not important. But surely he was the +noblest orator God ever created in His likeness. His words flowing +like music and to be heard by everybody, even those farthest from the +speaker, made my pulse beat hard, and the blood leap in my veins. I +was heart and soul for his cause, whatever it was, and, yet I fear me, +though I do not wish to hurt your feelings, Harry, that the state to +which he was such ornament, has not gone for the South with the whole +spirit that she should have shown. She has not even seceded. I fear +sometimes that you Kentuckians are not altogether Southern. You border +upon the North, and stretching as you do a long distance from east to +west and a comparatively short distance from north to south, you thus +face three Northern States across the Ohio—Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, +and the pull of three against one is strong. You see your position, +don't you? Three Yankee states facing you from the north and only one +Southern state, Tennessee, lying across your whole southern border, +that is three against one. I fear that these odds have had their +effect, because if Kentucky had sent all of her troops to the South, +instead of two-thirds of them to the North, the war would have been won +by us ere this." +</p> + +<p> +"I admit it," said Harry regretfully. "My own cousin, who was more +like a brother to me, is fighting on the other side. Kentucky troops +on the Union side have kept us from winning great victories, and many +of the Union generals are Kentuckians. I grieve over it, sir, as much +as you do." +</p> + +<p> +"But you and your people should not take too much blame to yourselves, +Harry," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, who had a very soft +heart. "Think of the many influences to which you were exposed daily. +Think of those three Yankee states sitting there on the other side of +the Ohio—Ohio, Indiana and Illinois—and staring at you so long and so +steadily that, in a way, they exerted a certain hypnotic force upon +you. No, my boy, don't feel badly about it, because the fault, in a +way, is not so much yours as it is that of your neighbors." +</p> + +<p> +"At any rate," said Happy Tom, with his customary boldness and +frankness, "we're bound to admit that the Yankees beat us at making +money." +</p> + +<p> +"Which may be more to our credit than theirs," said Colonel Talbot, +with dignity. "I have found it more conducive to integrity and a lofty +mind to serve as an officer at a modest salary in the army rather than +to gain riches in trade." +</p> + +<p> +"But somebody has to pay the army, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"Thomas, I regret to tell you that inquiry can be pushed to the point +of vulgarity. I have been content with things as they were, and so +should you be. Ah, there are our brave boys singing that noble battle +song of the South! Listen how it swells! It shows a spirit +unconquerable!" +</p> + +<p> +Along the great battle front swelled the mighty chorus: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "Come brothers! Rally for the right!<br /> + The bravest of the brave<br /> + Sends forth her ringing battle cry<br /> + Beside the Atlantic wave!<br /> + She leads the way in honor's path;<br /> + Come brothers, near and far,<br /> + Come rally round the bonnie blue flag<br /> + That bears a single star."<br /> +</p> + +<p> +"A fine song! A fine song most truly," said Colonel Talbot. "It +heartens one gloriously!" +</p> + +<p> +But Harry, usually so quick to respond, strangely enough felt +depression. He felt suddenly in all its truth that they had not only +failed in their invasion, but the escape of the army was yet a matter +of great doubt. The mood was only momentary, however, and he joined +with all his heart as the mighty chorus rolled out another verse: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "Now Georgia marches to the front<br /> + And beside her come<br /> + Her sisters by the Mexique sea<br /> + With pealing trump and drum,<br /> + Till answering back from hill and glen<br /> + The rallying cry afar,<br /> + A Nation hoists the bonnie blue flag<br /> + That bears a single star!"<br /> +</p> + +<p> +They sang it all through, and over again, and then, after a little +silence, came the notes of a trumpet from a far-distant point. It was +played by powerful lungs and the wind was blowing their way but they +heard it distinctly. It was a quaint syncopated tune, but not one of +the Invincibles had any doubt that it came from some daring detachment +of the Union Army. The notes with their odd lilt seemed to swell +through the forest, but it was strange to both of the colonels. +</p> + +<p> +"Do any of you know it?" asked Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +All shook their heads except Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"What is it, Harry?" asked Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"It's a famous poem, sir, the music of which has not often been heard, +but I can translate from music into words the verse that has just been +played: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "In their ragged regimentals<br /> + Stood the old Continentals<br /> + Yielding not,<br /> + When the grenadiers were lunging<br /> + And like hail fell the plunging<br /> + Cannon shot;<br /> + When the files of the isles<br /> + From the smoky night encampment<br /> + Bore the banner of the rampant<br /> + Unicorn<br /> + And grummer, grummer,<br /> + Rolled the roll of the drummer,<br /> + Through the morn!"<br /> +</p> + +<p> +The bugler played on. It was the same tune, curious, syncopated and +piercing the night shrilly. Whole brigades of the South stood in +silence to listen. +</p> + +<p> +"What do you think is its meaning?" asked Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire. +</p> + +<p> +"It's in answer to our song and at the same time a reproach," replied +Harry, who had jumped at once to the right conclusion. "The bugler +intends to remind us that the old Continentals who stood so well were +from both North and South, and perhaps he means, too, that we should +stand together again instead of fighting each other." +</p> + +<p> +"Then let the North give up at once," snapped Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"But in the trumpeter's opinion that means we should be apart forever." +</p> + +<p> +"Then let him play on to ears that will not heed." +</p> + +<p> +But the bugler was riding away. The music came faintly, and then died +in one last sighing note. It left Harry grave and troubled, and he +began to ask himself new questions. If the South succeeded in forcing +a separation, what then? But the talk of his comrades drove the +thought from his mind. Colonel Talbot sent St. Clair, Langdon and a +small party of horsemen forward to see what the close approach of the +daring bugler meant. Harry went with them. +</p> + +<p> +Scouts in the brushwood quickly told them that a troop of Union cavalry +had appeared in a meadow some distance ahead of them, and that it was +one of their number who had played the song on the bugle. Should they +stalk the detachment and open fire? St. Clair, who was in command, +shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +"It would mean nothing now," he said, and rode on with his men, knowing +that the watchful Southern sharpshooters were on their flanks. It was +night now, and a bright moon was coming out, enabling them to use their +glasses with effect. +</p> + +<p> +"There they are!" exclaimed Harry, pointing to the strip of forest on +the far side of the opening, "and there is the bugler, too." +</p> + +<p> +He was studying the party intently. The brilliant moonlight, and the +strength of his glasses made everything sharp and clear and his gaze +concentrated upon the bugler. He knew that man, his powerful chest and +shoulders, and the well-shaped head on its strong neck. Nor did he +deny to himself that he had a feeling of gladness when he recognized +him. +</p> + +<p> +"It's none other," he said aloud. +</p> + +<p> +"None other what?" asked St. Clair. +</p> + +<p> +"Our warning bugler was Shepard, the Union spy. I can make him out +clearly on his horse with his bugle in his hand. You'll remember my +telling you how I had that fight with him in the river." +</p> + +<p> +"And perhaps it would have been better for us all if you had finished +him off then." +</p> + +<p> +"I couldn't have done it, Arthur, nor could you, if you had been in my +place." +</p> + +<p> +"No, I suppose not, but these Yankees are coming up pretty close. It's +sure proof that Meade's whole army will be here in the morning, and the +bridge won't be built." +</p> + +<p> +"It may be built, but, if Meade chooses a battle, a battle there will +be. Heavy forces must be very near. You can see them now signaling to +one another from hill to hill." +</p> + +<p> +"So I do, and this is as far as we ought to go. A hundred yards or two +farther and we'll be in the territory of the enemy's sharpshooters +instead of our own." +</p> + +<p> +They remained for a while among some bushes, and secured positive +knowledge that the bulk of the Army of the Potomac was drawing near. +Toward midnight Harry returned to his commander-in-chief and found him +awake and in consultation with his generals, under some trees near the +Potomac. Longstreet, Rhodes, Pickett, Early, Anderson, Pender and a +dozen others were there, all of them scarred and tanned by battle, and +most of them bearing wounds. +</p> + +<p> +Harry stood back, hesitating to invade this circle, even when he came +with dispatches, but the commander-in-chief, catching sight of him, +beckoned. Then, taking off his cap, he walked forward and presented a +note from Colonel Talbot. It was brief, stating that the enemy was +near, and Lee read it aloud to his council. +</p> + +<p> +"And what were your own observations, Lieutenant Kenton?" asked the +commander-in-chief. +</p> + +<p> +"As well as I could judge, sir, the enemy will appear on our whole +front soon after daybreak." +</p> + +<p> +"And will be in great enough force to defeat us." +</p> + +<p> +"Not while you lead us, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"A courtier! truly a courtier!" exclaimed Stuart, smoothing the great +feather of his gorgeous hat, which lay upon his knee. +</p> + +<p> +Harry blushed. +</p> + +<p> +"It may have had that look," he said, "but I meant my words." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't tease the lad," said the crippled Ewell. "I knew him well on +Jackson's staff, and he was one of our bravest and best." +</p> + +<p> +"A jest only," said Stuart. "Don't I know him as well as you, Ewell? +The first time I saw him he was riding alone among many dangers to +bring relief to a beleaguered force of ours." +</p> + +<p> +"And you furnished that relief, sir," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, so I did, but it was my luck, not merit." +</p> + +<p> +"Be assured that you have no better friend than General Stuart," said +General Lee, smiling. "You have done your duty well, Lieutenant +Kenton, and as these have been arduous days for you you may withdraw, +and join your young comrades of the staff." +</p> + +<p> +Harry saluted and retired. Before he was out of ear shot the generals +resumed their eager talk, but they knew, even as Harry himself, that +there was but one thing to do, stand with their backs to the river and +fight, if Meade chose to offer battle. +</p> + +<p> +He slept heavily, and when he awoke the next day Dalton, who was up +before him, informed him that the Northern army was at hand. Snatching +breakfast, he and Dalton, riding close behind the commander-in-chief, +advanced a little distance and standing upon a knoll surveyed the +thrilling spectacle before them. Far along the front stretched the +Army of the Potomac, horse, foot and guns, come up with its enemy +again. Harry was sure that Meade was there, and with him Hancock and +Buford and Warren and all the other valiant leaders whom they had met +at Gettysburg. It was nine days since the close of the great battle, +and doubtless the North had poured forward many reinforcements, while +the South had none to send. +</p> + +<p> +Harry appreciated the full danger of their situation, with the larger +army in front of them, and the deep and swollen torrent of the Potomac +behind them. But he did not believe that Meade would attack. Lee had +lost at Gettysburg, but in losing he had inflicted such losses upon his +opponent, that most generals would hesitate to force another battle. +The one who would not have hesitated was consolidating his great +triumph at Vicksburg. Harry often thought afterward what would have +happened had Grant faced Lee that day on the wrong side of the Potomac. +</p> + +<p> +His opinion that Meade would not attack came from a feeling that might +have been called atmospheric, an atmosphere created by the lack of +initiative on the Union side, no clouds of skirmishers, no attacks of +cavalry, very little rifle firing of any kind, merely generals and +soldiers looking at one another. Harry saw, too, that his own opinion +was that of his superior officer. Watching the commander-in-chief +intently he saw a trace of satisfaction in the blue eyes. Presently +all of them rode back. +</p> + +<p> +Thus that day passed and then another wore on. Harry and Dalton had +little to do. The whole Army of Northern Virginia was in position, +defiant, challenging even, and the Army of the Potomac made no movement +forward. Harry watched the strange spectacle with an excitement that +he did not allow to appear on his face. It was like many of those +periods in the great battles in which he had taken a part, when the +combat died, though the lull was merely the omen of a struggle, soon to +come more frightful than ever. +</p> + +<p> +But here the struggle did not come. The hours of the afternoon fell +peacefully away, and the general and soldiers still looked at one +another. +</p> + +<p> +"They're working on the bridge like mad," said Dalton, who had been +away with a message, "and it will surely be ready in the morning. +Besides, the Potomac is falling fast. You can already see the muddy +lines that it's leaving on its banks." +</p> + +<p> +"And Meade's chance is slipping, slipping away!" said Harry exultingly. +"In three hours it will be sunset. They can't attack in the night and +to-morrow we'll be gone. Meade has delayed like McClellan at Antietam, +and, doubtless as McClellan did, he thinks our army much larger than it +really is." +</p> + +<p> +"It's so," said Dalton. "We're to be delivered, and we're to be +delivered without a battle, a battle that we could ill afford, even if +we won it." +</p> + +<p> +Both were in a state of intense anxiety and they looked many times at +the sun and their watches. Then they searched the hostile army with +their glasses. But nothing of moment was stirring there. Lower and +lower sank the sun, and a great thrill ran through the Army of Northern +Virginia. In both armies the soldiers were intelligent men—not mere +creatures of drill—who thought for themselves, and while those in the +Army of Northern Virginia were ready, even eager to fight if it were +pushed upon them, they knew the great danger of their position. Now +the word ran along the whole line that if they fought at all it would +be on their side of the river. +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton did not sleep that night. They could not have done so +had the chance been offered. They like others rode all through the +darkness carrying messages to the different commands, insuring exact +cooperation. As the hours of the night passed the aspect of everything +grew better. The river had fallen so fast that it would be fordable +before morning. +</p> + +<p> +But after midnight the clouds gathered, thunder crashed, lightning +played and the violent rain of a summer storm enveloped them again. +Harry viewed it at first with dismay, and then he found consolation. +The darkness and the storm would cover their retreat, as it had covered +the retreat of their enemy, Hooker, after Chancellorsville. +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton rode close behind Lee, who sat erect on his white +horse, supervising the first movement of troops over the new and +shaking bridge. Harry noted with amazement that despite his enormous +exertions, physical and mental, and an intense anxiety, continuous for +many days, he did not yet show signs of fatigue. Word had come that a +part of the army was already fording the river, near Williamsport, but +this bridge near Falling Waters was the most important point. General +Lee and his staff sat there on their horses a long time, while the rain +beat unheeded upon them. +</p> + +<p> +Few scenes are engraved more vividly upon the mind of Harry Kenton than +those dusky hours before the dawn, the flashes of lightning, the almost +incessant rumble of thunder, the turbid and yellow river across which +stretched the bridge, a mere black thread in the darkness, swaying and +dipping and rising and creaking as horse and foot, and batteries and +ammunition wagons passed upon it. +</p> + +<p> +There were torches, but they flared and smoked in the rain and cast a +light so weak and fitful that Harry could not see the farther shore. +The Army of Northern Virginia marched out upon a shaking bridge and +disappeared in the black gulf beyond. Only the lack of an alarm coming +back showed that it was reaching the farther shore. +</p> + +<p> +"Dawn will soon be here," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"So it will," said Harry, "and most of the troops are across. Ah, +there go the Invincibles! Look how they ride!" +</p> + +<p> +Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire at +the head of their scanty band were just passing. They took off their +hats, and swept a low bow to the great chief who sat silently on his +white horse within a few yards of them. Then, side by side, they rode +upon the shaking bridge, followed by Langdon, St. Clair and their brave +comrades, and disappeared, where the bridge disappeared, in the rain +and mist. +</p> + +<p> +"Brave men!" murmured Lee. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, always watching his commander-in-chief, saw now for the first +time signs of fatigue and nervousness. The tremendous strain was +wearing him down. But while the rain still poured and ran in streams +from his gray hair and gray beard, the rear guard of the Army of +Northern Virginia passed upon the bridge, and Stuart, all his plumes +bedraggled, rode up to his chief, a smoking cup of coffee in his hand. +</p> + +<p> +"Drink this, General, won't you?" he said. +</p> + +<p> +He seized it, drank all of the coffee eagerly, and then handing back +the cup, said: +</p> + +<p> +"I never before in my life drank anything that refreshed me so much." +</p> + +<p> +Then he, with his staff, Stuart and some other generals rode over the +bridge, disappearing in their turn into the darkness and mist that had +swallowed up the others, but emerging, as the others had done, into the +safety of the Southern shore. +</p> + +<p> +Meade and his generals had held a council the night before but nearly +all the officers advised against attack. This night he made up his +mind to move against Lee anyhow, and was ready at dawn, only to find +the whole Southern army gone. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap09"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER IX +</h3> + +<h3> +IN SOCIETY +</h3> + +<p> +Harry, when the dawn had fully come, was sent farther away toward the +ford to see if the remainder of the troops had passed, and, when he +returned with the welcome news, the rain had ceased to fall. The army +was rapidly drying itself in the brilliant sunshine, and marched +leisurely on. He felt an immense relief. He knew that a great crisis +had been passed, and, if the Northern armies ever reached Richmond, it +would be a long and sanguinary road. Meade might get across and +attack, but his advantage was gone. +</p> + +<p> +The same spirit of relief pervaded the ranks, and the men sang their +battle songs. There had been some fighting at one or two of the fords, +but it did not amount to much, and no enemy hung on their rear. But no +stop was made by the staff until noon, when a fire was made and food +was cooked. Then Harry was notified that he and Dalton were to start +that night with dispatches for Richmond. They were to ride through +dangerous country, until they reached a point on the railroad, wholly +within the Southern lines, when they would take a train for the +Confederate capital. +</p> + +<p> +They were glad to go. They felt sure that no great battles would be +fought while they were gone. Neither army seemed to be in a mood for +further fighting just yet, and they longed for a sight of the little +city that was the heart of the Confederacy. They were tired of the +rifle and march, of cannon and battles. They wished to be a while +where civilized life went on, to hear the bells of churches and to see +the faces of women. +</p> + +<p> +It seemed to them both that they had lived almost all their lives in +war. Even Jeb Stuart's ball, stopped by the opening guns of a great +battle, was far, far away, and to Harry, it was at least a century +since he had closed his Tacitus in the Pendleton Academy, and put it +away in his desk. That old Roman had written something of battles, but +they were no such struggles as Chancellorsville and Gettysburg had +been. The legions, he admitted in his youthful pride, could fight +well, but they never could have beaten Yank or Reb. +</p> + +<p> +He and Dalton slept through the afternoon and directly after dark, well +equipped and well-armed, they made their start into the South. But in +going they did not neglect to pass the camp of the Invincibles who were +now in the apex of the army farthest south. They had found an +unusually comfortable place on a grassy plot beside a fine, cool +spring, and most of them were lying down. But Colonel Talbot and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sat on empty kegs, with a board +on an empty box between them. The great game which ran along with the +war had been renewed. St. Clair and Langdon sat on the grass beside +them, watching the contest. +</p> + +<p> +The two colonels looked up at the sound of hoofs and paused a moment. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm getting his king into a close corner, Harry," said Colonel Talbot, +"and he'll need a lot of time for thinking. Where are you two going, +or perhaps I shouldn't ask you such a question?" +</p> + +<p> +"There's no secret about it," replied Harry. "We're going to Richmond +with dispatches." +</p> + +<p> +"He was incorrect in saying that he was getting my king into a close +corner, as I'll presently show him," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire; "but you boys are lucky. I suppose you'll stay a while in the +capital. You'll sleep in white beds, you'll eat at tables, with +tablecloths on 'em. You'll hear the soft voices of the women and girls +of the South, God bless 'em!" +</p> + +<p> +"And if you went on to Charleston you'd find just as fine women there," +said Colonel Leonidas Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +He sighed and a shade of sadness crossed his face. Harry heard and saw +and understood. He remembered a night long, long ago in that heat of +rebellion, when he had looked down from the window of his room, and, in +the dark, had seen two figures, a man and a woman, upon a piazza, +Colonel Talbot and Madame Delaunay, talking softly together. He had +felt then that he was touching almost unconsciously upon the thread of +an old romance. A thread slender and delicate, but yet strong enough +in its very tenderness and delicacy to hold them both. The perfume of +the flowers and of the old romance that night in the town so far away +came back. He was moved, and when his eyes met Colonel Talbot's some +kind of an understanding passed between them. +</p> + +<p> +"The good are never rewarded," said Happy Tom. +</p> + +<p> +"How so?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Because the proof of it sits on his horse here before us. Why should +a man like George Dalton be sent to Richmond? A sour Puritan who does +not know how to enjoy a dance or anything else, who looks upon the +beautiful face of a girl as a sin and an abomination, who thinks to be +ugly is to be good, who is by temperament and education unfit to enjoy +anything, while Thomas Langdon, who by the same measurements is fit to +enjoy everything, is left here to hold back the Army of the Potomac. +It's undoubtedly a tribute to my valor, but I don't like it." +</p> + +<p> +"Thomas," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot, gravely, "you're entirely too +severe with our worthy young friend, Dalton. The bubbles of pleasure +always lie beneath austere and solemn exteriors like his, seeking to +break a way to the surface. The longer the process is delayed the more +numerous the bubbles are and the greater they expand. If scandalous +reports concerning a certain young man in Richmond should reach us here +in the North, relating his unparalleled exploits in the giddier circles +of our gay capital, I should know without the telling that it was our +prim young George Dalton." +</p> + +<p> +"You never spoke truer words, Leonidas," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector +St. Hilaire. "A little judicious gallantry in youth is good for any +one. It keeps the temperature from going too high. I recall now the +case of Auguste Champigny, who owned an estate in Louisiana, near the +Louisiana estate of the St. Hilaires, and the estates of those cousins +of mine whom I visited, as I told you once. +</p> + +<p> +"But pardon me. I digress, and to digress is to grow old, so I will +not digress, but remain young, in heart at least. I go back now. I +was speaking of Auguste Champigny, who in youth thought only of making +money and of making his plantation, already great, many times greater. +The blood in his veins was old at twenty-two. He did not love the +vices that the world calls such. But yet there were times, I knew, +when he would have longed to go with the young, because youth cannot be +crushed wholly at twenty-two. There was no escape of the spirits, no +wholesome blood-letting, so to speak, and that which was within him +became corrupt. He acquired riches and more riches, and land and more +land, and at fifty he went to New Orleans, and sought the places where +pleasures abound. But his true blossoming time had passed. The blood +in his veins now became poison. He did the things that twenty should +do, and left undone the things that fifty should do. Ah! Harry, one +of the saddest things in life is the dissipated boy of fifty! He +should have come with us when the first blood of youth was upon him. +He could have found time then for play as well as work. He could have +rowed with us in the slender boats on the river and bayous with Mimi +and Rosalie and Marianne and all those other bright and happy ones. He +could have danced, too. It was no strain, we never danced longer than +two days and two nights without stopping, and the festivals, the gay +fete days, not more than one a week! But it was not Auguste's way. A +man when he should have been a boy, and then, alas! a boy when he +should have been a man!" +</p> + +<p> +"You speak true words, Hector," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot, "though +at times you seem to me to be rather sentimental. Youth is youth and +it has the pleasures of youth. It is not fitting that a man should be +a boy, but middle-age has pleasures of its own and they are more solid, +perhaps more satisfying than those of youth. I can't conceive of +twenty getting the pleasure out of the noble game of chess that we do. +The most brilliant of your young French Creole dancers never felt the +thrill that I feel when the last move is made and I beat you." +</p> + +<p> +"Then if you expect to experience that thrill, Leonidas, continue the +pursuit of my king, from which you expect so much, and see what will +happen to you." +</p> + +<p> +Colonel Talbot looked keenly at the board, and alarm appeared on his +face. He made a rapid retreat with one of his pieces, and Harry and +Dalton, knowing that it was time for them to go, reached down from +their saddles, shook hands with both, then with St. Clair and Happy +Tom, and were soon beyond the bounds of the camp. +</p> + +<p> +They rode on for many hours in silence. They were in a friendly land +now, but they knew that it was well to be careful, as Federal scouts +and cavalry nevertheless might be encountered at any moment. Two or +three times they turned aside from the road to let detachments of +horsemen pass. They could not tell in the dark and from their hiding +places to which army they belonged, and they were not willing to take +the delay necessary to find out. They merely let them ride by and +resumed their own place on the road. +</p> + +<p> +Harry told Dalton many more details of his perilous journey from the +river to the camp of the commander-in-chief, and he spoke particularly +of Shepard. +</p> + +<p> +"Although he's a spy," he said, "I feel that the word scarcely fits +him, he's so much greater than the ordinary spy. That man is worth +more than a brigade of veterans to the North. He's as brave as a lion, +and his craft and cunning are almost superhuman." +</p> + +<p> +He did not tell that he might easily have put Shepard forever out of +the way, but that his heart had failed him. Yet he did not feel +remorse nor any sense of treachery to his cause. He would do the same +were the same chance to come again. But it seemed to him now that a +duel had begun between Shepard and himself. They had been drifting +into it, either through chance or fate, for a long time. He knew that +he had a most formidable antagonist, but he felt a certain elation in +matching himself against one so strong. +</p> + +<p> +They rode all night and the next day across the strip of Maryland into +Virginia and once more were among their own people, their undoubted +own. They were now entering the Valley of Virginia where the great +Jackson had leaped into fame, and both Harry and Dalton felt their +hearts warm at the greetings they received. Both armies had marched +over the valley again and again. It was torn and scarred by battle, +and it was destined to be torn and scarred many times more, but its +loyalty to the South stood every test. This too was the region in +which many of the great Virginia leaders were born, and it rejoiced in +the valor of its sons. +</p> + +<p> +Food and refreshment were offered everywhere to the two young horsemen, +and the women and the old men—not many young men were left—wanted to +hear of Gettysburg. They would not accept it as a defeat. It was +merely a delay, they said. General Lee would march North once more +next year. Harry knew in his heart that the South would never invade +again, that the war would be for her henceforth a purely defensive one, +but he said nothing. He could not discourage people who were so +sanguine. +</p> + +<p> +Every foot of the way now brought back memories of Jackson. He saw +many familiar places, fields of battle, sites of camps, lines of +advance or retreat, and his heart grew sad within him, because one whom +he admired so much, and for whom he had such a strong affection, was +gone forever, gone when he was needed most. He saw again with all the +vividness of reality that terrible night at Chancellorsville, when the +wounded Jackson lay in the road, his young officers covering his body +with their own to protect him from the shells. +</p> + +<p> +When they reached the strip of railroad entering Richmond they left +their horses to be sent later, and each took a full seat in the short +train, where he could loosen his belt, and stretch his limbs. It was a +crude coach, by the standards of to-day, but it was a luxury then. +Harry and Dalton enjoyed it, after so much riding horseback, and +watched the pleasant landscape, brown now from the July sun, flow past. +</p> + +<p> +Their coach did not contain many passengers, several wounded officers +going to Richmond on furlough, some countrymen, carrying provisions to +the capital for sale, and a small, thin, elderly woman in a black +dress, to whom Harry assigned the part of an old maid. He noticed that +her features were fine and she had the appearance of one who had +suffered. When they reached Richmond and their passes were examined, he +hastened to carry her bag for her and to help her off the train. She +thanked him with a smile that made her almost handsome, and quickly +disappeared in the streets of the city. +</p> + +<p> +"A nice looking old maid," he said to Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"How do you know she's an old maid?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know. I suppose it's a certain primness of manner." +</p> + +<p> +"You can't judge by appearances. Like as not she's been married thirty +years, and it's possible that she may have a family of at least twelve +children." +</p> + +<p> +"At any rate, we'll never know. But it's good, George, to be here in +Richmond again. It's actually a luxury to see streets and shop +windows, and people in civilian clothing, going about their business." +</p> + +<p> +"Looks the same way to me, Harry, but we can't delay. We must be off +to the President, with the dispatches from the Army of Northern +Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +But they did not hurry greatly. They were young and it had been a long +time since they had been in a city of forty thousand inhabitants, where +the shop windows were brilliant to them and nobody on the streets was +shooting at anybody else. It was late July, the great heats were gone +for the time at least, and they were brisk and elated. They paused a +little while in Capitol Square, and looked at the Bell Tower, rising +like a spire, from the crest of which alarms were rung, then at the +fine structure of St. Paul's Church. They intended to go into the +State House now used as the Confederate Capitol, but that must wait +until they reported to President Davis. +</p> + +<p> +They arrived at the modest building called the White House of the +Confederacy, and, after a short wait in the anteroom, they were +received by the President. They saw a tall, rather spare man, dressed +in a suit of home-knit gray. He received them without either warmth or +coldness. Harry, although it was not the first time he had seen him, +looked at him with intense curiosity. Davis, like Lincoln, was born in +his own State, Kentucky, but like most other Kentuckians, he did not +feel any enthusiasm over the President of the Confederacy. There was +no magnetism. He felt the presence of intellect, but there was no +inspiration in that arid presence. +</p> + +<p> +A man of Oriental features was sitting near with a great bunch of +papers in his hand. Mr. Davis did not introduce Harry and Dalton to +him, and he remained silent while the President was asking questions of +the messengers. But Harry watched him when he had a chance, interested +strongly in that shrewd, able, Eastern face, the descendant of an +immemorial and intellectual race, the man who while Secretary of State +was trying also to help carry the tremendous burden of Confederate +finance. What was he thinking, as Harry and Dalton answered the +President's questions about the Army of Northern Virginia? +</p> + +<p> +"You say that you left immediately after our army crossed the Potomac?" +asked the President. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir," replied Harry. "General Meade could have attacked, but he +remained nearly two days on our front without attempting to do so." +</p> + +<p> +A thin gray smile flitted over the face of the President of the +Confederacy. +</p> + +<p> +"General Meade was not beaten at Gettysburg, but I fancy he remembered +it well enough." +</p> + +<p> +Harry glanced at Benjamin, but his Oriental face was inscrutable. The +lad wondered what was lurking at the back of that strong brain. He was +shrewd enough himself to know that it was not always the generals on +the battlefield who best understood the condition of a state at war, +and often the man who held the purse was the one who measured it best +of all. But Benjamin never said a word, nor did the expression of his +face change a particle. +</p> + +<p> +"The Army of Northern Virginia is safe," said the President, "and it +will be able to repel all invasion of Virginia. General Lee gives +especial mention of both of you in his letters, and you are not to +return to him at once. You are to remain here a while on furlough, and +if you will go to General Winder he will assign you to quarters." +</p> + +<p> +Both Harry and Dalton were delighted, and, although thanks were really +due to General Lee, they thanked the President, who smiled dryly. Then +they saluted and withdrew, the President and the Secretary of State +going at once into earnest consultation over the papers Mr. Benjamin +had brought. +</p> + +<p> +Harry felt that he had left an atmosphere of depression and said so, +when they were outside in the bright sunshine. +</p> + +<p> +"If you were trying to carry as much as Mr. Davis is carrying you'd be +depressed too," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"Maybe so, but let's forget it. We've got nothing to do for a few days +but enjoy ourselves. General Winder is to give us quarters, but we're +not to be under his command. What say you to a little trip through the +capitol?" +</p> + +<p> +"Good enough." +</p> + +<p> +Congress had adjourned for the day, but they went through the building, +admiring particularly the Houdon Washington, and then strolled again +through the streets, which were so interesting and novel to them. +Richmond was never gayer and brighter. They were sure that the hated +Yankees could never come. For more than two years the Army of Northern +Virginia had been an insuperable bar to their advance, and it would +continue so. +</p> + +<p> +Harry suddenly lifted his cap as some one passed swiftly, and Dalton +glancing backward saw a small vanishing figure. +</p> + +<p> +"Who was it?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"The thin little old maid in black whom we saw on the train. She may +have nodded to me when I bowed, but it was such a little nod that I'm +not certain." +</p> + +<p> +"I rather like your being polite to an insignificant old maid, Harry. +I'd expect you, as a matter of course, to be polite to a young and +pretty girl, overpolite probably." +</p> + +<p> +"That'll do, George Dalton. I like you best when you're preaching +least. Come, let's go into the hotel and hear what they're talking +about." +</p> + +<p> +After the custom of the times a large crowd was gathered in the +spacious lobby of Richmond's chief hotel. Among them were the local +celebrities in other things than war, Daniel, Bagby, Pegram, Randolph, +and a half-dozen more, musicians, artists, poets, orators and wits. +People were quite democratic, and Harry and Dalton were free to draw +their chairs near the edge of the group and listen. Pegram, the +humorist, gave them a glance of approval, when he noticed their +uniforms, the deep tan of their faces, their honest eyes and their +compact, strong figures. +</p> + +<p> +Harry soon learned that a large number of English and French newspapers +had been brought by a blockade runner to Wilmington, North Carolina, +and had just reached the capital, the news of which these men were +discussing with eagerness. +</p> + +<p> +"We learn that the sympathies of both the French and English +governments are still with us," said Randolph. +</p> + +<p> +"But these papers were all printed before the news of Vicksburg and +Gettysburg had crossed the Atlantic," said Daniel. +</p> + +<p> +"England is for us," said Pegram, "only because she likes us little and +the North less. The French Imperialists, too, hate republics, and are +in for anything that will damage them. When we beat off the North, +until she's had enough, and set up our own free and independent +republic, we'll have both England and France annoying us, and demanding +favors, because they were for us in the war. Sympathy is something, +but it doesn't win any battles." +</p> + +<p> +"A nation has no real friend except itself," said Bagby. "Whatever the +South gets she'll have to get with her own good right arm." +</p> + +<p> +"I can predict the first great measure to be put through by the +Southern Government after the war." +</p> + +<p> +"What will it be?" +</p> + +<p> +"The abolition of slavery." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, that's one of the things we're fighting to maintain!" +</p> + +<p> +"Exactly so. You're willing to throw away a thing of your own accord, +when you're not willing to throw it away because another orders you to +do so. Wars are due chiefly to our misunderstanding of human nature." +</p> + +<p> +Then Pegram turned suddenly to Harry. "You're from the field?" he +said. "From the Army of Northern Virginia?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," replied Harry. "My name is Kenton and I'm a lieutenant on the +staff of General Lee. My friend is George Dalton, also of the +commander-in-chief's staff." +</p> + +<p> +"Are you from Kentucky?" asked Daniel curiously. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, from a little town called Pendleton." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I fancy that I've met a relative of yours. I returned recently +from a small town in North Georgia, the name of which I may not give, +owing to military reasons, necessary at the present time, and I met +while I was there a splendid tall man of middle years, Colonel George +Kenton of Kentucky." +</p> + +<p> +"That's my father!" said Harry eagerly. "How was he?" +</p> + +<p> +"I thought he must be your father. The resemblance, you know. I +should say that if all men were as healthy as he looked there would be +no doctors in the world. He has a fine regiment and he'll be in the +battle that's breeding down there. Grant has taken Vicksburg, as we +all know, but a powerful army of ours is left in that region. It has +to be dealt with before we lose the West." +</p> + +<p> +"And it will fight like the Army of Northern Virginia," said Harry. "I +know the men of the West. The Yankees win there most of the time, +because we have our great generals in the East and they have theirs in +the West." +</p> + +<p> +"I've had that thought myself," said Bagby. "We've had men of genius +to lead us in the East, but we don't seem to produce them in the West. +People are always quoting Napoleon's saying that men are nothing, a man +is everything, which I never believed before, but which I'm beginning +to believe now." +</p> + +<p> +Then the talk veered away from battle and back to social, literary and +artistic affairs, to all of which Harry and Dalton listened eagerly. +Both had minds that responded to the more delicate things of life, and +they were glad to hear something besides war discussed. It was hard +for them to think that everything was going on as usual in Europe, that +new books and operas and songs were being written, and that men and +women were going about their daily affairs in peace. Yet both were +destined to live to see the case reversed, the people of the States +setting the world an example in moderation and restraint, while the +governments of Europe were deluging that continent with blood. +</p> + +<p> +"If this war should result in our defeat," said Bagby, "we won't get a +fair trial before the world for two or three generations, and maybe +never." +</p> + +<p> +"Why?" asked Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"Because we're not a writing people. Oh, yes, there's Poe, I know, the +nation's greatest literary genius, but even Europe honored him before +the South did. We've devoted our industry and talents to politics, +oratory and war. We don't write books, and we don't have any +newspapers that amount to much. Why, as sure as I'm sitting here, the +moment this war is over New England and New York and Pennsylvania, +particularly New England, will begin to pour out books, telling how the +wicked Southerners brought on the war, what a cruel and low people we +are, the way in which we taught our boys, when they were strong enough, +how to beat slaves to death, and the whole world will believe them. +Maybe the next generation of Southerners will believe them too." +</p> + +<p> +"Why?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Why? Why? Because we don't have any writers, and won't have any for +a long time! The writer has not been honored among us. Any fellow +with a roaring voice who can get up on the stump and tell his audience +that they're the bravest and best and smartest people on earth is the +man for them. You know that old story of Andy Jackson. Somebody +taunted him with being an uneducated man, so at the close of his next +speech he thundered out: _E pluribus unum! Multum in parvo! Sic +semper tyrannis!_ So it was all over. Old Andy to that audience, and +all the others that heard of it, was the greatest Latin scholar in the +world." +</p> + +<p> +"But that may apply to the North, too," objected Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"So it would. Nevertheless they'll write this war, and they'll get +their side of it fastened on the world before our people begin to +write." +</p> + +<p> +"But if we win we won't care," said Randolph. "Success speaks for +itself. You can squirm and twist all you please, and make all the +excuses for it that you can think up, but there stands success glaring +contemptuously at you. You're like a little boy shooting arrows at the +Sphinx." +</p> + +<p> +Thus the conversation ran on. Both Harry and Dalton were glad to be in +the company of these men, and to feel that there was something in the +world besides war. All the multifarious interests of peace and +civilization suddenly came crowding back upon them. Harry remembered +Pendleton with its rolling hills, green fields, and clear streams, and +Dalton remembered his own home, much like it, in the Valley of +Virginia, not so far away. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you remain long in Richmond?" asked Randolph. +</p> + +<p> +"A week at least," replied Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Then you ought to see a little of social life. Mrs. John Curtis, a +leading hostess, gives a reception and a dance to-morrow night. I can +easily procure invitations for both of you, and I know that she would +be glad to have two young officers freshly arrived from our glorious +Army of Northern Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +"But our clothes!" said Dalton. "We have only a change of uniform +apiece, and they're not fresh by any means." +</p> + +<p> +All the men laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"You don't think that Richmond is indulging in gorgeous apparel do +you?" said Daniel. "We never manufactured much ourselves, and since +all the rest of the world is cut off from us where are the clothes to +come from even for the women? Brush up your uniforms all you can and +you'll be more than welcome. Two gallant young officers from the Army +of Northern Virginia! Why, you'll be two Othellos, though white, of +course." +</p> + +<p> +Harry glanced at Dalton, and Dalton glanced at Harry. Each saw that +the other wanted to go, and Daniel, watching them, smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"I see that you'll come," he said, "and so it's settled. Have you +quarters yet?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not yet," replied Harry, "but we'll see about it this afternoon." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll have the invitations sent to you here at this hotel. All of us +will be there, and we'll see that you two meet everybody." +</p> + +<p> +Both thanked him profusely. They were about to go, thinking it time to +report to General Winder, when Harry noticed a thin woman in a black +dress, carrying a large basket, and just leaving the hotel desk. He +caught a glimpse of her face and he knew that it was the old maid of +the train. Then something else was impressed upon his mind, something +which he had not noticed at their first meeting, but which came to him +at their second. He had seen a face like hers before, but the +resemblance was so faint and fleeting that he could not place it, +strive as he would. But he was sure that it was there. +</p> + +<p> +"Who is that woman?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +Daniel shook his head and so did Randolph, but Bagby spoke up. +</p> + +<p> +"Her name is Henrietta Carden," he said, "and she's a seamstress. I've +seen her coming to the hotel often before, bringing new clothes to the +women guests, or taking away old ones to be repaired. I believe that +the ladies account her most skillful. It's likely that she'll be at +the Curtis house, in a surgical capacity, to-morrow night, as a quick +repairer of damaged garments, those fine linen and silk and lace +affairs that we don't know anything about. Mrs. Curtis relies greatly +upon her and I ought to tell you, young gentlemen, that Mr. Curtis is a +most successful blockade runner, though he takes no personal risk +himself. The Curtis house is perhaps the most sumptuous in Richmond. +You'll see no signs of poverty there, though, as I told you, officers +in old and faded clothes are welcome." +</p> + +<p> +Harry saw Henrietta Carden carrying the large basket of clothes, go out +at a side door, and he felt as if a black shadow like a menace had +passed across the floor. But it was only for an instant. He dismissed +it promptly, as one of those thoughts that come out of nothing, like +idle puffs of summer air. He and Dalton bade a brief farewell to their +new friends and left for the headquarters of General Winder. An +elderly and childless couple named Lanham had volunteered to take two +officers in their house near Capitol Square, and there Harry and Dalton +were sent. +</p> + +<p> +They could not have found a better place. Mr. and Mrs. Lanham were +quiet people, who gave them an excellent room and a fine supper. Mrs. +Lanham showed a motherly solicitude, and when she heard that they were +going to the Curtis ball on the following night she demanded that their +spare and best uniforms be turned over to her. +</p> + +<p> +"I can make them look fresh," she insisted, "and your appearance must +be the finest possible. No, don't refuse again. It's a pleasure to me +to do it. When I look at you two, so young and strong and so honest in +manner and speech, I wish that I had sons too, and then again I'm glad +I have not." +</p> + +<p> +"Why not, Mrs. Lanham?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Because I'd be in deadly fear lest I lose them. They'd go to the +war—I couldn't help it—and they'd surely be killed." +</p> + +<p> +"We won't grieve over losing what we've never had," smiled Mr. Lanham. +"That's morbid." +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton did their best to answer all the questions of their +hosts, who they knew would take no pay. The interest of both Mr. and +Mrs. Lanham was increased when they found that their young guests were +on the staff of General Lee and before that had been on the staff of +the great Stonewall Jackson. These two names were mighty in the South, +untouched by any kind of malice or envy, and with legends to cluster +around them as the years passed. +</p> + +<p> +"And you really saw Stonewall Jackson every day!" said Mrs. Lanham. +"You rode with him, talked with him, and went into battle with him?" +</p> + +<p> +"I was in all his campaigns, Mrs. Lanham," replied Harry, modestly, but +not without pride. "I was with him in every battle, even to the last, +Chancellorsville. I was one of those who sheltered him from the +shells, when he was shot by our own men. Alas! what an awful mistake. +I—" +</p> + +<p> +He stopped suddenly. He had choked with emotion, and the tears came +into his eyes. Mrs. Lanham saw, and, understanding, she quickly +changed the subject to Lee. They talked a while after supper, called +dinner now, and then they went up to their room on the second floor. +</p> + +<p> +It was a handsome room, containing good furniture, including two single +beds. Their baggage had preceded them and everything was in order. Two +large windows, open to admit the fresh air, looked out over Richmond. +On a table stood a pitcher of ice water and glasses. +</p> + +<p> +"Our lot has certainly been cast in a pleasant place," said Dalton, +taking a chair by one of the windows. +</p> + +<p> +"You're right," said Harry, sitting in the chair by the other window. +"The Lanhams are fine people, and it's a good house. This is luxury, +isn't it, George, old man?" +</p> + +<p> +"The real article. We seem to be having luck all around. And we're +going to a big ball to-morrow night, too. Who'd have thought such a +thing possible a week ago?" +</p> + +<p> +"And we've made friends who'll see that we're not neglected." +</p> + +<p> +"It's an absolute fact that we've become the favorite children of +fortune." +</p> + +<p> +"No earthly doubt of it." +</p> + +<p> +Then ensued a silence, broken at length by a scraping sound as each +moved his chair a little nearer to the window. +</p> + +<p> +"Close, George," said Harry at length. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, a bit hard to breathe." +</p> + +<p> +"When fellows get used to a thing it's hard to change." +</p> + +<p> +"Fine room, though, and those are splendid beds." +</p> + +<p> +"Great on a winter night." +</p> + +<p> +"You've noticed how the commander-in-chief himself seldom sleeps under +a tent, but takes his blankets to the open?" +</p> + +<p> +"Wonder how an Indian who has roamed the forest all his life feels when +he's shut up between four walls for the first time." +</p> + +<p> +"Fancy it's like a prison cell to him." +</p> + +<p> +"Think so too. But the Lanhams are fine people and they're doing their +best for us." +</p> + +<p> +"Do you think they'd be offended if I were to take my blankets, and +sleep on the grass in the back yard?" +</p> + +<p> +"Of course they would. You mustn't think of such a thing. After this +war is over you've got to emerge slowly from barbarism. Do you +remember whether at supper we cut our food with our knives and lifted +it to our mouths with forks, or just tore and lifted with our fingers?" +</p> + +<p> +"We used knife and fork, each in its proper place. I happened to think +of it and watched myself. You, I suppose, did it through the force of +an ancient habit, recalled by civilized surroundings." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm glad you remember about it. Now I'm going to bed, and maybe I'll +sleep. I suppose there's no hope of seeing the stars through the roof." +</p> + +<p> +"None on earth! But my bed is fine and soft. We'd be all right if we +could only lift the roof off the house. I'd like to hear the wind +rubbing the boughs together." +</p> + +<p> +"Stop it! You make me homesick! We've got no right to be pining for +blankets and the open, when these good people are doing so much for us!" +</p> + +<p> +Each stretched himself upon his bed, and closed his eyes. They had not +been jesting altogether. So long a life in the open made summer skies +at night welcome, and roofs and walls almost took from them the power +of breathing. +</p> + +<p> +But the feeling wore away after a while and amid pleasurable thoughts +of the coming ball both fell asleep. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap10"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER X +</h3> + +<h3> +THE MISSING PAPER +</h3> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton did not awake until late the next morning and they +found they had not suffered at all from sleeping between four walls and +under a roof. Their lungs were full of fresh air, and youth with all +its joyous irresponsibility had come back. Harry sprang out of bed. +</p> + +<p> +"Up! up! old boy!" Harry cried to Dalton. "Don't you hear the bugles +calling? not to battle but to pleasure! There is no enemy in our +front! We don't have to cross a river with an overwhelming army +pressing down upon us! We don't have to ride before the dawn on a +scout which may lead us into a thicket full of hostile riflemen. We're +in a city, boy, and our business now is beauty and pleasure!" +</p> + +<p> +"Harry," said Dalton, "you ought to go far." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, George? What induces you to assume the role of a prophet +concerning me?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because you're so full of life. You're so keen about everything. You +must have a heart and lungs of extra steam power." +</p> + +<p> +"But I notice you don't say anything about brain power. Maybe you +think it's the quiet, rather silent fellows like yourself, George, who +have an excess of that." +</p> + +<p> +"None of your irony. Am I not looking forward to this ball as much as +you are? I was a boy when I entered the war, Harry, but two years of +fighting day and night age one terribly. I feel as if I could +patronize any woman under twenty-five, and treat her as quite a simple +young thing." +</p> + +<p> +"Try it, George, and see what happens to you." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, no! I merely said I felt that way. I've too much sense to put it +into action." +</p> + +<p> +"Do you know, George, that when this war is over it will be really time +for us to be thinking about girls. We'll be quite old enough. They +say that many of the Yankee maidens in Philadelphia and New York are +fine for looks. I wonder if they'll cast a favoring eye on young +Southern officers as our conquering armies go marching down their +streets!" +</p> + +<p> +"It's too remote. Don't think about it, Harry. Richmond will do us +for the present." +</p> + +<p> +"But you can let a fellow project his mind into the future." +</p> + +<p> +"Not so far that we'll be marching as conquerors through Philadelphia +and New York. Let's deal with realities." +</p> + +<p> +"I've always thought there was something of the Yankee about you, +George, not in political principles—I never question your devotion to +the cause—but in calculating, weighing everything and deciding in +favor of the one that weighs an ounce the most." +</p> + +<p> +"Are you about through dressing? You've taken a minute longer than the +regular time." +</p> + +<p> +There was a knock at the door, and, when Dalton opened it a few inches, +a black head announced through the crack that breakfast was ready. +</p> + +<p> +"See what a disgrace you're bringing upon us," said Dalton. "Delaying +everything. Mrs. Lanham will say that we're two impostors, that such +malingerers cannot possibly belong to the Army of Northern Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +"Lead on," said Harry. "I'm ready, and I'm hungry as every soldier in +the Southern army always is." +</p> + +<p> +They had a warm greeting from their hospitable hosts, followed by an +abundant breakfast. Then at Mrs. Lanham's earnest solicitation they +turned over their dress uniforms to her to be repaired and pressed. +Then they went out into the streets again, and spent the whole day +rambling about, enjoying everything with the keen and intense delight +that can come only to the young, and after long abstinence. Richmond +was not depressed. Far from it. There had been a wonderful +transformation since those dark days when the army of McClellan was +near enough to see the spires of its churches. The flood of battle had +rolled far away since then, and it had never come back. It could never +come back. It was true that the Army of Northern Virginia had failed at +Gettysburg, but it was returning to the South unassailed, and was ready +to repeat its former splendid achievements. +</p> + +<p> +Harry went to the post office, and found there, to his great surprise +and delight, a letter from his father, written three or four days after +Vicksburg. +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +My dear son: [he wrote] +</p> + +<p> +The news has just come to us that the Army of Northern Virginia, while +performing prodigies of valor, has failed to carry all the Northern +positions at Gettysburg. Only complete success could warrant a further +advance. I assume therefore that General Lee is retreating and I +assume also that you, Harry, my beloved son, are alive, that you came +unharmed out of that terrible battle. It does not seem possible to me +that it could be otherwise. I cannot conceive of you fallen. It may +be that it's because you are my son. The sons of others may fall, but +not mine, just as we know that all others are doomed to die, but get +into the habit of thinking ourselves immortal. So, I address this +letter to you in the full belief that it will reach you somewhere, and +that you will read it. +</p> + +<p> +You know, of course, of our great loss at Vicksburg. It is disastrous +but not irreparable. We still have a powerful army in the West, hardy, +indomitable, one with which the enemy will have to reckon. As for +myself I have been spared in many battles and I am well. It seems the +sport of chance that you and I, while fighting on the same side, should +have been separated in this war, you in the East and I in the West. +But it has been done by One who knows best, and after all I am glad +that you have been in such close contact with two of the greatest and +highest-minded soldiers of the ages, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. +Lee. I do not think of them merely as soldiers, but as knights and +champions with flaming swords. One of them, alas! is gone, but we have +the other, and if man can conquer he will. Here in the West we repose +our faith in Lee, as surely as do you in the East, you who see his face +and hear his voice every day. +</p> + +<p> +I have had two or three letters from Pendleton. That part of the State +is for the present outside the area of conflict, though I hear that the +guerilla bands to the east in the mountains still vex and annoy, and +that Skelly is growing bolder. I foresee the time when we shall have +to reckon with this man, who is a mere brigand. +</p> + +<p> +I hear that the prospects for fruit in our orchards were never finer. +You will remember how you prowled in them when you were a little boy, +Harry, and what a pirate you were among the apples and peaches and +pears and good things that grew on tree and bush and briar in that +beautiful old commonwealth of ours. I often upbraided you then, but I +should like to see you now, far out on a bough as of old, reaching for +a big yellow pear, or a red, red bunch of cherries! Alas! there are +many lads who will never return, who will never see the pear trees and +the cherry trees again, but I repeat I cannot feel that you will be +among them. Who would ever have dreamed when this war began that it +could go so far? More than two years of fierce and deadly battles and +I can see no end. A deadlock and neither side willing to yield! How +glad would be the men who made the war to see both sections back where +they were two and a half years ago! and that's no treason. +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +Water rose in Harry's eyes. He knew how terribly his father's heart +had been torn by the quarrel between North and South, and that he had +thoughts which he did not tell to his son. Harry was beginning at last +to think some of the same thoughts himself. If the South succeeded, +then, after the war, what? Another war later on or reunion. +</p> + +<p> +The rest of the letter was wholly personal, and in the end it directed +Harry, when writing to him, to address his letters care of the Western +Army under General Bragg. Harry was moved and he responded at once. He +went to the hotel in which he had met the young men who constituted the +leading lights in what was called the Mosaic Club, and, securing +writing materials, made a long reply, which he posted with every hope +that it would soon reach its destination. +</p> + +<p> +Early in the evening he rejoined Dalton at the house of the Lanhams and +they found that Mrs. Lanham had done wonders with their best uniforms. +When they were dressed in them they felt that it was no harder to +charge the Curtis house than to rush a battery. +</p> + +<p> +"You young men go early," said Mr. Lanham. "Mrs. Lanham and I will +appear later." +</p> + +<p> +They departed, daring to practice their dance steps in the street to +the delight of small boys who did not hesitate to chaff them. But +Harry and Dalton did not care. They answered the chaff in kind, and +soon approached the Curtis home, all the windows of which were blazing +with light. +</p> + +<p> +The house stood in extensive grounds, and lofty white pillars gave it +an imposing appearance. Guests were arriving fast. Most of the men +were military, but there was a fair sprinkling of civilians +nevertheless. The lads saw their friends of the Mosaic Club pass in +just ahead of them, all dressed with extreme care. Generals and +colonels and other officers were in most favor now, but these men, with +their swift and incisive wit and their ability to talk well about +everything, fully made up for the lack of uniform. +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton, before passing through the side gateway that led to +the house, paused awhile to look at those who came. Many people, and +they ranked among the best in Richmond, walked. They had sent all +their horses to the front long ago to be ridden by cavalrymen or to +draw cannon. Others, not so self-sacrificing, came in heavy carriages +with negroes driving. +</p> + +<p> +Harry noticed that in many cases the clothing of the men showed a +little white at the seams, and there were cuffs the ends of which had +been trimmed with great care. But it was these whom he respected most. +He remembered that Virginia had not really wanted to go into the war, +and that she had delayed long, but, being in it, she was making supreme +sacrifices. +</p> + +<p> +And there were many young girls who did not need elaborate dress. In +their simple white or pink, often but cotton, their cheeks showing the +delicate color that is possessed only by the girls in the border states +of the South, they seemed very beautiful to Harry and George, who had +known nothing but camps and armies so long. +</p> + +<p> +It was the healthy admiration of the brave youth of one sex for the +fair youth of the other, but there was in it a deeper note, too. Age +can stand misfortune. Youth wonders why it is stricken, and Harry felt +as they passed by, bright of face and soft of voice, that the clouds +were gathering heavily over them. +</p> + +<p> +But he was too young himself for the feeling to endure long. Dalton +was proposing that they go in and they promptly joined the stream of +entering guests. Randolph soon found them and presented them to Mrs. +Curtis, a large woman of middle years, and dignified manner, related to +nearly all the old families of Virginia, and a descendant of a +collateral branch of the Washingtons. Her husband, William Curtis, +seemed to be of a different type, a man of sixty, tall, thin and more +reserved than most Southerners of his time. His thin lips were usually +compressed and his pale blue eyes were lacking in warmth. But the long +strong line of his jaw showed that he was a man of strength and +decision. +</p> + +<p> +"A Northern bough on a Southern tree," whispered Dalton, as they passed +on. "He comes from some place up the valley and they say that the +North itself has not his superior in financial skill." +</p> + +<p> +"I did not warm to him at first," said Harry, "but I respect him. As +you know, George, we've put too little stress upon his kind of ability. +We'll need him and more like him when the Confederacy is established. +We'll have to build ourselves up as a great power, and that's done by +trade and manufactures more than by arms." +</p> + +<p> +"It's so, Harry. But listen to that music!" +</p> + +<p> +A band of four pieces placed behind flowers and shrubbery was playing. +Here was no blare of trumpets or call of bugles. It was the music of +the dance and the sentimental old songs of the South, nearly all of +which had a sad and wailing note. Harry heard the four black men play +the songs that he had heard Samuel Jarvis sing, deep in the Kentucky +mountains, and his heart beat with an emotion that he could not +understand. Was it a cry for peace? Did his soul tell him that an end +should come to fighting? Then throbbed the music of the lines: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + Soft o'er the fountain lingering falls the Southern moon<br /> + Far o'er the mountain breaks the day too soon.<br /> + In thy dark eyes' splendor, where the moonlight loves to dwell<br /> + Weary looks, yet tender, speak their fond farewell.<br /> + Nita, Juanita! Ask thy soul if we should part,<br /> + Nita, Juanita! Lean thou on my heart!<br /> +</p> + +<p> +The music of the sad old song throbbed and throbbed, and sank deep into +Harry's heart. At another time he might not have been stirred, but at +this moment he was responsive in every fiber. He saw once more the +green wilderness, and he heard once more the mellow tones of the singer +coming back in far echoes from the gorges. +</p> + +<p> +"Nita, Juanita! Ask thy soul if we should part," hummed Dalton, but +Harry was still far away in the green wilderness, listening to the +singer of the mountains. Then the singer stopped suddenly, and he was +listening once more to the startling prediction of the old, old woman: +</p> + +<p> +"I am proud that our house has sheltered you, but it is not for the +last time. You will come again, and you will be thin and pale and in +rags, and you will fall at the door. I see you coming with these two +eyes of mine." +</p> + +<p> +That prediction had been made a long time ago, years since, it seemed, +but whenever it returned to him, and it returned at most unexpected +times, it lost nothing of its amazing vividness and power; rather they +were increased. Could it be true that the supremely old had a vision +or second sight? Then he rebuked himself angrily. There was nothing +supernatural in this world. +</p> + +<p> +"Wake up, Harry! What are you thinking about?" whispered Dalton +sharply. "You seem to be dreaming, and here's a house full of pretty +girls, with more than a half-dozen looking at you, the gallant young +officer of the Army of Northern Virginia, the story of whose romantic +exploits had already reached Richmond." +</p> + +<p> +"I was dreaming and I apologize," said Harry. That minute in which he +had seen so much, so far away, passed utterly, and in another minute +both he and Dalton were dancing with Virginia girls, as fair as dreams +to these two, who had looked so long only upon the tanned faces of +soldiers. +</p> + +<p> +Both he and Dalton were at home in a half-hour. People in the Old +South then, as in the New South now, are closely united by ties of +kinship which are acknowledged as far as they run. One is usually a +member of a huge clan and has all the privileges that clanship can +confer. Kentucky was the daughter of Virginia, and mother and daughter +were fond of each other, as they are to-day. +</p> + +<p> +After the third dance Harry was sitting with Rosamond Lawrence of +Petersburg in a window seat. She was a slender blonde girl, and the +dancing had made the pink in her cheeks deepen into a flush. +</p> + +<p> +"You're from Kentucky, I know," said Miss Lawrence, "but you haven't +yet told me your town." +</p> + +<p> +"Pendleton. It's small but it's on the map. My father is a colonel in +the Western army." +</p> + +<p> +"Aren't you a Virginian by blood? Most all Kentuckians are." +</p> + +<p> +"Partly. My great grandfather, though, was born in Maryland." +</p> + +<p> +"What was his name, Lieutenant Kenton?" +</p> + +<p> +"Henry Ware!" +</p> + +<p> +"Henry Ware! Kentucky's first and greatest governor." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, he was my great grandfather. I'm proud to be his descendant." +</p> + +<p> +"I should think you would be." +</p> + +<p> +"But his wife, who was Lucy Upton, my great grandmother, was of +Virginia blood, and all of the next two generations intermarried with +people of Virginia stock." +</p> + +<p> +"Then you are a Kentuckian and a Virginian, too. I knew it! You have +a middle name, haven't you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes." +</p> + +<p> +"Will you tell me what it is?" +</p> + +<p> +"Cary." +</p> + +<p> +The girl laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"Harry Cary Kenton. Why Cary is one of our best old Virginia names. +Will you tell me too what was your mother's name before she was +married?" +</p> + +<p> +"Parham." +</p> + +<p> +"Another. Oh, all this unravels finely. And what was your +grandmother's name?" +</p> + +<p> +"Brent." +</p> + +<p> +"Nothing could be more Virginian than Brent. Oh, you're one of us, +Lieutenant Kenton, a real Virginian of the true blood." +</p> + +<p> +"And heart and soul too!" giving her one of his finest young military +glances. +</p> + +<p> +She laughed. It was only quick friendship between them and no more, +and a half-hour later he was dancing with another Virginia girl, not so +blonde, but just as handsome, and their talk was quite as friendly. Her +name was Lockridge, and as they sat down near the musicians to rest, +and listen a while, Harry saw a figure, slender and black-robed, pass. +He knew at once who she was, and it had been predicted that he might +meet her there, but she had stirred his curiosity a little, and +thinking he might obtain further information he asked Miss Lockridge: +</p> + +<p> +"Who is the woman who just passed us?" +</p> + +<p> +"That's Miss Carden, Miss Henrietta Carden, a sewing woman, very +capable too, who always helps at the big balls. Mrs. Curtis relies +greatly upon her. The door through which she went leads to the ladies' +dressing-room." +</p> + +<p> +"A native of Richmond?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know. But why are you so curious about a sewing woman, +Lieutenant Kenton?" +</p> + +<p> +Harry flushed. There was a faint tinge of rebuke in her words, and he +knew that he merited it. +</p> + +<p> +"It was just an idle question," he replied quickly, and with an air of +indifference. "I noticed her on the train when we came into the +capital, and we are so little used to women that we are inquisitive +about every one whom we see. Why, Miss Lockridge, I didn't realize +until I came to this ball that women could be so extraordinarily +beautiful. Every one of you looks like an angel, just lowered gently +from Heaven." +</p> + +<p> +"If you're not merely a flatterer then it's long absence that gives +charm. I assure you, Lieutenant Kenton, that we're very, very common +clay. You should see us eat." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll get you an ice at once." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I don't mean that. I mean substantial things!" +</p> + +<p> +"A healthy appetite doesn't keep a girl from being an angel." +</p> + +<p> +"When men marry us they find out that we're not angels." +</p> + +<p> +"The word 'angel' is with me merely a figure of speech. I don't want +any real angel. I want my wife, if I ever marry, to be thoroughly +human." +</p> + +<p> +Harry's progress was rapid. A handsome figure and face, and an +ingenuous manner made him a favorite. After midnight he wandered into +a room where older men were smoking and talking. They were mostly +officers, some of high rank, one a general, and they talked of that +which they could never get wholly from their minds, the war. All knew +Harry, and, as he wanted fresh air, they gave him a place by a window +which looked upon a small court. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was tired. In dancing he had been compelled to bring into play +muscles long unused, and he luxuriated in the cushioned chair, while +the pleasant night breeze blew upon him. They were discussing Lee's +probable plans to meet Meade, who would certainly follow him in time +across the Potomac. They spoke with weight and authority, because they +were experienced men who had been in many battles, and they were here +on furlough, most of them recovering from wounds. +</p> + +<p> +Harry heard them, but their words were like the flowing of a river. He +paid no heed. They did not bring the war back to him. He was thinking +of the music and of the brilliant faces of the girls whom he loved +collectively. What that Lawrence girl had said was true. He was a +Virginian as well as a Kentuckian, and the Kentuckians and Virginians +were all one big family. All those pretty Virginia girls were his +cousins. It might run to the thirty-second degree, but they were his +cousins just the same, and he would claim them with confidence. +</p> + +<p> +He smiled and his eyelids drooped a little. It was rather dark +outside, and he was looking directly into the court in which rosebushes +and tall flowering plants grew. A shadow passed. He did not see +whence it came or went, but he sat up and laughed at himself for dozing +and conjuring up phantoms when he was at his first real ball in ages. +</p> + +<p> +All the civilians had gone out and only five or six of the officers, +the most important, were left. Their talk had grown more eager, and on +the center of the table around which they sat lay a large piece of +white canvas upon which they were drawing a map expressing their +collective opinion. Every detail was agreed upon, after much +discussion, and Harry, as much interested as they, began to watch, +while the lines grew upon the canvas. He ventured no opinion, being so +much younger than the others. +</p> + +<p> +"We don't know, of course, exactly what General Lee will do," said a +colonel, "but we do know that he's always dangerous. He invariably +acts on the offensive, even if he's retreating. I should think that +he'd strike Meade about here." +</p> + +<p> +"Not there, but not far from it," said the general. "Make a dot at +that point, Bathurst, and make another dot here about twenty miles to +the east, which represents my opinion." +</p> + +<p> +Bathurst made the dots and the men, wholly absorbed, bent lower over +their plans, which were growing almost unconsciously into a map, and a +good one too. Harry was as much interested as they, and he still kept +himself in the background, owing to his youth and minor rank. +</p> + +<p> +The door to the room was open a little and the music, a waltz, came in +a soft ripple from the drawing room. It was rhythmic and languorous, +and Harry's feet would have moved to its tune at any other time, but he +was too deeply absorbed in the conjectures and certainties that they +were drawing with their pencils on the white canvas. +</p> + +<p> +Many of the details, he knew, were absolutely true, and others he was +quite sure must be true, because these were men of high rank who +carried in their minds the military secrets of the Confederacy. +</p> + +<p> +"I think we're pretty well agreed on the general nature of the plan," +said Bathurst. "We differ only in details." +</p> + +<p> +"That's so," said the general, "but we're lingering too long here. God +knows that we see little enough of our women folks, and, when we have +the chance to see them, and feel the touch of their hands, we waste our +time like a lot of fools making military guesses. If I'm not too old +to dance to the tune of the shells I'm not too old to dance to the tune +of the fiddle and the bow. That's a glorious air floating in from the +ballroom. I think I can show some of these youngsters like Kenton here +how to shake a foot." +</p> + +<p> +"After you, General," laughed Bathurst. "We know your capacity on both +the field and the floor, and how you respond to the shell and the bow. +Come on! The ballroom is calling to us, and I doubt whether we'll +explain to the satisfaction of everybody why we've been away from it so +long. You, too, Harry!" +</p> + +<p> +They rose in a group and went out hastily. Harry was last, and his +hand was on the bolt of the door, preparatory to closing it, when the +general turned to Bathurst and said: +</p> + +<p> +"You've that diagram of ours, haven't you, Bathurst? It's not a thing +to be left lying loose." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, no, sir, I thought you put it in your pocket." +</p> + +<p> +The general laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"You're suffering from astigmatism, Bathurst," he said. "Doubtless it +was Colton whom you saw stowing it away. I think we'd better tear it +into little bits as we have no further use for it." +</p> + +<p> +"But I haven't it, sir," said Colton, a veteran colonel, just +recovering from a wound in the arm. "I supposed of course that one of +the others took it." +</p> + +<p> +An uneasy look appeared in the general's eyes, but it passed in an +instant. +</p> + +<p> +"You have it, Morton?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, sir. Like Bathurst I thought one of the others took it." +</p> + +<p> +"And you, Kitteridge?" +</p> + +<p> +"I did not take it, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"You surely have it, Johnson?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, sir, I was under the impression that you had taken it away with +you." +</p> + +<p> +"And you, McCurdy?" +</p> + +<p> +McCurdy shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +"Then Kenton, as you were the last to rise, you certainly have it." +</p> + +<p> +"I was just a looker-on; I did not touch it," said Harry, whose hand +was still on the bolt of the partly opened door. +</p> + +<p> +The general laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"Another case of everybody expecting somebody else to do a thing, and +nobody doing it," he said. "Kenton, go back and take it from the +table. In our absorption we've been singularly forgetful, and that plan +must be destroyed at once." +</p> + +<p> +Harry reentered the room, and in their eagerness all of the officers +followed. Then a simultaneous "Ah!" of dismay burst from them all. +There was nothing on the table. The plan was gone. They looked at one +another, and in the eyes of every one apprehension was growing. +</p> + +<p> +"The window is partly open," said the general, affecting a laugh, +although it had an uneasy note, "and of course it has blown off the +table. We'll surely find it behind the sofa or a chair." +</p> + +<p> +They searched the room eagerly, going over every inch of space, every +possible hiding place, but the plan was not there. +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps it's in the court," said the general. "It might have +fluttered out there. Raise the sash higher, Kenton. Let nobody make +any noise. We must be as quiet as possible about this. Luckily there's +enough moonlight now for us to find even a small scrap of paper in the +court." +</p> + +<p> +They stole through the window silently, one by one, and searched every +inch of the court's space. But nothing was in it, save the grass and +the flowers and the rosebushes that belonged there. They returned to +the room, and once more looked at one another in dismay. +</p> + +<p> +"Shut the window entirely and lock the door, Kenton," said the general. +</p> + +<p> +Harry did so. Then the general looked at them all, and his face was +set and very firm. +</p> + +<p> +"We must all be searched," he said. "I know that every one of you is +the soul of honor. I know that not one of you has concealed about his +person this document which has suddenly become so valuable. I know +that not one of you would smuggle through to the enemy such a plan at +any price, no matter how large. Nevertheless we must know beyond the +shadow of a doubt that none of us has the map. And I insist, too, that +I be searched first. Bathurst, Colton, begin!" +</p> + +<p> +They examined one another carefully in turn. Every pocket or possible +place of concealment was searched. Harry was the last and when they +were done with him the general heaved a huge sigh of relief. +</p> + +<p> +"We know positively that we are not guilty," he said. "We knew it +before, but now we've proved it. That is off our minds, but the +mystery of the missing map remains. What a strange combination of +circumstances. I think, gentlemen, that we had best say nothing about +it to outsiders. It's certainly to the interest of every one of us not +to do so. It's also to the interest of all of us to watch the best we +can for a solution. You're young, Kenton, but from what I hear of you +you're able to keep your own counsel." +</p> + +<p> +"You can trust me, sir," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"I know it, and now unlock the door. We've held ourselves prisoners +long enough, and they'll be wondering about us in the ballroom." +</p> + +<p> +Harry turned the key promptly enough and he was glad to escape from the +room. He felt that he had left behind a sinister atmosphere. He had +not mentioned to the older men the faint shadow that he thought he had +seen crossing the courtyard. But then it was only fancy, nothing more, +an idle figment of the brain! There was the music now, softer and more +tempting than ever, an irresistible call to flying feet, and another +dance with Rosamond Lawrence was due. +</p> + +<p> +"I thought you weren't coming, Lieutenant Kenton," she said. "Some one +said that you had gone into the smoking-room and that you were talking +war with middle-aged generals and colonels." +</p> + +<p> +"But I escaped as soon as I could, Miss Rosamond," he said—he was +thinking of the locked door and the universal search. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, you came just in time. The band is beginning and I was about to +give your dance to that good-looking Lieutenant Dalton." +</p> + +<p> +"You wouldn't treat me like that! Throw over your cousin in such a +manner! I can't think it!" +</p> + +<p> +"No, I wouldn't!" +</p> + +<p> +Then the full swell of the music caught them both, and they glided +away, as light and swift as the melody that bore them on. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap11"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER XI +</h3> + +<h3> +A VAIN PURSUIT +</h3> + +<p> +Youth was strong in Harry, and, while he danced and the music played, +he forgot all about the incident in the smoking-room. With him it was +just one pretty girl after another. He had heart enough for them all, +and only one who was so young and who had been so long on battlefields +could well understand what a keen, even poignant, pleasure it was to be +with them. +</p> + +<p> +Those were the days when a ball lasted long. Pleasures did not come +often, but when they came they were to be enjoyed to the full. But as +the morning hours grew the manner of the older people became slightly +feverish and unnatural. They were pursuing pleasure and forgetfulness +with so much zeal and energy that it bore the aspect of force rather +than spontaneity. Harry noticed it and divined the cause. Beneath his +high spirits he now felt it himself. It was that looming shadow in the +North and that other in that far Southwest hovering over lost +Vicksburg. Serious men and serious women could not keep these shadows +from their eyes long. +</p> + +<p> +The incident of the smoking-room and the missing map came back to him +with renewed force. It could not have walked away. They had searched +the room and the court so thoroughly that they would have found it, had +it been there. The disappearance of a document, which men of authority +and knowledge had built up almost unconsciously, puzzled and alarmed +him. +</p> + +<p> +It was almost day when he and Dalton left. They paid their respects to +Mr. and Mrs. Curtis, and said many good-bys to "the girls they left +behind them." Then they went out into the street, and inhaled great +draughts of the cool night air. +</p> + +<p> +"A splendid night," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, truly," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"I hope you didn't propose to more than six girls." +</p> + +<p> +"To none. But I love them all together." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm glad to hear it, because you're entirely too young to marry, and +your occupation is precarious." +</p> + +<p> +"You needn't be so preachy. You're not more'n a hundred years old +yourself." +</p> + +<p> +"But I'm two months older than you are and often two months makes a +vast difference, particularly in our cases. I notice about you, Harry, +at times, a certain juvenility which I feel it my duty to repress." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't do it, George. Let's enjoy it while we can, because as you say +my occupation is precarious and yours is the same." +</p> + +<p> +They stopped at the corner of the iron fence enclosing the Curtis home, +in which many lights were still shining. It was near a dark alley +opening on the street and running by this side of the house. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm going to see what's behind Mr. Curtis's house," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +Dalton stared at him. +</p> + +<p> +"What's got into your head, Harry!" he exclaimed. "Do you mean to be a +burglar prowling about the home of the man who has entertained you?" +</p> + +<p> +Harry hesitated. He was sorry that Dalton was with him. Then he could +have gone on without question, but he must make some excuse to Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"George," he said at last, "will you swear to keep a secret, a most +important one which I am pledged to tell to nobody, but which I must +confide in you in order to give a good reason for what I am about to +do." +</p> + +<p> +"If you are pledged to keep such a secret," replied Dalton, "then don't +explain it to me. Your word is good enough, Harry. Go ahead and do +what you want to do. I'll ask nothing about any of your actions, no +matter how strange it may look." +</p> + +<p> +"You're a man in a million, George. Come on, your confidence is going +to be tested. Besides, you'll run the danger of being shot." +</p> + +<p> +But Dalton followed him fearlessly as he led the way down the alley. +Richmond was not lighted then, save along the main streets, and a few +steps took them into the full dark. The brilliant windows threw bright +bands across the lines, but they themselves were in darkness. +</p> + +<p> +The alley ran through the next street and so did the Curtis grounds. +They were as extensive in the rear of the house as in front, and +contained small pines carefully trimmed, banks of roses and two grape +arbors. Harry could hear no sound of any one stirring among them, but +people, obviously the cooks and other servants, were talking in the big +kitchen at the rear of the house. +</p> + +<p> +The street itself running in the rear of the building was as well +lighted as it was in front, but Harry saw no one in it save a member of +the city police, who seemed to be keeping a good watch. But as he did +not wish to be observed by the man he waited a little while in the +mouth of the alley, until he had moved on and was out of sight. +</p> + +<p> +"Now, George," he said, "you and I are going to do a little scouting. +You know I'm descended from the greatest natural scout and trailer ever +known in the West, one whose senses were preternaturally acute, one who +could almost track a bird in the air by its flight." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I've heard of the renowned Henry Ware, and I know that you've +inherited a lot of his skill and intuition. Go ahead. I promised that +I would help you and ask no questions. I keep my word." +</p> + +<p> +Harry climbed silently over the low fence, and Dalton followed in the +same manner. The light from the street and house did not penetrate the +pines and rosebushes, where Harry quickly found a refuge, Dalton as +usual following him. +</p> + +<p> +"What next?" whispered Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"Now, I do my trailing and scouting, and you help me all you can, +George, but be sure you don't make any noise. There's enough moonlight +filtering through the pines to show the ground to me, but not enough to +disclose us to anybody twenty feet away." +</p> + +<p> +He dropped to his hands and knees, and, crawling back and forth, began +to examine every inch of ground with minute care, while Dalton stared +at him in amazement. +</p> + +<p> +"I'd help," whispered Dalton, "if I only knew what you were doing." +</p> + +<p> +"Suppose, George, that somebody wanted to see the Curtis house, and yet +not be seen, wanted to observe as well as he could, without detection, +what was going on there. He'd watch his chance, jump over the fence as +we have done and enter this group of pines. He could ask no finer +point of observation. We are perfectly hidden and yet we can see the +whole rear of the house and one side of it." +</p> + +<p> +"So we can. I infer that you are looking for some one who you think +has been acting as a spy." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah! here we are. The earth is a bit soft by this pine, and I see the +trace of a footstep! And here is another trace, close by it, +undoubtedly the imprint of the other foot. It's as plain as day." +</p> + +<p> +Dalton knelt, looked at the traces, and shook his head. "I can't make +out any of them," he said. "I see nothing but a slight displacement of +the grass caused by the wind." +</p> + +<p> +"That's because you haven't my keen eye, an inherited and natural +ability as a trailer, although you may beat me out of sight in other +things. The shape of these traces indicates that they were made by +human feet, and their closeness together shows that the man stood +looking at the house. If he had been walking along they would be much +wider apart." +</p> + +<p> +He examined the traces again with long and minute care. +</p> + +<p> +"The toes point toward the house, consequently he was looking at it," +he said. "He was a heavy man, and he stood here a long time, not +moving from his tracks. That's why he left these traces, which are so +clear and evident to me, George, although they're hidden from a blind +man like you." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, what of it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Nothing much to you, but a lot to me." +</p> + +<p> +He rose to his feet and examined the boughs of the pine. +</p> + +<p> +"As I thought," he whispered with great satisfaction. "Despite his +courage and power over himself, both of which were very great, he +became a little excited. Doubtless he saw something that stirred him +deeply." +</p> + +<p> +"What under the stars are you talking about, Harry?" +</p> + +<p> +"See, he broke off three twigs of the pine. Just snapped them in two +with nervous fingers. Here are pieces lying on the ground. Now, a man +does that sort of thing almost unconsciously. He will not reach up for +the twig or down for it, but he breaks it because it presents itself to +him at the corner of his eye. This man was six feet in height or more +and built very powerfully. I think I know him! Yes, I'm sure I know +him! Nor is it at all strange that he should be here." +</p> + +<p> +"Shall we make a thorough search for him among the pines? You say he's +tall and built powerfully. But maybe the two of us could master him, +and if not we could call for help." +</p> + +<p> +"Too late, George. He left a long time ago, and he took with him what +he wanted. We needn't look any farther." +</p> + +<p> +"Lead on, then, King of Trailers and Master of Secrets! If the mighty +Caliph, Haroun al Kenton, wishes to prowl in these grounds, seeking the +heart of some great conspiracy, it is not for his loyal vizier, the +Sheikh Ul Dalton to ask him questions." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not certain that a vizier is a sheikh." +</p> + +<p> +"Nor am I, but I'm certain that I want to go home and go to bed. +Vikings of the land like ourselves can't stand much luxury. It weakens +the tissues, made strong on the march and in the fields." +</p> + +<p> +They left the grounds silently and unobserved and soon were in their +own quarters, where they slept nearly the whole day. Then they spent +three or four days more in the social affairs which were such a keen +pleasure to them after such a long deprivation. But wherever they +went, and they were in demand everywhere, Harry was always looking for +somebody, a man, tall, heavy and broad shouldered, not a man who would +come into a room where he was, or who would join a company of people +that he had joined, but one who would hang upon the outskirts, and hide +behind the corners of buildings or trees. He did not see the shadow, +but once or twice he felt that it was there. +</p> + +<p> +The officer, Bathurst, told him one night that some important papers +had been stolen from the White House of the Confederacy itself. +</p> + +<p> +"They pertain to our army," said Bathurst, "and they will be of value +to the enemy, if they reach him." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm quite certain that the most daring and dangerous of all northern +spies is in Richmond," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +Then he told Bathurst of Shepard and of the trails that he had seen +among the pines behind Curtis's house. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you think this man got our map?" asked Bathurst. +</p> + +<p> +"It may have been so. Perhaps he was hidden in the court and when he +saw us go out, leaving the map on the table, he slipped in at the +window and seized it." +</p> + +<p> +"But the court was enclosed. He would have had to go with the paper +through the house itself." +</p> + +<p> +"That's where my theory fails. I can provide for his taking the paper, +but I can't provide for his escape." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll tell the General about it. I think you're right, Harry. I've +heard of Shepard myself, and he's worth ten thousand men to the +Yankees. It's more than that. At such a critical stage of our affairs +he might ruin us. We'll make a general search for him. We'll rake the +city with a fine tooth comb." +</p> + +<p> +The search was made everywhere. Soldiers pried in every possible +place, but they found nobody who could not give an adequate account of +his presence in Richmond. Harry felt sure nevertheless that Shepard +was somewhere in the capital, protected by his infinite daring and +resource, and they received the startling news the next day after the +search that a messenger sent northward with dispatches for Lee had been +attacked only a short distance from the city. He had been struck from +behind, and did not see his assailant, but the wound in the head—the +man had been found unconscious—and the missing dispatches were +sufficient proof. +</p> + +<p> +A night later precious documents were purloined from the office of the +Secretary of War and a list of important earthworks on the North and +South Carolina coast disappeared from the office of the Secretary of +the Navy. Alarm spread through all the departments of the Confederacy. +Some one, spy and burglar too, had come into the very capital, and he +was having uncommon success. +</p> + +<p> +Harry had not the least doubt that it was Shepard, and he was filled +with an ambition to capture this man, whom he really liked. If Shepard +were caught he would certainly be hanged, but then a spy must take his +chances. +</p> + +<p> +They heard meanwhile that General Lee had gone to a former camp of his +on the Opequan, but that later in response to maneuvers by General +Meade, he moved to a position near Front Royal. No orders came for +Harry or Dalton to rejoin him, and, as a period of inactivity seemed to +be at hand, they were glad to remain a while longer in Richmond. They +still stayed with the Lanhams, who refused to take any pay, although +the two young officers, chipping together, bought for Mrs. Lanham a +little watch which had just come through the blockade from England. +</p> + +<p> +Thus their days lengthened in Richmond, and, despite the shadow of the +spy and his doings which was over Harry, they were still very pleasant. +The members of the Mosaic Club, although older men, made much of them, +and Harry and Dalton, being youths of sprighty wit, were able to hold +their own in such company. The time had now passed into August, and +they sat one afternoon in the lobby of the big hotel with their new +friends. Richmond without was quiet and blazing in the sun. Harry had +received a second letter from his father from an unnamed point in +Georgia. It did not contain much news, but it was full of +cheerfulness, and it intimated in more than one place that Bragg's army +was going to strike a great blow. +</p> + +<p> +All eyes were turned toward the West. The opinion had been spreading +in the Confederacy that the chief danger was on that line. It seemed +that the Army of Northern Virginia could take care of anything to the +north and east, but in the south and west affairs did not go well. +</p> + +<p> +"It's a pity that General Bragg is President Davis' brother-in-law," +said Randolph. +</p> + +<p> +"Why?" asked Daniel. +</p> + +<p> +"Then he wouldn't be in command of our Western Army." +</p> + +<p> +"Bragg's a fighter, though." +</p> + +<p> +"But not a reaper." +</p> + +<p> +"What do you mean?" +</p> + +<p> +"He wins the victory, but lets the enemy take it." +</p> + +<p> +"It may be so. But to come closer home, what about the Yankee spy in +Richmond? It's an established fact that a man of most uncommon daring +and skill is here." +</p> + +<p> +"No doubt of it, what's the latest from him?" +</p> + +<p> +"The house of William Curtis was entered last night and robbed." +</p> + +<p> +"Robbed of what?" +</p> + +<p> +"Papers. The man never takes any valuables." +</p> + +<p> +"But Curtis is not in the government!" +</p> + +<p> +"No, but he carries on a lot of blockade running, chiefly through +Norfolk and Wilmington. I think the papers related to several blockade +running vessels coming out from England, and of course the Yankee +blockading ships will be ready for them. There's not a trace of the +man who took them." +</p> + +<p> +"Something is deucedly sinister about it," said Bagby. "It seems to be +the work of one man, and he must have a hiding place in Richmond, but +we can't find it. Kenton, you and Dalton are army officers, supposedly +of intelligence. Now, why don't you find this mysterious terror? Ah, +will you excuse me for a minute! I see Miss Carden leaving the counter +with her basket, and there is no other seamstress in Richmond who can +put the ruffles on a man's finest shirt as she can. She's been doing +work for me for some time." +</p> + +<p> +He arose, and, leaving them, bowed very politely to the seamstress. Her +face, although thin and lined, was that of an educated woman of strong +character. Harry thought it probable that she was a lady in the +conventional meaning of the word. Many a woman of breeding and culture +was now compelled to earn her own living in the South. She and Bagby +exchanged only a few words, he returning to his chair, and she leaving +the hotel at a side door, walking with dignity. +</p> + +<p> +"I've seen Miss Carden three times before, once on the train, once at +this hotel and once at Mr. Curtis's house; can you tell me anything +about her?" said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"It's an ordinary tale," replied Bagby. "I think she lived well up the +valley and her house being destroyed in some raid of the Federal troops +she came down to the capital to earn a living. She's been doing work +for me and others I know for a year past, and I know she's not been out +of Richmond in that time." +</p> + +<p> +The talk changed now to the books that had come through from Europe in +the blockade runners. There was a new novel by Dickens and another by +Thackeray, new at least to the South, and the members of the Mosaic +Club were soon deep in criticism and defense. +</p> + +<p> +Harry strolled away after a while. He did not tell his +friends—nothing was to be gained by telling them—that he was +absolutely sure of the identity of the spy, that it was Shepard. The +question of identity did not matter if they caught him, and his old +feeling that it was a duel between Shepard and himself returned. He +believed that the duty to catch the man had been laid upon him. +</p> + +<p> +He began to haunt Richmond at all hours of the night. More than once +he had to give explanations to watchmen about public buildings, but he +clung to the task that he had imposed upon himself. He explained to +Dalton and the Virginian found no fault except for Harry's loss of time +that might be devoted to amusement. Harry sometimes rebuked himself +for his own persistency, but Bagby's taunt had stung a little, and he +felt that it applied more to himself than to Dalton. He knew Shepard +and he knew something of his ways. Moreover, his was the blood of the +greatest of all trailers, and it was incumbent upon him to find the +spy. Yet he was trailing in a city and not in a forest. In spite of +everything he clung to his work. +</p> + +<p> +On a later night about one o'clock in the morning he was near the +building that housed army headquarters, and he noticed a figure come +from some bushes near it. He instantly stepped back into the shadow +and saw a man glance up and down the street, probably to see if it was +clear. It was a night to favor the spy, dark, with heavy clouds and +gusts of rain. +</p> + +<p> +The figure, evidently satisfied that no one was watching, walked +briskly down the street, and Harry's heart beat hard against his side. +He knew that it was Shepard, the king of spies, against whom he had +matched himself. He could not mistake, despite the darkness, his +figure, his walk and the swing of his powerful shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +His impulse was to cry for help, to shout that the spy was here, but at +the first sound of his voice Shepard would at once dart into the +shrubbery, and escape through the alleys of Richmond. No, his old +feeling that it was a duel between Shepard and himself was right, and +so they must fight it out. +</p> + +<p> +Shepard walked swiftly toward the narrower and more obscure streets, +and Harry followed at equal speed. The night grew darker and the rain, +instead of coming in gusts, now fell steadily. Twice Shepard stopped +and looked back. But on each occasion Harry flattened himself against +a plank fence and he did not believe the spy had seen him. +</p> + +<p> +Then Shepard went faster and his pursuer had difficulty in keeping him +in view. He went through an alley, turned into a street, and Harry ran +in order not to lose sight of him. +</p> + +<p> +The alley came into the street at a right angle, and, when Harry turned +the corner, a heavy, dark figure thrust itself into his path. +</p> + +<p> +"Shepard!" he cried. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes!" said the man, "and I hate to do this, but I must." +</p> + +<p> +His heavy fist shot out and caught his pursuer on the jaw. Harry saw +stars in constellations, then floated away into blackness, and, when he +came out of it, found himself lying on a bed in a small room. His jaw +was bandaged and very sore, but otherwise he felt all right. A candle +was burning on a table near him and an unshuttered window on the other +side of the room told him that it was still night and raining. +</p> + +<p> +Harry looked leisurely about the room, into which he had been wafted on +the magic carpet of the Arabian genii, so far as he knew. It was small +and without splendor and he knew at once from the character of its +belongings that it was a woman's room. +</p> + +<p> +He sat up. His head throbbed, but touching it cautiously he knew that +he had sustained no serious injury. But he felt chagrin, and a lot of +it. Shepard had known that he was following him and had laid a trap, +into which he had walked without hesitation. The man, however, had +spared his life, although he could have killed him as easily as he had +stunned him. Then he laughed bitterly at himself. A duel between them, +he had called it! Shepard wouldn't regard it as much of a duel. +</p> + +<p> +His head became so dizzy that he lay down again rather abruptly and +began to wonder. What was he doing in a woman's room, and who was the +woman and how had he got there? This would be a great joke for Dalton +and St. Clair and Happy Tom. +</p> + +<p> +He was fully dressed, except for his boots, and he saw them standing on +the floor against the wall. He surveyed once more the immaculate +neatness of the room. It was certainly a woman's, and most likely that +of an old maid. He sat up again, but his head throbbed so fearfully +that he was compelled to lie down quickly. Shepard had certainly put a +lot in that right hand punch of his and he had obtained a considerable +percentage of revenge for his defeat in the river. +</p> + +<p> +Then Harry forgot his pain in the intensity of his curiosity. He had +sustained a certain temporary numbing of the faculties from the blow +and his fancy, though vivid now, was vague. He was not at all sure +that he was still in Richmond. The window still showed that it was +night, and the rain was pouring so hard that he could hear it beating +against the walls. At all events, he thought whimsically, he had +secured shelter, though at an uncommon high price. +</p> + +<p> +He heard a creak, and a door at the end of the room opened, revealing +the figure and the strong, haggard features of Henrietta Carden. +Evidently she had taken off a hood and cloak in an outer room, as there +were rain drops on her hair and her shoes were wet. +</p> + +<p> +"How are you feeling, Mr. Kenton?" she asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Full of aches and wonder." +</p> + +<p> +"Both will pass." +</p> + +<p> +She smiled, and, although she was not young, Harry thought her +distinctly handsome, when she smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"I seem to have driven you out of your room and to have taken your bed +from you, Miss Carden," he said, "but I assure you it was +unintentional. I ran against something pretty hard, and since then I +haven't been exactly responsible for what I was doing." +</p> + +<p> +She smiled again, and this time Harry found the smile positively +winning. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm responsible for your being here," she said. +</p> + +<p> +Then she went back to the door and said to some one waiting in the +outer room: +</p> + +<p> +"You can come in, Lieutenant Dalton. He's all right except for his +headache, and an extraordinary spell of curiosity." +</p> + +<p> +Dalton stalked solemnly in, and regarded Harry with a stern and +reproving eye. +</p> + +<p> +"You're a fine fellow," he said. "A lady finds you dripping blood from +the chin, and out of your head, wandering about the street in the +darkness and rain. Fortunately she knows who you are, takes you into +her own house, gives you an opiate or some kind of a drug, binds up +your jaw where some man good and true has hit you with all his goodness +and truth, and then goes for me, your guardian, who should never have +let you out of his sight. I was awakened out of a sound sleep in our +very comfortable room at the Lanham house, and I've come here through a +pouring rain with Miss Carden to see you." +</p> + +<p> +"I do seem to be the original trouble maker," said Harry. "How did you +happen to find me, Miss Carden?" +</p> + +<p> +"I was sitting at my window, working very late on a dress that Mrs. +Curtis wants to-morrow. It was not raining hard then, and I could see +very well outside. I saw a dark shadow in the street at the mouth of +the alley. I saw that it was the figure of a man staggering very much. +I ran out and found that it was you, Lieutenant Kenton. You were +bleeding at the chin, where apparently some one had struck you very +hard, and you were so thoroughly dazed that you did not know where you +were or who you were." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, he hit me very hard, just as you supposed, Miss Carden," said +Harry, feeling gently his sore and swollen chin. +</p> + +<p> +"I half led and half dragged you into my house—there was nowhere else +I could take you—and, as you were sinking into a stupor, I managed to +make you lie down on my bed. I bound up your wound, while you were +unconscious, and then I went for Lieutenant Dalton." +</p> + +<p> +"And she saved your life, too, you young wanderer. No doubt of that," +said Dalton reprovingly. "This is what you get for roaming away from +my care. Lucky you were that an angel like Miss Carden saved you from +dying of exposure. If I didn't know you so well, Harry, I should say +that you had been in some drunken row." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, no! not that!" exclaimed Miss Carden. "There was no odor of +liquor on his breath." +</p> + +<p> +"I was merely joking, Miss Carden," said Dalton. "Old Harry here is +one of the best of boys, and I'm grateful to you for saving him and +coming to me. If there is any way we can repay you we'll do it." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't want any repayment. We must all help in these times." +</p> + +<p> +"But we won't forget it. We can't. How are you feeling, Harry?" +</p> + +<p> +"My head doesn't throb so hard. The jarred works inside are gradually +getting into place, and I think that in a half-hour I can walk again, +that is, resting upon that stout right arm of yours, George." +</p> + +<p> +"Then we'll go. I've brought an extra coat that will protect you from +the rain." +</p> + +<p> +"You are welcome to stay here!" exclaimed Miss Carden. "Perhaps you'd +be wiser to do so." +</p> + +<p> +"We thank you for such generous hospitality," said Dalton gallantly, +"but it will be best for many reasons that we go back to Mrs. Lanham's +as soon as we can. But first can we ask one favor of you, Miss Carden?" +</p> + +<p> +"Of course." +</p> + +<p> +"That you say nothing of Mr. Kenton's accident. Remember that he was +on military duty and that in the darkness and rain he fell, striking +upon his jaw." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll remember it. Our first impression that he had been struck by +somebody was a mistake, of course. You can depend upon me, both of +you. Neither of you was ever in my house. The incident never occurred." +</p> + +<p> +"But we're just as grateful to you as if it had happened." +</p> + +<p> +A half-hour later they left the cottage, Miss Carden holding open the +door a little to watch them until they were out of sight. But Harry +had recovered his strength and he was able to walk without Dalton's +assistance, although the Virginian kept close by his side in case of +necessity. +</p> + +<p> +"Harry," said Dalton, when they were nearly to the Lanham house, "are +you willing to tell what happened?" +</p> + +<p> +"As nearly as I know. I got upon the trail of that spy who has been +infesting Richmond. I knew at the time that it couldn't have been any +one else. I followed him up an alley, but he waited for me at the +turn, and before I could defend myself he let loose with his right. +When I came drifting back into the world I was lying upon the bed in +Miss Carden's cottage." +</p> + +<p> +"He showed you some consideration. He might have quietly put you out +of the way with a knife." +</p> + +<p> +"Shepard and I don't care to kill each other. Each wants to defeat the +other's plans. It's got to be a sort of duel between us." +</p> + +<p> +"So I see, and he has scored latest." +</p> + +<p> +"But not last." +</p> + +<p> +"We'd better stick to the tale about the fall. Such a thing could +happen to anybody in these dark streets. But that Miss Carden is a +fine woman. She showed true human sympathy, and what's more, she gave +help." +</p> + +<p> +"She's all that," agreed Harry heartily. +</p> + +<p> +They had their own keys to the Lanham house and slipped in without +awakening anybody. Their explanations the next day were received +without question and in another day Harry's jaw was no longer sore, +though his spirit was. Yet the taking of important documents ceased +suddenly, and Harry was quite sure that his encounter with Shepard had +at least caused him to leave the city. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap12"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER XII +</h3> + +<h3> +IN WINTER QUARTERS +</h3> + +<p> +Harry was sent a few days later with dispatches from the president to +General Lee, who was still in his camp beside the Opequan. Dalton was +held in the capital for further messages, but Harry was not sorry to +make the journey alone. The stay in Richmond had been very pleasant. +The spirits of youth, confined, had overflowed, but he was beginning to +feel a reaction. One must return soon to the battlefield. This was +merely a lull in the storm which would sweep with greater fury than +ever. The North, encouraged by Gettysburg and Vicksburg, was gathering +vast masses which would soon be hurled upon the South, and Harry knew +how thin the lines there were becoming. +</p> + +<p> +He thought, too, of Shepard, who was the latest to score in their duel, +and he believed that this man had already sent to the Northern leaders +information beyond value. Harry felt that he must strive in some +manner to make the score even. +</p> + +<p> +It was late in the summer when he rejoined the Army of Northern +Virginia and delivered the letters to the commander-in-chief, who sat +in the shade of a large tree. Harry observed him closely. He seemed a +little grayer than before the Battle of Gettysburg, but his manner was +as confident as ever. He filled to both eye and mind the measure of a +great general. After asking Harry many questions he dismissed him for a +while, to play, so he said. +</p> + +<p> +The young Kentuckian at once, and, as a matter of course, sought the +Invincibles. St. Clair and Langdon hailed him with shouts of joy, but +to his great surprise, Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire were not playing chess. +</p> + +<p> +"We were getting on with the game last night, Harry," explained Colonel +Talbot, "but we came to a point where we were about to develop heat +over a projected move. Then, in order to avoid such a lamentable +occurrence, we decided to postpone further play until to-night. But we +find you looking uncommonly well, Harry. The flesh pots of Egypt have +agreed with you." +</p> + +<p> +"I had a good time in Richmond, sir, a fine one," replied Harry. "The +people there have certainly been kind to me, as they are to all the +officers of the Army of Northern Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +"What have you done with the grave Dalton, who was your comrade on your +journey to the capital?" +</p> + +<p> +"They've kept him there for the present. They think he's stronger +proof against the luxuries and temptations of a city than I am." +</p> + +<p> +"Youth is youth, and I'm glad that you've had this little fling, Harry. +Perhaps you'll have another, as I think you'll be sent back to Richmond +very soon." +</p> + +<p> +"What has been going on here, Colonel?" +</p> + +<p> +"Very little. Nothing, in fact, of any importance. When we crossed +the swollen Potomac, although threatened by an enemy superior to us in +numbers, I felt that we would not be pushed. General Meade has been +deliberate, extremely deliberate in his offensive movements. Up North +they call Gettysburg a great victory, but we're resting here calmly and +peacefully. Hector and I and our young friends have found rural peace +and ease among these Virginia hills and valleys. You, of course, found +Richmond very gay and bright?" +</p> + +<p> +"Very gay and bright, Colonel, and full of handsome ladies." +</p> + +<p> +Colonel Talbot sighed and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sighed +also. +</p> + +<p> +"Hector and I should have been there," said Colonel Talbot. "Although +we've never married, we have a tremendous admiration for the ladies, +and in our best uniforms we're not wholly unpopular among them, eh, +Hector?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not by any means, Leonidas. We're not as young as Harry here, but I +know that you're a fine figure of a man, and you know that I am. +Moreover, our experience of the dangerous sex is so much greater than +that of mere boys like Harry and Arthur and Tom here, that we know how +to make ourselves much more welcome. You talk to them about frivolous +things, mere chit chat, while we explain grave and important matters to +them." +</p> + +<p> +"Are you sure, sir," asked St. Clair, "that the ladies don't really +prefer chit chat?" +</p> + +<p> +"I was not speaking of little girls. I was alluding to those ornaments +of their sex who have arrived at years of discretion. Ah, if Leonidas +and I were only a while in Richmond! It would be the next best thing +to being in Charleston." +</p> + +<p> +"Maybe the Invincibles will be sent there for a while." +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps. I don't foresee any great activity here in the autumn. How +do they regard the Army of Northern Virginia in Richmond now, Harry?" +</p> + +<p> +"With supreme confidence." +</p> + +<p> +The talk soon drifted to the people whom Harry had met at the capital, +and then he told of his adventure with Shepard, the spy. +</p> + +<p> +"He seems to be a most daring man," said Talbot; "not a mere ordinary +spy, but a man of a higher type. I think he's likely to do us great +harm. But the woman, Miss Carden, was surely kind to you. If she +hadn't found you wandering around in the rain you'd have doubtless +dropped down and died. God bless the ladies." +</p> + +<p> +"And so say we all of us," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +He returned to Richmond in a few days, bearing more dispatches, and to +his great delight all that was left of the Invincibles arrived a week +later to recuperate and see a little of the world. St. Clair and Happy +Tom plunged at once and with all the ardor of youth into the gayeties +of social life, and the two colonels followed them at a more dignified +but none the less earnest pace. All four appeared in fine new +uniforms, for which they had saved their money, and they were +conspicuous upon every occasion. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was again at the Curtis house, and although it was not a great +ball this time the assemblage was numerous, including all his friends. +The two colonels had become especial favorites everywhere, and they +were telling stories of the old South, which Harry had divined was +passing; passing whether the South won or not. +</p> + +<p> +Although there had been much light talk through the evening and an +abundance of real gayety, nearly every member of the company, +nevertheless, had serious moments. The news from Tennessee and Georgia +was heavy with import. It was vague in some particulars, but it was +definite enough in others to tell that the armies of Rosecrans and +Bragg were approaching each other. All eyes turned to the West. A +great battle could not be long delayed, and a powerful division of the +Army of Northern Virginia under Longstreet had been sent to help Bragg. +</p> + +<p> +Harry found himself late at night once more in that very room in which +the map had disappeared so mysteriously. The two colonels, St. Clair +and Langdon, and one or two others had drifted in, and the older men +were smoking. Inevitably they talked of the battle which they foresaw +with such certainty, and Harry's anxiety about it was increased, +because he knew his father would be there on one side, and the cousin, +for whom he cared so much, would be on the other. +</p> + +<p> +"If only General Lee were in command there," said Colonel Talbot, "we +might reckon upon a great and decisive victory." +</p> + +<p> +"But Bragg is a good general," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. +</p> + +<p> +"It's not enough to be merely a good general. He must have the soul of +fire that Lee has, and that Jackson had. Bragg is the Southern +McClellan. He is brave enough personally, but he always overrates the +strength of the enemy, and, if he is victorious on the field, he does +not reap the fruits of victory." +</p> + +<p> +"Where were the armies when we last heard from them?" asked a captain. +</p> + +<p> +"Bragg was turning north to attack Rosecrans, who stood somewhere +between him and Chattanooga." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm glad that it's Rosecrans and not Grant who commands the Northern +army there," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Why?" asked Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"I've studied the manner in which he took Vicksburg, and I've heard +about him from my father, and others. He won't be whipped. He isn't +like the other Northern generals. He hangs on, whatever happens. I +heard some one quoting him as saying that no matter how badly his army +was suffering in battle, the army of the other fellow might be +suffering worse. It seems to me that a general who is able to think +that way is very dangerous." +</p> + +<p> +"And so he is, Harry," said Colonel Talbot. "I, too, am glad that it's +Rosecrans and not Grant. If there's any news of a battle, we're not in +a bad place to hear it. It's said that Mr. Curtis always knows as soon +as our government what's happened." +</p> + +<p> +The talk drifted on to another subject and then a hum came from the +larger room. A murmur only, but it struck such an intense and earnest +note that Harry was convinced. +</p> + +<p> +"It's news of battle! I know it!" he exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +They sprang to their feet and hurried into the ballroom. William +Curtis, his habitual calm broken, was standing upon a chair and all the +people had gathered in front of him. A piece of paper, evidently a +telegram, was clutched in his hand. +</p> + +<p> +"Friends," he said in a strained, but exultant voice, "a great battle +has been fought near Chattanooga on a little river called the +Chickamauga, and we have won a magnificent victory." +</p> + +<p> +A mighty cheer came from the crowd. +</p> + +<p> +"The army of Rosecrans, attacked with sudden and invincible force by +Bragg, has been shattered and driven into Chattanooga." +</p> + +<p> +Another cheer burst forth. +</p> + +<p> +"No part of the Union army was able to hold fast, save one wing under +Thomas." +</p> + +<p> +A third mighty cheer arose, but this time Harry did not join in it. He +felt a sudden sinking of the heart at the words, "save one wing under +Thomas." Then the victory was not complete. It could be complete only +when the whole Union army was driven from the field. As long as Thomas +stood, there was a flaw in the triumph. He had heard many times of +this man, Thomas. He had Grant's qualities. He was at his best in +apparent defeat. +</p> + +<p> +"Is there anything else, Mr. Curtis?" asked Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"That is all my agent sends me concerning its results, but he says that +it lasted two days, and that it was fierce and bloody beyond all +comparison with anything that has happened in the West. He estimated +that the combined losses are between thirty and forty thousand men." +</p> + +<p> +A heavy silence fell upon them all. The victory was great, but the +price for it was great, too. Yet exultation could not be subdued long. +They were soon smiling over it, and congratulating one another. But +Harry was still unable to share wholly in the joy of victory. +</p> + +<p> +"Why this gloom in your face, when all the rest of us are so happy?" +asked St. Clair. +</p> + +<p> +"My father was there. He may have fallen. How do I know?" +</p> + +<p> +"That's not it. He always comes through. What's the real cause? Out +with it!" +</p> + +<p> +"You know that part of the dispatch saying, 'No part of the Union army +was able to hold fast save one wing under Thomas.' How about that +wing! You heard, too, what the colonel said about General Bragg. He +always overestimates the strength of the enemy, and while he may win a +victory he will not reap the fruits of it. That wing under Thomas +still may be standing there, protecting all the rest of the Union army." +</p> + +<p> +"Come now, old Sober Face! This isn't like you. We've won a grand +victory! We've more than paid them back for their Gettysburg." +</p> + +<p> +Harry rejoiced then with the others, but at times the thought came to +him that Thomas with one wing might yet be standing between Bragg and +complete victory. When he and Dalton went back home—they were again +with the Lanhams—they found the whole population of Richmond ablaze +with triumph. The Yankee army in the West had been routed. Not only +was Chickamauga an offset for Gettysburg, but for Vicksburg as well, +and once more the fortunes of the South were rising toward the zenith. +</p> + +<p> +Dalton had returned from the army a little later this time than Harry, +but he had joined him at the Lanhams', and he too showed gravity amid +the almost universal rejoicing. +</p> + +<p> +"I see that you're afraid the next news won't be so complete, Harry," +he said. +</p> + +<p> +"That's it, George. We don't really know much, except that Thomas was +holding his ground. Oh, if only Stonewall Jackson were there! +Remember how he came down on them at the Second Manassas and at +Chancellorsville! Thomas would be swept off his feet and as Rosecrans +retreated into Chattanooga our army would pour right on his heels!" +</p> + +<p> +They waited eagerly the next day and the next for news, and while +Richmond was still filled with rejoicings over Chickamauga, Harry saw +that his fears were justified. Thomas stood till the end. Bragg had +not followed Rosecrans into Chattanooga. The South had won a great +battle, but not a decisive victory. The commanding general had not +reaped all the rewards that were his for the taking. Bragg had +justified in every way Colonel Talbot's estimate of him. +</p> + +<p> +And yet Richmond, like the rest of the South, felt the great uplift of +Chickamauga, the most gigantic battle of the West. It told South as +well as North that the war was far from over. The South could no +longer invade the North, nor could the North invade the South at will. +Even on the northernmost border of the rebelling section the Army of +Northern Virginia under its matchless leader, rested in its camp, +challenging and defiant. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was glad to return with his friends to the army. His brief +period of festival was over, and his fears for his father had been +relieved by a letter, stating that he had received no serious harm in +the great and terrible battle of Chickamauga. +</p> + +<p> +After the failure of the armies of Lee and Meade to bring about a +decisive battle at Mine Run, the Army of Northern Virginia established +its autumn and winter headquarters on a jutting spur of the great range +called Clarke's Mountain, Orange Court House lying only a few miles to +the west. The huge camp was made in a wide-open space, surrounded by +dense masses of pines and cedars. Tents were pitched securely, and, +feeling that they were to stay here a long time many of the soldiers +built rude log cabins. +</p> + +<p> +General Lee himself continued to use his tent, which stood in the +center of the camp, the streets of tents and cabins radiating from it +like the spokes of a wheel. Close about Lee's own tent were others +occupied by Colonel Taylor, his adjutant general, Colonel Peyton, +Colonel Marshall, and other and younger officers, including Harry and +Dalton. A little distance down one of the main avenues, which they +were pleased to call Victory Street, the Invincibles were encamped, and +Harry saw them almost every day. +</p> + +<p> +The troops were well fed now, and the brooks provided an abundance of +clear water. The days were still warm, but the evenings were cold, +and, inhaling the healing odors of the pines and cedars, wounded +soldiers returned rapidly to health. +</p> + +<p> +It was a wonderful interval for Harry and his friends associated with +him so closely. Save for the presence of armies, it seemed at times +that there was no war. Deep peace prevailed along the Rapidan and the +slopes of the mountain. It was the longest period of rest that he and +his comrades were to know in the course of the mighty struggle. The +action of the war was now chiefly in the Southwest, where Grant, taking +the place of Rosecrans, was seeking to recover all that was lost at +Chickamauga. +</p> + +<p> +Harry had another letter from his father, telling him that his own had +been received, and giving personal details of the titanic struggle on +the Chickamauga. He did not speak out directly, but Harry saw in his +words the vain regret that the great opportunity won at Chickamauga at +such a terrible price had not been used. In his belief the whole +Federal army might have been destroyed, and the star of the South would +have risen again to the zenith. +</p> + +<p> +Here Harry sighed and remembered his own forebodings. Oh, if only a +Stonewall Jackson had been there! His mighty sweep would have driven +Thomas and the rest in a wild rout. A tear rose in his eye as he +remembered his lost hero. He sincerely believed then and always that +the Confederacy would have won had he not fallen on that fatal evening +at Chancellorsville. It was an emotion with him, a permanent emotion +with which logic could not interfere. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was conscious, too, that the long quiet on the Eastern front was +but a lull. There was nothing to signify peace in it. If the North +had ever felt despair about the war Gettysburg and Vicksburg had +removed every trace of it. He knew that beyond the blue ranges of +mountains, both to east and west, vast preparations were going forward. +The North, the region of great population, of illimitable resources, of +free access to the sea, and of mechanical genius that had counted for +so much in arming her soldiers, was gathering herself for a supreme +effort. The great defeats of the war's first period were to be +ignored, and her armies were to come again, more numerous, better +equipped and perhaps better commanded than ever. +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless, his mind was still the mind of youth, and he could not +dwell continuously upon this prospect. The camp in the hills was +pleasant. The heats had passed, and autumn in the full richness of its +coloring had come. The forests blazed in all the brilliancy of red and +yellow and brown. The whole landscape had the color and intensity that +only a North American autumn can know, and the October air had the +freshness and vitality sufficient to make an old man young. +</p> + +<p> +The great army of youth—it was composed chiefly of boys, like the one +opposing it—enjoyed itself during these comparatively idle months. The +soldiers played rural games, marbles even, pitching the horseshoe, +wrestling, jumping and running. It was to Harry like Hannibal in +winter quarters at Capua, without the Capua. There was certainly no +luxury here. While food was more abundant than for a long time, it was +of the simplest. Instead of dissipation there was a great religious +revival. Ministers of different creeds, but united in a common object, +appeared in the camp, and preached with power and energy. The South +was emotional then and perhaps the war had made it more so. The +ministers secured thousands of converts. All day long the preaching +and singing could be heard through the groves of pine and cedar, and +Harry knew that when the time for battle came they would fight all the +better because of it. Yielding to the enemy was no part of the +Christianity that these ministers preached. +</p> + +<p> +Harry also saw the growth of the hero-worship accorded to his great +commander. He did not believe that any other general, except perhaps +Napoleon in his earlier career, had ever received such trust and +admiration. Many soldiers who had felt his guiding hand in battle now +saw him for the first time. He had an appearance and manner to inspire +respect, and, back of that, was something much greater, a firm +conviction in the minds of all that he had illimitable patience, a +willingness to accept responsibility, and a military genius that had +never been surpassed. Such was the attitude of the Southern people +toward their great leader then, and, to an even greater degree now, +when his figure, like that of Lincoln, instead of becoming smaller +grows larger as it recedes into the past. +</p> + +<p> +Harry often rode with him. He seemed to have an especial liking for +the very young members of his staff, or for old private soldiers, +bearded and gray like himself, whom he knew by name. Far in October he +rode down toward the Rapidan where Stuart was encamped, taking with him +only Harry and Dalton. He was mounted on his great white war horse, +Traveller, which the soldiers knew from afar. Cheering arose, but when +he raised his hand in a deprecating way the soldiers, obedient to his +wish, ceased, and they heard only the murmur of many voices, as they +went on. The general made the lads ride, one on his right and the +other on his left hand, and brilliant October coloring and crisp air +seemed to put him in a mood that was far from war. +</p> + +<p> +"I pine for Arlington," he said at length to Harry, "that ancestral +home of mine that is held by the enemy. I should like to see the +ripening of the crops there. We Virginians of the old stock hold to +the land, and you Kentuckians, who are really of the same race, hold to +it, too." +</p> + +<p> +"It is true, sir," said Harry. "My father loves the land. After his +retirement from the army, following the Mexican war, he worked harder +upon our place in Kentucky than any slave or hired man. He was going +to free his slaves, but I suppose, sir, that the war has made him feel +different about it." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, we're often willing to do things by our own free will, but not +under compulsion. The great Washington himself wrote of the evils of +slave labor. The 'old fields' scattered all over Virginia show what it +has done for this noble commonwealth." +</p> + +<p> +Harry remembered quite well similar "old fields" in Kentucky. Slaves +were far less numerous there than in Virginia, and he was old enough to +have observed that, in addition to the wrong of slavery, they were a +liability rather than an asset. But he too felt anew the instinctive +rebellion against being compelled to do what he would perhaps do anyhow. +</p> + +<p> +General Lee talked more of the land and Harry and Dalton listened +respectfully. Harry saw that his commander's heart turned strongly +toward it. He knew that Jefferson had dreamed of the United States as +an agricultural community, having no part in the quarrels of other +nations, but he knew that it was only a dream. The South, the section +that had followed Jefferson's dream, was now at a great disadvantage. +It had no ships, and it did not have the mills to equip it for the +great war it was waging. He realized more keenly than ever the +one-sided nature of the South's development. +</p> + +<p> +The general turned his horse toward the banks of the Rapidan, and a +resplendent figure came forward to meet him. It was that incarnation +of youth and fantastic knighthood, Jeb Stuart, who had just returned +from a ride toward the north. He wore a new and brilliant uniform and +the usual broad yellow sash about his waist. His tunic was +embroidered, too, and his epaulets were heavy with gold. The thick +gold braid about his hat was tied in a gorgeous loop in front. His +hands were encased in long gloves of the finest buckskin, and he tapped +the high yellow tops of his riding boots with a little whip. +</p> + +<p> +Harry always felt that Stuart did not really belong to the present. His +place was with the medieval knights who loved gorgeous armor, who +fought by day for the love of it and who sat in the evening on the +castle steps with fair ladies for the love of it, and who in the dark +listened to the troubadours below, also for the love of it. A great +cavalry leader, he shone at his brightest in the chase, and, when there +was no fighting to be done, his were the spirits of a boy, and he was +as quick for a prank as any lad under his own command. +</p> + +<p> +But Stuart, although he had joked with Jackson, never took any +liberties with Lee. He instantly swept the ground with his plumed hat +and said in his most respectful manner: +</p> + +<p> +"General, will you honor us by dining with us? We've just returned +from a long ride northward and we've made some captures." +</p> + +<p> +Lee caught a twinkle in his eye, and he smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"I see no prisoners, General Stuart," he replied, "and I take it that +your captures do not mean human beings." +</p> + +<p> +"No, sir, there are other things just now more valuable to us than +prisoners. We raided a little Yankee outpost. Nobody was hurt, but, +sir, we've captured some provisions, the like of which the Army of +Northern Virginia has not tasted in a long time. Would you mind coming +with me and taking a look? And bring Kenton and Dalton with you, if +you don't mind, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"This indeed sounds tempting," said the commander-in-chief of the Army +of Northern Virginia. "I accept your invitation, General Stuart, in +behalf of myself and my two young aides." +</p> + +<p> +He dismounted, giving the reins of Traveller to an orderly, and walked +toward Stuart's tent, which was pitched near the river. The "captures" +were heaped in a grassy place. +</p> + +<p> +"Here, sir," said General Stuart, "are twenty dozen boxes of the finest +French sardines. I haven't tasted sardines in a year and I love them." +</p> + +<p> +"I've always liked them," said General Lee. +</p> + +<p> +"And here, sir, are several cases of Yorkshire ham, brought all the way +across the sea—and for us. It isn't as good as our Virginia ham, +which is growing scarce, but we'll like it. And cove oysters, cases +and cases of 'em. I like 'em almost as well as sardines." +</p> + +<p> +"Most excellent." +</p> + +<p> +"And real old New England pies, baked, I suppose, in Washington. We +can warm 'em over." +</p> + +<p> +"I see that you have the fire ready." +</p> + +<p> +"And jars of preserves, a half-dozen kinds at least, and all of 'em +look as if two likely youngsters like Kenton and Dalton would be +anxious to get at 'em." +</p> + +<p> +"You judge us rightly, General," said Harry. "We'll show no mercy to +such prisoners as we have here." +</p> + +<p> +"You wouldn't be boys and you wouldn't be human if you did," rejoined +Stuart, "would they, General?" +</p> + +<p> +"They would not," replied Lee. "One of the principal recollections of +my boyhood is that I was always hungry. Our regular three meals a day +were not enough for us, however much we ate at one time. Virginia, +like your own Kentucky, Harry, is full of forage, and we moved in +groups. Now, didn't you find a lot of food in the woods and fields?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, yes, sir," rejoined Harry with animation. "I was hungry all the +time, too. An hour after breakfast I was hungry again, and an hour +after dinner, which we had in the middle of the day, I was hungry once +more." +</p> + +<p> +"But you knew where to go for supplies." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir; we had berries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, +gooseberries, dewberries, cherries, all of them growing wild although +some of them started tame. And then we could forage for pears, +peaches, plums, damsons, all kinds of apples, paw paws, and then later +for the nuts, hickory nuts, walnuts, chestnuts, hazel nuts, +chinquapins, and a lot more. We could have almost lived in the woods +and fields from early spring until late fall." +</p> + +<p> +"We did the same in Virginia," said the commander-in-chief. "I've +often thought that our forest Indians did not develop a higher +civilization, because it was so easy for them to live, save in the +depths of a hard winter. They had most of the berries and fruits and +nuts that we white boys had. The woods were full of game, and the +lakes and rivers full of fish. They were not driven by the hard +necessity that creates civilization." +</p> + +<p> +"Dinner is ready, sir," announced General Stuart, who had been +directing the orderlies. "I can offer you and the others nothing but +boxes and kegs to sit on, but I can assure you that this Northern food, +some of which comes in cans, is excellent." +</p> + +<p> +The two lads and General Stuart fell to work with energy. General Lee +ate more sparingly. Stuart was a boy himself, talking much and running +over with fun. +</p> + +<p> +"Have you heard what happened to General Early, sir?" he asked the +commander-in-chief. +</p> + +<p> +"Not yet." +</p> + +<p> +"But you will, sir, to-morrow. Early will be slow in sending you that +dispatch. He hasn't had time to write it yet. He's not through +swearing." +</p> + +<p> +"General Early is a valiant and able man, but I disapprove of his +swearing." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, sir, 'Old Jube' can't help it. It's a part of his breathing, and +man cannot live without breath. He sent one of his best aides with a +dispatch to General Hill, who is posted some distance away. Passing +through a thick cedar wood the aide was suddenly set upon by a genuine +stage villain, large, dark and powerful, who clubbed him over the head +with the butt of a pistol, and then departed with his dispatch." +</p> + +<p> +"And what happened then?" +</p> + +<p> +"The aide returned to General Early with his story, but without his +dispatch. The general believed his account, of course, but he called +him names for allowing himself to be surprised and overcome by a single +Yankee. He cursed until the air for fifty yards about him smelled +strongly of sulphur and brimstone." +</p> + +<p> +"Did he do anything more?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, General. He sent a duplicate of the dispatch by an aide whom he +said he could trust. In an hour the second man came back with the same +big lump on his head and with the same story. He had been ambushed at +the crossing of a ravine full of small cedars, and the highwayman was +undoubtedly the same, too, a big, powerful fellow, as bold as you +please." +</p> + +<p> +Harry's pulse throbbed hard for a few moments, when he first heard +mention of the man. The description, not only physical, but of manner +and action as well, answered perfectly. He had not the slightest doubt +that it was Shepard. +</p> + +<p> +"A daring deed," said General Lee. "We must see that it is not +repeated." +</p> + +<p> +"But that wasn't all of the tale, sir. While the second man was +sitting on the bank, nursing his broken head, the Yankee Dick Turpin +read the dispatch and saw that it was a duplicate of the first. He +became red-hot with wrath, and talked furiously about the extra and +unnecessary work that General Early was forcing upon him. He ended by +cramming the dispatch into the man's hands, directing him to take it +back, and to tell General Early to stop his foolishness. The aide was +a bit dazed from the blow he received and he delivered that message +word for word. Why, sir, General Early exploded. People who have +heard him swear for years and who know what an artist he is in +swearing, heard him then utter swear words that they had never heard +before, words invented on the spur of the moment, and in the heat of +passion, words full of pith and meaning." +</p> + +<p> +"And that was all, I suppose?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not by any means, sir. General Early picked two sharpshooters and +sent them with another copy of the dispatch. They passed the place of +the first hold-up, and next the ravine without seeing anybody. But as +they were riding some distance further on both of their horses were +killed by shots from a small clump of pines. Before they could regain +their feet Dick Turpin came out and covered them with his rifle—it +seems that he had one of those new repeating weapons. +</p> + +<p> +"The men saw that his eye was so keen and his hand so steady that they +did not dare to move a hand to a pistol. Then as he looked down the +sights of his rifle he lectured them. He told them they were foolish +to come that way, when the two who came before them had found out that +it was a closed road. He said that real soldiers learned by +experience, and would not try again to do what they had learned to be +impossible. +</p> + +<p> +"Then he said that after all they were not to blame, as they had been +sent by General Early, and he made one of them who had the stub of a +pencil write on the back of the dispatch these words: 'General Jubal +Early, C. S. A.: This has ceased to be a joke. After your first man +was stopped, it was not necessary to do anything more. I have the +dispatch. Why insist on sending duplicate after duplicate?' And the +two had to walk all the way back to General Early with that note, +because they didn't dare make away with the dispatch. +</p> + +<p> +"I have a certain respect for that man's skill and daring, but General +Early had a series of spells. He retired to his tent and if the +reports are not exaggerated, a continuous muttering like low thunder +came from the tent, and all the cloth of it turned blue from the +lightnings imprisoned inside." +</p> + +<p> +General Lee himself smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"It was certainly annoying," he said. "I hope the dispatch was not of +importance." +</p> + +<p> +"It contained nothing that will help the Yankees, but it shows that the +enemy has some spies—or at least one spy—who are Napoleons at their +trade." +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap13"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER XIII +</h3> + +<h3> +THE COMING OF GRANT +</h3> + +<p> +The little dinner ended. Despite his disapproval of General Early's +swearing, General Lee laughed heartily at further details of the +strange Yankee spy's exploits. But it was well known that in this +particular General Early was the champion of the East. Harry did not +know that in the person of Colonel Charles Woodville, his cousin, Dick +Mason, had encountered one of equal ability in the Southwest. +</p> + +<p> +Presently General Lee and his two young aides mounted their horses for +the return. The commander-in-chief seemed gayer than usual. He was +always very fond of Stuart, whose high spirits pleased him, and before +his departure he thanked him for his thoughtfulness. +</p> + +<p> +"Whenever we get any particularly choice shipments from the North I +shall always be pleased to notify you, General, and send you your +share," said Stuart, sweeping the air in front of him again with his +great plumed hat. With his fine, heroic face and his gorgeous uniform +he had never looked more a knight of the Middle Ages. +</p> + +<p> +General Lee smiled and thanked him again, and then rode soberly back, +followed at a short distance by his two young aides. Although the view +of hills and mountains and valleys and river and brooks was now +magnificent, the sumach burning in red and the leaves vivid in many +colors, Lee, deeply sensitive, like all his rural forbears, to rural +beauty, nevertheless seemed not to notice it, and soon sank into deep +thought. +</p> + +<p> +It is believed by many that Lee knew then that the Confederacy had +already received a mortal blow. It was not alone sufficient for the +South to win victories. She must keep on winning them, and the failure +at Gettysburg and the defeat at Vicksburg had put her on the defensive +everywhere. Fewer blockade runners were getting through. Above all, +there was less human material upon which to draw. But he roused +himself presently and said to Harry: +</p> + +<p> +"There was something humorous in the exploits of the man who held up +General Early's messengers, but the fellow is dangerous, exceedingly +dangerous at such a time." +</p> + +<p> +"I've an idea who he is, sir," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Indeed! What do you know?" +</p> + +<p> +Then Harry told nearly all that he knew about Shepard, but not +all—that struggle in the river, and his sparing of the spy and the +filching of the map at the Curtis house, for instance—and the +commander-in-chief listened with great attention. +</p> + +<p> +"A bold man, uncommonly bold, and it appears uncommonly skilled, too. +We must send out a general alarm, that is, we must have all our own +scouts and spies watching for him." +</p> + +<p> +Harry said nothing, but he did not believe that anybody would catch +Shepard. The man's achievements had been so startling that they had +created the spell of invincibility. His old belief that he was worth +ten thousand men on the Northern battle line returned. No movement of +the Army of Northern Virginia could escape him, and no lone messenger +could ever be safe from him. +</p> + +<p> +Lee returned to his camp on Clarke's Mountain, and, a great revival +meeting being in progress, he joined it, sitting with a group of +officers. Fitzhugh Lee, W. H. F. Lee, Jones, Rosser, Wickham, Munford, +Young, Wade Hampton and a dozen others were there. Taylor and Marshall +and Peyton of his staff were also in the company. +</p> + +<p> +The preacher was a man of singular power and earnestness, and after the +sermon he led the singing himself, in which often thirty or forty +thousand voices joined. It was a moving sight to Harry, all these men, +lads, mostly, but veterans of many fields, united in a chorus mightier +than any other that he had ever heard. It would have pleased Stonewall +Jackson to his inmost soul, and once more, as always, a tear rose to +his eye as he thought of his lost hero. +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton left their horses with an orderly and came back to the +edge of the great grove, in which the meeting was being held. They had +expected to find St. Clair and Happy Tom there, but not seeing them, +wandered on and finally drifted apart. Harry stood alone for a while +on the outskirts of the throng. They were all singing again, and the +mighty volume of sound rolled through the wood. It was not only a +singular, it was a majestic scene also to Harry. How like unto little +children young soldiers were! and how varied and perplexing were the +problems of human nature! They were singing with the utmost fervor of +Him who had preached continuously of peace, who was willing to turn one +cheek when the other was smitten, and because of their religious zeal +they would rush the very next day into battle, if need be, with +increased fire and zeal. +</p> + +<p> +He saw a heavily built, powerful man on the outskirts, but some +distance away, singing in a deep rolling voice, but something vaguely +familiar in the figure drew his glance again. He looked long and well +and then began to edge quietly toward the singer, who was clothed in +the faded butternut uniform that so many of the Confederate soldiers +wore. +</p> + +<p> +The fervor of the singer did not decrease, but Harry noticed that he +too was moving, moving slowly toward the eastern end of the grove, the +same direction that Harry was pursuing. Now he was sure. He would +have called out, but his voice would not have been heard above the vast +volume of sound. He might have pointed out the singer to others, but, +although he felt sure, he did not wish to be laughed at in case of +mistake. But strongest of all was the feeling that it had become a duel +between Shepard and himself. +</p> + +<p> +He walked slowly on, keeping the man in view, but Shepard, although he +never ceased singing, moved away at about the same pace. Harry +inferred at once that Shepard had seen him and was taking precautions. +The temptation to cry out at the top of his voice that the most +dangerous of all spies was among them was almost irresistible, but it +would only create an uproar in which Shepard could escape easily, +leaving to him a load of ridicule. +</p> + +<p> +He continued his singular pursuit. Shepard was about a hundred yards +away, and they had made half the circuit of this huge congregation. +Then the spy passed into a narrow belt of pines, and when Harry moved +forward to see him emerge on the other side he failed to reappear. He +hastened to the pines, which led some distance down a little gully, and +he was sure that Shepard had gone that way. He followed fast, but he +could discover no sign. He had vanished utterly, like thin smoke swept +away by a breeze. +</p> + +<p> +He returned deeply stirred by the appearance and disappearance—easy, +alike—of Shepard. His sense of the man's uncanny powers and of his +danger to the Confederacy was increased. He seemed to come and go +absolutely as he pleased. It was true that in the American Civil War +the opportunities for spies were great. All men spoke the same +language, and all looked very much alike. It was not such a hard task +to enter the opposing lines, but Shepard had shown a daring and success +beyond all comparison. He seemed to have both the seven league boots +and the invisible cloak of very young childhood. He came as he +pleased, and when pursuit came he vanished in thin air. +</p> + +<p> +Harry bit his lips in chagrin. He felt that Shepard had scored on him +again. It was true that he had been victorious in that fight in the +river, when victory meant so much, but since then Shepard had +triumphed, and it was bitter. He hardened his determination, and +resolved that he would always be on the watch for him. He even felt a +certain glow, because he was one of two in such a conflict of skill and +courage. +</p> + +<p> +The meeting having been finished, he went down one of the streets of +tents to the camp of the Invincibles. Colonel Leonidas Talbot and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire were not playing chess. Instead +they were sitting on a pine log with Happy Tom and St. Clair and other +officers, listening to young Julien de Langeais, who sat on another +log, playing a violin with surpassing skill. Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire, knowing his prowess as a violinist, had asked him to come and +play for the Invincibles. Now he was playing for them and for several +thousand more who were gathered in the pine woods. +</p> + +<p> +Young de Langeais sat on a low stump, and the great crowd made a solid +mass around him. But he did not see them, nor the pine woods nor the +heavy cannon sitting on the ridges. He looked instead into a region of +fancy, where the colors were brilliant or gay or tender as he imagined +them. Harry, with no technical knowledge of music but with a great +love of it, recognized at once the touch of a master, and what was +more, the soul of one. +</p> + +<p> +To him the violin was not great, unless the player was great, but when +the player was great it was the greatest musical instrument of all. He +watched de Langeais' wrapt face, and for him too the thousands of +soldiers, the pines and the cannon on the ridges melted away. He did +not know what the young musician was playing, probably some old French +air or a great lyric outburst of the fiery Verdi, whose music had +already spread through America. +</p> + +<p> +"A great artist," whispered Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire in his ear. +"He studied at the schools in New Orleans and then for two years in +Paris. But he came back to fight. Nothing could keep Julien from the +army, but he brought his violin with him. We Latins, or at least we +who are called Latins, steep our souls in music. It's not merely +intellectual with us. It's passion, fire, abandonment, triumph and all +the great primitive emotions of the human race." +</p> + +<p> +Harry's feelings differed somewhat from those of Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire—in character but not in power—and as young de Langeais played +on he began to think what a loss a stray bullet could make. Why should +a great artist be allowed to come on the battle line? There were +hundreds of thousands of common men. One could replace another, but +nobody could replace the genius, a genius in which the whole world +shared. It was not possible for either drill or training to do it, and +yet a little bullet might take away his life as easily as it would that +of a plowboy. They were all alike to the bullets and the shells. +</p> + +<p> +De Langeais finished, and a great shout of applause arose. The +cheering became so insistent that he was compelled to play again. +</p> + +<p> +"His family is well-to-do," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire just +before he began playing once more, "and they'll see that he goes back +to Paris for study as soon as the war is over. If they didn't I would." +</p> + +<p> +It did not seem to occur to Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire that young +de Langeais could be killed, and Harry began to share his confidence. +De Langeais now played the simple songs of the old South, and there was +many a tear in the eyes of war-hardened youth. The sun was setting in +a sea of fire, and the pine forests turned red in its blaze. In the +distance the waters of the Rapidan were crimson, too, and a light wind +out of the west sighed among the pines, forming a subdued chorus to the +violin. +</p> + +<p> +De Langeais began to play a famous old song of home, and Harry's mind +traveled back on its lingering note to his father's beautiful house and +grounds, close by Pendleton, and all the fine country about it, in +which he and Dick Mason and the boys of their age had roamed. He +remembered all the brooks and ponds and the groves that produced the +best hickory nuts. When should he see them again and would his father +be there, and Dick, and all the other boys of their age! Not all! +Certainly not all, because some were gone already. And yet this +plaintive note of the homes they had left behind, while it brought a +tear to many an eye, made no decrease in martial determination. It +merely hardened their resolution to win the victory all the sooner, and +bring the homecoming march nearer. +</p> + +<p> +De Langeais ended on a wailing note that died like a faint sigh in the +pine forest. Then he came back to earth, sprang up, and put his violin +in its case. Applause spread out and swelled in a low, thunderous +note, but de Langeais, who was as modest as he was talented, quickly +hid himself among his friends. +</p> + +<p> +The sun sank behind the blue mountains, and twilight came readily over +the pine and cedar forests. Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire, who had a large tent together, invited the youths to stay +awhile with them as their guests and talk. All the soldiers dispersed +to their own portions of the great camp, and there would be an hour of +quiet and rest, until the camp cooks served supper. +</p> + +<p> +It had been a lively day for Harry, his emotions had been much stirred, +and now he was glad to sit in the peace of the evening on a stone near +the entrance of the tent, and listen to his friends. War drew comrades +together in closer bonds than those of peace. He was quite sure that +St. Clair, Dalton and Happy Tom were his friends for life, as he was +theirs, and the two colonels seemed to have the same quality of youth. +Simple men, of high faith and honor, they were often childlike in the +ways of the world, their horizons sometimes not so wide as those of the +lads who now sat with them. +</p> + +<p> +"As I told Harry," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire to Julien, "you +shall have that talent of yours cultivated further after the war. Two +years more of study and you will be among the greatest. You must know, +lads, that for us who are of French descent, Paris is the world's +capital in the arts." +</p> + +<p> +"And for many of English blood, too," said Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +Then they talked of more immediate things, of the war, the armies and +the prospect of the campaigns. Harry, after an hour or so, returned to +headquarters and he found soldiers making a bed for the +commander-in-chief under the largest of the pines. Lee in his +campaigns always preferred to sleep in the open air, when he could, and +it required severe weather to drive him to a tent. Meanwhile he sat by +a small fire—the October nights were growing cold—and talked with +Peyton and other members of his staff. +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton decided to imitate his example and sleep between the +blankets under the pines. Harry found a soft place, spread his +blankets and in a few minutes slept soundly. In fact, the whole Army +of Northern Virginia was a great family that retired early, slept well +and rose early. +</p> + +<p> +The next morning there was frost on the grass, but the lads were so +hardy that they took no harm. The autumn deepened. The leaves blazed +for a while in their most vivid colors and then began to fall under the +strong west winds. Brown and wrinkled, they often whirled past in +clouds. The air had a bite in it, and the soldiers built more and +larger fires. +</p> + +<p> +The Army of Northern Virginia never before had been quiescent so long. +The Army of the Potomac was not such a tremendous distance away, but it +seemed that neither side was willing to attack, and as the autumn +advanced and began to merge into winter the minds of all turned toward +the Southwest. +</p> + +<p> +For the valiant soldiers encamped on the Virginia hills the news was +not good. Grant, grim and inflexible, was deserving the great name +that was gradually coming to him. He had gathered together all the +broken parts of the army defeated at Chickamauga and was turning Union +defeat into Union victory. +</p> + +<p> +Winter closed in with the knowledge that Grant had defeated the South +disastrously on Lookout Mountain and all around Chattanooga. +Chickamauga had gone for nothing, the whole flank of the Confederacy +was turned and the Army of Northern Virginia remained the one great +barrier against the invading legions of the North. Yet the confidence +of the men in that army remained undimmed. They felt that on their own +ground, and under such a man as Lee, they were invincible. +</p> + +<p> +In the course of these months Harry, as a messenger and often as a +secretary, was very close to Lee. He wrote a swift and clear hand, and +took many dispatches. Almost daily messages were sent in one direction +or another and Harry read from them the thoughts of his leader, which +he kept locked in his breast. He knew perhaps better than many an +older officer the precarious condition of the Confederacy. These +letters, which he took from dictation, and the letters from Richmond +that he read to his chief, told him too plainly that the limits of the +Confederacy were shrinking. Its money declined steadily. Happy Tom +said that he had to "swap it pound for pound now to the sutlers for +groceries." Yet it is the historical truth that the heart of the Army +of Northern Virginia never beat with more fearless pride, as the famous +and "bloody" year of '63 was drawing to its close. +</p> + +<p> +The news arrived that Grant, the Sledge Hammer of the West, had been +put by Lincoln in command of all the armies of the Union, and would +come east to lead the Army of the Potomac in person, with Meade still +as its nominal chief, but subject, like all the others, to his command. +</p> + +<p> +Harry heard the report with a thrill. He knew now that decisive action +would come soon enough. He had always felt that Meade in front of them +was a wavering foe, and perhaps too cautious. But Grant was of another +kind. He was a pounder. Defeats did not daunt him. He would attack +and then attack again and again, and the diminishing forces of the +Confederacy were ill fitted to stand up against the continued blows of +the hammer. Harry's thrill was partly of apprehension, but whenever he +looked at the steadfast face of his chief his confidence returned. +</p> + +<p> +Winter passed without much activity and spring began to show its first +buds. The earth was drying, after melting snows and icy rains, and +Harry knew that action would not be delayed much longer. Grant was in +the East now. He had gone in January to St. Louis to visit his +daughter, who lay there very ill, and then, after military delays, he +had reached Washington. +</p> + +<p> +Harry afterward heard the circumstances of his arrival, so +characteristic of plain and republican America. He came into +Washington by train as a simple passenger, accompanied only by his son, +who was but fourteen years of age. They were not recognized, and +arriving at a hotel, valise in hand, with a crowd of passengers, he +registered in his turn: "U. S. Grant and son, Galena, Ill." The clerk, +not noticing the name, assigned the modest arrival and his boy to a +small room on the fifth floor. Then they moved away, a porter carrying +the valise. But the clerk happened to look again at the register, and +when he saw more clearly he rushed after them with a thousand +apologies. He did not expect the victor of great battles, the +lieutenant-general commanding all the armies of the Union, a battle +front of more than a million men, to come so modestly. +</p> + +<p> +When Harry heard the story he liked it. It seemed to him to be the +same simple and manly quality that he found in Lee, both worthy of +republican institutions. But he did not have time to think about it +long. The signs were multiplying that the advance would soon come. +The North had never ceased to resound with preparations, and Grant +would march with veterans. All the spies and scouts brought in the +same report. Butler would move up from Fortress Monroe toward Richmond +with thirty thousand men and Grant with a hundred and fifty thousand +would cross the Rapidan, moving by the right flank of Lee until they +could unite and destroy the Confederacy. Such was the plan, said the +scouts and spies in gray. +</p> + +<p> +Longstreet with his corps had returned from the West and Lee gathered +his force of about sixty thousand men to meet the mighty onslaught—he +alone perhaps divined how mighty it would be—and when he was faced by +the greatest of his adversaries his genius perhaps never shone more +brightly. +</p> + +<p> +May and the full spring came. It was the third day of the month, and +the camp of the Army of Northern Virginia was as usual. Many of the +young soldiers played games among the trees. Here and there they lay +in groups on the new grass, singing their favorite songs. The cooks +were preparing their suppers over the big fires. Several bands were +playing. Had it not been for the presence of so many weapons the whole +might have been taken for one vast picnic, but Harry, who sat in the +tent of the commander-in-chief, was writing as fast as he could +dispatch after dispatch that the Southern leader was dictating to him. +He knew perfectly well, of course, that the commander-in-chief was +gathering his forces and that they would move quickly for battle. He +knew, too, how inadequate was the equipment of the army. Only a short +time before he had taken from the dictation of his chief a letter to +the President of the Confederacy a part of which ran: +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +My anxiety on the subject of provisions for the army is so great that I +cannot refrain from expressing it to your Excellency. I cannot see how +we can operate with our present supplies. Any derangement in their +arrival or disaster to the railroad would render it impossible for me +to keep the army together and might force a retreat into North +Carolina. There is nothing to be had in this section for men or +animals. We have rations for the troops to-day and to-morrow. I hope +a new supply arrived last night, but I have not yet had a report. +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +Harry had thought long over this letter and he knew from his own +observation its absolute truth. The depleted South was no longer able +to feed its troops well. The abundance of the preceding autumn had +quickly passed, and in winter they were mostly on half rations. +</p> + +<p> +Lee, better than any other man in the whole South, had understood what +lay before them, and his foes both of the battlefield and of the spirit +have long since done him justice. Less than a week before this eve of +mighty events he had written to a young woman in Virginia, a relative: +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +I dislike to send letters within reach of the enemy, as they might +serve, if captured, to bring distress on others. But you must +sometimes cast your thoughts on the Army of Northern Virginia, and +never forget it in your prayers. It is preparing for a great struggle, +but I pray and trust that the great God, mighty to deliver, will spread +over it His Almighty arms and drive its enemies before it. +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +Harry had seen this letter before its sending, and he was not surprised +now when Lee was sending messengers to all parts of his army. With all +the hero-worshiping quality of youth he was once more deeply grateful +that he should have served on the staffs and been brought into close +personal relations with two men, Stonewall Jackson and Lee, who seemed +to him so great. As he saw it, it was not alone military greatness but +greatness of the soul, which was greater. Both were deeply +religious—Lee, the Episcopalian, and Jackson, the Presbyterian, and it +was a piety that contained no trace of cant. +</p> + +<p> +Harry felt that the crisis of the great Civil War was at hand. It had +been in the air all that day, and news had come that Grant had broken +up his camps and was crossing the Rapidan with a huge force. He knew +how small in comparison was the army that Lee could bring against him, +and yet he had supreme confidence in the military genius of his chief. +</p> + +<p> +He had written a letter with which an aide had galloped away, and then +he sat at the little table in the great tent, pen in hand and ink and +paper before him, but Lee was silent. He was dressed as usual with +great neatness and care, though without ostentation. His face had its +usual serious cast, but tinged now with melancholy. Harry knew that he +no longer saw the tent and those around him. His mind dwelled for a +few moments upon his own family and the ancient home that he had loved +so well. +</p> + +<p> +The interval was very brief. He was back in the present, and the +principal generals for whom he had sent were entering the tent. Hill, +Longstreet, Ewell, Stuart and others came, but they did not stay long. +They talked earnestly with their leader for a little while, and then +every one departed to lead his brigades. +</p> + +<p> +The secretaries put away pen, ink and paper. Twilight was advancing in +the east and night suddenly fell outside. The songs ceased, the bands +played no more, and there was only the deep rumble of marching men and +moving cannon. +</p> + +<p> +"We'll ride now, gentlemen," said Lee to his staff. +</p> + +<p> +Traveller, saddled and bridled, was waiting and the commander-in-chief +sprang into the saddle with all the agility of a young man. The others +mounted, too, Harry and Dalton as usual taking their places modestly in +the rear. +</p> + +<p> +A regiment, small in numbers but famous throughout the army for valor, +was just passing, and its colonel and its lieutenant-colonel, erect +men, riding splendidly, but gray like Lee, drew their swords and gave +the proud and flashing salute of the saber as they went by. Lee and +his staff almost with involuntary impulse returned the salute in like +fashion. Then the Invincibles passed on, and were lost from view in +the depths of the forest. +</p> + +<p> +Harry felt a sudden constriction of the heart. He knew that he might +never see Colonel Leonidas Talbot nor Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. +Hilaire again, nor St. Clair, nor Happy Tom either. +</p> + +<p> +But his friends could not remain long in his mind at such a time. They +were marching, marching swiftly, the presence of the man on the great +white horse seeming to urge them on to greater speed. As the stars +came out Lee's brow, which had been seamed by thought, cleared. His +plan which he had formed in the day was moving well. His three corps +were bearing away toward the old battlefield of Chancellorsville. +Grant would be drawn into the thickets of the Wilderness as Hooker had +been the year before, although a greater than Hooker was now leading +the Army of the Potomac. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, who foresaw it all, thrilled and shuddered at the remembrance. +It was in there that the great Jackson had fallen in the hour of +supreme triumph. Not far away were the heights of Fredericksburg, +where Burnside had led the bravest of the brave to unavailing +slaughter. As Belgium had been for centuries the cockpit of Europe, so +the wild and sterile region in Virginia that men call the Wilderness +became the cockpit of North America. +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +While Lee and his army were turning into the Wilderness Grant and the +greatest force that the Union had yet assembled were seeking him. It +was composed of men who had tasted alike of victory and defeat, +veterans skilled in all the wiles and stratagems of war, and with +hearts to endure anything. In this host was a veteran regiment that +had come East to serve under Grant as it had served under him so +valiantly in the West. Colonel Winchester rode at its head and beside +him rode his favorite aide, young Richard Mason. Not far away was +Colonel Hertford, with a numerous troop of splendid cavalry. +</p> + +<p> +Grant, alert and resolved to win, carried in his pocket a letter which +he had received from Lincoln, saying: +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +Not expecting to see you before the spring campaign opens, I wish to +express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up +to this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of your plans +I neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant, +and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints or +restraints upon you. While I am very anxious that any great disaster +or the capture of our men in great numbers should be avoided, I know +these points are less likely to escape your attention than they would +mine. If there is anything wanting which is within my power to give, +do not fail to let me know it. And now, with a brave army and a just +cause, may God sustain you. +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +A noble letter, breathing the loftiest spirit, and showing that moral +grandeur which has been so characteristic of America's greatest men. He +had put all in Grant's hands and he had given to him an army, the like +of which had never been seen until now on the American continent. Never +before had the North poured forth its wealth and energy in such +abundance. +</p> + +<p> +Four thousand wagons loaded with food and ammunition followed the army, +and there was a perfect system by which a wagon emptied of its contents +was sent back to a depot to be refilled, while a loaded wagon took its +place at the front. Complete telegram equipments, poles, wires, +instruments and all were carried with every division. The wires could +be strung easily and the lieutenant-general could talk to every part of +his army. There were, also, staffs of signalmen, in case the wires +should fail at any time. Grant held in his hand all the resources of +the North, and if he could not win no one could. +</p> + +<p> +All through the night the hostile armies marched, and before them went +the spies and scouts. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap14"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER XIV +</h3> + +<h3> +THE GHOSTLY RIDE +</h3> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton kept close together during the long hours of the +ghostly ride. Just ahead of them were Taylor and Marshall and Peyton, +and in front Lee rode in silence. Now and then they passed regiments, +and at other times they would halt and let regiments pass them. Then +the troops, seeing the man sitting on the white horse, would start to +cheer, but always their officers promptly subdued it, and they marched +on feeling more confident than ever that their general was leading them +to victory. +</p> + +<p> +Many hours passed and still the army marched through the forests. The +trees, however, were dwindling in size and even in the night they saw +that the earth was growing red and sterile. Dense thickets grew +everywhere, and the marching became more difficult. Harry felt a +sudden thrill of awe. +</p> + +<p> +"George," he whispered, "do you know the country into which we're +riding?" +</p> + +<p> +"I think I do, Harry. It's the Wilderness." +</p> + +<p> +"It can't be anything else, George, because I see the ghosts." +</p> + +<p> +"What are you talking about, Harry? What ghosts?" +</p> + +<p> +"The thousands and thousands who have fallen in that waste. Why the +Wilderness is so full of dead men that they must walk at night to give +one another room. I only hope that the ghost of Old Jack will ride +before us and show us the way." +</p> + +<p> +"I almost feel like that, too," admitted Dalton, who, however, was of a +less imaginative mind than Harry. "As sure as I'm sitting in the +saddle we're bound for the Wilderness. Now, what is the day going to +give us?" +</p> + +<p> +"Marching mostly, I think, and with the next noon will come battle. +Grant doesn't hesitate and hold back. We know that, George." +</p> + +<p> +"No, it's not his character." +</p> + +<p> +Morning came and found them still in the forests, seeking the deep +thickets of the Wilderness, and Grant, warned by his scouts and spies, +and most earnestly by one whose skill, daring and judgment were +unequaled, turned from his chosen line of march to meet his enemy. +Once more Lee had selected the field of battle, where his inferiority +in numbers would not count so much against him. +</p> + +<p> +It was nearly morning when the march ceased, and officers and troops, +save those on guard, lay down in the forest for rest. Harry, a +seasoned veteran, could sleep under any conditions and with a blanket +over him and a saddle for a pillow closed his eyes almost immediately. +Lee and his older aides, Taylor and Peyton and Marshall, slept also. +Around them the brigades, too, lay sleeping. +</p> + +<p> +A while before dawn a large man in Confederate uniform, using the soft, +lingering speech of the South, appeared almost in the center of the +army of Northern Virginia. He knew all the pass words and told the +officers commanding the watch that the wing under Ewell was advancing +more rapidly than any of the others. Inside the line he could go about +almost as he chose, and one could see little of him, save that he was +large of figure and deeply tanned, like all the rest. +</p> + +<p> +He approached the little opening in which Lee and his staff lay, +although he kept back from the sentinels who watched over the sleeping +leader. But Shepard knew that it was the great Confederate chieftain +who lay in the shadow of the oak and he could identify him by the +glances of the sentinels so often directed toward the figure. +</p> + +<p> +There were wild thoughts for a moment or two in the mind of Shepard. A +single bullet fired by an unerring hand would take from the Confederacy +its arm and brain, and then what happened to himself afterward would +not matter at all. And the war would be over in a month or two. But +he put the thought fiercely from him. A spy he was and in his heart +proud of his calling, but no such secret bullet could be fired by him. +</p> + +<p> +He turned away from the little opening, wandered an hour through the +camp and then, diving into the deep bushes, vanished like a shadow +through the Confederate lines, and was gone to Grant to report that +Lee's army was advancing swiftly to attack, and that the command of +Ewell would come in touch with him first. +</p> + +<p> +Not long after dawn Harry was again on the march, riding behind his +general. From time to time Lee sent messengers to the various +divisions of his army, four in number, commanded by Longstreet, Early, +Hill and Stuart, the front or Stuart's composed of cavalry. Harry's +own time came, when he received a dispatch of the utmost importance to +take to Ewell. He memorized it first, and, if capture seemed probable, +he was to tear it into bits and throw it away. Harry was glad he was +to go to Ewell. In the great campaign in the valley he had been second +to Jackson, his right arm, as Jackson had been Lee's right arm. Ewell +had lost a leg since then, and his soldiers had to strap him in the +saddle when he led them into battle, but he was as daring and cheerful +as ever, trusted implicitly by Lee. +</p> + +<p> +Harry with a salute to his chief rode away. Part of the country was +familiar to him and in addition his directions were so explicit that he +could not miss the way. +</p> + +<p> +The four divisions of the army were in fairly close touch, but in a +country of forests and many waters Northern scouts might come between, +and he rode with caution, his hand ever near the pistol in his belt. +The midday sun however clouded as the afternoon passed on. The +thickets and forests grew more dense. From the distance came now and +then the faint, sweet call of a trumpet, but everything was hidden from +sight by the dense tangle of the Wilderness, a wilderness as wild and +dangerous as any in which Henry Ware had ever fought. How it all came +back to him! Almost exactly a year ago he had ridden into it with +Jackson and here the armies were gathering again. +</p> + +<p> +Imagination, fancy, always so strong in him, leaped into vivid life. +The year had not passed and he was riding to meet Stonewall Jackson, +who was somewhere ahead, preparing for his great curve about Hooker and +the lightning stroke at Chancellorsville. Rabbits sprang out of the +undergrowth and fled away before his horse's hoofs. In the lonely +wilderness, which nevertheless had little to offer to the hunter, birds +chattered from every tree. Small streams flowed slowly between dense +walls of bushes. Here and there in the protection of the thickets wild +flowers were in early bloom. +</p> + +<p> +It was spring, fresh spring everywhere, but the bushes and the grass +alike were tinged with red for Harry. The strange mental illusion that +he was riding to Chancellorsville remained with him and he did not seek +to shake it off. He almost expected to see Old Jack ahead on a hill, +bent over a little, and sitting on Little Sorrel, with the old slouch +hat drawn over his eyes. They had talked of the ghost of Jackson +leading them in the Wilderness. He shivered. Could it be so? All the +time he knew it was an illusion, but he permitted it to cast its spell +over him, as one who dreams knowingly. +</p> + +<p> +And Harry was dreaming back. Old Jack, the earlier of his two heroes, +was leading them. He foresaw the long march through the thickets of +the Wilderness, Stonewall forming the line of battle in the deep roads +late in the evening, almost in sight of Hooker's camp, the sudden rush +of his brigades and then the terrible battle far into the night. +</p> + +<p> +He shook himself. It was uncanny. The past was the past. Dreams were +thin and vanished stuff. Once more he was in the present and saw +clearly. Old Jack was gone to take his place with the great heroes of +the past, but the Army of Northern Virginia was there, with Lee leading +them, and the most formidable of all the Northern chiefs with the most +formidable of all the Northern armies was before them. +</p> + +<p> +He heard the distant thud of hoofs and with instinctive caution drew +back into a dense clump of bushes. A half-dozen horsemen were near and +their eager looks in every direction told Harry that they were scouts. +There was little difference then between a well worn uniform of blue or +gray, and they were very close before Harry was able to tell that they +belonged to Grant's army. +</p> + +<p> +He was devoutly glad that his horse was trained thoroughly and stood +quite still while the Northern scouts passed. A movement of the bushes +would have attracted their attention, and he did not wish to be +captured at any time, least of all on the certain eve of a great +battle. After a battle he always felt an extra regret for those who +had fallen, because they would never know whether they had won or lost. +</p> + +<p> +They were alert, keen and vigorous men, or lads rather, as young as +himself, and they rode as if they had been Southern youths almost born +in the saddle. Harry was not the only one to notice how the Northern +cavalry under the whip hand of defeat had improved so fast that it was +now a match, man for man, for that of the South. +</p> + +<p> +The young riders rode on and the tread of their hoofs died in the +undergrowth. Then Harry emerged from his own kindly clump of bushes +and increased his speed, anxious to reach Ewell, without any more of +those encounters. He made good progress through the thickets, and soon +after sundown saw a glow which he took to be that of campfires. He +advanced cautiously, met the Southern sentinels and knew that he was +right. +</p> + +<p> +The very first of these sentinels was an old soldier of Jackson, who +knew him well. +</p> + +<p> +"Mr. Kenton!" he exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, Thorn! It's you!" said Harry without hesitation. +</p> + +<p> +The soldier was pleased that he should be recognized thus in the dusk, +and he was still more pleased when the young aide leaned down and shook +his hand. +</p> + +<p> +"I might have known, Thorn, that I'd find you here, rifle on your arm, +watching," he said. +</p> + +<p> +"Thank you, Mr. Kenton. You'll find the general over there on a log by +the fire." +</p> + +<p> +Harry dismounted, gave his horse to a soldier and walked into the +glade. Ewell sat alone, his crutch under his arms, his one foot kicking +back the coals, his bald head a white disc in the glow. +</p> + +<p> +"General Ewell, sir," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +General Ewell turned about and when he saw Harry his face clearly +showed gladness. He could not rise easily, but he stretched out a +welcoming hand. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah! Kenton," he said, "you're a pleasant sight to tired eyes like +mine. You bring back the glorious old days in the valley. So it's a +message from the commander-in-chief?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir. Here it is." +</p> + +<p> +Ewell read it rapidly by the firelight and smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"He tells us we're nearest to the enemy," he said, "and to hold fast, +if we're attacked. You're to remain with us and report what happens, +but doubtless you knew all this." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I had to commit it to memory before I started." +</p> + +<p> +"Then stay here with me. I may want to report to General Lee at any +time. The enemy is in our front only three or four miles away. He +knows we're here and it was a villainous surprise to him to find us in +his way. They say this man Grant is a pounder. So is Lee, when the +time comes to pound, but he's that and far more. I tell you, young +man, that General Lee has had to trim a lot of Northern generals. +McClellan and Pope and Burnside and Hooker and Meade have been going to +school to him, and now Grant is qualifying for his class." +</p> + +<p> +"But Grant is a great general. So our men in the West themselves say." +</p> + +<p> +"He may be, but Lee is greater, greatest. And, Harry, you and I, who +knew him and loved him, wish that another who alone was fit to ride by +his side was here with him." +</p> + +<p> +"I wish it from the bottom of my heart," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, well, regrets are useless. Help me up, Harry. I'm only part of +a man, but I can still fight." +</p> + +<p> +"We saw you do that at Gettysburg," said Harry, as he put his arm under +Ewell's shoulder. Then Ewell took his crutch and they walked to the +far side of the glade, where several officers of his staff gathered +around him. +</p> + +<p> +"Lieutenant Kenton, whom you all know," said General Ewell, "has +brought a message from the commander-in-chief that we will be attacked +first, and to be on guard. We consider it an honor, do we not, my +lads?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, let them come," they said. +</p> + +<p> +"Harry, you may want to see the enemy. Clayton, you and Campbell take +him forward through the pickets. But don't go too far. We don't want +to lose three perfectly good young officers before the battle begins. +After that it may be your business to get yourselves shot." +</p> + +<p> +The two rode nearly two miles to the crest of a hill and then, using +their strong glasses in the moonlight, they were able to see the lights +of a vast camp. +</p> + +<p> +"We hear that it is Warren's corps," said Clayton. "As General Ewell +doubtless has told you, the enemy know that we're in front, but I don't +believe they know our exact location. I believe we'll be in battle +with those men in the morning." +</p> + +<p> +Harry thought so too. In truth, it was inevitable. Warren would +advance and Ewell would stand in his way. Yet he slept soundly when he +went back to camp, although he was awakened long before dawn the next +day. Then he ate breakfast, mounted and sat his horse not far away +from Ewell, whom two soldiers had strapped into his saddle, and who was +watching with eager eyes for the sunrise. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, listening intently, heard no sound in front of them, save the +wind rippling through the dwarfed forests of the Wilderness, and he +knew that no battle had yet begun elsewhere. Sound would come far on +that placid May morning, and it was a certainty that Ewell was nearest +to contact with the enemy. +</p> + +<p> +But Ewell did not yet move. All his men had been served with early +breakfast, such as it was, and remained in silent masses, partly hidden +by the forest and thickets. The dawn was cold, and Harry felt a little +chill, but it soon passed, as the red edge of the sun showed over the +eastern border of the Wilderness. Then the light spread toward the +zenith, but the golden glow failed to penetrate the somber thickets. +</p> + +<p> +"It's going to be a good day," said Harry to an aide. +</p> + +<p> +"A good day for a battle." +</p> + +<p> +"We'll hear from the Yankees soon. They can't fail to discover our +exact location by sunrise, and they'll fight. Be sure of that." +</p> + +<p> +It was now nearly six o'clock, and General Ewell, growing impatient, +rode forward a little. Harry followed with his staff. A half-dozen +Southern sharpshooters rose suddenly out of the thickets, and one of +them dared to lay his hands on the reins of the general's horse. But +Ewell was not offended. He looked down at the man and said: +</p> + +<p> +"What is it, Strother?" +</p> + +<p> +"Riflemen of the enemy are not more than three or four hundred yards +away. If you go much farther, General, they will certainly see you and +fire upon you." +</p> + +<p> +"Thanks, Strother. So they've located us?" +</p> + +<p> +"They're about to do it. They're feeling around. We've seen 'em in +the bushes. We ask you not to go on, General. We wouldn't know what +to do without you. There, sir! They're firing on our pickets!" +</p> + +<p> +A half-dozen shots came from the front, and then a half-dozen or so in +reply. Harry saw pink flashes, and then spirals of smoke rising. More +shots were fired presently on their right, and then others on their +left. The Northern riflemen were evidently on a long line, and +intended to make a thorough test of their enemy's strength. Harry had +no doubt that Shepard was there. He would surely come to the point +where his enemy was nearest, and his eyes and ears would be the keenest +of all. +</p> + +<p> +The little skirmish continued for a few minutes, extending along a +winding line of nearly a mile through the thickets. Only two or three +were wounded and nobody killed on the Southern side. Harry understood +thoroughly, as Ewell had said, that the sharpshooters of the enemy were +merely feeling for them. They wanted to know if a strong force was +there, and now they knew. +</p> + +<p> +The firing ceased, not in dying shots, but abruptly. The Wilderness in +front of them returned to silence, broken only by the rippling leaves. +Harry knew that the Northern sharpshooters had discovered all they +wanted, and were now returning to their leaders. +</p> + +<p> +Ewell turned his horse and rode back toward the main camp, his staff +following. The cooking fires had been put out, the lines were formed +and every gun was in position. As little noise as possible was +allowed, while they waited for Grant; not for Grant himself, but for +one of his lieutenants, pushed forward by his master hand. +</p> + +<p> +Harry and most of the staff officers dismounted, holding their horses +by the bridle. The young lieutenant often searched the thickets with +his glasses, but he saw nothing. Nevertheless he knew that the enemy +would come. Grant having set out to find his foe, would never draw +back when he found him. +</p> + +<p> +A much longer period of silence than he had expected passed. The sun, +flaming red, was moving on toward the zenith, and no sounds of battle +came from either right or left. The suspense became acute, almost +unbearable, and it was made all the more trying by the blindness of +that terrible forest. Harry felt at times as if he would rather fight +in the open fields; but he knew that his commander-in-chief was right +when he drew Grant into the shades of the Wilderness. +</p> + +<p> +When the suspense became so great that heavy weights seemed to be +pressing upon his nerves, rifle shots were fired in front, and +skirmishers uttered the long, shrill rebel yell. Then above both shots +and shouts rose the far, clear call of a bugle. +</p> + +<p> +"Here they come!" Harry heard Ewell say to himself, and the next moment +the sound of human voices was drowned in the thunder of great guns and +the crash of fifty thousand rifles. The battle was so sudden and the +charge so swift that it seemed to leap into full volume in an instant. +Warren, a resolute and daring general, led the Northern column and it +struck with such weight and force that the Southern division was driven +back. Harry felt it yielding, as if the ground were sliding under his +feet. +</p> + +<p> +There was so much flame and smoke that he could not see well, but the +sensation of slipping was distinct. General Ewell was near him, +shouting orders. His hat had fallen off, and his round, bald head had +turned red, either from the rush of blood or the cannon's glare. It +shone like a red dome, but Harry knew that there was no better man in +such a crisis than this veteran lieutenant of Stonewall Jackson. +</p> + +<p> +The Wilderness, usually so silent, was an inferno now. The battle, +despite its tremendous beginning, increased in violence and fury. +Although Grant himself was not there, the spirit that had animated him +at Shiloh and Vicksburg was. He had communicated it to his generals, +and Warren brought every ounce of his strength into action. The long +line of his bayonets gleamed through the thickets and the Northern +artillery, superb as usual, rained shells upon the Southern army. +</p> + +<p> +Ewell's men, fighting with all the courage and desperation that they +had shown on so many a field, were driven back further and further. +Ewell, strapped in his saddle, flourishing his sword, his round, bald +head glowing, rode among them, bidding them to stand, that help would +soon come. They continued to go backward, but those veterans of so +many campaigns never lost cohesion nor showed sign of panic. Their own +artillery and rifles replied in full volume. The heads of the charging +columns were blown away, but other men took their places, and Warren's +force came on with undiminished fire and strength. +</p> + +<p> +Harry wondered if the attack at other points had been made with such +impetuosity, but there was such a roar and crash about him that it was +impossible to hear sounds of battle elsewhere. Men were falling very +fast, but the general was unharmed, and neither the young lieutenant +nor his horse was touched. +</p> + +<p> +A sudden shout arose, and it was immediately followed by the piercing +rebel yell, swelling wild and fierce above the tumult of the battle. +Help was coming. Regiments in gray were charging down the paths and on +the left flank rose the thunder of hoofs as a formidable body of +cavalry under Sherburne, sabers aloft, swept down on the Northern flank. +</p> + +<p> +Ewell's entire division stopped its retreat and, reinforced by the new +men, charged directly upon the Northern bayonets. Men met almost face +to face. The saplings and bushes were mown down by cannon and rifles +and the air was full of bursting shells. From time to time Ewell's men +uttered their fierce, defiant yell, and with a great bound of the heart +Harry saw that they were gaining. Warren was being driven back. Two +of his cannon were captured already, and the Southern men, feeling the +glow of the advance after retreat, charged again and again, reckless of +death. But Harry soon saw that ultimate victory here would rest with +the South. The troops of Warren, exhausted by their early rush, were +driven from one position to another by the seasoned veterans who faced +them. The Confederates retained the captured cannon and thrust harder +and harder. It became obvious that Warren must soon fall back to the +main Northern line, and though the battle was still raging with great +fury Ewell beckoned Harry to him. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't stay here any longer," he shouted in his ear. "Ride to General +Lee and tell him we're victorious at this point for the day at least!" +</p> + +<p> +Harry saluted and galloped away through the thickets. Behind him the +battle still roared and thundered. A stray shell burst just in front +of him, and another just behind him, but he and his horse were +untouched. Once or twice he glanced back and it looked as if the +Wilderness were on fire, but he knew that it was instead the blaze of +battle. He saw also that Ewell was still moving forward, winning more +ground, and his heart swelled with gladness. +</p> + +<p> +How proud Jackson would have been had he been able to see the valor and +skill of his old lieutenant! Perhaps his ghost did really hover over +the Wilderness, where a year before he had fallen in the moment of his +greatest triumph! Harry urged his horse into a gallop. All his +faculties now became acute. He was beyond the zone of fire, but the +roar of the battle behind him seemed as loud as ever. Yet it was +steadily moving back on the main Union lines, and there could be no +doubt of Ewell's continued success. +</p> + +<p> +The curves of the low hills and the thick bushes hid everything from +Harry's sight, as he rode swiftly through the winding paths of the +Wilderness. When the tumult sank at last he heard a new thunder in +front of him, and now he knew that the Southern center under Hill had +been attacked also, and with the greatest fierceness. +</p> + +<p> +As Harry approached, the roar of the second battle became terrific. +Uncertain where General Lee would now be, he rode through the sleet of +steel, and found Hill engaged with the very flower of the Northern +army. Hancock, the hero of Gettysburg, was making desperate exertions +to crush him, pouring in brigade after brigade, while Sheridan, +regardless of thickets, made charge after charge with his numerous +cavalry. +</p> + +<p> +Harry remained in the rear on his horse, watching this furious +struggle. The day had become much darker, either from clouds or the +vast volume of smoke, and the thickets were so dense that the officers +often could not see their enemy at all, only their own men who stood +close to them. The struggle was vast, confused, carried on under +appalling conditions. The charging horsemen were sometimes swept from +the saddle by bushes and not by bullets. Infantrymen stepped into a +dark ooze left by spring rains, and pulling themselves out, charged, +black to the waist with mud. Sometimes the field pieces became mired, +and men and horses together dragged them to firmer ground. +</p> + +<p> +Grant here, as before Ewell, continually reinforced his veterans, but +Hill, although he was not able to advance, held fast. The difficult +nature of the ground that Lee had chosen helped him. In marsh and +thickets it was impossible for the more numerous enemy to outflank him. +Harry saw Hill twice, a slender man, who had suffered severe wounds but +one of the greatest fighters in the Southern army. He had been ordered +to hold the center, and Harry knew now that he would do it, for the day +at least. Night was not very far away, and Grant was making no +progress. +</p> + +<p> +He rode on in search of Lee and before he was yet beyond the range of +fire he met Dalton, mounted and emerging from the smoke. +</p> + +<p> +"The commander-in-chief, where is he?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"On a little hill not far from here, watching the battle. I'm just +returning with a dispatch from Hill." +</p> + +<p> +"I saw that Hill was holding his ground." +</p> + +<p> +"So my dispatch says, and it says also that he will continue to hold +it. You come from Ewell?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, and he has done more than stand fast. He was driven back at +first, but when reinforcements came he drove Warren back in his turn, +and took guns and prisoners." +</p> + +<p> +"The chief will be glad to hear it. We'll ride together. Look out for +your horse! He may go knee deep into mire at any time. Harry, the +Wilderness looks even more somber to me than it did a year ago when we +fought Chancellorsville." +</p> + +<p> +"I feel the same way about it. But see, George, how they're fighting! +General Hill is making a great resistance!" +</p> + +<p> +"Never better. But if you look over those low bushes you can see +General Lee on the hill." +</p> + +<p> +Harry made out the figure of Lee on Traveller, outlined against the +sky, with about a dozen men sitting on their horses behind him. He +hurried forward as fast as he could. The commander-in-chief was +reading a dispatch, while the fierce struggle in the thickets was going +on, but when Harry saluted and Marshall told him that he had come to +report the general put away the dispatch and said: +</p> + +<p> +"What news from General Ewell?" +</p> + +<p> +"General Ewell was at first borne back by the enemy's numbers, but when +help came he returned to the charge, and has been victorious. He has +gained much ground." +</p> + +<p> +A gleam of triumph shot from Lee's eyes, usually so calm. +</p> + +<p> +"Well done, Ewell!" he said. "The loss of a leg has not dimmed his +ardor or judgment. I truly believe that if he were to lose the other +one also he would still have himself strapped into the saddle and lead +his men to victory. We thank you for the news you have brought, +Lieutenant Kenton." +</p> + +<p> +He put his glasses to his eyes and Harry and Dalton as usual withdrew +to the rear of the staff. But they used their glasses also, bringing +nearer to them the different phases of the battle, which now raged +through the Wilderness. They saw at some points the continuous blaze +of guns, and the acrid powder smoke, lying low, was floating through +all the thickets. +</p> + +<p> +But Harry now knew that the combat, however violent and fierce, was +only a prelude. The sun was already setting, and they could not fight +at night in those wild thickets, where men and guns would become mired +and tangled beyond extrication. The great struggle, with both leaders +hurling in their full forces, would come on the morrow. +</p> + +<p> +The sun already hung very low, and in the twilight and smoke the +savagery of the Wilderness became fiercer than ever. The dusk gathered +around Lee, but his erect figure and white horse still showed +distinctly through it. Harry, his spirit touched by the tremendous +scenes in the very center of which he stood, regarded him with a fresh +measure of respect and admiration. He was the bulwark of the +Confederacy, and he did not doubt that on the morrow he would stop +Grant as he had stopped the others. +</p> + +<p> +The darkness increased, sweeping down like a great black pall over the +Wilderness. The battle in the center and on the left died. Lee and +his staff dismounting, prepared for the labors of the night. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap15"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER XV +</h3> + +<h3> +THE WILDERNESS +</h3> + +<p> +When night settled down over the Wilderness the two armies lay almost +face to face on a long line. The preliminary battle, on the whole, had +favored the Confederacy. Hill had held his ground and Ewell had +gained, but Grant had immense forces, and, though naturally kind of +heart, he had made up his mind to strike and keep on striking, no +matter what the loss. He could afford to lose two men where the +Confederacy lost one. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, like many others, felt that this would be the great Northern +general's plan. To-morrow's battle might end in Southern success, but +Grant would be there to fight the following day with undiminished +resolution. He was as sure of this as he was sure that the day would +come. +</p> + +<p> +The night itself was somber and sinister, the heavens dusky and a raw +chill in the air. Heavy vapors rose from the marshes, and clouds of +smoke from the afternoon's battle floated about over the thickets, +poisoning the air as if with gas, and making the men cough as they +breathed it. It made Harry's heart beat harder than usual, and his +head felt as if it were swollen. Everything seemed clothed in a black +mist with a slightly reddish tint. +</p> + +<p> +A small fire had been built in a sheltered place for the +commander-in-chief and his staff, and the cooks were preparing the +supper, which was of the simplest kind. While they ate the food and +drank their coffee, the darkness increased, with the faint lights of +other fires showing here and there through it. Around the muddy places +frogs croaked in defiance of armies, and, from distant points, came the +crackling fire of skirmishers prowling in the dusk. +</p> + +<p> +Harry's horse, saddled and bridled, was tied to a bush not far away. He +knew that it was to be no night of rest for him, or any other member of +the staff. Lee would be sending messages continually. Longstreet, +although he had been marching hard, was not yet up on the right, and he +and his veterans must be present when the shock of Grant's mighty +attack came in the morning. +</p> + +<p> +Hill, thin and pale, yet suffering from the effects of his wounds, but +burning as usual with the fire of battle, rode up and consulted long +and earnestly with Lee. Presently he went back to his own place nearer +the center, and then Lee began to send away his staff one by one with +messages. Harry was among the last to go, but he bore a dispatch to +Longstreet. +</p> + +<p> +He had heard that Longstreet had criticized Lee for ordering Pickett's +famous charge at Gettysburg, but if so, Lee had taken no notice of it, +and Longstreet had proved himself the same stalwart fighter as of old. +He and the prompt arrival of his veterans had enabled Bragg to win +Chickamauga, and it was not Longstreet's fault that the advantage +gained there was lost afterward. Now Harry knew that he would be up in +time with his seasoned veterans. +</p> + +<p> +As the young lieutenant rode away he saw General Lee walking back and +forth before the low fire, his hands clasped behind him, and his eyes +as serious as those of any human being could be. Harry appreciated the +immensity of his task, and in his heart was a sincere pity for the man +who bore so great a burden. He was familiar with the statement that to +Lee had been offered the command of the Northern armies at the +beginning of the war, but believing his first duty was to his State he +had gone with Virginia when Virginia reluctantly went out of the Union. +Truly no one could regret the war more than he, and yet he had struck +giant blows for its success. +</p> + +<p> +A moment more and the tall figure standing beside the low fire was lost +to sight. Then Harry rode among the thickets in the rear of the +Confederate line and it was a weird and ghastly ride. Now and then his +horse's feet sank in mud, and the frogs still dared to croak around the +pools, making on such a night the most ominous of all sounds. It +seemed a sort of funeral dirge for both North and South, a croak +telling of the ruin and death that were to come on the morrow. +</p> + +<p> +Damp boughs swept across his face, and the vapors, rising from the +earth and mingled with the battle smoke, were still bitter to the +tongue and poisonous to the breath. Rotten logs crushed beneath his +horse's feet and Harry felt a shiver as if the hoofs had cut through a +body of the dead. Riflemen rose out of the thickets, but he always +gave them the password, and rode on without stopping. +</p> + +<p> +Then came a space where he met no human being, the gap between Hill and +Longstreet, and now the Wilderness became incredibly lonely and dreary. +Harry felt that if ever a region was haunted by ghosts it was this. The +dead of last year's battle might be lying everywhere, and as the breeze +sprang up the melancholy thickets waved over them. +</p> + +<p> +He was two-thirds of the way toward the point where he expected to find +Longstreet when he heard the sough of a hoof in the mud behind him. +</p> + +<p> +Harry listened and hearing the hoof again he was instantly on his +guard. He did not know it, but the character of the night and the wild +aspect of the Wilderness were bringing out all the primeval and +elemental qualities in his nature. He was the great borderer, Henry +Ware, in the Indian-haunted forest, feeling with a sixth sense, even a +seventh sense, the presence of danger. +</p> + +<p> +He was following a path, scarcely traceable, used by charcoal burners +and wood-cutters, but when he heard the hoof a second time he turned +aside into the deepest of the thickets and halted there. The hoofbeat +came a third time, a little nearer, and then no more. Evidently the +horseman behind him knew that he had turned aside, and was waiting and +watching. He was surely an enemy of great skill and boldness, and it +was equally sure that he was Shepard. Harry never felt a doubt that he +was pursued by the formidable Union spy, and he felt too that he had +never been in greater danger, as Shepard at such a moment would not +spare his best friend. +</p> + +<p> +But he was not afraid. Danger had become so common that one looked +upon it merely as a risk. Moreover, he was never cooler or more ample +of resource. He dismounted softly, standing beside his horse's head, +holding the reins with one hand and a heavy pistol with the other. He +suspected that Shepard would do the same, but he believed that his eyes +and ears were the keener. The man must have been inside the +Confederate lines all the afternoon. Probably he had seen Harry riding +away, and, deftly appropriating a horse, had followed him. There was +no end to Shepard's ingenuity and daring. +</p> + +<p> +Harry's horse was trained to stand still indefinitely, and the young +man, with the heavy pistol, who held the reins was also immovable. The +silence about him was so deep that Harry could hear the frogs croaking +at a distant pool. +</p> + +<p> +He waited a full five minutes, and now, like the wild animals, he +relied more upon ear than eye. He had learned the faculty of +concentration and he bent all his powers upon his hearing. Not the +slightest sound could escape the tightly drawn drums of his ears. +</p> + +<p> +He was motionless a full ten minutes. Nor did the horse beside him +stir. It was a test of human endurance, the capacity to keep himself +absolutely silent, but with every nerve attuned, while he waited for an +invisible danger. And those minutes were precious, too. The value of +not a single one of them could have been measured or weighed. It was +his duty to reach Longstreet at speed, because the general and his +veterans must be in line in the morning, when the battle was joined. +Yet the incessant duel between Shepard and himself was at its height +again, and he did not yet see how he could end it. +</p> + +<p> +Harry felt that it must be essentially a struggle of patience, but when +he waited a few minutes longer, the idea to wait with ears close to the +earth, one of the oldest devices of primitive man, occurred to him. It +was fairly dry in the bushes, and he lay down, pressing his ear to the +soil. Then he heard a faint sound, as if some one crawling through the +grass, like a wild animal stalking its prey. It was Shepard, of +course, and then Harry planned his campaign. Shepard had left his +horse, and was endeavoring to reach him by stealth. +</p> + +<p> +Leaving his own horse, he crept a little to the right, and then rising +carefully in another thicket he picked out every dark spot in the +gloom. He made out presently the figure of a riderless horse, standing +partly behind the trunk of an oak, larger than most of those that grew +in the Wilderness. +</p> + +<p> +Harry knew that it was Shepard's mount and that Shepard himself was +some distance in front of it creeping toward the thicket which he +supposed sheltered his foe. There was barely enough light for Harry to +see the horse's head and regretfully he raised his heavy pistol. But +it had to be done, and when his aim was true he pulled the trigger. +</p> + +<p> +The report of the pistol was almost like the roar of a cannon in the +desolate Wilderness and made Harry himself jump. Then he promptly +threw himself flat upon his face. Shepard's answering fire came from a +point about thirty yards in front of the horse, and the bullet passed +very close over Harry's head. It was a marvelous shot to be made +merely at the place from which a sound had come. It all passed in a +flash, and the next moment Harry heard the sound of a horse falling and +kicking a little. Then it too was still. +</p> + +<p> +He remained only a half minute in the grass. Then he began to creep +back, curving a little in his course, toward his own horse. He did not +believe that Shepard's faculty of hearing was as keen as his own, and +he moved with the greatest deftness. He relied upon the fact that +Shepard had not yet located the horse, and if Harry could reach it +quickly it would not be hard for him, a mounted man, to leave behind +Shepard, dismounted. It might be possible, too, that Shepard had gone +back to see about his own horse, not knowing that it was slain. +</p> + +<p> +He saw the dusky outline of his horse, and, rising, made two or three +jumps. Then he snatched the rein loose, sprang upon his back, and +lying down upon his neck to avoid bullets, crashed away, reckless of +bushes and briars. He heard one bullet flying near him, but he laughed +in delight and relief as his horse sped on toward Longstreet. +</p> + +<p> +He did not diminish his speed until he had gone two or three miles, and +then, knowing that Shepard had been left hopelessly behind, even if he +had attempted pursuit, he brought his horse down to a walk, and +laughed. There was a bit of nervous excitement in the laugh. He had +outwitted Shepard again. He had never seen the man, but it did not +enter his mind that it was not he. Each had scored largely over the +other from time to time, but Harry believed that he was at least even. +</p> + +<p> +He steadied his nerves now and rode calmly toward Longstreet, coming +soon upon his scouts, who informed him that the heavy columns were not +far behind, marching with stalwart step to their appointed place in the +line. But it was Harry's business to see Longstreet himself, and he +continued his way toward the center of the division, where they told +him the general could be found. +</p> + +<p> +He rode forward and in the moonlight recognized Longstreet at once, a +heavy-set, bearded man, mounted on a strong bay horse. He had a very +small staff, and he was first to notice the young lieutenant advancing. +He knew Harry well, having seen him with Lee at Gettysburg and with +Jackson before. He stopped and said abruptly: +</p> + +<p> +"You come from the commander-in-chief, do you not?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir," replied Harry, "and I've been coming as fast as I could." +</p> + +<p> +He did not deem it necessary to say anything about his encounter with +Shepard. +</p> + +<p> +"There has been heavy fighting. What are his orders?" +</p> + +<p> +Harry told him, also giving him a written message, which the general +read by the light of a torch an aide held. +</p> + +<p> +"You can tell General Lee that all my men will be in position for +battle before dawn," said the Georgian crisply. +</p> + +<p> +Even as he spoke, Harry heard the heavy, regular tread of the brigades +marching forward through the Wilderness. He saluted General Longstreet. +</p> + +<p> +"I shall return at once with your message," he said. +</p> + +<p> +But Harry, having had one such experience, was resolved not to risk +another. He would make a wider circuit in the rear of the army. +Shepard, on foot, and anxious to avenge his defeat, might be waiting +for him, but he would go around him. So when he started back he made a +wide curve, and soon was in the darkness and silence again. +</p> + +<p> +He had a good horse and his idea of direction being very clear he rode +swiftly in the direction he had chosen. But his curve was so great +that when he reached the center of it he was so far in the rear of the +army that no sound came from it. If the skirmishers were still firing +the reports of their rifles were lost in the distance. Where he rode +the only noises were those made by the wild animals that inhabited the +Wilderness, creatures that had settled back into their usual haunts +after the armies had passed beyond. +</p> + +<p> +Once a startled deer sprang from a clump of bushes and crashed away +through the thickets. Rabbits darted from his path, and an owl, +wondering what all the disturbance was about, hooted mournfully from a +bough. +</p> + +<p> +Long before dawn Harry reached the Southern sentinels in the center and +was then passed to General Lee, who remained at the same camp, sitting +on a log by some smothered coals. Several other members of his staff +had returned already, and the general, looking up when Harry came +forward, merely said: +</p> + +<p> +"Well!" +</p> + +<p> +"I have seen General Longstreet, sir," said Harry, "and he bids me tell +you that he and his men will be in position before dawn. He was nearly +up when I left, and he has also sent you this note." +</p> + +<p> +He handed the note to General Lee, who, bending low over the coals, +read it. +</p> + +<p> +"Everything goes well," he said with satisfaction. "We shall be ready +for them. What time is it, Peyton?" +</p> + +<p> +"Five minutes past four o'clock, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I think the attack should come within an hour." +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps before daybreak, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps. And even after the sun begins to rise it will be like +twilight in this gloomy place." +</p> + +<p> +Grant, in truth, prompt and ready as always, had ordered the advance to +be begun at half-past four, but Meade, asking more time for +arrangements and requesting that it be delayed until six, he had +consented to a postponement until five o'clock and no more. +</p> + +<p> +Harry had one more message to carry, a short distance only, and on his +return he found the Invincibles posted on the commander-in-chief's +right, and not more than two hundred yards away. +</p> + +<p> +"You must be a body guard for the general," he said to Colonel Leonidas +Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"There could be no greater honor for the Invincibles, nor could General +Lee have a better guard." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm sure of that, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"What's happening, Harry? Tell us what's been going on in the night!" +</p> + +<p> +"Our line of battle has been formed. General Longstreet and his men on +the right are soon to be in touch with General Hill. I returned from +him a little while ago. I can't yet smell the dawn, but I think the +battle will come before then." +</p> + +<p> +Harry rode back and resumed his place beside Dalton. The troops +everywhere were on their feet, cannon and rifles ready, because it was +a certainty that the two armies would meet very early. +</p> + +<p> +In fact, the Army of Northern Virginia began to slide slowly forward. +It was not the habit of these troops to await attack. Lee nearly +always had taken the offensive, and the motion of his men was +involuntary. They felt that the enemy was there and they must go to +meet him. +</p> + +<p> +"What time is it now?" whispered Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was barely able to discern the face of his watch. +</p> + +<p> +"Ten minutes to five," he replied. +</p> + +<p> +"And the dawn comes early. It won't be long before Grant comes poking +his nose through the Wilderness." +</p> + +<p> +Harry was silent. A few minutes more, and there was a sudden crackle +of rifles in front of them. +</p> + +<p> +"The dawn isn't here, but Grant is," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +The crackling fire doubled and tripled, and then the fire of the +Southern rifles replied in heavy volume. The lighter field guns opened +with a crash, and the heavier batteries followed with rolling thunder. +Leaves and twigs fell in showers, and men fell with them. The deep +Northern cheer swelled through the Wilderness and the fierce rebel yell +replied. +</p> + +<p> +Gray dawn, rising as if with effort, over the sodden Wilderness found +two hundred thousand men locked fast in battle. It might have been a +bright sun elsewhere, but not here among the gloomy shades and the pine +barrens. The firing was already so tremendous that the smoke hung low +and thick, directly over the tops of the bushes, and the men, as they +fought, breathed mixed and frightful vapors. +</p> + +<p> +Both sides fought for a long time in a heavy, smoky dusk, that was +practically night. Officers coming from far points, led, compass in +hand, having no other guide save the roar of battle. As the Southern +leaders had foreseen, Grant was throwing in the full strength of his +powerful army, hoping with superior numbers and better equipment to +crush Lee utterly that day. +</p> + +<p> +The great Northern artillery was raking the whole Southern front. +Hancock, the superb, was hurling the heavy Northern masses directly +upon the main position of the South. He had half the Army of the +Potomac, and at other points Warren, Wadsworth, Sedgwick and Burnside +were advancing with equal energy and contempt of death. Fiercer and +fiercer grew the conflict. Hancock, remembering how he had held the +fatal hill at Gettysburg, and resolved to win a complete victory now, +poured in regiment after regiment. But in all the fire and smoke and +excitement and danger he did not neglect to keep a cool head. Hearing +that a portion of Longstreet's corps was near, he sent a division and +numerous heavy artillery to attack it, driving it back after a +sanguinary struggle of more than an hour. +</p> + +<p> +Then he redoubled his attack upon the Southern center, compelling it to +give ground, though slowly. Harry felt that gliding movement backward +and a chill ran through his blood. The heavy masses of Grant and his +powerful artillery were prevailing. The strongest portion of the +Southern army was being forced back, and a gap was cut between Hill and +Longstreet. Had Hancock perceived the gap that he had made he might +have severed the Southern army, inflicting irretrievable retreat, but +the smoke and the dusk of the Wilderness hid it, and the moment passed +into one of the great "Ifs" of history. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, on horseback, witnessed this conflict, all the more terrible +because of the theater in which it was fought. The batteries and the +riflemen alike were frequently hidden by the thickets. The great banks +of smoke hung low, only to be split apart incessantly by the flashes of +fire from the big guns. But the bullets were more dangerous than the +cannon balls and shells. They whistled and shrieked in thousands and +countless thousands. +</p> + +<p> +Lee sat on his horse impassive, watching as well as he could the tide +of battle. Messengers covered with smoke and sweat had informed him of +the gap between Hill and Longstreet, and he was dispatching fresh +troops to close it up. Harry saw the Invincibles march by. The two +colonels at their head beheld Lee on his white horse, and their swords +flew from their scabbards as they made a salute in perfect unison. +Close behind them rode St. Clair and Happy Tom, and they too saluted in +like manner. Lee took off his hat in reply and Harry choked. "About to +die, we salute thee," he murmured under his breath. +</p> + +<p> +Then with a shout the Invincibles, their officers at their head, +plunged into the fire and smoke, and were lost from Harry's view. But +he could not stay there long and wonder at their fate. In a few +minutes he was riding to Longstreet with a message for him to bear +steadily toward Hill, that the gap might be closed entirely, and as +soon as possible. +</p> + +<p> +He galloped behind the lines, but bullets fell all around him, and +often a shell tore the earth. The air had become more bitter and +poisonous. Fumes from swamps seemed to mingle with the smoke and odors +of burned gunpowder. His lips and his tongue were scorched. But he +kept on, without exhaustion or mishap, and reached Longstreet, who had +divined his message. +</p> + +<p> +"The line will be solid in a few minutes," he said, and while the +battle was still at its height on the long front he touched hands with +Hill. Then both drove forward with all their might against Hancock, +rushing to the charge, with the Southern fire and recklessness of death +that had proved irresistible on so many fields. The advance, despite +the most desperate efforts of Hancock and his generals, was stopped. +Then he was driven back. All the ground gained at so much cost was +lost and the Southern troops, shouting in exultation, pushed on, +pouring in a terrible rifle fire. Longstreet, in his eagerness, rode a +little ahead of his troops to see the result. Turning back, he was +mistaken in the smoke by his own men for a Northern cavalryman, and +they fired upon him, just as Jackson had been shot down by his own +troops in the dusk at Chancellorsville. +</p> + +<p> +The leader fell from his horse, wounded severely, and the troops +advancing to victory became confused. The rumor spread that Longstreet +had been killed. There was no one to give orders, and the charge +stopped. Harry and a half-dozen others who had seen the accident or +heard of it, galloped to Lee, who at once rode into the very thick of +the command, giving personal orders and sending his aides right and +left with others. The whole division was reformed under his eye, and +he sent it anew to the attack. +</p> + +<p> +The battle now closed in with the full strength of both armies. +Hancock strove to keep his place. The valiant Wadsworth had been +killed already. The dense thickets largely nullified Grant's superior +numbers. Lee poured everything on Hancock, who was driven from every +position. Fighting furiously behind a breastwork built the night +before, he was driven from that too. +</p> + +<p> +Often in the dense shades the soldiers met one another face to face and +furious struggles hand-to-hand ensued. Bushes and trees, set on fire +by the shells, burned slowly like torches put there to light up the +ghastly scene of man's bravery and folly. Jenkins, a Confederate +general, was killed and colonels and majors fell by the dozen. But +neither side would yield, and Grant hurried help to his hard-pressed +troops. +</p> + +<p> +Harry had been grazed on the shoulder by a bullet, but his horse was +unharmed, and he kept close to Lee, who continued to direct the battle +personally. He knew that they were advancing. Once more the genius of +the great Confederate leader was triumphing. Grant, the redoubtable +and tenacious, despite his numbers, could set no trap for him! Instead +he had been drawn into battle on a field of Lee's own choosing. +</p> + +<p> +The conflict had now continued for a long time, and was terrible in all +its aspects. It was far past noon, and for miles a dense cloud of +smoke hung over the Wilderness, which was filled with the roar of +cannon, the crash of rifles and the shouts of two hundred thousand men +in deadly conflict. The first meeting of the two great protagonists of +the war, Lee and Grant, was sanguinary and terrible, beyond all +expectation. +</p> + +<p> +Hundreds fell dead, their bodies lying hidden under the thickets. The +forest burned fiercely here and there, casting circles of lurid light +over the combatants, while the wind rained down charred leaves and +twigs. The fires spread and joined, and at points swept wide areas of +the forest, yet the fury of the battle was not diminished, the two +armies forgetting everything else in their desire to crush each other. +</p> + +<p> +Harry's horse was killed, as he sat near Lee, but he quickly obtained +another, and not long afterward he was sent with a second message to +Ewell. He rode on a long battle front, not far behind the lines, and +he shuddered with awe as he looked upon the titanic struggle. The +smoke was often so heavy and the bushes so thick that he could not see +the combatants, except when the flame of the firing or the burning +trees lighted up a segment of the circle. +</p> + +<p> +Halfway to Ewell and he stopped when he saw two familiar figures, +sitting on a log. They were elderly men in uniforms riddled by +bullets. The right arm of one and the left leg of the other were +tightly bandaged. Their faces were very white and it was obvious that +they were sitting there, because they were not strong enough to stand. +</p> + +<p> +Harry stopped. No message, no matter how important, could have kept +him from stopping. +</p> + +<p> +"Colonel Talbot! Colonel St. Hilaire!" he cried. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, here we are, Harry," replied Colonel Leonidas Talbot in a voice, +thin but full of courage. "Hector has been shot through the leg and +has lost much blood, but I have bound up his wound, and he has done as +much for my arm, which has been bored through from side to side by a +bullet, which must have been as large as my fist." +</p> + +<p> +"And so for a few minutes," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire, +valiantly, "we must let General Lee conduct the victory alone." +</p> + +<p> +"And the Invincibles!" exclaimed Harry, horrified. "Are they all gone +but you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not at all," replied Colonel Talbot. "There is so much smoke about +that you can't see much, but if it clears a little you will behold +Lieutenant St. Clair and the youth rightly called Happy Tom and some +three score others, lying among the bushes, not far ahead of you, +giving thorough attention to the enemy." +</p> + +<p> +"And is that all that's left of the Invincibles?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's a wonder that they're so many. You were right about this man, +Grant, Harry. He's a fighter, and their artillery is numerous and +wonderful. John Carrington himself must be in front of us. We have +not seen him, but the circumstantial evidence is conclusive. Nobody +else in the world could have swept this portion of the Wilderness with +shell and shrapnel in such a manner. Why, he has mowed down the bushes +in long swathes as the scythe takes the grass and he has cut down our +men with them. How does the battle go elsewhere?" +</p> + +<p> +"We're succeeding. We're driving 'em back. I can stop only a moment +now. I'm on my way to General Ewell." +</p> + +<p> +"Then hurry. Don't be worried about us. I'll help Hector and Hector +will help me. And do you curve further to the rear, Harry. The worst +thing that a dispatch bearer can do is to get himself shot." +</p> + +<p> +Waving his hand in farewell Harry galloped away. He knew that Colonel +Talbot had given him sound advice, and he bore back from the front, +coming once more into lonely thickets, although the flash of the battle +was plainly visible in front of him, and its roar filled his ears. Yet +when he rode alone he almost expected to see Shepard rise up before +him, and bid him halt. His encounters with this man had been under +such startling circumstances that it now seemed the rule, and not the +exception, for him to appear at any moment. +</p> + +<p> +But Shepard did not come. Instead Harry began to see the badly wounded +of his own side drifting to the rear, helping one another as hurt +soldiers learn to do. Two of them he allowed to hang on his stirrups a +little while. +</p> + +<p> +"They're fighting hard," said one, a long, gaunt Texan, "an' they're so +many they might lap roun' us. This man of theirs, Grant, ain't much of +a fellow to get scared, but I guess Marse Bob will take care of him +just ez he has took care of the others who came into Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +"They're led in the main attack by Hancock," said the other, a +Virginian. "I caught a glimpse of him through the smoke, just as I had +a view of him for a minute back there by the clump of trees on the +ridge at Gettysburg." +</p> + +<p> +"Are you one of Pickett's men?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"I am, sir, one of the few that's left. I went clear to the clump of +trees and how I got back I've never known. It was a sort of red dream, +in which I couldn't pick out anything in particular, but I was back +with the army, carrying three bullets that the doctors took away from +me, and here I've gathered up two more they'll rob me of in just the +same way." +</p> + +<p> +He spoke quite cheerfully, and when Harry, curving again, was compelled +to release them, both, although badly wounded, wished him good luck. +</p> + +<p> +He found General Ewell in front, stamping back and forth on his +crutches, watching the battle with excitement. +</p> + +<p> +"And so you're here again, Harry. Well it's good news at present!" he +cried. "It seems that their man, Grant, is going to school to Lee just +like the others." +</p> + +<p> +"But some pupils learn too fast, sir!" +</p> + +<p> +"That's so, but, Harry, I wish I could see more of the field. An +invisible battle like this shakes my nerves. Batteries that we can't +see send tornadoes of shot and shell among us. Riflemen, by the +thousands, hidden in the thickets rain bullets into our ranks. It's +inhuman, wicked, and our only salvation lies in the fact that it's as +bad for them as it is for us. If we can't see them they can't see us." +</p> + +<p> +"You can hold your ground here?" +</p> + +<p> +"Against anything and everything. Tell General Lee that we intend to +eat our suppers on the enemy's ground." +</p> + +<p> +"That's all he wants to know." +</p> + +<p> +As Harry rode back he saw that the first fires were spreading, passing +over new portions of the battlefield. Sparks flew in myriads and fine, +thin ashes were mingled with the powder smoke. The small trees, burnt +through, fell with a crash, and the flames ran as if they were alive up +boughs. Other trees fell too, cut through by cannon balls, and some +were actually mown down by sheets of bullets, as if they had been grass. +</p> + +<p> +His way now led through human wreckage, made all the more appalling by +an approaching twilight, heavy with fumes and smoke, and reddened with +the cannon and rifle blaze. His frightened horse pulled wildly at the +bit, and tried to run away, but Harry held him to the path, although he +stepped more than once in hot ashes and sprang wildly. The dead were +thick too and Harry was in horror lest the hoof of his horse be planted +upon some unheeding face. +</p> + +<p> +He knew that the day was waning fast and that the dark was due in some +degree to the setting sun, and not wholly to the smoke and ashes. Yet +the fury of the battle was sustained. The southern left maintained the +ground that it had gained, and in the center and right it could not be +driven back. It became obvious to Grant that Lee was not to be beaten +in the Wilderness. His advance suffered from all kinds of +disadvantages. In the swamps and thickets he could mass neither his +guns nor his cannon. Communications were broken, the telegraph wires +could be used but little and as the twilight darkened to night he let +the attack die. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was back with the commander-in-chief, when the great battle of +the Wilderness, one of the fiercest ever fought, sank under cover of +the night. It was not open and spectacular like Gettysburg, but it had +a gloomy and savage grandeur all its own. Grant had learned, like the +others before him, that he could not drive headlong over Lee, but +sitting in silence by his campfire, chewing his cigar, he had no +thought, unlike the others, of turning back. Nearly twenty thousand of +his men had fallen, but huge resources and a President who supported +him absolutely were behind him and he was merely planning a new method +of attack. +</p> + +<p> +In the Southern camp there was exultation, but it was qualified and +rather grim. These men, veterans of many battles and able to judge for +themselves, believed that they had won the victory, but they knew that +it was by no means decisive. The numerous foe with his powerful +artillery was still before them. They could see his campfires shining +through the thickets, and their spies told them that, despite his great +losses, there was no sign of retreat in Grant's camp. +</p> + +<p> +An appalling night settled down on the Wilderness. The North American +Continent never saw one more savage and terrible. Twenty thousand +wounded were scattered through the thickets and dense shades, and +spreading fires soon brought death to many whom the bullets had not +killed at once. The smoke, the mists and vapors gathered into one +dense cloud, that hung low and made everything clammy to the touch. +</p> + +<p> +Lee stood under the boughs of an oak, and ate food that had been +prepared for him hastily. But, as Harry saw, the act was purely +mechanical. He was watching as well as he could what was going on in +front, and he was giving orders in turns to his aides. Harry's time +had not yet come, and he kept his eyes on his chief. +</p> + +<p> +There was no exultation in the face of Lee. He had drawn Grant into +the Wilderness and then he had held him fast in a battle of uncommon +size and fierceness. But nothing was decided. He had studied the +career of Grant, and he knew that he had a foe of great qualities with +whom to deal. He would have to fight him again, and fight very soon. +He heard too with a sorrow, hard to conceal, the reports of his own +losses. They were heavy enough and the gaps now made could never be +refilled. The Army of Northern Virginia, which had been such a +powerful instrument in his hands, must fight with ever diminishing +numbers. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was sent to inquire into the condition of Longstreet, whom he +found weak physically and suffering much pain. But the veteran was +upborne by the success of the day and his belief in ultimate victory. +He bade Harry tell the commander-in-chief that his men were fit to +fight again and better than ever, at the first shoot of dawn. +</p> + +<p> +Harry rode back in the night, the burning trees serving him for +torches. Nearly all the soldiers were busy. Some were gathering up the +wounded and others were building breastworks. His eyes were reddened +by the powder-smoke, and often the heavy black masses of vapor were +impenetrable, save where the forest burned. Now he came to a region +where the dead and wounded were so thick that he dismounted and led his +horse, lest a hoof be planted upon any one of them. But he noticed +that here as in other battles the wounded made but little complaint. +They suffered in silence, waiting for their comrades to take them away. +</p> + +<p> +Then he passed around a section of forest that was burning fiercely. +Here Southern and Union soldiers had met on terms of peace and were +making desperate efforts to save their helpless comrades. Harry would +have been glad to give aid himself, but he was too well trained now to +turn aside when he rode for Lee. +</p> + +<p> +He saw many dark figures passing before the flaming background, and as +he walked more slowly than he thought, he saw one that looked +remarkably familiar to him. It was impossible to see the face, but he +knew the walk and the lift of the shoulders. Discipline gave way to +impulse now, and he ran forward crying: +</p> + +<p> +"Dick! Dick!" +</p> + +<p> +Dick Mason, who had just dragged a wounded man beyond the range of the +flames, turned at the sound of the voice. Even had Harry seen his face +at first he would not have known him nor would Dick have known Harry. +Both were black with ashes, smoke and burned gunpowder. But Dick knew +the voice in an instant. Once more were the two cousins to meet in +peace on an unfinished battlefield. +</p> + +<p> +Each driven by the same impulse stepped forward, and their hands met in +the strong grasp of blood kindred and friendship, which war itself +could not sever. +</p> + +<p> +"You're alive, Harry!" said Dick. "It seems almost impossible after +what has happened to-day." +</p> + +<p> +"And you too are all right. Not harmed, I see, though your face is an +African black." +</p> + +<p> +"I should call your own color dark and smoky." +</p> + +<p> +"I wasn't sure that you were in the East. When did you come?" +</p> + +<p> +"With General Grant, and I knew that you were on General Lee's staff. +I've a message to give him by you. Oh! you needn't laugh. It's a good +straight talk." +</p> + +<p> +"Go ahead then and say it to me." +</p> + +<p> +"You say to General Lee that it's all over. Tell him to quit and send +his soldiers home. If he doesn't he'll be crushed." +</p> + +<p> +Harry laughed again and waved his finger at the somber battlefield, +upon which he stood. +</p> + +<p> +"Does this look like it?" he asked. "We're farther forward to-night +than we were this morning. Wouldn't General Grant be glad if he could +say as much?" +</p> + +<p> +"It makes no difference. I know you don't believe me, but it's so. The +North is prepared as it never was before. And Grant will hammer and +hammer forever. We know what a man Lee is. The whole North admits it, +but I tell you the sun of the South is setting." +</p> + +<p> +"You're growing poetical and poetry is no argument." +</p> + +<p> +"But unlimited men, unlimited cannon and rifles, unlimited ammunition +and supplies and a general who is willing to use them, are. Of course +I know that you can't carry any such message to General Lee, but I feel +it to be the truth." +</p> + +<p> +"We've a great general and a great army that say, no." +</p> + +<p> +Nobody paid any attention to the two. It was merely another one of +those occasions when men of the opposing sides stood together amid the +dead and wounded, and talked in friendly fashion. But Harry knew that +he could not delay long. +</p> + +<p> +"I've got to go, Dick," he said. "And I've a message too, one that I +want you to deliver to General Grant." +</p> + +<p> +"What is it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Tell him that we've more than held our own to-day, and that we'll +thrash him like thunder to-morrow, and whenever and wherever he may +choose, no matter what the odds are against us." +</p> + +<p> +Dick laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"I see that you won't believe even a little bit of what I tell you," he +said "and maybe if I were in your place I wouldn't either. But it's +true all the same. Good-by, Harry." +</p> + +<p> +The two hands, covered with battle grime, met again in the strong grasp +of blood kindred and friendship. +</p> + +<p> +"Take care of yourself, old man!" +</p> + +<p> +The words, exactly alike, were uttered by the two simultaneously. +</p> + +<p> +Both were stirred deeply. Harry sprang on his horse, looked back once, +waving his hand, and rode rapidly to General Lee. Later in the night, +he received permission to hunt up the Invincibles, his heart full of +fear that they had perished utterly in the gloomy pit called the +Wilderness, lit now only by the fire of death. +</p> + +<p> +He left his horse with an orderly and walked toward the point where he +had last seen them. He passed thousands of soldiers, many wounded, but +silent as usual, while the unhurt were sleeping where they had dropped. +The Invincibles were not at the point where he had seen them last, and +the colonels of several scattered regiments could not tell him what had +become of them. But he continued to seek them although the fear was +growing in his heart that the last man of the Invincibles had died +under the Northern cannon. +</p> + +<p> +His search led toward the enemy's lines. Almost unconsciously he went +in that direction, however, his knowledge of the two colonels telling +him that they would take the same course. He turned into a little +cove, partly sheltered by the dwarfed trees and he heard a thin voice +saying: +</p> + +<p> +"Nonsense, Leonidas. I scarcely felt it, but yours, old friend, is +pretty bad. You must let me attend to it. Keep still! I'll adjust +the bandage." +</p> + +<p> +"Hector, why do you make a fuss over me, when I'm only slightly hurt, +and sacrifice yourself, a severely injured man!" +</p> + +<p> +"With all due respect you'd better let me attend to you both," said a +voice that Harry recognized as St. Clair's. +</p> + +<p> +"And maybe I could help a little," said another that he knew to be +Happy Tom's. But their voices, like those of the colonels, were weak. +Still he had positive proof that they were alive, and, as his heart +gave a joyful throb or two, he stepped into the glade. There was +enough light for him to see Colonel Leonidas Talbot, and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, sitting side by side on the +grass with their backs against the earthly wall, very pale from loss of +blood, but with heads erect and eyes shining with a certain pride. St. +Clair and Langdon lay on the grass, one with an old handkerchief, +blood-soaked, bound about his head and the other with a bandage tightly +fastened over his left shoulder. Beyond them lay a group of soldiers. +</p> + +<p> +"Good evening, heroes!" said Harry lightly as he stepped forward. +</p> + +<p> +He was welcomed with an exclamation of joy from them all. +</p> + +<p> +"We meet again, Harry," said Colonel Talbot, "and it is the second time +since morning. I fancy that second meetings to-day have not been +common. We have the taste of success in our mouths, but you'll excuse +us for not rising to greet you. We are all more or less affected by +the missiles of the enemy and for some hours at least neither walking +nor standing will be good for us." +</p> + +<p> +"Mohammed must come to all the mountains," said St. Clair, weakly +holding out a hand. +</p> + +<p> +Harry greeted them all in turn, and sat down with them. He was +overflowing with sympathy, but it was not needed. +</p> + +<p> +"A glorious day," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"Truly," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"A most glorious day," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire. +</p> + +<p> +"Most truly," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"An especially glorious day for the Invincibles," said Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"The most glorious of all possible days for the Invincibles," said +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire. +</p> + +<p> +There was an especial emphasis to their words that aroused Harry's +attention. +</p> + +<p> +"The Invincibles have had many glorious days," he said. "Why should +this be the most glorious of them all?" +</p> + +<p> +"We went into battle one hundred and forty-seven strong," replied +Colonel Talbot quietly, "and we came out with one hundred and +forty-seven casualties, thirty-nine killed and one hundred and eight +wounded. We lay no claim to valor, exceeding that of many other +regiments in General Lee's glorious army, but we do think we've made a +fairly excellent record. Do you see those men?" +</p> + +<p> +He pointed to a silent group stretched upon the turf, and Harry nodded. +</p> + +<p> +"Not one of them has escaped unhurt, but most of us will muster up +strength enough to meet the enemy again to-morrow, when our great +general calls." +</p> + +<p> +Harry's throat contracted for a moment. +</p> + +<p> +"I know it, Colonel Talbot," he said. "The Invincibles have proved +themselves truly worthy of their name. General Lee shall hear of this." +</p> + +<p> +"But in no boastful vein, Harry," said Colonel Talbot. "We would not +have you to speak thus of your friends." +</p> + +<p> +"I do not have to boast for you. The simple truth is enough. I shall +see that a surgeon comes here at once to attend to your wounded. Good +night, gentlemen." +</p> + +<p> +"Good night," said the four together. Harry walked back toward General +Lee's headquarters, full of pride in his old comrades. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap16"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER XVI +</h3> + +<h3> +SPOTTSYLVANIA +</h3> + +<p> +Harry secured a little sleep toward morning, and, although his nervous +tension had been very great, when he lay down, he felt greatly +strengthened in body and mind. He awakened Dalton in turn, and the +two, securing a hasty breakfast, sat near the older members of the +staff, awaiting orders. The commander-in-chief was at the edge of the +little glade, talking earnestly with Hill, and several other important +generals. +</p> + +<p> +Harry often saw through the medium of his own feelings, and the rim of +the sun, beginning to show over the eastern edge of the Wilderness, was +blood red. The same crimson and sinister tinge showed through the west +which was yet in the dusk. But in east and west there were certain +areas of light, where the forest fires yet smoldered. +</p> + +<p> +Both sides had thrown up hasty breastworks of earth or timber, but the +two armies were unusually silent. A space of perhaps a mile and a half +lay between them, but as the light increased neither moved. There was +no crackle of rifle fire along their fronts. The skirmishers, usually +so active, seemed to be exhausted, and the big guns were at rest. The +fierce and tremendous fighting of the two days before seemed to have +taken all the life out of both North and South. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, inured to war, understood the reasons for silence and lack of +movement. Grant had been drawn into a region that he did not like, +where he could not use his superior numbers to advantage, and he must +be shuddering at the huge losses he had suffered already. He would +seek better ground. Lee too, was in no condition to take advantage of +his successful defense. The old days when he could send Jackson on a +great turning movement, to fall with all the crushing impact of a +surprise upon the Northern flank, were gone forever. Stuart, the +brilliant cavalryman, was there, but his men were not numerous enough, +and, however brilliant, he was not Jackson. +</p> + +<p> +The sun rose higher. Midmorning came, and the two armies still lay +close. Harry grew stronger in his opinion that they would not fight +again that day, although he watched, like the others, for any sign of +movement in the Northern camp. +</p> + +<p> +Noon came, and the same dead silence. The fires had burned themselves +out now and the dusk that had reigned over the Wilderness, before the +battle, recovered its ground, thickened still further by the vast +quantities of smoke still hanging low under a cloudy sky. But the +aspect of the Wilderness itself was more mournful than ever. Coals +smoldered in the burned areas, and now and then puffs of wind picked up +the hot ashes and sent them in the faces of the soldiers. Thickets and +bushes had been cut down by bullets and cannon balls, and lay heaped +together in tangled confusion. Back of the lines, the surgeons, with +aching backs, toiled over the wounded, as they had toiled through the +night. +</p> + +<p> +Harry saw nearly the whole Southern front. The members of Lee's staff +were busy that day, carrying orders to all his generals to rectify +their lines, and to be prepared, to the last detail, for another +tremendous assault. It was not until the afternoon that he was able to +look up the Invincibles again. The two colonels and the two +lieutenants were doing well, and the colonels were happy. +</p> + +<p> +"We've already been notified," said Colonel Talbot, "that we're to +retain our organization as a regiment. We're to have about a hundred +new men now, the fragments of destroyed regiments. Of course, they +won't be like the veterans of the Invincibles, but a half-dozen battles +like that of yesterday should lick them into shape." +</p> + +<p> +"I should think so," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you believe that Grant is retreating?" asked Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire. +</p> + +<p> +"Our scouts don't say so." +</p> + +<p> +"Then he is merely putting off the evil day. The sooner he withdraws +the more men he will save. No Yankee general can ever get by General +Lee. Keep that in your mind, Harry Kenton." +</p> + +<p> +Harry was silent, but rejoicing to find that his friends would soon +recover from their wounds, he went back to his place, and saw all the +afternoon pass, without any movement indicating battle. +</p> + +<p> +Night came again and the scouts reported to Lee that the Union army was +breaking camp, evidently with the intention of getting out of the +Wilderness and marching to Fredericksburg. Harry was with the general +when he received the news, and he saw him think over it long. Other +scouts brought in the same evidence. +</p> + +<p> +Harry did not know what the general thought, but as for himself, +although he was too young to say anything, it was incredible that Grant +should retreat. It was not at all in accordance with his character, +now tested on many fields, and his resources also were too great for +withdrawal. +</p> + +<p> +But the night was very dark and no definite knowledge yet came out of +it. Lee stayed by his little campfire and received reports. Far after +dusk Harry saw the look of doubt disappear from his eyes, and then he +began to send out messengers. It was evident that he had formed his +opinion, and intended to act upon it at once. +</p> + +<p> +He beckoned to Harry and Dalton, and bade them go together with written +instructions to General Anderson, who had taken the place of General +Longstreet. +</p> + +<p> +"You will stay with General Anderson subject to his orders," he said, +as Harry and Dalton, saluting, rode toward Anderson's command. +</p> + +<p> +Their way led through torn, tangled and burned thickets. Sometimes a +horse sprang violently to one side and neighed in pain. His hoof had +come down on earth, yet so hot that it scorched like fire. Now and +then sparks fell upon them, but they pursued their way, disregarding +all obstacles, and delivered their sealed orders to General Anderson, +who at once gathered up his full force, and marched away from the heart +of the Wilderness toward Spottsylvania Court House. +</p> + +<p> +Harry surmised that Grant was attempting some great turning movement, +and Lee, divining it, was sending Anderson to meet his advance. He +never knew whether it was positive knowledge or a happy guess. +</p> + +<p> +But he was quite sure that the night's ride was one of the most +singular and sinister ever made by an army. If any troops ever marched +through the infernal regions it was they. In this part of the +Wilderness the fires had been of the worst. Trees still smoldered. In +the hollows, where the bushes had grown thickest, were great beds of +coals. The smoke which the low heavy skies kept close to the earth was +thick and hot. Gusts of wind sent showers of sparks flying, and, +despite the greatest care to protect the ammunition, they marched in +constant danger of explosion. +</p> + +<p> +Harry thought at one time that General Anderson intended to camp in the +Wilderness for the night, but he soon saw that it was impossible. One +could not camp on hot ground in a smoldering forest. +</p> + +<p> +"I believe it's a march till day," he said to Dalton. "It's bound to +be. If a man were to lie down here, he'd find himself a mass of cinders +in the morning, and it will take us till daylight and maybe past to get +out of the Wilderness." +</p> + +<p> +"If he didn't burn to death he'd choke to death. I never breathed such +smoke before." +</p> + +<p> +"That's because it's mixed with ashes and the fumes of burned +gunpowder. A villainous compound like this can't be called air. How +long is it until dawn?" +</p> + +<p> +"About three hours, I think." +</p> + +<p> +"You remember those old Greek stories about somebody or other going +down to Hades, and then having a hard climb out again. We're the +modern imitators. If this isn't Hades then I don't know what it is." +</p> + +<p> +"It surely is. Phew, but that hurt!" +</p> + +<p> +"What happened?" +</p> + +<p> +"I brushed my hand against a burning bush. The result was not happy. +Don't imitate me." +</p> + +<p> +Dalton's horse leaped to one side, and he had difficulty in keeping the +saddle. His hoof had been planted squarely in the midst of a mass of +hot twigs. +</p> + +<p> +"The sooner I get out of this Inferno or Hades of a place the happier +I'll be!" said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"I've never seen the like," said Harry, "but there's one thing about it +that makes me glad." +</p> + +<p> +"And what's the saving grace?" +</p> + +<p> +"That it's in Virginia and not in Kentucky, though for the matter of +that it couldn't be in Kentucky." +</p> + +<p> +"And why couldn't it be in Kentucky?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because there's no such God-forsaken region in all that state of mine." +</p> + +<p> +"It certainly gets upon one's soul," said Dalton, looking at the gloomy +region, so terribly torn by battle. +</p> + +<p> +"But if we keep going we're bound to come out of it some time or other." +</p> + +<p> +"And we're not stopping. A man can't make his bed on a mass of coals, +and there'll be no rest for us until we're clear out of the Wilderness." +</p> + +<p> +They marched on a long time, and, as day dawned, hundreds of voices +united in a shout of gladness. Behind them were the shades of the +Wilderness, that dismal region reeking with slaughter and ruin, and +before them lay firm soil, and green fields, in all the flush of a +brilliant May morning. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, we did come out of Hades, Harry," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"And it does look like Heaven, but the trouble with our Hades, George, +is that the inmates will follow us. Put your glasses to your eyes and +look off there." +</p> + +<p> +"Horsemen as sure as we're sitting in our own saddles." +</p> + +<p> +"And Northern horsemen, too. Their uniforms are new enough for me to +tell their color. I take it that Grant's vanguard has moved by our +right flank and has come out of the Wilderness." +</p> + +<p> +"And our surmises that we were to meet it are right. Spottsylvania +Court House is not far away, and maybe we are bound for it." +</p> + +<p> +"And maybe the Yankees are too." +</p> + +<p> +Harry's words were caused by the sound of a distant and scattering +fire. In obedience to an order from Anderson, he and Dalton galloped +forward, and, from a ridge, saw through their glasses a formidable +Union column advancing toward Spottsylvania. As they looked they saw +many men fall and they also saw flashes of flame from bushes and fences +not far from its flank. +</p> + +<p> +"Our sharpshooters are there," said Harry. And he was right. While +the Union force was advancing in the night Stuart had dismounted many +of his men and using them as skirmishers had incessantly harassed the +march of Grant's vanguard led by Warren. +</p> + +<p> +"Each army has been trying to catch the other napping," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"And neither has succeeded," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Now we make a race for the Spottsylvania ridge," said Dalton. "You +see if we don't! I know this country. It's a strong position there, +and both generals want it." +</p> + +<p> +Dalton was right. A small Union force had already occupied +Spottsylvania, but the heavy Southern division crossing the narrow, but +deep, river Po, drove it out and seized the defensive position. +</p> + +<p> +Here they rested, while the masses of the two armies swung toward them, +as if preparing for a new battlefield, one that Harry surveyed with +great interest. They were in a land of numerous and deep rivers. Here +were four spreading out, like the fingers of a human hand, without the +thumb, and uniting at the wrist. The fingers were the Mat, the Ta, the +Po, and the Nye, and the unit when they united was called the Mattopony. +</p> + +<p> +Lee's army was gathering behind the Po. A large Union force crossed it +on his flank, but, recognizing the danger of such a position, withdrew. +Lee himself came in time. Hill, overcome by illness and old wounds, +was compelled to give up the command of his division, and Early took +his place. Longstreet also was still suffering severely from his +injuries. Lee had but few of the able and daring generals who had +served him in so many fields. But Stuart, the gay and brilliant, the +medieval knight who had such a strong place in the commander-in-chief's +affections, was there. Nor was his plumage one bit less splendid. The +yellow feather stood in his hat. There was no speck or stain on the +broad yellow sash and his undimmed courage was contagious. +</p> + +<p> +But Harry with his sensitive and imaginative mind, that leaped ahead, +knew their situation to be desperate. His opinion of Grant had proved +to be correct. Although he had found in Lee an opponent far superior +to any other that he had ever faced, the Union general, undaunted by +his repulse and tremendous losses in the Wilderness, was preparing for +a new battle, before the fire from the other had grown cold. +</p> + +<p> +He knew too that another strong Union army was operating far to the +south of them, in order to cut them off from Richmond, and scouts had +brought word that a powerful force of cavalry was about to circle upon +their flank. The Confederacy was propped up alone by the Army of +Northern Virginia, which having just fought one great battle was about +to begin another, and by its dauntless commander. +</p> + +<p> +The Southern admiration for Lee, both as the general and as the man, +can never be shaken. How much greater then was the effect that he +created in the mind of impressionable youth, looking upon him with +youth's own eyes in his moments of supreme danger! He was in very +truth to Harry another Hannibal as great, and better. The long list of +his triumphs, as youth counted them, was indeed superior to those of +the great Carthaginian, and he believed that Lee would repel this new +danger. +</p> + +<p> +Nearly all that day the two armies constructed breastworks which stood +for many years afterward, but neither made any attempt at serious work, +although there was incessant firing by the skirmishers and an +occasional cannon shot. Harry, whether carrying an order or not, had +ample chance to see, and he noted with increasing alarm the growing +masses of the Union army, as they gathered along the Spottsylvania +front. +</p> + +<p> +"Can we beat them?" "Can we beat them?" was the question that he +continually asked himself. He wondered too where the Winchester +regiment and Dick Mason lay, and where the spy, Shepard, was. But +Shepard was not likely to remain long in one place. Skill and courage +such as his would be used to the utmost in a time like this. Doubtless +he was somewhere in the Confederate lines, discovering for Grant the +relatively small size of the army that opposed him. +</p> + +<p> +Near dusk and having the time he followed his custom and sought the +Invincibles. Both colonels had recovered considerable strength, and, +although one of them could not walk, he would be helped upon his horse +whenever the battle began, and would ride into the thick of it. But +the faces of St. Clair and Happy Tom glowed and their wounds apparently +were forgotten. +</p> + +<p> +"Lieutenant Arthur St. Clair and Lieutenant Thomas Langdon are gone +forever," said Colonel Talbot. "In their places we have Major Arthur +St. Clair and Captain Thomas Langdon. All our majors and captains have +been killed, and with our reduced numbers these two will fill their +places, as best they can; and that they can do so most worthily we all +know. They received their promotions this afternoon." +</p> + +<p> +Harry congratulated them both with the greatest warmth. They were very +young for such rank, but in this war the toll of officers was so great +that men sometimes became generals when they were but little older. +</p> + +<p> +"Is it to be to-morrow?" asked Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"I think it likely that we'll fight again then," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"And Grant has not yet had enough. He wants a little more of the same, +does he!" +</p> + +<p> +"It would appear so, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I take it without consulting General Lee that he is ready to deal +with the Yankees as he dealt with them in the Wilderness." +</p> + +<p> +"I hope so. Good night." +</p> + +<p> +"Good night!" they called to him, and Harry returned to the staff. +Taylor, the adjutant general, told him and Dalton to lie down and seek +a little sleep. Harry was not at all averse, as he was completely +exhausted again after the tremendous excitement of the battle, and the +long hours of strain and danger. But his nerves were so much on edge +that he could not yet sleep. His eyes were red and smarting from the +smoke and burned powder, and he felt as if accumulated smoke and dust +encased him like a suit of armor. +</p> + +<p> +"I'd give a hundred dollars for a good long drink, just as long as I +liked to make it," he groaned, "and I mean a drink of pure cold water, +too." +</p> + +<p> +"Confederate paper or money?" said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"I mean real money, but at the same time you oughtn't to make invidious +comparisons." +</p> + +<p> +"Then the money's mine, but you can pay me whenever you feel like it, +which I suppose will be never. There's a spring in the thick woods +just back of your quarters. It flows out from under rocks, at the +distance of several yards makes a deep pool, and then the overflow of +the pool goes on through the forest to the Po. Come on, Harry! We'll +luxuriate and then tell the others." +</p> + +<p> +Harry found that it was a most glorious spring, indeed; clear and cold. +He and Dalton drank slowly at first, and then deeply. +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't know I could hold so much," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"Nor I," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Let's take another." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm with you." +</p> + +<p> +"Let's make it two more." +</p> + +<p> +"I still follow you." +</p> + +<p> +"Horace wrote about his old Falernian, and the other wines which he +enjoyed, as he and the leading Roman sports sat around the fountain, +flirting with the girls," said Dalton, "but I don't believe any wine +ever brewed in Latium was the equal of this water." +</p> + +<p> +"I've always had an idea that Horace wasn't as gay as he pretended to +be, else he wouldn't have written so much about Chloe and her comrades. +I imagine that an old Roman boy would keep pretty quiet about his +dancing and singing, and not publish it to the public." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, let him be. He's dead and the Romans are dead, and the +Americans are doing their best to kill off one another, but let's +forget it for a few minutes. That pool there is about four feet deep, +the water is clear and the bottom is firm ground; now do you know what +I'm going to do?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, and I'm going to do the same. Bet you even that I beat you into +the water." +</p> + +<p> +"Taken." +</p> + +<p> +They threw off their clothes rapidly, but the splashes were +simultaneous as their bodies struck the water. Although the limits of +the pool were narrow they splashed and paddled there for a while, and +it was a long time since they had known such a luxury. Then they +walked out, dried themselves and spread the good news. All night long +the pool was filled with the bathers, following one another in turn. +</p> + +<p> +The water taken internally and externally soothed Harry's nerves. His +excitement was gone. A great army with which they were sure to fight +on the morrow was not far away, but for the time he was indifferent. +The morrow could take care of itself. It was night, and he had +permission to go to sleep. Hence he slumbered fifteen minutes later. +</p> + +<p> +He slept almost through the night, and, when he was awakened shortly +before dawn, he found that his strength and elasticity had returned. He +and Dalton went down to the spring again, drank many times, and then +ate breakfast with the older members of the staff, a breakfast that +differed very little from that of the common soldiers. +</p> + +<p> +Then a day or two of waiting, and watching, and of confused but +terrible fighting ensued. The forests were again set on fire by the +bursting shells and they were not able to rescue many of the wounded +from the flames. Vast clouds again floated over the whole region, +drawing a veil of dusk between the soldiers and the sun. But neither +army was willing to attack the other in full force. +</p> + +<p> +Grant commanding all the armies of the East was moving meanwhile. A +powerful cavalry division, he heard, had got behind Beauregard, who was +to protect Richmond, and was tearing up an important railway line used +by the Confederacy. The daring Sheridan with another great division of +cavalry had gone around Lee's left and was wrecking another railway, +and with it the rations and medical supplies so necessary to the +Confederates. Grant, recognizing his antagonist's skill and courage +and knowing that to succeed he must destroy the main Southern army, +resolved to attack again with his whole force. +</p> + +<p> +The day had been comparatively quiet and the Army of Northern Virginia +had devoted nearly the whole time to fortifying with earthworks and +breastworks of logs. The young aides, as they rode on their missions, +could easily see the Northern lines through their glasses. Harry's +heart sank as he observed their extent. The Southern army was sadly +reduced in numbers, and Grant could get reinforcement continually. +</p> + +<p> +But such is the saving grace of human nature that even in these moments +of suspense, with one terrible battle just over and another about to +begin, soldiers of the Blue and Gray would speak to one another in +friendly fashion in the bushes or across the Po. It was on the banks +of this narrow river that Harry at last saw Shepard once more. He +happened to be on foot that time, the slope being too densely wooded +for his horse, and Shepard hailed him from the other side. +</p> + +<p> +"Good day, Mr. Kenton. Don't fire! I want to talk," he said, holding +up both hands as a sign of peace. +</p> + +<p> +"A curious place for talking," Harry could not keep from saying. +</p> + +<p> +"So it is, but we're not observed here. It was almost inevitable while +the armies remained face to face that we should meet in time. I want +to tell you that I've met your cousin, Richard Mason, here, and his +commanding officer, Colonel Winchester. Oh, I know much more about you +and your relationships than you think." +</p> + +<p> +"How is Dick?" +</p> + +<p> +"He has not been hurt, nor has Colonel Winchester. Mr. Mason has +received a letter from his home and your home in Pendleton in Kentucky. +The outlaws to the eastward are troublesome, but the town is occupied +by an efficient Union garrison and is in no danger. His mother and all +of his and your old friends, who did not go to the war, are in good +health. He thought that in my various capacities as ranger, scout and +spy I might meet you, and he asked me, if it so happened, to tell these +things to you." +</p> + +<p> +"I thank you," said Harry very earnestly, "and I'm truly sorry, Mr. +Shepard, that you and I are on different sides." +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose it's too late for you to come over to the Union and the true +cause." +</p> + +<p> +Harry laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"You know, Mr. Shepard, there are no traitors in this war." +</p> + +<p> +"I know it. I was merely jesting." +</p> + +<p> +He slipped into the underbrush and disappeared. Harry confessed to +himself once more that he liked Shepard, but he felt more strongly than +ever that it had become a personal duel between them, and they would +meet yet again in violence. +</p> + +<p> +That night he had little to do. It was a typical May night in +Virginia, clear and beautiful with an air that would have been a tonic +to the nerves, had it not been for the bitter smoke and odors that yet +lingered from the battle of the Wilderness. +</p> + +<p> +Before dawn the scouts brought in a rumor that there was a heavy +movement of Federal troops, although they did not know its meaning. It +might portend another flank march by Grant, but a mist that had begun +to rise after midnight hid much from them. The mist deepened into a +fog, which made it harder for the Southern leaders to learn the meaning +of the Northern movement. +</p> + +<p> +Just as the dawn was beginning to show a little through the fog, +Hancock and Burnside, with many more generals, led a tremendous attack +upon the Southern right center. They had come so silently through the +thickets that for once the Southern leaders were surprised. The Union +veterans, rushing forward in dense columns, stormed and took the +breastworks with the bayonet. +</p> + +<p> +Many of the Southern troops, sound asleep, awoke to find themselves in +the enemy's hands. Others, having no time to fire them, fought with +clubbed rifles. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, dozing, was awakened by the terrific uproar. Even before the +dawn had fairly come the battle was raging on a long front. The center +of Lee's army was broken, and the Union troops were pouring into the +gap. Grant had already taken many guns and thousands of prisoners, and +the bulldog of Shiloh and Vicksburg and Chattanooga was hurrying fresh +divisions into the combat to extend and insure his victory. Through +the forests swelled the deep Northern cry of triumph. +</p> + +<p> +Harry had never before seen the Southern army in such danger, and he +looked at General Lee, who had now mounted Traveller. The turmoil and +confusion in front of them was frightful and indescribable. The Union +troops had occupied an entire Confederate salient, and their generals, +feeling that the moment was theirs, led them on, reckless of life, and +swept everything before them. +</p> + +<p> +Harry never took his eyes from Lee. The rising sun shot golden beams +through the smoke and disclosed him clearly. His face was calm and his +voice did not shake as he issued his orders with rapidity and +precision. The lion at bay was never more the lion. +</p> + +<p> +A new line of battle was formed, and the fugitives formed up with it. +Then the Southern troops, uttering once more the fierce rebel yell, +charged directly upon their enemy and under the eye of the great chief +whom they almost worshiped. +</p> + +<p> +Now Harry for the first time saw his general show excitement. Lee +galloped to the head of one of the Virginia regiments, and ranging his +horse beside the colors snatched off his hat and pointed it at the +enemy. It was a picture which with all the hero worship of youth he +never forgot. It did not even grow dim in his memory—the great leader +on horseback, his hat in his hand, his eyes fiery, his face flushed, +his hand pointing the way to victory or death. +</p> + +<p> +It was an occasion, too, when the personal presence of a leader meant +everything. Every man knew Lee and tremendous rolling cheers greeted +his arrival, cheers that could be heard above the thunder of cannon and +rifles. It infused new courage into them and they gathered themselves +for the rush upon their victorious foe. +</p> + +<p> +Gordon of Georgia, spurring through the smoke, seized Lee's horse by +the bridle. He did not mean to have their commander-in-chief +sacrificed in a charge. +</p> + +<p> +"This is no place for you, General Lee!" he cried. "Go to the rear!" +</p> + +<p> +Lee did not yet turn, and Gordon shouted: +</p> + +<p> +"These men are Virginians and Georgians who have never failed. Go +back, I entreat you!" +</p> + +<p> +Then Gordon turned to the troops and cried, as he rose on his toes in +his stirrups: +</p> + +<p> +"Men, you will not fail now!" +</p> + +<p> +Back came the answering shout: +</p> + +<p> +"No! No!" and the whole mass of troops burst into one thunderous, +echoing cry: +</p> + +<p> +"Lee to the rear! Lee to the rear! Lee to the rear!" +</p> + +<p> +Nor would they move until Lee turned and rode back. Then, led by +Gordon, they charged straight upon their foe, who met them with an +equal valor. All day long the battle of Spottsylvania, equal in +fierceness and desperation to that of the Wilderness, swayed to and +fro. To Harry as he remembered them they were much alike. Charge and +defense, defense and charge. Here they gained a little, and there they +lost a little. Now they were stumbling through sanguinary thickets, and +then they rushed across little streams that ran red. +</p> + +<p> +The firing was rapid and furious to an extraordinary degree. The air +rained shell and bullets. Areas of forest between the two armies were +mowed down. More than one large tree was cut through entirely by rifle +bullets. Other trees here, as in the Wilderness, caught fire and +flamed high. +</p> + +<p> +Midnight put an end to the battle, with neither gaining the victory and +both claiming it. Harry had lost another horse, killed under him, and +now he walked almost dazed over the terrible field of Spottsylvania, +where nearly thirty thousand men had fallen, and nothing had yet been +decided. +</p> + +<p> +Yet in Harry's heart the fear of the grim and silent Grant was growing. +The Northern general had fought within a few days two battles, each the +equal of Waterloo, and Harry felt sure that he was preparing for a +third. The combat of the giants was not over, and with an anxious soul +he waited the next dawn. They remained some days longer in the +Wilderness, or the country adjacent to it, and there was much +skirmishing and firing of heavy artillery, but the third great pitched +battle did not come quite as soon as Harry expected. Even Grant, +appalled by the slaughter, hesitated and began to maneuver again by the +flank to get past Lee. Then the fighting between the skirmishers and +heavy detached parties became continuous. +</p> + +<p> +During the days that immediately followed Harry was much with +Sherburne. The brave colonel was one of Stuart's most trusted officers. +Despite the forests and thickets there was much work for the cavalry to +do, while the two armies circled and circled, each seeking to get the +advantage of the other. +</p> + +<p> +Sheridan, they heard, was trying to curve about with his horsemen and +reach Richmond, and Stuart, with his cavalry, including Sherburne's, +was sent to intercept him, Harry riding by Sherburne's side. It was +near the close of May, but the air was cool and pleasant, a delight to +breathe after the awful Wilderness. +</p> + +<p> +Stuart, despite his small numbers, was in his gayest spirits, and when +he overtook the enemy at a little place called Yellow Tavern he +attacked with all his customary fire and vigor. In the height of the +charge, Harry saw him sink suddenly from his horse, shot through the +body. He died not long afterward and the greatest and most brilliant +horseman of the South passed away to join Jackson and so many who had +gone before. Harry was one of the little group who carried the news to +Lee, and he saw how deeply the great leader was affected. So many of +his brave generals had fallen that he was like the head of a family, +bereft. +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless the lion still at bay was great and terrible to strike. It +was barely two weeks after Spottsylvania when Lee took up a strong +position at Cold Harbor, and Grant, confident in his numbers and +powerful artillery, attacked straightaway at dawn. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was in front during that half-hour, the most terrible ever seen +on the American continent, when Northern brigade after brigade charged +to certain death. Lee's men, behind their earthworks, swept the field +with a fire in which nothing could live. The charging columns fairly +melted away before them and when the half-hour was over more than +twelve thousand men in blue lay upon the red field. +</p> + +<p> +Grant himself was appalled, and the North, which had begun to +anticipate a quick and victorious end of the war, concealed its +disappointment as best it could, and prepared for another campaign. +</p> + +<p> +Grant and Lee, facing each other, went into trenches along the lines of +Cold Harbor, and the hopes of the young Southern soldiers after the +victory there rose anew. But Harry was not too sanguine, although he +kept his thoughts to himself. +</p> + +<p> +The officers of the Invincibles had recovered from their wounds, and +Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, +sitting in a trench, resumed their game of chess. +</p> + +<p> +Colonel Talbot took a pawn, the first man captured by either since +early spring. +</p> + +<p> +"That was quite a victory," he said. +</p> + +<p> +"Not important! Not important, Leonidas!" +</p> + +<p> +"And why not, Hector?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because you've left the way to your king easier. I shall promptly +move along that road." +</p> + +<p> +"As Grant moved through the Wilderness." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't depreciate Grant, Leonidas. He never stops pounding. We've +fought two great battles with him in the Wilderness and a third at Cold +Harbor, but he's still out there facing us. Can't you see the Yankees +with your glasses, Harry?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir, quite clearly. They're about to fire a shot from a big gun +in a wood. There it goes!" +</p> + +<p> +The deep note of the cannon came to them, passed on, and then rolled +back in echoes like a threat. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Appendix: Transcription notes: +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The following modifications were applied while transcribing the printed +book to etext: +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 1<br /> + Page 6, para 1, change "criticise" to "criticize", for consistency<br /> + Page 20, para 6, fix typo, "calvaryman"<br /> + Page 21, para 8, change "things" to "thing"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 2<br /> + Page 35, para 2, add missing hyphen in "commander-in-chief"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 3<br /> + Page 48, para 1, change "where-ever" to "wherever"<br /> + Page 49, para 2, fix typo, period should be comma<br /> + Page 49, para 2, change "gaints" to "giants", which is my best guess<br /> + as to what it should be<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 4<br /> + Page 74, para 7, add missing period<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 7<br /> + Page 124, para 6, fix typo "qouth"<br /> + Page 132, para 14, "Pleasonton" should be "Pleasanton"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 10<br /> + Page 182, para 5, add missing close-quotes<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 11<br /> + Page 208, para 6, add missing close-quotes<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 12<br /> + Page 229, para 3, fix typo, "dulplicate"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 13<br /> + Page 245, para 3, change "with" to "was"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 14<br /> + Page 260, para 2, removed a badly-misplaced comma<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 16<br /> + Page 301, para 4, moved a badly-misplaced comma<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Chapter 2, page 34, para 3 contains the phrase "rest and realization". +Probably should be "relaxation", but maybe not, so I left it as is. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The following words were printed with accented vowels or with the "ae" +ligature, but these few occurrences hardly warrant an 8-bit version of +the text:<br /> + cooperation fete reentered Plataea Thermopylae<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As with all the books in this series, there are many instances where +commas seem to be missing or misplaced, but, except as noted above, I +refrained from "fixing" these. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12532 ***</div> +</body> + +</html> + + diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b21534e --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #12532 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12532) diff --git a/old/12532-h.zip b/old/12532-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b1a8601 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12532-h.zip diff --git a/old/12532-h/12532-h.htm b/old/12532-h/12532-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5960fd8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12532-h/12532-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,15262 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en"> + +<head> + +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> + +<title> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Shades of the Wilderness, by Joseph A. Altsheler +</title> + +<style type="text/css"> +body { color: black; + background: white; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +p {text-indent: 4% } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.t1 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 200%; + text-align: center } + +p.t2 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 150%; + text-align: center } + +p.t3 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: center } + +p.t3b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t4 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + text-align: center } + +p.t4b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t5 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 60%; + text-align: center } + +h1 { text-align: center } +h2 { text-align: center } +h3 { text-align: center } +h4 { text-align: center } +h5 { text-align: center } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; } + +p.contents {text-indent: -3%; + margin-left: 5% } + +p.thought {text-indent: 0% ; + letter-spacing: 4em ; + text-align: center } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.footnote {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.transnote {text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.intro {font-size: 90% ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.quote {text-indent: 4% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Shades of the Wilderness, by Joseph A. Altsheler + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: The Shades of the Wilderness + A Story of Lee's Great Stand + +Author: Joseph A. Altsheler + +Posting Date: August 24, 2014 [EBook #12532] +First Posted: June 5, 2004 +Last Updated: January 21, 2011 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS *** + + + + +Produced by Ken Reeder. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1> +<br /><br /><br /> +THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS +</h1> + +<p class="t3b"> +A STORY OF LEE'S GREAT STAND +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +by JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3b"> +FOREWORD +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +"The Shades of the Wilderness" is the seventh volume of the Civil War +Series, of which the predecessors have been "The Guns of Bull Run," +"The Guns of Shiloh," "The Scouts of Stonewall," "The Sword of +Antietam", "The Star of Gettysburg" and "The Rock of Chickamauga." The +romance in this story reverts to the Southern side and deals with the +fortunes of Harry Kenton and his friends. It takes them on the retreat +from Gettysburg, gives the hero a short period of social life in +Richmond, describes the great battles of the Wilderness and +Spottsylvania, and ends with the deadlock in the trenches before +Petersburg. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +THE CIVIL WAR SERIES +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="noindent"> + VOLUMES IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + THE GUNS OF BULL RUN.<br /> + THE GUNS OF SHILOH.<br /> + THE SCOUTS OF STONEWALL.<br /> + THE SWORD OF ANTIETAM.<br /> + THE STAR OF GETTYSBURG.<br /> + THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA.<br /> + THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS.<br /> + THE TREE OF APPOMATTOX.<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="noindent"> + PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + HARRY KENTON, A Lad Who Fights on the Southern Side.<br /> + DICK MASON, Cousin of Harry Kenton, Who Fights on the Northern Side.<br /> + COLONEL GEORGE KENTON, Father of Harry Kenton.<br /> + MRS. MASON, Mother of Dick Mason.<br /> + JULIANA, Mrs. Mason's Devoted Colored Servant.<br /> + COLONEL ARTHUR WINCHESTER, Dick Mason's Regimental Commander.<br /> + COLONEL LEONIDAS TALBOT, Commander of the Invincibles,<br /> + a Southern Regiment.<br /> + LIEUTENANT COLONEL HECTOR ST. HILAIRE, Second in Command of the<br /> + Invincibles.<br /> + ALAN HERTFORD, A Northern Cavalry Leader.<br /> + PHILIP SHERBURNE, A Southern Cavalry Leader.<br /> + WILLIAM J. SHEPARD, A Northern Spy.<br /> + DANIEL WHITLEY, A Northern Sergeant and Veteran of the Plains.<br /> + GEORGE WARNER, A Vermont Youth Who Loves Mathematics.<br /> + FRANK PENNINGTON, A Nebraska Youth, Friend of Dick Mason.<br /> + ARTHUR ST. CLAIR, A Native of Charleston, Friend of Harry Kenton.<br /> + TOM LANGDON, Friend of Harry Kenton.<br /> + GEORGE DALTON, Friend of Harry Kenton.<br /> + BILL SKELLY, Mountaineer and Guerrilla.<br /> + TOM SLADE, A Guerrilla Chief.<br /> + SAM JARVIS, The Singing Mountaineer.<br /> + IKE SIMMONS, Jarvis' Nephew.<br /> + AUNT "SUSE," A Centenarian and Prophetess.<br /> + BILL PETTY, A Mountaineer and Guide.<br /> + JULIEN DE LANGEAIS, A Musician and Soldier from Louisiana.<br /> + JOHN CARRINGTON, Famous Northern Artillery Officer.<br /> + DR. RUSSELL, Principal of the Pendleton School.<br /> + ARTHUR TRAVERS, A Lawyer.<br /> + JAMES BERTRAND, A Messenger from the South.<br /> + JOHN NEWCOMB, A Pennsylvania Colonel.<br /> + JOHN MARKHAM, A Northern Officer.<br /> + JOHN WATSON, A Northern Contractor.<br /> + WILLIAM CURTIS, A Southern Merchant and Blockade Runner.<br /> + MRS. CURTIS, Wife of William Curtis.<br /> + HENRIETTA CARDEN, A Seamstress in Richmond.<br /> + DICK JONES, A North Carolina Mountaineer.<br /> + VICTOR WOODVILLE, A Young Mississippi Officer.<br /> + JOHN WOODVILLE, Father of Victor Woodville.<br /> + CHARLES WOODVILLE, Uncle of Victor Woodville.<br /> + COLONEL BEDFORD, A Northern Officer.<br /> + CHARLES GORDON, A Southern Staff Officer.<br /> + JOHN LANHAM, An Editor.<br /> + JUDGE KENDRICK, A Lawyer.<br /> + MR. CULVER, A State Senator.<br /> + MR. BRACKEN, A Tobacco Grower.<br /> + ARTHUR WHITRIDGE, A State Senator.<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="noindent"> + HISTORICAL CHARACTERS<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States.<br /> + JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of the Southern Confederacy.<br /> + JUDAH P. BENJAMIN, Member of the Confederate Cabinet.<br /> + U. S. GRANT, Northern Commander.<br /> + ROBERT E. LEE, Southern Commander.<br /> + STONEWALL JACKSON, Southern General.<br /> + PHILIP H. SHERIDAN, Northern General.<br /> + GEORGE H. THOMAS, "The Rock of Chickamauga."<br /> + ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON, Southern General.<br /> + A. P. HILL, Southern General.<br /> + W. S. HANCOCK, Northern General.<br /> + GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, Northern General.<br /> + AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE, Northern General.<br /> + TURNER ASHBY, Southern Cavalry Leader.<br /> + J. E. B. STUART, Southern Cavalry Leader.<br /> + JOSEPH HOOKER, Northern General.<br /> + RICHARD S. EWELL, Southern General.<br /> + JUBAL EARLY, Southern General.<br /> + WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS, Northern General.<br /> + SIMON BOLIVAR BUCKNER, Southern General.<br /> + LEONIDAS POLK, Southern General and Bishop.<br /> + BRAXTON BRAGG, Southern General.<br /> + NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST, Southern Cavalry Leader.<br /> + JOHN MORGAN, Southern Cavalry Leader.<br /> + GEORGE J. MEADE, Northern General.<br /> + DON CARLOS BUELL, Northern General.<br /> + W. T. SHERMAN, Northern General.<br /> + JAMES LONGSTREET, Southern General.<br /> + P. G. T. BEAUREGARD, Southern General.<br /> + WILLIAM L. YANCEY, Alabama Orator.<br /> + JAMES A. GARFIELD, Northern General, afterwards President of<br /> + the United States.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + And many others<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="noindent"> + IMPORTANT BATTLES DESCRIBED IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + BULL RUN<br /> + KERNSTOWN<br /> + CROSS KEYS<br /> + WINCHESTER<br /> + PORT REPUBLIC<br /> + THE SEVEN DAYS<br /> + MILL SPRING<br /> + FORT DONELSON<br /> + SHILOH<br /> + PERRYVILLE<br /> + STONE RIVER<br /> + THE SECOND MANASSAS<br /> + ANTIETAM<br /> + FREDERICKSBURG<br /> + CHANCELLORSVILLE<br /> + GETTYSBURG<br /> + CHAMPION HILL<br /> + VICKSBURG<br /> + CHICKAMAUGA<br /> + MISSIONARY RIDGE<br /> + THE WILDERNESS<br /> + SPOTTSYLVANIA<br /> + COLD HARBOR<br /> + FISHER'S HILL<br /> + CEDAR CREEK<br /> + APPOMATTOX<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3b"> +CONTENTS +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + I. <a href="#chap01">THE SOUTHERN RETREAT</a><br /> + II. <a href="#chap02">THE NORTHERN SPY</a><br /> + III. <a href="#chap03">THE FLOODED RIVER</a><br /> + IV. <a href="#chap04">A HERALD TO LEE</a><br /> + V. <a href="#chap05">THE DANGEROUS ROAD</a><br /> + VI. <a href="#chap06">TESTS OF COURAGE</a><br /> + VII. <a href="#chap07">IN THE WAGON</a><br /> + VIII. <a href="#chap08">THE CROSSING</a><br /> + IX. <a href="#chap09">IN SOCIETY</a><br /> + X. <a href="#chap10">THE MISSING PAPER</a><br /> + XI. <a href="#chap11">A VAIN PURSUIT</a><br /> + XII. <a href="#chap12">IN WINTER QUARTERS</a><br /> + XIII. <a href="#chap13">THE COMING OF GRANT</a><br /> + XIV. <a href="#chap14">THE GHOSTLY RIDE</a><br /> + XV. <a href="#chap15">THE WILDERNESS</a><br /> + XVI. <a href="#chap16">SPOTTSYLVANIA</a><br /> +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t2"> +THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap01"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER I +</h3> + +<h3> +THE SOUTHERN RETREAT +</h3> + +<p> +A train of wagons and men wound slowly over the hills in the darkness +and rain toward the South. In the wagons lay fourteen or fifteen +thousand wounded soldiers, but they made little noise, as the wheels +sank suddenly in the mud or bumped over stones. Although the vast +majority of them were young, boys or not much more, they had learned to +be masters of themselves, and they suffered in silence, save when some +one, lost in fever, uttered a groan. +</p> + +<p> +But the chief sound was a blended note made by the turning of wheels, +and the hoofs of horses sinking in the soft earth. The officers gave +but few orders, and the cavalrymen who rode on either flank looked +solicitously into the wagons now and then to see how their wounded +friends fared, though they seldom spoke. The darkness they did not +mind, because they were used to it, and the rain and the coolness were +a relief, after three days of the fiercest battle the American +continent had ever known, fought in the hottest days that the troops +could recall. +</p> + +<p> +Thus Lee's army drew its long length from the fatal field of +Gettysburg, although his valiant brigades did not yet know that the +clump of trees upon Cemetery Hill had marked the high tide of the +Confederacy. All that memorable Fourth of July, following the close of +the battle they had lain, facing Meade and challenging him to come on, +confident that while the invasion of the North was over they could beat +back once more the invasion of the South. +</p> + +<p> +They had no word of complaint against their great commander, Lee. The +faith in him, which was so high, remained unbroken, as it was destined +to remain so to the last. But men began to whisper to one another, and +say if only Jackson had been there. They mourned anew that terrible +evening in the Wilderness when Lee had lost his mighty lieutenant, his +striking arm, the invincible Stonewall. If the man in the old slouch +hat had only been with Lee on Seminary Ridge it would now be the army +of Meade retreating farther into the North, and they would be pursuing. +That belief was destined to sink deep in the soul of the South, and +remain there long after the Confederacy was but a name. +</p> + +<p> +The same thought was often in the mind of Harry Kenton, as he rode near +the rear of the column, whence he had been sent by Lee to observe and +then to report. It was far after midnight now, and the last of the +Southern army could not leave Seminary Ridge before morning. But Harry +could detect no sign of pursuit. Now and then, a distant gun boomed, +and the thunder muttered on the horizon, as if in answer. But there +was nothing to indicate that the Army of the Potomac was moving from +Gettysburg in pursuit, although the President in Washington, his heart +filled with bitterness, was vainly asking why his army would not reap +the fruits of a victory won so hardly. Fifty thousand men had fallen +on the hills and in the valleys about Gettysburg, and it seemed, for +the time, that nothing would come of such a slaughter. But the +Northern army had suffered immense losses, and Lee and his men were +ready to fight again if attacked. Perhaps it was wiser to remain +content upon the field with their sanguinary success. At least, Meade +and his generals thought so. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, toward morning came upon St. Clair and Langdon riding together. +Both had been wounded slightly, but their hurts had not kept them from +the saddle, and they were in cheerful mood. +</p> + +<p> +"You've been further back than we, Harry," said St. Clair. "Is Meade +hot upon our track? We hear the throb of a cannon now and then." +</p> + +<p> +"It doesn't mean anything. Meade hasn't moved. While we didn't win we +struck the Yankees such a mighty blow that they'll have to rest, and +breathe a while before they follow." +</p> + +<p> +"And I guess we need a little resting and breathing ourselves," said +Langdon frankly. "There were times when I thought the whole world had +just turned itself into a volcano of fire." +</p> + +<p> +"But we'll come back again," said St. Clair. "We'll make these +Pennsylvania Dutchmen take notice of us a second time." +</p> + +<p> +"That's the right spirit," said Langdon. "Arthur had nearly all of his +fine uniform shot off him, but he's managed to fasten the pieces +together, and ride on, just as if it were brand new." +</p> + +<p> +But Harry was silent. The prescient spirit of his famous great +grandfather, Henry Ware, had descended upon his valiant great grandson. +Hope had not gone from him, but it did not enter his mind that they +should invade Pennsylvania again. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm glad to leave Gettysburg," he said. "More good men of ours have +fallen there than anywhere else." +</p> + +<p> +"That's true," said St. Clair, "but Marse Bob will win for us, anyhow. +You don't think any of these Union generals here in the East can whip +our Lee, do you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Of course not!" said Happy Tom. "Besides, Lee has me to help him." +</p> + +<p> +"How are Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire?" asked +Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Sound asleep, both of 'em," replied St. Clair. "And it's a strange +thing, too. They were sitting in a wagon, having resumed that game of +chess which they began in the Valley of Virginia, but they were so +exhausted that both fell sound asleep while playing. They are sitting +upright, as they sleep, and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire's thumb and +forefinger rest upon a white pawn that he intended to move." +</p> + +<p> +"I hope they won't be jarred out of their rest and that they'll sleep +on," said Harry. "Nobody deserves it more." +</p> + +<p> +He waved a hand to his friends and continued his ride toward the rear. +The column passed slowly on in silence. Now and then gusts of rain +lashed across his face, but he liked the feeling. It was a fillip to +his blood, and his nerves began to recover from the tremendous strain +and excitement of the last four days. +</p> + +<p> +Obeying his orders he rode almost directly back toward the field of +Gettysburg from which the Southern forces were still marching. A +friendly voice from a little wood hailed him, and he recognized it at +once as that of Sherburne, who sat his horse alone among the trees. +</p> + +<p> +"Come here, Harry," he said. +</p> + +<p> +"Glad to find you alive, Sherburne. Where's your troop?" +</p> + +<p> +"What's left of it is on ahead. I'll join the men in a few minutes. +But look back there!" +</p> + +<p> +Harry from the knoll, which was higher than he had thought, gazed upon +a vast and dusky panorama. Once more the field of Gettysburg swam +before him, not now in fire and smoke, but in vapors and misty rain. +When he shut his eyes he saw again the great armies charging on the +slopes, the blazing fire from hundreds of cannon and a hundred thousand +rifles. There, too, went Pickett's brigades, devoted to death but never +flinching. A sob burst from his throat, and he opened his eyes again. +</p> + +<p> +"You feel about it as I do," said Sherburne. "We'll never come back +into the North." +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't merely a feeling within me, I know it." +</p> + +<p> +"So do I, but we can still hold Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +"I think so, too. Come, we'd better turn. There goes the field of +Gettysburg. The rain and mist have blotted it out." +</p> + +<p> +The panorama, the most terrible upon which Harry had ever looked, +vanished in the darkness. The two rode slowly from the knoll and into +the road. +</p> + +<p> +"It will be daylight in an hour," said Sherburne, "and by that time the +last of our men will be gone." +</p> + +<p> +"And I must hasten to our commander-in-chief," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"How is he?" asked Sherburne. "Does he seem downcast?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, he holds his head as high as ever, and cheers the men. They say +that Pickett's charge was a glorious mistake, but he takes all the +blame for it, if there is any. He doesn't criticize any of his +generals." +</p> + +<p> +"Only a man of the greatest moral grandeur could act like that. It's +because of such things that our people, boys, officers and all, will +follow him to the death." +</p> + +<p> +"Good-by, Sherburne," said Harry. "Hope I'll see you again soon." +</p> + +<p> +He urged his horse into a faster gait, anxious to overtake Lee and +report that all was well with the rear guard. He noticed once more, +and with the greatest care that long line of the wounded and the +unwounded, winding sixteen miles across the hills from Gettysburg to +Chambersburg, and his mind was full of grave thoughts. More than two +years in the very thick of the greatest war, then known, were +sufficient to make a boy a man, at least in intellect and +responsibility. +</p> + +<p> +Harry saw very clearly, as he rode beside the retreating but valiant +army that had failed in its great attempt, that their role would be the +defensive. For a little while he was sunk in deep depression. Then +invincible youth conquered anew, and hope sprang up again. The night +was at the darkest, but dawn was not far away. Fugitive gusts of wind +drenched him once more, but he did not mind it, nor did he pay any +attention to the occasional growl of a distant gun. He was strong in +the belief that Meade would not pursue—at least not yet. A general +who had just lost nearly one-third of his own army was not in much +condition to follow his enemy. +</p> + +<p> +He urged his horse to increased speed, and pressed on toward the head +of the column. The rain ceased and cool puffs of wind came out of the +east. Then the blackness there turned to gray, which soon deepened into +silver. Through the silver veil shot a bolt of red fire, and the sun +came over the hills. +</p> + +<p> +Although the green world had been touched with brown by the hot sun of +July it looked fresh and beautiful to Harry. The brown in the morning +sunlight was a rosy red, and the winds of dawn were charged with life. +His horse, too, felt the change and it was easy now to force him into a +gallop toward a fire on a low hill, which Harry felt sure had been +built to cook breakfast for their great commander. +</p> + +<p> +As he approached he saw Lee and his generals standing before the blaze, +some eating, and others drinking. An orderly, near by, held the +commander's famous horse, Traveller, and two or three horses belonging +to the other generals were trying to find a little grass between the +stony outcrops of the hills. Harry felt an overwhelming curiosity, but +he kept it in restraint, dismounting at a little distance, and +approaching on foot. +</p> + +<p> +He could not observe much change in the general's appearance. His +handsome gray suit was as neat as ever, and the three stars, the only +marks of his rank that he wore, shone untarnished upon his collar. The +dignified and cheerful manner that marked him before Gettysburg marked +him also afterward. To Harry, so young and so thoroughly charged with +the emotions of his time and section, he was a figure to be approached +with veneration. +</p> + +<p> +He saw the stalwart and bearded Longstreet and other generals whom he +knew, among them the brilliant Stuart in his brilliant plumage, but +rather quiet and subdued in manner now, since he had not come to +Gettysburg as soon as he was needed. Harry hung back a little, fearing +lest he might be regarded as thrusting himself into a company so much +his superior in rank, but Lee saw him and beckoned to him. +</p> + +<p> +"I sent you back toward Gettysburg to report on our withdrawal, +Lieutenant Kenton," he said. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir. I returned all the way to the field. The last of our +troops should be leaving there just about now. The Northern army had +made no preparation for immediate pursuit." +</p> + +<p> +"Your report agrees with all the others that I have received. How long +have you been without sleep?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know, sir," he said at last. "I can't remember. Maybe it has +been two or three days." +</p> + +<p> +Stuart, who held a cup of coffee in his hand, laughed. "The times have +been such that there are generals as well as lieutenants," he said, +"who can't remember when they've slept." +</p> + +<p> +"You're exhausted, my lad," said Lee gravely and kindly, "and there's +nothing more you can do for us just now. Take some breakfast with us, +and then you must sleep in one of the wagons. An orderly will look +after your horse." +</p> + +<p> +Lee handed him a cup of coffee with his own hand, and Harry, thanking +him, withdrew to the outer fringe of the little group, where he took +his breakfast, amazed to find how hungry he was, although he had not +thought of food before. Then without a word, as he saw that the +generals were engrossed in a conference, he withdrew. +</p> + +<p> +"You'll find Lieutenant Dalton of the staff in the covered wagon over +there," said the orderly who had taken his horse. "The general sent +him to it more'n two hours ago." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I'll be inside it in less than two minutes," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +But with rest in sight he collapsed suddenly. His head fell forward of +its own weight. His feet became lead. Everything swam before his +eyes. He felt that he must sleep or die. But he managed to drag +himself to the wagon and climbed inside. Dalton lay in the center of +it so sound asleep that he was like one dead. Harry rolled him to one +side, making room for himself, and lay down beside him. Then his eyes +closed, and he, too, slept so soundly that he also looked like one dead. +</p> + +<p> +He was awakened by Dalton pulling at him. The young Virginian was +sitting up and looking at Harry with curiosity. He clapped his hands +when the Kentuckian opened his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"Now I know that you're not dead," he said. "When I woke up and found +you lying beside me I thought they had just put your body in here for +safekeeping. As that's not the case, kindly explain to me and at once +what you're doing in my wagon." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm waking up just at present, but for an hour or two before that I +was sleeping." +</p> + +<p> +"Hour or two? Hour or two? Hear him! An orderly who I know is no +liar told me that you got in here just after dawn. Now kindly lift +that canvasflap, look out and tell me what you see." +</p> + +<p> +Harry did as he was told, and was amazed. The same rolling landscape +still met his eyes, and the sun was just about as high in the sky as it +was when he had climbed into the wagon. But it was in the west now +instead of the east. +</p> + +<p> +"See and know, young man!" said Dalton, paternally. "The entire day +has elapsed and here you have lain in ignorant slumber, careless of +everything, reckless of what might happen to the army. For twelve +hours General Lee has been without your advice, and how, lacking it, he +has got this far, Heaven alone knows." +</p> + +<p> +"It seems that he's pulled through, and, since I'm now awake, you can +hurry to him and tell him I'm ready to furnish the right plans to stop +the forthcoming Yankee invasion." +</p> + +<p> +"They'll keep another day, but we've certainly had a good sleep, Harry." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, a provision or ammunition wagon isn't a bad place for a wornout +soldier. I remember I slept in another such as this in the Valley of +Virginia, when we were with Jackson." +</p> + +<p> +He stopped suddenly and choked. He could not mention the name of +Jackson, until long afterward, without something rising in his throat. +</p> + +<p> +The driver obscured a good deal of the front view, but he suddenly +turned a rubicund and smiling face upon them. +</p> + +<p> +"Waked up, hev ye?" he exclaimed. "Wa'al it's about time. I've looked +back from time to time an' I wuzn't at all shore whether you two +gen'rals wuz alive or dead. Sometimes when the wagon slanted a lot you +would roll over each other, but it didn't seem to make no diffunce. +Pow'ful good sleepers you are." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," said Harry. "We're two of the original Seven Sleepers." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't doubt that you are two, but they wuz more'n seven." +</p> + +<p> +"How do you know?" +</p> + +<p> +"'Cause at least seven thousand in this train have been sleepin' as +hard as you wuz. I guess you mean the 'rig'nal Seventy Thousand +Sleepers." +</p> + +<p> +Harry's spirits had returned after his long sleep. He was a lad again. +The weight of Gettysburg no longer rested upon him. The Army of +Northern Virginia had merely made a single failure. It would strike +again and again, as hard as ever. +</p> + +<p> +"It's true that we've been slumbering," he said, "but we're as wide +awake now as ever, Mr. Driver." +</p> + +<p> +"My name ain't Driver," said the man. +</p> + +<p> +"Then what is it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Jones, Dick Jones, which I hold to be a right proper name." +</p> + +<p> +"Not romantic, but short, simple and satisfying." +</p> + +<p> +"I reckon so. Leastways, I've never wanted to change it. I'm from +No'th Calliny, an' I've been followin' Bobby Lee a pow'ful long +distance from home. Fine country up here in Pennsylvany, but I'd +ruther be back in them No'th Calliny mountains. You two young gen'rals +may think it's an easy an' safe job drivin' a wagon loaded with +ammunition. But s'pose you have to drive it right under fire, as you +most often have to do, an' then if a shell or somethin' like it hits +your wagon the whole thing goes off kerplunk, an' whar are you?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's a sudden an' easy death," said Dalton, philosophically. +</p> + +<p> +"Too sudden an' too easy. I don't mind tellin' you that seein' men +killed an' wounded is a spo't that's beginnin' to pall on me. Reckon +I've had enough of it to last me for the next thousand years. I've +forgot, if I ever knowed, what this war wuz started about. Say, young +fellers, I've got a wife back thar, a high-steppin', fine-lookin' gal +not more'n twenty years old—I'm just twenty-five myself, an' we've got +a year-old baby the cutest that wuz ever born. Now, when I wuz lookin' +at that charge of Pickett's men, an' the whole world wuz blazin' with +fire, an' all the skies wuz rainin' steel and lead, an' whar grass +growed before, nothin' but bayonets wuz growin' then, do you know what +I seed sometimes?" +</p> + +<p> +"What was it?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Fur a secon' all that hell of fire an' smoke an' killin' would float +away, an' I seed our mountain, with the cove, an' the trees, an' the +green grass growin' in it, an' the branch, with the water so clear you +could see your face in it, runnin' down the center, an' thar at the +head of the cove my cabin, not much uv a buildin' to look at, no +towerin' mansion, but just a stout two-room log cabin that the snows +an' hails of winter can't break into, an' in the door wuz standin' Mary +with the hair flyin' about her face, an' her eyes shinin', with the +little feller in her arms, lookin' at me 'way off as I come walkin' +fast down the cove toward 'em, returnin' from the big war." +</p> + +<p> +There was a moment's silence, and Dalton said gruffly to hide his +feelings: +</p> + +<p> +"Dick Jones, by the time this war is over, and you go walking down the +cove toward your home, a man with mustache and side whiskers will come +forward to meet you, and he'll be that son of yours." +</p> + +<p> +But Dick Jones cheerfully shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +"The war ain't goin' to last that long," he said confidently, "an' I +ain't goin' to git killed. What I saw will come true, 'cause I feel it +so strong." +</p> + +<p> +"There ought to be a general law forbidding a man with a young wife and +baby to go to a war," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"But they ain't no sich law," said Dick Jones, in his optimistic tone, +"an' so we needn't worry 'bout it. But if you two gen'rals should +happen along through the mountains uv western No'th Calliny after the +war I'd like fur you to come to my cabin, an' see Mary an' the baby an' +me. Our cove is named Jones' Cove, after my father, an' the branch that +runs through it runs into Jones' Creek, an' Jones' Creek runs into the +Yadkin River an' our county is Yadkin. Oh, you could find it plumb +easy, if two sich great gen'rals as you wuzn't ashamed to eat sweet +pertaters an' ham an' turkey an' co'n pone with a wagon driver like me." +</p> + +<p> +Harry saw, despite his playful method of calling them generals, that he +was thoroughly in earnest, and he was more moved than he would have +been willing to confess. +</p> + +<p> +"Too proud!" he said. "Why, we'd be glad!" +</p> + +<p> +"Mebbe your road will lead that way," said Jones. "An' ef you do, jest +remember that the skillet's on the fire, an' the latch string is +hangin' outside the do'." +</p> + +<p> +The allusion to the mountains made Harry's mind travel far back, over +an almost interminable space of time now, it seemed, when he was yet a +novice in war, to the home of Sam Jarvis, deep in the Kentucky +mountains, and the old, old woman who had said to him as he left: "You +will come again, and you will be thin and pale, and in rags, and you +will fall at the door. I see you coming with these two eyes of mine." +</p> + +<p> +A little shiver passed over him. He knew that no one could penetrate +the future, but he shivered nevertheless, and he found himself saying +mechanically: +</p> + +<p> +"It's likely that I'll return through the mountains, and if so I'll +look you up at that home in the cove on the brook that runs into Jones' +Creek." +</p> + +<p> +"That bein' settled," said Jones, "what do you gen'rals reckon to do +jest now, after havin' finished your big sleep?" +</p> + +<p> +"Your wagon is about to lose the first two passengers it has ever +carried," replied Harry. "Orderlies have our horses somewhere. We +belong on the staff of General Lee." +</p> + +<p> +"An' you see him an' hear him talk every day? Some people are pow'ful +lucky. I guess you'll say a lot about it when you're old men." +</p> + +<p> +"We're going to say a lot about it while we're young men. Good-by, Mr. +Jones. We've been in some good hotels, but we never slept better in +any of them than we have in this moving one of yours." +</p> + +<p> +"Good-by, you're always welcome to it. I think Marse Bob is on ahead." +</p> + +<p> +The two left the wagon and took to a path beside the road, which was +muddy and rutted deeply by innumerable hoofs and wheels. But grass and +foliage were now dry after the heavy rains that followed the Battle of +Gettysburg, and the sun was shining in late splendor. The army, taking +the lack of pursuit and attack as proof that the enemy had suffered as +much as they, if not more, was in good spirits, and many of the men +sang their marching songs. A band ahead of them suddenly began to play +mellow music, "Partant Pour La Syrie," and other old French songs. The +airs became gay, festive, uplifting to the soul, and they tickled the +feet of the young men. +</p> + +<p> +"The Cajun band!" exclaimed Harry. "It never occurred to me that they +weren't all dead, and here they are, playing us into happiness!" +</p> + +<p> +"And the Invincibles, or what's left of them, won't be far away," said +Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +They walked on a little more briskly and beside them the vast length of +the unsuccessful army still trailed its slow way back into the South. +The sun was setting in uncommon magnificence, clothing everything in a +shower of gold, through which the lilting notes of the music came to +Harry and Dalton's ears. Presently the two saw them, the short, dark +men from far Louisiana, not so many as they had been, but playing with +all the fervor of old, putting their Latin souls into their music. +</p> + +<p> +"And there are the Invincibles just ahead of them!" exclaimed Dalton. +"The two colonels have left the wagon and are riding with their men. +See, how erect they sit." +</p> + +<p> +"I do see them, and they're a good sight to see," said Harry. "I hope +they'll live to finish that chess game." +</p> + +<p> +"And fifty years afterward, too." +</p> + +<p> +A shout of joy burst from the road, and a tall young man, slender, dark +and handsome, rushed out, and, seizing the hands of first one and then +the other, shook them eagerly, his dark eyes glittering with happy +surprise. +</p> + +<p> +"Kenton! Dalton!" he exclaimed. "Both alive! Both well!" +</p> + +<p> +It was young Julien de Langeais, the kinsman of Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire, and he too was unhurt. The lads returned his grasp +warmly. They could not have kept from liking him had they tried, and +they certainly did not wish to try. +</p> + +<p> +"You don't know how it rejoices me to see you," said Julien, speaking +very fast. "I was sad! very sad! Some of my best friends have +perished back there in those inhospitable Pennsylvania hills, and while +the band was playing it made me think of the homes they will never see +any more! Don't think I'm effusive and that I show grief too much, but +my heart has been very heavy! Alas, for the brave lads!" +</p> + +<p> +"Come, come, de Langeais," said Harry, putting his hand on his +shoulder. "You've no need to apologize for sorrow. God knows we all +have enough of it, but a lot of us are still alive and here's an army +ready to fight again, whenever the enemy says the word." +</p> + +<p> +"True! True!" exclaimed de Langeais, changing at once from shadow to +sunshine. "And when we're back in Virginia we'll turn our faces once +more to our foe!" +</p> + +<p> +He took a step or two on the grass in time to the music which was now +that of a dance, and the brilliant beams of the setting sun showed a +face without a care. Invincible youth and the invincible gayety of the +part of the South that was French were supreme again. Dalton, looking +at him, shook his Presbyterian head. Yet his eyes expressed admiration. +</p> + +<p> +"I know your feelings," said Harry to the Virginian. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, what are they?" +</p> + +<p> +"You don't approve of de Langeais' lightness, which in your stern code +you would call levity, and yet you envy him possession of it. You +don't think it's right to be joyous, without a care, and yet you know +it would be mighty pleasant. You criticize de Langeais a little, but +you feel it would be a gorgeous thing to have that joyous spirit of +his." +</p> + +<p> +Dalton laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"You're pretty near the truth," he said. "I haven't known de Langeais +so very long, but if he were to get killed I'd feel that I had lost a +younger brother." +</p> + +<p> +"So would I." +</p> + +<p> +Two immaculate youths, riding excellent horses, approached them, and +favored them with a long and supercilious stare. +</p> + +<p> +"Can the large fair person be Lieutenant Kenton of the staff of the +commander-in-chief?" asked St. Clair. +</p> + +<p> +"It can be and it is, although we did not think to see him again so +soon," replied Happy Tom Langdon, "and the other—I do not allude to de +Langeais—is that spruce and devout young man, Lieutenant George +Dalton, also of the staff of the commander-in-chief." +</p> + +<p> +"Why do we find them in such humble plight, walking on weary feet in a +path beside the road?" +</p> + +<p> +"For the most excellent reason in the world, Arthur." +</p> + +<p> +"And what may that reason be, Tom?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because at last they have come down to their proper station in life, +just as surely as water finds its level." +</p> + +<p> +"But we'll not treat them too sternly. We must remember that they also +serve who walk and wait." +</p> + +<p> +But St. Clair and Langdon, their chaff over, gave them happy greeting, +and told them that the two colonels would be rejoiced to see them +again, if they could spare a few minutes before rejoining their +commander. +</p> + +<p> +"And here is an orderly with both your horses," said St. Clair, "so, +under the circumstances, we'll sink our pride and let you ride with us." +</p> + +<p> +De Langeais, with a cheerful farewell until the next day, returned to +his command, and Harry and Dalton, mounting, were in a few minutes +beside the Invincibles. Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire turned their horses from the road into the path and +saluted them with warmth. +</p> + +<p> +"We caught a glimpse of you just after our departure, Harry," said +Colonel Talbot, "but we did not know what had happened since. There is +always a certain amount of risk attending the removal of a great army." +</p> + +<p> +"I am glad, Leonidas, that you used the word 'removal' to describe our +operations after our great victory at Gettysburg," said +Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. "I have been feeling about for the +right word or phrase myself, but you have found it first." +</p> + +<p> +"Do you think it was a victory, sir?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Undoubtedly. We have won several vast and brilliant triumphs, but +this is the greatest of them all. We have gone far into the enemy's +country, where we have struck him a terrible blow, and now, of our own +choice—understand it is of our own choice—we withdraw and challenge +him to come and repeat on our own soil our exploit if he can. It is +like a skilled and daring prize fighter who leaps back and laughingly +bids his foe come on. Am I not right, Leonidas?" +</p> + +<p> +"Neither Aristotle nor Plato was ever more right, Hector, old friend. +Usually there is more to a grave affair than appears upon the surface. +We could have gone on, after the battle, to Philadelphia, had we +chosen, but it was not alone a question of military might that General +Lee had to decide. He was bound to give weight to some very subtle +considerations. You boys remember your Roman history, do you not?" +</p> + +<p> +"Fragments of it, sir," replied Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Then you will recall that Hannibal, a fine general, to be named +worthily with our great Lee so far as military movements are concerned, +after famous victories over greatly superior numbers of Romans, went +into camp at Capua, crowded with beauty, wine and games, and the +soldiers became enervated. Their fiber was weakened and their bodies +softened. They were quicker to heed the call to a banquet than the +call to arms." +</p> + +<p> +"Unless it was the arms of beauty, Leonidas." +</p> + +<p> +"Well spoken, Hector. The correction is most important, and I accept +it. But to take up again the main thread of my discourse. General Lee +undoubtedly had the example of the Carthaginian army and Capua in mind +when he left Gettysburg and returned toward the South. Philadelphia is +a great city, far larger and richer than any in our section. It is +filled with magnificent houses, beautiful women, luxury of every +description, ease and softness. Our brave lads, crowned with mighty +exploits and arriving there as conquerors, would have been received +with immense admiration, although we are official enemies. And the +head of youth is easily turned. The Army of Northern Virginia, +emerging from Philadelphia, to achieve the conquest of New York and +Boston would not be the army that it is to-day. It would lack some of +that fire and dash, some of the extraordinary courage and tenacity +which have enabled it to surpass the deeds of the veterans of Hannibal +and Napoleon." +</p> + +<p> +"But, sir, I've heard that the people of Philadelphia are mostly +Quakers, very sober in dress and manner." +</p> + +<p> +"Harry, my lad, when you've lived as long as I have you will know that +a merry heart may beat beneath a plain brown dress, and that an ugly +hood cannot wholly hide a sweet and saucy face. The girls—God bless +'em—have been the same in all lands since the world began, and will +continue so to the end. While this war is on you boys cannot go +a-courting, either in the North or South. Am I not right, Hector, old +friend?" +</p> + +<p> +"Right, as always, Leonidas. I perceive, though, that the sun is about +to set; not a new thing, I admit, but we must not delay our young +friends, when the general perhaps needs them." +</p> + +<p> +"Well spoken again, Hector. You are an unfailing fount of wisdom. Good +night, my brave lads. Not many of the Invincibles are left, but every +one of them is a true friend of you both." +</p> + +<p> +As they rode across the darkening fields Harry and Dalton knew that the +colonel spoke the truth about the Invincibles. +</p> + +<p> +"I like a faith such as theirs," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, it can often turn defeat into real victory." +</p> + +<p> +They quickly found the general's headquarters, and as usual, whenever +the weather permitted, he had made arrangements to sleep in the open +air, his blankets spread upon soft boughs. Harry and Dalton, having +slept all day, would be on night duty, and after supper they sat at a +little distance, awaiting orders. +</p> + +<p> +Coolness had come with the dark. A good moon and swarms of bright +stars rode in the heavens, turning the skies to misty silver, and +softening the scars of the army, which now lay encamped over a great +space. Lee was talking with Stuart, who evidently had just arrived +from a swift ride, as an orderly near by was holding his horse, covered +with foam. The famous cavalryman was clothed in his gorgeous best. +His hat was heavy with gold braid, and the broad sash about his waist +was heavy with gold, also. Dandy he was, but brilliant cavalryman and +great soldier too! Both friend and foe had said so. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, sitting on the grass, with his back against a tree, watched the +two generals as they talked long and earnestly. Now and then Stuart +nervously switched the tops of his own high riding boots with the +little whip that he carried, but the face of Lee, revealed clearly in +the near twilight, remained grave and impassive. +</p> + +<p> +After a long while Stuart mounted and rode away, and Sherburne, who had +been sitting among the trees on the far side of the fire, came over and +joined Harry and Dalton. He too was very grave. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you know what has happened?" he said in a low tone to the two lads. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, there was a big battle at Gettysburg, and as we failed to win it +we're now retreating," replied Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"That's true as far as it goes, but it's not all. We've heard—and the +news is correct beyond a doubt—that Grant has taken Vicksburg and +Pemberton's army with it." +</p> + +<p> +"Good God, Sherburne, it can't be so!" +</p> + +<p> +"It shouldn't be so, but it is! Oh, why did Pemberton let himself be +trapped in such a way! A whole army of ours lost and our greatest +fortress in the West taken! Why, the Yankee men-of-war can steam up +the Mississippi untouched, all the way from the Gulf to Minnesota." +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton were appalled, and, for a little while, were silent. +</p> + +<p> +"I knew that man Grant would do something terrible to us," Harry said +at last. "I've heard from my people in Kentucky what sort of a general +he is. My father was at Shiloh, where we had a great victory on, but +Grant wouldn't admit it, and held on, until another Union army came up +and turned our victory into defeat. My cousin, Dick Mason, has been +with Grant a lot, and I used to get a letter from him now and then, +even if he is in the Yankee army. He says that when Grant takes hold +of a thing he never lets go, and that he'll win the war for his side." +</p> + +<p> +"Your cousin may be right about Grant's hanging on," said Dalton with +sudden angry emphasis, "but neither he nor anybody else will win this +war for the Yankees. We've lost Vicksburg, and an army with it, and +we've retreated from Gettysburg, with enough men fallen there to make +another army, but they'll never break through the iron front of Lee and +his veterans." +</p> + +<p> +"Hope you're right," said Sherburne, "but I'm off now. I'm in the +saddle all night with my troop. We've got to watch the Yankee cavalry. +Custer and Pleasanton and the rest of them have learned to ride in a +way that won't let Jeb Stuart himself do any nodding." +</p> + +<p> +He cantered off and the lads sat under the trees, ready for possible +orders. They saw the fire die. They heard the murmur of the camp +sink. Lee lay down on his bed of boughs, other generals withdrew to +similar beds or to tents, and the two boys still sat under the trees, +waiting and watching, and never knowing at what moment they would be +needed. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap02"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER II +</h3> + +<h3> +THE NORTHERN SPY +</h3> + +<p> +But the night remained very quiet. Harry and Dalton, growing tired of +sitting, walked about the camp, and looked again to their horses, +which, saddled and bridled, were nevertheless allowed to nip the grass +as best they could at the end of their lariats. The last embers of the +fire went out, but the moon and stars remained bright, and they saw +dimly the sleeping forms of Lee and his generals. Harry, who had seen +nothing strange in Meade's lack of pursuit, now wondered at it. Surely +when the news of Vicksburg came the exultant Army of the Potomac would +follow, and try to deliver a crushing blow. +</p> + +<p> +It was revealed to him as he stood silent in the moonlight that a gulf +had suddenly yawned before the South. The slash of Grant's sword in +the West had been terrible, and the wound that it made could not be +cured easily. And the Army of Northern Virginia had not only failed in +its supreme attempt, but a great river now flowed between it and +Virginia. If the Northern leaders, gathering courage anew, should hurl +their masses upon Lee's retreating force, neither skill nor courage +might avail to save them. He suddenly beheld the situation in all its +desperation; he shivered from head to foot. +</p> + +<p> +Dalton saw the muscles of Harry's face quivering, and he noticed a +pallor that came for an instant. +</p> + +<p> +"I understand," he said. "I had thought of it already. If a Northern +general like Lee or Stonewall Jackson were behind us we might never get +back across the Potomac. It's somewhat the same position that we were +in after Antietam." +</p> + +<p> +"But we've no Stonewall Jackson now to help us." +</p> + +<p> +Again that lump rose in Harry's throat. The vision of the sober figure +on Little Sorrel, leading his brigades to victory, came before him, but +it was a vision only. +</p> + +<p> +"It's strange that we've not come in contact with their scouts or +cavalry," he said. "In that fight with Pleasanton we saw what horsemen +they've become, and a force of some kind must be hanging on our rear." +</p> + +<p> +"If it's there, Sherburne and his troop will find it." +</p> + +<p> +"I think I can detect signs of the enemy now," said Harry, putting his +glasses to his eyes. "See that hill far behind us. Can't you catch +the gleam of lights on it?" +</p> + +<p> +"I think I can," replied Dalton, also using glasses. "Four lights are +there, and they are winking, doubtless to lights on another hill too +far away for us to see." +</p> + +<p> +"It shows that the enemy at least is watching, and that while we may +retreat unattacked it will not be unobserved. Hark! do you hear that, +George? It's rifle shots, isn't it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, and a lot of 'em, but they're a long distance away. I don't +think we could hear 'em at all if it were not night time." +</p> + +<p> +"But it means something! There they go again! I believe it's a heavy +skirmish and it's in the direction in which Sherburne rode." +</p> + +<p> +"The general's up. It's likely that one of us will be sent to see what +it's all about." +</p> + +<p> +General Lee and his whole staff had risen and were listening +attentively. The faint sound of many shots still came, and then a +sharper, more penetrating crash, as if light field guns were at work. +The commander beckoned to Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Ride toward it," he said briefly, "and return with a report as soon as +you can." +</p> + +<p> +Harry touched his cap, sprang upon his horse and galloped away. He +knew that other messengers would be dispatched also, but, as he had +been sent first, he wished to arrive first. He found a path among the +trees along which he could make good speed, and, keeping his mind fixed +on the firing, he sped forward. +</p> + +<p> +Thousands of soldiers lay asleep in the woods and fields on either side +of him, but the thud of the horse's hoofs awakened few of them. Nor +did the firing disturb them. They had fought a great battle three days +long, and then after a tense day of waiting under arms, they had +marched hard. What to them was the noise made by an affair of outposts, +when they had heard so long the firing of a hundred and fifty thousand +rifles and three or four hundred big guns? Not one in a hundred stood +up to see. +</p> + +<p> +The country grew rougher, and Harry was compelled to draw his horse +down to a walk. But the firing, a half-mile or more ahead, maintained +its volume, and as he approached through thick underbrush, being able +to find no other way, he dismounted and led his horse. Presently he +saw beads of flame appearing among the bushes, seen a moment, then gone +like a firefly, and as he went further he heard voices. He had no +doubt that it was the Southern pickets in the undergrowth, and, calling +softly, he received confirmatory replies. +</p> + +<p> +A rifleman, a tall, slender fellow in ragged butternut, appeared beside +him, and, recognizing Harry's near-gray uniform as that of an officer, +said: +</p> + +<p> +"They're dismounted cavalry on the other side of a creek that runs +along over there among the bushes. I don't think they mean any real +attack. They expect to sting us a little an' find out what we're about." +</p> + +<p> +"Seems likely to me too. They aren't strong enough, of course, for an +attempt at rushing us. What troops are in here in the woods on our +side?" +</p> + +<p> +"Captain Sherburne's cavalry, sir. They're a bit to our right, an' +they're dismounted too. You'll find the captain himself on a little +knoll about a hundred yards away." +</p> + +<p> +"Thanks," said Harry, and leading his horse he reached the knoll, to +find the rifleman's statement correct. Sherburne was kneeling behind +some bushes, trying with the aid of glasses and moonlight to pick out +the enemy. +</p> + +<p> +"That you, Harry?" he said, glancing back. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, Captain. The general has sent me to see what you and the rest of +you noisy fellows are doing." +</p> + +<p> +"Shooting across a creek at an enemy who first shot at us. It's only +under provocation that we've roused the general and his staff from +sleep. Use your glasses and see what you can make out in those bushes +on the other side! Keep down, Harry! For Heaven's sake keep down! +That bullet didn't miss you more than three inches. You wouldn't be +much loss to the army, of course, but you're my personal friend." +</p> + +<p> +"Thanks for your advice. I intend to stay so far down that I'll lie +almost flat." +</p> + +<p> +He meant to keep his word, too. The warning had been a stern one. +Evidently the sharpshooters who lay in the thickets on the Union side +of the creek were of the first quality. +</p> + +<p> +"There's considerable moonlight," whispered Sherburne, "and you mustn't +expose an inch of your face. I take it that we have Custer's cavalry +over there, mixed with a lot of scouts and skirmishers from the +Northwest, Michigan and Wisconsin, most likely. They're the boys who +can use the rifles in the woods. Had to do it before they came here, +and they're a bad lot to go up against." +</p> + +<p> +"It's a pretty heavy fire for a mere scouting party. If they want to +discover our location they can do it without wasting so much powder and +lead." +</p> + +<p> +"I think it's more than a scout. They must have discovered long since +just where we are. I imagine they mean to shake our nerve by constant +buzzing and stinging. I fancy that Meade and his generals after +deciding not to pursue us have changed their minds, perhaps under +pressure from Washington, and mean to cut us off if they can." +</p> + +<p> +"A little late." +</p> + +<p> +"But not too late. We're still in the enemy's country. The whole +population is dead against us, and we can't make a move that isn't +known within an hour to the Union leaders. I tell you, Harry, that if +we didn't have a Lee to lead I'd be afraid that we'd never get out of +Pennsylvania." +</p> + +<p> +"But we have a Lee and the question is settled. What a volley that +was! Didn't you feel the twigs and leaves falling on your face?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, it went directly over our heads. It's a good thing we're lying +so close. Perhaps they intend to force a passage of the creek and +stampede at least a portion of our camp." +</p> + +<p> +"And you're here to prevent it." +</p> + +<p> +"I am. They can't cross that creek in face of our fire. We're good +night-hawks. Every boy in the South knows the night and the woods, and +here in the bush we're something like Indians." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm the descendant of a famous Indian fighter myself," said Harry. And +there, surrounded by deep gloom and danger, the spirit of his mighty +ancestor, the great Henry Ware, descended upon him once more. An +orderly had taken their horses to the rear, where they would be out of +range of the bullets, and, as they crouched low in the bushes, +Sherburne looked curiously at him. +</p> + +<p> +Harry's face as he turned from the soldier to the Indian fighter of old +had changed. To Sherburne's fascinated gaze the eyes seemed amazingly +vivid and bright, like those of one who has learned to see in the dark. +The complexion was redder—Henry Ware had always burned red instead of +brown—like that of one who sleeps oftener in the open air than in a +house. His whole look was dominant, compelling and fierce, as he +leaned on his elbows and studied the opposing thickets through his +glasses. +</p> + +<p> +The glasses even did not destroy the illusion. To Sherburne, who had +learned Harry's family history, the great Henry Ware was alive, and in +the flesh before him. He felt with all the certainty of truth that the +Union skirmishers in the thicket could not escape the keen eyes that +sought them out. +</p> + +<p> +"I can see at least twenty men creeping about among the bushes, and +seeking chances for shots," whispered Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"I knew that you would see them." +</p> + +<p> +It was Harry's turn to give a look of curiosity. +</p> + +<p> +"What do you mean, Captain?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"I knew that you had good eyes and I believed that with the aid of the +glasses you would be able to trace figures, despite the shelter of the +bushes. Study the undergrowth again, will you, Harry, and tell me what +more you can see there?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't need to study it. I can tell at one look that they're +gathering a force. Maybe they mean to rush the creek at a shallow +place." +</p> + +<p> +"Is that force moving in any direction?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, it's going down the creek." +</p> + +<p> +"Then we'll go down the creek with it. We mustn't be lacking in +hospitality." +</p> + +<p> +Sherburne drew a whistle from his pocket and blew a low call upon it. +Scores of shadowy figures rose from the undergrowth, and followed his +lead down the stream. Harry was still able to see that the force on +the other side was increasing largely in numbers, but Sherburne +reminded him that his duties, as far as the coming skirmish was +concerned, were over. +</p> + +<p> +"General Lee didn't send you here to get killed," he said. "He wants +you instead to report how many of us get killed. You know that while +the general is a kind man he can be stern, too, and you're not to take +the risk. The orderly is behind that hill with your horse and mine." +</p> + +<p> +Harry, with a sigh, fell back toward the hill. But he did not yet go +behind it, where the orderly stood. Instead he lay down among the +trees on the slope, where he could watch what was going forward, and +once more his face turned to the likeness of the great Indian fighter. +</p> + +<p> +He saw Sherburne's dismounted troop and others, perhaps five hundred in +all, moving slowly among the bushes parallel with the stream, and he +saw a force which he surmised to be of about equal size, creeping along +in the undergrowth on the other side. He followed both bodies with his +glasses. With long looking everything became clearer and clearer. The +moonlight had to him almost the brilliancy of day. +</p> + +<p> +His eyes followed the Union force, until it came to a point where the +creek ran shallow over pebbles. Then the Union leader raised his +sword, uttered a cry of command, and the whole force dashed at the +ford. The cry met its response in an order from Sherburne, and the +thickets flamed with the Southern rifles. +</p> + +<p> +The advantage was wholly with the South, standing on the defense in +dark undergrowth, and the Union troop, despite its desperate attempts +at the ford, was beaten back with great loss. +</p> + +<p> +Harry waited until the result was sure, and then he walked slowly over +the hill toward the point, where the orderly was waiting with the +horses. The man, who knew him, handed him the reins of his mount, +saying at the same time: +</p> + +<p> +"I've a note for you, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"For me?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir. It was handed to me about fifteen minutes ago by a large +man in our uniform, whom I didn't know." +</p> + +<p> +"Probably a dispatch that I'm to carry to General Lee." +</p> + +<p> +"No, sir. It's addressed to you." +</p> + +<p> +The note was written in pencil on a piece of coarse gray paper, folded +several times, but with a face large enough to show Harry's name upon +it. He wondered, but said nothing to the sentinel, and did not look at +the note again, until he had ridden some distance. +</p> + +<p> +He stopped in a little glade where the moonlight fell clearly. He +still heard scattered firing behind him, but he knew that the skirmish +was in reality over, and he concluded that no further attempt by Union +detachments to advance would be made in the face of such vigilance. He +could report to General Lee that the rear of his army was safe. So he +would delay and look at the letter that had come to him out of the +mysterious darkness. +</p> + +<p> +The superscription was in a large, bold hand, and read: +</p> + +<p><br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + LIEUTENANT HARRY KENTON,<br /> + STAFF OF GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, C. S. A.,<br /> + COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF,<br /> + ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA.<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +He felt instinctively that something uncommon was coming, and, as most +people do when they are puzzled at the appearance of a letter, he +looked at it some seconds before opening it. Then he read: +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="letter"> +MR. KENTON: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +I have warned you twice before, once when Jefferson Davis was +inaugurated at Montgomery, and once again in Virginia. I told you that +the South could never win. I told you that she might achieve brilliant +victories, and she may achieve them even yet, but they will avail her +nothing. Victories permit her to maintain her position for the time +being, but they do not enable her to advance. A single defeat causes +her to lose ground that she can never regain. +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +I tell you this as a warning. Although your enemy, I have seen you +more than once and talked with you. I like you and would save your +life if I could. I would induce you, if I could, to leave the army and +return to your home, but that I know to be impossible. So, I merely +tell you that you are fighting for a cause now lost. Perhaps it is +pride on my part to remind you that my early predictions have come +true, and perhaps it is a wish that the thought I may plant in your +mind will spread to others. You have lost at Gettysburg a hope and an +offensive that you can never regain, and Grant at Vicksburg has given a +death blow to the Western half of the Confederacy. +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +As for you, I wish you well. +</p> + +<p class="letter"> + WILLIAM J. SHEPARD.<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +Harry stared in amazement at this extraordinary communication, and read +it over two or three times. He was not surprised that Shepard should +be near, and that he should have been inside the Confederate lines, but +that he should leave a letter, and such a letter, for him was uncanny. +His first feeling, wonder, was succeeded by anger. Did Shepard really +think that he could influence him in such a way, that he could plant in +his mind a thought that would spread to others of his age and rank and +weaken the cause for which he fought? It was a singular idea, but +Shepard was a singular man. +</p> + +<p> +But perhaps pride in recalling the prediction that he had made long ago +was Shepard's stronger motive, and Harry took fire at that also. The +Confederacy was not beaten. A single defeat—no, it was not a defeat, +merely a failure to win—was not mortal, and as for the West, the +Confederacy would gather itself together there and overwhelm Grant! +</p> + +<p> +Then came a new emotion, a kind of gratitude to Shepard. The man was +really a friend, and would do him a service, if it could be done, +without injuring his own cause! He could not feel any doubt of it, +else the spy would not have taken the risk to send him such a letter. +He read it for the last time, then tore it into little pieces which he +entrusted to the winds. +</p> + +<p> +The firing behind him had died completely, and there was no sound but +the rustle of dry leaves in the light wind, nothing to tell that there +had been sharp fighting along the creek, and that men lay dead in the +forest. The moon and the stars clothed everything in a whitish light, +that seemed surcharged with a powerful essence, and this essence was +danger. +</p> + +<p> +The spirit of the great forest ranger descended upon him once more, and +he read the omens, all of which were sinister. He foresaw terrible +campaigns, mighty battles in the forest, and a roll of the dead so long +that it seemed to stretch away into infinity. +</p> + +<p> +Then he shook himself violently, cast off the spell, and rode rapidly +back with his report. Lee had risen and was standing under a tree. He +was fully dressed and his uniform was trim and unwrinkled. Harry +thought anew as he rode up, what a magnificent figure he was. He was +the only great man he ever saw who really looked his greatness. +Nothing could stir that calm. Nothing could break down that loftiness +of manner. Harry was destined to feel then, as he felt many times +afterward, that without him the South had never a chance. And the +choking came in his throat again, as he thought of him who was gone, of +him who had been the right arm of victory, the hammer of Thor. +</p> + +<p> +But he hid all these feelings as he quickly dismounted and saluted the +commander-in-chief. +</p> + +<p> +"What have you seen, Lieutenant Kenton?" asked Lee. +</p> + +<p> +"A considerable detachment of the enemy tried to force the passage of +the creek in our right rear. They were met by Captain Sherburne's +troop dismounted, and three companies of infantry, and were driven back +after a sharp fight." +</p> + +<p> +"Very good. Captain Sherburne is an alert officer." +</p> + +<p> +He turned away, and Harry, giving his horse to an orderly, again +resumed his old position under a tree, out of hearing of the generals, +but in sight. Dalton was not there, but he knew that skirmishing had +occurred in other directions, and doubtless the Virginian had been sent +on an errand like his own. +</p> + +<p> +He had a sense of rest and realization as he leaned back against the +tree. But it was mental tension, not physical, for which relief came, +and Shepard, much more than the battle at the creek, was in his +thoughts. +</p> + +<p> +The strong personality of the spy and his seeming omniscience oppressed +him again. Apparently he was able to go anywhere, and nothing could be +hidden from him. He might be somewhere in the circling shadows at that +very moment, watching Lee and his lieutenants. His pulses leaped. +Shepard had achieved an extraordinary influence over him, and he was +prepared to believe the impossible. +</p> + +<p> +He stood up and stared into the bushes, but sentinels stood there, and +no human being could pass their ring unseen. Presently Dalton came, +made a brief report to General Lee and joined his comrade. Harry was +glad of his arrival. The presence of a comrade brought him back to +earth and earth's realities. The sinister shadows that oppressed him +melted away and he saw only the ordinary darkness of a summer night. +</p> + +<p> +The two sat side by side. Dalton perhaps drew as much strength as +Harry from the comradeship, and they watched other messengers arrive +with dispatches, some of whom rolled themselves in their blankets at +once, and went to sleep, although three, who had evidently slept in the +day, joined Harry and Dalton in their vigil. +</p> + +<p> +Harry saw that the commander-in-chief was holding a council at that +hour, nearer morning than midnight. A general kicked some of the +pieces of burned wood together and fanned them into a light flame, +enough to take away the slight chill that was coming with the morning. +The men stood around it, and talked a long time, although it seemed to +Harry that Lee said least. Nevertheless his tall figure dominated them +all. Now and then Harry saw his face in the starshine, and it bore its +habitual grave and impassive look. +</p> + +<p> +The youth did not hear a word that was said, but his imaginative power +enabled him to put himself in the place of the commander-in-chief. He +knew that no man, however great his courage, could fail to appreciate +his position in the heart of a hostile country, with a lost field +behind him, and with superior numbers hovering somewhere in his rear or +on his flank. He realized then to the full the critical nature of +their position and what a mighty task Lee had to save the army. +</p> + +<p> +One of his young comrades whispered to him that the Potomac, the +barrier between North and South, was rising, flooded by heavy rains in +both mountains and lowlands, and that a body of Northern cavalry had +already destroyed a pontoon bridge built by the South across it. They +might be hemmed in, with their backs to an unfordable river, and an +enemy two or three times as numerous in front. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't you worry," whispered Dalton, with sublime confidence. "The +general will take us to Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +Harry projected his imagination once more. He sought to put himself in +the place of Lee, receiving all the reports and studying them, trying +to measure space that could not be measured, and to weigh a total that +could not be weighed. Greatness and responsibility were compelled to +pay thrice over for themselves, and he was glad that he was only a +young lieutenant, the chief business of whom was to fetch and carry +orders. +</p> + +<p> +Shafts of sunlight were piercing the eastern foliage when the council +broke up, and shortly after daylight the Southern army was again on the +march, with Northern cavalry and riflemen hanging on its flanks and +rear. Harry was permitted to rejoin, for a while, his friends of the +Invincibles and he found Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire riding very erect, a fine color in their faces. +</p> + +<p> +"You come from headquarters, Harry, and therefore you are omniscient," +said Colonel Talbot. "We heard firing in the night. What did it mean?" +</p> + +<p> +"Only skirmishers, Colonel. I think they wanted to annoy us, but they +paid the price." +</p> + +<p> +"Inevitably. Our general is as dangerous in retreat as in advance. I +fancy that General Meade will not bring up his lagging forces until we +near the Potomac." +</p> + +<p> +"They say it's rising, sir, and that it will be very hard to cross." +</p> + +<p> +"That creates a difficulty but not an impossibility. Ordinary men +yield to difficulties, men like our commander-in-chief are overcome +only by impossibilities. But the further we go, Harry, the more +reconciled I grow to our withdrawal. I have seen scarcely a friendly +face among the population. I would not have us thrust ourselves upon +people who do not like us. It would go very hard with our kindly +Southern nature to have to rule by force over people who are in fact +our brethren. Defensive wars are the just wars, and perhaps it will be +really better for us to retire to Virginia and protect its sacred soil +from the tread of the invader. Eh, Hector?" +</p> + +<p> +"Right, as usual, Leonidas. The reasons for our retirement are most +excellent. We have already spoken of the fact that Philadelphia might +prove a Capua for our young troops, and now we are relieved from the +chance of appearing as oppressors. It can never be said of us by the +people of Pennsylvania that we were tyrants. It's an invidious task to +rule over the unwilling, even when one rules with justice and wisdom. +It's strange, perhaps, Leonidas, but it's a universal truth, that +people would rather be ruled by themselves in a second rate manner than +by the foreigner in a first rate manner. Now, the government of our +states is attacked by Northern critics, but such as it is, it is ours +and it's our first choice. Do we bore you, Harry?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not at all, sir. I never listen to either you or Colonel Talbot +without learning something." +</p> + +<p> +The two colonels bowed politely. +</p> + +<p> +"I have wished for some time to speak to you about a certain matter, +Hector," said Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"What is it, Leonidas?" +</p> + +<p> +"During the height of that tremendous artillery fire from Little Round +Top I was at a spot where I could see the artillerymen very well +whenever the smoke lifted. Several times, I noticed an officer +directing the fire of the guns, and I don't think I could have been +mistaken in his identity." +</p> + +<p> +"No, Leonidas, you were not. I too observed him, and we could not +possibly be mistaken. It was John Carrington, of course." +</p> + +<p> +"Dear old John Carrington, who was with us at West Point, the greatest +artilleryman in the world. And he was facing us, when the fortunes of +the South were turning on a hair. If any other man had been there, +directing those guns, we might have taken Cemetery Hill." +</p> + +<p> +"That's true, Leonidas, but it was not possible for any other man to be +in such a place at such a time. Granting that such a crisis should +arise and that it should arise at Gettysburg you and I would have known +long before that John would be there with the guns to stop us. Why, we +saw that quality in him all the years we were with him at West Point. +The world has never seen and never will see another such artilleryman +as John Carrington." +</p> + +<p> +"Good old John. I hope he wasn't killed." +</p> + +<p> +"And I hope so too, from the bottom of my heart. But we'll know before +many days." +</p> + +<p> +"How will you find out?" asked Harry curiously. +</p> + +<p> +Both colonels laughed genially. +</p> + +<p> +"Because he will send us signs, unmistakable signs," replied Colonel +Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't understand, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"His signs will be shells, shrapnel and solid shot. We may not have a +battle this week or next week, but a big one is bound to come some time +or other and then if any section of the Northern artillery shows +uncommon deadliness and precision we'll know that Carrington is there. +Why, we can recognize his presence as readily as the deer scents the +hunter. We'll have many notes to compare with him when the war is over." +</p> + +<p> +Harry sincerely hoped that the three would meet in friendship around +some festive table, and he was moved by the affection and admiration +the two colonels held for Carrington. Doubtless the great +artilleryman's feelings toward them were the same. +</p> + +<p> +They went into camp once more that night in a pleasant rolling country +of high hills, rich valleys, scattered forests, and swift streams of +clear water. Harry liked this Northern land, which was yet not so far +from the South. It was not more beautiful than his own Kentucky, but +it was much trimmer and neater than the states toward the Gulf. He saw +all about him the evidences of free labor, the proof that man worked +more readily, and with better results, when success or failure were all +his own. +</p> + +<p> +He was too young to spend much time in concentrated thinking, but as he +looked upon the neat Pennsylvania houses and farms and the cultivated +fields he felt the curse of black slavery in the South, but he felt +also that it was for the South itself to abolish it, and not for the +armed hand of the outsider, an outsider to whom its removal meant no +financial loss and dislocation. +</p> + +<p> +Despite himself his mind dwelt upon these things longer than before. He +disliked slavery, his father disliked it, and nearly all their friends +and relatives, and here they were fighting for it, as one of the two +great reasons of the Civil War. He felt anew how strangely things come +about, and that even the wisest cannot always choose their own courses +as they wish them. +</p> + +<p> +A fire, chiefly for cooking purposes, had been built for the general +and his staff in a cove surrounded by trees. A small cold spring +gushed from the side of a hill, flowed down the center of the cove, and +then made its way through the trees into the wider world beyond. It +was a fine little spring, and before the general came, the younger +members of the staff knelt and drank deeply at it. It brought thoughts +of home to all these young rovers of the woods, who had drunk a +thousand times before at just such springs as this. +</p> + +<p> +Soon Lee and his generals sat there on the stones or on the moss. +Longstreet, Stuart, Pickett, Alexander, Ewell, Early, Hill and many +others, some suffering from wounds, were with their commander, while +the young officers who were to fetch and carry sat on the fringe in the +woods, or stretched themselves on the turf. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was in the group, but except in extreme emergency he would not be +on duty that night, as he had already been twenty-four hours in the +saddle. Nevertheless he was not yet sleepy, and lying on his blanket, +he watched the leaders confer, as they had conferred every other night +since the Battle of Gettysburg. He was aware, too, that the air was +heavy with suspense and anxiety. He breathed it in at every breath. +Cruel doubt was not shown by words or actions, but it was an atmosphere +which one could not mistake. +</p> + +<p> +Word had been brought in the afternoon by hard riders of Stuart that +the Potomac was still rising. It could not be forded and the active +Northern cavalry was in between, keeping advanced parties of the +Southern army from laying pontoons. Every day made the situation more +desperate, and it could not be hidden from the soldiers, who, +nevertheless, marched cheerfully on, in the sublime faith that Lee +would carry them through. +</p> + +<p> +Harry knew that if the Army of the Potomac was not active in pursuit +its cavalrymen and skirmishers were. As on the night before, he heard +the faint report of shots, and he knew that rough work was going +forward along the doubtful line, where the fringes of the two armies +almost met. But hardened so much was he that he fell asleep while the +generals were still in anxious council, and the fitful firing continued +in the distant dark. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap03"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER III +</h3> + +<h3> +THE FLOODED RIVER +</h3> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton were aroused before daylight by Colonel Peyton of +Lee's staff, with instructions to mount at once, and join a strong +detachment, ready to go ahead and clear a way. Sherburne's troop would +lead. The Invincibles, for whom mounts had been obtained, would follow. +There were fragments of other regiments, the whole force amounting to +about fifteen hundred men, under the command of Sherburne, who had been +raised the preceding afternoon to the rank of Colonel, and whose skill +and valor were so well known that such veterans as Colonel Talbot and +Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire were glad to serve under him. Harry and +Dalton would represent the commander-in-chief, and would return +whenever Colonel Sherburne thought fit to report to him. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was glad to go. While he had his periods of intense thought, and +his character was serious, he was like his great ancestor, essentially +a creature of action. His blood flowed more swiftly with the beat of +his horse's hoofs, and his spirits rose as the free air of the fields +and forests rushed past him. Moreover he was extremely anxious to see +what lay ahead. If barriers were there he wanted to look upon them. If +the Union cavalry were trying to keep them from laying bridges across +the Potomac he wanted to help drive them away. +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton had a right as aides and messengers of Lee to ride +with Sherburne, but before they joined him they rode among the +Invincibles, who were in great feather, because they too, for the time +being, rode, and toiled in neither dust nor mud. +</p> + +<p> +"Colonel Sherburne may think a good deal of his own immediate troop," +said St. Clair to Harry, "but if the men of the Invincibles could +achieve so much on foot they'll truly deserve their name on horseback. +Where is this enemy of ours? Lead us to him." +</p> + +<p> +"You'll find him soon enough," said Harry. "You South Carolina talkers +have learned many times that the Yankees will fight." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, Harry, I admit it freely. But you must admit on your part that +the South Carolinians will fight as well as talk, although at present +most of the South Carolinians in this regiment are Virginians." +</p> + +<p> +"But not our colonel and lieutenant-colonel," said Happy Tom. "Real +old South Carolina still leads." +</p> + +<p> +"May they always lead!" said Harry heartily, looking at the two gray +figures. +</p> + +<p> +"Tell Colonel Sherburne," said Happy Tom, who was in splendid spirits, +"that we congratulate him on his promotion and are ready to obey him +without question." +</p> + +<p> +"All right. He'll be glad to know that he has your approval." +</p> + +<p> +"He might have the approval of worse men. I feel surging within me the +talents of a great general, but I'm too young to get 'em recognized." +</p> + +<p> +"You'll have to wait until the sections are not fighting each other, +but are united against a common foe. But meanwhile I'll tell Colonel +Sherburne that if he gets into a tight pinch not to lose heart as you +are here." +</p> + +<p> +Saluting Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire, Harry and +Dalton rode to the head of the column, where Sherburne led. They ate +their breakfast on horseback, and went swiftly down a valley in the +general direction of the Potomac. The dawn had broadened into full +morning, clear and bright, save for a small cloud that hung low in the +southwest, which Sherburne noticed with a frown. +</p> + +<p> +"That's a little cloud and it looks innocent," he said to Harry, "but I +don't like it." +</p> + +<p> +"Why not?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because in the ten minutes that I've been watching it I've been able +to notice growth. I'm weather-wise and we may have more rain. More +rain means a higher Potomac. A higher Potomac means more difficulty in +crossing it. More difficulty in crossing it means more danger of our +destruction, and our destruction would mean the end of the Confederacy." +</p> + +<p> +He spoke with deadly earnestness as he continued to look at the tiny +dusky spot on the western sky. Harry had a feeling of awe. Again he +realized that such mighty issues could turn upon a single hair. The +increase or decrease of that black splotch might mean the death or life +of the Confederacy. As he rode he watched it. +</p> + +<p> +His heart sank slowly. The little baby cloud, looking so harmless, was +growing. He said to himself in anger that it was not, but he knew that +it was. Black at the center, it radiated in every direction until it +became pale gray at the edges, and by and by, as it still spread, it +gave to the southwest an aspect that was distinctly sinister. +</p> + +<p> +Sherburne shook his head and the gravity of his face increased. As the +cloud grew alarm grew with it in his mind. +</p> + +<p> +"Maybe it will pass," said Harry hopefully. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't think so. It's not moving away. It just hangs there and +grows and grows. You're a woodsman, Harry, and you ought to feel it. +Don't you think the atmosphere has changed?" +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't have the courage to say so until you asked me, but it's +damper. If I were posing as a prophet I should say that we're going to +have rain." +</p> + +<p> +"And so should I. Usually at this period of the year in our country we +want rain, but now we dread it like a pestilence. At any other time +the Potomac could rise or fall, whenever it pleased, for all I cared, +but now it's life and death." +</p> + +<p> +"Our doubts are decided and we've lost. Look, sir the whole southwest +is dark now!" +</p> + +<p> +"And here come the first drops!" +</p> + +<p> +Sherburne sent hurried orders among the men to keep their ammunition +and weapons dry, and then they bent their heads to the storm which +would beat almost directly in their faces. Soon it came without much +preliminary thunder and lightning. The morning that had been warm +turned cold and the rain poured hard upon them. Most of the horsemen +were wet through in a short time, and they shivered in their sodden +uniforms, but it was a condition to which they were used, and they +thought little of themselves but nearly all the while of the Potomac. +</p> + +<p> +Few words were spoken. The only sounds were the driving of the rain +and the thud of many hoofs in the mud. Harry often saw misty figures +among the trees on the hills, and he knew that they were watched by +hostile eyes as the Northern armies in Virginia, were always watched +with the same hostility. It was impossible for Lee's men to make any +secret march. The population, intensely loyal to the Union, promptly +carried news of it to Meade or his generals. +</p> + +<p> +Twice he pointed out the watchers to Sherburne who merely shrugged his +shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +"I might send out men and cut off a few of them," he said, "but for +what good? Hundreds more would be left and we'd merely be burdened +with useless prisoners. Here's a creek ahead, Harry, and look how +muddy and foamy it is! It's probably raining harder higher up in the +hills than it is here, and all these creeks and brooks go to swell the +Potomac." +</p> + +<p> +The swift water rose beyond their stirrups and there was a vast +splashing as fifteen hundred men rode through the creek. It was a land +of many streams, and a few miles farther on they crossed another, +equally swollen and swift. +</p> + +<p> +They had hoped that the rain, like the sudden violence of a summer +shower, would pass soon, but the skies remained a solid gray and it +settled into a steady solemn pour, cold and threatening, and promising +to continue all day long. They could see that every stream they +crossed was far above its normal mark, and the last hope that they +might find the Potomac low enough for fording disappeared. +</p> + +<p> +The watchers on the hills were still there, despite the rain, but they +did no sharpshooting. Nor did the Southern force do damage to anybody +or anything, as it passed. Near noon Sherburne resolved to build a +fire in a cove protected by cliffs and heavy timber, and give his men +warm food lest they become dispirited. +</p> + +<p> +It was a task to set the wet wood, but the men of his command, used to +forest life, soon mastered it. Then they threw on boughs and whole +tree trunks, until a great bonfire blazed and roared merrily, thrusting +out innumerable tongues of red and friendly flame. +</p> + +<p> +"Is there anything more beautiful than a fine fire at such a time?" +said St. Clair to Harry. "As it blazes and eats into the wood it +crackles and those crackling sounds are words." +</p> + +<p> +"What do the words say?" +</p> + +<p> +"They say, 'Come here and stand before me. So long as you respect me +and don't come too close I'll do you nothing but good. I'll warm you +and I'll dry you. I'll drive the wet from your skin and your clothes, +and I'll chase the cold out of your body and bones. I'll take hold of +your depressed and sunken heart and lift it up again. Where you saw +only gray and black I'll make you see gold and red. I'll warm and cook +your food for you, giving you fresh life and strength. With my +crackling coals and my leaping flames I'll change your world of despair +into a world of hope.'" +</p> + +<p> +"Hear! Hear!" said Happy Tom. "Arthur has turned from a sodden +soldier into a giddy poet! Is any more poetry left in the barrel, +Arthur?" +</p> + +<p> +"Plenty, but I won't turn on the tap again to-day. I've translated for +you. I've shown you where beauty and happiness lie, and you must do +the rest for yourself." +</p> + +<p> +They crowded about the huge fire which ran the entire length of the +cove, and watched the cooks who had brought their supplies on +horseback. Great quantities of coffee were made, and they had bacon and +hard biscuits. +</p> + +<p> +Although the rain still reached them in the cove they forgot it as they +ate the good food—any food was good to them—and drank cup after cup +of hot coffee. Youthful spirits rose once more. It wasn't such a bad +day after all! It had rained many times before and people still lived. +Also, the Potomac had risen many times before, but it always fell +again. They were riding to clear the way for Lee's invincible army +which could go wherever it wanted to go. +</p> + +<p> +"Men on horseback looking at us!" hailed Happy Tom. "About fifty on a +low hill on our right. Look like Yankee cavalrymen. Wonder what they +take us for anyway!" +</p> + +<p> +Harry, St. Clair, Langdon and Dalton walked to the edge of the cove, +every one holding a cup of hot coffee in his hand. Sherburne was +already there and with his glasses was examining the strange group, as +well as he could through the sweeping rain. +</p> + +<p> +"A scouting party undoubtedly," he said, "but weather has made their +uniforms and ours look just about alike. It's equally certain though +that they're Yankees. No troop of ours so small would be found here." +</p> + +<p> +Harry was also watching them through glasses, and he took particular +note of one stalwart figure mounted upon a powerful horse. The +distance was too great to recognize the face, but he knew the swing of +the broad shoulders. It was Shepard and once more he had the uneasy +feeling winch the man always inspired in him. He appeared and +reappeared with such facility, and he was so absolutely trackless that +he had begun to appear to him as omniscient. Of course the man knew +all about Sherburne's advance and could readily surmise its purpose. +</p> + +<p> +"They're an impudent lot to sit there staring at us in that +supercilious manner," said Colonel Talbot. "Shall I take the +Invincibles, sir, and teach them a lesson?" +</p> + +<p> +Sherburne smiled and shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +"No, Colonel," he said, "although I thank you for the offer. They'd +melt away before you and we'd merely waste our energies. Let them look +as much as they please, and now that the boys have eaten their bread +and bacon and drunk their coffee, and are giants again, we'll ride on +toward the Potomac." +</p> + +<p> +"Do we reach it to-day, sir?" asked Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"Not before to-morrow afternoon, even if we should not be interrupted. +This is the enemy's country and we may run at any time into a force as +large as our own if not larger." +</p> + +<p> +"Thank you for the information, Colonel Sherburne. My ignorance of +geography may appear astonishing to you, although we had to study it +very hard at West Point. But I admit my weakness and I add, as perhaps +some excuse, that I have lately devoted very little attention to the +Northern states. It did not seem worth my time to spend much study on +the rivers, and creeks and mountains of what is to be a foreign +country—although I may never be able to think of John Carrington and +many other of my old friends in the army as the foreigners they're sure +to become. Has the thought ever occurred to you, Colonel, that by our +victories we're making a tremendous lot of foreigners in America?" +</p> + +<p> +"It has, Colonel Talbot, but I can't say that the thought has ever been +a particularly happy one." +</p> + +<p> +"It's the Yankees who are being made into foreigners," said +Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. "The gallant Southern people, of +course, remain what they are." +</p> + +<p> +"They're going," said Harry. "They've seen enough of us." +</p> + +<p> +The distant troop disappeared over the crest of the hill. Harry had +noticed that Shepard led the way as if he were the ruling spirit, but +he did not consider it necessary to say anything to the others about +him. The trumpet blew and Sherburne's force, mounting, rode away from +the cove. Harry cast one regretful glance back at the splendid fire +which still glowed there, and then resigned himself to the cold and +rain. +</p> + +<p> +They did not stop again until far in the night. The rain ceased, but +the whole earth was sodden and the trees on the low ridge, on which +Sherburne camped, dripped with water. Spies might be all around them, +but for the sake of physical comfort and the courage that he knew would +come with it, he ordered another big fire built. Vigilant riflemen +took turns in beating up the forests and fields for possible enemies, +but the young officers once more enjoyed the luxury of the fire. Their +clothing was dried thoroughly, and their tough and sinewy frames +recovered all their strength and elasticity. +</p> + +<p> +"To enjoy being dry it is well to have been wet," said Dalton +sententiously. +</p> + +<p> +"That's just like you, you old Presbyterian," said Happy Tom. "I +suppose you'll argue next that you can't enjoy Heaven unless you've +first burned in the other place for a thousand years." +</p> + +<p> +"There may be something in that," said Dalton gravely, "although the +test, of course, would be an extremely severe one." +</p> + +<p> +"I know which way you're headed, George." +</p> + +<p> +"Then tell me, because I don't know myself." +</p> + +<p> +"As soon as this war is over you'll enter the ministry, and no sin will +get by you, not even those nice little ones that all of us like to +forgive." +</p> + +<p> +"Maybe you're right, Happy, and if I do go into the ministry I shall at +once begin long and earnest preparation for the task which would +necessarily be the most difficult of my life." +</p> + +<p> +"And may I make so bold as to inquire what it is, George?" +</p> + +<p> +"Your conversion, Happy." +</p> + +<p> +Langdon grinned. +</p> + +<p> +"But why do you want to convert me, George? I'm perfectly happy as I +am." +</p> + +<p> +"For your own well being, Tom. Your happiness is nothing to me, but I +want to make you good." +</p> + +<p> +Both laughed the easy laugh of youth, but Harry looked long at Dalton. +He thought that he detected in him much of the spirit of Stonewall +Jackson, and that here was one who had in him the makings of a great +minister. The thought lingered with him. +</p> + +<p> +St. Clair was carefully smoothing out his uniform and brushing from it +the least particle of mud. His first preoccupation always asserted +itself at the earliest opportunity, and in a very short time he was the +neatest looking man in the entire force. Harry, although he often +jested with him about it, secretly admired this characteristic of St. +Clair's. +</p> + +<p> +"You boys sleep while you can," said Sherburne, "because we can't +afford to linger in this region. Our safety lies in rapid marching, +giving the enemy no chance to gather a large force and trap us. Make +the best of your time because we're up and away an hour after midnight." +</p> + +<p> +The young officers were asleep within ten minutes, but the vigilant +riflemen patrolled the country in a wide circuit about them. Sherburne +himself, although worn by hard riding, slept but little. Anxiety kept +his eyes open. He knew that his task to find a passage for the army +across the swollen Potomac was of the utmost importance and he meant to +achieve it. He understood to the full the dangerous position in which +the chief army of the Confederacy stood. His own force might be +attacked at any moment by overwhelming numbers and be cut off and +destroyed or captured, but he also knew the quality of the men he led, +and he believed they were equal to any task. +</p> + +<p> +As he sat by the fire thinking somberly, a figure in the brush no great +distance away was watching him. Shepard, the spy, in the darkness had +passed with ease between the sentinels, using the skill of an Indian in +stalking or approaching, and now, lying well hidden, almost flat upon +his stomach, he surveyed the camp. He looked at Sherburne, sitting on +a log and brooding, and he made out Harry's figure wrapped in a blanket +and lying with his feet to the fire. +</p> + +<p> +Shepard's mind was powerfully affected. An intense patriot, something +remote and solitary in his nature had caused him to undertake this most +dangerous of all trades, to which he brought an intellectual power and +comprehension that few spies possess. As Harry had discovered long +since, he was a most uncommon man. +</p> + +<p> +Now Shepard as he gazed at this little group felt no hatred for them or +their men. He had devoted his life to the task of keeping the Union +intact. His work must be carried out in obscure ways. He could never +hope for material reward, and if he perished it would be in some +out-of-the-way corner, perhaps at the end of a rope, a man known to so +few that there would be none to forget him. And yet his patriotism was +so great and of such a fine quality that he viewed his enemies around +the fire as his brethren. He felt confident that the armies of the +North would bring them back into the Union, and when that occurred they +must come as Americans on an equal footing with other Americans. They +could not be in the Union and not of it. +</p> + +<p> +But Shepard's feeling for his official enemies would not keep him from +acting against them with all the skill, courage and daring that he +possessed in such supreme measure. He knew that it was Sherburne's +task to open a way for the Army of Northern Virginia to the Potomac and +to find a ford, or, in cooperation with some other force, to build a +bridge. It was for him to defeat the plan if he could. +</p> + +<p> +While the rain all the day before had brought gloom to the hearts of +Sherburne and his men it had filled his with joy, as he thought of the +innumerable brooks and creeks that were pouring their swollen waters +into the Potomac, already swollen too. He meant now to follow +Sherburne's force, see what plan it would attempt, what point, perhaps, +it would select for the bridge, and then bring the Union brigades in +haste to defeat it. +</p> + +<p> +It is said that men often feel when they are watched, although the +watcher is invisible, but it was not so in Sherburne's case. He did +not in the least suspect the presence of Shepard or of any foe, and the +spy, after he had seen all he wished, withdrew, with the same stealth +that had marked his coming. +</p> + +<p> +An hour after midnight all were awakened and they rode away. The next +day they reached the Potomac near Williamsport, where their pontoon +bridge had been destroyed, and looked upon the wide stream of the +Potomac, far too deep for fording. +</p> + +<p> +"If General Lee is attacked on the banks of this river by greatly +superior forces," said Sherburne, "he'll have no time to build bridges. +If we didn't happen to be victorious our forces would have to scatter +into the mountains, where they could be hunted down, man by man." +</p> + +<p> +"But such a thing as that is unthinkable, sir," said Harry. "We may +not win always, but here in the East we never lose. Remember Antietam +and the river at our back." +</p> + +<p> +"Right you are, Harry," said Sherburne more cheerfully. "The general +will get us out of this, and here is where we must cross. The river +may run down enough in two or three days to permit of fording. God +grant that it will!" +</p> + +<p> +"And so say I!" repeated Harry with emphasis. +</p> + +<p> +"I mean to hold this place for our army," continued Sherburne. +</p> + +<p> +"A reserved seat, so to speak." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, that's it. We must keep the country cleared until our main force +comes up. It shouldn't be difficult. I haven't heard of any +considerable body of Union troops between us and the river." +</p> + +<p> +They made camp rapidly in a strong position, built their fires for +cooking, set their horses to grazing and awaited what would come. It +was a dry, clear night, and Harry, who had no duties, save to ride with +a message at the vital moment, looked at once for his friends, the +Invincibles. +</p> + +<p> +St. Clair met him and held up a warning hand, while Happy touched his +lip with his finger. Before the double injunction of silence and +caution, Harry whispered: +</p> + +<p> +"What's happened?" +</p> + +<p> +"A tragedy," replied St. Clair. +</p> + +<p> +"And a victory, too," said Happy Tom. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't understand," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Then look and you will," said St. Clair. +</p> + +<p> +He pointed to a small clear space in which Colonel Leonidas Talbot and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sat on their blankets facing each +other with an empty cracker box between them, upon which their chess +men were spread. The firelight plainly revealed a look of dismay upon +the face of Colonel Talbot, and with equal plainness a triumphant +expression upon that of Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. +</p> + +<p> +"Colonel Talbot has lost his remaining knight," whispered St. Clair. "I +don't know how it came about, but when the event occurred we heard them +both utter a cry. Listen!" +</p> + +<p> +"I fail even yet, Hector, to see just how it occurred." said Colonel +Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"But it has occurred, Leonidas, and that's the main thing. A general +in battle does not always know how he is whipped, but the whipping +hurts just as much." +</p> + +<p> +"You should not show too much elation over your triumph, Hector. +Remember that he laughs best who laughs last." +</p> + +<p> +"I take my laugh whenever I can, Leonidas, because no one knows who is +going to laugh last. It may be that he who laughs in the present will +also laugh at the end. What do you mean by that move, Leonidas?" +</p> + +<p> +"That to you is a mystery, Hector. It's like one of Stonewall +Jackson's flanking marches, and in due time the secret will be revealed +with terrible results." +</p> + +<p> +"Pshaw, Leonidas, you can't frighten a veteran like me. That for your +move, and here's mine in reply." +</p> + +<p> +The two gray heads bent lower over the board as the colonels made move +after move. The youths standing in the shadow of the trees watched +until the second time that night the two uttered a simultaneous cry. +But they were very different in quality. Now Colonel Talbot's +expressed victory and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire's consternation. +</p> + +<p> +"Your bishop, Hector!" exclaimed Colonel Talbot. "Pious and able +gentleman as he is, an honor to his cloth, he is nevertheless my +captive." +</p> + +<p> +"I admit that it was most unexpected, Leonidas. You have matched my +victory with one of yours. It was indeed most skillful and I don't yet +see what led to it." +</p> + +<p> +"Did I not warn you a little while ago that you couldn't frighten me? I +prepared a trap for you, and thus I rise from defeat to victory." +</p> + +<p> +"At any rate we are about even on the evening's work, Leonidas, and we +have made more progress than for the whole six months preceding. It +seems likely now that we can finish our game soon." +</p> + +<p> +A sudden crash of rifle fire toward the east and from a point not +distant told them no. They rose to their feet, but they put the +chessmen away very deliberately, while the young officers hastened to +their posts. The fire continued and spread about them in a half circle, +accompanied now and then by the deeper note of a light field gun. +Sherburne made his dispositions rapidly. All the men remained on foot, +but a certain number were told off to hold the horses in the center of +the camp. +</p> + +<p> +"We're attacked by a large force," said Sherburne, "Our scouts gave us +warning in time. Evidently they wish to drive us away from here +because this will be the ford in case the river falls in time." +</p> + +<p> +"Then you look for a sharp fight?" +</p> + +<p> +"Without question. And remember that you're to avoid all risk if you +can. It's not your business to get shot here, but it is your business, +and your highly important business, to ride back to General Lee with +the news of what's happening. In order to do that it's necessary for +you to remain alive." +</p> + +<p> +"I obey orders," said Harry reluctantly. +</p> + +<p> +"Of course you do. Keep back with the men who are holding the horses. +That fire is growing fast! I'm glad we were able to find a camp so +defensible as this hill." +</p> + +<p> +He hurried away to watch his lines and Harry remained at his station +near the horses, where Dalton was compelled by the same responsibility +to stay with him. It was the first time that Harry had been forced to +remain a mere spectator of a battle raging around him, and while not +one who sought danger for danger's sake, it was hard work to control +himself and remain quiet and unmoved. +</p> + +<p> +"I suspect they're trying to cut us off completely from our own army," +he said to Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"Seems likely to me, too," said Dalton. "Wipe us out here, and hold +the river for themselves. Our scouts assured us that there was no +large force of the enemy in this region. It must have been gathered in +great haste." +</p> + +<p> +"In whatever way it was gathered, it's here, that's sure." +</p> + +<p> +There was a good moon now, and, using his glasses, Harry saw many +details of the battle. The attack was being pressed with great vigor +and courage. He saw in a valley numerous bodies of cavalry, firing +their carbines, and he saw two batteries, of eight light guns each, +move forward for a better range. Soon their shells were exploding near +the hill on which Harry stood, and the fire of the rifles, unbroken +now, grew rapidly in volume. +</p> + +<p> +But the men under Sherburne, youthful though most of them might be, +were veterans. They knew every trick of war, and columns of infantry +swept forward to meet the attack, preceded by the skirmishers, who took +heavy toll of the foe. +</p> + +<p> +"If they'd been able to make it a surprise they might have rushed us," +said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Nobody catches Sherburne sleeping," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"That's true, and because they can't they won't be able to overcome him +here. Now there go our rifles! Listen to that crash. I fancy that +about a thousand were fired together, and they weren't fired for +nothing." +</p> + +<p> +"No," said Dalton, "but the Yankees don't give way. You can see by +their line of fire that they're still coming. Look there! A powerful +body of horse is charging!" +</p> + +<p> +It was unusual to see cavalry attack at night, and the spectacle was +remarkable, as the moonlight fell on the raised sabers. But the +defiant rebel yell, long and fierce, rose from the thicket, and, as the +rifles crashed, the entire front of the charging column was burned +away, as if by a stroke of lightning. But after a moment of hesitation +they came on, only to ride deeper into a rifle fire which emptied +saddles so fast that they were at last compelled to turn and gallop +away. +</p> + +<p> +"Brave men," said Harry. "A gallant charge, but it had to meet too +many Southern rifles, aimed by men who know how to shoot." +</p> + +<p> +"But their infantry are advancing through that wood," said Dalton. +"Hear them cheering above the rifle fire!" +</p> + +<p> +The Northern shout rang through the forest, and the rebel yell, again +full of defiance, replied. The cavalry had been driven off, but the +infantry and artillery were far from beaten. The sixteen guns of the +two batteries were massed on a hill and they began to sweep the +Southern lines with a storm of shells and shrapnel. The forest and the +dark were no protection, because the guns searched every point of the +Southern line with their fire. Sherburne's men were forced to give +ground, before cannon served with such deadly effect. +</p> + +<p> +"What will the colonel do?" asked Dalton. "The big guns give the +Yankees the advantage." +</p> + +<p> +"He'll go straight to the heart of the trouble," said Harry. "He'll +attack the guns themselves." +</p> + +<p> +He did not know actually in what manner Sherburne would proceed, but he +was quite sure that such would be his course. The wary Southern leader +instantly detailed a swarm of his best riflemen to creep through the +woods toward the cannon. In a few minutes the gunners themselves were +under the fire of hidden marksmen who shot surpassingly well. The +gunners, the cannoneers, the spongers, the rammers and the ammunition +passers were cut down with deadly certainty. +</p> + +<p> +The captain of the guns, knowing that the terrible rifle fire was +coming from the thickets, deluged the woods and bushes with shells and +shrapnel, but the riflemen lay close, hugging the ground, and although +a few were killed and more wounded, the vast majority crept closer and +closer, shooting straight and true in the moonlight. The fire from the +batteries became scattered and wild. Their crews were cut down so fast +that not enough men were left to work the guns, and their commander +reluctantly gave the order to withdraw to a less exposed position. +</p> + +<p> +"Rifles triumphant over artillery," said Harry, who studied everything +through his glasses; "but of course the dusk helped the riflemen." +</p> + +<p> +"That's true," said Dalton, "but it takes good men like Sherburne to +use the favoring chances. Now our boys are charging!" +</p> + +<p> +The tremendous rebel yell swelled through the forest, and the Southern +infantry rushed to the attack. Harry saw that the charge was +successful, and his ears told him so too. The firing moved further and +further away, and soon declined in volume. +</p> + +<p> +"They've been beaten off," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"At least for the time," said Dalton, "but I've an idea they'll hang on +our front and may attack again in a day or so." +</p> + +<p> +"How then are you and I to get through and tell General Lee that this +is the place to bridge the Potomac, if it's to be bridged at all?" +</p> + +<p> +Dalton shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know," he replied, "and I won't think about it until Colonel +Sherburne gives his orders." +</p> + +<p> +The sounds of battle died in the distant woods. The last shot, whether +from cannon or rifle, was fired, and the Southern troops returned to +their positions, which they began to fortify strongly. Sherburne +appeared presently, his uniform cut by bullets in two or three places, +but his body untouched. He drew Harry and Dalton aside, where their +words could not be heard by anybody else. +</p> + +<p> +"You two," he said, "were to report to General Lee when I thought fit. +Well, the time has come; Harry, you go first, and, at a suitable +moment, George will follow. We have news of surpassing importance. We +took a number of prisoners in that battle and we were also lucky enough +to rescue several of our men who had been held as captives. We've +learned from them that General Meade, after making up his mind to +pursue, followed straight behind us for a while, but he has now turned +and gone southward in the direction of Frederick. He will cross South +Mountain, advance toward Sharpsburg, and attempt to smash us here, with +our backs to this swollen river. Why, some of the Federal leaders +consider the Army of Northern Virginia as good as destroyed already!" +</p> + +<p> +He spoke with angry emphasis. +</p> + +<p> +"But it isn't," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"No, it isn't. Doubtless General Lee will learn from scouts of his own +of General Meade's flanking movement, but we mustn't take the chance. +Moreover, we must tell him that this is the place for our army to +cross. If the river runs down in two or three days we'll have a ford +here." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm ready to go at any moment," said Harry. "Night helping me, I may +be able to ride through the lines of our enemies out there." +</p> + +<p> +"No, Harry, you must not go that way. They're so vigilant that you +would not have any possible chance. Nor can you ride. You must leave +your horse behind." +</p> + +<p> +"What way then must I go, sir?" +</p> + +<p> +"By the river. We have gathered up a few small boats, used at the +crossing here. You can row, can't you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Fairly well, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"'Twill do, because you're not to stay in the boat long. I want you to +drop down the stream until you're well beyond the Federal lines. Then +leave the boat and strike out across the country for General Lee. You +know the way. You can buy or seize a horse, and you must not fail." +</p> + +<p> +"I will not fail," said Harry confidently. +</p> + +<p> +"You'll succeed if anybody will, and now you must be off. Your pistols +are loaded, Harry? You may have to use them." +</p> + +<p> +They did not delay a minute, going down the shelving shore to the +Potomac, where a man held a small boat against the bank. +</p> + +<p> +"Get in, Harry," said Sherburne. "You'd better drop down three or four +miles, at least. Good-by and good luck." +</p> + +<p> +He shook hands with his colonel and Dalton, took the oars and pulled +far out into the stream. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap04"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER IV +</h3> + +<h3> +A HERALD TO LEE +</h3> + +<p> +When he swept out upon the sullen bosom of the Potomac, Harry looked +back only once. He saw two dim figures going up the bank, and, at its +crest, a line of lights that showed the presence of the Southern force. +There was no sound of firing, and he judged that the enemy had +withdrawn to a distance of two or three miles. +</p> + +<p> +The night had turned darker since the battle ceased, and not many stars +were out. Clouds indicated that flurries of rain might come, but he +did not view them now with apprehension. Darkness and rain would help +a herald to Lee. The current was strong, and he did not have to pull +hard, but, observing presently that the far shore was fringed with +bushes, he sent the boat into their shadow. +</p> + +<p> +He did not anticipate any danger from the southern shore, but the old +inherited caution of the forest runners was strong within him. Under +the hanging bushes he was well hidden, but, in some places, the flood +in the river had turned the current back upon itself, and he was +compelled to pull with vigor on the oars. +</p> + +<p> +The clouds that had threatened did not develop much, and while the +forests were dark, the surface of the river showed clearly in the faint +moonlight. Any object upon it could be seen from either bank, and +Harry was glad that he had sought the shelter of the overhanging +bushes. He realized now that in this region, which was really the +theater of war, many scouts and skirmishers must be about. +</p> + +<p> +The bank above him was rather high and quite steep, for which he was +glad, as it afforded protection. A half mile farther down he came to +the mouth of a creek coming in from the South, and just as he passed it +he heard voices on the bank. He held his boat among the bushes on the +cliff and listened. Several men were talking, but he judged them to be +farmers, not soldiers. Yet they talked of the battle that night, and +Harry surmised that they were looking at the lights in the Southern +camp which might yet be visible from the high point on which they +stood. He could not gather from their words whether they were Northern +or Southern sympathizers, but it did not matter, as he had no intention +of speaking to them, hoping only that they would go away in a few +minutes and let him continue his journey unseen. +</p> + +<p> +His hope speedily came to pass. He heard their voices sinking in the +distance, and leaving the shelter of the bushes he pulled down the +stream once more. Then he found that he had deceived himself about the +clouds. If they had retired, they had merely recoiled, to use the +French phrase, in order to gather again with greater force. +</p> + +<p> +During his short stay among the bushes at the foot of the cliff the +whole heavens had blackened and the air was surcharged with the heavy +damp and tensity that betoken a coming storm. The lightning blazed +across the river thrice, and he heard a mutter which was not that of +cannon. Then came rain and a rushing wind and the surface of the river +was troubled grievously. It rose up in waves like those of a lake, and +Harry's boat rocked and tumbled so badly that in a few minutes it was +half-full of water. +</p> + +<p> +Fearing he might sink, carrying with him his great message, he pulled +again, but fiercely now, for the southern bank and the shelter of the +bushes, which, fortunately for him, grew here in the water's edge. He +shoved his boat with all his might among them, as their tops snapped +and crackled in the hurricane. But he knew he was safe there, and he +continued to push until it reached the edge of the land. +</p> + +<p> +The river would be swollen by another storm, but for the present it did +not bother him greatly. He was more immediately concerned with his +wish to get back to Lee as soon as possible, and he was grateful for +that dense clump of bushes, growing in the very water's edge, because +the wind was blowing like a hurricane and the waves were chasing one +another on the Potomac, like the billows on a lake. He was a fair +oarsman, but it would have taken greater skill than his to have kept +his boat afloat in the tempestuous river. +</p> + +<p> +The bushes formed an absolute protection. His boat swayed with them, +which saved it from being damaged, and the overhanging lee of the cliff +kept most of the rain from him. He also wrapped about his body the +pair of blankets that he always carried, and he sat there not only in +safety, but with a certain physical pleasure. +</p> + +<p> +Once more amid surroundings with the like of which Henry Ware had been +so familiar, the soul of his great ancestor seemed to have descended +upon him. Most young officers, no matter how brave or how skilled in +war, would have been awed and alarmed. He had no comrades at his +elbow. There was no light, no friendly sound to encourage him, he was +as truly alone, so far as his present situation was concerned, as any +pioneer had ever been in the heart of the wilderness. But for him +there was pleasure at that moment in being alone. He did not quiver +when the thunder rolled and crashed above his head, and the lightning +blazed in one Titanic sword slash after another across the surface of +the river. Rather, the wilderness and majesty of the scene appealed to +him. Leaning well back in his boat with his blankets closely wrapped +about him, he watched it, and his soul rose with the storm. +</p> + +<p> +Harry knew from its sudden violence that the rain would soon pass, and +if the waves abated a little he would certainly take his boat into the +river and try his fortunes again. Yet a precious hour was lost, and +nothing could replace it. The thunder ceased by and by and there was +only dim lightning on the far horizon. The waves began to abate, and, +taking off his blankets, he pushed his boat once more into the stream. +</p> + +<p> +It rocked prodigiously and shipped water, but by strenuous effort he +kept it afloat, and as the wind sank still further he decided that he +would seek the northern shore and disembark as soon as possible. It +would be easier to steal through the thickets than to navigate what +amounted to a wild sea. But the banks were yet too high and steep for +a landing, and he continued to row, keeping now near the middle of the +stream. +</p> + +<p> +Wind and rain were dying fast, and he heard a sound behind uncommonly +like the distant swish of oars. It sent an unpleasant thrill through +him, because he wished to be alone on the river at that particular +time, but his eyes, tracing a course through all the dusk and gloom, +rested upon another boat, about two hundred yards away, containing a +single occupant. +</p> + +<p> +A farmer or a riverman, Harry thought, but to his great astonishment +the man suddenly raised himself up a little and shouted to him in a +tremendous voice to halt. Harry had not the least idea of stopping for +anybody. He bent to his oars and rowed swiftly on. Again came that +shout to halt, and it seemed more insolent to him than before. He put +a few more ounces of strength into his arms and shoulders and increased +his speed. +</p> + +<p> +The pursuer, suddenly drawing in his oars, raised a rifle from the +bottom of his boat, and fired point blank at the fugitive. The bullet +whistled so near Harry that he felt his ear burn, and at first thought +he was hit. He would have been glad to fire back, but his pistols could +not carry like his enemy's rifle, and there was nothing to do but flee. +Once again he sought to draw a few more ounces of energy from his body. +But the man behind him was a much greater oarsman than he and gained +rapidly. The stranger, shouting another command to halt, to which no +attention was paid, fired a second time, and the bullet went through +the side of Harry's boat, barely scraping his knee as it passed. +</p> + +<p> +His rage became intense. He had been shot at many times in battle, and +many times he had fired his pistols into the opposing masses, but here +upon this river a man sought his life, as the savages of old sought the +hunter. Another glance showed him that pursuer had closed up half the +distance between them, and, snatching one of the pistols from his belt, +he fired. He knew that he had missed, as he saw the water spurt up +beside the boat, but he thought that his bullet and the probability of +more might delay the pursuit. Nevertheless the man came on as boldly +and as fast as ever. If he fired a third time he could scarcely miss +at such short range. +</p> + +<p> +It seemed to Harry the gift of Heaven, that a whole pack of clouds +should drift above them at that moment, deepening the obscurity and +making the pursuing boat, although it was so near, a shapeless form in +the mist. He could not see the features of the man, but he was able to +discern his large and powerful figure, and he noticed the rhythmic +manner in which his arms and shoulders worked at the oars. Obviously +he had no chance to escape him by flight, and drawing his second pistol +he fired. The bullet struck the boat but did no damage. The man came +on faster than ever. Harry took a desperate resolution, and, whirling +his boat about, he rowed it straight at his pursuer, who was now almost +level with him. He intended to ram and take his chances. His movement +was so quick and unexpected that it succeeded. The bow of his boat, +helped perhaps by a wave, struck the other with such violence that both +were shattered and sank instantly. +</p> + +<p> +Harry went down with his craft, but in a few seconds came up again, his +mouth and eyes full of muddy water. He was a splendid swimmer, and his +eyes clearing in a moment he looked toward the northern shore, seeking +an easy place for landing. They encountered ten feet away a large +sun-browned face and two burning eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"Shepard!" Harry gasped. +</p> + +<p> +"And so it was you, Lieutenant Kenton. Perhaps if I had known it was +you I wouldn't have fired upon you." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't let that deter you. We're enemies." +</p> + +<p> +"I merely said 'perhaps!' I like you, but that wouldn't keep me from +stopping you by any method I could from reaching Lee." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm sure it wouldn't. I like you, too, Mr. Shepard, but we're enemies +here in this river, deadly enemies, and I mean to beat you off." +</p> + +<p> +"One may mean to do a thing and yet not do it. I'm the larger and the +more powerful. Besides, I'm toughened by superior age. You'd better +surrender, Mr. Kenton. I don't want to do you any bodily harm." +</p> + +<p> +"I admit that you're larger and stronger, but on land only. I'm the +better swimmer. We're both floating now, but if you'll make a +comparison, Mr. Shepard, you'll find that I'm doing it with the +greatest ease. Take my advice, and swim to the southern bank of the +river while I go to the northern. I say it in all good faith." +</p> + +<p> +"I've no doubt of that, but the young are likely to over-estimate their +powers. I'm a good swimmer, and you can't escape me." +</p> + +<p> +"The important point is not whether I can escape you, but whether you +can escape me. Since you have lost your boat and your rifle and we're +in such a treacherous and unstable element as water, I occupy the +superior position. The young may indeed over-estimate their powers, +but in swimming at least I'm a competent critic. For instance, you're +holding your shoulders too high, and you kick too much. You're +splashing water, a useless waste of energy. Now observe me. The +surface of this river is rough. Little waves are yet running upon it, +but I float as easily as a fish, come up to see by the moon what time +it is. It is not egotism on my part, merely a recognition of the +facts, but I warn you, Mr. Shepard, to swim to the other shore and let +me alone." +</p> + +<p> +The two were not ten feet apart, and, despite the lightness of their +talk, their eyes burned with eagerness and intensity. Harry knew that +Shepard would not dream of turning back. Yet in the water he awaited +the result with a confidence that he would not have felt on land. +</p> + +<p> +"It's your move, Mr. Shepard," he said. +</p> + +<p> +The intensity of Shepard's gaze increased, and Harry never took his +eyes from those of his enemy. He intended like a prize fighter to read +there what the man's next effort would be. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't see that it's my move," said Shepard, as he floated calmly. +</p> + +<p> +"You're following me for the purpose of capturing me." +</p> + +<p> +"To capture you, or delay you. Meanwhile, it seems to me that I'm +delaying you very successfully. I can't see that you're making much +progress towards Lee." +</p> + +<p> +"That depends upon which way this river is flowing. You note that we +float gently with the stream." +</p> + +<p> +"It's a poor argument. The Potomac flows directly by Washington, and +if we were to float on we'd float into the heart of great Northern +fortresses instead of Lee's camp." +</p> + +<p> +"That's true as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough. I'm +leaving the river soon. You can have it all then." +</p> + +<p> +"Thanks, but I think I'll go with you, Lieutenant Kenton." +</p> + +<p> +"Then come to the bottom!" exclaimed Harry, as he dived forward like a +flash, seized Shepard by the ankles and headed for the bottom of the +river with him. The water gurgled in his eyes and ears and nose, but +he held on for many seconds, despite the man's desperate struggles. +Then he was forced to let go and rise. +</p> + +<p> +As his head shot above the stream he saw another shooting up in the +same manner about fifteen feet away. Both were choked and gasping, but +Harry managed to say: +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't intend for you to come up so soon." +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose not, but perhaps you didn't pause to think that when you +rose I'd rise with you." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, that's true. It seems to me that matters grow complicated. Can't +you persuade yourself, Mr. Shepard, to go and leave me alone? I really +have no use for you here." +</p> + +<p> +"I'd like to oblige you, Lieutenant Kenton, but I intend to see that +you don't reach General Lee." +</p> + +<p> +"Still harping upon that? It seems to me that you're a stupidly +stubborn man. Don't you know that I'm going anyhow?" +</p> + +<p> +Harry had never ceased to watch his eyes, and he saw there the signal +of a coming movement. Shepard dived suddenly for him, intending to +repeat his own trick, but the youth was like a fish in the water, and +he darted to the right. The man came up grasping nothing. Harry +laughed. The chagrin of Shepard compelled his amusement, although he +liked the man. +</p> + +<p> +"I wish you'd go away, Mr. Shepard," he said. "On land you could, +perhaps, overpower me, but in the water I think I'm your master. All +through my boyhood I devoted a great deal of my time to swimming. Dr. +Russell of the Pendleton Academy—but you never knew him—used to say +that if I would swim less and study more I could make greater +pretensions to scholarship." +</p> + +<p> +Shepard, swimming rather easily, regarded him thoughtfully. +</p> + +<p> +"While we talk to each other in this more or less polite manner, Mr. +Kenton," he said, "we must not forget that we're in deadly earnest. I +mean to take you, and our scouts mean to take every other messenger who +goes out from Colonel Sherburne's camp. You know, and I know, that if +the Army of Northern Virginia does not reach in a few days that camp, +where there is a ford in ordinary weather, it will be driven up against +the Potomac and we can accumulate such great forces against it that it +cannot possibly escape. Even at Sherburne's place its escape is more +than doubtful, if it has to linger long." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I know these things quite well, Mr. Shepard. I know also, as you +do, that General Meade's army is not in direct pursuit, and, that in a +flanking movement, he is advancing across South Mountain and toward +Sharpsburg. It is a march well calculated and extremely dangerous to +General Lee, if he does not hear of it in time. But he will hear of it +soon enough. A comrade of mine, George Dalton, will tell him. Others +from Colonel Sherburne's camp will tell him, and I mean to tell him +too. I hope to be the first to do so." +</p> + +<p> +Harry never deceived himself for a moment. He knew that although +Shepard liked him, he would go to the uttermost to stop him, and as for +himself, while he had a friendly feeling for the spy, he meant to use +every weapon he could against him. Realizing that he could not linger +much longer, as the chill of the water was already entering his body, +he swam closer to Shepard, still staring directly into his eyes. How +thankful he was now for those innumerable swimmings in the little river +that ran near Pendleton! Everything learned well justifies itself some +day. +</p> + +<p> +Although there was but little moonlight they were so close together +that they could see the eyes of each other clearly, and Harry detected +a trace of uneasiness in those of Shepard. A good swimmer, the water +nevertheless was not his element, and although a man of great physique +and extraordinary powers, he longed for the solid earth under his feet. +</p> + +<p> +Harry drew himself together as if he were going to dive, but instead of +doing so suddenly raised himself in the water and shot forth his +clenched tight fist with all his might. Shepard was taken completely +by surprise and he sank back under the water, leaving a blood stain on +its surface. Harry watched anxiously, but Shepard came up again in a +moment or two, gasping and swimming wildly. The point of his jaw was +presented fairly and Harry struck again as hard as he could in the +water. Shepard with a choked cry went under and Harry, diving forward, +seized his body, bringing it to the surface. +</p> + +<p> +Shepard was senseless, but getting an arm under his shoulders Harry was +able to swim with him to the northern shore, although it took nearly +all his strength. Then he dragged him out upon the bank, and sank +down, panting, beside him. +</p> + +<p> +The great Civil War in America, the greatest of all wars until nearly +all the nations of Europe joined in a common slaughter, was a humane +war compared with other wars approaching it in magnitude. It did not +occur to Harry to let Shepard drown, nor did he leave him senseless on +the bank. As soon as his own strength returned he dragged him into a +half-sitting position, and rubbed the palms of his hands. The spy +opened his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"Good-by, Mr. Shepard," said Harry. "I'm bound to leave before you +recover fully because then I wouldn't be your match. I'm sorry I had +to hit you so hard, but there was nothing else to do." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't blame you. It was man against man." +</p> + +<p> +"The water was in my favor. I'm bound to admit that on land you'd have +won." +</p> + +<p> +"At any rate I thank you for dragging me out of the river." +</p> + +<p> +"You'd have done as much for me." +</p> + +<p> +"So I would, but our personal debts of gratitude can't be allowed to +interfere with our military duty." +</p> + +<p> +"I know it. Therefore I take a running start. Good-by." +</p> + +<p> +"We'll meet again." +</p> + +<p> +"But not on this side of the Potomac. It may happen when the Army of +Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac go into battle on the +other side of the river." +</p> + +<p> +Harry darted into the forest, and ran for a half-hour. He meant to put +as much distance as possible between Shepard and himself before the +latter's full strength returned. He knew that Shepard would follow, if +he could, but it was not possible to trail one who had a long start +through dark and wet woods. +</p> + +<p> +He came through the forest and into a meadow surrounded by a rail +fence, on which he sat until his breath came back again. He had +forgotten all about his wet uniform, but the run was really beneficial +to him as it sent the blood leaping through his veins and warmed his +body. +</p> + +<p> +"So far have I come," said Harry, "but the omens promise a hard march." +</p> + +<p> +He had his course fixed very clearly, and a veteran now in experience, +he could guide himself easily by the moon and stars. The clouds were +clearing away and a warm wind promised him dry clothing, soon. Long +afterward he thought it a strange coincidence that his cousin, Dick +Mason, in the far South should have been engaged upon an errand very +similar in nature, but different in incident. +</p> + +<p> +He crossed the meadow, entered an orchard and then came to a narrow +road. The presence of the orchard indicated the proximity of a +farmhouse, and it occurred to Harry that he might buy a horse there. +The farmer was likely to be hostile, but risks must be taken. He drew +his pistols. He knew that neither could be fired after the thorough +wetting in the river, but the farmer would not know that. He saw the +house presently, a comfortable two-story frame building, standing among +fine shade trees. Without hesitation he knocked heavily on the door +with the butt of a pistol. +</p> + +<p> +He was so anxious to hasten that his blows would have aroused the best +sleeper who ever slept, and the door was quickly opened by an elderly +man, not yet fully awake. +</p> + +<p> +"I want to buy a horse." +</p> + +<p> +"Buy a horse? At this time of the night?" +</p> + +<p> +He was about to slam the door, but Harry put his foot over the sill and +the muzzle of his pistol within six inches of the man's nose. +</p> + +<p> +"I want to buy a horse," he repeated, "and you want to sell one to me. +I think you realize that fact, don't you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I do," replied the man, looking down the muzzle of the big horse +pistol. +</p> + +<p> +"Come outside and close the door behind you. I know you haven't on +many clothes, but the night's warm, and you need fresh air." +</p> + +<p> +The man with the muzzle of the pistol still near his nose, obeyed. But +as he looked at the weapon he also had a comprehensive view of the one +who held it. +</p> + +<p> +"Wet ain't you?" he said. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you think it necessary to put it in the form of a question?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't like to say, unless I'm shore." +</p> + +<p> +"Where do you keep your horses?" +</p> + +<p> +"In the barn here to the left. What kind of a horse did you think +you'd keer fur most, stranger?" +</p> + +<p> +"The biggest, the strongest and fastest you've got" +</p> + +<p> +"I thought mebbe you'd want one with wings, you 'pear to be in such a +pow'ful hurry. I wish you wouldn't keep that pistol so near to my +nose. 'Sides, you've gethered so much mud an' water 'bout you that you +ain't so very purty to look at!" +</p> + +<p> +"It's your own mud and water. I didn't bring it into this country with +me." +</p> + +<p> +"Which means that you don't belong in these parts. I reckon lookin' at +you that you wuz one o' them rebels that went to Gettysburg and then +come back ag'in." +</p> + +<p> +"Exactly right, Mr. Farmer. I'm an officer in General Lee's army." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I wuz right 'bout you needin' a horse with wings. An' I guess +all the men in your army need horses with wings. Don't be in such a +tarnal hurry. You're goin' to stay right up here with us, boarders, so +to speak, till the war is over." +</p> + +<p> +Harry laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"Kind of you," he said, "but here is the stable and do you open the +stall doors one by one, and let me see the horses. At the first sign +of any trick I pull the trigger." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, as I don't like violence I'll show you the horses. Here's the +gray mare, five years old, swift but can't last long. This is old +Rube, nigh onto ten, mighty strong, but as balky as a Johnny Reb +hisself. Don't want him! No? Then I think that's about all." +</p> + +<p> +"No it's not! You open that last stall door at once!" +</p> + +<p> +The farmer made a wry face, and threw back the door with a slam. Harry +still covering the man with the pistol that couldn't go off, saw a +splendid bay horse about four years old. +</p> + +<p> +"Holding out on me, were you?" he said. "Did you think a Confederate +officer could be fooled in that manner?" +</p> + +<p> +"I reckon I oughtn't to have thought so. I've always heard that the +rebels had mighty good eyes for Yankee horseflesh." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll let that pass, because maybe it's true. Now, saddle and bridle +him quicker than ever before in your life." +</p> + +<p> +The farmer did so, and Harry took care to see that the girth was secure. +</p> + +<p> +"At how much did you value this horse?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"I did put him down at two hundred dollars, but I reckon he's worth +nothin' to me now." +</p> + +<p> +"Here's your money. When General Lee goes through the enemy's country +he pays for what he takes." +</p> + +<p> +He thrust a roll of good United States bills into the astonished man's +hand, and sprang upon the horse. Then he turned from the stable and +rode swiftly up the road, but not so swiftly that he did not hear a +bullet singing past his ears. A backward glance showed him an elderly +farmer in his night clothes standing on his porch and reloading his +rifle. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I can't blame you, I suppose," said Harry. "You can guess +pretty well what I am, and it's your business to stop me." +</p> + +<p> +But he rode fast enough to be far beyond the range of a second bullet, +and maintained a good pace for a long time, through hilly and wooded +country. His uniform dried upon him, and his hardy form felt no ill +result from the struggle in the river. The horse was strong and +spirited, and Harry knew that he could carry him without weariness to +Lee. He looked upon his mission as already accomplished, but his +ambition to reach the commander-in-chief first was yet strong. +</p> + +<p> +He rode throughout the rest of the night and dawn and the pangs of +hunger came together. But he decided that he would not turn from his +path to seek food. He would go on straight for Lee and let hunger have +its way. He had a splendid horse under him and he was faring quite as +well as he had a right to expect. He thought of Shepard, and felt pity +for him. The man had only striven to do his duty, and while he had used +force he had been very courteous and polite about it. Harry was bound +to acknowledge that his had been a very chivalrous enemy and only his +superiority in swimming had enabled him to win over Shepard. He was +glad that he had saved him and had left him on the bank, so to speak, +to dry. +</p> + +<p> +Then Shepard faded away with the mists and vapors that were retreating +before a brilliant dawn. The country was high, rolling, and the +foliage, although much browned by the July sun, which was unusually hot +that year, was still dense. Most of the hills were heavy with forest, +but all the valleys between were fertile and well cultivated. With the +dew of the morning fresh upon it the whole region was refreshing and +soothing to the eye with a look of peace, where in reality there was no +peace. Many thin columns of smoke lying blue against the silver sky +told where farmhouses stood, and hunger suddenly seized upon Harry +again. +</p> + +<p> +Hunger is natural to youth, and his severe exertions all through the +night had greatly increased it. It became both a pain and a weakness. +His shoulders drooped with fatigue, and he felt that he must have food +or faint by the way. +</p> + +<p> +He was ashamed of his physical weakness, but he knew that unless he +found food his faintness would increase, and hunger alone would stop +him, where so able a man as Shepard could not. His uniform, faded +anyhow, was so permeated with the dried mud of the river that it would +take a keen eye to tell whether it was Federal or Confederate, and he +need not disclose his identity in this region, which was so strongly +for the Union. He made up his mind quickly and rode for the nearest +farmhouse. +</p> + +<p> +Harry knew that he was inviting risks. His pistols were still useless +but they would be handy for threats, and he should be able to take care +of himself at a farmhouse. +</p> + +<p> +The house that he had chosen was only a few hundred yards away, its +white walls visible among trees, and the clatter of his horse's hoofs +brought a man from a barn in the rear. Harry noted him keenly. He was +youngish, stalwart and the look out of his blue eyes was fearless. He +came forward slowly, examining his visitor, and his manner was not +altogether hospitable. Harry decided that he had to deal with a +difficult customer but he had no idea of turning back. +</p> + +<p> +"Good morning," he said politely. +</p> + +<p> +"Good morning." +</p> + +<p> +"I wish some breakfast and I will pay. I've ridden all night in our +service." +</p> + +<p> +"You've so much dried mud on you that you look as if you'd been passin' +through a river." +</p> + +<p> +"Correct. That's exactly what happened." +</p> + +<p> +"But there's none on your horse." +</p> + +<p> +"He didn't pass with me. I'm willing to answer any reasonable number +of questions, but, as I told you before, I ride on an important +service. I must have breakfast at once, and I'll pay." +</p> + +<p> +"Whose service? Ours or Reb's?" +</p> + +<p> +"A military messenger can't answer the chance questions of those by the +roadside. I tell you I want breakfast at once." +</p> + +<p> +"Fine horse you ride, stranger. How long have you had him?" +</p> + +<p> +"All this year." +</p> + +<p> +"Funny. When I saw him last week he belonged to Jim Kendall down by +the Potomac, an' livin' on this very road, too." +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't half as funny as you think. Hands up! Now call to your wife +as loud as you can to bring me coffee and food at the gate! I know +they're ready in the kitchen. I can smell 'em here. Out with it, call +as fast as and as loud as you can, or off goes the top of your head!" +</p> + +<p> +Although a horse pistol held in a firm hand was thrust under his nose, +the man's blue eyes glared hate and defiance, and his mouth did not +open. Harry, in his excitement and anger, forgot that the charge in his +weapon was ruined and hence it was no acting with him when his own eyes +blazed down at the other and he fairly shouted: +</p> + +<p> +"I give you until I can count ten to call your wife! One! two! three! +four! five! six! seven! eight! nine!—" +</p> + +<p> +"Sophy! Sophy!" cried the farmer, who saw death flaming in the eyes +that looked into his, "Come! Come a-runnin'!" +</p> + +<p> +A good looking young woman threw open a door and ran, frightened, +toward the gate, where she saw her husband under the pistol muzzle of a +wild and savage looking man on horseback. +</p> + +<p> +"Sophy," said the farmer, "bring this infernal rebel a cup of coffee +and a plate of bread and meat. If it weren't for his pistol I'd drag +him off his horse and carry him to General Meade, but he's got the drop +on me!" +</p> + +<p> +"And Sophy," said Harry, who was growing cooler, "you make it a big tin +cup of coffee and you see that the plate is piled high with meat and +bread. Now don't you make one mistake. Don't you come back with any +weapon in your hand in place of food, and don't you fire on me from the +house with the family rifle. You're young and you're good looking, +and, doubtless the widow of our friend here with the upraised hands, +wouldn't have to wait long for another husband just as good as he is." +</p> + +<p> +The woman paled a little, and Harry knew that some thought of the +family rifle had been in her mind. The husband's glare became +ferocious. +</p> + +<p> +"You can take your hands down," said Harry. "I've no wish to torture +you, and I'm satisfied now that you're not armed." +</p> + +<p> +The man dropped his arms and the woman hurried to the kitchen. Harry +did not watch her, but kept his eyes continually upon the man, who he +knew would take advantage of his first careless moment, and spring for +him like a tiger. A pistol that he couldn't fire wouldn't be of much +use to him then. +</p> + +<p> +But the woman returned with a big tin cup of smoking coffee and a plate +piled high with bread and bacon and beefsteak. It was a welcome sight. +The aspect of the whole world became brighter at once, and the pulse of +hope beat high. But happiness did not make him relax caution. +</p> + +<p> +"Stand back about ten feet more," he said to the man, "I don't like +your looks." +</p> + +<p> +"What's the matter with my looks?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's not exactly your looks I mean, though they're scarcely worthy of +the lady, your wife, but it's rather your attitude or position which +reminds me of a lion or a tiger about to spring upon something it +hates." +</p> + +<p> +The man, with a savage growl, withdrew a little. +</p> + +<p> +"I'd like to put a bullet through you," he said. +</p> + +<p> +"I've no doubt of it, your eyes show it, but before I take a polite +leave of you I want to tell you that I did not steal this horse from +your friend, Jim Kendall. I paid for it at his own valuation." +</p> + +<p> +"Confederate money that won't be worth a dollar a bale before long." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, no, bills that were made and stamped at Washington, and I pay for +this breakfast in silver." +</p> + +<p> +He dropped it into the hand of the woman, as he took the huge cup of +coffee from her. Then he drank deep and long, and again and again, +draining the last drop of the brown liquid. +</p> + +<p> +"I hope it's burnt the lining out of your throat," said the man +savagely. +</p> + +<p> +"It was warm, but I like it that way. It was good indeed, and I'm +sorry, Madame, that you have such a violent and ill-tempered husband. +Maybe your next will be a much better man." +</p> + +<p> +"John is neither violent nor ill-tempered. He's never said a harsh +word to me since we were married. But he hates the rebels dreadfully." +</p> + +<p> +"That's too bad. I don't hate him and I'm glad you can give him a good +character. A man's own wife knows best. Now, I'm going to eat this +breakfast as I ride on. You'll find the plate on the fence a quarter +of a mile ahead." +</p> + +<p> +He bowed to both, and still keeping a wary eye on the man, thrust his +pistol into his belt, and as his horse moved forward at a swift and +easy gait he began to eat with a ravenous appetite. +</p> + +<p> +A backward glance showed husband and wife still gazing at him. But it +was only for a moment. They ran into the house and a little further on +Harry looked back again. They had reappeared and he almost expected to +hear again the whistle of a rifle shot, fired from a window. But the +distance was much too great, and he devoted renewed attention to the +demands of hunger. +</p> + +<p> +When he had finished his breakfast he put the plate upon the fence as +he had promised, and, looking back for the last time, he saw an +American flag wave to and fro on the roof of the house. He felt a +thrill of alarm. It must be a signal concerning him and it could be +made only to his enemies. Speaking sharply to his horse, he urged him +into a gallop. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap05"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER V +</h3> + +<h3> +THE DANGEROUS ROAD +</h3> + +<p> +The road led in the general direction of Lee's army and Harry knew that +if he followed it long enough he was bound to reach his commander, but +the two words "long enough" might defeat everything. Undoubtedly a +Federal force was near, or the farmer and his wife would not be +signaling from the roof of their house. +</p> + +<p> +A plucky couple they were and he gave them all credit, but he was aware +that while he had secured breakfast from them they had put the wolves +upon his trail. There were high hills on both the right and left of +the road, and, as he galloped along he examined them through his +glasses for flags answering the signal on the house. But he saw +nothing and the thickness of the forest indicated that even if the +signals were made there it was not likely he could see them. +</p> + +<p> +Now he wisely restrained the speed of his horse, so full of strength +and spirit that it seemed willing to run on forever, and brought him +down to a walk. He had an idea that he would soon be pursued, and then +a fresh horse would be worth a dozen tired ones. +</p> + +<p> +The road continued to run between high, forested hills, splendid for +ambush, and Harry saw what a danger it was not to have knowledge of the +country. He understood how the Union forces in the South were so often +at a loss on ground that was strange to them. +</p> + +<p> +The road now curved a little to the left, and a few hundred yards ahead +another from the east merged with it. Along this road the forest was +thinner, and upon it, but some distance away, he saw bobbing heads in +caps, twenty, perhaps, in number. He knew at once that they were the +enemy, called by the signal, and leaning forward he spoke in the ear of +his good horse. +</p> + +<p> +"You and I haven't known each other long," he said, "but we're good +friends. I paid honest and sufficient money for you, when I could have +ridden away on you without paying a cent. I know you have a powerful +frame and that your speed is great. I really believe you're the +fastest runner in all this part of the state. Now, prove it!" +</p> + +<p> +The horse stretched out his neck, and the road flew behind him, his +body working like a mighty machine perfectly attuned, even to its +minutest part. Harry's words had met a true response. He heard a cry +on the cross road, and the bobbing heads came forward much faster. +Either they had seen him or they had heard the swift beat of his +horse's hoofs. Loud shouts arose, but he saw the uniforms of the men, +and he knew that they belonged to the Northern army. +</p> + +<p> +He went past the junction of the roads, as if he were flying, but he +was not a bit too soon, as he heard the crack of rifles, and bullets +struck in the earth behind him. He knew that they would follow, hang +on persistently, but he had supreme confidence in the speed and +strength of his horse, and youth rode triumphant. It was youth more +than anything else that made him raise himself a little in his saddle, +look back to his pursuers and fling to them a long, taunting cry, just +as Henry Ware more than once had taunted his Indian pursuers before +disappearing in a flight that their swiftest warriors could not match. +</p> + +<p> +But the little band of Union troopers clung to the chase. They too had +good horses, and they knew that the man before them was a Southern +messenger, and in those hot July days of 1863 all military messages +carried on the roads north of the Potomac were important. The fate of +an army or a nation might turn upon any one of them, and the lieutenant +who led the little Union troop was aware of it. He was a man of +intelligence and a consuming desire to overtake the lone horseman lay +hold of him. He knew, as well as any general, that since Gettysburg the +fate of the South was verily trembling in the balance, and the +slightest weight somewhere might decide the scales. So he resolved to +hang on through everything and the chances were in his favor. It was +his own country. The Federal troops were everywhere, and any moment he +might have aid in cutting off the fugitive. +</p> + +<p> +When Harry eased his horse's flight he saw the troop, very distant but +still pursuing, and he read the mind of the Union leader. He was +saving his mounts, trailing merely, in the hope that Harry would +exhaust his own horse, after which he and his men would come on at +great speed. +</p> + +<p> +Harry looked down at his horse and saw that he was heaving with his +great effort. He knew that he had made a mistake in driving him so +hard at first, and with the courage of which only a young veteran would +have been capable he brought the animal almost to a walk, and +resolutely kept him there, while the enemy gained. When they were +almost within rifle shot he increased his speed again, but he did not +seek for the present to increase his gain. +</p> + +<p> +As long as their bullets could not reach him his horse should merely go +stride for stride with theirs, and when the last stretch was reached, +he would send forward the brave animal at his utmost speed. His were +the true racing tactics drawn from his native state. He had no doubt +of his ability to leave his pursuers far behind when the time came, but +his true danger was from interference. He too knew that many Union +cavalry troops were abroad, and he watched on either flank for them as +he rode on. At the crest of every little hill he swept the whole +country, but as yet he saw nothing but peaceful farmhouses. +</p> + +<p> +The day was clear and bright, not so warm as its predecessors, and he +calculated by the sun that he was going straight toward Lee. He knew +that a great army always marched slowly, and he was able to reckon with +accuracy just how far the Army of Northern Virginia had come since +Gettysburg. He should reach it in the morning, with full information +about the Potomac, and the best place for a crossing. +</p> + +<p> +He arrived at the crest of a hill higher than the others, and saw the +Union troop, about a quarter of a mile behind, stop beside a clump of +tall trees. Their action surprised Harry, who had thought they would +never quit as long as they could find his trail. To his further +surprise he saw one of the men dismount and begin to climb the tallest +of the trees. Then he brought his glasses into play. +</p> + +<p> +He saw the climber go up, up, until he had reached the last bough that +would support him. Then he drew some thing from his pocket which he +unrolled and began to wave rapidly. It was a flag and through his +powerful glasses Harry clearly saw the Stars and Stripes. It was +evident that they were signaling, but when one signals one usually +signals to somebody. His breath shortened for a moment. He believed +that the man in the tree was talking with his flag about the fugitive. +Where was the one to whom he was talking? +</p> + +<p> +He looked to both left and right, searching the fields and the forests, +and saw nothing. Then, as he was sweeping his glasses again in a half +curve he caught a glimpse of something straight ahead that made the +great pulse in his throat beat hard. About a mile in front of him +another man in a tree was waving a flag and beneath the tree were +horsemen. +</p> + +<p> +Harry knew now that the two flags were talking about the Confederate +messenger between. The one behind said: "Look out! He's young, riding +a bay horse and he's coming directly toward you," to which the one in +front replied, "We're waiting. He can't escape us. There are fields +with high fences on either side of the road and if he manages to break +through the fence he's an easy capture in the soft and muddy ground +there." +</p> + +<p> +Harry thought hard and fast, while the two flags talked so +contemptuously about him. The fields were unquestionably deep with mud +from the heavy rains, but he must try them. It was lucky that he had +seen the flags while both forces were out of rifle shot. He decided +for the western side, sprang from his horse and threw down a few rails. +In a half minute he was back on his horse, leaped him over the fence, +and struck across the field. +</p> + +<p> +It had been lately plowed and the going was uncommonly heavy. It would +be just as heavy however for his pursuers, and his luck in seeing their +signals would put him out of range before they reached the field. But +it was a wide field and his horse's feet sank so deep in the mud that +he dismounted and led him. When he was two-thirds of the way across a +shout told him that the two forces had met, and had discovered the ruse +of the fugitive. It did not take much intelligence to understand what +he had done, because he was yet in plain sight, and a few of the +cavalrymen took pot shots at him, their bullets falling far short. +Harry in his excited condition laughed at these attempts. Almost +anything was a triumph now. He shook his fist at them and regretted +that he could not send back a defiant shot. +</p> + +<p> +The cavalrymen conferred a little. Then a part pursued across the +field, and two detachments rode along its side, one to the north and +the other to the south. Harry understood. If the mud held him back +sufficiently they might pass around the field and catch him on the +other side. He continued to lead his horse, encouraging him with words +of entreaty and praise. +</p> + +<p> +"Come on!" he cried. "You won't let a little mud bother you. You +wouldn't let yourself be overtaken by a lot of half-bred horses not fit +to associate with you?" +</p> + +<p> +The brave animal responded nobly, and what had been the far edge of the +field was rapidly coming nearer. Beyond it lay woods. But the +flanking movement threatened. The two detachments were passing around +the field on firm ground, and Harry knew that he and his good horse +must hasten. He talked to him continually, boasting about him, and +together they reached the fence, which he threw down in all haste. +Then he led his weary horse out of the mud, sprang upon his back and +galloped into the bushes. +</p> + +<p> +He knew that the horses passing around the field on firm ground would +be fresh, and that he must find temporary hiding, at least as soon as +he could. He was in deep thickets now and he galloped on, careless how +the bushes scratched him and tore his uniform. The Union cavalry would +surely follow, but he wanted a little breathing time for his horse, and +in eight or ten minutes he stopped in the dense undergrowth. The horse +panted so hard that any one near would have heard him, but there was no +other sound in the thicket. The rest was valuable for both. Harry was +able to concentrate his mind and consider, while the panting of the +horse gradually ceased, and he breathed with regularity. The young +lieutenant patted him on the nose and whispered to him consolingly. +</p> + +<p> +"Good, old boy," he said, "you've brought me safely so far. I knew +that I could trust you." +</p> + +<p> +Then he stood quite still, with his hand stroking the horse's nose to +keep him silent. He had heard the first sounds of search. To his +right was the distant beat of hoofs and men's voices. Evidently they +were going to make a thorough search for him, and he decided to resume +his flight, even at the risk of being heard. +</p> + +<p> +He led the horse again, because the forest was so dense that one could +scarcely ride in it, and he thought, for a while, that he had thrown +off the pursuit, but the voices came again, and now on his left. They +had never relaxed the hunt for an instant. They had a good leader, and +Harry admitted that in his place he would have done the same. +</p> + +<p> +The country grew rougher, being so steep and hilly that it was not easy +of cultivation, and hence remained clothed in dense forest and +undergrowth. Twice more Harry heard the sound of pursuing voices and +hoofs, and then the noise of running water came to his ears. Twenty +yards farther and he came to a creek flowing between high banks, on +which the forest grew so densely that the sun was scarcely able to +reach the water below. +</p> + +<p> +The creek at first seemed to be a bar to his advance, but thinking it +over he led his horse carefully down into the stream, mounted him and +rode with the current, which was not more than a foot deep. +Fortunately the creek had a soft bottom and there was no ringing of +hoofs on stones. +</p> + +<p> +He went slowly, lest the water splash too much, and kept a wary watch +on the banks above, which were growing higher. He did not know where +the creek led, but it offered both a road and concealment, and it +seemed that Providence had put it there for his especial help. +</p> + +<p> +He rode in the bed of the stream fully an hour, and then emerged from +the hills into a level and comparatively bare country. It was a region +utterly unknown to him, but with his splendid idea of direction and the +sun to guide him he knew his straight course to Lee. The country +before him seemed to be given up wholly to grass, as he noticed neither +corn nor wheat. He saw several farm hands, but decided to keep away +from them. That was no country for the practice of horsemanship by a +lone Confederate soldier, nor did he like to be the fox in a fox hunt. +</p> + +<p> +Yet the fox he was. He chose a narrow road leading between cedars, and +when he had advanced upon it a few hundred yards he heard the sound of +a trumpet behind him, and at the edge of the woods that he had left. He +saw horsemen in blue emerging and he had no doubt that they were the +same men whom he had eluded in the thickets. +</p> + +<p> +"Their pursuit of me is getting to be a habit," he said to himself with +the most intense annoyance. "It's a good thing, my brave horse, that +you've had a long rest." +</p> + +<p> +He shook up the reins and began to gallop. He heard a faint shout in +the distance and saw the troopers in pursuit. But he did not fear them +now. Numerous fences would prevent them from flanking him, and he saw +that the road led on, straight and level. He shook the reins again and +the horse lengthened his stride. +</p> + +<p> +He felt so exultant that he laughed. It would be easy enough now to +distance this Union troop. Then the laugh died suddenly on his lips. A +bullet whistled so near his face that it almost took away his breath. +An elderly farmer standing in his own door had fired it, and Harry +snatched one of the pistols from his own belt, remembering then with +rage that it could not be fired. He shouted to his horse and made him +run faster. +</p> + +<p> +A bullet struck the pommel of his saddle and glanced off. A boy in an +orchard had fired it. A load of bird-shot, a handful it seemed to +Harry, flew about his ears. A bent old man who ought to have been +sitting on a porch in a rocking chair had discharged it from the edge +of a wood. A squirrel hunter on a hill took a pot shot at him and +missed. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was furious with anger. Decidedly this was no place for a +visitor from the South. He did not detect the faintest sign of +hospitality. Men and women alike seemed to dislike him. A powerful +virago hurled a stone at his head, which would have struck him +senseless had it not missed, and a farmer standing by a fence had a +shotgun cocked and ready to be fired as he passed, but Harry, snatching +one of the useless pistols from his belt, hurled it at him with all his +might. It struck the man a glancing blow on the head, felling him as +if he had been shot, and then Harry, thinking quickly, acted with equal +quickness. +</p> + +<p> +He reined in his horse with such suddenness that he nearly shot from +the saddle. Then he leaped down, seized the shotgun from under the +hands of the fallen man, sprang on his horse and was away again, +sending back a cry of defiance. +</p> + +<p> +Harry had never before in his life been so furious. To be hunted thus +by a whole countryside, as if he were a mad dog, was intolerable. It +was not only a threat to one's life, it was also an insult to one's +dignity to be treated as an animal. Although he was armed now the +insult continued. The call of the trumpet sounded almost without +ceasing, and the Union troopers uttered many shouts as do those who +chase the fox, although Harry knew that their cries were intended to +rouse the farmers who might head him off. +</p> + +<p> +The chase grew hotter, but he felt better with the shotgun. It was a +fine double-barreled weapon of the latest make, and he hoped that it +was loaded with buckshot. He was a sharpshooter, and he could give a +good account of any one who came too near. +</p> + +<p> +Yet with the trumpet shrilling continually behind him the huntsmen +gathered fast on either flank. It was yet the day when nearly every +house in America, outside a town, contained a rifle, and bullets fired +from a distance began to patter around Harry and his horse. The +riflemen were too far away to be reached with the shotgun, and it +seemed inevitable to him that in time a bullet would strike him. He +was truly the fox, and he knew that nothing could save him but forest. +</p> + +<p> +It was in his favor that the country was so broken and wooded so +heavily, and fixing his eyes on trees a half-mile ahead he raced for +them. If none of this yelling pack dragged him down he felt sure that +he might escape again in the forest. The trees swiftly came nearer, +but the shots on either flank increased. More than ever he felt like +the fox with the hounds all about him, and just one slender chance to +reach the burrow ahead. +</p> + +<p> +He felt his horse shake and knew that he had been hit. Yet the brave +animal ran on as well as ever, despite the triumphant shout behind, +which showed that he must be leaving a trail of blood. But the woods, +thick and inviting, were near, and he believed that he would reach +them. The horse shook again, much more violently than before, and then +fell to his knees. Harry leaped off, still clutching the shotgun, just +as the brave animal fell over on his side and began to breathe out his +life. +</p> + +<p> +He heard again that shout of triumph, but he was one who never gave up. +He had alighted easily on his feet. The trees were not more than +fifteen yards away and he disappeared among them as bullets clipped +bark and twigs about him. +</p> + +<p> +He breathed a deep sigh of thankfulness when he entered the forest. It +was so dense, and there was so much undergrowth that the horsemen could +not follow him there. If they came on foot, and spread out, as they +must, to hunt him, he had the double-barreled shotgun and it was a +deadly weapon. The fox had suddenly become the panther, alert, +powerful, armed with claws that killed. +</p> + +<p> +Harry went deep into the thickets before he sat down. He had no doubt +that they would follow him, but at present he was out of their sight +and hearing. He felt a mixture of elation and sadness, elation over +his temporary escape, and sadness over the loss of his gallant horse. +But one could not dwell long on regrets at such a time, and, advancing +a little farther, he sat down among the densest bushes that he could +find with the shotgun across his knees. +</p> + +<p> +Now Harry saw that the horse had really done all that it was possible +for him to do. He had brought him to the wood, and within he would +have been a drawback. A man on foot could conceal himself far more +easily. Everything favored him. There were bushes and vines everywhere +and he could be hidden like a deer in its covert. +</p> + +<p> +He looked up at the sun shining through the tops of the trees and saw +that he had kept to his true course. His flight had taken him directly +toward Lee at a much faster pace than he would have come otherwise. The +enemy had driven him on his errand at double speed. He felt that he +could spare a little time now, while he waited to see what the pursuit +would do. +</p> + +<p> +His feeling of exultation was now unalloyed. Deep in the forest with +his foes looking for him in vain, the spirit of Henry Ware was once +more strong within him. He was the reincarnation of the great hunter. +He lay so still, clasping the shotgun, that the little creatures of the +woods were deceived. A squirrel ran up the trunk of an oak six feet +away, and stood fearlessly in a fork with his bushy tail curved over +his back. A small gray bird perched on a bough just over Harry's head +and poured out a volume of song. Farther away sounded the tap tap of a +woodpecker on the bark of a dead tree. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, although he did not move, was watching and listening with +intense concentration, but his ears now would be his surest signals. +He could not see deep in the thickets, but he could hear any movement +in the underbrush a hundred yards away. So far there was nothing but +the hopping of a rabbit. The bird over his head sang on. There was no +wind among the branches, not even the flutter of leaves to distract his +attention from anything that might come on the ground. +</p> + +<p> +He rejoiced in this period of rest, of the nerves, rather than purely +physical. He had been keyed so high that now he relaxed entirely, and +soon lay perfectly flat, but with the shotgun still clasped in his +arms. He had a soft couch. Under him were the dead leaves of last +year, and over him was the pleasant gloom of thick foliage, already +turning brown. The bird sang on. His clear and beautiful note came +from a point directly over his head, but Harry could not see his tiny +body among the leaves. He became, for a little while, more interested +in trying to see him than in hearing his pursuers. +</p> + +<p> +It was annoying that such a volume of sound should come from a body +that could be hidden by a leaf. If a man could shout in proportion to +his own size he might be heard eight to ten miles away. It was an +interesting speculation and he pursued it. While he was pursuing it +his mind relaxed more and more and traveled farther and farther away +from his flight and hiding. Then his heavy eyelids pulled down, and, +while his pursuers yet searched the thickets for him, he slept. +</p> + +<p> +But his other self, which men had thought of as far back as Socrates, +kept guard. When he had slept an hour a tiny voice in his ear, no +louder than the ticking of a watch, told him to awake, that danger was +near. He obeyed the call, sleep was lifted from him and he opened his +eyes. But with inherited caution he did not move. He still lay flat in +his covert, trusting to his ears, and did not make a leaf move about +him. +</p> + +<p> +His ears told him that leaves were rustling not very far away, not more +than a hundred feet. His power of hearing was great, and the forest +seemed to make it uncommonly sensitive and delicate. +</p> + +<p> +He knew that the rustling of the leaves was made by a man walking. By +and by he heard his footfalls, and he knew that he wore heavy boots, or +his feet would not have crushed down in such a decisive manner. He was +looking for something, too, because the footfalls did not go straight +on, but veered about. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was well aware that it was a Union soldier, and that he was the +object of his search. He was a clumsy man, not used to forests, +because Harry heard him stumble twice, when his feet caught on vines. +Nor was any comrade near, or he would have called to him for the sake +of companionship. Harry judged that he was originally a mill hand, and +he did not feel the least alarm about him, laughing a little at his +clumsiness and awkwardness, as he trod heavily among the bushes, +tripped again on the vines, and came so near falling that he could hear +the rifle rattle when it struck a tree. He did not have the slightest +fear of the man, and at last, raising his head, he took a look. +</p> + +<p> +All his surmises were justified. He saw a great hulking youth of heavy +and dull countenance, carrying a rifle awkwardly, his place obviously +around some town and not in the depths of a forest, looking for a wary +enemy, who knew more of the wilderness than he could ever learn in all +his life. Harry saw that he was perspiring freely and that he looked +more like the hunted than the hunter. His eyes expressed bewilderment. +He was obviously lonely and apprehensive, not because he was a coward, +but because the situation was so strange to him. +</p> + +<p> +Besides his rifle he carried a large knapsack, so much distended that +Harry knew it to be full of food. It was this that decided him. A +soldier, like an army, must travel on his stomach, and he wanted that +knapsack. Moreover he meant to get it. He leveled his shotgun and +called in a low tone, but a tone so sharp that it could be heard +distinctly by the one to whom it was addressed: +</p> + +<p> +"Throw up your hands at once!" +</p> + +<p> +The man threw them up so abruptly that the rifle fell from his shoulder +into the bushes, and he turned around, staring face toward the point +from which the command had come. Harry saw at once that he was of +foreign birth, probably. The features inclined to the Slav type, +although Slavs were not then common in this country, even in the mill +towns of the North. +</p> + +<p> +"Are you an American?" asked Harry, standing up. +</p> + +<p> +"All but two years of my life." +</p> + +<p> +"The first two years then, as I see you speak good English. What's +your name?" +</p> + +<p> +"Michael Stanislav." +</p> + +<p> +"Do you think that anybody named Michael Stanislav has the right to +interfere in the quarrel of the Northern and Southern states? Don't +the Stanislavs have trouble enough in the country where the Stanislavs +grow?" +</p> + +<p> +The big youth stared at him without understanding. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you know who I am?" asked Harry, severely. +</p> + +<p> +"The running rebel that we all look for." +</p> + +<p> +"Rebels don't run. Besides, there are no rebels. Anyway I'm not the +man you're looking for. My name is Robin Hood." +</p> + +<p> +"Robin Hood?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, Robin Hood! Didn't you ever hear of him?" +</p> + +<p> +"Never." +</p> + +<p> +"Then you have the honor of hearing of him and meeting him at the same +time. As I said, my name is Robin Hood and my trade is that of a +benevolent robber. I lie around in the greenwood, and I don't work. +I've a lot of followers, Friar Tuck and others, but they're away for a +while. They're as much opposed to work as I am. That's why they're my +followers. We're the friends of the poor, because they have nothing we +want, and we're the enemies of the rich because they have a lot we do +want and that we often take. Still, we couldn't get along very well, +if there were no rich for us to rob. It's like taking sugar water from +a maple tree. We won't take too much, because it would kill the tree +and we want to take its sugar water again, and many times. Do you +understand?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," replied the big youth, but Harry knew he didn't. Harry +meanwhile was listening keenly to all that was passing in the forest, +and he was sure that no other soldier had wandered near. It was +perhaps partly a feeling of loneliness on his own part that caused him +to linger in his talk with Michael Stanislav. +</p> + +<p> +"Michael," he continued, "you appreciate our respective positions, +don't you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Ah!" said Michael, in a puzzled voice. +</p> + +<p> +"I've explained carefully to you that I'm Robin Hood, and you at the +present moment represent the rich." +</p> + +<p> +"I am not rich. Before I turn soldier I work in a mill at Bridgeport." +</p> + +<p> +"That's all very well, but you can't get out of it by referring to your +past. Just now you are a proxy of the rich, and it's my duty to rob +you." +</p> + +<p> +The mouth of the big fellow expanded into a wide grin. +</p> + +<p> +"You won't rob me," he said. "I have not a cent." +</p> + +<p> +"But I'm going to rob you just the same. Don't you dare to drop a hand +toward the pistols in your belt. If you do I'll blow your head off. +I'm covering you with a double-barreled shotgun. Each barrel contains +about twenty buckshot, and at close range their blast would be so +terrific that you'd make an awful looking corpse." +</p> + +<p> +"I hold up my hands a long time. Don't want to be any kind of a +corpse." +</p> + +<p> +"That's the good boy. Steady now. Don't move a muscle. I'm going to +rob you. It's a brief and painless operation, much easier than pulling +a tooth." +</p> + +<p> +He deftly removed the two pistols and the accompanying ammunition from +the man's belt, placing them in his own. His belt of cartridges he put +on the ground beside the fallen rifle, and then as he felt a glow of +triumph he passed the well-filled knapsack from the stalwart shoulders +of the other to his own shoulders, equally stalwart. +</p> + +<p> +"Is everything in it first class, Michael?" he demanded with much +severity. +</p> + +<p> +"The best. Our army feeds well." +</p> + +<p> +"It's a good thing for you that it's so. Robin Hood is never satisfied +with anything second class, and he's likely to be offended if you offer +it to him. On the whole, Michael, I think I like you and I'm glad you +came this way. But do you care for good advice?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"That's right. Say 'sir' to me. It pleases my robber's heart. Then, +my advice to you is never again to go into the woods alone. All the +forest looks alike to those who don't know it, and you're lost in a +minute. Besides, it's filled with strange and terrible creatures, +Robin Hood—that's me, though I have some redeeming qualities—the +Erymanthean boar, the Hydra-headed monster, Medusa of the snaky locks, +Cyclops, Polyphemus with one awful eye, the deceitful Sirens, the Old +Man of the Mountain, Wodin and Osiris, and, last and most terrible of +all, the Baron Munchausen." +</p> + +<p> +A flicker of fear appeared in the eyes of the captive. +</p> + +<p> +"But I'll see that none of these monsters hurt you," said Harry +consolingly. "The open is directly behind you, about a mile. Right +about! Wheel! Well done! Now, you won't see me again, but you'll +hear me giving commands. Forward, march! Quit stumbling! No true +forester ever does! Nor is it necessary for you to run into more than +three trees! Keep going! No, don't curve! Go straight ahead, and +remember that if you look back I shoot!" +</p> + +<p> +Michael walked swiftly enough. He deemed that on the whole he had +fared well. The great brigand, Robin Hood, had spared his life and he +had lost nothing. The army would replace his weapons and ammunition +and he was glad enough to escape from that terrible forest, even if he +were driven out of it. +</p> + +<p> +Harry watched him until he was out of sight, and then picking up the +rifle and belt of cartridges he fled on soundless feet deeper into the +forest. Two or three hundred yards away he stopped and heard a great +shouting. Michael, no longer covered by a gun, had realized that +something untoward had happened to him, and he was calling to his +comrades. Harry did not know whether Michael would still call the man +who had held him up, Robin Hood, nor did he care. He had secured an +excellent rifle which would be much more useful to him than a shotgun, +and his course still led straight toward the point where he should find +Lee's army on the march. He felt that he ought to throw away the +shotgun, as two weapons were heavy, but he could not make up his mind +to do so. +</p> + +<p> +A hundred yards farther and he heard replies to Michael's shouts, and +then several shots, undoubtedly fired by the Union troops themselves, +as signals of alarm. He laughed to himself. Could such men as these +overtake one who was born to the woods, the great grandson of Henry +Ware, the most gifted of the borderers, who in the woods had not only a +sixth sense, but a seventh as well? And his great grandson had +inherited many of his qualities. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, in the forest, felt only contempt for these youths of Central +Europe who could not tell one point of the compass from another. He +guided his own course by the sun, and continued at a good pace until he +could hear shouts and shots no longer. Then in the dense woods, where +the shadows made a twilight, he came to a tiny stream flowing from +under a rock. He knelt and drank of the cool water, and then he opened +Michael's knapsack. It was truly well filled, and he ate with deep +content. Then he drank again and rested by the side of the pool. +</p> + +<p> +As he reflected over his journey Harry concluded that Providence had +watched over him so far, but there was much yet to do before he reached +Lee. Providence had a strange way of watching over a man for a while, +and then letting him go. He would neglect no precaution. The forest +would not continue forever and then he must take his chances in the +open. +</p> + +<p> +Still burning with the desire to be the first to reach Lee, he put the +rifle and the shotgun on either shoulder, and set off at as rapid a +pace as the thickets would permit. But he soon stopped because a sound +almost like that of a wind, but not a wind, came to his ears. There +was a breeze blowing directly toward him, but he paid no attention to +it, because to him most breezes were pleasant and friendly. But the +other sound had in it a quality that was distinctly sinister like the +hissing of a snake. +</p> + +<p> +Harry paused in wonder and alarm. All his instincts warned him that a +new danger was at hand. The breath of the wind suddenly grew hot, and +sparks carried by it blew past him. He knew, in an instant, that the +forest was on fire behind him and that tinder dry, it would burn fast +and furious. Changing from a walk to a run, he sped forward as swiftly +as he could, while the flames suddenly sprang high, waved and leaped +forward in chase. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap06"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER VI +</h3> + +<h3> +TESTS OF COURAGE +</h3> + +<p> +Harry did not know how the woods had been set on fire, and he never +knew. He did not credit it to the intent of Michael and his comrades, +but he thought it likely that some of these men, ignorant of the +forest, had built a campfire. His first thought was of himself, and +his second was regret that so fine a stretch of timber should be burned +over for nothing. +</p> + +<p> +But he knew that he must hurry. Nor could he choose his way. He must +get out of that forest even if he ran directly into the middle of a +Union brigade. The wind was bringing the fire fast. It leaped from +one tree to another, despite the recent rains, gathering volume and +power as it came. Sparks flew in showers, and fragments of burned +twigs rained down. Twice Harry's face was scorched lightly and he had a +fear that one of the blazing twigs would set his hair on fire. He made +another effort, and ran a little faster, knowing full well that his +life was at stake. +</p> + +<p> +The fire was like a huge beast, and it reached out threatening red +claws to catch him. He was like primeval man, fleeing from one of the +vast monsters, now happily gone from the earth. He was conscious soon +that another not far from him was running in the same way, a man in a +faded blue uniform who had dropped his rifle in the rapidity of his +flight. +</p> + +<p> +Harry kept one eye on him but the stranger did not see him until they +were nearly out of the wood. Then Harry, with a clear purpose in view, +veered toward him. He saw that they would escape from the fire. Open +fields showed not far ahead, and while the sparks were numerous and +sometimes scorched, the roaring red monster behind them would soon be +at the end of his race. He could not follow them into the open fields. +</p> + +<p> +When the two emerged from the forest Harry was not more than fifteen +feet from the stranger, who evidently took him for a friend and who was +glad to have a comrade at such a time. They raced across fields in +which the wheat had been cut, and then sank down four or five hundred +yards from the fire, which was crackling and roaring in the woods with +great violence, and sending up leaping flames. +</p> + +<p> +"I was glad enough to get out of that. Do you think the rebels set it +on fire?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't think so, but I was as pleased as you to escape from it, Mr. +Haskell." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, how did you know my name?" exclaimed the man in wonder. +</p> + +<p> +"Why should I forget you? I've seen you often enough. Your name is +John Haskell and you belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania." +</p> + +<p> +"That's right, but I don't seem to recall you." +</p> + +<p> +"It takes a lot of us some time to clear up our minds wholly after such +a battle as Gettysburg. In some ways I've been in a sort of confused +state myself. I dare say you've seen me often enough." +</p> + +<p> +"That's likely." +</p> + +<p> +"Pity you had your horse shot under you, Mr. Haskell. A man who is +carrying important messages at a time like this can't do very well +without his horse." +</p> + +<p> +"How did you know I'd lost my horse?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I'm a mind reader. I can tell you a lot now. You carry your +dispatch in the left-hand pocket of your waistcoat, just over your +heart. And it hasn't been long, either, since you lost your horse, +perhaps not more than an hour." +</p> + +<p> +Haskell stared at him, but Harry's face was innocent. Nevertheless he +had read Haskell's name and regiment on his canteen, cut there with his +own knife. It was a mere guess that he was a dispatch bearer, but he +had located the dispatch, because at the mention of the word "message" +the man's hand had involuntarily gone to his left breast to see if the +dispatch were still there. Boots with little dirt on them indicated +that he had been riding. +</p> + +<p> +"A mind reader!" said Haskell, with suspicion. "What business has a +mind reader in this war?" +</p> + +<p> +"He could be of enormous value. If he were a real mind reader he could +tell his general exactly what the opposing general intended to do. I'm +employed at a gigantic salary for that particular purpose." +</p> + +<p> +"I guess you're trying to be funny. Why do you carry both a rifle and +a shotgun?" +</p> + +<p> +"In order to hit the target with one, if the other misses. I always +use the rifle first, because if the bullet doesn't get home the +shotgun, spreading its charge over a much wider area, is likely to do +something." +</p> + +<p> +"Now I know you're trying to be funny. As I'm going about my business +as fast as I can, I'll leave you here." +</p> + +<p> +"I like you so well that I can't bear to see you go. Don't move. My +rifle covers your heart exactly and you are not more than ten feet +away. I shall have no possible need of the shotgun. Keep your hands +away from your belt. You're in a dangerous position, Mr. Haskell." +</p> + +<p> +"I believe you're an infernal rebel." +</p> + +<p> +"Take out the objectionable adjective 'infernal' and you're right. Keep +those hands still, I tell you." +</p> + +<p> +"What do you want?" +</p> + +<p> +"Your dispatches! Oh, I must have 'em. Unbutton your coat and +waistcoat and hand 'em to me at once. I hate to take human life, but +war demands a terrible service, and I mean what I say!" +</p> + +<p> +His voice rang with determination. The man slowly unbuttoned his +waistcoat and took out a folded dispatch. +</p> + +<p> +"Put it on the ground in front of you. That's right, and don't you +reach for it again. Now, lay your canteen beside it!" +</p> + +<p> +"What in thunder do you want with my canteen? It's empty!" +</p> + +<p> +"I can fill it again. This is a well watered country. That's right; +put it beside the dispatch. Now you walk about one hundred yards to +the right with your back to me. If you look around at all I fire, and +I'm a good marksman. Stand there ten minutes, and then you can move +on! That's right! Now march!" +</p> + +<p> +The man walked away slowly and when he had gone about half the distance +Harry, picking up the dispatch, took flight again across the fields. +Climbing a fence, he looked back and saw the figure of John Haskell, +standing motionless on a hill. He knew that the man was not likely to +remain in that position more than half the allotted time. It was +certain that he would soon turn, despite the risk, but Harry was +already beyond his reach. +</p> + +<p> +He leaped from the fence, crossed another field and entered a wood. +There he paused among the trees and saw Haskell returning. But when he +had come a little distance, he shook his head doubtfully, and then +walked toward the north. +</p> + +<p> +"A counsel of wisdom," chuckled Harry, who was going in quite another +direction. "I think I'll read my dispatch now." +</p> + +<p> +He opened it and blessed his luck. It was from Meade to Pleasanton, +directing him to cut in with all the cavalry he could gather on the +enemy's flank. The Potomac was in great flood and the Army of Northern +Virginia could not possibly cross. If it were harried to the utmost by +the Union cavalry the task of destroying it would be much easier. +</p> + +<p> +"So it would," said Harry to himself. "But Pleasanton won't get this +dispatch. Providence has not deserted me yet; and it's true that +fortune favors the brave. I'm John Haskell of the Fifth Pennsylvania +and I can prove it." +</p> + +<p> +He had put the canteen over his shoulder and the name upon it was a +powerful witness in his favor. The dispatch itself was another, and +his faded uniform told nothing. +</p> + +<p> +Harry had passed through so much that a reckless spirit was growing +upon him, and he had succeeded in so much that he believed he would +continue to succeed. Regretfully he threw the shotgun away, as it +would not appear natural for a messenger to carry it and a rifle too. +</p> + +<p> +He went forward boldly now, and, when an hour later he saw a detachment +of Union cavalry in a road, he took no measures to avoid them. Instead +he went directly toward the horsemen and hailed them in a loud voice. +They stopped and their leader, a captain, looked inquiringly at Harry, +who was approaching rapidly. +</p> + +<p> +Harry held up both hands as a sign that he was a friend, and called in +a loud voice: +</p> + +<p> +"I want a horse! And at once, if you please, sir!" +</p> + +<p> +He had noticed that three led horses with empty saddles, probably the +result of a brush with the enemy, and he meant to be astride one of +them within a few minutes. +</p> + +<p> +"You're a cool one," said the captain. "You come walking across the +field, and without a word of explanation you say you want a horse. +Don't you want a carriage too?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't need it. But I must have a horse, Captain. I ride with a +message and it must be of great importance because I was told to go +with it at all speed and risk my life for it. I've risked my life +already. My horse was shot by a band of rebels, but luckily it was in +the woods and I escaped on foot." +</p> + +<p> +As he spoke he craftily moved the canteen around until the inscription +showed clearly in the bright sunlight. The quick eyes of the captain +caught it at once. +</p> + +<p> +"You do belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania," he said. "Well, you're a +long way from your regiment. It's back of that low mountain over +there, a full forty miles from here, I should say." +</p> + +<p> +Harry felt a throb of relief. It was his only fear that these men +themselves should belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania, a long chance, but +if it should happen to go against him, fatal to all his plans. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't want to join my regiment," he said. "I'm looking for General +Pleasanton." +</p> + +<p> +"General Pleasanton! What can you happen to want with him?" +</p> + +<p> +Harry gave the officer a wary and suspicious look, and then his eyes +brightened as if he were satisfied. +</p> + +<p> +"I told you I was riding with a message," he said, "and that message is +for General Pleasanton. It's from General Meade himself and it's no +harm for me to show it to so good a patriot as you." +</p> + +<p> +"No, I think not," said the captain, flattered by the proof of respect +and confidence. +</p> + +<p> +Harry took the letter from his pocket. It had been sealed at first, +but the warmth of the original bearer's body with a little help from +Harry later had caused it to come open. +</p> + +<p> +"Look at that," said Harry proudly as he took out the paper. +</p> + +<p> +The captain read it, and was mightily impressed. He was, as Harry had +surmised, a thoroughly staunch supporter of the Union. He would not +only furnish this valiant messenger with a good horse, but he would +help him otherwise on his way. +</p> + +<p> +"Dexter," he called to an orderly, "bring the sorrel mare. She was +ridden by a good man, Mr. Haskell, but he met a sharpshooter's bullet. +Jump up." +</p> + +<p> +Harry sprang into the saddle, and, astride such a fine piece of +horseflesh, he foresaw a speedy arrival in the camp of General Lee. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll not only mount you," said the captain, "but we'll see you on the +way. General Pleasanton is on Lee's left flank and, as our course is +in that direction, we'll ride with you, and protect you from stray +rebel sharpshooters." +</p> + +<p> +Harry could have shouted aloud in anger and disappointment. While the +captain trusted him fully, he would not be much more than a prisoner, +nevertheless. +</p> + +<p> +"Thank you very much, Captain," he said, "but you needn't trouble +yourself about me. Perhaps I'd better go on ahead. One rides faster +alone." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't be afraid that we'll hold you back," said the captain, smiling. +"We're one of the hardest riding detachments in General Pleasanton's +whole cavalry corps, and we won't delay you a second. On the contrary, +we know the road so well that we'll save you wandering about and losing +time." +</p> + +<p> +Harry did not dare to say more. And so Providence, which had been +watching over him so well, had decided now to leave him and watch over +the other fellow. But he had at least one consolation. Pleasanton was +on Lee's flank and their ride did not turn him from the line of his +true objective. Every beat of his horse's hoofs would bring him nearer +to Lee. Invincible youth was invincibly in the saddle again, and he +said confidently to the captain: +</p> + +<p> +"Let's start." +</p> + +<p> +"All right. You keep by my side, Haskell. You appear to be brave and +intelligent and I want to ask you questions." +</p> + +<p> +The tone, though well meant, was patronizing, but Harry did not resent +it. +</p> + +<p> +"This troop is made up of Massachusetts men, and I'm from Massachusetts +too," continued the captain. "My name is Lester, and I had just +graduated from Harvard when the war began." +</p> + +<p> +"Good stock up there in Massachusetts," said Harry boldly, "but I've +one objection to you." +</p> + +<p> +"What's that?" +</p> + +<p> +"Everything wonderful in our history was done by you. No chance was +left for anybody else." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, not everything, but almost everything. Good old Massachusetts! +As Webster said, 'There she stands!'" +</p> + +<p> +"It was mostly New York and Pennsylvania that stood at Gettysburg." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, you did very well there." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't you think, Captain, that a nation or a state is often lucky in +its possession of writers?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't catch your drift exactly." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll make an illustration. I've often wondered what were the Persian +accounts of Marathon and Thermopylae, of Salamis and Plataea. Now most +of our history has been written by Massachusetts men." +</p> + +<p> +"And you insinuate that they have glorified my state unduly?" +</p> + +<p> +"The expression is a trifle severe. Let's say that they have dwelled +rather long upon the achievements of Massachusetts and not so long upon +those of New York and Pennsylvania." +</p> + +<p> +"Then let New York and Pennsylvania go get great writers. No state can +be truly great without them. There's another detachment of ours just +ahead, but we'll talk to them only a minute or two." +</p> + +<p> +The second detachment reported that Pleasanton, with a heavy cavalry +force, was about six miles farther west and that there was a fair road +all the way. They should overtake him in an hour. +</p> + +<p> +Harry's heart beat hard. Unless something happened within that hour he +would never reach Lee, and his brain began to work with extraordinary +activity. Plans passed in review before it as rapidly as pictures on a +film, but all were rejected. He was in despair. They were trotting +rapidly down a smooth road. A quarter of an hour passed and then a +half-hour. A low bare hill appeared immediately on their right, and +Harry saw beyond it the tops of trees. +</p> + +<p> +"Captain Lester," he said, "suppose that you and I ride to the crest of +the hill. You have strong glasses, so have I, and we may see something +worth while. The men will ride on, but we can easily overtake them." +</p> + +<p> +"Not a bad idea, Haskell," said the captain, still in that slightly +patronizing tone. "I judge by your speech that you're a well educated +man, and you appear to think." +</p> + +<p> +They rode quickly to the summit, and Lester, putting his glasses to his +eyes, gazed westward over a vast expanse of cultivated country. But +Harry looking immediately down the slope, saw the forest that he wished. +</p> + +<p> +Lester swept the glasses in a wide circle, looking for Union troops. +His own troop was about a hundred yards ahead and the hoofbeats were +growing fainter. Then Harry's courage almost failed him, but necessity +was instant and cruel. Still he modified the blow, nor did he use any +weapon, save one that nature had given him. +</p> + +<p> +"Look out!" he cried, and as Lester turned in astonishment he struck +him on the point of the jaw. Even as his fist flashed forward he held +back a little and his full strength was not in the blow. +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless it was sufficient to strike Lester senseless, and he slid +from his horse. Harry caught him by the shoulder and eased him in his +fall. Then he lay stretched on his back in the grass like one asleep, +with his horse staring at him. Harry knew that he would revive in a +minute or two, and with a "Farewell, Captain Lester," he galloped down +the slope and into the covering woods. +</p> + +<p> +He knew that Lester's men, finding that they did not follow, would +quickly come back, and he raced his horse among the trees as fast as he +dared. A couple of miles between him and the hill and he felt safe, at +least so far as the troop of Captain Lester was concerned. Fortune +seemed to have made him a favorite again, but he knew that dangers were +still as thick around him as leaves in Vallombrosa. +</p> + +<p> +He tied his horse, climbed a tree, and used his glasses. Two miles to +the west the bright sun flashed on long lines of mounted men, obviously +the horsemen of Pleasanton. How was he to get through that cavalry +screen and reach Lee? He did not see a way, but he knew that to find, +one must seek. His desire to get through, intense as it always had +been, was now doubled. He not only carried the news to Lee about the +possible ford, but he also bore Meade's dispatch to Pleasanton, +directing a movement which, if successful, must be most dangerous to +the Army of Northern Virginia. +</p> + +<p> +He descended the tree and waited a while in the forest. He found a +spring at which he drank, and he filled the canteen. It was a precious +canteen with the name of John Haskell engraved upon it, and he meant +that it should carry him through all dangers into his camp. But he did +not mean to use it yet. If he rode into Pleasanton's ranks they would +merely take his letter to the general, and that would be the failure of +his real mission. +</p> + +<p> +Night was now not far distant, and, concluding that he had a much +better chance to run the gantlet under its cover, he still waited in +the wood until the twilight came. +</p> + +<p> +Wrapped in a coil of dangers he was ready to risk anything. Quickness, +resource and boldness, of which the last had been most valuable, had +brought him so far, and, encouraged by success, he rode forward full of +confidence. +</p> + +<p> +On his right was a small house standing among the usual shade trees, +and, approaching it without hesitation, he spoke to a man who stood in +the yard. +</p> + +<p> +"Which way is General Pleasanton?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +The man hesitated. +</p> + +<p> +"I belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania," said Harry, pointing to the name +on the canteen, still visible in the twilight. The man's eyes +brightened and he replied: +</p> + +<p> +"Down there," pointing toward the southwest. +</p> + +<p> +"I've a message for him and I don't want to run into any of the rebel +raiders." +</p> + +<p> +"Then you keep away from there," he said, pointing due west. +</p> + +<p> +"What's the trouble in that direction?" +</p> + +<p> +"Jim Hurley was here about an hour ago. The whole country is terribly +excited about these big armies marching over it, and he said that our +cavalry was riding on fast. A lot of it was ahead of the rebel army, +but straight there in the west some of the rebel horsemen had spread +out on their own flank. If you went that way in the night you'd be +sure to run right into a nest of 'em." +</p> + +<p> +"So the Johnnies are west of us, your friend Hurley said. Tell me +again what particular point I have to watch in order to keep away from +them." +</p> + +<p> +"Almost as straight west as you can make it. A valley running east and +west cuts in there and it's full of the rebels. It's the only place +all along here where they are." +</p> + +<p> +"And consequently the only place for me to avoid. Thanks. Your +information may save me from capture. Good night." +</p> + +<p> +"Good night and good luck." +</p> + +<p> +Harry rode toward the southwest until a dip in the valley hid him from +possible view of the man at the house. Then he turned and rode due +west, determined to reach as soon as possible those "rebel raiders" in +the valley, but fully aware that he must yet use every resource of +skill, courage and patience. +</p> + +<p> +The twilight turned into night, clear, dry and bright. Unless it was +raining in the mountains the flood in the Potomac could not be +increasing. Here, at last, the conditions were all that he wished. The +captured haversack still contained plenty of food, and, as he rode, he +ate. He had learned long ago that food was as necessary as weapons to +a soldier, and that one should eat when one could. Moreover, he was +always hungry. +</p> + +<p> +He kept among trees wherever possible, and, as the night grew, and the +stars came out in the dusky blue, he enjoyed the peace. Even though he +searched with his glasses he could not see soldiers anywhere, although +he knew they were in the hollows and the forests. A pleasant breeze +blew, and an owl, reckless of armies, sent forth its lonesome hoot. +</p> + +<p> +But he kept his horse's head straight for the narrow valley where the +"rebel raiders" rode. He met presently a small detachment of +Connecticut men, but the sight of his canteen and letter was sufficient +for them. Again he rode southwest, merely to turn due west once more, +after he had passed from their sight, and near the head of the valley +he encountered two men in blue on horseback watching. They were alert, +well-built fellows and examined Harry closely, a process to which long +usage had reconciled him. +</p> + +<p> +"I hear that the rebels are down in that valley, comrade," he said. +</p> + +<p> +"So they are," replied the elder and larger of the men. "We've got to +ask you who you are and which way you're going." +</p> + +<p> +"John Haskell, Fifth Pennsylvania, with dispatches from General Meade +to General Pleasanton. They're tremendously important, too, and I've +got to be in a hurry." +</p> + +<p> +"More haste less speed. You know the old saying. In a time like this +it's sometimes better for a man to know where he's going than it is to +get there, 'cause he may arrive at the wrong place." +</p> + +<p> +"Good logic, comrade, but I must hurry just the same. Which is my best +way to find General Pleasanton?" +</p> + +<p> +"Southwest. But I'm bound to tell you a few things first." +</p> + +<p> +"All right. What are they?" +</p> + +<p> +"You and I must be kinsfolk." +</p> + +<p> +"How do you make that out?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because my name is William Haskell, and I belong to the Fifth +Pennsylvania, the same regiment that you do." +</p> + +<p> +"Is that so? It's strange that we haven't met before. But funny +things happen in war." +</p> + +<p> +"So they do. Awfully funny. Now my brother's name is John Haskell, +and you happen to be carrying his canteen, but you've changed looks a +lot in the last few days, Brother John." +</p> + +<p> +Haskell's voice had been growing more menacing, and Harry, with native +quickness, was ready to act. When he saw the man's pistol flash from +his belt he went over the side of his horse and the bullet whistled +where his body had been. His own rifle cracked in reply, but Haskell's +horse, not he, took the bullet, and, screaming with pain and fright, +ran into the woods as the rider slipped from his back. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, realizing that his peril was imminent and deadly, fired one of +his pistols at the second man, who fell from his horse, too badly +wounded in the shoulder to take any further part in the fight. +</p> + +<p> +But Harry found in Haskell an opponent worthy of all his skill and +courage. The Union soldier threw himself upon the ground and fired at +Harry's horse, which instantly jerked the bridle from his hand and fled +as the other had done. Harry dropped flat in the grass and leaves and +listened, his heart thumping. +</p> + +<p> +But luck had favored him again. He lay in a slight depression and any +bullet fired at him would be sure to go over him unless he raised his +head. He could not see his enemies, but he could depend upon his +wonderful power of hearing, inherited and cultivated, which gave him an +advantage over his opponents. +</p> + +<p> +He heard the wounded man groan ever so lightly, and then the other +whisper to him, "Are you much hurt, Bill?" The reply came in a moment: +"My right shoulder is put out for the time, and I can't help you now." +Presently he heard the slight sound of the other crawling toward him. +Evidently this Haskell was a fearless fellow, bound to get him, and he +called from the shadow in which he lay. +</p> + +<p> +"You'd better stop, Haskell! I've got the best pair of ears in all +this region, and I hear you coming! Crawl another step and you meet a +bullet! But I want to tell you first that your interesting brother John +is all right. I didn't kill him. I merely robbed him." +</p> + +<p> +"Robbed him of what?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, of several things." +</p> + +<p> +"What things?" +</p> + +<p> +"They don't concern you, Haskell. These are matters somewhat above +you." +</p> + +<p> +"They are, are they? Well, maybe they are, but I'm going to see that +you don't get away with the proceeds of your robbery." +</p> + +<p> +Harry didn't like his tone. It was fierce and resolute, and he +realized once more that he had a man of quality before him. If Haskell +had behaved properly he would have withdrawn with his wounded comrade. +But then he was an obstinate Yankee. +</p> + +<p> +He raised up ever so little and glanced across the intervening space, +seeing the muzzle of a rifle not many yards away. There could be no +doubt that Haskell was watchful and would continue watching. He drew +his head back again and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Let's call it a draw. You go back to your army, Mr. Haskell, and I'll +go back to mine." +</p> + +<p> +"Couldn't think of it. As a matter of fact, I'm with my army now; that +is, I'm in its lines, while you can't reach yours. All I've got to do +is to hold you here, and in the course of time some of our people will +come along and take you." +</p> + +<p> +"Do you think I'm worth so much trouble?" +</p> + +<p> +"In a way it's a sort of personal affair with me. You admit having +robbed my brother, and I feel that I must avenge him. He has been +acting as a dispatch rider, and I can make a pretty shrewd guess about +what you took from him. So I think I'll stay here." +</p> + +<p> +Harry blamed himself bitterly for his careless and unfortunate +expressions. He did not fear the result of a duel with this man, being +the master of woodcraft that he was, but he was losing time, valuable +time, time more precious than gold and diamonds, time heavy with the +fate of armies and a nation. He grew furiously angry at everything, +and angriest at Haskell. +</p> + +<p> +"Mr. Haskell," he called, "I'm getting tired of your society, and I +make you a polite request to go away." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, no, you're not tired. You merely think you are, and I couldn't +consider conceding to your request. It's for your good more than mine. +My society is elevating to any Johnny Reb." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I warn you that I may have to hurt you." +</p> + +<p> +"How about getting hurt yourself?" +</p> + +<p> +Harry was silent. His acute ears brought him the sound of Haskell +moving a little in his own particular hollow. The lonesome owl hooted +twice more, but there was no sound to betoken the approach of Union +troops in the forest. The duel of weapons and wits would have to be +fought out alone by Haskell and himself. +</p> + +<p> +He went over everything again and again and he concluded that he must +rely upon his superior keenness of ear. He could hear Haskell, but +Haskell could not hear him, and there was Providence once more taking +him into favor. Summer clouds began to drift before the moon, and many +of the stars were veiled. It was possible that Haskell's eyes also +were not as keen as his own. +</p> + +<p> +When the darkness increased, he began to crawl from the little shallow. +Despite extreme precautions he made a slight noise. A pistol flashed +and a bullet passed over him. It made his muscles quiver, but he +called in a calm voice: +</p> + +<p> +"Why did you do such a foolish thing as that? You wasted a perfectly +good bullet." +</p> + +<p> +"Weren't you trying to escape? I thought I heard a movement in the +grass." +</p> + +<p> +"Wasn't thinking of such a thing. I'm just waiting here to see what +you'll do. Why don't you come on and attack?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm satisfied with things as they are. I'll hold you until morning +and then our men will be sure to come and pick you up." +</p> + +<p> +"Maybe it will be our men who will come and pick you up." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, no; they're too busy leaving Gettysburg behind 'em." +</p> + +<p> +Harry nevertheless had succeeded in leaving the shallow and was now +lying on its farther bank. Then he resumed the task of crawling +forward on his face, and without making any noise, one of the most +difficult feats that a human being is ever called upon to do. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of a dozen feet, he paused both to rest and to listen. His +acute ears told him that Haskell had not moved from his own place, and +his eyes showed him that the darkness was increasing. Those wonderful, +kindly clouds were thickening before the moon, and the stars in troops +were going out of sight. +</p> + +<p> +But he did not relax his caution. He knew that he could not afford to +make any sound that would arouse the suspicions of Haskell, and it was +a quarter of an hour before he felt himself absolutely safe. Then he +passed around a big tree and arose behind its trunk, appreciating what +a tremendous luxury it was to be a man and to stand upon one's own feet. +</p> + +<p> +He had triumphed again! The stars surely were with him. They might +play little tricks upon him now and then to tantalize him, but in the +more important matters they were on his side. He stretched himself +again and again to relieve the terrible stiffness caused by such long +and painful crawling, and then, unable to resist an exultant impulse, +he called loudly: +</p> + +<p> +"Good-by, Haskell!" +</p> + +<p> +There was a startled exclamation and a bullet fired at random cut the +leaves twenty yards away. Harry, making no reply, fled swiftly through +the forest toward the valley where the rebel raiders rode. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap07"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER VII +</h3> + +<h3> +IN THE WAGON +</h3> + +<p> +He ran at first, reckless of impediments, and there was a sound of +crashing as he sped through the bushes. He was not in the least afraid +of Haskell. He had his rifle and pistols and in the woods he was +infinitely the superior. He did not even believe that Haskell would +pursue, but he wanted to get far beyond any possible Federal sentinels +as soon as possible. +</p> + +<p> +After a flight of a few hundred yards he slackened speed, and began to +go silently. The old instincts and skill of the forester returned to +him. He knew that he was safe from immediate pursuit and now he would +approach his own lines carefully. He was grateful for the chance or +series of chances that always took him toward Lee. It seemed now that +his enemies had merely succeeded in driving him at an increased pace in +the way he wanted to go. +</p> + +<p> +He was descending a slope, thickly clothed with undergrowth. A few +hundred yards farther his knees suddenly crumpled under him and he sank +down, seized at the same time with a fit of nervous trembling. He had +passed through so many ordeals that strong and seasoned as he was and +high though his spirits, the collapse came all at once. He knew what +was the matter and, quietly stretching himself out, he lay still that +the spell might pass. +</p> + +<p> +The lonesome owl, probably the same one that he had heard earlier, +began to hoot, and now it was near by. Harry thought he could make out +its dim figure on a branch and he was sure that the red eyes, closed by +day, were watching him, doubtless with a certain contempt at his +weakness. +</p> + +<p> +"Old man, if you had been chased by the fowler as often as I have," +were the words behind his teeth, addressed to the dim and fluffy +figure, "you wouldn't be sitting up there so calm and cocky. Your +tired head would sink down between your legs, your feathers would be +wet with perspiration and you'd be so tired you'd hardly be able to +hang on to the tree." +</p> + +<p> +Came again the lonesome hoot of the owl, spreading like a sinister omen +through the forest. It made Harry angry, and, raising himself up a +little, he shook his fist again at the figure on the branch, now +growing clearer in outline. +</p> + +<p> +"'Bird or devil?'" he quoted. +</p> + +<p> +The owl hooted once more, the strange ominous cry carrying far in the +silence of the night. +</p> + +<p> +"Devil it is," said Harry, "and quoth your evil majesty 'never more.' I +won't be scared by a big owl playing the part of the raven. It's not +'nevermore' with me. I've many a good day ahead and don't you dare +tell me I haven't." +</p> + +<p> +Came the solemn and changeless hoot of the owl in reply. +</p> + +<p> +Harry's exertions and excitement had brought too much blood to his head +and he was seeing red. He raised himself upon his elbows and stared at +the owl which stared back from red rimmed eyes, cold, emotionless, +implacable. He had been terribly shaken, and now a superstitious +fright overcame him. The raven and the albatross were in his mind and +he murmured under his breath passages from their ominous poems. The +scholar had his raven, the mariner had his albatross and now he alone +in the forest had his owl, to his mind the most terrible bird of the +three. +</p> + +<p> +Came again that solemn and warning cry, the most depressing of all in +the wilderness, while the changeless and sinister eyes stared steadily +at him. Then Harry remembered that he had a rifle, and he sat up. He +would slay this winged monster. There was light enough for him to draw +a bead, and he was too good a marksman to miss. +</p> + +<p> +He dropped the muzzle of the rifle in a sudden access of fear as he +remembered the albatross. A shiver ran through every nerve and muscle, +and so heavily was he oppressed that he felt as if he had just escaped +committing murder. He rubbed his hand across his damp forehead and the +act brought him out of that dim world in which he had been living for +the last ten or fifteen minutes. +</p> + +<p> +"Bird of whatever omen you may be, I'll not shoot you. That's +certain," he said, "but I'll leave you to your melancholy predictions +just as soon as I can." +</p> + +<p> +He stood up somewhat unsteadily, and renewed the descent of the slope. +Near its foot he came to a brook and bathing his face plentifully in +the cool water he felt wonderfully refreshed. All his strength was +flowing back swiftly. +</p> + +<p> +Then he entered the valley, pressing straight toward the west, and soon +heard the tread of horses. He knew that they must be the cavalry of +his own army, but he withdrew into the bushes until he was assured. A +dozen men riding slowly and warily came into view, and though the +moonlight was wan he recognized them at once. When they were opposite +him he stepped from his ambush and said: +</p> + +<p> +"A happy night to you, Colonel Talbot." +</p> + +<p> +Colonel Leonidas Talbot was a brave man, but seldom in his life had he +been so shaken. +</p> + +<p> +"Good God, Hector!" he cried. "It's Harry Kenton's ghost!" +</p> + +<p> +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire turned pale. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't believe in ghosts, Leonidas," he said, "but this one certainly +looks like that of Harry Kenton." +</p> + +<p> +"Colonel Talbot," called Harry, "I'm not a ghost. I'm the real Harry +Kenton, hunting for our army." +</p> + +<p> +"Pale but substantial," said St. Clair, who rode just behind the two +colonels. "He's our old Harry himself, and I'd know him anywhere." +</p> + +<p> +"No ghost at all and the Yankee bullets can't make him one," said Happy +Tom. +</p> + +<p> +A weakness seized Harry and a blackness came before his eyes. When he +recovered St. Clair was holding him up, and Colonel Talbot was trying +to pour strong waters down his throat. +</p> + +<p> +"How long have I been this way?" he asked anxiously. +</p> + +<p> +"About sixty seconds," replied Colonel Talbot, "but what difference +does it make?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because I'm in a big hurry to get to General Lee! Oh! Colonel! +Colonel! You must speed me on my way! I've got a message from Colonel +Sherburne to General Lee that means everything, and on the road I +captured another from General Meade to General Pleasanton. Put me on a +horse, won't you, and gallop me to the commander-in-chief!" +</p> + +<p> +"Are you strong enough to ride alone?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm strong enough to do anything now." +</p> + +<p> +"Then up with you! Here, on Carter's horse! Carter can ride behind +Hubbell! St. Clair, you and Langdon ride on either side of him! You +should reach the commander-in-chief in three-quarters of an hour, +Harry!" +</p> + +<p> +"And there is no Yankee cavalry in between?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, they're thick on the slopes above us! You knew that, but here +you're inside our own lines. Judging by your looks you've had quite a +time, Harry. Now hurry on with him, boys!" +</p> + +<p> +"So I have had, Colonel, but the appearance of you, Lieutenant-Colonel +St. Hilaire and the boys was like a light from Heaven. Good-by!" +</p> + +<p> +"Good-by!" the two colonels called back, but their voices were already +dying in the distance as Harry and his comrades were now riding rapidly +down the valley, knee to knee, because St. Clair and Langdon meant to +keep very close to him. They saw that he was a little unsteady, and +that his eyes were unnaturally bright. They knew, too, that if he said +he had great news for General Lee he told the truth, and they meant +that he should get there with it in the least time possible. +</p> + +<p> +The valley opened out before them, broadening considerably as they +advanced. The night was far gone, there was not much moonlight, but +their eyes had grown used to the dark, and they could see well. They +passed sentinels and small detachments of cavalry, to whom St. Clair +and Langdon gave the quick password. They saw fields of wheat stubble +and pastures and crossed two brooks. The curiosity of Langdon and St. +Clair was overwhelming but they restrained it for a long time. They +could tell by his appearance that he had passed through unimaginable +hardships, but they were loath to ask questions. +</p> + +<p> +An owl on their right hooted, and both of them saw Harry shiver. +</p> + +<p> +"What makes an owl's cry disturb you so, Harry?" asked Langdon. +</p> + +<p> +"Because one of them tried to put the hoodoo on me as they say down in +your country, Happy. I was lying back there in the forest on the hill +and the biggest and reddest-eyed owl that was ever born sat on a bough +over head, and kept telling me that I was finished, right at the end of +my rope. But he was a liar, because here I am, with you fellows on +either side of me, inside our lines and riding to the camp of the +commander-in-chief." +</p> + +<p> +"I think you're a bit shaky, Harry," said St. Clair, "and I don't +wonder at it. If I had been through all I think you've been through +I'd tumble off that horse into the road and die." +</p> + +<p> +"Has any messenger come from Colonel Sherburne at the river to General +Lee?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not that I've heard of. No, I'm sure that none's come," replied St. +Clair. +</p> + +<p> +"Then I'll get to him first. Don't think, Arthur, it's just a foolish +ambition of mine to lead, but the sooner some one reaches the general +the better." +</p> + +<p> +"We'll see that you're first old man," said Langdon. "It's not more +than a half-hour now." +</p> + +<p> +But Harry reeled in his saddle. The singular weakness that he had felt +a while back returned, and the road grew dark before him. With a +mighty effort he steadied himself in the saddle and St. Clair heard him +say in a fierce undertone: "I will go through with it!" St. Clair +looked across at Langdon and the signaling look of Happy Tom replied. +They drew in just a little closer. Now and then they talked to him +sharply and briskly, rousing him again and again from the lethargy into +which he was fast sinking. +</p> + +<p> +"Look! In the woods over there, Harry!" exclaimed St. Clair. "See the +men stretched asleep on the grass! They're the survivors of Pickett's +brigades that charged at Gettysburg." +</p> + +<p> +"And I was there!" said Harry. "I saw the greatest charge ever made in +the history of the world!" +</p> + +<p> +He reeled a little toward St. Clair, who caught him by the shoulder and +straightened him in the saddle. +</p> + +<p> +"Of course you had a pleasant, easy ride from the Potomac," said Happy +Tom, "but I don't understand how as good a horseman as you lost your +horse. I suppose he ran away while you were picking berries by the +roadside." +</p> + +<p> +"Me pick berries by the roadside, while I'm on such a mission!" +exclaimed Harry indignantly, rousing himself up until his eyes flashed, +which was just what Happy wished. "I didn't see any berries! Besides +I didn't start on a horse. I left in a boat." +</p> + +<p> +"A boat? Now, Harry, I know you've turned romancer. I guess your +mystic troubles with the owl—if you really saw an owl—have been a +sort of spur to your fancy." +</p> + +<p> +"Do you mean to say, Tom Langdon, that I didn't see an owl and talk +with him? I tell you I did, and his conversation was a lot more +intelligent than yours, even if it was unpleasant." +</p> + +<p> +"Of course it was," said St. Clair. "Happy's chief joy in life is +talking. You know how he chatters away, Harry. He hates to sleep, +because then he loses good time that he might use in talk. I'll wager +you anything against anything, Harry, that when the Angel Gabriel blows +his horn Happy will rise out of his grave, shaking his shroud and +furious with anger. He'll hold up the whole resurrection while he +argues with Gabriel that he blew his horn either too late or too early, +or that it was a mighty poor sort of a horn anyhow." +</p> + +<p> +"I may do all that, Harry," said Happy, "but Arthur is sure to be the +one who will raise the trouble about the shroud. You know how finicky +he is about his clothes. He'll find fault with the quality of his +shroud, and he'll say that it's cut either too short or too long. Then +he'll insist, while all the billions wait, on draping the shroud in the +finest Greek or Roman toga style, before he marches up to his place on +the golden cloud and receives his harp." +</p> + +<p> +Harry laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"That'll be old Arthur, sure," he said. Then his head drooped again. +Fatigue was overpowering him. St. Clair and Langdon put a hand on +either shoulder and held him erect, but Harry was so far sunk in +lethargy that he was not conscious of their grasp. Men looked +curiously at the three young officers riding rapidly forward, the one +in the center apparently held on his horse by the other two. +</p> + +<p> +St. Clair took prompt measures. +</p> + +<p> +"Harry Kenton!" he called sharply. +</p> + +<p> +"Here!" +</p> + +<p> +"Do you know what they do with a sentinel caught asleep?" +</p> + +<p> +"They shoot him!" +</p> + +<p> +"What of a messenger, bearing great news who has ridden two or three +days and nights through a thousand dangers, and then becomes +unconscious in his saddle within five hundred yards of his journey's +end?" +</p> + +<p> +"The stake wouldn't be too good for him," replied Harry as with a +mighty effort he shook himself, both body and mind. Once more his eyes +cleared and once more he sat erect in his saddle without help. +</p> + +<p> +"I won't fail, Arthur," he said. "Show the way." +</p> + +<p> +"There's a big tree by the roadside almost straight ahead," said St. +Clair. "General Lee is asleep under that, but he'll be as wide awake +as any man can be a half-minute after you arrive." +</p> + +<p> +They sprang from their horses, St. Clair spoke quickly with a watching +officer who went at once to awaken Lee. Harry dimly saw the form of +the general who was sleeping on a blanket, spread over small boughs. +Near him a man in brilliant uniform was walking softly back and forth, +and now and then impatiently striking the tops of his high +yellow-topped boots with a little riding whip. Harry knew at once that +it was Stuart, but the cavalry leader had not yet noticed him. +</p> + +<p> +Harry saw the officer bend over the commander-in-chief, who rose in an +instant to his feet. He was fully dressed and he showed gray in the +dusky light, but he seemed as ever calm and grave. Harry felt +instantly the same swell of courage that the presence of Jackson had +always brought to him. It was Lee, the indomitable, the man of genius, +who could not be beaten. He heard him say to the officer who had +awakened him, "Bring him immediately!" and he stepped forward, +strengthening himself anew and filled with pride that he should be the +first to arrive, as he felt that he certainly now was. +</p> + +<p> +"Lieutenant Kenton!" said Lee. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir," said Harry, lifting his cap. +</p> + +<p> +"You were sent with Colonel Sherburne to see about the fords of the +Potomac." +</p> + +<p> +"I was, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"And he has sent you back with the report?" +</p> + +<p> +"He has, sir. He did not give me any written report for fear that I +might be captured. He did me the honor to say that my verbal message +would be believed." +</p> + +<p> +"It will. I know you, as I do the other members of my staff. Proceed." +</p> + +<p> +"The Potomac is in great flood, sir, and the bridge is destroyed. It +can't be crossed until it runs down to its normal depth." +</p> + +<p> +Harry saw other generals of high rank drawing near. One he recognized +as Longstreet. They were all silent and eager. +</p> + +<p> +"Colonel Sherburne ordered me to say to you, sir," continued Harry, +"that the best fords would be between Williamsport and Hagerstown when +the river ran down." +</p> + +<p> +"When did you leave him?" +</p> + +<p> +"Nearly two days ago, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"You have made good speed through a country swarming with our enemy. +You are entitled to rest." +</p> + +<p> +"It's not all, sir?" +</p> + +<p> +"What else?" +</p> + +<p> +"On my way I captured a messenger with a letter from General Meade to +General Pleasanton. I have the message, sir." +</p> + +<p> +He brought forth the paper from his blouse and extended it to General +Lee, who took it eagerly. Some one held up a torch and he read it +aloud to his generals. +</p> + +<p> +"And so Meade means to trap me," he said, "by coming down on our flank!" +</p> + +<p> +"Since the river is unfordable he'll have plenty of time to attack us +there," said Longstreet. +</p> + +<p> +"But will he dare to attack?" said Stuart defiantly. "He was able to +hold his own in defense at Gettysburg, but it's another thing to take +the offensive. We hear that General Meade is cautious and that he +makes many complaints to his government. A complainer is not the kind +of man who can destroy the Army of Northern Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +"Sometimes it's well to be cautious, General," said Lee. +</p> + +<p> +Then he turned to Harry and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Again I commend you." +</p> + +<p> +Harry saluted proudly, and then fell unconscious at the feet of General +Lee. +</p> + +<p> +When the young staff officer awoke, he was lying in a wagon which was +moving slowly, with many jolts over a very rough road. It was perhaps +one of these jolts that awoke him, because his eyes still felt very +heavy with sleep. His position was comfortable as he lay on a heap of +blankets, and the sides of the wagon looked familiar. Moreover the +broad back of the driver was not that of a stranger. Moving his head +into a higher place on the blankets he called. +</p> + +<p> +"Hey you, Dick Jones, where are you taking me?" +</p> + +<p> +Jones turned his rubicund and kindly face. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't it beat all how things come about?" he said. "This wagon wasn't +built for passengers, but I have you once and then I have you twice, +sleepin' like a prince on them blankets. I guess if the road wasn't so +rough you'd have slept all the way to Virginia. But I'm proud to have +you as a passenger. They say you've been coverin' yourself with glory. +I don't know about that, but I never before saw a man who was so all +fired tuckered out." +</p> + +<p> +"Where did you find me?" +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't exactly find you myself. They say you saluted General Lee so +deep and so strong that you just fell down at his feet an' didn't move, +as if you intended to stay there forever. But four of your friends +brought you to my wagon feet foremost, with orders from General Lee if +I didn't treat you right that I'd get a thousand lashes, be tarred an' +feathered, an' hung an' shot an' burned, an' then be buried alive. For +all of which there was no need, as I'm your friend and would treat you +right anyway." +</p> + +<p> +"I know you would," laughed Harry. "You can't afford to lose your best +passenger. How long have I been sleeping in this rough train of yours?" +</p> + +<p> +"Since about three o'clock in the morning." +</p> + +<p> +"And what time might it be now." +</p> + +<p> +"Well it might be ten o'clock in the morning or it might be noon, but +it ain't either." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, then, what time is it?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's about six o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Kenton, and I judge that +you've slept nigh on to fifteen hours, which is mighty good for a man +who was as tired as you was." +</p> + +<p> +"And what has the army been doing while I slept?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, it's been marchin' an' marchin' an' marchin'. Can't you hear the +wagons an' the cannons clinkin' an' clankin'? An' the hoofs of the +horses beatin' in the road? An the feet of forty or fifty thousand men +comin' down ker-plunk! ker-plunk! an' all them thousands talkin' off +an' on? Yes, we're still marchin', Mr. Kenton, but we're retreatin' +with all our teeth showin' an' our claws out, sharpened specially. +Most of the boys don't care if Meade would attack us. They'd be glad +of the chance to get even for Gettysburg." +</p> + +<p> +There was a beat of hoofs and St. Clair rode up by the side of the +wagon. +</p> + +<p> +"All right again, Harry?" he said cheerfully. "I'm mighty glad of it. +Other messengers have got through from Sherburne, confirming what you +said, but you were the first to arrive and the army already was on the +march because of the news you brought. Dalton arrived about noon, dead +beat. Happy is coming with a horse for you, and you can rejoin the +staff now." +</p> + +<p> +"Before I leave I'll have to thank Mr. Jones once more," said Harry. +"He runs the best passenger service that I know." +</p> + +<p> +"Welcome to it any time, either you or your friend," said Jones, +saluting with his whip. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap08"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER VIII +</h3> + +<h3> +THE CROSSING +</h3> + +<p> +Harry left the wagon at midnight and overtook the staff, an orderly +providing him with a good horse. Dalton, who had also been sleeping in +a wagon, came an hour or two later, and the two, as became modest young +officers, rode in the rear of the group that surrounded General Lee. +</p> + +<p> +Although the darkness had come fully, the Army of Northern Virginia had +not yet stopped. The infantry flanked by cavalry, and, having no fear +of the enemy, marched steadily on. Harry closely observed General Lee, +and although he was well into his fifties he could discern no weakness, +either physical or mental, in the man who had directed the fortunes of +the South in the terrific and unsuccessful three days at Gettysburg and +who had now led his army for nearly a week in a retreat, threatened, at +any moment, with an attack by a veteran force superior in numbers. All +the other generals looked worn and weary, but he alone sat erect, his +hair and beard trimmed neatly, his grave eye showing no sign of +apprehension. +</p> + +<p> +He seemed once more to Harry—youth is a hero-worshiper—omniscient and +omnipotent. The invasion of the North had failed, and there had been a +terrible loss of good men, officers and soldiers, but, with Lee +standing on the defensive at the head of the Army of Northern Virginia, +in Virginia, the South would be invincible. He had always won there, +and he always would win there. +</p> + +<p> +Harry sighed, nevertheless. He had two heroes, but one of them was +gone. He thought again if only Stonewall Jackson had been at +Gettysburg. Lee's terrible striking arm would have smitten with the +hammer of Thor. He would have pushed home the attack on the first day, +when the Union vanguard was defeated and demoralized. He would have +crushed the enemy on the second day, leaving no need for that fatal and +terrific charge of Pickett on the third day. +</p> + +<p> +"You reached the general first," said Dalton, "but I tried my best to +beat you." +</p> + +<p> +"But I started first, George, old fellow. That gave me the advantage +over you." +</p> + +<p> +"It's fine of you to say it. The army has quickened its pace since we +came. A part of it, at least, ought to arrive at the river to-morrow, +though their cavalry are skirmishing continually on our flanks. Don't +you hear the rifles?" +</p> + +<p> +Harry heard them far away to right and left, like the faint buzzing of +wasps, but he had heard the same sound so much that it made no +impression upon him. +</p> + +<p> +"Let 'em buzz," he said. "They're too distant to reach any of us, and +the Army of Northern Virginia is passing on." +</p> + +<p> +Those were precious hours. Harry knew much, but he did not divine the +full depths of the suspense, suffered by the people beyond the veil +that clothed the two armies. Lincoln had been continually urging Meade +to pursue and destroy his opponent, and Meade, knowing how formidable +Lee was, and how it had been a matter of touch and go at Gettysburg, +pursued, but not with all the ardor of one sure of triumph. Yet the +man at the White House hoped continually for victory, and the Southern +people feared that his hopes would come true. +</p> + +<p> +It became sure the next day that they would reach the Potomac before +Meade could attack them in flank, but the scouts brought word that the +Potomac was still a deep and swollen river, impossible to be crossed +unless they could rebuild the bridges. +</p> + +<p> +Finally the whole army came against the Potomac and it seemed to Harry +that its yellow flood had not diminished one particle since he left. +But Lee acted with energy. Men were set to work at once building a new +bridge near Falling Waters, parts of the ruined pontoon bridges were +recovered, and new boats were built in haste. But while the workmen +toiled the army went into strong positions along the river between +Williamsport and Hagerstown. +</p> + +<p> +Harry found himself with all of his friends again, and he was proud of +the army's defiant attitude. Meade and the Army of the Potomac were +not far away, it was said, but the youthful veterans of the South were +entirely willing to fight again. The older men, however, knew their +danger. The disproportion of forces would be much greater than at +Gettysburg, and even if they fought a successful defensive action with +their back to the river the Army of the Potomac could bide its time and +await reinforcements. The North would pour forth its numbers without +stint. +</p> + +<p> +Harry rode to Sherburne with a message of congratulation from General +Lee, who told him that he had selected the possible crossing well, and +that he had shown great skill and valor in holding it until the army +came up. Sherburne's flush of pride showed under his deep tan. +</p> + +<p> +"I did my best," he said to Harry, who knew the contents of the letter, +"and that's all any of us can do." +</p> + +<p> +"But General Lee has a way of inspiring us to do our best." +</p> + +<p> +"It's so, and it's one of the reasons why he's such a great general. +Watch those bridge builders work, Harry! They're certainly putting +their souls and strength into it." +</p> + +<p> +"And they have need to do so. The scouts say that the Army of the +Potomac will be before us to-morrow. Don't you think the river has +fallen somewhat, Colonel?" +</p> + +<p> +"A little but look at those clouds over there, Harry. As surely as we +sit here it's going to rain. The rivers were low that we might cross +them on our march into the North, just smoothing our way to Gettysburg, +and now that Gettysburg has happened they're high so we can't get back +to the South. It looks as if luck were against us." +</p> + +<p> +"But luck has a habit of changing." +</p> + +<p> +Harry rode back to headquarters, whence he was sent with another +dispatch, to Colonel Talbot, whom he found posted well in advance with +the Invincibles. +</p> + +<p> +"This note," said the colonel, "bids us to watch thoroughly. General +Meade and his army are expected on our front in the morning, and there +must be no chance for a surprise in the night, say a dash by their +cavalry which would cut up our rear guard or vanguard—upon my soul I +don't know which to call it. Harry, as you can see by the note itself, +you're to remain with us until about midnight, and then make a full +report of all that you and I and the rest of us may have observed upon +this portion of the front or rear, whichever it may be. Meanwhile we +share with you our humble rations." +</p> + +<p> +Harry was pleased. He was always glad when chance or purpose brought +him again into the company of the Invincibles. St. Clair and Langdon +were his oldest comrades of the war, and they were like brothers to +him. His affection for the two colonels was genuine and deep. If the +two lads were like brothers to him, the colonels were like uncles. +</p> + +<p> +"Is the Northern vanguard anywhere near?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Skirmishing is going on only four or five miles away," replied Colonel +Leonidas Talbot. "It is likely that the sharp shooters will be picking +off one another all through the night, but it will not disturb us. That +is a great curse of war. It hardens one so for the time being. I'm a +soldier, and I've been one all my life, and I suppose soldiers are +necessary, but I can't get over this feeling. Isn't it the same way +with you, Hector?" +</p> + +<p> +"Exactly the same, Leonidas," replied Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. +Hilaire. "You and I fought together in Mexico, Leonidas, then on the +plains, and now in this gigantic struggle, but under whatever guise +and, wherever it may be, I find its visage always hideous. I don't +think we soldiers are to blame. We don't make the wars although we +have to fight 'em." +</p> + +<p> +"Increasing years, Hector, have not dimmed those perceptive faculties +of yours, which I may justly call brilliant." +</p> + +<p> +"Thanks, Leonidas, you and I have always had a proper conception of the +worth of each other." +</p> + +<p> +"If you will pardon me for speaking, sir," said St. Clair, "there is +one man I'd like to find, when this war is over." +</p> + +<p> +"'What is the appearance of this man, Arthur?" asked Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know exactly how he looks, sir, though I've heard of him +often, and I shall certainly know him when I meet him. You understand, +sir, that, while I've not seen him, he has very remarkable +characteristics of manner." +</p> + +<p> +"And what may those be, Arthur? Are they so salient that you would +recognize them at once?" +</p> + +<p> +"Certainly, sir. He has an uncommonly loud voice, which he uses nearly +all the time and without restraint. Words fairly pour from his tongue. +Facts he scorns. He soars aloft on the wings of fancy. Many people +who have listened to him have felt persuaded by his talk, but he is +perhaps not so popular now." +</p> + +<p> +"An extraordinary person, Arthur. But why are you so anxious to find +him?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because I wish, sir, to lay upon him the hands of violence. I would +thrash him and beat him until he yelled for mercy, and then I would +thrash him and beat him again. I should want the original pair of +seven-leagued boots, not that I might make such fast time, but that I +might kick him at a single kick from one county to another, and back, +and then over and over past counting. I'd duck him in a river until he +gasped for breath, I'd drag him naked through a briar patch, and then +I'd tar and feather him, and ride him on a rail." +</p> + +<p> +"Heavens, Arthur! I didn't dream that your nature contained so much +cruelty! Who is this person over whose torture you would gloat like a +red Indian?" +</p> + +<p> +"It is the man who first said that one Southerner could whip five +Yankees." +</p> + +<p> +"Arthur," said Colonel Talbot, "your anger is just and becomes you. +When the war is over, if we all are spared we'll form a group and hunt +this fellow until we find him. And then, please God, if the gallows of +Haman is still in existence, we'll hang him on it with promptness and +dispatch. I believe in the due and orderly process of the law, but in +this case lynching is not only justifiable, but it's an honor to the +country." +</p> + +<p> +"Well spoken, Leonidas! Well spoken!" said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector +St. Hilaire. "I'm glad that Arthur mentioned the matter, and we'll +bear it in mind. You can count upon me." +</p> + +<p> +"And here is coffee," said Happy Tom. "I made this myself, the camp +cook liking me and giving me a chance. I'd really be a wonderful cook +if I had the proper training, and I may come to it, if we lose the war. +Still, the chance even then is slight, because my father, when red war +showed its edge over the horizon, put all his money in the best British +securities. So we could do no more than lose the plantation." +</p> + +<p> +"Happy," said Colonel Talbot, gravely rebuking, "I am surprised at your +father. I thought he was a patriot." +</p> + +<p> +"He is, sir, but he's a financier first, and I may be thankful for it +some day. I'll venture the prediction right now that if we lose this +war not a single Confederate bill will be in the possession of Thomas +Langdon, Sr. Others may have bales of it, worth less per pound than +cotton, but not your humble servant's father, who, I sometimes think, +has lots more sense than your humble servant's father's son." +</p> + +<p> +Colonel Leonidas Talbot shook his head slowly. +</p> + +<p> +"Finance is a mystery to me," he said. "In the dear old South that I +have always known, the law, the army and the church were and are +considered the high callings. To speak in fine, rounded periods was +considered the great gift. In my young days, Harry, I went with my +father by stage coach to your own State, Kentucky, to hear that sublime +orator, the great Henry Clay." +</p> + +<p> +"What was he speaking about, sir?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't remember. That's not important. But surely he was the +noblest orator God ever created in His likeness. His words flowing +like music and to be heard by everybody, even those farthest from the +speaker, made my pulse beat hard, and the blood leap in my veins. I +was heart and soul for his cause, whatever it was, and, yet I fear me, +though I do not wish to hurt your feelings, Harry, that the state to +which he was such ornament, has not gone for the South with the whole +spirit that she should have shown. She has not even seceded. I fear +sometimes that you Kentuckians are not altogether Southern. You border +upon the North, and stretching as you do a long distance from east to +west and a comparatively short distance from north to south, you thus +face three Northern States across the Ohio—Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, +and the pull of three against one is strong. You see your position, +don't you? Three Yankee states facing you from the north and only one +Southern state, Tennessee, lying across your whole southern border, +that is three against one. I fear that these odds have had their +effect, because if Kentucky had sent all of her troops to the South, +instead of two-thirds of them to the North, the war would have been won +by us ere this." +</p> + +<p> +"I admit it," said Harry regretfully. "My own cousin, who was more +like a brother to me, is fighting on the other side. Kentucky troops +on the Union side have kept us from winning great victories, and many +of the Union generals are Kentuckians. I grieve over it, sir, as much +as you do." +</p> + +<p> +"But you and your people should not take too much blame to yourselves, +Harry," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, who had a very soft +heart. "Think of the many influences to which you were exposed daily. +Think of those three Yankee states sitting there on the other side of +the Ohio—Ohio, Indiana and Illinois—and staring at you so long and so +steadily that, in a way, they exerted a certain hypnotic force upon +you. No, my boy, don't feel badly about it, because the fault, in a +way, is not so much yours as it is that of your neighbors." +</p> + +<p> +"At any rate," said Happy Tom, with his customary boldness and +frankness, "we're bound to admit that the Yankees beat us at making +money." +</p> + +<p> +"Which may be more to our credit than theirs," said Colonel Talbot, +with dignity. "I have found it more conducive to integrity and a lofty +mind to serve as an officer at a modest salary in the army rather than +to gain riches in trade." +</p> + +<p> +"But somebody has to pay the army, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"Thomas, I regret to tell you that inquiry can be pushed to the point +of vulgarity. I have been content with things as they were, and so +should you be. Ah, there are our brave boys singing that noble battle +song of the South! Listen how it swells! It shows a spirit +unconquerable!" +</p> + +<p> +Along the great battle front swelled the mighty chorus: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "Come brothers! Rally for the right!<br /> + The bravest of the brave<br /> + Sends forth her ringing battle cry<br /> + Beside the Atlantic wave!<br /> + She leads the way in honor's path;<br /> + Come brothers, near and far,<br /> + Come rally round the bonnie blue flag<br /> + That bears a single star."<br /> +</p> + +<p> +"A fine song! A fine song most truly," said Colonel Talbot. "It +heartens one gloriously!" +</p> + +<p> +But Harry, usually so quick to respond, strangely enough felt +depression. He felt suddenly in all its truth that they had not only +failed in their invasion, but the escape of the army was yet a matter +of great doubt. The mood was only momentary, however, and he joined +with all his heart as the mighty chorus rolled out another verse: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "Now Georgia marches to the front<br /> + And beside her come<br /> + Her sisters by the Mexique sea<br /> + With pealing trump and drum,<br /> + Till answering back from hill and glen<br /> + The rallying cry afar,<br /> + A Nation hoists the bonnie blue flag<br /> + That bears a single star!"<br /> +</p> + +<p> +They sang it all through, and over again, and then, after a little +silence, came the notes of a trumpet from a far-distant point. It was +played by powerful lungs and the wind was blowing their way but they +heard it distinctly. It was a quaint syncopated tune, but not one of +the Invincibles had any doubt that it came from some daring detachment +of the Union Army. The notes with their odd lilt seemed to swell +through the forest, but it was strange to both of the colonels. +</p> + +<p> +"Do any of you know it?" asked Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +All shook their heads except Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"What is it, Harry?" asked Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"It's a famous poem, sir, the music of which has not often been heard, +but I can translate from music into words the verse that has just been +played: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "In their ragged regimentals<br /> + Stood the old Continentals<br /> + Yielding not,<br /> + When the grenadiers were lunging<br /> + And like hail fell the plunging<br /> + Cannon shot;<br /> + When the files of the isles<br /> + From the smoky night encampment<br /> + Bore the banner of the rampant<br /> + Unicorn<br /> + And grummer, grummer,<br /> + Rolled the roll of the drummer,<br /> + Through the morn!"<br /> +</p> + +<p> +The bugler played on. It was the same tune, curious, syncopated and +piercing the night shrilly. Whole brigades of the South stood in +silence to listen. +</p> + +<p> +"What do you think is its meaning?" asked Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire. +</p> + +<p> +"It's in answer to our song and at the same time a reproach," replied +Harry, who had jumped at once to the right conclusion. "The bugler +intends to remind us that the old Continentals who stood so well were +from both North and South, and perhaps he means, too, that we should +stand together again instead of fighting each other." +</p> + +<p> +"Then let the North give up at once," snapped Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"But in the trumpeter's opinion that means we should be apart forever." +</p> + +<p> +"Then let him play on to ears that will not heed." +</p> + +<p> +But the bugler was riding away. The music came faintly, and then died +in one last sighing note. It left Harry grave and troubled, and he +began to ask himself new questions. If the South succeeded in forcing +a separation, what then? But the talk of his comrades drove the +thought from his mind. Colonel Talbot sent St. Clair, Langdon and a +small party of horsemen forward to see what the close approach of the +daring bugler meant. Harry went with them. +</p> + +<p> +Scouts in the brushwood quickly told them that a troop of Union cavalry +had appeared in a meadow some distance ahead of them, and that it was +one of their number who had played the song on the bugle. Should they +stalk the detachment and open fire? St. Clair, who was in command, +shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +"It would mean nothing now," he said, and rode on with his men, knowing +that the watchful Southern sharpshooters were on their flanks. It was +night now, and a bright moon was coming out, enabling them to use their +glasses with effect. +</p> + +<p> +"There they are!" exclaimed Harry, pointing to the strip of forest on +the far side of the opening, "and there is the bugler, too." +</p> + +<p> +He was studying the party intently. The brilliant moonlight, and the +strength of his glasses made everything sharp and clear and his gaze +concentrated upon the bugler. He knew that man, his powerful chest and +shoulders, and the well-shaped head on its strong neck. Nor did he +deny to himself that he had a feeling of gladness when he recognized +him. +</p> + +<p> +"It's none other," he said aloud. +</p> + +<p> +"None other what?" asked St. Clair. +</p> + +<p> +"Our warning bugler was Shepard, the Union spy. I can make him out +clearly on his horse with his bugle in his hand. You'll remember my +telling you how I had that fight with him in the river." +</p> + +<p> +"And perhaps it would have been better for us all if you had finished +him off then." +</p> + +<p> +"I couldn't have done it, Arthur, nor could you, if you had been in my +place." +</p> + +<p> +"No, I suppose not, but these Yankees are coming up pretty close. It's +sure proof that Meade's whole army will be here in the morning, and the +bridge won't be built." +</p> + +<p> +"It may be built, but, if Meade chooses a battle, a battle there will +be. Heavy forces must be very near. You can see them now signaling to +one another from hill to hill." +</p> + +<p> +"So I do, and this is as far as we ought to go. A hundred yards or two +farther and we'll be in the territory of the enemy's sharpshooters +instead of our own." +</p> + +<p> +They remained for a while among some bushes, and secured positive +knowledge that the bulk of the Army of the Potomac was drawing near. +Toward midnight Harry returned to his commander-in-chief and found him +awake and in consultation with his generals, under some trees near the +Potomac. Longstreet, Rhodes, Pickett, Early, Anderson, Pender and a +dozen others were there, all of them scarred and tanned by battle, and +most of them bearing wounds. +</p> + +<p> +Harry stood back, hesitating to invade this circle, even when he came +with dispatches, but the commander-in-chief, catching sight of him, +beckoned. Then, taking off his cap, he walked forward and presented a +note from Colonel Talbot. It was brief, stating that the enemy was +near, and Lee read it aloud to his council. +</p> + +<p> +"And what were your own observations, Lieutenant Kenton?" asked the +commander-in-chief. +</p> + +<p> +"As well as I could judge, sir, the enemy will appear on our whole +front soon after daybreak." +</p> + +<p> +"And will be in great enough force to defeat us." +</p> + +<p> +"Not while you lead us, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"A courtier! truly a courtier!" exclaimed Stuart, smoothing the great +feather of his gorgeous hat, which lay upon his knee. +</p> + +<p> +Harry blushed. +</p> + +<p> +"It may have had that look," he said, "but I meant my words." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't tease the lad," said the crippled Ewell. "I knew him well on +Jackson's staff, and he was one of our bravest and best." +</p> + +<p> +"A jest only," said Stuart. "Don't I know him as well as you, Ewell? +The first time I saw him he was riding alone among many dangers to +bring relief to a beleaguered force of ours." +</p> + +<p> +"And you furnished that relief, sir," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, so I did, but it was my luck, not merit." +</p> + +<p> +"Be assured that you have no better friend than General Stuart," said +General Lee, smiling. "You have done your duty well, Lieutenant +Kenton, and as these have been arduous days for you you may withdraw, +and join your young comrades of the staff." +</p> + +<p> +Harry saluted and retired. Before he was out of ear shot the generals +resumed their eager talk, but they knew, even as Harry himself, that +there was but one thing to do, stand with their backs to the river and +fight, if Meade chose to offer battle. +</p> + +<p> +He slept heavily, and when he awoke the next day Dalton, who was up +before him, informed him that the Northern army was at hand. Snatching +breakfast, he and Dalton, riding close behind the commander-in-chief, +advanced a little distance and standing upon a knoll surveyed the +thrilling spectacle before them. Far along the front stretched the +Army of the Potomac, horse, foot and guns, come up with its enemy +again. Harry was sure that Meade was there, and with him Hancock and +Buford and Warren and all the other valiant leaders whom they had met +at Gettysburg. It was nine days since the close of the great battle, +and doubtless the North had poured forward many reinforcements, while +the South had none to send. +</p> + +<p> +Harry appreciated the full danger of their situation, with the larger +army in front of them, and the deep and swollen torrent of the Potomac +behind them. But he did not believe that Meade would attack. Lee had +lost at Gettysburg, but in losing he had inflicted such losses upon his +opponent, that most generals would hesitate to force another battle. +The one who would not have hesitated was consolidating his great +triumph at Vicksburg. Harry often thought afterward what would have +happened had Grant faced Lee that day on the wrong side of the Potomac. +</p> + +<p> +His opinion that Meade would not attack came from a feeling that might +have been called atmospheric, an atmosphere created by the lack of +initiative on the Union side, no clouds of skirmishers, no attacks of +cavalry, very little rifle firing of any kind, merely generals and +soldiers looking at one another. Harry saw, too, that his own opinion +was that of his superior officer. Watching the commander-in-chief +intently he saw a trace of satisfaction in the blue eyes. Presently +all of them rode back. +</p> + +<p> +Thus that day passed and then another wore on. Harry and Dalton had +little to do. The whole Army of Northern Virginia was in position, +defiant, challenging even, and the Army of the Potomac made no movement +forward. Harry watched the strange spectacle with an excitement that +he did not allow to appear on his face. It was like many of those +periods in the great battles in which he had taken a part, when the +combat died, though the lull was merely the omen of a struggle, soon to +come more frightful than ever. +</p> + +<p> +But here the struggle did not come. The hours of the afternoon fell +peacefully away, and the general and soldiers still looked at one +another. +</p> + +<p> +"They're working on the bridge like mad," said Dalton, who had been +away with a message, "and it will surely be ready in the morning. +Besides, the Potomac is falling fast. You can already see the muddy +lines that it's leaving on its banks." +</p> + +<p> +"And Meade's chance is slipping, slipping away!" said Harry exultingly. +"In three hours it will be sunset. They can't attack in the night and +to-morrow we'll be gone. Meade has delayed like McClellan at Antietam, +and, doubtless as McClellan did, he thinks our army much larger than it +really is." +</p> + +<p> +"It's so," said Dalton. "We're to be delivered, and we're to be +delivered without a battle, a battle that we could ill afford, even if +we won it." +</p> + +<p> +Both were in a state of intense anxiety and they looked many times at +the sun and their watches. Then they searched the hostile army with +their glasses. But nothing of moment was stirring there. Lower and +lower sank the sun, and a great thrill ran through the Army of Northern +Virginia. In both armies the soldiers were intelligent men—not mere +creatures of drill—who thought for themselves, and while those in the +Army of Northern Virginia were ready, even eager to fight if it were +pushed upon them, they knew the great danger of their position. Now +the word ran along the whole line that if they fought at all it would +be on their side of the river. +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton did not sleep that night. They could not have done so +had the chance been offered. They like others rode all through the +darkness carrying messages to the different commands, insuring exact +cooperation. As the hours of the night passed the aspect of everything +grew better. The river had fallen so fast that it would be fordable +before morning. +</p> + +<p> +But after midnight the clouds gathered, thunder crashed, lightning +played and the violent rain of a summer storm enveloped them again. +Harry viewed it at first with dismay, and then he found consolation. +The darkness and the storm would cover their retreat, as it had covered +the retreat of their enemy, Hooker, after Chancellorsville. +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton rode close behind Lee, who sat erect on his white +horse, supervising the first movement of troops over the new and +shaking bridge. Harry noted with amazement that despite his enormous +exertions, physical and mental, and an intense anxiety, continuous for +many days, he did not yet show signs of fatigue. Word had come that a +part of the army was already fording the river, near Williamsport, but +this bridge near Falling Waters was the most important point. General +Lee and his staff sat there on their horses a long time, while the rain +beat unheeded upon them. +</p> + +<p> +Few scenes are engraved more vividly upon the mind of Harry Kenton than +those dusky hours before the dawn, the flashes of lightning, the almost +incessant rumble of thunder, the turbid and yellow river across which +stretched the bridge, a mere black thread in the darkness, swaying and +dipping and rising and creaking as horse and foot, and batteries and +ammunition wagons passed upon it. +</p> + +<p> +There were torches, but they flared and smoked in the rain and cast a +light so weak and fitful that Harry could not see the farther shore. +The Army of Northern Virginia marched out upon a shaking bridge and +disappeared in the black gulf beyond. Only the lack of an alarm coming +back showed that it was reaching the farther shore. +</p> + +<p> +"Dawn will soon be here," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"So it will," said Harry, "and most of the troops are across. Ah, +there go the Invincibles! Look how they ride!" +</p> + +<p> +Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire at +the head of their scanty band were just passing. They took off their +hats, and swept a low bow to the great chief who sat silently on his +white horse within a few yards of them. Then, side by side, they rode +upon the shaking bridge, followed by Langdon, St. Clair and their brave +comrades, and disappeared, where the bridge disappeared, in the rain +and mist. +</p> + +<p> +"Brave men!" murmured Lee. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, always watching his commander-in-chief, saw now for the first +time signs of fatigue and nervousness. The tremendous strain was +wearing him down. But while the rain still poured and ran in streams +from his gray hair and gray beard, the rear guard of the Army of +Northern Virginia passed upon the bridge, and Stuart, all his plumes +bedraggled, rode up to his chief, a smoking cup of coffee in his hand. +</p> + +<p> +"Drink this, General, won't you?" he said. +</p> + +<p> +He seized it, drank all of the coffee eagerly, and then handing back +the cup, said: +</p> + +<p> +"I never before in my life drank anything that refreshed me so much." +</p> + +<p> +Then he, with his staff, Stuart and some other generals rode over the +bridge, disappearing in their turn into the darkness and mist that had +swallowed up the others, but emerging, as the others had done, into the +safety of the Southern shore. +</p> + +<p> +Meade and his generals had held a council the night before but nearly +all the officers advised against attack. This night he made up his +mind to move against Lee anyhow, and was ready at dawn, only to find +the whole Southern army gone. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap09"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER IX +</h3> + +<h3> +IN SOCIETY +</h3> + +<p> +Harry, when the dawn had fully come, was sent farther away toward the +ford to see if the remainder of the troops had passed, and, when he +returned with the welcome news, the rain had ceased to fall. The army +was rapidly drying itself in the brilliant sunshine, and marched +leisurely on. He felt an immense relief. He knew that a great crisis +had been passed, and, if the Northern armies ever reached Richmond, it +would be a long and sanguinary road. Meade might get across and +attack, but his advantage was gone. +</p> + +<p> +The same spirit of relief pervaded the ranks, and the men sang their +battle songs. There had been some fighting at one or two of the fords, +but it did not amount to much, and no enemy hung on their rear. But no +stop was made by the staff until noon, when a fire was made and food +was cooked. Then Harry was notified that he and Dalton were to start +that night with dispatches for Richmond. They were to ride through +dangerous country, until they reached a point on the railroad, wholly +within the Southern lines, when they would take a train for the +Confederate capital. +</p> + +<p> +They were glad to go. They felt sure that no great battles would be +fought while they were gone. Neither army seemed to be in a mood for +further fighting just yet, and they longed for a sight of the little +city that was the heart of the Confederacy. They were tired of the +rifle and march, of cannon and battles. They wished to be a while +where civilized life went on, to hear the bells of churches and to see +the faces of women. +</p> + +<p> +It seemed to them both that they had lived almost all their lives in +war. Even Jeb Stuart's ball, stopped by the opening guns of a great +battle, was far, far away, and to Harry, it was at least a century +since he had closed his Tacitus in the Pendleton Academy, and put it +away in his desk. That old Roman had written something of battles, but +they were no such struggles as Chancellorsville and Gettysburg had +been. The legions, he admitted in his youthful pride, could fight +well, but they never could have beaten Yank or Reb. +</p> + +<p> +He and Dalton slept through the afternoon and directly after dark, well +equipped and well-armed, they made their start into the South. But in +going they did not neglect to pass the camp of the Invincibles who were +now in the apex of the army farthest south. They had found an +unusually comfortable place on a grassy plot beside a fine, cool +spring, and most of them were lying down. But Colonel Talbot and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sat on empty kegs, with a board +on an empty box between them. The great game which ran along with the +war had been renewed. St. Clair and Langdon sat on the grass beside +them, watching the contest. +</p> + +<p> +The two colonels looked up at the sound of hoofs and paused a moment. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm getting his king into a close corner, Harry," said Colonel Talbot, +"and he'll need a lot of time for thinking. Where are you two going, +or perhaps I shouldn't ask you such a question?" +</p> + +<p> +"There's no secret about it," replied Harry. "We're going to Richmond +with dispatches." +</p> + +<p> +"He was incorrect in saying that he was getting my king into a close +corner, as I'll presently show him," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire; "but you boys are lucky. I suppose you'll stay a while in the +capital. You'll sleep in white beds, you'll eat at tables, with +tablecloths on 'em. You'll hear the soft voices of the women and girls +of the South, God bless 'em!" +</p> + +<p> +"And if you went on to Charleston you'd find just as fine women there," +said Colonel Leonidas Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +He sighed and a shade of sadness crossed his face. Harry heard and saw +and understood. He remembered a night long, long ago in that heat of +rebellion, when he had looked down from the window of his room, and, in +the dark, had seen two figures, a man and a woman, upon a piazza, +Colonel Talbot and Madame Delaunay, talking softly together. He had +felt then that he was touching almost unconsciously upon the thread of +an old romance. A thread slender and delicate, but yet strong enough +in its very tenderness and delicacy to hold them both. The perfume of +the flowers and of the old romance that night in the town so far away +came back. He was moved, and when his eyes met Colonel Talbot's some +kind of an understanding passed between them. +</p> + +<p> +"The good are never rewarded," said Happy Tom. +</p> + +<p> +"How so?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Because the proof of it sits on his horse here before us. Why should +a man like George Dalton be sent to Richmond? A sour Puritan who does +not know how to enjoy a dance or anything else, who looks upon the +beautiful face of a girl as a sin and an abomination, who thinks to be +ugly is to be good, who is by temperament and education unfit to enjoy +anything, while Thomas Langdon, who by the same measurements is fit to +enjoy everything, is left here to hold back the Army of the Potomac. +It's undoubtedly a tribute to my valor, but I don't like it." +</p> + +<p> +"Thomas," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot, gravely, "you're entirely too +severe with our worthy young friend, Dalton. The bubbles of pleasure +always lie beneath austere and solemn exteriors like his, seeking to +break a way to the surface. The longer the process is delayed the more +numerous the bubbles are and the greater they expand. If scandalous +reports concerning a certain young man in Richmond should reach us here +in the North, relating his unparalleled exploits in the giddier circles +of our gay capital, I should know without the telling that it was our +prim young George Dalton." +</p> + +<p> +"You never spoke truer words, Leonidas," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector +St. Hilaire. "A little judicious gallantry in youth is good for any +one. It keeps the temperature from going too high. I recall now the +case of Auguste Champigny, who owned an estate in Louisiana, near the +Louisiana estate of the St. Hilaires, and the estates of those cousins +of mine whom I visited, as I told you once. +</p> + +<p> +"But pardon me. I digress, and to digress is to grow old, so I will +not digress, but remain young, in heart at least. I go back now. I +was speaking of Auguste Champigny, who in youth thought only of making +money and of making his plantation, already great, many times greater. +The blood in his veins was old at twenty-two. He did not love the +vices that the world calls such. But yet there were times, I knew, +when he would have longed to go with the young, because youth cannot be +crushed wholly at twenty-two. There was no escape of the spirits, no +wholesome blood-letting, so to speak, and that which was within him +became corrupt. He acquired riches and more riches, and land and more +land, and at fifty he went to New Orleans, and sought the places where +pleasures abound. But his true blossoming time had passed. The blood +in his veins now became poison. He did the things that twenty should +do, and left undone the things that fifty should do. Ah! Harry, one +of the saddest things in life is the dissipated boy of fifty! He +should have come with us when the first blood of youth was upon him. +He could have found time then for play as well as work. He could have +rowed with us in the slender boats on the river and bayous with Mimi +and Rosalie and Marianne and all those other bright and happy ones. He +could have danced, too. It was no strain, we never danced longer than +two days and two nights without stopping, and the festivals, the gay +fete days, not more than one a week! But it was not Auguste's way. A +man when he should have been a boy, and then, alas! a boy when he +should have been a man!" +</p> + +<p> +"You speak true words, Hector," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot, "though +at times you seem to me to be rather sentimental. Youth is youth and +it has the pleasures of youth. It is not fitting that a man should be +a boy, but middle-age has pleasures of its own and they are more solid, +perhaps more satisfying than those of youth. I can't conceive of +twenty getting the pleasure out of the noble game of chess that we do. +The most brilliant of your young French Creole dancers never felt the +thrill that I feel when the last move is made and I beat you." +</p> + +<p> +"Then if you expect to experience that thrill, Leonidas, continue the +pursuit of my king, from which you expect so much, and see what will +happen to you." +</p> + +<p> +Colonel Talbot looked keenly at the board, and alarm appeared on his +face. He made a rapid retreat with one of his pieces, and Harry and +Dalton, knowing that it was time for them to go, reached down from +their saddles, shook hands with both, then with St. Clair and Happy +Tom, and were soon beyond the bounds of the camp. +</p> + +<p> +They rode on for many hours in silence. They were in a friendly land +now, but they knew that it was well to be careful, as Federal scouts +and cavalry nevertheless might be encountered at any moment. Two or +three times they turned aside from the road to let detachments of +horsemen pass. They could not tell in the dark and from their hiding +places to which army they belonged, and they were not willing to take +the delay necessary to find out. They merely let them ride by and +resumed their own place on the road. +</p> + +<p> +Harry told Dalton many more details of his perilous journey from the +river to the camp of the commander-in-chief, and he spoke particularly +of Shepard. +</p> + +<p> +"Although he's a spy," he said, "I feel that the word scarcely fits +him, he's so much greater than the ordinary spy. That man is worth +more than a brigade of veterans to the North. He's as brave as a lion, +and his craft and cunning are almost superhuman." +</p> + +<p> +He did not tell that he might easily have put Shepard forever out of +the way, but that his heart had failed him. Yet he did not feel +remorse nor any sense of treachery to his cause. He would do the same +were the same chance to come again. But it seemed to him now that a +duel had begun between Shepard and himself. They had been drifting +into it, either through chance or fate, for a long time. He knew that +he had a most formidable antagonist, but he felt a certain elation in +matching himself against one so strong. +</p> + +<p> +They rode all night and the next day across the strip of Maryland into +Virginia and once more were among their own people, their undoubted +own. They were now entering the Valley of Virginia where the great +Jackson had leaped into fame, and both Harry and Dalton felt their +hearts warm at the greetings they received. Both armies had marched +over the valley again and again. It was torn and scarred by battle, +and it was destined to be torn and scarred many times more, but its +loyalty to the South stood every test. This too was the region in +which many of the great Virginia leaders were born, and it rejoiced in +the valor of its sons. +</p> + +<p> +Food and refreshment were offered everywhere to the two young horsemen, +and the women and the old men—not many young men were left—wanted to +hear of Gettysburg. They would not accept it as a defeat. It was +merely a delay, they said. General Lee would march North once more +next year. Harry knew in his heart that the South would never invade +again, that the war would be for her henceforth a purely defensive one, +but he said nothing. He could not discourage people who were so +sanguine. +</p> + +<p> +Every foot of the way now brought back memories of Jackson. He saw +many familiar places, fields of battle, sites of camps, lines of +advance or retreat, and his heart grew sad within him, because one whom +he admired so much, and for whom he had such a strong affection, was +gone forever, gone when he was needed most. He saw again with all the +vividness of reality that terrible night at Chancellorsville, when the +wounded Jackson lay in the road, his young officers covering his body +with their own to protect him from the shells. +</p> + +<p> +When they reached the strip of railroad entering Richmond they left +their horses to be sent later, and each took a full seat in the short +train, where he could loosen his belt, and stretch his limbs. It was a +crude coach, by the standards of to-day, but it was a luxury then. +Harry and Dalton enjoyed it, after so much riding horseback, and +watched the pleasant landscape, brown now from the July sun, flow past. +</p> + +<p> +Their coach did not contain many passengers, several wounded officers +going to Richmond on furlough, some countrymen, carrying provisions to +the capital for sale, and a small, thin, elderly woman in a black +dress, to whom Harry assigned the part of an old maid. He noticed that +her features were fine and she had the appearance of one who had +suffered. When they reached Richmond and their passes were examined, he +hastened to carry her bag for her and to help her off the train. She +thanked him with a smile that made her almost handsome, and quickly +disappeared in the streets of the city. +</p> + +<p> +"A nice looking old maid," he said to Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"How do you know she's an old maid?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know. I suppose it's a certain primness of manner." +</p> + +<p> +"You can't judge by appearances. Like as not she's been married thirty +years, and it's possible that she may have a family of at least twelve +children." +</p> + +<p> +"At any rate, we'll never know. But it's good, George, to be here in +Richmond again. It's actually a luxury to see streets and shop +windows, and people in civilian clothing, going about their business." +</p> + +<p> +"Looks the same way to me, Harry, but we can't delay. We must be off +to the President, with the dispatches from the Army of Northern +Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +But they did not hurry greatly. They were young and it had been a long +time since they had been in a city of forty thousand inhabitants, where +the shop windows were brilliant to them and nobody on the streets was +shooting at anybody else. It was late July, the great heats were gone +for the time at least, and they were brisk and elated. They paused a +little while in Capitol Square, and looked at the Bell Tower, rising +like a spire, from the crest of which alarms were rung, then at the +fine structure of St. Paul's Church. They intended to go into the +State House now used as the Confederate Capitol, but that must wait +until they reported to President Davis. +</p> + +<p> +They arrived at the modest building called the White House of the +Confederacy, and, after a short wait in the anteroom, they were +received by the President. They saw a tall, rather spare man, dressed +in a suit of home-knit gray. He received them without either warmth or +coldness. Harry, although it was not the first time he had seen him, +looked at him with intense curiosity. Davis, like Lincoln, was born in +his own State, Kentucky, but like most other Kentuckians, he did not +feel any enthusiasm over the President of the Confederacy. There was +no magnetism. He felt the presence of intellect, but there was no +inspiration in that arid presence. +</p> + +<p> +A man of Oriental features was sitting near with a great bunch of +papers in his hand. Mr. Davis did not introduce Harry and Dalton to +him, and he remained silent while the President was asking questions of +the messengers. But Harry watched him when he had a chance, interested +strongly in that shrewd, able, Eastern face, the descendant of an +immemorial and intellectual race, the man who while Secretary of State +was trying also to help carry the tremendous burden of Confederate +finance. What was he thinking, as Harry and Dalton answered the +President's questions about the Army of Northern Virginia? +</p> + +<p> +"You say that you left immediately after our army crossed the Potomac?" +asked the President. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir," replied Harry. "General Meade could have attacked, but he +remained nearly two days on our front without attempting to do so." +</p> + +<p> +A thin gray smile flitted over the face of the President of the +Confederacy. +</p> + +<p> +"General Meade was not beaten at Gettysburg, but I fancy he remembered +it well enough." +</p> + +<p> +Harry glanced at Benjamin, but his Oriental face was inscrutable. The +lad wondered what was lurking at the back of that strong brain. He was +shrewd enough himself to know that it was not always the generals on +the battlefield who best understood the condition of a state at war, +and often the man who held the purse was the one who measured it best +of all. But Benjamin never said a word, nor did the expression of his +face change a particle. +</p> + +<p> +"The Army of Northern Virginia is safe," said the President, "and it +will be able to repel all invasion of Virginia. General Lee gives +especial mention of both of you in his letters, and you are not to +return to him at once. You are to remain here a while on furlough, and +if you will go to General Winder he will assign you to quarters." +</p> + +<p> +Both Harry and Dalton were delighted, and, although thanks were really +due to General Lee, they thanked the President, who smiled dryly. Then +they saluted and withdrew, the President and the Secretary of State +going at once into earnest consultation over the papers Mr. Benjamin +had brought. +</p> + +<p> +Harry felt that he had left an atmosphere of depression and said so, +when they were outside in the bright sunshine. +</p> + +<p> +"If you were trying to carry as much as Mr. Davis is carrying you'd be +depressed too," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"Maybe so, but let's forget it. We've got nothing to do for a few days +but enjoy ourselves. General Winder is to give us quarters, but we're +not to be under his command. What say you to a little trip through the +capitol?" +</p> + +<p> +"Good enough." +</p> + +<p> +Congress had adjourned for the day, but they went through the building, +admiring particularly the Houdon Washington, and then strolled again +through the streets, which were so interesting and novel to them. +Richmond was never gayer and brighter. They were sure that the hated +Yankees could never come. For more than two years the Army of Northern +Virginia had been an insuperable bar to their advance, and it would +continue so. +</p> + +<p> +Harry suddenly lifted his cap as some one passed swiftly, and Dalton +glancing backward saw a small vanishing figure. +</p> + +<p> +"Who was it?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"The thin little old maid in black whom we saw on the train. She may +have nodded to me when I bowed, but it was such a little nod that I'm +not certain." +</p> + +<p> +"I rather like your being polite to an insignificant old maid, Harry. +I'd expect you, as a matter of course, to be polite to a young and +pretty girl, overpolite probably." +</p> + +<p> +"That'll do, George Dalton. I like you best when you're preaching +least. Come, let's go into the hotel and hear what they're talking +about." +</p> + +<p> +After the custom of the times a large crowd was gathered in the +spacious lobby of Richmond's chief hotel. Among them were the local +celebrities in other things than war, Daniel, Bagby, Pegram, Randolph, +and a half-dozen more, musicians, artists, poets, orators and wits. +People were quite democratic, and Harry and Dalton were free to draw +their chairs near the edge of the group and listen. Pegram, the +humorist, gave them a glance of approval, when he noticed their +uniforms, the deep tan of their faces, their honest eyes and their +compact, strong figures. +</p> + +<p> +Harry soon learned that a large number of English and French newspapers +had been brought by a blockade runner to Wilmington, North Carolina, +and had just reached the capital, the news of which these men were +discussing with eagerness. +</p> + +<p> +"We learn that the sympathies of both the French and English +governments are still with us," said Randolph. +</p> + +<p> +"But these papers were all printed before the news of Vicksburg and +Gettysburg had crossed the Atlantic," said Daniel. +</p> + +<p> +"England is for us," said Pegram, "only because she likes us little and +the North less. The French Imperialists, too, hate republics, and are +in for anything that will damage them. When we beat off the North, +until she's had enough, and set up our own free and independent +republic, we'll have both England and France annoying us, and demanding +favors, because they were for us in the war. Sympathy is something, +but it doesn't win any battles." +</p> + +<p> +"A nation has no real friend except itself," said Bagby. "Whatever the +South gets she'll have to get with her own good right arm." +</p> + +<p> +"I can predict the first great measure to be put through by the +Southern Government after the war." +</p> + +<p> +"What will it be?" +</p> + +<p> +"The abolition of slavery." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, that's one of the things we're fighting to maintain!" +</p> + +<p> +"Exactly so. You're willing to throw away a thing of your own accord, +when you're not willing to throw it away because another orders you to +do so. Wars are due chiefly to our misunderstanding of human nature." +</p> + +<p> +Then Pegram turned suddenly to Harry. "You're from the field?" he +said. "From the Army of Northern Virginia?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," replied Harry. "My name is Kenton and I'm a lieutenant on the +staff of General Lee. My friend is George Dalton, also of the +commander-in-chief's staff." +</p> + +<p> +"Are you from Kentucky?" asked Daniel curiously. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, from a little town called Pendleton." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I fancy that I've met a relative of yours. I returned recently +from a small town in North Georgia, the name of which I may not give, +owing to military reasons, necessary at the present time, and I met +while I was there a splendid tall man of middle years, Colonel George +Kenton of Kentucky." +</p> + +<p> +"That's my father!" said Harry eagerly. "How was he?" +</p> + +<p> +"I thought he must be your father. The resemblance, you know. I +should say that if all men were as healthy as he looked there would be +no doctors in the world. He has a fine regiment and he'll be in the +battle that's breeding down there. Grant has taken Vicksburg, as we +all know, but a powerful army of ours is left in that region. It has +to be dealt with before we lose the West." +</p> + +<p> +"And it will fight like the Army of Northern Virginia," said Harry. "I +know the men of the West. The Yankees win there most of the time, +because we have our great generals in the East and they have theirs in +the West." +</p> + +<p> +"I've had that thought myself," said Bagby. "We've had men of genius +to lead us in the East, but we don't seem to produce them in the West. +People are always quoting Napoleon's saying that men are nothing, a man +is everything, which I never believed before, but which I'm beginning +to believe now." +</p> + +<p> +Then the talk veered away from battle and back to social, literary and +artistic affairs, to all of which Harry and Dalton listened eagerly. +Both had minds that responded to the more delicate things of life, and +they were glad to hear something besides war discussed. It was hard +for them to think that everything was going on as usual in Europe, that +new books and operas and songs were being written, and that men and +women were going about their daily affairs in peace. Yet both were +destined to live to see the case reversed, the people of the States +setting the world an example in moderation and restraint, while the +governments of Europe were deluging that continent with blood. +</p> + +<p> +"If this war should result in our defeat," said Bagby, "we won't get a +fair trial before the world for two or three generations, and maybe +never." +</p> + +<p> +"Why?" asked Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"Because we're not a writing people. Oh, yes, there's Poe, I know, the +nation's greatest literary genius, but even Europe honored him before +the South did. We've devoted our industry and talents to politics, +oratory and war. We don't write books, and we don't have any +newspapers that amount to much. Why, as sure as I'm sitting here, the +moment this war is over New England and New York and Pennsylvania, +particularly New England, will begin to pour out books, telling how the +wicked Southerners brought on the war, what a cruel and low people we +are, the way in which we taught our boys, when they were strong enough, +how to beat slaves to death, and the whole world will believe them. +Maybe the next generation of Southerners will believe them too." +</p> + +<p> +"Why?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Why? Why? Because we don't have any writers, and won't have any for +a long time! The writer has not been honored among us. Any fellow +with a roaring voice who can get up on the stump and tell his audience +that they're the bravest and best and smartest people on earth is the +man for them. You know that old story of Andy Jackson. Somebody +taunted him with being an uneducated man, so at the close of his next +speech he thundered out: _E pluribus unum! Multum in parvo! Sic +semper tyrannis!_ So it was all over. Old Andy to that audience, and +all the others that heard of it, was the greatest Latin scholar in the +world." +</p> + +<p> +"But that may apply to the North, too," objected Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"So it would. Nevertheless they'll write this war, and they'll get +their side of it fastened on the world before our people begin to +write." +</p> + +<p> +"But if we win we won't care," said Randolph. "Success speaks for +itself. You can squirm and twist all you please, and make all the +excuses for it that you can think up, but there stands success glaring +contemptuously at you. You're like a little boy shooting arrows at the +Sphinx." +</p> + +<p> +Thus the conversation ran on. Both Harry and Dalton were glad to be in +the company of these men, and to feel that there was something in the +world besides war. All the multifarious interests of peace and +civilization suddenly came crowding back upon them. Harry remembered +Pendleton with its rolling hills, green fields, and clear streams, and +Dalton remembered his own home, much like it, in the Valley of +Virginia, not so far away. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you remain long in Richmond?" asked Randolph. +</p> + +<p> +"A week at least," replied Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Then you ought to see a little of social life. Mrs. John Curtis, a +leading hostess, gives a reception and a dance to-morrow night. I can +easily procure invitations for both of you, and I know that she would +be glad to have two young officers freshly arrived from our glorious +Army of Northern Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +"But our clothes!" said Dalton. "We have only a change of uniform +apiece, and they're not fresh by any means." +</p> + +<p> +All the men laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"You don't think that Richmond is indulging in gorgeous apparel do +you?" said Daniel. "We never manufactured much ourselves, and since +all the rest of the world is cut off from us where are the clothes to +come from even for the women? Brush up your uniforms all you can and +you'll be more than welcome. Two gallant young officers from the Army +of Northern Virginia! Why, you'll be two Othellos, though white, of +course." +</p> + +<p> +Harry glanced at Dalton, and Dalton glanced at Harry. Each saw that +the other wanted to go, and Daniel, watching them, smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"I see that you'll come," he said, "and so it's settled. Have you +quarters yet?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not yet," replied Harry, "but we'll see about it this afternoon." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll have the invitations sent to you here at this hotel. All of us +will be there, and we'll see that you two meet everybody." +</p> + +<p> +Both thanked him profusely. They were about to go, thinking it time to +report to General Winder, when Harry noticed a thin woman in a black +dress, carrying a large basket, and just leaving the hotel desk. He +caught a glimpse of her face and he knew that it was the old maid of +the train. Then something else was impressed upon his mind, something +which he had not noticed at their first meeting, but which came to him +at their second. He had seen a face like hers before, but the +resemblance was so faint and fleeting that he could not place it, +strive as he would. But he was sure that it was there. +</p> + +<p> +"Who is that woman?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +Daniel shook his head and so did Randolph, but Bagby spoke up. +</p> + +<p> +"Her name is Henrietta Carden," he said, "and she's a seamstress. I've +seen her coming to the hotel often before, bringing new clothes to the +women guests, or taking away old ones to be repaired. I believe that +the ladies account her most skillful. It's likely that she'll be at +the Curtis house, in a surgical capacity, to-morrow night, as a quick +repairer of damaged garments, those fine linen and silk and lace +affairs that we don't know anything about. Mrs. Curtis relies greatly +upon her and I ought to tell you, young gentlemen, that Mr. Curtis is a +most successful blockade runner, though he takes no personal risk +himself. The Curtis house is perhaps the most sumptuous in Richmond. +You'll see no signs of poverty there, though, as I told you, officers +in old and faded clothes are welcome." +</p> + +<p> +Harry saw Henrietta Carden carrying the large basket of clothes, go out +at a side door, and he felt as if a black shadow like a menace had +passed across the floor. But it was only for an instant. He dismissed +it promptly, as one of those thoughts that come out of nothing, like +idle puffs of summer air. He and Dalton bade a brief farewell to their +new friends and left for the headquarters of General Winder. An +elderly and childless couple named Lanham had volunteered to take two +officers in their house near Capitol Square, and there Harry and Dalton +were sent. +</p> + +<p> +They could not have found a better place. Mr. and Mrs. Lanham were +quiet people, who gave them an excellent room and a fine supper. Mrs. +Lanham showed a motherly solicitude, and when she heard that they were +going to the Curtis ball on the following night she demanded that their +spare and best uniforms be turned over to her. +</p> + +<p> +"I can make them look fresh," she insisted, "and your appearance must +be the finest possible. No, don't refuse again. It's a pleasure to me +to do it. When I look at you two, so young and strong and so honest in +manner and speech, I wish that I had sons too, and then again I'm glad +I have not." +</p> + +<p> +"Why not, Mrs. Lanham?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Because I'd be in deadly fear lest I lose them. They'd go to the +war—I couldn't help it—and they'd surely be killed." +</p> + +<p> +"We won't grieve over losing what we've never had," smiled Mr. Lanham. +"That's morbid." +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton did their best to answer all the questions of their +hosts, who they knew would take no pay. The interest of both Mr. and +Mrs. Lanham was increased when they found that their young guests were +on the staff of General Lee and before that had been on the staff of +the great Stonewall Jackson. These two names were mighty in the South, +untouched by any kind of malice or envy, and with legends to cluster +around them as the years passed. +</p> + +<p> +"And you really saw Stonewall Jackson every day!" said Mrs. Lanham. +"You rode with him, talked with him, and went into battle with him?" +</p> + +<p> +"I was in all his campaigns, Mrs. Lanham," replied Harry, modestly, but +not without pride. "I was with him in every battle, even to the last, +Chancellorsville. I was one of those who sheltered him from the +shells, when he was shot by our own men. Alas! what an awful mistake. +I—" +</p> + +<p> +He stopped suddenly. He had choked with emotion, and the tears came +into his eyes. Mrs. Lanham saw, and, understanding, she quickly +changed the subject to Lee. They talked a while after supper, called +dinner now, and then they went up to their room on the second floor. +</p> + +<p> +It was a handsome room, containing good furniture, including two single +beds. Their baggage had preceded them and everything was in order. Two +large windows, open to admit the fresh air, looked out over Richmond. +On a table stood a pitcher of ice water and glasses. +</p> + +<p> +"Our lot has certainly been cast in a pleasant place," said Dalton, +taking a chair by one of the windows. +</p> + +<p> +"You're right," said Harry, sitting in the chair by the other window. +"The Lanhams are fine people, and it's a good house. This is luxury, +isn't it, George, old man?" +</p> + +<p> +"The real article. We seem to be having luck all around. And we're +going to a big ball to-morrow night, too. Who'd have thought such a +thing possible a week ago?" +</p> + +<p> +"And we've made friends who'll see that we're not neglected." +</p> + +<p> +"It's an absolute fact that we've become the favorite children of +fortune." +</p> + +<p> +"No earthly doubt of it." +</p> + +<p> +Then ensued a silence, broken at length by a scraping sound as each +moved his chair a little nearer to the window. +</p> + +<p> +"Close, George," said Harry at length. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, a bit hard to breathe." +</p> + +<p> +"When fellows get used to a thing it's hard to change." +</p> + +<p> +"Fine room, though, and those are splendid beds." +</p> + +<p> +"Great on a winter night." +</p> + +<p> +"You've noticed how the commander-in-chief himself seldom sleeps under +a tent, but takes his blankets to the open?" +</p> + +<p> +"Wonder how an Indian who has roamed the forest all his life feels when +he's shut up between four walls for the first time." +</p> + +<p> +"Fancy it's like a prison cell to him." +</p> + +<p> +"Think so too. But the Lanhams are fine people and they're doing their +best for us." +</p> + +<p> +"Do you think they'd be offended if I were to take my blankets, and +sleep on the grass in the back yard?" +</p> + +<p> +"Of course they would. You mustn't think of such a thing. After this +war is over you've got to emerge slowly from barbarism. Do you +remember whether at supper we cut our food with our knives and lifted +it to our mouths with forks, or just tore and lifted with our fingers?" +</p> + +<p> +"We used knife and fork, each in its proper place. I happened to think +of it and watched myself. You, I suppose, did it through the force of +an ancient habit, recalled by civilized surroundings." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm glad you remember about it. Now I'm going to bed, and maybe I'll +sleep. I suppose there's no hope of seeing the stars through the roof." +</p> + +<p> +"None on earth! But my bed is fine and soft. We'd be all right if we +could only lift the roof off the house. I'd like to hear the wind +rubbing the boughs together." +</p> + +<p> +"Stop it! You make me homesick! We've got no right to be pining for +blankets and the open, when these good people are doing so much for us!" +</p> + +<p> +Each stretched himself upon his bed, and closed his eyes. They had not +been jesting altogether. So long a life in the open made summer skies +at night welcome, and roofs and walls almost took from them the power +of breathing. +</p> + +<p> +But the feeling wore away after a while and amid pleasurable thoughts +of the coming ball both fell asleep. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap10"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER X +</h3> + +<h3> +THE MISSING PAPER +</h3> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton did not awake until late the next morning and they +found they had not suffered at all from sleeping between four walls and +under a roof. Their lungs were full of fresh air, and youth with all +its joyous irresponsibility had come back. Harry sprang out of bed. +</p> + +<p> +"Up! up! old boy!" Harry cried to Dalton. "Don't you hear the bugles +calling? not to battle but to pleasure! There is no enemy in our +front! We don't have to cross a river with an overwhelming army +pressing down upon us! We don't have to ride before the dawn on a +scout which may lead us into a thicket full of hostile riflemen. We're +in a city, boy, and our business now is beauty and pleasure!" +</p> + +<p> +"Harry," said Dalton, "you ought to go far." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, George? What induces you to assume the role of a prophet +concerning me?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because you're so full of life. You're so keen about everything. You +must have a heart and lungs of extra steam power." +</p> + +<p> +"But I notice you don't say anything about brain power. Maybe you +think it's the quiet, rather silent fellows like yourself, George, who +have an excess of that." +</p> + +<p> +"None of your irony. Am I not looking forward to this ball as much as +you are? I was a boy when I entered the war, Harry, but two years of +fighting day and night age one terribly. I feel as if I could +patronize any woman under twenty-five, and treat her as quite a simple +young thing." +</p> + +<p> +"Try it, George, and see what happens to you." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, no! I merely said I felt that way. I've too much sense to put it +into action." +</p> + +<p> +"Do you know, George, that when this war is over it will be really time +for us to be thinking about girls. We'll be quite old enough. They +say that many of the Yankee maidens in Philadelphia and New York are +fine for looks. I wonder if they'll cast a favoring eye on young +Southern officers as our conquering armies go marching down their +streets!" +</p> + +<p> +"It's too remote. Don't think about it, Harry. Richmond will do us +for the present." +</p> + +<p> +"But you can let a fellow project his mind into the future." +</p> + +<p> +"Not so far that we'll be marching as conquerors through Philadelphia +and New York. Let's deal with realities." +</p> + +<p> +"I've always thought there was something of the Yankee about you, +George, not in political principles—I never question your devotion to +the cause—but in calculating, weighing everything and deciding in +favor of the one that weighs an ounce the most." +</p> + +<p> +"Are you about through dressing? You've taken a minute longer than the +regular time." +</p> + +<p> +There was a knock at the door, and, when Dalton opened it a few inches, +a black head announced through the crack that breakfast was ready. +</p> + +<p> +"See what a disgrace you're bringing upon us," said Dalton. "Delaying +everything. Mrs. Lanham will say that we're two impostors, that such +malingerers cannot possibly belong to the Army of Northern Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +"Lead on," said Harry. "I'm ready, and I'm hungry as every soldier in +the Southern army always is." +</p> + +<p> +They had a warm greeting from their hospitable hosts, followed by an +abundant breakfast. Then at Mrs. Lanham's earnest solicitation they +turned over their dress uniforms to her to be repaired and pressed. +Then they went out into the streets again, and spent the whole day +rambling about, enjoying everything with the keen and intense delight +that can come only to the young, and after long abstinence. Richmond +was not depressed. Far from it. There had been a wonderful +transformation since those dark days when the army of McClellan was +near enough to see the spires of its churches. The flood of battle had +rolled far away since then, and it had never come back. It could never +come back. It was true that the Army of Northern Virginia had failed at +Gettysburg, but it was returning to the South unassailed, and was ready +to repeat its former splendid achievements. +</p> + +<p> +Harry went to the post office, and found there, to his great surprise +and delight, a letter from his father, written three or four days after +Vicksburg. +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +My dear son: [he wrote] +</p> + +<p> +The news has just come to us that the Army of Northern Virginia, while +performing prodigies of valor, has failed to carry all the Northern +positions at Gettysburg. Only complete success could warrant a further +advance. I assume therefore that General Lee is retreating and I +assume also that you, Harry, my beloved son, are alive, that you came +unharmed out of that terrible battle. It does not seem possible to me +that it could be otherwise. I cannot conceive of you fallen. It may +be that it's because you are my son. The sons of others may fall, but +not mine, just as we know that all others are doomed to die, but get +into the habit of thinking ourselves immortal. So, I address this +letter to you in the full belief that it will reach you somewhere, and +that you will read it. +</p> + +<p> +You know, of course, of our great loss at Vicksburg. It is disastrous +but not irreparable. We still have a powerful army in the West, hardy, +indomitable, one with which the enemy will have to reckon. As for +myself I have been spared in many battles and I am well. It seems the +sport of chance that you and I, while fighting on the same side, should +have been separated in this war, you in the East and I in the West. +But it has been done by One who knows best, and after all I am glad +that you have been in such close contact with two of the greatest and +highest-minded soldiers of the ages, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. +Lee. I do not think of them merely as soldiers, but as knights and +champions with flaming swords. One of them, alas! is gone, but we have +the other, and if man can conquer he will. Here in the West we repose +our faith in Lee, as surely as do you in the East, you who see his face +and hear his voice every day. +</p> + +<p> +I have had two or three letters from Pendleton. That part of the State +is for the present outside the area of conflict, though I hear that the +guerilla bands to the east in the mountains still vex and annoy, and +that Skelly is growing bolder. I foresee the time when we shall have +to reckon with this man, who is a mere brigand. +</p> + +<p> +I hear that the prospects for fruit in our orchards were never finer. +You will remember how you prowled in them when you were a little boy, +Harry, and what a pirate you were among the apples and peaches and +pears and good things that grew on tree and bush and briar in that +beautiful old commonwealth of ours. I often upbraided you then, but I +should like to see you now, far out on a bough as of old, reaching for +a big yellow pear, or a red, red bunch of cherries! Alas! there are +many lads who will never return, who will never see the pear trees and +the cherry trees again, but I repeat I cannot feel that you will be +among them. Who would ever have dreamed when this war began that it +could go so far? More than two years of fierce and deadly battles and +I can see no end. A deadlock and neither side willing to yield! How +glad would be the men who made the war to see both sections back where +they were two and a half years ago! and that's no treason. +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +Water rose in Harry's eyes. He knew how terribly his father's heart +had been torn by the quarrel between North and South, and that he had +thoughts which he did not tell to his son. Harry was beginning at last +to think some of the same thoughts himself. If the South succeeded, +then, after the war, what? Another war later on or reunion. +</p> + +<p> +The rest of the letter was wholly personal, and in the end it directed +Harry, when writing to him, to address his letters care of the Western +Army under General Bragg. Harry was moved and he responded at once. He +went to the hotel in which he had met the young men who constituted the +leading lights in what was called the Mosaic Club, and, securing +writing materials, made a long reply, which he posted with every hope +that it would soon reach its destination. +</p> + +<p> +Early in the evening he rejoined Dalton at the house of the Lanhams and +they found that Mrs. Lanham had done wonders with their best uniforms. +When they were dressed in them they felt that it was no harder to +charge the Curtis house than to rush a battery. +</p> + +<p> +"You young men go early," said Mr. Lanham. "Mrs. Lanham and I will +appear later." +</p> + +<p> +They departed, daring to practice their dance steps in the street to +the delight of small boys who did not hesitate to chaff them. But +Harry and Dalton did not care. They answered the chaff in kind, and +soon approached the Curtis home, all the windows of which were blazing +with light. +</p> + +<p> +The house stood in extensive grounds, and lofty white pillars gave it +an imposing appearance. Guests were arriving fast. Most of the men +were military, but there was a fair sprinkling of civilians +nevertheless. The lads saw their friends of the Mosaic Club pass in +just ahead of them, all dressed with extreme care. Generals and +colonels and other officers were in most favor now, but these men, with +their swift and incisive wit and their ability to talk well about +everything, fully made up for the lack of uniform. +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton, before passing through the side gateway that led to +the house, paused awhile to look at those who came. Many people, and +they ranked among the best in Richmond, walked. They had sent all +their horses to the front long ago to be ridden by cavalrymen or to +draw cannon. Others, not so self-sacrificing, came in heavy carriages +with negroes driving. +</p> + +<p> +Harry noticed that in many cases the clothing of the men showed a +little white at the seams, and there were cuffs the ends of which had +been trimmed with great care. But it was these whom he respected most. +He remembered that Virginia had not really wanted to go into the war, +and that she had delayed long, but, being in it, she was making supreme +sacrifices. +</p> + +<p> +And there were many young girls who did not need elaborate dress. In +their simple white or pink, often but cotton, their cheeks showing the +delicate color that is possessed only by the girls in the border states +of the South, they seemed very beautiful to Harry and George, who had +known nothing but camps and armies so long. +</p> + +<p> +It was the healthy admiration of the brave youth of one sex for the +fair youth of the other, but there was in it a deeper note, too. Age +can stand misfortune. Youth wonders why it is stricken, and Harry felt +as they passed by, bright of face and soft of voice, that the clouds +were gathering heavily over them. +</p> + +<p> +But he was too young himself for the feeling to endure long. Dalton +was proposing that they go in and they promptly joined the stream of +entering guests. Randolph soon found them and presented them to Mrs. +Curtis, a large woman of middle years, and dignified manner, related to +nearly all the old families of Virginia, and a descendant of a +collateral branch of the Washingtons. Her husband, William Curtis, +seemed to be of a different type, a man of sixty, tall, thin and more +reserved than most Southerners of his time. His thin lips were usually +compressed and his pale blue eyes were lacking in warmth. But the long +strong line of his jaw showed that he was a man of strength and +decision. +</p> + +<p> +"A Northern bough on a Southern tree," whispered Dalton, as they passed +on. "He comes from some place up the valley and they say that the +North itself has not his superior in financial skill." +</p> + +<p> +"I did not warm to him at first," said Harry, "but I respect him. As +you know, George, we've put too little stress upon his kind of ability. +We'll need him and more like him when the Confederacy is established. +We'll have to build ourselves up as a great power, and that's done by +trade and manufactures more than by arms." +</p> + +<p> +"It's so, Harry. But listen to that music!" +</p> + +<p> +A band of four pieces placed behind flowers and shrubbery was playing. +Here was no blare of trumpets or call of bugles. It was the music of +the dance and the sentimental old songs of the South, nearly all of +which had a sad and wailing note. Harry heard the four black men play +the songs that he had heard Samuel Jarvis sing, deep in the Kentucky +mountains, and his heart beat with an emotion that he could not +understand. Was it a cry for peace? Did his soul tell him that an end +should come to fighting? Then throbbed the music of the lines: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + Soft o'er the fountain lingering falls the Southern moon<br /> + Far o'er the mountain breaks the day too soon.<br /> + In thy dark eyes' splendor, where the moonlight loves to dwell<br /> + Weary looks, yet tender, speak their fond farewell.<br /> + Nita, Juanita! Ask thy soul if we should part,<br /> + Nita, Juanita! Lean thou on my heart!<br /> +</p> + +<p> +The music of the sad old song throbbed and throbbed, and sank deep into +Harry's heart. At another time he might not have been stirred, but at +this moment he was responsive in every fiber. He saw once more the +green wilderness, and he heard once more the mellow tones of the singer +coming back in far echoes from the gorges. +</p> + +<p> +"Nita, Juanita! Ask thy soul if we should part," hummed Dalton, but +Harry was still far away in the green wilderness, listening to the +singer of the mountains. Then the singer stopped suddenly, and he was +listening once more to the startling prediction of the old, old woman: +</p> + +<p> +"I am proud that our house has sheltered you, but it is not for the +last time. You will come again, and you will be thin and pale and in +rags, and you will fall at the door. I see you coming with these two +eyes of mine." +</p> + +<p> +That prediction had been made a long time ago, years since, it seemed, +but whenever it returned to him, and it returned at most unexpected +times, it lost nothing of its amazing vividness and power; rather they +were increased. Could it be true that the supremely old had a vision +or second sight? Then he rebuked himself angrily. There was nothing +supernatural in this world. +</p> + +<p> +"Wake up, Harry! What are you thinking about?" whispered Dalton +sharply. "You seem to be dreaming, and here's a house full of pretty +girls, with more than a half-dozen looking at you, the gallant young +officer of the Army of Northern Virginia, the story of whose romantic +exploits had already reached Richmond." +</p> + +<p> +"I was dreaming and I apologize," said Harry. That minute in which he +had seen so much, so far away, passed utterly, and in another minute +both he and Dalton were dancing with Virginia girls, as fair as dreams +to these two, who had looked so long only upon the tanned faces of +soldiers. +</p> + +<p> +Both he and Dalton were at home in a half-hour. People in the Old +South then, as in the New South now, are closely united by ties of +kinship which are acknowledged as far as they run. One is usually a +member of a huge clan and has all the privileges that clanship can +confer. Kentucky was the daughter of Virginia, and mother and daughter +were fond of each other, as they are to-day. +</p> + +<p> +After the third dance Harry was sitting with Rosamond Lawrence of +Petersburg in a window seat. She was a slender blonde girl, and the +dancing had made the pink in her cheeks deepen into a flush. +</p> + +<p> +"You're from Kentucky, I know," said Miss Lawrence, "but you haven't +yet told me your town." +</p> + +<p> +"Pendleton. It's small but it's on the map. My father is a colonel in +the Western army." +</p> + +<p> +"Aren't you a Virginian by blood? Most all Kentuckians are." +</p> + +<p> +"Partly. My great grandfather, though, was born in Maryland." +</p> + +<p> +"What was his name, Lieutenant Kenton?" +</p> + +<p> +"Henry Ware!" +</p> + +<p> +"Henry Ware! Kentucky's first and greatest governor." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, he was my great grandfather. I'm proud to be his descendant." +</p> + +<p> +"I should think you would be." +</p> + +<p> +"But his wife, who was Lucy Upton, my great grandmother, was of +Virginia blood, and all of the next two generations intermarried with +people of Virginia stock." +</p> + +<p> +"Then you are a Kentuckian and a Virginian, too. I knew it! You have +a middle name, haven't you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes." +</p> + +<p> +"Will you tell me what it is?" +</p> + +<p> +"Cary." +</p> + +<p> +The girl laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"Harry Cary Kenton. Why Cary is one of our best old Virginia names. +Will you tell me too what was your mother's name before she was +married?" +</p> + +<p> +"Parham." +</p> + +<p> +"Another. Oh, all this unravels finely. And what was your +grandmother's name?" +</p> + +<p> +"Brent." +</p> + +<p> +"Nothing could be more Virginian than Brent. Oh, you're one of us, +Lieutenant Kenton, a real Virginian of the true blood." +</p> + +<p> +"And heart and soul too!" giving her one of his finest young military +glances. +</p> + +<p> +She laughed. It was only quick friendship between them and no more, +and a half-hour later he was dancing with another Virginia girl, not so +blonde, but just as handsome, and their talk was quite as friendly. Her +name was Lockridge, and as they sat down near the musicians to rest, +and listen a while, Harry saw a figure, slender and black-robed, pass. +He knew at once who she was, and it had been predicted that he might +meet her there, but she had stirred his curiosity a little, and +thinking he might obtain further information he asked Miss Lockridge: +</p> + +<p> +"Who is the woman who just passed us?" +</p> + +<p> +"That's Miss Carden, Miss Henrietta Carden, a sewing woman, very +capable too, who always helps at the big balls. Mrs. Curtis relies +greatly upon her. The door through which she went leads to the ladies' +dressing-room." +</p> + +<p> +"A native of Richmond?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know. But why are you so curious about a sewing woman, +Lieutenant Kenton?" +</p> + +<p> +Harry flushed. There was a faint tinge of rebuke in her words, and he +knew that he merited it. +</p> + +<p> +"It was just an idle question," he replied quickly, and with an air of +indifference. "I noticed her on the train when we came into the +capital, and we are so little used to women that we are inquisitive +about every one whom we see. Why, Miss Lockridge, I didn't realize +until I came to this ball that women could be so extraordinarily +beautiful. Every one of you looks like an angel, just lowered gently +from Heaven." +</p> + +<p> +"If you're not merely a flatterer then it's long absence that gives +charm. I assure you, Lieutenant Kenton, that we're very, very common +clay. You should see us eat." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll get you an ice at once." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I don't mean that. I mean substantial things!" +</p> + +<p> +"A healthy appetite doesn't keep a girl from being an angel." +</p> + +<p> +"When men marry us they find out that we're not angels." +</p> + +<p> +"The word 'angel' is with me merely a figure of speech. I don't want +any real angel. I want my wife, if I ever marry, to be thoroughly +human." +</p> + +<p> +Harry's progress was rapid. A handsome figure and face, and an +ingenuous manner made him a favorite. After midnight he wandered into +a room where older men were smoking and talking. They were mostly +officers, some of high rank, one a general, and they talked of that +which they could never get wholly from their minds, the war. All knew +Harry, and, as he wanted fresh air, they gave him a place by a window +which looked upon a small court. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was tired. In dancing he had been compelled to bring into play +muscles long unused, and he luxuriated in the cushioned chair, while +the pleasant night breeze blew upon him. They were discussing Lee's +probable plans to meet Meade, who would certainly follow him in time +across the Potomac. They spoke with weight and authority, because they +were experienced men who had been in many battles, and they were here +on furlough, most of them recovering from wounds. +</p> + +<p> +Harry heard them, but their words were like the flowing of a river. He +paid no heed. They did not bring the war back to him. He was thinking +of the music and of the brilliant faces of the girls whom he loved +collectively. What that Lawrence girl had said was true. He was a +Virginian as well as a Kentuckian, and the Kentuckians and Virginians +were all one big family. All those pretty Virginia girls were his +cousins. It might run to the thirty-second degree, but they were his +cousins just the same, and he would claim them with confidence. +</p> + +<p> +He smiled and his eyelids drooped a little. It was rather dark +outside, and he was looking directly into the court in which rosebushes +and tall flowering plants grew. A shadow passed. He did not see +whence it came or went, but he sat up and laughed at himself for dozing +and conjuring up phantoms when he was at his first real ball in ages. +</p> + +<p> +All the civilians had gone out and only five or six of the officers, +the most important, were left. Their talk had grown more eager, and on +the center of the table around which they sat lay a large piece of +white canvas upon which they were drawing a map expressing their +collective opinion. Every detail was agreed upon, after much +discussion, and Harry, as much interested as they, began to watch, +while the lines grew upon the canvas. He ventured no opinion, being so +much younger than the others. +</p> + +<p> +"We don't know, of course, exactly what General Lee will do," said a +colonel, "but we do know that he's always dangerous. He invariably +acts on the offensive, even if he's retreating. I should think that +he'd strike Meade about here." +</p> + +<p> +"Not there, but not far from it," said the general. "Make a dot at +that point, Bathurst, and make another dot here about twenty miles to +the east, which represents my opinion." +</p> + +<p> +Bathurst made the dots and the men, wholly absorbed, bent lower over +their plans, which were growing almost unconsciously into a map, and a +good one too. Harry was as much interested as they, and he still kept +himself in the background, owing to his youth and minor rank. +</p> + +<p> +The door to the room was open a little and the music, a waltz, came in +a soft ripple from the drawing room. It was rhythmic and languorous, +and Harry's feet would have moved to its tune at any other time, but he +was too deeply absorbed in the conjectures and certainties that they +were drawing with their pencils on the white canvas. +</p> + +<p> +Many of the details, he knew, were absolutely true, and others he was +quite sure must be true, because these were men of high rank who +carried in their minds the military secrets of the Confederacy. +</p> + +<p> +"I think we're pretty well agreed on the general nature of the plan," +said Bathurst. "We differ only in details." +</p> + +<p> +"That's so," said the general, "but we're lingering too long here. God +knows that we see little enough of our women folks, and, when we have +the chance to see them, and feel the touch of their hands, we waste our +time like a lot of fools making military guesses. If I'm not too old +to dance to the tune of the shells I'm not too old to dance to the tune +of the fiddle and the bow. That's a glorious air floating in from the +ballroom. I think I can show some of these youngsters like Kenton here +how to shake a foot." +</p> + +<p> +"After you, General," laughed Bathurst. "We know your capacity on both +the field and the floor, and how you respond to the shell and the bow. +Come on! The ballroom is calling to us, and I doubt whether we'll +explain to the satisfaction of everybody why we've been away from it so +long. You, too, Harry!" +</p> + +<p> +They rose in a group and went out hastily. Harry was last, and his +hand was on the bolt of the door, preparatory to closing it, when the +general turned to Bathurst and said: +</p> + +<p> +"You've that diagram of ours, haven't you, Bathurst? It's not a thing +to be left lying loose." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, no, sir, I thought you put it in your pocket." +</p> + +<p> +The general laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"You're suffering from astigmatism, Bathurst," he said. "Doubtless it +was Colton whom you saw stowing it away. I think we'd better tear it +into little bits as we have no further use for it." +</p> + +<p> +"But I haven't it, sir," said Colton, a veteran colonel, just +recovering from a wound in the arm. "I supposed of course that one of +the others took it." +</p> + +<p> +An uneasy look appeared in the general's eyes, but it passed in an +instant. +</p> + +<p> +"You have it, Morton?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, sir. Like Bathurst I thought one of the others took it." +</p> + +<p> +"And you, Kitteridge?" +</p> + +<p> +"I did not take it, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"You surely have it, Johnson?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, sir, I was under the impression that you had taken it away with +you." +</p> + +<p> +"And you, McCurdy?" +</p> + +<p> +McCurdy shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +"Then Kenton, as you were the last to rise, you certainly have it." +</p> + +<p> +"I was just a looker-on; I did not touch it," said Harry, whose hand +was still on the bolt of the partly opened door. +</p> + +<p> +The general laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"Another case of everybody expecting somebody else to do a thing, and +nobody doing it," he said. "Kenton, go back and take it from the +table. In our absorption we've been singularly forgetful, and that plan +must be destroyed at once." +</p> + +<p> +Harry reentered the room, and in their eagerness all of the officers +followed. Then a simultaneous "Ah!" of dismay burst from them all. +There was nothing on the table. The plan was gone. They looked at one +another, and in the eyes of every one apprehension was growing. +</p> + +<p> +"The window is partly open," said the general, affecting a laugh, +although it had an uneasy note, "and of course it has blown off the +table. We'll surely find it behind the sofa or a chair." +</p> + +<p> +They searched the room eagerly, going over every inch of space, every +possible hiding place, but the plan was not there. +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps it's in the court," said the general. "It might have +fluttered out there. Raise the sash higher, Kenton. Let nobody make +any noise. We must be as quiet as possible about this. Luckily there's +enough moonlight now for us to find even a small scrap of paper in the +court." +</p> + +<p> +They stole through the window silently, one by one, and searched every +inch of the court's space. But nothing was in it, save the grass and +the flowers and the rosebushes that belonged there. They returned to +the room, and once more looked at one another in dismay. +</p> + +<p> +"Shut the window entirely and lock the door, Kenton," said the general. +</p> + +<p> +Harry did so. Then the general looked at them all, and his face was +set and very firm. +</p> + +<p> +"We must all be searched," he said. "I know that every one of you is +the soul of honor. I know that not one of you has concealed about his +person this document which has suddenly become so valuable. I know +that not one of you would smuggle through to the enemy such a plan at +any price, no matter how large. Nevertheless we must know beyond the +shadow of a doubt that none of us has the map. And I insist, too, that +I be searched first. Bathurst, Colton, begin!" +</p> + +<p> +They examined one another carefully in turn. Every pocket or possible +place of concealment was searched. Harry was the last and when they +were done with him the general heaved a huge sigh of relief. +</p> + +<p> +"We know positively that we are not guilty," he said. "We knew it +before, but now we've proved it. That is off our minds, but the +mystery of the missing map remains. What a strange combination of +circumstances. I think, gentlemen, that we had best say nothing about +it to outsiders. It's certainly to the interest of every one of us not +to do so. It's also to the interest of all of us to watch the best we +can for a solution. You're young, Kenton, but from what I hear of you +you're able to keep your own counsel." +</p> + +<p> +"You can trust me, sir," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"I know it, and now unlock the door. We've held ourselves prisoners +long enough, and they'll be wondering about us in the ballroom." +</p> + +<p> +Harry turned the key promptly enough and he was glad to escape from the +room. He felt that he had left behind a sinister atmosphere. He had +not mentioned to the older men the faint shadow that he thought he had +seen crossing the courtyard. But then it was only fancy, nothing more, +an idle figment of the brain! There was the music now, softer and more +tempting than ever, an irresistible call to flying feet, and another +dance with Rosamond Lawrence was due. +</p> + +<p> +"I thought you weren't coming, Lieutenant Kenton," she said. "Some one +said that you had gone into the smoking-room and that you were talking +war with middle-aged generals and colonels." +</p> + +<p> +"But I escaped as soon as I could, Miss Rosamond," he said—he was +thinking of the locked door and the universal search. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, you came just in time. The band is beginning and I was about to +give your dance to that good-looking Lieutenant Dalton." +</p> + +<p> +"You wouldn't treat me like that! Throw over your cousin in such a +manner! I can't think it!" +</p> + +<p> +"No, I wouldn't!" +</p> + +<p> +Then the full swell of the music caught them both, and they glided +away, as light and swift as the melody that bore them on. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap11"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER XI +</h3> + +<h3> +A VAIN PURSUIT +</h3> + +<p> +Youth was strong in Harry, and, while he danced and the music played, +he forgot all about the incident in the smoking-room. With him it was +just one pretty girl after another. He had heart enough for them all, +and only one who was so young and who had been so long on battlefields +could well understand what a keen, even poignant, pleasure it was to be +with them. +</p> + +<p> +Those were the days when a ball lasted long. Pleasures did not come +often, but when they came they were to be enjoyed to the full. But as +the morning hours grew the manner of the older people became slightly +feverish and unnatural. They were pursuing pleasure and forgetfulness +with so much zeal and energy that it bore the aspect of force rather +than spontaneity. Harry noticed it and divined the cause. Beneath his +high spirits he now felt it himself. It was that looming shadow in the +North and that other in that far Southwest hovering over lost +Vicksburg. Serious men and serious women could not keep these shadows +from their eyes long. +</p> + +<p> +The incident of the smoking-room and the missing map came back to him +with renewed force. It could not have walked away. They had searched +the room and the court so thoroughly that they would have found it, had +it been there. The disappearance of a document, which men of authority +and knowledge had built up almost unconsciously, puzzled and alarmed +him. +</p> + +<p> +It was almost day when he and Dalton left. They paid their respects to +Mr. and Mrs. Curtis, and said many good-bys to "the girls they left +behind them." Then they went out into the street, and inhaled great +draughts of the cool night air. +</p> + +<p> +"A splendid night," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, truly," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"I hope you didn't propose to more than six girls." +</p> + +<p> +"To none. But I love them all together." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm glad to hear it, because you're entirely too young to marry, and +your occupation is precarious." +</p> + +<p> +"You needn't be so preachy. You're not more'n a hundred years old +yourself." +</p> + +<p> +"But I'm two months older than you are and often two months makes a +vast difference, particularly in our cases. I notice about you, Harry, +at times, a certain juvenility which I feel it my duty to repress." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't do it, George. Let's enjoy it while we can, because as you say +my occupation is precarious and yours is the same." +</p> + +<p> +They stopped at the corner of the iron fence enclosing the Curtis home, +in which many lights were still shining. It was near a dark alley +opening on the street and running by this side of the house. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm going to see what's behind Mr. Curtis's house," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +Dalton stared at him. +</p> + +<p> +"What's got into your head, Harry!" he exclaimed. "Do you mean to be a +burglar prowling about the home of the man who has entertained you?" +</p> + +<p> +Harry hesitated. He was sorry that Dalton was with him. Then he could +have gone on without question, but he must make some excuse to Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"George," he said at last, "will you swear to keep a secret, a most +important one which I am pledged to tell to nobody, but which I must +confide in you in order to give a good reason for what I am about to +do." +</p> + +<p> +"If you are pledged to keep such a secret," replied Dalton, "then don't +explain it to me. Your word is good enough, Harry. Go ahead and do +what you want to do. I'll ask nothing about any of your actions, no +matter how strange it may look." +</p> + +<p> +"You're a man in a million, George. Come on, your confidence is going +to be tested. Besides, you'll run the danger of being shot." +</p> + +<p> +But Dalton followed him fearlessly as he led the way down the alley. +Richmond was not lighted then, save along the main streets, and a few +steps took them into the full dark. The brilliant windows threw bright +bands across the lines, but they themselves were in darkness. +</p> + +<p> +The alley ran through the next street and so did the Curtis grounds. +They were as extensive in the rear of the house as in front, and +contained small pines carefully trimmed, banks of roses and two grape +arbors. Harry could hear no sound of any one stirring among them, but +people, obviously the cooks and other servants, were talking in the big +kitchen at the rear of the house. +</p> + +<p> +The street itself running in the rear of the building was as well +lighted as it was in front, but Harry saw no one in it save a member of +the city police, who seemed to be keeping a good watch. But as he did +not wish to be observed by the man he waited a little while in the +mouth of the alley, until he had moved on and was out of sight. +</p> + +<p> +"Now, George," he said, "you and I are going to do a little scouting. +You know I'm descended from the greatest natural scout and trailer ever +known in the West, one whose senses were preternaturally acute, one who +could almost track a bird in the air by its flight." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I've heard of the renowned Henry Ware, and I know that you've +inherited a lot of his skill and intuition. Go ahead. I promised that +I would help you and ask no questions. I keep my word." +</p> + +<p> +Harry climbed silently over the low fence, and Dalton followed in the +same manner. The light from the street and house did not penetrate the +pines and rosebushes, where Harry quickly found a refuge, Dalton as +usual following him. +</p> + +<p> +"What next?" whispered Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"Now, I do my trailing and scouting, and you help me all you can, +George, but be sure you don't make any noise. There's enough moonlight +filtering through the pines to show the ground to me, but not enough to +disclose us to anybody twenty feet away." +</p> + +<p> +He dropped to his hands and knees, and, crawling back and forth, began +to examine every inch of ground with minute care, while Dalton stared +at him in amazement. +</p> + +<p> +"I'd help," whispered Dalton, "if I only knew what you were doing." +</p> + +<p> +"Suppose, George, that somebody wanted to see the Curtis house, and yet +not be seen, wanted to observe as well as he could, without detection, +what was going on there. He'd watch his chance, jump over the fence as +we have done and enter this group of pines. He could ask no finer +point of observation. We are perfectly hidden and yet we can see the +whole rear of the house and one side of it." +</p> + +<p> +"So we can. I infer that you are looking for some one who you think +has been acting as a spy." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah! here we are. The earth is a bit soft by this pine, and I see the +trace of a footstep! And here is another trace, close by it, +undoubtedly the imprint of the other foot. It's as plain as day." +</p> + +<p> +Dalton knelt, looked at the traces, and shook his head. "I can't make +out any of them," he said. "I see nothing but a slight displacement of +the grass caused by the wind." +</p> + +<p> +"That's because you haven't my keen eye, an inherited and natural +ability as a trailer, although you may beat me out of sight in other +things. The shape of these traces indicates that they were made by +human feet, and their closeness together shows that the man stood +looking at the house. If he had been walking along they would be much +wider apart." +</p> + +<p> +He examined the traces again with long and minute care. +</p> + +<p> +"The toes point toward the house, consequently he was looking at it," +he said. "He was a heavy man, and he stood here a long time, not +moving from his tracks. That's why he left these traces, which are so +clear and evident to me, George, although they're hidden from a blind +man like you." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, what of it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Nothing much to you, but a lot to me." +</p> + +<p> +He rose to his feet and examined the boughs of the pine. +</p> + +<p> +"As I thought," he whispered with great satisfaction. "Despite his +courage and power over himself, both of which were very great, he +became a little excited. Doubtless he saw something that stirred him +deeply." +</p> + +<p> +"What under the stars are you talking about, Harry?" +</p> + +<p> +"See, he broke off three twigs of the pine. Just snapped them in two +with nervous fingers. Here are pieces lying on the ground. Now, a man +does that sort of thing almost unconsciously. He will not reach up for +the twig or down for it, but he breaks it because it presents itself to +him at the corner of his eye. This man was six feet in height or more +and built very powerfully. I think I know him! Yes, I'm sure I know +him! Nor is it at all strange that he should be here." +</p> + +<p> +"Shall we make a thorough search for him among the pines? You say he's +tall and built powerfully. But maybe the two of us could master him, +and if not we could call for help." +</p> + +<p> +"Too late, George. He left a long time ago, and he took with him what +he wanted. We needn't look any farther." +</p> + +<p> +"Lead on, then, King of Trailers and Master of Secrets! If the mighty +Caliph, Haroun al Kenton, wishes to prowl in these grounds, seeking the +heart of some great conspiracy, it is not for his loyal vizier, the +Sheikh Ul Dalton to ask him questions." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not certain that a vizier is a sheikh." +</p> + +<p> +"Nor am I, but I'm certain that I want to go home and go to bed. +Vikings of the land like ourselves can't stand much luxury. It weakens +the tissues, made strong on the march and in the fields." +</p> + +<p> +They left the grounds silently and unobserved and soon were in their +own quarters, where they slept nearly the whole day. Then they spent +three or four days more in the social affairs which were such a keen +pleasure to them after such a long deprivation. But wherever they +went, and they were in demand everywhere, Harry was always looking for +somebody, a man, tall, heavy and broad shouldered, not a man who would +come into a room where he was, or who would join a company of people +that he had joined, but one who would hang upon the outskirts, and hide +behind the corners of buildings or trees. He did not see the shadow, +but once or twice he felt that it was there. +</p> + +<p> +The officer, Bathurst, told him one night that some important papers +had been stolen from the White House of the Confederacy itself. +</p> + +<p> +"They pertain to our army," said Bathurst, "and they will be of value +to the enemy, if they reach him." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm quite certain that the most daring and dangerous of all northern +spies is in Richmond," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +Then he told Bathurst of Shepard and of the trails that he had seen +among the pines behind Curtis's house. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you think this man got our map?" asked Bathurst. +</p> + +<p> +"It may have been so. Perhaps he was hidden in the court and when he +saw us go out, leaving the map on the table, he slipped in at the +window and seized it." +</p> + +<p> +"But the court was enclosed. He would have had to go with the paper +through the house itself." +</p> + +<p> +"That's where my theory fails. I can provide for his taking the paper, +but I can't provide for his escape." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll tell the General about it. I think you're right, Harry. I've +heard of Shepard myself, and he's worth ten thousand men to the +Yankees. It's more than that. At such a critical stage of our affairs +he might ruin us. We'll make a general search for him. We'll rake the +city with a fine tooth comb." +</p> + +<p> +The search was made everywhere. Soldiers pried in every possible +place, but they found nobody who could not give an adequate account of +his presence in Richmond. Harry felt sure nevertheless that Shepard +was somewhere in the capital, protected by his infinite daring and +resource, and they received the startling news the next day after the +search that a messenger sent northward with dispatches for Lee had been +attacked only a short distance from the city. He had been struck from +behind, and did not see his assailant, but the wound in the head—the +man had been found unconscious—and the missing dispatches were +sufficient proof. +</p> + +<p> +A night later precious documents were purloined from the office of the +Secretary of War and a list of important earthworks on the North and +South Carolina coast disappeared from the office of the Secretary of +the Navy. Alarm spread through all the departments of the Confederacy. +Some one, spy and burglar too, had come into the very capital, and he +was having uncommon success. +</p> + +<p> +Harry had not the least doubt that it was Shepard, and he was filled +with an ambition to capture this man, whom he really liked. If Shepard +were caught he would certainly be hanged, but then a spy must take his +chances. +</p> + +<p> +They heard meanwhile that General Lee had gone to a former camp of his +on the Opequan, but that later in response to maneuvers by General +Meade, he moved to a position near Front Royal. No orders came for +Harry or Dalton to rejoin him, and, as a period of inactivity seemed to +be at hand, they were glad to remain a while longer in Richmond. They +still stayed with the Lanhams, who refused to take any pay, although +the two young officers, chipping together, bought for Mrs. Lanham a +little watch which had just come through the blockade from England. +</p> + +<p> +Thus their days lengthened in Richmond, and, despite the shadow of the +spy and his doings which was over Harry, they were still very pleasant. +The members of the Mosaic Club, although older men, made much of them, +and Harry and Dalton, being youths of sprighty wit, were able to hold +their own in such company. The time had now passed into August, and +they sat one afternoon in the lobby of the big hotel with their new +friends. Richmond without was quiet and blazing in the sun. Harry had +received a second letter from his father from an unnamed point in +Georgia. It did not contain much news, but it was full of +cheerfulness, and it intimated in more than one place that Bragg's army +was going to strike a great blow. +</p> + +<p> +All eyes were turned toward the West. The opinion had been spreading +in the Confederacy that the chief danger was on that line. It seemed +that the Army of Northern Virginia could take care of anything to the +north and east, but in the south and west affairs did not go well. +</p> + +<p> +"It's a pity that General Bragg is President Davis' brother-in-law," +said Randolph. +</p> + +<p> +"Why?" asked Daniel. +</p> + +<p> +"Then he wouldn't be in command of our Western Army." +</p> + +<p> +"Bragg's a fighter, though." +</p> + +<p> +"But not a reaper." +</p> + +<p> +"What do you mean?" +</p> + +<p> +"He wins the victory, but lets the enemy take it." +</p> + +<p> +"It may be so. But to come closer home, what about the Yankee spy in +Richmond? It's an established fact that a man of most uncommon daring +and skill is here." +</p> + +<p> +"No doubt of it, what's the latest from him?" +</p> + +<p> +"The house of William Curtis was entered last night and robbed." +</p> + +<p> +"Robbed of what?" +</p> + +<p> +"Papers. The man never takes any valuables." +</p> + +<p> +"But Curtis is not in the government!" +</p> + +<p> +"No, but he carries on a lot of blockade running, chiefly through +Norfolk and Wilmington. I think the papers related to several blockade +running vessels coming out from England, and of course the Yankee +blockading ships will be ready for them. There's not a trace of the +man who took them." +</p> + +<p> +"Something is deucedly sinister about it," said Bagby. "It seems to be +the work of one man, and he must have a hiding place in Richmond, but +we can't find it. Kenton, you and Dalton are army officers, supposedly +of intelligence. Now, why don't you find this mysterious terror? Ah, +will you excuse me for a minute! I see Miss Carden leaving the counter +with her basket, and there is no other seamstress in Richmond who can +put the ruffles on a man's finest shirt as she can. She's been doing +work for me for some time." +</p> + +<p> +He arose, and, leaving them, bowed very politely to the seamstress. Her +face, although thin and lined, was that of an educated woman of strong +character. Harry thought it probable that she was a lady in the +conventional meaning of the word. Many a woman of breeding and culture +was now compelled to earn her own living in the South. She and Bagby +exchanged only a few words, he returning to his chair, and she leaving +the hotel at a side door, walking with dignity. +</p> + +<p> +"I've seen Miss Carden three times before, once on the train, once at +this hotel and once at Mr. Curtis's house; can you tell me anything +about her?" said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"It's an ordinary tale," replied Bagby. "I think she lived well up the +valley and her house being destroyed in some raid of the Federal troops +she came down to the capital to earn a living. She's been doing work +for me and others I know for a year past, and I know she's not been out +of Richmond in that time." +</p> + +<p> +The talk changed now to the books that had come through from Europe in +the blockade runners. There was a new novel by Dickens and another by +Thackeray, new at least to the South, and the members of the Mosaic +Club were soon deep in criticism and defense. +</p> + +<p> +Harry strolled away after a while. He did not tell his +friends—nothing was to be gained by telling them—that he was +absolutely sure of the identity of the spy, that it was Shepard. The +question of identity did not matter if they caught him, and his old +feeling that it was a duel between Shepard and himself returned. He +believed that the duty to catch the man had been laid upon him. +</p> + +<p> +He began to haunt Richmond at all hours of the night. More than once +he had to give explanations to watchmen about public buildings, but he +clung to the task that he had imposed upon himself. He explained to +Dalton and the Virginian found no fault except for Harry's loss of time +that might be devoted to amusement. Harry sometimes rebuked himself +for his own persistency, but Bagby's taunt had stung a little, and he +felt that it applied more to himself than to Dalton. He knew Shepard +and he knew something of his ways. Moreover, his was the blood of the +greatest of all trailers, and it was incumbent upon him to find the +spy. Yet he was trailing in a city and not in a forest. In spite of +everything he clung to his work. +</p> + +<p> +On a later night about one o'clock in the morning he was near the +building that housed army headquarters, and he noticed a figure come +from some bushes near it. He instantly stepped back into the shadow +and saw a man glance up and down the street, probably to see if it was +clear. It was a night to favor the spy, dark, with heavy clouds and +gusts of rain. +</p> + +<p> +The figure, evidently satisfied that no one was watching, walked +briskly down the street, and Harry's heart beat hard against his side. +He knew that it was Shepard, the king of spies, against whom he had +matched himself. He could not mistake, despite the darkness, his +figure, his walk and the swing of his powerful shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +His impulse was to cry for help, to shout that the spy was here, but at +the first sound of his voice Shepard would at once dart into the +shrubbery, and escape through the alleys of Richmond. No, his old +feeling that it was a duel between Shepard and himself was right, and +so they must fight it out. +</p> + +<p> +Shepard walked swiftly toward the narrower and more obscure streets, +and Harry followed at equal speed. The night grew darker and the rain, +instead of coming in gusts, now fell steadily. Twice Shepard stopped +and looked back. But on each occasion Harry flattened himself against +a plank fence and he did not believe the spy had seen him. +</p> + +<p> +Then Shepard went faster and his pursuer had difficulty in keeping him +in view. He went through an alley, turned into a street, and Harry ran +in order not to lose sight of him. +</p> + +<p> +The alley came into the street at a right angle, and, when Harry turned +the corner, a heavy, dark figure thrust itself into his path. +</p> + +<p> +"Shepard!" he cried. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes!" said the man, "and I hate to do this, but I must." +</p> + +<p> +His heavy fist shot out and caught his pursuer on the jaw. Harry saw +stars in constellations, then floated away into blackness, and, when he +came out of it, found himself lying on a bed in a small room. His jaw +was bandaged and very sore, but otherwise he felt all right. A candle +was burning on a table near him and an unshuttered window on the other +side of the room told him that it was still night and raining. +</p> + +<p> +Harry looked leisurely about the room, into which he had been wafted on +the magic carpet of the Arabian genii, so far as he knew. It was small +and without splendor and he knew at once from the character of its +belongings that it was a woman's room. +</p> + +<p> +He sat up. His head throbbed, but touching it cautiously he knew that +he had sustained no serious injury. But he felt chagrin, and a lot of +it. Shepard had known that he was following him and had laid a trap, +into which he had walked without hesitation. The man, however, had +spared his life, although he could have killed him as easily as he had +stunned him. Then he laughed bitterly at himself. A duel between them, +he had called it! Shepard wouldn't regard it as much of a duel. +</p> + +<p> +His head became so dizzy that he lay down again rather abruptly and +began to wonder. What was he doing in a woman's room, and who was the +woman and how had he got there? This would be a great joke for Dalton +and St. Clair and Happy Tom. +</p> + +<p> +He was fully dressed, except for his boots, and he saw them standing on +the floor against the wall. He surveyed once more the immaculate +neatness of the room. It was certainly a woman's, and most likely that +of an old maid. He sat up again, but his head throbbed so fearfully +that he was compelled to lie down quickly. Shepard had certainly put a +lot in that right hand punch of his and he had obtained a considerable +percentage of revenge for his defeat in the river. +</p> + +<p> +Then Harry forgot his pain in the intensity of his curiosity. He had +sustained a certain temporary numbing of the faculties from the blow +and his fancy, though vivid now, was vague. He was not at all sure +that he was still in Richmond. The window still showed that it was +night, and the rain was pouring so hard that he could hear it beating +against the walls. At all events, he thought whimsically, he had +secured shelter, though at an uncommon high price. +</p> + +<p> +He heard a creak, and a door at the end of the room opened, revealing +the figure and the strong, haggard features of Henrietta Carden. +Evidently she had taken off a hood and cloak in an outer room, as there +were rain drops on her hair and her shoes were wet. +</p> + +<p> +"How are you feeling, Mr. Kenton?" she asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Full of aches and wonder." +</p> + +<p> +"Both will pass." +</p> + +<p> +She smiled, and, although she was not young, Harry thought her +distinctly handsome, when she smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"I seem to have driven you out of your room and to have taken your bed +from you, Miss Carden," he said, "but I assure you it was +unintentional. I ran against something pretty hard, and since then I +haven't been exactly responsible for what I was doing." +</p> + +<p> +She smiled again, and this time Harry found the smile positively +winning. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm responsible for your being here," she said. +</p> + +<p> +Then she went back to the door and said to some one waiting in the +outer room: +</p> + +<p> +"You can come in, Lieutenant Dalton. He's all right except for his +headache, and an extraordinary spell of curiosity." +</p> + +<p> +Dalton stalked solemnly in, and regarded Harry with a stern and +reproving eye. +</p> + +<p> +"You're a fine fellow," he said. "A lady finds you dripping blood from +the chin, and out of your head, wandering about the street in the +darkness and rain. Fortunately she knows who you are, takes you into +her own house, gives you an opiate or some kind of a drug, binds up +your jaw where some man good and true has hit you with all his goodness +and truth, and then goes for me, your guardian, who should never have +let you out of his sight. I was awakened out of a sound sleep in our +very comfortable room at the Lanham house, and I've come here through a +pouring rain with Miss Carden to see you." +</p> + +<p> +"I do seem to be the original trouble maker," said Harry. "How did you +happen to find me, Miss Carden?" +</p> + +<p> +"I was sitting at my window, working very late on a dress that Mrs. +Curtis wants to-morrow. It was not raining hard then, and I could see +very well outside. I saw a dark shadow in the street at the mouth of +the alley. I saw that it was the figure of a man staggering very much. +I ran out and found that it was you, Lieutenant Kenton. You were +bleeding at the chin, where apparently some one had struck you very +hard, and you were so thoroughly dazed that you did not know where you +were or who you were." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, he hit me very hard, just as you supposed, Miss Carden," said +Harry, feeling gently his sore and swollen chin. +</p> + +<p> +"I half led and half dragged you into my house—there was nowhere else +I could take you—and, as you were sinking into a stupor, I managed to +make you lie down on my bed. I bound up your wound, while you were +unconscious, and then I went for Lieutenant Dalton." +</p> + +<p> +"And she saved your life, too, you young wanderer. No doubt of that," +said Dalton reprovingly. "This is what you get for roaming away from +my care. Lucky you were that an angel like Miss Carden saved you from +dying of exposure. If I didn't know you so well, Harry, I should say +that you had been in some drunken row." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, no! not that!" exclaimed Miss Carden. "There was no odor of +liquor on his breath." +</p> + +<p> +"I was merely joking, Miss Carden," said Dalton. "Old Harry here is +one of the best of boys, and I'm grateful to you for saving him and +coming to me. If there is any way we can repay you we'll do it." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't want any repayment. We must all help in these times." +</p> + +<p> +"But we won't forget it. We can't. How are you feeling, Harry?" +</p> + +<p> +"My head doesn't throb so hard. The jarred works inside are gradually +getting into place, and I think that in a half-hour I can walk again, +that is, resting upon that stout right arm of yours, George." +</p> + +<p> +"Then we'll go. I've brought an extra coat that will protect you from +the rain." +</p> + +<p> +"You are welcome to stay here!" exclaimed Miss Carden. "Perhaps you'd +be wiser to do so." +</p> + +<p> +"We thank you for such generous hospitality," said Dalton gallantly, +"but it will be best for many reasons that we go back to Mrs. Lanham's +as soon as we can. But first can we ask one favor of you, Miss Carden?" +</p> + +<p> +"Of course." +</p> + +<p> +"That you say nothing of Mr. Kenton's accident. Remember that he was +on military duty and that in the darkness and rain he fell, striking +upon his jaw." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll remember it. Our first impression that he had been struck by +somebody was a mistake, of course. You can depend upon me, both of +you. Neither of you was ever in my house. The incident never occurred." +</p> + +<p> +"But we're just as grateful to you as if it had happened." +</p> + +<p> +A half-hour later they left the cottage, Miss Carden holding open the +door a little to watch them until they were out of sight. But Harry +had recovered his strength and he was able to walk without Dalton's +assistance, although the Virginian kept close by his side in case of +necessity. +</p> + +<p> +"Harry," said Dalton, when they were nearly to the Lanham house, "are +you willing to tell what happened?" +</p> + +<p> +"As nearly as I know. I got upon the trail of that spy who has been +infesting Richmond. I knew at the time that it couldn't have been any +one else. I followed him up an alley, but he waited for me at the +turn, and before I could defend myself he let loose with his right. +When I came drifting back into the world I was lying upon the bed in +Miss Carden's cottage." +</p> + +<p> +"He showed you some consideration. He might have quietly put you out +of the way with a knife." +</p> + +<p> +"Shepard and I don't care to kill each other. Each wants to defeat the +other's plans. It's got to be a sort of duel between us." +</p> + +<p> +"So I see, and he has scored latest." +</p> + +<p> +"But not last." +</p> + +<p> +"We'd better stick to the tale about the fall. Such a thing could +happen to anybody in these dark streets. But that Miss Carden is a +fine woman. She showed true human sympathy, and what's more, she gave +help." +</p> + +<p> +"She's all that," agreed Harry heartily. +</p> + +<p> +They had their own keys to the Lanham house and slipped in without +awakening anybody. Their explanations the next day were received +without question and in another day Harry's jaw was no longer sore, +though his spirit was. Yet the taking of important documents ceased +suddenly, and Harry was quite sure that his encounter with Shepard had +at least caused him to leave the city. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap12"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER XII +</h3> + +<h3> +IN WINTER QUARTERS +</h3> + +<p> +Harry was sent a few days later with dispatches from the president to +General Lee, who was still in his camp beside the Opequan. Dalton was +held in the capital for further messages, but Harry was not sorry to +make the journey alone. The stay in Richmond had been very pleasant. +The spirits of youth, confined, had overflowed, but he was beginning to +feel a reaction. One must return soon to the battlefield. This was +merely a lull in the storm which would sweep with greater fury than +ever. The North, encouraged by Gettysburg and Vicksburg, was gathering +vast masses which would soon be hurled upon the South, and Harry knew +how thin the lines there were becoming. +</p> + +<p> +He thought, too, of Shepard, who was the latest to score in their duel, +and he believed that this man had already sent to the Northern leaders +information beyond value. Harry felt that he must strive in some +manner to make the score even. +</p> + +<p> +It was late in the summer when he rejoined the Army of Northern +Virginia and delivered the letters to the commander-in-chief, who sat +in the shade of a large tree. Harry observed him closely. He seemed a +little grayer than before the Battle of Gettysburg, but his manner was +as confident as ever. He filled to both eye and mind the measure of a +great general. After asking Harry many questions he dismissed him for a +while, to play, so he said. +</p> + +<p> +The young Kentuckian at once, and, as a matter of course, sought the +Invincibles. St. Clair and Langdon hailed him with shouts of joy, but +to his great surprise, Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire were not playing chess. +</p> + +<p> +"We were getting on with the game last night, Harry," explained Colonel +Talbot, "but we came to a point where we were about to develop heat +over a projected move. Then, in order to avoid such a lamentable +occurrence, we decided to postpone further play until to-night. But we +find you looking uncommonly well, Harry. The flesh pots of Egypt have +agreed with you." +</p> + +<p> +"I had a good time in Richmond, sir, a fine one," replied Harry. "The +people there have certainly been kind to me, as they are to all the +officers of the Army of Northern Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +"What have you done with the grave Dalton, who was your comrade on your +journey to the capital?" +</p> + +<p> +"They've kept him there for the present. They think he's stronger +proof against the luxuries and temptations of a city than I am." +</p> + +<p> +"Youth is youth, and I'm glad that you've had this little fling, Harry. +Perhaps you'll have another, as I think you'll be sent back to Richmond +very soon." +</p> + +<p> +"What has been going on here, Colonel?" +</p> + +<p> +"Very little. Nothing, in fact, of any importance. When we crossed +the swollen Potomac, although threatened by an enemy superior to us in +numbers, I felt that we would not be pushed. General Meade has been +deliberate, extremely deliberate in his offensive movements. Up North +they call Gettysburg a great victory, but we're resting here calmly and +peacefully. Hector and I and our young friends have found rural peace +and ease among these Virginia hills and valleys. You, of course, found +Richmond very gay and bright?" +</p> + +<p> +"Very gay and bright, Colonel, and full of handsome ladies." +</p> + +<p> +Colonel Talbot sighed and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sighed +also. +</p> + +<p> +"Hector and I should have been there," said Colonel Talbot. "Although +we've never married, we have a tremendous admiration for the ladies, +and in our best uniforms we're not wholly unpopular among them, eh, +Hector?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not by any means, Leonidas. We're not as young as Harry here, but I +know that you're a fine figure of a man, and you know that I am. +Moreover, our experience of the dangerous sex is so much greater than +that of mere boys like Harry and Arthur and Tom here, that we know how +to make ourselves much more welcome. You talk to them about frivolous +things, mere chit chat, while we explain grave and important matters to +them." +</p> + +<p> +"Are you sure, sir," asked St. Clair, "that the ladies don't really +prefer chit chat?" +</p> + +<p> +"I was not speaking of little girls. I was alluding to those ornaments +of their sex who have arrived at years of discretion. Ah, if Leonidas +and I were only a while in Richmond! It would be the next best thing +to being in Charleston." +</p> + +<p> +"Maybe the Invincibles will be sent there for a while." +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps. I don't foresee any great activity here in the autumn. How +do they regard the Army of Northern Virginia in Richmond now, Harry?" +</p> + +<p> +"With supreme confidence." +</p> + +<p> +The talk soon drifted to the people whom Harry had met at the capital, +and then he told of his adventure with Shepard, the spy. +</p> + +<p> +"He seems to be a most daring man," said Talbot; "not a mere ordinary +spy, but a man of a higher type. I think he's likely to do us great +harm. But the woman, Miss Carden, was surely kind to you. If she +hadn't found you wandering around in the rain you'd have doubtless +dropped down and died. God bless the ladies." +</p> + +<p> +"And so say we all of us," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +He returned to Richmond in a few days, bearing more dispatches, and to +his great delight all that was left of the Invincibles arrived a week +later to recuperate and see a little of the world. St. Clair and Happy +Tom plunged at once and with all the ardor of youth into the gayeties +of social life, and the two colonels followed them at a more dignified +but none the less earnest pace. All four appeared in fine new +uniforms, for which they had saved their money, and they were +conspicuous upon every occasion. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was again at the Curtis house, and although it was not a great +ball this time the assemblage was numerous, including all his friends. +The two colonels had become especial favorites everywhere, and they +were telling stories of the old South, which Harry had divined was +passing; passing whether the South won or not. +</p> + +<p> +Although there had been much light talk through the evening and an +abundance of real gayety, nearly every member of the company, +nevertheless, had serious moments. The news from Tennessee and Georgia +was heavy with import. It was vague in some particulars, but it was +definite enough in others to tell that the armies of Rosecrans and +Bragg were approaching each other. All eyes turned to the West. A +great battle could not be long delayed, and a powerful division of the +Army of Northern Virginia under Longstreet had been sent to help Bragg. +</p> + +<p> +Harry found himself late at night once more in that very room in which +the map had disappeared so mysteriously. The two colonels, St. Clair +and Langdon, and one or two others had drifted in, and the older men +were smoking. Inevitably they talked of the battle which they foresaw +with such certainty, and Harry's anxiety about it was increased, +because he knew his father would be there on one side, and the cousin, +for whom he cared so much, would be on the other. +</p> + +<p> +"If only General Lee were in command there," said Colonel Talbot, "we +might reckon upon a great and decisive victory." +</p> + +<p> +"But Bragg is a good general," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. +</p> + +<p> +"It's not enough to be merely a good general. He must have the soul of +fire that Lee has, and that Jackson had. Bragg is the Southern +McClellan. He is brave enough personally, but he always overrates the +strength of the enemy, and, if he is victorious on the field, he does +not reap the fruits of victory." +</p> + +<p> +"Where were the armies when we last heard from them?" asked a captain. +</p> + +<p> +"Bragg was turning north to attack Rosecrans, who stood somewhere +between him and Chattanooga." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm glad that it's Rosecrans and not Grant who commands the Northern +army there," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Why?" asked Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"I've studied the manner in which he took Vicksburg, and I've heard +about him from my father, and others. He won't be whipped. He isn't +like the other Northern generals. He hangs on, whatever happens. I +heard some one quoting him as saying that no matter how badly his army +was suffering in battle, the army of the other fellow might be +suffering worse. It seems to me that a general who is able to think +that way is very dangerous." +</p> + +<p> +"And so he is, Harry," said Colonel Talbot. "I, too, am glad that it's +Rosecrans and not Grant. If there's any news of a battle, we're not in +a bad place to hear it. It's said that Mr. Curtis always knows as soon +as our government what's happened." +</p> + +<p> +The talk drifted on to another subject and then a hum came from the +larger room. A murmur only, but it struck such an intense and earnest +note that Harry was convinced. +</p> + +<p> +"It's news of battle! I know it!" he exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +They sprang to their feet and hurried into the ballroom. William +Curtis, his habitual calm broken, was standing upon a chair and all the +people had gathered in front of him. A piece of paper, evidently a +telegram, was clutched in his hand. +</p> + +<p> +"Friends," he said in a strained, but exultant voice, "a great battle +has been fought near Chattanooga on a little river called the +Chickamauga, and we have won a magnificent victory." +</p> + +<p> +A mighty cheer came from the crowd. +</p> + +<p> +"The army of Rosecrans, attacked with sudden and invincible force by +Bragg, has been shattered and driven into Chattanooga." +</p> + +<p> +Another cheer burst forth. +</p> + +<p> +"No part of the Union army was able to hold fast, save one wing under +Thomas." +</p> + +<p> +A third mighty cheer arose, but this time Harry did not join in it. He +felt a sudden sinking of the heart at the words, "save one wing under +Thomas." Then the victory was not complete. It could be complete only +when the whole Union army was driven from the field. As long as Thomas +stood, there was a flaw in the triumph. He had heard many times of +this man, Thomas. He had Grant's qualities. He was at his best in +apparent defeat. +</p> + +<p> +"Is there anything else, Mr. Curtis?" asked Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"That is all my agent sends me concerning its results, but he says that +it lasted two days, and that it was fierce and bloody beyond all +comparison with anything that has happened in the West. He estimated +that the combined losses are between thirty and forty thousand men." +</p> + +<p> +A heavy silence fell upon them all. The victory was great, but the +price for it was great, too. Yet exultation could not be subdued long. +They were soon smiling over it, and congratulating one another. But +Harry was still unable to share wholly in the joy of victory. +</p> + +<p> +"Why this gloom in your face, when all the rest of us are so happy?" +asked St. Clair. +</p> + +<p> +"My father was there. He may have fallen. How do I know?" +</p> + +<p> +"That's not it. He always comes through. What's the real cause? Out +with it!" +</p> + +<p> +"You know that part of the dispatch saying, 'No part of the Union army +was able to hold fast save one wing under Thomas.' How about that +wing! You heard, too, what the colonel said about General Bragg. He +always overestimates the strength of the enemy, and while he may win a +victory he will not reap the fruits of it. That wing under Thomas +still may be standing there, protecting all the rest of the Union army." +</p> + +<p> +"Come now, old Sober Face! This isn't like you. We've won a grand +victory! We've more than paid them back for their Gettysburg." +</p> + +<p> +Harry rejoiced then with the others, but at times the thought came to +him that Thomas with one wing might yet be standing between Bragg and +complete victory. When he and Dalton went back home—they were again +with the Lanhams—they found the whole population of Richmond ablaze +with triumph. The Yankee army in the West had been routed. Not only +was Chickamauga an offset for Gettysburg, but for Vicksburg as well, +and once more the fortunes of the South were rising toward the zenith. +</p> + +<p> +Dalton had returned from the army a little later this time than Harry, +but he had joined him at the Lanhams', and he too showed gravity amid +the almost universal rejoicing. +</p> + +<p> +"I see that you're afraid the next news won't be so complete, Harry," +he said. +</p> + +<p> +"That's it, George. We don't really know much, except that Thomas was +holding his ground. Oh, if only Stonewall Jackson were there! +Remember how he came down on them at the Second Manassas and at +Chancellorsville! Thomas would be swept off his feet and as Rosecrans +retreated into Chattanooga our army would pour right on his heels!" +</p> + +<p> +They waited eagerly the next day and the next for news, and while +Richmond was still filled with rejoicings over Chickamauga, Harry saw +that his fears were justified. Thomas stood till the end. Bragg had +not followed Rosecrans into Chattanooga. The South had won a great +battle, but not a decisive victory. The commanding general had not +reaped all the rewards that were his for the taking. Bragg had +justified in every way Colonel Talbot's estimate of him. +</p> + +<p> +And yet Richmond, like the rest of the South, felt the great uplift of +Chickamauga, the most gigantic battle of the West. It told South as +well as North that the war was far from over. The South could no +longer invade the North, nor could the North invade the South at will. +Even on the northernmost border of the rebelling section the Army of +Northern Virginia under its matchless leader, rested in its camp, +challenging and defiant. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was glad to return with his friends to the army. His brief +period of festival was over, and his fears for his father had been +relieved by a letter, stating that he had received no serious harm in +the great and terrible battle of Chickamauga. +</p> + +<p> +After the failure of the armies of Lee and Meade to bring about a +decisive battle at Mine Run, the Army of Northern Virginia established +its autumn and winter headquarters on a jutting spur of the great range +called Clarke's Mountain, Orange Court House lying only a few miles to +the west. The huge camp was made in a wide-open space, surrounded by +dense masses of pines and cedars. Tents were pitched securely, and, +feeling that they were to stay here a long time many of the soldiers +built rude log cabins. +</p> + +<p> +General Lee himself continued to use his tent, which stood in the +center of the camp, the streets of tents and cabins radiating from it +like the spokes of a wheel. Close about Lee's own tent were others +occupied by Colonel Taylor, his adjutant general, Colonel Peyton, +Colonel Marshall, and other and younger officers, including Harry and +Dalton. A little distance down one of the main avenues, which they +were pleased to call Victory Street, the Invincibles were encamped, and +Harry saw them almost every day. +</p> + +<p> +The troops were well fed now, and the brooks provided an abundance of +clear water. The days were still warm, but the evenings were cold, +and, inhaling the healing odors of the pines and cedars, wounded +soldiers returned rapidly to health. +</p> + +<p> +It was a wonderful interval for Harry and his friends associated with +him so closely. Save for the presence of armies, it seemed at times +that there was no war. Deep peace prevailed along the Rapidan and the +slopes of the mountain. It was the longest period of rest that he and +his comrades were to know in the course of the mighty struggle. The +action of the war was now chiefly in the Southwest, where Grant, taking +the place of Rosecrans, was seeking to recover all that was lost at +Chickamauga. +</p> + +<p> +Harry had another letter from his father, telling him that his own had +been received, and giving personal details of the titanic struggle on +the Chickamauga. He did not speak out directly, but Harry saw in his +words the vain regret that the great opportunity won at Chickamauga at +such a terrible price had not been used. In his belief the whole +Federal army might have been destroyed, and the star of the South would +have risen again to the zenith. +</p> + +<p> +Here Harry sighed and remembered his own forebodings. Oh, if only a +Stonewall Jackson had been there! His mighty sweep would have driven +Thomas and the rest in a wild rout. A tear rose in his eye as he +remembered his lost hero. He sincerely believed then and always that +the Confederacy would have won had he not fallen on that fatal evening +at Chancellorsville. It was an emotion with him, a permanent emotion +with which logic could not interfere. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was conscious, too, that the long quiet on the Eastern front was +but a lull. There was nothing to signify peace in it. If the North +had ever felt despair about the war Gettysburg and Vicksburg had +removed every trace of it. He knew that beyond the blue ranges of +mountains, both to east and west, vast preparations were going forward. +The North, the region of great population, of illimitable resources, of +free access to the sea, and of mechanical genius that had counted for +so much in arming her soldiers, was gathering herself for a supreme +effort. The great defeats of the war's first period were to be +ignored, and her armies were to come again, more numerous, better +equipped and perhaps better commanded than ever. +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless, his mind was still the mind of youth, and he could not +dwell continuously upon this prospect. The camp in the hills was +pleasant. The heats had passed, and autumn in the full richness of its +coloring had come. The forests blazed in all the brilliancy of red and +yellow and brown. The whole landscape had the color and intensity that +only a North American autumn can know, and the October air had the +freshness and vitality sufficient to make an old man young. +</p> + +<p> +The great army of youth—it was composed chiefly of boys, like the one +opposing it—enjoyed itself during these comparatively idle months. The +soldiers played rural games, marbles even, pitching the horseshoe, +wrestling, jumping and running. It was to Harry like Hannibal in +winter quarters at Capua, without the Capua. There was certainly no +luxury here. While food was more abundant than for a long time, it was +of the simplest. Instead of dissipation there was a great religious +revival. Ministers of different creeds, but united in a common object, +appeared in the camp, and preached with power and energy. The South +was emotional then and perhaps the war had made it more so. The +ministers secured thousands of converts. All day long the preaching +and singing could be heard through the groves of pine and cedar, and +Harry knew that when the time for battle came they would fight all the +better because of it. Yielding to the enemy was no part of the +Christianity that these ministers preached. +</p> + +<p> +Harry also saw the growth of the hero-worship accorded to his great +commander. He did not believe that any other general, except perhaps +Napoleon in his earlier career, had ever received such trust and +admiration. Many soldiers who had felt his guiding hand in battle now +saw him for the first time. He had an appearance and manner to inspire +respect, and, back of that, was something much greater, a firm +conviction in the minds of all that he had illimitable patience, a +willingness to accept responsibility, and a military genius that had +never been surpassed. Such was the attitude of the Southern people +toward their great leader then, and, to an even greater degree now, +when his figure, like that of Lincoln, instead of becoming smaller +grows larger as it recedes into the past. +</p> + +<p> +Harry often rode with him. He seemed to have an especial liking for +the very young members of his staff, or for old private soldiers, +bearded and gray like himself, whom he knew by name. Far in October he +rode down toward the Rapidan where Stuart was encamped, taking with him +only Harry and Dalton. He was mounted on his great white war horse, +Traveller, which the soldiers knew from afar. Cheering arose, but when +he raised his hand in a deprecating way the soldiers, obedient to his +wish, ceased, and they heard only the murmur of many voices, as they +went on. The general made the lads ride, one on his right and the +other on his left hand, and brilliant October coloring and crisp air +seemed to put him in a mood that was far from war. +</p> + +<p> +"I pine for Arlington," he said at length to Harry, "that ancestral +home of mine that is held by the enemy. I should like to see the +ripening of the crops there. We Virginians of the old stock hold to +the land, and you Kentuckians, who are really of the same race, hold to +it, too." +</p> + +<p> +"It is true, sir," said Harry. "My father loves the land. After his +retirement from the army, following the Mexican war, he worked harder +upon our place in Kentucky than any slave or hired man. He was going +to free his slaves, but I suppose, sir, that the war has made him feel +different about it." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, we're often willing to do things by our own free will, but not +under compulsion. The great Washington himself wrote of the evils of +slave labor. The 'old fields' scattered all over Virginia show what it +has done for this noble commonwealth." +</p> + +<p> +Harry remembered quite well similar "old fields" in Kentucky. Slaves +were far less numerous there than in Virginia, and he was old enough to +have observed that, in addition to the wrong of slavery, they were a +liability rather than an asset. But he too felt anew the instinctive +rebellion against being compelled to do what he would perhaps do anyhow. +</p> + +<p> +General Lee talked more of the land and Harry and Dalton listened +respectfully. Harry saw that his commander's heart turned strongly +toward it. He knew that Jefferson had dreamed of the United States as +an agricultural community, having no part in the quarrels of other +nations, but he knew that it was only a dream. The South, the section +that had followed Jefferson's dream, was now at a great disadvantage. +It had no ships, and it did not have the mills to equip it for the +great war it was waging. He realized more keenly than ever the +one-sided nature of the South's development. +</p> + +<p> +The general turned his horse toward the banks of the Rapidan, and a +resplendent figure came forward to meet him. It was that incarnation +of youth and fantastic knighthood, Jeb Stuart, who had just returned +from a ride toward the north. He wore a new and brilliant uniform and +the usual broad yellow sash about his waist. His tunic was +embroidered, too, and his epaulets were heavy with gold. The thick +gold braid about his hat was tied in a gorgeous loop in front. His +hands were encased in long gloves of the finest buckskin, and he tapped +the high yellow tops of his riding boots with a little whip. +</p> + +<p> +Harry always felt that Stuart did not really belong to the present. His +place was with the medieval knights who loved gorgeous armor, who +fought by day for the love of it and who sat in the evening on the +castle steps with fair ladies for the love of it, and who in the dark +listened to the troubadours below, also for the love of it. A great +cavalry leader, he shone at his brightest in the chase, and, when there +was no fighting to be done, his were the spirits of a boy, and he was +as quick for a prank as any lad under his own command. +</p> + +<p> +But Stuart, although he had joked with Jackson, never took any +liberties with Lee. He instantly swept the ground with his plumed hat +and said in his most respectful manner: +</p> + +<p> +"General, will you honor us by dining with us? We've just returned +from a long ride northward and we've made some captures." +</p> + +<p> +Lee caught a twinkle in his eye, and he smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"I see no prisoners, General Stuart," he replied, "and I take it that +your captures do not mean human beings." +</p> + +<p> +"No, sir, there are other things just now more valuable to us than +prisoners. We raided a little Yankee outpost. Nobody was hurt, but, +sir, we've captured some provisions, the like of which the Army of +Northern Virginia has not tasted in a long time. Would you mind coming +with me and taking a look? And bring Kenton and Dalton with you, if +you don't mind, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"This indeed sounds tempting," said the commander-in-chief of the Army +of Northern Virginia. "I accept your invitation, General Stuart, in +behalf of myself and my two young aides." +</p> + +<p> +He dismounted, giving the reins of Traveller to an orderly, and walked +toward Stuart's tent, which was pitched near the river. The "captures" +were heaped in a grassy place. +</p> + +<p> +"Here, sir," said General Stuart, "are twenty dozen boxes of the finest +French sardines. I haven't tasted sardines in a year and I love them." +</p> + +<p> +"I've always liked them," said General Lee. +</p> + +<p> +"And here, sir, are several cases of Yorkshire ham, brought all the way +across the sea—and for us. It isn't as good as our Virginia ham, +which is growing scarce, but we'll like it. And cove oysters, cases +and cases of 'em. I like 'em almost as well as sardines." +</p> + +<p> +"Most excellent." +</p> + +<p> +"And real old New England pies, baked, I suppose, in Washington. We +can warm 'em over." +</p> + +<p> +"I see that you have the fire ready." +</p> + +<p> +"And jars of preserves, a half-dozen kinds at least, and all of 'em +look as if two likely youngsters like Kenton and Dalton would be +anxious to get at 'em." +</p> + +<p> +"You judge us rightly, General," said Harry. "We'll show no mercy to +such prisoners as we have here." +</p> + +<p> +"You wouldn't be boys and you wouldn't be human if you did," rejoined +Stuart, "would they, General?" +</p> + +<p> +"They would not," replied Lee. "One of the principal recollections of +my boyhood is that I was always hungry. Our regular three meals a day +were not enough for us, however much we ate at one time. Virginia, +like your own Kentucky, Harry, is full of forage, and we moved in +groups. Now, didn't you find a lot of food in the woods and fields?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, yes, sir," rejoined Harry with animation. "I was hungry all the +time, too. An hour after breakfast I was hungry again, and an hour +after dinner, which we had in the middle of the day, I was hungry once +more." +</p> + +<p> +"But you knew where to go for supplies." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir; we had berries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, +gooseberries, dewberries, cherries, all of them growing wild although +some of them started tame. And then we could forage for pears, +peaches, plums, damsons, all kinds of apples, paw paws, and then later +for the nuts, hickory nuts, walnuts, chestnuts, hazel nuts, +chinquapins, and a lot more. We could have almost lived in the woods +and fields from early spring until late fall." +</p> + +<p> +"We did the same in Virginia," said the commander-in-chief. "I've +often thought that our forest Indians did not develop a higher +civilization, because it was so easy for them to live, save in the +depths of a hard winter. They had most of the berries and fruits and +nuts that we white boys had. The woods were full of game, and the +lakes and rivers full of fish. They were not driven by the hard +necessity that creates civilization." +</p> + +<p> +"Dinner is ready, sir," announced General Stuart, who had been +directing the orderlies. "I can offer you and the others nothing but +boxes and kegs to sit on, but I can assure you that this Northern food, +some of which comes in cans, is excellent." +</p> + +<p> +The two lads and General Stuart fell to work with energy. General Lee +ate more sparingly. Stuart was a boy himself, talking much and running +over with fun. +</p> + +<p> +"Have you heard what happened to General Early, sir?" he asked the +commander-in-chief. +</p> + +<p> +"Not yet." +</p> + +<p> +"But you will, sir, to-morrow. Early will be slow in sending you that +dispatch. He hasn't had time to write it yet. He's not through +swearing." +</p> + +<p> +"General Early is a valiant and able man, but I disapprove of his +swearing." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, sir, 'Old Jube' can't help it. It's a part of his breathing, and +man cannot live without breath. He sent one of his best aides with a +dispatch to General Hill, who is posted some distance away. Passing +through a thick cedar wood the aide was suddenly set upon by a genuine +stage villain, large, dark and powerful, who clubbed him over the head +with the butt of a pistol, and then departed with his dispatch." +</p> + +<p> +"And what happened then?" +</p> + +<p> +"The aide returned to General Early with his story, but without his +dispatch. The general believed his account, of course, but he called +him names for allowing himself to be surprised and overcome by a single +Yankee. He cursed until the air for fifty yards about him smelled +strongly of sulphur and brimstone." +</p> + +<p> +"Did he do anything more?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, General. He sent a duplicate of the dispatch by an aide whom he +said he could trust. In an hour the second man came back with the same +big lump on his head and with the same story. He had been ambushed at +the crossing of a ravine full of small cedars, and the highwayman was +undoubtedly the same, too, a big, powerful fellow, as bold as you +please." +</p> + +<p> +Harry's pulse throbbed hard for a few moments, when he first heard +mention of the man. The description, not only physical, but of manner +and action as well, answered perfectly. He had not the slightest doubt +that it was Shepard. +</p> + +<p> +"A daring deed," said General Lee. "We must see that it is not +repeated." +</p> + +<p> +"But that wasn't all of the tale, sir. While the second man was +sitting on the bank, nursing his broken head, the Yankee Dick Turpin +read the dispatch and saw that it was a duplicate of the first. He +became red-hot with wrath, and talked furiously about the extra and +unnecessary work that General Early was forcing upon him. He ended by +cramming the dispatch into the man's hands, directing him to take it +back, and to tell General Early to stop his foolishness. The aide was +a bit dazed from the blow he received and he delivered that message +word for word. Why, sir, General Early exploded. People who have +heard him swear for years and who know what an artist he is in +swearing, heard him then utter swear words that they had never heard +before, words invented on the spur of the moment, and in the heat of +passion, words full of pith and meaning." +</p> + +<p> +"And that was all, I suppose?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not by any means, sir. General Early picked two sharpshooters and +sent them with another copy of the dispatch. They passed the place of +the first hold-up, and next the ravine without seeing anybody. But as +they were riding some distance further on both of their horses were +killed by shots from a small clump of pines. Before they could regain +their feet Dick Turpin came out and covered them with his rifle—it +seems that he had one of those new repeating weapons. +</p> + +<p> +"The men saw that his eye was so keen and his hand so steady that they +did not dare to move a hand to a pistol. Then as he looked down the +sights of his rifle he lectured them. He told them they were foolish +to come that way, when the two who came before them had found out that +it was a closed road. He said that real soldiers learned by +experience, and would not try again to do what they had learned to be +impossible. +</p> + +<p> +"Then he said that after all they were not to blame, as they had been +sent by General Early, and he made one of them who had the stub of a +pencil write on the back of the dispatch these words: 'General Jubal +Early, C. S. A.: This has ceased to be a joke. After your first man +was stopped, it was not necessary to do anything more. I have the +dispatch. Why insist on sending duplicate after duplicate?' And the +two had to walk all the way back to General Early with that note, +because they didn't dare make away with the dispatch. +</p> + +<p> +"I have a certain respect for that man's skill and daring, but General +Early had a series of spells. He retired to his tent and if the +reports are not exaggerated, a continuous muttering like low thunder +came from the tent, and all the cloth of it turned blue from the +lightnings imprisoned inside." +</p> + +<p> +General Lee himself smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"It was certainly annoying," he said. "I hope the dispatch was not of +importance." +</p> + +<p> +"It contained nothing that will help the Yankees, but it shows that the +enemy has some spies—or at least one spy—who are Napoleons at their +trade." +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap13"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER XIII +</h3> + +<h3> +THE COMING OF GRANT +</h3> + +<p> +The little dinner ended. Despite his disapproval of General Early's +swearing, General Lee laughed heartily at further details of the +strange Yankee spy's exploits. But it was well known that in this +particular General Early was the champion of the East. Harry did not +know that in the person of Colonel Charles Woodville, his cousin, Dick +Mason, had encountered one of equal ability in the Southwest. +</p> + +<p> +Presently General Lee and his two young aides mounted their horses for +the return. The commander-in-chief seemed gayer than usual. He was +always very fond of Stuart, whose high spirits pleased him, and before +his departure he thanked him for his thoughtfulness. +</p> + +<p> +"Whenever we get any particularly choice shipments from the North I +shall always be pleased to notify you, General, and send you your +share," said Stuart, sweeping the air in front of him again with his +great plumed hat. With his fine, heroic face and his gorgeous uniform +he had never looked more a knight of the Middle Ages. +</p> + +<p> +General Lee smiled and thanked him again, and then rode soberly back, +followed at a short distance by his two young aides. Although the view +of hills and mountains and valleys and river and brooks was now +magnificent, the sumach burning in red and the leaves vivid in many +colors, Lee, deeply sensitive, like all his rural forbears, to rural +beauty, nevertheless seemed not to notice it, and soon sank into deep +thought. +</p> + +<p> +It is believed by many that Lee knew then that the Confederacy had +already received a mortal blow. It was not alone sufficient for the +South to win victories. She must keep on winning them, and the failure +at Gettysburg and the defeat at Vicksburg had put her on the defensive +everywhere. Fewer blockade runners were getting through. Above all, +there was less human material upon which to draw. But he roused +himself presently and said to Harry: +</p> + +<p> +"There was something humorous in the exploits of the man who held up +General Early's messengers, but the fellow is dangerous, exceedingly +dangerous at such a time." +</p> + +<p> +"I've an idea who he is, sir," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Indeed! What do you know?" +</p> + +<p> +Then Harry told nearly all that he knew about Shepard, but not +all—that struggle in the river, and his sparing of the spy and the +filching of the map at the Curtis house, for instance—and the +commander-in-chief listened with great attention. +</p> + +<p> +"A bold man, uncommonly bold, and it appears uncommonly skilled, too. +We must send out a general alarm, that is, we must have all our own +scouts and spies watching for him." +</p> + +<p> +Harry said nothing, but he did not believe that anybody would catch +Shepard. The man's achievements had been so startling that they had +created the spell of invincibility. His old belief that he was worth +ten thousand men on the Northern battle line returned. No movement of +the Army of Northern Virginia could escape him, and no lone messenger +could ever be safe from him. +</p> + +<p> +Lee returned to his camp on Clarke's Mountain, and, a great revival +meeting being in progress, he joined it, sitting with a group of +officers. Fitzhugh Lee, W. H. F. Lee, Jones, Rosser, Wickham, Munford, +Young, Wade Hampton and a dozen others were there. Taylor and Marshall +and Peyton of his staff were also in the company. +</p> + +<p> +The preacher was a man of singular power and earnestness, and after the +sermon he led the singing himself, in which often thirty or forty +thousand voices joined. It was a moving sight to Harry, all these men, +lads, mostly, but veterans of many fields, united in a chorus mightier +than any other that he had ever heard. It would have pleased Stonewall +Jackson to his inmost soul, and once more, as always, a tear rose to +his eye as he thought of his lost hero. +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton left their horses with an orderly and came back to the +edge of the great grove, in which the meeting was being held. They had +expected to find St. Clair and Happy Tom there, but not seeing them, +wandered on and finally drifted apart. Harry stood alone for a while +on the outskirts of the throng. They were all singing again, and the +mighty volume of sound rolled through the wood. It was not only a +singular, it was a majestic scene also to Harry. How like unto little +children young soldiers were! and how varied and perplexing were the +problems of human nature! They were singing with the utmost fervor of +Him who had preached continuously of peace, who was willing to turn one +cheek when the other was smitten, and because of their religious zeal +they would rush the very next day into battle, if need be, with +increased fire and zeal. +</p> + +<p> +He saw a heavily built, powerful man on the outskirts, but some +distance away, singing in a deep rolling voice, but something vaguely +familiar in the figure drew his glance again. He looked long and well +and then began to edge quietly toward the singer, who was clothed in +the faded butternut uniform that so many of the Confederate soldiers +wore. +</p> + +<p> +The fervor of the singer did not decrease, but Harry noticed that he +too was moving, moving slowly toward the eastern end of the grove, the +same direction that Harry was pursuing. Now he was sure. He would +have called out, but his voice would not have been heard above the vast +volume of sound. He might have pointed out the singer to others, but, +although he felt sure, he did not wish to be laughed at in case of +mistake. But strongest of all was the feeling that it had become a duel +between Shepard and himself. +</p> + +<p> +He walked slowly on, keeping the man in view, but Shepard, although he +never ceased singing, moved away at about the same pace. Harry +inferred at once that Shepard had seen him and was taking precautions. +The temptation to cry out at the top of his voice that the most +dangerous of all spies was among them was almost irresistible, but it +would only create an uproar in which Shepard could escape easily, +leaving to him a load of ridicule. +</p> + +<p> +He continued his singular pursuit. Shepard was about a hundred yards +away, and they had made half the circuit of this huge congregation. +Then the spy passed into a narrow belt of pines, and when Harry moved +forward to see him emerge on the other side he failed to reappear. He +hastened to the pines, which led some distance down a little gully, and +he was sure that Shepard had gone that way. He followed fast, but he +could discover no sign. He had vanished utterly, like thin smoke swept +away by a breeze. +</p> + +<p> +He returned deeply stirred by the appearance and disappearance—easy, +alike—of Shepard. His sense of the man's uncanny powers and of his +danger to the Confederacy was increased. He seemed to come and go +absolutely as he pleased. It was true that in the American Civil War +the opportunities for spies were great. All men spoke the same +language, and all looked very much alike. It was not such a hard task +to enter the opposing lines, but Shepard had shown a daring and success +beyond all comparison. He seemed to have both the seven league boots +and the invisible cloak of very young childhood. He came as he +pleased, and when pursuit came he vanished in thin air. +</p> + +<p> +Harry bit his lips in chagrin. He felt that Shepard had scored on him +again. It was true that he had been victorious in that fight in the +river, when victory meant so much, but since then Shepard had +triumphed, and it was bitter. He hardened his determination, and +resolved that he would always be on the watch for him. He even felt a +certain glow, because he was one of two in such a conflict of skill and +courage. +</p> + +<p> +The meeting having been finished, he went down one of the streets of +tents to the camp of the Invincibles. Colonel Leonidas Talbot and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire were not playing chess. Instead +they were sitting on a pine log with Happy Tom and St. Clair and other +officers, listening to young Julien de Langeais, who sat on another +log, playing a violin with surpassing skill. Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire, knowing his prowess as a violinist, had asked him to come and +play for the Invincibles. Now he was playing for them and for several +thousand more who were gathered in the pine woods. +</p> + +<p> +Young de Langeais sat on a low stump, and the great crowd made a solid +mass around him. But he did not see them, nor the pine woods nor the +heavy cannon sitting on the ridges. He looked instead into a region of +fancy, where the colors were brilliant or gay or tender as he imagined +them. Harry, with no technical knowledge of music but with a great +love of it, recognized at once the touch of a master, and what was +more, the soul of one. +</p> + +<p> +To him the violin was not great, unless the player was great, but when +the player was great it was the greatest musical instrument of all. He +watched de Langeais' wrapt face, and for him too the thousands of +soldiers, the pines and the cannon on the ridges melted away. He did +not know what the young musician was playing, probably some old French +air or a great lyric outburst of the fiery Verdi, whose music had +already spread through America. +</p> + +<p> +"A great artist," whispered Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire in his ear. +"He studied at the schools in New Orleans and then for two years in +Paris. But he came back to fight. Nothing could keep Julien from the +army, but he brought his violin with him. We Latins, or at least we +who are called Latins, steep our souls in music. It's not merely +intellectual with us. It's passion, fire, abandonment, triumph and all +the great primitive emotions of the human race." +</p> + +<p> +Harry's feelings differed somewhat from those of Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire—in character but not in power—and as young de Langeais played +on he began to think what a loss a stray bullet could make. Why should +a great artist be allowed to come on the battle line? There were +hundreds of thousands of common men. One could replace another, but +nobody could replace the genius, a genius in which the whole world +shared. It was not possible for either drill or training to do it, and +yet a little bullet might take away his life as easily as it would that +of a plowboy. They were all alike to the bullets and the shells. +</p> + +<p> +De Langeais finished, and a great shout of applause arose. The +cheering became so insistent that he was compelled to play again. +</p> + +<p> +"His family is well-to-do," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire just +before he began playing once more, "and they'll see that he goes back +to Paris for study as soon as the war is over. If they didn't I would." +</p> + +<p> +It did not seem to occur to Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire that young +de Langeais could be killed, and Harry began to share his confidence. +De Langeais now played the simple songs of the old South, and there was +many a tear in the eyes of war-hardened youth. The sun was setting in +a sea of fire, and the pine forests turned red in its blaze. In the +distance the waters of the Rapidan were crimson, too, and a light wind +out of the west sighed among the pines, forming a subdued chorus to the +violin. +</p> + +<p> +De Langeais began to play a famous old song of home, and Harry's mind +traveled back on its lingering note to his father's beautiful house and +grounds, close by Pendleton, and all the fine country about it, in +which he and Dick Mason and the boys of their age had roamed. He +remembered all the brooks and ponds and the groves that produced the +best hickory nuts. When should he see them again and would his father +be there, and Dick, and all the other boys of their age! Not all! +Certainly not all, because some were gone already. And yet this +plaintive note of the homes they had left behind, while it brought a +tear to many an eye, made no decrease in martial determination. It +merely hardened their resolution to win the victory all the sooner, and +bring the homecoming march nearer. +</p> + +<p> +De Langeais ended on a wailing note that died like a faint sigh in the +pine forest. Then he came back to earth, sprang up, and put his violin +in its case. Applause spread out and swelled in a low, thunderous +note, but de Langeais, who was as modest as he was talented, quickly +hid himself among his friends. +</p> + +<p> +The sun sank behind the blue mountains, and twilight came readily over +the pine and cedar forests. Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire, who had a large tent together, invited the youths to stay +awhile with them as their guests and talk. All the soldiers dispersed +to their own portions of the great camp, and there would be an hour of +quiet and rest, until the camp cooks served supper. +</p> + +<p> +It had been a lively day for Harry, his emotions had been much stirred, +and now he was glad to sit in the peace of the evening on a stone near +the entrance of the tent, and listen to his friends. War drew comrades +together in closer bonds than those of peace. He was quite sure that +St. Clair, Dalton and Happy Tom were his friends for life, as he was +theirs, and the two colonels seemed to have the same quality of youth. +Simple men, of high faith and honor, they were often childlike in the +ways of the world, their horizons sometimes not so wide as those of the +lads who now sat with them. +</p> + +<p> +"As I told Harry," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire to Julien, "you +shall have that talent of yours cultivated further after the war. Two +years more of study and you will be among the greatest. You must know, +lads, that for us who are of French descent, Paris is the world's +capital in the arts." +</p> + +<p> +"And for many of English blood, too," said Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +Then they talked of more immediate things, of the war, the armies and +the prospect of the campaigns. Harry, after an hour or so, returned to +headquarters and he found soldiers making a bed for the +commander-in-chief under the largest of the pines. Lee in his +campaigns always preferred to sleep in the open air, when he could, and +it required severe weather to drive him to a tent. Meanwhile he sat by +a small fire—the October nights were growing cold—and talked with +Peyton and other members of his staff. +</p> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton decided to imitate his example and sleep between the +blankets under the pines. Harry found a soft place, spread his +blankets and in a few minutes slept soundly. In fact, the whole Army +of Northern Virginia was a great family that retired early, slept well +and rose early. +</p> + +<p> +The next morning there was frost on the grass, but the lads were so +hardy that they took no harm. The autumn deepened. The leaves blazed +for a while in their most vivid colors and then began to fall under the +strong west winds. Brown and wrinkled, they often whirled past in +clouds. The air had a bite in it, and the soldiers built more and +larger fires. +</p> + +<p> +The Army of Northern Virginia never before had been quiescent so long. +The Army of the Potomac was not such a tremendous distance away, but it +seemed that neither side was willing to attack, and as the autumn +advanced and began to merge into winter the minds of all turned toward +the Southwest. +</p> + +<p> +For the valiant soldiers encamped on the Virginia hills the news was +not good. Grant, grim and inflexible, was deserving the great name +that was gradually coming to him. He had gathered together all the +broken parts of the army defeated at Chickamauga and was turning Union +defeat into Union victory. +</p> + +<p> +Winter closed in with the knowledge that Grant had defeated the South +disastrously on Lookout Mountain and all around Chattanooga. +Chickamauga had gone for nothing, the whole flank of the Confederacy +was turned and the Army of Northern Virginia remained the one great +barrier against the invading legions of the North. Yet the confidence +of the men in that army remained undimmed. They felt that on their own +ground, and under such a man as Lee, they were invincible. +</p> + +<p> +In the course of these months Harry, as a messenger and often as a +secretary, was very close to Lee. He wrote a swift and clear hand, and +took many dispatches. Almost daily messages were sent in one direction +or another and Harry read from them the thoughts of his leader, which +he kept locked in his breast. He knew perhaps better than many an +older officer the precarious condition of the Confederacy. These +letters, which he took from dictation, and the letters from Richmond +that he read to his chief, told him too plainly that the limits of the +Confederacy were shrinking. Its money declined steadily. Happy Tom +said that he had to "swap it pound for pound now to the sutlers for +groceries." Yet it is the historical truth that the heart of the Army +of Northern Virginia never beat with more fearless pride, as the famous +and "bloody" year of '63 was drawing to its close. +</p> + +<p> +The news arrived that Grant, the Sledge Hammer of the West, had been +put by Lincoln in command of all the armies of the Union, and would +come east to lead the Army of the Potomac in person, with Meade still +as its nominal chief, but subject, like all the others, to his command. +</p> + +<p> +Harry heard the report with a thrill. He knew now that decisive action +would come soon enough. He had always felt that Meade in front of them +was a wavering foe, and perhaps too cautious. But Grant was of another +kind. He was a pounder. Defeats did not daunt him. He would attack +and then attack again and again, and the diminishing forces of the +Confederacy were ill fitted to stand up against the continued blows of +the hammer. Harry's thrill was partly of apprehension, but whenever he +looked at the steadfast face of his chief his confidence returned. +</p> + +<p> +Winter passed without much activity and spring began to show its first +buds. The earth was drying, after melting snows and icy rains, and +Harry knew that action would not be delayed much longer. Grant was in +the East now. He had gone in January to St. Louis to visit his +daughter, who lay there very ill, and then, after military delays, he +had reached Washington. +</p> + +<p> +Harry afterward heard the circumstances of his arrival, so +characteristic of plain and republican America. He came into +Washington by train as a simple passenger, accompanied only by his son, +who was but fourteen years of age. They were not recognized, and +arriving at a hotel, valise in hand, with a crowd of passengers, he +registered in his turn: "U. S. Grant and son, Galena, Ill." The clerk, +not noticing the name, assigned the modest arrival and his boy to a +small room on the fifth floor. Then they moved away, a porter carrying +the valise. But the clerk happened to look again at the register, and +when he saw more clearly he rushed after them with a thousand +apologies. He did not expect the victor of great battles, the +lieutenant-general commanding all the armies of the Union, a battle +front of more than a million men, to come so modestly. +</p> + +<p> +When Harry heard the story he liked it. It seemed to him to be the +same simple and manly quality that he found in Lee, both worthy of +republican institutions. But he did not have time to think about it +long. The signs were multiplying that the advance would soon come. +The North had never ceased to resound with preparations, and Grant +would march with veterans. All the spies and scouts brought in the +same report. Butler would move up from Fortress Monroe toward Richmond +with thirty thousand men and Grant with a hundred and fifty thousand +would cross the Rapidan, moving by the right flank of Lee until they +could unite and destroy the Confederacy. Such was the plan, said the +scouts and spies in gray. +</p> + +<p> +Longstreet with his corps had returned from the West and Lee gathered +his force of about sixty thousand men to meet the mighty onslaught—he +alone perhaps divined how mighty it would be—and when he was faced by +the greatest of his adversaries his genius perhaps never shone more +brightly. +</p> + +<p> +May and the full spring came. It was the third day of the month, and +the camp of the Army of Northern Virginia was as usual. Many of the +young soldiers played games among the trees. Here and there they lay +in groups on the new grass, singing their favorite songs. The cooks +were preparing their suppers over the big fires. Several bands were +playing. Had it not been for the presence of so many weapons the whole +might have been taken for one vast picnic, but Harry, who sat in the +tent of the commander-in-chief, was writing as fast as he could +dispatch after dispatch that the Southern leader was dictating to him. +He knew perfectly well, of course, that the commander-in-chief was +gathering his forces and that they would move quickly for battle. He +knew, too, how inadequate was the equipment of the army. Only a short +time before he had taken from the dictation of his chief a letter to +the President of the Confederacy a part of which ran: +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +My anxiety on the subject of provisions for the army is so great that I +cannot refrain from expressing it to your Excellency. I cannot see how +we can operate with our present supplies. Any derangement in their +arrival or disaster to the railroad would render it impossible for me +to keep the army together and might force a retreat into North +Carolina. There is nothing to be had in this section for men or +animals. We have rations for the troops to-day and to-morrow. I hope +a new supply arrived last night, but I have not yet had a report. +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +Harry had thought long over this letter and he knew from his own +observation its absolute truth. The depleted South was no longer able +to feed its troops well. The abundance of the preceding autumn had +quickly passed, and in winter they were mostly on half rations. +</p> + +<p> +Lee, better than any other man in the whole South, had understood what +lay before them, and his foes both of the battlefield and of the spirit +have long since done him justice. Less than a week before this eve of +mighty events he had written to a young woman in Virginia, a relative: +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +I dislike to send letters within reach of the enemy, as they might +serve, if captured, to bring distress on others. But you must +sometimes cast your thoughts on the Army of Northern Virginia, and +never forget it in your prayers. It is preparing for a great struggle, +but I pray and trust that the great God, mighty to deliver, will spread +over it His Almighty arms and drive its enemies before it. +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +Harry had seen this letter before its sending, and he was not surprised +now when Lee was sending messengers to all parts of his army. With all +the hero-worshiping quality of youth he was once more deeply grateful +that he should have served on the staffs and been brought into close +personal relations with two men, Stonewall Jackson and Lee, who seemed +to him so great. As he saw it, it was not alone military greatness but +greatness of the soul, which was greater. Both were deeply +religious—Lee, the Episcopalian, and Jackson, the Presbyterian, and it +was a piety that contained no trace of cant. +</p> + +<p> +Harry felt that the crisis of the great Civil War was at hand. It had +been in the air all that day, and news had come that Grant had broken +up his camps and was crossing the Rapidan with a huge force. He knew +how small in comparison was the army that Lee could bring against him, +and yet he had supreme confidence in the military genius of his chief. +</p> + +<p> +He had written a letter with which an aide had galloped away, and then +he sat at the little table in the great tent, pen in hand and ink and +paper before him, but Lee was silent. He was dressed as usual with +great neatness and care, though without ostentation. His face had its +usual serious cast, but tinged now with melancholy. Harry knew that he +no longer saw the tent and those around him. His mind dwelled for a +few moments upon his own family and the ancient home that he had loved +so well. +</p> + +<p> +The interval was very brief. He was back in the present, and the +principal generals for whom he had sent were entering the tent. Hill, +Longstreet, Ewell, Stuart and others came, but they did not stay long. +They talked earnestly with their leader for a little while, and then +every one departed to lead his brigades. +</p> + +<p> +The secretaries put away pen, ink and paper. Twilight was advancing in +the east and night suddenly fell outside. The songs ceased, the bands +played no more, and there was only the deep rumble of marching men and +moving cannon. +</p> + +<p> +"We'll ride now, gentlemen," said Lee to his staff. +</p> + +<p> +Traveller, saddled and bridled, was waiting and the commander-in-chief +sprang into the saddle with all the agility of a young man. The others +mounted, too, Harry and Dalton as usual taking their places modestly in +the rear. +</p> + +<p> +A regiment, small in numbers but famous throughout the army for valor, +was just passing, and its colonel and its lieutenant-colonel, erect +men, riding splendidly, but gray like Lee, drew their swords and gave +the proud and flashing salute of the saber as they went by. Lee and +his staff almost with involuntary impulse returned the salute in like +fashion. Then the Invincibles passed on, and were lost from view in +the depths of the forest. +</p> + +<p> +Harry felt a sudden constriction of the heart. He knew that he might +never see Colonel Leonidas Talbot nor Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. +Hilaire again, nor St. Clair, nor Happy Tom either. +</p> + +<p> +But his friends could not remain long in his mind at such a time. They +were marching, marching swiftly, the presence of the man on the great +white horse seeming to urge them on to greater speed. As the stars +came out Lee's brow, which had been seamed by thought, cleared. His +plan which he had formed in the day was moving well. His three corps +were bearing away toward the old battlefield of Chancellorsville. +Grant would be drawn into the thickets of the Wilderness as Hooker had +been the year before, although a greater than Hooker was now leading +the Army of the Potomac. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, who foresaw it all, thrilled and shuddered at the remembrance. +It was in there that the great Jackson had fallen in the hour of +supreme triumph. Not far away were the heights of Fredericksburg, +where Burnside had led the bravest of the brave to unavailing +slaughter. As Belgium had been for centuries the cockpit of Europe, so +the wild and sterile region in Virginia that men call the Wilderness +became the cockpit of North America. +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +While Lee and his army were turning into the Wilderness Grant and the +greatest force that the Union had yet assembled were seeking him. It +was composed of men who had tasted alike of victory and defeat, +veterans skilled in all the wiles and stratagems of war, and with +hearts to endure anything. In this host was a veteran regiment that +had come East to serve under Grant as it had served under him so +valiantly in the West. Colonel Winchester rode at its head and beside +him rode his favorite aide, young Richard Mason. Not far away was +Colonel Hertford, with a numerous troop of splendid cavalry. +</p> + +<p> +Grant, alert and resolved to win, carried in his pocket a letter which +he had received from Lincoln, saying: +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +Not expecting to see you before the spring campaign opens, I wish to +express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up +to this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of your plans +I neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant, +and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints or +restraints upon you. While I am very anxious that any great disaster +or the capture of our men in great numbers should be avoided, I know +these points are less likely to escape your attention than they would +mine. If there is anything wanting which is within my power to give, +do not fail to let me know it. And now, with a brave army and a just +cause, may God sustain you. +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +A noble letter, breathing the loftiest spirit, and showing that moral +grandeur which has been so characteristic of America's greatest men. He +had put all in Grant's hands and he had given to him an army, the like +of which had never been seen until now on the American continent. Never +before had the North poured forth its wealth and energy in such +abundance. +</p> + +<p> +Four thousand wagons loaded with food and ammunition followed the army, +and there was a perfect system by which a wagon emptied of its contents +was sent back to a depot to be refilled, while a loaded wagon took its +place at the front. Complete telegram equipments, poles, wires, +instruments and all were carried with every division. The wires could +be strung easily and the lieutenant-general could talk to every part of +his army. There were, also, staffs of signalmen, in case the wires +should fail at any time. Grant held in his hand all the resources of +the North, and if he could not win no one could. +</p> + +<p> +All through the night the hostile armies marched, and before them went +the spies and scouts. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap14"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER XIV +</h3> + +<h3> +THE GHOSTLY RIDE +</h3> + +<p> +Harry and Dalton kept close together during the long hours of the +ghostly ride. Just ahead of them were Taylor and Marshall and Peyton, +and in front Lee rode in silence. Now and then they passed regiments, +and at other times they would halt and let regiments pass them. Then +the troops, seeing the man sitting on the white horse, would start to +cheer, but always their officers promptly subdued it, and they marched +on feeling more confident than ever that their general was leading them +to victory. +</p> + +<p> +Many hours passed and still the army marched through the forests. The +trees, however, were dwindling in size and even in the night they saw +that the earth was growing red and sterile. Dense thickets grew +everywhere, and the marching became more difficult. Harry felt a +sudden thrill of awe. +</p> + +<p> +"George," he whispered, "do you know the country into which we're +riding?" +</p> + +<p> +"I think I do, Harry. It's the Wilderness." +</p> + +<p> +"It can't be anything else, George, because I see the ghosts." +</p> + +<p> +"What are you talking about, Harry? What ghosts?" +</p> + +<p> +"The thousands and thousands who have fallen in that waste. Why the +Wilderness is so full of dead men that they must walk at night to give +one another room. I only hope that the ghost of Old Jack will ride +before us and show us the way." +</p> + +<p> +"I almost feel like that, too," admitted Dalton, who, however, was of a +less imaginative mind than Harry. "As sure as I'm sitting in the +saddle we're bound for the Wilderness. Now, what is the day going to +give us?" +</p> + +<p> +"Marching mostly, I think, and with the next noon will come battle. +Grant doesn't hesitate and hold back. We know that, George." +</p> + +<p> +"No, it's not his character." +</p> + +<p> +Morning came and found them still in the forests, seeking the deep +thickets of the Wilderness, and Grant, warned by his scouts and spies, +and most earnestly by one whose skill, daring and judgment were +unequaled, turned from his chosen line of march to meet his enemy. +Once more Lee had selected the field of battle, where his inferiority +in numbers would not count so much against him. +</p> + +<p> +It was nearly morning when the march ceased, and officers and troops, +save those on guard, lay down in the forest for rest. Harry, a +seasoned veteran, could sleep under any conditions and with a blanket +over him and a saddle for a pillow closed his eyes almost immediately. +Lee and his older aides, Taylor and Peyton and Marshall, slept also. +Around them the brigades, too, lay sleeping. +</p> + +<p> +A while before dawn a large man in Confederate uniform, using the soft, +lingering speech of the South, appeared almost in the center of the +army of Northern Virginia. He knew all the pass words and told the +officers commanding the watch that the wing under Ewell was advancing +more rapidly than any of the others. Inside the line he could go about +almost as he chose, and one could see little of him, save that he was +large of figure and deeply tanned, like all the rest. +</p> + +<p> +He approached the little opening in which Lee and his staff lay, +although he kept back from the sentinels who watched over the sleeping +leader. But Shepard knew that it was the great Confederate chieftain +who lay in the shadow of the oak and he could identify him by the +glances of the sentinels so often directed toward the figure. +</p> + +<p> +There were wild thoughts for a moment or two in the mind of Shepard. A +single bullet fired by an unerring hand would take from the Confederacy +its arm and brain, and then what happened to himself afterward would +not matter at all. And the war would be over in a month or two. But +he put the thought fiercely from him. A spy he was and in his heart +proud of his calling, but no such secret bullet could be fired by him. +</p> + +<p> +He turned away from the little opening, wandered an hour through the +camp and then, diving into the deep bushes, vanished like a shadow +through the Confederate lines, and was gone to Grant to report that +Lee's army was advancing swiftly to attack, and that the command of +Ewell would come in touch with him first. +</p> + +<p> +Not long after dawn Harry was again on the march, riding behind his +general. From time to time Lee sent messengers to the various +divisions of his army, four in number, commanded by Longstreet, Early, +Hill and Stuart, the front or Stuart's composed of cavalry. Harry's +own time came, when he received a dispatch of the utmost importance to +take to Ewell. He memorized it first, and, if capture seemed probable, +he was to tear it into bits and throw it away. Harry was glad he was +to go to Ewell. In the great campaign in the valley he had been second +to Jackson, his right arm, as Jackson had been Lee's right arm. Ewell +had lost a leg since then, and his soldiers had to strap him in the +saddle when he led them into battle, but he was as daring and cheerful +as ever, trusted implicitly by Lee. +</p> + +<p> +Harry with a salute to his chief rode away. Part of the country was +familiar to him and in addition his directions were so explicit that he +could not miss the way. +</p> + +<p> +The four divisions of the army were in fairly close touch, but in a +country of forests and many waters Northern scouts might come between, +and he rode with caution, his hand ever near the pistol in his belt. +The midday sun however clouded as the afternoon passed on. The +thickets and forests grew more dense. From the distance came now and +then the faint, sweet call of a trumpet, but everything was hidden from +sight by the dense tangle of the Wilderness, a wilderness as wild and +dangerous as any in which Henry Ware had ever fought. How it all came +back to him! Almost exactly a year ago he had ridden into it with +Jackson and here the armies were gathering again. +</p> + +<p> +Imagination, fancy, always so strong in him, leaped into vivid life. +The year had not passed and he was riding to meet Stonewall Jackson, +who was somewhere ahead, preparing for his great curve about Hooker and +the lightning stroke at Chancellorsville. Rabbits sprang out of the +undergrowth and fled away before his horse's hoofs. In the lonely +wilderness, which nevertheless had little to offer to the hunter, birds +chattered from every tree. Small streams flowed slowly between dense +walls of bushes. Here and there in the protection of the thickets wild +flowers were in early bloom. +</p> + +<p> +It was spring, fresh spring everywhere, but the bushes and the grass +alike were tinged with red for Harry. The strange mental illusion that +he was riding to Chancellorsville remained with him and he did not seek +to shake it off. He almost expected to see Old Jack ahead on a hill, +bent over a little, and sitting on Little Sorrel, with the old slouch +hat drawn over his eyes. They had talked of the ghost of Jackson +leading them in the Wilderness. He shivered. Could it be so? All the +time he knew it was an illusion, but he permitted it to cast its spell +over him, as one who dreams knowingly. +</p> + +<p> +And Harry was dreaming back. Old Jack, the earlier of his two heroes, +was leading them. He foresaw the long march through the thickets of +the Wilderness, Stonewall forming the line of battle in the deep roads +late in the evening, almost in sight of Hooker's camp, the sudden rush +of his brigades and then the terrible battle far into the night. +</p> + +<p> +He shook himself. It was uncanny. The past was the past. Dreams were +thin and vanished stuff. Once more he was in the present and saw +clearly. Old Jack was gone to take his place with the great heroes of +the past, but the Army of Northern Virginia was there, with Lee leading +them, and the most formidable of all the Northern chiefs with the most +formidable of all the Northern armies was before them. +</p> + +<p> +He heard the distant thud of hoofs and with instinctive caution drew +back into a dense clump of bushes. A half-dozen horsemen were near and +their eager looks in every direction told Harry that they were scouts. +There was little difference then between a well worn uniform of blue or +gray, and they were very close before Harry was able to tell that they +belonged to Grant's army. +</p> + +<p> +He was devoutly glad that his horse was trained thoroughly and stood +quite still while the Northern scouts passed. A movement of the bushes +would have attracted their attention, and he did not wish to be +captured at any time, least of all on the certain eve of a great +battle. After a battle he always felt an extra regret for those who +had fallen, because they would never know whether they had won or lost. +</p> + +<p> +They were alert, keen and vigorous men, or lads rather, as young as +himself, and they rode as if they had been Southern youths almost born +in the saddle. Harry was not the only one to notice how the Northern +cavalry under the whip hand of defeat had improved so fast that it was +now a match, man for man, for that of the South. +</p> + +<p> +The young riders rode on and the tread of their hoofs died in the +undergrowth. Then Harry emerged from his own kindly clump of bushes +and increased his speed, anxious to reach Ewell, without any more of +those encounters. He made good progress through the thickets, and soon +after sundown saw a glow which he took to be that of campfires. He +advanced cautiously, met the Southern sentinels and knew that he was +right. +</p> + +<p> +The very first of these sentinels was an old soldier of Jackson, who +knew him well. +</p> + +<p> +"Mr. Kenton!" he exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, Thorn! It's you!" said Harry without hesitation. +</p> + +<p> +The soldier was pleased that he should be recognized thus in the dusk, +and he was still more pleased when the young aide leaned down and shook +his hand. +</p> + +<p> +"I might have known, Thorn, that I'd find you here, rifle on your arm, +watching," he said. +</p> + +<p> +"Thank you, Mr. Kenton. You'll find the general over there on a log by +the fire." +</p> + +<p> +Harry dismounted, gave his horse to a soldier and walked into the +glade. Ewell sat alone, his crutch under his arms, his one foot kicking +back the coals, his bald head a white disc in the glow. +</p> + +<p> +"General Ewell, sir," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +General Ewell turned about and when he saw Harry his face clearly +showed gladness. He could not rise easily, but he stretched out a +welcoming hand. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah! Kenton," he said, "you're a pleasant sight to tired eyes like +mine. You bring back the glorious old days in the valley. So it's a +message from the commander-in-chief?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir. Here it is." +</p> + +<p> +Ewell read it rapidly by the firelight and smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"He tells us we're nearest to the enemy," he said, "and to hold fast, +if we're attacked. You're to remain with us and report what happens, +but doubtless you knew all this." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I had to commit it to memory before I started." +</p> + +<p> +"Then stay here with me. I may want to report to General Lee at any +time. The enemy is in our front only three or four miles away. He +knows we're here and it was a villainous surprise to him to find us in +his way. They say this man Grant is a pounder. So is Lee, when the +time comes to pound, but he's that and far more. I tell you, young +man, that General Lee has had to trim a lot of Northern generals. +McClellan and Pope and Burnside and Hooker and Meade have been going to +school to him, and now Grant is qualifying for his class." +</p> + +<p> +"But Grant is a great general. So our men in the West themselves say." +</p> + +<p> +"He may be, but Lee is greater, greatest. And, Harry, you and I, who +knew him and loved him, wish that another who alone was fit to ride by +his side was here with him." +</p> + +<p> +"I wish it from the bottom of my heart," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, well, regrets are useless. Help me up, Harry. I'm only part of +a man, but I can still fight." +</p> + +<p> +"We saw you do that at Gettysburg," said Harry, as he put his arm under +Ewell's shoulder. Then Ewell took his crutch and they walked to the +far side of the glade, where several officers of his staff gathered +around him. +</p> + +<p> +"Lieutenant Kenton, whom you all know," said General Ewell, "has +brought a message from the commander-in-chief that we will be attacked +first, and to be on guard. We consider it an honor, do we not, my +lads?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, let them come," they said. +</p> + +<p> +"Harry, you may want to see the enemy. Clayton, you and Campbell take +him forward through the pickets. But don't go too far. We don't want +to lose three perfectly good young officers before the battle begins. +After that it may be your business to get yourselves shot." +</p> + +<p> +The two rode nearly two miles to the crest of a hill and then, using +their strong glasses in the moonlight, they were able to see the lights +of a vast camp. +</p> + +<p> +"We hear that it is Warren's corps," said Clayton. "As General Ewell +doubtless has told you, the enemy know that we're in front, but I don't +believe they know our exact location. I believe we'll be in battle +with those men in the morning." +</p> + +<p> +Harry thought so too. In truth, it was inevitable. Warren would +advance and Ewell would stand in his way. Yet he slept soundly when he +went back to camp, although he was awakened long before dawn the next +day. Then he ate breakfast, mounted and sat his horse not far away +from Ewell, whom two soldiers had strapped into his saddle, and who was +watching with eager eyes for the sunrise. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, listening intently, heard no sound in front of them, save the +wind rippling through the dwarfed forests of the Wilderness, and he +knew that no battle had yet begun elsewhere. Sound would come far on +that placid May morning, and it was a certainty that Ewell was nearest +to contact with the enemy. +</p> + +<p> +But Ewell did not yet move. All his men had been served with early +breakfast, such as it was, and remained in silent masses, partly hidden +by the forest and thickets. The dawn was cold, and Harry felt a little +chill, but it soon passed, as the red edge of the sun showed over the +eastern border of the Wilderness. Then the light spread toward the +zenith, but the golden glow failed to penetrate the somber thickets. +</p> + +<p> +"It's going to be a good day," said Harry to an aide. +</p> + +<p> +"A good day for a battle." +</p> + +<p> +"We'll hear from the Yankees soon. They can't fail to discover our +exact location by sunrise, and they'll fight. Be sure of that." +</p> + +<p> +It was now nearly six o'clock, and General Ewell, growing impatient, +rode forward a little. Harry followed with his staff. A half-dozen +Southern sharpshooters rose suddenly out of the thickets, and one of +them dared to lay his hands on the reins of the general's horse. But +Ewell was not offended. He looked down at the man and said: +</p> + +<p> +"What is it, Strother?" +</p> + +<p> +"Riflemen of the enemy are not more than three or four hundred yards +away. If you go much farther, General, they will certainly see you and +fire upon you." +</p> + +<p> +"Thanks, Strother. So they've located us?" +</p> + +<p> +"They're about to do it. They're feeling around. We've seen 'em in +the bushes. We ask you not to go on, General. We wouldn't know what +to do without you. There, sir! They're firing on our pickets!" +</p> + +<p> +A half-dozen shots came from the front, and then a half-dozen or so in +reply. Harry saw pink flashes, and then spirals of smoke rising. More +shots were fired presently on their right, and then others on their +left. The Northern riflemen were evidently on a long line, and +intended to make a thorough test of their enemy's strength. Harry had +no doubt that Shepard was there. He would surely come to the point +where his enemy was nearest, and his eyes and ears would be the keenest +of all. +</p> + +<p> +The little skirmish continued for a few minutes, extending along a +winding line of nearly a mile through the thickets. Only two or three +were wounded and nobody killed on the Southern side. Harry understood +thoroughly, as Ewell had said, that the sharpshooters of the enemy were +merely feeling for them. They wanted to know if a strong force was +there, and now they knew. +</p> + +<p> +The firing ceased, not in dying shots, but abruptly. The Wilderness in +front of them returned to silence, broken only by the rippling leaves. +Harry knew that the Northern sharpshooters had discovered all they +wanted, and were now returning to their leaders. +</p> + +<p> +Ewell turned his horse and rode back toward the main camp, his staff +following. The cooking fires had been put out, the lines were formed +and every gun was in position. As little noise as possible was +allowed, while they waited for Grant; not for Grant himself, but for +one of his lieutenants, pushed forward by his master hand. +</p> + +<p> +Harry and most of the staff officers dismounted, holding their horses +by the bridle. The young lieutenant often searched the thickets with +his glasses, but he saw nothing. Nevertheless he knew that the enemy +would come. Grant having set out to find his foe, would never draw +back when he found him. +</p> + +<p> +A much longer period of silence than he had expected passed. The sun, +flaming red, was moving on toward the zenith, and no sounds of battle +came from either right or left. The suspense became acute, almost +unbearable, and it was made all the more trying by the blindness of +that terrible forest. Harry felt at times as if he would rather fight +in the open fields; but he knew that his commander-in-chief was right +when he drew Grant into the shades of the Wilderness. +</p> + +<p> +When the suspense became so great that heavy weights seemed to be +pressing upon his nerves, rifle shots were fired in front, and +skirmishers uttered the long, shrill rebel yell. Then above both shots +and shouts rose the far, clear call of a bugle. +</p> + +<p> +"Here they come!" Harry heard Ewell say to himself, and the next moment +the sound of human voices was drowned in the thunder of great guns and +the crash of fifty thousand rifles. The battle was so sudden and the +charge so swift that it seemed to leap into full volume in an instant. +Warren, a resolute and daring general, led the Northern column and it +struck with such weight and force that the Southern division was driven +back. Harry felt it yielding, as if the ground were sliding under his +feet. +</p> + +<p> +There was so much flame and smoke that he could not see well, but the +sensation of slipping was distinct. General Ewell was near him, +shouting orders. His hat had fallen off, and his round, bald head had +turned red, either from the rush of blood or the cannon's glare. It +shone like a red dome, but Harry knew that there was no better man in +such a crisis than this veteran lieutenant of Stonewall Jackson. +</p> + +<p> +The Wilderness, usually so silent, was an inferno now. The battle, +despite its tremendous beginning, increased in violence and fury. +Although Grant himself was not there, the spirit that had animated him +at Shiloh and Vicksburg was. He had communicated it to his generals, +and Warren brought every ounce of his strength into action. The long +line of his bayonets gleamed through the thickets and the Northern +artillery, superb as usual, rained shells upon the Southern army. +</p> + +<p> +Ewell's men, fighting with all the courage and desperation that they +had shown on so many a field, were driven back further and further. +Ewell, strapped in his saddle, flourishing his sword, his round, bald +head glowing, rode among them, bidding them to stand, that help would +soon come. They continued to go backward, but those veterans of so +many campaigns never lost cohesion nor showed sign of panic. Their own +artillery and rifles replied in full volume. The heads of the charging +columns were blown away, but other men took their places, and Warren's +force came on with undiminished fire and strength. +</p> + +<p> +Harry wondered if the attack at other points had been made with such +impetuosity, but there was such a roar and crash about him that it was +impossible to hear sounds of battle elsewhere. Men were falling very +fast, but the general was unharmed, and neither the young lieutenant +nor his horse was touched. +</p> + +<p> +A sudden shout arose, and it was immediately followed by the piercing +rebel yell, swelling wild and fierce above the tumult of the battle. +Help was coming. Regiments in gray were charging down the paths and on +the left flank rose the thunder of hoofs as a formidable body of +cavalry under Sherburne, sabers aloft, swept down on the Northern flank. +</p> + +<p> +Ewell's entire division stopped its retreat and, reinforced by the new +men, charged directly upon the Northern bayonets. Men met almost face +to face. The saplings and bushes were mown down by cannon and rifles +and the air was full of bursting shells. From time to time Ewell's men +uttered their fierce, defiant yell, and with a great bound of the heart +Harry saw that they were gaining. Warren was being driven back. Two +of his cannon were captured already, and the Southern men, feeling the +glow of the advance after retreat, charged again and again, reckless of +death. But Harry soon saw that ultimate victory here would rest with +the South. The troops of Warren, exhausted by their early rush, were +driven from one position to another by the seasoned veterans who faced +them. The Confederates retained the captured cannon and thrust harder +and harder. It became obvious that Warren must soon fall back to the +main Northern line, and though the battle was still raging with great +fury Ewell beckoned Harry to him. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't stay here any longer," he shouted in his ear. "Ride to General +Lee and tell him we're victorious at this point for the day at least!" +</p> + +<p> +Harry saluted and galloped away through the thickets. Behind him the +battle still roared and thundered. A stray shell burst just in front +of him, and another just behind him, but he and his horse were +untouched. Once or twice he glanced back and it looked as if the +Wilderness were on fire, but he knew that it was instead the blaze of +battle. He saw also that Ewell was still moving forward, winning more +ground, and his heart swelled with gladness. +</p> + +<p> +How proud Jackson would have been had he been able to see the valor and +skill of his old lieutenant! Perhaps his ghost did really hover over +the Wilderness, where a year before he had fallen in the moment of his +greatest triumph! Harry urged his horse into a gallop. All his +faculties now became acute. He was beyond the zone of fire, but the +roar of the battle behind him seemed as loud as ever. Yet it was +steadily moving back on the main Union lines, and there could be no +doubt of Ewell's continued success. +</p> + +<p> +The curves of the low hills and the thick bushes hid everything from +Harry's sight, as he rode swiftly through the winding paths of the +Wilderness. When the tumult sank at last he heard a new thunder in +front of him, and now he knew that the Southern center under Hill had +been attacked also, and with the greatest fierceness. +</p> + +<p> +As Harry approached, the roar of the second battle became terrific. +Uncertain where General Lee would now be, he rode through the sleet of +steel, and found Hill engaged with the very flower of the Northern +army. Hancock, the hero of Gettysburg, was making desperate exertions +to crush him, pouring in brigade after brigade, while Sheridan, +regardless of thickets, made charge after charge with his numerous +cavalry. +</p> + +<p> +Harry remained in the rear on his horse, watching this furious +struggle. The day had become much darker, either from clouds or the +vast volume of smoke, and the thickets were so dense that the officers +often could not see their enemy at all, only their own men who stood +close to them. The struggle was vast, confused, carried on under +appalling conditions. The charging horsemen were sometimes swept from +the saddle by bushes and not by bullets. Infantrymen stepped into a +dark ooze left by spring rains, and pulling themselves out, charged, +black to the waist with mud. Sometimes the field pieces became mired, +and men and horses together dragged them to firmer ground. +</p> + +<p> +Grant here, as before Ewell, continually reinforced his veterans, but +Hill, although he was not able to advance, held fast. The difficult +nature of the ground that Lee had chosen helped him. In marsh and +thickets it was impossible for the more numerous enemy to outflank him. +Harry saw Hill twice, a slender man, who had suffered severe wounds but +one of the greatest fighters in the Southern army. He had been ordered +to hold the center, and Harry knew now that he would do it, for the day +at least. Night was not very far away, and Grant was making no +progress. +</p> + +<p> +He rode on in search of Lee and before he was yet beyond the range of +fire he met Dalton, mounted and emerging from the smoke. +</p> + +<p> +"The commander-in-chief, where is he?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"On a little hill not far from here, watching the battle. I'm just +returning with a dispatch from Hill." +</p> + +<p> +"I saw that Hill was holding his ground." +</p> + +<p> +"So my dispatch says, and it says also that he will continue to hold +it. You come from Ewell?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, and he has done more than stand fast. He was driven back at +first, but when reinforcements came he drove Warren back in his turn, +and took guns and prisoners." +</p> + +<p> +"The chief will be glad to hear it. We'll ride together. Look out for +your horse! He may go knee deep into mire at any time. Harry, the +Wilderness looks even more somber to me than it did a year ago when we +fought Chancellorsville." +</p> + +<p> +"I feel the same way about it. But see, George, how they're fighting! +General Hill is making a great resistance!" +</p> + +<p> +"Never better. But if you look over those low bushes you can see +General Lee on the hill." +</p> + +<p> +Harry made out the figure of Lee on Traveller, outlined against the +sky, with about a dozen men sitting on their horses behind him. He +hurried forward as fast as he could. The commander-in-chief was +reading a dispatch, while the fierce struggle in the thickets was going +on, but when Harry saluted and Marshall told him that he had come to +report the general put away the dispatch and said: +</p> + +<p> +"What news from General Ewell?" +</p> + +<p> +"General Ewell was at first borne back by the enemy's numbers, but when +help came he returned to the charge, and has been victorious. He has +gained much ground." +</p> + +<p> +A gleam of triumph shot from Lee's eyes, usually so calm. +</p> + +<p> +"Well done, Ewell!" he said. "The loss of a leg has not dimmed his +ardor or judgment. I truly believe that if he were to lose the other +one also he would still have himself strapped into the saddle and lead +his men to victory. We thank you for the news you have brought, +Lieutenant Kenton." +</p> + +<p> +He put his glasses to his eyes and Harry and Dalton as usual withdrew +to the rear of the staff. But they used their glasses also, bringing +nearer to them the different phases of the battle, which now raged +through the Wilderness. They saw at some points the continuous blaze +of guns, and the acrid powder smoke, lying low, was floating through +all the thickets. +</p> + +<p> +But Harry now knew that the combat, however violent and fierce, was +only a prelude. The sun was already setting, and they could not fight +at night in those wild thickets, where men and guns would become mired +and tangled beyond extrication. The great struggle, with both leaders +hurling in their full forces, would come on the morrow. +</p> + +<p> +The sun already hung very low, and in the twilight and smoke the +savagery of the Wilderness became fiercer than ever. The dusk gathered +around Lee, but his erect figure and white horse still showed +distinctly through it. Harry, his spirit touched by the tremendous +scenes in the very center of which he stood, regarded him with a fresh +measure of respect and admiration. He was the bulwark of the +Confederacy, and he did not doubt that on the morrow he would stop +Grant as he had stopped the others. +</p> + +<p> +The darkness increased, sweeping down like a great black pall over the +Wilderness. The battle in the center and on the left died. Lee and +his staff dismounting, prepared for the labors of the night. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap15"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER XV +</h3> + +<h3> +THE WILDERNESS +</h3> + +<p> +When night settled down over the Wilderness the two armies lay almost +face to face on a long line. The preliminary battle, on the whole, had +favored the Confederacy. Hill had held his ground and Ewell had +gained, but Grant had immense forces, and, though naturally kind of +heart, he had made up his mind to strike and keep on striking, no +matter what the loss. He could afford to lose two men where the +Confederacy lost one. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, like many others, felt that this would be the great Northern +general's plan. To-morrow's battle might end in Southern success, but +Grant would be there to fight the following day with undiminished +resolution. He was as sure of this as he was sure that the day would +come. +</p> + +<p> +The night itself was somber and sinister, the heavens dusky and a raw +chill in the air. Heavy vapors rose from the marshes, and clouds of +smoke from the afternoon's battle floated about over the thickets, +poisoning the air as if with gas, and making the men cough as they +breathed it. It made Harry's heart beat harder than usual, and his +head felt as if it were swollen. Everything seemed clothed in a black +mist with a slightly reddish tint. +</p> + +<p> +A small fire had been built in a sheltered place for the +commander-in-chief and his staff, and the cooks were preparing the +supper, which was of the simplest kind. While they ate the food and +drank their coffee, the darkness increased, with the faint lights of +other fires showing here and there through it. Around the muddy places +frogs croaked in defiance of armies, and, from distant points, came the +crackling fire of skirmishers prowling in the dusk. +</p> + +<p> +Harry's horse, saddled and bridled, was tied to a bush not far away. He +knew that it was to be no night of rest for him, or any other member of +the staff. Lee would be sending messages continually. Longstreet, +although he had been marching hard, was not yet up on the right, and he +and his veterans must be present when the shock of Grant's mighty +attack came in the morning. +</p> + +<p> +Hill, thin and pale, yet suffering from the effects of his wounds, but +burning as usual with the fire of battle, rode up and consulted long +and earnestly with Lee. Presently he went back to his own place nearer +the center, and then Lee began to send away his staff one by one with +messages. Harry was among the last to go, but he bore a dispatch to +Longstreet. +</p> + +<p> +He had heard that Longstreet had criticized Lee for ordering Pickett's +famous charge at Gettysburg, but if so, Lee had taken no notice of it, +and Longstreet had proved himself the same stalwart fighter as of old. +He and the prompt arrival of his veterans had enabled Bragg to win +Chickamauga, and it was not Longstreet's fault that the advantage +gained there was lost afterward. Now Harry knew that he would be up in +time with his seasoned veterans. +</p> + +<p> +As the young lieutenant rode away he saw General Lee walking back and +forth before the low fire, his hands clasped behind him, and his eyes +as serious as those of any human being could be. Harry appreciated the +immensity of his task, and in his heart was a sincere pity for the man +who bore so great a burden. He was familiar with the statement that to +Lee had been offered the command of the Northern armies at the +beginning of the war, but believing his first duty was to his State he +had gone with Virginia when Virginia reluctantly went out of the Union. +Truly no one could regret the war more than he, and yet he had struck +giant blows for its success. +</p> + +<p> +A moment more and the tall figure standing beside the low fire was lost +to sight. Then Harry rode among the thickets in the rear of the +Confederate line and it was a weird and ghastly ride. Now and then his +horse's feet sank in mud, and the frogs still dared to croak around the +pools, making on such a night the most ominous of all sounds. It +seemed a sort of funeral dirge for both North and South, a croak +telling of the ruin and death that were to come on the morrow. +</p> + +<p> +Damp boughs swept across his face, and the vapors, rising from the +earth and mingled with the battle smoke, were still bitter to the +tongue and poisonous to the breath. Rotten logs crushed beneath his +horse's feet and Harry felt a shiver as if the hoofs had cut through a +body of the dead. Riflemen rose out of the thickets, but he always +gave them the password, and rode on without stopping. +</p> + +<p> +Then came a space where he met no human being, the gap between Hill and +Longstreet, and now the Wilderness became incredibly lonely and dreary. +Harry felt that if ever a region was haunted by ghosts it was this. The +dead of last year's battle might be lying everywhere, and as the breeze +sprang up the melancholy thickets waved over them. +</p> + +<p> +He was two-thirds of the way toward the point where he expected to find +Longstreet when he heard the sough of a hoof in the mud behind him. +</p> + +<p> +Harry listened and hearing the hoof again he was instantly on his +guard. He did not know it, but the character of the night and the wild +aspect of the Wilderness were bringing out all the primeval and +elemental qualities in his nature. He was the great borderer, Henry +Ware, in the Indian-haunted forest, feeling with a sixth sense, even a +seventh sense, the presence of danger. +</p> + +<p> +He was following a path, scarcely traceable, used by charcoal burners +and wood-cutters, but when he heard the hoof a second time he turned +aside into the deepest of the thickets and halted there. The hoofbeat +came a third time, a little nearer, and then no more. Evidently the +horseman behind him knew that he had turned aside, and was waiting and +watching. He was surely an enemy of great skill and boldness, and it +was equally sure that he was Shepard. Harry never felt a doubt that he +was pursued by the formidable Union spy, and he felt too that he had +never been in greater danger, as Shepard at such a moment would not +spare his best friend. +</p> + +<p> +But he was not afraid. Danger had become so common that one looked +upon it merely as a risk. Moreover, he was never cooler or more ample +of resource. He dismounted softly, standing beside his horse's head, +holding the reins with one hand and a heavy pistol with the other. He +suspected that Shepard would do the same, but he believed that his eyes +and ears were the keener. The man must have been inside the +Confederate lines all the afternoon. Probably he had seen Harry riding +away, and, deftly appropriating a horse, had followed him. There was +no end to Shepard's ingenuity and daring. +</p> + +<p> +Harry's horse was trained to stand still indefinitely, and the young +man, with the heavy pistol, who held the reins was also immovable. The +silence about him was so deep that Harry could hear the frogs croaking +at a distant pool. +</p> + +<p> +He waited a full five minutes, and now, like the wild animals, he +relied more upon ear than eye. He had learned the faculty of +concentration and he bent all his powers upon his hearing. Not the +slightest sound could escape the tightly drawn drums of his ears. +</p> + +<p> +He was motionless a full ten minutes. Nor did the horse beside him +stir. It was a test of human endurance, the capacity to keep himself +absolutely silent, but with every nerve attuned, while he waited for an +invisible danger. And those minutes were precious, too. The value of +not a single one of them could have been measured or weighed. It was +his duty to reach Longstreet at speed, because the general and his +veterans must be in line in the morning, when the battle was joined. +Yet the incessant duel between Shepard and himself was at its height +again, and he did not yet see how he could end it. +</p> + +<p> +Harry felt that it must be essentially a struggle of patience, but when +he waited a few minutes longer, the idea to wait with ears close to the +earth, one of the oldest devices of primitive man, occurred to him. It +was fairly dry in the bushes, and he lay down, pressing his ear to the +soil. Then he heard a faint sound, as if some one crawling through the +grass, like a wild animal stalking its prey. It was Shepard, of +course, and then Harry planned his campaign. Shepard had left his +horse, and was endeavoring to reach him by stealth. +</p> + +<p> +Leaving his own horse, he crept a little to the right, and then rising +carefully in another thicket he picked out every dark spot in the +gloom. He made out presently the figure of a riderless horse, standing +partly behind the trunk of an oak, larger than most of those that grew +in the Wilderness. +</p> + +<p> +Harry knew that it was Shepard's mount and that Shepard himself was +some distance in front of it creeping toward the thicket which he +supposed sheltered his foe. There was barely enough light for Harry to +see the horse's head and regretfully he raised his heavy pistol. But +it had to be done, and when his aim was true he pulled the trigger. +</p> + +<p> +The report of the pistol was almost like the roar of a cannon in the +desolate Wilderness and made Harry himself jump. Then he promptly +threw himself flat upon his face. Shepard's answering fire came from a +point about thirty yards in front of the horse, and the bullet passed +very close over Harry's head. It was a marvelous shot to be made +merely at the place from which a sound had come. It all passed in a +flash, and the next moment Harry heard the sound of a horse falling and +kicking a little. Then it too was still. +</p> + +<p> +He remained only a half minute in the grass. Then he began to creep +back, curving a little in his course, toward his own horse. He did not +believe that Shepard's faculty of hearing was as keen as his own, and +he moved with the greatest deftness. He relied upon the fact that +Shepard had not yet located the horse, and if Harry could reach it +quickly it would not be hard for him, a mounted man, to leave behind +Shepard, dismounted. It might be possible, too, that Shepard had gone +back to see about his own horse, not knowing that it was slain. +</p> + +<p> +He saw the dusky outline of his horse, and, rising, made two or three +jumps. Then he snatched the rein loose, sprang upon his back, and +lying down upon his neck to avoid bullets, crashed away, reckless of +bushes and briars. He heard one bullet flying near him, but he laughed +in delight and relief as his horse sped on toward Longstreet. +</p> + +<p> +He did not diminish his speed until he had gone two or three miles, and +then, knowing that Shepard had been left hopelessly behind, even if he +had attempted pursuit, he brought his horse down to a walk, and +laughed. There was a bit of nervous excitement in the laugh. He had +outwitted Shepard again. He had never seen the man, but it did not +enter his mind that it was not he. Each had scored largely over the +other from time to time, but Harry believed that he was at least even. +</p> + +<p> +He steadied his nerves now and rode calmly toward Longstreet, coming +soon upon his scouts, who informed him that the heavy columns were not +far behind, marching with stalwart step to their appointed place in the +line. But it was Harry's business to see Longstreet himself, and he +continued his way toward the center of the division, where they told +him the general could be found. +</p> + +<p> +He rode forward and in the moonlight recognized Longstreet at once, a +heavy-set, bearded man, mounted on a strong bay horse. He had a very +small staff, and he was first to notice the young lieutenant advancing. +He knew Harry well, having seen him with Lee at Gettysburg and with +Jackson before. He stopped and said abruptly: +</p> + +<p> +"You come from the commander-in-chief, do you not?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir," replied Harry, "and I've been coming as fast as I could." +</p> + +<p> +He did not deem it necessary to say anything about his encounter with +Shepard. +</p> + +<p> +"There has been heavy fighting. What are his orders?" +</p> + +<p> +Harry told him, also giving him a written message, which the general +read by the light of a torch an aide held. +</p> + +<p> +"You can tell General Lee that all my men will be in position for +battle before dawn," said the Georgian crisply. +</p> + +<p> +Even as he spoke, Harry heard the heavy, regular tread of the brigades +marching forward through the Wilderness. He saluted General Longstreet. +</p> + +<p> +"I shall return at once with your message," he said. +</p> + +<p> +But Harry, having had one such experience, was resolved not to risk +another. He would make a wider circuit in the rear of the army. +Shepard, on foot, and anxious to avenge his defeat, might be waiting +for him, but he would go around him. So when he started back he made a +wide curve, and soon was in the darkness and silence again. +</p> + +<p> +He had a good horse and his idea of direction being very clear he rode +swiftly in the direction he had chosen. But his curve was so great +that when he reached the center of it he was so far in the rear of the +army that no sound came from it. If the skirmishers were still firing +the reports of their rifles were lost in the distance. Where he rode +the only noises were those made by the wild animals that inhabited the +Wilderness, creatures that had settled back into their usual haunts +after the armies had passed beyond. +</p> + +<p> +Once a startled deer sprang from a clump of bushes and crashed away +through the thickets. Rabbits darted from his path, and an owl, +wondering what all the disturbance was about, hooted mournfully from a +bough. +</p> + +<p> +Long before dawn Harry reached the Southern sentinels in the center and +was then passed to General Lee, who remained at the same camp, sitting +on a log by some smothered coals. Several other members of his staff +had returned already, and the general, looking up when Harry came +forward, merely said: +</p> + +<p> +"Well!" +</p> + +<p> +"I have seen General Longstreet, sir," said Harry, "and he bids me tell +you that he and his men will be in position before dawn. He was nearly +up when I left, and he has also sent you this note." +</p> + +<p> +He handed the note to General Lee, who, bending low over the coals, +read it. +</p> + +<p> +"Everything goes well," he said with satisfaction. "We shall be ready +for them. What time is it, Peyton?" +</p> + +<p> +"Five minutes past four o'clock, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I think the attack should come within an hour." +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps before daybreak, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps. And even after the sun begins to rise it will be like +twilight in this gloomy place." +</p> + +<p> +Grant, in truth, prompt and ready as always, had ordered the advance to +be begun at half-past four, but Meade, asking more time for +arrangements and requesting that it be delayed until six, he had +consented to a postponement until five o'clock and no more. +</p> + +<p> +Harry had one more message to carry, a short distance only, and on his +return he found the Invincibles posted on the commander-in-chief's +right, and not more than two hundred yards away. +</p> + +<p> +"You must be a body guard for the general," he said to Colonel Leonidas +Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"There could be no greater honor for the Invincibles, nor could General +Lee have a better guard." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm sure of that, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"What's happening, Harry? Tell us what's been going on in the night!" +</p> + +<p> +"Our line of battle has been formed. General Longstreet and his men on +the right are soon to be in touch with General Hill. I returned from +him a little while ago. I can't yet smell the dawn, but I think the +battle will come before then." +</p> + +<p> +Harry rode back and resumed his place beside Dalton. The troops +everywhere were on their feet, cannon and rifles ready, because it was +a certainty that the two armies would meet very early. +</p> + +<p> +In fact, the Army of Northern Virginia began to slide slowly forward. +It was not the habit of these troops to await attack. Lee nearly +always had taken the offensive, and the motion of his men was +involuntary. They felt that the enemy was there and they must go to +meet him. +</p> + +<p> +"What time is it now?" whispered Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was barely able to discern the face of his watch. +</p> + +<p> +"Ten minutes to five," he replied. +</p> + +<p> +"And the dawn comes early. It won't be long before Grant comes poking +his nose through the Wilderness." +</p> + +<p> +Harry was silent. A few minutes more, and there was a sudden crackle +of rifles in front of them. +</p> + +<p> +"The dawn isn't here, but Grant is," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +The crackling fire doubled and tripled, and then the fire of the +Southern rifles replied in heavy volume. The lighter field guns opened +with a crash, and the heavier batteries followed with rolling thunder. +Leaves and twigs fell in showers, and men fell with them. The deep +Northern cheer swelled through the Wilderness and the fierce rebel yell +replied. +</p> + +<p> +Gray dawn, rising as if with effort, over the sodden Wilderness found +two hundred thousand men locked fast in battle. It might have been a +bright sun elsewhere, but not here among the gloomy shades and the pine +barrens. The firing was already so tremendous that the smoke hung low +and thick, directly over the tops of the bushes, and the men, as they +fought, breathed mixed and frightful vapors. +</p> + +<p> +Both sides fought for a long time in a heavy, smoky dusk, that was +practically night. Officers coming from far points, led, compass in +hand, having no other guide save the roar of battle. As the Southern +leaders had foreseen, Grant was throwing in the full strength of his +powerful army, hoping with superior numbers and better equipment to +crush Lee utterly that day. +</p> + +<p> +The great Northern artillery was raking the whole Southern front. +Hancock, the superb, was hurling the heavy Northern masses directly +upon the main position of the South. He had half the Army of the +Potomac, and at other points Warren, Wadsworth, Sedgwick and Burnside +were advancing with equal energy and contempt of death. Fiercer and +fiercer grew the conflict. Hancock, remembering how he had held the +fatal hill at Gettysburg, and resolved to win a complete victory now, +poured in regiment after regiment. But in all the fire and smoke and +excitement and danger he did not neglect to keep a cool head. Hearing +that a portion of Longstreet's corps was near, he sent a division and +numerous heavy artillery to attack it, driving it back after a +sanguinary struggle of more than an hour. +</p> + +<p> +Then he redoubled his attack upon the Southern center, compelling it to +give ground, though slowly. Harry felt that gliding movement backward +and a chill ran through his blood. The heavy masses of Grant and his +powerful artillery were prevailing. The strongest portion of the +Southern army was being forced back, and a gap was cut between Hill and +Longstreet. Had Hancock perceived the gap that he had made he might +have severed the Southern army, inflicting irretrievable retreat, but +the smoke and the dusk of the Wilderness hid it, and the moment passed +into one of the great "Ifs" of history. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, on horseback, witnessed this conflict, all the more terrible +because of the theater in which it was fought. The batteries and the +riflemen alike were frequently hidden by the thickets. The great banks +of smoke hung low, only to be split apart incessantly by the flashes of +fire from the big guns. But the bullets were more dangerous than the +cannon balls and shells. They whistled and shrieked in thousands and +countless thousands. +</p> + +<p> +Lee sat on his horse impassive, watching as well as he could the tide +of battle. Messengers covered with smoke and sweat had informed him of +the gap between Hill and Longstreet, and he was dispatching fresh +troops to close it up. Harry saw the Invincibles march by. The two +colonels at their head beheld Lee on his white horse, and their swords +flew from their scabbards as they made a salute in perfect unison. +Close behind them rode St. Clair and Happy Tom, and they too saluted in +like manner. Lee took off his hat in reply and Harry choked. "About to +die, we salute thee," he murmured under his breath. +</p> + +<p> +Then with a shout the Invincibles, their officers at their head, +plunged into the fire and smoke, and were lost from Harry's view. But +he could not stay there long and wonder at their fate. In a few +minutes he was riding to Longstreet with a message for him to bear +steadily toward Hill, that the gap might be closed entirely, and as +soon as possible. +</p> + +<p> +He galloped behind the lines, but bullets fell all around him, and +often a shell tore the earth. The air had become more bitter and +poisonous. Fumes from swamps seemed to mingle with the smoke and odors +of burned gunpowder. His lips and his tongue were scorched. But he +kept on, without exhaustion or mishap, and reached Longstreet, who had +divined his message. +</p> + +<p> +"The line will be solid in a few minutes," he said, and while the +battle was still at its height on the long front he touched hands with +Hill. Then both drove forward with all their might against Hancock, +rushing to the charge, with the Southern fire and recklessness of death +that had proved irresistible on so many fields. The advance, despite +the most desperate efforts of Hancock and his generals, was stopped. +Then he was driven back. All the ground gained at so much cost was +lost and the Southern troops, shouting in exultation, pushed on, +pouring in a terrible rifle fire. Longstreet, in his eagerness, rode a +little ahead of his troops to see the result. Turning back, he was +mistaken in the smoke by his own men for a Northern cavalryman, and +they fired upon him, just as Jackson had been shot down by his own +troops in the dusk at Chancellorsville. +</p> + +<p> +The leader fell from his horse, wounded severely, and the troops +advancing to victory became confused. The rumor spread that Longstreet +had been killed. There was no one to give orders, and the charge +stopped. Harry and a half-dozen others who had seen the accident or +heard of it, galloped to Lee, who at once rode into the very thick of +the command, giving personal orders and sending his aides right and +left with others. The whole division was reformed under his eye, and +he sent it anew to the attack. +</p> + +<p> +The battle now closed in with the full strength of both armies. +Hancock strove to keep his place. The valiant Wadsworth had been +killed already. The dense thickets largely nullified Grant's superior +numbers. Lee poured everything on Hancock, who was driven from every +position. Fighting furiously behind a breastwork built the night +before, he was driven from that too. +</p> + +<p> +Often in the dense shades the soldiers met one another face to face and +furious struggles hand-to-hand ensued. Bushes and trees, set on fire +by the shells, burned slowly like torches put there to light up the +ghastly scene of man's bravery and folly. Jenkins, a Confederate +general, was killed and colonels and majors fell by the dozen. But +neither side would yield, and Grant hurried help to his hard-pressed +troops. +</p> + +<p> +Harry had been grazed on the shoulder by a bullet, but his horse was +unharmed, and he kept close to Lee, who continued to direct the battle +personally. He knew that they were advancing. Once more the genius of +the great Confederate leader was triumphing. Grant, the redoubtable +and tenacious, despite his numbers, could set no trap for him! Instead +he had been drawn into battle on a field of Lee's own choosing. +</p> + +<p> +The conflict had now continued for a long time, and was terrible in all +its aspects. It was far past noon, and for miles a dense cloud of +smoke hung over the Wilderness, which was filled with the roar of +cannon, the crash of rifles and the shouts of two hundred thousand men +in deadly conflict. The first meeting of the two great protagonists of +the war, Lee and Grant, was sanguinary and terrible, beyond all +expectation. +</p> + +<p> +Hundreds fell dead, their bodies lying hidden under the thickets. The +forest burned fiercely here and there, casting circles of lurid light +over the combatants, while the wind rained down charred leaves and +twigs. The fires spread and joined, and at points swept wide areas of +the forest, yet the fury of the battle was not diminished, the two +armies forgetting everything else in their desire to crush each other. +</p> + +<p> +Harry's horse was killed, as he sat near Lee, but he quickly obtained +another, and not long afterward he was sent with a second message to +Ewell. He rode on a long battle front, not far behind the lines, and +he shuddered with awe as he looked upon the titanic struggle. The +smoke was often so heavy and the bushes so thick that he could not see +the combatants, except when the flame of the firing or the burning +trees lighted up a segment of the circle. +</p> + +<p> +Halfway to Ewell and he stopped when he saw two familiar figures, +sitting on a log. They were elderly men in uniforms riddled by +bullets. The right arm of one and the left leg of the other were +tightly bandaged. Their faces were very white and it was obvious that +they were sitting there, because they were not strong enough to stand. +</p> + +<p> +Harry stopped. No message, no matter how important, could have kept +him from stopping. +</p> + +<p> +"Colonel Talbot! Colonel St. Hilaire!" he cried. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, here we are, Harry," replied Colonel Leonidas Talbot in a voice, +thin but full of courage. "Hector has been shot through the leg and +has lost much blood, but I have bound up his wound, and he has done as +much for my arm, which has been bored through from side to side by a +bullet, which must have been as large as my fist." +</p> + +<p> +"And so for a few minutes," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire, +valiantly, "we must let General Lee conduct the victory alone." +</p> + +<p> +"And the Invincibles!" exclaimed Harry, horrified. "Are they all gone +but you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not at all," replied Colonel Talbot. "There is so much smoke about +that you can't see much, but if it clears a little you will behold +Lieutenant St. Clair and the youth rightly called Happy Tom and some +three score others, lying among the bushes, not far ahead of you, +giving thorough attention to the enemy." +</p> + +<p> +"And is that all that's left of the Invincibles?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's a wonder that they're so many. You were right about this man, +Grant, Harry. He's a fighter, and their artillery is numerous and +wonderful. John Carrington himself must be in front of us. We have +not seen him, but the circumstantial evidence is conclusive. Nobody +else in the world could have swept this portion of the Wilderness with +shell and shrapnel in such a manner. Why, he has mowed down the bushes +in long swathes as the scythe takes the grass and he has cut down our +men with them. How does the battle go elsewhere?" +</p> + +<p> +"We're succeeding. We're driving 'em back. I can stop only a moment +now. I'm on my way to General Ewell." +</p> + +<p> +"Then hurry. Don't be worried about us. I'll help Hector and Hector +will help me. And do you curve further to the rear, Harry. The worst +thing that a dispatch bearer can do is to get himself shot." +</p> + +<p> +Waving his hand in farewell Harry galloped away. He knew that Colonel +Talbot had given him sound advice, and he bore back from the front, +coming once more into lonely thickets, although the flash of the battle +was plainly visible in front of him, and its roar filled his ears. Yet +when he rode alone he almost expected to see Shepard rise up before +him, and bid him halt. His encounters with this man had been under +such startling circumstances that it now seemed the rule, and not the +exception, for him to appear at any moment. +</p> + +<p> +But Shepard did not come. Instead Harry began to see the badly wounded +of his own side drifting to the rear, helping one another as hurt +soldiers learn to do. Two of them he allowed to hang on his stirrups a +little while. +</p> + +<p> +"They're fighting hard," said one, a long, gaunt Texan, "an' they're so +many they might lap roun' us. This man of theirs, Grant, ain't much of +a fellow to get scared, but I guess Marse Bob will take care of him +just ez he has took care of the others who came into Virginia." +</p> + +<p> +"They're led in the main attack by Hancock," said the other, a +Virginian. "I caught a glimpse of him through the smoke, just as I had +a view of him for a minute back there by the clump of trees on the +ridge at Gettysburg." +</p> + +<p> +"Are you one of Pickett's men?" asked Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"I am, sir, one of the few that's left. I went clear to the clump of +trees and how I got back I've never known. It was a sort of red dream, +in which I couldn't pick out anything in particular, but I was back +with the army, carrying three bullets that the doctors took away from +me, and here I've gathered up two more they'll rob me of in just the +same way." +</p> + +<p> +He spoke quite cheerfully, and when Harry, curving again, was compelled +to release them, both, although badly wounded, wished him good luck. +</p> + +<p> +He found General Ewell in front, stamping back and forth on his +crutches, watching the battle with excitement. +</p> + +<p> +"And so you're here again, Harry. Well it's good news at present!" he +cried. "It seems that their man, Grant, is going to school to Lee just +like the others." +</p> + +<p> +"But some pupils learn too fast, sir!" +</p> + +<p> +"That's so, but, Harry, I wish I could see more of the field. An +invisible battle like this shakes my nerves. Batteries that we can't +see send tornadoes of shot and shell among us. Riflemen, by the +thousands, hidden in the thickets rain bullets into our ranks. It's +inhuman, wicked, and our only salvation lies in the fact that it's as +bad for them as it is for us. If we can't see them they can't see us." +</p> + +<p> +"You can hold your ground here?" +</p> + +<p> +"Against anything and everything. Tell General Lee that we intend to +eat our suppers on the enemy's ground." +</p> + +<p> +"That's all he wants to know." +</p> + +<p> +As Harry rode back he saw that the first fires were spreading, passing +over new portions of the battlefield. Sparks flew in myriads and fine, +thin ashes were mingled with the powder smoke. The small trees, burnt +through, fell with a crash, and the flames ran as if they were alive up +boughs. Other trees fell too, cut through by cannon balls, and some +were actually mown down by sheets of bullets, as if they had been grass. +</p> + +<p> +His way now led through human wreckage, made all the more appalling by +an approaching twilight, heavy with fumes and smoke, and reddened with +the cannon and rifle blaze. His frightened horse pulled wildly at the +bit, and tried to run away, but Harry held him to the path, although he +stepped more than once in hot ashes and sprang wildly. The dead were +thick too and Harry was in horror lest the hoof of his horse be planted +upon some unheeding face. +</p> + +<p> +He knew that the day was waning fast and that the dark was due in some +degree to the setting sun, and not wholly to the smoke and ashes. Yet +the fury of the battle was sustained. The southern left maintained the +ground that it had gained, and in the center and right it could not be +driven back. It became obvious to Grant that Lee was not to be beaten +in the Wilderness. His advance suffered from all kinds of +disadvantages. In the swamps and thickets he could mass neither his +guns nor his cannon. Communications were broken, the telegraph wires +could be used but little and as the twilight darkened to night he let +the attack die. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was back with the commander-in-chief, when the great battle of +the Wilderness, one of the fiercest ever fought, sank under cover of +the night. It was not open and spectacular like Gettysburg, but it had +a gloomy and savage grandeur all its own. Grant had learned, like the +others before him, that he could not drive headlong over Lee, but +sitting in silence by his campfire, chewing his cigar, he had no +thought, unlike the others, of turning back. Nearly twenty thousand of +his men had fallen, but huge resources and a President who supported +him absolutely were behind him and he was merely planning a new method +of attack. +</p> + +<p> +In the Southern camp there was exultation, but it was qualified and +rather grim. These men, veterans of many battles and able to judge for +themselves, believed that they had won the victory, but they knew that +it was by no means decisive. The numerous foe with his powerful +artillery was still before them. They could see his campfires shining +through the thickets, and their spies told them that, despite his great +losses, there was no sign of retreat in Grant's camp. +</p> + +<p> +An appalling night settled down on the Wilderness. The North American +Continent never saw one more savage and terrible. Twenty thousand +wounded were scattered through the thickets and dense shades, and +spreading fires soon brought death to many whom the bullets had not +killed at once. The smoke, the mists and vapors gathered into one +dense cloud, that hung low and made everything clammy to the touch. +</p> + +<p> +Lee stood under the boughs of an oak, and ate food that had been +prepared for him hastily. But, as Harry saw, the act was purely +mechanical. He was watching as well as he could what was going on in +front, and he was giving orders in turns to his aides. Harry's time +had not yet come, and he kept his eyes on his chief. +</p> + +<p> +There was no exultation in the face of Lee. He had drawn Grant into +the Wilderness and then he had held him fast in a battle of uncommon +size and fierceness. But nothing was decided. He had studied the +career of Grant, and he knew that he had a foe of great qualities with +whom to deal. He would have to fight him again, and fight very soon. +He heard too with a sorrow, hard to conceal, the reports of his own +losses. They were heavy enough and the gaps now made could never be +refilled. The Army of Northern Virginia, which had been such a +powerful instrument in his hands, must fight with ever diminishing +numbers. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was sent to inquire into the condition of Longstreet, whom he +found weak physically and suffering much pain. But the veteran was +upborne by the success of the day and his belief in ultimate victory. +He bade Harry tell the commander-in-chief that his men were fit to +fight again and better than ever, at the first shoot of dawn. +</p> + +<p> +Harry rode back in the night, the burning trees serving him for +torches. Nearly all the soldiers were busy. Some were gathering up the +wounded and others were building breastworks. His eyes were reddened +by the powder-smoke, and often the heavy black masses of vapor were +impenetrable, save where the forest burned. Now he came to a region +where the dead and wounded were so thick that he dismounted and led his +horse, lest a hoof be planted upon any one of them. But he noticed +that here as in other battles the wounded made but little complaint. +They suffered in silence, waiting for their comrades to take them away. +</p> + +<p> +Then he passed around a section of forest that was burning fiercely. +Here Southern and Union soldiers had met on terms of peace and were +making desperate efforts to save their helpless comrades. Harry would +have been glad to give aid himself, but he was too well trained now to +turn aside when he rode for Lee. +</p> + +<p> +He saw many dark figures passing before the flaming background, and as +he walked more slowly than he thought, he saw one that looked +remarkably familiar to him. It was impossible to see the face, but he +knew the walk and the lift of the shoulders. Discipline gave way to +impulse now, and he ran forward crying: +</p> + +<p> +"Dick! Dick!" +</p> + +<p> +Dick Mason, who had just dragged a wounded man beyond the range of the +flames, turned at the sound of the voice. Even had Harry seen his face +at first he would not have known him nor would Dick have known Harry. +Both were black with ashes, smoke and burned gunpowder. But Dick knew +the voice in an instant. Once more were the two cousins to meet in +peace on an unfinished battlefield. +</p> + +<p> +Each driven by the same impulse stepped forward, and their hands met in +the strong grasp of blood kindred and friendship, which war itself +could not sever. +</p> + +<p> +"You're alive, Harry!" said Dick. "It seems almost impossible after +what has happened to-day." +</p> + +<p> +"And you too are all right. Not harmed, I see, though your face is an +African black." +</p> + +<p> +"I should call your own color dark and smoky." +</p> + +<p> +"I wasn't sure that you were in the East. When did you come?" +</p> + +<p> +"With General Grant, and I knew that you were on General Lee's staff. +I've a message to give him by you. Oh! you needn't laugh. It's a good +straight talk." +</p> + +<p> +"Go ahead then and say it to me." +</p> + +<p> +"You say to General Lee that it's all over. Tell him to quit and send +his soldiers home. If he doesn't he'll be crushed." +</p> + +<p> +Harry laughed again and waved his finger at the somber battlefield, +upon which he stood. +</p> + +<p> +"Does this look like it?" he asked. "We're farther forward to-night +than we were this morning. Wouldn't General Grant be glad if he could +say as much?" +</p> + +<p> +"It makes no difference. I know you don't believe me, but it's so. The +North is prepared as it never was before. And Grant will hammer and +hammer forever. We know what a man Lee is. The whole North admits it, +but I tell you the sun of the South is setting." +</p> + +<p> +"You're growing poetical and poetry is no argument." +</p> + +<p> +"But unlimited men, unlimited cannon and rifles, unlimited ammunition +and supplies and a general who is willing to use them, are. Of course +I know that you can't carry any such message to General Lee, but I feel +it to be the truth." +</p> + +<p> +"We've a great general and a great army that say, no." +</p> + +<p> +Nobody paid any attention to the two. It was merely another one of +those occasions when men of the opposing sides stood together amid the +dead and wounded, and talked in friendly fashion. But Harry knew that +he could not delay long. +</p> + +<p> +"I've got to go, Dick," he said. "And I've a message too, one that I +want you to deliver to General Grant." +</p> + +<p> +"What is it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Tell him that we've more than held our own to-day, and that we'll +thrash him like thunder to-morrow, and whenever and wherever he may +choose, no matter what the odds are against us." +</p> + +<p> +Dick laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"I see that you won't believe even a little bit of what I tell you," he +said "and maybe if I were in your place I wouldn't either. But it's +true all the same. Good-by, Harry." +</p> + +<p> +The two hands, covered with battle grime, met again in the strong grasp +of blood kindred and friendship. +</p> + +<p> +"Take care of yourself, old man!" +</p> + +<p> +The words, exactly alike, were uttered by the two simultaneously. +</p> + +<p> +Both were stirred deeply. Harry sprang on his horse, looked back once, +waving his hand, and rode rapidly to General Lee. Later in the night, +he received permission to hunt up the Invincibles, his heart full of +fear that they had perished utterly in the gloomy pit called the +Wilderness, lit now only by the fire of death. +</p> + +<p> +He left his horse with an orderly and walked toward the point where he +had last seen them. He passed thousands of soldiers, many wounded, but +silent as usual, while the unhurt were sleeping where they had dropped. +The Invincibles were not at the point where he had seen them last, and +the colonels of several scattered regiments could not tell him what had +become of them. But he continued to seek them although the fear was +growing in his heart that the last man of the Invincibles had died +under the Northern cannon. +</p> + +<p> +His search led toward the enemy's lines. Almost unconsciously he went +in that direction, however, his knowledge of the two colonels telling +him that they would take the same course. He turned into a little +cove, partly sheltered by the dwarfed trees and he heard a thin voice +saying: +</p> + +<p> +"Nonsense, Leonidas. I scarcely felt it, but yours, old friend, is +pretty bad. You must let me attend to it. Keep still! I'll adjust +the bandage." +</p> + +<p> +"Hector, why do you make a fuss over me, when I'm only slightly hurt, +and sacrifice yourself, a severely injured man!" +</p> + +<p> +"With all due respect you'd better let me attend to you both," said a +voice that Harry recognized as St. Clair's. +</p> + +<p> +"And maybe I could help a little," said another that he knew to be +Happy Tom's. But their voices, like those of the colonels, were weak. +Still he had positive proof that they were alive, and, as his heart +gave a joyful throb or two, he stepped into the glade. There was +enough light for him to see Colonel Leonidas Talbot, and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, sitting side by side on the +grass with their backs against the earthly wall, very pale from loss of +blood, but with heads erect and eyes shining with a certain pride. St. +Clair and Langdon lay on the grass, one with an old handkerchief, +blood-soaked, bound about his head and the other with a bandage tightly +fastened over his left shoulder. Beyond them lay a group of soldiers. +</p> + +<p> +"Good evening, heroes!" said Harry lightly as he stepped forward. +</p> + +<p> +He was welcomed with an exclamation of joy from them all. +</p> + +<p> +"We meet again, Harry," said Colonel Talbot, "and it is the second time +since morning. I fancy that second meetings to-day have not been +common. We have the taste of success in our mouths, but you'll excuse +us for not rising to greet you. We are all more or less affected by +the missiles of the enemy and for some hours at least neither walking +nor standing will be good for us." +</p> + +<p> +"Mohammed must come to all the mountains," said St. Clair, weakly +holding out a hand. +</p> + +<p> +Harry greeted them all in turn, and sat down with them. He was +overflowing with sympathy, but it was not needed. +</p> + +<p> +"A glorious day," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"Truly," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"A most glorious day," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire. +</p> + +<p> +"Most truly," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"An especially glorious day for the Invincibles," said Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"The most glorious of all possible days for the Invincibles," said +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire. +</p> + +<p> +There was an especial emphasis to their words that aroused Harry's +attention. +</p> + +<p> +"The Invincibles have had many glorious days," he said. "Why should +this be the most glorious of them all?" +</p> + +<p> +"We went into battle one hundred and forty-seven strong," replied +Colonel Talbot quietly, "and we came out with one hundred and +forty-seven casualties, thirty-nine killed and one hundred and eight +wounded. We lay no claim to valor, exceeding that of many other +regiments in General Lee's glorious army, but we do think we've made a +fairly excellent record. Do you see those men?" +</p> + +<p> +He pointed to a silent group stretched upon the turf, and Harry nodded. +</p> + +<p> +"Not one of them has escaped unhurt, but most of us will muster up +strength enough to meet the enemy again to-morrow, when our great +general calls." +</p> + +<p> +Harry's throat contracted for a moment. +</p> + +<p> +"I know it, Colonel Talbot," he said. "The Invincibles have proved +themselves truly worthy of their name. General Lee shall hear of this." +</p> + +<p> +"But in no boastful vein, Harry," said Colonel Talbot. "We would not +have you to speak thus of your friends." +</p> + +<p> +"I do not have to boast for you. The simple truth is enough. I shall +see that a surgeon comes here at once to attend to your wounded. Good +night, gentlemen." +</p> + +<p> +"Good night," said the four together. Harry walked back toward General +Lee's headquarters, full of pride in his old comrades. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap16"></a></p> +<h3> +CHAPTER XVI +</h3> + +<h3> +SPOTTSYLVANIA +</h3> + +<p> +Harry secured a little sleep toward morning, and, although his nervous +tension had been very great, when he lay down, he felt greatly +strengthened in body and mind. He awakened Dalton in turn, and the +two, securing a hasty breakfast, sat near the older members of the +staff, awaiting orders. The commander-in-chief was at the edge of the +little glade, talking earnestly with Hill, and several other important +generals. +</p> + +<p> +Harry often saw through the medium of his own feelings, and the rim of +the sun, beginning to show over the eastern edge of the Wilderness, was +blood red. The same crimson and sinister tinge showed through the west +which was yet in the dusk. But in east and west there were certain +areas of light, where the forest fires yet smoldered. +</p> + +<p> +Both sides had thrown up hasty breastworks of earth or timber, but the +two armies were unusually silent. A space of perhaps a mile and a half +lay between them, but as the light increased neither moved. There was +no crackle of rifle fire along their fronts. The skirmishers, usually +so active, seemed to be exhausted, and the big guns were at rest. The +fierce and tremendous fighting of the two days before seemed to have +taken all the life out of both North and South. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, inured to war, understood the reasons for silence and lack of +movement. Grant had been drawn into a region that he did not like, +where he could not use his superior numbers to advantage, and he must +be shuddering at the huge losses he had suffered already. He would +seek better ground. Lee too, was in no condition to take advantage of +his successful defense. The old days when he could send Jackson on a +great turning movement, to fall with all the crushing impact of a +surprise upon the Northern flank, were gone forever. Stuart, the +brilliant cavalryman, was there, but his men were not numerous enough, +and, however brilliant, he was not Jackson. +</p> + +<p> +The sun rose higher. Midmorning came, and the two armies still lay +close. Harry grew stronger in his opinion that they would not fight +again that day, although he watched, like the others, for any sign of +movement in the Northern camp. +</p> + +<p> +Noon came, and the same dead silence. The fires had burned themselves +out now and the dusk that had reigned over the Wilderness, before the +battle, recovered its ground, thickened still further by the vast +quantities of smoke still hanging low under a cloudy sky. But the +aspect of the Wilderness itself was more mournful than ever. Coals +smoldered in the burned areas, and now and then puffs of wind picked up +the hot ashes and sent them in the faces of the soldiers. Thickets and +bushes had been cut down by bullets and cannon balls, and lay heaped +together in tangled confusion. Back of the lines, the surgeons, with +aching backs, toiled over the wounded, as they had toiled through the +night. +</p> + +<p> +Harry saw nearly the whole Southern front. The members of Lee's staff +were busy that day, carrying orders to all his generals to rectify +their lines, and to be prepared, to the last detail, for another +tremendous assault. It was not until the afternoon that he was able to +look up the Invincibles again. The two colonels and the two +lieutenants were doing well, and the colonels were happy. +</p> + +<p> +"We've already been notified," said Colonel Talbot, "that we're to +retain our organization as a regiment. We're to have about a hundred +new men now, the fragments of destroyed regiments. Of course, they +won't be like the veterans of the Invincibles, but a half-dozen battles +like that of yesterday should lick them into shape." +</p> + +<p> +"I should think so," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you believe that Grant is retreating?" asked Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire. +</p> + +<p> +"Our scouts don't say so." +</p> + +<p> +"Then he is merely putting off the evil day. The sooner he withdraws +the more men he will save. No Yankee general can ever get by General +Lee. Keep that in your mind, Harry Kenton." +</p> + +<p> +Harry was silent, but rejoicing to find that his friends would soon +recover from their wounds, he went back to his place, and saw all the +afternoon pass, without any movement indicating battle. +</p> + +<p> +Night came again and the scouts reported to Lee that the Union army was +breaking camp, evidently with the intention of getting out of the +Wilderness and marching to Fredericksburg. Harry was with the general +when he received the news, and he saw him think over it long. Other +scouts brought in the same evidence. +</p> + +<p> +Harry did not know what the general thought, but as for himself, +although he was too young to say anything, it was incredible that Grant +should retreat. It was not at all in accordance with his character, +now tested on many fields, and his resources also were too great for +withdrawal. +</p> + +<p> +But the night was very dark and no definite knowledge yet came out of +it. Lee stayed by his little campfire and received reports. Far after +dusk Harry saw the look of doubt disappear from his eyes, and then he +began to send out messengers. It was evident that he had formed his +opinion, and intended to act upon it at once. +</p> + +<p> +He beckoned to Harry and Dalton, and bade them go together with written +instructions to General Anderson, who had taken the place of General +Longstreet. +</p> + +<p> +"You will stay with General Anderson subject to his orders," he said, +as Harry and Dalton, saluting, rode toward Anderson's command. +</p> + +<p> +Their way led through torn, tangled and burned thickets. Sometimes a +horse sprang violently to one side and neighed in pain. His hoof had +come down on earth, yet so hot that it scorched like fire. Now and +then sparks fell upon them, but they pursued their way, disregarding +all obstacles, and delivered their sealed orders to General Anderson, +who at once gathered up his full force, and marched away from the heart +of the Wilderness toward Spottsylvania Court House. +</p> + +<p> +Harry surmised that Grant was attempting some great turning movement, +and Lee, divining it, was sending Anderson to meet his advance. He +never knew whether it was positive knowledge or a happy guess. +</p> + +<p> +But he was quite sure that the night's ride was one of the most +singular and sinister ever made by an army. If any troops ever marched +through the infernal regions it was they. In this part of the +Wilderness the fires had been of the worst. Trees still smoldered. In +the hollows, where the bushes had grown thickest, were great beds of +coals. The smoke which the low heavy skies kept close to the earth was +thick and hot. Gusts of wind sent showers of sparks flying, and, +despite the greatest care to protect the ammunition, they marched in +constant danger of explosion. +</p> + +<p> +Harry thought at one time that General Anderson intended to camp in the +Wilderness for the night, but he soon saw that it was impossible. One +could not camp on hot ground in a smoldering forest. +</p> + +<p> +"I believe it's a march till day," he said to Dalton. "It's bound to +be. If a man were to lie down here, he'd find himself a mass of cinders +in the morning, and it will take us till daylight and maybe past to get +out of the Wilderness." +</p> + +<p> +"If he didn't burn to death he'd choke to death. I never breathed such +smoke before." +</p> + +<p> +"That's because it's mixed with ashes and the fumes of burned +gunpowder. A villainous compound like this can't be called air. How +long is it until dawn?" +</p> + +<p> +"About three hours, I think." +</p> + +<p> +"You remember those old Greek stories about somebody or other going +down to Hades, and then having a hard climb out again. We're the +modern imitators. If this isn't Hades then I don't know what it is." +</p> + +<p> +"It surely is. Phew, but that hurt!" +</p> + +<p> +"What happened?" +</p> + +<p> +"I brushed my hand against a burning bush. The result was not happy. +Don't imitate me." +</p> + +<p> +Dalton's horse leaped to one side, and he had difficulty in keeping the +saddle. His hoof had been planted squarely in the midst of a mass of +hot twigs. +</p> + +<p> +"The sooner I get out of this Inferno or Hades of a place the happier +I'll be!" said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"I've never seen the like," said Harry, "but there's one thing about it +that makes me glad." +</p> + +<p> +"And what's the saving grace?" +</p> + +<p> +"That it's in Virginia and not in Kentucky, though for the matter of +that it couldn't be in Kentucky." +</p> + +<p> +"And why couldn't it be in Kentucky?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because there's no such God-forsaken region in all that state of mine." +</p> + +<p> +"It certainly gets upon one's soul," said Dalton, looking at the gloomy +region, so terribly torn by battle. +</p> + +<p> +"But if we keep going we're bound to come out of it some time or other." +</p> + +<p> +"And we're not stopping. A man can't make his bed on a mass of coals, +and there'll be no rest for us until we're clear out of the Wilderness." +</p> + +<p> +They marched on a long time, and, as day dawned, hundreds of voices +united in a shout of gladness. Behind them were the shades of the +Wilderness, that dismal region reeking with slaughter and ruin, and +before them lay firm soil, and green fields, in all the flush of a +brilliant May morning. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, we did come out of Hades, Harry," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"And it does look like Heaven, but the trouble with our Hades, George, +is that the inmates will follow us. Put your glasses to your eyes and +look off there." +</p> + +<p> +"Horsemen as sure as we're sitting in our own saddles." +</p> + +<p> +"And Northern horsemen, too. Their uniforms are new enough for me to +tell their color. I take it that Grant's vanguard has moved by our +right flank and has come out of the Wilderness." +</p> + +<p> +"And our surmises that we were to meet it are right. Spottsylvania +Court House is not far away, and maybe we are bound for it." +</p> + +<p> +"And maybe the Yankees are too." +</p> + +<p> +Harry's words were caused by the sound of a distant and scattering +fire. In obedience to an order from Anderson, he and Dalton galloped +forward, and, from a ridge, saw through their glasses a formidable +Union column advancing toward Spottsylvania. As they looked they saw +many men fall and they also saw flashes of flame from bushes and fences +not far from its flank. +</p> + +<p> +"Our sharpshooters are there," said Harry. And he was right. While +the Union force was advancing in the night Stuart had dismounted many +of his men and using them as skirmishers had incessantly harassed the +march of Grant's vanguard led by Warren. +</p> + +<p> +"Each army has been trying to catch the other napping," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"And neither has succeeded," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Now we make a race for the Spottsylvania ridge," said Dalton. "You +see if we don't! I know this country. It's a strong position there, +and both generals want it." +</p> + +<p> +Dalton was right. A small Union force had already occupied +Spottsylvania, but the heavy Southern division crossing the narrow, but +deep, river Po, drove it out and seized the defensive position. +</p> + +<p> +Here they rested, while the masses of the two armies swung toward them, +as if preparing for a new battlefield, one that Harry surveyed with +great interest. They were in a land of numerous and deep rivers. Here +were four spreading out, like the fingers of a human hand, without the +thumb, and uniting at the wrist. The fingers were the Mat, the Ta, the +Po, and the Nye, and the unit when they united was called the Mattopony. +</p> + +<p> +Lee's army was gathering behind the Po. A large Union force crossed it +on his flank, but, recognizing the danger of such a position, withdrew. +Lee himself came in time. Hill, overcome by illness and old wounds, +was compelled to give up the command of his division, and Early took +his place. Longstreet also was still suffering severely from his +injuries. Lee had but few of the able and daring generals who had +served him in so many fields. But Stuart, the gay and brilliant, the +medieval knight who had such a strong place in the commander-in-chief's +affections, was there. Nor was his plumage one bit less splendid. The +yellow feather stood in his hat. There was no speck or stain on the +broad yellow sash and his undimmed courage was contagious. +</p> + +<p> +But Harry with his sensitive and imaginative mind, that leaped ahead, +knew their situation to be desperate. His opinion of Grant had proved +to be correct. Although he had found in Lee an opponent far superior +to any other that he had ever faced, the Union general, undaunted by +his repulse and tremendous losses in the Wilderness, was preparing for +a new battle, before the fire from the other had grown cold. +</p> + +<p> +He knew too that another strong Union army was operating far to the +south of them, in order to cut them off from Richmond, and scouts had +brought word that a powerful force of cavalry was about to circle upon +their flank. The Confederacy was propped up alone by the Army of +Northern Virginia, which having just fought one great battle was about +to begin another, and by its dauntless commander. +</p> + +<p> +The Southern admiration for Lee, both as the general and as the man, +can never be shaken. How much greater then was the effect that he +created in the mind of impressionable youth, looking upon him with +youth's own eyes in his moments of supreme danger! He was in very +truth to Harry another Hannibal as great, and better. The long list of +his triumphs, as youth counted them, was indeed superior to those of +the great Carthaginian, and he believed that Lee would repel this new +danger. +</p> + +<p> +Nearly all that day the two armies constructed breastworks which stood +for many years afterward, but neither made any attempt at serious work, +although there was incessant firing by the skirmishers and an +occasional cannon shot. Harry, whether carrying an order or not, had +ample chance to see, and he noted with increasing alarm the growing +masses of the Union army, as they gathered along the Spottsylvania +front. +</p> + +<p> +"Can we beat them?" "Can we beat them?" was the question that he +continually asked himself. He wondered too where the Winchester +regiment and Dick Mason lay, and where the spy, Shepard, was. But +Shepard was not likely to remain long in one place. Skill and courage +such as his would be used to the utmost in a time like this. Doubtless +he was somewhere in the Confederate lines, discovering for Grant the +relatively small size of the army that opposed him. +</p> + +<p> +Near dusk and having the time he followed his custom and sought the +Invincibles. Both colonels had recovered considerable strength, and, +although one of them could not walk, he would be helped upon his horse +whenever the battle began, and would ride into the thick of it. But +the faces of St. Clair and Happy Tom glowed and their wounds apparently +were forgotten. +</p> + +<p> +"Lieutenant Arthur St. Clair and Lieutenant Thomas Langdon are gone +forever," said Colonel Talbot. "In their places we have Major Arthur +St. Clair and Captain Thomas Langdon. All our majors and captains have +been killed, and with our reduced numbers these two will fill their +places, as best they can; and that they can do so most worthily we all +know. They received their promotions this afternoon." +</p> + +<p> +Harry congratulated them both with the greatest warmth. They were very +young for such rank, but in this war the toll of officers was so great +that men sometimes became generals when they were but little older. +</p> + +<p> +"Is it to be to-morrow?" asked Colonel Talbot. +</p> + +<p> +"I think it likely that we'll fight again then," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"And Grant has not yet had enough. He wants a little more of the same, +does he!" +</p> + +<p> +"It would appear so, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I take it without consulting General Lee that he is ready to deal +with the Yankees as he dealt with them in the Wilderness." +</p> + +<p> +"I hope so. Good night." +</p> + +<p> +"Good night!" they called to him, and Harry returned to the staff. +Taylor, the adjutant general, told him and Dalton to lie down and seek +a little sleep. Harry was not at all averse, as he was completely +exhausted again after the tremendous excitement of the battle, and the +long hours of strain and danger. But his nerves were so much on edge +that he could not yet sleep. His eyes were red and smarting from the +smoke and burned powder, and he felt as if accumulated smoke and dust +encased him like a suit of armor. +</p> + +<p> +"I'd give a hundred dollars for a good long drink, just as long as I +liked to make it," he groaned, "and I mean a drink of pure cold water, +too." +</p> + +<p> +"Confederate paper or money?" said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"I mean real money, but at the same time you oughtn't to make invidious +comparisons." +</p> + +<p> +"Then the money's mine, but you can pay me whenever you feel like it, +which I suppose will be never. There's a spring in the thick woods +just back of your quarters. It flows out from under rocks, at the +distance of several yards makes a deep pool, and then the overflow of +the pool goes on through the forest to the Po. Come on, Harry! We'll +luxuriate and then tell the others." +</p> + +<p> +Harry found that it was a most glorious spring, indeed; clear and cold. +He and Dalton drank slowly at first, and then deeply. +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't know I could hold so much," said Dalton. +</p> + +<p> +"Nor I," said Harry. +</p> + +<p> +"Let's take another." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm with you." +</p> + +<p> +"Let's make it two more." +</p> + +<p> +"I still follow you." +</p> + +<p> +"Horace wrote about his old Falernian, and the other wines which he +enjoyed, as he and the leading Roman sports sat around the fountain, +flirting with the girls," said Dalton, "but I don't believe any wine +ever brewed in Latium was the equal of this water." +</p> + +<p> +"I've always had an idea that Horace wasn't as gay as he pretended to +be, else he wouldn't have written so much about Chloe and her comrades. +I imagine that an old Roman boy would keep pretty quiet about his +dancing and singing, and not publish it to the public." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, let him be. He's dead and the Romans are dead, and the +Americans are doing their best to kill off one another, but let's +forget it for a few minutes. That pool there is about four feet deep, +the water is clear and the bottom is firm ground; now do you know what +I'm going to do?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, and I'm going to do the same. Bet you even that I beat you into +the water." +</p> + +<p> +"Taken." +</p> + +<p> +They threw off their clothes rapidly, but the splashes were +simultaneous as their bodies struck the water. Although the limits of +the pool were narrow they splashed and paddled there for a while, and +it was a long time since they had known such a luxury. Then they +walked out, dried themselves and spread the good news. All night long +the pool was filled with the bathers, following one another in turn. +</p> + +<p> +The water taken internally and externally soothed Harry's nerves. His +excitement was gone. A great army with which they were sure to fight +on the morrow was not far away, but for the time he was indifferent. +The morrow could take care of itself. It was night, and he had +permission to go to sleep. Hence he slumbered fifteen minutes later. +</p> + +<p> +He slept almost through the night, and, when he was awakened shortly +before dawn, he found that his strength and elasticity had returned. He +and Dalton went down to the spring again, drank many times, and then +ate breakfast with the older members of the staff, a breakfast that +differed very little from that of the common soldiers. +</p> + +<p> +Then a day or two of waiting, and watching, and of confused but +terrible fighting ensued. The forests were again set on fire by the +bursting shells and they were not able to rescue many of the wounded +from the flames. Vast clouds again floated over the whole region, +drawing a veil of dusk between the soldiers and the sun. But neither +army was willing to attack the other in full force. +</p> + +<p> +Grant commanding all the armies of the East was moving meanwhile. A +powerful cavalry division, he heard, had got behind Beauregard, who was +to protect Richmond, and was tearing up an important railway line used +by the Confederacy. The daring Sheridan with another great division of +cavalry had gone around Lee's left and was wrecking another railway, +and with it the rations and medical supplies so necessary to the +Confederates. Grant, recognizing his antagonist's skill and courage +and knowing that to succeed he must destroy the main Southern army, +resolved to attack again with his whole force. +</p> + +<p> +The day had been comparatively quiet and the Army of Northern Virginia +had devoted nearly the whole time to fortifying with earthworks and +breastworks of logs. The young aides, as they rode on their missions, +could easily see the Northern lines through their glasses. Harry's +heart sank as he observed their extent. The Southern army was sadly +reduced in numbers, and Grant could get reinforcement continually. +</p> + +<p> +But such is the saving grace of human nature that even in these moments +of suspense, with one terrible battle just over and another about to +begin, soldiers of the Blue and Gray would speak to one another in +friendly fashion in the bushes or across the Po. It was on the banks +of this narrow river that Harry at last saw Shepard once more. He +happened to be on foot that time, the slope being too densely wooded +for his horse, and Shepard hailed him from the other side. +</p> + +<p> +"Good day, Mr. Kenton. Don't fire! I want to talk," he said, holding +up both hands as a sign of peace. +</p> + +<p> +"A curious place for talking," Harry could not keep from saying. +</p> + +<p> +"So it is, but we're not observed here. It was almost inevitable while +the armies remained face to face that we should meet in time. I want +to tell you that I've met your cousin, Richard Mason, here, and his +commanding officer, Colonel Winchester. Oh, I know much more about you +and your relationships than you think." +</p> + +<p> +"How is Dick?" +</p> + +<p> +"He has not been hurt, nor has Colonel Winchester. Mr. Mason has +received a letter from his home and your home in Pendleton in Kentucky. +The outlaws to the eastward are troublesome, but the town is occupied +by an efficient Union garrison and is in no danger. His mother and all +of his and your old friends, who did not go to the war, are in good +health. He thought that in my various capacities as ranger, scout and +spy I might meet you, and he asked me, if it so happened, to tell these +things to you." +</p> + +<p> +"I thank you," said Harry very earnestly, "and I'm truly sorry, Mr. +Shepard, that you and I are on different sides." +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose it's too late for you to come over to the Union and the true +cause." +</p> + +<p> +Harry laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"You know, Mr. Shepard, there are no traitors in this war." +</p> + +<p> +"I know it. I was merely jesting." +</p> + +<p> +He slipped into the underbrush and disappeared. Harry confessed to +himself once more that he liked Shepard, but he felt more strongly than +ever that it had become a personal duel between them, and they would +meet yet again in violence. +</p> + +<p> +That night he had little to do. It was a typical May night in +Virginia, clear and beautiful with an air that would have been a tonic +to the nerves, had it not been for the bitter smoke and odors that yet +lingered from the battle of the Wilderness. +</p> + +<p> +Before dawn the scouts brought in a rumor that there was a heavy +movement of Federal troops, although they did not know its meaning. It +might portend another flank march by Grant, but a mist that had begun +to rise after midnight hid much from them. The mist deepened into a +fog, which made it harder for the Southern leaders to learn the meaning +of the Northern movement. +</p> + +<p> +Just as the dawn was beginning to show a little through the fog, +Hancock and Burnside, with many more generals, led a tremendous attack +upon the Southern right center. They had come so silently through the +thickets that for once the Southern leaders were surprised. The Union +veterans, rushing forward in dense columns, stormed and took the +breastworks with the bayonet. +</p> + +<p> +Many of the Southern troops, sound asleep, awoke to find themselves in +the enemy's hands. Others, having no time to fire them, fought with +clubbed rifles. +</p> + +<p> +Harry, dozing, was awakened by the terrific uproar. Even before the +dawn had fairly come the battle was raging on a long front. The center +of Lee's army was broken, and the Union troops were pouring into the +gap. Grant had already taken many guns and thousands of prisoners, and +the bulldog of Shiloh and Vicksburg and Chattanooga was hurrying fresh +divisions into the combat to extend and insure his victory. Through +the forests swelled the deep Northern cry of triumph. +</p> + +<p> +Harry had never before seen the Southern army in such danger, and he +looked at General Lee, who had now mounted Traveller. The turmoil and +confusion in front of them was frightful and indescribable. The Union +troops had occupied an entire Confederate salient, and their generals, +feeling that the moment was theirs, led them on, reckless of life, and +swept everything before them. +</p> + +<p> +Harry never took his eyes from Lee. The rising sun shot golden beams +through the smoke and disclosed him clearly. His face was calm and his +voice did not shake as he issued his orders with rapidity and +precision. The lion at bay was never more the lion. +</p> + +<p> +A new line of battle was formed, and the fugitives formed up with it. +Then the Southern troops, uttering once more the fierce rebel yell, +charged directly upon their enemy and under the eye of the great chief +whom they almost worshiped. +</p> + +<p> +Now Harry for the first time saw his general show excitement. Lee +galloped to the head of one of the Virginia regiments, and ranging his +horse beside the colors snatched off his hat and pointed it at the +enemy. It was a picture which with all the hero worship of youth he +never forgot. It did not even grow dim in his memory—the great leader +on horseback, his hat in his hand, his eyes fiery, his face flushed, +his hand pointing the way to victory or death. +</p> + +<p> +It was an occasion, too, when the personal presence of a leader meant +everything. Every man knew Lee and tremendous rolling cheers greeted +his arrival, cheers that could be heard above the thunder of cannon and +rifles. It infused new courage into them and they gathered themselves +for the rush upon their victorious foe. +</p> + +<p> +Gordon of Georgia, spurring through the smoke, seized Lee's horse by +the bridle. He did not mean to have their commander-in-chief +sacrificed in a charge. +</p> + +<p> +"This is no place for you, General Lee!" he cried. "Go to the rear!" +</p> + +<p> +Lee did not yet turn, and Gordon shouted: +</p> + +<p> +"These men are Virginians and Georgians who have never failed. Go +back, I entreat you!" +</p> + +<p> +Then Gordon turned to the troops and cried, as he rose on his toes in +his stirrups: +</p> + +<p> +"Men, you will not fail now!" +</p> + +<p> +Back came the answering shout: +</p> + +<p> +"No! No!" and the whole mass of troops burst into one thunderous, +echoing cry: +</p> + +<p> +"Lee to the rear! Lee to the rear! Lee to the rear!" +</p> + +<p> +Nor would they move until Lee turned and rode back. Then, led by +Gordon, they charged straight upon their foe, who met them with an +equal valor. All day long the battle of Spottsylvania, equal in +fierceness and desperation to that of the Wilderness, swayed to and +fro. To Harry as he remembered them they were much alike. Charge and +defense, defense and charge. Here they gained a little, and there they +lost a little. Now they were stumbling through sanguinary thickets, and +then they rushed across little streams that ran red. +</p> + +<p> +The firing was rapid and furious to an extraordinary degree. The air +rained shell and bullets. Areas of forest between the two armies were +mowed down. More than one large tree was cut through entirely by rifle +bullets. Other trees here, as in the Wilderness, caught fire and +flamed high. +</p> + +<p> +Midnight put an end to the battle, with neither gaining the victory and +both claiming it. Harry had lost another horse, killed under him, and +now he walked almost dazed over the terrible field of Spottsylvania, +where nearly thirty thousand men had fallen, and nothing had yet been +decided. +</p> + +<p> +Yet in Harry's heart the fear of the grim and silent Grant was growing. +The Northern general had fought within a few days two battles, each the +equal of Waterloo, and Harry felt sure that he was preparing for a +third. The combat of the giants was not over, and with an anxious soul +he waited the next dawn. They remained some days longer in the +Wilderness, or the country adjacent to it, and there was much +skirmishing and firing of heavy artillery, but the third great pitched +battle did not come quite as soon as Harry expected. Even Grant, +appalled by the slaughter, hesitated and began to maneuver again by the +flank to get past Lee. Then the fighting between the skirmishers and +heavy detached parties became continuous. +</p> + +<p> +During the days that immediately followed Harry was much with +Sherburne. The brave colonel was one of Stuart's most trusted officers. +Despite the forests and thickets there was much work for the cavalry to +do, while the two armies circled and circled, each seeking to get the +advantage of the other. +</p> + +<p> +Sheridan, they heard, was trying to curve about with his horsemen and +reach Richmond, and Stuart, with his cavalry, including Sherburne's, +was sent to intercept him, Harry riding by Sherburne's side. It was +near the close of May, but the air was cool and pleasant, a delight to +breathe after the awful Wilderness. +</p> + +<p> +Stuart, despite his small numbers, was in his gayest spirits, and when +he overtook the enemy at a little place called Yellow Tavern he +attacked with all his customary fire and vigor. In the height of the +charge, Harry saw him sink suddenly from his horse, shot through the +body. He died not long afterward and the greatest and most brilliant +horseman of the South passed away to join Jackson and so many who had +gone before. Harry was one of the little group who carried the news to +Lee, and he saw how deeply the great leader was affected. So many of +his brave generals had fallen that he was like the head of a family, +bereft. +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless the lion still at bay was great and terrible to strike. It +was barely two weeks after Spottsylvania when Lee took up a strong +position at Cold Harbor, and Grant, confident in his numbers and +powerful artillery, attacked straightaway at dawn. +</p> + +<p> +Harry was in front during that half-hour, the most terrible ever seen +on the American continent, when Northern brigade after brigade charged +to certain death. Lee's men, behind their earthworks, swept the field +with a fire in which nothing could live. The charging columns fairly +melted away before them and when the half-hour was over more than +twelve thousand men in blue lay upon the red field. +</p> + +<p> +Grant himself was appalled, and the North, which had begun to +anticipate a quick and victorious end of the war, concealed its +disappointment as best it could, and prepared for another campaign. +</p> + +<p> +Grant and Lee, facing each other, went into trenches along the lines of +Cold Harbor, and the hopes of the young Southern soldiers after the +victory there rose anew. But Harry was not too sanguine, although he +kept his thoughts to himself. +</p> + +<p> +The officers of the Invincibles had recovered from their wounds, and +Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, +sitting in a trench, resumed their game of chess. +</p> + +<p> +Colonel Talbot took a pawn, the first man captured by either since +early spring. +</p> + +<p> +"That was quite a victory," he said. +</p> + +<p> +"Not important! Not important, Leonidas!" +</p> + +<p> +"And why not, Hector?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because you've left the way to your king easier. I shall promptly +move along that road." +</p> + +<p> +"As Grant moved through the Wilderness." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't depreciate Grant, Leonidas. He never stops pounding. We've +fought two great battles with him in the Wilderness and a third at Cold +Harbor, but he's still out there facing us. Can't you see the Yankees +with your glasses, Harry?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir, quite clearly. They're about to fire a shot from a big gun +in a wood. There it goes!" +</p> + +<p> +The deep note of the cannon came to them, passed on, and then rolled +back in echoes like a threat. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Appendix: Transcription notes: +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The following modifications were applied while transcribing the printed +book to etext: +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 1<br /> + Page 6, para 1, change "criticise" to "criticize", for consistency<br /> + Page 20, para 6, fix typo, "calvaryman"<br /> + Page 21, para 8, change "things" to "thing"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 2<br /> + Page 35, para 2, add missing hyphen in "commander-in-chief"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 3<br /> + Page 48, para 1, change "where-ever" to "wherever"<br /> + Page 49, para 2, fix typo, period should be comma<br /> + Page 49, para 2, change "gaints" to "giants", which is my best guess<br /> + as to what it should be<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 4<br /> + Page 74, para 7, add missing period<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 7<br /> + Page 124, para 6, fix typo "qouth"<br /> + Page 132, para 14, "Pleasonton" should be "Pleasanton"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 10<br /> + Page 182, para 5, add missing close-quotes<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 11<br /> + Page 208, para 6, add missing close-quotes<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 12<br /> + Page 229, para 3, fix typo, "dulplicate"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 13<br /> + Page 245, para 3, change "with" to "was"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 14<br /> + Page 260, para 2, removed a badly-misplaced comma<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Chapter 16<br /> + Page 301, para 4, moved a badly-misplaced comma<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Chapter 2, page 34, para 3 contains the phrase "rest and realization". +Probably should be "relaxation", but maybe not, so I left it as is. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The following words were printed with accented vowels or with the "ae" +ligature, but these few occurrences hardly warrant an 8-bit version of +the text:<br /> + cooperation fete reentered Plataea Thermopylae<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As with all the books in this series, there are many instances where +commas seem to be missing or misplaced, but, except as noted above, I +refrained from "fixing" these. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Shades of the Wilderness, by +Joseph A. Altsheler + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS *** + +***** This file should be named 12532-h.htm or 12532-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/5/3/12532/ + +Produced by Ken Reeder. HTML version by Al Haines. +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive +specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this +eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook +for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, +performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given +away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks +not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the +trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. + +START: FULL LICENSE + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the +person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph +1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the +Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when +you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country outside the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work +on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: + + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and + most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no + restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it + under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this + eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the + United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you + are located before using this ebook. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format +other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain +Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +provided that + +* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation." + +* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm + works. + +* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + +* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The +Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at +www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the +mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its +volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous +locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt +Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to +date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and +official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular +state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + + +</pre> + +</body> + +</html> + + diff --git a/old/12532.txt b/old/12532.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1559ca2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12532.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10861 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Shades of the Wilderness, by Joseph A. Altsheler + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: The Shades of the Wilderness + A Story of Lee's Great Stand + +Author: Joseph A. Altsheler + +Posting Date: August 24, 2014 [EBook #12532] +First Posted: June 5, 2004 +Last Updated: January 21, 2011 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS *** + + + + +Produced by Ken Reeder. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS + +A STORY OF LEE'S GREAT STAND + +by JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER + + + + +FOREWORD + + +"The Shades of the Wilderness" is the seventh volume of the Civil War +Series, of which the predecessors have been "The Guns of Bull Run," +"The Guns of Shiloh," "The Scouts of Stonewall," "The Sword of +Antietam", "The Star of Gettysburg" and "The Rock of Chickamauga." The +romance in this story reverts to the Southern side and deals with the +fortunes of Harry Kenton and his friends. It takes them on the retreat +from Gettysburg, gives the hero a short period of social life in +Richmond, describes the great battles of the Wilderness and +Spottsylvania, and ends with the deadlock in the trenches before +Petersburg. + + + + +THE CIVIL WAR SERIES + + + VOLUMES IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES + + THE GUNS OF BULL RUN. + THE GUNS OF SHILOH. + THE SCOUTS OF STONEWALL. + THE SWORD OF ANTIETAM. + THE STAR OF GETTYSBURG. + THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA. + THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS. + THE TREE OF APPOMATTOX. + + + PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES + + HARRY KENTON, A Lad Who Fights on the Southern Side. + DICK MASON, Cousin of Harry Kenton, Who Fights on the Northern Side. + COLONEL GEORGE KENTON, Father of Harry Kenton. + MRS. MASON, Mother of Dick Mason. + JULIANA, Mrs. Mason's Devoted Colored Servant. + COLONEL ARTHUR WINCHESTER, Dick Mason's Regimental Commander. + COLONEL LEONIDAS TALBOT, Commander of the Invincibles, + a Southern Regiment. + LIEUTENANT COLONEL HECTOR ST. HILAIRE, Second in Command of the + Invincibles. + ALAN HERTFORD, A Northern Cavalry Leader. + PHILIP SHERBURNE, A Southern Cavalry Leader. + WILLIAM J. SHEPARD, A Northern Spy. + DANIEL WHITLEY, A Northern Sergeant and Veteran of the Plains. + GEORGE WARNER, A Vermont Youth Who Loves Mathematics. + FRANK PENNINGTON, A Nebraska Youth, Friend of Dick Mason. + ARTHUR ST. CLAIR, A Native of Charleston, Friend of Harry Kenton. + TOM LANGDON, Friend of Harry Kenton. + GEORGE DALTON, Friend of Harry Kenton. + BILL SKELLY, Mountaineer and Guerrilla. + TOM SLADE, A Guerrilla Chief. + SAM JARVIS, The Singing Mountaineer. + IKE SIMMONS, Jarvis' Nephew. + AUNT "SUSE," A Centenarian and Prophetess. + BILL PETTY, A Mountaineer and Guide. + JULIEN DE LANGEAIS, A Musician and Soldier from Louisiana. + JOHN CARRINGTON, Famous Northern Artillery Officer. + DR. RUSSELL, Principal of the Pendleton School. + ARTHUR TRAVERS, A Lawyer. + JAMES BERTRAND, A Messenger from the South. + JOHN NEWCOMB, A Pennsylvania Colonel. + JOHN MARKHAM, A Northern Officer. + JOHN WATSON, A Northern Contractor. + WILLIAM CURTIS, A Southern Merchant and Blockade Runner. + MRS. CURTIS, Wife of William Curtis. + HENRIETTA CARDEN, A Seamstress in Richmond. + DICK JONES, A North Carolina Mountaineer. + VICTOR WOODVILLE, A Young Mississippi Officer. + JOHN WOODVILLE, Father of Victor Woodville. + CHARLES WOODVILLE, Uncle of Victor Woodville. + COLONEL BEDFORD, A Northern Officer. + CHARLES GORDON, A Southern Staff Officer. + JOHN LANHAM, An Editor. + JUDGE KENDRICK, A Lawyer. + MR. CULVER, A State Senator. + MR. BRACKEN, A Tobacco Grower. + ARTHUR WHITRIDGE, A State Senator. + + + HISTORICAL CHARACTERS + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States. + JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of the Southern Confederacy. + JUDAH P. BENJAMIN, Member of the Confederate Cabinet. + U. S. GRANT, Northern Commander. + ROBERT E. LEE, Southern Commander. + STONEWALL JACKSON, Southern General. + PHILIP H. SHERIDAN, Northern General. + GEORGE H. THOMAS, "The Rock of Chickamauga." + ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON, Southern General. + A. P. HILL, Southern General. + W. S. HANCOCK, Northern General. + GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, Northern General. + AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE, Northern General. + TURNER ASHBY, Southern Cavalry Leader. + J. E. B. STUART, Southern Cavalry Leader. + JOSEPH HOOKER, Northern General. + RICHARD S. EWELL, Southern General. + JUBAL EARLY, Southern General. + WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS, Northern General. + SIMON BOLIVAR BUCKNER, Southern General. + LEONIDAS POLK, Southern General and Bishop. + BRAXTON BRAGG, Southern General. + NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST, Southern Cavalry Leader. + JOHN MORGAN, Southern Cavalry Leader. + GEORGE J. MEADE, Northern General. + DON CARLOS BUELL, Northern General. + W. T. SHERMAN, Northern General. + JAMES LONGSTREET, Southern General. + P. G. T. BEAUREGARD, Southern General. + WILLIAM L. YANCEY, Alabama Orator. + JAMES A. GARFIELD, Northern General, afterwards President of + the United States. + + And many others + + + IMPORTANT BATTLES DESCRIBED IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES + + BULL RUN + KERNSTOWN + CROSS KEYS + WINCHESTER + PORT REPUBLIC + THE SEVEN DAYS + MILL SPRING + FORT DONELSON + SHILOH + PERRYVILLE + STONE RIVER + THE SECOND MANASSAS + ANTIETAM + FREDERICKSBURG + CHANCELLORSVILLE + GETTYSBURG + CHAMPION HILL + VICKSBURG + CHICKAMAUGA + MISSIONARY RIDGE + THE WILDERNESS + SPOTTSYLVANIA + COLD HARBOR + FISHER'S HILL + CEDAR CREEK + APPOMATTOX + + + +CONTENTS + + I. THE SOUTHERN RETREAT + + II. THE NORTHERN SPY + + III. THE FLOODED RIVER + + IV. A HERALD TO LEE + + V. THE DANGEROUS ROAD + + VI. TESTS OF COURAGE + + VII. IN THE WAGON + + VIII. THE CROSSING + + IX. IN SOCIETY + + X. THE MISSING PAPER + + XI. A VAIN PURSUIT + + XII. IN WINTER QUARTERS + + XIII. THE COMING OF GRANT + + XIV. THE GHOSTLY RIDE + + XV. THE WILDERNESS + + XVI. SPOTTSYLVANIA + + + + +THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE SOUTHERN RETREAT + + +A train of wagons and men wound slowly over the hills in the darkness +and rain toward the South. In the wagons lay fourteen or fifteen +thousand wounded soldiers, but they made little noise, as the wheels +sank suddenly in the mud or bumped over stones. Although the vast +majority of them were young, boys or not much more, they had learned to +be masters of themselves, and they suffered in silence, save when some +one, lost in fever, uttered a groan. + +But the chief sound was a blended note made by the turning of wheels, +and the hoofs of horses sinking in the soft earth. The officers gave +but few orders, and the cavalrymen who rode on either flank looked +solicitously into the wagons now and then to see how their wounded +friends fared, though they seldom spoke. The darkness they did not +mind, because they were used to it, and the rain and the coolness were +a relief, after three days of the fiercest battle the American +continent had ever known, fought in the hottest days that the troops +could recall. + +Thus Lee's army drew its long length from the fatal field of +Gettysburg, although his valiant brigades did not yet know that the +clump of trees upon Cemetery Hill had marked the high tide of the +Confederacy. All that memorable Fourth of July, following the close of +the battle they had lain, facing Meade and challenging him to come on, +confident that while the invasion of the North was over they could beat +back once more the invasion of the South. + +They had no word of complaint against their great commander, Lee. The +faith in him, which was so high, remained unbroken, as it was destined +to remain so to the last. But men began to whisper to one another, and +say if only Jackson had been there. They mourned anew that terrible +evening in the Wilderness when Lee had lost his mighty lieutenant, his +striking arm, the invincible Stonewall. If the man in the old slouch +hat had only been with Lee on Seminary Ridge it would now be the army +of Meade retreating farther into the North, and they would be pursuing. +That belief was destined to sink deep in the soul of the South, and +remain there long after the Confederacy was but a name. + +The same thought was often in the mind of Harry Kenton, as he rode near +the rear of the column, whence he had been sent by Lee to observe and +then to report. It was far after midnight now, and the last of the +Southern army could not leave Seminary Ridge before morning. But Harry +could detect no sign of pursuit. Now and then, a distant gun boomed, +and the thunder muttered on the horizon, as if in answer. But there +was nothing to indicate that the Army of the Potomac was moving from +Gettysburg in pursuit, although the President in Washington, his heart +filled with bitterness, was vainly asking why his army would not reap +the fruits of a victory won so hardly. Fifty thousand men had fallen +on the hills and in the valleys about Gettysburg, and it seemed, for +the time, that nothing would come of such a slaughter. But the +Northern army had suffered immense losses, and Lee and his men were +ready to fight again if attacked. Perhaps it was wiser to remain +content upon the field with their sanguinary success. At least, Meade +and his generals thought so. + +Harry, toward morning came upon St. Clair and Langdon riding together. +Both had been wounded slightly, but their hurts had not kept them from +the saddle, and they were in cheerful mood. + +"You've been further back than we, Harry," said St. Clair. "Is Meade +hot upon our track? We hear the throb of a cannon now and then." + +"It doesn't mean anything. Meade hasn't moved. While we didn't win we +struck the Yankees such a mighty blow that they'll have to rest, and +breathe a while before they follow." + +"And I guess we need a little resting and breathing ourselves," said +Langdon frankly. "There were times when I thought the whole world had +just turned itself into a volcano of fire." + +"But we'll come back again," said St. Clair. "We'll make these +Pennsylvania Dutchmen take notice of us a second time." + +"That's the right spirit," said Langdon. "Arthur had nearly all of his +fine uniform shot off him, but he's managed to fasten the pieces +together, and ride on, just as if it were brand new." + +But Harry was silent. The prescient spirit of his famous great +grandfather, Henry Ware, had descended upon his valiant great grandson. +Hope had not gone from him, but it did not enter his mind that they +should invade Pennsylvania again. + +"I'm glad to leave Gettysburg," he said. "More good men of ours have +fallen there than anywhere else." + +"That's true," said St. Clair, "but Marse Bob will win for us, anyhow. +You don't think any of these Union generals here in the East can whip +our Lee, do you?" + +"Of course not!" said Happy Tom. "Besides, Lee has me to help him." + +"How are Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire?" asked +Harry. + +"Sound asleep, both of 'em," replied St. Clair. "And it's a strange +thing, too. They were sitting in a wagon, having resumed that game of +chess which they began in the Valley of Virginia, but they were so +exhausted that both fell sound asleep while playing. They are sitting +upright, as they sleep, and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire's thumb and +forefinger rest upon a white pawn that he intended to move." + +"I hope they won't be jarred out of their rest and that they'll sleep +on," said Harry. "Nobody deserves it more." + +He waved a hand to his friends and continued his ride toward the rear. +The column passed slowly on in silence. Now and then gusts of rain +lashed across his face, but he liked the feeling. It was a fillip to +his blood, and his nerves began to recover from the tremendous strain +and excitement of the last four days. + +Obeying his orders he rode almost directly back toward the field of +Gettysburg from which the Southern forces were still marching. A +friendly voice from a little wood hailed him, and he recognized it at +once as that of Sherburne, who sat his horse alone among the trees. + +"Come here, Harry," he said. + +"Glad to find you alive, Sherburne. Where's your troop?" + +"What's left of it is on ahead. I'll join the men in a few minutes. +But look back there!" + +Harry from the knoll, which was higher than he had thought, gazed upon +a vast and dusky panorama. Once more the field of Gettysburg swam +before him, not now in fire and smoke, but in vapors and misty rain. +When he shut his eyes he saw again the great armies charging on the +slopes, the blazing fire from hundreds of cannon and a hundred thousand +rifles. There, too, went Pickett's brigades, devoted to death but never +flinching. A sob burst from his throat, and he opened his eyes again. + +"You feel about it as I do," said Sherburne. "We'll never come back +into the North." + +"It isn't merely a feeling within me, I know it." + +"So do I, but we can still hold Virginia." + +"I think so, too. Come, we'd better turn. There goes the field of +Gettysburg. The rain and mist have blotted it out." + +The panorama, the most terrible upon which Harry had ever looked, +vanished in the darkness. The two rode slowly from the knoll and into +the road. + +"It will be daylight in an hour," said Sherburne, "and by that time the +last of our men will be gone." + +"And I must hasten to our commander-in-chief," said Harry. + +"How is he?" asked Sherburne. "Does he seem downcast?" + +"No, he holds his head as high as ever, and cheers the men. They say +that Pickett's charge was a glorious mistake, but he takes all the +blame for it, if there is any. He doesn't criticize any of his +generals." + +"Only a man of the greatest moral grandeur could act like that. It's +because of such things that our people, boys, officers and all, will +follow him to the death." + +"Good-by, Sherburne," said Harry. "Hope I'll see you again soon." + +He urged his horse into a faster gait, anxious to overtake Lee and +report that all was well with the rear guard. He noticed once more, +and with the greatest care that long line of the wounded and the +unwounded, winding sixteen miles across the hills from Gettysburg to +Chambersburg, and his mind was full of grave thoughts. More than two +years in the very thick of the greatest war, then known, were +sufficient to make a boy a man, at least in intellect and +responsibility. + +Harry saw very clearly, as he rode beside the retreating but valiant +army that had failed in its great attempt, that their role would be the +defensive. For a little while he was sunk in deep depression. Then +invincible youth conquered anew, and hope sprang up again. The night +was at the darkest, but dawn was not far away. Fugitive gusts of wind +drenched him once more, but he did not mind it, nor did he pay any +attention to the occasional growl of a distant gun. He was strong in +the belief that Meade would not pursue--at least not yet. A general +who had just lost nearly one-third of his own army was not in much +condition to follow his enemy. + +He urged his horse to increased speed, and pressed on toward the head +of the column. The rain ceased and cool puffs of wind came out of the +east. Then the blackness there turned to gray, which soon deepened into +silver. Through the silver veil shot a bolt of red fire, and the sun +came over the hills. + +Although the green world had been touched with brown by the hot sun of +July it looked fresh and beautiful to Harry. The brown in the morning +sunlight was a rosy red, and the winds of dawn were charged with life. +His horse, too, felt the change and it was easy now to force him into a +gallop toward a fire on a low hill, which Harry felt sure had been +built to cook breakfast for their great commander. + +As he approached he saw Lee and his generals standing before the blaze, +some eating, and others drinking. An orderly, near by, held the +commander's famous horse, Traveller, and two or three horses belonging +to the other generals were trying to find a little grass between the +stony outcrops of the hills. Harry felt an overwhelming curiosity, but +he kept it in restraint, dismounting at a little distance, and +approaching on foot. + +He could not observe much change in the general's appearance. His +handsome gray suit was as neat as ever, and the three stars, the only +marks of his rank that he wore, shone untarnished upon his collar. The +dignified and cheerful manner that marked him before Gettysburg marked +him also afterward. To Harry, so young and so thoroughly charged with +the emotions of his time and section, he was a figure to be approached +with veneration. + +He saw the stalwart and bearded Longstreet and other generals whom he +knew, among them the brilliant Stuart in his brilliant plumage, but +rather quiet and subdued in manner now, since he had not come to +Gettysburg as soon as he was needed. Harry hung back a little, fearing +lest he might be regarded as thrusting himself into a company so much +his superior in rank, but Lee saw him and beckoned to him. + +"I sent you back toward Gettysburg to report on our withdrawal, +Lieutenant Kenton," he said. + +"Yes, sir. I returned all the way to the field. The last of our +troops should be leaving there just about now. The Northern army had +made no preparation for immediate pursuit." + +"Your report agrees with all the others that I have received. How long +have you been without sleep?" + +"I don't know, sir," he said at last. "I can't remember. Maybe it has +been two or three days." + +Stuart, who held a cup of coffee in his hand, laughed. "The times have +been such that there are generals as well as lieutenants," he said, +"who can't remember when they've slept." + +"You're exhausted, my lad," said Lee gravely and kindly, "and there's +nothing more you can do for us just now. Take some breakfast with us, +and then you must sleep in one of the wagons. An orderly will look +after your horse." + +Lee handed him a cup of coffee with his own hand, and Harry, thanking +him, withdrew to the outer fringe of the little group, where he took +his breakfast, amazed to find how hungry he was, although he had not +thought of food before. Then without a word, as he saw that the +generals were engrossed in a conference, he withdrew. + +"You'll find Lieutenant Dalton of the staff in the covered wagon over +there," said the orderly who had taken his horse. "The general sent +him to it more'n two hours ago." + +"Then I'll be inside it in less than two minutes," said Harry. + +But with rest in sight he collapsed suddenly. His head fell forward of +its own weight. His feet became lead. Everything swam before his +eyes. He felt that he must sleep or die. But he managed to drag +himself to the wagon and climbed inside. Dalton lay in the center of +it so sound asleep that he was like one dead. Harry rolled him to one +side, making room for himself, and lay down beside him. Then his eyes +closed, and he, too, slept so soundly that he also looked like one dead. + +He was awakened by Dalton pulling at him. The young Virginian was +sitting up and looking at Harry with curiosity. He clapped his hands +when the Kentuckian opened his eyes. + +"Now I know that you're not dead," he said. "When I woke up and found +you lying beside me I thought they had just put your body in here for +safekeeping. As that's not the case, kindly explain to me and at once +what you're doing in my wagon." + +"I'm waking up just at present, but for an hour or two before that I +was sleeping." + +"Hour or two? Hour or two? Hear him! An orderly who I know is no +liar told me that you got in here just after dawn. Now kindly lift +that canvasflap, look out and tell me what you see." + +Harry did as he was told, and was amazed. The same rolling landscape +still met his eyes, and the sun was just about as high in the sky as it +was when he had climbed into the wagon. But it was in the west now +instead of the east. + +"See and know, young man!" said Dalton, paternally. "The entire day +has elapsed and here you have lain in ignorant slumber, careless of +everything, reckless of what might happen to the army. For twelve +hours General Lee has been without your advice, and how, lacking it, he +has got this far, Heaven alone knows." + +"It seems that he's pulled through, and, since I'm now awake, you can +hurry to him and tell him I'm ready to furnish the right plans to stop +the forthcoming Yankee invasion." + +"They'll keep another day, but we've certainly had a good sleep, Harry." + +"Yes, a provision or ammunition wagon isn't a bad place for a wornout +soldier. I remember I slept in another such as this in the Valley of +Virginia, when we were with Jackson." + +He stopped suddenly and choked. He could not mention the name of +Jackson, until long afterward, without something rising in his throat. + +The driver obscured a good deal of the front view, but he suddenly +turned a rubicund and smiling face upon them. + +"Waked up, hev ye?" he exclaimed. "Wa'al it's about time. I've looked +back from time to time an' I wuzn't at all shore whether you two +gen'rals wuz alive or dead. Sometimes when the wagon slanted a lot you +would roll over each other, but it didn't seem to make no diffunce. +Pow'ful good sleepers you are." + +"Yes," said Harry. "We're two of the original Seven Sleepers." + +"I don't doubt that you are two, but they wuz more'n seven." + +"How do you know?" + +"'Cause at least seven thousand in this train have been sleepin' as +hard as you wuz. I guess you mean the 'rig'nal Seventy Thousand +Sleepers." + +Harry's spirits had returned after his long sleep. He was a lad again. +The weight of Gettysburg no longer rested upon him. The Army of +Northern Virginia had merely made a single failure. It would strike +again and again, as hard as ever. + +"It's true that we've been slumbering," he said, "but we're as wide +awake now as ever, Mr. Driver." + +"My name ain't Driver," said the man. + +"Then what is it?" + +"Jones, Dick Jones, which I hold to be a right proper name." + +"Not romantic, but short, simple and satisfying." + +"I reckon so. Leastways, I've never wanted to change it. I'm from +No'th Calliny, an' I've been followin' Bobby Lee a pow'ful long +distance from home. Fine country up here in Pennsylvany, but I'd +ruther be back in them No'th Calliny mountains. You two young gen'rals +may think it's an easy an' safe job drivin' a wagon loaded with +ammunition. But s'pose you have to drive it right under fire, as you +most often have to do, an' then if a shell or somethin' like it hits +your wagon the whole thing goes off kerplunk, an' whar are you?" + +"It's a sudden an' easy death," said Dalton, philosophically. + +"Too sudden an' too easy. I don't mind tellin' you that seein' men +killed an' wounded is a spo't that's beginnin' to pall on me. Reckon +I've had enough of it to last me for the next thousand years. I've +forgot, if I ever knowed, what this war wuz started about. Say, young +fellers, I've got a wife back thar, a high-steppin', fine-lookin' gal +not more'n twenty years old--I'm just twenty-five myself, an' we've got +a year-old baby the cutest that wuz ever born. Now, when I wuz lookin' +at that charge of Pickett's men, an' the whole world wuz blazin' with +fire, an' all the skies wuz rainin' steel and lead, an' whar grass +growed before, nothin' but bayonets wuz growin' then, do you know what +I seed sometimes?" + +"What was it?" asked Harry. + +"Fur a secon' all that hell of fire an' smoke an' killin' would float +away, an' I seed our mountain, with the cove, an' the trees, an' the +green grass growin' in it, an' the branch, with the water so clear you +could see your face in it, runnin' down the center, an' thar at the +head of the cove my cabin, not much uv a buildin' to look at, no +towerin' mansion, but just a stout two-room log cabin that the snows +an' hails of winter can't break into, an' in the door wuz standin' Mary +with the hair flyin' about her face, an' her eyes shinin', with the +little feller in her arms, lookin' at me 'way off as I come walkin' +fast down the cove toward 'em, returnin' from the big war." + +There was a moment's silence, and Dalton said gruffly to hide his +feelings: + +"Dick Jones, by the time this war is over, and you go walking down the +cove toward your home, a man with mustache and side whiskers will come +forward to meet you, and he'll be that son of yours." + +But Dick Jones cheerfully shook his head. + +"The war ain't goin' to last that long," he said confidently, "an' I +ain't goin' to git killed. What I saw will come true, 'cause I feel it +so strong." + +"There ought to be a general law forbidding a man with a young wife and +baby to go to a war," said Harry. + +"But they ain't no sich law," said Dick Jones, in his optimistic tone, +"an' so we needn't worry 'bout it. But if you two gen'rals should +happen along through the mountains uv western No'th Calliny after the +war I'd like fur you to come to my cabin, an' see Mary an' the baby an' +me. Our cove is named Jones' Cove, after my father, an' the branch that +runs through it runs into Jones' Creek, an' Jones' Creek runs into the +Yadkin River an' our county is Yadkin. Oh, you could find it plumb +easy, if two sich great gen'rals as you wuzn't ashamed to eat sweet +pertaters an' ham an' turkey an' co'n pone with a wagon driver like me." + +Harry saw, despite his playful method of calling them generals, that he +was thoroughly in earnest, and he was more moved than he would have +been willing to confess. + +"Too proud!" he said. "Why, we'd be glad!" + +"Mebbe your road will lead that way," said Jones. "An' ef you do, jest +remember that the skillet's on the fire, an' the latch string is +hangin' outside the do'." + +The allusion to the mountains made Harry's mind travel far back, over +an almost interminable space of time now, it seemed, when he was yet a +novice in war, to the home of Sam Jarvis, deep in the Kentucky +mountains, and the old, old woman who had said to him as he left: "You +will come again, and you will be thin and pale, and in rags, and you +will fall at the door. I see you coming with these two eyes of mine." + +A little shiver passed over him. He knew that no one could penetrate +the future, but he shivered nevertheless, and he found himself saying +mechanically: + +"It's likely that I'll return through the mountains, and if so I'll +look you up at that home in the cove on the brook that runs into Jones' +Creek." + +"That bein' settled," said Jones, "what do you gen'rals reckon to do +jest now, after havin' finished your big sleep?" + +"Your wagon is about to lose the first two passengers it has ever +carried," replied Harry. "Orderlies have our horses somewhere. We +belong on the staff of General Lee." + +"An' you see him an' hear him talk every day? Some people are pow'ful +lucky. I guess you'll say a lot about it when you're old men." + +"We're going to say a lot about it while we're young men. Good-by, Mr. +Jones. We've been in some good hotels, but we never slept better in +any of them than we have in this moving one of yours." + +"Good-by, you're always welcome to it. I think Marse Bob is on ahead." + +The two left the wagon and took to a path beside the road, which was +muddy and rutted deeply by innumerable hoofs and wheels. But grass and +foliage were now dry after the heavy rains that followed the Battle of +Gettysburg, and the sun was shining in late splendor. The army, taking +the lack of pursuit and attack as proof that the enemy had suffered as +much as they, if not more, was in good spirits, and many of the men +sang their marching songs. A band ahead of them suddenly began to play +mellow music, "Partant Pour La Syrie," and other old French songs. The +airs became gay, festive, uplifting to the soul, and they tickled the +feet of the young men. + +"The Cajun band!" exclaimed Harry. "It never occurred to me that they +weren't all dead, and here they are, playing us into happiness!" + +"And the Invincibles, or what's left of them, won't be far away," said +Dalton. + +They walked on a little more briskly and beside them the vast length of +the unsuccessful army still trailed its slow way back into the South. +The sun was setting in uncommon magnificence, clothing everything in a +shower of gold, through which the lilting notes of the music came to +Harry and Dalton's ears. Presently the two saw them, the short, dark +men from far Louisiana, not so many as they had been, but playing with +all the fervor of old, putting their Latin souls into their music. + +"And there are the Invincibles just ahead of them!" exclaimed Dalton. +"The two colonels have left the wagon and are riding with their men. +See, how erect they sit." + +"I do see them, and they're a good sight to see," said Harry. "I hope +they'll live to finish that chess game." + +"And fifty years afterward, too." + +A shout of joy burst from the road, and a tall young man, slender, dark +and handsome, rushed out, and, seizing the hands of first one and then +the other, shook them eagerly, his dark eyes glittering with happy +surprise. + +"Kenton! Dalton!" he exclaimed. "Both alive! Both well!" + +It was young Julien de Langeais, the kinsman of Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire, and he too was unhurt. The lads returned his grasp +warmly. They could not have kept from liking him had they tried, and +they certainly did not wish to try. + +"You don't know how it rejoices me to see you," said Julien, speaking +very fast. "I was sad! very sad! Some of my best friends have +perished back there in those inhospitable Pennsylvania hills, and while +the band was playing it made me think of the homes they will never see +any more! Don't think I'm effusive and that I show grief too much, but +my heart has been very heavy! Alas, for the brave lads!" + +"Come, come, de Langeais," said Harry, putting his hand on his +shoulder. "You've no need to apologize for sorrow. God knows we all +have enough of it, but a lot of us are still alive and here's an army +ready to fight again, whenever the enemy says the word." + +"True! True!" exclaimed de Langeais, changing at once from shadow to +sunshine. "And when we're back in Virginia we'll turn our faces once +more to our foe!" + +He took a step or two on the grass in time to the music which was now +that of a dance, and the brilliant beams of the setting sun showed a +face without a care. Invincible youth and the invincible gayety of the +part of the South that was French were supreme again. Dalton, looking +at him, shook his Presbyterian head. Yet his eyes expressed admiration. + +"I know your feelings," said Harry to the Virginian. + +"Well, what are they?" + +"You don't approve of de Langeais' lightness, which in your stern code +you would call levity, and yet you envy him possession of it. You +don't think it's right to be joyous, without a care, and yet you know +it would be mighty pleasant. You criticize de Langeais a little, but +you feel it would be a gorgeous thing to have that joyous spirit of +his." + +Dalton laughed. + +"You're pretty near the truth," he said. "I haven't known de Langeais +so very long, but if he were to get killed I'd feel that I had lost a +younger brother." + +"So would I." + +Two immaculate youths, riding excellent horses, approached them, and +favored them with a long and supercilious stare. + +"Can the large fair person be Lieutenant Kenton of the staff of the +commander-in-chief?" asked St. Clair. + +"It can be and it is, although we did not think to see him again so +soon," replied Happy Tom Langdon, "and the other--I do not allude to de +Langeais--is that spruce and devout young man, Lieutenant George +Dalton, also of the staff of the commander-in-chief." + +"Why do we find them in such humble plight, walking on weary feet in a +path beside the road?" + +"For the most excellent reason in the world, Arthur." + +"And what may that reason be, Tom?" + +"Because at last they have come down to their proper station in life, +just as surely as water finds its level." + +"But we'll not treat them too sternly. We must remember that they also +serve who walk and wait." + +But St. Clair and Langdon, their chaff over, gave them happy greeting, +and told them that the two colonels would be rejoiced to see them +again, if they could spare a few minutes before rejoining their +commander. + +"And here is an orderly with both your horses," said St. Clair, "so, +under the circumstances, we'll sink our pride and let you ride with us." + +De Langeais, with a cheerful farewell until the next day, returned to +his command, and Harry and Dalton, mounting, were in a few minutes +beside the Invincibles. Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire turned their horses from the road into the path and +saluted them with warmth. + +"We caught a glimpse of you just after our departure, Harry," said +Colonel Talbot, "but we did not know what had happened since. There is +always a certain amount of risk attending the removal of a great army." + +"I am glad, Leonidas, that you used the word 'removal' to describe our +operations after our great victory at Gettysburg," said +Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. "I have been feeling about for the +right word or phrase myself, but you have found it first." + +"Do you think it was a victory, sir?" asked Harry. + +"Undoubtedly. We have won several vast and brilliant triumphs, but +this is the greatest of them all. We have gone far into the enemy's +country, where we have struck him a terrible blow, and now, of our own +choice--understand it is of our own choice--we withdraw and challenge +him to come and repeat on our own soil our exploit if he can. It is +like a skilled and daring prize fighter who leaps back and laughingly +bids his foe come on. Am I not right, Leonidas?" + +"Neither Aristotle nor Plato was ever more right, Hector, old friend. +Usually there is more to a grave affair than appears upon the surface. +We could have gone on, after the battle, to Philadelphia, had we +chosen, but it was not alone a question of military might that General +Lee had to decide. He was bound to give weight to some very subtle +considerations. You boys remember your Roman history, do you not?" + +"Fragments of it, sir," replied Harry. + +"Then you will recall that Hannibal, a fine general, to be named +worthily with our great Lee so far as military movements are concerned, +after famous victories over greatly superior numbers of Romans, went +into camp at Capua, crowded with beauty, wine and games, and the +soldiers became enervated. Their fiber was weakened and their bodies +softened. They were quicker to heed the call to a banquet than the +call to arms." + +"Unless it was the arms of beauty, Leonidas." + +"Well spoken, Hector. The correction is most important, and I accept +it. But to take up again the main thread of my discourse. General Lee +undoubtedly had the example of the Carthaginian army and Capua in mind +when he left Gettysburg and returned toward the South. Philadelphia is +a great city, far larger and richer than any in our section. It is +filled with magnificent houses, beautiful women, luxury of every +description, ease and softness. Our brave lads, crowned with mighty +exploits and arriving there as conquerors, would have been received +with immense admiration, although we are official enemies. And the +head of youth is easily turned. The Army of Northern Virginia, +emerging from Philadelphia, to achieve the conquest of New York and +Boston would not be the army that it is to-day. It would lack some of +that fire and dash, some of the extraordinary courage and tenacity +which have enabled it to surpass the deeds of the veterans of Hannibal +and Napoleon." + +"But, sir, I've heard that the people of Philadelphia are mostly +Quakers, very sober in dress and manner." + +"Harry, my lad, when you've lived as long as I have you will know that +a merry heart may beat beneath a plain brown dress, and that an ugly +hood cannot wholly hide a sweet and saucy face. The girls--God bless +'em--have been the same in all lands since the world began, and will +continue so to the end. While this war is on you boys cannot go +a-courting, either in the North or South. Am I not right, Hector, old +friend?" + +"Right, as always, Leonidas. I perceive, though, that the sun is about +to set; not a new thing, I admit, but we must not delay our young +friends, when the general perhaps needs them." + +"Well spoken again, Hector. You are an unfailing fount of wisdom. Good +night, my brave lads. Not many of the Invincibles are left, but every +one of them is a true friend of you both." + +As they rode across the darkening fields Harry and Dalton knew that the +colonel spoke the truth about the Invincibles. + +"I like a faith such as theirs," said Dalton. + +"Yes, it can often turn defeat into real victory." + +They quickly found the general's headquarters, and as usual, whenever +the weather permitted, he had made arrangements to sleep in the open +air, his blankets spread upon soft boughs. Harry and Dalton, having +slept all day, would be on night duty, and after supper they sat at a +little distance, awaiting orders. + +Coolness had come with the dark. A good moon and swarms of bright +stars rode in the heavens, turning the skies to misty silver, and +softening the scars of the army, which now lay encamped over a great +space. Lee was talking with Stuart, who evidently had just arrived +from a swift ride, as an orderly near by was holding his horse, covered +with foam. The famous cavalryman was clothed in his gorgeous best. +His hat was heavy with gold braid, and the broad sash about his waist +was heavy with gold, also. Dandy he was, but brilliant cavalryman and +great soldier too! Both friend and foe had said so. + +Harry, sitting on the grass, with his back against a tree, watched the +two generals as they talked long and earnestly. Now and then Stuart +nervously switched the tops of his own high riding boots with the +little whip that he carried, but the face of Lee, revealed clearly in +the near twilight, remained grave and impassive. + +After a long while Stuart mounted and rode away, and Sherburne, who had +been sitting among the trees on the far side of the fire, came over and +joined Harry and Dalton. He too was very grave. + +"Do you know what has happened?" he said in a low tone to the two lads. + +"Yes, there was a big battle at Gettysburg, and as we failed to win it +we're now retreating," replied Harry. + +"That's true as far as it goes, but it's not all. We've heard--and the +news is correct beyond a doubt--that Grant has taken Vicksburg and +Pemberton's army with it." + +"Good God, Sherburne, it can't be so!" + +"It shouldn't be so, but it is! Oh, why did Pemberton let himself be +trapped in such a way! A whole army of ours lost and our greatest +fortress in the West taken! Why, the Yankee men-of-war can steam up +the Mississippi untouched, all the way from the Gulf to Minnesota." + +Harry and Dalton were appalled, and, for a little while, were silent. + +"I knew that man Grant would do something terrible to us," Harry said +at last. "I've heard from my people in Kentucky what sort of a general +he is. My father was at Shiloh, where we had a great victory on, but +Grant wouldn't admit it, and held on, until another Union army came up +and turned our victory into defeat. My cousin, Dick Mason, has been +with Grant a lot, and I used to get a letter from him now and then, +even if he is in the Yankee army. He says that when Grant takes hold +of a thing he never lets go, and that he'll win the war for his side." + +"Your cousin may be right about Grant's hanging on," said Dalton with +sudden angry emphasis, "but neither he nor anybody else will win this +war for the Yankees. We've lost Vicksburg, and an army with it, and +we've retreated from Gettysburg, with enough men fallen there to make +another army, but they'll never break through the iron front of Lee and +his veterans." + +"Hope you're right," said Sherburne, "but I'm off now. I'm in the +saddle all night with my troop. We've got to watch the Yankee cavalry. +Custer and Pleasanton and the rest of them have learned to ride in a +way that won't let Jeb Stuart himself do any nodding." + +He cantered off and the lads sat under the trees, ready for possible +orders. They saw the fire die. They heard the murmur of the camp +sink. Lee lay down on his bed of boughs, other generals withdrew to +similar beds or to tents, and the two boys still sat under the trees, +waiting and watching, and never knowing at what moment they would be +needed. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE NORTHERN SPY + + +But the night remained very quiet. Harry and Dalton, growing tired of +sitting, walked about the camp, and looked again to their horses, +which, saddled and bridled, were nevertheless allowed to nip the grass +as best they could at the end of their lariats. The last embers of the +fire went out, but the moon and stars remained bright, and they saw +dimly the sleeping forms of Lee and his generals. Harry, who had seen +nothing strange in Meade's lack of pursuit, now wondered at it. Surely +when the news of Vicksburg came the exultant Army of the Potomac would +follow, and try to deliver a crushing blow. + +It was revealed to him as he stood silent in the moonlight that a gulf +had suddenly yawned before the South. The slash of Grant's sword in +the West had been terrible, and the wound that it made could not be +cured easily. And the Army of Northern Virginia had not only failed in +its supreme attempt, but a great river now flowed between it and +Virginia. If the Northern leaders, gathering courage anew, should hurl +their masses upon Lee's retreating force, neither skill nor courage +might avail to save them. He suddenly beheld the situation in all its +desperation; he shivered from head to foot. + +Dalton saw the muscles of Harry's face quivering, and he noticed a +pallor that came for an instant. + +"I understand," he said. "I had thought of it already. If a Northern +general like Lee or Stonewall Jackson were behind us we might never get +back across the Potomac. It's somewhat the same position that we were +in after Antietam." + +"But we've no Stonewall Jackson now to help us." + +Again that lump rose in Harry's throat. The vision of the sober figure +on Little Sorrel, leading his brigades to victory, came before him, but +it was a vision only. + +"It's strange that we've not come in contact with their scouts or +cavalry," he said. "In that fight with Pleasanton we saw what horsemen +they've become, and a force of some kind must be hanging on our rear." + +"If it's there, Sherburne and his troop will find it." + +"I think I can detect signs of the enemy now," said Harry, putting his +glasses to his eyes. "See that hill far behind us. Can't you catch +the gleam of lights on it?" + +"I think I can," replied Dalton, also using glasses. "Four lights are +there, and they are winking, doubtless to lights on another hill too +far away for us to see." + +"It shows that the enemy at least is watching, and that while we may +retreat unattacked it will not be unobserved. Hark! do you hear that, +George? It's rifle shots, isn't it?" + +"Yes, and a lot of 'em, but they're a long distance away. I don't +think we could hear 'em at all if it were not night time." + +"But it means something! There they go again! I believe it's a heavy +skirmish and it's in the direction in which Sherburne rode." + +"The general's up. It's likely that one of us will be sent to see what +it's all about." + +General Lee and his whole staff had risen and were listening +attentively. The faint sound of many shots still came, and then a +sharper, more penetrating crash, as if light field guns were at work. +The commander beckoned to Harry. + +"Ride toward it," he said briefly, "and return with a report as soon as +you can." + +Harry touched his cap, sprang upon his horse and galloped away. He +knew that other messengers would be dispatched also, but, as he had +been sent first, he wished to arrive first. He found a path among the +trees along which he could make good speed, and, keeping his mind fixed +on the firing, he sped forward. + +Thousands of soldiers lay asleep in the woods and fields on either side +of him, but the thud of the horse's hoofs awakened few of them. Nor +did the firing disturb them. They had fought a great battle three days +long, and then after a tense day of waiting under arms, they had +marched hard. What to them was the noise made by an affair of outposts, +when they had heard so long the firing of a hundred and fifty thousand +rifles and three or four hundred big guns? Not one in a hundred stood +up to see. + +The country grew rougher, and Harry was compelled to draw his horse +down to a walk. But the firing, a half-mile or more ahead, maintained +its volume, and as he approached through thick underbrush, being able +to find no other way, he dismounted and led his horse. Presently he +saw beads of flame appearing among the bushes, seen a moment, then gone +like a firefly, and as he went further he heard voices. He had no +doubt that it was the Southern pickets in the undergrowth, and, calling +softly, he received confirmatory replies. + +A rifleman, a tall, slender fellow in ragged butternut, appeared beside +him, and, recognizing Harry's near-gray uniform as that of an officer, +said: + +"They're dismounted cavalry on the other side of a creek that runs +along over there among the bushes. I don't think they mean any real +attack. They expect to sting us a little an' find out what we're about." + +"Seems likely to me too. They aren't strong enough, of course, for an +attempt at rushing us. What troops are in here in the woods on our +side?" + +"Captain Sherburne's cavalry, sir. They're a bit to our right, an' +they're dismounted too. You'll find the captain himself on a little +knoll about a hundred yards away." + +"Thanks," said Harry, and leading his horse he reached the knoll, to +find the rifleman's statement correct. Sherburne was kneeling behind +some bushes, trying with the aid of glasses and moonlight to pick out +the enemy. + +"That you, Harry?" he said, glancing back. + +"Yes, Captain. The general has sent me to see what you and the rest of +you noisy fellows are doing." + +"Shooting across a creek at an enemy who first shot at us. It's only +under provocation that we've roused the general and his staff from +sleep. Use your glasses and see what you can make out in those bushes +on the other side! Keep down, Harry! For Heaven's sake keep down! +That bullet didn't miss you more than three inches. You wouldn't be +much loss to the army, of course, but you're my personal friend." + +"Thanks for your advice. I intend to stay so far down that I'll lie +almost flat." + +He meant to keep his word, too. The warning had been a stern one. +Evidently the sharpshooters who lay in the thickets on the Union side +of the creek were of the first quality. + +"There's considerable moonlight," whispered Sherburne, "and you mustn't +expose an inch of your face. I take it that we have Custer's cavalry +over there, mixed with a lot of scouts and skirmishers from the +Northwest, Michigan and Wisconsin, most likely. They're the boys who +can use the rifles in the woods. Had to do it before they came here, +and they're a bad lot to go up against." + +"It's a pretty heavy fire for a mere scouting party. If they want to +discover our location they can do it without wasting so much powder and +lead." + +"I think it's more than a scout. They must have discovered long since +just where we are. I imagine they mean to shake our nerve by constant +buzzing and stinging. I fancy that Meade and his generals after +deciding not to pursue us have changed their minds, perhaps under +pressure from Washington, and mean to cut us off if they can." + +"A little late." + +"But not too late. We're still in the enemy's country. The whole +population is dead against us, and we can't make a move that isn't +known within an hour to the Union leaders. I tell you, Harry, that if +we didn't have a Lee to lead I'd be afraid that we'd never get out of +Pennsylvania." + +"But we have a Lee and the question is settled. What a volley that +was! Didn't you feel the twigs and leaves falling on your face?" + +"Yes, it went directly over our heads. It's a good thing we're lying +so close. Perhaps they intend to force a passage of the creek and +stampede at least a portion of our camp." + +"And you're here to prevent it." + +"I am. They can't cross that creek in face of our fire. We're good +night-hawks. Every boy in the South knows the night and the woods, and +here in the bush we're something like Indians." + +"I'm the descendant of a famous Indian fighter myself," said Harry. And +there, surrounded by deep gloom and danger, the spirit of his mighty +ancestor, the great Henry Ware, descended upon him once more. An +orderly had taken their horses to the rear, where they would be out of +range of the bullets, and, as they crouched low in the bushes, +Sherburne looked curiously at him. + +Harry's face as he turned from the soldier to the Indian fighter of old +had changed. To Sherburne's fascinated gaze the eyes seemed amazingly +vivid and bright, like those of one who has learned to see in the dark. +The complexion was redder--Henry Ware had always burned red instead of +brown--like that of one who sleeps oftener in the open air than in a +house. His whole look was dominant, compelling and fierce, as he +leaned on his elbows and studied the opposing thickets through his +glasses. + +The glasses even did not destroy the illusion. To Sherburne, who had +learned Harry's family history, the great Henry Ware was alive, and in +the flesh before him. He felt with all the certainty of truth that the +Union skirmishers in the thicket could not escape the keen eyes that +sought them out. + +"I can see at least twenty men creeping about among the bushes, and +seeking chances for shots," whispered Harry. + +"I knew that you would see them." + +It was Harry's turn to give a look of curiosity. + +"What do you mean, Captain?" he asked. + +"I knew that you had good eyes and I believed that with the aid of the +glasses you would be able to trace figures, despite the shelter of the +bushes. Study the undergrowth again, will you, Harry, and tell me what +more you can see there?" + +"I don't need to study it. I can tell at one look that they're +gathering a force. Maybe they mean to rush the creek at a shallow +place." + +"Is that force moving in any direction?" + +"Yes, it's going down the creek." + +"Then we'll go down the creek with it. We mustn't be lacking in +hospitality." + +Sherburne drew a whistle from his pocket and blew a low call upon it. +Scores of shadowy figures rose from the undergrowth, and followed his +lead down the stream. Harry was still able to see that the force on +the other side was increasing largely in numbers, but Sherburne +reminded him that his duties, as far as the coming skirmish was +concerned, were over. + +"General Lee didn't send you here to get killed," he said. "He wants +you instead to report how many of us get killed. You know that while +the general is a kind man he can be stern, too, and you're not to take +the risk. The orderly is behind that hill with your horse and mine." + +Harry, with a sigh, fell back toward the hill. But he did not yet go +behind it, where the orderly stood. Instead he lay down among the +trees on the slope, where he could watch what was going forward, and +once more his face turned to the likeness of the great Indian fighter. + +He saw Sherburne's dismounted troop and others, perhaps five hundred in +all, moving slowly among the bushes parallel with the stream, and he +saw a force which he surmised to be of about equal size, creeping along +in the undergrowth on the other side. He followed both bodies with his +glasses. With long looking everything became clearer and clearer. The +moonlight had to him almost the brilliancy of day. + +His eyes followed the Union force, until it came to a point where the +creek ran shallow over pebbles. Then the Union leader raised his +sword, uttered a cry of command, and the whole force dashed at the +ford. The cry met its response in an order from Sherburne, and the +thickets flamed with the Southern rifles. + +The advantage was wholly with the South, standing on the defense in +dark undergrowth, and the Union troop, despite its desperate attempts +at the ford, was beaten back with great loss. + +Harry waited until the result was sure, and then he walked slowly over +the hill toward the point, where the orderly was waiting with the +horses. The man, who knew him, handed him the reins of his mount, +saying at the same time: + +"I've a note for you, sir." + +"For me?" + +"Yes, sir. It was handed to me about fifteen minutes ago by a large +man in our uniform, whom I didn't know." + +"Probably a dispatch that I'm to carry to General Lee." + +"No, sir. It's addressed to you." + +The note was written in pencil on a piece of coarse gray paper, folded +several times, but with a face large enough to show Harry's name upon +it. He wondered, but said nothing to the sentinel, and did not look at +the note again, until he had ridden some distance. + +He stopped in a little glade where the moonlight fell clearly. He +still heard scattered firing behind him, but he knew that the skirmish +was in reality over, and he concluded that no further attempt by Union +detachments to advance would be made in the face of such vigilance. He +could report to General Lee that the rear of his army was safe. So he +would delay and look at the letter that had come to him out of the +mysterious darkness. + +The superscription was in a large, bold hand, and read: + + + LIEUTENANT HARRY KENTON, + STAFF OF GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, C. S. A., + COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, + ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA. + + +He felt instinctively that something uncommon was coming, and, as most +people do when they are puzzled at the appearance of a letter, he +looked at it some seconds before opening it. Then he read: + +MR. KENTON: + +I have warned you twice before, once when Jefferson Davis was +inaugurated at Montgomery, and once again in Virginia. I told you that +the South could never win. I told you that she might achieve brilliant +victories, and she may achieve them even yet, but they will avail her +nothing. Victories permit her to maintain her position for the time +being, but they do not enable her to advance. A single defeat causes +her to lose ground that she can never regain. + +I tell you this as a warning. Although your enemy, I have seen you +more than once and talked with you. I like you and would save your +life if I could. I would induce you, if I could, to leave the army and +return to your home, but that I know to be impossible. So, I merely +tell you that you are fighting for a cause now lost. Perhaps it is +pride on my part to remind you that my early predictions have come +true, and perhaps it is a wish that the thought I may plant in your +mind will spread to others. You have lost at Gettysburg a hope and an +offensive that you can never regain, and Grant at Vicksburg has given a +death blow to the Western half of the Confederacy. + +As for you, I wish you well. + + WILLIAM J. SHEPARD. + + +Harry stared in amazement at this extraordinary communication, and read +it over two or three times. He was not surprised that Shepard should +be near, and that he should have been inside the Confederate lines, but +that he should leave a letter, and such a letter, for him was uncanny. +His first feeling, wonder, was succeeded by anger. Did Shepard really +think that he could influence him in such a way, that he could plant in +his mind a thought that would spread to others of his age and rank and +weaken the cause for which he fought? It was a singular idea, but +Shepard was a singular man. + +But perhaps pride in recalling the prediction that he had made long ago +was Shepard's stronger motive, and Harry took fire at that also. The +Confederacy was not beaten. A single defeat--no, it was not a defeat, +merely a failure to win--was not mortal, and as for the West, the +Confederacy would gather itself together there and overwhelm Grant! + +Then came a new emotion, a kind of gratitude to Shepard. The man was +really a friend, and would do him a service, if it could be done, +without injuring his own cause! He could not feel any doubt of it, +else the spy would not have taken the risk to send him such a letter. +He read it for the last time, then tore it into little pieces which he +entrusted to the winds. + +The firing behind him had died completely, and there was no sound but +the rustle of dry leaves in the light wind, nothing to tell that there +had been sharp fighting along the creek, and that men lay dead in the +forest. The moon and the stars clothed everything in a whitish light, +that seemed surcharged with a powerful essence, and this essence was +danger. + +The spirit of the great forest ranger descended upon him once more, and +he read the omens, all of which were sinister. He foresaw terrible +campaigns, mighty battles in the forest, and a roll of the dead so long +that it seemed to stretch away into infinity. + +Then he shook himself violently, cast off the spell, and rode rapidly +back with his report. Lee had risen and was standing under a tree. He +was fully dressed and his uniform was trim and unwrinkled. Harry +thought anew as he rode up, what a magnificent figure he was. He was +the only great man he ever saw who really looked his greatness. +Nothing could stir that calm. Nothing could break down that loftiness +of manner. Harry was destined to feel then, as he felt many times +afterward, that without him the South had never a chance. And the +choking came in his throat again, as he thought of him who was gone, of +him who had been the right arm of victory, the hammer of Thor. + +But he hid all these feelings as he quickly dismounted and saluted the +commander-in-chief. + +"What have you seen, Lieutenant Kenton?" asked Lee. + +"A considerable detachment of the enemy tried to force the passage of +the creek in our right rear. They were met by Captain Sherburne's +troop dismounted, and three companies of infantry, and were driven back +after a sharp fight." + +"Very good. Captain Sherburne is an alert officer." + +He turned away, and Harry, giving his horse to an orderly, again +resumed his old position under a tree, out of hearing of the generals, +but in sight. Dalton was not there, but he knew that skirmishing had +occurred in other directions, and doubtless the Virginian had been sent +on an errand like his own. + +He had a sense of rest and realization as he leaned back against the +tree. But it was mental tension, not physical, for which relief came, +and Shepard, much more than the battle at the creek, was in his +thoughts. + +The strong personality of the spy and his seeming omniscience oppressed +him again. Apparently he was able to go anywhere, and nothing could be +hidden from him. He might be somewhere in the circling shadows at that +very moment, watching Lee and his lieutenants. His pulses leaped. +Shepard had achieved an extraordinary influence over him, and he was +prepared to believe the impossible. + +He stood up and stared into the bushes, but sentinels stood there, and +no human being could pass their ring unseen. Presently Dalton came, +made a brief report to General Lee and joined his comrade. Harry was +glad of his arrival. The presence of a comrade brought him back to +earth and earth's realities. The sinister shadows that oppressed him +melted away and he saw only the ordinary darkness of a summer night. + +The two sat side by side. Dalton perhaps drew as much strength as +Harry from the comradeship, and they watched other messengers arrive +with dispatches, some of whom rolled themselves in their blankets at +once, and went to sleep, although three, who had evidently slept in the +day, joined Harry and Dalton in their vigil. + +Harry saw that the commander-in-chief was holding a council at that +hour, nearer morning than midnight. A general kicked some of the +pieces of burned wood together and fanned them into a light flame, +enough to take away the slight chill that was coming with the morning. +The men stood around it, and talked a long time, although it seemed to +Harry that Lee said least. Nevertheless his tall figure dominated them +all. Now and then Harry saw his face in the starshine, and it bore its +habitual grave and impassive look. + +The youth did not hear a word that was said, but his imaginative power +enabled him to put himself in the place of the commander-in-chief. He +knew that no man, however great his courage, could fail to appreciate +his position in the heart of a hostile country, with a lost field +behind him, and with superior numbers hovering somewhere in his rear or +on his flank. He realized then to the full the critical nature of +their position and what a mighty task Lee had to save the army. + +One of his young comrades whispered to him that the Potomac, the +barrier between North and South, was rising, flooded by heavy rains in +both mountains and lowlands, and that a body of Northern cavalry had +already destroyed a pontoon bridge built by the South across it. They +might be hemmed in, with their backs to an unfordable river, and an +enemy two or three times as numerous in front. + +"Don't you worry," whispered Dalton, with sublime confidence. "The +general will take us to Virginia." + +Harry projected his imagination once more. He sought to put himself in +the place of Lee, receiving all the reports and studying them, trying +to measure space that could not be measured, and to weigh a total that +could not be weighed. Greatness and responsibility were compelled to +pay thrice over for themselves, and he was glad that he was only a +young lieutenant, the chief business of whom was to fetch and carry +orders. + +Shafts of sunlight were piercing the eastern foliage when the council +broke up, and shortly after daylight the Southern army was again on the +march, with Northern cavalry and riflemen hanging on its flanks and +rear. Harry was permitted to rejoin, for a while, his friends of the +Invincibles and he found Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire riding very erect, a fine color in their faces. + +"You come from headquarters, Harry, and therefore you are omniscient," +said Colonel Talbot. "We heard firing in the night. What did it mean?" + +"Only skirmishers, Colonel. I think they wanted to annoy us, but they +paid the price." + +"Inevitably. Our general is as dangerous in retreat as in advance. I +fancy that General Meade will not bring up his lagging forces until we +near the Potomac." + +"They say it's rising, sir, and that it will be very hard to cross." + +"That creates a difficulty but not an impossibility. Ordinary men +yield to difficulties, men like our commander-in-chief are overcome +only by impossibilities. But the further we go, Harry, the more +reconciled I grow to our withdrawal. I have seen scarcely a friendly +face among the population. I would not have us thrust ourselves upon +people who do not like us. It would go very hard with our kindly +Southern nature to have to rule by force over people who are in fact +our brethren. Defensive wars are the just wars, and perhaps it will be +really better for us to retire to Virginia and protect its sacred soil +from the tread of the invader. Eh, Hector?" + +"Right, as usual, Leonidas. The reasons for our retirement are most +excellent. We have already spoken of the fact that Philadelphia might +prove a Capua for our young troops, and now we are relieved from the +chance of appearing as oppressors. It can never be said of us by the +people of Pennsylvania that we were tyrants. It's an invidious task to +rule over the unwilling, even when one rules with justice and wisdom. +It's strange, perhaps, Leonidas, but it's a universal truth, that +people would rather be ruled by themselves in a second rate manner than +by the foreigner in a first rate manner. Now, the government of our +states is attacked by Northern critics, but such as it is, it is ours +and it's our first choice. Do we bore you, Harry?" + +"Not at all, sir. I never listen to either you or Colonel Talbot +without learning something." + +The two colonels bowed politely. + +"I have wished for some time to speak to you about a certain matter, +Hector," said Colonel Talbot. + +"What is it, Leonidas?" + +"During the height of that tremendous artillery fire from Little Round +Top I was at a spot where I could see the artillerymen very well +whenever the smoke lifted. Several times, I noticed an officer +directing the fire of the guns, and I don't think I could have been +mistaken in his identity." + +"No, Leonidas, you were not. I too observed him, and we could not +possibly be mistaken. It was John Carrington, of course." + +"Dear old John Carrington, who was with us at West Point, the greatest +artilleryman in the world. And he was facing us, when the fortunes of +the South were turning on a hair. If any other man had been there, +directing those guns, we might have taken Cemetery Hill." + +"That's true, Leonidas, but it was not possible for any other man to be +in such a place at such a time. Granting that such a crisis should +arise and that it should arise at Gettysburg you and I would have known +long before that John would be there with the guns to stop us. Why, we +saw that quality in him all the years we were with him at West Point. +The world has never seen and never will see another such artilleryman +as John Carrington." + +"Good old John. I hope he wasn't killed." + +"And I hope so too, from the bottom of my heart. But we'll know before +many days." + +"How will you find out?" asked Harry curiously. + +Both colonels laughed genially. + +"Because he will send us signs, unmistakable signs," replied Colonel +Talbot. + +"I don't understand, sir." + +"His signs will be shells, shrapnel and solid shot. We may not have a +battle this week or next week, but a big one is bound to come some time +or other and then if any section of the Northern artillery shows +uncommon deadliness and precision we'll know that Carrington is there. +Why, we can recognize his presence as readily as the deer scents the +hunter. We'll have many notes to compare with him when the war is over." + +Harry sincerely hoped that the three would meet in friendship around +some festive table, and he was moved by the affection and admiration +the two colonels held for Carrington. Doubtless the great +artilleryman's feelings toward them were the same. + +They went into camp once more that night in a pleasant rolling country +of high hills, rich valleys, scattered forests, and swift streams of +clear water. Harry liked this Northern land, which was yet not so far +from the South. It was not more beautiful than his own Kentucky, but +it was much trimmer and neater than the states toward the Gulf. He saw +all about him the evidences of free labor, the proof that man worked +more readily, and with better results, when success or failure were all +his own. + +He was too young to spend much time in concentrated thinking, but as he +looked upon the neat Pennsylvania houses and farms and the cultivated +fields he felt the curse of black slavery in the South, but he felt +also that it was for the South itself to abolish it, and not for the +armed hand of the outsider, an outsider to whom its removal meant no +financial loss and dislocation. + +Despite himself his mind dwelt upon these things longer than before. He +disliked slavery, his father disliked it, and nearly all their friends +and relatives, and here they were fighting for it, as one of the two +great reasons of the Civil War. He felt anew how strangely things come +about, and that even the wisest cannot always choose their own courses +as they wish them. + +A fire, chiefly for cooking purposes, had been built for the general +and his staff in a cove surrounded by trees. A small cold spring +gushed from the side of a hill, flowed down the center of the cove, and +then made its way through the trees into the wider world beyond. It +was a fine little spring, and before the general came, the younger +members of the staff knelt and drank deeply at it. It brought thoughts +of home to all these young rovers of the woods, who had drunk a +thousand times before at just such springs as this. + +Soon Lee and his generals sat there on the stones or on the moss. +Longstreet, Stuart, Pickett, Alexander, Ewell, Early, Hill and many +others, some suffering from wounds, were with their commander, while +the young officers who were to fetch and carry sat on the fringe in the +woods, or stretched themselves on the turf. + +Harry was in the group, but except in extreme emergency he would not be +on duty that night, as he had already been twenty-four hours in the +saddle. Nevertheless he was not yet sleepy, and lying on his blanket, +he watched the leaders confer, as they had conferred every other night +since the Battle of Gettysburg. He was aware, too, that the air was +heavy with suspense and anxiety. He breathed it in at every breath. +Cruel doubt was not shown by words or actions, but it was an atmosphere +which one could not mistake. + +Word had been brought in the afternoon by hard riders of Stuart that +the Potomac was still rising. It could not be forded and the active +Northern cavalry was in between, keeping advanced parties of the +Southern army from laying pontoons. Every day made the situation more +desperate, and it could not be hidden from the soldiers, who, +nevertheless, marched cheerfully on, in the sublime faith that Lee +would carry them through. + +Harry knew that if the Army of the Potomac was not active in pursuit +its cavalrymen and skirmishers were. As on the night before, he heard +the faint report of shots, and he knew that rough work was going +forward along the doubtful line, where the fringes of the two armies +almost met. But hardened so much was he that he fell asleep while the +generals were still in anxious council, and the fitful firing continued +in the distant dark. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FLOODED RIVER + + +Harry and Dalton were aroused before daylight by Colonel Peyton of +Lee's staff, with instructions to mount at once, and join a strong +detachment, ready to go ahead and clear a way. Sherburne's troop would +lead. The Invincibles, for whom mounts had been obtained, would follow. +There were fragments of other regiments, the whole force amounting to +about fifteen hundred men, under the command of Sherburne, who had been +raised the preceding afternoon to the rank of Colonel, and whose skill +and valor were so well known that such veterans as Colonel Talbot and +Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire were glad to serve under him. Harry and +Dalton would represent the commander-in-chief, and would return +whenever Colonel Sherburne thought fit to report to him. + +Harry was glad to go. While he had his periods of intense thought, and +his character was serious, he was like his great ancestor, essentially +a creature of action. His blood flowed more swiftly with the beat of +his horse's hoofs, and his spirits rose as the free air of the fields +and forests rushed past him. Moreover he was extremely anxious to see +what lay ahead. If barriers were there he wanted to look upon them. If +the Union cavalry were trying to keep them from laying bridges across +the Potomac he wanted to help drive them away. + +Harry and Dalton had a right as aides and messengers of Lee to ride +with Sherburne, but before they joined him they rode among the +Invincibles, who were in great feather, because they too, for the time +being, rode, and toiled in neither dust nor mud. + +"Colonel Sherburne may think a good deal of his own immediate troop," +said St. Clair to Harry, "but if the men of the Invincibles could +achieve so much on foot they'll truly deserve their name on horseback. +Where is this enemy of ours? Lead us to him." + +"You'll find him soon enough," said Harry. "You South Carolina talkers +have learned many times that the Yankees will fight." + +"Yes, Harry, I admit it freely. But you must admit on your part that +the South Carolinians will fight as well as talk, although at present +most of the South Carolinians in this regiment are Virginians." + +"But not our colonel and lieutenant-colonel," said Happy Tom. "Real +old South Carolina still leads." + +"May they always lead!" said Harry heartily, looking at the two gray +figures. + +"Tell Colonel Sherburne," said Happy Tom, who was in splendid spirits, +"that we congratulate him on his promotion and are ready to obey him +without question." + +"All right. He'll be glad to know that he has your approval." + +"He might have the approval of worse men. I feel surging within me the +talents of a great general, but I'm too young to get 'em recognized." + +"You'll have to wait until the sections are not fighting each other, +but are united against a common foe. But meanwhile I'll tell Colonel +Sherburne that if he gets into a tight pinch not to lose heart as you +are here." + +Saluting Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire, Harry and +Dalton rode to the head of the column, where Sherburne led. They ate +their breakfast on horseback, and went swiftly down a valley in the +general direction of the Potomac. The dawn had broadened into full +morning, clear and bright, save for a small cloud that hung low in the +southwest, which Sherburne noticed with a frown. + +"That's a little cloud and it looks innocent," he said to Harry, "but I +don't like it." + +"Why not?" + +"Because in the ten minutes that I've been watching it I've been able +to notice growth. I'm weather-wise and we may have more rain. More +rain means a higher Potomac. A higher Potomac means more difficulty in +crossing it. More difficulty in crossing it means more danger of our +destruction, and our destruction would mean the end of the Confederacy." + +He spoke with deadly earnestness as he continued to look at the tiny +dusky spot on the western sky. Harry had a feeling of awe. Again he +realized that such mighty issues could turn upon a single hair. The +increase or decrease of that black splotch might mean the death or life +of the Confederacy. As he rode he watched it. + +His heart sank slowly. The little baby cloud, looking so harmless, was +growing. He said to himself in anger that it was not, but he knew that +it was. Black at the center, it radiated in every direction until it +became pale gray at the edges, and by and by, as it still spread, it +gave to the southwest an aspect that was distinctly sinister. + +Sherburne shook his head and the gravity of his face increased. As the +cloud grew alarm grew with it in his mind. + +"Maybe it will pass," said Harry hopefully. + +"I don't think so. It's not moving away. It just hangs there and +grows and grows. You're a woodsman, Harry, and you ought to feel it. +Don't you think the atmosphere has changed?" + +"I didn't have the courage to say so until you asked me, but it's +damper. If I were posing as a prophet I should say that we're going to +have rain." + +"And so should I. Usually at this period of the year in our country we +want rain, but now we dread it like a pestilence. At any other time +the Potomac could rise or fall, whenever it pleased, for all I cared, +but now it's life and death." + +"Our doubts are decided and we've lost. Look, sir the whole southwest +is dark now!" + +"And here come the first drops!" + +Sherburne sent hurried orders among the men to keep their ammunition +and weapons dry, and then they bent their heads to the storm which +would beat almost directly in their faces. Soon it came without much +preliminary thunder and lightning. The morning that had been warm +turned cold and the rain poured hard upon them. Most of the horsemen +were wet through in a short time, and they shivered in their sodden +uniforms, but it was a condition to which they were used, and they +thought little of themselves but nearly all the while of the Potomac. + +Few words were spoken. The only sounds were the driving of the rain +and the thud of many hoofs in the mud. Harry often saw misty figures +among the trees on the hills, and he knew that they were watched by +hostile eyes as the Northern armies in Virginia, were always watched +with the same hostility. It was impossible for Lee's men to make any +secret march. The population, intensely loyal to the Union, promptly +carried news of it to Meade or his generals. + +Twice he pointed out the watchers to Sherburne who merely shrugged his +shoulders. + +"I might send out men and cut off a few of them," he said, "but for +what good? Hundreds more would be left and we'd merely be burdened +with useless prisoners. Here's a creek ahead, Harry, and look how +muddy and foamy it is! It's probably raining harder higher up in the +hills than it is here, and all these creeks and brooks go to swell the +Potomac." + +The swift water rose beyond their stirrups and there was a vast +splashing as fifteen hundred men rode through the creek. It was a land +of many streams, and a few miles farther on they crossed another, +equally swollen and swift. + +They had hoped that the rain, like the sudden violence of a summer +shower, would pass soon, but the skies remained a solid gray and it +settled into a steady solemn pour, cold and threatening, and promising +to continue all day long. They could see that every stream they +crossed was far above its normal mark, and the last hope that they +might find the Potomac low enough for fording disappeared. + +The watchers on the hills were still there, despite the rain, but they +did no sharpshooting. Nor did the Southern force do damage to anybody +or anything, as it passed. Near noon Sherburne resolved to build a +fire in a cove protected by cliffs and heavy timber, and give his men +warm food lest they become dispirited. + +It was a task to set the wet wood, but the men of his command, used to +forest life, soon mastered it. Then they threw on boughs and whole +tree trunks, until a great bonfire blazed and roared merrily, thrusting +out innumerable tongues of red and friendly flame. + +"Is there anything more beautiful than a fine fire at such a time?" +said St. Clair to Harry. "As it blazes and eats into the wood it +crackles and those crackling sounds are words." + +"What do the words say?" + +"They say, 'Come here and stand before me. So long as you respect me +and don't come too close I'll do you nothing but good. I'll warm you +and I'll dry you. I'll drive the wet from your skin and your clothes, +and I'll chase the cold out of your body and bones. I'll take hold of +your depressed and sunken heart and lift it up again. Where you saw +only gray and black I'll make you see gold and red. I'll warm and cook +your food for you, giving you fresh life and strength. With my +crackling coals and my leaping flames I'll change your world of despair +into a world of hope.'" + +"Hear! Hear!" said Happy Tom. "Arthur has turned from a sodden +soldier into a giddy poet! Is any more poetry left in the barrel, +Arthur?" + +"Plenty, but I won't turn on the tap again to-day. I've translated for +you. I've shown you where beauty and happiness lie, and you must do +the rest for yourself." + +They crowded about the huge fire which ran the entire length of the +cove, and watched the cooks who had brought their supplies on +horseback. Great quantities of coffee were made, and they had bacon and +hard biscuits. + +Although the rain still reached them in the cove they forgot it as they +ate the good food--any food was good to them--and drank cup after cup +of hot coffee. Youthful spirits rose once more. It wasn't such a bad +day after all! It had rained many times before and people still lived. +Also, the Potomac had risen many times before, but it always fell +again. They were riding to clear the way for Lee's invincible army +which could go wherever it wanted to go. + +"Men on horseback looking at us!" hailed Happy Tom. "About fifty on a +low hill on our right. Look like Yankee cavalrymen. Wonder what they +take us for anyway!" + +Harry, St. Clair, Langdon and Dalton walked to the edge of the cove, +every one holding a cup of hot coffee in his hand. Sherburne was +already there and with his glasses was examining the strange group, as +well as he could through the sweeping rain. + +"A scouting party undoubtedly," he said, "but weather has made their +uniforms and ours look just about alike. It's equally certain though +that they're Yankees. No troop of ours so small would be found here." + +Harry was also watching them through glasses, and he took particular +note of one stalwart figure mounted upon a powerful horse. The +distance was too great to recognize the face, but he knew the swing of +the broad shoulders. It was Shepard and once more he had the uneasy +feeling winch the man always inspired in him. He appeared and +reappeared with such facility, and he was so absolutely trackless that +he had begun to appear to him as omniscient. Of course the man knew +all about Sherburne's advance and could readily surmise its purpose. + +"They're an impudent lot to sit there staring at us in that +supercilious manner," said Colonel Talbot. "Shall I take the +Invincibles, sir, and teach them a lesson?" + +Sherburne smiled and shook his head. + +"No, Colonel," he said, "although I thank you for the offer. They'd +melt away before you and we'd merely waste our energies. Let them look +as much as they please, and now that the boys have eaten their bread +and bacon and drunk their coffee, and are giants again, we'll ride on +toward the Potomac." + +"Do we reach it to-day, sir?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +"Not before to-morrow afternoon, even if we should not be interrupted. +This is the enemy's country and we may run at any time into a force as +large as our own if not larger." + +"Thank you for the information, Colonel Sherburne. My ignorance of +geography may appear astonishing to you, although we had to study it +very hard at West Point. But I admit my weakness and I add, as perhaps +some excuse, that I have lately devoted very little attention to the +Northern states. It did not seem worth my time to spend much study on +the rivers, and creeks and mountains of what is to be a foreign +country--although I may never be able to think of John Carrington and +many other of my old friends in the army as the foreigners they're sure +to become. Has the thought ever occurred to you, Colonel, that by our +victories we're making a tremendous lot of foreigners in America?" + +"It has, Colonel Talbot, but I can't say that the thought has ever been +a particularly happy one." + +"It's the Yankees who are being made into foreigners," said +Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. "The gallant Southern people, of +course, remain what they are." + +"They're going," said Harry. "They've seen enough of us." + +The distant troop disappeared over the crest of the hill. Harry had +noticed that Shepard led the way as if he were the ruling spirit, but +he did not consider it necessary to say anything to the others about +him. The trumpet blew and Sherburne's force, mounting, rode away from +the cove. Harry cast one regretful glance back at the splendid fire +which still glowed there, and then resigned himself to the cold and +rain. + +They did not stop again until far in the night. The rain ceased, but +the whole earth was sodden and the trees on the low ridge, on which +Sherburne camped, dripped with water. Spies might be all around them, +but for the sake of physical comfort and the courage that he knew would +come with it, he ordered another big fire built. Vigilant riflemen +took turns in beating up the forests and fields for possible enemies, +but the young officers once more enjoyed the luxury of the fire. Their +clothing was dried thoroughly, and their tough and sinewy frames +recovered all their strength and elasticity. + +"To enjoy being dry it is well to have been wet," said Dalton +sententiously. + +"That's just like you, you old Presbyterian," said Happy Tom. "I +suppose you'll argue next that you can't enjoy Heaven unless you've +first burned in the other place for a thousand years." + +"There may be something in that," said Dalton gravely, "although the +test, of course, would be an extremely severe one." + +"I know which way you're headed, George." + +"Then tell me, because I don't know myself." + +"As soon as this war is over you'll enter the ministry, and no sin will +get by you, not even those nice little ones that all of us like to +forgive." + +"Maybe you're right, Happy, and if I do go into the ministry I shall at +once begin long and earnest preparation for the task which would +necessarily be the most difficult of my life." + +"And may I make so bold as to inquire what it is, George?" + +"Your conversion, Happy." + +Langdon grinned. + +"But why do you want to convert me, George? I'm perfectly happy as I +am." + +"For your own well being, Tom. Your happiness is nothing to me, but I +want to make you good." + +Both laughed the easy laugh of youth, but Harry looked long at Dalton. +He thought that he detected in him much of the spirit of Stonewall +Jackson, and that here was one who had in him the makings of a great +minister. The thought lingered with him. + +St. Clair was carefully smoothing out his uniform and brushing from it +the least particle of mud. His first preoccupation always asserted +itself at the earliest opportunity, and in a very short time he was the +neatest looking man in the entire force. Harry, although he often +jested with him about it, secretly admired this characteristic of St. +Clair's. + +"You boys sleep while you can," said Sherburne, "because we can't +afford to linger in this region. Our safety lies in rapid marching, +giving the enemy no chance to gather a large force and trap us. Make +the best of your time because we're up and away an hour after midnight." + +The young officers were asleep within ten minutes, but the vigilant +riflemen patrolled the country in a wide circuit about them. Sherburne +himself, although worn by hard riding, slept but little. Anxiety kept +his eyes open. He knew that his task to find a passage for the army +across the swollen Potomac was of the utmost importance and he meant to +achieve it. He understood to the full the dangerous position in which +the chief army of the Confederacy stood. His own force might be +attacked at any moment by overwhelming numbers and be cut off and +destroyed or captured, but he also knew the quality of the men he led, +and he believed they were equal to any task. + +As he sat by the fire thinking somberly, a figure in the brush no great +distance away was watching him. Shepard, the spy, in the darkness had +passed with ease between the sentinels, using the skill of an Indian in +stalking or approaching, and now, lying well hidden, almost flat upon +his stomach, he surveyed the camp. He looked at Sherburne, sitting on +a log and brooding, and he made out Harry's figure wrapped in a blanket +and lying with his feet to the fire. + +Shepard's mind was powerfully affected. An intense patriot, something +remote and solitary in his nature had caused him to undertake this most +dangerous of all trades, to which he brought an intellectual power and +comprehension that few spies possess. As Harry had discovered long +since, he was a most uncommon man. + +Now Shepard as he gazed at this little group felt no hatred for them or +their men. He had devoted his life to the task of keeping the Union +intact. His work must be carried out in obscure ways. He could never +hope for material reward, and if he perished it would be in some +out-of-the-way corner, perhaps at the end of a rope, a man known to so +few that there would be none to forget him. And yet his patriotism was +so great and of such a fine quality that he viewed his enemies around +the fire as his brethren. He felt confident that the armies of the +North would bring them back into the Union, and when that occurred they +must come as Americans on an equal footing with other Americans. They +could not be in the Union and not of it. + +But Shepard's feeling for his official enemies would not keep him from +acting against them with all the skill, courage and daring that he +possessed in such supreme measure. He knew that it was Sherburne's +task to open a way for the Army of Northern Virginia to the Potomac and +to find a ford, or, in cooperation with some other force, to build a +bridge. It was for him to defeat the plan if he could. + +While the rain all the day before had brought gloom to the hearts of +Sherburne and his men it had filled his with joy, as he thought of the +innumerable brooks and creeks that were pouring their swollen waters +into the Potomac, already swollen too. He meant now to follow +Sherburne's force, see what plan it would attempt, what point, perhaps, +it would select for the bridge, and then bring the Union brigades in +haste to defeat it. + +It is said that men often feel when they are watched, although the +watcher is invisible, but it was not so in Sherburne's case. He did +not in the least suspect the presence of Shepard or of any foe, and the +spy, after he had seen all he wished, withdrew, with the same stealth +that had marked his coming. + +An hour after midnight all were awakened and they rode away. The next +day they reached the Potomac near Williamsport, where their pontoon +bridge had been destroyed, and looked upon the wide stream of the +Potomac, far too deep for fording. + +"If General Lee is attacked on the banks of this river by greatly +superior forces," said Sherburne, "he'll have no time to build bridges. +If we didn't happen to be victorious our forces would have to scatter +into the mountains, where they could be hunted down, man by man." + +"But such a thing as that is unthinkable, sir," said Harry. "We may +not win always, but here in the East we never lose. Remember Antietam +and the river at our back." + +"Right you are, Harry," said Sherburne more cheerfully. "The general +will get us out of this, and here is where we must cross. The river +may run down enough in two or three days to permit of fording. God +grant that it will!" + +"And so say I!" repeated Harry with emphasis. + +"I mean to hold this place for our army," continued Sherburne. + +"A reserved seat, so to speak." + +"Yes, that's it. We must keep the country cleared until our main force +comes up. It shouldn't be difficult. I haven't heard of any +considerable body of Union troops between us and the river." + +They made camp rapidly in a strong position, built their fires for +cooking, set their horses to grazing and awaited what would come. It +was a dry, clear night, and Harry, who had no duties, save to ride with +a message at the vital moment, looked at once for his friends, the +Invincibles. + +St. Clair met him and held up a warning hand, while Happy touched his +lip with his finger. Before the double injunction of silence and +caution, Harry whispered: + +"What's happened?" + +"A tragedy," replied St. Clair. + +"And a victory, too," said Happy Tom. + +"I don't understand," said Harry. + +"Then look and you will," said St. Clair. + +He pointed to a small clear space in which Colonel Leonidas Talbot and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sat on their blankets facing each +other with an empty cracker box between them, upon which their chess +men were spread. The firelight plainly revealed a look of dismay upon +the face of Colonel Talbot, and with equal plainness a triumphant +expression upon that of Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. + +"Colonel Talbot has lost his remaining knight," whispered St. Clair. "I +don't know how it came about, but when the event occurred we heard them +both utter a cry. Listen!" + +"I fail even yet, Hector, to see just how it occurred." said Colonel +Talbot. + +"But it has occurred, Leonidas, and that's the main thing. A general +in battle does not always know how he is whipped, but the whipping +hurts just as much." + +"You should not show too much elation over your triumph, Hector. +Remember that he laughs best who laughs last." + +"I take my laugh whenever I can, Leonidas, because no one knows who is +going to laugh last. It may be that he who laughs in the present will +also laugh at the end. What do you mean by that move, Leonidas?" + +"That to you is a mystery, Hector. It's like one of Stonewall +Jackson's flanking marches, and in due time the secret will be revealed +with terrible results." + +"Pshaw, Leonidas, you can't frighten a veteran like me. That for your +move, and here's mine in reply." + +The two gray heads bent lower over the board as the colonels made move +after move. The youths standing in the shadow of the trees watched +until the second time that night the two uttered a simultaneous cry. +But they were very different in quality. Now Colonel Talbot's +expressed victory and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire's consternation. + +"Your bishop, Hector!" exclaimed Colonel Talbot. "Pious and able +gentleman as he is, an honor to his cloth, he is nevertheless my +captive." + +"I admit that it was most unexpected, Leonidas. You have matched my +victory with one of yours. It was indeed most skillful and I don't yet +see what led to it." + +"Did I not warn you a little while ago that you couldn't frighten me? I +prepared a trap for you, and thus I rise from defeat to victory." + +"At any rate we are about even on the evening's work, Leonidas, and we +have made more progress than for the whole six months preceding. It +seems likely now that we can finish our game soon." + +A sudden crash of rifle fire toward the east and from a point not +distant told them no. They rose to their feet, but they put the +chessmen away very deliberately, while the young officers hastened to +their posts. The fire continued and spread about them in a half circle, +accompanied now and then by the deeper note of a light field gun. +Sherburne made his dispositions rapidly. All the men remained on foot, +but a certain number were told off to hold the horses in the center of +the camp. + +"We're attacked by a large force," said Sherburne, "Our scouts gave us +warning in time. Evidently they wish to drive us away from here +because this will be the ford in case the river falls in time." + +"Then you look for a sharp fight?" + +"Without question. And remember that you're to avoid all risk if you +can. It's not your business to get shot here, but it is your business, +and your highly important business, to ride back to General Lee with +the news of what's happening. In order to do that it's necessary for +you to remain alive." + +"I obey orders," said Harry reluctantly. + +"Of course you do. Keep back with the men who are holding the horses. +That fire is growing fast! I'm glad we were able to find a camp so +defensible as this hill." + +He hurried away to watch his lines and Harry remained at his station +near the horses, where Dalton was compelled by the same responsibility +to stay with him. It was the first time that Harry had been forced to +remain a mere spectator of a battle raging around him, and while not +one who sought danger for danger's sake, it was hard work to control +himself and remain quiet and unmoved. + +"I suspect they're trying to cut us off completely from our own army," +he said to Dalton. + +"Seems likely to me, too," said Dalton. "Wipe us out here, and hold +the river for themselves. Our scouts assured us that there was no +large force of the enemy in this region. It must have been gathered in +great haste." + +"In whatever way it was gathered, it's here, that's sure." + +There was a good moon now, and, using his glasses, Harry saw many +details of the battle. The attack was being pressed with great vigor +and courage. He saw in a valley numerous bodies of cavalry, firing +their carbines, and he saw two batteries, of eight light guns each, +move forward for a better range. Soon their shells were exploding near +the hill on which Harry stood, and the fire of the rifles, unbroken +now, grew rapidly in volume. + +But the men under Sherburne, youthful though most of them might be, +were veterans. They knew every trick of war, and columns of infantry +swept forward to meet the attack, preceded by the skirmishers, who took +heavy toll of the foe. + +"If they'd been able to make it a surprise they might have rushed us," +said Harry. + +"Nobody catches Sherburne sleeping," said Dalton. + +"That's true, and because they can't they won't be able to overcome him +here. Now there go our rifles! Listen to that crash. I fancy that +about a thousand were fired together, and they weren't fired for +nothing." + +"No," said Dalton, "but the Yankees don't give way. You can see by +their line of fire that they're still coming. Look there! A powerful +body of horse is charging!" + +It was unusual to see cavalry attack at night, and the spectacle was +remarkable, as the moonlight fell on the raised sabers. But the +defiant rebel yell, long and fierce, rose from the thicket, and, as the +rifles crashed, the entire front of the charging column was burned +away, as if by a stroke of lightning. But after a moment of hesitation +they came on, only to ride deeper into a rifle fire which emptied +saddles so fast that they were at last compelled to turn and gallop +away. + +"Brave men," said Harry. "A gallant charge, but it had to meet too +many Southern rifles, aimed by men who know how to shoot." + +"But their infantry are advancing through that wood," said Dalton. +"Hear them cheering above the rifle fire!" + +The Northern shout rang through the forest, and the rebel yell, again +full of defiance, replied. The cavalry had been driven off, but the +infantry and artillery were far from beaten. The sixteen guns of the +two batteries were massed on a hill and they began to sweep the +Southern lines with a storm of shells and shrapnel. The forest and the +dark were no protection, because the guns searched every point of the +Southern line with their fire. Sherburne's men were forced to give +ground, before cannon served with such deadly effect. + +"What will the colonel do?" asked Dalton. "The big guns give the +Yankees the advantage." + +"He'll go straight to the heart of the trouble," said Harry. "He'll +attack the guns themselves." + +He did not know actually in what manner Sherburne would proceed, but he +was quite sure that such would be his course. The wary Southern leader +instantly detailed a swarm of his best riflemen to creep through the +woods toward the cannon. In a few minutes the gunners themselves were +under the fire of hidden marksmen who shot surpassingly well. The +gunners, the cannoneers, the spongers, the rammers and the ammunition +passers were cut down with deadly certainty. + +The captain of the guns, knowing that the terrible rifle fire was +coming from the thickets, deluged the woods and bushes with shells and +shrapnel, but the riflemen lay close, hugging the ground, and although +a few were killed and more wounded, the vast majority crept closer and +closer, shooting straight and true in the moonlight. The fire from the +batteries became scattered and wild. Their crews were cut down so fast +that not enough men were left to work the guns, and their commander +reluctantly gave the order to withdraw to a less exposed position. + +"Rifles triumphant over artillery," said Harry, who studied everything +through his glasses; "but of course the dusk helped the riflemen." + +"That's true," said Dalton, "but it takes good men like Sherburne to +use the favoring chances. Now our boys are charging!" + +The tremendous rebel yell swelled through the forest, and the Southern +infantry rushed to the attack. Harry saw that the charge was +successful, and his ears told him so too. The firing moved further and +further away, and soon declined in volume. + +"They've been beaten off," said Harry. + +"At least for the time," said Dalton, "but I've an idea they'll hang on +our front and may attack again in a day or so." + +"How then are you and I to get through and tell General Lee that this +is the place to bridge the Potomac, if it's to be bridged at all?" + +Dalton shook his head. + +"I don't know," he replied, "and I won't think about it until Colonel +Sherburne gives his orders." + +The sounds of battle died in the distant woods. The last shot, whether +from cannon or rifle, was fired, and the Southern troops returned to +their positions, which they began to fortify strongly. Sherburne +appeared presently, his uniform cut by bullets in two or three places, +but his body untouched. He drew Harry and Dalton aside, where their +words could not be heard by anybody else. + +"You two," he said, "were to report to General Lee when I thought fit. +Well, the time has come; Harry, you go first, and, at a suitable +moment, George will follow. We have news of surpassing importance. We +took a number of prisoners in that battle and we were also lucky enough +to rescue several of our men who had been held as captives. We've +learned from them that General Meade, after making up his mind to +pursue, followed straight behind us for a while, but he has now turned +and gone southward in the direction of Frederick. He will cross South +Mountain, advance toward Sharpsburg, and attempt to smash us here, with +our backs to this swollen river. Why, some of the Federal leaders +consider the Army of Northern Virginia as good as destroyed already!" + +He spoke with angry emphasis. + +"But it isn't," said Harry. + +"No, it isn't. Doubtless General Lee will learn from scouts of his own +of General Meade's flanking movement, but we mustn't take the chance. +Moreover, we must tell him that this is the place for our army to +cross. If the river runs down in two or three days we'll have a ford +here." + +"I'm ready to go at any moment," said Harry. "Night helping me, I may +be able to ride through the lines of our enemies out there." + +"No, Harry, you must not go that way. They're so vigilant that you +would not have any possible chance. Nor can you ride. You must leave +your horse behind." + +"What way then must I go, sir?" + +"By the river. We have gathered up a few small boats, used at the +crossing here. You can row, can't you?" + +"Fairly well, sir." + +"'Twill do, because you're not to stay in the boat long. I want you to +drop down the stream until you're well beyond the Federal lines. Then +leave the boat and strike out across the country for General Lee. You +know the way. You can buy or seize a horse, and you must not fail." + +"I will not fail," said Harry confidently. + +"You'll succeed if anybody will, and now you must be off. Your pistols +are loaded, Harry? You may have to use them." + +They did not delay a minute, going down the shelving shore to the +Potomac, where a man held a small boat against the bank. + +"Get in, Harry," said Sherburne. "You'd better drop down three or four +miles, at least. Good-by and good luck." + +He shook hands with his colonel and Dalton, took the oars and pulled +far out into the stream. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A HERALD TO LEE + + +When he swept out upon the sullen bosom of the Potomac, Harry looked +back only once. He saw two dim figures going up the bank, and, at its +crest, a line of lights that showed the presence of the Southern force. +There was no sound of firing, and he judged that the enemy had +withdrawn to a distance of two or three miles. + +The night had turned darker since the battle ceased, and not many stars +were out. Clouds indicated that flurries of rain might come, but he +did not view them now with apprehension. Darkness and rain would help +a herald to Lee. The current was strong, and he did not have to pull +hard, but, observing presently that the far shore was fringed with +bushes, he sent the boat into their shadow. + +He did not anticipate any danger from the southern shore, but the old +inherited caution of the forest runners was strong within him. Under +the hanging bushes he was well hidden, but, in some places, the flood +in the river had turned the current back upon itself, and he was +compelled to pull with vigor on the oars. + +The clouds that had threatened did not develop much, and while the +forests were dark, the surface of the river showed clearly in the faint +moonlight. Any object upon it could be seen from either bank, and +Harry was glad that he had sought the shelter of the overhanging +bushes. He realized now that in this region, which was really the +theater of war, many scouts and skirmishers must be about. + +The bank above him was rather high and quite steep, for which he was +glad, as it afforded protection. A half mile farther down he came to +the mouth of a creek coming in from the South, and just as he passed it +he heard voices on the bank. He held his boat among the bushes on the +cliff and listened. Several men were talking, but he judged them to be +farmers, not soldiers. Yet they talked of the battle that night, and +Harry surmised that they were looking at the lights in the Southern +camp which might yet be visible from the high point on which they +stood. He could not gather from their words whether they were Northern +or Southern sympathizers, but it did not matter, as he had no intention +of speaking to them, hoping only that they would go away in a few +minutes and let him continue his journey unseen. + +His hope speedily came to pass. He heard their voices sinking in the +distance, and leaving the shelter of the bushes he pulled down the +stream once more. Then he found that he had deceived himself about the +clouds. If they had retired, they had merely recoiled, to use the +French phrase, in order to gather again with greater force. + +During his short stay among the bushes at the foot of the cliff the +whole heavens had blackened and the air was surcharged with the heavy +damp and tensity that betoken a coming storm. The lightning blazed +across the river thrice, and he heard a mutter which was not that of +cannon. Then came rain and a rushing wind and the surface of the river +was troubled grievously. It rose up in waves like those of a lake, and +Harry's boat rocked and tumbled so badly that in a few minutes it was +half-full of water. + +Fearing he might sink, carrying with him his great message, he pulled +again, but fiercely now, for the southern bank and the shelter of the +bushes, which, fortunately for him, grew here in the water's edge. He +shoved his boat with all his might among them, as their tops snapped +and crackled in the hurricane. But he knew he was safe there, and he +continued to push until it reached the edge of the land. + +The river would be swollen by another storm, but for the present it did +not bother him greatly. He was more immediately concerned with his +wish to get back to Lee as soon as possible, and he was grateful for +that dense clump of bushes, growing in the very water's edge, because +the wind was blowing like a hurricane and the waves were chasing one +another on the Potomac, like the billows on a lake. He was a fair +oarsman, but it would have taken greater skill than his to have kept +his boat afloat in the tempestuous river. + +The bushes formed an absolute protection. His boat swayed with them, +which saved it from being damaged, and the overhanging lee of the cliff +kept most of the rain from him. He also wrapped about his body the +pair of blankets that he always carried, and he sat there not only in +safety, but with a certain physical pleasure. + +Once more amid surroundings with the like of which Henry Ware had been +so familiar, the soul of his great ancestor seemed to have descended +upon him. Most young officers, no matter how brave or how skilled in +war, would have been awed and alarmed. He had no comrades at his +elbow. There was no light, no friendly sound to encourage him, he was +as truly alone, so far as his present situation was concerned, as any +pioneer had ever been in the heart of the wilderness. But for him +there was pleasure at that moment in being alone. He did not quiver +when the thunder rolled and crashed above his head, and the lightning +blazed in one Titanic sword slash after another across the surface of +the river. Rather, the wilderness and majesty of the scene appealed to +him. Leaning well back in his boat with his blankets closely wrapped +about him, he watched it, and his soul rose with the storm. + +Harry knew from its sudden violence that the rain would soon pass, and +if the waves abated a little he would certainly take his boat into the +river and try his fortunes again. Yet a precious hour was lost, and +nothing could replace it. The thunder ceased by and by and there was +only dim lightning on the far horizon. The waves began to abate, and, +taking off his blankets, he pushed his boat once more into the stream. + +It rocked prodigiously and shipped water, but by strenuous effort he +kept it afloat, and as the wind sank still further he decided that he +would seek the northern shore and disembark as soon as possible. It +would be easier to steal through the thickets than to navigate what +amounted to a wild sea. But the banks were yet too high and steep for +a landing, and he continued to row, keeping now near the middle of the +stream. + +Wind and rain were dying fast, and he heard a sound behind uncommonly +like the distant swish of oars. It sent an unpleasant thrill through +him, because he wished to be alone on the river at that particular +time, but his eyes, tracing a course through all the dusk and gloom, +rested upon another boat, about two hundred yards away, containing a +single occupant. + +A farmer or a riverman, Harry thought, but to his great astonishment +the man suddenly raised himself up a little and shouted to him in a +tremendous voice to halt. Harry had not the least idea of stopping for +anybody. He bent to his oars and rowed swiftly on. Again came that +shout to halt, and it seemed more insolent to him than before. He put +a few more ounces of strength into his arms and shoulders and increased +his speed. + +The pursuer, suddenly drawing in his oars, raised a rifle from the +bottom of his boat, and fired point blank at the fugitive. The bullet +whistled so near Harry that he felt his ear burn, and at first thought +he was hit. He would have been glad to fire back, but his pistols could +not carry like his enemy's rifle, and there was nothing to do but flee. +Once again he sought to draw a few more ounces of energy from his body. +But the man behind him was a much greater oarsman than he and gained +rapidly. The stranger, shouting another command to halt, to which no +attention was paid, fired a second time, and the bullet went through +the side of Harry's boat, barely scraping his knee as it passed. + +His rage became intense. He had been shot at many times in battle, and +many times he had fired his pistols into the opposing masses, but here +upon this river a man sought his life, as the savages of old sought the +hunter. Another glance showed him that pursuer had closed up half the +distance between them, and, snatching one of the pistols from his belt, +he fired. He knew that he had missed, as he saw the water spurt up +beside the boat, but he thought that his bullet and the probability of +more might delay the pursuit. Nevertheless the man came on as boldly +and as fast as ever. If he fired a third time he could scarcely miss +at such short range. + +It seemed to Harry the gift of Heaven, that a whole pack of clouds +should drift above them at that moment, deepening the obscurity and +making the pursuing boat, although it was so near, a shapeless form in +the mist. He could not see the features of the man, but he was able to +discern his large and powerful figure, and he noticed the rhythmic +manner in which his arms and shoulders worked at the oars. Obviously +he had no chance to escape him by flight, and drawing his second pistol +he fired. The bullet struck the boat but did no damage. The man came +on faster than ever. Harry took a desperate resolution, and, whirling +his boat about, he rowed it straight at his pursuer, who was now almost +level with him. He intended to ram and take his chances. His movement +was so quick and unexpected that it succeeded. The bow of his boat, +helped perhaps by a wave, struck the other with such violence that both +were shattered and sank instantly. + +Harry went down with his craft, but in a few seconds came up again, his +mouth and eyes full of muddy water. He was a splendid swimmer, and his +eyes clearing in a moment he looked toward the northern shore, seeking +an easy place for landing. They encountered ten feet away a large +sun-browned face and two burning eyes. + +"Shepard!" Harry gasped. + +"And so it was you, Lieutenant Kenton. Perhaps if I had known it was +you I wouldn't have fired upon you." + +"Don't let that deter you. We're enemies." + +"I merely said 'perhaps!' I like you, but that wouldn't keep me from +stopping you by any method I could from reaching Lee." + +"I'm sure it wouldn't. I like you, too, Mr. Shepard, but we're enemies +here in this river, deadly enemies, and I mean to beat you off." + +"One may mean to do a thing and yet not do it. I'm the larger and the +more powerful. Besides, I'm toughened by superior age. You'd better +surrender, Mr. Kenton. I don't want to do you any bodily harm." + +"I admit that you're larger and stronger, but on land only. I'm the +better swimmer. We're both floating now, but if you'll make a +comparison, Mr. Shepard, you'll find that I'm doing it with the +greatest ease. Take my advice, and swim to the southern bank of the +river while I go to the northern. I say it in all good faith." + +"I've no doubt of that, but the young are likely to over-estimate their +powers. I'm a good swimmer, and you can't escape me." + +"The important point is not whether I can escape you, but whether you +can escape me. Since you have lost your boat and your rifle and we're +in such a treacherous and unstable element as water, I occupy the +superior position. The young may indeed over-estimate their powers, +but in swimming at least I'm a competent critic. For instance, you're +holding your shoulders too high, and you kick too much. You're +splashing water, a useless waste of energy. Now observe me. The +surface of this river is rough. Little waves are yet running upon it, +but I float as easily as a fish, come up to see by the moon what time +it is. It is not egotism on my part, merely a recognition of the +facts, but I warn you, Mr. Shepard, to swim to the other shore and let +me alone." + +The two were not ten feet apart, and, despite the lightness of their +talk, their eyes burned with eagerness and intensity. Harry knew that +Shepard would not dream of turning back. Yet in the water he awaited +the result with a confidence that he would not have felt on land. + +"It's your move, Mr. Shepard," he said. + +The intensity of Shepard's gaze increased, and Harry never took his +eyes from those of his enemy. He intended like a prize fighter to read +there what the man's next effort would be. + +"I don't see that it's my move," said Shepard, as he floated calmly. + +"You're following me for the purpose of capturing me." + +"To capture you, or delay you. Meanwhile, it seems to me that I'm +delaying you very successfully. I can't see that you're making much +progress towards Lee." + +"That depends upon which way this river is flowing. You note that we +float gently with the stream." + +"It's a poor argument. The Potomac flows directly by Washington, and +if we were to float on we'd float into the heart of great Northern +fortresses instead of Lee's camp." + +"That's true as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough. I'm +leaving the river soon. You can have it all then." + +"Thanks, but I think I'll go with you, Lieutenant Kenton." + +"Then come to the bottom!" exclaimed Harry, as he dived forward like a +flash, seized Shepard by the ankles and headed for the bottom of the +river with him. The water gurgled in his eyes and ears and nose, but +he held on for many seconds, despite the man's desperate struggles. +Then he was forced to let go and rise. + +As his head shot above the stream he saw another shooting up in the +same manner about fifteen feet away. Both were choked and gasping, but +Harry managed to say: + +"I didn't intend for you to come up so soon." + +"I suppose not, but perhaps you didn't pause to think that when you +rose I'd rise with you." + +"Yes, that's true. It seems to me that matters grow complicated. Can't +you persuade yourself, Mr. Shepard, to go and leave me alone? I really +have no use for you here." + +"I'd like to oblige you, Lieutenant Kenton, but I intend to see that +you don't reach General Lee." + +"Still harping upon that? It seems to me that you're a stupidly +stubborn man. Don't you know that I'm going anyhow?" + +Harry had never ceased to watch his eyes, and he saw there the signal +of a coming movement. Shepard dived suddenly for him, intending to +repeat his own trick, but the youth was like a fish in the water, and +he darted to the right. The man came up grasping nothing. Harry +laughed. The chagrin of Shepard compelled his amusement, although he +liked the man. + +"I wish you'd go away, Mr. Shepard," he said. "On land you could, +perhaps, overpower me, but in the water I think I'm your master. All +through my boyhood I devoted a great deal of my time to swimming. Dr. +Russell of the Pendleton Academy--but you never knew him--used to say +that if I would swim less and study more I could make greater +pretensions to scholarship." + +Shepard, swimming rather easily, regarded him thoughtfully. + +"While we talk to each other in this more or less polite manner, Mr. +Kenton," he said, "we must not forget that we're in deadly earnest. I +mean to take you, and our scouts mean to take every other messenger who +goes out from Colonel Sherburne's camp. You know, and I know, that if +the Army of Northern Virginia does not reach in a few days that camp, +where there is a ford in ordinary weather, it will be driven up against +the Potomac and we can accumulate such great forces against it that it +cannot possibly escape. Even at Sherburne's place its escape is more +than doubtful, if it has to linger long." + +"Yes, I know these things quite well, Mr. Shepard. I know also, as you +do, that General Meade's army is not in direct pursuit, and, that in a +flanking movement, he is advancing across South Mountain and toward +Sharpsburg. It is a march well calculated and extremely dangerous to +General Lee, if he does not hear of it in time. But he will hear of it +soon enough. A comrade of mine, George Dalton, will tell him. Others +from Colonel Sherburne's camp will tell him, and I mean to tell him +too. I hope to be the first to do so." + +Harry never deceived himself for a moment. He knew that although +Shepard liked him, he would go to the uttermost to stop him, and as for +himself, while he had a friendly feeling for the spy, he meant to use +every weapon he could against him. Realizing that he could not linger +much longer, as the chill of the water was already entering his body, +he swam closer to Shepard, still staring directly into his eyes. How +thankful he was now for those innumerable swimmings in the little river +that ran near Pendleton! Everything learned well justifies itself some +day. + +Although there was but little moonlight they were so close together +that they could see the eyes of each other clearly, and Harry detected +a trace of uneasiness in those of Shepard. A good swimmer, the water +nevertheless was not his element, and although a man of great physique +and extraordinary powers, he longed for the solid earth under his feet. + +Harry drew himself together as if he were going to dive, but instead of +doing so suddenly raised himself in the water and shot forth his +clenched tight fist with all his might. Shepard was taken completely +by surprise and he sank back under the water, leaving a blood stain on +its surface. Harry watched anxiously, but Shepard came up again in a +moment or two, gasping and swimming wildly. The point of his jaw was +presented fairly and Harry struck again as hard as he could in the +water. Shepard with a choked cry went under and Harry, diving forward, +seized his body, bringing it to the surface. + +Shepard was senseless, but getting an arm under his shoulders Harry was +able to swim with him to the northern shore, although it took nearly +all his strength. Then he dragged him out upon the bank, and sank +down, panting, beside him. + +The great Civil War in America, the greatest of all wars until nearly +all the nations of Europe joined in a common slaughter, was a humane +war compared with other wars approaching it in magnitude. It did not +occur to Harry to let Shepard drown, nor did he leave him senseless on +the bank. As soon as his own strength returned he dragged him into a +half-sitting position, and rubbed the palms of his hands. The spy +opened his eyes. + +"Good-by, Mr. Shepard," said Harry. "I'm bound to leave before you +recover fully because then I wouldn't be your match. I'm sorry I had +to hit you so hard, but there was nothing else to do." + +"I don't blame you. It was man against man." + +"The water was in my favor. I'm bound to admit that on land you'd have +won." + +"At any rate I thank you for dragging me out of the river." + +"You'd have done as much for me." + +"So I would, but our personal debts of gratitude can't be allowed to +interfere with our military duty." + +"I know it. Therefore I take a running start. Good-by." + +"We'll meet again." + +"But not on this side of the Potomac. It may happen when the Army of +Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac go into battle on the +other side of the river." + +Harry darted into the forest, and ran for a half-hour. He meant to put +as much distance as possible between Shepard and himself before the +latter's full strength returned. He knew that Shepard would follow, if +he could, but it was not possible to trail one who had a long start +through dark and wet woods. + +He came through the forest and into a meadow surrounded by a rail +fence, on which he sat until his breath came back again. He had +forgotten all about his wet uniform, but the run was really beneficial +to him as it sent the blood leaping through his veins and warmed his +body. + +"So far have I come," said Harry, "but the omens promise a hard march." + +He had his course fixed very clearly, and a veteran now in experience, +he could guide himself easily by the moon and stars. The clouds were +clearing away and a warm wind promised him dry clothing, soon. Long +afterward he thought it a strange coincidence that his cousin, Dick +Mason, in the far South should have been engaged upon an errand very +similar in nature, but different in incident. + +He crossed the meadow, entered an orchard and then came to a narrow +road. The presence of the orchard indicated the proximity of a +farmhouse, and it occurred to Harry that he might buy a horse there. +The farmer was likely to be hostile, but risks must be taken. He drew +his pistols. He knew that neither could be fired after the thorough +wetting in the river, but the farmer would not know that. He saw the +house presently, a comfortable two-story frame building, standing among +fine shade trees. Without hesitation he knocked heavily on the door +with the butt of a pistol. + +He was so anxious to hasten that his blows would have aroused the best +sleeper who ever slept, and the door was quickly opened by an elderly +man, not yet fully awake. + +"I want to buy a horse." + +"Buy a horse? At this time of the night?" + +He was about to slam the door, but Harry put his foot over the sill and +the muzzle of his pistol within six inches of the man's nose. + +"I want to buy a horse," he repeated, "and you want to sell one to me. +I think you realize that fact, don't you?" + +"Yes, I do," replied the man, looking down the muzzle of the big horse +pistol. + +"Come outside and close the door behind you. I know you haven't on +many clothes, but the night's warm, and you need fresh air." + +The man with the muzzle of the pistol still near his nose, obeyed. But +as he looked at the weapon he also had a comprehensive view of the one +who held it. + +"Wet ain't you?" he said. + +"Do you think it necessary to put it in the form of a question?" + +"I don't like to say, unless I'm shore." + +"Where do you keep your horses?" + +"In the barn here to the left. What kind of a horse did you think +you'd keer fur most, stranger?" + +"The biggest, the strongest and fastest you've got" + +"I thought mebbe you'd want one with wings, you 'pear to be in such a +pow'ful hurry. I wish you wouldn't keep that pistol so near to my +nose. 'Sides, you've gethered so much mud an' water 'bout you that you +ain't so very purty to look at!" + +"It's your own mud and water. I didn't bring it into this country with +me." + +"Which means that you don't belong in these parts. I reckon lookin' at +you that you wuz one o' them rebels that went to Gettysburg and then +come back ag'in." + +"Exactly right, Mr. Farmer. I'm an officer in General Lee's army." + +"Then I wuz right 'bout you needin' a horse with wings. An' I guess +all the men in your army need horses with wings. Don't be in such a +tarnal hurry. You're goin' to stay right up here with us, boarders, so +to speak, till the war is over." + +Harry laughed. + +"Kind of you," he said, "but here is the stable and do you open the +stall doors one by one, and let me see the horses. At the first sign +of any trick I pull the trigger." + +"Well, as I don't like violence I'll show you the horses. Here's the +gray mare, five years old, swift but can't last long. This is old +Rube, nigh onto ten, mighty strong, but as balky as a Johnny Reb +hisself. Don't want him! No? Then I think that's about all." + +"No it's not! You open that last stall door at once!" + +The farmer made a wry face, and threw back the door with a slam. Harry +still covering the man with the pistol that couldn't go off, saw a +splendid bay horse about four years old. + +"Holding out on me, were you?" he said. "Did you think a Confederate +officer could be fooled in that manner?" + +"I reckon I oughtn't to have thought so. I've always heard that the +rebels had mighty good eyes for Yankee horseflesh." + +"I'll let that pass, because maybe it's true. Now, saddle and bridle +him quicker than ever before in your life." + +The farmer did so, and Harry took care to see that the girth was secure. + +"At how much did you value this horse?" he asked. + +"I did put him down at two hundred dollars, but I reckon he's worth +nothin' to me now." + +"Here's your money. When General Lee goes through the enemy's country +he pays for what he takes." + +He thrust a roll of good United States bills into the astonished man's +hand, and sprang upon the horse. Then he turned from the stable and +rode swiftly up the road, but not so swiftly that he did not hear a +bullet singing past his ears. A backward glance showed him an elderly +farmer in his night clothes standing on his porch and reloading his +rifle. + +"Well, I can't blame you, I suppose," said Harry. "You can guess +pretty well what I am, and it's your business to stop me." + +But he rode fast enough to be far beyond the range of a second bullet, +and maintained a good pace for a long time, through hilly and wooded +country. His uniform dried upon him, and his hardy form felt no ill +result from the struggle in the river. The horse was strong and +spirited, and Harry knew that he could carry him without weariness to +Lee. He looked upon his mission as already accomplished, but his +ambition to reach the commander-in-chief first was yet strong. + +He rode throughout the rest of the night and dawn and the pangs of +hunger came together. But he decided that he would not turn from his +path to seek food. He would go on straight for Lee and let hunger have +its way. He had a splendid horse under him and he was faring quite as +well as he had a right to expect. He thought of Shepard, and felt pity +for him. The man had only striven to do his duty, and while he had used +force he had been very courteous and polite about it. Harry was bound +to acknowledge that his had been a very chivalrous enemy and only his +superiority in swimming had enabled him to win over Shepard. He was +glad that he had saved him and had left him on the bank, so to speak, +to dry. + +Then Shepard faded away with the mists and vapors that were retreating +before a brilliant dawn. The country was high, rolling, and the +foliage, although much browned by the July sun, which was unusually hot +that year, was still dense. Most of the hills were heavy with forest, +but all the valleys between were fertile and well cultivated. With the +dew of the morning fresh upon it the whole region was refreshing and +soothing to the eye with a look of peace, where in reality there was no +peace. Many thin columns of smoke lying blue against the silver sky +told where farmhouses stood, and hunger suddenly seized upon Harry +again. + +Hunger is natural to youth, and his severe exertions all through the +night had greatly increased it. It became both a pain and a weakness. +His shoulders drooped with fatigue, and he felt that he must have food +or faint by the way. + +He was ashamed of his physical weakness, but he knew that unless he +found food his faintness would increase, and hunger alone would stop +him, where so able a man as Shepard could not. His uniform, faded +anyhow, was so permeated with the dried mud of the river that it would +take a keen eye to tell whether it was Federal or Confederate, and he +need not disclose his identity in this region, which was so strongly +for the Union. He made up his mind quickly and rode for the nearest +farmhouse. + +Harry knew that he was inviting risks. His pistols were still useless +but they would be handy for threats, and he should be able to take care +of himself at a farmhouse. + +The house that he had chosen was only a few hundred yards away, its +white walls visible among trees, and the clatter of his horse's hoofs +brought a man from a barn in the rear. Harry noted him keenly. He was +youngish, stalwart and the look out of his blue eyes was fearless. He +came forward slowly, examining his visitor, and his manner was not +altogether hospitable. Harry decided that he had to deal with a +difficult customer but he had no idea of turning back. + +"Good morning," he said politely. + +"Good morning." + +"I wish some breakfast and I will pay. I've ridden all night in our +service." + +"You've so much dried mud on you that you look as if you'd been passin' +through a river." + +"Correct. That's exactly what happened." + +"But there's none on your horse." + +"He didn't pass with me. I'm willing to answer any reasonable number +of questions, but, as I told you before, I ride on an important +service. I must have breakfast at once, and I'll pay." + +"Whose service? Ours or Reb's?" + +"A military messenger can't answer the chance questions of those by the +roadside. I tell you I want breakfast at once." + +"Fine horse you ride, stranger. How long have you had him?" + +"All this year." + +"Funny. When I saw him last week he belonged to Jim Kendall down by +the Potomac, an' livin' on this very road, too." + +"It isn't half as funny as you think. Hands up! Now call to your wife +as loud as you can to bring me coffee and food at the gate! I know +they're ready in the kitchen. I can smell 'em here. Out with it, call +as fast as and as loud as you can, or off goes the top of your head!" + +Although a horse pistol held in a firm hand was thrust under his nose, +the man's blue eyes glared hate and defiance, and his mouth did not +open. Harry, in his excitement and anger, forgot that the charge in his +weapon was ruined and hence it was no acting with him when his own eyes +blazed down at the other and he fairly shouted: + +"I give you until I can count ten to call your wife! One! two! three! +four! five! six! seven! eight! nine!--" + +"Sophy! Sophy!" cried the farmer, who saw death flaming in the eyes +that looked into his, "Come! Come a-runnin'!" + +A good looking young woman threw open a door and ran, frightened, +toward the gate, where she saw her husband under the pistol muzzle of a +wild and savage looking man on horseback. + +"Sophy," said the farmer, "bring this infernal rebel a cup of coffee +and a plate of bread and meat. If it weren't for his pistol I'd drag +him off his horse and carry him to General Meade, but he's got the drop +on me!" + +"And Sophy," said Harry, who was growing cooler, "you make it a big tin +cup of coffee and you see that the plate is piled high with meat and +bread. Now don't you make one mistake. Don't you come back with any +weapon in your hand in place of food, and don't you fire on me from the +house with the family rifle. You're young and you're good looking, +and, doubtless the widow of our friend here with the upraised hands, +wouldn't have to wait long for another husband just as good as he is." + +The woman paled a little, and Harry knew that some thought of the +family rifle had been in her mind. The husband's glare became +ferocious. + +"You can take your hands down," said Harry. "I've no wish to torture +you, and I'm satisfied now that you're not armed." + +The man dropped his arms and the woman hurried to the kitchen. Harry +did not watch her, but kept his eyes continually upon the man, who he +knew would take advantage of his first careless moment, and spring for +him like a tiger. A pistol that he couldn't fire wouldn't be of much +use to him then. + +But the woman returned with a big tin cup of smoking coffee and a plate +piled high with bread and bacon and beefsteak. It was a welcome sight. +The aspect of the whole world became brighter at once, and the pulse of +hope beat high. But happiness did not make him relax caution. + +"Stand back about ten feet more," he said to the man, "I don't like +your looks." + +"What's the matter with my looks?" + +"It's not exactly your looks I mean, though they're scarcely worthy of +the lady, your wife, but it's rather your attitude or position which +reminds me of a lion or a tiger about to spring upon something it +hates." + +The man, with a savage growl, withdrew a little. + +"I'd like to put a bullet through you," he said. + +"I've no doubt of it, your eyes show it, but before I take a polite +leave of you I want to tell you that I did not steal this horse from +your friend, Jim Kendall. I paid for it at his own valuation." + +"Confederate money that won't be worth a dollar a bale before long." + +"Oh, no, bills that were made and stamped at Washington, and I pay for +this breakfast in silver." + +He dropped it into the hand of the woman, as he took the huge cup of +coffee from her. Then he drank deep and long, and again and again, +draining the last drop of the brown liquid. + +"I hope it's burnt the lining out of your throat," said the man +savagely. + +"It was warm, but I like it that way. It was good indeed, and I'm +sorry, Madame, that you have such a violent and ill-tempered husband. +Maybe your next will be a much better man." + +"John is neither violent nor ill-tempered. He's never said a harsh +word to me since we were married. But he hates the rebels dreadfully." + +"That's too bad. I don't hate him and I'm glad you can give him a good +character. A man's own wife knows best. Now, I'm going to eat this +breakfast as I ride on. You'll find the plate on the fence a quarter +of a mile ahead." + +He bowed to both, and still keeping a wary eye on the man, thrust his +pistol into his belt, and as his horse moved forward at a swift and +easy gait he began to eat with a ravenous appetite. + +A backward glance showed husband and wife still gazing at him. But it +was only for a moment. They ran into the house and a little further on +Harry looked back again. They had reappeared and he almost expected to +hear again the whistle of a rifle shot, fired from a window. But the +distance was much too great, and he devoted renewed attention to the +demands of hunger. + +When he had finished his breakfast he put the plate upon the fence as +he had promised, and, looking back for the last time, he saw an +American flag wave to and fro on the roof of the house. He felt a +thrill of alarm. It must be a signal concerning him and it could be +made only to his enemies. Speaking sharply to his horse, he urged him +into a gallop. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE DANGEROUS ROAD + + +The road led in the general direction of Lee's army and Harry knew that +if he followed it long enough he was bound to reach his commander, but +the two words "long enough" might defeat everything. Undoubtedly a +Federal force was near, or the farmer and his wife would not be +signaling from the roof of their house. + +A plucky couple they were and he gave them all credit, but he was aware +that while he had secured breakfast from them they had put the wolves +upon his trail. There were high hills on both the right and left of +the road, and, as he galloped along he examined them through his +glasses for flags answering the signal on the house. But he saw +nothing and the thickness of the forest indicated that even if the +signals were made there it was not likely he could see them. + +Now he wisely restrained the speed of his horse, so full of strength +and spirit that it seemed willing to run on forever, and brought him +down to a walk. He had an idea that he would soon be pursued, and then +a fresh horse would be worth a dozen tired ones. + +The road continued to run between high, forested hills, splendid for +ambush, and Harry saw what a danger it was not to have knowledge of the +country. He understood how the Union forces in the South were so often +at a loss on ground that was strange to them. + +The road now curved a little to the left, and a few hundred yards ahead +another from the east merged with it. Along this road the forest was +thinner, and upon it, but some distance away, he saw bobbing heads in +caps, twenty, perhaps, in number. He knew at once that they were the +enemy, called by the signal, and leaning forward he spoke in the ear of +his good horse. + +"You and I haven't known each other long," he said, "but we're good +friends. I paid honest and sufficient money for you, when I could have +ridden away on you without paying a cent. I know you have a powerful +frame and that your speed is great. I really believe you're the +fastest runner in all this part of the state. Now, prove it!" + +The horse stretched out his neck, and the road flew behind him, his +body working like a mighty machine perfectly attuned, even to its +minutest part. Harry's words had met a true response. He heard a cry +on the cross road, and the bobbing heads came forward much faster. +Either they had seen him or they had heard the swift beat of his +horse's hoofs. Loud shouts arose, but he saw the uniforms of the men, +and he knew that they belonged to the Northern army. + +He went past the junction of the roads, as if he were flying, but he +was not a bit too soon, as he heard the crack of rifles, and bullets +struck in the earth behind him. He knew that they would follow, hang +on persistently, but he had supreme confidence in the speed and +strength of his horse, and youth rode triumphant. It was youth more +than anything else that made him raise himself a little in his saddle, +look back to his pursuers and fling to them a long, taunting cry, just +as Henry Ware more than once had taunted his Indian pursuers before +disappearing in a flight that their swiftest warriors could not match. + +But the little band of Union troopers clung to the chase. They too had +good horses, and they knew that the man before them was a Southern +messenger, and in those hot July days of 1863 all military messages +carried on the roads north of the Potomac were important. The fate of +an army or a nation might turn upon any one of them, and the lieutenant +who led the little Union troop was aware of it. He was a man of +intelligence and a consuming desire to overtake the lone horseman lay +hold of him. He knew, as well as any general, that since Gettysburg the +fate of the South was verily trembling in the balance, and the +slightest weight somewhere might decide the scales. So he resolved to +hang on through everything and the chances were in his favor. It was +his own country. The Federal troops were everywhere, and any moment he +might have aid in cutting off the fugitive. + +When Harry eased his horse's flight he saw the troop, very distant but +still pursuing, and he read the mind of the Union leader. He was +saving his mounts, trailing merely, in the hope that Harry would +exhaust his own horse, after which he and his men would come on at +great speed. + +Harry looked down at his horse and saw that he was heaving with his +great effort. He knew that he had made a mistake in driving him so +hard at first, and with the courage of which only a young veteran would +have been capable he brought the animal almost to a walk, and +resolutely kept him there, while the enemy gained. When they were +almost within rifle shot he increased his speed again, but he did not +seek for the present to increase his gain. + +As long as their bullets could not reach him his horse should merely go +stride for stride with theirs, and when the last stretch was reached, +he would send forward the brave animal at his utmost speed. His were +the true racing tactics drawn from his native state. He had no doubt +of his ability to leave his pursuers far behind when the time came, but +his true danger was from interference. He too knew that many Union +cavalry troops were abroad, and he watched on either flank for them as +he rode on. At the crest of every little hill he swept the whole +country, but as yet he saw nothing but peaceful farmhouses. + +The day was clear and bright, not so warm as its predecessors, and he +calculated by the sun that he was going straight toward Lee. He knew +that a great army always marched slowly, and he was able to reckon with +accuracy just how far the Army of Northern Virginia had come since +Gettysburg. He should reach it in the morning, with full information +about the Potomac, and the best place for a crossing. + +He arrived at the crest of a hill higher than the others, and saw the +Union troop, about a quarter of a mile behind, stop beside a clump of +tall trees. Their action surprised Harry, who had thought they would +never quit as long as they could find his trail. To his further +surprise he saw one of the men dismount and begin to climb the tallest +of the trees. Then he brought his glasses into play. + +He saw the climber go up, up, until he had reached the last bough that +would support him. Then he drew some thing from his pocket which he +unrolled and began to wave rapidly. It was a flag and through his +powerful glasses Harry clearly saw the Stars and Stripes. It was +evident that they were signaling, but when one signals one usually +signals to somebody. His breath shortened for a moment. He believed +that the man in the tree was talking with his flag about the fugitive. +Where was the one to whom he was talking? + +He looked to both left and right, searching the fields and the forests, +and saw nothing. Then, as he was sweeping his glasses again in a half +curve he caught a glimpse of something straight ahead that made the +great pulse in his throat beat hard. About a mile in front of him +another man in a tree was waving a flag and beneath the tree were +horsemen. + +Harry knew now that the two flags were talking about the Confederate +messenger between. The one behind said: "Look out! He's young, riding +a bay horse and he's coming directly toward you," to which the one in +front replied, "We're waiting. He can't escape us. There are fields +with high fences on either side of the road and if he manages to break +through the fence he's an easy capture in the soft and muddy ground +there." + +Harry thought hard and fast, while the two flags talked so +contemptuously about him. The fields were unquestionably deep with mud +from the heavy rains, but he must try them. It was lucky that he had +seen the flags while both forces were out of rifle shot. He decided +for the western side, sprang from his horse and threw down a few rails. +In a half minute he was back on his horse, leaped him over the fence, +and struck across the field. + +It had been lately plowed and the going was uncommonly heavy. It would +be just as heavy however for his pursuers, and his luck in seeing their +signals would put him out of range before they reached the field. But +it was a wide field and his horse's feet sank so deep in the mud that +he dismounted and led him. When he was two-thirds of the way across a +shout told him that the two forces had met, and had discovered the ruse +of the fugitive. It did not take much intelligence to understand what +he had done, because he was yet in plain sight, and a few of the +cavalrymen took pot shots at him, their bullets falling far short. +Harry in his excited condition laughed at these attempts. Almost +anything was a triumph now. He shook his fist at them and regretted +that he could not send back a defiant shot. + +The cavalrymen conferred a little. Then a part pursued across the +field, and two detachments rode along its side, one to the north and +the other to the south. Harry understood. If the mud held him back +sufficiently they might pass around the field and catch him on the +other side. He continued to lead his horse, encouraging him with words +of entreaty and praise. + +"Come on!" he cried. "You won't let a little mud bother you. You +wouldn't let yourself be overtaken by a lot of half-bred horses not fit +to associate with you?" + +The brave animal responded nobly, and what had been the far edge of the +field was rapidly coming nearer. Beyond it lay woods. But the +flanking movement threatened. The two detachments were passing around +the field on firm ground, and Harry knew that he and his good horse +must hasten. He talked to him continually, boasting about him, and +together they reached the fence, which he threw down in all haste. +Then he led his weary horse out of the mud, sprang upon his back and +galloped into the bushes. + +He knew that the horses passing around the field on firm ground would +be fresh, and that he must find temporary hiding, at least as soon as +he could. He was in deep thickets now and he galloped on, careless how +the bushes scratched him and tore his uniform. The Union cavalry would +surely follow, but he wanted a little breathing time for his horse, and +in eight or ten minutes he stopped in the dense undergrowth. The horse +panted so hard that any one near would have heard him, but there was no +other sound in the thicket. The rest was valuable for both. Harry was +able to concentrate his mind and consider, while the panting of the +horse gradually ceased, and he breathed with regularity. The young +lieutenant patted him on the nose and whispered to him consolingly. + +"Good, old boy," he said, "you've brought me safely so far. I knew +that I could trust you." + +Then he stood quite still, with his hand stroking the horse's nose to +keep him silent. He had heard the first sounds of search. To his +right was the distant beat of hoofs and men's voices. Evidently they +were going to make a thorough search for him, and he decided to resume +his flight, even at the risk of being heard. + +He led the horse again, because the forest was so dense that one could +scarcely ride in it, and he thought, for a while, that he had thrown +off the pursuit, but the voices came again, and now on his left. They +had never relaxed the hunt for an instant. They had a good leader, and +Harry admitted that in his place he would have done the same. + +The country grew rougher, being so steep and hilly that it was not easy +of cultivation, and hence remained clothed in dense forest and +undergrowth. Twice more Harry heard the sound of pursuing voices and +hoofs, and then the noise of running water came to his ears. Twenty +yards farther and he came to a creek flowing between high banks, on +which the forest grew so densely that the sun was scarcely able to +reach the water below. + +The creek at first seemed to be a bar to his advance, but thinking it +over he led his horse carefully down into the stream, mounted him and +rode with the current, which was not more than a foot deep. +Fortunately the creek had a soft bottom and there was no ringing of +hoofs on stones. + +He went slowly, lest the water splash too much, and kept a wary watch +on the banks above, which were growing higher. He did not know where +the creek led, but it offered both a road and concealment, and it +seemed that Providence had put it there for his especial help. + +He rode in the bed of the stream fully an hour, and then emerged from +the hills into a level and comparatively bare country. It was a region +utterly unknown to him, but with his splendid idea of direction and the +sun to guide him he knew his straight course to Lee. The country +before him seemed to be given up wholly to grass, as he noticed neither +corn nor wheat. He saw several farm hands, but decided to keep away +from them. That was no country for the practice of horsemanship by a +lone Confederate soldier, nor did he like to be the fox in a fox hunt. + +Yet the fox he was. He chose a narrow road leading between cedars, and +when he had advanced upon it a few hundred yards he heard the sound of +a trumpet behind him, and at the edge of the woods that he had left. He +saw horsemen in blue emerging and he had no doubt that they were the +same men whom he had eluded in the thickets. + +"Their pursuit of me is getting to be a habit," he said to himself with +the most intense annoyance. "It's a good thing, my brave horse, that +you've had a long rest." + +He shook up the reins and began to gallop. He heard a faint shout in +the distance and saw the troopers in pursuit. But he did not fear them +now. Numerous fences would prevent them from flanking him, and he saw +that the road led on, straight and level. He shook the reins again and +the horse lengthened his stride. + +He felt so exultant that he laughed. It would be easy enough now to +distance this Union troop. Then the laugh died suddenly on his lips. A +bullet whistled so near his face that it almost took away his breath. +An elderly farmer standing in his own door had fired it, and Harry +snatched one of the pistols from his own belt, remembering then with +rage that it could not be fired. He shouted to his horse and made him +run faster. + +A bullet struck the pommel of his saddle and glanced off. A boy in an +orchard had fired it. A load of bird-shot, a handful it seemed to +Harry, flew about his ears. A bent old man who ought to have been +sitting on a porch in a rocking chair had discharged it from the edge +of a wood. A squirrel hunter on a hill took a pot shot at him and +missed. + +Harry was furious with anger. Decidedly this was no place for a +visitor from the South. He did not detect the faintest sign of +hospitality. Men and women alike seemed to dislike him. A powerful +virago hurled a stone at his head, which would have struck him +senseless had it not missed, and a farmer standing by a fence had a +shotgun cocked and ready to be fired as he passed, but Harry, snatching +one of the useless pistols from his belt, hurled it at him with all his +might. It struck the man a glancing blow on the head, felling him as +if he had been shot, and then Harry, thinking quickly, acted with equal +quickness. + +He reined in his horse with such suddenness that he nearly shot from +the saddle. Then he leaped down, seized the shotgun from under the +hands of the fallen man, sprang on his horse and was away again, +sending back a cry of defiance. + +Harry had never before in his life been so furious. To be hunted thus +by a whole countryside, as if he were a mad dog, was intolerable. It +was not only a threat to one's life, it was also an insult to one's +dignity to be treated as an animal. Although he was armed now the +insult continued. The call of the trumpet sounded almost without +ceasing, and the Union troopers uttered many shouts as do those who +chase the fox, although Harry knew that their cries were intended to +rouse the farmers who might head him off. + +The chase grew hotter, but he felt better with the shotgun. It was a +fine double-barreled weapon of the latest make, and he hoped that it +was loaded with buckshot. He was a sharpshooter, and he could give a +good account of any one who came too near. + +Yet with the trumpet shrilling continually behind him the huntsmen +gathered fast on either flank. It was yet the day when nearly every +house in America, outside a town, contained a rifle, and bullets fired +from a distance began to patter around Harry and his horse. The +riflemen were too far away to be reached with the shotgun, and it +seemed inevitable to him that in time a bullet would strike him. He +was truly the fox, and he knew that nothing could save him but forest. + +It was in his favor that the country was so broken and wooded so +heavily, and fixing his eyes on trees a half-mile ahead he raced for +them. If none of this yelling pack dragged him down he felt sure that +he might escape again in the forest. The trees swiftly came nearer, +but the shots on either flank increased. More than ever he felt like +the fox with the hounds all about him, and just one slender chance to +reach the burrow ahead. + +He felt his horse shake and knew that he had been hit. Yet the brave +animal ran on as well as ever, despite the triumphant shout behind, +which showed that he must be leaving a trail of blood. But the woods, +thick and inviting, were near, and he believed that he would reach +them. The horse shook again, much more violently than before, and then +fell to his knees. Harry leaped off, still clutching the shotgun, just +as the brave animal fell over on his side and began to breathe out his +life. + +He heard again that shout of triumph, but he was one who never gave up. +He had alighted easily on his feet. The trees were not more than +fifteen yards away and he disappeared among them as bullets clipped +bark and twigs about him. + +He breathed a deep sigh of thankfulness when he entered the forest. It +was so dense, and there was so much undergrowth that the horsemen could +not follow him there. If they came on foot, and spread out, as they +must, to hunt him, he had the double-barreled shotgun and it was a +deadly weapon. The fox had suddenly become the panther, alert, +powerful, armed with claws that killed. + +Harry went deep into the thickets before he sat down. He had no doubt +that they would follow him, but at present he was out of their sight +and hearing. He felt a mixture of elation and sadness, elation over +his temporary escape, and sadness over the loss of his gallant horse. +But one could not dwell long on regrets at such a time, and, advancing +a little farther, he sat down among the densest bushes that he could +find with the shotgun across his knees. + +Now Harry saw that the horse had really done all that it was possible +for him to do. He had brought him to the wood, and within he would +have been a drawback. A man on foot could conceal himself far more +easily. Everything favored him. There were bushes and vines everywhere +and he could be hidden like a deer in its covert. + +He looked up at the sun shining through the tops of the trees and saw +that he had kept to his true course. His flight had taken him directly +toward Lee at a much faster pace than he would have come otherwise. The +enemy had driven him on his errand at double speed. He felt that he +could spare a little time now, while he waited to see what the pursuit +would do. + +His feeling of exultation was now unalloyed. Deep in the forest with +his foes looking for him in vain, the spirit of Henry Ware was once +more strong within him. He was the reincarnation of the great hunter. +He lay so still, clasping the shotgun, that the little creatures of the +woods were deceived. A squirrel ran up the trunk of an oak six feet +away, and stood fearlessly in a fork with his bushy tail curved over +his back. A small gray bird perched on a bough just over Harry's head +and poured out a volume of song. Farther away sounded the tap tap of a +woodpecker on the bark of a dead tree. + +Harry, although he did not move, was watching and listening with +intense concentration, but his ears now would be his surest signals. +He could not see deep in the thickets, but he could hear any movement +in the underbrush a hundred yards away. So far there was nothing but +the hopping of a rabbit. The bird over his head sang on. There was no +wind among the branches, not even the flutter of leaves to distract his +attention from anything that might come on the ground. + +He rejoiced in this period of rest, of the nerves, rather than purely +physical. He had been keyed so high that now he relaxed entirely, and +soon lay perfectly flat, but with the shotgun still clasped in his +arms. He had a soft couch. Under him were the dead leaves of last +year, and over him was the pleasant gloom of thick foliage, already +turning brown. The bird sang on. His clear and beautiful note came +from a point directly over his head, but Harry could not see his tiny +body among the leaves. He became, for a little while, more interested +in trying to see him than in hearing his pursuers. + +It was annoying that such a volume of sound should come from a body +that could be hidden by a leaf. If a man could shout in proportion to +his own size he might be heard eight to ten miles away. It was an +interesting speculation and he pursued it. While he was pursuing it +his mind relaxed more and more and traveled farther and farther away +from his flight and hiding. Then his heavy eyelids pulled down, and, +while his pursuers yet searched the thickets for him, he slept. + +But his other self, which men had thought of as far back as Socrates, +kept guard. When he had slept an hour a tiny voice in his ear, no +louder than the ticking of a watch, told him to awake, that danger was +near. He obeyed the call, sleep was lifted from him and he opened his +eyes. But with inherited caution he did not move. He still lay flat in +his covert, trusting to his ears, and did not make a leaf move about +him. + +His ears told him that leaves were rustling not very far away, not more +than a hundred feet. His power of hearing was great, and the forest +seemed to make it uncommonly sensitive and delicate. + +He knew that the rustling of the leaves was made by a man walking. By +and by he heard his footfalls, and he knew that he wore heavy boots, or +his feet would not have crushed down in such a decisive manner. He was +looking for something, too, because the footfalls did not go straight +on, but veered about. + +Harry was well aware that it was a Union soldier, and that he was the +object of his search. He was a clumsy man, not used to forests, +because Harry heard him stumble twice, when his feet caught on vines. +Nor was any comrade near, or he would have called to him for the sake +of companionship. Harry judged that he was originally a mill hand, and +he did not feel the least alarm about him, laughing a little at his +clumsiness and awkwardness, as he trod heavily among the bushes, +tripped again on the vines, and came so near falling that he could hear +the rifle rattle when it struck a tree. He did not have the slightest +fear of the man, and at last, raising his head, he took a look. + +All his surmises were justified. He saw a great hulking youth of heavy +and dull countenance, carrying a rifle awkwardly, his place obviously +around some town and not in the depths of a forest, looking for a wary +enemy, who knew more of the wilderness than he could ever learn in all +his life. Harry saw that he was perspiring freely and that he looked +more like the hunted than the hunter. His eyes expressed bewilderment. +He was obviously lonely and apprehensive, not because he was a coward, +but because the situation was so strange to him. + +Besides his rifle he carried a large knapsack, so much distended that +Harry knew it to be full of food. It was this that decided him. A +soldier, like an army, must travel on his stomach, and he wanted that +knapsack. Moreover he meant to get it. He leveled his shotgun and +called in a low tone, but a tone so sharp that it could be heard +distinctly by the one to whom it was addressed: + +"Throw up your hands at once!" + +The man threw them up so abruptly that the rifle fell from his shoulder +into the bushes, and he turned around, staring face toward the point +from which the command had come. Harry saw at once that he was of +foreign birth, probably. The features inclined to the Slav type, +although Slavs were not then common in this country, even in the mill +towns of the North. + +"Are you an American?" asked Harry, standing up. + +"All but two years of my life." + +"The first two years then, as I see you speak good English. What's +your name?" + +"Michael Stanislav." + +"Do you think that anybody named Michael Stanislav has the right to +interfere in the quarrel of the Northern and Southern states? Don't +the Stanislavs have trouble enough in the country where the Stanislavs +grow?" + +The big youth stared at him without understanding. + +"Do you know who I am?" asked Harry, severely. + +"The running rebel that we all look for." + +"Rebels don't run. Besides, there are no rebels. Anyway I'm not the +man you're looking for. My name is Robin Hood." + +"Robin Hood?" + +"Yes, Robin Hood! Didn't you ever hear of him?" + +"Never." + +"Then you have the honor of hearing of him and meeting him at the same +time. As I said, my name is Robin Hood and my trade is that of a +benevolent robber. I lie around in the greenwood, and I don't work. +I've a lot of followers, Friar Tuck and others, but they're away for a +while. They're as much opposed to work as I am. That's why they're my +followers. We're the friends of the poor, because they have nothing we +want, and we're the enemies of the rich because they have a lot we do +want and that we often take. Still, we couldn't get along very well, +if there were no rich for us to rob. It's like taking sugar water from +a maple tree. We won't take too much, because it would kill the tree +and we want to take its sugar water again, and many times. Do you +understand?" + +"Yes," replied the big youth, but Harry knew he didn't. Harry +meanwhile was listening keenly to all that was passing in the forest, +and he was sure that no other soldier had wandered near. It was +perhaps partly a feeling of loneliness on his own part that caused him +to linger in his talk with Michael Stanislav. + +"Michael," he continued, "you appreciate our respective positions, +don't you?" + +"Ah!" said Michael, in a puzzled voice. + +"I've explained carefully to you that I'm Robin Hood, and you at the +present moment represent the rich." + +"I am not rich. Before I turn soldier I work in a mill at Bridgeport." + +"That's all very well, but you can't get out of it by referring to your +past. Just now you are a proxy of the rich, and it's my duty to rob +you." + +The mouth of the big fellow expanded into a wide grin. + +"You won't rob me," he said. "I have not a cent." + +"But I'm going to rob you just the same. Don't you dare to drop a hand +toward the pistols in your belt. If you do I'll blow your head off. +I'm covering you with a double-barreled shotgun. Each barrel contains +about twenty buckshot, and at close range their blast would be so +terrific that you'd make an awful looking corpse." + +"I hold up my hands a long time. Don't want to be any kind of a +corpse." + +"That's the good boy. Steady now. Don't move a muscle. I'm going to +rob you. It's a brief and painless operation, much easier than pulling +a tooth." + +He deftly removed the two pistols and the accompanying ammunition from +the man's belt, placing them in his own. His belt of cartridges he put +on the ground beside the fallen rifle, and then as he felt a glow of +triumph he passed the well-filled knapsack from the stalwart shoulders +of the other to his own shoulders, equally stalwart. + +"Is everything in it first class, Michael?" he demanded with much +severity. + +"The best. Our army feeds well." + +"It's a good thing for you that it's so. Robin Hood is never satisfied +with anything second class, and he's likely to be offended if you offer +it to him. On the whole, Michael, I think I like you and I'm glad you +came this way. But do you care for good advice?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"That's right. Say 'sir' to me. It pleases my robber's heart. Then, +my advice to you is never again to go into the woods alone. All the +forest looks alike to those who don't know it, and you're lost in a +minute. Besides, it's filled with strange and terrible creatures, +Robin Hood--that's me, though I have some redeeming qualities--the +Erymanthean boar, the Hydra-headed monster, Medusa of the snaky locks, +Cyclops, Polyphemus with one awful eye, the deceitful Sirens, the Old +Man of the Mountain, Wodin and Osiris, and, last and most terrible of +all, the Baron Munchausen." + +A flicker of fear appeared in the eyes of the captive. + +"But I'll see that none of these monsters hurt you," said Harry +consolingly. "The open is directly behind you, about a mile. Right +about! Wheel! Well done! Now, you won't see me again, but you'll +hear me giving commands. Forward, march! Quit stumbling! No true +forester ever does! Nor is it necessary for you to run into more than +three trees! Keep going! No, don't curve! Go straight ahead, and +remember that if you look back I shoot!" + +Michael walked swiftly enough. He deemed that on the whole he had +fared well. The great brigand, Robin Hood, had spared his life and he +had lost nothing. The army would replace his weapons and ammunition +and he was glad enough to escape from that terrible forest, even if he +were driven out of it. + +Harry watched him until he was out of sight, and then picking up the +rifle and belt of cartridges he fled on soundless feet deeper into the +forest. Two or three hundred yards away he stopped and heard a great +shouting. Michael, no longer covered by a gun, had realized that +something untoward had happened to him, and he was calling to his +comrades. Harry did not know whether Michael would still call the man +who had held him up, Robin Hood, nor did he care. He had secured an +excellent rifle which would be much more useful to him than a shotgun, +and his course still led straight toward the point where he should find +Lee's army on the march. He felt that he ought to throw away the +shotgun, as two weapons were heavy, but he could not make up his mind +to do so. + +A hundred yards farther and he heard replies to Michael's shouts, and +then several shots, undoubtedly fired by the Union troops themselves, +as signals of alarm. He laughed to himself. Could such men as these +overtake one who was born to the woods, the great grandson of Henry +Ware, the most gifted of the borderers, who in the woods had not only a +sixth sense, but a seventh as well? And his great grandson had +inherited many of his qualities. + +Harry, in the forest, felt only contempt for these youths of Central +Europe who could not tell one point of the compass from another. He +guided his own course by the sun, and continued at a good pace until he +could hear shouts and shots no longer. Then in the dense woods, where +the shadows made a twilight, he came to a tiny stream flowing from +under a rock. He knelt and drank of the cool water, and then he opened +Michael's knapsack. It was truly well filled, and he ate with deep +content. Then he drank again and rested by the side of the pool. + +As he reflected over his journey Harry concluded that Providence had +watched over him so far, but there was much yet to do before he reached +Lee. Providence had a strange way of watching over a man for a while, +and then letting him go. He would neglect no precaution. The forest +would not continue forever and then he must take his chances in the +open. + +Still burning with the desire to be the first to reach Lee, he put the +rifle and the shotgun on either shoulder, and set off at as rapid a +pace as the thickets would permit. But he soon stopped because a sound +almost like that of a wind, but not a wind, came to his ears. There +was a breeze blowing directly toward him, but he paid no attention to +it, because to him most breezes were pleasant and friendly. But the +other sound had in it a quality that was distinctly sinister like the +hissing of a snake. + +Harry paused in wonder and alarm. All his instincts warned him that a +new danger was at hand. The breath of the wind suddenly grew hot, and +sparks carried by it blew past him. He knew, in an instant, that the +forest was on fire behind him and that tinder dry, it would burn fast +and furious. Changing from a walk to a run, he sped forward as swiftly +as he could, while the flames suddenly sprang high, waved and leaped +forward in chase. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +TESTS OF COURAGE + + +Harry did not know how the woods had been set on fire, and he never +knew. He did not credit it to the intent of Michael and his comrades, +but he thought it likely that some of these men, ignorant of the +forest, had built a campfire. His first thought was of himself, and +his second was regret that so fine a stretch of timber should be burned +over for nothing. + +But he knew that he must hurry. Nor could he choose his way. He must +get out of that forest even if he ran directly into the middle of a +Union brigade. The wind was bringing the fire fast. It leaped from +one tree to another, despite the recent rains, gathering volume and +power as it came. Sparks flew in showers, and fragments of burned +twigs rained down. Twice Harry's face was scorched lightly and he had a +fear that one of the blazing twigs would set his hair on fire. He made +another effort, and ran a little faster, knowing full well that his +life was at stake. + +The fire was like a huge beast, and it reached out threatening red +claws to catch him. He was like primeval man, fleeing from one of the +vast monsters, now happily gone from the earth. He was conscious soon +that another not far from him was running in the same way, a man in a +faded blue uniform who had dropped his rifle in the rapidity of his +flight. + +Harry kept one eye on him but the stranger did not see him until they +were nearly out of the wood. Then Harry, with a clear purpose in view, +veered toward him. He saw that they would escape from the fire. Open +fields showed not far ahead, and while the sparks were numerous and +sometimes scorched, the roaring red monster behind them would soon be +at the end of his race. He could not follow them into the open fields. + +When the two emerged from the forest Harry was not more than fifteen +feet from the stranger, who evidently took him for a friend and who was +glad to have a comrade at such a time. They raced across fields in +which the wheat had been cut, and then sank down four or five hundred +yards from the fire, which was crackling and roaring in the woods with +great violence, and sending up leaping flames. + +"I was glad enough to get out of that. Do you think the rebels set it +on fire?" + +"I don't think so, but I was as pleased as you to escape from it, Mr. +Haskell." + +"Why, how did you know my name?" exclaimed the man in wonder. + +"Why should I forget you? I've seen you often enough. Your name is +John Haskell and you belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania." + +"That's right, but I don't seem to recall you." + +"It takes a lot of us some time to clear up our minds wholly after such +a battle as Gettysburg. In some ways I've been in a sort of confused +state myself. I dare say you've seen me often enough." + +"That's likely." + +"Pity you had your horse shot under you, Mr. Haskell. A man who is +carrying important messages at a time like this can't do very well +without his horse." + +"How did you know I'd lost my horse?" + +"Oh, I'm a mind reader. I can tell you a lot now. You carry your +dispatch in the left-hand pocket of your waistcoat, just over your +heart. And it hasn't been long, either, since you lost your horse, +perhaps not more than an hour." + +Haskell stared at him, but Harry's face was innocent. Nevertheless he +had read Haskell's name and regiment on his canteen, cut there with his +own knife. It was a mere guess that he was a dispatch bearer, but he +had located the dispatch, because at the mention of the word "message" +the man's hand had involuntarily gone to his left breast to see if the +dispatch were still there. Boots with little dirt on them indicated +that he had been riding. + +"A mind reader!" said Haskell, with suspicion. "What business has a +mind reader in this war?" + +"He could be of enormous value. If he were a real mind reader he could +tell his general exactly what the opposing general intended to do. I'm +employed at a gigantic salary for that particular purpose." + +"I guess you're trying to be funny. Why do you carry both a rifle and +a shotgun?" + +"In order to hit the target with one, if the other misses. I always +use the rifle first, because if the bullet doesn't get home the +shotgun, spreading its charge over a much wider area, is likely to do +something." + +"Now I know you're trying to be funny. As I'm going about my business +as fast as I can, I'll leave you here." + +"I like you so well that I can't bear to see you go. Don't move. My +rifle covers your heart exactly and you are not more than ten feet +away. I shall have no possible need of the shotgun. Keep your hands +away from your belt. You're in a dangerous position, Mr. Haskell." + +"I believe you're an infernal rebel." + +"Take out the objectionable adjective 'infernal' and you're right. Keep +those hands still, I tell you." + +"What do you want?" + +"Your dispatches! Oh, I must have 'em. Unbutton your coat and +waistcoat and hand 'em to me at once. I hate to take human life, but +war demands a terrible service, and I mean what I say!" + +His voice rang with determination. The man slowly unbuttoned his +waistcoat and took out a folded dispatch. + +"Put it on the ground in front of you. That's right, and don't you +reach for it again. Now, lay your canteen beside it!" + +"What in thunder do you want with my canteen? It's empty!" + +"I can fill it again. This is a well watered country. That's right; +put it beside the dispatch. Now you walk about one hundred yards to +the right with your back to me. If you look around at all I fire, and +I'm a good marksman. Stand there ten minutes, and then you can move +on! That's right! Now march!" + +The man walked away slowly and when he had gone about half the distance +Harry, picking up the dispatch, took flight again across the fields. +Climbing a fence, he looked back and saw the figure of John Haskell, +standing motionless on a hill. He knew that the man was not likely to +remain in that position more than half the allotted time. It was +certain that he would soon turn, despite the risk, but Harry was +already beyond his reach. + +He leaped from the fence, crossed another field and entered a wood. +There he paused among the trees and saw Haskell returning. But when he +had come a little distance, he shook his head doubtfully, and then +walked toward the north. + +"A counsel of wisdom," chuckled Harry, who was going in quite another +direction. "I think I'll read my dispatch now." + +He opened it and blessed his luck. It was from Meade to Pleasanton, +directing him to cut in with all the cavalry he could gather on the +enemy's flank. The Potomac was in great flood and the Army of Northern +Virginia could not possibly cross. If it were harried to the utmost by +the Union cavalry the task of destroying it would be much easier. + +"So it would," said Harry to himself. "But Pleasanton won't get this +dispatch. Providence has not deserted me yet; and it's true that +fortune favors the brave. I'm John Haskell of the Fifth Pennsylvania +and I can prove it." + +He had put the canteen over his shoulder and the name upon it was a +powerful witness in his favor. The dispatch itself was another, and +his faded uniform told nothing. + +Harry had passed through so much that a reckless spirit was growing +upon him, and he had succeeded in so much that he believed he would +continue to succeed. Regretfully he threw the shotgun away, as it +would not appear natural for a messenger to carry it and a rifle too. + +He went forward boldly now, and, when an hour later he saw a detachment +of Union cavalry in a road, he took no measures to avoid them. Instead +he went directly toward the horsemen and hailed them in a loud voice. +They stopped and their leader, a captain, looked inquiringly at Harry, +who was approaching rapidly. + +Harry held up both hands as a sign that he was a friend, and called in +a loud voice: + +"I want a horse! And at once, if you please, sir!" + +He had noticed that three led horses with empty saddles, probably the +result of a brush with the enemy, and he meant to be astride one of +them within a few minutes. + +"You're a cool one," said the captain. "You come walking across the +field, and without a word of explanation you say you want a horse. +Don't you want a carriage too?" + +"I don't need it. But I must have a horse, Captain. I ride with a +message and it must be of great importance because I was told to go +with it at all speed and risk my life for it. I've risked my life +already. My horse was shot by a band of rebels, but luckily it was in +the woods and I escaped on foot." + +As he spoke he craftily moved the canteen around until the inscription +showed clearly in the bright sunlight. The quick eyes of the captain +caught it at once. + +"You do belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania," he said. "Well, you're a +long way from your regiment. It's back of that low mountain over +there, a full forty miles from here, I should say." + +Harry felt a throb of relief. It was his only fear that these men +themselves should belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania, a long chance, but +if it should happen to go against him, fatal to all his plans. + +"I don't want to join my regiment," he said. "I'm looking for General +Pleasanton." + +"General Pleasanton! What can you happen to want with him?" + +Harry gave the officer a wary and suspicious look, and then his eyes +brightened as if he were satisfied. + +"I told you I was riding with a message," he said, "and that message is +for General Pleasanton. It's from General Meade himself and it's no +harm for me to show it to so good a patriot as you." + +"No, I think not," said the captain, flattered by the proof of respect +and confidence. + +Harry took the letter from his pocket. It had been sealed at first, +but the warmth of the original bearer's body with a little help from +Harry later had caused it to come open. + +"Look at that," said Harry proudly as he took out the paper. + +The captain read it, and was mightily impressed. He was, as Harry had +surmised, a thoroughly staunch supporter of the Union. He would not +only furnish this valiant messenger with a good horse, but he would +help him otherwise on his way. + +"Dexter," he called to an orderly, "bring the sorrel mare. She was +ridden by a good man, Mr. Haskell, but he met a sharpshooter's bullet. +Jump up." + +Harry sprang into the saddle, and, astride such a fine piece of +horseflesh, he foresaw a speedy arrival in the camp of General Lee. + +"I'll not only mount you," said the captain, "but we'll see you on the +way. General Pleasanton is on Lee's left flank and, as our course is +in that direction, we'll ride with you, and protect you from stray +rebel sharpshooters." + +Harry could have shouted aloud in anger and disappointment. While the +captain trusted him fully, he would not be much more than a prisoner, +nevertheless. + +"Thank you very much, Captain," he said, "but you needn't trouble +yourself about me. Perhaps I'd better go on ahead. One rides faster +alone." + +"Don't be afraid that we'll hold you back," said the captain, smiling. +"We're one of the hardest riding detachments in General Pleasanton's +whole cavalry corps, and we won't delay you a second. On the contrary, +we know the road so well that we'll save you wandering about and losing +time." + +Harry did not dare to say more. And so Providence, which had been +watching over him so well, had decided now to leave him and watch over +the other fellow. But he had at least one consolation. Pleasanton was +on Lee's flank and their ride did not turn him from the line of his +true objective. Every beat of his horse's hoofs would bring him nearer +to Lee. Invincible youth was invincibly in the saddle again, and he +said confidently to the captain: + +"Let's start." + +"All right. You keep by my side, Haskell. You appear to be brave and +intelligent and I want to ask you questions." + +The tone, though well meant, was patronizing, but Harry did not resent +it. + +"This troop is made up of Massachusetts men, and I'm from Massachusetts +too," continued the captain. "My name is Lester, and I had just +graduated from Harvard when the war began." + +"Good stock up there in Massachusetts," said Harry boldly, "but I've +one objection to you." + +"What's that?" + +"Everything wonderful in our history was done by you. No chance was +left for anybody else." + +"Well, not everything, but almost everything. Good old Massachusetts! +As Webster said, 'There she stands!'" + +"It was mostly New York and Pennsylvania that stood at Gettysburg." + +"Yes, you did very well there." + +"Don't you think, Captain, that a nation or a state is often lucky in +its possession of writers?" + +"I don't catch your drift exactly." + +"I'll make an illustration. I've often wondered what were the Persian +accounts of Marathon and Thermopylae, of Salamis and Plataea. Now most +of our history has been written by Massachusetts men." + +"And you insinuate that they have glorified my state unduly?" + +"The expression is a trifle severe. Let's say that they have dwelled +rather long upon the achievements of Massachusetts and not so long upon +those of New York and Pennsylvania." + +"Then let New York and Pennsylvania go get great writers. No state can +be truly great without them. There's another detachment of ours just +ahead, but we'll talk to them only a minute or two." + +The second detachment reported that Pleasanton, with a heavy cavalry +force, was about six miles farther west and that there was a fair road +all the way. They should overtake him in an hour. + +Harry's heart beat hard. Unless something happened within that hour he +would never reach Lee, and his brain began to work with extraordinary +activity. Plans passed in review before it as rapidly as pictures on a +film, but all were rejected. He was in despair. They were trotting +rapidly down a smooth road. A quarter of an hour passed and then a +half-hour. A low bare hill appeared immediately on their right, and +Harry saw beyond it the tops of trees. + +"Captain Lester," he said, "suppose that you and I ride to the crest of +the hill. You have strong glasses, so have I, and we may see something +worth while. The men will ride on, but we can easily overtake them." + +"Not a bad idea, Haskell," said the captain, still in that slightly +patronizing tone. "I judge by your speech that you're a well educated +man, and you appear to think." + +They rode quickly to the summit, and Lester, putting his glasses to his +eyes, gazed westward over a vast expanse of cultivated country. But +Harry looking immediately down the slope, saw the forest that he wished. + +Lester swept the glasses in a wide circle, looking for Union troops. +His own troop was about a hundred yards ahead and the hoofbeats were +growing fainter. Then Harry's courage almost failed him, but necessity +was instant and cruel. Still he modified the blow, nor did he use any +weapon, save one that nature had given him. + +"Look out!" he cried, and as Lester turned in astonishment he struck +him on the point of the jaw. Even as his fist flashed forward he held +back a little and his full strength was not in the blow. + +Nevertheless it was sufficient to strike Lester senseless, and he slid +from his horse. Harry caught him by the shoulder and eased him in his +fall. Then he lay stretched on his back in the grass like one asleep, +with his horse staring at him. Harry knew that he would revive in a +minute or two, and with a "Farewell, Captain Lester," he galloped down +the slope and into the covering woods. + +He knew that Lester's men, finding that they did not follow, would +quickly come back, and he raced his horse among the trees as fast as he +dared. A couple of miles between him and the hill and he felt safe, at +least so far as the troop of Captain Lester was concerned. Fortune +seemed to have made him a favorite again, but he knew that dangers were +still as thick around him as leaves in Vallombrosa. + +He tied his horse, climbed a tree, and used his glasses. Two miles to +the west the bright sun flashed on long lines of mounted men, obviously +the horsemen of Pleasanton. How was he to get through that cavalry +screen and reach Lee? He did not see a way, but he knew that to find, +one must seek. His desire to get through, intense as it always had +been, was now doubled. He not only carried the news to Lee about the +possible ford, but he also bore Meade's dispatch to Pleasanton, +directing a movement which, if successful, must be most dangerous to +the Army of Northern Virginia. + +He descended the tree and waited a while in the forest. He found a +spring at which he drank, and he filled the canteen. It was a precious +canteen with the name of John Haskell engraved upon it, and he meant +that it should carry him through all dangers into his camp. But he did +not mean to use it yet. If he rode into Pleasanton's ranks they would +merely take his letter to the general, and that would be the failure of +his real mission. + +Night was now not far distant, and, concluding that he had a much +better chance to run the gantlet under its cover, he still waited in +the wood until the twilight came. + +Wrapped in a coil of dangers he was ready to risk anything. Quickness, +resource and boldness, of which the last had been most valuable, had +brought him so far, and, encouraged by success, he rode forward full of +confidence. + +On his right was a small house standing among the usual shade trees, +and, approaching it without hesitation, he spoke to a man who stood in +the yard. + +"Which way is General Pleasanton?" he asked. + +The man hesitated. + +"I belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania," said Harry, pointing to the name +on the canteen, still visible in the twilight. The man's eyes +brightened and he replied: + +"Down there," pointing toward the southwest. + +"I've a message for him and I don't want to run into any of the rebel +raiders." + +"Then you keep away from there," he said, pointing due west. + +"What's the trouble in that direction?" + +"Jim Hurley was here about an hour ago. The whole country is terribly +excited about these big armies marching over it, and he said that our +cavalry was riding on fast. A lot of it was ahead of the rebel army, +but straight there in the west some of the rebel horsemen had spread +out on their own flank. If you went that way in the night you'd be +sure to run right into a nest of 'em." + +"So the Johnnies are west of us, your friend Hurley said. Tell me +again what particular point I have to watch in order to keep away from +them." + +"Almost as straight west as you can make it. A valley running east and +west cuts in there and it's full of the rebels. It's the only place +all along here where they are." + +"And consequently the only place for me to avoid. Thanks. Your +information may save me from capture. Good night." + +"Good night and good luck." + +Harry rode toward the southwest until a dip in the valley hid him from +possible view of the man at the house. Then he turned and rode due +west, determined to reach as soon as possible those "rebel raiders" in +the valley, but fully aware that he must yet use every resource of +skill, courage and patience. + +The twilight turned into night, clear, dry and bright. Unless it was +raining in the mountains the flood in the Potomac could not be +increasing. Here, at last, the conditions were all that he wished. The +captured haversack still contained plenty of food, and, as he rode, he +ate. He had learned long ago that food was as necessary as weapons to +a soldier, and that one should eat when one could. Moreover, he was +always hungry. + +He kept among trees wherever possible, and, as the night grew, and the +stars came out in the dusky blue, he enjoyed the peace. Even though he +searched with his glasses he could not see soldiers anywhere, although +he knew they were in the hollows and the forests. A pleasant breeze +blew, and an owl, reckless of armies, sent forth its lonesome hoot. + +But he kept his horse's head straight for the narrow valley where the +"rebel raiders" rode. He met presently a small detachment of +Connecticut men, but the sight of his canteen and letter was sufficient +for them. Again he rode southwest, merely to turn due west once more, +after he had passed from their sight, and near the head of the valley +he encountered two men in blue on horseback watching. They were alert, +well-built fellows and examined Harry closely, a process to which long +usage had reconciled him. + +"I hear that the rebels are down in that valley, comrade," he said. + +"So they are," replied the elder and larger of the men. "We've got to +ask you who you are and which way you're going." + +"John Haskell, Fifth Pennsylvania, with dispatches from General Meade +to General Pleasanton. They're tremendously important, too, and I've +got to be in a hurry." + +"More haste less speed. You know the old saying. In a time like this +it's sometimes better for a man to know where he's going than it is to +get there, 'cause he may arrive at the wrong place." + +"Good logic, comrade, but I must hurry just the same. Which is my best +way to find General Pleasanton?" + +"Southwest. But I'm bound to tell you a few things first." + +"All right. What are they?" + +"You and I must be kinsfolk." + +"How do you make that out?" + +"Because my name is William Haskell, and I belong to the Fifth +Pennsylvania, the same regiment that you do." + +"Is that so? It's strange that we haven't met before. But funny +things happen in war." + +"So they do. Awfully funny. Now my brother's name is John Haskell, +and you happen to be carrying his canteen, but you've changed looks a +lot in the last few days, Brother John." + +Haskell's voice had been growing more menacing, and Harry, with native +quickness, was ready to act. When he saw the man's pistol flash from +his belt he went over the side of his horse and the bullet whistled +where his body had been. His own rifle cracked in reply, but Haskell's +horse, not he, took the bullet, and, screaming with pain and fright, +ran into the woods as the rider slipped from his back. + +Harry, realizing that his peril was imminent and deadly, fired one of +his pistols at the second man, who fell from his horse, too badly +wounded in the shoulder to take any further part in the fight. + +But Harry found in Haskell an opponent worthy of all his skill and +courage. The Union soldier threw himself upon the ground and fired at +Harry's horse, which instantly jerked the bridle from his hand and fled +as the other had done. Harry dropped flat in the grass and leaves and +listened, his heart thumping. + +But luck had favored him again. He lay in a slight depression and any +bullet fired at him would be sure to go over him unless he raised his +head. He could not see his enemies, but he could depend upon his +wonderful power of hearing, inherited and cultivated, which gave him an +advantage over his opponents. + +He heard the wounded man groan ever so lightly, and then the other +whisper to him, "Are you much hurt, Bill?" The reply came in a moment: +"My right shoulder is put out for the time, and I can't help you now." +Presently he heard the slight sound of the other crawling toward him. +Evidently this Haskell was a fearless fellow, bound to get him, and he +called from the shadow in which he lay. + +"You'd better stop, Haskell! I've got the best pair of ears in all +this region, and I hear you coming! Crawl another step and you meet a +bullet! But I want to tell you first that your interesting brother John +is all right. I didn't kill him. I merely robbed him." + +"Robbed him of what?" + +"Oh, of several things." + +"What things?" + +"They don't concern you, Haskell. These are matters somewhat above +you." + +"They are, are they? Well, maybe they are, but I'm going to see that +you don't get away with the proceeds of your robbery." + +Harry didn't like his tone. It was fierce and resolute, and he +realized once more that he had a man of quality before him. If Haskell +had behaved properly he would have withdrawn with his wounded comrade. +But then he was an obstinate Yankee. + +He raised up ever so little and glanced across the intervening space, +seeing the muzzle of a rifle not many yards away. There could be no +doubt that Haskell was watchful and would continue watching. He drew +his head back again and said: + +"Let's call it a draw. You go back to your army, Mr. Haskell, and I'll +go back to mine." + +"Couldn't think of it. As a matter of fact, I'm with my army now; that +is, I'm in its lines, while you can't reach yours. All I've got to do +is to hold you here, and in the course of time some of our people will +come along and take you." + +"Do you think I'm worth so much trouble?" + +"In a way it's a sort of personal affair with me. You admit having +robbed my brother, and I feel that I must avenge him. He has been +acting as a dispatch rider, and I can make a pretty shrewd guess about +what you took from him. So I think I'll stay here." + +Harry blamed himself bitterly for his careless and unfortunate +expressions. He did not fear the result of a duel with this man, being +the master of woodcraft that he was, but he was losing time, valuable +time, time more precious than gold and diamonds, time heavy with the +fate of armies and a nation. He grew furiously angry at everything, +and angriest at Haskell. + +"Mr. Haskell," he called, "I'm getting tired of your society, and I +make you a polite request to go away." + +"Oh, no, you're not tired. You merely think you are, and I couldn't +consider conceding to your request. It's for your good more than mine. +My society is elevating to any Johnny Reb." + +"Then I warn you that I may have to hurt you." + +"How about getting hurt yourself?" + +Harry was silent. His acute ears brought him the sound of Haskell +moving a little in his own particular hollow. The lonesome owl hooted +twice more, but there was no sound to betoken the approach of Union +troops in the forest. The duel of weapons and wits would have to be +fought out alone by Haskell and himself. + +He went over everything again and again and he concluded that he must +rely upon his superior keenness of ear. He could hear Haskell, but +Haskell could not hear him, and there was Providence once more taking +him into favor. Summer clouds began to drift before the moon, and many +of the stars were veiled. It was possible that Haskell's eyes also +were not as keen as his own. + +When the darkness increased, he began to crawl from the little shallow. +Despite extreme precautions he made a slight noise. A pistol flashed +and a bullet passed over him. It made his muscles quiver, but he +called in a calm voice: + +"Why did you do such a foolish thing as that? You wasted a perfectly +good bullet." + +"Weren't you trying to escape? I thought I heard a movement in the +grass." + +"Wasn't thinking of such a thing. I'm just waiting here to see what +you'll do. Why don't you come on and attack?" + +"I'm satisfied with things as they are. I'll hold you until morning +and then our men will be sure to come and pick you up." + +"Maybe it will be our men who will come and pick you up." + +"Oh, no; they're too busy leaving Gettysburg behind 'em." + +Harry nevertheless had succeeded in leaving the shallow and was now +lying on its farther bank. Then he resumed the task of crawling +forward on his face, and without making any noise, one of the most +difficult feats that a human being is ever called upon to do. + +At the end of a dozen feet, he paused both to rest and to listen. His +acute ears told him that Haskell had not moved from his own place, and +his eyes showed him that the darkness was increasing. Those wonderful, +kindly clouds were thickening before the moon, and the stars in troops +were going out of sight. + +But he did not relax his caution. He knew that he could not afford to +make any sound that would arouse the suspicions of Haskell, and it was +a quarter of an hour before he felt himself absolutely safe. Then he +passed around a big tree and arose behind its trunk, appreciating what +a tremendous luxury it was to be a man and to stand upon one's own feet. + +He had triumphed again! The stars surely were with him. They might +play little tricks upon him now and then to tantalize him, but in the +more important matters they were on his side. He stretched himself +again and again to relieve the terrible stiffness caused by such long +and painful crawling, and then, unable to resist an exultant impulse, +he called loudly: + +"Good-by, Haskell!" + +There was a startled exclamation and a bullet fired at random cut the +leaves twenty yards away. Harry, making no reply, fled swiftly through +the forest toward the valley where the rebel raiders rode. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +IN THE WAGON + + +He ran at first, reckless of impediments, and there was a sound of +crashing as he sped through the bushes. He was not in the least afraid +of Haskell. He had his rifle and pistols and in the woods he was +infinitely the superior. He did not even believe that Haskell would +pursue, but he wanted to get far beyond any possible Federal sentinels +as soon as possible. + +After a flight of a few hundred yards he slackened speed, and began to +go silently. The old instincts and skill of the forester returned to +him. He knew that he was safe from immediate pursuit and now he would +approach his own lines carefully. He was grateful for the chance or +series of chances that always took him toward Lee. It seemed now that +his enemies had merely succeeded in driving him at an increased pace in +the way he wanted to go. + +He was descending a slope, thickly clothed with undergrowth. A few +hundred yards farther his knees suddenly crumpled under him and he sank +down, seized at the same time with a fit of nervous trembling. He had +passed through so many ordeals that strong and seasoned as he was and +high though his spirits, the collapse came all at once. He knew what +was the matter and, quietly stretching himself out, he lay still that +the spell might pass. + +The lonesome owl, probably the same one that he had heard earlier, +began to hoot, and now it was near by. Harry thought he could make out +its dim figure on a branch and he was sure that the red eyes, closed by +day, were watching him, doubtless with a certain contempt at his +weakness. + +"Old man, if you had been chased by the fowler as often as I have," +were the words behind his teeth, addressed to the dim and fluffy +figure, "you wouldn't be sitting up there so calm and cocky. Your +tired head would sink down between your legs, your feathers would be +wet with perspiration and you'd be so tired you'd hardly be able to +hang on to the tree." + +Came again the lonesome hoot of the owl, spreading like a sinister omen +through the forest. It made Harry angry, and, raising himself up a +little, he shook his fist again at the figure on the branch, now +growing clearer in outline. + +"'Bird or devil?'" he quoted. + +The owl hooted once more, the strange ominous cry carrying far in the +silence of the night. + +"Devil it is," said Harry, "and quoth your evil majesty 'never more.' I +won't be scared by a big owl playing the part of the raven. It's not +'nevermore' with me. I've many a good day ahead and don't you dare +tell me I haven't." + +Came the solemn and changeless hoot of the owl in reply. + +Harry's exertions and excitement had brought too much blood to his head +and he was seeing red. He raised himself upon his elbows and stared at +the owl which stared back from red rimmed eyes, cold, emotionless, +implacable. He had been terribly shaken, and now a superstitious +fright overcame him. The raven and the albatross were in his mind and +he murmured under his breath passages from their ominous poems. The +scholar had his raven, the mariner had his albatross and now he alone +in the forest had his owl, to his mind the most terrible bird of the +three. + +Came again that solemn and warning cry, the most depressing of all in +the wilderness, while the changeless and sinister eyes stared steadily +at him. Then Harry remembered that he had a rifle, and he sat up. He +would slay this winged monster. There was light enough for him to draw +a bead, and he was too good a marksman to miss. + +He dropped the muzzle of the rifle in a sudden access of fear as he +remembered the albatross. A shiver ran through every nerve and muscle, +and so heavily was he oppressed that he felt as if he had just escaped +committing murder. He rubbed his hand across his damp forehead and the +act brought him out of that dim world in which he had been living for +the last ten or fifteen minutes. + +"Bird of whatever omen you may be, I'll not shoot you. That's +certain," he said, "but I'll leave you to your melancholy predictions +just as soon as I can." + +He stood up somewhat unsteadily, and renewed the descent of the slope. +Near its foot he came to a brook and bathing his face plentifully in +the cool water he felt wonderfully refreshed. All his strength was +flowing back swiftly. + +Then he entered the valley, pressing straight toward the west, and soon +heard the tread of horses. He knew that they must be the cavalry of +his own army, but he withdrew into the bushes until he was assured. A +dozen men riding slowly and warily came into view, and though the +moonlight was wan he recognized them at once. When they were opposite +him he stepped from his ambush and said: + +"A happy night to you, Colonel Talbot." + +Colonel Leonidas Talbot was a brave man, but seldom in his life had he +been so shaken. + +"Good God, Hector!" he cried. "It's Harry Kenton's ghost!" + +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire turned pale. + +"I don't believe in ghosts, Leonidas," he said, "but this one certainly +looks like that of Harry Kenton." + +"Colonel Talbot," called Harry, "I'm not a ghost. I'm the real Harry +Kenton, hunting for our army." + +"Pale but substantial," said St. Clair, who rode just behind the two +colonels. "He's our old Harry himself, and I'd know him anywhere." + +"No ghost at all and the Yankee bullets can't make him one," said Happy +Tom. + +A weakness seized Harry and a blackness came before his eyes. When he +recovered St. Clair was holding him up, and Colonel Talbot was trying +to pour strong waters down his throat. + +"How long have I been this way?" he asked anxiously. + +"About sixty seconds," replied Colonel Talbot, "but what difference +does it make?" + +"Because I'm in a big hurry to get to General Lee! Oh! Colonel! +Colonel! You must speed me on my way! I've got a message from Colonel +Sherburne to General Lee that means everything, and on the road I +captured another from General Meade to General Pleasanton. Put me on a +horse, won't you, and gallop me to the commander-in-chief!" + +"Are you strong enough to ride alone?" + +"I'm strong enough to do anything now." + +"Then up with you! Here, on Carter's horse! Carter can ride behind +Hubbell! St. Clair, you and Langdon ride on either side of him! You +should reach the commander-in-chief in three-quarters of an hour, +Harry!" + +"And there is no Yankee cavalry in between?" + +"No, they're thick on the slopes above us! You knew that, but here +you're inside our own lines. Judging by your looks you've had quite a +time, Harry. Now hurry on with him, boys!" + +"So I have had, Colonel, but the appearance of you, Lieutenant-Colonel +St. Hilaire and the boys was like a light from Heaven. Good-by!" + +"Good-by!" the two colonels called back, but their voices were already +dying in the distance as Harry and his comrades were now riding rapidly +down the valley, knee to knee, because St. Clair and Langdon meant to +keep very close to him. They saw that he was a little unsteady, and +that his eyes were unnaturally bright. They knew, too, that if he said +he had great news for General Lee he told the truth, and they meant +that he should get there with it in the least time possible. + +The valley opened out before them, broadening considerably as they +advanced. The night was far gone, there was not much moonlight, but +their eyes had grown used to the dark, and they could see well. They +passed sentinels and small detachments of cavalry, to whom St. Clair +and Langdon gave the quick password. They saw fields of wheat stubble +and pastures and crossed two brooks. The curiosity of Langdon and St. +Clair was overwhelming but they restrained it for a long time. They +could tell by his appearance that he had passed through unimaginable +hardships, but they were loath to ask questions. + +An owl on their right hooted, and both of them saw Harry shiver. + +"What makes an owl's cry disturb you so, Harry?" asked Langdon. + +"Because one of them tried to put the hoodoo on me as they say down in +your country, Happy. I was lying back there in the forest on the hill +and the biggest and reddest-eyed owl that was ever born sat on a bough +over head, and kept telling me that I was finished, right at the end of +my rope. But he was a liar, because here I am, with you fellows on +either side of me, inside our lines and riding to the camp of the +commander-in-chief." + +"I think you're a bit shaky, Harry," said St. Clair, "and I don't +wonder at it. If I had been through all I think you've been through +I'd tumble off that horse into the road and die." + +"Has any messenger come from Colonel Sherburne at the river to General +Lee?" + +"Not that I've heard of. No, I'm sure that none's come," replied St. +Clair. + +"Then I'll get to him first. Don't think, Arthur, it's just a foolish +ambition of mine to lead, but the sooner some one reaches the general +the better." + +"We'll see that you're first old man," said Langdon. "It's not more +than a half-hour now." + +But Harry reeled in his saddle. The singular weakness that he had felt +a while back returned, and the road grew dark before him. With a +mighty effort he steadied himself in the saddle and St. Clair heard him +say in a fierce undertone: "I will go through with it!" St. Clair +looked across at Langdon and the signaling look of Happy Tom replied. +They drew in just a little closer. Now and then they talked to him +sharply and briskly, rousing him again and again from the lethargy into +which he was fast sinking. + +"Look! In the woods over there, Harry!" exclaimed St. Clair. "See the +men stretched asleep on the grass! They're the survivors of Pickett's +brigades that charged at Gettysburg." + +"And I was there!" said Harry. "I saw the greatest charge ever made in +the history of the world!" + +He reeled a little toward St. Clair, who caught him by the shoulder and +straightened him in the saddle. + +"Of course you had a pleasant, easy ride from the Potomac," said Happy +Tom, "but I don't understand how as good a horseman as you lost your +horse. I suppose he ran away while you were picking berries by the +roadside." + +"Me pick berries by the roadside, while I'm on such a mission!" +exclaimed Harry indignantly, rousing himself up until his eyes flashed, +which was just what Happy wished. "I didn't see any berries! Besides +I didn't start on a horse. I left in a boat." + +"A boat? Now, Harry, I know you've turned romancer. I guess your +mystic troubles with the owl--if you really saw an owl--have been a +sort of spur to your fancy." + +"Do you mean to say, Tom Langdon, that I didn't see an owl and talk +with him? I tell you I did, and his conversation was a lot more +intelligent than yours, even if it was unpleasant." + +"Of course it was," said St. Clair. "Happy's chief joy in life is +talking. You know how he chatters away, Harry. He hates to sleep, +because then he loses good time that he might use in talk. I'll wager +you anything against anything, Harry, that when the Angel Gabriel blows +his horn Happy will rise out of his grave, shaking his shroud and +furious with anger. He'll hold up the whole resurrection while he +argues with Gabriel that he blew his horn either too late or too early, +or that it was a mighty poor sort of a horn anyhow." + +"I may do all that, Harry," said Happy, "but Arthur is sure to be the +one who will raise the trouble about the shroud. You know how finicky +he is about his clothes. He'll find fault with the quality of his +shroud, and he'll say that it's cut either too short or too long. Then +he'll insist, while all the billions wait, on draping the shroud in the +finest Greek or Roman toga style, before he marches up to his place on +the golden cloud and receives his harp." + +Harry laughed. + +"That'll be old Arthur, sure," he said. Then his head drooped again. +Fatigue was overpowering him. St. Clair and Langdon put a hand on +either shoulder and held him erect, but Harry was so far sunk in +lethargy that he was not conscious of their grasp. Men looked +curiously at the three young officers riding rapidly forward, the one +in the center apparently held on his horse by the other two. + +St. Clair took prompt measures. + +"Harry Kenton!" he called sharply. + +"Here!" + +"Do you know what they do with a sentinel caught asleep?" + +"They shoot him!" + +"What of a messenger, bearing great news who has ridden two or three +days and nights through a thousand dangers, and then becomes +unconscious in his saddle within five hundred yards of his journey's +end?" + +"The stake wouldn't be too good for him," replied Harry as with a +mighty effort he shook himself, both body and mind. Once more his eyes +cleared and once more he sat erect in his saddle without help. + +"I won't fail, Arthur," he said. "Show the way." + +"There's a big tree by the roadside almost straight ahead," said St. +Clair. "General Lee is asleep under that, but he'll be as wide awake +as any man can be a half-minute after you arrive." + +They sprang from their horses, St. Clair spoke quickly with a watching +officer who went at once to awaken Lee. Harry dimly saw the form of +the general who was sleeping on a blanket, spread over small boughs. +Near him a man in brilliant uniform was walking softly back and forth, +and now and then impatiently striking the tops of his high +yellow-topped boots with a little riding whip. Harry knew at once that +it was Stuart, but the cavalry leader had not yet noticed him. + +Harry saw the officer bend over the commander-in-chief, who rose in an +instant to his feet. He was fully dressed and he showed gray in the +dusky light, but he seemed as ever calm and grave. Harry felt +instantly the same swell of courage that the presence of Jackson had +always brought to him. It was Lee, the indomitable, the man of genius, +who could not be beaten. He heard him say to the officer who had +awakened him, "Bring him immediately!" and he stepped forward, +strengthening himself anew and filled with pride that he should be the +first to arrive, as he felt that he certainly now was. + +"Lieutenant Kenton!" said Lee. + +"Yes, sir," said Harry, lifting his cap. + +"You were sent with Colonel Sherburne to see about the fords of the +Potomac." + +"I was, sir." + +"And he has sent you back with the report?" + +"He has, sir. He did not give me any written report for fear that I +might be captured. He did me the honor to say that my verbal message +would be believed." + +"It will. I know you, as I do the other members of my staff. Proceed." + +"The Potomac is in great flood, sir, and the bridge is destroyed. It +can't be crossed until it runs down to its normal depth." + +Harry saw other generals of high rank drawing near. One he recognized +as Longstreet. They were all silent and eager. + +"Colonel Sherburne ordered me to say to you, sir," continued Harry, +"that the best fords would be between Williamsport and Hagerstown when +the river ran down." + +"When did you leave him?" + +"Nearly two days ago, sir." + +"You have made good speed through a country swarming with our enemy. +You are entitled to rest." + +"It's not all, sir?" + +"What else?" + +"On my way I captured a messenger with a letter from General Meade to +General Pleasanton. I have the message, sir." + +He brought forth the paper from his blouse and extended it to General +Lee, who took it eagerly. Some one held up a torch and he read it +aloud to his generals. + +"And so Meade means to trap me," he said, "by coming down on our flank!" + +"Since the river is unfordable he'll have plenty of time to attack us +there," said Longstreet. + +"But will he dare to attack?" said Stuart defiantly. "He was able to +hold his own in defense at Gettysburg, but it's another thing to take +the offensive. We hear that General Meade is cautious and that he +makes many complaints to his government. A complainer is not the kind +of man who can destroy the Army of Northern Virginia." + +"Sometimes it's well to be cautious, General," said Lee. + +Then he turned to Harry and said: + +"Again I commend you." + +Harry saluted proudly, and then fell unconscious at the feet of General +Lee. + +When the young staff officer awoke, he was lying in a wagon which was +moving slowly, with many jolts over a very rough road. It was perhaps +one of these jolts that awoke him, because his eyes still felt very +heavy with sleep. His position was comfortable as he lay on a heap of +blankets, and the sides of the wagon looked familiar. Moreover the +broad back of the driver was not that of a stranger. Moving his head +into a higher place on the blankets he called. + +"Hey you, Dick Jones, where are you taking me?" + +Jones turned his rubicund and kindly face. + +"Don't it beat all how things come about?" he said. "This wagon wasn't +built for passengers, but I have you once and then I have you twice, +sleepin' like a prince on them blankets. I guess if the road wasn't so +rough you'd have slept all the way to Virginia. But I'm proud to have +you as a passenger. They say you've been coverin' yourself with glory. +I don't know about that, but I never before saw a man who was so all +fired tuckered out." + +"Where did you find me?" + +"I didn't exactly find you myself. They say you saluted General Lee so +deep and so strong that you just fell down at his feet an' didn't move, +as if you intended to stay there forever. But four of your friends +brought you to my wagon feet foremost, with orders from General Lee if +I didn't treat you right that I'd get a thousand lashes, be tarred an' +feathered, an' hung an' shot an' burned, an' then be buried alive. For +all of which there was no need, as I'm your friend and would treat you +right anyway." + +"I know you would," laughed Harry. "You can't afford to lose your best +passenger. How long have I been sleeping in this rough train of yours?" + +"Since about three o'clock in the morning." + +"And what time might it be now." + +"Well it might be ten o'clock in the morning or it might be noon, but +it ain't either." + +"Well, then, what time is it?" + +"It's about six o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Kenton, and I judge that +you've slept nigh on to fifteen hours, which is mighty good for a man +who was as tired as you was." + +"And what has the army been doing while I slept?" + +"Oh, it's been marchin' an' marchin' an' marchin'. Can't you hear the +wagons an' the cannons clinkin' an' clankin'? An' the hoofs of the +horses beatin' in the road? An the feet of forty or fifty thousand men +comin' down ker-plunk! ker-plunk! an' all them thousands talkin' off +an' on? Yes, we're still marchin', Mr. Kenton, but we're retreatin' +with all our teeth showin' an' our claws out, sharpened specially. +Most of the boys don't care if Meade would attack us. They'd be glad +of the chance to get even for Gettysburg." + +There was a beat of hoofs and St. Clair rode up by the side of the +wagon. + +"All right again, Harry?" he said cheerfully. "I'm mighty glad of it. +Other messengers have got through from Sherburne, confirming what you +said, but you were the first to arrive and the army already was on the +march because of the news you brought. Dalton arrived about noon, dead +beat. Happy is coming with a horse for you, and you can rejoin the +staff now." + +"Before I leave I'll have to thank Mr. Jones once more," said Harry. +"He runs the best passenger service that I know." + +"Welcome to it any time, either you or your friend," said Jones, +saluting with his whip. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CROSSING + + +Harry left the wagon at midnight and overtook the staff, an orderly +providing him with a good horse. Dalton, who had also been sleeping in +a wagon, came an hour or two later, and the two, as became modest young +officers, rode in the rear of the group that surrounded General Lee. + +Although the darkness had come fully, the Army of Northern Virginia had +not yet stopped. The infantry flanked by cavalry, and, having no fear +of the enemy, marched steadily on. Harry closely observed General Lee, +and although he was well into his fifties he could discern no weakness, +either physical or mental, in the man who had directed the fortunes of +the South in the terrific and unsuccessful three days at Gettysburg and +who had now led his army for nearly a week in a retreat, threatened, at +any moment, with an attack by a veteran force superior in numbers. All +the other generals looked worn and weary, but he alone sat erect, his +hair and beard trimmed neatly, his grave eye showing no sign of +apprehension. + +He seemed once more to Harry--youth is a hero-worshiper--omniscient and +omnipotent. The invasion of the North had failed, and there had been a +terrible loss of good men, officers and soldiers, but, with Lee +standing on the defensive at the head of the Army of Northern Virginia, +in Virginia, the South would be invincible. He had always won there, +and he always would win there. + +Harry sighed, nevertheless. He had two heroes, but one of them was +gone. He thought again if only Stonewall Jackson had been at +Gettysburg. Lee's terrible striking arm would have smitten with the +hammer of Thor. He would have pushed home the attack on the first day, +when the Union vanguard was defeated and demoralized. He would have +crushed the enemy on the second day, leaving no need for that fatal and +terrific charge of Pickett on the third day. + +"You reached the general first," said Dalton, "but I tried my best to +beat you." + +"But I started first, George, old fellow. That gave me the advantage +over you." + +"It's fine of you to say it. The army has quickened its pace since we +came. A part of it, at least, ought to arrive at the river to-morrow, +though their cavalry are skirmishing continually on our flanks. Don't +you hear the rifles?" + +Harry heard them far away to right and left, like the faint buzzing of +wasps, but he had heard the same sound so much that it made no +impression upon him. + +"Let 'em buzz," he said. "They're too distant to reach any of us, and +the Army of Northern Virginia is passing on." + +Those were precious hours. Harry knew much, but he did not divine the +full depths of the suspense, suffered by the people beyond the veil +that clothed the two armies. Lincoln had been continually urging Meade +to pursue and destroy his opponent, and Meade, knowing how formidable +Lee was, and how it had been a matter of touch and go at Gettysburg, +pursued, but not with all the ardor of one sure of triumph. Yet the +man at the White House hoped continually for victory, and the Southern +people feared that his hopes would come true. + +It became sure the next day that they would reach the Potomac before +Meade could attack them in flank, but the scouts brought word that the +Potomac was still a deep and swollen river, impossible to be crossed +unless they could rebuild the bridges. + +Finally the whole army came against the Potomac and it seemed to Harry +that its yellow flood had not diminished one particle since he left. +But Lee acted with energy. Men were set to work at once building a new +bridge near Falling Waters, parts of the ruined pontoon bridges were +recovered, and new boats were built in haste. But while the workmen +toiled the army went into strong positions along the river between +Williamsport and Hagerstown. + +Harry found himself with all of his friends again, and he was proud of +the army's defiant attitude. Meade and the Army of the Potomac were +not far away, it was said, but the youthful veterans of the South were +entirely willing to fight again. The older men, however, knew their +danger. The disproportion of forces would be much greater than at +Gettysburg, and even if they fought a successful defensive action with +their back to the river the Army of the Potomac could bide its time and +await reinforcements. The North would pour forth its numbers without +stint. + +Harry rode to Sherburne with a message of congratulation from General +Lee, who told him that he had selected the possible crossing well, and +that he had shown great skill and valor in holding it until the army +came up. Sherburne's flush of pride showed under his deep tan. + +"I did my best," he said to Harry, who knew the contents of the letter, +"and that's all any of us can do." + +"But General Lee has a way of inspiring us to do our best." + +"It's so, and it's one of the reasons why he's such a great general. +Watch those bridge builders work, Harry! They're certainly putting +their souls and strength into it." + +"And they have need to do so. The scouts say that the Army of the +Potomac will be before us to-morrow. Don't you think the river has +fallen somewhat, Colonel?" + +"A little but look at those clouds over there, Harry. As surely as we +sit here it's going to rain. The rivers were low that we might cross +them on our march into the North, just smoothing our way to Gettysburg, +and now that Gettysburg has happened they're high so we can't get back +to the South. It looks as if luck were against us." + +"But luck has a habit of changing." + +Harry rode back to headquarters, whence he was sent with another +dispatch, to Colonel Talbot, whom he found posted well in advance with +the Invincibles. + +"This note," said the colonel, "bids us to watch thoroughly. General +Meade and his army are expected on our front in the morning, and there +must be no chance for a surprise in the night, say a dash by their +cavalry which would cut up our rear guard or vanguard--upon my soul I +don't know which to call it. Harry, as you can see by the note itself, +you're to remain with us until about midnight, and then make a full +report of all that you and I and the rest of us may have observed upon +this portion of the front or rear, whichever it may be. Meanwhile we +share with you our humble rations." + +Harry was pleased. He was always glad when chance or purpose brought +him again into the company of the Invincibles. St. Clair and Langdon +were his oldest comrades of the war, and they were like brothers to +him. His affection for the two colonels was genuine and deep. If the +two lads were like brothers to him, the colonels were like uncles. + +"Is the Northern vanguard anywhere near?" asked Harry. + +"Skirmishing is going on only four or five miles away," replied Colonel +Leonidas Talbot. "It is likely that the sharp shooters will be picking +off one another all through the night, but it will not disturb us. That +is a great curse of war. It hardens one so for the time being. I'm a +soldier, and I've been one all my life, and I suppose soldiers are +necessary, but I can't get over this feeling. Isn't it the same way +with you, Hector?" + +"Exactly the same, Leonidas," replied Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. +Hilaire. "You and I fought together in Mexico, Leonidas, then on the +plains, and now in this gigantic struggle, but under whatever guise +and, wherever it may be, I find its visage always hideous. I don't +think we soldiers are to blame. We don't make the wars although we +have to fight 'em." + +"Increasing years, Hector, have not dimmed those perceptive faculties +of yours, which I may justly call brilliant." + +"Thanks, Leonidas, you and I have always had a proper conception of the +worth of each other." + +"If you will pardon me for speaking, sir," said St. Clair, "there is +one man I'd like to find, when this war is over." + +"'What is the appearance of this man, Arthur?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +"I don't know exactly how he looks, sir, though I've heard of him +often, and I shall certainly know him when I meet him. You understand, +sir, that, while I've not seen him, he has very remarkable +characteristics of manner." + +"And what may those be, Arthur? Are they so salient that you would +recognize them at once?" + +"Certainly, sir. He has an uncommonly loud voice, which he uses nearly +all the time and without restraint. Words fairly pour from his tongue. +Facts he scorns. He soars aloft on the wings of fancy. Many people +who have listened to him have felt persuaded by his talk, but he is +perhaps not so popular now." + +"An extraordinary person, Arthur. But why are you so anxious to find +him?" + +"Because I wish, sir, to lay upon him the hands of violence. I would +thrash him and beat him until he yelled for mercy, and then I would +thrash him and beat him again. I should want the original pair of +seven-leagued boots, not that I might make such fast time, but that I +might kick him at a single kick from one county to another, and back, +and then over and over past counting. I'd duck him in a river until he +gasped for breath, I'd drag him naked through a briar patch, and then +I'd tar and feather him, and ride him on a rail." + +"Heavens, Arthur! I didn't dream that your nature contained so much +cruelty! Who is this person over whose torture you would gloat like a +red Indian?" + +"It is the man who first said that one Southerner could whip five +Yankees." + +"Arthur," said Colonel Talbot, "your anger is just and becomes you. +When the war is over, if we all are spared we'll form a group and hunt +this fellow until we find him. And then, please God, if the gallows of +Haman is still in existence, we'll hang him on it with promptness and +dispatch. I believe in the due and orderly process of the law, but in +this case lynching is not only justifiable, but it's an honor to the +country." + +"Well spoken, Leonidas! Well spoken!" said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector +St. Hilaire. "I'm glad that Arthur mentioned the matter, and we'll +bear it in mind. You can count upon me." + +"And here is coffee," said Happy Tom. "I made this myself, the camp +cook liking me and giving me a chance. I'd really be a wonderful cook +if I had the proper training, and I may come to it, if we lose the war. +Still, the chance even then is slight, because my father, when red war +showed its edge over the horizon, put all his money in the best British +securities. So we could do no more than lose the plantation." + +"Happy," said Colonel Talbot, gravely rebuking, "I am surprised at your +father. I thought he was a patriot." + +"He is, sir, but he's a financier first, and I may be thankful for it +some day. I'll venture the prediction right now that if we lose this +war not a single Confederate bill will be in the possession of Thomas +Langdon, Sr. Others may have bales of it, worth less per pound than +cotton, but not your humble servant's father, who, I sometimes think, +has lots more sense than your humble servant's father's son." + +Colonel Leonidas Talbot shook his head slowly. + +"Finance is a mystery to me," he said. "In the dear old South that I +have always known, the law, the army and the church were and are +considered the high callings. To speak in fine, rounded periods was +considered the great gift. In my young days, Harry, I went with my +father by stage coach to your own State, Kentucky, to hear that sublime +orator, the great Henry Clay." + +"What was he speaking about, sir?" asked Harry. + +"I don't remember. That's not important. But surely he was the +noblest orator God ever created in His likeness. His words flowing +like music and to be heard by everybody, even those farthest from the +speaker, made my pulse beat hard, and the blood leap in my veins. I +was heart and soul for his cause, whatever it was, and, yet I fear me, +though I do not wish to hurt your feelings, Harry, that the state to +which he was such ornament, has not gone for the South with the whole +spirit that she should have shown. She has not even seceded. I fear +sometimes that you Kentuckians are not altogether Southern. You border +upon the North, and stretching as you do a long distance from east to +west and a comparatively short distance from north to south, you thus +face three Northern States across the Ohio--Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, +and the pull of three against one is strong. You see your position, +don't you? Three Yankee states facing you from the north and only one +Southern state, Tennessee, lying across your whole southern border, +that is three against one. I fear that these odds have had their +effect, because if Kentucky had sent all of her troops to the South, +instead of two-thirds of them to the North, the war would have been won +by us ere this." + +"I admit it," said Harry regretfully. "My own cousin, who was more +like a brother to me, is fighting on the other side. Kentucky troops +on the Union side have kept us from winning great victories, and many +of the Union generals are Kentuckians. I grieve over it, sir, as much +as you do." + +"But you and your people should not take too much blame to yourselves, +Harry," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, who had a very soft +heart. "Think of the many influences to which you were exposed daily. +Think of those three Yankee states sitting there on the other side of +the Ohio--Ohio, Indiana and Illinois--and staring at you so long and so +steadily that, in a way, they exerted a certain hypnotic force upon +you. No, my boy, don't feel badly about it, because the fault, in a +way, is not so much yours as it is that of your neighbors." + +"At any rate," said Happy Tom, with his customary boldness and +frankness, "we're bound to admit that the Yankees beat us at making +money." + +"Which may be more to our credit than theirs," said Colonel Talbot, +with dignity. "I have found it more conducive to integrity and a lofty +mind to serve as an officer at a modest salary in the army rather than +to gain riches in trade." + +"But somebody has to pay the army, sir." + +"Thomas, I regret to tell you that inquiry can be pushed to the point +of vulgarity. I have been content with things as they were, and so +should you be. Ah, there are our brave boys singing that noble battle +song of the South! Listen how it swells! It shows a spirit +unconquerable!" + +Along the great battle front swelled the mighty chorus: + + "Come brothers! Rally for the right! + The bravest of the brave + Sends forth her ringing battle cry + Beside the Atlantic wave! + She leads the way in honor's path; + Come brothers, near and far, + Come rally round the bonnie blue flag + That bears a single star." + +"A fine song! A fine song most truly," said Colonel Talbot. "It +heartens one gloriously!" + +But Harry, usually so quick to respond, strangely enough felt +depression. He felt suddenly in all its truth that they had not only +failed in their invasion, but the escape of the army was yet a matter +of great doubt. The mood was only momentary, however, and he joined +with all his heart as the mighty chorus rolled out another verse: + + "Now Georgia marches to the front + And beside her come + Her sisters by the Mexique sea + With pealing trump and drum, + Till answering back from hill and glen + The rallying cry afar, + A Nation hoists the bonnie blue flag + That bears a single star!" + +They sang it all through, and over again, and then, after a little +silence, came the notes of a trumpet from a far-distant point. It was +played by powerful lungs and the wind was blowing their way but they +heard it distinctly. It was a quaint syncopated tune, but not one of +the Invincibles had any doubt that it came from some daring detachment +of the Union Army. The notes with their odd lilt seemed to swell +through the forest, but it was strange to both of the colonels. + +"Do any of you know it?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +All shook their heads except Harry. + +"What is it, Harry?" asked Talbot. + +"It's a famous poem, sir, the music of which has not often been heard, +but I can translate from music into words the verse that has just been +played: + + "In their ragged regimentals + Stood the old Continentals + Yielding not, + When the grenadiers were lunging + And like hail fell the plunging + Cannon shot; + When the files of the isles + From the smoky night encampment + Bore the banner of the rampant + Unicorn + And grummer, grummer, + Rolled the roll of the drummer, + Through the morn!" + +The bugler played on. It was the same tune, curious, syncopated and +piercing the night shrilly. Whole brigades of the South stood in +silence to listen. + +"What do you think is its meaning?" asked Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire. + +"It's in answer to our song and at the same time a reproach," replied +Harry, who had jumped at once to the right conclusion. "The bugler +intends to remind us that the old Continentals who stood so well were +from both North and South, and perhaps he means, too, that we should +stand together again instead of fighting each other." + +"Then let the North give up at once," snapped Colonel Talbot. + +"But in the trumpeter's opinion that means we should be apart forever." + +"Then let him play on to ears that will not heed." + +But the bugler was riding away. The music came faintly, and then died +in one last sighing note. It left Harry grave and troubled, and he +began to ask himself new questions. If the South succeeded in forcing +a separation, what then? But the talk of his comrades drove the +thought from his mind. Colonel Talbot sent St. Clair, Langdon and a +small party of horsemen forward to see what the close approach of the +daring bugler meant. Harry went with them. + +Scouts in the brushwood quickly told them that a troop of Union cavalry +had appeared in a meadow some distance ahead of them, and that it was +one of their number who had played the song on the bugle. Should they +stalk the detachment and open fire? St. Clair, who was in command, +shook his head. + +"It would mean nothing now," he said, and rode on with his men, knowing +that the watchful Southern sharpshooters were on their flanks. It was +night now, and a bright moon was coming out, enabling them to use their +glasses with effect. + +"There they are!" exclaimed Harry, pointing to the strip of forest on +the far side of the opening, "and there is the bugler, too." + +He was studying the party intently. The brilliant moonlight, and the +strength of his glasses made everything sharp and clear and his gaze +concentrated upon the bugler. He knew that man, his powerful chest and +shoulders, and the well-shaped head on its strong neck. Nor did he +deny to himself that he had a feeling of gladness when he recognized +him. + +"It's none other," he said aloud. + +"None other what?" asked St. Clair. + +"Our warning bugler was Shepard, the Union spy. I can make him out +clearly on his horse with his bugle in his hand. You'll remember my +telling you how I had that fight with him in the river." + +"And perhaps it would have been better for us all if you had finished +him off then." + +"I couldn't have done it, Arthur, nor could you, if you had been in my +place." + +"No, I suppose not, but these Yankees are coming up pretty close. It's +sure proof that Meade's whole army will be here in the morning, and the +bridge won't be built." + +"It may be built, but, if Meade chooses a battle, a battle there will +be. Heavy forces must be very near. You can see them now signaling to +one another from hill to hill." + +"So I do, and this is as far as we ought to go. A hundred yards or two +farther and we'll be in the territory of the enemy's sharpshooters +instead of our own." + +They remained for a while among some bushes, and secured positive +knowledge that the bulk of the Army of the Potomac was drawing near. +Toward midnight Harry returned to his commander-in-chief and found him +awake and in consultation with his generals, under some trees near the +Potomac. Longstreet, Rhodes, Pickett, Early, Anderson, Pender and a +dozen others were there, all of them scarred and tanned by battle, and +most of them bearing wounds. + +Harry stood back, hesitating to invade this circle, even when he came +with dispatches, but the commander-in-chief, catching sight of him, +beckoned. Then, taking off his cap, he walked forward and presented a +note from Colonel Talbot. It was brief, stating that the enemy was +near, and Lee read it aloud to his council. + +"And what were your own observations, Lieutenant Kenton?" asked the +commander-in-chief. + +"As well as I could judge, sir, the enemy will appear on our whole +front soon after daybreak." + +"And will be in great enough force to defeat us." + +"Not while you lead us, sir." + +"A courtier! truly a courtier!" exclaimed Stuart, smoothing the great +feather of his gorgeous hat, which lay upon his knee. + +Harry blushed. + +"It may have had that look," he said, "but I meant my words." + +"Don't tease the lad," said the crippled Ewell. "I knew him well on +Jackson's staff, and he was one of our bravest and best." + +"A jest only," said Stuart. "Don't I know him as well as you, Ewell? +The first time I saw him he was riding alone among many dangers to +bring relief to a beleaguered force of ours." + +"And you furnished that relief, sir," said Harry. + +"Well, so I did, but it was my luck, not merit." + +"Be assured that you have no better friend than General Stuart," said +General Lee, smiling. "You have done your duty well, Lieutenant +Kenton, and as these have been arduous days for you you may withdraw, +and join your young comrades of the staff." + +Harry saluted and retired. Before he was out of ear shot the generals +resumed their eager talk, but they knew, even as Harry himself, that +there was but one thing to do, stand with their backs to the river and +fight, if Meade chose to offer battle. + +He slept heavily, and when he awoke the next day Dalton, who was up +before him, informed him that the Northern army was at hand. Snatching +breakfast, he and Dalton, riding close behind the commander-in-chief, +advanced a little distance and standing upon a knoll surveyed the +thrilling spectacle before them. Far along the front stretched the +Army of the Potomac, horse, foot and guns, come up with its enemy +again. Harry was sure that Meade was there, and with him Hancock and +Buford and Warren and all the other valiant leaders whom they had met +at Gettysburg. It was nine days since the close of the great battle, +and doubtless the North had poured forward many reinforcements, while +the South had none to send. + +Harry appreciated the full danger of their situation, with the larger +army in front of them, and the deep and swollen torrent of the Potomac +behind them. But he did not believe that Meade would attack. Lee had +lost at Gettysburg, but in losing he had inflicted such losses upon his +opponent, that most generals would hesitate to force another battle. +The one who would not have hesitated was consolidating his great +triumph at Vicksburg. Harry often thought afterward what would have +happened had Grant faced Lee that day on the wrong side of the Potomac. + +His opinion that Meade would not attack came from a feeling that might +have been called atmospheric, an atmosphere created by the lack of +initiative on the Union side, no clouds of skirmishers, no attacks of +cavalry, very little rifle firing of any kind, merely generals and +soldiers looking at one another. Harry saw, too, that his own opinion +was that of his superior officer. Watching the commander-in-chief +intently he saw a trace of satisfaction in the blue eyes. Presently +all of them rode back. + +Thus that day passed and then another wore on. Harry and Dalton had +little to do. The whole Army of Northern Virginia was in position, +defiant, challenging even, and the Army of the Potomac made no movement +forward. Harry watched the strange spectacle with an excitement that +he did not allow to appear on his face. It was like many of those +periods in the great battles in which he had taken a part, when the +combat died, though the lull was merely the omen of a struggle, soon to +come more frightful than ever. + +But here the struggle did not come. The hours of the afternoon fell +peacefully away, and the general and soldiers still looked at one +another. + +"They're working on the bridge like mad," said Dalton, who had been +away with a message, "and it will surely be ready in the morning. +Besides, the Potomac is falling fast. You can already see the muddy +lines that it's leaving on its banks." + +"And Meade's chance is slipping, slipping away!" said Harry exultingly. +"In three hours it will be sunset. They can't attack in the night and +to-morrow we'll be gone. Meade has delayed like McClellan at Antietam, +and, doubtless as McClellan did, he thinks our army much larger than it +really is." + +"It's so," said Dalton. "We're to be delivered, and we're to be +delivered without a battle, a battle that we could ill afford, even if +we won it." + +Both were in a state of intense anxiety and they looked many times at +the sun and their watches. Then they searched the hostile army with +their glasses. But nothing of moment was stirring there. Lower and +lower sank the sun, and a great thrill ran through the Army of Northern +Virginia. In both armies the soldiers were intelligent men--not mere +creatures of drill--who thought for themselves, and while those in the +Army of Northern Virginia were ready, even eager to fight if it were +pushed upon them, they knew the great danger of their position. Now +the word ran along the whole line that if they fought at all it would +be on their side of the river. + +Harry and Dalton did not sleep that night. They could not have done so +had the chance been offered. They like others rode all through the +darkness carrying messages to the different commands, insuring exact +cooperation. As the hours of the night passed the aspect of everything +grew better. The river had fallen so fast that it would be fordable +before morning. + +But after midnight the clouds gathered, thunder crashed, lightning +played and the violent rain of a summer storm enveloped them again. +Harry viewed it at first with dismay, and then he found consolation. +The darkness and the storm would cover their retreat, as it had covered +the retreat of their enemy, Hooker, after Chancellorsville. + +Harry and Dalton rode close behind Lee, who sat erect on his white +horse, supervising the first movement of troops over the new and +shaking bridge. Harry noted with amazement that despite his enormous +exertions, physical and mental, and an intense anxiety, continuous for +many days, he did not yet show signs of fatigue. Word had come that a +part of the army was already fording the river, near Williamsport, but +this bridge near Falling Waters was the most important point. General +Lee and his staff sat there on their horses a long time, while the rain +beat unheeded upon them. + +Few scenes are engraved more vividly upon the mind of Harry Kenton than +those dusky hours before the dawn, the flashes of lightning, the almost +incessant rumble of thunder, the turbid and yellow river across which +stretched the bridge, a mere black thread in the darkness, swaying and +dipping and rising and creaking as horse and foot, and batteries and +ammunition wagons passed upon it. + +There were torches, but they flared and smoked in the rain and cast a +light so weak and fitful that Harry could not see the farther shore. +The Army of Northern Virginia marched out upon a shaking bridge and +disappeared in the black gulf beyond. Only the lack of an alarm coming +back showed that it was reaching the farther shore. + +"Dawn will soon be here," said Dalton. + +"So it will," said Harry, "and most of the troops are across. Ah, +there go the Invincibles! Look how they ride!" + +Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire at +the head of their scanty band were just passing. They took off their +hats, and swept a low bow to the great chief who sat silently on his +white horse within a few yards of them. Then, side by side, they rode +upon the shaking bridge, followed by Langdon, St. Clair and their brave +comrades, and disappeared, where the bridge disappeared, in the rain +and mist. + +"Brave men!" murmured Lee. + +Harry, always watching his commander-in-chief, saw now for the first +time signs of fatigue and nervousness. The tremendous strain was +wearing him down. But while the rain still poured and ran in streams +from his gray hair and gray beard, the rear guard of the Army of +Northern Virginia passed upon the bridge, and Stuart, all his plumes +bedraggled, rode up to his chief, a smoking cup of coffee in his hand. + +"Drink this, General, won't you?" he said. + +He seized it, drank all of the coffee eagerly, and then handing back +the cup, said: + +"I never before in my life drank anything that refreshed me so much." + +Then he, with his staff, Stuart and some other generals rode over the +bridge, disappearing in their turn into the darkness and mist that had +swallowed up the others, but emerging, as the others had done, into the +safety of the Southern shore. + +Meade and his generals had held a council the night before but nearly +all the officers advised against attack. This night he made up his +mind to move against Lee anyhow, and was ready at dawn, only to find +the whole Southern army gone. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +IN SOCIETY + + +Harry, when the dawn had fully come, was sent farther away toward the +ford to see if the remainder of the troops had passed, and, when he +returned with the welcome news, the rain had ceased to fall. The army +was rapidly drying itself in the brilliant sunshine, and marched +leisurely on. He felt an immense relief. He knew that a great crisis +had been passed, and, if the Northern armies ever reached Richmond, it +would be a long and sanguinary road. Meade might get across and +attack, but his advantage was gone. + +The same spirit of relief pervaded the ranks, and the men sang their +battle songs. There had been some fighting at one or two of the fords, +but it did not amount to much, and no enemy hung on their rear. But no +stop was made by the staff until noon, when a fire was made and food +was cooked. Then Harry was notified that he and Dalton were to start +that night with dispatches for Richmond. They were to ride through +dangerous country, until they reached a point on the railroad, wholly +within the Southern lines, when they would take a train for the +Confederate capital. + +They were glad to go. They felt sure that no great battles would be +fought while they were gone. Neither army seemed to be in a mood for +further fighting just yet, and they longed for a sight of the little +city that was the heart of the Confederacy. They were tired of the +rifle and march, of cannon and battles. They wished to be a while +where civilized life went on, to hear the bells of churches and to see +the faces of women. + +It seemed to them both that they had lived almost all their lives in +war. Even Jeb Stuart's ball, stopped by the opening guns of a great +battle, was far, far away, and to Harry, it was at least a century +since he had closed his Tacitus in the Pendleton Academy, and put it +away in his desk. That old Roman had written something of battles, but +they were no such struggles as Chancellorsville and Gettysburg had +been. The legions, he admitted in his youthful pride, could fight +well, but they never could have beaten Yank or Reb. + +He and Dalton slept through the afternoon and directly after dark, well +equipped and well-armed, they made their start into the South. But in +going they did not neglect to pass the camp of the Invincibles who were +now in the apex of the army farthest south. They had found an +unusually comfortable place on a grassy plot beside a fine, cool +spring, and most of them were lying down. But Colonel Talbot and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sat on empty kegs, with a board +on an empty box between them. The great game which ran along with the +war had been renewed. St. Clair and Langdon sat on the grass beside +them, watching the contest. + +The two colonels looked up at the sound of hoofs and paused a moment. + +"I'm getting his king into a close corner, Harry," said Colonel Talbot, +"and he'll need a lot of time for thinking. Where are you two going, +or perhaps I shouldn't ask you such a question?" + +"There's no secret about it," replied Harry. "We're going to Richmond +with dispatches." + +"He was incorrect in saying that he was getting my king into a close +corner, as I'll presently show him," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire; "but you boys are lucky. I suppose you'll stay a while in the +capital. You'll sleep in white beds, you'll eat at tables, with +tablecloths on 'em. You'll hear the soft voices of the women and girls +of the South, God bless 'em!" + +"And if you went on to Charleston you'd find just as fine women there," +said Colonel Leonidas Talbot. + +He sighed and a shade of sadness crossed his face. Harry heard and saw +and understood. He remembered a night long, long ago in that heat of +rebellion, when he had looked down from the window of his room, and, in +the dark, had seen two figures, a man and a woman, upon a piazza, +Colonel Talbot and Madame Delaunay, talking softly together. He had +felt then that he was touching almost unconsciously upon the thread of +an old romance. A thread slender and delicate, but yet strong enough +in its very tenderness and delicacy to hold them both. The perfume of +the flowers and of the old romance that night in the town so far away +came back. He was moved, and when his eyes met Colonel Talbot's some +kind of an understanding passed between them. + +"The good are never rewarded," said Happy Tom. + +"How so?" asked Harry. + +"Because the proof of it sits on his horse here before us. Why should +a man like George Dalton be sent to Richmond? A sour Puritan who does +not know how to enjoy a dance or anything else, who looks upon the +beautiful face of a girl as a sin and an abomination, who thinks to be +ugly is to be good, who is by temperament and education unfit to enjoy +anything, while Thomas Langdon, who by the same measurements is fit to +enjoy everything, is left here to hold back the Army of the Potomac. +It's undoubtedly a tribute to my valor, but I don't like it." + +"Thomas," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot, gravely, "you're entirely too +severe with our worthy young friend, Dalton. The bubbles of pleasure +always lie beneath austere and solemn exteriors like his, seeking to +break a way to the surface. The longer the process is delayed the more +numerous the bubbles are and the greater they expand. If scandalous +reports concerning a certain young man in Richmond should reach us here +in the North, relating his unparalleled exploits in the giddier circles +of our gay capital, I should know without the telling that it was our +prim young George Dalton." + +"You never spoke truer words, Leonidas," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector +St. Hilaire. "A little judicious gallantry in youth is good for any +one. It keeps the temperature from going too high. I recall now the +case of Auguste Champigny, who owned an estate in Louisiana, near the +Louisiana estate of the St. Hilaires, and the estates of those cousins +of mine whom I visited, as I told you once. + +"But pardon me. I digress, and to digress is to grow old, so I will +not digress, but remain young, in heart at least. I go back now. I +was speaking of Auguste Champigny, who in youth thought only of making +money and of making his plantation, already great, many times greater. +The blood in his veins was old at twenty-two. He did not love the +vices that the world calls such. But yet there were times, I knew, +when he would have longed to go with the young, because youth cannot be +crushed wholly at twenty-two. There was no escape of the spirits, no +wholesome blood-letting, so to speak, and that which was within him +became corrupt. He acquired riches and more riches, and land and more +land, and at fifty he went to New Orleans, and sought the places where +pleasures abound. But his true blossoming time had passed. The blood +in his veins now became poison. He did the things that twenty should +do, and left undone the things that fifty should do. Ah! Harry, one +of the saddest things in life is the dissipated boy of fifty! He +should have come with us when the first blood of youth was upon him. +He could have found time then for play as well as work. He could have +rowed with us in the slender boats on the river and bayous with Mimi +and Rosalie and Marianne and all those other bright and happy ones. He +could have danced, too. It was no strain, we never danced longer than +two days and two nights without stopping, and the festivals, the gay +fete days, not more than one a week! But it was not Auguste's way. A +man when he should have been a boy, and then, alas! a boy when he +should have been a man!" + +"You speak true words, Hector," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot, "though +at times you seem to me to be rather sentimental. Youth is youth and +it has the pleasures of youth. It is not fitting that a man should be +a boy, but middle-age has pleasures of its own and they are more solid, +perhaps more satisfying than those of youth. I can't conceive of +twenty getting the pleasure out of the noble game of chess that we do. +The most brilliant of your young French Creole dancers never felt the +thrill that I feel when the last move is made and I beat you." + +"Then if you expect to experience that thrill, Leonidas, continue the +pursuit of my king, from which you expect so much, and see what will +happen to you." + +Colonel Talbot looked keenly at the board, and alarm appeared on his +face. He made a rapid retreat with one of his pieces, and Harry and +Dalton, knowing that it was time for them to go, reached down from +their saddles, shook hands with both, then with St. Clair and Happy +Tom, and were soon beyond the bounds of the camp. + +They rode on for many hours in silence. They were in a friendly land +now, but they knew that it was well to be careful, as Federal scouts +and cavalry nevertheless might be encountered at any moment. Two or +three times they turned aside from the road to let detachments of +horsemen pass. They could not tell in the dark and from their hiding +places to which army they belonged, and they were not willing to take +the delay necessary to find out. They merely let them ride by and +resumed their own place on the road. + +Harry told Dalton many more details of his perilous journey from the +river to the camp of the commander-in-chief, and he spoke particularly +of Shepard. + +"Although he's a spy," he said, "I feel that the word scarcely fits +him, he's so much greater than the ordinary spy. That man is worth +more than a brigade of veterans to the North. He's as brave as a lion, +and his craft and cunning are almost superhuman." + +He did not tell that he might easily have put Shepard forever out of +the way, but that his heart had failed him. Yet he did not feel +remorse nor any sense of treachery to his cause. He would do the same +were the same chance to come again. But it seemed to him now that a +duel had begun between Shepard and himself. They had been drifting +into it, either through chance or fate, for a long time. He knew that +he had a most formidable antagonist, but he felt a certain elation in +matching himself against one so strong. + +They rode all night and the next day across the strip of Maryland into +Virginia and once more were among their own people, their undoubted +own. They were now entering the Valley of Virginia where the great +Jackson had leaped into fame, and both Harry and Dalton felt their +hearts warm at the greetings they received. Both armies had marched +over the valley again and again. It was torn and scarred by battle, +and it was destined to be torn and scarred many times more, but its +loyalty to the South stood every test. This too was the region in +which many of the great Virginia leaders were born, and it rejoiced in +the valor of its sons. + +Food and refreshment were offered everywhere to the two young horsemen, +and the women and the old men--not many young men were left--wanted to +hear of Gettysburg. They would not accept it as a defeat. It was +merely a delay, they said. General Lee would march North once more +next year. Harry knew in his heart that the South would never invade +again, that the war would be for her henceforth a purely defensive one, +but he said nothing. He could not discourage people who were so +sanguine. + +Every foot of the way now brought back memories of Jackson. He saw +many familiar places, fields of battle, sites of camps, lines of +advance or retreat, and his heart grew sad within him, because one whom +he admired so much, and for whom he had such a strong affection, was +gone forever, gone when he was needed most. He saw again with all the +vividness of reality that terrible night at Chancellorsville, when the +wounded Jackson lay in the road, his young officers covering his body +with their own to protect him from the shells. + +When they reached the strip of railroad entering Richmond they left +their horses to be sent later, and each took a full seat in the short +train, where he could loosen his belt, and stretch his limbs. It was a +crude coach, by the standards of to-day, but it was a luxury then. +Harry and Dalton enjoyed it, after so much riding horseback, and +watched the pleasant landscape, brown now from the July sun, flow past. + +Their coach did not contain many passengers, several wounded officers +going to Richmond on furlough, some countrymen, carrying provisions to +the capital for sale, and a small, thin, elderly woman in a black +dress, to whom Harry assigned the part of an old maid. He noticed that +her features were fine and she had the appearance of one who had +suffered. When they reached Richmond and their passes were examined, he +hastened to carry her bag for her and to help her off the train. She +thanked him with a smile that made her almost handsome, and quickly +disappeared in the streets of the city. + +"A nice looking old maid," he said to Dalton. + +"How do you know she's an old maid?" + +"I don't know. I suppose it's a certain primness of manner." + +"You can't judge by appearances. Like as not she's been married thirty +years, and it's possible that she may have a family of at least twelve +children." + +"At any rate, we'll never know. But it's good, George, to be here in +Richmond again. It's actually a luxury to see streets and shop +windows, and people in civilian clothing, going about their business." + +"Looks the same way to me, Harry, but we can't delay. We must be off +to the President, with the dispatches from the Army of Northern +Virginia." + +But they did not hurry greatly. They were young and it had been a long +time since they had been in a city of forty thousand inhabitants, where +the shop windows were brilliant to them and nobody on the streets was +shooting at anybody else. It was late July, the great heats were gone +for the time at least, and they were brisk and elated. They paused a +little while in Capitol Square, and looked at the Bell Tower, rising +like a spire, from the crest of which alarms were rung, then at the +fine structure of St. Paul's Church. They intended to go into the +State House now used as the Confederate Capitol, but that must wait +until they reported to President Davis. + +They arrived at the modest building called the White House of the +Confederacy, and, after a short wait in the anteroom, they were +received by the President. They saw a tall, rather spare man, dressed +in a suit of home-knit gray. He received them without either warmth or +coldness. Harry, although it was not the first time he had seen him, +looked at him with intense curiosity. Davis, like Lincoln, was born in +his own State, Kentucky, but like most other Kentuckians, he did not +feel any enthusiasm over the President of the Confederacy. There was +no magnetism. He felt the presence of intellect, but there was no +inspiration in that arid presence. + +A man of Oriental features was sitting near with a great bunch of +papers in his hand. Mr. Davis did not introduce Harry and Dalton to +him, and he remained silent while the President was asking questions of +the messengers. But Harry watched him when he had a chance, interested +strongly in that shrewd, able, Eastern face, the descendant of an +immemorial and intellectual race, the man who while Secretary of State +was trying also to help carry the tremendous burden of Confederate +finance. What was he thinking, as Harry and Dalton answered the +President's questions about the Army of Northern Virginia? + +"You say that you left immediately after our army crossed the Potomac?" +asked the President. + +"Yes, sir," replied Harry. "General Meade could have attacked, but he +remained nearly two days on our front without attempting to do so." + +A thin gray smile flitted over the face of the President of the +Confederacy. + +"General Meade was not beaten at Gettysburg, but I fancy he remembered +it well enough." + +Harry glanced at Benjamin, but his Oriental face was inscrutable. The +lad wondered what was lurking at the back of that strong brain. He was +shrewd enough himself to know that it was not always the generals on +the battlefield who best understood the condition of a state at war, +and often the man who held the purse was the one who measured it best +of all. But Benjamin never said a word, nor did the expression of his +face change a particle. + +"The Army of Northern Virginia is safe," said the President, "and it +will be able to repel all invasion of Virginia. General Lee gives +especial mention of both of you in his letters, and you are not to +return to him at once. You are to remain here a while on furlough, and +if you will go to General Winder he will assign you to quarters." + +Both Harry and Dalton were delighted, and, although thanks were really +due to General Lee, they thanked the President, who smiled dryly. Then +they saluted and withdrew, the President and the Secretary of State +going at once into earnest consultation over the papers Mr. Benjamin +had brought. + +Harry felt that he had left an atmosphere of depression and said so, +when they were outside in the bright sunshine. + +"If you were trying to carry as much as Mr. Davis is carrying you'd be +depressed too," said Dalton. + +"Maybe so, but let's forget it. We've got nothing to do for a few days +but enjoy ourselves. General Winder is to give us quarters, but we're +not to be under his command. What say you to a little trip through the +capitol?" + +"Good enough." + +Congress had adjourned for the day, but they went through the building, +admiring particularly the Houdon Washington, and then strolled again +through the streets, which were so interesting and novel to them. +Richmond was never gayer and brighter. They were sure that the hated +Yankees could never come. For more than two years the Army of Northern +Virginia had been an insuperable bar to their advance, and it would +continue so. + +Harry suddenly lifted his cap as some one passed swiftly, and Dalton +glancing backward saw a small vanishing figure. + +"Who was it?" he asked. + +"The thin little old maid in black whom we saw on the train. She may +have nodded to me when I bowed, but it was such a little nod that I'm +not certain." + +"I rather like your being polite to an insignificant old maid, Harry. +I'd expect you, as a matter of course, to be polite to a young and +pretty girl, overpolite probably." + +"That'll do, George Dalton. I like you best when you're preaching +least. Come, let's go into the hotel and hear what they're talking +about." + +After the custom of the times a large crowd was gathered in the +spacious lobby of Richmond's chief hotel. Among them were the local +celebrities in other things than war, Daniel, Bagby, Pegram, Randolph, +and a half-dozen more, musicians, artists, poets, orators and wits. +People were quite democratic, and Harry and Dalton were free to draw +their chairs near the edge of the group and listen. Pegram, the +humorist, gave them a glance of approval, when he noticed their +uniforms, the deep tan of their faces, their honest eyes and their +compact, strong figures. + +Harry soon learned that a large number of English and French newspapers +had been brought by a blockade runner to Wilmington, North Carolina, +and had just reached the capital, the news of which these men were +discussing with eagerness. + +"We learn that the sympathies of both the French and English +governments are still with us," said Randolph. + +"But these papers were all printed before the news of Vicksburg and +Gettysburg had crossed the Atlantic," said Daniel. + +"England is for us," said Pegram, "only because she likes us little and +the North less. The French Imperialists, too, hate republics, and are +in for anything that will damage them. When we beat off the North, +until she's had enough, and set up our own free and independent +republic, we'll have both England and France annoying us, and demanding +favors, because they were for us in the war. Sympathy is something, +but it doesn't win any battles." + +"A nation has no real friend except itself," said Bagby. "Whatever the +South gets she'll have to get with her own good right arm." + +"I can predict the first great measure to be put through by the +Southern Government after the war." + +"What will it be?" + +"The abolition of slavery." + +"Why, that's one of the things we're fighting to maintain!" + +"Exactly so. You're willing to throw away a thing of your own accord, +when you're not willing to throw it away because another orders you to +do so. Wars are due chiefly to our misunderstanding of human nature." + +Then Pegram turned suddenly to Harry. "You're from the field?" he +said. "From the Army of Northern Virginia?" + +"Yes," replied Harry. "My name is Kenton and I'm a lieutenant on the +staff of General Lee. My friend is George Dalton, also of the +commander-in-chief's staff." + +"Are you from Kentucky?" asked Daniel curiously. + +"Yes, from a little town called Pendleton." + +"Then I fancy that I've met a relative of yours. I returned recently +from a small town in North Georgia, the name of which I may not give, +owing to military reasons, necessary at the present time, and I met +while I was there a splendid tall man of middle years, Colonel George +Kenton of Kentucky." + +"That's my father!" said Harry eagerly. "How was he?" + +"I thought he must be your father. The resemblance, you know. I +should say that if all men were as healthy as he looked there would be +no doctors in the world. He has a fine regiment and he'll be in the +battle that's breeding down there. Grant has taken Vicksburg, as we +all know, but a powerful army of ours is left in that region. It has +to be dealt with before we lose the West." + +"And it will fight like the Army of Northern Virginia," said Harry. "I +know the men of the West. The Yankees win there most of the time, +because we have our great generals in the East and they have theirs in +the West." + +"I've had that thought myself," said Bagby. "We've had men of genius +to lead us in the East, but we don't seem to produce them in the West. +People are always quoting Napoleon's saying that men are nothing, a man +is everything, which I never believed before, but which I'm beginning +to believe now." + +Then the talk veered away from battle and back to social, literary and +artistic affairs, to all of which Harry and Dalton listened eagerly. +Both had minds that responded to the more delicate things of life, and +they were glad to hear something besides war discussed. It was hard +for them to think that everything was going on as usual in Europe, that +new books and operas and songs were being written, and that men and +women were going about their daily affairs in peace. Yet both were +destined to live to see the case reversed, the people of the States +setting the world an example in moderation and restraint, while the +governments of Europe were deluging that continent with blood. + +"If this war should result in our defeat," said Bagby, "we won't get a +fair trial before the world for two or three generations, and maybe +never." + +"Why?" asked Dalton. + +"Because we're not a writing people. Oh, yes, there's Poe, I know, the +nation's greatest literary genius, but even Europe honored him before +the South did. We've devoted our industry and talents to politics, +oratory and war. We don't write books, and we don't have any +newspapers that amount to much. Why, as sure as I'm sitting here, the +moment this war is over New England and New York and Pennsylvania, +particularly New England, will begin to pour out books, telling how the +wicked Southerners brought on the war, what a cruel and low people we +are, the way in which we taught our boys, when they were strong enough, +how to beat slaves to death, and the whole world will believe them. +Maybe the next generation of Southerners will believe them too." + +"Why?" asked Harry. + +"Why? Why? Because we don't have any writers, and won't have any for +a long time! The writer has not been honored among us. Any fellow +with a roaring voice who can get up on the stump and tell his audience +that they're the bravest and best and smartest people on earth is the +man for them. You know that old story of Andy Jackson. Somebody +taunted him with being an uneducated man, so at the close of his next +speech he thundered out: _E pluribus unum! Multum in parvo! Sic +semper tyrannis!_ So it was all over. Old Andy to that audience, and +all the others that heard of it, was the greatest Latin scholar in the +world." + +"But that may apply to the North, too," objected Harry. + +"So it would. Nevertheless they'll write this war, and they'll get +their side of it fastened on the world before our people begin to +write." + +"But if we win we won't care," said Randolph. "Success speaks for +itself. You can squirm and twist all you please, and make all the +excuses for it that you can think up, but there stands success glaring +contemptuously at you. You're like a little boy shooting arrows at the +Sphinx." + +Thus the conversation ran on. Both Harry and Dalton were glad to be in +the company of these men, and to feel that there was something in the +world besides war. All the multifarious interests of peace and +civilization suddenly came crowding back upon them. Harry remembered +Pendleton with its rolling hills, green fields, and clear streams, and +Dalton remembered his own home, much like it, in the Valley of +Virginia, not so far away. + +"Do you remain long in Richmond?" asked Randolph. + +"A week at least," replied Harry. + +"Then you ought to see a little of social life. Mrs. John Curtis, a +leading hostess, gives a reception and a dance to-morrow night. I can +easily procure invitations for both of you, and I know that she would +be glad to have two young officers freshly arrived from our glorious +Army of Northern Virginia." + +"But our clothes!" said Dalton. "We have only a change of uniform +apiece, and they're not fresh by any means." + +All the men laughed. + +"You don't think that Richmond is indulging in gorgeous apparel do +you?" said Daniel. "We never manufactured much ourselves, and since +all the rest of the world is cut off from us where are the clothes to +come from even for the women? Brush up your uniforms all you can and +you'll be more than welcome. Two gallant young officers from the Army +of Northern Virginia! Why, you'll be two Othellos, though white, of +course." + +Harry glanced at Dalton, and Dalton glanced at Harry. Each saw that +the other wanted to go, and Daniel, watching them, smiled. + +"I see that you'll come," he said, "and so it's settled. Have you +quarters yet?" + +"Not yet," replied Harry, "but we'll see about it this afternoon." + +"I'll have the invitations sent to you here at this hotel. All of us +will be there, and we'll see that you two meet everybody." + +Both thanked him profusely. They were about to go, thinking it time to +report to General Winder, when Harry noticed a thin woman in a black +dress, carrying a large basket, and just leaving the hotel desk. He +caught a glimpse of her face and he knew that it was the old maid of +the train. Then something else was impressed upon his mind, something +which he had not noticed at their first meeting, but which came to him +at their second. He had seen a face like hers before, but the +resemblance was so faint and fleeting that he could not place it, +strive as he would. But he was sure that it was there. + +"Who is that woman?" he asked. + +Daniel shook his head and so did Randolph, but Bagby spoke up. + +"Her name is Henrietta Carden," he said, "and she's a seamstress. I've +seen her coming to the hotel often before, bringing new clothes to the +women guests, or taking away old ones to be repaired. I believe that +the ladies account her most skillful. It's likely that she'll be at +the Curtis house, in a surgical capacity, to-morrow night, as a quick +repairer of damaged garments, those fine linen and silk and lace +affairs that we don't know anything about. Mrs. Curtis relies greatly +upon her and I ought to tell you, young gentlemen, that Mr. Curtis is a +most successful blockade runner, though he takes no personal risk +himself. The Curtis house is perhaps the most sumptuous in Richmond. +You'll see no signs of poverty there, though, as I told you, officers +in old and faded clothes are welcome." + +Harry saw Henrietta Carden carrying the large basket of clothes, go out +at a side door, and he felt as if a black shadow like a menace had +passed across the floor. But it was only for an instant. He dismissed +it promptly, as one of those thoughts that come out of nothing, like +idle puffs of summer air. He and Dalton bade a brief farewell to their +new friends and left for the headquarters of General Winder. An +elderly and childless couple named Lanham had volunteered to take two +officers in their house near Capitol Square, and there Harry and Dalton +were sent. + +They could not have found a better place. Mr. and Mrs. Lanham were +quiet people, who gave them an excellent room and a fine supper. Mrs. +Lanham showed a motherly solicitude, and when she heard that they were +going to the Curtis ball on the following night she demanded that their +spare and best uniforms be turned over to her. + +"I can make them look fresh," she insisted, "and your appearance must +be the finest possible. No, don't refuse again. It's a pleasure to me +to do it. When I look at you two, so young and strong and so honest in +manner and speech, I wish that I had sons too, and then again I'm glad +I have not." + +"Why not, Mrs. Lanham?" asked Harry. + +"Because I'd be in deadly fear lest I lose them. They'd go to the +war--I couldn't help it--and they'd surely be killed." + +"We won't grieve over losing what we've never had," smiled Mr. Lanham. +"That's morbid." + +Harry and Dalton did their best to answer all the questions of their +hosts, who they knew would take no pay. The interest of both Mr. and +Mrs. Lanham was increased when they found that their young guests were +on the staff of General Lee and before that had been on the staff of +the great Stonewall Jackson. These two names were mighty in the South, +untouched by any kind of malice or envy, and with legends to cluster +around them as the years passed. + +"And you really saw Stonewall Jackson every day!" said Mrs. Lanham. +"You rode with him, talked with him, and went into battle with him?" + +"I was in all his campaigns, Mrs. Lanham," replied Harry, modestly, but +not without pride. "I was with him in every battle, even to the last, +Chancellorsville. I was one of those who sheltered him from the +shells, when he was shot by our own men. Alas! what an awful mistake. +I--" + +He stopped suddenly. He had choked with emotion, and the tears came +into his eyes. Mrs. Lanham saw, and, understanding, she quickly +changed the subject to Lee. They talked a while after supper, called +dinner now, and then they went up to their room on the second floor. + +It was a handsome room, containing good furniture, including two single +beds. Their baggage had preceded them and everything was in order. Two +large windows, open to admit the fresh air, looked out over Richmond. +On a table stood a pitcher of ice water and glasses. + +"Our lot has certainly been cast in a pleasant place," said Dalton, +taking a chair by one of the windows. + +"You're right," said Harry, sitting in the chair by the other window. +"The Lanhams are fine people, and it's a good house. This is luxury, +isn't it, George, old man?" + +"The real article. We seem to be having luck all around. And we're +going to a big ball to-morrow night, too. Who'd have thought such a +thing possible a week ago?" + +"And we've made friends who'll see that we're not neglected." + +"It's an absolute fact that we've become the favorite children of +fortune." + +"No earthly doubt of it." + +Then ensued a silence, broken at length by a scraping sound as each +moved his chair a little nearer to the window. + +"Close, George," said Harry at length. + +"Yes, a bit hard to breathe." + +"When fellows get used to a thing it's hard to change." + +"Fine room, though, and those are splendid beds." + +"Great on a winter night." + +"You've noticed how the commander-in-chief himself seldom sleeps under +a tent, but takes his blankets to the open?" + +"Wonder how an Indian who has roamed the forest all his life feels when +he's shut up between four walls for the first time." + +"Fancy it's like a prison cell to him." + +"Think so too. But the Lanhams are fine people and they're doing their +best for us." + +"Do you think they'd be offended if I were to take my blankets, and +sleep on the grass in the back yard?" + +"Of course they would. You mustn't think of such a thing. After this +war is over you've got to emerge slowly from barbarism. Do you +remember whether at supper we cut our food with our knives and lifted +it to our mouths with forks, or just tore and lifted with our fingers?" + +"We used knife and fork, each in its proper place. I happened to think +of it and watched myself. You, I suppose, did it through the force of +an ancient habit, recalled by civilized surroundings." + +"I'm glad you remember about it. Now I'm going to bed, and maybe I'll +sleep. I suppose there's no hope of seeing the stars through the roof." + +"None on earth! But my bed is fine and soft. We'd be all right if we +could only lift the roof off the house. I'd like to hear the wind +rubbing the boughs together." + +"Stop it! You make me homesick! We've got no right to be pining for +blankets and the open, when these good people are doing so much for us!" + +Each stretched himself upon his bed, and closed his eyes. They had not +been jesting altogether. So long a life in the open made summer skies +at night welcome, and roofs and walls almost took from them the power +of breathing. + +But the feeling wore away after a while and amid pleasurable thoughts +of the coming ball both fell asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE MISSING PAPER + + +Harry and Dalton did not awake until late the next morning and they +found they had not suffered at all from sleeping between four walls and +under a roof. Their lungs were full of fresh air, and youth with all +its joyous irresponsibility had come back. Harry sprang out of bed. + +"Up! up! old boy!" Harry cried to Dalton. "Don't you hear the bugles +calling? not to battle but to pleasure! There is no enemy in our +front! We don't have to cross a river with an overwhelming army +pressing down upon us! We don't have to ride before the dawn on a +scout which may lead us into a thicket full of hostile riflemen. We're +in a city, boy, and our business now is beauty and pleasure!" + +"Harry," said Dalton, "you ought to go far." + +"Why, George? What induces you to assume the role of a prophet +concerning me?" + +"Because you're so full of life. You're so keen about everything. You +must have a heart and lungs of extra steam power." + +"But I notice you don't say anything about brain power. Maybe you +think it's the quiet, rather silent fellows like yourself, George, who +have an excess of that." + +"None of your irony. Am I not looking forward to this ball as much as +you are? I was a boy when I entered the war, Harry, but two years of +fighting day and night age one terribly. I feel as if I could +patronize any woman under twenty-five, and treat her as quite a simple +young thing." + +"Try it, George, and see what happens to you." + +"Oh, no! I merely said I felt that way. I've too much sense to put it +into action." + +"Do you know, George, that when this war is over it will be really time +for us to be thinking about girls. We'll be quite old enough. They +say that many of the Yankee maidens in Philadelphia and New York are +fine for looks. I wonder if they'll cast a favoring eye on young +Southern officers as our conquering armies go marching down their +streets!" + +"It's too remote. Don't think about it, Harry. Richmond will do us +for the present." + +"But you can let a fellow project his mind into the future." + +"Not so far that we'll be marching as conquerors through Philadelphia +and New York. Let's deal with realities." + +"I've always thought there was something of the Yankee about you, +George, not in political principles--I never question your devotion to +the cause--but in calculating, weighing everything and deciding in +favor of the one that weighs an ounce the most." + +"Are you about through dressing? You've taken a minute longer than the +regular time." + +There was a knock at the door, and, when Dalton opened it a few inches, +a black head announced through the crack that breakfast was ready. + +"See what a disgrace you're bringing upon us," said Dalton. "Delaying +everything. Mrs. Lanham will say that we're two impostors, that such +malingerers cannot possibly belong to the Army of Northern Virginia." + +"Lead on," said Harry. "I'm ready, and I'm hungry as every soldier in +the Southern army always is." + +They had a warm greeting from their hospitable hosts, followed by an +abundant breakfast. Then at Mrs. Lanham's earnest solicitation they +turned over their dress uniforms to her to be repaired and pressed. +Then they went out into the streets again, and spent the whole day +rambling about, enjoying everything with the keen and intense delight +that can come only to the young, and after long abstinence. Richmond +was not depressed. Far from it. There had been a wonderful +transformation since those dark days when the army of McClellan was +near enough to see the spires of its churches. The flood of battle had +rolled far away since then, and it had never come back. It could never +come back. It was true that the Army of Northern Virginia had failed at +Gettysburg, but it was returning to the South unassailed, and was ready +to repeat its former splendid achievements. + +Harry went to the post office, and found there, to his great surprise +and delight, a letter from his father, written three or four days after +Vicksburg. + + +My dear son: [he wrote] + +The news has just come to us that the Army of Northern Virginia, while +performing prodigies of valor, has failed to carry all the Northern +positions at Gettysburg. Only complete success could warrant a further +advance. I assume therefore that General Lee is retreating and I +assume also that you, Harry, my beloved son, are alive, that you came +unharmed out of that terrible battle. It does not seem possible to me +that it could be otherwise. I cannot conceive of you fallen. It may +be that it's because you are my son. The sons of others may fall, but +not mine, just as we know that all others are doomed to die, but get +into the habit of thinking ourselves immortal. So, I address this +letter to you in the full belief that it will reach you somewhere, and +that you will read it. + +You know, of course, of our great loss at Vicksburg. It is disastrous +but not irreparable. We still have a powerful army in the West, hardy, +indomitable, one with which the enemy will have to reckon. As for +myself I have been spared in many battles and I am well. It seems the +sport of chance that you and I, while fighting on the same side, should +have been separated in this war, you in the East and I in the West. +But it has been done by One who knows best, and after all I am glad +that you have been in such close contact with two of the greatest and +highest-minded soldiers of the ages, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. +Lee. I do not think of them merely as soldiers, but as knights and +champions with flaming swords. One of them, alas! is gone, but we have +the other, and if man can conquer he will. Here in the West we repose +our faith in Lee, as surely as do you in the East, you who see his face +and hear his voice every day. + +I have had two or three letters from Pendleton. That part of the State +is for the present outside the area of conflict, though I hear that the +guerilla bands to the east in the mountains still vex and annoy, and +that Skelly is growing bolder. I foresee the time when we shall have +to reckon with this man, who is a mere brigand. + +I hear that the prospects for fruit in our orchards were never finer. +You will remember how you prowled in them when you were a little boy, +Harry, and what a pirate you were among the apples and peaches and +pears and good things that grew on tree and bush and briar in that +beautiful old commonwealth of ours. I often upbraided you then, but I +should like to see you now, far out on a bough as of old, reaching for +a big yellow pear, or a red, red bunch of cherries! Alas! there are +many lads who will never return, who will never see the pear trees and +the cherry trees again, but I repeat I cannot feel that you will be +among them. Who would ever have dreamed when this war began that it +could go so far? More than two years of fierce and deadly battles and +I can see no end. A deadlock and neither side willing to yield! How +glad would be the men who made the war to see both sections back where +they were two and a half years ago! and that's no treason. + + +Water rose in Harry's eyes. He knew how terribly his father's heart +had been torn by the quarrel between North and South, and that he had +thoughts which he did not tell to his son. Harry was beginning at last +to think some of the same thoughts himself. If the South succeeded, +then, after the war, what? Another war later on or reunion. + +The rest of the letter was wholly personal, and in the end it directed +Harry, when writing to him, to address his letters care of the Western +Army under General Bragg. Harry was moved and he responded at once. He +went to the hotel in which he had met the young men who constituted the +leading lights in what was called the Mosaic Club, and, securing +writing materials, made a long reply, which he posted with every hope +that it would soon reach its destination. + +Early in the evening he rejoined Dalton at the house of the Lanhams and +they found that Mrs. Lanham had done wonders with their best uniforms. +When they were dressed in them they felt that it was no harder to +charge the Curtis house than to rush a battery. + +"You young men go early," said Mr. Lanham. "Mrs. Lanham and I will +appear later." + +They departed, daring to practice their dance steps in the street to +the delight of small boys who did not hesitate to chaff them. But +Harry and Dalton did not care. They answered the chaff in kind, and +soon approached the Curtis home, all the windows of which were blazing +with light. + +The house stood in extensive grounds, and lofty white pillars gave it +an imposing appearance. Guests were arriving fast. Most of the men +were military, but there was a fair sprinkling of civilians +nevertheless. The lads saw their friends of the Mosaic Club pass in +just ahead of them, all dressed with extreme care. Generals and +colonels and other officers were in most favor now, but these men, with +their swift and incisive wit and their ability to talk well about +everything, fully made up for the lack of uniform. + +Harry and Dalton, before passing through the side gateway that led to +the house, paused awhile to look at those who came. Many people, and +they ranked among the best in Richmond, walked. They had sent all +their horses to the front long ago to be ridden by cavalrymen or to +draw cannon. Others, not so self-sacrificing, came in heavy carriages +with negroes driving. + +Harry noticed that in many cases the clothing of the men showed a +little white at the seams, and there were cuffs the ends of which had +been trimmed with great care. But it was these whom he respected most. +He remembered that Virginia had not really wanted to go into the war, +and that she had delayed long, but, being in it, she was making supreme +sacrifices. + +And there were many young girls who did not need elaborate dress. In +their simple white or pink, often but cotton, their cheeks showing the +delicate color that is possessed only by the girls in the border states +of the South, they seemed very beautiful to Harry and George, who had +known nothing but camps and armies so long. + +It was the healthy admiration of the brave youth of one sex for the +fair youth of the other, but there was in it a deeper note, too. Age +can stand misfortune. Youth wonders why it is stricken, and Harry felt +as they passed by, bright of face and soft of voice, that the clouds +were gathering heavily over them. + +But he was too young himself for the feeling to endure long. Dalton +was proposing that they go in and they promptly joined the stream of +entering guests. Randolph soon found them and presented them to Mrs. +Curtis, a large woman of middle years, and dignified manner, related to +nearly all the old families of Virginia, and a descendant of a +collateral branch of the Washingtons. Her husband, William Curtis, +seemed to be of a different type, a man of sixty, tall, thin and more +reserved than most Southerners of his time. His thin lips were usually +compressed and his pale blue eyes were lacking in warmth. But the long +strong line of his jaw showed that he was a man of strength and +decision. + +"A Northern bough on a Southern tree," whispered Dalton, as they passed +on. "He comes from some place up the valley and they say that the +North itself has not his superior in financial skill." + +"I did not warm to him at first," said Harry, "but I respect him. As +you know, George, we've put too little stress upon his kind of ability. +We'll need him and more like him when the Confederacy is established. +We'll have to build ourselves up as a great power, and that's done by +trade and manufactures more than by arms." + +"It's so, Harry. But listen to that music!" + +A band of four pieces placed behind flowers and shrubbery was playing. +Here was no blare of trumpets or call of bugles. It was the music of +the dance and the sentimental old songs of the South, nearly all of +which had a sad and wailing note. Harry heard the four black men play +the songs that he had heard Samuel Jarvis sing, deep in the Kentucky +mountains, and his heart beat with an emotion that he could not +understand. Was it a cry for peace? Did his soul tell him that an end +should come to fighting? Then throbbed the music of the lines: + + Soft o'er the fountain lingering falls the Southern moon + Far o'er the mountain breaks the day too soon. + In thy dark eyes' splendor, where the moonlight loves to dwell + Weary looks, yet tender, speak their fond farewell. + Nita, Juanita! Ask thy soul if we should part, + Nita, Juanita! Lean thou on my heart! + +The music of the sad old song throbbed and throbbed, and sank deep into +Harry's heart. At another time he might not have been stirred, but at +this moment he was responsive in every fiber. He saw once more the +green wilderness, and he heard once more the mellow tones of the singer +coming back in far echoes from the gorges. + +"Nita, Juanita! Ask thy soul if we should part," hummed Dalton, but +Harry was still far away in the green wilderness, listening to the +singer of the mountains. Then the singer stopped suddenly, and he was +listening once more to the startling prediction of the old, old woman: + +"I am proud that our house has sheltered you, but it is not for the +last time. You will come again, and you will be thin and pale and in +rags, and you will fall at the door. I see you coming with these two +eyes of mine." + +That prediction had been made a long time ago, years since, it seemed, +but whenever it returned to him, and it returned at most unexpected +times, it lost nothing of its amazing vividness and power; rather they +were increased. Could it be true that the supremely old had a vision +or second sight? Then he rebuked himself angrily. There was nothing +supernatural in this world. + +"Wake up, Harry! What are you thinking about?" whispered Dalton +sharply. "You seem to be dreaming, and here's a house full of pretty +girls, with more than a half-dozen looking at you, the gallant young +officer of the Army of Northern Virginia, the story of whose romantic +exploits had already reached Richmond." + +"I was dreaming and I apologize," said Harry. That minute in which he +had seen so much, so far away, passed utterly, and in another minute +both he and Dalton were dancing with Virginia girls, as fair as dreams +to these two, who had looked so long only upon the tanned faces of +soldiers. + +Both he and Dalton were at home in a half-hour. People in the Old +South then, as in the New South now, are closely united by ties of +kinship which are acknowledged as far as they run. One is usually a +member of a huge clan and has all the privileges that clanship can +confer. Kentucky was the daughter of Virginia, and mother and daughter +were fond of each other, as they are to-day. + +After the third dance Harry was sitting with Rosamond Lawrence of +Petersburg in a window seat. She was a slender blonde girl, and the +dancing had made the pink in her cheeks deepen into a flush. + +"You're from Kentucky, I know," said Miss Lawrence, "but you haven't +yet told me your town." + +"Pendleton. It's small but it's on the map. My father is a colonel in +the Western army." + +"Aren't you a Virginian by blood? Most all Kentuckians are." + +"Partly. My great grandfather, though, was born in Maryland." + +"What was his name, Lieutenant Kenton?" + +"Henry Ware!" + +"Henry Ware! Kentucky's first and greatest governor." + +"Yes, he was my great grandfather. I'm proud to be his descendant." + +"I should think you would be." + +"But his wife, who was Lucy Upton, my great grandmother, was of +Virginia blood, and all of the next two generations intermarried with +people of Virginia stock." + +"Then you are a Kentuckian and a Virginian, too. I knew it! You have +a middle name, haven't you?" + +"Yes." + +"Will you tell me what it is?" + +"Cary." + +The girl laughed. + +"Harry Cary Kenton. Why Cary is one of our best old Virginia names. +Will you tell me too what was your mother's name before she was +married?" + +"Parham." + +"Another. Oh, all this unravels finely. And what was your +grandmother's name?" + +"Brent." + +"Nothing could be more Virginian than Brent. Oh, you're one of us, +Lieutenant Kenton, a real Virginian of the true blood." + +"And heart and soul too!" giving her one of his finest young military +glances. + +She laughed. It was only quick friendship between them and no more, +and a half-hour later he was dancing with another Virginia girl, not so +blonde, but just as handsome, and their talk was quite as friendly. Her +name was Lockridge, and as they sat down near the musicians to rest, +and listen a while, Harry saw a figure, slender and black-robed, pass. +He knew at once who she was, and it had been predicted that he might +meet her there, but she had stirred his curiosity a little, and +thinking he might obtain further information he asked Miss Lockridge: + +"Who is the woman who just passed us?" + +"That's Miss Carden, Miss Henrietta Carden, a sewing woman, very +capable too, who always helps at the big balls. Mrs. Curtis relies +greatly upon her. The door through which she went leads to the ladies' +dressing-room." + +"A native of Richmond?" + +"I don't know. But why are you so curious about a sewing woman, +Lieutenant Kenton?" + +Harry flushed. There was a faint tinge of rebuke in her words, and he +knew that he merited it. + +"It was just an idle question," he replied quickly, and with an air of +indifference. "I noticed her on the train when we came into the +capital, and we are so little used to women that we are inquisitive +about every one whom we see. Why, Miss Lockridge, I didn't realize +until I came to this ball that women could be so extraordinarily +beautiful. Every one of you looks like an angel, just lowered gently +from Heaven." + +"If you're not merely a flatterer then it's long absence that gives +charm. I assure you, Lieutenant Kenton, that we're very, very common +clay. You should see us eat." + +"I'll get you an ice at once." + +"Oh, I don't mean that. I mean substantial things!" + +"A healthy appetite doesn't keep a girl from being an angel." + +"When men marry us they find out that we're not angels." + +"The word 'angel' is with me merely a figure of speech. I don't want +any real angel. I want my wife, if I ever marry, to be thoroughly +human." + +Harry's progress was rapid. A handsome figure and face, and an +ingenuous manner made him a favorite. After midnight he wandered into +a room where older men were smoking and talking. They were mostly +officers, some of high rank, one a general, and they talked of that +which they could never get wholly from their minds, the war. All knew +Harry, and, as he wanted fresh air, they gave him a place by a window +which looked upon a small court. + +Harry was tired. In dancing he had been compelled to bring into play +muscles long unused, and he luxuriated in the cushioned chair, while +the pleasant night breeze blew upon him. They were discussing Lee's +probable plans to meet Meade, who would certainly follow him in time +across the Potomac. They spoke with weight and authority, because they +were experienced men who had been in many battles, and they were here +on furlough, most of them recovering from wounds. + +Harry heard them, but their words were like the flowing of a river. He +paid no heed. They did not bring the war back to him. He was thinking +of the music and of the brilliant faces of the girls whom he loved +collectively. What that Lawrence girl had said was true. He was a +Virginian as well as a Kentuckian, and the Kentuckians and Virginians +were all one big family. All those pretty Virginia girls were his +cousins. It might run to the thirty-second degree, but they were his +cousins just the same, and he would claim them with confidence. + +He smiled and his eyelids drooped a little. It was rather dark +outside, and he was looking directly into the court in which rosebushes +and tall flowering plants grew. A shadow passed. He did not see +whence it came or went, but he sat up and laughed at himself for dozing +and conjuring up phantoms when he was at his first real ball in ages. + +All the civilians had gone out and only five or six of the officers, +the most important, were left. Their talk had grown more eager, and on +the center of the table around which they sat lay a large piece of +white canvas upon which they were drawing a map expressing their +collective opinion. Every detail was agreed upon, after much +discussion, and Harry, as much interested as they, began to watch, +while the lines grew upon the canvas. He ventured no opinion, being so +much younger than the others. + +"We don't know, of course, exactly what General Lee will do," said a +colonel, "but we do know that he's always dangerous. He invariably +acts on the offensive, even if he's retreating. I should think that +he'd strike Meade about here." + +"Not there, but not far from it," said the general. "Make a dot at +that point, Bathurst, and make another dot here about twenty miles to +the east, which represents my opinion." + +Bathurst made the dots and the men, wholly absorbed, bent lower over +their plans, which were growing almost unconsciously into a map, and a +good one too. Harry was as much interested as they, and he still kept +himself in the background, owing to his youth and minor rank. + +The door to the room was open a little and the music, a waltz, came in +a soft ripple from the drawing room. It was rhythmic and languorous, +and Harry's feet would have moved to its tune at any other time, but he +was too deeply absorbed in the conjectures and certainties that they +were drawing with their pencils on the white canvas. + +Many of the details, he knew, were absolutely true, and others he was +quite sure must be true, because these were men of high rank who +carried in their minds the military secrets of the Confederacy. + +"I think we're pretty well agreed on the general nature of the plan," +said Bathurst. "We differ only in details." + +"That's so," said the general, "but we're lingering too long here. God +knows that we see little enough of our women folks, and, when we have +the chance to see them, and feel the touch of their hands, we waste our +time like a lot of fools making military guesses. If I'm not too old +to dance to the tune of the shells I'm not too old to dance to the tune +of the fiddle and the bow. That's a glorious air floating in from the +ballroom. I think I can show some of these youngsters like Kenton here +how to shake a foot." + +"After you, General," laughed Bathurst. "We know your capacity on both +the field and the floor, and how you respond to the shell and the bow. +Come on! The ballroom is calling to us, and I doubt whether we'll +explain to the satisfaction of everybody why we've been away from it so +long. You, too, Harry!" + +They rose in a group and went out hastily. Harry was last, and his +hand was on the bolt of the door, preparatory to closing it, when the +general turned to Bathurst and said: + +"You've that diagram of ours, haven't you, Bathurst? It's not a thing +to be left lying loose." + +"Why, no, sir, I thought you put it in your pocket." + +The general laughed. + +"You're suffering from astigmatism, Bathurst," he said. "Doubtless it +was Colton whom you saw stowing it away. I think we'd better tear it +into little bits as we have no further use for it." + +"But I haven't it, sir," said Colton, a veteran colonel, just +recovering from a wound in the arm. "I supposed of course that one of +the others took it." + +An uneasy look appeared in the general's eyes, but it passed in an +instant. + +"You have it, Morton?" + +"No, sir. Like Bathurst I thought one of the others took it." + +"And you, Kitteridge?" + +"I did not take it, sir." + +"You surely have it, Johnson?" + +"No, sir, I was under the impression that you had taken it away with +you." + +"And you, McCurdy?" + +McCurdy shook his head. + +"Then Kenton, as you were the last to rise, you certainly have it." + +"I was just a looker-on; I did not touch it," said Harry, whose hand +was still on the bolt of the partly opened door. + +The general laughed. + +"Another case of everybody expecting somebody else to do a thing, and +nobody doing it," he said. "Kenton, go back and take it from the +table. In our absorption we've been singularly forgetful, and that plan +must be destroyed at once." + +Harry reentered the room, and in their eagerness all of the officers +followed. Then a simultaneous "Ah!" of dismay burst from them all. +There was nothing on the table. The plan was gone. They looked at one +another, and in the eyes of every one apprehension was growing. + +"The window is partly open," said the general, affecting a laugh, +although it had an uneasy note, "and of course it has blown off the +table. We'll surely find it behind the sofa or a chair." + +They searched the room eagerly, going over every inch of space, every +possible hiding place, but the plan was not there. + +"Perhaps it's in the court," said the general. "It might have +fluttered out there. Raise the sash higher, Kenton. Let nobody make +any noise. We must be as quiet as possible about this. Luckily there's +enough moonlight now for us to find even a small scrap of paper in the +court." + +They stole through the window silently, one by one, and searched every +inch of the court's space. But nothing was in it, save the grass and +the flowers and the rosebushes that belonged there. They returned to +the room, and once more looked at one another in dismay. + +"Shut the window entirely and lock the door, Kenton," said the general. + +Harry did so. Then the general looked at them all, and his face was +set and very firm. + +"We must all be searched," he said. "I know that every one of you is +the soul of honor. I know that not one of you has concealed about his +person this document which has suddenly become so valuable. I know +that not one of you would smuggle through to the enemy such a plan at +any price, no matter how large. Nevertheless we must know beyond the +shadow of a doubt that none of us has the map. And I insist, too, that +I be searched first. Bathurst, Colton, begin!" + +They examined one another carefully in turn. Every pocket or possible +place of concealment was searched. Harry was the last and when they +were done with him the general heaved a huge sigh of relief. + +"We know positively that we are not guilty," he said. "We knew it +before, but now we've proved it. That is off our minds, but the +mystery of the missing map remains. What a strange combination of +circumstances. I think, gentlemen, that we had best say nothing about +it to outsiders. It's certainly to the interest of every one of us not +to do so. It's also to the interest of all of us to watch the best we +can for a solution. You're young, Kenton, but from what I hear of you +you're able to keep your own counsel." + +"You can trust me, sir," said Harry. + +"I know it, and now unlock the door. We've held ourselves prisoners +long enough, and they'll be wondering about us in the ballroom." + +Harry turned the key promptly enough and he was glad to escape from the +room. He felt that he had left behind a sinister atmosphere. He had +not mentioned to the older men the faint shadow that he thought he had +seen crossing the courtyard. But then it was only fancy, nothing more, +an idle figment of the brain! There was the music now, softer and more +tempting than ever, an irresistible call to flying feet, and another +dance with Rosamond Lawrence was due. + +"I thought you weren't coming, Lieutenant Kenton," she said. "Some one +said that you had gone into the smoking-room and that you were talking +war with middle-aged generals and colonels." + +"But I escaped as soon as I could, Miss Rosamond," he said--he was +thinking of the locked door and the universal search. + +"Well, you came just in time. The band is beginning and I was about to +give your dance to that good-looking Lieutenant Dalton." + +"You wouldn't treat me like that! Throw over your cousin in such a +manner! I can't think it!" + +"No, I wouldn't!" + +Then the full swell of the music caught them both, and they glided +away, as light and swift as the melody that bore them on. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A VAIN PURSUIT + + +Youth was strong in Harry, and, while he danced and the music played, +he forgot all about the incident in the smoking-room. With him it was +just one pretty girl after another. He had heart enough for them all, +and only one who was so young and who had been so long on battlefields +could well understand what a keen, even poignant, pleasure it was to be +with them. + +Those were the days when a ball lasted long. Pleasures did not come +often, but when they came they were to be enjoyed to the full. But as +the morning hours grew the manner of the older people became slightly +feverish and unnatural. They were pursuing pleasure and forgetfulness +with so much zeal and energy that it bore the aspect of force rather +than spontaneity. Harry noticed it and divined the cause. Beneath his +high spirits he now felt it himself. It was that looming shadow in the +North and that other in that far Southwest hovering over lost +Vicksburg. Serious men and serious women could not keep these shadows +from their eyes long. + +The incident of the smoking-room and the missing map came back to him +with renewed force. It could not have walked away. They had searched +the room and the court so thoroughly that they would have found it, had +it been there. The disappearance of a document, which men of authority +and knowledge had built up almost unconsciously, puzzled and alarmed +him. + +It was almost day when he and Dalton left. They paid their respects to +Mr. and Mrs. Curtis, and said many good-bys to "the girls they left +behind them." Then they went out into the street, and inhaled great +draughts of the cool night air. + +"A splendid night," said Dalton. + +"Yes, truly," said Harry. + +"I hope you didn't propose to more than six girls." + +"To none. But I love them all together." + +"I'm glad to hear it, because you're entirely too young to marry, and +your occupation is precarious." + +"You needn't be so preachy. You're not more'n a hundred years old +yourself." + +"But I'm two months older than you are and often two months makes a +vast difference, particularly in our cases. I notice about you, Harry, +at times, a certain juvenility which I feel it my duty to repress." + +"Don't do it, George. Let's enjoy it while we can, because as you say +my occupation is precarious and yours is the same." + +They stopped at the corner of the iron fence enclosing the Curtis home, +in which many lights were still shining. It was near a dark alley +opening on the street and running by this side of the house. + +"I'm going to see what's behind Mr. Curtis's house," said Harry. + +Dalton stared at him. + +"What's got into your head, Harry!" he exclaimed. "Do you mean to be a +burglar prowling about the home of the man who has entertained you?" + +Harry hesitated. He was sorry that Dalton was with him. Then he could +have gone on without question, but he must make some excuse to Dalton. + +"George," he said at last, "will you swear to keep a secret, a most +important one which I am pledged to tell to nobody, but which I must +confide in you in order to give a good reason for what I am about to +do." + +"If you are pledged to keep such a secret," replied Dalton, "then don't +explain it to me. Your word is good enough, Harry. Go ahead and do +what you want to do. I'll ask nothing about any of your actions, no +matter how strange it may look." + +"You're a man in a million, George. Come on, your confidence is going +to be tested. Besides, you'll run the danger of being shot." + +But Dalton followed him fearlessly as he led the way down the alley. +Richmond was not lighted then, save along the main streets, and a few +steps took them into the full dark. The brilliant windows threw bright +bands across the lines, but they themselves were in darkness. + +The alley ran through the next street and so did the Curtis grounds. +They were as extensive in the rear of the house as in front, and +contained small pines carefully trimmed, banks of roses and two grape +arbors. Harry could hear no sound of any one stirring among them, but +people, obviously the cooks and other servants, were talking in the big +kitchen at the rear of the house. + +The street itself running in the rear of the building was as well +lighted as it was in front, but Harry saw no one in it save a member of +the city police, who seemed to be keeping a good watch. But as he did +not wish to be observed by the man he waited a little while in the +mouth of the alley, until he had moved on and was out of sight. + +"Now, George," he said, "you and I are going to do a little scouting. +You know I'm descended from the greatest natural scout and trailer ever +known in the West, one whose senses were preternaturally acute, one who +could almost track a bird in the air by its flight." + +"Yes, I've heard of the renowned Henry Ware, and I know that you've +inherited a lot of his skill and intuition. Go ahead. I promised that +I would help you and ask no questions. I keep my word." + +Harry climbed silently over the low fence, and Dalton followed in the +same manner. The light from the street and house did not penetrate the +pines and rosebushes, where Harry quickly found a refuge, Dalton as +usual following him. + +"What next?" whispered Dalton. + +"Now, I do my trailing and scouting, and you help me all you can, +George, but be sure you don't make any noise. There's enough moonlight +filtering through the pines to show the ground to me, but not enough to +disclose us to anybody twenty feet away." + +He dropped to his hands and knees, and, crawling back and forth, began +to examine every inch of ground with minute care, while Dalton stared +at him in amazement. + +"I'd help," whispered Dalton, "if I only knew what you were doing." + +"Suppose, George, that somebody wanted to see the Curtis house, and yet +not be seen, wanted to observe as well as he could, without detection, +what was going on there. He'd watch his chance, jump over the fence as +we have done and enter this group of pines. He could ask no finer +point of observation. We are perfectly hidden and yet we can see the +whole rear of the house and one side of it." + +"So we can. I infer that you are looking for some one who you think +has been acting as a spy." + +"Ah! here we are. The earth is a bit soft by this pine, and I see the +trace of a footstep! And here is another trace, close by it, +undoubtedly the imprint of the other foot. It's as plain as day." + +Dalton knelt, looked at the traces, and shook his head. "I can't make +out any of them," he said. "I see nothing but a slight displacement of +the grass caused by the wind." + +"That's because you haven't my keen eye, an inherited and natural +ability as a trailer, although you may beat me out of sight in other +things. The shape of these traces indicates that they were made by +human feet, and their closeness together shows that the man stood +looking at the house. If he had been walking along they would be much +wider apart." + +He examined the traces again with long and minute care. + +"The toes point toward the house, consequently he was looking at it," +he said. "He was a heavy man, and he stood here a long time, not +moving from his tracks. That's why he left these traces, which are so +clear and evident to me, George, although they're hidden from a blind +man like you." + +"Well, what of it?" + +"Nothing much to you, but a lot to me." + +He rose to his feet and examined the boughs of the pine. + +"As I thought," he whispered with great satisfaction. "Despite his +courage and power over himself, both of which were very great, he +became a little excited. Doubtless he saw something that stirred him +deeply." + +"What under the stars are you talking about, Harry?" + +"See, he broke off three twigs of the pine. Just snapped them in two +with nervous fingers. Here are pieces lying on the ground. Now, a man +does that sort of thing almost unconsciously. He will not reach up for +the twig or down for it, but he breaks it because it presents itself to +him at the corner of his eye. This man was six feet in height or more +and built very powerfully. I think I know him! Yes, I'm sure I know +him! Nor is it at all strange that he should be here." + +"Shall we make a thorough search for him among the pines? You say he's +tall and built powerfully. But maybe the two of us could master him, +and if not we could call for help." + +"Too late, George. He left a long time ago, and he took with him what +he wanted. We needn't look any farther." + +"Lead on, then, King of Trailers and Master of Secrets! If the mighty +Caliph, Haroun al Kenton, wishes to prowl in these grounds, seeking the +heart of some great conspiracy, it is not for his loyal vizier, the +Sheikh Ul Dalton to ask him questions." + +"I'm not certain that a vizier is a sheikh." + +"Nor am I, but I'm certain that I want to go home and go to bed. +Vikings of the land like ourselves can't stand much luxury. It weakens +the tissues, made strong on the march and in the fields." + +They left the grounds silently and unobserved and soon were in their +own quarters, where they slept nearly the whole day. Then they spent +three or four days more in the social affairs which were such a keen +pleasure to them after such a long deprivation. But wherever they +went, and they were in demand everywhere, Harry was always looking for +somebody, a man, tall, heavy and broad shouldered, not a man who would +come into a room where he was, or who would join a company of people +that he had joined, but one who would hang upon the outskirts, and hide +behind the corners of buildings or trees. He did not see the shadow, +but once or twice he felt that it was there. + +The officer, Bathurst, told him one night that some important papers +had been stolen from the White House of the Confederacy itself. + +"They pertain to our army," said Bathurst, "and they will be of value +to the enemy, if they reach him." + +"I'm quite certain that the most daring and dangerous of all northern +spies is in Richmond," said Harry. + +Then he told Bathurst of Shepard and of the trails that he had seen +among the pines behind Curtis's house. + +"Do you think this man got our map?" asked Bathurst. + +"It may have been so. Perhaps he was hidden in the court and when he +saw us go out, leaving the map on the table, he slipped in at the +window and seized it." + +"But the court was enclosed. He would have had to go with the paper +through the house itself." + +"That's where my theory fails. I can provide for his taking the paper, +but I can't provide for his escape." + +"I'll tell the General about it. I think you're right, Harry. I've +heard of Shepard myself, and he's worth ten thousand men to the +Yankees. It's more than that. At such a critical stage of our affairs +he might ruin us. We'll make a general search for him. We'll rake the +city with a fine tooth comb." + +The search was made everywhere. Soldiers pried in every possible +place, but they found nobody who could not give an adequate account of +his presence in Richmond. Harry felt sure nevertheless that Shepard +was somewhere in the capital, protected by his infinite daring and +resource, and they received the startling news the next day after the +search that a messenger sent northward with dispatches for Lee had been +attacked only a short distance from the city. He had been struck from +behind, and did not see his assailant, but the wound in the head--the +man had been found unconscious--and the missing dispatches were +sufficient proof. + +A night later precious documents were purloined from the office of the +Secretary of War and a list of important earthworks on the North and +South Carolina coast disappeared from the office of the Secretary of +the Navy. Alarm spread through all the departments of the Confederacy. +Some one, spy and burglar too, had come into the very capital, and he +was having uncommon success. + +Harry had not the least doubt that it was Shepard, and he was filled +with an ambition to capture this man, whom he really liked. If Shepard +were caught he would certainly be hanged, but then a spy must take his +chances. + +They heard meanwhile that General Lee had gone to a former camp of his +on the Opequan, but that later in response to maneuvers by General +Meade, he moved to a position near Front Royal. No orders came for +Harry or Dalton to rejoin him, and, as a period of inactivity seemed to +be at hand, they were glad to remain a while longer in Richmond. They +still stayed with the Lanhams, who refused to take any pay, although +the two young officers, chipping together, bought for Mrs. Lanham a +little watch which had just come through the blockade from England. + +Thus their days lengthened in Richmond, and, despite the shadow of the +spy and his doings which was over Harry, they were still very pleasant. +The members of the Mosaic Club, although older men, made much of them, +and Harry and Dalton, being youths of sprighty wit, were able to hold +their own in such company. The time had now passed into August, and +they sat one afternoon in the lobby of the big hotel with their new +friends. Richmond without was quiet and blazing in the sun. Harry had +received a second letter from his father from an unnamed point in +Georgia. It did not contain much news, but it was full of +cheerfulness, and it intimated in more than one place that Bragg's army +was going to strike a great blow. + +All eyes were turned toward the West. The opinion had been spreading +in the Confederacy that the chief danger was on that line. It seemed +that the Army of Northern Virginia could take care of anything to the +north and east, but in the south and west affairs did not go well. + +"It's a pity that General Bragg is President Davis' brother-in-law," +said Randolph. + +"Why?" asked Daniel. + +"Then he wouldn't be in command of our Western Army." + +"Bragg's a fighter, though." + +"But not a reaper." + +"What do you mean?" + +"He wins the victory, but lets the enemy take it." + +"It may be so. But to come closer home, what about the Yankee spy in +Richmond? It's an established fact that a man of most uncommon daring +and skill is here." + +"No doubt of it, what's the latest from him?" + +"The house of William Curtis was entered last night and robbed." + +"Robbed of what?" + +"Papers. The man never takes any valuables." + +"But Curtis is not in the government!" + +"No, but he carries on a lot of blockade running, chiefly through +Norfolk and Wilmington. I think the papers related to several blockade +running vessels coming out from England, and of course the Yankee +blockading ships will be ready for them. There's not a trace of the +man who took them." + +"Something is deucedly sinister about it," said Bagby. "It seems to be +the work of one man, and he must have a hiding place in Richmond, but +we can't find it. Kenton, you and Dalton are army officers, supposedly +of intelligence. Now, why don't you find this mysterious terror? Ah, +will you excuse me for a minute! I see Miss Carden leaving the counter +with her basket, and there is no other seamstress in Richmond who can +put the ruffles on a man's finest shirt as she can. She's been doing +work for me for some time." + +He arose, and, leaving them, bowed very politely to the seamstress. Her +face, although thin and lined, was that of an educated woman of strong +character. Harry thought it probable that she was a lady in the +conventional meaning of the word. Many a woman of breeding and culture +was now compelled to earn her own living in the South. She and Bagby +exchanged only a few words, he returning to his chair, and she leaving +the hotel at a side door, walking with dignity. + +"I've seen Miss Carden three times before, once on the train, once at +this hotel and once at Mr. Curtis's house; can you tell me anything +about her?" said Harry. + +"It's an ordinary tale," replied Bagby. "I think she lived well up the +valley and her house being destroyed in some raid of the Federal troops +she came down to the capital to earn a living. She's been doing work +for me and others I know for a year past, and I know she's not been out +of Richmond in that time." + +The talk changed now to the books that had come through from Europe in +the blockade runners. There was a new novel by Dickens and another by +Thackeray, new at least to the South, and the members of the Mosaic +Club were soon deep in criticism and defense. + +Harry strolled away after a while. He did not tell his +friends--nothing was to be gained by telling them--that he was +absolutely sure of the identity of the spy, that it was Shepard. The +question of identity did not matter if they caught him, and his old +feeling that it was a duel between Shepard and himself returned. He +believed that the duty to catch the man had been laid upon him. + +He began to haunt Richmond at all hours of the night. More than once +he had to give explanations to watchmen about public buildings, but he +clung to the task that he had imposed upon himself. He explained to +Dalton and the Virginian found no fault except for Harry's loss of time +that might be devoted to amusement. Harry sometimes rebuked himself +for his own persistency, but Bagby's taunt had stung a little, and he +felt that it applied more to himself than to Dalton. He knew Shepard +and he knew something of his ways. Moreover, his was the blood of the +greatest of all trailers, and it was incumbent upon him to find the +spy. Yet he was trailing in a city and not in a forest. In spite of +everything he clung to his work. + +On a later night about one o'clock in the morning he was near the +building that housed army headquarters, and he noticed a figure come +from some bushes near it. He instantly stepped back into the shadow +and saw a man glance up and down the street, probably to see if it was +clear. It was a night to favor the spy, dark, with heavy clouds and +gusts of rain. + +The figure, evidently satisfied that no one was watching, walked +briskly down the street, and Harry's heart beat hard against his side. +He knew that it was Shepard, the king of spies, against whom he had +matched himself. He could not mistake, despite the darkness, his +figure, his walk and the swing of his powerful shoulders. + +His impulse was to cry for help, to shout that the spy was here, but at +the first sound of his voice Shepard would at once dart into the +shrubbery, and escape through the alleys of Richmond. No, his old +feeling that it was a duel between Shepard and himself was right, and +so they must fight it out. + +Shepard walked swiftly toward the narrower and more obscure streets, +and Harry followed at equal speed. The night grew darker and the rain, +instead of coming in gusts, now fell steadily. Twice Shepard stopped +and looked back. But on each occasion Harry flattened himself against +a plank fence and he did not believe the spy had seen him. + +Then Shepard went faster and his pursuer had difficulty in keeping him +in view. He went through an alley, turned into a street, and Harry ran +in order not to lose sight of him. + +The alley came into the street at a right angle, and, when Harry turned +the corner, a heavy, dark figure thrust itself into his path. + +"Shepard!" he cried. + +"Yes!" said the man, "and I hate to do this, but I must." + +His heavy fist shot out and caught his pursuer on the jaw. Harry saw +stars in constellations, then floated away into blackness, and, when he +came out of it, found himself lying on a bed in a small room. His jaw +was bandaged and very sore, but otherwise he felt all right. A candle +was burning on a table near him and an unshuttered window on the other +side of the room told him that it was still night and raining. + +Harry looked leisurely about the room, into which he had been wafted on +the magic carpet of the Arabian genii, so far as he knew. It was small +and without splendor and he knew at once from the character of its +belongings that it was a woman's room. + +He sat up. His head throbbed, but touching it cautiously he knew that +he had sustained no serious injury. But he felt chagrin, and a lot of +it. Shepard had known that he was following him and had laid a trap, +into which he had walked without hesitation. The man, however, had +spared his life, although he could have killed him as easily as he had +stunned him. Then he laughed bitterly at himself. A duel between them, +he had called it! Shepard wouldn't regard it as much of a duel. + +His head became so dizzy that he lay down again rather abruptly and +began to wonder. What was he doing in a woman's room, and who was the +woman and how had he got there? This would be a great joke for Dalton +and St. Clair and Happy Tom. + +He was fully dressed, except for his boots, and he saw them standing on +the floor against the wall. He surveyed once more the immaculate +neatness of the room. It was certainly a woman's, and most likely that +of an old maid. He sat up again, but his head throbbed so fearfully +that he was compelled to lie down quickly. Shepard had certainly put a +lot in that right hand punch of his and he had obtained a considerable +percentage of revenge for his defeat in the river. + +Then Harry forgot his pain in the intensity of his curiosity. He had +sustained a certain temporary numbing of the faculties from the blow +and his fancy, though vivid now, was vague. He was not at all sure +that he was still in Richmond. The window still showed that it was +night, and the rain was pouring so hard that he could hear it beating +against the walls. At all events, he thought whimsically, he had +secured shelter, though at an uncommon high price. + +He heard a creak, and a door at the end of the room opened, revealing +the figure and the strong, haggard features of Henrietta Carden. +Evidently she had taken off a hood and cloak in an outer room, as there +were rain drops on her hair and her shoes were wet. + +"How are you feeling, Mr. Kenton?" she asked. + +"Full of aches and wonder." + +"Both will pass." + +She smiled, and, although she was not young, Harry thought her +distinctly handsome, when she smiled. + +"I seem to have driven you out of your room and to have taken your bed +from you, Miss Carden," he said, "but I assure you it was +unintentional. I ran against something pretty hard, and since then I +haven't been exactly responsible for what I was doing." + +She smiled again, and this time Harry found the smile positively +winning. + +"I'm responsible for your being here," she said. + +Then she went back to the door and said to some one waiting in the +outer room: + +"You can come in, Lieutenant Dalton. He's all right except for his +headache, and an extraordinary spell of curiosity." + +Dalton stalked solemnly in, and regarded Harry with a stern and +reproving eye. + +"You're a fine fellow," he said. "A lady finds you dripping blood from +the chin, and out of your head, wandering about the street in the +darkness and rain. Fortunately she knows who you are, takes you into +her own house, gives you an opiate or some kind of a drug, binds up +your jaw where some man good and true has hit you with all his goodness +and truth, and then goes for me, your guardian, who should never have +let you out of his sight. I was awakened out of a sound sleep in our +very comfortable room at the Lanham house, and I've come here through a +pouring rain with Miss Carden to see you." + +"I do seem to be the original trouble maker," said Harry. "How did you +happen to find me, Miss Carden?" + +"I was sitting at my window, working very late on a dress that Mrs. +Curtis wants to-morrow. It was not raining hard then, and I could see +very well outside. I saw a dark shadow in the street at the mouth of +the alley. I saw that it was the figure of a man staggering very much. +I ran out and found that it was you, Lieutenant Kenton. You were +bleeding at the chin, where apparently some one had struck you very +hard, and you were so thoroughly dazed that you did not know where you +were or who you were." + +"Yes, he hit me very hard, just as you supposed, Miss Carden," said +Harry, feeling gently his sore and swollen chin. + +"I half led and half dragged you into my house--there was nowhere else +I could take you--and, as you were sinking into a stupor, I managed to +make you lie down on my bed. I bound up your wound, while you were +unconscious, and then I went for Lieutenant Dalton." + +"And she saved your life, too, you young wanderer. No doubt of that," +said Dalton reprovingly. "This is what you get for roaming away from +my care. Lucky you were that an angel like Miss Carden saved you from +dying of exposure. If I didn't know you so well, Harry, I should say +that you had been in some drunken row." + +"Oh, no! not that!" exclaimed Miss Carden. "There was no odor of +liquor on his breath." + +"I was merely joking, Miss Carden," said Dalton. "Old Harry here is +one of the best of boys, and I'm grateful to you for saving him and +coming to me. If there is any way we can repay you we'll do it." + +"I don't want any repayment. We must all help in these times." + +"But we won't forget it. We can't. How are you feeling, Harry?" + +"My head doesn't throb so hard. The jarred works inside are gradually +getting into place, and I think that in a half-hour I can walk again, +that is, resting upon that stout right arm of yours, George." + +"Then we'll go. I've brought an extra coat that will protect you from +the rain." + +"You are welcome to stay here!" exclaimed Miss Carden. "Perhaps you'd +be wiser to do so." + +"We thank you for such generous hospitality," said Dalton gallantly, +"but it will be best for many reasons that we go back to Mrs. Lanham's +as soon as we can. But first can we ask one favor of you, Miss Carden?" + +"Of course." + +"That you say nothing of Mr. Kenton's accident. Remember that he was +on military duty and that in the darkness and rain he fell, striking +upon his jaw." + +"I'll remember it. Our first impression that he had been struck by +somebody was a mistake, of course. You can depend upon me, both of +you. Neither of you was ever in my house. The incident never occurred." + +"But we're just as grateful to you as if it had happened." + +A half-hour later they left the cottage, Miss Carden holding open the +door a little to watch them until they were out of sight. But Harry +had recovered his strength and he was able to walk without Dalton's +assistance, although the Virginian kept close by his side in case of +necessity. + +"Harry," said Dalton, when they were nearly to the Lanham house, "are +you willing to tell what happened?" + +"As nearly as I know. I got upon the trail of that spy who has been +infesting Richmond. I knew at the time that it couldn't have been any +one else. I followed him up an alley, but he waited for me at the +turn, and before I could defend myself he let loose with his right. +When I came drifting back into the world I was lying upon the bed in +Miss Carden's cottage." + +"He showed you some consideration. He might have quietly put you out +of the way with a knife." + +"Shepard and I don't care to kill each other. Each wants to defeat the +other's plans. It's got to be a sort of duel between us." + +"So I see, and he has scored latest." + +"But not last." + +"We'd better stick to the tale about the fall. Such a thing could +happen to anybody in these dark streets. But that Miss Carden is a +fine woman. She showed true human sympathy, and what's more, she gave +help." + +"She's all that," agreed Harry heartily. + +They had their own keys to the Lanham house and slipped in without +awakening anybody. Their explanations the next day were received +without question and in another day Harry's jaw was no longer sore, +though his spirit was. Yet the taking of important documents ceased +suddenly, and Harry was quite sure that his encounter with Shepard had +at least caused him to leave the city. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +IN WINTER QUARTERS + + +Harry was sent a few days later with dispatches from the president to +General Lee, who was still in his camp beside the Opequan. Dalton was +held in the capital for further messages, but Harry was not sorry to +make the journey alone. The stay in Richmond had been very pleasant. +The spirits of youth, confined, had overflowed, but he was beginning to +feel a reaction. One must return soon to the battlefield. This was +merely a lull in the storm which would sweep with greater fury than +ever. The North, encouraged by Gettysburg and Vicksburg, was gathering +vast masses which would soon be hurled upon the South, and Harry knew +how thin the lines there were becoming. + +He thought, too, of Shepard, who was the latest to score in their duel, +and he believed that this man had already sent to the Northern leaders +information beyond value. Harry felt that he must strive in some +manner to make the score even. + +It was late in the summer when he rejoined the Army of Northern +Virginia and delivered the letters to the commander-in-chief, who sat +in the shade of a large tree. Harry observed him closely. He seemed a +little grayer than before the Battle of Gettysburg, but his manner was +as confident as ever. He filled to both eye and mind the measure of a +great general. After asking Harry many questions he dismissed him for a +while, to play, so he said. + +The young Kentuckian at once, and, as a matter of course, sought the +Invincibles. St. Clair and Langdon hailed him with shouts of joy, but +to his great surprise, Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire were not playing chess. + +"We were getting on with the game last night, Harry," explained Colonel +Talbot, "but we came to a point where we were about to develop heat +over a projected move. Then, in order to avoid such a lamentable +occurrence, we decided to postpone further play until to-night. But we +find you looking uncommonly well, Harry. The flesh pots of Egypt have +agreed with you." + +"I had a good time in Richmond, sir, a fine one," replied Harry. "The +people there have certainly been kind to me, as they are to all the +officers of the Army of Northern Virginia." + +"What have you done with the grave Dalton, who was your comrade on your +journey to the capital?" + +"They've kept him there for the present. They think he's stronger +proof against the luxuries and temptations of a city than I am." + +"Youth is youth, and I'm glad that you've had this little fling, Harry. +Perhaps you'll have another, as I think you'll be sent back to Richmond +very soon." + +"What has been going on here, Colonel?" + +"Very little. Nothing, in fact, of any importance. When we crossed +the swollen Potomac, although threatened by an enemy superior to us in +numbers, I felt that we would not be pushed. General Meade has been +deliberate, extremely deliberate in his offensive movements. Up North +they call Gettysburg a great victory, but we're resting here calmly and +peacefully. Hector and I and our young friends have found rural peace +and ease among these Virginia hills and valleys. You, of course, found +Richmond very gay and bright?" + +"Very gay and bright, Colonel, and full of handsome ladies." + +Colonel Talbot sighed and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sighed +also. + +"Hector and I should have been there," said Colonel Talbot. "Although +we've never married, we have a tremendous admiration for the ladies, +and in our best uniforms we're not wholly unpopular among them, eh, +Hector?" + +"Not by any means, Leonidas. We're not as young as Harry here, but I +know that you're a fine figure of a man, and you know that I am. +Moreover, our experience of the dangerous sex is so much greater than +that of mere boys like Harry and Arthur and Tom here, that we know how +to make ourselves much more welcome. You talk to them about frivolous +things, mere chit chat, while we explain grave and important matters to +them." + +"Are you sure, sir," asked St. Clair, "that the ladies don't really +prefer chit chat?" + +"I was not speaking of little girls. I was alluding to those ornaments +of their sex who have arrived at years of discretion. Ah, if Leonidas +and I were only a while in Richmond! It would be the next best thing +to being in Charleston." + +"Maybe the Invincibles will be sent there for a while." + +"Perhaps. I don't foresee any great activity here in the autumn. How +do they regard the Army of Northern Virginia in Richmond now, Harry?" + +"With supreme confidence." + +The talk soon drifted to the people whom Harry had met at the capital, +and then he told of his adventure with Shepard, the spy. + +"He seems to be a most daring man," said Talbot; "not a mere ordinary +spy, but a man of a higher type. I think he's likely to do us great +harm. But the woman, Miss Carden, was surely kind to you. If she +hadn't found you wandering around in the rain you'd have doubtless +dropped down and died. God bless the ladies." + +"And so say we all of us," said Harry. + +He returned to Richmond in a few days, bearing more dispatches, and to +his great delight all that was left of the Invincibles arrived a week +later to recuperate and see a little of the world. St. Clair and Happy +Tom plunged at once and with all the ardor of youth into the gayeties +of social life, and the two colonels followed them at a more dignified +but none the less earnest pace. All four appeared in fine new +uniforms, for which they had saved their money, and they were +conspicuous upon every occasion. + +Harry was again at the Curtis house, and although it was not a great +ball this time the assemblage was numerous, including all his friends. +The two colonels had become especial favorites everywhere, and they +were telling stories of the old South, which Harry had divined was +passing; passing whether the South won or not. + +Although there had been much light talk through the evening and an +abundance of real gayety, nearly every member of the company, +nevertheless, had serious moments. The news from Tennessee and Georgia +was heavy with import. It was vague in some particulars, but it was +definite enough in others to tell that the armies of Rosecrans and +Bragg were approaching each other. All eyes turned to the West. A +great battle could not be long delayed, and a powerful division of the +Army of Northern Virginia under Longstreet had been sent to help Bragg. + +Harry found himself late at night once more in that very room in which +the map had disappeared so mysteriously. The two colonels, St. Clair +and Langdon, and one or two others had drifted in, and the older men +were smoking. Inevitably they talked of the battle which they foresaw +with such certainty, and Harry's anxiety about it was increased, +because he knew his father would be there on one side, and the cousin, +for whom he cared so much, would be on the other. + +"If only General Lee were in command there," said Colonel Talbot, "we +might reckon upon a great and decisive victory." + +"But Bragg is a good general," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. + +"It's not enough to be merely a good general. He must have the soul of +fire that Lee has, and that Jackson had. Bragg is the Southern +McClellan. He is brave enough personally, but he always overrates the +strength of the enemy, and, if he is victorious on the field, he does +not reap the fruits of victory." + +"Where were the armies when we last heard from them?" asked a captain. + +"Bragg was turning north to attack Rosecrans, who stood somewhere +between him and Chattanooga." + +"I'm glad that it's Rosecrans and not Grant who commands the Northern +army there," said Harry. + +"Why?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +"I've studied the manner in which he took Vicksburg, and I've heard +about him from my father, and others. He won't be whipped. He isn't +like the other Northern generals. He hangs on, whatever happens. I +heard some one quoting him as saying that no matter how badly his army +was suffering in battle, the army of the other fellow might be +suffering worse. It seems to me that a general who is able to think +that way is very dangerous." + +"And so he is, Harry," said Colonel Talbot. "I, too, am glad that it's +Rosecrans and not Grant. If there's any news of a battle, we're not in +a bad place to hear it. It's said that Mr. Curtis always knows as soon +as our government what's happened." + +The talk drifted on to another subject and then a hum came from the +larger room. A murmur only, but it struck such an intense and earnest +note that Harry was convinced. + +"It's news of battle! I know it!" he exclaimed. + +They sprang to their feet and hurried into the ballroom. William +Curtis, his habitual calm broken, was standing upon a chair and all the +people had gathered in front of him. A piece of paper, evidently a +telegram, was clutched in his hand. + +"Friends," he said in a strained, but exultant voice, "a great battle +has been fought near Chattanooga on a little river called the +Chickamauga, and we have won a magnificent victory." + +A mighty cheer came from the crowd. + +"The army of Rosecrans, attacked with sudden and invincible force by +Bragg, has been shattered and driven into Chattanooga." + +Another cheer burst forth. + +"No part of the Union army was able to hold fast, save one wing under +Thomas." + +A third mighty cheer arose, but this time Harry did not join in it. He +felt a sudden sinking of the heart at the words, "save one wing under +Thomas." Then the victory was not complete. It could be complete only +when the whole Union army was driven from the field. As long as Thomas +stood, there was a flaw in the triumph. He had heard many times of +this man, Thomas. He had Grant's qualities. He was at his best in +apparent defeat. + +"Is there anything else, Mr. Curtis?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +"That is all my agent sends me concerning its results, but he says that +it lasted two days, and that it was fierce and bloody beyond all +comparison with anything that has happened in the West. He estimated +that the combined losses are between thirty and forty thousand men." + +A heavy silence fell upon them all. The victory was great, but the +price for it was great, too. Yet exultation could not be subdued long. +They were soon smiling over it, and congratulating one another. But +Harry was still unable to share wholly in the joy of victory. + +"Why this gloom in your face, when all the rest of us are so happy?" +asked St. Clair. + +"My father was there. He may have fallen. How do I know?" + +"That's not it. He always comes through. What's the real cause? Out +with it!" + +"You know that part of the dispatch saying, 'No part of the Union army +was able to hold fast save one wing under Thomas.' How about that +wing! You heard, too, what the colonel said about General Bragg. He +always overestimates the strength of the enemy, and while he may win a +victory he will not reap the fruits of it. That wing under Thomas +still may be standing there, protecting all the rest of the Union army." + +"Come now, old Sober Face! This isn't like you. We've won a grand +victory! We've more than paid them back for their Gettysburg." + +Harry rejoiced then with the others, but at times the thought came to +him that Thomas with one wing might yet be standing between Bragg and +complete victory. When he and Dalton went back home--they were again +with the Lanhams--they found the whole population of Richmond ablaze +with triumph. The Yankee army in the West had been routed. Not only +was Chickamauga an offset for Gettysburg, but for Vicksburg as well, +and once more the fortunes of the South were rising toward the zenith. + +Dalton had returned from the army a little later this time than Harry, +but he had joined him at the Lanhams', and he too showed gravity amid +the almost universal rejoicing. + +"I see that you're afraid the next news won't be so complete, Harry," +he said. + +"That's it, George. We don't really know much, except that Thomas was +holding his ground. Oh, if only Stonewall Jackson were there! +Remember how he came down on them at the Second Manassas and at +Chancellorsville! Thomas would be swept off his feet and as Rosecrans +retreated into Chattanooga our army would pour right on his heels!" + +They waited eagerly the next day and the next for news, and while +Richmond was still filled with rejoicings over Chickamauga, Harry saw +that his fears were justified. Thomas stood till the end. Bragg had +not followed Rosecrans into Chattanooga. The South had won a great +battle, but not a decisive victory. The commanding general had not +reaped all the rewards that were his for the taking. Bragg had +justified in every way Colonel Talbot's estimate of him. + +And yet Richmond, like the rest of the South, felt the great uplift of +Chickamauga, the most gigantic battle of the West. It told South as +well as North that the war was far from over. The South could no +longer invade the North, nor could the North invade the South at will. +Even on the northernmost border of the rebelling section the Army of +Northern Virginia under its matchless leader, rested in its camp, +challenging and defiant. + +Harry was glad to return with his friends to the army. His brief +period of festival was over, and his fears for his father had been +relieved by a letter, stating that he had received no serious harm in +the great and terrible battle of Chickamauga. + +After the failure of the armies of Lee and Meade to bring about a +decisive battle at Mine Run, the Army of Northern Virginia established +its autumn and winter headquarters on a jutting spur of the great range +called Clarke's Mountain, Orange Court House lying only a few miles to +the west. The huge camp was made in a wide-open space, surrounded by +dense masses of pines and cedars. Tents were pitched securely, and, +feeling that they were to stay here a long time many of the soldiers +built rude log cabins. + +General Lee himself continued to use his tent, which stood in the +center of the camp, the streets of tents and cabins radiating from it +like the spokes of a wheel. Close about Lee's own tent were others +occupied by Colonel Taylor, his adjutant general, Colonel Peyton, +Colonel Marshall, and other and younger officers, including Harry and +Dalton. A little distance down one of the main avenues, which they +were pleased to call Victory Street, the Invincibles were encamped, and +Harry saw them almost every day. + +The troops were well fed now, and the brooks provided an abundance of +clear water. The days were still warm, but the evenings were cold, +and, inhaling the healing odors of the pines and cedars, wounded +soldiers returned rapidly to health. + +It was a wonderful interval for Harry and his friends associated with +him so closely. Save for the presence of armies, it seemed at times +that there was no war. Deep peace prevailed along the Rapidan and the +slopes of the mountain. It was the longest period of rest that he and +his comrades were to know in the course of the mighty struggle. The +action of the war was now chiefly in the Southwest, where Grant, taking +the place of Rosecrans, was seeking to recover all that was lost at +Chickamauga. + +Harry had another letter from his father, telling him that his own had +been received, and giving personal details of the titanic struggle on +the Chickamauga. He did not speak out directly, but Harry saw in his +words the vain regret that the great opportunity won at Chickamauga at +such a terrible price had not been used. In his belief the whole +Federal army might have been destroyed, and the star of the South would +have risen again to the zenith. + +Here Harry sighed and remembered his own forebodings. Oh, if only a +Stonewall Jackson had been there! His mighty sweep would have driven +Thomas and the rest in a wild rout. A tear rose in his eye as he +remembered his lost hero. He sincerely believed then and always that +the Confederacy would have won had he not fallen on that fatal evening +at Chancellorsville. It was an emotion with him, a permanent emotion +with which logic could not interfere. + +Harry was conscious, too, that the long quiet on the Eastern front was +but a lull. There was nothing to signify peace in it. If the North +had ever felt despair about the war Gettysburg and Vicksburg had +removed every trace of it. He knew that beyond the blue ranges of +mountains, both to east and west, vast preparations were going forward. +The North, the region of great population, of illimitable resources, of +free access to the sea, and of mechanical genius that had counted for +so much in arming her soldiers, was gathering herself for a supreme +effort. The great defeats of the war's first period were to be +ignored, and her armies were to come again, more numerous, better +equipped and perhaps better commanded than ever. + +Nevertheless, his mind was still the mind of youth, and he could not +dwell continuously upon this prospect. The camp in the hills was +pleasant. The heats had passed, and autumn in the full richness of its +coloring had come. The forests blazed in all the brilliancy of red and +yellow and brown. The whole landscape had the color and intensity that +only a North American autumn can know, and the October air had the +freshness and vitality sufficient to make an old man young. + +The great army of youth--it was composed chiefly of boys, like the one +opposing it--enjoyed itself during these comparatively idle months. The +soldiers played rural games, marbles even, pitching the horseshoe, +wrestling, jumping and running. It was to Harry like Hannibal in +winter quarters at Capua, without the Capua. There was certainly no +luxury here. While food was more abundant than for a long time, it was +of the simplest. Instead of dissipation there was a great religious +revival. Ministers of different creeds, but united in a common object, +appeared in the camp, and preached with power and energy. The South +was emotional then and perhaps the war had made it more so. The +ministers secured thousands of converts. All day long the preaching +and singing could be heard through the groves of pine and cedar, and +Harry knew that when the time for battle came they would fight all the +better because of it. Yielding to the enemy was no part of the +Christianity that these ministers preached. + +Harry also saw the growth of the hero-worship accorded to his great +commander. He did not believe that any other general, except perhaps +Napoleon in his earlier career, had ever received such trust and +admiration. Many soldiers who had felt his guiding hand in battle now +saw him for the first time. He had an appearance and manner to inspire +respect, and, back of that, was something much greater, a firm +conviction in the minds of all that he had illimitable patience, a +willingness to accept responsibility, and a military genius that had +never been surpassed. Such was the attitude of the Southern people +toward their great leader then, and, to an even greater degree now, +when his figure, like that of Lincoln, instead of becoming smaller +grows larger as it recedes into the past. + +Harry often rode with him. He seemed to have an especial liking for +the very young members of his staff, or for old private soldiers, +bearded and gray like himself, whom he knew by name. Far in October he +rode down toward the Rapidan where Stuart was encamped, taking with him +only Harry and Dalton. He was mounted on his great white war horse, +Traveller, which the soldiers knew from afar. Cheering arose, but when +he raised his hand in a deprecating way the soldiers, obedient to his +wish, ceased, and they heard only the murmur of many voices, as they +went on. The general made the lads ride, one on his right and the +other on his left hand, and brilliant October coloring and crisp air +seemed to put him in a mood that was far from war. + +"I pine for Arlington," he said at length to Harry, "that ancestral +home of mine that is held by the enemy. I should like to see the +ripening of the crops there. We Virginians of the old stock hold to +the land, and you Kentuckians, who are really of the same race, hold to +it, too." + +"It is true, sir," said Harry. "My father loves the land. After his +retirement from the army, following the Mexican war, he worked harder +upon our place in Kentucky than any slave or hired man. He was going +to free his slaves, but I suppose, sir, that the war has made him feel +different about it." + +"Yes, we're often willing to do things by our own free will, but not +under compulsion. The great Washington himself wrote of the evils of +slave labor. The 'old fields' scattered all over Virginia show what it +has done for this noble commonwealth." + +Harry remembered quite well similar "old fields" in Kentucky. Slaves +were far less numerous there than in Virginia, and he was old enough to +have observed that, in addition to the wrong of slavery, they were a +liability rather than an asset. But he too felt anew the instinctive +rebellion against being compelled to do what he would perhaps do anyhow. + +General Lee talked more of the land and Harry and Dalton listened +respectfully. Harry saw that his commander's heart turned strongly +toward it. He knew that Jefferson had dreamed of the United States as +an agricultural community, having no part in the quarrels of other +nations, but he knew that it was only a dream. The South, the section +that had followed Jefferson's dream, was now at a great disadvantage. +It had no ships, and it did not have the mills to equip it for the +great war it was waging. He realized more keenly than ever the +one-sided nature of the South's development. + +The general turned his horse toward the banks of the Rapidan, and a +resplendent figure came forward to meet him. It was that incarnation +of youth and fantastic knighthood, Jeb Stuart, who had just returned +from a ride toward the north. He wore a new and brilliant uniform and +the usual broad yellow sash about his waist. His tunic was +embroidered, too, and his epaulets were heavy with gold. The thick +gold braid about his hat was tied in a gorgeous loop in front. His +hands were encased in long gloves of the finest buckskin, and he tapped +the high yellow tops of his riding boots with a little whip. + +Harry always felt that Stuart did not really belong to the present. His +place was with the medieval knights who loved gorgeous armor, who +fought by day for the love of it and who sat in the evening on the +castle steps with fair ladies for the love of it, and who in the dark +listened to the troubadours below, also for the love of it. A great +cavalry leader, he shone at his brightest in the chase, and, when there +was no fighting to be done, his were the spirits of a boy, and he was +as quick for a prank as any lad under his own command. + +But Stuart, although he had joked with Jackson, never took any +liberties with Lee. He instantly swept the ground with his plumed hat +and said in his most respectful manner: + +"General, will you honor us by dining with us? We've just returned +from a long ride northward and we've made some captures." + +Lee caught a twinkle in his eye, and he smiled. + +"I see no prisoners, General Stuart," he replied, "and I take it that +your captures do not mean human beings." + +"No, sir, there are other things just now more valuable to us than +prisoners. We raided a little Yankee outpost. Nobody was hurt, but, +sir, we've captured some provisions, the like of which the Army of +Northern Virginia has not tasted in a long time. Would you mind coming +with me and taking a look? And bring Kenton and Dalton with you, if +you don't mind, sir." + +"This indeed sounds tempting," said the commander-in-chief of the Army +of Northern Virginia. "I accept your invitation, General Stuart, in +behalf of myself and my two young aides." + +He dismounted, giving the reins of Traveller to an orderly, and walked +toward Stuart's tent, which was pitched near the river. The "captures" +were heaped in a grassy place. + +"Here, sir," said General Stuart, "are twenty dozen boxes of the finest +French sardines. I haven't tasted sardines in a year and I love them." + +"I've always liked them," said General Lee. + +"And here, sir, are several cases of Yorkshire ham, brought all the way +across the sea--and for us. It isn't as good as our Virginia ham, +which is growing scarce, but we'll like it. And cove oysters, cases +and cases of 'em. I like 'em almost as well as sardines." + +"Most excellent." + +"And real old New England pies, baked, I suppose, in Washington. We +can warm 'em over." + +"I see that you have the fire ready." + +"And jars of preserves, a half-dozen kinds at least, and all of 'em +look as if two likely youngsters like Kenton and Dalton would be +anxious to get at 'em." + +"You judge us rightly, General," said Harry. "We'll show no mercy to +such prisoners as we have here." + +"You wouldn't be boys and you wouldn't be human if you did," rejoined +Stuart, "would they, General?" + +"They would not," replied Lee. "One of the principal recollections of +my boyhood is that I was always hungry. Our regular three meals a day +were not enough for us, however much we ate at one time. Virginia, +like your own Kentucky, Harry, is full of forage, and we moved in +groups. Now, didn't you find a lot of food in the woods and fields?" + +"Oh, yes, sir," rejoined Harry with animation. "I was hungry all the +time, too. An hour after breakfast I was hungry again, and an hour +after dinner, which we had in the middle of the day, I was hungry once +more." + +"But you knew where to go for supplies." + +"Yes, sir; we had berries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, +gooseberries, dewberries, cherries, all of them growing wild although +some of them started tame. And then we could forage for pears, +peaches, plums, damsons, all kinds of apples, paw paws, and then later +for the nuts, hickory nuts, walnuts, chestnuts, hazel nuts, +chinquapins, and a lot more. We could have almost lived in the woods +and fields from early spring until late fall." + +"We did the same in Virginia," said the commander-in-chief. "I've +often thought that our forest Indians did not develop a higher +civilization, because it was so easy for them to live, save in the +depths of a hard winter. They had most of the berries and fruits and +nuts that we white boys had. The woods were full of game, and the +lakes and rivers full of fish. They were not driven by the hard +necessity that creates civilization." + +"Dinner is ready, sir," announced General Stuart, who had been +directing the orderlies. "I can offer you and the others nothing but +boxes and kegs to sit on, but I can assure you that this Northern food, +some of which comes in cans, is excellent." + +The two lads and General Stuart fell to work with energy. General Lee +ate more sparingly. Stuart was a boy himself, talking much and running +over with fun. + +"Have you heard what happened to General Early, sir?" he asked the +commander-in-chief. + +"Not yet." + +"But you will, sir, to-morrow. Early will be slow in sending you that +dispatch. He hasn't had time to write it yet. He's not through +swearing." + +"General Early is a valiant and able man, but I disapprove of his +swearing." + +"Why, sir, 'Old Jube' can't help it. It's a part of his breathing, and +man cannot live without breath. He sent one of his best aides with a +dispatch to General Hill, who is posted some distance away. Passing +through a thick cedar wood the aide was suddenly set upon by a genuine +stage villain, large, dark and powerful, who clubbed him over the head +with the butt of a pistol, and then departed with his dispatch." + +"And what happened then?" + +"The aide returned to General Early with his story, but without his +dispatch. The general believed his account, of course, but he called +him names for allowing himself to be surprised and overcome by a single +Yankee. He cursed until the air for fifty yards about him smelled +strongly of sulphur and brimstone." + +"Did he do anything more?" + +"Yes, General. He sent a duplicate of the dispatch by an aide whom he +said he could trust. In an hour the second man came back with the same +big lump on his head and with the same story. He had been ambushed at +the crossing of a ravine full of small cedars, and the highwayman was +undoubtedly the same, too, a big, powerful fellow, as bold as you +please." + +Harry's pulse throbbed hard for a few moments, when he first heard +mention of the man. The description, not only physical, but of manner +and action as well, answered perfectly. He had not the slightest doubt +that it was Shepard. + +"A daring deed," said General Lee. "We must see that it is not +repeated." + +"But that wasn't all of the tale, sir. While the second man was +sitting on the bank, nursing his broken head, the Yankee Dick Turpin +read the dispatch and saw that it was a duplicate of the first. He +became red-hot with wrath, and talked furiously about the extra and +unnecessary work that General Early was forcing upon him. He ended by +cramming the dispatch into the man's hands, directing him to take it +back, and to tell General Early to stop his foolishness. The aide was +a bit dazed from the blow he received and he delivered that message +word for word. Why, sir, General Early exploded. People who have +heard him swear for years and who know what an artist he is in +swearing, heard him then utter swear words that they had never heard +before, words invented on the spur of the moment, and in the heat of +passion, words full of pith and meaning." + +"And that was all, I suppose?" + +"Not by any means, sir. General Early picked two sharpshooters and +sent them with another copy of the dispatch. They passed the place of +the first hold-up, and next the ravine without seeing anybody. But as +they were riding some distance further on both of their horses were +killed by shots from a small clump of pines. Before they could regain +their feet Dick Turpin came out and covered them with his rifle--it +seems that he had one of those new repeating weapons. + +"The men saw that his eye was so keen and his hand so steady that they +did not dare to move a hand to a pistol. Then as he looked down the +sights of his rifle he lectured them. He told them they were foolish +to come that way, when the two who came before them had found out that +it was a closed road. He said that real soldiers learned by +experience, and would not try again to do what they had learned to be +impossible. + +"Then he said that after all they were not to blame, as they had been +sent by General Early, and he made one of them who had the stub of a +pencil write on the back of the dispatch these words: 'General Jubal +Early, C. S. A.: This has ceased to be a joke. After your first man +was stopped, it was not necessary to do anything more. I have the +dispatch. Why insist on sending duplicate after duplicate?' And the +two had to walk all the way back to General Early with that note, +because they didn't dare make away with the dispatch. + +"I have a certain respect for that man's skill and daring, but General +Early had a series of spells. He retired to his tent and if the +reports are not exaggerated, a continuous muttering like low thunder +came from the tent, and all the cloth of it turned blue from the +lightnings imprisoned inside." + +General Lee himself smiled. + +"It was certainly annoying," he said. "I hope the dispatch was not of +importance." + +"It contained nothing that will help the Yankees, but it shows that the +enemy has some spies--or at least one spy--who are Napoleons at their +trade." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE COMING OF GRANT + + +The little dinner ended. Despite his disapproval of General Early's +swearing, General Lee laughed heartily at further details of the +strange Yankee spy's exploits. But it was well known that in this +particular General Early was the champion of the East. Harry did not +know that in the person of Colonel Charles Woodville, his cousin, Dick +Mason, had encountered one of equal ability in the Southwest. + +Presently General Lee and his two young aides mounted their horses for +the return. The commander-in-chief seemed gayer than usual. He was +always very fond of Stuart, whose high spirits pleased him, and before +his departure he thanked him for his thoughtfulness. + +"Whenever we get any particularly choice shipments from the North I +shall always be pleased to notify you, General, and send you your +share," said Stuart, sweeping the air in front of him again with his +great plumed hat. With his fine, heroic face and his gorgeous uniform +he had never looked more a knight of the Middle Ages. + +General Lee smiled and thanked him again, and then rode soberly back, +followed at a short distance by his two young aides. Although the view +of hills and mountains and valleys and river and brooks was now +magnificent, the sumach burning in red and the leaves vivid in many +colors, Lee, deeply sensitive, like all his rural forbears, to rural +beauty, nevertheless seemed not to notice it, and soon sank into deep +thought. + +It is believed by many that Lee knew then that the Confederacy had +already received a mortal blow. It was not alone sufficient for the +South to win victories. She must keep on winning them, and the failure +at Gettysburg and the defeat at Vicksburg had put her on the defensive +everywhere. Fewer blockade runners were getting through. Above all, +there was less human material upon which to draw. But he roused +himself presently and said to Harry: + +"There was something humorous in the exploits of the man who held up +General Early's messengers, but the fellow is dangerous, exceedingly +dangerous at such a time." + +"I've an idea who he is, sir," said Harry. + +"Indeed! What do you know?" + +Then Harry told nearly all that he knew about Shepard, but not +all--that struggle in the river, and his sparing of the spy and the +filching of the map at the Curtis house, for instance--and the +commander-in-chief listened with great attention. + +"A bold man, uncommonly bold, and it appears uncommonly skilled, too. +We must send out a general alarm, that is, we must have all our own +scouts and spies watching for him." + +Harry said nothing, but he did not believe that anybody would catch +Shepard. The man's achievements had been so startling that they had +created the spell of invincibility. His old belief that he was worth +ten thousand men on the Northern battle line returned. No movement of +the Army of Northern Virginia could escape him, and no lone messenger +could ever be safe from him. + +Lee returned to his camp on Clarke's Mountain, and, a great revival +meeting being in progress, he joined it, sitting with a group of +officers. Fitzhugh Lee, W. H. F. Lee, Jones, Rosser, Wickham, Munford, +Young, Wade Hampton and a dozen others were there. Taylor and Marshall +and Peyton of his staff were also in the company. + +The preacher was a man of singular power and earnestness, and after the +sermon he led the singing himself, in which often thirty or forty +thousand voices joined. It was a moving sight to Harry, all these men, +lads, mostly, but veterans of many fields, united in a chorus mightier +than any other that he had ever heard. It would have pleased Stonewall +Jackson to his inmost soul, and once more, as always, a tear rose to +his eye as he thought of his lost hero. + +Harry and Dalton left their horses with an orderly and came back to the +edge of the great grove, in which the meeting was being held. They had +expected to find St. Clair and Happy Tom there, but not seeing them, +wandered on and finally drifted apart. Harry stood alone for a while +on the outskirts of the throng. They were all singing again, and the +mighty volume of sound rolled through the wood. It was not only a +singular, it was a majestic scene also to Harry. How like unto little +children young soldiers were! and how varied and perplexing were the +problems of human nature! They were singing with the utmost fervor of +Him who had preached continuously of peace, who was willing to turn one +cheek when the other was smitten, and because of their religious zeal +they would rush the very next day into battle, if need be, with +increased fire and zeal. + +He saw a heavily built, powerful man on the outskirts, but some +distance away, singing in a deep rolling voice, but something vaguely +familiar in the figure drew his glance again. He looked long and well +and then began to edge quietly toward the singer, who was clothed in +the faded butternut uniform that so many of the Confederate soldiers +wore. + +The fervor of the singer did not decrease, but Harry noticed that he +too was moving, moving slowly toward the eastern end of the grove, the +same direction that Harry was pursuing. Now he was sure. He would +have called out, but his voice would not have been heard above the vast +volume of sound. He might have pointed out the singer to others, but, +although he felt sure, he did not wish to be laughed at in case of +mistake. But strongest of all was the feeling that it had become a duel +between Shepard and himself. + +He walked slowly on, keeping the man in view, but Shepard, although he +never ceased singing, moved away at about the same pace. Harry +inferred at once that Shepard had seen him and was taking precautions. +The temptation to cry out at the top of his voice that the most +dangerous of all spies was among them was almost irresistible, but it +would only create an uproar in which Shepard could escape easily, +leaving to him a load of ridicule. + +He continued his singular pursuit. Shepard was about a hundred yards +away, and they had made half the circuit of this huge congregation. +Then the spy passed into a narrow belt of pines, and when Harry moved +forward to see him emerge on the other side he failed to reappear. He +hastened to the pines, which led some distance down a little gully, and +he was sure that Shepard had gone that way. He followed fast, but he +could discover no sign. He had vanished utterly, like thin smoke swept +away by a breeze. + +He returned deeply stirred by the appearance and disappearance--easy, +alike--of Shepard. His sense of the man's uncanny powers and of his +danger to the Confederacy was increased. He seemed to come and go +absolutely as he pleased. It was true that in the American Civil War +the opportunities for spies were great. All men spoke the same +language, and all looked very much alike. It was not such a hard task +to enter the opposing lines, but Shepard had shown a daring and success +beyond all comparison. He seemed to have both the seven league boots +and the invisible cloak of very young childhood. He came as he +pleased, and when pursuit came he vanished in thin air. + +Harry bit his lips in chagrin. He felt that Shepard had scored on him +again. It was true that he had been victorious in that fight in the +river, when victory meant so much, but since then Shepard had +triumphed, and it was bitter. He hardened his determination, and +resolved that he would always be on the watch for him. He even felt a +certain glow, because he was one of two in such a conflict of skill and +courage. + +The meeting having been finished, he went down one of the streets of +tents to the camp of the Invincibles. Colonel Leonidas Talbot and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire were not playing chess. Instead +they were sitting on a pine log with Happy Tom and St. Clair and other +officers, listening to young Julien de Langeais, who sat on another +log, playing a violin with surpassing skill. Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire, knowing his prowess as a violinist, had asked him to come and +play for the Invincibles. Now he was playing for them and for several +thousand more who were gathered in the pine woods. + +Young de Langeais sat on a low stump, and the great crowd made a solid +mass around him. But he did not see them, nor the pine woods nor the +heavy cannon sitting on the ridges. He looked instead into a region of +fancy, where the colors were brilliant or gay or tender as he imagined +them. Harry, with no technical knowledge of music but with a great +love of it, recognized at once the touch of a master, and what was +more, the soul of one. + +To him the violin was not great, unless the player was great, but when +the player was great it was the greatest musical instrument of all. He +watched de Langeais' wrapt face, and for him too the thousands of +soldiers, the pines and the cannon on the ridges melted away. He did +not know what the young musician was playing, probably some old French +air or a great lyric outburst of the fiery Verdi, whose music had +already spread through America. + +"A great artist," whispered Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire in his ear. +"He studied at the schools in New Orleans and then for two years in +Paris. But he came back to fight. Nothing could keep Julien from the +army, but he brought his violin with him. We Latins, or at least we +who are called Latins, steep our souls in music. It's not merely +intellectual with us. It's passion, fire, abandonment, triumph and all +the great primitive emotions of the human race." + +Harry's feelings differed somewhat from those of Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire--in character but not in power--and as young de Langeais played +on he began to think what a loss a stray bullet could make. Why should +a great artist be allowed to come on the battle line? There were +hundreds of thousands of common men. One could replace another, but +nobody could replace the genius, a genius in which the whole world +shared. It was not possible for either drill or training to do it, and +yet a little bullet might take away his life as easily as it would that +of a plowboy. They were all alike to the bullets and the shells. + +De Langeais finished, and a great shout of applause arose. The +cheering became so insistent that he was compelled to play again. + +"His family is well-to-do," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire just +before he began playing once more, "and they'll see that he goes back +to Paris for study as soon as the war is over. If they didn't I would." + +It did not seem to occur to Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire that young +de Langeais could be killed, and Harry began to share his confidence. +De Langeais now played the simple songs of the old South, and there was +many a tear in the eyes of war-hardened youth. The sun was setting in +a sea of fire, and the pine forests turned red in its blaze. In the +distance the waters of the Rapidan were crimson, too, and a light wind +out of the west sighed among the pines, forming a subdued chorus to the +violin. + +De Langeais began to play a famous old song of home, and Harry's mind +traveled back on its lingering note to his father's beautiful house and +grounds, close by Pendleton, and all the fine country about it, in +which he and Dick Mason and the boys of their age had roamed. He +remembered all the brooks and ponds and the groves that produced the +best hickory nuts. When should he see them again and would his father +be there, and Dick, and all the other boys of their age! Not all! +Certainly not all, because some were gone already. And yet this +plaintive note of the homes they had left behind, while it brought a +tear to many an eye, made no decrease in martial determination. It +merely hardened their resolution to win the victory all the sooner, and +bring the homecoming march nearer. + +De Langeais ended on a wailing note that died like a faint sigh in the +pine forest. Then he came back to earth, sprang up, and put his violin +in its case. Applause spread out and swelled in a low, thunderous +note, but de Langeais, who was as modest as he was talented, quickly +hid himself among his friends. + +The sun sank behind the blue mountains, and twilight came readily over +the pine and cedar forests. Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire, who had a large tent together, invited the youths to stay +awhile with them as their guests and talk. All the soldiers dispersed +to their own portions of the great camp, and there would be an hour of +quiet and rest, until the camp cooks served supper. + +It had been a lively day for Harry, his emotions had been much stirred, +and now he was glad to sit in the peace of the evening on a stone near +the entrance of the tent, and listen to his friends. War drew comrades +together in closer bonds than those of peace. He was quite sure that +St. Clair, Dalton and Happy Tom were his friends for life, as he was +theirs, and the two colonels seemed to have the same quality of youth. +Simple men, of high faith and honor, they were often childlike in the +ways of the world, their horizons sometimes not so wide as those of the +lads who now sat with them. + +"As I told Harry," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire to Julien, "you +shall have that talent of yours cultivated further after the war. Two +years more of study and you will be among the greatest. You must know, +lads, that for us who are of French descent, Paris is the world's +capital in the arts." + +"And for many of English blood, too," said Colonel Talbot. + +Then they talked of more immediate things, of the war, the armies and +the prospect of the campaigns. Harry, after an hour or so, returned to +headquarters and he found soldiers making a bed for the +commander-in-chief under the largest of the pines. Lee in his +campaigns always preferred to sleep in the open air, when he could, and +it required severe weather to drive him to a tent. Meanwhile he sat by +a small fire--the October nights were growing cold--and talked with +Peyton and other members of his staff. + +Harry and Dalton decided to imitate his example and sleep between the +blankets under the pines. Harry found a soft place, spread his +blankets and in a few minutes slept soundly. In fact, the whole Army +of Northern Virginia was a great family that retired early, slept well +and rose early. + +The next morning there was frost on the grass, but the lads were so +hardy that they took no harm. The autumn deepened. The leaves blazed +for a while in their most vivid colors and then began to fall under the +strong west winds. Brown and wrinkled, they often whirled past in +clouds. The air had a bite in it, and the soldiers built more and +larger fires. + +The Army of Northern Virginia never before had been quiescent so long. +The Army of the Potomac was not such a tremendous distance away, but it +seemed that neither side was willing to attack, and as the autumn +advanced and began to merge into winter the minds of all turned toward +the Southwest. + +For the valiant soldiers encamped on the Virginia hills the news was +not good. Grant, grim and inflexible, was deserving the great name +that was gradually coming to him. He had gathered together all the +broken parts of the army defeated at Chickamauga and was turning Union +defeat into Union victory. + +Winter closed in with the knowledge that Grant had defeated the South +disastrously on Lookout Mountain and all around Chattanooga. +Chickamauga had gone for nothing, the whole flank of the Confederacy +was turned and the Army of Northern Virginia remained the one great +barrier against the invading legions of the North. Yet the confidence +of the men in that army remained undimmed. They felt that on their own +ground, and under such a man as Lee, they were invincible. + +In the course of these months Harry, as a messenger and often as a +secretary, was very close to Lee. He wrote a swift and clear hand, and +took many dispatches. Almost daily messages were sent in one direction +or another and Harry read from them the thoughts of his leader, which +he kept locked in his breast. He knew perhaps better than many an +older officer the precarious condition of the Confederacy. These +letters, which he took from dictation, and the letters from Richmond +that he read to his chief, told him too plainly that the limits of the +Confederacy were shrinking. Its money declined steadily. Happy Tom +said that he had to "swap it pound for pound now to the sutlers for +groceries." Yet it is the historical truth that the heart of the Army +of Northern Virginia never beat with more fearless pride, as the famous +and "bloody" year of '63 was drawing to its close. + +The news arrived that Grant, the Sledge Hammer of the West, had been +put by Lincoln in command of all the armies of the Union, and would +come east to lead the Army of the Potomac in person, with Meade still +as its nominal chief, but subject, like all the others, to his command. + +Harry heard the report with a thrill. He knew now that decisive action +would come soon enough. He had always felt that Meade in front of them +was a wavering foe, and perhaps too cautious. But Grant was of another +kind. He was a pounder. Defeats did not daunt him. He would attack +and then attack again and again, and the diminishing forces of the +Confederacy were ill fitted to stand up against the continued blows of +the hammer. Harry's thrill was partly of apprehension, but whenever he +looked at the steadfast face of his chief his confidence returned. + +Winter passed without much activity and spring began to show its first +buds. The earth was drying, after melting snows and icy rains, and +Harry knew that action would not be delayed much longer. Grant was in +the East now. He had gone in January to St. Louis to visit his +daughter, who lay there very ill, and then, after military delays, he +had reached Washington. + +Harry afterward heard the circumstances of his arrival, so +characteristic of plain and republican America. He came into +Washington by train as a simple passenger, accompanied only by his son, +who was but fourteen years of age. They were not recognized, and +arriving at a hotel, valise in hand, with a crowd of passengers, he +registered in his turn: "U. S. Grant and son, Galena, Ill." The clerk, +not noticing the name, assigned the modest arrival and his boy to a +small room on the fifth floor. Then they moved away, a porter carrying +the valise. But the clerk happened to look again at the register, and +when he saw more clearly he rushed after them with a thousand +apologies. He did not expect the victor of great battles, the +lieutenant-general commanding all the armies of the Union, a battle +front of more than a million men, to come so modestly. + +When Harry heard the story he liked it. It seemed to him to be the +same simple and manly quality that he found in Lee, both worthy of +republican institutions. But he did not have time to think about it +long. The signs were multiplying that the advance would soon come. +The North had never ceased to resound with preparations, and Grant +would march with veterans. All the spies and scouts brought in the +same report. Butler would move up from Fortress Monroe toward Richmond +with thirty thousand men and Grant with a hundred and fifty thousand +would cross the Rapidan, moving by the right flank of Lee until they +could unite and destroy the Confederacy. Such was the plan, said the +scouts and spies in gray. + +Longstreet with his corps had returned from the West and Lee gathered +his force of about sixty thousand men to meet the mighty onslaught--he +alone perhaps divined how mighty it would be--and when he was faced by +the greatest of his adversaries his genius perhaps never shone more +brightly. + +May and the full spring came. It was the third day of the month, and +the camp of the Army of Northern Virginia was as usual. Many of the +young soldiers played games among the trees. Here and there they lay +in groups on the new grass, singing their favorite songs. The cooks +were preparing their suppers over the big fires. Several bands were +playing. Had it not been for the presence of so many weapons the whole +might have been taken for one vast picnic, but Harry, who sat in the +tent of the commander-in-chief, was writing as fast as he could +dispatch after dispatch that the Southern leader was dictating to him. +He knew perfectly well, of course, that the commander-in-chief was +gathering his forces and that they would move quickly for battle. He +knew, too, how inadequate was the equipment of the army. Only a short +time before he had taken from the dictation of his chief a letter to +the President of the Confederacy a part of which ran: + + +My anxiety on the subject of provisions for the army is so great that I +cannot refrain from expressing it to your Excellency. I cannot see how +we can operate with our present supplies. Any derangement in their +arrival or disaster to the railroad would render it impossible for me +to keep the army together and might force a retreat into North +Carolina. There is nothing to be had in this section for men or +animals. We have rations for the troops to-day and to-morrow. I hope +a new supply arrived last night, but I have not yet had a report. + + +Harry had thought long over this letter and he knew from his own +observation its absolute truth. The depleted South was no longer able +to feed its troops well. The abundance of the preceding autumn had +quickly passed, and in winter they were mostly on half rations. + +Lee, better than any other man in the whole South, had understood what +lay before them, and his foes both of the battlefield and of the spirit +have long since done him justice. Less than a week before this eve of +mighty events he had written to a young woman in Virginia, a relative: + + +I dislike to send letters within reach of the enemy, as they might +serve, if captured, to bring distress on others. But you must +sometimes cast your thoughts on the Army of Northern Virginia, and +never forget it in your prayers. It is preparing for a great struggle, +but I pray and trust that the great God, mighty to deliver, will spread +over it His Almighty arms and drive its enemies before it. + + +Harry had seen this letter before its sending, and he was not surprised +now when Lee was sending messengers to all parts of his army. With all +the hero-worshiping quality of youth he was once more deeply grateful +that he should have served on the staffs and been brought into close +personal relations with two men, Stonewall Jackson and Lee, who seemed +to him so great. As he saw it, it was not alone military greatness but +greatness of the soul, which was greater. Both were deeply +religious--Lee, the Episcopalian, and Jackson, the Presbyterian, and it +was a piety that contained no trace of cant. + +Harry felt that the crisis of the great Civil War was at hand. It had +been in the air all that day, and news had come that Grant had broken +up his camps and was crossing the Rapidan with a huge force. He knew +how small in comparison was the army that Lee could bring against him, +and yet he had supreme confidence in the military genius of his chief. + +He had written a letter with which an aide had galloped away, and then +he sat at the little table in the great tent, pen in hand and ink and +paper before him, but Lee was silent. He was dressed as usual with +great neatness and care, though without ostentation. His face had its +usual serious cast, but tinged now with melancholy. Harry knew that he +no longer saw the tent and those around him. His mind dwelled for a +few moments upon his own family and the ancient home that he had loved +so well. + +The interval was very brief. He was back in the present, and the +principal generals for whom he had sent were entering the tent. Hill, +Longstreet, Ewell, Stuart and others came, but they did not stay long. +They talked earnestly with their leader for a little while, and then +every one departed to lead his brigades. + +The secretaries put away pen, ink and paper. Twilight was advancing in +the east and night suddenly fell outside. The songs ceased, the bands +played no more, and there was only the deep rumble of marching men and +moving cannon. + +"We'll ride now, gentlemen," said Lee to his staff. + +Traveller, saddled and bridled, was waiting and the commander-in-chief +sprang into the saddle with all the agility of a young man. The others +mounted, too, Harry and Dalton as usual taking their places modestly in +the rear. + +A regiment, small in numbers but famous throughout the army for valor, +was just passing, and its colonel and its lieutenant-colonel, erect +men, riding splendidly, but gray like Lee, drew their swords and gave +the proud and flashing salute of the saber as they went by. Lee and +his staff almost with involuntary impulse returned the salute in like +fashion. Then the Invincibles passed on, and were lost from view in +the depths of the forest. + +Harry felt a sudden constriction of the heart. He knew that he might +never see Colonel Leonidas Talbot nor Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. +Hilaire again, nor St. Clair, nor Happy Tom either. + +But his friends could not remain long in his mind at such a time. They +were marching, marching swiftly, the presence of the man on the great +white horse seeming to urge them on to greater speed. As the stars +came out Lee's brow, which had been seamed by thought, cleared. His +plan which he had formed in the day was moving well. His three corps +were bearing away toward the old battlefield of Chancellorsville. +Grant would be drawn into the thickets of the Wilderness as Hooker had +been the year before, although a greater than Hooker was now leading +the Army of the Potomac. + +Harry, who foresaw it all, thrilled and shuddered at the remembrance. +It was in there that the great Jackson had fallen in the hour of +supreme triumph. Not far away were the heights of Fredericksburg, +where Burnside had led the bravest of the brave to unavailing +slaughter. As Belgium had been for centuries the cockpit of Europe, so +the wild and sterile region in Virginia that men call the Wilderness +became the cockpit of North America. + + +While Lee and his army were turning into the Wilderness Grant and the +greatest force that the Union had yet assembled were seeking him. It +was composed of men who had tasted alike of victory and defeat, +veterans skilled in all the wiles and stratagems of war, and with +hearts to endure anything. In this host was a veteran regiment that +had come East to serve under Grant as it had served under him so +valiantly in the West. Colonel Winchester rode at its head and beside +him rode his favorite aide, young Richard Mason. Not far away was +Colonel Hertford, with a numerous troop of splendid cavalry. + +Grant, alert and resolved to win, carried in his pocket a letter which +he had received from Lincoln, saying: + + +Not expecting to see you before the spring campaign opens, I wish to +express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up +to this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of your plans +I neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant, +and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints or +restraints upon you. While I am very anxious that any great disaster +or the capture of our men in great numbers should be avoided, I know +these points are less likely to escape your attention than they would +mine. If there is anything wanting which is within my power to give, +do not fail to let me know it. And now, with a brave army and a just +cause, may God sustain you. + + +A noble letter, breathing the loftiest spirit, and showing that moral +grandeur which has been so characteristic of America's greatest men. He +had put all in Grant's hands and he had given to him an army, the like +of which had never been seen until now on the American continent. Never +before had the North poured forth its wealth and energy in such +abundance. + +Four thousand wagons loaded with food and ammunition followed the army, +and there was a perfect system by which a wagon emptied of its contents +was sent back to a depot to be refilled, while a loaded wagon took its +place at the front. Complete telegram equipments, poles, wires, +instruments and all were carried with every division. The wires could +be strung easily and the lieutenant-general could talk to every part of +his army. There were, also, staffs of signalmen, in case the wires +should fail at any time. Grant held in his hand all the resources of +the North, and if he could not win no one could. + +All through the night the hostile armies marched, and before them went +the spies and scouts. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE GHOSTLY RIDE + + +Harry and Dalton kept close together during the long hours of the +ghostly ride. Just ahead of them were Taylor and Marshall and Peyton, +and in front Lee rode in silence. Now and then they passed regiments, +and at other times they would halt and let regiments pass them. Then +the troops, seeing the man sitting on the white horse, would start to +cheer, but always their officers promptly subdued it, and they marched +on feeling more confident than ever that their general was leading them +to victory. + +Many hours passed and still the army marched through the forests. The +trees, however, were dwindling in size and even in the night they saw +that the earth was growing red and sterile. Dense thickets grew +everywhere, and the marching became more difficult. Harry felt a +sudden thrill of awe. + +"George," he whispered, "do you know the country into which we're +riding?" + +"I think I do, Harry. It's the Wilderness." + +"It can't be anything else, George, because I see the ghosts." + +"What are you talking about, Harry? What ghosts?" + +"The thousands and thousands who have fallen in that waste. Why the +Wilderness is so full of dead men that they must walk at night to give +one another room. I only hope that the ghost of Old Jack will ride +before us and show us the way." + +"I almost feel like that, too," admitted Dalton, who, however, was of a +less imaginative mind than Harry. "As sure as I'm sitting in the +saddle we're bound for the Wilderness. Now, what is the day going to +give us?" + +"Marching mostly, I think, and with the next noon will come battle. +Grant doesn't hesitate and hold back. We know that, George." + +"No, it's not his character." + +Morning came and found them still in the forests, seeking the deep +thickets of the Wilderness, and Grant, warned by his scouts and spies, +and most earnestly by one whose skill, daring and judgment were +unequaled, turned from his chosen line of march to meet his enemy. +Once more Lee had selected the field of battle, where his inferiority +in numbers would not count so much against him. + +It was nearly morning when the march ceased, and officers and troops, +save those on guard, lay down in the forest for rest. Harry, a +seasoned veteran, could sleep under any conditions and with a blanket +over him and a saddle for a pillow closed his eyes almost immediately. +Lee and his older aides, Taylor and Peyton and Marshall, slept also. +Around them the brigades, too, lay sleeping. + +A while before dawn a large man in Confederate uniform, using the soft, +lingering speech of the South, appeared almost in the center of the +army of Northern Virginia. He knew all the pass words and told the +officers commanding the watch that the wing under Ewell was advancing +more rapidly than any of the others. Inside the line he could go about +almost as he chose, and one could see little of him, save that he was +large of figure and deeply tanned, like all the rest. + +He approached the little opening in which Lee and his staff lay, +although he kept back from the sentinels who watched over the sleeping +leader. But Shepard knew that it was the great Confederate chieftain +who lay in the shadow of the oak and he could identify him by the +glances of the sentinels so often directed toward the figure. + +There were wild thoughts for a moment or two in the mind of Shepard. A +single bullet fired by an unerring hand would take from the Confederacy +its arm and brain, and then what happened to himself afterward would +not matter at all. And the war would be over in a month or two. But +he put the thought fiercely from him. A spy he was and in his heart +proud of his calling, but no such secret bullet could be fired by him. + +He turned away from the little opening, wandered an hour through the +camp and then, diving into the deep bushes, vanished like a shadow +through the Confederate lines, and was gone to Grant to report that +Lee's army was advancing swiftly to attack, and that the command of +Ewell would come in touch with him first. + +Not long after dawn Harry was again on the march, riding behind his +general. From time to time Lee sent messengers to the various +divisions of his army, four in number, commanded by Longstreet, Early, +Hill and Stuart, the front or Stuart's composed of cavalry. Harry's +own time came, when he received a dispatch of the utmost importance to +take to Ewell. He memorized it first, and, if capture seemed probable, +he was to tear it into bits and throw it away. Harry was glad he was +to go to Ewell. In the great campaign in the valley he had been second +to Jackson, his right arm, as Jackson had been Lee's right arm. Ewell +had lost a leg since then, and his soldiers had to strap him in the +saddle when he led them into battle, but he was as daring and cheerful +as ever, trusted implicitly by Lee. + +Harry with a salute to his chief rode away. Part of the country was +familiar to him and in addition his directions were so explicit that he +could not miss the way. + +The four divisions of the army were in fairly close touch, but in a +country of forests and many waters Northern scouts might come between, +and he rode with caution, his hand ever near the pistol in his belt. +The midday sun however clouded as the afternoon passed on. The +thickets and forests grew more dense. From the distance came now and +then the faint, sweet call of a trumpet, but everything was hidden from +sight by the dense tangle of the Wilderness, a wilderness as wild and +dangerous as any in which Henry Ware had ever fought. How it all came +back to him! Almost exactly a year ago he had ridden into it with +Jackson and here the armies were gathering again. + +Imagination, fancy, always so strong in him, leaped into vivid life. +The year had not passed and he was riding to meet Stonewall Jackson, +who was somewhere ahead, preparing for his great curve about Hooker and +the lightning stroke at Chancellorsville. Rabbits sprang out of the +undergrowth and fled away before his horse's hoofs. In the lonely +wilderness, which nevertheless had little to offer to the hunter, birds +chattered from every tree. Small streams flowed slowly between dense +walls of bushes. Here and there in the protection of the thickets wild +flowers were in early bloom. + +It was spring, fresh spring everywhere, but the bushes and the grass +alike were tinged with red for Harry. The strange mental illusion that +he was riding to Chancellorsville remained with him and he did not seek +to shake it off. He almost expected to see Old Jack ahead on a hill, +bent over a little, and sitting on Little Sorrel, with the old slouch +hat drawn over his eyes. They had talked of the ghost of Jackson +leading them in the Wilderness. He shivered. Could it be so? All the +time he knew it was an illusion, but he permitted it to cast its spell +over him, as one who dreams knowingly. + +And Harry was dreaming back. Old Jack, the earlier of his two heroes, +was leading them. He foresaw the long march through the thickets of +the Wilderness, Stonewall forming the line of battle in the deep roads +late in the evening, almost in sight of Hooker's camp, the sudden rush +of his brigades and then the terrible battle far into the night. + +He shook himself. It was uncanny. The past was the past. Dreams were +thin and vanished stuff. Once more he was in the present and saw +clearly. Old Jack was gone to take his place with the great heroes of +the past, but the Army of Northern Virginia was there, with Lee leading +them, and the most formidable of all the Northern chiefs with the most +formidable of all the Northern armies was before them. + +He heard the distant thud of hoofs and with instinctive caution drew +back into a dense clump of bushes. A half-dozen horsemen were near and +their eager looks in every direction told Harry that they were scouts. +There was little difference then between a well worn uniform of blue or +gray, and they were very close before Harry was able to tell that they +belonged to Grant's army. + +He was devoutly glad that his horse was trained thoroughly and stood +quite still while the Northern scouts passed. A movement of the bushes +would have attracted their attention, and he did not wish to be +captured at any time, least of all on the certain eve of a great +battle. After a battle he always felt an extra regret for those who +had fallen, because they would never know whether they had won or lost. + +They were alert, keen and vigorous men, or lads rather, as young as +himself, and they rode as if they had been Southern youths almost born +in the saddle. Harry was not the only one to notice how the Northern +cavalry under the whip hand of defeat had improved so fast that it was +now a match, man for man, for that of the South. + +The young riders rode on and the tread of their hoofs died in the +undergrowth. Then Harry emerged from his own kindly clump of bushes +and increased his speed, anxious to reach Ewell, without any more of +those encounters. He made good progress through the thickets, and soon +after sundown saw a glow which he took to be that of campfires. He +advanced cautiously, met the Southern sentinels and knew that he was +right. + +The very first of these sentinels was an old soldier of Jackson, who +knew him well. + +"Mr. Kenton!" he exclaimed. + +"Yes, Thorn! It's you!" said Harry without hesitation. + +The soldier was pleased that he should be recognized thus in the dusk, +and he was still more pleased when the young aide leaned down and shook +his hand. + +"I might have known, Thorn, that I'd find you here, rifle on your arm, +watching," he said. + +"Thank you, Mr. Kenton. You'll find the general over there on a log by +the fire." + +Harry dismounted, gave his horse to a soldier and walked into the +glade. Ewell sat alone, his crutch under his arms, his one foot kicking +back the coals, his bald head a white disc in the glow. + +"General Ewell, sir," said Harry. + +General Ewell turned about and when he saw Harry his face clearly +showed gladness. He could not rise easily, but he stretched out a +welcoming hand. + +"Ah! Kenton," he said, "you're a pleasant sight to tired eyes like +mine. You bring back the glorious old days in the valley. So it's a +message from the commander-in-chief?" + +"Yes, sir. Here it is." + +Ewell read it rapidly by the firelight and smiled. + +"He tells us we're nearest to the enemy," he said, "and to hold fast, +if we're attacked. You're to remain with us and report what happens, +but doubtless you knew all this." + +"Yes, I had to commit it to memory before I started." + +"Then stay here with me. I may want to report to General Lee at any +time. The enemy is in our front only three or four miles away. He +knows we're here and it was a villainous surprise to him to find us in +his way. They say this man Grant is a pounder. So is Lee, when the +time comes to pound, but he's that and far more. I tell you, young +man, that General Lee has had to trim a lot of Northern generals. +McClellan and Pope and Burnside and Hooker and Meade have been going to +school to him, and now Grant is qualifying for his class." + +"But Grant is a great general. So our men in the West themselves say." + +"He may be, but Lee is greater, greatest. And, Harry, you and I, who +knew him and loved him, wish that another who alone was fit to ride by +his side was here with him." + +"I wish it from the bottom of my heart," said Harry. + +"Well, well, regrets are useless. Help me up, Harry. I'm only part of +a man, but I can still fight." + +"We saw you do that at Gettysburg," said Harry, as he put his arm under +Ewell's shoulder. Then Ewell took his crutch and they walked to the +far side of the glade, where several officers of his staff gathered +around him. + +"Lieutenant Kenton, whom you all know," said General Ewell, "has +brought a message from the commander-in-chief that we will be attacked +first, and to be on guard. We consider it an honor, do we not, my +lads?" + +"Yes, let them come," they said. + +"Harry, you may want to see the enemy. Clayton, you and Campbell take +him forward through the pickets. But don't go too far. We don't want +to lose three perfectly good young officers before the battle begins. +After that it may be your business to get yourselves shot." + +The two rode nearly two miles to the crest of a hill and then, using +their strong glasses in the moonlight, they were able to see the lights +of a vast camp. + +"We hear that it is Warren's corps," said Clayton. "As General Ewell +doubtless has told you, the enemy know that we're in front, but I don't +believe they know our exact location. I believe we'll be in battle +with those men in the morning." + +Harry thought so too. In truth, it was inevitable. Warren would +advance and Ewell would stand in his way. Yet he slept soundly when he +went back to camp, although he was awakened long before dawn the next +day. Then he ate breakfast, mounted and sat his horse not far away +from Ewell, whom two soldiers had strapped into his saddle, and who was +watching with eager eyes for the sunrise. + +Harry, listening intently, heard no sound in front of them, save the +wind rippling through the dwarfed forests of the Wilderness, and he +knew that no battle had yet begun elsewhere. Sound would come far on +that placid May morning, and it was a certainty that Ewell was nearest +to contact with the enemy. + +But Ewell did not yet move. All his men had been served with early +breakfast, such as it was, and remained in silent masses, partly hidden +by the forest and thickets. The dawn was cold, and Harry felt a little +chill, but it soon passed, as the red edge of the sun showed over the +eastern border of the Wilderness. Then the light spread toward the +zenith, but the golden glow failed to penetrate the somber thickets. + +"It's going to be a good day," said Harry to an aide. + +"A good day for a battle." + +"We'll hear from the Yankees soon. They can't fail to discover our +exact location by sunrise, and they'll fight. Be sure of that." + +It was now nearly six o'clock, and General Ewell, growing impatient, +rode forward a little. Harry followed with his staff. A half-dozen +Southern sharpshooters rose suddenly out of the thickets, and one of +them dared to lay his hands on the reins of the general's horse. But +Ewell was not offended. He looked down at the man and said: + +"What is it, Strother?" + +"Riflemen of the enemy are not more than three or four hundred yards +away. If you go much farther, General, they will certainly see you and +fire upon you." + +"Thanks, Strother. So they've located us?" + +"They're about to do it. They're feeling around. We've seen 'em in +the bushes. We ask you not to go on, General. We wouldn't know what +to do without you. There, sir! They're firing on our pickets!" + +A half-dozen shots came from the front, and then a half-dozen or so in +reply. Harry saw pink flashes, and then spirals of smoke rising. More +shots were fired presently on their right, and then others on their +left. The Northern riflemen were evidently on a long line, and +intended to make a thorough test of their enemy's strength. Harry had +no doubt that Shepard was there. He would surely come to the point +where his enemy was nearest, and his eyes and ears would be the keenest +of all. + +The little skirmish continued for a few minutes, extending along a +winding line of nearly a mile through the thickets. Only two or three +were wounded and nobody killed on the Southern side. Harry understood +thoroughly, as Ewell had said, that the sharpshooters of the enemy were +merely feeling for them. They wanted to know if a strong force was +there, and now they knew. + +The firing ceased, not in dying shots, but abruptly. The Wilderness in +front of them returned to silence, broken only by the rippling leaves. +Harry knew that the Northern sharpshooters had discovered all they +wanted, and were now returning to their leaders. + +Ewell turned his horse and rode back toward the main camp, his staff +following. The cooking fires had been put out, the lines were formed +and every gun was in position. As little noise as possible was +allowed, while they waited for Grant; not for Grant himself, but for +one of his lieutenants, pushed forward by his master hand. + +Harry and most of the staff officers dismounted, holding their horses +by the bridle. The young lieutenant often searched the thickets with +his glasses, but he saw nothing. Nevertheless he knew that the enemy +would come. Grant having set out to find his foe, would never draw +back when he found him. + +A much longer period of silence than he had expected passed. The sun, +flaming red, was moving on toward the zenith, and no sounds of battle +came from either right or left. The suspense became acute, almost +unbearable, and it was made all the more trying by the blindness of +that terrible forest. Harry felt at times as if he would rather fight +in the open fields; but he knew that his commander-in-chief was right +when he drew Grant into the shades of the Wilderness. + +When the suspense became so great that heavy weights seemed to be +pressing upon his nerves, rifle shots were fired in front, and +skirmishers uttered the long, shrill rebel yell. Then above both shots +and shouts rose the far, clear call of a bugle. + +"Here they come!" Harry heard Ewell say to himself, and the next moment +the sound of human voices was drowned in the thunder of great guns and +the crash of fifty thousand rifles. The battle was so sudden and the +charge so swift that it seemed to leap into full volume in an instant. +Warren, a resolute and daring general, led the Northern column and it +struck with such weight and force that the Southern division was driven +back. Harry felt it yielding, as if the ground were sliding under his +feet. + +There was so much flame and smoke that he could not see well, but the +sensation of slipping was distinct. General Ewell was near him, +shouting orders. His hat had fallen off, and his round, bald head had +turned red, either from the rush of blood or the cannon's glare. It +shone like a red dome, but Harry knew that there was no better man in +such a crisis than this veteran lieutenant of Stonewall Jackson. + +The Wilderness, usually so silent, was an inferno now. The battle, +despite its tremendous beginning, increased in violence and fury. +Although Grant himself was not there, the spirit that had animated him +at Shiloh and Vicksburg was. He had communicated it to his generals, +and Warren brought every ounce of his strength into action. The long +line of his bayonets gleamed through the thickets and the Northern +artillery, superb as usual, rained shells upon the Southern army. + +Ewell's men, fighting with all the courage and desperation that they +had shown on so many a field, were driven back further and further. +Ewell, strapped in his saddle, flourishing his sword, his round, bald +head glowing, rode among them, bidding them to stand, that help would +soon come. They continued to go backward, but those veterans of so +many campaigns never lost cohesion nor showed sign of panic. Their own +artillery and rifles replied in full volume. The heads of the charging +columns were blown away, but other men took their places, and Warren's +force came on with undiminished fire and strength. + +Harry wondered if the attack at other points had been made with such +impetuosity, but there was such a roar and crash about him that it was +impossible to hear sounds of battle elsewhere. Men were falling very +fast, but the general was unharmed, and neither the young lieutenant +nor his horse was touched. + +A sudden shout arose, and it was immediately followed by the piercing +rebel yell, swelling wild and fierce above the tumult of the battle. +Help was coming. Regiments in gray were charging down the paths and on +the left flank rose the thunder of hoofs as a formidable body of +cavalry under Sherburne, sabers aloft, swept down on the Northern flank. + +Ewell's entire division stopped its retreat and, reinforced by the new +men, charged directly upon the Northern bayonets. Men met almost face +to face. The saplings and bushes were mown down by cannon and rifles +and the air was full of bursting shells. From time to time Ewell's men +uttered their fierce, defiant yell, and with a great bound of the heart +Harry saw that they were gaining. Warren was being driven back. Two +of his cannon were captured already, and the Southern men, feeling the +glow of the advance after retreat, charged again and again, reckless of +death. But Harry soon saw that ultimate victory here would rest with +the South. The troops of Warren, exhausted by their early rush, were +driven from one position to another by the seasoned veterans who faced +them. The Confederates retained the captured cannon and thrust harder +and harder. It became obvious that Warren must soon fall back to the +main Northern line, and though the battle was still raging with great +fury Ewell beckoned Harry to him. + +"Don't stay here any longer," he shouted in his ear. "Ride to General +Lee and tell him we're victorious at this point for the day at least!" + +Harry saluted and galloped away through the thickets. Behind him the +battle still roared and thundered. A stray shell burst just in front +of him, and another just behind him, but he and his horse were +untouched. Once or twice he glanced back and it looked as if the +Wilderness were on fire, but he knew that it was instead the blaze of +battle. He saw also that Ewell was still moving forward, winning more +ground, and his heart swelled with gladness. + +How proud Jackson would have been had he been able to see the valor and +skill of his old lieutenant! Perhaps his ghost did really hover over +the Wilderness, where a year before he had fallen in the moment of his +greatest triumph! Harry urged his horse into a gallop. All his +faculties now became acute. He was beyond the zone of fire, but the +roar of the battle behind him seemed as loud as ever. Yet it was +steadily moving back on the main Union lines, and there could be no +doubt of Ewell's continued success. + +The curves of the low hills and the thick bushes hid everything from +Harry's sight, as he rode swiftly through the winding paths of the +Wilderness. When the tumult sank at last he heard a new thunder in +front of him, and now he knew that the Southern center under Hill had +been attacked also, and with the greatest fierceness. + +As Harry approached, the roar of the second battle became terrific. +Uncertain where General Lee would now be, he rode through the sleet of +steel, and found Hill engaged with the very flower of the Northern +army. Hancock, the hero of Gettysburg, was making desperate exertions +to crush him, pouring in brigade after brigade, while Sheridan, +regardless of thickets, made charge after charge with his numerous +cavalry. + +Harry remained in the rear on his horse, watching this furious +struggle. The day had become much darker, either from clouds or the +vast volume of smoke, and the thickets were so dense that the officers +often could not see their enemy at all, only their own men who stood +close to them. The struggle was vast, confused, carried on under +appalling conditions. The charging horsemen were sometimes swept from +the saddle by bushes and not by bullets. Infantrymen stepped into a +dark ooze left by spring rains, and pulling themselves out, charged, +black to the waist with mud. Sometimes the field pieces became mired, +and men and horses together dragged them to firmer ground. + +Grant here, as before Ewell, continually reinforced his veterans, but +Hill, although he was not able to advance, held fast. The difficult +nature of the ground that Lee had chosen helped him. In marsh and +thickets it was impossible for the more numerous enemy to outflank him. +Harry saw Hill twice, a slender man, who had suffered severe wounds but +one of the greatest fighters in the Southern army. He had been ordered +to hold the center, and Harry knew now that he would do it, for the day +at least. Night was not very far away, and Grant was making no +progress. + +He rode on in search of Lee and before he was yet beyond the range of +fire he met Dalton, mounted and emerging from the smoke. + +"The commander-in-chief, where is he?" asked Harry. + +"On a little hill not far from here, watching the battle. I'm just +returning with a dispatch from Hill." + +"I saw that Hill was holding his ground." + +"So my dispatch says, and it says also that he will continue to hold +it. You come from Ewell?" + +"Yes, and he has done more than stand fast. He was driven back at +first, but when reinforcements came he drove Warren back in his turn, +and took guns and prisoners." + +"The chief will be glad to hear it. We'll ride together. Look out for +your horse! He may go knee deep into mire at any time. Harry, the +Wilderness looks even more somber to me than it did a year ago when we +fought Chancellorsville." + +"I feel the same way about it. But see, George, how they're fighting! +General Hill is making a great resistance!" + +"Never better. But if you look over those low bushes you can see +General Lee on the hill." + +Harry made out the figure of Lee on Traveller, outlined against the +sky, with about a dozen men sitting on their horses behind him. He +hurried forward as fast as he could. The commander-in-chief was +reading a dispatch, while the fierce struggle in the thickets was going +on, but when Harry saluted and Marshall told him that he had come to +report the general put away the dispatch and said: + +"What news from General Ewell?" + +"General Ewell was at first borne back by the enemy's numbers, but when +help came he returned to the charge, and has been victorious. He has +gained much ground." + +A gleam of triumph shot from Lee's eyes, usually so calm. + +"Well done, Ewell!" he said. "The loss of a leg has not dimmed his +ardor or judgment. I truly believe that if he were to lose the other +one also he would still have himself strapped into the saddle and lead +his men to victory. We thank you for the news you have brought, +Lieutenant Kenton." + +He put his glasses to his eyes and Harry and Dalton as usual withdrew +to the rear of the staff. But they used their glasses also, bringing +nearer to them the different phases of the battle, which now raged +through the Wilderness. They saw at some points the continuous blaze +of guns, and the acrid powder smoke, lying low, was floating through +all the thickets. + +But Harry now knew that the combat, however violent and fierce, was +only a prelude. The sun was already setting, and they could not fight +at night in those wild thickets, where men and guns would become mired +and tangled beyond extrication. The great struggle, with both leaders +hurling in their full forces, would come on the morrow. + +The sun already hung very low, and in the twilight and smoke the +savagery of the Wilderness became fiercer than ever. The dusk gathered +around Lee, but his erect figure and white horse still showed +distinctly through it. Harry, his spirit touched by the tremendous +scenes in the very center of which he stood, regarded him with a fresh +measure of respect and admiration. He was the bulwark of the +Confederacy, and he did not doubt that on the morrow he would stop +Grant as he had stopped the others. + +The darkness increased, sweeping down like a great black pall over the +Wilderness. The battle in the center and on the left died. Lee and +his staff dismounting, prepared for the labors of the night. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE WILDERNESS + + +When night settled down over the Wilderness the two armies lay almost +face to face on a long line. The preliminary battle, on the whole, had +favored the Confederacy. Hill had held his ground and Ewell had +gained, but Grant had immense forces, and, though naturally kind of +heart, he had made up his mind to strike and keep on striking, no +matter what the loss. He could afford to lose two men where the +Confederacy lost one. + +Harry, like many others, felt that this would be the great Northern +general's plan. To-morrow's battle might end in Southern success, but +Grant would be there to fight the following day with undiminished +resolution. He was as sure of this as he was sure that the day would +come. + +The night itself was somber and sinister, the heavens dusky and a raw +chill in the air. Heavy vapors rose from the marshes, and clouds of +smoke from the afternoon's battle floated about over the thickets, +poisoning the air as if with gas, and making the men cough as they +breathed it. It made Harry's heart beat harder than usual, and his +head felt as if it were swollen. Everything seemed clothed in a black +mist with a slightly reddish tint. + +A small fire had been built in a sheltered place for the +commander-in-chief and his staff, and the cooks were preparing the +supper, which was of the simplest kind. While they ate the food and +drank their coffee, the darkness increased, with the faint lights of +other fires showing here and there through it. Around the muddy places +frogs croaked in defiance of armies, and, from distant points, came the +crackling fire of skirmishers prowling in the dusk. + +Harry's horse, saddled and bridled, was tied to a bush not far away. He +knew that it was to be no night of rest for him, or any other member of +the staff. Lee would be sending messages continually. Longstreet, +although he had been marching hard, was not yet up on the right, and he +and his veterans must be present when the shock of Grant's mighty +attack came in the morning. + +Hill, thin and pale, yet suffering from the effects of his wounds, but +burning as usual with the fire of battle, rode up and consulted long +and earnestly with Lee. Presently he went back to his own place nearer +the center, and then Lee began to send away his staff one by one with +messages. Harry was among the last to go, but he bore a dispatch to +Longstreet. + +He had heard that Longstreet had criticized Lee for ordering Pickett's +famous charge at Gettysburg, but if so, Lee had taken no notice of it, +and Longstreet had proved himself the same stalwart fighter as of old. +He and the prompt arrival of his veterans had enabled Bragg to win +Chickamauga, and it was not Longstreet's fault that the advantage +gained there was lost afterward. Now Harry knew that he would be up in +time with his seasoned veterans. + +As the young lieutenant rode away he saw General Lee walking back and +forth before the low fire, his hands clasped behind him, and his eyes +as serious as those of any human being could be. Harry appreciated the +immensity of his task, and in his heart was a sincere pity for the man +who bore so great a burden. He was familiar with the statement that to +Lee had been offered the command of the Northern armies at the +beginning of the war, but believing his first duty was to his State he +had gone with Virginia when Virginia reluctantly went out of the Union. +Truly no one could regret the war more than he, and yet he had struck +giant blows for its success. + +A moment more and the tall figure standing beside the low fire was lost +to sight. Then Harry rode among the thickets in the rear of the +Confederate line and it was a weird and ghastly ride. Now and then his +horse's feet sank in mud, and the frogs still dared to croak around the +pools, making on such a night the most ominous of all sounds. It +seemed a sort of funeral dirge for both North and South, a croak +telling of the ruin and death that were to come on the morrow. + +Damp boughs swept across his face, and the vapors, rising from the +earth and mingled with the battle smoke, were still bitter to the +tongue and poisonous to the breath. Rotten logs crushed beneath his +horse's feet and Harry felt a shiver as if the hoofs had cut through a +body of the dead. Riflemen rose out of the thickets, but he always +gave them the password, and rode on without stopping. + +Then came a space where he met no human being, the gap between Hill and +Longstreet, and now the Wilderness became incredibly lonely and dreary. +Harry felt that if ever a region was haunted by ghosts it was this. The +dead of last year's battle might be lying everywhere, and as the breeze +sprang up the melancholy thickets waved over them. + +He was two-thirds of the way toward the point where he expected to find +Longstreet when he heard the sough of a hoof in the mud behind him. + +Harry listened and hearing the hoof again he was instantly on his +guard. He did not know it, but the character of the night and the wild +aspect of the Wilderness were bringing out all the primeval and +elemental qualities in his nature. He was the great borderer, Henry +Ware, in the Indian-haunted forest, feeling with a sixth sense, even a +seventh sense, the presence of danger. + +He was following a path, scarcely traceable, used by charcoal burners +and wood-cutters, but when he heard the hoof a second time he turned +aside into the deepest of the thickets and halted there. The hoofbeat +came a third time, a little nearer, and then no more. Evidently the +horseman behind him knew that he had turned aside, and was waiting and +watching. He was surely an enemy of great skill and boldness, and it +was equally sure that he was Shepard. Harry never felt a doubt that he +was pursued by the formidable Union spy, and he felt too that he had +never been in greater danger, as Shepard at such a moment would not +spare his best friend. + +But he was not afraid. Danger had become so common that one looked +upon it merely as a risk. Moreover, he was never cooler or more ample +of resource. He dismounted softly, standing beside his horse's head, +holding the reins with one hand and a heavy pistol with the other. He +suspected that Shepard would do the same, but he believed that his eyes +and ears were the keener. The man must have been inside the +Confederate lines all the afternoon. Probably he had seen Harry riding +away, and, deftly appropriating a horse, had followed him. There was +no end to Shepard's ingenuity and daring. + +Harry's horse was trained to stand still indefinitely, and the young +man, with the heavy pistol, who held the reins was also immovable. The +silence about him was so deep that Harry could hear the frogs croaking +at a distant pool. + +He waited a full five minutes, and now, like the wild animals, he +relied more upon ear than eye. He had learned the faculty of +concentration and he bent all his powers upon his hearing. Not the +slightest sound could escape the tightly drawn drums of his ears. + +He was motionless a full ten minutes. Nor did the horse beside him +stir. It was a test of human endurance, the capacity to keep himself +absolutely silent, but with every nerve attuned, while he waited for an +invisible danger. And those minutes were precious, too. The value of +not a single one of them could have been measured or weighed. It was +his duty to reach Longstreet at speed, because the general and his +veterans must be in line in the morning, when the battle was joined. +Yet the incessant duel between Shepard and himself was at its height +again, and he did not yet see how he could end it. + +Harry felt that it must be essentially a struggle of patience, but when +he waited a few minutes longer, the idea to wait with ears close to the +earth, one of the oldest devices of primitive man, occurred to him. It +was fairly dry in the bushes, and he lay down, pressing his ear to the +soil. Then he heard a faint sound, as if some one crawling through the +grass, like a wild animal stalking its prey. It was Shepard, of +course, and then Harry planned his campaign. Shepard had left his +horse, and was endeavoring to reach him by stealth. + +Leaving his own horse, he crept a little to the right, and then rising +carefully in another thicket he picked out every dark spot in the +gloom. He made out presently the figure of a riderless horse, standing +partly behind the trunk of an oak, larger than most of those that grew +in the Wilderness. + +Harry knew that it was Shepard's mount and that Shepard himself was +some distance in front of it creeping toward the thicket which he +supposed sheltered his foe. There was barely enough light for Harry to +see the horse's head and regretfully he raised his heavy pistol. But +it had to be done, and when his aim was true he pulled the trigger. + +The report of the pistol was almost like the roar of a cannon in the +desolate Wilderness and made Harry himself jump. Then he promptly +threw himself flat upon his face. Shepard's answering fire came from a +point about thirty yards in front of the horse, and the bullet passed +very close over Harry's head. It was a marvelous shot to be made +merely at the place from which a sound had come. It all passed in a +flash, and the next moment Harry heard the sound of a horse falling and +kicking a little. Then it too was still. + +He remained only a half minute in the grass. Then he began to creep +back, curving a little in his course, toward his own horse. He did not +believe that Shepard's faculty of hearing was as keen as his own, and +he moved with the greatest deftness. He relied upon the fact that +Shepard had not yet located the horse, and if Harry could reach it +quickly it would not be hard for him, a mounted man, to leave behind +Shepard, dismounted. It might be possible, too, that Shepard had gone +back to see about his own horse, not knowing that it was slain. + +He saw the dusky outline of his horse, and, rising, made two or three +jumps. Then he snatched the rein loose, sprang upon his back, and +lying down upon his neck to avoid bullets, crashed away, reckless of +bushes and briars. He heard one bullet flying near him, but he laughed +in delight and relief as his horse sped on toward Longstreet. + +He did not diminish his speed until he had gone two or three miles, and +then, knowing that Shepard had been left hopelessly behind, even if he +had attempted pursuit, he brought his horse down to a walk, and +laughed. There was a bit of nervous excitement in the laugh. He had +outwitted Shepard again. He had never seen the man, but it did not +enter his mind that it was not he. Each had scored largely over the +other from time to time, but Harry believed that he was at least even. + +He steadied his nerves now and rode calmly toward Longstreet, coming +soon upon his scouts, who informed him that the heavy columns were not +far behind, marching with stalwart step to their appointed place in the +line. But it was Harry's business to see Longstreet himself, and he +continued his way toward the center of the division, where they told +him the general could be found. + +He rode forward and in the moonlight recognized Longstreet at once, a +heavy-set, bearded man, mounted on a strong bay horse. He had a very +small staff, and he was first to notice the young lieutenant advancing. +He knew Harry well, having seen him with Lee at Gettysburg and with +Jackson before. He stopped and said abruptly: + +"You come from the commander-in-chief, do you not?" + +"Yes, sir," replied Harry, "and I've been coming as fast as I could." + +He did not deem it necessary to say anything about his encounter with +Shepard. + +"There has been heavy fighting. What are his orders?" + +Harry told him, also giving him a written message, which the general +read by the light of a torch an aide held. + +"You can tell General Lee that all my men will be in position for +battle before dawn," said the Georgian crisply. + +Even as he spoke, Harry heard the heavy, regular tread of the brigades +marching forward through the Wilderness. He saluted General Longstreet. + +"I shall return at once with your message," he said. + +But Harry, having had one such experience, was resolved not to risk +another. He would make a wider circuit in the rear of the army. +Shepard, on foot, and anxious to avenge his defeat, might be waiting +for him, but he would go around him. So when he started back he made a +wide curve, and soon was in the darkness and silence again. + +He had a good horse and his idea of direction being very clear he rode +swiftly in the direction he had chosen. But his curve was so great +that when he reached the center of it he was so far in the rear of the +army that no sound came from it. If the skirmishers were still firing +the reports of their rifles were lost in the distance. Where he rode +the only noises were those made by the wild animals that inhabited the +Wilderness, creatures that had settled back into their usual haunts +after the armies had passed beyond. + +Once a startled deer sprang from a clump of bushes and crashed away +through the thickets. Rabbits darted from his path, and an owl, +wondering what all the disturbance was about, hooted mournfully from a +bough. + +Long before dawn Harry reached the Southern sentinels in the center and +was then passed to General Lee, who remained at the same camp, sitting +on a log by some smothered coals. Several other members of his staff +had returned already, and the general, looking up when Harry came +forward, merely said: + +"Well!" + +"I have seen General Longstreet, sir," said Harry, "and he bids me tell +you that he and his men will be in position before dawn. He was nearly +up when I left, and he has also sent you this note." + +He handed the note to General Lee, who, bending low over the coals, +read it. + +"Everything goes well," he said with satisfaction. "We shall be ready +for them. What time is it, Peyton?" + +"Five minutes past four o'clock, sir." + +"Then I think the attack should come within an hour." + +"Perhaps before daybreak, sir." + +"Perhaps. And even after the sun begins to rise it will be like +twilight in this gloomy place." + +Grant, in truth, prompt and ready as always, had ordered the advance to +be begun at half-past four, but Meade, asking more time for +arrangements and requesting that it be delayed until six, he had +consented to a postponement until five o'clock and no more. + +Harry had one more message to carry, a short distance only, and on his +return he found the Invincibles posted on the commander-in-chief's +right, and not more than two hundred yards away. + +"You must be a body guard for the general," he said to Colonel Leonidas +Talbot. + +"There could be no greater honor for the Invincibles, nor could General +Lee have a better guard." + +"I'm sure of that, sir." + +"What's happening, Harry? Tell us what's been going on in the night!" + +"Our line of battle has been formed. General Longstreet and his men on +the right are soon to be in touch with General Hill. I returned from +him a little while ago. I can't yet smell the dawn, but I think the +battle will come before then." + +Harry rode back and resumed his place beside Dalton. The troops +everywhere were on their feet, cannon and rifles ready, because it was +a certainty that the two armies would meet very early. + +In fact, the Army of Northern Virginia began to slide slowly forward. +It was not the habit of these troops to await attack. Lee nearly +always had taken the offensive, and the motion of his men was +involuntary. They felt that the enemy was there and they must go to +meet him. + +"What time is it now?" whispered Dalton. + +Harry was barely able to discern the face of his watch. + +"Ten minutes to five," he replied. + +"And the dawn comes early. It won't be long before Grant comes poking +his nose through the Wilderness." + +Harry was silent. A few minutes more, and there was a sudden crackle +of rifles in front of them. + +"The dawn isn't here, but Grant is," said Harry. + +The crackling fire doubled and tripled, and then the fire of the +Southern rifles replied in heavy volume. The lighter field guns opened +with a crash, and the heavier batteries followed with rolling thunder. +Leaves and twigs fell in showers, and men fell with them. The deep +Northern cheer swelled through the Wilderness and the fierce rebel yell +replied. + +Gray dawn, rising as if with effort, over the sodden Wilderness found +two hundred thousand men locked fast in battle. It might have been a +bright sun elsewhere, but not here among the gloomy shades and the pine +barrens. The firing was already so tremendous that the smoke hung low +and thick, directly over the tops of the bushes, and the men, as they +fought, breathed mixed and frightful vapors. + +Both sides fought for a long time in a heavy, smoky dusk, that was +practically night. Officers coming from far points, led, compass in +hand, having no other guide save the roar of battle. As the Southern +leaders had foreseen, Grant was throwing in the full strength of his +powerful army, hoping with superior numbers and better equipment to +crush Lee utterly that day. + +The great Northern artillery was raking the whole Southern front. +Hancock, the superb, was hurling the heavy Northern masses directly +upon the main position of the South. He had half the Army of the +Potomac, and at other points Warren, Wadsworth, Sedgwick and Burnside +were advancing with equal energy and contempt of death. Fiercer and +fiercer grew the conflict. Hancock, remembering how he had held the +fatal hill at Gettysburg, and resolved to win a complete victory now, +poured in regiment after regiment. But in all the fire and smoke and +excitement and danger he did not neglect to keep a cool head. Hearing +that a portion of Longstreet's corps was near, he sent a division and +numerous heavy artillery to attack it, driving it back after a +sanguinary struggle of more than an hour. + +Then he redoubled his attack upon the Southern center, compelling it to +give ground, though slowly. Harry felt that gliding movement backward +and a chill ran through his blood. The heavy masses of Grant and his +powerful artillery were prevailing. The strongest portion of the +Southern army was being forced back, and a gap was cut between Hill and +Longstreet. Had Hancock perceived the gap that he had made he might +have severed the Southern army, inflicting irretrievable retreat, but +the smoke and the dusk of the Wilderness hid it, and the moment passed +into one of the great "Ifs" of history. + +Harry, on horseback, witnessed this conflict, all the more terrible +because of the theater in which it was fought. The batteries and the +riflemen alike were frequently hidden by the thickets. The great banks +of smoke hung low, only to be split apart incessantly by the flashes of +fire from the big guns. But the bullets were more dangerous than the +cannon balls and shells. They whistled and shrieked in thousands and +countless thousands. + +Lee sat on his horse impassive, watching as well as he could the tide +of battle. Messengers covered with smoke and sweat had informed him of +the gap between Hill and Longstreet, and he was dispatching fresh +troops to close it up. Harry saw the Invincibles march by. The two +colonels at their head beheld Lee on his white horse, and their swords +flew from their scabbards as they made a salute in perfect unison. +Close behind them rode St. Clair and Happy Tom, and they too saluted in +like manner. Lee took off his hat in reply and Harry choked. "About to +die, we salute thee," he murmured under his breath. + +Then with a shout the Invincibles, their officers at their head, +plunged into the fire and smoke, and were lost from Harry's view. But +he could not stay there long and wonder at their fate. In a few +minutes he was riding to Longstreet with a message for him to bear +steadily toward Hill, that the gap might be closed entirely, and as +soon as possible. + +He galloped behind the lines, but bullets fell all around him, and +often a shell tore the earth. The air had become more bitter and +poisonous. Fumes from swamps seemed to mingle with the smoke and odors +of burned gunpowder. His lips and his tongue were scorched. But he +kept on, without exhaustion or mishap, and reached Longstreet, who had +divined his message. + +"The line will be solid in a few minutes," he said, and while the +battle was still at its height on the long front he touched hands with +Hill. Then both drove forward with all their might against Hancock, +rushing to the charge, with the Southern fire and recklessness of death +that had proved irresistible on so many fields. The advance, despite +the most desperate efforts of Hancock and his generals, was stopped. +Then he was driven back. All the ground gained at so much cost was +lost and the Southern troops, shouting in exultation, pushed on, +pouring in a terrible rifle fire. Longstreet, in his eagerness, rode a +little ahead of his troops to see the result. Turning back, he was +mistaken in the smoke by his own men for a Northern cavalryman, and +they fired upon him, just as Jackson had been shot down by his own +troops in the dusk at Chancellorsville. + +The leader fell from his horse, wounded severely, and the troops +advancing to victory became confused. The rumor spread that Longstreet +had been killed. There was no one to give orders, and the charge +stopped. Harry and a half-dozen others who had seen the accident or +heard of it, galloped to Lee, who at once rode into the very thick of +the command, giving personal orders and sending his aides right and +left with others. The whole division was reformed under his eye, and +he sent it anew to the attack. + +The battle now closed in with the full strength of both armies. +Hancock strove to keep his place. The valiant Wadsworth had been +killed already. The dense thickets largely nullified Grant's superior +numbers. Lee poured everything on Hancock, who was driven from every +position. Fighting furiously behind a breastwork built the night +before, he was driven from that too. + +Often in the dense shades the soldiers met one another face to face and +furious struggles hand-to-hand ensued. Bushes and trees, set on fire +by the shells, burned slowly like torches put there to light up the +ghastly scene of man's bravery and folly. Jenkins, a Confederate +general, was killed and colonels and majors fell by the dozen. But +neither side would yield, and Grant hurried help to his hard-pressed +troops. + +Harry had been grazed on the shoulder by a bullet, but his horse was +unharmed, and he kept close to Lee, who continued to direct the battle +personally. He knew that they were advancing. Once more the genius of +the great Confederate leader was triumphing. Grant, the redoubtable +and tenacious, despite his numbers, could set no trap for him! Instead +he had been drawn into battle on a field of Lee's own choosing. + +The conflict had now continued for a long time, and was terrible in all +its aspects. It was far past noon, and for miles a dense cloud of +smoke hung over the Wilderness, which was filled with the roar of +cannon, the crash of rifles and the shouts of two hundred thousand men +in deadly conflict. The first meeting of the two great protagonists of +the war, Lee and Grant, was sanguinary and terrible, beyond all +expectation. + +Hundreds fell dead, their bodies lying hidden under the thickets. The +forest burned fiercely here and there, casting circles of lurid light +over the combatants, while the wind rained down charred leaves and +twigs. The fires spread and joined, and at points swept wide areas of +the forest, yet the fury of the battle was not diminished, the two +armies forgetting everything else in their desire to crush each other. + +Harry's horse was killed, as he sat near Lee, but he quickly obtained +another, and not long afterward he was sent with a second message to +Ewell. He rode on a long battle front, not far behind the lines, and +he shuddered with awe as he looked upon the titanic struggle. The +smoke was often so heavy and the bushes so thick that he could not see +the combatants, except when the flame of the firing or the burning +trees lighted up a segment of the circle. + +Halfway to Ewell and he stopped when he saw two familiar figures, +sitting on a log. They were elderly men in uniforms riddled by +bullets. The right arm of one and the left leg of the other were +tightly bandaged. Their faces were very white and it was obvious that +they were sitting there, because they were not strong enough to stand. + +Harry stopped. No message, no matter how important, could have kept +him from stopping. + +"Colonel Talbot! Colonel St. Hilaire!" he cried. + +"Yes, here we are, Harry," replied Colonel Leonidas Talbot in a voice, +thin but full of courage. "Hector has been shot through the leg and +has lost much blood, but I have bound up his wound, and he has done as +much for my arm, which has been bored through from side to side by a +bullet, which must have been as large as my fist." + +"And so for a few minutes," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire, +valiantly, "we must let General Lee conduct the victory alone." + +"And the Invincibles!" exclaimed Harry, horrified. "Are they all gone +but you?" + +"Not at all," replied Colonel Talbot. "There is so much smoke about +that you can't see much, but if it clears a little you will behold +Lieutenant St. Clair and the youth rightly called Happy Tom and some +three score others, lying among the bushes, not far ahead of you, +giving thorough attention to the enemy." + +"And is that all that's left of the Invincibles?" + +"It's a wonder that they're so many. You were right about this man, +Grant, Harry. He's a fighter, and their artillery is numerous and +wonderful. John Carrington himself must be in front of us. We have +not seen him, but the circumstantial evidence is conclusive. Nobody +else in the world could have swept this portion of the Wilderness with +shell and shrapnel in such a manner. Why, he has mowed down the bushes +in long swathes as the scythe takes the grass and he has cut down our +men with them. How does the battle go elsewhere?" + +"We're succeeding. We're driving 'em back. I can stop only a moment +now. I'm on my way to General Ewell." + +"Then hurry. Don't be worried about us. I'll help Hector and Hector +will help me. And do you curve further to the rear, Harry. The worst +thing that a dispatch bearer can do is to get himself shot." + +Waving his hand in farewell Harry galloped away. He knew that Colonel +Talbot had given him sound advice, and he bore back from the front, +coming once more into lonely thickets, although the flash of the battle +was plainly visible in front of him, and its roar filled his ears. Yet +when he rode alone he almost expected to see Shepard rise up before +him, and bid him halt. His encounters with this man had been under +such startling circumstances that it now seemed the rule, and not the +exception, for him to appear at any moment. + +But Shepard did not come. Instead Harry began to see the badly wounded +of his own side drifting to the rear, helping one another as hurt +soldiers learn to do. Two of them he allowed to hang on his stirrups a +little while. + +"They're fighting hard," said one, a long, gaunt Texan, "an' they're so +many they might lap roun' us. This man of theirs, Grant, ain't much of +a fellow to get scared, but I guess Marse Bob will take care of him +just ez he has took care of the others who came into Virginia." + +"They're led in the main attack by Hancock," said the other, a +Virginian. "I caught a glimpse of him through the smoke, just as I had +a view of him for a minute back there by the clump of trees on the +ridge at Gettysburg." + +"Are you one of Pickett's men?" asked Harry. + +"I am, sir, one of the few that's left. I went clear to the clump of +trees and how I got back I've never known. It was a sort of red dream, +in which I couldn't pick out anything in particular, but I was back +with the army, carrying three bullets that the doctors took away from +me, and here I've gathered up two more they'll rob me of in just the +same way." + +He spoke quite cheerfully, and when Harry, curving again, was compelled +to release them, both, although badly wounded, wished him good luck. + +He found General Ewell in front, stamping back and forth on his +crutches, watching the battle with excitement. + +"And so you're here again, Harry. Well it's good news at present!" he +cried. "It seems that their man, Grant, is going to school to Lee just +like the others." + +"But some pupils learn too fast, sir!" + +"That's so, but, Harry, I wish I could see more of the field. An +invisible battle like this shakes my nerves. Batteries that we can't +see send tornadoes of shot and shell among us. Riflemen, by the +thousands, hidden in the thickets rain bullets into our ranks. It's +inhuman, wicked, and our only salvation lies in the fact that it's as +bad for them as it is for us. If we can't see them they can't see us." + +"You can hold your ground here?" + +"Against anything and everything. Tell General Lee that we intend to +eat our suppers on the enemy's ground." + +"That's all he wants to know." + +As Harry rode back he saw that the first fires were spreading, passing +over new portions of the battlefield. Sparks flew in myriads and fine, +thin ashes were mingled with the powder smoke. The small trees, burnt +through, fell with a crash, and the flames ran as if they were alive up +boughs. Other trees fell too, cut through by cannon balls, and some +were actually mown down by sheets of bullets, as if they had been grass. + +His way now led through human wreckage, made all the more appalling by +an approaching twilight, heavy with fumes and smoke, and reddened with +the cannon and rifle blaze. His frightened horse pulled wildly at the +bit, and tried to run away, but Harry held him to the path, although he +stepped more than once in hot ashes and sprang wildly. The dead were +thick too and Harry was in horror lest the hoof of his horse be planted +upon some unheeding face. + +He knew that the day was waning fast and that the dark was due in some +degree to the setting sun, and not wholly to the smoke and ashes. Yet +the fury of the battle was sustained. The southern left maintained the +ground that it had gained, and in the center and right it could not be +driven back. It became obvious to Grant that Lee was not to be beaten +in the Wilderness. His advance suffered from all kinds of +disadvantages. In the swamps and thickets he could mass neither his +guns nor his cannon. Communications were broken, the telegraph wires +could be used but little and as the twilight darkened to night he let +the attack die. + +Harry was back with the commander-in-chief, when the great battle of +the Wilderness, one of the fiercest ever fought, sank under cover of +the night. It was not open and spectacular like Gettysburg, but it had +a gloomy and savage grandeur all its own. Grant had learned, like the +others before him, that he could not drive headlong over Lee, but +sitting in silence by his campfire, chewing his cigar, he had no +thought, unlike the others, of turning back. Nearly twenty thousand of +his men had fallen, but huge resources and a President who supported +him absolutely were behind him and he was merely planning a new method +of attack. + +In the Southern camp there was exultation, but it was qualified and +rather grim. These men, veterans of many battles and able to judge for +themselves, believed that they had won the victory, but they knew that +it was by no means decisive. The numerous foe with his powerful +artillery was still before them. They could see his campfires shining +through the thickets, and their spies told them that, despite his great +losses, there was no sign of retreat in Grant's camp. + +An appalling night settled down on the Wilderness. The North American +Continent never saw one more savage and terrible. Twenty thousand +wounded were scattered through the thickets and dense shades, and +spreading fires soon brought death to many whom the bullets had not +killed at once. The smoke, the mists and vapors gathered into one +dense cloud, that hung low and made everything clammy to the touch. + +Lee stood under the boughs of an oak, and ate food that had been +prepared for him hastily. But, as Harry saw, the act was purely +mechanical. He was watching as well as he could what was going on in +front, and he was giving orders in turns to his aides. Harry's time +had not yet come, and he kept his eyes on his chief. + +There was no exultation in the face of Lee. He had drawn Grant into +the Wilderness and then he had held him fast in a battle of uncommon +size and fierceness. But nothing was decided. He had studied the +career of Grant, and he knew that he had a foe of great qualities with +whom to deal. He would have to fight him again, and fight very soon. +He heard too with a sorrow, hard to conceal, the reports of his own +losses. They were heavy enough and the gaps now made could never be +refilled. The Army of Northern Virginia, which had been such a +powerful instrument in his hands, must fight with ever diminishing +numbers. + +Harry was sent to inquire into the condition of Longstreet, whom he +found weak physically and suffering much pain. But the veteran was +upborne by the success of the day and his belief in ultimate victory. +He bade Harry tell the commander-in-chief that his men were fit to +fight again and better than ever, at the first shoot of dawn. + +Harry rode back in the night, the burning trees serving him for +torches. Nearly all the soldiers were busy. Some were gathering up the +wounded and others were building breastworks. His eyes were reddened +by the powder-smoke, and often the heavy black masses of vapor were +impenetrable, save where the forest burned. Now he came to a region +where the dead and wounded were so thick that he dismounted and led his +horse, lest a hoof be planted upon any one of them. But he noticed +that here as in other battles the wounded made but little complaint. +They suffered in silence, waiting for their comrades to take them away. + +Then he passed around a section of forest that was burning fiercely. +Here Southern and Union soldiers had met on terms of peace and were +making desperate efforts to save their helpless comrades. Harry would +have been glad to give aid himself, but he was too well trained now to +turn aside when he rode for Lee. + +He saw many dark figures passing before the flaming background, and as +he walked more slowly than he thought, he saw one that looked +remarkably familiar to him. It was impossible to see the face, but he +knew the walk and the lift of the shoulders. Discipline gave way to +impulse now, and he ran forward crying: + +"Dick! Dick!" + +Dick Mason, who had just dragged a wounded man beyond the range of the +flames, turned at the sound of the voice. Even had Harry seen his face +at first he would not have known him nor would Dick have known Harry. +Both were black with ashes, smoke and burned gunpowder. But Dick knew +the voice in an instant. Once more were the two cousins to meet in +peace on an unfinished battlefield. + +Each driven by the same impulse stepped forward, and their hands met in +the strong grasp of blood kindred and friendship, which war itself +could not sever. + +"You're alive, Harry!" said Dick. "It seems almost impossible after +what has happened to-day." + +"And you too are all right. Not harmed, I see, though your face is an +African black." + +"I should call your own color dark and smoky." + +"I wasn't sure that you were in the East. When did you come?" + +"With General Grant, and I knew that you were on General Lee's staff. +I've a message to give him by you. Oh! you needn't laugh. It's a good +straight talk." + +"Go ahead then and say it to me." + +"You say to General Lee that it's all over. Tell him to quit and send +his soldiers home. If he doesn't he'll be crushed." + +Harry laughed again and waved his finger at the somber battlefield, +upon which he stood. + +"Does this look like it?" he asked. "We're farther forward to-night +than we were this morning. Wouldn't General Grant be glad if he could +say as much?" + +"It makes no difference. I know you don't believe me, but it's so. The +North is prepared as it never was before. And Grant will hammer and +hammer forever. We know what a man Lee is. The whole North admits it, +but I tell you the sun of the South is setting." + +"You're growing poetical and poetry is no argument." + +"But unlimited men, unlimited cannon and rifles, unlimited ammunition +and supplies and a general who is willing to use them, are. Of course +I know that you can't carry any such message to General Lee, but I feel +it to be the truth." + +"We've a great general and a great army that say, no." + +Nobody paid any attention to the two. It was merely another one of +those occasions when men of the opposing sides stood together amid the +dead and wounded, and talked in friendly fashion. But Harry knew that +he could not delay long. + +"I've got to go, Dick," he said. "And I've a message too, one that I +want you to deliver to General Grant." + +"What is it?" + +"Tell him that we've more than held our own to-day, and that we'll +thrash him like thunder to-morrow, and whenever and wherever he may +choose, no matter what the odds are against us." + +Dick laughed. + +"I see that you won't believe even a little bit of what I tell you," he +said "and maybe if I were in your place I wouldn't either. But it's +true all the same. Good-by, Harry." + +The two hands, covered with battle grime, met again in the strong grasp +of blood kindred and friendship. + +"Take care of yourself, old man!" + +The words, exactly alike, were uttered by the two simultaneously. + +Both were stirred deeply. Harry sprang on his horse, looked back once, +waving his hand, and rode rapidly to General Lee. Later in the night, +he received permission to hunt up the Invincibles, his heart full of +fear that they had perished utterly in the gloomy pit called the +Wilderness, lit now only by the fire of death. + +He left his horse with an orderly and walked toward the point where he +had last seen them. He passed thousands of soldiers, many wounded, but +silent as usual, while the unhurt were sleeping where they had dropped. +The Invincibles were not at the point where he had seen them last, and +the colonels of several scattered regiments could not tell him what had +become of them. But he continued to seek them although the fear was +growing in his heart that the last man of the Invincibles had died +under the Northern cannon. + +His search led toward the enemy's lines. Almost unconsciously he went +in that direction, however, his knowledge of the two colonels telling +him that they would take the same course. He turned into a little +cove, partly sheltered by the dwarfed trees and he heard a thin voice +saying: + +"Nonsense, Leonidas. I scarcely felt it, but yours, old friend, is +pretty bad. You must let me attend to it. Keep still! I'll adjust +the bandage." + +"Hector, why do you make a fuss over me, when I'm only slightly hurt, +and sacrifice yourself, a severely injured man!" + +"With all due respect you'd better let me attend to you both," said a +voice that Harry recognized as St. Clair's. + +"And maybe I could help a little," said another that he knew to be +Happy Tom's. But their voices, like those of the colonels, were weak. +Still he had positive proof that they were alive, and, as his heart +gave a joyful throb or two, he stepped into the glade. There was +enough light for him to see Colonel Leonidas Talbot, and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, sitting side by side on the +grass with their backs against the earthly wall, very pale from loss of +blood, but with heads erect and eyes shining with a certain pride. St. +Clair and Langdon lay on the grass, one with an old handkerchief, +blood-soaked, bound about his head and the other with a bandage tightly +fastened over his left shoulder. Beyond them lay a group of soldiers. + +"Good evening, heroes!" said Harry lightly as he stepped forward. + +He was welcomed with an exclamation of joy from them all. + +"We meet again, Harry," said Colonel Talbot, "and it is the second time +since morning. I fancy that second meetings to-day have not been +common. We have the taste of success in our mouths, but you'll excuse +us for not rising to greet you. We are all more or less affected by +the missiles of the enemy and for some hours at least neither walking +nor standing will be good for us." + +"Mohammed must come to all the mountains," said St. Clair, weakly +holding out a hand. + +Harry greeted them all in turn, and sat down with them. He was +overflowing with sympathy, but it was not needed. + +"A glorious day," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot. + +"Truly," said Harry. + +"A most glorious day," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire. + +"Most truly," said Harry. + +"An especially glorious day for the Invincibles," said Colonel Talbot. + +"The most glorious of all possible days for the Invincibles," said +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire. + +There was an especial emphasis to their words that aroused Harry's +attention. + +"The Invincibles have had many glorious days," he said. "Why should +this be the most glorious of them all?" + +"We went into battle one hundred and forty-seven strong," replied +Colonel Talbot quietly, "and we came out with one hundred and +forty-seven casualties, thirty-nine killed and one hundred and eight +wounded. We lay no claim to valor, exceeding that of many other +regiments in General Lee's glorious army, but we do think we've made a +fairly excellent record. Do you see those men?" + +He pointed to a silent group stretched upon the turf, and Harry nodded. + +"Not one of them has escaped unhurt, but most of us will muster up +strength enough to meet the enemy again to-morrow, when our great +general calls." + +Harry's throat contracted for a moment. + +"I know it, Colonel Talbot," he said. "The Invincibles have proved +themselves truly worthy of their name. General Lee shall hear of this." + +"But in no boastful vein, Harry," said Colonel Talbot. "We would not +have you to speak thus of your friends." + +"I do not have to boast for you. The simple truth is enough. I shall +see that a surgeon comes here at once to attend to your wounded. Good +night, gentlemen." + +"Good night," said the four together. Harry walked back toward General +Lee's headquarters, full of pride in his old comrades. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +SPOTTSYLVANIA + + +Harry secured a little sleep toward morning, and, although his nervous +tension had been very great, when he lay down, he felt greatly +strengthened in body and mind. He awakened Dalton in turn, and the +two, securing a hasty breakfast, sat near the older members of the +staff, awaiting orders. The commander-in-chief was at the edge of the +little glade, talking earnestly with Hill, and several other important +generals. + +Harry often saw through the medium of his own feelings, and the rim of +the sun, beginning to show over the eastern edge of the Wilderness, was +blood red. The same crimson and sinister tinge showed through the west +which was yet in the dusk. But in east and west there were certain +areas of light, where the forest fires yet smoldered. + +Both sides had thrown up hasty breastworks of earth or timber, but the +two armies were unusually silent. A space of perhaps a mile and a half +lay between them, but as the light increased neither moved. There was +no crackle of rifle fire along their fronts. The skirmishers, usually +so active, seemed to be exhausted, and the big guns were at rest. The +fierce and tremendous fighting of the two days before seemed to have +taken all the life out of both North and South. + +Harry, inured to war, understood the reasons for silence and lack of +movement. Grant had been drawn into a region that he did not like, +where he could not use his superior numbers to advantage, and he must +be shuddering at the huge losses he had suffered already. He would +seek better ground. Lee too, was in no condition to take advantage of +his successful defense. The old days when he could send Jackson on a +great turning movement, to fall with all the crushing impact of a +surprise upon the Northern flank, were gone forever. Stuart, the +brilliant cavalryman, was there, but his men were not numerous enough, +and, however brilliant, he was not Jackson. + +The sun rose higher. Midmorning came, and the two armies still lay +close. Harry grew stronger in his opinion that they would not fight +again that day, although he watched, like the others, for any sign of +movement in the Northern camp. + +Noon came, and the same dead silence. The fires had burned themselves +out now and the dusk that had reigned over the Wilderness, before the +battle, recovered its ground, thickened still further by the vast +quantities of smoke still hanging low under a cloudy sky. But the +aspect of the Wilderness itself was more mournful than ever. Coals +smoldered in the burned areas, and now and then puffs of wind picked up +the hot ashes and sent them in the faces of the soldiers. Thickets and +bushes had been cut down by bullets and cannon balls, and lay heaped +together in tangled confusion. Back of the lines, the surgeons, with +aching backs, toiled over the wounded, as they had toiled through the +night. + +Harry saw nearly the whole Southern front. The members of Lee's staff +were busy that day, carrying orders to all his generals to rectify +their lines, and to be prepared, to the last detail, for another +tremendous assault. It was not until the afternoon that he was able to +look up the Invincibles again. The two colonels and the two +lieutenants were doing well, and the colonels were happy. + +"We've already been notified," said Colonel Talbot, "that we're to +retain our organization as a regiment. We're to have about a hundred +new men now, the fragments of destroyed regiments. Of course, they +won't be like the veterans of the Invincibles, but a half-dozen battles +like that of yesterday should lick them into shape." + +"I should think so," said Harry. + +"Do you believe that Grant is retreating?" asked Lieutenant-Colonel St. +Hilaire. + +"Our scouts don't say so." + +"Then he is merely putting off the evil day. The sooner he withdraws +the more men he will save. No Yankee general can ever get by General +Lee. Keep that in your mind, Harry Kenton." + +Harry was silent, but rejoicing to find that his friends would soon +recover from their wounds, he went back to his place, and saw all the +afternoon pass, without any movement indicating battle. + +Night came again and the scouts reported to Lee that the Union army was +breaking camp, evidently with the intention of getting out of the +Wilderness and marching to Fredericksburg. Harry was with the general +when he received the news, and he saw him think over it long. Other +scouts brought in the same evidence. + +Harry did not know what the general thought, but as for himself, +although he was too young to say anything, it was incredible that Grant +should retreat. It was not at all in accordance with his character, +now tested on many fields, and his resources also were too great for +withdrawal. + +But the night was very dark and no definite knowledge yet came out of +it. Lee stayed by his little campfire and received reports. Far after +dusk Harry saw the look of doubt disappear from his eyes, and then he +began to send out messengers. It was evident that he had formed his +opinion, and intended to act upon it at once. + +He beckoned to Harry and Dalton, and bade them go together with written +instructions to General Anderson, who had taken the place of General +Longstreet. + +"You will stay with General Anderson subject to his orders," he said, +as Harry and Dalton, saluting, rode toward Anderson's command. + +Their way led through torn, tangled and burned thickets. Sometimes a +horse sprang violently to one side and neighed in pain. His hoof had +come down on earth, yet so hot that it scorched like fire. Now and +then sparks fell upon them, but they pursued their way, disregarding +all obstacles, and delivered their sealed orders to General Anderson, +who at once gathered up his full force, and marched away from the heart +of the Wilderness toward Spottsylvania Court House. + +Harry surmised that Grant was attempting some great turning movement, +and Lee, divining it, was sending Anderson to meet his advance. He +never knew whether it was positive knowledge or a happy guess. + +But he was quite sure that the night's ride was one of the most +singular and sinister ever made by an army. If any troops ever marched +through the infernal regions it was they. In this part of the +Wilderness the fires had been of the worst. Trees still smoldered. In +the hollows, where the bushes had grown thickest, were great beds of +coals. The smoke which the low heavy skies kept close to the earth was +thick and hot. Gusts of wind sent showers of sparks flying, and, +despite the greatest care to protect the ammunition, they marched in +constant danger of explosion. + +Harry thought at one time that General Anderson intended to camp in the +Wilderness for the night, but he soon saw that it was impossible. One +could not camp on hot ground in a smoldering forest. + +"I believe it's a march till day," he said to Dalton. "It's bound to +be. If a man were to lie down here, he'd find himself a mass of cinders +in the morning, and it will take us till daylight and maybe past to get +out of the Wilderness." + +"If he didn't burn to death he'd choke to death. I never breathed such +smoke before." + +"That's because it's mixed with ashes and the fumes of burned +gunpowder. A villainous compound like this can't be called air. How +long is it until dawn?" + +"About three hours, I think." + +"You remember those old Greek stories about somebody or other going +down to Hades, and then having a hard climb out again. We're the +modern imitators. If this isn't Hades then I don't know what it is." + +"It surely is. Phew, but that hurt!" + +"What happened?" + +"I brushed my hand against a burning bush. The result was not happy. +Don't imitate me." + +Dalton's horse leaped to one side, and he had difficulty in keeping the +saddle. His hoof had been planted squarely in the midst of a mass of +hot twigs. + +"The sooner I get out of this Inferno or Hades of a place the happier +I'll be!" said Dalton. + +"I've never seen the like," said Harry, "but there's one thing about it +that makes me glad." + +"And what's the saving grace?" + +"That it's in Virginia and not in Kentucky, though for the matter of +that it couldn't be in Kentucky." + +"And why couldn't it be in Kentucky?" + +"Because there's no such God-forsaken region in all that state of mine." + +"It certainly gets upon one's soul," said Dalton, looking at the gloomy +region, so terribly torn by battle. + +"But if we keep going we're bound to come out of it some time or other." + +"And we're not stopping. A man can't make his bed on a mass of coals, +and there'll be no rest for us until we're clear out of the Wilderness." + +They marched on a long time, and, as day dawned, hundreds of voices +united in a shout of gladness. Behind them were the shades of the +Wilderness, that dismal region reeking with slaughter and ruin, and +before them lay firm soil, and green fields, in all the flush of a +brilliant May morning. + +"Well, we did come out of Hades, Harry," said Dalton. + +"And it does look like Heaven, but the trouble with our Hades, George, +is that the inmates will follow us. Put your glasses to your eyes and +look off there." + +"Horsemen as sure as we're sitting in our own saddles." + +"And Northern horsemen, too. Their uniforms are new enough for me to +tell their color. I take it that Grant's vanguard has moved by our +right flank and has come out of the Wilderness." + +"And our surmises that we were to meet it are right. Spottsylvania +Court House is not far away, and maybe we are bound for it." + +"And maybe the Yankees are too." + +Harry's words were caused by the sound of a distant and scattering +fire. In obedience to an order from Anderson, he and Dalton galloped +forward, and, from a ridge, saw through their glasses a formidable +Union column advancing toward Spottsylvania. As they looked they saw +many men fall and they also saw flashes of flame from bushes and fences +not far from its flank. + +"Our sharpshooters are there," said Harry. And he was right. While +the Union force was advancing in the night Stuart had dismounted many +of his men and using them as skirmishers had incessantly harassed the +march of Grant's vanguard led by Warren. + +"Each army has been trying to catch the other napping," said Dalton. + +"And neither has succeeded," said Harry. + +"Now we make a race for the Spottsylvania ridge," said Dalton. "You +see if we don't! I know this country. It's a strong position there, +and both generals want it." + +Dalton was right. A small Union force had already occupied +Spottsylvania, but the heavy Southern division crossing the narrow, but +deep, river Po, drove it out and seized the defensive position. + +Here they rested, while the masses of the two armies swung toward them, +as if preparing for a new battlefield, one that Harry surveyed with +great interest. They were in a land of numerous and deep rivers. Here +were four spreading out, like the fingers of a human hand, without the +thumb, and uniting at the wrist. The fingers were the Mat, the Ta, the +Po, and the Nye, and the unit when they united was called the Mattopony. + +Lee's army was gathering behind the Po. A large Union force crossed it +on his flank, but, recognizing the danger of such a position, withdrew. +Lee himself came in time. Hill, overcome by illness and old wounds, +was compelled to give up the command of his division, and Early took +his place. Longstreet also was still suffering severely from his +injuries. Lee had but few of the able and daring generals who had +served him in so many fields. But Stuart, the gay and brilliant, the +medieval knight who had such a strong place in the commander-in-chief's +affections, was there. Nor was his plumage one bit less splendid. The +yellow feather stood in his hat. There was no speck or stain on the +broad yellow sash and his undimmed courage was contagious. + +But Harry with his sensitive and imaginative mind, that leaped ahead, +knew their situation to be desperate. His opinion of Grant had proved +to be correct. Although he had found in Lee an opponent far superior +to any other that he had ever faced, the Union general, undaunted by +his repulse and tremendous losses in the Wilderness, was preparing for +a new battle, before the fire from the other had grown cold. + +He knew too that another strong Union army was operating far to the +south of them, in order to cut them off from Richmond, and scouts had +brought word that a powerful force of cavalry was about to circle upon +their flank. The Confederacy was propped up alone by the Army of +Northern Virginia, which having just fought one great battle was about +to begin another, and by its dauntless commander. + +The Southern admiration for Lee, both as the general and as the man, +can never be shaken. How much greater then was the effect that he +created in the mind of impressionable youth, looking upon him with +youth's own eyes in his moments of supreme danger! He was in very +truth to Harry another Hannibal as great, and better. The long list of +his triumphs, as youth counted them, was indeed superior to those of +the great Carthaginian, and he believed that Lee would repel this new +danger. + +Nearly all that day the two armies constructed breastworks which stood +for many years afterward, but neither made any attempt at serious work, +although there was incessant firing by the skirmishers and an +occasional cannon shot. Harry, whether carrying an order or not, had +ample chance to see, and he noted with increasing alarm the growing +masses of the Union army, as they gathered along the Spottsylvania +front. + +"Can we beat them?" "Can we beat them?" was the question that he +continually asked himself. He wondered too where the Winchester +regiment and Dick Mason lay, and where the spy, Shepard, was. But +Shepard was not likely to remain long in one place. Skill and courage +such as his would be used to the utmost in a time like this. Doubtless +he was somewhere in the Confederate lines, discovering for Grant the +relatively small size of the army that opposed him. + +Near dusk and having the time he followed his custom and sought the +Invincibles. Both colonels had recovered considerable strength, and, +although one of them could not walk, he would be helped upon his horse +whenever the battle began, and would ride into the thick of it. But +the faces of St. Clair and Happy Tom glowed and their wounds apparently +were forgotten. + +"Lieutenant Arthur St. Clair and Lieutenant Thomas Langdon are gone +forever," said Colonel Talbot. "In their places we have Major Arthur +St. Clair and Captain Thomas Langdon. All our majors and captains have +been killed, and with our reduced numbers these two will fill their +places, as best they can; and that they can do so most worthily we all +know. They received their promotions this afternoon." + +Harry congratulated them both with the greatest warmth. They were very +young for such rank, but in this war the toll of officers was so great +that men sometimes became generals when they were but little older. + +"Is it to be to-morrow?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +"I think it likely that we'll fight again then," said Harry. + +"And Grant has not yet had enough. He wants a little more of the same, +does he!" + +"It would appear so, sir." + +"Then I take it without consulting General Lee that he is ready to deal +with the Yankees as he dealt with them in the Wilderness." + +"I hope so. Good night." + +"Good night!" they called to him, and Harry returned to the staff. +Taylor, the adjutant general, told him and Dalton to lie down and seek +a little sleep. Harry was not at all averse, as he was completely +exhausted again after the tremendous excitement of the battle, and the +long hours of strain and danger. But his nerves were so much on edge +that he could not yet sleep. His eyes were red and smarting from the +smoke and burned powder, and he felt as if accumulated smoke and dust +encased him like a suit of armor. + +"I'd give a hundred dollars for a good long drink, just as long as I +liked to make it," he groaned, "and I mean a drink of pure cold water, +too." + +"Confederate paper or money?" said Dalton. + +"I mean real money, but at the same time you oughtn't to make invidious +comparisons." + +"Then the money's mine, but you can pay me whenever you feel like it, +which I suppose will be never. There's a spring in the thick woods +just back of your quarters. It flows out from under rocks, at the +distance of several yards makes a deep pool, and then the overflow of +the pool goes on through the forest to the Po. Come on, Harry! We'll +luxuriate and then tell the others." + +Harry found that it was a most glorious spring, indeed; clear and cold. +He and Dalton drank slowly at first, and then deeply. + +"I didn't know I could hold so much," said Dalton. + +"Nor I," said Harry. + +"Let's take another." + +"I'm with you." + +"Let's make it two more." + +"I still follow you." + +"Horace wrote about his old Falernian, and the other wines which he +enjoyed, as he and the leading Roman sports sat around the fountain, +flirting with the girls," said Dalton, "but I don't believe any wine +ever brewed in Latium was the equal of this water." + +"I've always had an idea that Horace wasn't as gay as he pretended to +be, else he wouldn't have written so much about Chloe and her comrades. +I imagine that an old Roman boy would keep pretty quiet about his +dancing and singing, and not publish it to the public." + +"Well, let him be. He's dead and the Romans are dead, and the +Americans are doing their best to kill off one another, but let's +forget it for a few minutes. That pool there is about four feet deep, +the water is clear and the bottom is firm ground; now do you know what +I'm going to do?" + +"Yes, and I'm going to do the same. Bet you even that I beat you into +the water." + +"Taken." + +They threw off their clothes rapidly, but the splashes were +simultaneous as their bodies struck the water. Although the limits of +the pool were narrow they splashed and paddled there for a while, and +it was a long time since they had known such a luxury. Then they +walked out, dried themselves and spread the good news. All night long +the pool was filled with the bathers, following one another in turn. + +The water taken internally and externally soothed Harry's nerves. His +excitement was gone. A great army with which they were sure to fight +on the morrow was not far away, but for the time he was indifferent. +The morrow could take care of itself. It was night, and he had +permission to go to sleep. Hence he slumbered fifteen minutes later. + +He slept almost through the night, and, when he was awakened shortly +before dawn, he found that his strength and elasticity had returned. He +and Dalton went down to the spring again, drank many times, and then +ate breakfast with the older members of the staff, a breakfast that +differed very little from that of the common soldiers. + +Then a day or two of waiting, and watching, and of confused but +terrible fighting ensued. The forests were again set on fire by the +bursting shells and they were not able to rescue many of the wounded +from the flames. Vast clouds again floated over the whole region, +drawing a veil of dusk between the soldiers and the sun. But neither +army was willing to attack the other in full force. + +Grant commanding all the armies of the East was moving meanwhile. A +powerful cavalry division, he heard, had got behind Beauregard, who was +to protect Richmond, and was tearing up an important railway line used +by the Confederacy. The daring Sheridan with another great division of +cavalry had gone around Lee's left and was wrecking another railway, +and with it the rations and medical supplies so necessary to the +Confederates. Grant, recognizing his antagonist's skill and courage +and knowing that to succeed he must destroy the main Southern army, +resolved to attack again with his whole force. + +The day had been comparatively quiet and the Army of Northern Virginia +had devoted nearly the whole time to fortifying with earthworks and +breastworks of logs. The young aides, as they rode on their missions, +could easily see the Northern lines through their glasses. Harry's +heart sank as he observed their extent. The Southern army was sadly +reduced in numbers, and Grant could get reinforcement continually. + +But such is the saving grace of human nature that even in these moments +of suspense, with one terrible battle just over and another about to +begin, soldiers of the Blue and Gray would speak to one another in +friendly fashion in the bushes or across the Po. It was on the banks +of this narrow river that Harry at last saw Shepard once more. He +happened to be on foot that time, the slope being too densely wooded +for his horse, and Shepard hailed him from the other side. + +"Good day, Mr. Kenton. Don't fire! I want to talk," he said, holding +up both hands as a sign of peace. + +"A curious place for talking," Harry could not keep from saying. + +"So it is, but we're not observed here. It was almost inevitable while +the armies remained face to face that we should meet in time. I want +to tell you that I've met your cousin, Richard Mason, here, and his +commanding officer, Colonel Winchester. Oh, I know much more about you +and your relationships than you think." + +"How is Dick?" + +"He has not been hurt, nor has Colonel Winchester. Mr. Mason has +received a letter from his home and your home in Pendleton in Kentucky. +The outlaws to the eastward are troublesome, but the town is occupied +by an efficient Union garrison and is in no danger. His mother and all +of his and your old friends, who did not go to the war, are in good +health. He thought that in my various capacities as ranger, scout and +spy I might meet you, and he asked me, if it so happened, to tell these +things to you." + +"I thank you," said Harry very earnestly, "and I'm truly sorry, Mr. +Shepard, that you and I are on different sides." + +"I suppose it's too late for you to come over to the Union and the true +cause." + +Harry laughed. + +"You know, Mr. Shepard, there are no traitors in this war." + +"I know it. I was merely jesting." + +He slipped into the underbrush and disappeared. Harry confessed to +himself once more that he liked Shepard, but he felt more strongly than +ever that it had become a personal duel between them, and they would +meet yet again in violence. + +That night he had little to do. It was a typical May night in +Virginia, clear and beautiful with an air that would have been a tonic +to the nerves, had it not been for the bitter smoke and odors that yet +lingered from the battle of the Wilderness. + +Before dawn the scouts brought in a rumor that there was a heavy +movement of Federal troops, although they did not know its meaning. It +might portend another flank march by Grant, but a mist that had begun +to rise after midnight hid much from them. The mist deepened into a +fog, which made it harder for the Southern leaders to learn the meaning +of the Northern movement. + +Just as the dawn was beginning to show a little through the fog, +Hancock and Burnside, with many more generals, led a tremendous attack +upon the Southern right center. They had come so silently through the +thickets that for once the Southern leaders were surprised. The Union +veterans, rushing forward in dense columns, stormed and took the +breastworks with the bayonet. + +Many of the Southern troops, sound asleep, awoke to find themselves in +the enemy's hands. Others, having no time to fire them, fought with +clubbed rifles. + +Harry, dozing, was awakened by the terrific uproar. Even before the +dawn had fairly come the battle was raging on a long front. The center +of Lee's army was broken, and the Union troops were pouring into the +gap. Grant had already taken many guns and thousands of prisoners, and +the bulldog of Shiloh and Vicksburg and Chattanooga was hurrying fresh +divisions into the combat to extend and insure his victory. Through +the forests swelled the deep Northern cry of triumph. + +Harry had never before seen the Southern army in such danger, and he +looked at General Lee, who had now mounted Traveller. The turmoil and +confusion in front of them was frightful and indescribable. The Union +troops had occupied an entire Confederate salient, and their generals, +feeling that the moment was theirs, led them on, reckless of life, and +swept everything before them. + +Harry never took his eyes from Lee. The rising sun shot golden beams +through the smoke and disclosed him clearly. His face was calm and his +voice did not shake as he issued his orders with rapidity and +precision. The lion at bay was never more the lion. + +A new line of battle was formed, and the fugitives formed up with it. +Then the Southern troops, uttering once more the fierce rebel yell, +charged directly upon their enemy and under the eye of the great chief +whom they almost worshiped. + +Now Harry for the first time saw his general show excitement. Lee +galloped to the head of one of the Virginia regiments, and ranging his +horse beside the colors snatched off his hat and pointed it at the +enemy. It was a picture which with all the hero worship of youth he +never forgot. It did not even grow dim in his memory--the great leader +on horseback, his hat in his hand, his eyes fiery, his face flushed, +his hand pointing the way to victory or death. + +It was an occasion, too, when the personal presence of a leader meant +everything. Every man knew Lee and tremendous rolling cheers greeted +his arrival, cheers that could be heard above the thunder of cannon and +rifles. It infused new courage into them and they gathered themselves +for the rush upon their victorious foe. + +Gordon of Georgia, spurring through the smoke, seized Lee's horse by +the bridle. He did not mean to have their commander-in-chief +sacrificed in a charge. + +"This is no place for you, General Lee!" he cried. "Go to the rear!" + +Lee did not yet turn, and Gordon shouted: + +"These men are Virginians and Georgians who have never failed. Go +back, I entreat you!" + +Then Gordon turned to the troops and cried, as he rose on his toes in +his stirrups: + +"Men, you will not fail now!" + +Back came the answering shout: + +"No! No!" and the whole mass of troops burst into one thunderous, +echoing cry: + +"Lee to the rear! Lee to the rear! Lee to the rear!" + +Nor would they move until Lee turned and rode back. Then, led by +Gordon, they charged straight upon their foe, who met them with an +equal valor. All day long the battle of Spottsylvania, equal in +fierceness and desperation to that of the Wilderness, swayed to and +fro. To Harry as he remembered them they were much alike. Charge and +defense, defense and charge. Here they gained a little, and there they +lost a little. Now they were stumbling through sanguinary thickets, and +then they rushed across little streams that ran red. + +The firing was rapid and furious to an extraordinary degree. The air +rained shell and bullets. Areas of forest between the two armies were +mowed down. More than one large tree was cut through entirely by rifle +bullets. Other trees here, as in the Wilderness, caught fire and +flamed high. + +Midnight put an end to the battle, with neither gaining the victory and +both claiming it. Harry had lost another horse, killed under him, and +now he walked almost dazed over the terrible field of Spottsylvania, +where nearly thirty thousand men had fallen, and nothing had yet been +decided. + +Yet in Harry's heart the fear of the grim and silent Grant was growing. +The Northern general had fought within a few days two battles, each the +equal of Waterloo, and Harry felt sure that he was preparing for a +third. The combat of the giants was not over, and with an anxious soul +he waited the next dawn. They remained some days longer in the +Wilderness, or the country adjacent to it, and there was much +skirmishing and firing of heavy artillery, but the third great pitched +battle did not come quite as soon as Harry expected. Even Grant, +appalled by the slaughter, hesitated and began to maneuver again by the +flank to get past Lee. Then the fighting between the skirmishers and +heavy detached parties became continuous. + +During the days that immediately followed Harry was much with +Sherburne. The brave colonel was one of Stuart's most trusted officers. +Despite the forests and thickets there was much work for the cavalry to +do, while the two armies circled and circled, each seeking to get the +advantage of the other. + +Sheridan, they heard, was trying to curve about with his horsemen and +reach Richmond, and Stuart, with his cavalry, including Sherburne's, +was sent to intercept him, Harry riding by Sherburne's side. It was +near the close of May, but the air was cool and pleasant, a delight to +breathe after the awful Wilderness. + +Stuart, despite his small numbers, was in his gayest spirits, and when +he overtook the enemy at a little place called Yellow Tavern he +attacked with all his customary fire and vigor. In the height of the +charge, Harry saw him sink suddenly from his horse, shot through the +body. He died not long afterward and the greatest and most brilliant +horseman of the South passed away to join Jackson and so many who had +gone before. Harry was one of the little group who carried the news to +Lee, and he saw how deeply the great leader was affected. So many of +his brave generals had fallen that he was like the head of a family, +bereft. + +Nevertheless the lion still at bay was great and terrible to strike. It +was barely two weeks after Spottsylvania when Lee took up a strong +position at Cold Harbor, and Grant, confident in his numbers and +powerful artillery, attacked straightaway at dawn. + +Harry was in front during that half-hour, the most terrible ever seen +on the American continent, when Northern brigade after brigade charged +to certain death. Lee's men, behind their earthworks, swept the field +with a fire in which nothing could live. The charging columns fairly +melted away before them and when the half-hour was over more than +twelve thousand men in blue lay upon the red field. + +Grant himself was appalled, and the North, which had begun to +anticipate a quick and victorious end of the war, concealed its +disappointment as best it could, and prepared for another campaign. + +Grant and Lee, facing each other, went into trenches along the lines of +Cold Harbor, and the hopes of the young Southern soldiers after the +victory there rose anew. But Harry was not too sanguine, although he +kept his thoughts to himself. + +The officers of the Invincibles had recovered from their wounds, and +Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, +sitting in a trench, resumed their game of chess. + +Colonel Talbot took a pawn, the first man captured by either since +early spring. + +"That was quite a victory," he said. + +"Not important! Not important, Leonidas!" + +"And why not, Hector?" + +"Because you've left the way to your king easier. I shall promptly +move along that road." + +"As Grant moved through the Wilderness." + +"Don't depreciate Grant, Leonidas. He never stops pounding. We've +fought two great battles with him in the Wilderness and a third at Cold +Harbor, but he's still out there facing us. Can't you see the Yankees +with your glasses, Harry?" + +"Yes, sir, quite clearly. They're about to fire a shot from a big gun +in a wood. There it goes!" + +The deep note of the cannon came to them, passed on, and then rolled +back in echoes like a threat. + + + + +Appendix: Transcription notes: + +The following modifications were applied while transcribing the printed +book to etext: + + Chapter 1 + Page 6, para 1, change "criticise" to "criticize", for consistency + Page 20, para 6, fix typo, "calvaryman" + Page 21, para 8, change "things" to "thing" + + Chapter 2 + Page 35, para 2, add missing hyphen in "commander-in-chief" + + Chapter 3 + Page 48, para 1, change "where-ever" to "wherever" + Page 49, para 2, fix typo, period should be comma + Page 49, para 2, change "gaints" to "giants", which is my best guess + as to what it should be + + Chapter 4 + Page 74, para 7, add missing period + + Chapter 7 + Page 124, para 6, fix typo "qouth" + Page 132, para 14, "Pleasonton" should be "Pleasanton" + + Chapter 10 + Page 182, para 5, add missing close-quotes + + Chapter 11 + Page 208, para 6, add missing close-quotes + + Chapter 12 + Page 229, para 3, fix typo, "dulplicate" + + Chapter 13 + Page 245, para 3, change "with" to "was" + + Chapter 14 + Page 260, para 2, removed a badly-misplaced comma + + Chapter 16 + Page 301, para 4, moved a badly-misplaced comma + +Chapter 2, page 34, para 3 contains the phrase "rest and realization". +Probably should be "relaxation", but maybe not, so I left it as is. + +The following words were printed with accented vowels or with the "ae" +ligature, but these few occurrences hardly warrant an 8-bit version of +the text: + cooperation fete reentered Plataea Thermopylae + +As with all the books in this series, there are many instances where +commas seem to be missing or misplaced, but, except as noted above, I +refrained from "fixing" these. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Shades of the Wilderness, by +Joseph A. Altsheler + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS *** + +***** This file should be named 12532.txt or 12532.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/5/3/12532/ + +Produced by Ken Reeder. HTML version by Al Haines. +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive +specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this +eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook +for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, +performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given +away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks +not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the +trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. + +START: FULL LICENSE + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the +person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph +1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the +Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when +you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country outside the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work +on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: + + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and + most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no + restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it + under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this + eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the + United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you + are located before using this ebook. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format +other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain +Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +provided that + +* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation." + +* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm + works. + +* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + +* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The +Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at +www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the +mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its +volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous +locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt +Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to +date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and +official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular +state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/old/12532.zip b/old/12532.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..034d784 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12532.zip diff --git a/old/old/12532-20040605.txt b/old/old/12532-20040605.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..44ce3e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/12532-20040605.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10725 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Shades of the Wilderness, by Joseph A. Altsheler + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + + +Title: The Shades of the Wilderness + +Author: Joseph A. Altsheler + +Release Date: June 5, 2004 [EBook #12532] +[This file last updated: January 21, 2011] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by Ken Reeder <kreeder@mailsnare.net> + + + + +THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS +A STORY OF LEE'S GREAT STAND + +by JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER + + + + +FOREWORD + + +"The Shades of the Wilderness" is the seventh volume of the Civil War +Series, of which the predecessors have been "The Guns of Bull Run," +"The Guns of Shiloh," "The Scouts of Stonewall," "The Sword of Antietam", +"The Star of Gettysburg" and "The Rock of Chickamauga." The romance +in this story reverts to the Southern side and deals with the fortunes +of Harry Kenton and his friends. It takes them on the retreat from +Gettysburg, gives the hero a short period of social life in Richmond, +describes the great battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, and +ends with the deadlock in the trenches before Petersburg. + + + + +THE CIVIL WAR SERIES + + + VOLUMES IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES + + THE GUNS OF BULL RUN. + THE GUNS OF SHILOH. + THE SCOUTS OF STONEWALL. + THE SWORD OF ANTIETAM. + THE STAR OF GETTYSBURG. + THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA. + THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS. + THE TREE OF APPOMATTOX. + + + PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES + + HARRY KENTON, A Lad Who Fights on the Southern Side. + DICK MASON, Cousin of Harry Kenton, Who Fights on the Northern Side. + COLONEL GEORGE KENTON, Father of Harry Kenton. + MRS. MASON, Mother of Dick Mason. + JULIANA, Mrs. Mason's Devoted Colored Servant. + COLONEL ARTHUR WINCHESTER, Dick Mason's Regimental Commander. + COLONEL LEONIDAS TALBOT, Commander of the Invincibles, + a Southern Regiment. + LIEUTENANT COLONEL HECTOR ST. HILAIRE, Second in Command of the + Invincibles. + ALAN HERTFORD, A Northern Cavalry Leader. + PHILIP SHERBURNE, A Southern Cavalry Leader. + WILLIAM J. SHEPARD, A Northern Spy. + DANIEL WHITLEY, A Northern Sergeant and Veteran of the Plains. + GEORGE WARNER, A Vermont Youth Who Loves Mathematics. + FRANK PENNINGTON, A Nebraska Youth, Friend of Dick Mason. + ARTHUR ST. CLAIR, A Native of Charleston, Friend of Harry Kenton. + TOM LANGDON, Friend of Harry Kenton. + GEORGE DALTON, Friend of Harry Kenton. + BILL SKELLY, Mountaineer and Guerrilla. + TOM SLADE, A Guerrilla Chief. + SAM JARVIS, The Singing Mountaineer. + IKE SIMMONS, Jarvis' Nephew. + AUNT "SUSE," A Centenarian and Prophetess. + BILL PETTY, A Mountaineer and Guide. + JULIEN DE LANGEAIS, A Musician and Soldier from Louisiana. + JOHN CARRINGTON, Famous Northern Artillery Officer. + DR. RUSSELL, Principal of the Pendleton School. + ARTHUR TRAVERS, A Lawyer. + JAMES BERTRAND, A Messenger from the South. + JOHN NEWCOMB, A Pennsylvania Colonel. + JOHN MARKHAM, A Northern Officer. + JOHN WATSON, A Northern Contractor. + WILLIAM CURTIS, A Southern Merchant and Blockade Runner. + MRS. CURTIS, Wife of William Curtis. + HENRIETTA CARDEN, A Seamstress in Richmond. + DICK JONES, A North Carolina Mountaineer. + VICTOR WOODVILLE, A Young Mississippi Officer. + JOHN WOODVILLE, Father of Victor Woodville. + CHARLES WOODVILLE, Uncle of Victor Woodville. + COLONEL BEDFORD, A Northern Officer. + CHARLES GORDON, A Southern Staff Officer. + JOHN LANHAM, An Editor. + JUDGE KENDRICK, A Lawyer. + MR. CULVER, A State Senator. + MR. BRACKEN, A Tobacco Grower. + ARTHUR WHITRIDGE, A State Senator. + + + HISTORICAL CHARACTERS + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States. + JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of the Southern Confederacy. + JUDAH P. BENJAMIN, Member of the Confederate Cabinet. + U. S. GRANT, Northern Commander. + ROBERT E. LEE, Southern Commander. + STONEWALL JACKSON, Southern General. + PHILIP H. SHERIDAN, Northern General. + GEORGE H. THOMAS, "The Rock of Chickamauga." + ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON, Southern General. + A. P. HILL, Southern General. + W. S. HANCOCK, Northern General. + GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, Northern General. + AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE, Northern General. + TURNER ASHBY, Southern Cavalry Leader. + J. E. B. STUART, Southern Cavalry Leader. + JOSEPH HOOKER, Northern General. + RICHARD S. EWELL, Southern General. + JUBAL EARLY, Southern General. + WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS, Northern General. + SIMON BOLIVAR BUCKNER, Southern General. + LEONIDAS POLK, Southern General and Bishop. + BRAXTON BRAGG, Southern General. + NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST, Southern Cavalry Leader. + JOHN MORGAN, Southern Cavalry Leader. + GEORGE J. MEADE, Northern General. + DON CARLOS BUELL, Northern General. + W. T. SHERMAN, Northern General. + JAMES LONGSTREET, Southern General. + P. G. T. BEAUREGARD, Southern General. + WILLIAM L. YANCEY, Alabama Orator. + JAMES A. GARFIELD, Northern General, afterwards President of + the United States. + + And many others + + + IMPORTANT BATTLES DESCRIBED IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES + + BULL RUN + KERNSTOWN + CROSS KEYS + WINCHESTER + PORT REPUBLIC + THE SEVEN DAYS + MILL SPRING + FORT DONELSON + SHILOH + PERRYVILLE + STONE RIVER + THE SECOND MANASSAS + ANTIETAM + FREDERICKSBURG + CHANCELLORSVILLE + GETTYSBURG + CHAMPION HILL + VICKSBURG + CHICKAMAUGA + MISSIONARY RIDGE + THE WILDERNESS + SPOTTSYLVANIA + COLD HARBOR + FISHER'S HILL + CEDAR CREEK + APPOMATTOX + + + +CONTENTS + + I. THE SOUTHERN RETREAT + + II. THE NORTHERN SPY + + III. THE FLOODED RIVER + + IV. A HERALD TO LEE + + V. THE DANGEROUS ROAD + + VI. TESTS OF COURAGE + + VII. IN THE WAGON + + VIII. THE CROSSING + + IX. IN SOCIETY + + X. THE MISSING PAPER + + XI. A VAIN PURSUIT + + XII. IN WINTER QUARTERS + + XIII. THE COMING OF GRANT + + XIV. THE GHOSTLY RIDE + + XV. THE WILDERNESS + + XVI. SPOTTSYLVANIA + + + + +THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS + + +CHAPTER I + +THE SOUTHERN RETREAT + + +A train of wagons and men wound slowly over the hills in the darkness and +rain toward the South. In the wagons lay fourteen or fifteen thousand +wounded soldiers, but they made little noise, as the wheels sank suddenly +in the mud or bumped over stones. Although the vast majority of them +were young, boys or not much more, they had learned to be masters of +themselves, and they suffered in silence, save when some one, lost in +fever, uttered a groan. + +But the chief sound was a blended note made by the turning of wheels, +and the hoofs of horses sinking in the soft earth. The officers gave +but few orders, and the cavalrymen who rode on either flank looked +solicitously into the wagons now and then to see how their wounded +friends fared, though they seldom spoke. The darkness they did not mind, +because they were used to it, and the rain and the coolness were a relief, +after three days of the fiercest battle the American continent had ever +known, fought in the hottest days that the troops could recall. + +Thus Lee's army drew its long length from the fatal field of Gettysburg, +although his valiant brigades did not yet know that the clump of trees +upon Cemetery Hill had marked the high tide of the Confederacy. All that +memorable Fourth of July, following the close of the battle they had lain, +facing Meade and challenging him to come on, confident that while the +invasion of the North was over they could beat back once more the +invasion of the South. + +They had no word of complaint against their great commander, Lee. +The faith in him, which was so high, remained unbroken, as it was +destined to remain so to the last. But men began to whisper to one +another, and say if only Jackson had been there. They mourned anew +that terrible evening in the Wilderness when Lee had lost his mighty +lieutenant, his striking arm, the invincible Stonewall. If the man in +the old slouch hat had only been with Lee on Seminary Ridge it would now +be the army of Meade retreating farther into the North, and they would be +pursuing. That belief was destined to sink deep in the soul of the South, +and remain there long after the Confederacy was but a name. + +The same thought was often in the mind of Harry Kenton, as he rode near +the rear of the column, whence he had been sent by Lee to observe and +then to report. It was far after midnight now, and the last of the +Southern army could not leave Seminary Ridge before morning. But Harry +could detect no sign of pursuit. Now and then, a distant gun boomed, +and the thunder muttered on the horizon, as if in answer. But there +was nothing to indicate that the Army of the Potomac was moving from +Gettysburg in pursuit, although the President in Washington, his heart +filled with bitterness, was vainly asking why his army would not reap the +fruits of a victory won so hardly. Fifty thousand men had fallen on the +hills and in the valleys about Gettysburg, and it seemed, for the time, +that nothing would come of such a slaughter. But the Northern army had +suffered immense losses, and Lee and his men were ready to fight again +if attacked. Perhaps it was wiser to remain content upon the field with +their sanguinary success. At least, Meade and his generals thought so. + +Harry, toward morning came upon St. Clair and Langdon riding together. +Both had been wounded slightly, but their hurts had not kept them from +the saddle, and they were in cheerful mood. + +"You've been further back than we, Harry," said St. Clair. "Is Meade hot +upon our track? We hear the throb of a cannon now and then." + +"It doesn't mean anything. Meade hasn't moved. While we didn't win we +struck the Yankees such a mighty blow that they'll have to rest, and +breathe a while before they follow." + +"And I guess we need a little resting and breathing ourselves," said +Langdon frankly. "There were times when I thought the whole world had +just turned itself into a volcano of fire." + +"But we'll come back again," said St. Clair. "We'll make these +Pennsylvania Dutchmen take notice of us a second time." + +"That's the right spirit," said Langdon. "Arthur had nearly all of his +fine uniform shot off him, but he's managed to fasten the pieces together, +and ride on, just as if it were brand new." + +But Harry was silent. The prescient spirit of his famous great +grandfather, Henry Ware, had descended upon his valiant great grandson. +Hope had not gone from him, but it did not enter his mind that they +should invade Pennsylvania again. + +"I'm glad to leave Gettysburg," he said. "More good men of ours have +fallen there than anywhere else." + +"That's true," said St. Clair, "but Marse Bob will win for us, anyhow. +You don't think any of these Union generals here in the East can whip our +Lee, do you?" + +"Of course not!" said Happy Tom. "Besides, Lee has me to help him." + +"How are Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire?" asked Harry. + +"Sound asleep, both of 'em," replied St. Clair. "And it's a strange +thing, too. They were sitting in a wagon, having resumed that game +of chess which they began in the Valley of Virginia, but they were so +exhausted that both fell sound asleep while playing. They are sitting +upright, as they sleep, and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire's thumb and +forefinger rest upon a white pawn that he intended to move." + +"I hope they won't be jarred out of their rest and that they'll sleep on," +said Harry. "Nobody deserves it more." + +He waved a hand to his friends and continued his ride toward the rear. +The column passed slowly on in silence. Now and then gusts of rain +lashed across his face, but he liked the feeling. It was a fillip to his +blood, and his nerves began to recover from the tremendous strain and +excitement of the last four days. + +Obeying his orders he rode almost directly back toward the field of +Gettysburg from which the Southern forces were still marching. A +friendly voice from a little wood hailed him, and he recognized it at +once as that of Sherburne, who sat his horse alone among the trees. + +"Come here, Harry," he said. + +"Glad to find you alive, Sherburne. Where's your troop?" + +"What's left of it is on ahead. I'll join the men in a few minutes. +But look back there!" + +Harry from the knoll, which was higher than he had thought, gazed upon a +vast and dusky panorama. Once more the field of Gettysburg swam before +him, not now in fire and smoke, but in vapors and misty rain. When he +shut his eyes he saw again the great armies charging on the slopes, +the blazing fire from hundreds of cannon and a hundred thousand rifles. +There, too, went Pickett's brigades, devoted to death but never +flinching. A sob burst from his throat, and he opened his eyes again. + +"You feel about it as I do," said Sherburne. "We'll never come back into +the North." + +"It isn't merely a feeling within me, I know it." + +"So do I, but we can still hold Virginia." + +"I think so, too. Come, we'd better turn. There goes the field of +Gettysburg. The rain and mist have blotted it out." + +The panorama, the most terrible upon which Harry had ever looked, +vanished in the darkness. The two rode slowly from the knoll and into +the road. + +"It will be daylight in an hour," said Sherburne, "and by that time the +last of our men will be gone." + +"And I must hasten to our commander-in-chief," said Harry. + +"How is he?" asked Sherburne. "Does he seem downcast?" + +"No, he holds his head as high as ever, and cheers the men. They say +that Pickett's charge was a glorious mistake, but he takes all the blame +for it, if there is any. He doesn't criticize any of his generals." + +"Only a man of the greatest moral grandeur could act like that. It's +because of such things that our people, boys, officers and all, will +follow him to the death." + +"Good-by, Sherburne," said Harry. "Hope I'll see you again soon." + +He urged his horse into a faster gait, anxious to overtake Lee and report +that all was well with the rear guard. He noticed once more, and with +the greatest care that long line of the wounded and the unwounded, +winding sixteen miles across the hills from Gettysburg to Chambersburg, +and his mind was full of grave thoughts. More than two years in the very +thick of the greatest war, then known, were sufficient to make a boy a +man, at least in intellect and responsibility. + +Harry saw very clearly, as he rode beside the retreating but valiant +army that had failed in its great attempt, that their role would be the +defensive. For a little while he was sunk in deep depression. Then +invincible youth conquered anew, and hope sprang up again. The night +was at the darkest, but dawn was not far away. Fugitive gusts of wind +drenched him once more, but he did not mind it, nor did he pay any +attention to the occasional growl of a distant gun. He was strong in the +belief that Meade would not pursue--at least not yet. A general who had +just lost nearly one-third of his own army was not in much condition to +follow his enemy. + +He urged his horse to increased speed, and pressed on toward the head of +the column. The rain ceased and cool puffs of wind came out of the east. +Then the blackness there turned to gray, which soon deepened into silver. +Through the silver veil shot a bolt of red fire, and the sun came over +the hills. + +Although the green world had been touched with brown by the hot sun of +July it looked fresh and beautiful to Harry. The brown in the morning +sunlight was a rosy red, and the winds of dawn were charged with life. +His horse, too, felt the change and it was easy now to force him into a +gallop toward a fire on a low hill, which Harry felt sure had been built +to cook breakfast for their great commander. + +As he approached he saw Lee and his generals standing before the blaze, +some eating, and others drinking. An orderly, near by, held the +commander's famous horse, Traveller, and two or three horses belonging to +the other generals were trying to find a little grass between the stony +outcrops of the hills. Harry felt an overwhelming curiosity, but he kept +it in restraint, dismounting at a little distance, and approaching on +foot. + +He could not observe much change in the general's appearance. His +handsome gray suit was as neat as ever, and the three stars, the only +marks of his rank that he wore, shone untarnished upon his collar. +The dignified and cheerful manner that marked him before Gettysburg +marked him also afterward. To Harry, so young and so thoroughly charged +with the emotions of his time and section, he was a figure to be +approached with veneration. + +He saw the stalwart and bearded Longstreet and other generals whom he +knew, among them the brilliant Stuart in his brilliant plumage, but +rather quiet and subdued in manner now, since he had not come to +Gettysburg as soon as he was needed. Harry hung back a little, fearing +lest he might be regarded as thrusting himself into a company so much +his superior in rank, but Lee saw him and beckoned to him. + +"I sent you back toward Gettysburg to report on our withdrawal, +Lieutenant Kenton," he said. + +"Yes, sir. I returned all the way to the field. The last of our troops +should be leaving there just about now. The Northern army had made no +preparation for immediate pursuit." + +"Your report agrees with all the others that I have received. How long +have you been without sleep?" + +"I don't know, sir," he said at last. "I can't remember. Maybe it has +been two or three days." + +Stuart, who held a cup of coffee in his hand, laughed. "The times have +been such that there are generals as well as lieutenants," he said, +"who can't remember when they've slept." + +"You're exhausted, my lad," said Lee gravely and kindly, "and there's +nothing more you can do for us just now. Take some breakfast with us, +and then you must sleep in one of the wagons. An orderly will look after +your horse." + +Lee handed him a cup of coffee with his own hand, and Harry, thanking him, +withdrew to the outer fringe of the little group, where he took his +breakfast, amazed to find how hungry he was, although he had not thought +of food before. Then without a word, as he saw that the generals were +engrossed in a conference, he withdrew. + +"You'll find Lieutenant Dalton of the staff in the covered wagon over +there," said the orderly who had taken his horse. "The general sent him +to it more'n two hours ago." + +"Then I'll be inside it in less than two minutes," said Harry. + +But with rest in sight he collapsed suddenly. His head fell forward of +its own weight. His feet became lead. Everything swam before his eyes. +He felt that he must sleep or die. But he managed to drag himself to the +wagon and climbed inside. Dalton lay in the center of it so sound asleep +that he was like one dead. Harry rolled him to one side, making room for +himself, and lay down beside him. Then his eyes closed, and he, too, +slept so soundly that he also looked like one dead. + +He was awakened by Dalton pulling at him. The young Virginian was +sitting up and looking at Harry with curiosity. He clapped his hands +when the Kentuckian opened his eyes. + +"Now I know that you're not dead," he said. "When I woke up and found +you lying beside me I thought they had just put your body in here for +safekeeping. As that's not the case, kindly explain to me and at once +what you're doing in my wagon." + +"I'm waking up just at present, but for an hour or two before that I was +sleeping." + +"Hour or two? Hour or two? Hear him! An orderly who I know is no liar +told me that you got in here just after dawn. Now kindly lift that +canvasflap, look out and tell me what you see." + +Harry did as he was told, and was amazed. The same rolling landscape +still met his eyes, and the sun was just about as high in the sky as +it was when he had climbed into the wagon. But it was in the west now +instead of the east. + +"See and know, young man!" said Dalton, paternally. "The entire day +has elapsed and here you have lain in ignorant slumber, careless of +everything, reckless of what might happen to the army. For twelve hours +General Lee has been without your advice, and how, lacking it, he has +got this far, Heaven alone knows." + +"It seems that he's pulled through, and, since I'm now awake, you can +hurry to him and tell him I'm ready to furnish the right plans to stop +the forthcoming Yankee invasion." + +"They'll keep another day, but we've certainly had a good sleep, Harry." + +"Yes, a provision or ammunition wagon isn't a bad place for a wornout +soldier. I remember I slept in another such as this in the Valley of +Virginia, when we were with Jackson." + +He stopped suddenly and choked. He could not mention the name of Jackson, +until long afterward, without something rising in his throat. + +The driver obscured a good deal of the front view, but he suddenly turned +a rubicund and smiling face upon them. + +"Waked up, hev ye?" he exclaimed. "Wa'al it's about time. I've looked +back from time to time an' I wuzn't at all shore whether you two gen'rals +wuz alive or dead. Sometimes when the wagon slanted a lot you would roll +over each other, but it didn't seem to make no diffunce. Pow'ful good +sleepers you are." + +"Yes," said Harry. "We're two of the original Seven Sleepers." + +"I don't doubt that you are two, but they wuz more'n seven." + +"How do you know?" + +"'Cause at least seven thousand in this train have been sleepin' as hard +as you wuz. I guess you mean the 'rig'nal Seventy Thousand Sleepers." + +Harry's spirits had returned after his long sleep. He was a lad again. +The weight of Gettysburg no longer rested upon him. The Army of Northern +Virginia had merely made a single failure. It would strike again and +again, as hard as ever. + +"It's true that we've been slumbering," he said, "but we're as wide awake +now as ever, Mr. Driver." + +"My name ain't Driver," said the man. + +"Then what is it?" + +"Jones, Dick Jones, which I hold to be a right proper name." + +"Not romantic, but short, simple and satisfying." + +"I reckon so. Leastways, I've never wanted to change it. I'm from No'th +Calliny, an' I've been followin' Bobby Lee a pow'ful long distance from +home. Fine country up here in Pennsylvany, but I'd ruther be back in +them No'th Calliny mountains. You two young gen'rals may think it's an +easy an' safe job drivin' a wagon loaded with ammunition. But s'pose you +have to drive it right under fire, as you most often have to do, an' then +if a shell or somethin' like it hits your wagon the whole thing goes off +kerplunk, an' whar are you?" + +"It's a sudden an' easy death," said Dalton, philosophically. + +"Too sudden an' too easy. I don't mind tellin' you that seein' men +killed an' wounded is a spo't that's beginnin' to pall on me. Reckon +I've had enough of it to last me for the next thousand years. I've +forgot, if I ever knowed, what this war wuz started about. Say, young +fellers, I've got a wife back thar, a high-steppin', fine-lookin' gal not +more'n twenty years old--I'm just twenty-five myself, an' we've got a +year-old baby the cutest that wuz ever born. Now, when I wuz lookin' at +that charge of Pickett's men, an' the whole world wuz blazin' with fire, +an' all the skies wuz rainin' steel and lead, an' whar grass growed +before, nothin' but bayonets wuz growin' then, do you know what I seed +sometimes?" + +"What was it?" asked Harry. + +"Fur a secon' all that hell of fire an' smoke an' killin' would float +away, an' I seed our mountain, with the cove, an' the trees, an' the +green grass growin' in it, an' the branch, with the water so clear you +could see your face in it, runnin' down the center, an' thar at the head +of the cove my cabin, not much uv a buildin' to look at, no towerin' +mansion, but just a stout two-room log cabin that the snows an' hails of +winter can't break into, an' in the door wuz standin' Mary with the hair +flyin' about her face, an' her eyes shinin', with the little feller in +her arms, lookin' at me 'way off as I come walkin' fast down the cove +toward 'em, returnin' from the big war." + +There was a moment's silence, and Dalton said gruffly to hide his +feelings: + +"Dick Jones, by the time this war is over, and you go walking down the +cove toward your home, a man with mustache and side whiskers will come +forward to meet you, and he'll be that son of yours." + +But Dick Jones cheerfully shook his head. + +"The war ain't goin' to last that long," he said confidently, "an' I +ain't goin' to git killed. What I saw will come true, 'cause I feel it +so strong." + +"There ought to be a general law forbidding a man with a young wife and +baby to go to a war," said Harry. + +"But they ain't no sich law," said Dick Jones, in his optimistic tone, +"an' so we needn't worry 'bout it. But if you two gen'rals should happen +along through the mountains uv western No'th Calliny after the war I'd +like fur you to come to my cabin, an' see Mary an' the baby an' me. +Our cove is named Jones' Cove, after my father, an' the branch that runs +through it runs into Jones' Creek, an' Jones' Creek runs into the Yadkin +River an' our county is Yadkin. Oh, you could find it plumb easy, +if two sich great gen'rals as you wuzn't ashamed to eat sweet pertaters +an' ham an' turkey an' co'n pone with a wagon driver like me." + +Harry saw, despite his playful method of calling them generals, that he +was thoroughly in earnest, and he was more moved than he would have been +willing to confess. + +"Too proud!" he said. "Why, we'd be glad!" + +"Mebbe your road will lead that way," said Jones. "An' ef you do, +jest remember that the skillet's on the fire, an' the latch string is +hangin' outside the do'." + +The allusion to the mountains made Harry's mind travel far back, over +an almost interminable space of time now, it seemed, when he was yet a +novice in war, to the home of Sam Jarvis, deep in the Kentucky mountains, +and the old, old woman who had said to him as he left: "You will come +again, and you will be thin and pale, and in rags, and you will fall at +the door. I see you coming with these two eyes of mine." + +A little shiver passed over him. He knew that no one could penetrate +the future, but he shivered nevertheless, and he found himself saying +mechanically: + +"It's likely that I'll return through the mountains, and if so I'll look +you up at that home in the cove on the brook that runs into Jones' Creek." + +"That bein' settled," said Jones, "what do you gen'rals reckon to do jest +now, after havin' finished your big sleep?" + +"Your wagon is about to lose the first two passengers it has ever +carried," replied Harry. "Orderlies have our horses somewhere. We +belong on the staff of General Lee." + +"An' you see him an' hear him talk every day? Some people are pow'ful +lucky. I guess you'll say a lot about it when you're old men." + +"We're going to say a lot about it while we're young men. Good-by, +Mr. Jones. We've been in some good hotels, but we never slept better +in any of them than we have in this moving one of yours." + +"Good-by, you're always welcome to it. I think Marse Bob is on ahead." + +The two left the wagon and took to a path beside the road, which was +muddy and rutted deeply by innumerable hoofs and wheels. But grass and +foliage were now dry after the heavy rains that followed the Battle of +Gettysburg, and the sun was shining in late splendor. The army, taking +the lack of pursuit and attack as proof that the enemy had suffered as +much as they, if not more, was in good spirits, and many of the men sang +their marching songs. A band ahead of them suddenly began to play mellow +music, "Partant Pour La Syrie," and other old French songs. The airs +became gay, festive, uplifting to the soul, and they tickled the feet of +the young men. + +"The Cajun band!" exclaimed Harry. "It never occurred to me that they +weren't all dead, and here they are, playing us into happiness!" + +"And the Invincibles, or what's left of them, won't be far away," said +Dalton. + +They walked on a little more briskly and beside them the vast length of +the unsuccessful army still trailed its slow way back into the South. +The sun was setting in uncommon magnificence, clothing everything in a +shower of gold, through which the lilting notes of the music came to +Harry and Dalton's ears. Presently the two saw them, the short, dark men +from far Louisiana, not so many as they had been, but playing with all +the fervor of old, putting their Latin souls into their music. + +"And there are the Invincibles just ahead of them!" exclaimed Dalton. +"The two colonels have left the wagon and are riding with their men. +See, how erect they sit." + +"I do see them, and they're a good sight to see," said Harry. "I hope +they'll live to finish that chess game." + +"And fifty years afterward, too." + +A shout of joy burst from the road, and a tall young man, slender, +dark and handsome, rushed out, and, seizing the hands of first one and +then the other, shook them eagerly, his dark eyes glittering with happy +surprise. + +"Kenton! Dalton!" he exclaimed. "Both alive! Both well!" + +It was young Julien de Langeais, the kinsman of Lieutenant-Colonel Hector +St. Hilaire, and he too was unhurt. The lads returned his grasp warmly. +They could not have kept from liking him had they tried, and they +certainly did not wish to try. + +"You don't know how it rejoices me to see you," said Julien, speaking +very fast. "I was sad! very sad! Some of my best friends have perished +back there in those inhospitable Pennsylvania hills, and while the band +was playing it made me think of the homes they will never see any more! +Don't think I'm effusive and that I show grief too much, but my heart has +been very heavy! Alas, for the brave lads!" + +"Come, come, de Langeais," said Harry, putting his hand on his shoulder. +"You've no need to apologize for sorrow. God knows we all have enough +of it, but a lot of us are still alive and here's an army ready to fight +again, whenever the enemy says the word." + +"True! True!" exclaimed de Langeais, changing at once from shadow to +sunshine. "And when we're back in Virginia we'll turn our faces once +more to our foe!" + +He took a step or two on the grass in time to the music which was now +that of a dance, and the brilliant beams of the setting sun showed a face +without a care. Invincible youth and the invincible gayety of the part +of the South that was French were supreme again. Dalton, looking at him, +shook his Presbyterian head. Yet his eyes expressed admiration. + +"I know your feelings," said Harry to the Virginian. + +"Well, what are they?" + +"You don't approve of de Langeais' lightness, which in your stern code +you would call levity, and yet you envy him possession of it. You don't +think it's right to be joyous, without a care, and yet you know it would +be mighty pleasant. You criticize de Langeais a little, but you feel it +would be a gorgeous thing to have that joyous spirit of his." + +Dalton laughed. + +"You're pretty near the truth," he said. "I haven't known de Langeais +so very long, but if he were to get killed I'd feel that I had lost a +younger brother." + +"So would I." + +Two immaculate youths, riding excellent horses, approached them, and +favored them with a long and supercilious stare. + +"Can the large fair person be Lieutenant Kenton of the staff of the +commander-in-chief?" asked St. Clair. + +"It can be and it is, although we did not think to see him again so soon," +replied Happy Tom Langdon, "and the other--I do not allude to de Langeais-- +is that spruce and devout young man, Lieutenant George Dalton, also of +the staff of the commander-in-chief." + +"Why do we find them in such humble plight, walking on weary feet in a +path beside the road?" + +"For the most excellent reason in the world, Arthur." + +"And what may that reason be, Tom?" + +"Because at last they have come down to their proper station in life, +just as surely as water finds its level." + +"But we'll not treat them too sternly. We must remember that they also +serve who walk and wait." + +But St. Clair and Langdon, their chaff over, gave them happy greeting, +and told them that the two colonels would be rejoiced to see them again, +if they could spare a few minutes before rejoining their commander. + +"And here is an orderly with both your horses," said St. Clair, "so, +under the circumstances, we'll sink our pride and let you ride with us." + +De Langeais, with a cheerful farewell until the next day, returned to his +command, and Harry and Dalton, mounting, were in a few minutes beside +the Invincibles. Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector +St. Hilaire turned their horses from the road into the path and saluted +them with warmth. + +"We caught a glimpse of you just after our departure, Harry," said +Colonel Talbot, "but we did not know what had happened since. There is +always a certain amount of risk attending the removal of a great army." + +"I am glad, Leonidas, that you used the word 'removal' to describe our +operations after our great victory at Gettysburg," said Lieutenant- +Colonel St. Hilaire. "I have been feeling about for the right word or +phrase myself, but you have found it first." + +"Do you think it was a victory, sir?" asked Harry. + +"Undoubtedly. We have won several vast and brilliant triumphs, but this +is the greatest of them all. We have gone far into the enemy's country, +where we have struck him a terrible blow, and now, of our own choice-- +understand it is of our own choice--we withdraw and challenge him to come +and repeat on our own soil our exploit if he can. It is like a skilled +and daring prize fighter who leaps back and laughingly bids his foe come +on. Am I not right, Leonidas?" + +"Neither Aristotle nor Plato was ever more right, Hector, old friend. +Usually there is more to a grave affair than appears upon the surface. +We could have gone on, after the battle, to Philadelphia, had we chosen, +but it was not alone a question of military might that General Lee had to +decide. He was bound to give weight to some very subtle considerations. +You boys remember your Roman history, do you not?" + +"Fragments of it, sir," replied Harry. + +"Then you will recall that Hannibal, a fine general, to be named worthily +with our great Lee so far as military movements are concerned, after +famous victories over greatly superior numbers of Romans, went into camp +at Capua, crowded with beauty, wine and games, and the soldiers became +enervated. Their fiber was weakened and their bodies softened. They +were quicker to heed the call to a banquet than the call to arms." + +"Unless it was the arms of beauty, Leonidas." + +"Well spoken, Hector. The correction is most important, and I accept it. +But to take up again the main thread of my discourse. General Lee +undoubtedly had the example of the Carthaginian army and Capua in mind +when he left Gettysburg and returned toward the South. Philadelphia is a +great city, far larger and richer than any in our section. It is filled +with magnificent houses, beautiful women, luxury of every description, +ease and softness. Our brave lads, crowned with mighty exploits and +arriving there as conquerors, would have been received with immense +admiration, although we are official enemies. And the head of youth is +easily turned. The Army of Northern Virginia, emerging from Philadelphia, +to achieve the conquest of New York and Boston would not be the army that +it is to-day. It would lack some of that fire and dash, some of the +extraordinary courage and tenacity which have enabled it to surpass the +deeds of the veterans of Hannibal and Napoleon." + +"But, sir, I've heard that the people of Philadelphia are mostly Quakers, +very sober in dress and manner." + +"Harry, my lad, when you've lived as long as I have you will know that a +merry heart may beat beneath a plain brown dress, and that an ugly hood +cannot wholly hide a sweet and saucy face. The girls--God bless 'em-- +have been the same in all lands since the world began, and will continue +so to the end. While this war is on you boys cannot go a-courting, +either in the North or South. Am I not right, Hector, old friend?" + +"Right, as always, Leonidas. I perceive, though, that the sun is about +to set; not a new thing, I admit, but we must not delay our young friends, +when the general perhaps needs them." + +"Well spoken again, Hector. You are an unfailing fount of wisdom. +Good night, my brave lads. Not many of the Invincibles are left, but +every one of them is a true friend of you both." + +As they rode across the darkening fields Harry and Dalton knew that the +colonel spoke the truth about the Invincibles. + +"I like a faith such as theirs," said Dalton. + +"Yes, it can often turn defeat into real victory." + +They quickly found the general's headquarters, and as usual, whenever the +weather permitted, he had made arrangements to sleep in the open air, +his blankets spread upon soft boughs. Harry and Dalton, having slept +all day, would be on night duty, and after supper they sat at a little +distance, awaiting orders. + +Coolness had come with the dark. A good moon and swarms of bright stars +rode in the heavens, turning the skies to misty silver, and softening the +scars of the army, which now lay encamped over a great space. Lee was +talking with Stuart, who evidently had just arrived from a swift ride, +as an orderly near by was holding his horse, covered with foam. The +famous cavalryman was clothed in his gorgeous best. His hat was heavy +with gold braid, and the broad sash about his waist was heavy with gold, +also. Dandy he was, but brilliant cavalryman and great soldier too! +Both friend and foe had said so. + +Harry, sitting on the grass, with his back against a tree, watched the +two generals as they talked long and earnestly. Now and then Stuart +nervously switched the tops of his own high riding boots with the little +whip that he carried, but the face of Lee, revealed clearly in the near +twilight, remained grave and impassive. + +After a long while Stuart mounted and rode away, and Sherburne, who had +been sitting among the trees on the far side of the fire, came over and +joined Harry and Dalton. He too was very grave. + +"Do you know what has happened?" he said in a low tone to the two lads. + +"Yes, there was a big battle at Gettysburg, and as we failed to win it +we're now retreating," replied Harry. + +"That's true as far as it goes, but it's not all. We've heard--and +the news is correct beyond a doubt--that Grant has taken Vicksburg and +Pemberton's army with it." + +"Good God, Sherburne, it can't be so!" + +"It shouldn't be so, but it is! Oh, why did Pemberton let himself be +trapped in such a way! A whole army of ours lost and our greatest +fortress in the West taken! Why, the Yankee men-of-war can steam up the +Mississippi untouched, all the way from the Gulf to Minnesota." + +Harry and Dalton were appalled, and, for a little while, were silent. + +"I knew that man Grant would do something terrible to us," Harry said at +last. "I've heard from my people in Kentucky what sort of a general he +is. My father was at Shiloh, where we had a great victory on, but Grant +wouldn't admit it, and held on, until another Union army came up and +turned our victory into defeat. My cousin, Dick Mason, has been with +Grant a lot, and I used to get a letter from him now and then, even if he +is in the Yankee army. He says that when Grant takes hold of a thing he +never lets go, and that he'll win the war for his side." + +"Your cousin may be right about Grant's hanging on," said Dalton with +sudden angry emphasis, "but neither he nor anybody else will win this war +for the Yankees. We've lost Vicksburg, and an army with it, and we've +retreated from Gettysburg, with enough men fallen there to make another +army, but they'll never break through the iron front of Lee and his +veterans." + +"Hope you're right," said Sherburne, "but I'm off now. I'm in the saddle +all night with my troop. We've got to watch the Yankee cavalry. Custer +and Pleasanton and the rest of them have learned to ride in a way that +won't let Jeb Stuart himself do any nodding." + +He cantered off and the lads sat under the trees, ready for possible +orders. They saw the fire die. They heard the murmur of the camp sink. +Lee lay down on his bed of boughs, other generals withdrew to similar +beds or to tents, and the two boys still sat under the trees, waiting and +watching, and never knowing at what moment they would be needed. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE NORTHERN SPY + + +But the night remained very quiet. Harry and Dalton, growing tired of +sitting, walked about the camp, and looked again to their horses, which, +saddled and bridled, were nevertheless allowed to nip the grass as best +they could at the end of their lariats. The last embers of the fire +went out, but the moon and stars remained bright, and they saw dimly the +sleeping forms of Lee and his generals. Harry, who had seen nothing +strange in Meade's lack of pursuit, now wondered at it. Surely when the +news of Vicksburg came the exultant Army of the Potomac would follow, +and try to deliver a crushing blow. + +It was revealed to him as he stood silent in the moonlight that a gulf +had suddenly yawned before the South. The slash of Grant's sword in the +West had been terrible, and the wound that it made could not be cured +easily. And the Army of Northern Virginia had not only failed in its +supreme attempt, but a great river now flowed between it and Virginia. +If the Northern leaders, gathering courage anew, should hurl their masses +upon Lee's retreating force, neither skill nor courage might avail to +save them. He suddenly beheld the situation in all its desperation; +he shivered from head to foot. + +Dalton saw the muscles of Harry's face quivering, and he noticed a pallor +that came for an instant. + +"I understand," he said. "I had thought of it already. If a Northern +general like Lee or Stonewall Jackson were behind us we might never get +back across the Potomac. It's somewhat the same position that we were in +after Antietam." + +"But we've no Stonewall Jackson now to help us." + +Again that lump rose in Harry's throat. The vision of the sober figure +on Little Sorrel, leading his brigades to victory, came before him, +but it was a vision only. + +"It's strange that we've not come in contact with their scouts or +cavalry," he said. "In that fight with Pleasanton we saw what horsemen +they've become, and a force of some kind must be hanging on our rear." + +"If it's there, Sherburne and his troop will find it." + +"I think I can detect signs of the enemy now," said Harry, putting his +glasses to his eyes. "See that hill far behind us. Can't you catch the +gleam of lights on it?" + +"I think I can," replied Dalton, also using glasses. "Four lights are +there, and they are winking, doubtless to lights on another hill too far +away for us to see." + +"It shows that the enemy at least is watching, and that while we may +retreat unattacked it will not be unobserved. Hark! do you hear that, +George? It's rifle shots, isn't it?" + +"Yes, and a lot of 'em, but they're a long distance away. I don't think +we could hear 'em at all if it were not night time." + +"But it means something! There they go again! I believe it's a heavy +skirmish and it's in the direction in which Sherburne rode." + +"The general's up. It's likely that one of us will be sent to see what +it's all about." + +General Lee and his whole staff had risen and were listening attentively. +The faint sound of many shots still came, and then a sharper, more +penetrating crash, as if light field guns were at work. The commander +beckoned to Harry. + +"Ride toward it," he said briefly, "and return with a report as soon as +you can." + +Harry touched his cap, sprang upon his horse and galloped away. He knew +that other messengers would be dispatched also, but, as he had been sent +first, he wished to arrive first. He found a path among the trees along +which he could make good speed, and, keeping his mind fixed on the firing, +he sped forward. + +Thousands of soldiers lay asleep in the woods and fields on either side +of him, but the thud of the horse's hoofs awakened few of them. Nor did +the firing disturb them. They had fought a great battle three days long, +and then after a tense day of waiting under arms, they had marched hard. +What to them was the noise made by an affair of outposts, when they had +heard so long the firing of a hundred and fifty thousand rifles and three +or four hundred big guns? Not one in a hundred stood up to see. + +The country grew rougher, and Harry was compelled to draw his horse down +to a walk. But the firing, a half-mile or more ahead, maintained its +volume, and as he approached through thick underbrush, being able to find +no other way, he dismounted and led his horse. Presently he saw beads of +flame appearing among the bushes, seen a moment, then gone like a firefly, +and as he went further he heard voices. He had no doubt that it was the +Southern pickets in the undergrowth, and, calling softly, he received +confirmatory replies. + +A rifleman, a tall, slender fellow in ragged butternut, appeared beside +him, and, recognizing Harry's near-gray uniform as that of an officer, +said: + +"They're dismounted cavalry on the other side of a creek that runs along +over there among the bushes. I don't think they mean any real attack. +They expect to sting us a little an' find out what we're about." + +"Seems likely to me too. They aren't strong enough, of course, for an +attempt at rushing us. What troops are in here in the woods on our side?" + +"Captain Sherburne's cavalry, sir. They're a bit to our right, an' +they're dismounted too. You'll find the captain himself on a little +knoll about a hundred yards away." + +"Thanks," said Harry, and leading his horse he reached the knoll, to find +the rifleman's statement correct. Sherburne was kneeling behind some +bushes, trying with the aid of glasses and moonlight to pick out the +enemy. + +"That you, Harry?" he said, glancing back. + +"Yes, Captain. The general has sent me to see what you and the rest of +you noisy fellows are doing." + +"Shooting across a creek at an enemy who first shot at us. It's only +under provocation that we've roused the general and his staff from sleep. +Use your glasses and see what you can make out in those bushes on the +other side! Keep down, Harry! For Heaven's sake keep down! That bullet +didn't miss you more than three inches. You wouldn't be much loss to the +army, of course, but you're my personal friend." + +"Thanks for your advice. I intend to stay so far down that I'll lie +almost flat." + +He meant to keep his word, too. The warning had been a stern one. +Evidently the sharpshooters who lay in the thickets on the Union side of +the creek were of the first quality. + +"There's considerable moonlight," whispered Sherburne, "and you mustn't +expose an inch of your face. I take it that we have Custer's cavalry +over there, mixed with a lot of scouts and skirmishers from the Northwest, +Michigan and Wisconsin, most likely. They're the boys who can use the +rifles in the woods. Had to do it before they came here, and they're a +bad lot to go up against." + +"It's a pretty heavy fire for a mere scouting party. If they want to +discover our location they can do it without wasting so much powder and +lead." + +"I think it's more than a scout. They must have discovered long since +just where we are. I imagine they mean to shake our nerve by constant +buzzing and stinging. I fancy that Meade and his generals after deciding +not to pursue us have changed their minds, perhaps under pressure from +Washington, and mean to cut us off if they can." + +"A little late." + +"But not too late. We're still in the enemy's country. The whole +population is dead against us, and we can't make a move that isn't known +within an hour to the Union leaders. I tell you, Harry, that if we +didn't have a Lee to lead I'd be afraid that we'd never get out of +Pennsylvania." + +"But we have a Lee and the question is settled. What a volley that was! +Didn't you feel the twigs and leaves falling on your face?" + +"Yes, it went directly over our heads. It's a good thing we're lying so +close. Perhaps they intend to force a passage of the creek and stampede +at least a portion of our camp." + +"And you're here to prevent it." + +"I am. They can't cross that creek in face of our fire. We're good +night-hawks. Every boy in the South knows the night and the woods, +and here in the bush we're something like Indians." + +"I'm the descendant of a famous Indian fighter myself," said Harry. +And there, surrounded by deep gloom and danger, the spirit of his mighty +ancestor, the great Henry Ware, descended upon him once more. An orderly +had taken their horses to the rear, where they would be out of range of +the bullets, and, as they crouched low in the bushes, Sherburne looked +curiously at him. + +Harry's face as he turned from the soldier to the Indian fighter of old +had changed. To Sherburne's fascinated gaze the eyes seemed amazingly +vivid and bright, like those of one who has learned to see in the dark. +The complexion was redder--Henry Ware had always burned red instead of +brown--like that of one who sleeps oftener in the open air than in a +house. His whole look was dominant, compelling and fierce, as he leaned +on his elbows and studied the opposing thickets through his glasses. + +The glasses even did not destroy the illusion. To Sherburne, who had +learned Harry's family history, the great Henry Ware was alive, and in +the flesh before him. He felt with all the certainty of truth that the +Union skirmishers in the thicket could not escape the keen eyes that +sought them out. + +"I can see at least twenty men creeping about among the bushes, and +seeking chances for shots," whispered Harry. + +"I knew that you would see them." + +It was Harry's turn to give a look of curiosity. + +"What do you mean, Captain?" he asked. + +"I knew that you had good eyes and I believed that with the aid of the +glasses you would be able to trace figures, despite the shelter of the +bushes. Study the undergrowth again, will you, Harry, and tell me what +more you can see there?" + +"I don't need to study it. I can tell at one look that they're gathering +a force. Maybe they mean to rush the creek at a shallow place." + +"Is that force moving in any direction?" + +"Yes, it's going down the creek." + +"Then we'll go down the creek with it. We mustn't be lacking in +hospitality." + +Sherburne drew a whistle from his pocket and blew a low call upon it. +Scores of shadowy figures rose from the undergrowth, and followed his +lead down the stream. Harry was still able to see that the force on the +other side was increasing largely in numbers, but Sherburne reminded him +that his duties, as far as the coming skirmish was concerned, were over. + +"General Lee didn't send you here to get killed," he said. "He wants you +instead to report how many of us get killed. You know that while the +general is a kind man he can be stern, too, and you're not to take the +risk. The orderly is behind that hill with your horse and mine." + +Harry, with a sigh, fell back toward the hill. But he did not yet go +behind it, where the orderly stood. Instead he lay down among the trees +on the slope, where he could watch what was going forward, and once more +his face turned to the likeness of the great Indian fighter. + +He saw Sherburne's dismounted troop and others, perhaps five hundred in +all, moving slowly among the bushes parallel with the stream, and he saw +a force which he surmised to be of about equal size, creeping along in +the undergrowth on the other side. He followed both bodies with his +glasses. With long looking everything became clearer and clearer. +The moonlight had to him almost the brilliancy of day. + +His eyes followed the Union force, until it came to a point where the +creek ran shallow over pebbles. Then the Union leader raised his sword, +uttered a cry of command, and the whole force dashed at the ford. +The cry met its response in an order from Sherburne, and the thickets +flamed with the Southern rifles. + +The advantage was wholly with the South, standing on the defense in dark +undergrowth, and the Union troop, despite its desperate attempts at the +ford, was beaten back with great loss. + +Harry waited until the result was sure, and then he walked slowly over +the hill toward the point, where the orderly was waiting with the horses. +The man, who knew him, handed him the reins of his mount, saying at the +same time: + +"I've a note for you, sir." + +"For me?" + +"Yes, sir. It was handed to me about fifteen minutes ago by a large man +in our uniform, whom I didn't know." + +"Probably a dispatch that I'm to carry to General Lee." + +"No, sir. It's addressed to you." + +The note was written in pencil on a piece of coarse gray paper, folded +several times, but with a face large enough to show Harry's name upon it. +He wondered, but said nothing to the sentinel, and did not look at the +note again, until he had ridden some distance. + +He stopped in a little glade where the moonlight fell clearly. He still +heard scattered firing behind him, but he knew that the skirmish was +in reality over, and he concluded that no further attempt by Union +detachments to advance would be made in the face of such vigilance. +He could report to General Lee that the rear of his army was safe. +So he would delay and look at the letter that had come to him out of the +mysterious darkness. + +The superscription was in a large, bold hand, and read: + + + LIEUTENANT HARRY KENTON, + STAFF OF GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, C. S. A., + COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, + ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA. + + +He felt instinctively that something uncommon was coming, and, as most +people do when they are puzzled at the appearance of a letter, he looked +at it some seconds before opening it. Then he read: + +MR. KENTON: + +I have warned you twice before, once when Jefferson Davis was inaugurated +at Montgomery, and once again in Virginia. I told you that the South +could never win. I told you that she might achieve brilliant victories, +and she may achieve them even yet, but they will avail her nothing. +Victories permit her to maintain her position for the time being, but +they do not enable her to advance. A single defeat causes her to lose +ground that she can never regain. + +I tell you this as a warning. Although your enemy, I have seen you more +than once and talked with you. I like you and would save your life if I +could. I would induce you, if I could, to leave the army and return to +your home, but that I know to be impossible. So, I merely tell you that +you are fighting for a cause now lost. Perhaps it is pride on my part to +remind you that my early predictions have come true, and perhaps it is +a wish that the thought I may plant in your mind will spread to others. +You have lost at Gettysburg a hope and an offensive that you can never +regain, and Grant at Vicksburg has given a death blow to the Western half +of the Confederacy. + +As for you, I wish you well. + + WILLIAM J. SHEPARD. + + +Harry stared in amazement at this extraordinary communication, and read +it over two or three times. He was not surprised that Shepard should +be near, and that he should have been inside the Confederate lines, but +that he should leave a letter, and such a letter, for him was uncanny. +His first feeling, wonder, was succeeded by anger. Did Shepard really +think that he could influence him in such a way, that he could plant in +his mind a thought that would spread to others of his age and rank and +weaken the cause for which he fought? It was a singular idea, but +Shepard was a singular man. + +But perhaps pride in recalling the prediction that he had made long ago +was Shepard's stronger motive, and Harry took fire at that also. The +Confederacy was not beaten. A single defeat--no, it was not a defeat, +merely a failure to win--was not mortal, and as for the West, the +Confederacy would gather itself together there and overwhelm Grant! + +Then came a new emotion, a kind of gratitude to Shepard. The man was +really a friend, and would do him a service, if it could be done, without +injuring his own cause! He could not feel any doubt of it, else the spy +would not have taken the risk to send him such a letter. He read it for +the last time, then tore it into little pieces which he entrusted to the +winds. + +The firing behind him had died completely, and there was no sound but the +rustle of dry leaves in the light wind, nothing to tell that there had +been sharp fighting along the creek, and that men lay dead in the forest. +The moon and the stars clothed everything in a whitish light, that seemed +surcharged with a powerful essence, and this essence was danger. + +The spirit of the great forest ranger descended upon him once more, +and he read the omens, all of which were sinister. He foresaw terrible +campaigns, mighty battles in the forest, and a roll of the dead so long +that it seemed to stretch away into infinity. + +Then he shook himself violently, cast off the spell, and rode rapidly +back with his report. Lee had risen and was standing under a tree. +He was fully dressed and his uniform was trim and unwrinkled. Harry +thought anew as he rode up, what a magnificent figure he was. He was +the only great man he ever saw who really looked his greatness. Nothing +could stir that calm. Nothing could break down that loftiness of manner. +Harry was destined to feel then, as he felt many times afterward, that +without him the South had never a chance. And the choking came in his +throat again, as he thought of him who was gone, of him who had been the +right arm of victory, the hammer of Thor. + +But he hid all these feelings as he quickly dismounted and saluted the +commander-in-chief. + +"What have you seen, Lieutenant Kenton?" asked Lee. + +"A considerable detachment of the enemy tried to force the passage of +the creek in our right rear. They were met by Captain Sherburne's troop +dismounted, and three companies of infantry, and were driven back after a +sharp fight." + +"Very good. Captain Sherburne is an alert officer." + +He turned away, and Harry, giving his horse to an orderly, again resumed +his old position under a tree, out of hearing of the generals, but in +sight. Dalton was not there, but he knew that skirmishing had occurred +in other directions, and doubtless the Virginian had been sent on an +errand like his own. + +He had a sense of rest and realization as he leaned back against the +tree. But it was mental tension, not physical, for which relief came, +and Shepard, much more than the battle at the creek, was in his thoughts. + +The strong personality of the spy and his seeming omniscience oppressed +him again. Apparently he was able to go anywhere, and nothing could be +hidden from him. He might be somewhere in the circling shadows at that +very moment, watching Lee and his lieutenants. His pulses leaped. +Shepard had achieved an extraordinary influence over him, and he was +prepared to believe the impossible. + +He stood up and stared into the bushes, but sentinels stood there, +and no human being could pass their ring unseen. Presently Dalton came, +made a brief report to General Lee and joined his comrade. Harry was +glad of his arrival. The presence of a comrade brought him back to earth +and earth's realities. The sinister shadows that oppressed him melted +away and he saw only the ordinary darkness of a summer night. + +The two sat side by side. Dalton perhaps drew as much strength as Harry +from the comradeship, and they watched other messengers arrive with +dispatches, some of whom rolled themselves in their blankets at once, +and went to sleep, although three, who had evidently slept in the day, +joined Harry and Dalton in their vigil. + +Harry saw that the commander-in-chief was holding a council at that hour, +nearer morning than midnight. A general kicked some of the pieces of +burned wood together and fanned them into a light flame, enough to take +away the slight chill that was coming with the morning. The men stood +around it, and talked a long time, although it seemed to Harry that Lee +said least. Nevertheless his tall figure dominated them all. Now and +then Harry saw his face in the starshine, and it bore its habitual grave +and impassive look. + +The youth did not hear a word that was said, but his imaginative power +enabled him to put himself in the place of the commander-in-chief. +He knew that no man, however great his courage, could fail to appreciate +his position in the heart of a hostile country, with a lost field behind +him, and with superior numbers hovering somewhere in his rear or on +his flank. He realized then to the full the critical nature of their +position and what a mighty task Lee had to save the army. + +One of his young comrades whispered to him that the Potomac, the barrier +between North and South, was rising, flooded by heavy rains in both +mountains and lowlands, and that a body of Northern cavalry had already +destroyed a pontoon bridge built by the South across it. They might be +hemmed in, with their backs to an unfordable river, and an enemy two or +three times as numerous in front. + +"Don't you worry," whispered Dalton, with sublime confidence. "The +general will take us to Virginia." + +Harry projected his imagination once more. He sought to put himself in +the place of Lee, receiving all the reports and studying them, trying to +measure space that could not be measured, and to weigh a total that could +not be weighed. Greatness and responsibility were compelled to pay +thrice over for themselves, and he was glad that he was only a young +lieutenant, the chief business of whom was to fetch and carry orders. + +Shafts of sunlight were piercing the eastern foliage when the council +broke up, and shortly after daylight the Southern army was again on the +march, with Northern cavalry and riflemen hanging on its flanks and rear. +Harry was permitted to rejoin, for a while, his friends of the +Invincibles and he found Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire riding very erect, a fine color in their faces. + +"You come from headquarters, Harry, and therefore you are omniscient," +said Colonel Talbot. "We heard firing in the night. What did it mean?" + +"Only skirmishers, Colonel. I think they wanted to annoy us, but they +paid the price." + +"Inevitably. Our general is as dangerous in retreat as in advance. +I fancy that General Meade will not bring up his lagging forces until +we near the Potomac." + +"They say it's rising, sir, and that it will be very hard to cross." + +"That creates a difficulty but not an impossibility. Ordinary men yield +to difficulties, men like our commander-in-chief are overcome only by +impossibilities. But the further we go, Harry, the more reconciled I +grow to our withdrawal. I have seen scarcely a friendly face among the +population. I would not have us thrust ourselves upon people who do not +like us. It would go very hard with our kindly Southern nature to have +to rule by force over people who are in fact our brethren. Defensive +wars are the just wars, and perhaps it will be really better for us to +retire to Virginia and protect its sacred soil from the tread of the +invader. Eh, Hector?" + +"Right, as usual, Leonidas. The reasons for our retirement are most +excellent. We have already spoken of the fact that Philadelphia might +prove a Capua for our young troops, and now we are relieved from the +chance of appearing as oppressors. It can never be said of us by the +people of Pennsylvania that we were tyrants. It's an invidious task to +rule over the unwilling, even when one rules with justice and wisdom. +It's strange, perhaps, Leonidas, but it's a universal truth, that people +would rather be ruled by themselves in a second rate manner than by the +foreigner in a first rate manner. Now, the government of our states is +attacked by Northern critics, but such as it is, it is ours and it's our +first choice. Do we bore you, Harry?" + +"Not at all, sir. I never listen to either you or Colonel Talbot without +learning something." + +The two colonels bowed politely. + +"I have wished for some time to speak to you about a certain matter, +Hector," said Colonel Talbot. + +"What is it, Leonidas?" + +"During the height of that tremendous artillery fire from Little Round +Top I was at a spot where I could see the artillerymen very well whenever +the smoke lifted. Several times, I noticed an officer directing the +fire of the guns, and I don't think I could have been mistaken in his +identity." + +"No, Leonidas, you were not. I too observed him, and we could not +possibly be mistaken. It was John Carrington, of course." + +"Dear old John Carrington, who was with us at West Point, the greatest +artilleryman in the world. And he was facing us, when the fortunes of +the South were turning on a hair. If any other man had been there, +directing those guns, we might have taken Cemetery Hill." + +"That's true, Leonidas, but it was not possible for any other man to be +in such a place at such a time. Granting that such a crisis should arise +and that it should arise at Gettysburg you and I would have known long +before that John would be there with the guns to stop us. Why, we saw +that quality in him all the years we were with him at West Point. +The world has never seen and never will see another such artilleryman as +John Carrington." + +"Good old John. I hope he wasn't killed." + +"And I hope so too, from the bottom of my heart. But we'll know before +many days." + +"How will you find out?" asked Harry curiously. + +Both colonels laughed genially. + +"Because he will send us signs, unmistakable signs," replied Colonel +Talbot. + +"I don't understand, sir." + +"His signs will be shells, shrapnel and solid shot. We may not have a +battle this week or next week, but a big one is bound to come some time +or other and then if any section of the Northern artillery shows uncommon +deadliness and precision we'll know that Carrington is there. Why, +we can recognize his presence as readily as the deer scents the hunter. +We'll have many notes to compare with him when the war is over." + +Harry sincerely hoped that the three would meet in friendship around +some festive table, and he was moved by the affection and admiration the +two colonels held for Carrington. Doubtless the great artilleryman's +feelings toward them were the same. + +They went into camp once more that night in a pleasant rolling country of +high hills, rich valleys, scattered forests, and swift streams of clear +water. Harry liked this Northern land, which was yet not so far from the +South. It was not more beautiful than his own Kentucky, but it was much +trimmer and neater than the states toward the Gulf. He saw all about +him the evidences of free labor, the proof that man worked more readily, +and with better results, when success or failure were all his own. + +He was too young to spend much time in concentrated thinking, but as he +looked upon the neat Pennsylvania houses and farms and the cultivated +fields he felt the curse of black slavery in the South, but he felt also +that it was for the South itself to abolish it, and not for the armed +hand of the outsider, an outsider to whom its removal meant no financial +loss and dislocation. + +Despite himself his mind dwelt upon these things longer than before. +He disliked slavery, his father disliked it, and nearly all their friends +and relatives, and here they were fighting for it, as one of the two +great reasons of the Civil War. He felt anew how strangely things come +about, and that even the wisest cannot always choose their own courses +as they wish them. + +A fire, chiefly for cooking purposes, had been built for the general and +his staff in a cove surrounded by trees. A small cold spring gushed from +the side of a hill, flowed down the center of the cove, and then made its +way through the trees into the wider world beyond. It was a fine little +spring, and before the general came, the younger members of the staff +knelt and drank deeply at it. It brought thoughts of home to all these +young rovers of the woods, who had drunk a thousand times before at just +such springs as this. + +Soon Lee and his generals sat there on the stones or on the moss. +Longstreet, Stuart, Pickett, Alexander, Ewell, Early, Hill and many +others, some suffering from wounds, were with their commander, while the +young officers who were to fetch and carry sat on the fringe in the woods, +or stretched themselves on the turf. + +Harry was in the group, but except in extreme emergency he would not +be on duty that night, as he had already been twenty-four hours in the +saddle. Nevertheless he was not yet sleepy, and lying on his blanket, +he watched the leaders confer, as they had conferred every other night +since the Battle of Gettysburg. He was aware, too, that the air was +heavy with suspense and anxiety. He breathed it in at every breath. +Cruel doubt was not shown by words or actions, but it was an atmosphere +which one could not mistake. + +Word had been brought in the afternoon by hard riders of Stuart that the +Potomac was still rising. It could not be forded and the active Northern +cavalry was in between, keeping advanced parties of the Southern army +from laying pontoons. Every day made the situation more desperate, +and it could not be hidden from the soldiers, who, nevertheless, marched +cheerfully on, in the sublime faith that Lee would carry them through. + +Harry knew that if the Army of the Potomac was not active in pursuit its +cavalrymen and skirmishers were. As on the night before, he heard the +faint report of shots, and he knew that rough work was going forward +along the doubtful line, where the fringes of the two armies almost met. +But hardened so much was he that he fell asleep while the generals were +still in anxious council, and the fitful firing continued in the distant +dark. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FLOODED RIVER + + +Harry and Dalton were aroused before daylight by Colonel Peyton of Lee's +staff, with instructions to mount at once, and join a strong detachment, +ready to go ahead and clear a way. Sherburne's troop would lead. +The Invincibles, for whom mounts had been obtained, would follow. +There were fragments of other regiments, the whole force amounting to +about fifteen hundred men, under the command of Sherburne, who had been +raised the preceding afternoon to the rank of Colonel, and whose skill +and valor were so well known that such veterans as Colonel Talbot and +Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire were glad to serve under him. Harry and +Dalton would represent the commander-in-chief, and would return whenever +Colonel Sherburne thought fit to report to him. + +Harry was glad to go. While he had his periods of intense thought, +and his character was serious, he was like his great ancestor, +essentially a creature of action. His blood flowed more swiftly with the +beat of his horse's hoofs, and his spirits rose as the free air of the +fields and forests rushed past him. Moreover he was extremely anxious to +see what lay ahead. If barriers were there he wanted to look upon them. +If the Union cavalry were trying to keep them from laying bridges across +the Potomac he wanted to help drive them away. + +Harry and Dalton had a right as aides and messengers of Lee to ride with +Sherburne, but before they joined him they rode among the Invincibles, +who were in great feather, because they too, for the time being, rode, +and toiled in neither dust nor mud. + +"Colonel Sherburne may think a good deal of his own immediate troop," +said St. Clair to Harry, "but if the men of the Invincibles could achieve +so much on foot they'll truly deserve their name on horseback. Where is +this enemy of ours? Lead us to him." + +"You'll find him soon enough," said Harry. "You South Carolina talkers +have learned many times that the Yankees will fight." + +"Yes, Harry, I admit it freely. But you must admit on your part that the +South Carolinians will fight as well as talk, although at present most of +the South Carolinians in this regiment are Virginians." + +"But not our colonel and lieutenant-colonel," said Happy Tom. "Real old +South Carolina still leads." + +"May they always lead!" said Harry heartily, looking at the two gray +figures. + +"Tell Colonel Sherburne," said Happy Tom, who was in splendid spirits, +"that we congratulate him on his promotion and are ready to obey him +without question." + +"All right. He'll be glad to know that he has your approval." + +"He might have the approval of worse men. I feel surging within me the +talents of a great general, but I'm too young to get 'em recognized." + +"You'll have to wait until the sections are not fighting each other, +but are united against a common foe. But meanwhile I'll tell Colonel +Sherburne that if he gets into a tight pinch not to lose heart as you are +here." + +Saluting Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire, Harry and +Dalton rode to the head of the column, where Sherburne led. They ate +their breakfast on horseback, and went swiftly down a valley in the +general direction of the Potomac. The dawn had broadened into full +morning, clear and bright, save for a small cloud that hung low in the +southwest, which Sherburne noticed with a frown. + +"That's a little cloud and it looks innocent," he said to Harry, "but I +don't like it." + +"Why not?" + +"Because in the ten minutes that I've been watching it I've been able to +notice growth. I'm weather-wise and we may have more rain. More rain +means a higher Potomac. A higher Potomac means more difficulty in +crossing it. More difficulty in crossing it means more danger of our +destruction, and our destruction would mean the end of the Confederacy." + +He spoke with deadly earnestness as he continued to look at the tiny +dusky spot on the western sky. Harry had a feeling of awe. Again he +realized that such mighty issues could turn upon a single hair. The +increase or decrease of that black splotch might mean the death or life +of the Confederacy. As he rode he watched it. + +His heart sank slowly. The little baby cloud, looking so harmless, +was growing. He said to himself in anger that it was not, but he knew +that it was. Black at the center, it radiated in every direction until +it became pale gray at the edges, and by and by, as it still spread, +it gave to the southwest an aspect that was distinctly sinister. + +Sherburne shook his head and the gravity of his face increased. As the +cloud grew alarm grew with it in his mind. + +"Maybe it will pass," said Harry hopefully. + +"I don't think so. It's not moving away. It just hangs there and grows +and grows. You're a woodsman, Harry, and you ought to feel it. Don't +you think the atmosphere has changed?" + +"I didn't have the courage to say so until you asked me, but it's damper. +If I were posing as a prophet I should say that we're going to have rain." + +"And so should I. Usually at this period of the year in our country we +want rain, but now we dread it like a pestilence. At any other time the +Potomac could rise or fall, whenever it pleased, for all I cared, but now +it's life and death." + +"Our doubts are decided and we've lost. Look, sir the whole southwest is +dark now!" + +"And here come the first drops!" + +Sherburne sent hurried orders among the men to keep their ammunition and +weapons dry, and then they bent their heads to the storm which would beat +almost directly in their faces. Soon it came without much preliminary +thunder and lightning. The morning that had been warm turned cold and +the rain poured hard upon them. Most of the horsemen were wet through in +a short time, and they shivered in their sodden uniforms, but it was a +condition to which they were used, and they thought little of themselves +but nearly all the while of the Potomac. + +Few words were spoken. The only sounds were the driving of the rain and +the thud of many hoofs in the mud. Harry often saw misty figures among +the trees on the hills, and he knew that they were watched by hostile +eyes as the Northern armies in Virginia, were always watched with the +same hostility. It was impossible for Lee's men to make any secret +march. The population, intensely loyal to the Union, promptly carried +news of it to Meade or his generals. + +Twice he pointed out the watchers to Sherburne who merely shrugged his +shoulders. + +"I might send out men and cut off a few of them," he said, "but for what +good? Hundreds more would be left and we'd merely be burdened with +useless prisoners. Here's a creek ahead, Harry, and look how muddy and +foamy it is! It's probably raining harder higher up in the hills than +it is here, and all these creeks and brooks go to swell the Potomac." + +The swift water rose beyond their stirrups and there was a vast splashing +as fifteen hundred men rode through the creek. It was a land of many +streams, and a few miles farther on they crossed another, equally swollen +and swift. + +They had hoped that the rain, like the sudden violence of a summer shower, +would pass soon, but the skies remained a solid gray and it settled into +a steady solemn pour, cold and threatening, and promising to continue all +day long. They could see that every stream they crossed was far above +its normal mark, and the last hope that they might find the Potomac low +enough for fording disappeared. + +The watchers on the hills were still there, despite the rain, but they +did no sharpshooting. Nor did the Southern force do damage to anybody or +anything, as it passed. Near noon Sherburne resolved to build a fire in +a cove protected by cliffs and heavy timber, and give his men warm food +lest they become dispirited. + +It was a task to set the wet wood, but the men of his command, used to +forest life, soon mastered it. Then they threw on boughs and whole tree +trunks, until a great bonfire blazed and roared merrily, thrusting out +innumerable tongues of red and friendly flame. + +"Is there anything more beautiful than a fine fire at such a time?" +said St. Clair to Harry. "As it blazes and eats into the wood it +crackles and those crackling sounds are words." + +"What do the words say?" + +"They say, 'Come here and stand before me. So long as you respect me and +don't come too close I'll do you nothing but good. I'll warm you and +I'll dry you. I'll drive the wet from your skin and your clothes, +and I'll chase the cold out of your body and bones. I'll take hold of +your depressed and sunken heart and lift it up again. Where you saw only +gray and black I'll make you see gold and red. I'll warm and cook your +food for you, giving you fresh life and strength. With my crackling +coals and my leaping flames I'll change your world of despair into a +world of hope.'" + +"Hear! Hear!" said Happy Tom. "Arthur has turned from a sodden soldier +into a giddy poet! Is any more poetry left in the barrel, Arthur?" + +"Plenty, but I won't turn on the tap again to-day. I've translated for +you. I've shown you where beauty and happiness lie, and you must do the +rest for yourself." + +They crowded about the huge fire which ran the entire length of the cove, +and watched the cooks who had brought their supplies on horseback. +Great quantities of coffee were made, and they had bacon and hard +biscuits. + +Although the rain still reached them in the cove they forgot it as they +ate the good food--any food was good to them--and drank cup after cup of +hot coffee. Youthful spirits rose once more. It wasn't such a bad day +after all! It had rained many times before and people still lived. +Also, the Potomac had risen many times before, but it always fell again. +They were riding to clear the way for Lee's invincible army which could +go wherever it wanted to go. + +"Men on horseback looking at us!" hailed Happy Tom. "About fifty on a +low hill on our right. Look like Yankee cavalrymen. Wonder what they +take us for anyway!" + +Harry, St. Clair, Langdon and Dalton walked to the edge of the cove, +every one holding a cup of hot coffee in his hand. Sherburne was already +there and with his glasses was examining the strange group, as well as he +could through the sweeping rain. + +"A scouting party undoubtedly," he said, "but weather has made their +uniforms and ours look just about alike. It's equally certain though +that they're Yankees. No troop of ours so small would be found here." + +Harry was also watching them through glasses, and he took particular note +of one stalwart figure mounted upon a powerful horse. The distance was +too great to recognize the face, but he knew the swing of the broad +shoulders. It was Shepard and once more he had the uneasy feeling winch +the man always inspired in him. He appeared and reappeared with such +facility, and he was so absolutely trackless that he had begun to appear +to him as omniscient. Of course the man knew all about Sherburne's +advance and could readily surmise its purpose. + +"They're an impudent lot to sit there staring at us in that supercilious +manner," said Colonel Talbot. "Shall I take the Invincibles, sir, +and teach them a lesson?" + +Sherburne smiled and shook his head. + +"No, Colonel," he said, "although I thank you for the offer. They'd melt +away before you and we'd merely waste our energies. Let them look as +much as they please, and now that the boys have eaten their bread and +bacon and drunk their coffee, and are giants again, we'll ride on toward +the Potomac." + +"Do we reach it to-day, sir?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +"Not before to-morrow afternoon, even if we should not be interrupted. +This is the enemy's country and we may run at any time into a force as +large as our own if not larger." + +"Thank you for the information, Colonel Sherburne. My ignorance of +geography may appear astonishing to you, although we had to study it very +hard at West Point. But I admit my weakness and I add, as perhaps some +excuse, that I have lately devoted very little attention to the Northern +states. It did not seem worth my time to spend much study on the rivers, +and creeks and mountains of what is to be a foreign country--although I +may never be able to think of John Carrington and many other of my old +friends in the army as the foreigners they're sure to become. Has the +thought ever occurred to you, Colonel, that by our victories we're making +a tremendous lot of foreigners in America?" + +"It has, Colonel Talbot, but I can't say that the thought has ever been a +particularly happy one." + +"It's the Yankees who are being made into foreigners," said Lieutenant- +Colonel St. Hilaire. "The gallant Southern people, of course, remain +what they are." + +"They're going," said Harry. "They've seen enough of us." + +The distant troop disappeared over the crest of the hill. Harry had +noticed that Shepard led the way as if he were the ruling spirit, but he +did not consider it necessary to say anything to the others about him. +The trumpet blew and Sherburne's force, mounting, rode away from the +cove. Harry cast one regretful glance back at the splendid fire which +still glowed there, and then resigned himself to the cold and rain. + +They did not stop again until far in the night. The rain ceased, but the +whole earth was sodden and the trees on the low ridge, on which Sherburne +camped, dripped with water. Spies might be all around them, but for the +sake of physical comfort and the courage that he knew would come with it, +he ordered another big fire built. Vigilant riflemen took turns in +beating up the forests and fields for possible enemies, but the young +officers once more enjoyed the luxury of the fire. Their clothing was +dried thoroughly, and their tough and sinewy frames recovered all their +strength and elasticity. + +"To enjoy being dry it is well to have been wet," said Dalton +sententiously. + +"That's just like you, you old Presbyterian," said Happy Tom. "I suppose +you'll argue next that you can't enjoy Heaven unless you've first burned +in the other place for a thousand years." + +"There may be something in that," said Dalton gravely, "although the test, +of course, would be an extremely severe one." + +"I know which way you're headed, George." + +"Then tell me, because I don't know myself." + +"As soon as this war is over you'll enter the ministry, and no sin will +get by you, not even those nice little ones that all of us like to +forgive." + +"Maybe you're right, Happy, and if I do go into the ministry I shall +at once begin long and earnest preparation for the task which would +necessarily be the most difficult of my life." + +"And may I make so bold as to inquire what it is, George?" + +"Your conversion, Happy." + +Langdon grinned. + +"But why do you want to convert me, George? I'm perfectly happy as I am." + +"For your own well being, Tom. Your happiness is nothing to me, but I +want to make you good." + +Both laughed the easy laugh of youth, but Harry looked long at Dalton. +He thought that he detected in him much of the spirit of Stonewall +Jackson, and that here was one who had in him the makings of a great +minister. The thought lingered with him. + +St. Clair was carefully smoothing out his uniform and brushing from it +the least particle of mud. His first preoccupation always asserted +itself at the earliest opportunity, and in a very short time he was the +neatest looking man in the entire force. Harry, although he often jested +with him about it, secretly admired this characteristic of St. Clair's. + +"You boys sleep while you can," said Sherburne, "because we can't afford +to linger in this region. Our safety lies in rapid marching, giving the +enemy no chance to gather a large force and trap us. Make the best of +your time because we're up and away an hour after midnight." + +The young officers were asleep within ten minutes, but the vigilant +riflemen patrolled the country in a wide circuit about them. Sherburne +himself, although worn by hard riding, slept but little. Anxiety kept +his eyes open. He knew that his task to find a passage for the army +across the swollen Potomac was of the utmost importance and he meant to +achieve it. He understood to the full the dangerous position in which +the chief army of the Confederacy stood. His own force might be attacked +at any moment by overwhelming numbers and be cut off and destroyed or +captured, but he also knew the quality of the men he led, and he believed +they were equal to any task. + +As he sat by the fire thinking somberly, a figure in the brush no great +distance away was watching him. Shepard, the spy, in the darkness had +passed with ease between the sentinels, using the skill of an Indian in +stalking or approaching, and now, lying well hidden, almost flat upon his +stomach, he surveyed the camp. He looked at Sherburne, sitting on a log +and brooding, and he made out Harry's figure wrapped in a blanket and +lying with his feet to the fire. + +Shepard's mind was powerfully affected. An intense patriot, something +remote and solitary in his nature had caused him to undertake this most +dangerous of all trades, to which he brought an intellectual power and +comprehension that few spies possess. As Harry had discovered long since, +he was a most uncommon man. + +Now Shepard as he gazed at this little group felt no hatred for them or +their men. He had devoted his life to the task of keeping the Union +intact. His work must be carried out in obscure ways. He could never +hope for material reward, and if he perished it would be in some +out-of-the-way corner, perhaps at the end of a rope, a man known to so +few that there would be none to forget him. And yet his patriotism was +so great and of such a fine quality that he viewed his enemies around the +fire as his brethren. He felt confident that the armies of the North +would bring them back into the Union, and when that occurred they must +come as Americans on an equal footing with other Americans. They could +not be in the Union and not of it. + +But Shepard's feeling for his official enemies would not keep him from +acting against them with all the skill, courage and daring that he +possessed in such supreme measure. He knew that it was Sherburne's task +to open a way for the Army of Northern Virginia to the Potomac and to +find a ford, or, in cooperation with some other force, to build a bridge. +It was for him to defeat the plan if he could. + +While the rain all the day before had brought gloom to the hearts of +Sherburne and his men it had filled his with joy, as he thought of the +innumerable brooks and creeks that were pouring their swollen waters into +the Potomac, already swollen too. He meant now to follow Sherburne's +force, see what plan it would attempt, what point, perhaps, it would +select for the bridge, and then bring the Union brigades in haste to +defeat it. + +It is said that men often feel when they are watched, although the +watcher is invisible, but it was not so in Sherburne's case. He did not +in the least suspect the presence of Shepard or of any foe, and the spy, +after he had seen all he wished, withdrew, with the same stealth that had +marked his coming. + +An hour after midnight all were awakened and they rode away. The next +day they reached the Potomac near Williamsport, where their pontoon +bridge had been destroyed, and looked upon the wide stream of the Potomac, +far too deep for fording. + +"If General Lee is attacked on the banks of this river by greatly +superior forces," said Sherburne, "he'll have no time to build bridges. +If we didn't happen to be victorious our forces would have to scatter +into the mountains, where they could be hunted down, man by man." + +"But such a thing as that is unthinkable, sir," said Harry. "We may not +win always, but here in the East we never lose. Remember Antietam and +the river at our back." + +"Right you are, Harry," said Sherburne more cheerfully. "The general +will get us out of this, and here is where we must cross. The river may +run down enough in two or three days to permit of fording. God grant +that it will!" + +"And so say I!" repeated Harry with emphasis. + +"I mean to hold this place for our army," continued Sherburne. + +"A reserved seat, so to speak." + +"Yes, that's it. We must keep the country cleared until our main +force comes up. It shouldn't be difficult. I haven't heard of any +considerable body of Union troops between us and the river." + +They made camp rapidly in a strong position, built their fires for +cooking, set their horses to grazing and awaited what would come. +It was a dry, clear night, and Harry, who had no duties, save to ride +with a message at the vital moment, looked at once for his friends, +the Invincibles. + +St. Clair met him and held up a warning hand, while Happy touched his lip +with his finger. Before the double injunction of silence and caution, +Harry whispered: + +"What's happened?" + +"A tragedy," replied St. Clair. + +"And a victory, too," said Happy Tom. + +"I don't understand," said Harry. + +"Then look and you will," said St. Clair. + +He pointed to a small clear space in which Colonel Leonidas Talbot and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sat on their blankets facing each +other with an empty cracker box between them, upon which their chess men +were spread. The firelight plainly revealed a look of dismay upon the +face of Colonel Talbot, and with equal plainness a triumphant expression +upon that of Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. + +"Colonel Talbot has lost his remaining knight," whispered St. Clair. +"I don't know how it came about, but when the event occurred we heard +them both utter a cry. Listen!" + +"I fail even yet, Hector, to see just how it occurred." said Colonel +Talbot. + +"But it has occurred, Leonidas, and that's the main thing. A general in +battle does not always know how he is whipped, but the whipping hurts +just as much." + +"You should not show too much elation over your triumph, Hector. +Remember that he laughs best who laughs last." + +"I take my laugh whenever I can, Leonidas, because no one knows who is +going to laugh last. It may be that he who laughs in the present will +also laugh at the end. What do you mean by that move, Leonidas?" + +"That to you is a mystery, Hector. It's like one of Stonewall Jackson's +flanking marches, and in due time the secret will be revealed with +terrible results." + +"Pshaw, Leonidas, you can't frighten a veteran like me. That for your +move, and here's mine in reply." + +The two gray heads bent lower over the board as the colonels made move +after move. The youths standing in the shadow of the trees watched until +the second time that night the two uttered a simultaneous cry. But they +were very different in quality. Now Colonel Talbot's expressed victory +and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire's consternation. + +"Your bishop, Hector!" exclaimed Colonel Talbot. "Pious and able +gentleman as he is, an honor to his cloth, he is nevertheless my captive." + +"I admit that it was most unexpected, Leonidas. You have matched my +victory with one of yours. It was indeed most skillful and I don't yet +see what led to it." + +"Did I not warn you a little while ago that you couldn't frighten me? +I prepared a trap for you, and thus I rise from defeat to victory." + +"At any rate we are about even on the evening's work, Leonidas, and we +have made more progress than for the whole six months preceding. It +seems likely now that we can finish our game soon." + +A sudden crash of rifle fire toward the east and from a point not distant +told them no. They rose to their feet, but they put the chessmen away +very deliberately, while the young officers hastened to their posts. +The fire continued and spread about them in a half circle, accompanied +now and then by the deeper note of a light field gun. Sherburne made his +dispositions rapidly. All the men remained on foot, but a certain number +were told off to hold the horses in the center of the camp. + +"We're attacked by a large force," said Sherburne, "Our scouts gave us +warning in time. Evidently they wish to drive us away from here because +this will be the ford in case the river falls in time." + +"Then you look for a sharp fight?" + +"Without question. And remember that you're to avoid all risk if you +can. It's not your business to get shot here, but it is your business, +and your highly important business, to ride back to General Lee with the +news of what's happening. In order to do that it's necessary for you to +remain alive." + +"I obey orders," said Harry reluctantly. + +"Of course you do. Keep back with the men who are holding the horses. +That fire is growing fast! I'm glad we were able to find a camp so +defensible as this hill." + +He hurried away to watch his lines and Harry remained at his station near +the horses, where Dalton was compelled by the same responsibility to stay +with him. It was the first time that Harry had been forced to remain a +mere spectator of a battle raging around him, and while not one who +sought danger for danger's sake, it was hard work to control himself and +remain quiet and unmoved. + +"I suspect they're trying to cut us off completely from our own army," +he said to Dalton. + +"Seems likely to me, too," said Dalton. "Wipe us out here, and hold the +river for themselves. Our scouts assured us that there was no large +force of the enemy in this region. It must have been gathered in great +haste." + +"In whatever way it was gathered, it's here, that's sure." + +There was a good moon now, and, using his glasses, Harry saw many details +of the battle. The attack was being pressed with great vigor and +courage. He saw in a valley numerous bodies of cavalry, firing their +carbines, and he saw two batteries, of eight light guns each, move +forward for a better range. Soon their shells were exploding near the +hill on which Harry stood, and the fire of the rifles, unbroken now, +grew rapidly in volume. + +But the men under Sherburne, youthful though most of them might be, +were veterans. They knew every trick of war, and columns of infantry +swept forward to meet the attack, preceded by the skirmishers, who took +heavy toll of the foe. + +"If they'd been able to make it a surprise they might have rushed us," +said Harry. + +"Nobody catches Sherburne sleeping," said Dalton. + +"That's true, and because they can't they won't be able to overcome him +here. Now there go our rifles! Listen to that crash. I fancy that +about a thousand were fired together, and they weren't fired for nothing." + +"No," said Dalton, "but the Yankees don't give way. You can see by their +line of fire that they're still coming. Look there! A powerful body of +horse is charging!" + +It was unusual to see cavalry attack at night, and the spectacle was +remarkable, as the moonlight fell on the raised sabers. But the defiant +rebel yell, long and fierce, rose from the thicket, and, as the rifles +crashed, the entire front of the charging column was burned away, as if +by a stroke of lightning. But after a moment of hesitation they came on, +only to ride deeper into a rifle fire which emptied saddles so fast that +they were at last compelled to turn and gallop away. + +"Brave men," said Harry. "A gallant charge, but it had to meet too many +Southern rifles, aimed by men who know how to shoot." + +"But their infantry are advancing through that wood," said Dalton. +"Hear them cheering above the rifle fire!" + +The Northern shout rang through the forest, and the rebel yell, again +full of defiance, replied. The cavalry had been driven off, but the +infantry and artillery were far from beaten. The sixteen guns of the +two batteries were massed on a hill and they began to sweep the Southern +lines with a storm of shells and shrapnel. The forest and the dark were +no protection, because the guns searched every point of the Southern line +with their fire. Sherburne's men were forced to give ground, before +cannon served with such deadly effect. + +"What will the colonel do?" asked Dalton. "The big guns give the Yankees +the advantage." + +"He'll go straight to the heart of the trouble," said Harry. "He'll +attack the guns themselves." + +He did not know actually in what manner Sherburne would proceed, but he +was quite sure that such would be his course. The wary Southern leader +instantly detailed a swarm of his best riflemen to creep through the +woods toward the cannon. In a few minutes the gunners themselves were +under the fire of hidden marksmen who shot surpassingly well. The +gunners, the cannoneers, the spongers, the rammers and the ammunition +passers were cut down with deadly certainty. + +The captain of the guns, knowing that the terrible rifle fire was coming +from the thickets, deluged the woods and bushes with shells and shrapnel, +but the riflemen lay close, hugging the ground, and although a few were +killed and more wounded, the vast majority crept closer and closer, +shooting straight and true in the moonlight. The fire from the batteries +became scattered and wild. Their crews were cut down so fast that not +enough men were left to work the guns, and their commander reluctantly +gave the order to withdraw to a less exposed position. + +"Rifles triumphant over artillery," said Harry, who studied everything +through his glasses; "but of course the dusk helped the riflemen." + +"That's true," said Dalton, "but it takes good men like Sherburne to use +the favoring chances. Now our boys are charging!" + +The tremendous rebel yell swelled through the forest, and the Southern +infantry rushed to the attack. Harry saw that the charge was successful, +and his ears told him so too. The firing moved further and further away, +and soon declined in volume. + +"They've been beaten off," said Harry. + +"At least for the time," said Dalton, "but I've an idea they'll hang on +our front and may attack again in a day or so." + +"How then are you and I to get through and tell General Lee that this is +the place to bridge the Potomac, if it's to be bridged at all?" + +Dalton shook his head. + +"I don't know," he replied, "and I won't think about it until Colonel +Sherburne gives his orders." + +The sounds of battle died in the distant woods. The last shot, whether +from cannon or rifle, was fired, and the Southern troops returned to +their positions, which they began to fortify strongly. Sherburne +appeared presently, his uniform cut by bullets in two or three places, +but his body untouched. He drew Harry and Dalton aside, where their +words could not be heard by anybody else. + +"You two," he said, "were to report to General Lee when I thought fit. +Well, the time has come; Harry, you go first, and, at a suitable moment, +George will follow. We have news of surpassing importance. We took +a number of prisoners in that battle and we were also lucky enough to +rescue several of our men who had been held as captives. We've learned +from them that General Meade, after making up his mind to pursue, +followed straight behind us for a while, but he has now turned and gone +southward in the direction of Frederick. He will cross South Mountain, +advance toward Sharpsburg, and attempt to smash us here, with our backs +to this swollen river. Why, some of the Federal leaders consider the +Army of Northern Virginia as good as destroyed already!" + +He spoke with angry emphasis. + +"But it isn't," said Harry. + +"No, it isn't. Doubtless General Lee will learn from scouts of his own +of General Meade's flanking movement, but we mustn't take the chance. +Moreover, we must tell him that this is the place for our army to cross. +If the river runs down in two or three days we'll have a ford here." + +"I'm ready to go at any moment," said Harry. "Night helping me, I may be +able to ride through the lines of our enemies out there." + +"No, Harry, you must not go that way. They're so vigilant that you would +not have any possible chance. Nor can you ride. You must leave your +horse behind." + +"What way then must I go, sir?" + +"By the river. We have gathered up a few small boats, used at the +crossing here. You can row, can't you?" + +"Fairly well, sir." + +"'Twill do, because you're not to stay in the boat long. I want you to +drop down the stream until you're well beyond the Federal lines. Then +leave the boat and strike out across the country for General Lee. +You know the way. You can buy or seize a horse, and you must not fail." + +"I will not fail," said Harry confidently. + +"You'll succeed if anybody will, and now you must be off. Your pistols +are loaded, Harry? You may have to use them." + +They did not delay a minute, going down the shelving shore to the Potomac, +where a man held a small boat against the bank. + +"Get in, Harry," said Sherburne. "You'd better drop down three or four +miles, at least. Good-by and good luck." + +He shook hands with his colonel and Dalton, took the oars and pulled far +out into the stream. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A HERALD TO LEE + + +When he swept out upon the sullen bosom of the Potomac, Harry looked back +only once. He saw two dim figures going up the bank, and, at its crest, +a line of lights that showed the presence of the Southern force. There +was no sound of firing, and he judged that the enemy had withdrawn to a +distance of two or three miles. + +The night had turned darker since the battle ceased, and not many stars +were out. Clouds indicated that flurries of rain might come, but he did +not view them now with apprehension. Darkness and rain would help a +herald to Lee. The current was strong, and he did not have to pull hard, +but, observing presently that the far shore was fringed with bushes, +he sent the boat into their shadow. + +He did not anticipate any danger from the southern shore, but the old +inherited caution of the forest runners was strong within him. Under the +hanging bushes he was well hidden, but, in some places, the flood in the +river had turned the current back upon itself, and he was compelled to +pull with vigor on the oars. + +The clouds that had threatened did not develop much, and while the +forests were dark, the surface of the river showed clearly in the faint +moonlight. Any object upon it could be seen from either bank, and Harry +was glad that he had sought the shelter of the overhanging bushes. +He realized now that in this region, which was really the theater of war, +many scouts and skirmishers must be about. + +The bank above him was rather high and quite steep, for which he was glad, +as it afforded protection. A half mile farther down he came to the mouth +of a creek coming in from the South, and just as he passed it he heard +voices on the bank. He held his boat among the bushes on the cliff and +listened. Several men were talking, but he judged them to be farmers, +not soldiers. Yet they talked of the battle that night, and Harry +surmised that they were looking at the lights in the Southern camp which +might yet be visible from the high point on which they stood. He could +not gather from their words whether they were Northern or Southern +sympathizers, but it did not matter, as he had no intention of speaking +to them, hoping only that they would go away in a few minutes and let him +continue his journey unseen. + +His hope speedily came to pass. He heard their voices sinking in the +distance, and leaving the shelter of the bushes he pulled down the stream +once more. Then he found that he had deceived himself about the clouds. +If they had retired, they had merely recoiled, to use the French phrase, +in order to gather again with greater force. + +During his short stay among the bushes at the foot of the cliff the whole +heavens had blackened and the air was surcharged with the heavy damp and +tensity that betoken a coming storm. The lightning blazed across the +river thrice, and he heard a mutter which was not that of cannon. +Then came rain and a rushing wind and the surface of the river was +troubled grievously. It rose up in waves like those of a lake, and +Harry's boat rocked and tumbled so badly that in a few minutes it was +half-full of water. + +Fearing he might sink, carrying with him his great message, he pulled +again, but fiercely now, for the southern bank and the shelter of the +bushes, which, fortunately for him, grew here in the water's edge. +He shoved his boat with all his might among them, as their tops snapped +and crackled in the hurricane. But he knew he was safe there, and he +continued to push until it reached the edge of the land. + +The river would be swollen by another storm, but for the present it did +not bother him greatly. He was more immediately concerned with his wish +to get back to Lee as soon as possible, and he was grateful for that +dense clump of bushes, growing in the very water's edge, because the wind +was blowing like a hurricane and the waves were chasing one another on +the Potomac, like the billows on a lake. He was a fair oarsman, but it +would have taken greater skill than his to have kept his boat afloat in +the tempestuous river. + +The bushes formed an absolute protection. His boat swayed with them, +which saved it from being damaged, and the overhanging lee of the cliff +kept most of the rain from him. He also wrapped about his body the pair +of blankets that he always carried, and he sat there not only in safety, +but with a certain physical pleasure. + +Once more amid surroundings with the like of which Henry Ware had been so +familiar, the soul of his great ancestor seemed to have descended upon +him. Most young officers, no matter how brave or how skilled in war, +would have been awed and alarmed. He had no comrades at his elbow. +There was no light, no friendly sound to encourage him, he was as truly +alone, so far as his present situation was concerned, as any pioneer had +ever been in the heart of the wilderness. But for him there was pleasure +at that moment in being alone. He did not quiver when the thunder rolled +and crashed above his head, and the lightning blazed in one Titanic +sword slash after another across the surface of the river. Rather, the +wilderness and majesty of the scene appealed to him. Leaning well back +in his boat with his blankets closely wrapped about him, he watched it, +and his soul rose with the storm. + +Harry knew from its sudden violence that the rain would soon pass, +and if the waves abated a little he would certainly take his boat into +the river and try his fortunes again. Yet a precious hour was lost, +and nothing could replace it. The thunder ceased by and by and there was +only dim lightning on the far horizon. The waves began to abate, and, +taking off his blankets, he pushed his boat once more into the stream. + +It rocked prodigiously and shipped water, but by strenuous effort he kept +it afloat, and as the wind sank still further he decided that he would +seek the northern shore and disembark as soon as possible. It would be +easier to steal through the thickets than to navigate what amounted to +a wild sea. But the banks were yet too high and steep for a landing, +and he continued to row, keeping now near the middle of the stream. + +Wind and rain were dying fast, and he heard a sound behind uncommonly +like the distant swish of oars. It sent an unpleasant thrill through him, +because he wished to be alone on the river at that particular time, +but his eyes, tracing a course through all the dusk and gloom, rested +upon another boat, about two hundred yards away, containing a single +occupant. + +A farmer or a riverman, Harry thought, but to his great astonishment +the man suddenly raised himself up a little and shouted to him in a +tremendous voice to halt. Harry had not the least idea of stopping for +anybody. He bent to his oars and rowed swiftly on. Again came that +shout to halt, and it seemed more insolent to him than before. He put a +few more ounces of strength into his arms and shoulders and increased his +speed. + +The pursuer, suddenly drawing in his oars, raised a rifle from the bottom +of his boat, and fired point blank at the fugitive. The bullet whistled +so near Harry that he felt his ear burn, and at first thought he was hit. +He would have been glad to fire back, but his pistols could not carry +like his enemy's rifle, and there was nothing to do but flee. Once again +he sought to draw a few more ounces of energy from his body. But the +man behind him was a much greater oarsman than he and gained rapidly. +The stranger, shouting another command to halt, to which no attention +was paid, fired a second time, and the bullet went through the side of +Harry's boat, barely scraping his knee as it passed. + +His rage became intense. He had been shot at many times in battle, +and many times he had fired his pistols into the opposing masses, but +here upon this river a man sought his life, as the savages of old sought +the hunter. Another glance showed him that pursuer had closed up half +the distance between them, and, snatching one of the pistols from his +belt, he fired. He knew that he had missed, as he saw the water spurt up +beside the boat, but he thought that his bullet and the probability of +more might delay the pursuit. Nevertheless the man came on as boldly and +as fast as ever. If he fired a third time he could scarcely miss at such +short range. + +It seemed to Harry the gift of Heaven, that a whole pack of clouds should +drift above them at that moment, deepening the obscurity and making the +pursuing boat, although it was so near, a shapeless form in the mist. +He could not see the features of the man, but he was able to discern his +large and powerful figure, and he noticed the rhythmic manner in which +his arms and shoulders worked at the oars. Obviously he had no chance to +escape him by flight, and drawing his second pistol he fired. The bullet +struck the boat but did no damage. The man came on faster than ever. +Harry took a desperate resolution, and, whirling his boat about, he +rowed it straight at his pursuer, who was now almost level with him. He +intended to ram and take his chances. His movement was so quick and +unexpected that it succeeded. The bow of his boat, helped perhaps by a +wave, struck the other with such violence that both were shattered and +sank instantly. + +Harry went down with his craft, but in a few seconds came up again, +his mouth and eyes full of muddy water. He was a splendid swimmer, +and his eyes clearing in a moment he looked toward the northern shore, +seeking an easy place for landing. They encountered ten feet away a +large sun-browned face and two burning eyes. + +"Shepard!" Harry gasped. + +"And so it was you, Lieutenant Kenton. Perhaps if I had known it was you +I wouldn't have fired upon you." + +"Don't let that deter you. We're enemies." + +"I merely said 'perhaps!' I like you, but that wouldn't keep me from +stopping you by any method I could from reaching Lee." + +"I'm sure it wouldn't. I like you, too, Mr. Shepard, but we're enemies +here in this river, deadly enemies, and I mean to beat you off." + +"One may mean to do a thing and yet not do it. I'm the larger and the +more powerful. Besides, I'm toughened by superior age. You'd better +surrender, Mr. Kenton. I don't want to do you any bodily harm." + +"I admit that you're larger and stronger, but on land only. I'm the +better swimmer. We're both floating now, but if you'll make a comparison, +Mr. Shepard, you'll find that I'm doing it with the greatest ease. +Take my advice, and swim to the southern bank of the river while I go to +the northern. I say it in all good faith." + +"I've no doubt of that, but the young are likely to over-estimate their +powers. I'm a good swimmer, and you can't escape me." + +"The important point is not whether I can escape you, but whether you can +escape me. Since you have lost your boat and your rifle and we're in +such a treacherous and unstable element as water, I occupy the superior +position. The young may indeed over-estimate their powers, but in +swimming at least I'm a competent critic. For instance, you're holding +your shoulders too high, and you kick too much. You're splashing water, +a useless waste of energy. Now observe me. The surface of this river is +rough. Little waves are yet running upon it, but I float as easily as a +fish, come up to see by the moon what time it is. It is not egotism on +my part, merely a recognition of the facts, but I warn you, Mr. Shepard, +to swim to the other shore and let me alone." + +The two were not ten feet apart, and, despite the lightness of their talk, +their eyes burned with eagerness and intensity. Harry knew that Shepard +would not dream of turning back. Yet in the water he awaited the result +with a confidence that he would not have felt on land. + +"It's your move, Mr. Shepard," he said. + +The intensity of Shepard's gaze increased, and Harry never took his eyes +from those of his enemy. He intended like a prize fighter to read there +what the man's next effort would be. + +"I don't see that it's my move," said Shepard, as he floated calmly. + +"You're following me for the purpose of capturing me." + +"To capture you, or delay you. Meanwhile, it seems to me that I'm +delaying you very successfully. I can't see that you're making much +progress towards Lee." + +"That depends upon which way this river is flowing. You note that we +float gently with the stream." + +"It's a poor argument. The Potomac flows directly by Washington, and +if we were to float on we'd float into the heart of great Northern +fortresses instead of Lee's camp." + +"That's true as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough. I'm +leaving the river soon. You can have it all then." + +"Thanks, but I think I'll go with you, Lieutenant Kenton." + +"Then come to the bottom!" exclaimed Harry, as he dived forward like a +flash, seized Shepard by the ankles and headed for the bottom of the +river with him. The water gurgled in his eyes and ears and nose, but he +held on for many seconds, despite the man's desperate struggles. Then +he was forced to let go and rise. + +As his head shot above the stream he saw another shooting up in the same +manner about fifteen feet away. Both were choked and gasping, but Harry +managed to say: + +"I didn't intend for you to come up so soon." + +"I suppose not, but perhaps you didn't pause to think that when you rose +I'd rise with you." + +"Yes, that's true. It seems to me that matters grow complicated. +Can't you persuade yourself, Mr. Shepard, to go and leave me alone? +I really have no use for you here." + +"I'd like to oblige you, Lieutenant Kenton, but I intend to see that you +don't reach General Lee." + +"Still harping upon that? It seems to me that you're a stupidly stubborn +man. Don't you know that I'm going anyhow?" + +Harry had never ceased to watch his eyes, and he saw there the signal of +a coming movement. Shepard dived suddenly for him, intending to repeat +his own trick, but the youth was like a fish in the water, and he darted +to the right. The man came up grasping nothing. Harry laughed. The +chagrin of Shepard compelled his amusement, although he liked the man. + +"I wish you'd go away, Mr. Shepard," he said. "On land you could, +perhaps, overpower me, but in the water I think I'm your master. All +through my boyhood I devoted a great deal of my time to swimming. +Dr. Russell of the Pendleton Academy--but you never knew him--used to say +that if I would swim less and study more I could make greater pretensions +to scholarship." + +Shepard, swimming rather easily, regarded him thoughtfully. + +"While we talk to each other in this more or less polite manner, +Mr. Kenton," he said, "we must not forget that we're in deadly earnest. +I mean to take you, and our scouts mean to take every other messenger who +goes out from Colonel Sherburne's camp. You know, and I know, that if +the Army of Northern Virginia does not reach in a few days that camp, +where there is a ford in ordinary weather, it will be driven up against +the Potomac and we can accumulate such great forces against it that it +cannot possibly escape. Even at Sherburne's place its escape is more +than doubtful, if it has to linger long." + +"Yes, I know these things quite well, Mr. Shepard. I know also, as you +do, that General Meade's army is not in direct pursuit, and, that in a +flanking movement, he is advancing across South Mountain and toward +Sharpsburg. It is a march well calculated and extremely dangerous to +General Lee, if he does not hear of it in time. But he will hear of it +soon enough. A comrade of mine, George Dalton, will tell him. Others +from Colonel Sherburne's camp will tell him, and I mean to tell him too. +I hope to be the first to do so." + +Harry never deceived himself for a moment. He knew that although Shepard +liked him, he would go to the uttermost to stop him, and as for himself, +while he had a friendly feeling for the spy, he meant to use every weapon +he could against him. Realizing that he could not linger much longer, +as the chill of the water was already entering his body, he swam closer +to Shepard, still staring directly into his eyes. How thankful he was +now for those innumerable swimmings in the little river that ran near +Pendleton! Everything learned well justifies itself some day. + +Although there was but little moonlight they were so close together that +they could see the eyes of each other clearly, and Harry detected a +trace of uneasiness in those of Shepard. A good swimmer, the water +nevertheless was not his element, and although a man of great physique +and extraordinary powers, he longed for the solid earth under his feet. + +Harry drew himself together as if he were going to dive, but instead of +doing so suddenly raised himself in the water and shot forth his clenched +tight fist with all his might. Shepard was taken completely by surprise +and he sank back under the water, leaving a blood stain on its surface. +Harry watched anxiously, but Shepard came up again in a moment or two, +gasping and swimming wildly. The point of his jaw was presented fairly +and Harry struck again as hard as he could in the water. Shepard with +a choked cry went under and Harry, diving forward, seized his body, +bringing it to the surface. + +Shepard was senseless, but getting an arm under his shoulders Harry was +able to swim with him to the northern shore, although it took nearly all +his strength. Then he dragged him out upon the bank, and sank down, +panting, beside him. + +The great Civil War in America, the greatest of all wars until nearly +all the nations of Europe joined in a common slaughter, was a humane war +compared with other wars approaching it in magnitude. It did not occur +to Harry to let Shepard drown, nor did he leave him senseless on the +bank. As soon as his own strength returned he dragged him into a +half-sitting position, and rubbed the palms of his hands. The spy opened +his eyes. + +"Good-by, Mr. Shepard," said Harry. "I'm bound to leave before you +recover fully because then I wouldn't be your match. I'm sorry I had to +hit you so hard, but there was nothing else to do." + +"I don't blame you. It was man against man." + +"The water was in my favor. I'm bound to admit that on land you'd have +won." + +"At any rate I thank you for dragging me out of the river." + +"You'd have done as much for me." + +"So I would, but our personal debts of gratitude can't be allowed to +interfere with our military duty." + +"I know it. Therefore I take a running start. Good-by." + +"We'll meet again." + +"But not on this side of the Potomac. It may happen when the Army of +Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac go into battle on the other +side of the river." + +Harry darted into the forest, and ran for a half-hour. He meant to put +as much distance as possible between Shepard and himself before the +latter's full strength returned. He knew that Shepard would follow, +if he could, but it was not possible to trail one who had a long start +through dark and wet woods. + +He came through the forest and into a meadow surrounded by a rail fence, +on which he sat until his breath came back again. He had forgotten all +about his wet uniform, but the run was really beneficial to him as it +sent the blood leaping through his veins and warmed his body. + +"So far have I come," said Harry, "but the omens promise a hard march." + +He had his course fixed very clearly, and a veteran now in experience, +he could guide himself easily by the moon and stars. The clouds were +clearing away and a warm wind promised him dry clothing, soon. Long +afterward he thought it a strange coincidence that his cousin, Dick Mason, +in the far South should have been engaged upon an errand very similar in +nature, but different in incident. + +He crossed the meadow, entered an orchard and then came to a narrow road. +The presence of the orchard indicated the proximity of a farmhouse, +and it occurred to Harry that he might buy a horse there. The farmer +was likely to be hostile, but risks must be taken. He drew his pistols. +He knew that neither could be fired after the thorough wetting in the +river, but the farmer would not know that. He saw the house presently, +a comfortable two-story frame building, standing among fine shade trees. +Without hesitation he knocked heavily on the door with the butt of a +pistol. + +He was so anxious to hasten that his blows would have aroused the best +sleeper who ever slept, and the door was quickly opened by an elderly man, +not yet fully awake. + +"I want to buy a horse." + +"Buy a horse? At this time of the night?" + +He was about to slam the door, but Harry put his foot over the sill and +the muzzle of his pistol within six inches of the man's nose. + +"I want to buy a horse," he repeated, "and you want to sell one to me. +I think you realize that fact, don't you?" + +"Yes, I do," replied the man, looking down the muzzle of the big horse +pistol. + +"Come outside and close the door behind you. I know you haven't on many +clothes, but the night's warm, and you need fresh air." + +The man with the muzzle of the pistol still near his nose, obeyed. +But as he looked at the weapon he also had a comprehensive view of the +one who held it. + +"Wet ain't you?" he said. + +"Do you think it necessary to put it in the form of a question?" + +"I don't like to say, unless I'm shore." + +"Where do you keep your horses?" + +"In the barn here to the left. What kind of a horse did you think you'd +keer fur most, stranger?" + +"The biggest, the strongest and fastest you've got" + +"I thought mebbe you'd want one with wings, you 'pear to be in such a +pow'ful hurry. I wish you wouldn't keep that pistol so near to my nose. +'Sides, you've gethered so much mud an' water 'bout you that you ain't so +very purty to look at!" + +"It's your own mud and water. I didn't bring it into this country with +me." + +"Which means that you don't belong in these parts. I reckon lookin' at +you that you wuz one o' them rebels that went to Gettysburg and then come +back ag'in." + +"Exactly right, Mr. Farmer. I'm an officer in General Lee's army." + +"Then I wuz right 'bout you needin' a horse with wings. An' I guess all +the men in your army need horses with wings. Don't be in such a tarnal +hurry. You're goin' to stay right up here with us, boarders, so to speak, +till the war is over." + +Harry laughed. + +"Kind of you," he said, "but here is the stable and do you open the stall +doors one by one, and let me see the horses. At the first sign of any +trick I pull the trigger." + +"Well, as I don't like violence I'll show you the horses. Here's the +gray mare, five years old, swift but can't last long. This is old Rube, +nigh onto ten, mighty strong, but as balky as a Johnny Reb hisself. +Don't want him! No? Then I think that's about all." + +"No it's not! You open that last stall door at once!" + +The farmer made a wry face, and threw back the door with a slam. Harry +still covering the man with the pistol that couldn't go off, saw a +splendid bay horse about four years old. + +"Holding out on me, were you?" he said. "Did you think a Confederate +officer could be fooled in that manner?" + +"I reckon I oughtn't to have thought so. I've always heard that the +rebels had mighty good eyes for Yankee horseflesh." + +"I'll let that pass, because maybe it's true. Now, saddle and bridle him +quicker than ever before in your life." + +The farmer did so, and Harry took care to see that the girth was secure. + +"At how much did you value this horse?" he asked. + +"I did put him down at two hundred dollars, but I reckon he's worth +nothin' to me now." + +"Here's your money. When General Lee goes through the enemy's country he +pays for what he takes." + +He thrust a roll of good United States bills into the astonished man's +hand, and sprang upon the horse. Then he turned from the stable and rode +swiftly up the road, but not so swiftly that he did not hear a bullet +singing past his ears. A backward glance showed him an elderly farmer in +his night clothes standing on his porch and reloading his rifle. + +"Well, I can't blame you, I suppose," said Harry. "You can guess pretty +well what I am, and it's your business to stop me." + +But he rode fast enough to be far beyond the range of a second bullet, +and maintained a good pace for a long time, through hilly and wooded +country. His uniform dried upon him, and his hardy form felt no ill +result from the struggle in the river. The horse was strong and spirited, +and Harry knew that he could carry him without weariness to Lee. He +looked upon his mission as already accomplished, but his ambition to +reach the commander-in-chief first was yet strong. + +He rode throughout the rest of the night and dawn and the pangs of hunger +came together. But he decided that he would not turn from his path to +seek food. He would go on straight for Lee and let hunger have its way. +He had a splendid horse under him and he was faring quite as well as he +had a right to expect. He thought of Shepard, and felt pity for him. +The man had only striven to do his duty, and while he had used force +he had been very courteous and polite about it. Harry was bound to +acknowledge that his had been a very chivalrous enemy and only his +superiority in swimming had enabled him to win over Shepard. He was glad +that he had saved him and had left him on the bank, so to speak, to dry. + +Then Shepard faded away with the mists and vapors that were retreating +before a brilliant dawn. The country was high, rolling, and the foliage, +although much browned by the July sun, which was unusually hot that year, +was still dense. Most of the hills were heavy with forest, but all the +valleys between were fertile and well cultivated. With the dew of the +morning fresh upon it the whole region was refreshing and soothing to the +eye with a look of peace, where in reality there was no peace. Many thin +columns of smoke lying blue against the silver sky told where farmhouses +stood, and hunger suddenly seized upon Harry again. + +Hunger is natural to youth, and his severe exertions all through the +night had greatly increased it. It became both a pain and a weakness. +His shoulders drooped with fatigue, and he felt that he must have food +or faint by the way. + +He was ashamed of his physical weakness, but he knew that unless he found +food his faintness would increase, and hunger alone would stop him, +where so able a man as Shepard could not. His uniform, faded anyhow, +was so permeated with the dried mud of the river that it would take a +keen eye to tell whether it was Federal or Confederate, and he need not +disclose his identity in this region, which was so strongly for the +Union. He made up his mind quickly and rode for the nearest farmhouse. + +Harry knew that he was inviting risks. His pistols were still useless +but they would be handy for threats, and he should be able to take care +of himself at a farmhouse. + +The house that he had chosen was only a few hundred yards away, its white +walls visible among trees, and the clatter of his horse's hoofs brought a +man from a barn in the rear. Harry noted him keenly. He was youngish, +stalwart and the look out of his blue eyes was fearless. He came +forward slowly, examining his visitor, and his manner was not altogether +hospitable. Harry decided that he had to deal with a difficult customer +but he had no idea of turning back. + +"Good morning," he said politely. + +"Good morning." + +"I wish some breakfast and I will pay. I've ridden all night in our +service." + +"You've so much dried mud on you that you look as if you'd been passin' +through a river." + +"Correct. That's exactly what happened." + +"But there's none on your horse." + +"He didn't pass with me. I'm willing to answer any reasonable number of +questions, but, as I told you before, I ride on an important service. +I must have breakfast at once, and I'll pay." + +"Whose service? Ours or Reb's?" + +"A military messenger can't answer the chance questions of those by the +roadside. I tell you I want breakfast at once." + +"Fine horse you ride, stranger. How long have you had him?" + +"All this year." + +"Funny. When I saw him last week he belonged to Jim Kendall down by the +Potomac, an' livin' on this very road, too." + +"It isn't half as funny as you think. Hands up! Now call to your wife +as loud as you can to bring me coffee and food at the gate! I know +they're ready in the kitchen. I can smell 'em here. Out with it, +call as fast as and as loud as you can, or off goes the top of your head!" + +Although a horse pistol held in a firm hand was thrust under his nose, +the man's blue eyes glared hate and defiance, and his mouth did not open. +Harry, in his excitement and anger, forgot that the charge in his weapon +was ruined and hence it was no acting with him when his own eyes blazed +down at the other and he fairly shouted: + +"I give you until I can count ten to call your wife! One! two! three! +four! five! six! seven! eight! nine!--" + +"Sophy! Sophy!" cried the farmer, who saw death flaming in the eyes that +looked into his, "Come! Come a-runnin'!" + +A good looking young woman threw open a door and ran, frightened, toward +the gate, where she saw her husband under the pistol muzzle of a wild and +savage looking man on horseback. + +"Sophy," said the farmer, "bring this infernal rebel a cup of coffee and +a plate of bread and meat. If it weren't for his pistol I'd drag him off +his horse and carry him to General Meade, but he's got the drop on me!" + +"And Sophy," said Harry, who was growing cooler, "you make it a big tin +cup of coffee and you see that the plate is piled high with meat and +bread. Now don't you make one mistake. Don't you come back with any +weapon in your hand in place of food, and don't you fire on me from the +house with the family rifle. You're young and you're good looking, and, +doubtless the widow of our friend here with the upraised hands, wouldn't +have to wait long for another husband just as good as he is." + +The woman paled a little, and Harry knew that some thought of the family +rifle had been in her mind. The husband's glare became ferocious. + +"You can take your hands down," said Harry. "I've no wish to torture you, +and I'm satisfied now that you're not armed." + +The man dropped his arms and the woman hurried to the kitchen. Harry did +not watch her, but kept his eyes continually upon the man, who he knew +would take advantage of his first careless moment, and spring for him +like a tiger. A pistol that he couldn't fire wouldn't be of much use to +him then. + +But the woman returned with a big tin cup of smoking coffee and a plate +piled high with bread and bacon and beefsteak. It was a welcome sight. +The aspect of the whole world became brighter at once, and the pulse of +hope beat high. But happiness did not make him relax caution. + +"Stand back about ten feet more," he said to the man, "I don't like your +looks." + +"What's the matter with my looks?" + +"It's not exactly your looks I mean, though they're scarcely worthy of +the lady, your wife, but it's rather your attitude or position which +reminds me of a lion or a tiger about to spring upon something it hates." + +The man, with a savage growl, withdrew a little. + +"I'd like to put a bullet through you," he said. + +"I've no doubt of it, your eyes show it, but before I take a polite leave +of you I want to tell you that I did not steal this horse from your +friend, Jim Kendall. I paid for it at his own valuation." + +"Confederate money that won't be worth a dollar a bale before long." + +"Oh, no, bills that were made and stamped at Washington, and I pay for +this breakfast in silver." + +He dropped it into the hand of the woman, as he took the huge cup of +coffee from her. Then he drank deep and long, and again and again, +draining the last drop of the brown liquid. + +"I hope it's burnt the lining out of your throat," said the man savagely. + +"It was warm, but I like it that way. It was good indeed, and I'm sorry, +Madame, that you have such a violent and ill-tempered husband. Maybe +your next will be a much better man." + +"John is neither violent nor ill-tempered. He's never said a harsh word +to me since we were married. But he hates the rebels dreadfully." + +"That's too bad. I don't hate him and I'm glad you can give him a good +character. A man's own wife knows best. Now, I'm going to eat this +breakfast as I ride on. You'll find the plate on the fence a quarter of +a mile ahead." + +He bowed to both, and still keeping a wary eye on the man, thrust his +pistol into his belt, and as his horse moved forward at a swift and easy +gait he began to eat with a ravenous appetite. + +A backward glance showed husband and wife still gazing at him. But it +was only for a moment. They ran into the house and a little further on +Harry looked back again. They had reappeared and he almost expected to +hear again the whistle of a rifle shot, fired from a window. But the +distance was much too great, and he devoted renewed attention to the +demands of hunger. + +When he had finished his breakfast he put the plate upon the fence as he +had promised, and, looking back for the last time, he saw an American +flag wave to and fro on the roof of the house. He felt a thrill of +alarm. It must be a signal concerning him and it could be made only to +his enemies. Speaking sharply to his horse, he urged him into a gallop. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE DANGEROUS ROAD + + +The road led in the general direction of Lee's army and Harry knew that +if he followed it long enough he was bound to reach his commander, +but the two words "long enough" might defeat everything. Undoubtedly a +Federal force was near, or the farmer and his wife would not be signaling +from the roof of their house. + +A plucky couple they were and he gave them all credit, but he was aware +that while he had secured breakfast from them they had put the wolves +upon his trail. There were high hills on both the right and left of the +road, and, as he galloped along he examined them through his glasses for +flags answering the signal on the house. But he saw nothing and the +thickness of the forest indicated that even if the signals were made +there it was not likely he could see them. + +Now he wisely restrained the speed of his horse, so full of strength and +spirit that it seemed willing to run on forever, and brought him down to +a walk. He had an idea that he would soon be pursued, and then a fresh +horse would be worth a dozen tired ones. + +The road continued to run between high, forested hills, splendid for +ambush, and Harry saw what a danger it was not to have knowledge of the +country. He understood how the Union forces in the South were so often +at a loss on ground that was strange to them. + +The road now curved a little to the left, and a few hundred yards ahead +another from the east merged with it. Along this road the forest was +thinner, and upon it, but some distance away, he saw bobbing heads in +caps, twenty, perhaps, in number. He knew at once that they were the +enemy, called by the signal, and leaning forward he spoke in the ear of +his good horse. + +"You and I haven't known each other long," he said, "but we're good +friends. I paid honest and sufficient money for you, when I could have +ridden away on you without paying a cent. I know you have a powerful +frame and that your speed is great. I really believe you're the fastest +runner in all this part of the state. Now, prove it!" + +The horse stretched out his neck, and the road flew behind him, his body +working like a mighty machine perfectly attuned, even to its minutest +part. Harry's words had met a true response. He heard a cry on the +cross road, and the bobbing heads came forward much faster. Either they +had seen him or they had heard the swift beat of his horse's hoofs. +Loud shouts arose, but he saw the uniforms of the men, and he knew that +they belonged to the Northern army. + +He went past the junction of the roads, as if he were flying, but he was +not a bit too soon, as he heard the crack of rifles, and bullets struck +in the earth behind him. He knew that they would follow, hang on +persistently, but he had supreme confidence in the speed and strength of +his horse, and youth rode triumphant. It was youth more than anything +else that made him raise himself a little in his saddle, look back to his +pursuers and fling to them a long, taunting cry, just as Henry Ware more +than once had taunted his Indian pursuers before disappearing in a flight +that their swiftest warriors could not match. + +But the little band of Union troopers clung to the chase. They too +had good horses, and they knew that the man before them was a Southern +messenger, and in those hot July days of 1863 all military messages +carried on the roads north of the Potomac were important. The fate of an +army or a nation might turn upon any one of them, and the lieutenant who +led the little Union troop was aware of it. He was a man of intelligence +and a consuming desire to overtake the lone horseman lay hold of him. +He knew, as well as any general, that since Gettysburg the fate of the +South was verily trembling in the balance, and the slightest weight +somewhere might decide the scales. So he resolved to hang on through +everything and the chances were in his favor. It was his own country. +The Federal troops were everywhere, and any moment he might have aid in +cutting off the fugitive. + +When Harry eased his horse's flight he saw the troop, very distant but +still pursuing, and he read the mind of the Union leader. He was saving +his mounts, trailing merely, in the hope that Harry would exhaust his own +horse, after which he and his men would come on at great speed. + +Harry looked down at his horse and saw that he was heaving with his great +effort. He knew that he had made a mistake in driving him so hard at +first, and with the courage of which only a young veteran would have been +capable he brought the animal almost to a walk, and resolutely kept him +there, while the enemy gained. When they were almost within rifle shot +he increased his speed again, but he did not seek for the present to +increase his gain. + +As long as their bullets could not reach him his horse should merely go +stride for stride with theirs, and when the last stretch was reached, +he would send forward the brave animal at his utmost speed. His were the +true racing tactics drawn from his native state. He had no doubt of his +ability to leave his pursuers far behind when the time came, but his true +danger was from interference. He too knew that many Union cavalry troops +were abroad, and he watched on either flank for them as he rode on. +At the crest of every little hill he swept the whole country, but as yet +he saw nothing but peaceful farmhouses. + +The day was clear and bright, not so warm as its predecessors, and he +calculated by the sun that he was going straight toward Lee. He knew +that a great army always marched slowly, and he was able to reckon with +accuracy just how far the Army of Northern Virginia had come since +Gettysburg. He should reach it in the morning, with full information +about the Potomac, and the best place for a crossing. + +He arrived at the crest of a hill higher than the others, and saw the +Union troop, about a quarter of a mile behind, stop beside a clump of +tall trees. Their action surprised Harry, who had thought they would +never quit as long as they could find his trail. To his further surprise +he saw one of the men dismount and begin to climb the tallest of the +trees. Then he brought his glasses into play. + +He saw the climber go up, up, until he had reached the last bough that +would support him. Then he drew some thing from his pocket which he +unrolled and began to wave rapidly. It was a flag and through his +powerful glasses Harry clearly saw the Stars and Stripes. It was evident +that they were signaling, but when one signals one usually signals to +somebody. His breath shortened for a moment. He believed that the man +in the tree was talking with his flag about the fugitive. Where was the +one to whom he was talking? + +He looked to both left and right, searching the fields and the forests, +and saw nothing. Then, as he was sweeping his glasses again in a half +curve he caught a glimpse of something straight ahead that made the great +pulse in his throat beat hard. About a mile in front of him another man +in a tree was waving a flag and beneath the tree were horsemen. + +Harry knew now that the two flags were talking about the Confederate +messenger between. The one behind said: "Look out! He's young, riding a +bay horse and he's coming directly toward you," to which the one in front +replied, "We're waiting. He can't escape us. There are fields with high +fences on either side of the road and if he manages to break through the +fence he's an easy capture in the soft and muddy ground there." + +Harry thought hard and fast, while the two flags talked so contemptuously +about him. The fields were unquestionably deep with mud from the heavy +rains, but he must try them. It was lucky that he had seen the flags +while both forces were out of rifle shot. He decided for the western +side, sprang from his horse and threw down a few rails. In a half minute +he was back on his horse, leaped him over the fence, and struck across +the field. + +It had been lately plowed and the going was uncommonly heavy. It would +be just as heavy however for his pursuers, and his luck in seeing their +signals would put him out of range before they reached the field. +But it was a wide field and his horse's feet sank so deep in the mud that +he dismounted and led him. When he was two-thirds of the way across a +shout told him that the two forces had met, and had discovered the ruse +of the fugitive. It did not take much intelligence to understand what he +had done, because he was yet in plain sight, and a few of the cavalrymen +took pot shots at him, their bullets falling far short. Harry in his +excited condition laughed at these attempts. Almost anything was a +triumph now. He shook his fist at them and regretted that he could not +send back a defiant shot. + +The cavalrymen conferred a little. Then a part pursued across the field, +and two detachments rode along its side, one to the north and the other +to the south. Harry understood. If the mud held him back sufficiently +they might pass around the field and catch him on the other side. +He continued to lead his horse, encouraging him with words of entreaty +and praise. + +"Come on!" he cried. "You won't let a little mud bother you. You +wouldn't let yourself be overtaken by a lot of half-bred horses not fit +to associate with you?" + +The brave animal responded nobly, and what had been the far edge of the +field was rapidly coming nearer. Beyond it lay woods. But the flanking +movement threatened. The two detachments were passing around the field +on firm ground, and Harry knew that he and his good horse must hasten. +He talked to him continually, boasting about him, and together they +reached the fence, which he threw down in all haste. Then he led his +weary horse out of the mud, sprang upon his back and galloped into the +bushes. + +He knew that the horses passing around the field on firm ground would be +fresh, and that he must find temporary hiding, at least as soon as he +could. He was in deep thickets now and he galloped on, careless how +the bushes scratched him and tore his uniform. The Union cavalry would +surely follow, but he wanted a little breathing time for his horse, +and in eight or ten minutes he stopped in the dense undergrowth. The +horse panted so hard that any one near would have heard him, but there +was no other sound in the thicket. The rest was valuable for both. +Harry was able to concentrate his mind and consider, while the panting of +the horse gradually ceased, and he breathed with regularity. The young +lieutenant patted him on the nose and whispered to him consolingly. + +"Good, old boy," he said, "you've brought me safely so far. I knew that +I could trust you." + +Then he stood quite still, with his hand stroking the horse's nose to +keep him silent. He had heard the first sounds of search. To his right +was the distant beat of hoofs and men's voices. Evidently they were +going to make a thorough search for him, and he decided to resume his +flight, even at the risk of being heard. + +He led the horse again, because the forest was so dense that one could +scarcely ride in it, and he thought, for a while, that he had thrown off +the pursuit, but the voices came again, and now on his left. They had +never relaxed the hunt for an instant. They had a good leader, and Harry +admitted that in his place he would have done the same. + +The country grew rougher, being so steep and hilly that it was not +easy of cultivation, and hence remained clothed in dense forest and +undergrowth. Twice more Harry heard the sound of pursuing voices and +hoofs, and then the noise of running water came to his ears. Twenty +yards farther and he came to a creek flowing between high banks, on which +the forest grew so densely that the sun was scarcely able to reach the +water below. + +The creek at first seemed to be a bar to his advance, but thinking it +over he led his horse carefully down into the stream, mounted him and +rode with the current, which was not more than a foot deep. Fortunately +the creek had a soft bottom and there was no ringing of hoofs on stones. + +He went slowly, lest the water splash too much, and kept a wary watch on +the banks above, which were growing higher. He did not know where the +creek led, but it offered both a road and concealment, and it seemed that +Providence had put it there for his especial help. + +He rode in the bed of the stream fully an hour, and then emerged from +the hills into a level and comparatively bare country. It was a region +utterly unknown to him, but with his splendid idea of direction and the +sun to guide him he knew his straight course to Lee. The country before +him seemed to be given up wholly to grass, as he noticed neither corn nor +wheat. He saw several farm hands, but decided to keep away from them. +That was no country for the practice of horsemanship by a lone +Confederate soldier, nor did he like to be the fox in a fox hunt. + +Yet the fox he was. He chose a narrow road leading between cedars, +and when he had advanced upon it a few hundred yards he heard the sound +of a trumpet behind him, and at the edge of the woods that he had left. +He saw horsemen in blue emerging and he had no doubt that they were the +same men whom he had eluded in the thickets. + +"Their pursuit of me is getting to be a habit," he said to himself with +the most intense annoyance. "It's a good thing, my brave horse, that +you've had a long rest." + +He shook up the reins and began to gallop. He heard a faint shout in the +distance and saw the troopers in pursuit. But he did not fear them now. +Numerous fences would prevent them from flanking him, and he saw that the +road led on, straight and level. He shook the reins again and the horse +lengthened his stride. + +He felt so exultant that he laughed. It would be easy enough now to +distance this Union troop. Then the laugh died suddenly on his lips. +A bullet whistled so near his face that it almost took away his breath. +An elderly farmer standing in his own door had fired it, and Harry +snatched one of the pistols from his own belt, remembering then with rage +that it could not be fired. He shouted to his horse and made him run +faster. + +A bullet struck the pommel of his saddle and glanced off. A boy in an +orchard had fired it. A load of bird-shot, a handful it seemed to Harry, +flew about his ears. A bent old man who ought to have been sitting on +a porch in a rocking chair had discharged it from the edge of a wood. +A squirrel hunter on a hill took a pot shot at him and missed. + +Harry was furious with anger. Decidedly this was no place for a visitor +from the South. He did not detect the faintest sign of hospitality. +Men and women alike seemed to dislike him. A powerful virago hurled a +stone at his head, which would have struck him senseless had it not +missed, and a farmer standing by a fence had a shotgun cocked and ready +to be fired as he passed, but Harry, snatching one of the useless pistols +from his belt, hurled it at him with all his might. It struck the man a +glancing blow on the head, felling him as if he had been shot, and then +Harry, thinking quickly, acted with equal quickness. + +He reined in his horse with such suddenness that he nearly shot from the +saddle. Then he leaped down, seized the shotgun from under the hands of +the fallen man, sprang on his horse and was away again, sending back a +cry of defiance. + +Harry had never before in his life been so furious. To be hunted thus by +a whole countryside, as if he were a mad dog, was intolerable. It was +not only a threat to one's life, it was also an insult to one's dignity +to be treated as an animal. Although he was armed now the insult +continued. The call of the trumpet sounded almost without ceasing, +and the Union troopers uttered many shouts as do those who chase the fox, +although Harry knew that their cries were intended to rouse the farmers +who might head him off. + +The chase grew hotter, but he felt better with the shotgun. It was a +fine double-barreled weapon of the latest make, and he hoped that it was +loaded with buckshot. He was a sharpshooter, and he could give a good +account of any one who came too near. + +Yet with the trumpet shrilling continually behind him the huntsmen +gathered fast on either flank. It was yet the day when nearly every +house in America, outside a town, contained a rifle, and bullets fired +from a distance began to patter around Harry and his horse. The +riflemen were too far away to be reached with the shotgun, and it seemed +inevitable to him that in time a bullet would strike him. He was truly +the fox, and he knew that nothing could save him but forest. + +It was in his favor that the country was so broken and wooded so heavily, +and fixing his eyes on trees a half-mile ahead he raced for them. +If none of this yelling pack dragged him down he felt sure that he might +escape again in the forest. The trees swiftly came nearer, but the shots +on either flank increased. More than ever he felt like the fox with the +hounds all about him, and just one slender chance to reach the burrow +ahead. + +He felt his horse shake and knew that he had been hit. Yet the brave +animal ran on as well as ever, despite the triumphant shout behind, +which showed that he must be leaving a trail of blood. But the woods, +thick and inviting, were near, and he believed that he would reach them. +The horse shook again, much more violently than before, and then fell to +his knees. Harry leaped off, still clutching the shotgun, just as the +brave animal fell over on his side and began to breathe out his life. + +He heard again that shout of triumph, but he was one who never gave up. +He had alighted easily on his feet. The trees were not more than fifteen +yards away and he disappeared among them as bullets clipped bark and +twigs about him. + +He breathed a deep sigh of thankfulness when he entered the forest. +It was so dense, and there was so much undergrowth that the horsemen +could not follow him there. If they came on foot, and spread out, +as they must, to hunt him, he had the double-barreled shotgun and it +was a deadly weapon. The fox had suddenly become the panther, alert, +powerful, armed with claws that killed. + +Harry went deep into the thickets before he sat down. He had no doubt +that they would follow him, but at present he was out of their sight and +hearing. He felt a mixture of elation and sadness, elation over his +temporary escape, and sadness over the loss of his gallant horse. +But one could not dwell long on regrets at such a time, and, advancing a +little farther, he sat down among the densest bushes that he could find +with the shotgun across his knees. + +Now Harry saw that the horse had really done all that it was possible +for him to do. He had brought him to the wood, and within he would have +been a drawback. A man on foot could conceal himself far more easily. +Everything favored him. There were bushes and vines everywhere and he +could be hidden like a deer in its covert. + +He looked up at the sun shining through the tops of the trees and saw +that he had kept to his true course. His flight had taken him directly +toward Lee at a much faster pace than he would have come otherwise. +The enemy had driven him on his errand at double speed. He felt that he +could spare a little time now, while he waited to see what the pursuit +would do. + +His feeling of exultation was now unalloyed. Deep in the forest with +his foes looking for him in vain, the spirit of Henry Ware was once +more strong within him. He was the reincarnation of the great hunter. +He lay so still, clasping the shotgun, that the little creatures of the +woods were deceived. A squirrel ran up the trunk of an oak six feet away, +and stood fearlessly in a fork with his bushy tail curved over his back. +A small gray bird perched on a bough just over Harry's head and poured +out a volume of song. Farther away sounded the tap tap of a woodpecker +on the bark of a dead tree. + +Harry, although he did not move, was watching and listening with intense +concentration, but his ears now would be his surest signals. He could +not see deep in the thickets, but he could hear any movement in the +underbrush a hundred yards away. So far there was nothing but the +hopping of a rabbit. The bird over his head sang on. There was no +wind among the branches, not even the flutter of leaves to distract his +attention from anything that might come on the ground. + +He rejoiced in this period of rest, of the nerves, rather than purely +physical. He had been keyed so high that now he relaxed entirely, +and soon lay perfectly flat, but with the shotgun still clasped in his +arms. He had a soft couch. Under him were the dead leaves of last year, +and over him was the pleasant gloom of thick foliage, already turning +brown. The bird sang on. His clear and beautiful note came from a point +directly over his head, but Harry could not see his tiny body among the +leaves. He became, for a little while, more interested in trying to see +him than in hearing his pursuers. + +It was annoying that such a volume of sound should come from a body that +could be hidden by a leaf. If a man could shout in proportion to his own +size he might be heard eight to ten miles away. It was an interesting +speculation and he pursued it. While he was pursuing it his mind relaxed +more and more and traveled farther and farther away from his flight and +hiding. Then his heavy eyelids pulled down, and, while his pursuers yet +searched the thickets for him, he slept. + +But his other self, which men had thought of as far back as Socrates, +kept guard. When he had slept an hour a tiny voice in his ear, no louder +than the ticking of a watch, told him to awake, that danger was near. +He obeyed the call, sleep was lifted from him and he opened his eyes. +But with inherited caution he did not move. He still lay flat in his +covert, trusting to his ears, and did not make a leaf move about him. + +His ears told him that leaves were rustling not very far away, not more +than a hundred feet. His power of hearing was great, and the forest +seemed to make it uncommonly sensitive and delicate. + +He knew that the rustling of the leaves was made by a man walking. +By and by he heard his footfalls, and he knew that he wore heavy boots, +or his feet would not have crushed down in such a decisive manner. +He was looking for something, too, because the footfalls did not go +straight on, but veered about. + +Harry was well aware that it was a Union soldier, and that he was the +object of his search. He was a clumsy man, not used to forests, because +Harry heard him stumble twice, when his feet caught on vines. Nor +was any comrade near, or he would have called to him for the sake of +companionship. Harry judged that he was originally a mill hand, and +he did not feel the least alarm about him, laughing a little at his +clumsiness and awkwardness, as he trod heavily among the bushes, tripped +again on the vines, and came so near falling that he could hear the rifle +rattle when it struck a tree. He did not have the slightest fear of the +man, and at last, raising his head, he took a look. + +All his surmises were justified. He saw a great hulking youth of heavy +and dull countenance, carrying a rifle awkwardly, his place obviously +around some town and not in the depths of a forest, looking for a wary +enemy, who knew more of the wilderness than he could ever learn in all +his life. Harry saw that he was perspiring freely and that he looked +more like the hunted than the hunter. His eyes expressed bewilderment. +He was obviously lonely and apprehensive, not because he was a coward, +but because the situation was so strange to him. + +Besides his rifle he carried a large knapsack, so much distended that +Harry knew it to be full of food. It was this that decided him. A +soldier, like an army, must travel on his stomach, and he wanted that +knapsack. Moreover he meant to get it. He leveled his shotgun and +called in a low tone, but a tone so sharp that it could be heard +distinctly by the one to whom it was addressed: + +"Throw up your hands at once!" + +The man threw them up so abruptly that the rifle fell from his shoulder +into the bushes, and he turned around, staring face toward the point from +which the command had come. Harry saw at once that he was of foreign +birth, probably. The features inclined to the Slav type, although Slavs +were not then common in this country, even in the mill towns of the North. + +"Are you an American?" asked Harry, standing up. + +"All but two years of my life." + +"The first two years then, as I see you speak good English. What's your +name?" + +"Michael Stanislav." + +"Do you think that anybody named Michael Stanislav has the right to +interfere in the quarrel of the Northern and Southern states? Don't the +Stanislavs have trouble enough in the country where the Stanislavs grow?" + +The big youth stared at him without understanding. + +"Do you know who I am?" asked Harry, severely. + +"The running rebel that we all look for." + +"Rebels don't run. Besides, there are no rebels. Anyway I'm not the man +you're looking for. My name is Robin Hood." + +"Robin Hood?" + +"Yes, Robin Hood! Didn't you ever hear of him?" + +"Never." + +"Then you have the honor of hearing of him and meeting him at the same +time. As I said, my name is Robin Hood and my trade is that of a +benevolent robber. I lie around in the greenwood, and I don't work. +I've a lot of followers, Friar Tuck and others, but they're away for a +while. They're as much opposed to work as I am. That's why they're my +followers. We're the friends of the poor, because they have nothing we +want, and we're the enemies of the rich because they have a lot we do +want and that we often take. Still, we couldn't get along very well, +if there were no rich for us to rob. It's like taking sugar water from +a maple tree. We won't take too much, because it would kill the tree +and we want to take its sugar water again, and many times. Do you +understand?" + +"Yes," replied the big youth, but Harry knew he didn't. Harry meanwhile +was listening keenly to all that was passing in the forest, and he was +sure that no other soldier had wandered near. It was perhaps partly a +feeling of loneliness on his own part that caused him to linger in his +talk with Michael Stanislav. + +"Michael," he continued, "you appreciate our respective positions, +don't you?" + +"Ah!" said Michael, in a puzzled voice. + +"I've explained carefully to you that I'm Robin Hood, and you at the +present moment represent the rich." + +"I am not rich. Before I turn soldier I work in a mill at Bridgeport." + +"That's all very well, but you can't get out of it by referring to your +past. Just now you are a proxy of the rich, and it's my duty to rob you." + +The mouth of the big fellow expanded into a wide grin. + +"You won't rob me," he said. "I have not a cent." + +"But I'm going to rob you just the same. Don't you dare to drop a hand +toward the pistols in your belt. If you do I'll blow your head off. +I'm covering you with a double-barreled shotgun. Each barrel contains +about twenty buckshot, and at close range their blast would be so +terrific that you'd make an awful looking corpse." + +"I hold up my hands a long time. Don't want to be any kind of a corpse." + +"That's the good boy. Steady now. Don't move a muscle. I'm going to +rob you. It's a brief and painless operation, much easier than pulling a +tooth." + +He deftly removed the two pistols and the accompanying ammunition from +the man's belt, placing them in his own. His belt of cartridges he put +on the ground beside the fallen rifle, and then as he felt a glow of +triumph he passed the well-filled knapsack from the stalwart shoulders +of the other to his own shoulders, equally stalwart. + +"Is everything in it first class, Michael?" he demanded with much +severity. + +"The best. Our army feeds well." + +"It's a good thing for you that it's so. Robin Hood is never satisfied +with anything second class, and he's likely to be offended if you offer +it to him. On the whole, Michael, I think I like you and I'm glad you +came this way. But do you care for good advice?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"That's right. Say 'sir' to me. It pleases my robber's heart. Then, +my advice to you is never again to go into the woods alone. All the +forest looks alike to those who don't know it, and you're lost in a +minute. Besides, it's filled with strange and terrible creatures, +Robin Hood--that's me, though I have some redeeming qualities--the +Erymanthean boar, the Hydra-headed monster, Medusa of the snaky locks, +Cyclops, Polyphemus with one awful eye, the deceitful Sirens, the Old Man +of the Mountain, Wodin and Osiris, and, last and most terrible of all, +the Baron Munchausen." + +A flicker of fear appeared in the eyes of the captive. + +"But I'll see that none of these monsters hurt you," said Harry +consolingly. "The open is directly behind you, about a mile. Right +about! Wheel! Well done! Now, you won't see me again, but you'll hear +me giving commands. Forward, march! Quit stumbling! No true forester +ever does! Nor is it necessary for you to run into more than three +trees! Keep going! No, don't curve! Go straight ahead, and remember +that if you look back I shoot!" + +Michael walked swiftly enough. He deemed that on the whole he had fared +well. The great brigand, Robin Hood, had spared his life and he had lost +nothing. The army would replace his weapons and ammunition and he was +glad enough to escape from that terrible forest, even if he were driven +out of it. + +Harry watched him until he was out of sight, and then picking up the +rifle and belt of cartridges he fled on soundless feet deeper into the +forest. Two or three hundred yards away he stopped and heard a great +shouting. Michael, no longer covered by a gun, had realized that +something untoward had happened to him, and he was calling to his +comrades. Harry did not know whether Michael would still call the man +who had held him up, Robin Hood, nor did he care. He had secured an +excellent rifle which would be much more useful to him than a shotgun, +and his course still led straight toward the point where he should find +Lee's army on the march. He felt that he ought to throw away the shotgun, +as two weapons were heavy, but he could not make up his mind to do so. + +A hundred yards farther and he heard replies to Michael's shouts, and +then several shots, undoubtedly fired by the Union troops themselves, +as signals of alarm. He laughed to himself. Could such men as these +overtake one who was born to the woods, the great grandson of Henry Ware, +the most gifted of the borderers, who in the woods had not only a sixth +sense, but a seventh as well? And his great grandson had inherited many +of his qualities. + +Harry, in the forest, felt only contempt for these youths of Central +Europe who could not tell one point of the compass from another. He +guided his own course by the sun, and continued at a good pace until he +could hear shouts and shots no longer. Then in the dense woods, where +the shadows made a twilight, he came to a tiny stream flowing from +under a rock. He knelt and drank of the cool water, and then he opened +Michael's knapsack. It was truly well filled, and he ate with deep +content. Then he drank again and rested by the side of the pool. + +As he reflected over his journey Harry concluded that Providence had +watched over him so far, but there was much yet to do before he reached +Lee. Providence had a strange way of watching over a man for a while, +and then letting him go. He would neglect no precaution. The forest +would not continue forever and then he must take his chances in the open. + +Still burning with the desire to be the first to reach Lee, he put the +rifle and the shotgun on either shoulder, and set off at as rapid a pace +as the thickets would permit. But he soon stopped because a sound almost +like that of a wind, but not a wind, came to his ears. There was a +breeze blowing directly toward him, but he paid no attention to it, +because to him most breezes were pleasant and friendly. But the other +sound had in it a quality that was distinctly sinister like the hissing +of a snake. + +Harry paused in wonder and alarm. All his instincts warned him that a +new danger was at hand. The breath of the wind suddenly grew hot, +and sparks carried by it blew past him. He knew, in an instant, that the +forest was on fire behind him and that tinder dry, it would burn fast and +furious. Changing from a walk to a run, he sped forward as swiftly as he +could, while the flames suddenly sprang high, waved and leaped forward in +chase. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +TESTS OF COURAGE + + +Harry did not know how the woods had been set on fire, and he never knew. +He did not credit it to the intent of Michael and his comrades, but he +thought it likely that some of these men, ignorant of the forest, had +built a campfire. His first thought was of himself, and his second was +regret that so fine a stretch of timber should be burned over for nothing. + +But he knew that he must hurry. Nor could he choose his way. He must +get out of that forest even if he ran directly into the middle of a Union +brigade. The wind was bringing the fire fast. It leaped from one tree +to another, despite the recent rains, gathering volume and power as it +came. Sparks flew in showers, and fragments of burned twigs rained down. +Twice Harry's face was scorched lightly and he had a fear that one of +the blazing twigs would set his hair on fire. He made another effort, +and ran a little faster, knowing full well that his life was at stake. + +The fire was like a huge beast, and it reached out threatening red claws +to catch him. He was like primeval man, fleeing from one of the vast +monsters, now happily gone from the earth. He was conscious soon that +another not far from him was running in the same way, a man in a faded +blue uniform who had dropped his rifle in the rapidity of his flight. + +Harry kept one eye on him but the stranger did not see him until they +were nearly out of the wood. Then Harry, with a clear purpose in view, +veered toward him. He saw that they would escape from the fire. Open +fields showed not far ahead, and while the sparks were numerous and +sometimes scorched, the roaring red monster behind them would soon be at +the end of his race. He could not follow them into the open fields. + +When the two emerged from the forest Harry was not more than fifteen feet +from the stranger, who evidently took him for a friend and who was glad +to have a comrade at such a time. They raced across fields in which the +wheat had been cut, and then sank down four or five hundred yards from +the fire, which was crackling and roaring in the woods with great +violence, and sending up leaping flames. + +"I was glad enough to get out of that. Do you think the rebels set it on +fire?" + +"I don't think so, but I was as pleased as you to escape from it, +Mr. Haskell." + +"Why, how did you know my name?" exclaimed the man in wonder. + +"Why should I forget you? I've seen you often enough. Your name is John +Haskell and you belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania." + +"That's right, but I don't seem to recall you." + +"It takes a lot of us some time to clear up our minds wholly after such a +battle as Gettysburg. In some ways I've been in a sort of confused state +myself. I dare say you've seen me often enough." + +"That's likely." + +"Pity you had your horse shot under you, Mr. Haskell. A man who is +carrying important messages at a time like this can't do very well +without his horse." + +"How did you know I'd lost my horse?" + +"Oh, I'm a mind reader. I can tell you a lot now. You carry your +dispatch in the left-hand pocket of your waistcoat, just over your heart. +And it hasn't been long, either, since you lost your horse, perhaps not +more than an hour." + +Haskell stared at him, but Harry's face was innocent. Nevertheless he +had read Haskell's name and regiment on his canteen, cut there with his +own knife. It was a mere guess that he was a dispatch bearer, but he +had located the dispatch, because at the mention of the word "message" +the man's hand had involuntarily gone to his left breast to see if the +dispatch were still there. Boots with little dirt on them indicated that +he had been riding. + +"A mind reader!" said Haskell, with suspicion. "What business has a mind +reader in this war?" + +"He could be of enormous value. If he were a real mind reader he could +tell his general exactly what the opposing general intended to do. +I'm employed at a gigantic salary for that particular purpose." + +"I guess you're trying to be funny. Why do you carry both a rifle and a +shotgun?" + +"In order to hit the target with one, if the other misses. I always use +the rifle first, because if the bullet doesn't get home the shotgun, +spreading its charge over a much wider area, is likely to do something." + +"Now I know you're trying to be funny. As I'm going about my business as +fast as I can, I'll leave you here." + +"I like you so well that I can't bear to see you go. Don't move. +My rifle covers your heart exactly and you are not more than ten feet +away. I shall have no possible need of the shotgun. Keep your hands +away from your belt. You're in a dangerous position, Mr. Haskell." + +"I believe you're an infernal rebel." + +"Take out the objectionable adjective 'infernal' and you're right. +Keep those hands still, I tell you." + +"What do you want?" + +"Your dispatches! Oh, I must have 'em. Unbutton your coat and waistcoat +and hand 'em to me at once. I hate to take human life, but war demands a +terrible service, and I mean what I say!" + +His voice rang with determination. The man slowly unbuttoned his +waistcoat and took out a folded dispatch. + +"Put it on the ground in front of you. That's right, and don't you reach +for it again. Now, lay your canteen beside it!" + +"What in thunder do you want with my canteen? It's empty!" + +"I can fill it again. This is a well watered country. That's right; +put it beside the dispatch. Now you walk about one hundred yards to the +right with your back to me. If you look around at all I fire, and I'm +a good marksman. Stand there ten minutes, and then you can move on! +That's right! Now march!" + +The man walked away slowly and when he had gone about half the distance +Harry, picking up the dispatch, took flight again across the fields. +Climbing a fence, he looked back and saw the figure of John Haskell, +standing motionless on a hill. He knew that the man was not likely to +remain in that position more than half the allotted time. It was certain +that he would soon turn, despite the risk, but Harry was already beyond +his reach. + +He leaped from the fence, crossed another field and entered a wood. +There he paused among the trees and saw Haskell returning. But when he +had come a little distance, he shook his head doubtfully, and then walked +toward the north. + +"A counsel of wisdom," chuckled Harry, who was going in quite another +direction. "I think I'll read my dispatch now." + +He opened it and blessed his luck. It was from Meade to Pleasanton, +directing him to cut in with all the cavalry he could gather on the +enemy's flank. The Potomac was in great flood and the Army of Northern +Virginia could not possibly cross. If it were harried to the utmost by +the Union cavalry the task of destroying it would be much easier. + +"So it would," said Harry to himself. "But Pleasanton won't get this +dispatch. Providence has not deserted me yet; and it's true that fortune +favors the brave. I'm John Haskell of the Fifth Pennsylvania and I can +prove it." + +He had put the canteen over his shoulder and the name upon it was a +powerful witness in his favor. The dispatch itself was another, and his +faded uniform told nothing. + +Harry had passed through so much that a reckless spirit was growing upon +him, and he had succeeded in so much that he believed he would continue +to succeed. Regretfully he threw the shotgun away, as it would not +appear natural for a messenger to carry it and a rifle too. + +He went forward boldly now, and, when an hour later he saw a detachment +of Union cavalry in a road, he took no measures to avoid them. Instead +he went directly toward the horsemen and hailed them in a loud voice. +They stopped and their leader, a captain, looked inquiringly at Harry, +who was approaching rapidly. + +Harry held up both hands as a sign that he was a friend, and called in a +loud voice: + +"I want a horse! And at once, if you please, sir!" + +He had noticed that three led horses with empty saddles, probably the +result of a brush with the enemy, and he meant to be astride one of them +within a few minutes. + +"You're a cool one," said the captain. "You come walking across the +field, and without a word of explanation you say you want a horse. +Don't you want a carriage too?" + +"I don't need it. But I must have a horse, Captain. I ride with a +message and it must be of great importance because I was told to go with +it at all speed and risk my life for it. I've risked my life already. +My horse was shot by a band of rebels, but luckily it was in the woods +and I escaped on foot." + +As he spoke he craftily moved the canteen around until the inscription +showed clearly in the bright sunlight. The quick eyes of the captain +caught it at once. + +"You do belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania," he said. "Well, you're a +long way from your regiment. It's back of that low mountain over there, +a full forty miles from here, I should say." + +Harry felt a throb of relief. It was his only fear that these men +themselves should belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania, a long chance, +but if it should happen to go against him, fatal to all his plans. + +"I don't want to join my regiment," he said. "I'm looking for General +Pleasanton." + +"General Pleasanton! What can you happen to want with him?" + +Harry gave the officer a wary and suspicious look, and then his eyes +brightened as if he were satisfied. + +"I told you I was riding with a message," he said, "and that message is +for General Pleasanton. It's from General Meade himself and it's no harm +for me to show it to so good a patriot as you." + +"No, I think not," said the captain, flattered by the proof of respect +and confidence. + +Harry took the letter from his pocket. It had been sealed at first, +but the warmth of the original bearer's body with a little help from +Harry later had caused it to come open. + +"Look at that," said Harry proudly as he took out the paper. + +The captain read it, and was mightily impressed. He was, as Harry had +surmised, a thoroughly staunch supporter of the Union. He would not only +furnish this valiant messenger with a good horse, but he would help him +otherwise on his way. + +"Dexter," he called to an orderly, "bring the sorrel mare. She was +ridden by a good man, Mr. Haskell, but he met a sharpshooter's bullet. +Jump up." + +Harry sprang into the saddle, and, astride such a fine piece of +horseflesh, he foresaw a speedy arrival in the camp of General Lee. + +"I'll not only mount you," said the captain, "but we'll see you on the +way. General Pleasanton is on Lee's left flank and, as our course is in +that direction, we'll ride with you, and protect you from stray rebel +sharpshooters." + +Harry could have shouted aloud in anger and disappointment. While the +captain trusted him fully, he would not be much more than a prisoner, +nevertheless. + +"Thank you very much, Captain," he said, "but you needn't trouble +yourself about me. Perhaps I'd better go on ahead. One rides faster +alone." + +"Don't be afraid that we'll hold you back," said the captain, smiling. +"We're one of the hardest riding detachments in General Pleasanton's +whole cavalry corps, and we won't delay you a second. On the contrary, +we know the road so well that we'll save you wandering about and losing +time." + +Harry did not dare to say more. And so Providence, which had been +watching over him so well, had decided now to leave him and watch over +the other fellow. But he had at least one consolation. Pleasanton was +on Lee's flank and their ride did not turn him from the line of his true +objective. Every beat of his horse's hoofs would bring him nearer to +Lee. Invincible youth was invincibly in the saddle again, and he said +confidently to the captain: + +"Let's start." + +"All right. You keep by my side, Haskell. You appear to be brave and +intelligent and I want to ask you questions." + +The tone, though well meant, was patronizing, but Harry did not resent it. + +"This troop is made up of Massachusetts men, and I'm from Massachusetts +too," continued the captain. "My name is Lester, and I had just +graduated from Harvard when the war began." + +"Good stock up there in Massachusetts," said Harry boldly, "but I've one +objection to you." + +"What's that?" + +"Everything wonderful in our history was done by you. No chance was left +for anybody else." + +"Well, not everything, but almost everything. Good old Massachusetts! +As Webster said, 'There she stands!'" + +"It was mostly New York and Pennsylvania that stood at Gettysburg." + +"Yes, you did very well there." + +"Don't you think, Captain, that a nation or a state is often lucky in its +possession of writers?" + +"I don't catch your drift exactly." + +"I'll make an illustration. I've often wondered what were the Persian +accounts of Marathon and Thermopylae, of Salamis and Plataea. Now most +of our history has been written by Massachusetts men." + +"And you insinuate that they have glorified my state unduly?" + +"The expression is a trifle severe. Let's say that they have dwelled +rather long upon the achievements of Massachusetts and not so long upon +those of New York and Pennsylvania." + +"Then let New York and Pennsylvania go get great writers. No state can +be truly great without them. There's another detachment of ours just +ahead, but we'll talk to them only a minute or two." + +The second detachment reported that Pleasanton, with a heavy cavalry +force, was about six miles farther west and that there was a fair road +all the way. They should overtake him in an hour. + +Harry's heart beat hard. Unless something happened within that hour he +would never reach Lee, and his brain began to work with extraordinary +activity. Plans passed in review before it as rapidly as pictures on +a film, but all were rejected. He was in despair. They were trotting +rapidly down a smooth road. A quarter of an hour passed and then a +half-hour. A low bare hill appeared immediately on their right, and +Harry saw beyond it the tops of trees. + +"Captain Lester," he said, "suppose that you and I ride to the crest of +the hill. You have strong glasses, so have I, and we may see something +worth while. The men will ride on, but we can easily overtake them." + +"Not a bad idea, Haskell," said the captain, still in that slightly +patronizing tone. "I judge by your speech that you're a well educated +man, and you appear to think." + +They rode quickly to the summit, and Lester, putting his glasses to his +eyes, gazed westward over a vast expanse of cultivated country. But +Harry looking immediately down the slope, saw the forest that he wished. + +Lester swept the glasses in a wide circle, looking for Union troops. +His own troop was about a hundred yards ahead and the hoofbeats were +growing fainter. Then Harry's courage almost failed him, but necessity +was instant and cruel. Still he modified the blow, nor did he use any +weapon, save one that nature had given him. + +"Look out!" he cried, and as Lester turned in astonishment he struck him +on the point of the jaw. Even as his fist flashed forward he held back a +little and his full strength was not in the blow. + +Nevertheless it was sufficient to strike Lester senseless, and he slid +from his horse. Harry caught him by the shoulder and eased him in his +fall. Then he lay stretched on his back in the grass like one asleep, +with his horse staring at him. Harry knew that he would revive in a +minute or two, and with a "Farewell, Captain Lester," he galloped down +the slope and into the covering woods. + +He knew that Lester's men, finding that they did not follow, would +quickly come back, and he raced his horse among the trees as fast as he +dared. A couple of miles between him and the hill and he felt safe, +at least so far as the troop of Captain Lester was concerned. Fortune +seemed to have made him a favorite again, but he knew that dangers were +still as thick around him as leaves in Vallombrosa. + +He tied his horse, climbed a tree, and used his glasses. Two miles to +the west the bright sun flashed on long lines of mounted men, obviously +the horsemen of Pleasanton. How was he to get through that cavalry +screen and reach Lee? He did not see a way, but he knew that to find, +one must seek. His desire to get through, intense as it always had been, +was now doubled. He not only carried the news to Lee about the possible +ford, but he also bore Meade's dispatch to Pleasanton, directing a +movement which, if successful, must be most dangerous to the Army of +Northern Virginia. + +He descended the tree and waited a while in the forest. He found a +spring at which he drank, and he filled the canteen. It was a precious +canteen with the name of John Haskell engraved upon it, and he meant that +it should carry him through all dangers into his camp. But he did not +mean to use it yet. If he rode into Pleasanton's ranks they would merely +take his letter to the general, and that would be the failure of his real +mission. + +Night was now not far distant, and, concluding that he had a much better +chance to run the gantlet under its cover, he still waited in the wood +until the twilight came. + +Wrapped in a coil of dangers he was ready to risk anything. Quickness, +resource and boldness, of which the last had been most valuable, had +brought him so far, and, encouraged by success, he rode forward full of +confidence. + +On his right was a small house standing among the usual shade trees, and, +approaching it without hesitation, he spoke to a man who stood in the +yard. + +"Which way is General Pleasanton?" he asked. + +The man hesitated. + +"I belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania," said Harry, pointing to the name on +the canteen, still visible in the twilight. The man's eyes brightened +and he replied: + +"Down there," pointing toward the southwest. + +"I've a message for him and I don't want to run into any of the rebel +raiders." + +"Then you keep away from there," he said, pointing due west. + +"What's the trouble in that direction?" + +"Jim Hurley was here about an hour ago. The whole country is terribly +excited about these big armies marching over it, and he said that our +cavalry was riding on fast. A lot of it was ahead of the rebel army, +but straight there in the west some of the rebel horsemen had spread out +on their own flank. If you went that way in the night you'd be sure to +run right into a nest of 'em." + +"So the Johnnies are west of us, your friend Hurley said. Tell me again +what particular point I have to watch in order to keep away from them." + +"Almost as straight west as you can make it. A valley running east and +west cuts in there and it's full of the rebels. It's the only place all +along here where they are." + +"And consequently the only place for me to avoid. Thanks. Your +information may save me from capture. Good night." + +"Good night and good luck." + +Harry rode toward the southwest until a dip in the valley hid him from +possible view of the man at the house. Then he turned and rode due west, +determined to reach as soon as possible those "rebel raiders" in the +valley, but fully aware that he must yet use every resource of skill, +courage and patience. + +The twilight turned into night, clear, dry and bright. Unless it +was raining in the mountains the flood in the Potomac could not be +increasing. Here, at last, the conditions were all that he wished. +The captured haversack still contained plenty of food, and, as he rode, +he ate. He had learned long ago that food was as necessary as weapons +to a soldier, and that one should eat when one could. Moreover, he was +always hungry. + +He kept among trees wherever possible, and, as the night grew, and the +stars came out in the dusky blue, he enjoyed the peace. Even though he +searched with his glasses he could not see soldiers anywhere, although he +knew they were in the hollows and the forests. A pleasant breeze blew, +and an owl, reckless of armies, sent forth its lonesome hoot. + +But he kept his horse's head straight for the narrow valley where the +"rebel raiders" rode. He met presently a small detachment of Connecticut +men, but the sight of his canteen and letter was sufficient for them. +Again he rode southwest, merely to turn due west once more, after he had +passed from their sight, and near the head of the valley he encountered +two men in blue on horseback watching. They were alert, well-built +fellows and examined Harry closely, a process to which long usage had +reconciled him. + +"I hear that the rebels are down in that valley, comrade," he said. + +"So they are," replied the elder and larger of the men. "We've got to +ask you who you are and which way you're going." + +"John Haskell, Fifth Pennsylvania, with dispatches from General Meade to +General Pleasanton. They're tremendously important, too, and I've got to +be in a hurry." + +"More haste less speed. You know the old saying. In a time like this +it's sometimes better for a man to know where he's going than it is to +get there, 'cause he may arrive at the wrong place." + +"Good logic, comrade, but I must hurry just the same. Which is my best +way to find General Pleasanton?" + +"Southwest. But I'm bound to tell you a few things first." + +"All right. What are they?" + +"You and I must be kinsfolk." + +"How do you make that out?" + +"Because my name is William Haskell, and I belong to the Fifth +Pennsylvania, the same regiment that you do." + +"Is that so? It's strange that we haven't met before. But funny things +happen in war." + +"So they do. Awfully funny. Now my brother's name is John Haskell, +and you happen to be carrying his canteen, but you've changed looks a lot +in the last few days, Brother John." + +Haskell's voice had been growing more menacing, and Harry, with native +quickness, was ready to act. When he saw the man's pistol flash from his +belt he went over the side of his horse and the bullet whistled where +his body had been. His own rifle cracked in reply, but Haskell's horse, +not he, took the bullet, and, screaming with pain and fright, ran into +the woods as the rider slipped from his back. + +Harry, realizing that his peril was imminent and deadly, fired one of his +pistols at the second man, who fell from his horse, too badly wounded in +the shoulder to take any further part in the fight. + +But Harry found in Haskell an opponent worthy of all his skill and +courage. The Union soldier threw himself upon the ground and fired at +Harry's horse, which instantly jerked the bridle from his hand and fled +as the other had done. Harry dropped flat in the grass and leaves and +listened, his heart thumping. + +But luck had favored him again. He lay in a slight depression and any +bullet fired at him would be sure to go over him unless he raised his +head. He could not see his enemies, but he could depend upon his +wonderful power of hearing, inherited and cultivated, which gave him an +advantage over his opponents. + +He heard the wounded man groan ever so lightly, and then the other +whisper to him, "Are you much hurt, Bill?" The reply came in a moment: +"My right shoulder is put out for the time, and I can't help you now." +Presently he heard the slight sound of the other crawling toward him. +Evidently this Haskell was a fearless fellow, bound to get him, and he +called from the shadow in which he lay. + +"You'd better stop, Haskell! I've got the best pair of ears in all this +region, and I hear you coming! Crawl another step and you meet a bullet! +But I want to tell you first that your interesting brother John is all +right. I didn't kill him. I merely robbed him." + +"Robbed him of what?" + +"Oh, of several things." + +"What things?" + +"They don't concern you, Haskell. These are matters somewhat above you." + +"They are, are they? Well, maybe they are, but I'm going to see that you +don't get away with the proceeds of your robbery." + +Harry didn't like his tone. It was fierce and resolute, and he realized +once more that he had a man of quality before him. If Haskell had +behaved properly he would have withdrawn with his wounded comrade. +But then he was an obstinate Yankee. + +He raised up ever so little and glanced across the intervening space, +seeing the muzzle of a rifle not many yards away. There could be no +doubt that Haskell was watchful and would continue watching. He drew +his head back again and said: + +"Let's call it a draw. You go back to your army, Mr. Haskell, and I'll +go back to mine." + +"Couldn't think of it. As a matter of fact, I'm with my army now; +that is, I'm in its lines, while you can't reach yours. All I've got to +do is to hold you here, and in the course of time some of our people will +come along and take you." + +"Do you think I'm worth so much trouble?" + +"In a way it's a sort of personal affair with me. You admit having +robbed my brother, and I feel that I must avenge him. He has been acting +as a dispatch rider, and I can make a pretty shrewd guess about what you +took from him. So I think I'll stay here." + +Harry blamed himself bitterly for his careless and unfortunate +expressions. He did not fear the result of a duel with this man, being +the master of woodcraft that he was, but he was losing time, valuable +time, time more precious than gold and diamonds, time heavy with the +fate of armies and a nation. He grew furiously angry at everything, and +angriest at Haskell. + +"Mr. Haskell," he called, "I'm getting tired of your society, and I make +you a polite request to go away." + +"Oh, no, you're not tired. You merely think you are, and I couldn't +consider conceding to your request. It's for your good more than mine. +My society is elevating to any Johnny Reb." + +"Then I warn you that I may have to hurt you." + +"How about getting hurt yourself?" + +Harry was silent. His acute ears brought him the sound of Haskell moving +a little in his own particular hollow. The lonesome owl hooted twice +more, but there was no sound to betoken the approach of Union troops in +the forest. The duel of weapons and wits would have to be fought out +alone by Haskell and himself. + +He went over everything again and again and he concluded that he must +rely upon his superior keenness of ear. He could hear Haskell, but +Haskell could not hear him, and there was Providence once more taking him +into favor. Summer clouds began to drift before the moon, and many of +the stars were veiled. It was possible that Haskell's eyes also were not +as keen as his own. + +When the darkness increased, he began to crawl from the little shallow. +Despite extreme precautions he made a slight noise. A pistol flashed and +a bullet passed over him. It made his muscles quiver, but he called in a +calm voice: + +"Why did you do such a foolish thing as that? You wasted a perfectly +good bullet." + +"Weren't you trying to escape? I thought I heard a movement in the +grass." + +"Wasn't thinking of such a thing. I'm just waiting here to see what +you'll do. Why don't you come on and attack?" + +"I'm satisfied with things as they are. I'll hold you until morning and +then our men will be sure to come and pick you up." + +"Maybe it will be our men who will come and pick you up." + +"Oh, no; they're too busy leaving Gettysburg behind 'em." + +Harry nevertheless had succeeded in leaving the shallow and was now lying +on its farther bank. Then he resumed the task of crawling forward on his +face, and without making any noise, one of the most difficult feats that +a human being is ever called upon to do. + +At the end of a dozen feet, he paused both to rest and to listen. +His acute ears told him that Haskell had not moved from his own place, +and his eyes showed him that the darkness was increasing. Those +wonderful, kindly clouds were thickening before the moon, and the stars +in troops were going out of sight. + +But he did not relax his caution. He knew that he could not afford to +make any sound that would arouse the suspicions of Haskell, and it was +a quarter of an hour before he felt himself absolutely safe. Then he +passed around a big tree and arose behind its trunk, appreciating what a +tremendous luxury it was to be a man and to stand upon one's own feet. + +He had triumphed again! The stars surely were with him. They might play +little tricks upon him now and then to tantalize him, but in the more +important matters they were on his side. He stretched himself again and +again to relieve the terrible stiffness caused by such long and painful +crawling, and then, unable to resist an exultant impulse, he called +loudly: + +"Good-by, Haskell!" + +There was a startled exclamation and a bullet fired at random cut the +leaves twenty yards away. Harry, making no reply, fled swiftly through +the forest toward the valley where the rebel raiders rode. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +IN THE WAGON + + +He ran at first, reckless of impediments, and there was a sound of +crashing as he sped through the bushes. He was not in the least afraid +of Haskell. He had his rifle and pistols and in the woods he was +infinitely the superior. He did not even believe that Haskell would +pursue, but he wanted to get far beyond any possible Federal sentinels +as soon as possible. + +After a flight of a few hundred yards he slackened speed, and began to go +silently. The old instincts and skill of the forester returned to him. +He knew that he was safe from immediate pursuit and now he would approach +his own lines carefully. He was grateful for the chance or series of +chances that always took him toward Lee. It seemed now that his enemies +had merely succeeded in driving him at an increased pace in the way he +wanted to go. + +He was descending a slope, thickly clothed with undergrowth. A few +hundred yards farther his knees suddenly crumpled under him and he sank +down, seized at the same time with a fit of nervous trembling. He had +passed through so many ordeals that strong and seasoned as he was and +high though his spirits, the collapse came all at once. He knew what was +the matter and, quietly stretching himself out, he lay still that the +spell might pass. + +The lonesome owl, probably the same one that he had heard earlier, +began to hoot, and now it was near by. Harry thought he could make out +its dim figure on a branch and he was sure that the red eyes, closed by +day, were watching him, doubtless with a certain contempt at his weakness. + +"Old man, if you had been chased by the fowler as often as I have," +were the words behind his teeth, addressed to the dim and fluffy figure, +"you wouldn't be sitting up there so calm and cocky. Your tired head +would sink down between your legs, your feathers would be wet with +perspiration and you'd be so tired you'd hardly be able to hang on to +the tree." + +Came again the lonesome hoot of the owl, spreading like a sinister omen +through the forest. It made Harry angry, and, raising himself up a +little, he shook his fist again at the figure on the branch, now growing +clearer in outline. + +"'Bird or devil?'" he quoted. + +The owl hooted once more, the strange ominous cry carrying far in the +silence of the night. + +"Devil it is," said Harry, "and quoth your evil majesty 'never more.' +I won't be scared by a big owl playing the part of the raven. It's not +'nevermore' with me. I've many a good day ahead and don't you dare tell +me I haven't." + +Came the solemn and changeless hoot of the owl in reply. + +Harry's exertions and excitement had brought too much blood to his head +and he was seeing red. He raised himself upon his elbows and stared +at the owl which stared back from red rimmed eyes, cold, emotionless, +implacable. He had been terribly shaken, and now a superstitious fright +overcame him. The raven and the albatross were in his mind and he +murmured under his breath passages from their ominous poems. The scholar +had his raven, the mariner had his albatross and now he alone in the +forest had his owl, to his mind the most terrible bird of the three. + +Came again that solemn and warning cry, the most depressing of all in the +wilderness, while the changeless and sinister eyes stared steadily at +him. Then Harry remembered that he had a rifle, and he sat up. He would +slay this winged monster. There was light enough for him to draw a bead, +and he was too good a marksman to miss. + +He dropped the muzzle of the rifle in a sudden access of fear as he +remembered the albatross. A shiver ran through every nerve and muscle, +and so heavily was he oppressed that he felt as if he had just escaped +committing murder. He rubbed his hand across his damp forehead and the +act brought him out of that dim world in which he had been living for the +last ten or fifteen minutes. + +"Bird of whatever omen you may be, I'll not shoot you. That's certain," +he said, "but I'll leave you to your melancholy predictions just as soon +as I can." + +He stood up somewhat unsteadily, and renewed the descent of the slope. +Near its foot he came to a brook and bathing his face plentifully in the +cool water he felt wonderfully refreshed. All his strength was flowing +back swiftly. + +Then he entered the valley, pressing straight toward the west, and soon +heard the tread of horses. He knew that they must be the cavalry of his +own army, but he withdrew into the bushes until he was assured. A dozen +men riding slowly and warily came into view, and though the moonlight was +wan he recognized them at once. When they were opposite him he stepped +from his ambush and said: + +"A happy night to you, Colonel Talbot." + +Colonel Leonidas Talbot was a brave man, but seldom in his life had he +been so shaken. + +"Good God, Hector!" he cried. "It's Harry Kenton's ghost!" + +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire turned pale. + +"I don't believe in ghosts, Leonidas," he said, "but this one certainly +looks like that of Harry Kenton." + +"Colonel Talbot," called Harry, "I'm not a ghost. I'm the real Harry +Kenton, hunting for our army." + +"Pale but substantial," said St. Clair, who rode just behind the two +colonels. "He's our old Harry himself, and I'd know him anywhere." + +"No ghost at all and the Yankee bullets can't make him one," said Happy +Tom. + +A weakness seized Harry and a blackness came before his eyes. When he +recovered St. Clair was holding him up, and Colonel Talbot was trying to +pour strong waters down his throat. + +"How long have I been this way?" he asked anxiously. + +"About sixty seconds," replied Colonel Talbot, "but what difference does +it make?" + +"Because I'm in a big hurry to get to General Lee! Oh! Colonel! +Colonel! You must speed me on my way! I've got a message from Colonel +Sherburne to General Lee that means everything, and on the road I +captured another from General Meade to General Pleasanton. Put me on a +horse, won't you, and gallop me to the commander-in-chief!" + +"Are you strong enough to ride alone?" + +"I'm strong enough to do anything now." + +"Then up with you! Here, on Carter's horse! Carter can ride behind +Hubbell! St. Clair, you and Langdon ride on either side of him! You +should reach the commander-in-chief in three-quarters of an hour, Harry!" + +"And there is no Yankee cavalry in between?" + +"No, they're thick on the slopes above us! You knew that, but here +you're inside our own lines. Judging by your looks you've had quite a +time, Harry. Now hurry on with him, boys!" + +"So I have had, Colonel, but the appearance of you, Lieutenant-Colonel +St. Hilaire and the boys was like a light from Heaven. Good-by!" + +"Good-by!" the two colonels called back, but their voices were already +dying in the distance as Harry and his comrades were now riding rapidly +down the valley, knee to knee, because St. Clair and Langdon meant to +keep very close to him. They saw that he was a little unsteady, and that +his eyes were unnaturally bright. They knew, too, that if he said he +had great news for General Lee he told the truth, and they meant that he +should get there with it in the least time possible. + +The valley opened out before them, broadening considerably as they +advanced. The night was far gone, there was not much moonlight, but +their eyes had grown used to the dark, and they could see well. They +passed sentinels and small detachments of cavalry, to whom St. Clair and +Langdon gave the quick password. They saw fields of wheat stubble and +pastures and crossed two brooks. The curiosity of Langdon and St. Clair +was overwhelming but they restrained it for a long time. They could tell +by his appearance that he had passed through unimaginable hardships, +but they were loath to ask questions. + +An owl on their right hooted, and both of them saw Harry shiver. + +"What makes an owl's cry disturb you so, Harry?" asked Langdon. + +"Because one of them tried to put the hoodoo on me as they say down in +your country, Happy. I was lying back there in the forest on the hill +and the biggest and reddest-eyed owl that was ever born sat on a bough +over head, and kept telling me that I was finished, right at the end +of my rope. But he was a liar, because here I am, with you fellows +on either side of me, inside our lines and riding to the camp of the +commander-in-chief." + +"I think you're a bit shaky, Harry," said St. Clair, "and I don't wonder +at it. If I had been through all I think you've been through I'd tumble +off that horse into the road and die." + +"Has any messenger come from Colonel Sherburne at the river to General +Lee?" + +"Not that I've heard of. No, I'm sure that none's come," replied +St. Clair. + +"Then I'll get to him first. Don't think, Arthur, it's just a foolish +ambition of mine to lead, but the sooner some one reaches the general the +better." + +"We'll see that you're first old man," said Langdon. "It's not more than +a half-hour now." + +But Harry reeled in his saddle. The singular weakness that he had felt +a while back returned, and the road grew dark before him. With a mighty +effort he steadied himself in the saddle and St. Clair heard him say in a +fierce undertone: "I will go through with it!" St. Clair looked across +at Langdon and the signaling look of Happy Tom replied. They drew in +just a little closer. Now and then they talked to him sharply and +briskly, rousing him again and again from the lethargy into which he was +fast sinking. + +"Look! In the woods over there, Harry!" exclaimed St. Clair. "See the +men stretched asleep on the grass! They're the survivors of Pickett's +brigades that charged at Gettysburg." + +"And I was there!" said Harry. "I saw the greatest charge ever made in +the history of the world!" + +He reeled a little toward St. Clair, who caught him by the shoulder and +straightened him in the saddle. + +"Of course you had a pleasant, easy ride from the Potomac," said Happy +Tom, "but I don't understand how as good a horseman as you lost your +horse. I suppose he ran away while you were picking berries by the +roadside." + +"Me pick berries by the roadside, while I'm on such a mission!" exclaimed +Harry indignantly, rousing himself up until his eyes flashed, which was +just what Happy wished. "I didn't see any berries! Besides I didn't +start on a horse. I left in a boat." + +"A boat? Now, Harry, I know you've turned romancer. I guess your mystic +troubles with the owl--if you really saw an owl--have been a sort of spur +to your fancy." + +"Do you mean to say, Tom Langdon, that I didn't see an owl and talk with +him? I tell you I did, and his conversation was a lot more intelligent +than yours, even if it was unpleasant." + +"Of course it was," said St. Clair. "Happy's chief joy in life is +talking. You know how he chatters away, Harry. He hates to sleep, +because then he loses good time that he might use in talk. I'll wager +you anything against anything, Harry, that when the Angel Gabriel blows +his horn Happy will rise out of his grave, shaking his shroud and furious +with anger. He'll hold up the whole resurrection while he argues with +Gabriel that he blew his horn either too late or too early, or that it +was a mighty poor sort of a horn anyhow." + +"I may do all that, Harry," said Happy, "but Arthur is sure to be the one +who will raise the trouble about the shroud. You know how finicky he +is about his clothes. He'll find fault with the quality of his shroud, +and he'll say that it's cut either too short or too long. Then he'll +insist, while all the billions wait, on draping the shroud in the finest +Greek or Roman toga style, before he marches up to his place on the +golden cloud and receives his harp." + +Harry laughed. + +"That'll be old Arthur, sure," he said. Then his head drooped again. +Fatigue was overpowering him. St. Clair and Langdon put a hand on either +shoulder and held him erect, but Harry was so far sunk in lethargy that +he was not conscious of their grasp. Men looked curiously at the three +young officers riding rapidly forward, the one in the center apparently +held on his horse by the other two. + +St. Clair took prompt measures. + +"Harry Kenton!" he called sharply. + +"Here!" + +"Do you know what they do with a sentinel caught asleep?" + +"They shoot him!" + +"What of a messenger, bearing great news who has ridden two or three days +and nights through a thousand dangers, and then becomes unconscious in +his saddle within five hundred yards of his journey's end?" + +"The stake wouldn't be too good for him," replied Harry as with a mighty +effort he shook himself, both body and mind. Once more his eyes cleared +and once more he sat erect in his saddle without help. + +"I won't fail, Arthur," he said. "Show the way." + +"There's a big tree by the roadside almost straight ahead," said +St. Clair. "General Lee is asleep under that, but he'll be as wide awake +as any man can be a half-minute after you arrive." + +They sprang from their horses, St. Clair spoke quickly with a watching +officer who went at once to awaken Lee. Harry dimly saw the form of the +general who was sleeping on a blanket, spread over small boughs. Near +him a man in brilliant uniform was walking softly back and forth, and now +and then impatiently striking the tops of his high yellow-topped boots +with a little riding whip. Harry knew at once that it was Stuart, +but the cavalry leader had not yet noticed him. + +Harry saw the officer bend over the commander-in-chief, who rose in an +instant to his feet. He was fully dressed and he showed gray in the +dusky light, but he seemed as ever calm and grave. Harry felt instantly +the same swell of courage that the presence of Jackson had always brought +to him. It was Lee, the indomitable, the man of genius, who could not +be beaten. He heard him say to the officer who had awakened him, "Bring +him immediately!" and he stepped forward, strengthening himself anew and +filled with pride that he should be the first to arrive, as he felt that +he certainly now was. + +"Lieutenant Kenton!" said Lee. + +"Yes, sir," said Harry, lifting his cap. + +"You were sent with Colonel Sherburne to see about the fords of the +Potomac." + +"I was, sir." + +"And he has sent you back with the report?" + +"He has, sir. He did not give me any written report for fear that I +might be captured. He did me the honor to say that my verbal message +would be believed." + +"It will. I know you, as I do the other members of my staff. Proceed." + +"The Potomac is in great flood, sir, and the bridge is destroyed. +It can't be crossed until it runs down to its normal depth." + +Harry saw other generals of high rank drawing near. One he recognized as +Longstreet. They were all silent and eager. + +"Colonel Sherburne ordered me to say to you, sir," continued Harry, +"that the best fords would be between Williamsport and Hagerstown when +the river ran down." + +"When did you leave him?" + +"Nearly two days ago, sir." + +"You have made good speed through a country swarming with our enemy. +You are entitled to rest." + +"It's not all, sir?" + +"What else?" + +"On my way I captured a messenger with a letter from General Meade to +General Pleasanton. I have the message, sir." + +He brought forth the paper from his blouse and extended it to General Lee, +who took it eagerly. Some one held up a torch and he read it aloud to +his generals. + +"And so Meade means to trap me," he said, "by coming down on our flank!" + +"Since the river is unfordable he'll have plenty of time to attack us +there," said Longstreet. + +"But will he dare to attack?" said Stuart defiantly. "He was able to +hold his own in defense at Gettysburg, but it's another thing to take the +offensive. We hear that General Meade is cautious and that he makes many +complaints to his government. A complainer is not the kind of man who +can destroy the Army of Northern Virginia." + +"Sometimes it's well to be cautious, General," said Lee. + +Then he turned to Harry and said: + +"Again I commend you." + +Harry saluted proudly, and then fell unconscious at the feet of General +Lee. + +When the young staff officer awoke, he was lying in a wagon which was +moving slowly, with many jolts over a very rough road. It was perhaps +one of these jolts that awoke him, because his eyes still felt very heavy +with sleep. His position was comfortable as he lay on a heap of blankets, +and the sides of the wagon looked familiar. Moreover the broad back of +the driver was not that of a stranger. Moving his head into a higher +place on the blankets he called. + +"Hey you, Dick Jones, where are you taking me?" + +Jones turned his rubicund and kindly face. + +"Don't it beat all how things come about?" he said. "This wagon wasn't +built for passengers, but I have you once and then I have you twice, +sleepin' like a prince on them blankets. I guess if the road wasn't so +rough you'd have slept all the way to Virginia. But I'm proud to have +you as a passenger. They say you've been coverin' yourself with glory. +I don't know about that, but I never before saw a man who was so all +fired tuckered out." + +"Where did you find me?" + +"I didn't exactly find you myself. They say you saluted General Lee so +deep and so strong that you just fell down at his feet an' didn't move, +as if you intended to stay there forever. But four of your friends +brought you to my wagon feet foremost, with orders from General Lee if +I didn't treat you right that I'd get a thousand lashes, be tarred an' +feathered, an' hung an' shot an' burned, an' then be buried alive. +For all of which there was no need, as I'm your friend and would treat +you right anyway." + +"I know you would," laughed Harry. "You can't afford to lose your best +passenger. How long have I been sleeping in this rough train of yours?" + +"Since about three o'clock in the morning." + +"And what time might it be now." + +"Well it might be ten o'clock in the morning or it might be noon, but it +ain't either." + +"Well, then, what time is it?" + +"It's about six o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Kenton, and I judge that +you've slept nigh on to fifteen hours, which is mighty good for a man who +was as tired as you was." + +"And what has the army been doing while I slept?" + +"Oh, it's been marchin' an' marchin' an' marchin'. Can't you hear the +wagons an' the cannons clinkin' an' clankin'? An' the hoofs of the +horses beatin' in the road? An the feet of forty or fifty thousand men +comin' down ker-plunk! ker-plunk! an' all them thousands talkin' off an' +on? Yes, we're still marchin', Mr. Kenton, but we're retreatin' with all +our teeth showin' an' our claws out, sharpened specially. Most of the +boys don't care if Meade would attack us. They'd be glad of the chance +to get even for Gettysburg." + +There was a beat of hoofs and St. Clair rode up by the side of the wagon. + +"All right again, Harry?" he said cheerfully. "I'm mighty glad of it. +Other messengers have got through from Sherburne, confirming what you +said, but you were the first to arrive and the army already was on the +march because of the news you brought. Dalton arrived about noon, +dead beat. Happy is coming with a horse for you, and you can rejoin the +staff now." + +"Before I leave I'll have to thank Mr. Jones once more," said Harry. +"He runs the best passenger service that I know." + +"Welcome to it any time, either you or your friend," said Jones, saluting +with his whip. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CROSSING + + +Harry left the wagon at midnight and overtook the staff, an orderly +providing him with a good horse. Dalton, who had also been sleeping in +a wagon, came an hour or two later, and the two, as became modest young +officers, rode in the rear of the group that surrounded General Lee. + +Although the darkness had come fully, the Army of Northern Virginia had +not yet stopped. The infantry flanked by cavalry, and, having no fear +of the enemy, marched steadily on. Harry closely observed General Lee, +and although he was well into his fifties he could discern no weakness, +either physical or mental, in the man who had directed the fortunes of +the South in the terrific and unsuccessful three days at Gettysburg and +who had now led his army for nearly a week in a retreat, threatened, +at any moment, with an attack by a veteran force superior in numbers. +All the other generals looked worn and weary, but he alone sat erect, +his hair and beard trimmed neatly, his grave eye showing no sign of +apprehension. + +He seemed once more to Harry--youth is a hero-worshiper--omniscient and +omnipotent. The invasion of the North had failed, and there had been a +terrible loss of good men, officers and soldiers, but, with Lee standing +on the defensive at the head of the Army of Northern Virginia, in +Virginia, the South would be invincible. He had always won there, +and he always would win there. + +Harry sighed, nevertheless. He had two heroes, but one of them was gone. +He thought again if only Stonewall Jackson had been at Gettysburg. +Lee's terrible striking arm would have smitten with the hammer of Thor. +He would have pushed home the attack on the first day, when the Union +vanguard was defeated and demoralized. He would have crushed the enemy +on the second day, leaving no need for that fatal and terrific charge of +Pickett on the third day. + +"You reached the general first," said Dalton, "but I tried my best to +beat you." + +"But I started first, George, old fellow. That gave me the advantage +over you." + +"It's fine of you to say it. The army has quickened its pace since we +came. A part of it, at least, ought to arrive at the river to-morrow, +though their cavalry are skirmishing continually on our flanks. Don't +you hear the rifles?" + +Harry heard them far away to right and left, like the faint buzzing of +wasps, but he had heard the same sound so much that it made no impression +upon him. + +"Let 'em buzz," he said. "They're too distant to reach any of us, +and the Army of Northern Virginia is passing on." + +Those were precious hours. Harry knew much, but he did not divine the +full depths of the suspense, suffered by the people beyond the veil that +clothed the two armies. Lincoln had been continually urging Meade to +pursue and destroy his opponent, and Meade, knowing how formidable Lee +was, and how it had been a matter of touch and go at Gettysburg, pursued, +but not with all the ardor of one sure of triumph. Yet the man at the +White House hoped continually for victory, and the Southern people feared +that his hopes would come true. + +It became sure the next day that they would reach the Potomac before +Meade could attack them in flank, but the scouts brought word that the +Potomac was still a deep and swollen river, impossible to be crossed +unless they could rebuild the bridges. + +Finally the whole army came against the Potomac and it seemed to Harry +that its yellow flood had not diminished one particle since he left. +But Lee acted with energy. Men were set to work at once building a new +bridge near Falling Waters, parts of the ruined pontoon bridges were +recovered, and new boats were built in haste. But while the workmen +toiled the army went into strong positions along the river between +Williamsport and Hagerstown. + +Harry found himself with all of his friends again, and he was proud of +the army's defiant attitude. Meade and the Army of the Potomac were +not far away, it was said, but the youthful veterans of the South were +entirely willing to fight again. The older men, however, knew their +danger. The disproportion of forces would be much greater than at +Gettysburg, and even if they fought a successful defensive action with +their back to the river the Army of the Potomac could bide its time and +await reinforcements. The North would pour forth its numbers without +stint. + +Harry rode to Sherburne with a message of congratulation from General Lee, +who told him that he had selected the possible crossing well, and that +he had shown great skill and valor in holding it until the army came up. +Sherburne's flush of pride showed under his deep tan. + +"I did my best," he said to Harry, who knew the contents of the letter, +"and that's all any of us can do." + +"But General Lee has a way of inspiring us to do our best." + +"It's so, and it's one of the reasons why he's such a great general. +Watch those bridge builders work, Harry! They're certainly putting their +souls and strength into it." + +"And they have need to do so. The scouts say that the Army of the +Potomac will be before us to-morrow. Don't you think the river has +fallen somewhat, Colonel?" + +"A little but look at those clouds over there, Harry. As surely as we +sit here it's going to rain. The rivers were low that we might cross +them on our march into the North, just smoothing our way to Gettysburg, +and now that Gettysburg has happened they're high so we can't get back +to the South. It looks as if luck were against us." + +"But luck has a habit of changing." + +Harry rode back to headquarters, whence he was sent with another dispatch, +to Colonel Talbot, whom he found posted well in advance with the +Invincibles. + +"This note," said the colonel, "bids us to watch thoroughly. General +Meade and his army are expected on our front in the morning, and there +must be no chance for a surprise in the night, say a dash by their +cavalry which would cut up our rear guard or vanguard--upon my soul I +don't know which to call it. Harry, as you can see by the note itself, +you're to remain with us until about midnight, and then make a full +report of all that you and I and the rest of us may have observed upon +this portion of the front or rear, whichever it may be. Meanwhile we +share with you our humble rations." + +Harry was pleased. He was always glad when chance or purpose brought him +again into the company of the Invincibles. St. Clair and Langdon were +his oldest comrades of the war, and they were like brothers to him. +His affection for the two colonels was genuine and deep. If the two lads +were like brothers to him, the colonels were like uncles. + +"Is the Northern vanguard anywhere near?" asked Harry. + +"Skirmishing is going on only four or five miles away," replied Colonel +Leonidas Talbot. "It is likely that the sharp shooters will be picking +off one another all through the night, but it will not disturb us. +That is a great curse of war. It hardens one so for the time being. +I'm a soldier, and I've been one all my life, and I suppose soldiers are +necessary, but I can't get over this feeling. Isn't it the same way with +you, Hector?" + +"Exactly the same, Leonidas," replied Lieutenant-Colonel Hector +St. Hilaire. "You and I fought together in Mexico, Leonidas, then on the +plains, and now in this gigantic struggle, but under whatever guise and, +wherever it may be, I find its visage always hideous. I don't think we +soldiers are to blame. We don't make the wars although we have to fight +'em." + +"Increasing years, Hector, have not dimmed those perceptive faculties of +yours, which I may justly call brilliant." + +"Thanks, Leonidas, you and I have always had a proper conception of the +worth of each other." + +"If you will pardon me for speaking, sir," said St. Clair, "there is one +man I'd like to find, when this war is over." + +"'What is the appearance of this man, Arthur?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +"I don't know exactly how he looks, sir, though I've heard of him often, +and I shall certainly know him when I meet him. You understand, sir, +that, while I've not seen him, he has very remarkable characteristics of +manner." + +"And what may those be, Arthur? Are they so salient that you would +recognize them at once?" + +"Certainly, sir. He has an uncommonly loud voice, which he uses nearly +all the time and without restraint. Words fairly pour from his tongue. +Facts he scorns. He soars aloft on the wings of fancy. Many people who +have listened to him have felt persuaded by his talk, but he is perhaps +not so popular now." + +"An extraordinary person, Arthur. But why are you so anxious to find +him?" + +"Because I wish, sir, to lay upon him the hands of violence. I would +thrash him and beat him until he yelled for mercy, and then I would +thrash him and beat him again. I should want the original pair of +seven-leagued boots, not that I might make such fast time, but that I +might kick him at a single kick from one county to another, and back, +and then over and over past counting. I'd duck him in a river until he +gasped for breath, I'd drag him naked through a briar patch, and then +I'd tar and feather him, and ride him on a rail." + +"Heavens, Arthur! I didn't dream that your nature contained so much +cruelty! Who is this person over whose torture you would gloat like a +red Indian?" + +"It is the man who first said that one Southerner could whip five +Yankees." + +"Arthur," said Colonel Talbot, "your anger is just and becomes you. +When the war is over, if we all are spared we'll form a group and hunt +this fellow until we find him. And then, please God, if the gallows of +Haman is still in existence, we'll hang him on it with promptness and +dispatch. I believe in the due and orderly process of the law, but in +this case lynching is not only justifiable, but it's an honor to the +country." + +"Well spoken, Leonidas! Well spoken!" said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector +St. Hilaire. "I'm glad that Arthur mentioned the matter, and we'll bear +it in mind. You can count upon me." + +"And here is coffee," said Happy Tom. "I made this myself, the camp cook +liking me and giving me a chance. I'd really be a wonderful cook if I +had the proper training, and I may come to it, if we lose the war. +Still, the chance even then is slight, because my father, when red war +showed its edge over the horizon, put all his money in the best British +securities. So we could do no more than lose the plantation." + +"Happy," said Colonel Talbot, gravely rebuking, "I am surprised at your +father. I thought he was a patriot." + +"He is, sir, but he's a financier first, and I may be thankful for it +some day. I'll venture the prediction right now that if we lose this war +not a single Confederate bill will be in the possession of Thomas Langdon, +Sr. Others may have bales of it, worth less per pound than cotton, +but not your humble servant's father, who, I sometimes think, has lots +more sense than your humble servant's father's son." + +Colonel Leonidas Talbot shook his head slowly. + +"Finance is a mystery to me," he said. "In the dear old South that +I have always known, the law, the army and the church were and are +considered the high callings. To speak in fine, rounded periods was +considered the great gift. In my young days, Harry, I went with my +father by stage coach to your own State, Kentucky, to hear that sublime +orator, the great Henry Clay." + +"What was he speaking about, sir?" asked Harry. + +"I don't remember. That's not important. But surely he was the noblest +orator God ever created in His likeness. His words flowing like music +and to be heard by everybody, even those farthest from the speaker, +made my pulse beat hard, and the blood leap in my veins. I was heart and +soul for his cause, whatever it was, and, yet I fear me, though I do not +wish to hurt your feelings, Harry, that the state to which he was such +ornament, has not gone for the South with the whole spirit that she +should have shown. She has not even seceded. I fear sometimes that you +Kentuckians are not altogether Southern. You border upon the North, +and stretching as you do a long distance from east to west and a +comparatively short distance from north to south, you thus face three +Northern States across the Ohio--Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and the +pull of three against one is strong. You see your position, don't you? +Three Yankee states facing you from the north and only one Southern state, +Tennessee, lying across your whole southern border, that is three against +one. I fear that these odds have had their effect, because if Kentucky +had sent all of her troops to the South, instead of two-thirds of them +to the North, the war would have been won by us ere this." + +"I admit it," said Harry regretfully. "My own cousin, who was more like +a brother to me, is fighting on the other side. Kentucky troops on the +Union side have kept us from winning great victories, and many of the +Union generals are Kentuckians. I grieve over it, sir, as much as you +do." + +"But you and your people should not take too much blame to yourselves, +Harry," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, who had a very soft +heart. "Think of the many influences to which you were exposed daily. +Think of those three Yankee states sitting there on the other side of +the Ohio--Ohio, Indiana and Illinois--and staring at you so long and so +steadily that, in a way, they exerted a certain hypnotic force upon you. +No, my boy, don't feel badly about it, because the fault, in a way, +is not so much yours as it is that of your neighbors." + +"At any rate," said Happy Tom, with his customary boldness and frankness, +"we're bound to admit that the Yankees beat us at making money." + +"Which may be more to our credit than theirs," said Colonel Talbot, +with dignity. "I have found it more conducive to integrity and a lofty +mind to serve as an officer at a modest salary in the army rather than +to gain riches in trade." + +"But somebody has to pay the army, sir." + +"Thomas, I regret to tell you that inquiry can be pushed to the point of +vulgarity. I have been content with things as they were, and so should +you be. Ah, there are our brave boys singing that noble battle song of +the South! Listen how it swells! It shows a spirit unconquerable!" + +Along the great battle front swelled the mighty chorus: + + "Come brothers! Rally for the right! + The bravest of the brave + Sends forth her ringing battle cry + Beside the Atlantic wave! + She leads the way in honor's path; + Come brothers, near and far, + Come rally round the bonnie blue flag + That bears a single star." + +"A fine song! A fine song most truly," said Colonel Talbot. "It +heartens one gloriously!" + +But Harry, usually so quick to respond, strangely enough felt depression. +He felt suddenly in all its truth that they had not only failed in their +invasion, but the escape of the army was yet a matter of great doubt. +The mood was only momentary, however, and he joined with all his heart as +the mighty chorus rolled out another verse: + + "Now Georgia marches to the front + And beside her come + Her sisters by the Mexique sea + With pealing trump and drum, + Till answering back from hill and glen + The rallying cry afar, + A Nation hoists the bonnie blue flag + That bears a single star!" + +They sang it all through, and over again, and then, after a little +silence, came the notes of a trumpet from a far-distant point. It was +played by powerful lungs and the wind was blowing their way but they +heard it distinctly. It was a quaint syncopated tune, but not one of the +Invincibles had any doubt that it came from some daring detachment of the +Union Army. The notes with their odd lilt seemed to swell through the +forest, but it was strange to both of the colonels. + +"Do any of you know it?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +All shook their heads except Harry. + +"What is it, Harry?" asked Talbot. + +"It's a famous poem, sir, the music of which has not often been heard, +but I can translate from music into words the verse that has just been +played: + + "In their ragged regimentals + Stood the old Continentals + Yielding not, + When the grenadiers were lunging + And like hail fell the plunging + Cannon shot; + When the files of the isles + From the smoky night encampment + Bore the banner of the rampant + Unicorn + And grummer, grummer, + Rolled the roll of the drummer, + Through the morn!" + +The bugler played on. It was the same tune, curious, syncopated and +piercing the night shrilly. Whole brigades of the South stood in silence +to listen. + +"What do you think is its meaning?" asked Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. + +"It's in answer to our song and at the same time a reproach," replied +Harry, who had jumped at once to the right conclusion. "The bugler +intends to remind us that the old Continentals who stood so well were +from both North and South, and perhaps he means, too, that we should +stand together again instead of fighting each other." + +"Then let the North give up at once," snapped Colonel Talbot. + +"But in the trumpeter's opinion that means we should be apart forever." + +"Then let him play on to ears that will not heed." + +But the bugler was riding away. The music came faintly, and then died in +one last sighing note. It left Harry grave and troubled, and he began +to ask himself new questions. If the South succeeded in forcing a +separation, what then? But the talk of his comrades drove the thought +from his mind. Colonel Talbot sent St. Clair, Langdon and a small party +of horsemen forward to see what the close approach of the daring bugler +meant. Harry went with them. + +Scouts in the brushwood quickly told them that a troop of Union cavalry +had appeared in a meadow some distance ahead of them, and that it was one +of their number who had played the song on the bugle. Should they stalk +the detachment and open fire? St. Clair, who was in command, shook his +head. + +"It would mean nothing now," he said, and rode on with his men, knowing +that the watchful Southern sharpshooters were on their flanks. It was +night now, and a bright moon was coming out, enabling them to use their +glasses with effect. + +"There they are!" exclaimed Harry, pointing to the strip of forest on the +far side of the opening, "and there is the bugler, too." + +He was studying the party intently. The brilliant moonlight, and the +strength of his glasses made everything sharp and clear and his gaze +concentrated upon the bugler. He knew that man, his powerful chest and +shoulders, and the well-shaped head on its strong neck. Nor did he deny +to himself that he had a feeling of gladness when he recognized him. + +"It's none other," he said aloud. + +"None other what?" asked St. Clair. + +"Our warning bugler was Shepard, the Union spy. I can make him out +clearly on his horse with his bugle in his hand. You'll remember my +telling you how I had that fight with him in the river." + +"And perhaps it would have been better for us all if you had finished him +off then." + +"I couldn't have done it, Arthur, nor could you, if you had been in my +place." + +"No, I suppose not, but these Yankees are coming up pretty close. +It's sure proof that Meade's whole army will be here in the morning, +and the bridge won't be built." + +"It may be built, but, if Meade chooses a battle, a battle there will be. +Heavy forces must be very near. You can see them now signaling to one +another from hill to hill." + +"So I do, and this is as far as we ought to go. A hundred yards or +two farther and we'll be in the territory of the enemy's sharpshooters +instead of our own." + +They remained for a while among some bushes, and secured positive +knowledge that the bulk of the Army of the Potomac was drawing near. +Toward midnight Harry returned to his commander-in-chief and found him +awake and in consultation with his generals, under some trees near the +Potomac. Longstreet, Rhodes, Pickett, Early, Anderson, Pender and a +dozen others were there, all of them scarred and tanned by battle, +and most of them bearing wounds. + +Harry stood back, hesitating to invade this circle, even when he came +with dispatches, but the commander-in-chief, catching sight of him, +beckoned. Then, taking off his cap, he walked forward and presented a +note from Colonel Talbot. It was brief, stating that the enemy was near, +and Lee read it aloud to his council. + +"And what were your own observations, Lieutenant Kenton?" asked the +commander-in-chief. + +"As well as I could judge, sir, the enemy will appear on our whole front +soon after daybreak." + +"And will be in great enough force to defeat us." + +"Not while you lead us, sir." + +"A courtier! truly a courtier!" exclaimed Stuart, smoothing the great +feather of his gorgeous hat, which lay upon his knee. + +Harry blushed. + +"It may have had that look," he said, "but I meant my words." + +"Don't tease the lad," said the crippled Ewell. "I knew him well on +Jackson's staff, and he was one of our bravest and best." + +"A jest only," said Stuart. "Don't I know him as well as you, Ewell? +The first time I saw him he was riding alone among many dangers to bring +relief to a beleaguered force of ours." + +"And you furnished that relief, sir," said Harry. + +"Well, so I did, but it was my luck, not merit." + +"Be assured that you have no better friend than General Stuart," said +General Lee, smiling. "You have done your duty well, Lieutenant Kenton, +and as these have been arduous days for you you may withdraw, and join +your young comrades of the staff." + +Harry saluted and retired. Before he was out of ear shot the generals +resumed their eager talk, but they knew, even as Harry himself, that +there was but one thing to do, stand with their backs to the river and +fight, if Meade chose to offer battle. + +He slept heavily, and when he awoke the next day Dalton, who was up +before him, informed him that the Northern army was at hand. Snatching +breakfast, he and Dalton, riding close behind the commander-in-chief, +advanced a little distance and standing upon a knoll surveyed the +thrilling spectacle before them. Far along the front stretched the Army +of the Potomac, horse, foot and guns, come up with its enemy again. +Harry was sure that Meade was there, and with him Hancock and Buford and +Warren and all the other valiant leaders whom they had met at Gettysburg. +It was nine days since the close of the great battle, and doubtless the +North had poured forward many reinforcements, while the South had none +to send. + +Harry appreciated the full danger of their situation, with the larger +army in front of them, and the deep and swollen torrent of the Potomac +behind them. But he did not believe that Meade would attack. Lee had +lost at Gettysburg, but in losing he had inflicted such losses upon his +opponent, that most generals would hesitate to force another battle. +The one who would not have hesitated was consolidating his great triumph +at Vicksburg. Harry often thought afterward what would have happened had +Grant faced Lee that day on the wrong side of the Potomac. + +His opinion that Meade would not attack came from a feeling that might +have been called atmospheric, an atmosphere created by the lack of +initiative on the Union side, no clouds of skirmishers, no attacks of +cavalry, very little rifle firing of any kind, merely generals and +soldiers looking at one another. Harry saw, too, that his own opinion +was that of his superior officer. Watching the commander-in-chief +intently he saw a trace of satisfaction in the blue eyes. Presently +all of them rode back. + +Thus that day passed and then another wore on. Harry and Dalton had +little to do. The whole Army of Northern Virginia was in position, +defiant, challenging even, and the Army of the Potomac made no movement +forward. Harry watched the strange spectacle with an excitement that he +did not allow to appear on his face. It was like many of those periods +in the great battles in which he had taken a part, when the combat died, +though the lull was merely the omen of a struggle, soon to come more +frightful than ever. + +But here the struggle did not come. The hours of the afternoon fell +peacefully away, and the general and soldiers still looked at one another. + +"They're working on the bridge like mad," said Dalton, who had been away +with a message, "and it will surely be ready in the morning. Besides, +the Potomac is falling fast. You can already see the muddy lines that +it's leaving on its banks." + +"And Meade's chance is slipping, slipping away!" said Harry exultingly. +"In three hours it will be sunset. They can't attack in the night and +to-morrow we'll be gone. Meade has delayed like McClellan at Antietam, +and, doubtless as McClellan did, he thinks our army much larger than it +really is." + +"It's so," said Dalton. "We're to be delivered, and we're to be +delivered without a battle, a battle that we could ill afford, even if +we won it." + +Both were in a state of intense anxiety and they looked many times at the +sun and their watches. Then they searched the hostile army with their +glasses. But nothing of moment was stirring there. Lower and lower sank +the sun, and a great thrill ran through the Army of Northern Virginia. +In both armies the soldiers were intelligent men--not mere creatures +of drill--who thought for themselves, and while those in the Army of +Northern Virginia were ready, even eager to fight if it were pushed upon +them, they knew the great danger of their position. Now the word ran +along the whole line that if they fought at all it would be on their side +of the river. + +Harry and Dalton did not sleep that night. They could not have done +so had the chance been offered. They like others rode all through the +darkness carrying messages to the different commands, insuring exact +cooperation. As the hours of the night passed the aspect of everything +grew better. The river had fallen so fast that it would be fordable +before morning. + +But after midnight the clouds gathered, thunder crashed, lightning played +and the violent rain of a summer storm enveloped them again. Harry +viewed it at first with dismay, and then he found consolation. The +darkness and the storm would cover their retreat, as it had covered the +retreat of their enemy, Hooker, after Chancellorsville. + +Harry and Dalton rode close behind Lee, who sat erect on his white horse, +supervising the first movement of troops over the new and shaking bridge. +Harry noted with amazement that despite his enormous exertions, physical +and mental, and an intense anxiety, continuous for many days, he did not +yet show signs of fatigue. Word had come that a part of the army was +already fording the river, near Williamsport, but this bridge near +Falling Waters was the most important point. General Lee and his staff +sat there on their horses a long time, while the rain beat unheeded upon +them. + +Few scenes are engraved more vividly upon the mind of Harry Kenton than +those dusky hours before the dawn, the flashes of lightning, the almost +incessant rumble of thunder, the turbid and yellow river across which +stretched the bridge, a mere black thread in the darkness, swaying and +dipping and rising and creaking as horse and foot, and batteries and +ammunition wagons passed upon it. + +There were torches, but they flared and smoked in the rain and cast a +light so weak and fitful that Harry could not see the farther shore. +The Army of Northern Virginia marched out upon a shaking bridge and +disappeared in the black gulf beyond. Only the lack of an alarm coming +back showed that it was reaching the farther shore. + +"Dawn will soon be here," said Dalton. + +"So it will," said Harry, "and most of the troops are across. Ah, +there go the Invincibles! Look how they ride!" + +Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire at the +head of their scanty band were just passing. They took off their hats, +and swept a low bow to the great chief who sat silently on his white +horse within a few yards of them. Then, side by side, they rode upon the +shaking bridge, followed by Langdon, St. Clair and their brave comrades, +and disappeared, where the bridge disappeared, in the rain and mist. + +"Brave men!" murmured Lee. + +Harry, always watching his commander-in-chief, saw now for the first time +signs of fatigue and nervousness. The tremendous strain was wearing him +down. But while the rain still poured and ran in streams from his gray +hair and gray beard, the rear guard of the Army of Northern Virginia +passed upon the bridge, and Stuart, all his plumes bedraggled, rode up to +his chief, a smoking cup of coffee in his hand. + +"Drink this, General, won't you?" he said. + +He seized it, drank all of the coffee eagerly, and then handing back the +cup, said: + +"I never before in my life drank anything that refreshed me so much." + +Then he, with his staff, Stuart and some other generals rode over the +bridge, disappearing in their turn into the darkness and mist that had +swallowed up the others, but emerging, as the others had done, into the +safety of the Southern shore. + +Meade and his generals had held a council the night before but nearly all +the officers advised against attack. This night he made up his mind to +move against Lee anyhow, and was ready at dawn, only to find the whole +Southern army gone. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +IN SOCIETY + + +Harry, when the dawn had fully come, was sent farther away toward the +ford to see if the remainder of the troops had passed, and, when he +returned with the welcome news, the rain had ceased to fall. The +army was rapidly drying itself in the brilliant sunshine, and marched +leisurely on. He felt an immense relief. He knew that a great crisis +had been passed, and, if the Northern armies ever reached Richmond, +it would be a long and sanguinary road. Meade might get across and +attack, but his advantage was gone. + +The same spirit of relief pervaded the ranks, and the men sang their +battle songs. There had been some fighting at one or two of the fords, +but it did not amount to much, and no enemy hung on their rear. But no +stop was made by the staff until noon, when a fire was made and food was +cooked. Then Harry was notified that he and Dalton were to start that +night with dispatches for Richmond. They were to ride through dangerous +country, until they reached a point on the railroad, wholly within the +Southern lines, when they would take a train for the Confederate capital. + +They were glad to go. They felt sure that no great battles would be +fought while they were gone. Neither army seemed to be in a mood for +further fighting just yet, and they longed for a sight of the little city +that was the heart of the Confederacy. They were tired of the rifle and +march, of cannon and battles. They wished to be a while where civilized +life went on, to hear the bells of churches and to see the faces of women. + +It seemed to them both that they had lived almost all their lives in war. +Even Jeb Stuart's ball, stopped by the opening guns of a great battle, +was far, far away, and to Harry, it was at least a century since he had +closed his Tacitus in the Pendleton Academy, and put it away in his desk. +That old Roman had written something of battles, but they were no such +struggles as Chancellorsville and Gettysburg had been. The legions, +he admitted in his youthful pride, could fight well, but they never could +have beaten Yank or Reb. + +He and Dalton slept through the afternoon and directly after dark, +well equipped and well-armed, they made their start into the South. +But in going they did not neglect to pass the camp of the Invincibles +who were now in the apex of the army farthest south. They had found an +unusually comfortable place on a grassy plot beside a fine, cool spring, +and most of them were lying down. But Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant- +Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sat on empty kegs, with a board on an empty +box between them. The great game which ran along with the war had been +renewed. St. Clair and Langdon sat on the grass beside them, watching +the contest. + +The two colonels looked up at the sound of hoofs and paused a moment. + +"I'm getting his king into a close corner, Harry," said Colonel Talbot, +"and he'll need a lot of time for thinking. Where are you two going, +or perhaps I shouldn't ask you such a question?" + +"There's no secret about it," replied Harry. "We're going to Richmond +with dispatches." + +"He was incorrect in saying that he was getting my king into a close +corner, as I'll presently show him," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire; +"but you boys are lucky. I suppose you'll stay a while in the capital. +You'll sleep in white beds, you'll eat at tables, with tablecloths on +'em. You'll hear the soft voices of the women and girls of the South, +God bless 'em!" + +"And if you went on to Charleston you'd find just as fine women there," +said Colonel Leonidas Talbot. + +He sighed and a shade of sadness crossed his face. Harry heard and saw +and understood. He remembered a night long, long ago in that heat of +rebellion, when he had looked down from the window of his room, and, +in the dark, had seen two figures, a man and a woman, upon a piazza, +Colonel Talbot and Madame Delaunay, talking softly together. He had felt +then that he was touching almost unconsciously upon the thread of an old +romance. A thread slender and delicate, but yet strong enough in its +very tenderness and delicacy to hold them both. The perfume of the +flowers and of the old romance that night in the town so far away came +back. He was moved, and when his eyes met Colonel Talbot's some kind +of an understanding passed between them. + +"The good are never rewarded," said Happy Tom. + +"How so?" asked Harry. + +"Because the proof of it sits on his horse here before us. Why should a +man like George Dalton be sent to Richmond? A sour Puritan who does not +know how to enjoy a dance or anything else, who looks upon the beautiful +face of a girl as a sin and an abomination, who thinks to be ugly is to +be good, who is by temperament and education unfit to enjoy anything, +while Thomas Langdon, who by the same measurements is fit to enjoy +everything, is left here to hold back the Army of the Potomac. It's +undoubtedly a tribute to my valor, but I don't like it." + +"Thomas," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot, gravely, "you're entirely too +severe with our worthy young friend, Dalton. The bubbles of pleasure +always lie beneath austere and solemn exteriors like his, seeking to +break a way to the surface. The longer the process is delayed the more +numerous the bubbles are and the greater they expand. If scandalous +reports concerning a certain young man in Richmond should reach us here +in the North, relating his unparalleled exploits in the giddier circles +of our gay capital, I should know without the telling that it was our +prim young George Dalton." + +"You never spoke truer words, Leonidas," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector +St. Hilaire. "A little judicious gallantry in youth is good for any one. +It keeps the temperature from going too high. I recall now the case of +Auguste Champigny, who owned an estate in Louisiana, near the Louisiana +estate of the St. Hilaires, and the estates of those cousins of mine whom +I visited, as I told you once. + +"But pardon me. I digress, and to digress is to grow old, so I will not +digress, but remain young, in heart at least. I go back now. I was +speaking of Auguste Champigny, who in youth thought only of making money +and of making his plantation, already great, many times greater. The +blood in his veins was old at twenty-two. He did not love the vices that +the world calls such. But yet there were times, I knew, when he would +have longed to go with the young, because youth cannot be crushed +wholly at twenty-two. There was no escape of the spirits, no wholesome +blood-letting, so to speak, and that which was within him became corrupt. +He acquired riches and more riches, and land and more land, and at fifty +he went to New Orleans, and sought the places where pleasures abound. +But his true blossoming time had passed. The blood in his veins now +became poison. He did the things that twenty should do, and left undone +the things that fifty should do. Ah! Harry, one of the saddest things +in life is the dissipated boy of fifty! He should have come with us when +the first blood of youth was upon him. He could have found time then for +play as well as work. He could have rowed with us in the slender boats +on the river and bayous with Mimi and Rosalie and Marianne and all those +other bright and happy ones. He could have danced, too. It was no +strain, we never danced longer than two days and two nights without +stopping, and the festivals, the gay fete days, not more than one a week! +But it was not Auguste's way. A man when he should have been a boy, +and then, alas! a boy when he should have been a man!" + +"You speak true words, Hector," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot, "though at +times you seem to me to be rather sentimental. Youth is youth and it has +the pleasures of youth. It is not fitting that a man should be a boy, +but middle-age has pleasures of its own and they are more solid, perhaps +more satisfying than those of youth. I can't conceive of twenty getting +the pleasure out of the noble game of chess that we do. The most +brilliant of your young French Creole dancers never felt the thrill that +I feel when the last move is made and I beat you." + +"Then if you expect to experience that thrill, Leonidas, continue the +pursuit of my king, from which you expect so much, and see what will +happen to you." + +Colonel Talbot looked keenly at the board, and alarm appeared on his +face. He made a rapid retreat with one of his pieces, and Harry and +Dalton, knowing that it was time for them to go, reached down from their +saddles, shook hands with both, then with St. Clair and Happy Tom, +and were soon beyond the bounds of the camp. + +They rode on for many hours in silence. They were in a friendly land now, +but they knew that it was well to be careful, as Federal scouts and +cavalry nevertheless might be encountered at any moment. Two or three +times they turned aside from the road to let detachments of horsemen +pass. They could not tell in the dark and from their hiding places to +which army they belonged, and they were not willing to take the delay +necessary to find out. They merely let them ride by and resumed their +own place on the road. + +Harry told Dalton many more details of his perilous journey from the +river to the camp of the commander-in-chief, and he spoke particularly +of Shepard. + +"Although he's a spy," he said, "I feel that the word scarcely fits him, +he's so much greater than the ordinary spy. That man is worth more than +a brigade of veterans to the North. He's as brave as a lion, and his +craft and cunning are almost superhuman." + +He did not tell that he might easily have put Shepard forever out of the +way, but that his heart had failed him. Yet he did not feel remorse nor +any sense of treachery to his cause. He would do the same were the same +chance to come again. But it seemed to him now that a duel had begun +between Shepard and himself. They had been drifting into it, either +through chance or fate, for a long time. He knew that he had a most +formidable antagonist, but he felt a certain elation in matching himself +against one so strong. + +They rode all night and the next day across the strip of Maryland into +Virginia and once more were among their own people, their undoubted own. +They were now entering the Valley of Virginia where the great Jackson had +leaped into fame, and both Harry and Dalton felt their hearts warm at the +greetings they received. Both armies had marched over the valley again +and again. It was torn and scarred by battle, and it was destined to +be torn and scarred many times more, but its loyalty to the South stood +every test. This too was the region in which many of the great Virginia +leaders were born, and it rejoiced in the valor of its sons. + +Food and refreshment were offered everywhere to the two young horsemen, +and the women and the old men--not many young men were left--wanted to +hear of Gettysburg. They would not accept it as a defeat. It was merely +a delay, they said. General Lee would march North once more next year. +Harry knew in his heart that the South would never invade again, that +the war would be for her henceforth a purely defensive one, but he said +nothing. He could not discourage people who were so sanguine. + +Every foot of the way now brought back memories of Jackson. He saw many +familiar places, fields of battle, sites of camps, lines of advance or +retreat, and his heart grew sad within him, because one whom he admired +so much, and for whom he had such a strong affection, was gone forever, +gone when he was needed most. He saw again with all the vividness of +reality that terrible night at Chancellorsville, when the wounded Jackson +lay in the road, his young officers covering his body with their own to +protect him from the shells. + +When they reached the strip of railroad entering Richmond they left their +horses to be sent later, and each took a full seat in the short train, +where he could loosen his belt, and stretch his limbs. It was a crude +coach, by the standards of to-day, but it was a luxury then. Harry +and Dalton enjoyed it, after so much riding horseback, and watched the +pleasant landscape, brown now from the July sun, flow past. + +Their coach did not contain many passengers, several wounded officers +going to Richmond on furlough, some countrymen, carrying provisions to +the capital for sale, and a small, thin, elderly woman in a black dress, +to whom Harry assigned the part of an old maid. He noticed that her +features were fine and she had the appearance of one who had suffered. +When they reached Richmond and their passes were examined, he hastened +to carry her bag for her and to help her off the train. She thanked him +with a smile that made her almost handsome, and quickly disappeared in +the streets of the city. + +"A nice looking old maid," he said to Dalton. + +"How do you know she's an old maid?" + +"I don't know. I suppose it's a certain primness of manner." + +"You can't judge by appearances. Like as not she's been married thirty +years, and it's possible that she may have a family of at least twelve +children." + +"At any rate, we'll never know. But it's good, George, to be here in +Richmond again. It's actually a luxury to see streets and shop windows, +and people in civilian clothing, going about their business." + +"Looks the same way to me, Harry, but we can't delay. We must be off to +the President, with the dispatches from the Army of Northern Virginia." + +But they did not hurry greatly. They were young and it had been a long +time since they had been in a city of forty thousand inhabitants, where +the shop windows were brilliant to them and nobody on the streets was +shooting at anybody else. It was late July, the great heats were gone +for the time at least, and they were brisk and elated. They paused a +little while in Capitol Square, and looked at the Bell Tower, rising +like a spire, from the crest of which alarms were rung, then at the fine +structure of St. Paul's Church. They intended to go into the State +House now used as the Confederate Capitol, but that must wait until they +reported to President Davis. + +They arrived at the modest building called the White House of the +Confederacy, and, after a short wait in the anteroom, they were received +by the President. They saw a tall, rather spare man, dressed in a suit +of home-knit gray. He received them without either warmth or coldness. +Harry, although it was not the first time he had seen him, looked at him +with intense curiosity. Davis, like Lincoln, was born in his own State, +Kentucky, but like most other Kentuckians, he did not feel any enthusiasm +over the President of the Confederacy. There was no magnetism. He felt +the presence of intellect, but there was no inspiration in that arid +presence. + +A man of Oriental features was sitting near with a great bunch of papers +in his hand. Mr. Davis did not introduce Harry and Dalton to him, +and he remained silent while the President was asking questions of the +messengers. But Harry watched him when he had a chance, interested +strongly in that shrewd, able, Eastern face, the descendant of an +immemorial and intellectual race, the man who while Secretary of State +was trying also to help carry the tremendous burden of Confederate +finance. What was he thinking, as Harry and Dalton answered the +President's questions about the Army of Northern Virginia? + +"You say that you left immediately after our army crossed the Potomac?" +asked the President. + +"Yes, sir," replied Harry. "General Meade could have attacked, but he +remained nearly two days on our front without attempting to do so." + +A thin gray smile flitted over the face of the President of the +Confederacy. + +"General Meade was not beaten at Gettysburg, but I fancy he remembered it +well enough." + +Harry glanced at Benjamin, but his Oriental face was inscrutable. +The lad wondered what was lurking at the back of that strong brain. +He was shrewd enough himself to know that it was not always the generals +on the battlefield who best understood the condition of a state at war, +and often the man who held the purse was the one who measured it best of +all. But Benjamin never said a word, nor did the expression of his face +change a particle. + +"The Army of Northern Virginia is safe," said the President, "and it will +be able to repel all invasion of Virginia. General Lee gives especial +mention of both of you in his letters, and you are not to return to him +at once. You are to remain here a while on furlough, and if you will go +to General Winder he will assign you to quarters." + +Both Harry and Dalton were delighted, and, although thanks were really +due to General Lee, they thanked the President, who smiled dryly. +Then they saluted and withdrew, the President and the Secretary of State +going at once into earnest consultation over the papers Mr. Benjamin had +brought. + +Harry felt that he had left an atmosphere of depression and said so, +when they were outside in the bright sunshine. + +"If you were trying to carry as much as Mr. Davis is carrying you'd be +depressed too," said Dalton. + +"Maybe so, but let's forget it. We've got nothing to do for a few days +but enjoy ourselves. General Winder is to give us quarters, but we're +not to be under his command. What say you to a little trip through the +capitol?" + +"Good enough." + +Congress had adjourned for the day, but they went through the building, +admiring particularly the Houdon Washington, and then strolled again +through the streets, which were so interesting and novel to them. +Richmond was never gayer and brighter. They were sure that the hated +Yankees could never come. For more than two years the Army of Northern +Virginia had been an insuperable bar to their advance, and it would +continue so. + +Harry suddenly lifted his cap as some one passed swiftly, and Dalton +glancing backward saw a small vanishing figure. + +"Who was it?" he asked. + +"The thin little old maid in black whom we saw on the train. She may +have nodded to me when I bowed, but it was such a little nod that I'm not +certain." + +"I rather like your being polite to an insignificant old maid, Harry. +I'd expect you, as a matter of course, to be polite to a young and pretty +girl, overpolite probably." + +"That'll do, George Dalton. I like you best when you're preaching least. +Come, let's go into the hotel and hear what they're talking about." + +After the custom of the times a large crowd was gathered in the spacious +lobby of Richmond's chief hotel. Among them were the local celebrities +in other things than war, Daniel, Bagby, Pegram, Randolph, and a +half-dozen more, musicians, artists, poets, orators and wits. People +were quite democratic, and Harry and Dalton were free to draw their +chairs near the edge of the group and listen. Pegram, the humorist, +gave them a glance of approval, when he noticed their uniforms, the deep +tan of their faces, their honest eyes and their compact, strong figures. + +Harry soon learned that a large number of English and French newspapers +had been brought by a blockade runner to Wilmington, North Carolina, +and had just reached the capital, the news of which these men were +discussing with eagerness. + +"We learn that the sympathies of both the French and English governments +are still with us," said Randolph. + +"But these papers were all printed before the news of Vicksburg and +Gettysburg had crossed the Atlantic," said Daniel. + +"England is for us," said Pegram, "only because she likes us little and +the North less. The French Imperialists, too, hate republics, and are in +for anything that will damage them. When we beat off the North, until +she's had enough, and set up our own free and independent republic, +we'll have both England and France annoying us, and demanding favors, +because they were for us in the war. Sympathy is something, but it +doesn't win any battles." + +"A nation has no real friend except itself," said Bagby. "Whatever the +South gets she'll have to get with her own good right arm." + +"I can predict the first great measure to be put through by the Southern +Government after the war." + +"What will it be?" + +"The abolition of slavery." + +"Why, that's one of the things we're fighting to maintain!" + +"Exactly so. You're willing to throw away a thing of your own accord, +when you're not willing to throw it away because another orders you to do +so. Wars are due chiefly to our misunderstanding of human nature." + +Then Pegram turned suddenly to Harry. "You're from the field?" he said. +"From the Army of Northern Virginia?" + +"Yes," replied Harry. "My name is Kenton and I'm a lieutenant on the +staff of General Lee. My friend is George Dalton, also of the commander- +in-chief's staff." + +"Are you from Kentucky?" asked Daniel curiously. + +"Yes, from a little town called Pendleton." + +"Then I fancy that I've met a relative of yours. I returned recently +from a small town in North Georgia, the name of which I may not give, +owing to military reasons, necessary at the present time, and I met while +I was there a splendid tall man of middle years, Colonel George Kenton +of Kentucky." + +"That's my father!" said Harry eagerly. "How was he?" + +"I thought he must be your father. The resemblance, you know. I should +say that if all men were as healthy as he looked there would be no +doctors in the world. He has a fine regiment and he'll be in the battle +that's breeding down there. Grant has taken Vicksburg, as we all know, +but a powerful army of ours is left in that region. It has to be dealt +with before we lose the West." + +"And it will fight like the Army of Northern Virginia," said Harry. +"I know the men of the West. The Yankees win there most of the time, +because we have our great generals in the East and they have theirs in +the West." + +"I've had that thought myself," said Bagby. "We've had men of genius +to lead us in the East, but we don't seem to produce them in the West. +People are always quoting Napoleon's saying that men are nothing, a man +is everything, which I never believed before, but which I'm beginning to +believe now." + +Then the talk veered away from battle and back to social, literary and +artistic affairs, to all of which Harry and Dalton listened eagerly. +Both had minds that responded to the more delicate things of life, +and they were glad to hear something besides war discussed. It was +hard for them to think that everything was going on as usual in Europe, +that new books and operas and songs were being written, and that men +and women were going about their daily affairs in peace. Yet both were +destined to live to see the case reversed, the people of the States +setting the world an example in moderation and restraint, while the +governments of Europe were deluging that continent with blood. + +"If this war should result in our defeat," said Bagby, "we won't get +a fair trial before the world for two or three generations, and maybe +never." + +"Why?" asked Dalton. + +"Because we're not a writing people. Oh, yes, there's Poe, I know, +the nation's greatest literary genius, but even Europe honored him before +the South did. We've devoted our industry and talents to politics, +oratory and war. We don't write books, and we don't have any newspapers +that amount to much. Why, as sure as I'm sitting here, the moment this +war is over New England and New York and Pennsylvania, particularly New +England, will begin to pour out books, telling how the wicked Southerners +brought on the war, what a cruel and low people we are, the way in which +we taught our boys, when they were strong enough, how to beat slaves to +death, and the whole world will believe them. Maybe the next generation +of Southerners will believe them too." + +"Why?" asked Harry. + +"Why? Why? Because we don't have any writers, and won't have any for a +long time! The writer has not been honored among us. Any fellow with +a roaring voice who can get up on the stump and tell his audience that +they're the bravest and best and smartest people on earth is the man for +them. You know that old story of Andy Jackson. Somebody taunted him +with being an uneducated man, so at the close of his next speech he +thundered out: _E pluribus unum! Multum in parvo! Sic semper tyrannis!_ +So it was all over. Old Andy to that audience, and all the others that +heard of it, was the greatest Latin scholar in the world." + +"But that may apply to the North, too," objected Harry. + +"So it would. Nevertheless they'll write this war, and they'll get their +side of it fastened on the world before our people begin to write." + +"But if we win we won't care," said Randolph. "Success speaks for +itself. You can squirm and twist all you please, and make all the +excuses for it that you can think up, but there stands success glaring +contemptuously at you. You're like a little boy shooting arrows at the +Sphinx." + +Thus the conversation ran on. Both Harry and Dalton were glad to be +in the company of these men, and to feel that there was something in +the world besides war. All the multifarious interests of peace and +civilization suddenly came crowding back upon them. Harry remembered +Pendleton with its rolling hills, green fields, and clear streams, +and Dalton remembered his own home, much like it, in the Valley of +Virginia, not so far away. + +"Do you remain long in Richmond?" asked Randolph. + +"A week at least," replied Harry. + +"Then you ought to see a little of social life. Mrs. John Curtis, +a leading hostess, gives a reception and a dance to-morrow night. +I can easily procure invitations for both of you, and I know that she +would be glad to have two young officers freshly arrived from our +glorious Army of Northern Virginia." + +"But our clothes!" said Dalton. "We have only a change of uniform apiece, +and they're not fresh by any means." + +All the men laughed. + +"You don't think that Richmond is indulging in gorgeous apparel do you?" +said Daniel. "We never manufactured much ourselves, and since all the +rest of the world is cut off from us where are the clothes to come from +even for the women? Brush up your uniforms all you can and you'll be +more than welcome. Two gallant young officers from the Army of Northern +Virginia! Why, you'll be two Othellos, though white, of course." + +Harry glanced at Dalton, and Dalton glanced at Harry. Each saw that the +other wanted to go, and Daniel, watching them, smiled. + +"I see that you'll come," he said, "and so it's settled. Have you +quarters yet?" + +"Not yet," replied Harry, "but we'll see about it this afternoon." + +"I'll have the invitations sent to you here at this hotel. All of us +will be there, and we'll see that you two meet everybody." + +Both thanked him profusely. They were about to go, thinking it time to +report to General Winder, when Harry noticed a thin woman in a black +dress, carrying a large basket, and just leaving the hotel desk. He +caught a glimpse of her face and he knew that it was the old maid of the +train. Then something else was impressed upon his mind, something which +he had not noticed at their first meeting, but which came to him at their +second. He had seen a face like hers before, but the resemblance was +so faint and fleeting that he could not place it, strive as he would. +But he was sure that it was there. + +"Who is that woman?" he asked. + +Daniel shook his head and so did Randolph, but Bagby spoke up. + +"Her name is Henrietta Carden," he said, "and she's a seamstress. +I've seen her coming to the hotel often before, bringing new clothes to +the women guests, or taking away old ones to be repaired. I believe that +the ladies account her most skillful. It's likely that she'll be at +the Curtis house, in a surgical capacity, to-morrow night, as a quick +repairer of damaged garments, those fine linen and silk and lace affairs +that we don't know anything about. Mrs. Curtis relies greatly upon her +and I ought to tell you, young gentlemen, that Mr. Curtis is a most +successful blockade runner, though he takes no personal risk himself. +The Curtis house is perhaps the most sumptuous in Richmond. You'll see +no signs of poverty there, though, as I told you, officers in old and +faded clothes are welcome." + +Harry saw Henrietta Carden carrying the large basket of clothes, go out +at a side door, and he felt as if a black shadow like a menace had passed +across the floor. But it was only for an instant. He dismissed it +promptly, as one of those thoughts that come out of nothing, like idle +puffs of summer air. He and Dalton bade a brief farewell to their new +friends and left for the headquarters of General Winder. An elderly and +childless couple named Lanham had volunteered to take two officers in +their house near Capitol Square, and there Harry and Dalton were sent. + +They could not have found a better place. Mr. and Mrs. Lanham were quiet +people, who gave them an excellent room and a fine supper. Mrs. Lanham +showed a motherly solicitude, and when she heard that they were going to +the Curtis ball on the following night she demanded that their spare and +best uniforms be turned over to her. + +"I can make them look fresh," she insisted, "and your appearance must be +the finest possible. No, don't refuse again. It's a pleasure to me to +do it. When I look at you two, so young and strong and so honest in +manner and speech, I wish that I had sons too, and then again I'm glad I +have not." + +"Why not, Mrs. Lanham?" asked Harry. + +"Because I'd be in deadly fear lest I lose them. They'd go to the war-- +I couldn't help it--and they'd surely be killed." + +"We won't grieve over losing what we've never had," smiled Mr. Lanham. +"That's morbid." + +Harry and Dalton did their best to answer all the questions of their +hosts, who they knew would take no pay. The interest of both Mr. and +Mrs. Lanham was increased when they found that their young guests were on +the staff of General Lee and before that had been on the staff of the +great Stonewall Jackson. These two names were mighty in the South, +untouched by any kind of malice or envy, and with legends to cluster +around them as the years passed. + +"And you really saw Stonewall Jackson every day!" said Mrs. Lanham. +"You rode with him, talked with him, and went into battle with him?" + +"I was in all his campaigns, Mrs. Lanham," replied Harry, modestly, +but not without pride. "I was with him in every battle, even to the last, +Chancellorsville. I was one of those who sheltered him from the shells, +when he was shot by our own men. Alas! what an awful mistake. I--" + +He stopped suddenly. He had choked with emotion, and the tears came into +his eyes. Mrs. Lanham saw, and, understanding, she quickly changed the +subject to Lee. They talked a while after supper, called dinner now, +and then they went up to their room on the second floor. + +It was a handsome room, containing good furniture, including two single +beds. Their baggage had preceded them and everything was in order. +Two large windows, open to admit the fresh air, looked out over Richmond. +On a table stood a pitcher of ice water and glasses. + +"Our lot has certainly been cast in a pleasant place," said Dalton, +taking a chair by one of the windows. + +"You're right," said Harry, sitting in the chair by the other window. +"The Lanhams are fine people, and it's a good house. This is luxury, +isn't it, George, old man?" + +"The real article. We seem to be having luck all around. And we're +going to a big ball to-morrow night, too. Who'd have thought such a +thing possible a week ago?" + +"And we've made friends who'll see that we're not neglected." + +"It's an absolute fact that we've become the favorite children of +fortune." + +"No earthly doubt of it." + +Then ensued a silence, broken at length by a scraping sound as each moved +his chair a little nearer to the window. + +"Close, George," said Harry at length. + +"Yes, a bit hard to breathe." + +"When fellows get used to a thing it's hard to change." + +"Fine room, though, and those are splendid beds." + +"Great on a winter night." + +"You've noticed how the commander-in-chief himself seldom sleeps under a +tent, but takes his blankets to the open?" + +"Wonder how an Indian who has roamed the forest all his life feels when +he's shut up between four walls for the first time." + +"Fancy it's like a prison cell to him." + +"Think so too. But the Lanhams are fine people and they're doing their +best for us." + +"Do you think they'd be offended if I were to take my blankets, and sleep +on the grass in the back yard?" + +"Of course they would. You mustn't think of such a thing. After this +war is over you've got to emerge slowly from barbarism. Do you remember +whether at supper we cut our food with our knives and lifted it to our +mouths with forks, or just tore and lifted with our fingers?" + +"We used knife and fork, each in its proper place. I happened to think +of it and watched myself. You, I suppose, did it through the force of an +ancient habit, recalled by civilized surroundings." + +"I'm glad you remember about it. Now I'm going to bed, and maybe I'll +sleep. I suppose there's no hope of seeing the stars through the roof." + +"None on earth! But my bed is fine and soft. We'd be all right if +we could only lift the roof off the house. I'd like to hear the wind +rubbing the boughs together." + +"Stop it! You make me homesick! We've got no right to be pining for +blankets and the open, when these good people are doing so much for us!" + +Each stretched himself upon his bed, and closed his eyes. They had not +been jesting altogether. So long a life in the open made summer skies +at night welcome, and roofs and walls almost took from them the power of +breathing. + +But the feeling wore away after a while and amid pleasurable thoughts of +the coming ball both fell asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE MISSING PAPER + + +Harry and Dalton did not awake until late the next morning and they found +they had not suffered at all from sleeping between four walls and under a +roof. Their lungs were full of fresh air, and youth with all its joyous +irresponsibility had come back. Harry sprang out of bed. + +"Up! up! old boy!" Harry cried to Dalton. "Don't you hear the bugles +calling? not to battle but to pleasure! There is no enemy in our front! +We don't have to cross a river with an overwhelming army pressing down +upon us! We don't have to ride before the dawn on a scout which may +lead us into a thicket full of hostile riflemen. We're in a city, boy, +and our business now is beauty and pleasure!" + +"Harry," said Dalton, "you ought to go far." + +"Why, George? What induces you to assume the role of a prophet +concerning me?" + +"Because you're so full of life. You're so keen about everything. +You must have a heart and lungs of extra steam power." + +"But I notice you don't say anything about brain power. Maybe you think +it's the quiet, rather silent fellows like yourself, George, who have an +excess of that." + +"None of your irony. Am I not looking forward to this ball as much as +you are? I was a boy when I entered the war, Harry, but two years of +fighting day and night age one terribly. I feel as if I could patronize +any woman under twenty-five, and treat her as quite a simple young thing." + +"Try it, George, and see what happens to you." + +"Oh, no! I merely said I felt that way. I've too much sense to put it +into action." + +"Do you know, George, that when this war is over it will be really time +for us to be thinking about girls. We'll be quite old enough. They say +that many of the Yankee maidens in Philadelphia and New York are fine +for looks. I wonder if they'll cast a favoring eye on young Southern +officers as our conquering armies go marching down their streets!" + +"It's too remote. Don't think about it, Harry. Richmond will do us for +the present." + +"But you can let a fellow project his mind into the future." + +"Not so far that we'll be marching as conquerors through Philadelphia and +New York. Let's deal with realities." + +"I've always thought there was something of the Yankee about you, George, +not in political principles--I never question your devotion to the cause-- +but in calculating, weighing everything and deciding in favor of the one +that weighs an ounce the most." + +"Are you about through dressing? You've taken a minute longer than the +regular time." + +There was a knock at the door, and, when Dalton opened it a few inches, +a black head announced through the crack that breakfast was ready. + +"See what a disgrace you're bringing upon us," said Dalton. "Delaying +everything. Mrs. Lanham will say that we're two impostors, that such +malingerers cannot possibly belong to the Army of Northern Virginia." + +"Lead on," said Harry. "I'm ready, and I'm hungry as every soldier in +the Southern army always is." + +They had a warm greeting from their hospitable hosts, followed by an +abundant breakfast. Then at Mrs. Lanham's earnest solicitation they +turned over their dress uniforms to her to be repaired and pressed. +Then they went out into the streets again, and spent the whole day +rambling about, enjoying everything with the keen and intense delight +that can come only to the young, and after long abstinence. Richmond was +not depressed. Far from it. There had been a wonderful transformation +since those dark days when the army of McClellan was near enough to see +the spires of its churches. The flood of battle had rolled far away +since then, and it had never come back. It could never come back. +It was true that the Army of Northern Virginia had failed at Gettysburg, +but it was returning to the South unassailed, and was ready to repeat its +former splendid achievements. + +Harry went to the post office, and found there, to his great surprise +and delight, a letter from his father, written three or four days after +Vicksburg. + + +My dear son: [he wrote] + +The news has just come to us that the Army of Northern Virginia, while +performing prodigies of valor, has failed to carry all the Northern +positions at Gettysburg. Only complete success could warrant a further +advance. I assume therefore that General Lee is retreating and I assume +also that you, Harry, my beloved son, are alive, that you came unharmed +out of that terrible battle. It does not seem possible to me that it +could be otherwise. I cannot conceive of you fallen. It may be that +it's because you are my son. The sons of others may fall, but not mine, +just as we know that all others are doomed to die, but get into the habit +of thinking ourselves immortal. So, I address this letter to you in the +full belief that it will reach you somewhere, and that you will read it. + +You know, of course, of our great loss at Vicksburg. It is disastrous +but not irreparable. We still have a powerful army in the West, hardy, +indomitable, one with which the enemy will have to reckon. As for myself +I have been spared in many battles and I am well. It seems the sport of +chance that you and I, while fighting on the same side, should have been +separated in this war, you in the East and I in the West. But it has +been done by One who knows best, and after all I am glad that you have +been in such close contact with two of the greatest and highest-minded +soldiers of the ages, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. I do not +think of them merely as soldiers, but as knights and champions with +flaming swords. One of them, alas! is gone, but we have the other, +and if man can conquer he will. Here in the West we repose our faith in +Lee, as surely as do you in the East, you who see his face and hear his +voice every day. + +I have had two or three letters from Pendleton. That part of the State +is for the present outside the area of conflict, though I hear that the +guerilla bands to the east in the mountains still vex and annoy, and +that Skelly is growing bolder. I foresee the time when we shall have to +reckon with this man, who is a mere brigand. + +I hear that the prospects for fruit in our orchards were never finer. +You will remember how you prowled in them when you were a little boy, +Harry, and what a pirate you were among the apples and peaches and pears +and good things that grew on tree and bush and briar in that beautiful +old commonwealth of ours. I often upbraided you then, but I should like +to see you now, far out on a bough as of old, reaching for a big yellow +pear, or a red, red bunch of cherries! Alas! there are many lads who +will never return, who will never see the pear trees and the cherry trees +again, but I repeat I cannot feel that you will be among them. Who would +ever have dreamed when this war began that it could go so far? More than +two years of fierce and deadly battles and I can see no end. A deadlock +and neither side willing to yield! How glad would be the men who made +the war to see both sections back where they were two and a half years +ago! and that's no treason. + + +Water rose in Harry's eyes. He knew how terribly his father's heart +had been torn by the quarrel between North and South, and that he had +thoughts which he did not tell to his son. Harry was beginning at last +to think some of the same thoughts himself. If the South succeeded, then, +after the war, what? Another war later on or reunion. + +The rest of the letter was wholly personal, and in the end it directed +Harry, when writing to him, to address his letters care of the Western +Army under General Bragg. Harry was moved and he responded at once. +He went to the hotel in which he had met the young men who constituted +the leading lights in what was called the Mosaic Club, and, securing +writing materials, made a long reply, which he posted with every hope +that it would soon reach its destination. + +Early in the evening he rejoined Dalton at the house of the Lanhams and +they found that Mrs. Lanham had done wonders with their best uniforms. +When they were dressed in them they felt that it was no harder to charge +the Curtis house than to rush a battery. + +"You young men go early," said Mr. Lanham. "Mrs. Lanham and I will +appear later." + +They departed, daring to practice their dance steps in the street to the +delight of small boys who did not hesitate to chaff them. But Harry +and Dalton did not care. They answered the chaff in kind, and soon +approached the Curtis home, all the windows of which were blazing with +light. + +The house stood in extensive grounds, and lofty white pillars gave it an +imposing appearance. Guests were arriving fast. Most of the men were +military, but there was a fair sprinkling of civilians nevertheless. +The lads saw their friends of the Mosaic Club pass in just ahead of them, +all dressed with extreme care. Generals and colonels and other officers +were in most favor now, but these men, with their swift and incisive wit +and their ability to talk well about everything, fully made up for the +lack of uniform. + +Harry and Dalton, before passing through the side gateway that led to the +house, paused awhile to look at those who came. Many people, and they +ranked among the best in Richmond, walked. They had sent all their +horses to the front long ago to be ridden by cavalrymen or to draw +cannon. Others, not so self-sacrificing, came in heavy carriages with +negroes driving. + +Harry noticed that in many cases the clothing of the men showed a little +white at the seams, and there were cuffs the ends of which had been +trimmed with great care. But it was these whom he respected most. +He remembered that Virginia had not really wanted to go into the war, +and that she had delayed long, but, being in it, she was making supreme +sacrifices. + +And there were many young girls who did not need elaborate dress. +In their simple white or pink, often but cotton, their cheeks showing the +delicate color that is possessed only by the girls in the border states +of the South, they seemed very beautiful to Harry and George, who had +known nothing but camps and armies so long. + +It was the healthy admiration of the brave youth of one sex for the fair +youth of the other, but there was in it a deeper note, too. Age can +stand misfortune. Youth wonders why it is stricken, and Harry felt as +they passed by, bright of face and soft of voice, that the clouds were +gathering heavily over them. + +But he was too young himself for the feeling to endure long. Dalton was +proposing that they go in and they promptly joined the stream of entering +guests. Randolph soon found them and presented them to Mrs. Curtis, +a large woman of middle years, and dignified manner, related to nearly +all the old families of Virginia, and a descendant of a collateral branch +of the Washingtons. Her husband, William Curtis, seemed to be of a +different type, a man of sixty, tall, thin and more reserved than most +Southerners of his time. His thin lips were usually compressed and his +pale blue eyes were lacking in warmth. But the long strong line of his +jaw showed that he was a man of strength and decision. + +"A Northern bough on a Southern tree," whispered Dalton, as they passed +on. "He comes from some place up the valley and they say that the North +itself has not his superior in financial skill." + +"I did not warm to him at first," said Harry, "but I respect him. +As you know, George, we've put too little stress upon his kind of +ability. We'll need him and more like him when the Confederacy is +established. We'll have to build ourselves up as a great power, and +that's done by trade and manufactures more than by arms." + +"It's so, Harry. But listen to that music!" + +A band of four pieces placed behind flowers and shrubbery was playing. +Here was no blare of trumpets or call of bugles. It was the music of the +dance and the sentimental old songs of the South, nearly all of which had +a sad and wailing note. Harry heard the four black men play the songs +that he had heard Samuel Jarvis sing, deep in the Kentucky mountains, +and his heart beat with an emotion that he could not understand. Was +it a cry for peace? Did his soul tell him that an end should come to +fighting? Then throbbed the music of the lines: + + Soft o'er the fountain lingering falls the Southern moon + Far o'er the mountain breaks the day too soon. + In thy dark eyes' splendor, where the moonlight loves to dwell + Weary looks, yet tender, speak their fond farewell. + Nita, Juanita! Ask thy soul if we should part, + Nita, Juanita! Lean thou on my heart! + +The music of the sad old song throbbed and throbbed, and sank deep into +Harry's heart. At another time he might not have been stirred, but at +this moment he was responsive in every fiber. He saw once more the green +wilderness, and he heard once more the mellow tones of the singer coming +back in far echoes from the gorges. + +"Nita, Juanita! Ask thy soul if we should part," hummed Dalton, but +Harry was still far away in the green wilderness, listening to the singer +of the mountains. Then the singer stopped suddenly, and he was listening +once more to the startling prediction of the old, old woman: + +"I am proud that our house has sheltered you, but it is not for the last +time. You will come again, and you will be thin and pale and in rags, +and you will fall at the door. I see you coming with these two eyes of +mine." + +That prediction had been made a long time ago, years since, it seemed, +but whenever it returned to him, and it returned at most unexpected times, +it lost nothing of its amazing vividness and power; rather they were +increased. Could it be true that the supremely old had a vision or +second sight? Then he rebuked himself angrily. There was nothing +supernatural in this world. + +"Wake up, Harry! What are you thinking about?" whispered Dalton sharply. +"You seem to be dreaming, and here's a house full of pretty girls, +with more than a half-dozen looking at you, the gallant young officer of +the Army of Northern Virginia, the story of whose romantic exploits had +already reached Richmond." + +"I was dreaming and I apologize," said Harry. That minute in which he +had seen so much, so far away, passed utterly, and in another minute both +he and Dalton were dancing with Virginia girls, as fair as dreams to +these two, who had looked so long only upon the tanned faces of soldiers. + +Both he and Dalton were at home in a half-hour. People in the Old South +then, as in the New South now, are closely united by ties of kinship +which are acknowledged as far as they run. One is usually a member of a +huge clan and has all the privileges that clanship can confer. Kentucky +was the daughter of Virginia, and mother and daughter were fond of each +other, as they are to-day. + +After the third dance Harry was sitting with Rosamond Lawrence of +Petersburg in a window seat. She was a slender blonde girl, and the +dancing had made the pink in her cheeks deepen into a flush. + +"You're from Kentucky, I know," said Miss Lawrence, "but you haven't yet +told me your town." + +"Pendleton. It's small but it's on the map. My father is a colonel in +the Western army." + +"Aren't you a Virginian by blood? Most all Kentuckians are." + +"Partly. My great grandfather, though, was born in Maryland." + +"What was his name, Lieutenant Kenton?" + +"Henry Ware!" + +"Henry Ware! Kentucky's first and greatest governor." + +"Yes, he was my great grandfather. I'm proud to be his descendant." + +"I should think you would be." + +"But his wife, who was Lucy Upton, my great grandmother, was of Virginia +blood, and all of the next two generations intermarried with people of +Virginia stock." + +"Then you are a Kentuckian and a Virginian, too. I knew it! You have a +middle name, haven't you?" + +"Yes." + +"Will you tell me what it is?" + +"Cary." + +The girl laughed. + +"Harry Cary Kenton. Why Cary is one of our best old Virginia names. +Will you tell me too what was your mother's name before she was married?" + +"Parham." + +"Another. Oh, all this unravels finely. And what was your grandmother's +name?" + +"Brent." + +"Nothing could be more Virginian than Brent. Oh, you're one of us, +Lieutenant Kenton, a real Virginian of the true blood." + +"And heart and soul too!" giving her one of his finest young military +glances. + +She laughed. It was only quick friendship between them and no more, +and a half-hour later he was dancing with another Virginia girl, not +so blonde, but just as handsome, and their talk was quite as friendly. +Her name was Lockridge, and as they sat down near the musicians to rest, +and listen a while, Harry saw a figure, slender and black-robed, pass. +He knew at once who she was, and it had been predicted that he might meet +her there, but she had stirred his curiosity a little, and thinking he +might obtain further information he asked Miss Lockridge: + +"Who is the woman who just passed us?" + +"That's Miss Carden, Miss Henrietta Carden, a sewing woman, very capable +too, who always helps at the big balls. Mrs. Curtis relies greatly upon +her. The door through which she went leads to the ladies' dressing-room." + +"A native of Richmond?" + +"I don't know. But why are you so curious about a sewing woman, +Lieutenant Kenton?" + +Harry flushed. There was a faint tinge of rebuke in her words, and he +knew that he merited it. + +"It was just an idle question," he replied quickly, and with an air of +indifference. "I noticed her on the train when we came into the capital, +and we are so little used to women that we are inquisitive about every +one whom we see. Why, Miss Lockridge, I didn't realize until I came to +this ball that women could be so extraordinarily beautiful. Every one of +you looks like an angel, just lowered gently from Heaven." + +"If you're not merely a flatterer then it's long absence that gives +charm. I assure you, Lieutenant Kenton, that we're very, very common +clay. You should see us eat." + +"I'll get you an ice at once." + +"Oh, I don't mean that. I mean substantial things!" + +"A healthy appetite doesn't keep a girl from being an angel." + +"When men marry us they find out that we're not angels." + +"The word 'angel' is with me merely a figure of speech. I don't want any +real angel. I want my wife, if I ever marry, to be thoroughly human." + +Harry's progress was rapid. A handsome figure and face, and an ingenuous +manner made him a favorite. After midnight he wandered into a room where +older men were smoking and talking. They were mostly officers, some of +high rank, one a general, and they talked of that which they could never +get wholly from their minds, the war. All knew Harry, and, as he wanted +fresh air, they gave him a place by a window which looked upon a small +court. + +Harry was tired. In dancing he had been compelled to bring into play +muscles long unused, and he luxuriated in the cushioned chair, while the +pleasant night breeze blew upon him. They were discussing Lee's probable +plans to meet Meade, who would certainly follow him in time across +the Potomac. They spoke with weight and authority, because they were +experienced men who had been in many battles, and they were here on +furlough, most of them recovering from wounds. + +Harry heard them, but their words were like the flowing of a river. +He paid no heed. They did not bring the war back to him. He was +thinking of the music and of the brilliant faces of the girls whom he +loved collectively. What that Lawrence girl had said was true. He was a +Virginian as well as a Kentuckian, and the Kentuckians and Virginians +were all one big family. All those pretty Virginia girls were his +cousins. It might run to the thirty-second degree, but they were his +cousins just the same, and he would claim them with confidence. + +He smiled and his eyelids drooped a little. It was rather dark outside, +and he was looking directly into the court in which rosebushes and tall +flowering plants grew. A shadow passed. He did not see whence it came +or went, but he sat up and laughed at himself for dozing and conjuring up +phantoms when he was at his first real ball in ages. + +All the civilians had gone out and only five or six of the officers, +the most important, were left. Their talk had grown more eager, and on +the center of the table around which they sat lay a large piece of white +canvas upon which they were drawing a map expressing their collective +opinion. Every detail was agreed upon, after much discussion, and Harry, +as much interested as they, began to watch, while the lines grew upon the +canvas. He ventured no opinion, being so much younger than the others. + +"We don't know, of course, exactly what General Lee will do," said a +colonel, "but we do know that he's always dangerous. He invariably acts +on the offensive, even if he's retreating. I should think that he'd +strike Meade about here." + +"Not there, but not far from it," said the general. "Make a dot at that +point, Bathurst, and make another dot here about twenty miles to the east, +which represents my opinion." + +Bathurst made the dots and the men, wholly absorbed, bent lower over +their plans, which were growing almost unconsciously into a map, and a +good one too. Harry was as much interested as they, and he still kept +himself in the background, owing to his youth and minor rank. + +The door to the room was open a little and the music, a waltz, came in +a soft ripple from the drawing room. It was rhythmic and languorous, +and Harry's feet would have moved to its tune at any other time, but he +was too deeply absorbed in the conjectures and certainties that they were +drawing with their pencils on the white canvas. + +Many of the details, he knew, were absolutely true, and others he was +quite sure must be true, because these were men of high rank who carried +in their minds the military secrets of the Confederacy. + +"I think we're pretty well agreed on the general nature of the plan," +said Bathurst. "We differ only in details." + +"That's so," said the general, "but we're lingering too long here. +God knows that we see little enough of our women folks, and, when we have +the chance to see them, and feel the touch of their hands, we waste our +time like a lot of fools making military guesses. If I'm not too old +to dance to the tune of the shells I'm not too old to dance to the tune +of the fiddle and the bow. That's a glorious air floating in from the +ballroom. I think I can show some of these youngsters like Kenton here +how to shake a foot." + +"After you, General," laughed Bathurst. "We know your capacity on both +the field and the floor, and how you respond to the shell and the bow. +Come on! The ballroom is calling to us, and I doubt whether we'll +explain to the satisfaction of everybody why we've been away from it so +long. You, too, Harry!" + +They rose in a group and went out hastily. Harry was last, and his hand +was on the bolt of the door, preparatory to closing it, when the general +turned to Bathurst and said: + +"You've that diagram of ours, haven't you, Bathurst? It's not a thing to +be left lying loose." + +"Why, no, sir, I thought you put it in your pocket." + +The general laughed. + +"You're suffering from astigmatism, Bathurst," he said. "Doubtless it +was Colton whom you saw stowing it away. I think we'd better tear it +into little bits as we have no further use for it." + +"But I haven't it, sir," said Colton, a veteran colonel, just recovering +from a wound in the arm. "I supposed of course that one of the others +took it." + +An uneasy look appeared in the general's eyes, but it passed in an +instant. + +"You have it, Morton?" + +"No, sir. Like Bathurst I thought one of the others took it." + +"And you, Kitteridge?" + +"I did not take it, sir." + +"You surely have it, Johnson?" + +"No, sir, I was under the impression that you had taken it away with you." + +"And you, McCurdy?" + +McCurdy shook his head. + +"Then Kenton, as you were the last to rise, you certainly have it." + +"I was just a looker-on; I did not touch it," said Harry, whose hand was +still on the bolt of the partly opened door. + +The general laughed. + +"Another case of everybody expecting somebody else to do a thing, and +nobody doing it," he said. "Kenton, go back and take it from the table. +In our absorption we've been singularly forgetful, and that plan must be +destroyed at once." + +Harry reentered the room, and in their eagerness all of the officers +followed. Then a simultaneous "Ah!" of dismay burst from them all. +There was nothing on the table. The plan was gone. They looked at one +another, and in the eyes of every one apprehension was growing. + +"The window is partly open," said the general, affecting a laugh, +although it had an uneasy note, "and of course it has blown off the +table. We'll surely find it behind the sofa or a chair." + +They searched the room eagerly, going over every inch of space, every +possible hiding place, but the plan was not there. + +"Perhaps it's in the court," said the general. "It might have fluttered +out there. Raise the sash higher, Kenton. Let nobody make any noise. +We must be as quiet as possible about this. Luckily there's enough +moonlight now for us to find even a small scrap of paper in the court." + +They stole through the window silently, one by one, and searched every +inch of the court's space. But nothing was in it, save the grass and the +flowers and the rosebushes that belonged there. They returned to the +room, and once more looked at one another in dismay. + +"Shut the window entirely and lock the door, Kenton," said the general. + +Harry did so. Then the general looked at them all, and his face was set +and very firm. + +"We must all be searched," he said. "I know that every one of you is the +soul of honor. I know that not one of you has concealed about his person +this document which has suddenly become so valuable. I know that not +one of you would smuggle through to the enemy such a plan at any price, +no matter how large. Nevertheless we must know beyond the shadow of a +doubt that none of us has the map. And I insist, too, that I be searched +first. Bathurst, Colton, begin!" + +They examined one another carefully in turn. Every pocket or possible +place of concealment was searched. Harry was the last and when they were +done with him the general heaved a huge sigh of relief. + +"We know positively that we are not guilty," he said. "We knew it before, +but now we've proved it. That is off our minds, but the mystery of +the missing map remains. What a strange combination of circumstances. +I think, gentlemen, that we had best say nothing about it to outsiders. +It's certainly to the interest of every one of us not to do so. It's +also to the interest of all of us to watch the best we can for a +solution. You're young, Kenton, but from what I hear of you you're able +to keep your own counsel." + +"You can trust me, sir," said Harry. + +"I know it, and now unlock the door. We've held ourselves prisoners long +enough, and they'll be wondering about us in the ballroom." + +Harry turned the key promptly enough and he was glad to escape from the +room. He felt that he had left behind a sinister atmosphere. He had not +mentioned to the older men the faint shadow that he thought he had seen +crossing the courtyard. But then it was only fancy, nothing more, +an idle figment of the brain! There was the music now, softer and more +tempting than ever, an irresistible call to flying feet, and another +dance with Rosamond Lawrence was due. + +"I thought you weren't coming, Lieutenant Kenton," she said. "Some one +said that you had gone into the smoking-room and that you were talking +war with middle-aged generals and colonels." + +"But I escaped as soon as I could, Miss Rosamond," he said--he was +thinking of the locked door and the universal search. + +"Well, you came just in time. The band is beginning and I was about to +give your dance to that good-looking Lieutenant Dalton." + +"You wouldn't treat me like that! Throw over your cousin in such a +manner! I can't think it!" + +"No, I wouldn't!" + +Then the full swell of the music caught them both, and they glided away, +as light and swift as the melody that bore them on. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A VAIN PURSUIT + + +Youth was strong in Harry, and, while he danced and the music played, +he forgot all about the incident in the smoking-room. With him it was +just one pretty girl after another. He had heart enough for them all, +and only one who was so young and who had been so long on battlefields +could well understand what a keen, even poignant, pleasure it was to be +with them. + +Those were the days when a ball lasted long. Pleasures did not come +often, but when they came they were to be enjoyed to the full. But as +the morning hours grew the manner of the older people became slightly +feverish and unnatural. They were pursuing pleasure and forgetfulness +with so much zeal and energy that it bore the aspect of force rather than +spontaneity. Harry noticed it and divined the cause. Beneath his high +spirits he now felt it himself. It was that looming shadow in the North +and that other in that far Southwest hovering over lost Vicksburg. +Serious men and serious women could not keep these shadows from their +eyes long. + +The incident of the smoking-room and the missing map came back to him +with renewed force. It could not have walked away. They had searched +the room and the court so thoroughly that they would have found it, +had it been there. The disappearance of a document, which men of +authority and knowledge had built up almost unconsciously, puzzled and +alarmed him. + +It was almost day when he and Dalton left. They paid their respects +to Mr. and Mrs. Curtis, and said many good-bys to "the girls they left +behind them." Then they went out into the street, and inhaled great +draughts of the cool night air. + +"A splendid night," said Dalton. + +"Yes, truly," said Harry. + +"I hope you didn't propose to more than six girls." + +"To none. But I love them all together." + +"I'm glad to hear it, because you're entirely too young to marry, and +your occupation is precarious." + +"You needn't be so preachy. You're not more'n a hundred years old +yourself." + +"But I'm two months older than you are and often two months makes a +vast difference, particularly in our cases. I notice about you, Harry, +at times, a certain juvenility which I feel it my duty to repress." + +"Don't do it, George. Let's enjoy it while we can, because as you say my +occupation is precarious and yours is the same." + +They stopped at the corner of the iron fence enclosing the Curtis home, +in which many lights were still shining. It was near a dark alley +opening on the street and running by this side of the house. + +"I'm going to see what's behind Mr. Curtis's house," said Harry. + +Dalton stared at him. + +"What's got into your head, Harry!" he exclaimed. "Do you mean to be a +burglar prowling about the home of the man who has entertained you?" + +Harry hesitated. He was sorry that Dalton was with him. Then he could +have gone on without question, but he must make some excuse to Dalton. + +"George," he said at last, "will you swear to keep a secret, a most +important one which I am pledged to tell to nobody, but which I must +confide in you in order to give a good reason for what I am about to do." + +"If you are pledged to keep such a secret," replied Dalton, "then don't +explain it to me. Your word is good enough, Harry. Go ahead and do what +you want to do. I'll ask nothing about any of your actions, no matter +how strange it may look." + +"You're a man in a million, George. Come on, your confidence is going to +be tested. Besides, you'll run the danger of being shot." + +But Dalton followed him fearlessly as he led the way down the alley. +Richmond was not lighted then, save along the main streets, and a few +steps took them into the full dark. The brilliant windows threw bright +bands across the lines, but they themselves were in darkness. + +The alley ran through the next street and so did the Curtis grounds. +They were as extensive in the rear of the house as in front, and +contained small pines carefully trimmed, banks of roses and two grape +arbors. Harry could hear no sound of any one stirring among them, +but people, obviously the cooks and other servants, were talking in the +big kitchen at the rear of the house. + +The street itself running in the rear of the building was as well lighted +as it was in front, but Harry saw no one in it save a member of the city +police, who seemed to be keeping a good watch. But as he did not wish to +be observed by the man he waited a little while in the mouth of the alley, +until he had moved on and was out of sight. + +"Now, George," he said, "you and I are going to do a little scouting. +You know I'm descended from the greatest natural scout and trailer ever +known in the West, one whose senses were preternaturally acute, one who +could almost track a bird in the air by its flight." + +"Yes, I've heard of the renowned Henry Ware, and I know that you've +inherited a lot of his skill and intuition. Go ahead. I promised that +I would help you and ask no questions. I keep my word." + +Harry climbed silently over the low fence, and Dalton followed in the +same manner. The light from the street and house did not penetrate the +pines and rosebushes, where Harry quickly found a refuge, Dalton as usual +following him. + +"What next?" whispered Dalton. + +"Now, I do my trailing and scouting, and you help me all you can, George, +but be sure you don't make any noise. There's enough moonlight filtering +through the pines to show the ground to me, but not enough to disclose us +to anybody twenty feet away." + +He dropped to his hands and knees, and, crawling back and forth, began to +examine every inch of ground with minute care, while Dalton stared at him +in amazement. + +"I'd help," whispered Dalton, "if I only knew what you were doing." + +"Suppose, George, that somebody wanted to see the Curtis house, and yet +not be seen, wanted to observe as well as he could, without detection, +what was going on there. He'd watch his chance, jump over the fence as +we have done and enter this group of pines. He could ask no finer point +of observation. We are perfectly hidden and yet we can see the whole +rear of the house and one side of it." + +"So we can. I infer that you are looking for some one who you think has +been acting as a spy." + +"Ah! here we are. The earth is a bit soft by this pine, and I see the +trace of a footstep! And here is another trace, close by it, undoubtedly +the imprint of the other foot. It's as plain as day." + +Dalton knelt, looked at the traces, and shook his head. "I can't make +out any of them," he said. "I see nothing but a slight displacement of +the grass caused by the wind." + +"That's because you haven't my keen eye, an inherited and natural ability +as a trailer, although you may beat me out of sight in other things. +The shape of these traces indicates that they were made by human feet, +and their closeness together shows that the man stood looking at the +house. If he had been walking along they would be much wider apart." + +He examined the traces again with long and minute care. + +"The toes point toward the house, consequently he was looking at it," +he said. "He was a heavy man, and he stood here a long time, not moving +from his tracks. That's why he left these traces, which are so clear and +evident to me, George, although they're hidden from a blind man like you." + +"Well, what of it?" + +"Nothing much to you, but a lot to me." + +He rose to his feet and examined the boughs of the pine. + +"As I thought," he whispered with great satisfaction. "Despite his +courage and power over himself, both of which were very great, he became +a little excited. Doubtless he saw something that stirred him deeply." + +"What under the stars are you talking about, Harry?" + +"See, he broke off three twigs of the pine. Just snapped them in two +with nervous fingers. Here are pieces lying on the ground. Now, a man +does that sort of thing almost unconsciously. He will not reach up for +the twig or down for it, but he breaks it because it presents itself to +him at the corner of his eye. This man was six feet in height or more +and built very powerfully. I think I know him! Yes, I'm sure I know +him! Nor is it at all strange that he should be here." + +"Shall we make a thorough search for him among the pines? You say he's +tall and built powerfully. But maybe the two of us could master him, +and if not we could call for help." + +"Too late, George. He left a long time ago, and he took with him what he +wanted. We needn't look any farther." + +"Lead on, then, King of Trailers and Master of Secrets! If the mighty +Caliph, Haroun al Kenton, wishes to prowl in these grounds, seeking the +heart of some great conspiracy, it is not for his loyal vizier, the +Sheikh Ul Dalton to ask him questions." + +"I'm not certain that a vizier is a sheikh." + +"Nor am I, but I'm certain that I want to go home and go to bed. Vikings +of the land like ourselves can't stand much luxury. It weakens the +tissues, made strong on the march and in the fields." + +They left the grounds silently and unobserved and soon were in their own +quarters, where they slept nearly the whole day. Then they spent three +or four days more in the social affairs which were such a keen pleasure +to them after such a long deprivation. But wherever they went, and they +were in demand everywhere, Harry was always looking for somebody, a man, +tall, heavy and broad shouldered, not a man who would come into a room +where he was, or who would join a company of people that he had joined, +but one who would hang upon the outskirts, and hide behind the corners of +buildings or trees. He did not see the shadow, but once or twice he felt +that it was there. + +The officer, Bathurst, told him one night that some important papers had +been stolen from the White House of the Confederacy itself. + +"They pertain to our army," said Bathurst, "and they will be of value to +the enemy, if they reach him." + +"I'm quite certain that the most daring and dangerous of all northern +spies is in Richmond," said Harry. + +Then he told Bathurst of Shepard and of the trails that he had seen among +the pines behind Curtis's house. + +"Do you think this man got our map?" asked Bathurst. + +"It may have been so. Perhaps he was hidden in the court and when he saw +us go out, leaving the map on the table, he slipped in at the window and +seized it." + +"But the court was enclosed. He would have had to go with the paper +through the house itself." + +"That's where my theory fails. I can provide for his taking the paper, +but I can't provide for his escape." + +"I'll tell the General about it. I think you're right, Harry. I've +heard of Shepard myself, and he's worth ten thousand men to the Yankees. +It's more than that. At such a critical stage of our affairs he might +ruin us. We'll make a general search for him. We'll rake the city with +a fine tooth comb." + +The search was made everywhere. Soldiers pried in every possible place, +but they found nobody who could not give an adequate account of his +presence in Richmond. Harry felt sure nevertheless that Shepard was +somewhere in the capital, protected by his infinite daring and resource, +and they received the startling news the next day after the search that a +messenger sent northward with dispatches for Lee had been attacked only +a short distance from the city. He had been struck from behind, and did +not see his assailant, but the wound in the head--the man had been found +unconscious--and the missing dispatches were sufficient proof. + +A night later precious documents were purloined from the office of the +Secretary of War and a list of important earthworks on the North and +South Carolina coast disappeared from the office of the Secretary of +the Navy. Alarm spread through all the departments of the Confederacy. +Some one, spy and burglar too, had come into the very capital, and he was +having uncommon success. + +Harry had not the least doubt that it was Shepard, and he was filled with +an ambition to capture this man, whom he really liked. If Shepard were +caught he would certainly be hanged, but then a spy must take his chances. + +They heard meanwhile that General Lee had gone to a former camp of his on +the Opequan, but that later in response to maneuvers by General Meade, +he moved to a position near Front Royal. No orders came for Harry or +Dalton to rejoin him, and, as a period of inactivity seemed to be at hand, +they were glad to remain a while longer in Richmond. They still stayed +with the Lanhams, who refused to take any pay, although the two young +officers, chipping together, bought for Mrs. Lanham a little watch which +had just come through the blockade from England. + +Thus their days lengthened in Richmond, and, despite the shadow of the +spy and his doings which was over Harry, they were still very pleasant. +The members of the Mosaic Club, although older men, made much of them, +and Harry and Dalton, being youths of sprighty wit, were able to hold +their own in such company. The time had now passed into August, and they +sat one afternoon in the lobby of the big hotel with their new friends. +Richmond without was quiet and blazing in the sun. Harry had received a +second letter from his father from an unnamed point in Georgia. It did +not contain much news, but it was full of cheerfulness, and it intimated +in more than one place that Bragg's army was going to strike a great blow. + +All eyes were turned toward the West. The opinion had been spreading in +the Confederacy that the chief danger was on that line. It seemed that +the Army of Northern Virginia could take care of anything to the north +and east, but in the south and west affairs did not go well. + +"It's a pity that General Bragg is President Davis' brother-in-law," +said Randolph. + +"Why?" asked Daniel. + +"Then he wouldn't be in command of our Western Army." + +"Bragg's a fighter, though." + +"But not a reaper." + +"What do you mean?" + +"He wins the victory, but lets the enemy take it." + +"It may be so. But to come closer home, what about the Yankee spy in +Richmond? It's an established fact that a man of most uncommon daring +and skill is here." + +"No doubt of it, what's the latest from him?" + +"The house of William Curtis was entered last night and robbed." + +"Robbed of what?" + +"Papers. The man never takes any valuables." + +"But Curtis is not in the government!" + +"No, but he carries on a lot of blockade running, chiefly through Norfolk +and Wilmington. I think the papers related to several blockade running +vessels coming out from England, and of course the Yankee blockading +ships will be ready for them. There's not a trace of the man who took +them." + +"Something is deucedly sinister about it," said Bagby. "It seems to be +the work of one man, and he must have a hiding place in Richmond, but +we can't find it. Kenton, you and Dalton are army officers, supposedly +of intelligence. Now, why don't you find this mysterious terror? Ah, +will you excuse me for a minute! I see Miss Carden leaving the counter +with her basket, and there is no other seamstress in Richmond who can put +the ruffles on a man's finest shirt as she can. She's been doing work +for me for some time." + +He arose, and, leaving them, bowed very politely to the seamstress. +Her face, although thin and lined, was that of an educated woman of +strong character. Harry thought it probable that she was a lady in the +conventional meaning of the word. Many a woman of breeding and culture +was now compelled to earn her own living in the South. She and Bagby +exchanged only a few words, he returning to his chair, and she leaving +the hotel at a side door, walking with dignity. + +"I've seen Miss Carden three times before, once on the train, once at +this hotel and once at Mr. Curtis's house; can you tell me anything about +her?" said Harry. + +"It's an ordinary tale," replied Bagby. "I think she lived well up the +valley and her house being destroyed in some raid of the Federal troops +she came down to the capital to earn a living. She's been doing work for +me and others I know for a year past, and I know she's not been out of +Richmond in that time." + +The talk changed now to the books that had come through from Europe in +the blockade runners. There was a new novel by Dickens and another by +Thackeray, new at least to the South, and the members of the Mosaic Club +were soon deep in criticism and defense. + +Harry strolled away after a while. He did not tell his friends--nothing +was to be gained by telling them--that he was absolutely sure of the +identity of the spy, that it was Shepard. The question of identity did +not matter if they caught him, and his old feeling that it was a duel +between Shepard and himself returned. He believed that the duty to catch +the man had been laid upon him. + +He began to haunt Richmond at all hours of the night. More than once he +had to give explanations to watchmen about public buildings, but he clung +to the task that he had imposed upon himself. He explained to Dalton and +the Virginian found no fault except for Harry's loss of time that might +be devoted to amusement. Harry sometimes rebuked himself for his own +persistency, but Bagby's taunt had stung a little, and he felt that it +applied more to himself than to Dalton. He knew Shepard and he knew +something of his ways. Moreover, his was the blood of the greatest of +all trailers, and it was incumbent upon him to find the spy. Yet he was +trailing in a city and not in a forest. In spite of everything he clung +to his work. + +On a later night about one o'clock in the morning he was near the +building that housed army headquarters, and he noticed a figure come from +some bushes near it. He instantly stepped back into the shadow and saw +a man glance up and down the street, probably to see if it was clear. +It was a night to favor the spy, dark, with heavy clouds and gusts of +rain. + +The figure, evidently satisfied that no one was watching, walked briskly +down the street, and Harry's heart beat hard against his side. He knew +that it was Shepard, the king of spies, against whom he had matched +himself. He could not mistake, despite the darkness, his figure, his +walk and the swing of his powerful shoulders. + +His impulse was to cry for help, to shout that the spy was here, but +at the first sound of his voice Shepard would at once dart into the +shrubbery, and escape through the alleys of Richmond. No, his old +feeling that it was a duel between Shepard and himself was right, and so +they must fight it out. + +Shepard walked swiftly toward the narrower and more obscure streets, +and Harry followed at equal speed. The night grew darker and the rain, +instead of coming in gusts, now fell steadily. Twice Shepard stopped +and looked back. But on each occasion Harry flattened himself against a +plank fence and he did not believe the spy had seen him. + +Then Shepard went faster and his pursuer had difficulty in keeping him in +view. He went through an alley, turned into a street, and Harry ran in +order not to lose sight of him. + +The alley came into the street at a right angle, and, when Harry turned +the corner, a heavy, dark figure thrust itself into his path. + +"Shepard!" he cried. + +"Yes!" said the man, "and I hate to do this, but I must." + +His heavy fist shot out and caught his pursuer on the jaw. Harry saw +stars in constellations, then floated away into blackness, and, when he +came out of it, found himself lying on a bed in a small room. His jaw +was bandaged and very sore, but otherwise he felt all right. A candle +was burning on a table near him and an unshuttered window on the other +side of the room told him that it was still night and raining. + +Harry looked leisurely about the room, into which he had been wafted on +the magic carpet of the Arabian genii, so far as he knew. It was small +and without splendor and he knew at once from the character of its +belongings that it was a woman's room. + +He sat up. His head throbbed, but touching it cautiously he knew that he +had sustained no serious injury. But he felt chagrin, and a lot of it. +Shepard had known that he was following him and had laid a trap, into +which he had walked without hesitation. The man, however, had spared his +life, although he could have killed him as easily as he had stunned him. +Then he laughed bitterly at himself. A duel between them, he had called +it! Shepard wouldn't regard it as much of a duel. + +His head became so dizzy that he lay down again rather abruptly and began +to wonder. What was he doing in a woman's room, and who was the woman +and how had he got there? This would be a great joke for Dalton and +St. Clair and Happy Tom. + +He was fully dressed, except for his boots, and he saw them standing +on the floor against the wall. He surveyed once more the immaculate +neatness of the room. It was certainly a woman's, and most likely that +of an old maid. He sat up again, but his head throbbed so fearfully that +he was compelled to lie down quickly. Shepard had certainly put a lot +in that right hand punch of his and he had obtained a considerable +percentage of revenge for his defeat in the river. + +Then Harry forgot his pain in the intensity of his curiosity. He had +sustained a certain temporary numbing of the faculties from the blow and +his fancy, though vivid now, was vague. He was not at all sure that +he was still in Richmond. The window still showed that it was night, +and the rain was pouring so hard that he could hear it beating against +the walls. At all events, he thought whimsically, he had secured shelter, +though at an uncommon high price. + +He heard a creak, and a door at the end of the room opened, revealing the +figure and the strong, haggard features of Henrietta Carden. Evidently +she had taken off a hood and cloak in an outer room, as there were rain +drops on her hair and her shoes were wet. + +"How are you feeling, Mr. Kenton?" she asked. + +"Full of aches and wonder." + +"Both will pass." + +She smiled, and, although she was not young, Harry thought her distinctly +handsome, when she smiled. + +"I seem to have driven you out of your room and to have taken your bed +from you, Miss Carden," he said, "but I assure you it was unintentional. +I ran against something pretty hard, and since then I haven't been +exactly responsible for what I was doing." + +She smiled again, and this time Harry found the smile positively winning. + +"I'm responsible for your being here," she said. + +Then she went back to the door and said to some one waiting in the outer +room: + +"You can come in, Lieutenant Dalton. He's all right except for his +headache, and an extraordinary spell of curiosity." + +Dalton stalked solemnly in, and regarded Harry with a stern and reproving +eye. + +"You're a fine fellow," he said. "A lady finds you dripping blood from +the chin, and out of your head, wandering about the street in the +darkness and rain. Fortunately she knows who you are, takes you into her +own house, gives you an opiate or some kind of a drug, binds up your jaw +where some man good and true has hit you with all his goodness and truth, +and then goes for me, your guardian, who should never have let you out of +his sight. I was awakened out of a sound sleep in our very comfortable +room at the Lanham house, and I've come here through a pouring rain with +Miss Carden to see you." + +"I do seem to be the original trouble maker," said Harry. "How did you +happen to find me, Miss Carden?" + +"I was sitting at my window, working very late on a dress that +Mrs. Curtis wants to-morrow. It was not raining hard then, and I could +see very well outside. I saw a dark shadow in the street at the mouth of +the alley. I saw that it was the figure of a man staggering very much. +I ran out and found that it was you, Lieutenant Kenton. You were +bleeding at the chin, where apparently some one had struck you very hard, +and you were so thoroughly dazed that you did not know where you were or +who you were." + +"Yes, he hit me very hard, just as you supposed, Miss Carden," said Harry, +feeling gently his sore and swollen chin. + +"I half led and half dragged you into my house--there was nowhere else +I could take you--and, as you were sinking into a stupor, I managed to +make you lie down on my bed. I bound up your wound, while you were +unconscious, and then I went for Lieutenant Dalton." + +"And she saved your life, too, you young wanderer. No doubt of that," +said Dalton reprovingly. "This is what you get for roaming away from my +care. Lucky you were that an angel like Miss Carden saved you from dying +of exposure. If I didn't know you so well, Harry, I should say that you +had been in some drunken row." + +"Oh, no! not that!" exclaimed Miss Carden. "There was no odor of liquor +on his breath." + +"I was merely joking, Miss Carden," said Dalton. "Old Harry here is one +of the best of boys, and I'm grateful to you for saving him and coming to +me. If there is any way we can repay you we'll do it." + +"I don't want any repayment. We must all help in these times." + +"But we won't forget it. We can't. How are you feeling, Harry?" + +"My head doesn't throb so hard. The jarred works inside are gradually +getting into place, and I think that in a half-hour I can walk again, +that is, resting upon that stout right arm of yours, George." + +"Then we'll go. I've brought an extra coat that will protect you from +the rain." + +"You are welcome to stay here!" exclaimed Miss Carden. "Perhaps you'd be +wiser to do so." + +"We thank you for such generous hospitality," said Dalton gallantly, +"but it will be best for many reasons that we go back to Mrs. Lanham's +as soon as we can. But first can we ask one favor of you, Miss Carden?" + +"Of course." + +"That you say nothing of Mr. Kenton's accident. Remember that he was on +military duty and that in the darkness and rain he fell, striking upon +his jaw." + +"I'll remember it. Our first impression that he had been struck by +somebody was a mistake, of course. You can depend upon me, both of you. +Neither of you was ever in my house. The incident never occurred." + +"But we're just as grateful to you as if it had happened." + +A half-hour later they left the cottage, Miss Carden holding open the +door a little to watch them until they were out of sight. But Harry +had recovered his strength and he was able to walk without Dalton's +assistance, although the Virginian kept close by his side in case of +necessity. + +"Harry," said Dalton, when they were nearly to the Lanham house, "are you +willing to tell what happened?" + +"As nearly as I know. I got upon the trail of that spy who has been +infesting Richmond. I knew at the time that it couldn't have been any +one else. I followed him up an alley, but he waited for me at the turn, +and before I could defend myself he let loose with his right. When I +came drifting back into the world I was lying upon the bed in Miss +Carden's cottage." + +"He showed you some consideration. He might have quietly put you out of +the way with a knife." + +"Shepard and I don't care to kill each other. Each wants to defeat the +other's plans. It's got to be a sort of duel between us." + +"So I see, and he has scored latest." + +"But not last." + +"We'd better stick to the tale about the fall. Such a thing could happen +to anybody in these dark streets. But that Miss Carden is a fine woman. +She showed true human sympathy, and what's more, she gave help." + +"She's all that," agreed Harry heartily. + +They had their own keys to the Lanham house and slipped in without +awakening anybody. Their explanations the next day were received without +question and in another day Harry's jaw was no longer sore, though his +spirit was. Yet the taking of important documents ceased suddenly, +and Harry was quite sure that his encounter with Shepard had at least +caused him to leave the city. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +IN WINTER QUARTERS + + +Harry was sent a few days later with dispatches from the president to +General Lee, who was still in his camp beside the Opequan. Dalton was +held in the capital for further messages, but Harry was not sorry to make +the journey alone. The stay in Richmond had been very pleasant. The +spirits of youth, confined, had overflowed, but he was beginning to feel +a reaction. One must return soon to the battlefield. This was merely +a lull in the storm which would sweep with greater fury than ever. The +North, encouraged by Gettysburg and Vicksburg, was gathering vast masses +which would soon be hurled upon the South, and Harry knew how thin the +lines there were becoming. + +He thought, too, of Shepard, who was the latest to score in their duel, +and he believed that this man had already sent to the Northern leaders +information beyond value. Harry felt that he must strive in some manner +to make the score even. + +It was late in the summer when he rejoined the Army of Northern Virginia +and delivered the letters to the commander-in-chief, who sat in the shade +of a large tree. Harry observed him closely. He seemed a little grayer +than before the Battle of Gettysburg, but his manner was as confident as +ever. He filled to both eye and mind the measure of a great general. +After asking Harry many questions he dismissed him for a while, to play, +so he said. + +The young Kentuckian at once, and, as a matter of course, sought the +Invincibles. St. Clair and Langdon hailed him with shouts of joy, +but to his great surprise, Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel +Hector St. Hilaire were not playing chess. + +"We were getting on with the game last night, Harry," explained Colonel +Talbot, "but we came to a point where we were about to develop heat over +a projected move. Then, in order to avoid such a lamentable occurrence, +we decided to postpone further play until to-night. But we find you +looking uncommonly well, Harry. The flesh pots of Egypt have agreed with +you." + +"I had a good time in Richmond, sir, a fine one," replied Harry. "The +people there have certainly been kind to me, as they are to all the +officers of the Army of Northern Virginia." + +"What have you done with the grave Dalton, who was your comrade on your +journey to the capital?" + +"They've kept him there for the present. They think he's stronger proof +against the luxuries and temptations of a city than I am." + +"Youth is youth, and I'm glad that you've had this little fling, Harry. +Perhaps you'll have another, as I think you'll be sent back to Richmond +very soon." + +"What has been going on here, Colonel?" + +"Very little. Nothing, in fact, of any importance. When we crossed +the swollen Potomac, although threatened by an enemy superior to us in +numbers, I felt that we would not be pushed. General Meade has been +deliberate, extremely deliberate in his offensive movements. Up North +they call Gettysburg a great victory, but we're resting here calmly and +peacefully. Hector and I and our young friends have found rural peace +and ease among these Virginia hills and valleys. You, of course, found +Richmond very gay and bright?" + +"Very gay and bright, Colonel, and full of handsome ladies." + +Colonel Talbot sighed and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sighed +also. + +"Hector and I should have been there," said Colonel Talbot. "Although +we've never married, we have a tremendous admiration for the ladies, +and in our best uniforms we're not wholly unpopular among them, eh, +Hector?" + +"Not by any means, Leonidas. We're not as young as Harry here, but +I know that you're a fine figure of a man, and you know that I am. +Moreover, our experience of the dangerous sex is so much greater than +that of mere boys like Harry and Arthur and Tom here, that we know how +to make ourselves much more welcome. You talk to them about frivolous +things, mere chit chat, while we explain grave and important matters to +them." + +"Are you sure, sir," asked St. Clair, "that the ladies don't really +prefer chit chat?" + +"I was not speaking of little girls. I was alluding to those ornaments +of their sex who have arrived at years of discretion. Ah, if Leonidas +and I were only a while in Richmond! It would be the next best thing to +being in Charleston." + +"Maybe the Invincibles will be sent there for a while." + +"Perhaps. I don't foresee any great activity here in the autumn. +How do they regard the Army of Northern Virginia in Richmond now, Harry?" + +"With supreme confidence." + +The talk soon drifted to the people whom Harry had met at the capital, +and then he told of his adventure with Shepard, the spy. + +"He seems to be a most daring man," said Talbot; "not a mere ordinary spy, +but a man of a higher type. I think he's likely to do us great harm. +But the woman, Miss Carden, was surely kind to you. If she hadn't found +you wandering around in the rain you'd have doubtless dropped down and +died. God bless the ladies." + +"And so say we all of us," said Harry. + +He returned to Richmond in a few days, bearing more dispatches, and to +his great delight all that was left of the Invincibles arrived a week +later to recuperate and see a little of the world. St. Clair and Happy +Tom plunged at once and with all the ardor of youth into the gayeties of +social life, and the two colonels followed them at a more dignified but +none the less earnest pace. All four appeared in fine new uniforms, +for which they had saved their money, and they were conspicuous upon +every occasion. + +Harry was again at the Curtis house, and although it was not a great +ball this time the assemblage was numerous, including all his friends. +The two colonels had become especial favorites everywhere, and they were +telling stories of the old South, which Harry had divined was passing; +passing whether the South won or not. + +Although there had been much light talk through the evening and an +abundance of real gayety, nearly every member of the company, +nevertheless, had serious moments. The news from Tennessee and Georgia +was heavy with import. It was vague in some particulars, but it was +definite enough in others to tell that the armies of Rosecrans and Bragg +were approaching each other. All eyes turned to the West. A great +battle could not be long delayed, and a powerful division of the Army of +Northern Virginia under Longstreet had been sent to help Bragg. + +Harry found himself late at night once more in that very room in which +the map had disappeared so mysteriously. The two colonels, St. Clair and +Langdon, and one or two others had drifted in, and the older men were +smoking. Inevitably they talked of the battle which they foresaw with +such certainty, and Harry's anxiety about it was increased, because he +knew his father would be there on one side, and the cousin, for whom he +cared so much, would be on the other. + +"If only General Lee were in command there," said Colonel Talbot, "we +might reckon upon a great and decisive victory." + +"But Bragg is a good general," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire. + +"It's not enough to be merely a good general. He must have the soul +of fire that Lee has, and that Jackson had. Bragg is the Southern +McClellan. He is brave enough personally, but he always overrates the +strength of the enemy, and, if he is victorious on the field, he does +not reap the fruits of victory." + +"Where were the armies when we last heard from them?" asked a captain. + +"Bragg was turning north to attack Rosecrans, who stood somewhere between +him and Chattanooga." + +"I'm glad that it's Rosecrans and not Grant who commands the Northern +army there," said Harry. + +"Why?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +"I've studied the manner in which he took Vicksburg, and I've heard about +him from my father, and others. He won't be whipped. He isn't like the +other Northern generals. He hangs on, whatever happens. I heard some +one quoting him as saying that no matter how badly his army was suffering +in battle, the army of the other fellow might be suffering worse. +It seems to me that a general who is able to think that way is very +dangerous." + +"And so he is, Harry," said Colonel Talbot. "I, too, am glad that it's +Rosecrans and not Grant. If there's any news of a battle, we're not in a +bad place to hear it. It's said that Mr. Curtis always knows as soon as +our government what's happened." + +The talk drifted on to another subject and then a hum came from the +larger room. A murmur only, but it struck such an intense and earnest +note that Harry was convinced. + +"It's news of battle! I know it!" he exclaimed. + +They sprang to their feet and hurried into the ballroom. William Curtis, +his habitual calm broken, was standing upon a chair and all the people +had gathered in front of him. A piece of paper, evidently a telegram, +was clutched in his hand. + +"Friends," he said in a strained, but exultant voice, "a great battle has +been fought near Chattanooga on a little river called the Chickamauga, +and we have won a magnificent victory." + +A mighty cheer came from the crowd. + +"The army of Rosecrans, attacked with sudden and invincible force by +Bragg, has been shattered and driven into Chattanooga." + +Another cheer burst forth. + +"No part of the Union army was able to hold fast, save one wing under +Thomas." + +A third mighty cheer arose, but this time Harry did not join in it. +He felt a sudden sinking of the heart at the words, "save one wing under +Thomas." Then the victory was not complete. It could be complete only +when the whole Union army was driven from the field. As long as Thomas +stood, there was a flaw in the triumph. He had heard many times of this +man, Thomas. He had Grant's qualities. He was at his best in apparent +defeat. + +"Is there anything else, Mr. Curtis?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +"That is all my agent sends me concerning its results, but he says +that it lasted two days, and that it was fierce and bloody beyond all +comparison with anything that has happened in the West. He estimated +that the combined losses are between thirty and forty thousand men." + +A heavy silence fell upon them all. The victory was great, but the +price for it was great, too. Yet exultation could not be subdued long. +They were soon smiling over it, and congratulating one another. But +Harry was still unable to share wholly in the joy of victory. + +"Why this gloom in your face, when all the rest of us are so happy?" +asked St. Clair. + +"My father was there. He may have fallen. How do I know?" + +"That's not it. He always comes through. What's the real cause? +Out with it!" + +"You know that part of the dispatch saying, 'No part of the Union army +was able to hold fast save one wing under Thomas.' How about that wing! +You heard, too, what the colonel said about General Bragg. He always +overestimates the strength of the enemy, and while he may win a victory +he will not reap the fruits of it. That wing under Thomas still may be +standing there, protecting all the rest of the Union army." + +"Come now, old Sober Face! This isn't like you. We've won a grand +victory! We've more than paid them back for their Gettysburg." + +Harry rejoiced then with the others, but at times the thought came to +him that Thomas with one wing might yet be standing between Bragg and +complete victory. When he and Dalton went back home--they were again +with the Lanhams--they found the whole population of Richmond ablaze with +triumph. The Yankee army in the West had been routed. Not only was +Chickamauga an offset for Gettysburg, but for Vicksburg as well, and once +more the fortunes of the South were rising toward the zenith. + +Dalton had returned from the army a little later this time than Harry, +but he had joined him at the Lanhams', and he too showed gravity amid the +almost universal rejoicing. + +"I see that you're afraid the next news won't be so complete, Harry," +he said. + +"That's it, George. We don't really know much, except that Thomas was +holding his ground. Oh, if only Stonewall Jackson were there! Remember +how he came down on them at the Second Manassas and at Chancellorsville! +Thomas would be swept off his feet and as Rosecrans retreated into +Chattanooga our army would pour right on his heels!" + +They waited eagerly the next day and the next for news, and while +Richmond was still filled with rejoicings over Chickamauga, Harry saw +that his fears were justified. Thomas stood till the end. Bragg had not +followed Rosecrans into Chattanooga. The South had won a great battle, +but not a decisive victory. The commanding general had not reaped all +the rewards that were his for the taking. Bragg had justified in every +way Colonel Talbot's estimate of him. + +And yet Richmond, like the rest of the South, felt the great uplift of +Chickamauga, the most gigantic battle of the West. It told South as +well as North that the war was far from over. The South could no longer +invade the North, nor could the North invade the South at will. Even on +the northernmost border of the rebelling section the Army of Northern +Virginia under its matchless leader, rested in its camp, challenging and +defiant. + +Harry was glad to return with his friends to the army. His brief period +of festival was over, and his fears for his father had been relieved by +a letter, stating that he had received no serious harm in the great and +terrible battle of Chickamauga. + +After the failure of the armies of Lee and Meade to bring about a +decisive battle at Mine Run, the Army of Northern Virginia established +its autumn and winter headquarters on a jutting spur of the great range +called Clarke's Mountain, Orange Court House lying only a few miles to +the west. The huge camp was made in a wide-open space, surrounded by +dense masses of pines and cedars. Tents were pitched securely, and, +feeling that they were to stay here a long time many of the soldiers +built rude log cabins. + +General Lee himself continued to use his tent, which stood in the center +of the camp, the streets of tents and cabins radiating from it like the +spokes of a wheel. Close about Lee's own tent were others occupied by +Colonel Taylor, his adjutant general, Colonel Peyton, Colonel Marshall, +and other and younger officers, including Harry and Dalton. A little +distance down one of the main avenues, which they were pleased to call +Victory Street, the Invincibles were encamped, and Harry saw them almost +every day. + +The troops were well fed now, and the brooks provided an abundance of +clear water. The days were still warm, but the evenings were cold, and, +inhaling the healing odors of the pines and cedars, wounded soldiers +returned rapidly to health. + +It was a wonderful interval for Harry and his friends associated with him +so closely. Save for the presence of armies, it seemed at times that +there was no war. Deep peace prevailed along the Rapidan and the slopes +of the mountain. It was the longest period of rest that he and his +comrades were to know in the course of the mighty struggle. The action +of the war was now chiefly in the Southwest, where Grant, taking the +place of Rosecrans, was seeking to recover all that was lost at +Chickamauga. + +Harry had another letter from his father, telling him that his own had +been received, and giving personal details of the titanic struggle on the +Chickamauga. He did not speak out directly, but Harry saw in his words +the vain regret that the great opportunity won at Chickamauga at such a +terrible price had not been used. In his belief the whole Federal army +might have been destroyed, and the star of the South would have risen +again to the zenith. + +Here Harry sighed and remembered his own forebodings. Oh, if only a +Stonewall Jackson had been there! His mighty sweep would have driven +Thomas and the rest in a wild rout. A tear rose in his eye as he +remembered his lost hero. He sincerely believed then and always that the +Confederacy would have won had he not fallen on that fatal evening at +Chancellorsville. It was an emotion with him, a permanent emotion with +which logic could not interfere. + +Harry was conscious, too, that the long quiet on the Eastern front was +but a lull. There was nothing to signify peace in it. If the North had +ever felt despair about the war Gettysburg and Vicksburg had removed +every trace of it. He knew that beyond the blue ranges of mountains, +both to east and west, vast preparations were going forward. The North, +the region of great population, of illimitable resources, of free access +to the sea, and of mechanical genius that had counted for so much in +arming her soldiers, was gathering herself for a supreme effort. The +great defeats of the war's first period were to be ignored, and her +armies were to come again, more numerous, better equipped and perhaps +better commanded than ever. + +Nevertheless, his mind was still the mind of youth, and he could not +dwell continuously upon this prospect. The camp in the hills was +pleasant. The heats had passed, and autumn in the full richness of its +coloring had come. The forests blazed in all the brilliancy of red and +yellow and brown. The whole landscape had the color and intensity that +only a North American autumn can know, and the October air had the +freshness and vitality sufficient to make an old man young. + +The great army of youth--it was composed chiefly of boys, like the one +opposing it--enjoyed itself during these comparatively idle months. +The soldiers played rural games, marbles even, pitching the horseshoe, +wrestling, jumping and running. It was to Harry like Hannibal in winter +quarters at Capua, without the Capua. There was certainly no luxury +here. While food was more abundant than for a long time, it was of the +simplest. Instead of dissipation there was a great religious revival. +Ministers of different creeds, but united in a common object, appeared in +the camp, and preached with power and energy. The South was emotional +then and perhaps the war had made it more so. The ministers secured +thousands of converts. All day long the preaching and singing could be +heard through the groves of pine and cedar, and Harry knew that when +the time for battle came they would fight all the better because of it. +Yielding to the enemy was no part of the Christianity that these +ministers preached. + +Harry also saw the growth of the hero-worship accorded to his great +commander. He did not believe that any other general, except perhaps +Napoleon in his earlier career, had ever received such trust and +admiration. Many soldiers who had felt his guiding hand in battle now +saw him for the first time. He had an appearance and manner to inspire +respect, and, back of that, was something much greater, a firm conviction +in the minds of all that he had illimitable patience, a willingness +to accept responsibility, and a military genius that had never been +surpassed. Such was the attitude of the Southern people toward their +great leader then, and, to an even greater degree now, when his figure, +like that of Lincoln, instead of becoming smaller grows larger as it +recedes into the past. + +Harry often rode with him. He seemed to have an especial liking for the +very young members of his staff, or for old private soldiers, bearded and +gray like himself, whom he knew by name. Far in October he rode down +toward the Rapidan where Stuart was encamped, taking with him only Harry +and Dalton. He was mounted on his great white war horse, Traveller, +which the soldiers knew from afar. Cheering arose, but when he raised +his hand in a deprecating way the soldiers, obedient to his wish, ceased, +and they heard only the murmur of many voices, as they went on. The +general made the lads ride, one on his right and the other on his left +hand, and brilliant October coloring and crisp air seemed to put him in +a mood that was far from war. + +"I pine for Arlington," he said at length to Harry, "that ancestral home +of mine that is held by the enemy. I should like to see the ripening +of the crops there. We Virginians of the old stock hold to the land, +and you Kentuckians, who are really of the same race, hold to it, too." + +"It is true, sir," said Harry. "My father loves the land. After his +retirement from the army, following the Mexican war, he worked harder +upon our place in Kentucky than any slave or hired man. He was going +to free his slaves, but I suppose, sir, that the war has made him feel +different about it." + +"Yes, we're often willing to do things by our own free will, but not +under compulsion. The great Washington himself wrote of the evils of +slave labor. The 'old fields' scattered all over Virginia show what it +has done for this noble commonwealth." + +Harry remembered quite well similar "old fields" in Kentucky. Slaves +were far less numerous there than in Virginia, and he was old enough to +have observed that, in addition to the wrong of slavery, they were a +liability rather than an asset. But he too felt anew the instinctive +rebellion against being compelled to do what he would perhaps do anyhow. + +General Lee talked more of the land and Harry and Dalton listened +respectfully. Harry saw that his commander's heart turned strongly +toward it. He knew that Jefferson had dreamed of the United States as an +agricultural community, having no part in the quarrels of other nations, +but he knew that it was only a dream. The South, the section that had +followed Jefferson's dream, was now at a great disadvantage. It had no +ships, and it did not have the mills to equip it for the great war it was +waging. He realized more keenly than ever the one-sided nature of the +South's development. + +The general turned his horse toward the banks of the Rapidan, and a +resplendent figure came forward to meet him. It was that incarnation of +youth and fantastic knighthood, Jeb Stuart, who had just returned from a +ride toward the north. He wore a new and brilliant uniform and the usual +broad yellow sash about his waist. His tunic was embroidered, too, +and his epaulets were heavy with gold. The thick gold braid about his +hat was tied in a gorgeous loop in front. His hands were encased in long +gloves of the finest buckskin, and he tapped the high yellow tops of his +riding boots with a little whip. + +Harry always felt that Stuart did not really belong to the present. +His place was with the medieval knights who loved gorgeous armor, who +fought by day for the love of it and who sat in the evening on the castle +steps with fair ladies for the love of it, and who in the dark listened +to the troubadours below, also for the love of it. A great cavalry +leader, he shone at his brightest in the chase, and, when there was no +fighting to be done, his were the spirits of a boy, and he was as quick +for a prank as any lad under his own command. + +But Stuart, although he had joked with Jackson, never took any liberties +with Lee. He instantly swept the ground with his plumed hat and said in +his most respectful manner: + +"General, will you honor us by dining with us? We've just returned from +a long ride northward and we've made some captures." + +Lee caught a twinkle in his eye, and he smiled. + +"I see no prisoners, General Stuart," he replied, "and I take it that +your captures do not mean human beings." + +"No, sir, there are other things just now more valuable to us than +prisoners. We raided a little Yankee outpost. Nobody was hurt, but, sir, +we've captured some provisions, the like of which the Army of Northern +Virginia has not tasted in a long time. Would you mind coming with me +and taking a look? And bring Kenton and Dalton with you, if you don't +mind, sir." + +"This indeed sounds tempting," said the commander-in-chief of the Army of +Northern Virginia. "I accept your invitation, General Stuart, in behalf +of myself and my two young aides." + +He dismounted, giving the reins of Traveller to an orderly, and walked +toward Stuart's tent, which was pitched near the river. The "captures" +were heaped in a grassy place. + +"Here, sir," said General Stuart, "are twenty dozen boxes of the finest +French sardines. I haven't tasted sardines in a year and I love them." + +"I've always liked them," said General Lee. + +"And here, sir, are several cases of Yorkshire ham, brought all the +way across the sea--and for us. It isn't as good as our Virginia ham, +which is growing scarce, but we'll like it. And cove oysters, cases and +cases of 'em. I like 'em almost as well as sardines." + +"Most excellent." + +"And real old New England pies, baked, I suppose, in Washington. We can +warm 'em over." + +"I see that you have the fire ready." + +"And jars of preserves, a half-dozen kinds at least, and all of 'em look +as if two likely youngsters like Kenton and Dalton would be anxious to +get at 'em." + +"You judge us rightly, General," said Harry. "We'll show no mercy to +such prisoners as we have here." + +"You wouldn't be boys and you wouldn't be human if you did," rejoined +Stuart, "would they, General?" + +"They would not," replied Lee. "One of the principal recollections of my +boyhood is that I was always hungry. Our regular three meals a day were +not enough for us, however much we ate at one time. Virginia, like your +own Kentucky, Harry, is full of forage, and we moved in groups. Now, +didn't you find a lot of food in the woods and fields?" + +"Oh, yes, sir," rejoined Harry with animation. "I was hungry all the +time, too. An hour after breakfast I was hungry again, and an hour after +dinner, which we had in the middle of the day, I was hungry once more." + +"But you knew where to go for supplies." + +"Yes, sir; we had berries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, +gooseberries, dewberries, cherries, all of them growing wild although +some of them started tame. And then we could forage for pears, peaches, +plums, damsons, all kinds of apples, paw paws, and then later for the +nuts, hickory nuts, walnuts, chestnuts, hazel nuts, chinquapins, and a +lot more. We could have almost lived in the woods and fields from early +spring until late fall." + +"We did the same in Virginia," said the commander-in-chief. "I've often +thought that our forest Indians did not develop a higher civilization, +because it was so easy for them to live, save in the depths of a hard +winter. They had most of the berries and fruits and nuts that we white +boys had. The woods were full of game, and the lakes and rivers full +of fish. They were not driven by the hard necessity that creates +civilization." + +"Dinner is ready, sir," announced General Stuart, who had been directing +the orderlies. "I can offer you and the others nothing but boxes and +kegs to sit on, but I can assure you that this Northern food, some of +which comes in cans, is excellent." + +The two lads and General Stuart fell to work with energy. General Lee +ate more sparingly. Stuart was a boy himself, talking much and running +over with fun. + +"Have you heard what happened to General Early, sir?" he asked the +commander-in-chief. + +"Not yet." + +"But you will, sir, to-morrow. Early will be slow in sending you +that dispatch. He hasn't had time to write it yet. He's not through +swearing." + +"General Early is a valiant and able man, but I disapprove of his +swearing." + +"Why, sir, 'Old Jube' can't help it. It's a part of his breathing, +and man cannot live without breath. He sent one of his best aides with +a dispatch to General Hill, who is posted some distance away. Passing +through a thick cedar wood the aide was suddenly set upon by a genuine +stage villain, large, dark and powerful, who clubbed him over the head +with the butt of a pistol, and then departed with his dispatch." + +"And what happened then?" + +"The aide returned to General Early with his story, but without his +dispatch. The general believed his account, of course, but he called +him names for allowing himself to be surprised and overcome by a single +Yankee. He cursed until the air for fifty yards about him smelled +strongly of sulphur and brimstone." + +"Did he do anything more?" + +"Yes, General. He sent a duplicate of the dispatch by an aide whom he +said he could trust. In an hour the second man came back with the same +big lump on his head and with the same story. He had been ambushed at +the crossing of a ravine full of small cedars, and the highwayman was +undoubtedly the same, too, a big, powerful fellow, as bold as you please." + +Harry's pulse throbbed hard for a few moments, when he first heard +mention of the man. The description, not only physical, but of manner +and action as well, answered perfectly. He had not the slightest doubt +that it was Shepard. + +"A daring deed," said General Lee. "We must see that it is not repeated." + +"But that wasn't all of the tale, sir. While the second man was sitting +on the bank, nursing his broken head, the Yankee Dick Turpin read the +dispatch and saw that it was a duplicate of the first. He became red-hot +with wrath, and talked furiously about the extra and unnecessary work +that General Early was forcing upon him. He ended by cramming the +dispatch into the man's hands, directing him to take it back, and to tell +General Early to stop his foolishness. The aide was a bit dazed from the +blow he received and he delivered that message word for word. Why, sir, +General Early exploded. People who have heard him swear for years and +who know what an artist he is in swearing, heard him then utter swear +words that they had never heard before, words invented on the spur of the +moment, and in the heat of passion, words full of pith and meaning." + +"And that was all, I suppose?" + +"Not by any means, sir. General Early picked two sharpshooters and sent +them with another copy of the dispatch. They passed the place of the +first hold-up, and next the ravine without seeing anybody. But as they +were riding some distance further on both of their horses were killed by +shots from a small clump of pines. Before they could regain their feet +Dick Turpin came out and covered them with his rifle--it seems that he +had one of those new repeating weapons. + +"The men saw that his eye was so keen and his hand so steady that they +did not dare to move a hand to a pistol. Then as he looked down the +sights of his rifle he lectured them. He told them they were foolish to +come that way, when the two who came before them had found out that it +was a closed road. He said that real soldiers learned by experience, +and would not try again to do what they had learned to be impossible. + +"Then he said that after all they were not to blame, as they had been +sent by General Early, and he made one of them who had the stub of a +pencil write on the back of the dispatch these words: 'General Jubal +Early, C. S. A.: This has ceased to be a joke. After your first man was +stopped, it was not necessary to do anything more. I have the dispatch. +Why insist on sending duplicate after duplicate?' And the two had to +walk all the way back to General Early with that note, because they +didn't dare make away with the dispatch. + +"I have a certain respect for that man's skill and daring, but General +Early had a series of spells. He retired to his tent and if the reports +are not exaggerated, a continuous muttering like low thunder came from +the tent, and all the cloth of it turned blue from the lightnings +imprisoned inside." + +General Lee himself smiled. + +"It was certainly annoying," he said. "I hope the dispatch was not of +importance." + +"It contained nothing that will help the Yankees, but it shows that the +enemy has some spies--or at least one spy--who are Napoleons at their +trade." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE COMING OF GRANT + + +The little dinner ended. Despite his disapproval of General Early's +swearing, General Lee laughed heartily at further details of the strange +Yankee spy's exploits. But it was well known that in this particular +General Early was the champion of the East. Harry did not know that in +the person of Colonel Charles Woodville, his cousin, Dick Mason, had +encountered one of equal ability in the Southwest. + +Presently General Lee and his two young aides mounted their horses for +the return. The commander-in-chief seemed gayer than usual. He was +always very fond of Stuart, whose high spirits pleased him, and before +his departure he thanked him for his thoughtfulness. + +"Whenever we get any particularly choice shipments from the North I shall +always be pleased to notify you, General, and send you your share," +said Stuart, sweeping the air in front of him again with his great plumed +hat. With his fine, heroic face and his gorgeous uniform he had never +looked more a knight of the Middle Ages. + +General Lee smiled and thanked him again, and then rode soberly back, +followed at a short distance by his two young aides. Although the +view of hills and mountains and valleys and river and brooks was now +magnificent, the sumach burning in red and the leaves vivid in many +colors, Lee, deeply sensitive, like all his rural forbears, to rural +beauty, nevertheless seemed not to notice it, and soon sank into deep +thought. + +It is believed by many that Lee knew then that the Confederacy had +already received a mortal blow. It was not alone sufficient for the +South to win victories. She must keep on winning them, and the failure +at Gettysburg and the defeat at Vicksburg had put her on the defensive +everywhere. Fewer blockade runners were getting through. Above all, +there was less human material upon which to draw. But he roused himself +presently and said to Harry: + +"There was something humorous in the exploits of the man who held up +General Early's messengers, but the fellow is dangerous, exceedingly +dangerous at such a time." + +"I've an idea who he is, sir," said Harry. + +"Indeed! What do you know?" + +Then Harry told nearly all that he knew about Shepard, but not all-- +that struggle in the river, and his sparing of the spy and the filching +of the map at the Curtis house, for instance--and the commander-in-chief +listened with great attention. + +"A bold man, uncommonly bold, and it appears uncommonly skilled, too. +We must send out a general alarm, that is, we must have all our own +scouts and spies watching for him." + +Harry said nothing, but he did not believe that anybody would catch +Shepard. The man's achievements had been so startling that they had +created the spell of invincibility. His old belief that he was worth ten +thousand men on the Northern battle line returned. No movement of the +Army of Northern Virginia could escape him, and no lone messenger could +ever be safe from him. + +Lee returned to his camp on Clarke's Mountain, and, a great revival +meeting being in progress, he joined it, sitting with a group of +officers. Fitzhugh Lee, W. H. F. Lee, Jones, Rosser, Wickham, Munford, +Young, Wade Hampton and a dozen others were there. Taylor and Marshall +and Peyton of his staff were also in the company. + +The preacher was a man of singular power and earnestness, and after +the sermon he led the singing himself, in which often thirty or forty +thousand voices joined. It was a moving sight to Harry, all these men, +lads, mostly, but veterans of many fields, united in a chorus mightier +than any other that he had ever heard. It would have pleased Stonewall +Jackson to his inmost soul, and once more, as always, a tear rose to his +eye as he thought of his lost hero. + +Harry and Dalton left their horses with an orderly and came back to the +edge of the great grove, in which the meeting was being held. They had +expected to find St. Clair and Happy Tom there, but not seeing them, +wandered on and finally drifted apart. Harry stood alone for a while on +the outskirts of the throng. They were all singing again, and the mighty +volume of sound rolled through the wood. It was not only a singular, +it was a majestic scene also to Harry. How like unto little children +young soldiers were! and how varied and perplexing were the problems of +human nature! They were singing with the utmost fervor of Him who had +preached continuously of peace, who was willing to turn one cheek when +the other was smitten, and because of their religious zeal they would +rush the very next day into battle, if need be, with increased fire and +zeal. + +He saw a heavily built, powerful man on the outskirts, but some distance +away, singing in a deep rolling voice, but something vaguely familiar in +the figure drew his glance again. He looked long and well and then began +to edge quietly toward the singer, who was clothed in the faded butternut +uniform that so many of the Confederate soldiers wore. + +The fervor of the singer did not decrease, but Harry noticed that he too +was moving, moving slowly toward the eastern end of the grove, the same +direction that Harry was pursuing. Now he was sure. He would have +called out, but his voice would not have been heard above the vast volume +of sound. He might have pointed out the singer to others, but, although +he felt sure, he did not wish to be laughed at in case of mistake. +But strongest of all was the feeling that it had become a duel between +Shepard and himself. + +He walked slowly on, keeping the man in view, but Shepard, although he +never ceased singing, moved away at about the same pace. Harry inferred +at once that Shepard had seen him and was taking precautions. The +temptation to cry out at the top of his voice that the most dangerous +of all spies was among them was almost irresistible, but it would only +create an uproar in which Shepard could escape easily, leaving to him a +load of ridicule. + +He continued his singular pursuit. Shepard was about a hundred yards +away, and they had made half the circuit of this huge congregation. +Then the spy passed into a narrow belt of pines, and when Harry moved +forward to see him emerge on the other side he failed to reappear. +He hastened to the pines, which led some distance down a little gully, +and he was sure that Shepard had gone that way. He followed fast, +but he could discover no sign. He had vanished utterly, like thin smoke +swept away by a breeze. + +He returned deeply stirred by the appearance and disappearance--easy, +alike--of Shepard. His sense of the man's uncanny powers and of his +danger to the Confederacy was increased. He seemed to come and go +absolutely as he pleased. It was true that in the American Civil War the +opportunities for spies were great. All men spoke the same language, +and all looked very much alike. It was not such a hard task to enter the +opposing lines, but Shepard had shown a daring and success beyond all +comparison. He seemed to have both the seven league boots and the +invisible cloak of very young childhood. He came as he pleased, and +when pursuit came he vanished in thin air. + +Harry bit his lips in chagrin. He felt that Shepard had scored on him +again. It was true that he had been victorious in that fight in the +river, when victory meant so much, but since then Shepard had triumphed, +and it was bitter. He hardened his determination, and resolved that +he would always be on the watch for him. He even felt a certain glow, +because he was one of two in such a conflict of skill and courage. + +The meeting having been finished, he went down one of the streets of +tents to the camp of the Invincibles. Colonel Leonidas Talbot and +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire were not playing chess. Instead +they were sitting on a pine log with Happy Tom and St. Clair and other +officers, listening to young Julien de Langeais, who sat on another log, +playing a violin with surpassing skill. Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire, +knowing his prowess as a violinist, had asked him to come and play for +the Invincibles. Now he was playing for them and for several thousand +more who were gathered in the pine woods. + +Young de Langeais sat on a low stump, and the great crowd made a solid +mass around him. But he did not see them, nor the pine woods nor the +heavy cannon sitting on the ridges. He looked instead into a region of +fancy, where the colors were brilliant or gay or tender as he imagined +them. Harry, with no technical knowledge of music but with a great love +of it, recognized at once the touch of a master, and what was more, +the soul of one. + +To him the violin was not great, unless the player was great, but when +the player was great it was the greatest musical instrument of all. +He watched de Langeais' wrapt face, and for him too the thousands of +soldiers, the pines and the cannon on the ridges melted away. He did not +know what the young musician was playing, probably some old French air or +a great lyric outburst of the fiery Verdi, whose music had already spread +through America. + +"A great artist," whispered Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire in his ear. +"He studied at the schools in New Orleans and then for two years in +Paris. But he came back to fight. Nothing could keep Julien from the +army, but he brought his violin with him. We Latins, or at least we +who are called Latins, steep our souls in music. It's not merely +intellectual with us. It's passion, fire, abandonment, triumph and all +the great primitive emotions of the human race." + +Harry's feelings differed somewhat from those of Lieutenant-Colonel +St. Hilaire--in character but not in power--and as young de Langeais +played on he began to think what a loss a stray bullet could make. +Why should a great artist be allowed to come on the battle line? There +were hundreds of thousands of common men. One could replace another, +but nobody could replace the genius, a genius in which the whole world +shared. It was not possible for either drill or training to do it, +and yet a little bullet might take away his life as easily as it would +that of a plowboy. They were all alike to the bullets and the shells. + +De Langeais finished, and a great shout of applause arose. The cheering +became so insistent that he was compelled to play again. + +"His family is well-to-do," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire just +before he began playing once more, "and they'll see that he goes back to +Paris for study as soon as the war is over. If they didn't I would." + +It did not seem to occur to Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire that young +de Langeais could be killed, and Harry began to share his confidence. +De Langeais now played the simple songs of the old South, and there was +many a tear in the eyes of war-hardened youth. The sun was setting in +a sea of fire, and the pine forests turned red in its blaze. In the +distance the waters of the Rapidan were crimson, too, and a light wind +out of the west sighed among the pines, forming a subdued chorus to the +violin. + +De Langeais began to play a famous old song of home, and Harry's mind +traveled back on its lingering note to his father's beautiful house and +grounds, close by Pendleton, and all the fine country about it, in which +he and Dick Mason and the boys of their age had roamed. He remembered +all the brooks and ponds and the groves that produced the best hickory +nuts. When should he see them again and would his father be there, +and Dick, and all the other boys of their age! Not all! Certainly not +all, because some were gone already. And yet this plaintive note of +the homes they had left behind, while it brought a tear to many an eye, +made no decrease in martial determination. It merely hardened their +resolution to win the victory all the sooner, and bring the homecoming +march nearer. + +De Langeais ended on a wailing note that died like a faint sigh in the +pine forest. Then he came back to earth, sprang up, and put his violin +in its case. Applause spread out and swelled in a low, thunderous note, +but de Langeais, who was as modest as he was talented, quickly hid +himself among his friends. + +The sun sank behind the blue mountains, and twilight came readily over +the pine and cedar forests. Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel +St. Hilaire, who had a large tent together, invited the youths to stay +awhile with them as their guests and talk. All the soldiers dispersed to +their own portions of the great camp, and there would be an hour of quiet +and rest, until the camp cooks served supper. + +It had been a lively day for Harry, his emotions had been much stirred, +and now he was glad to sit in the peace of the evening on a stone near +the entrance of the tent, and listen to his friends. War drew comrades +together in closer bonds than those of peace. He was quite sure that +St. Clair, Dalton and Happy Tom were his friends for life, as he was +theirs, and the two colonels seemed to have the same quality of youth. +Simple men, of high faith and honor, they were often childlike in the +ways of the world, their horizons sometimes not so wide as those of the +lads who now sat with them. + +"As I told Harry," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire to Julien, "you +shall have that talent of yours cultivated further after the war. +Two years more of study and you will be among the greatest. You must +know, lads, that for us who are of French descent, Paris is the world's +capital in the arts." + +"And for many of English blood, too," said Colonel Talbot. + +Then they talked of more immediate things, of the war, the armies and +the prospect of the campaigns. Harry, after an hour or so, returned to +headquarters and he found soldiers making a bed for the commander-in- +chief under the largest of the pines. Lee in his campaigns always +preferred to sleep in the open air, when he could, and it required severe +weather to drive him to a tent. Meanwhile he sat by a small fire-- +the October nights were growing cold--and talked with Peyton and other +members of his staff. + +Harry and Dalton decided to imitate his example and sleep between the +blankets under the pines. Harry found a soft place, spread his blankets +and in a few minutes slept soundly. In fact, the whole Army of Northern +Virginia was a great family that retired early, slept well and rose early. + +The next morning there was frost on the grass, but the lads were so hardy +that they took no harm. The autumn deepened. The leaves blazed for a +while in their most vivid colors and then began to fall under the strong +west winds. Brown and wrinkled, they often whirled past in clouds. +The air had a bite in it, and the soldiers built more and larger fires. + +The Army of Northern Virginia never before had been quiescent so long. +The Army of the Potomac was not such a tremendous distance away, but +it seemed that neither side was willing to attack, and as the autumn +advanced and began to merge into winter the minds of all turned toward +the Southwest. + +For the valiant soldiers encamped on the Virginia hills the news was not +good. Grant, grim and inflexible, was deserving the great name that was +gradually coming to him. He had gathered together all the broken parts +of the army defeated at Chickamauga and was turning Union defeat into +Union victory. + +Winter closed in with the knowledge that Grant had defeated the South +disastrously on Lookout Mountain and all around Chattanooga. Chickamauga +had gone for nothing, the whole flank of the Confederacy was turned and +the Army of Northern Virginia remained the one great barrier against the +invading legions of the North. Yet the confidence of the men in that +army remained undimmed. They felt that on their own ground, and under +such a man as Lee, they were invincible. + +In the course of these months Harry, as a messenger and often as a +secretary, was very close to Lee. He wrote a swift and clear hand, +and took many dispatches. Almost daily messages were sent in one +direction or another and Harry read from them the thoughts of his leader, +which he kept locked in his breast. He knew perhaps better than many an +older officer the precarious condition of the Confederacy. These letters, +which he took from dictation, and the letters from Richmond that he read +to his chief, told him too plainly that the limits of the Confederacy +were shrinking. Its money declined steadily. Happy Tom said that he had +to "swap it pound for pound now to the sutlers for groceries." Yet it +is the historical truth that the heart of the Army of Northern Virginia +never beat with more fearless pride, as the famous and "bloody" year of +'63 was drawing to its close. + +The news arrived that Grant, the Sledge Hammer of the West, had been put +by Lincoln in command of all the armies of the Union, and would come +east to lead the Army of the Potomac in person, with Meade still as its +nominal chief, but subject, like all the others, to his command. + +Harry heard the report with a thrill. He knew now that decisive action +would come soon enough. He had always felt that Meade in front of them +was a wavering foe, and perhaps too cautious. But Grant was of another +kind. He was a pounder. Defeats did not daunt him. He would attack +and then attack again and again, and the diminishing forces of the +Confederacy were ill fitted to stand up against the continued blows of +the hammer. Harry's thrill was partly of apprehension, but whenever he +looked at the steadfast face of his chief his confidence returned. + +Winter passed without much activity and spring began to show its first +buds. The earth was drying, after melting snows and icy rains, and Harry +knew that action would not be delayed much longer. Grant was in the East +now. He had gone in January to St. Louis to visit his daughter, who +lay there very ill, and then, after military delays, he had reached +Washington. + +Harry afterward heard the circumstances of his arrival, so characteristic +of plain and republican America. He came into Washington by train as a +simple passenger, accompanied only by his son, who was but fourteen years +of age. They were not recognized, and arriving at a hotel, valise in +hand, with a crowd of passengers, he registered in his turn: "U. S. Grant +and son, Galena, Ill." The clerk, not noticing the name, assigned the +modest arrival and his boy to a small room on the fifth floor. Then they +moved away, a porter carrying the valise. But the clerk happened to look +again at the register, and when he saw more clearly he rushed after them +with a thousand apologies. He did not expect the victor of great battles, +the lieutenant-general commanding all the armies of the Union, a battle +front of more than a million men, to come so modestly. + +When Harry heard the story he liked it. It seemed to him to be the same +simple and manly quality that he found in Lee, both worthy of republican +institutions. But he did not have time to think about it long. The +signs were multiplying that the advance would soon come. The North had +never ceased to resound with preparations, and Grant would march with +veterans. All the spies and scouts brought in the same report. Butler +would move up from Fortress Monroe toward Richmond with thirty thousand +men and Grant with a hundred and fifty thousand would cross the Rapidan, +moving by the right flank of Lee until they could unite and destroy the +Confederacy. Such was the plan, said the scouts and spies in gray. + +Longstreet with his corps had returned from the West and Lee gathered his +force of about sixty thousand men to meet the mighty onslaught--he alone +perhaps divined how mighty it would be--and when he was faced by the +greatest of his adversaries his genius perhaps never shone more brightly. + +May and the full spring came. It was the third day of the month, and the +camp of the Army of Northern Virginia was as usual. Many of the young +soldiers played games among the trees. Here and there they lay in groups +on the new grass, singing their favorite songs. The cooks were preparing +their suppers over the big fires. Several bands were playing. Had +it not been for the presence of so many weapons the whole might have +been taken for one vast picnic, but Harry, who sat in the tent of the +commander-in-chief, was writing as fast as he could dispatch after +dispatch that the Southern leader was dictating to him. He knew +perfectly well, of course, that the commander-in-chief was gathering +his forces and that they would move quickly for battle. He knew, too, +how inadequate was the equipment of the army. Only a short time before +he had taken from the dictation of his chief a letter to the President +of the Confederacy a part of which ran: + + +My anxiety on the subject of provisions for the army is so great that I +cannot refrain from expressing it to your Excellency. I cannot see how +we can operate with our present supplies. Any derangement in their +arrival or disaster to the railroad would render it impossible for me to +keep the army together and might force a retreat into North Carolina. +There is nothing to be had in this section for men or animals. We have +rations for the troops to-day and to-morrow. I hope a new supply arrived +last night, but I have not yet had a report. + + +Harry had thought long over this letter and he knew from his own +observation its absolute truth. The depleted South was no longer able to +feed its troops well. The abundance of the preceding autumn had quickly +passed, and in winter they were mostly on half rations. + +Lee, better than any other man in the whole South, had understood what +lay before them, and his foes both of the battlefield and of the spirit +have long since done him justice. Less than a week before this eve of +mighty events he had written to a young woman in Virginia, a relative: + + +I dislike to send letters within reach of the enemy, as they might serve, +if captured, to bring distress on others. But you must sometimes cast +your thoughts on the Army of Northern Virginia, and never forget it in +your prayers. It is preparing for a great struggle, but I pray and trust +that the great God, mighty to deliver, will spread over it His Almighty +arms and drive its enemies before it. + + +Harry had seen this letter before its sending, and he was not surprised +now when Lee was sending messengers to all parts of his army. With all +the hero-worshiping quality of youth he was once more deeply grateful +that he should have served on the staffs and been brought into close +personal relations with two men, Stonewall Jackson and Lee, who seemed +to him so great. As he saw it, it was not alone military greatness but +greatness of the soul, which was greater. Both were deeply religious-- +Lee, the Episcopalian, and Jackson, the Presbyterian, and it was a piety +that contained no trace of cant. + +Harry felt that the crisis of the great Civil War was at hand. It had +been in the air all that day, and news had come that Grant had broken up +his camps and was crossing the Rapidan with a huge force. He knew how +small in comparison was the army that Lee could bring against him, +and yet he had supreme confidence in the military genius of his chief. + +He had written a letter with which an aide had galloped away, and then he +sat at the little table in the great tent, pen in hand and ink and paper +before him, but Lee was silent. He was dressed as usual with great +neatness and care, though without ostentation. His face had its usual +serious cast, but tinged now with melancholy. Harry knew that he no +longer saw the tent and those around him. His mind dwelled for a few +moments upon his own family and the ancient home that he had loved so +well. + +The interval was very brief. He was back in the present, and the +principal generals for whom he had sent were entering the tent. Hill, +Longstreet, Ewell, Stuart and others came, but they did not stay long. +They talked earnestly with their leader for a little while, and then +every one departed to lead his brigades. + +The secretaries put away pen, ink and paper. Twilight was advancing in +the east and night suddenly fell outside. The songs ceased, the bands +played no more, and there was only the deep rumble of marching men and +moving cannon. + +"We'll ride now, gentlemen," said Lee to his staff. + +Traveller, saddled and bridled, was waiting and the commander-in-chief +sprang into the saddle with all the agility of a young man. The others +mounted, too, Harry and Dalton as usual taking their places modestly in +the rear. + +A regiment, small in numbers but famous throughout the army for valor, +was just passing, and its colonel and its lieutenant-colonel, erect men, +riding splendidly, but gray like Lee, drew their swords and gave the +proud and flashing salute of the saber as they went by. Lee and his +staff almost with involuntary impulse returned the salute in like +fashion. Then the Invincibles passed on, and were lost from view in the +depths of the forest. + +Harry felt a sudden constriction of the heart. He knew that he might +never see Colonel Leonidas Talbot nor Lieutenant-Colonel Hector +St. Hilaire again, nor St. Clair, nor Happy Tom either. + +But his friends could not remain long in his mind at such a time. +They were marching, marching swiftly, the presence of the man on the +great white horse seeming to urge them on to greater speed. As the stars +came out Lee's brow, which had been seamed by thought, cleared. His plan +which he had formed in the day was moving well. His three corps were +bearing away toward the old battlefield of Chancellorsville. Grant would +be drawn into the thickets of the Wilderness as Hooker had been the year +before, although a greater than Hooker was now leading the Army of the +Potomac. + +Harry, who foresaw it all, thrilled and shuddered at the remembrance. +It was in there that the great Jackson had fallen in the hour of supreme +triumph. Not far away were the heights of Fredericksburg, where Burnside +had led the bravest of the brave to unavailing slaughter. As Belgium had +been for centuries the cockpit of Europe, so the wild and sterile region +in Virginia that men call the Wilderness became the cockpit of North +America. + + +While Lee and his army were turning into the Wilderness Grant and the +greatest force that the Union had yet assembled were seeking him. +It was composed of men who had tasted alike of victory and defeat, +veterans skilled in all the wiles and stratagems of war, and with hearts +to endure anything. In this host was a veteran regiment that had come +East to serve under Grant as it had served under him so valiantly in +the West. Colonel Winchester rode at its head and beside him rode his +favorite aide, young Richard Mason. Not far away was Colonel Hertford, +with a numerous troop of splendid cavalry. + +Grant, alert and resolved to win, carried in his pocket a letter which he +had received from Lincoln, saying: + + +Not expecting to see you before the spring campaign opens, I wish to +express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up to +this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of your plans I +neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant, and, +pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints or restraints +upon you. While I am very anxious that any great disaster or the capture +of our men in great numbers should be avoided, I know these points are +less likely to escape your attention than they would mine. If there is +anything wanting which is within my power to give, do not fail to let me +know it. And now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain +you. + + +A noble letter, breathing the loftiest spirit, and showing that moral +grandeur which has been so characteristic of America's greatest men. +He had put all in Grant's hands and he had given to him an army, the +like of which had never been seen until now on the American continent. +Never before had the North poured forth its wealth and energy in such +abundance. + +Four thousand wagons loaded with food and ammunition followed the army, +and there was a perfect system by which a wagon emptied of its contents +was sent back to a depot to be refilled, while a loaded wagon took its +place at the front. Complete telegram equipments, poles, wires, +instruments and all were carried with every division. The wires could be +strung easily and the lieutenant-general could talk to every part of his +army. There were, also, staffs of signalmen, in case the wires should +fail at any time. Grant held in his hand all the resources of the North, +and if he could not win no one could. + +All through the night the hostile armies marched, and before them went +the spies and scouts. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE GHOSTLY RIDE + + +Harry and Dalton kept close together during the long hours of the ghostly +ride. Just ahead of them were Taylor and Marshall and Peyton, and in +front Lee rode in silence. Now and then they passed regiments, and at +other times they would halt and let regiments pass them. Then the troops, +seeing the man sitting on the white horse, would start to cheer, but +always their officers promptly subdued it, and they marched on feeling +more confident than ever that their general was leading them to victory. + +Many hours passed and still the army marched through the forests. +The trees, however, were dwindling in size and even in the night they +saw that the earth was growing red and sterile. Dense thickets grew +everywhere, and the marching became more difficult. Harry felt a sudden +thrill of awe. + +"George," he whispered, "do you know the country into which we're riding?" + +"I think I do, Harry. It's the Wilderness." + +"It can't be anything else, George, because I see the ghosts." + +"What are you talking about, Harry? What ghosts?" + +"The thousands and thousands who have fallen in that waste. Why the +Wilderness is so full of dead men that they must walk at night to give +one another room. I only hope that the ghost of Old Jack will ride +before us and show us the way." + +"I almost feel like that, too," admitted Dalton, who, however, was of a +less imaginative mind than Harry. "As sure as I'm sitting in the saddle +we're bound for the Wilderness. Now, what is the day going to give us?" + +"Marching mostly, I think, and with the next noon will come battle. +Grant doesn't hesitate and hold back. We know that, George." + +"No, it's not his character." + +Morning came and found them still in the forests, seeking the deep +thickets of the Wilderness, and Grant, warned by his scouts and spies, +and most earnestly by one whose skill, daring and judgment were unequaled, +turned from his chosen line of march to meet his enemy. Once more Lee +had selected the field of battle, where his inferiority in numbers would +not count so much against him. + +It was nearly morning when the march ceased, and officers and troops, +save those on guard, lay down in the forest for rest. Harry, a seasoned +veteran, could sleep under any conditions and with a blanket over him and +a saddle for a pillow closed his eyes almost immediately. Lee and his +older aides, Taylor and Peyton and Marshall, slept also. Around them the +brigades, too, lay sleeping. + +A while before dawn a large man in Confederate uniform, using the soft, +lingering speech of the South, appeared almost in the center of the army +of Northern Virginia. He knew all the pass words and told the officers +commanding the watch that the wing under Ewell was advancing more rapidly +than any of the others. Inside the line he could go about almost as he +chose, and one could see little of him, save that he was large of figure +and deeply tanned, like all the rest. + +He approached the little opening in which Lee and his staff lay, although +he kept back from the sentinels who watched over the sleeping leader. +But Shepard knew that it was the great Confederate chieftain who lay in +the shadow of the oak and he could identify him by the glances of the +sentinels so often directed toward the figure. + +There were wild thoughts for a moment or two in the mind of Shepard. +A single bullet fired by an unerring hand would take from the Confederacy +its arm and brain, and then what happened to himself afterward would not +matter at all. And the war would be over in a month or two. But he put +the thought fiercely from him. A spy he was and in his heart proud of +his calling, but no such secret bullet could be fired by him. + +He turned away from the little opening, wandered an hour through the camp +and then, diving into the deep bushes, vanished like a shadow through the +Confederate lines, and was gone to Grant to report that Lee's army was +advancing swiftly to attack, and that the command of Ewell would come in +touch with him first. + +Not long after dawn Harry was again on the march, riding behind his +general. From time to time Lee sent messengers to the various divisions +of his army, four in number, commanded by Longstreet, Early, Hill and +Stuart, the front or Stuart's composed of cavalry. Harry's own time came, +when he received a dispatch of the utmost importance to take to Ewell. +He memorized it first, and, if capture seemed probable, he was to tear +it into bits and throw it away. Harry was glad he was to go to Ewell. +In the great campaign in the valley he had been second to Jackson, +his right arm, as Jackson had been Lee's right arm. Ewell had lost a leg +since then, and his soldiers had to strap him in the saddle when he led +them into battle, but he was as daring and cheerful as ever, trusted +implicitly by Lee. + +Harry with a salute to his chief rode away. Part of the country was +familiar to him and in addition his directions were so explicit that he +could not miss the way. + +The four divisions of the army were in fairly close touch, but in a +country of forests and many waters Northern scouts might come between, +and he rode with caution, his hand ever near the pistol in his belt. +The midday sun however clouded as the afternoon passed on. The thickets +and forests grew more dense. From the distance came now and then the +faint, sweet call of a trumpet, but everything was hidden from sight by +the dense tangle of the Wilderness, a wilderness as wild and dangerous as +any in which Henry Ware had ever fought. How it all came back to him! +Almost exactly a year ago he had ridden into it with Jackson and here the +armies were gathering again. + +Imagination, fancy, always so strong in him, leaped into vivid life. +The year had not passed and he was riding to meet Stonewall Jackson, +who was somewhere ahead, preparing for his great curve about Hooker and +the lightning stroke at Chancellorsville. Rabbits sprang out of the +undergrowth and fled away before his horse's hoofs. In the lonely +wilderness, which nevertheless had little to offer to the hunter, birds +chattered from every tree. Small streams flowed slowly between dense +walls of bushes. Here and there in the protection of the thickets wild +flowers were in early bloom. + +It was spring, fresh spring everywhere, but the bushes and the grass +alike were tinged with red for Harry. The strange mental illusion that +he was riding to Chancellorsville remained with him and he did not seek +to shake it off. He almost expected to see Old Jack ahead on a hill, +bent over a little, and sitting on Little Sorrel, with the old slouch hat +drawn over his eyes. They had talked of the ghost of Jackson leading +them in the Wilderness. He shivered. Could it be so? All the time he +knew it was an illusion, but he permitted it to cast its spell over him, +as one who dreams knowingly. + +And Harry was dreaming back. Old Jack, the earlier of his two heroes, +was leading them. He foresaw the long march through the thickets of the +Wilderness, Stonewall forming the line of battle in the deep roads late +in the evening, almost in sight of Hooker's camp, the sudden rush of his +brigades and then the terrible battle far into the night. + +He shook himself. It was uncanny. The past was the past. Dreams +were thin and vanished stuff. Once more he was in the present and saw +clearly. Old Jack was gone to take his place with the great heroes of +the past, but the Army of Northern Virginia was there, with Lee leading +them, and the most formidable of all the Northern chiefs with the most +formidable of all the Northern armies was before them. + +He heard the distant thud of hoofs and with instinctive caution drew back +into a dense clump of bushes. A half-dozen horsemen were near and their +eager looks in every direction told Harry that they were scouts. There +was little difference then between a well worn uniform of blue or gray, +and they were very close before Harry was able to tell that they belonged +to Grant's army. + +He was devoutly glad that his horse was trained thoroughly and stood +quite still while the Northern scouts passed. A movement of the bushes +would have attracted their attention, and he did not wish to be captured +at any time, least of all on the certain eve of a great battle. After a +battle he always felt an extra regret for those who had fallen, because +they would never know whether they had won or lost. + +They were alert, keen and vigorous men, or lads rather, as young as +himself, and they rode as if they had been Southern youths almost born +in the saddle. Harry was not the only one to notice how the Northern +cavalry under the whip hand of defeat had improved so fast that it was +now a match, man for man, for that of the South. + +The young riders rode on and the tread of their hoofs died in the +undergrowth. Then Harry emerged from his own kindly clump of bushes and +increased his speed, anxious to reach Ewell, without any more of those +encounters. He made good progress through the thickets, and soon after +sundown saw a glow which he took to be that of campfires. He advanced +cautiously, met the Southern sentinels and knew that he was right. + +The very first of these sentinels was an old soldier of Jackson, who knew +him well. + +"Mr. Kenton!" he exclaimed. + +"Yes, Thorn! It's you!" said Harry without hesitation. + +The soldier was pleased that he should be recognized thus in the dusk, +and he was still more pleased when the young aide leaned down and shook +his hand. + +"I might have known, Thorn, that I'd find you here, rifle on your arm, +watching," he said. + +"Thank you, Mr. Kenton. You'll find the general over there on a log by +the fire." + +Harry dismounted, gave his horse to a soldier and walked into the glade. +Ewell sat alone, his crutch under his arms, his one foot kicking back the +coals, his bald head a white disc in the glow. + +"General Ewell, sir," said Harry. + +General Ewell turned about and when he saw Harry his face clearly showed +gladness. He could not rise easily, but he stretched out a welcoming +hand. + +"Ah! Kenton," he said, "you're a pleasant sight to tired eyes like mine. +You bring back the glorious old days in the valley. So it's a message +from the commander-in-chief?" + +"Yes, sir. Here it is." + +Ewell read it rapidly by the firelight and smiled. + +"He tells us we're nearest to the enemy," he said, "and to hold fast, +if we're attacked. You're to remain with us and report what happens, +but doubtless you knew all this." + +"Yes, I had to commit it to memory before I started." + +"Then stay here with me. I may want to report to General Lee at any +time. The enemy is in our front only three or four miles away. He knows +we're here and it was a villainous surprise to him to find us in his way. +They say this man Grant is a pounder. So is Lee, when the time comes to +pound, but he's that and far more. I tell you, young man, that General +Lee has had to trim a lot of Northern generals. McClellan and Pope and +Burnside and Hooker and Meade have been going to school to him, and now +Grant is qualifying for his class." + +"But Grant is a great general. So our men in the West themselves say." + +"He may be, but Lee is greater, greatest. And, Harry, you and I, who +knew him and loved him, wish that another who alone was fit to ride by +his side was here with him." + +"I wish it from the bottom of my heart," said Harry. + +"Well, well, regrets are useless. Help me up, Harry. I'm only part of a +man, but I can still fight." + +"We saw you do that at Gettysburg," said Harry, as he put his arm under +Ewell's shoulder. Then Ewell took his crutch and they walked to the far +side of the glade, where several officers of his staff gathered around +him. + +"Lieutenant Kenton, whom you all know," said General Ewell, "has brought +a message from the commander-in-chief that we will be attacked first, +and to be on guard. We consider it an honor, do we not, my lads?" + +"Yes, let them come," they said. + +"Harry, you may want to see the enemy. Clayton, you and Campbell take +him forward through the pickets. But don't go too far. We don't want +to lose three perfectly good young officers before the battle begins. +After that it may be your business to get yourselves shot." + +The two rode nearly two miles to the crest of a hill and then, using +their strong glasses in the moonlight, they were able to see the lights +of a vast camp. + +"We hear that it is Warren's corps," said Clayton. "As General Ewell +doubtless has told you, the enemy know that we're in front, but I don't +believe they know our exact location. I believe we'll be in battle with +those men in the morning." + +Harry thought so too. In truth, it was inevitable. Warren would advance +and Ewell would stand in his way. Yet he slept soundly when he went back +to camp, although he was awakened long before dawn the next day. Then he +ate breakfast, mounted and sat his horse not far away from Ewell, whom +two soldiers had strapped into his saddle, and who was watching with +eager eyes for the sunrise. + +Harry, listening intently, heard no sound in front of them, save the wind +rippling through the dwarfed forests of the Wilderness, and he knew that +no battle had yet begun elsewhere. Sound would come far on that placid +May morning, and it was a certainty that Ewell was nearest to contact +with the enemy. + +But Ewell did not yet move. All his men had been served with early +breakfast, such as it was, and remained in silent masses, partly hidden +by the forest and thickets. The dawn was cold, and Harry felt a little +chill, but it soon passed, as the red edge of the sun showed over the +eastern border of the Wilderness. Then the light spread toward the +zenith, but the golden glow failed to penetrate the somber thickets. + +"It's going to be a good day," said Harry to an aide. + +"A good day for a battle." + +"We'll hear from the Yankees soon. They can't fail to discover our exact +location by sunrise, and they'll fight. Be sure of that." + +It was now nearly six o'clock, and General Ewell, growing impatient, +rode forward a little. Harry followed with his staff. A half-dozen +Southern sharpshooters rose suddenly out of the thickets, and one of them +dared to lay his hands on the reins of the general's horse. But Ewell +was not offended. He looked down at the man and said: + +"What is it, Strother?" + +"Riflemen of the enemy are not more than three or four hundred yards +away. If you go much farther, General, they will certainly see you and +fire upon you." + +"Thanks, Strother. So they've located us?" + +"They're about to do it. They're feeling around. We've seen 'em in the +bushes. We ask you not to go on, General. We wouldn't know what to do +without you. There, sir! They're firing on our pickets!" + +A half-dozen shots came from the front, and then a half-dozen or so +in reply. Harry saw pink flashes, and then spirals of smoke rising. +More shots were fired presently on their right, and then others on their +left. The Northern riflemen were evidently on a long line, and intended +to make a thorough test of their enemy's strength. Harry had no doubt +that Shepard was there. He would surely come to the point where his +enemy was nearest, and his eyes and ears would be the keenest of all. + +The little skirmish continued for a few minutes, extending along a +winding line of nearly a mile through the thickets. Only two or three +were wounded and nobody killed on the Southern side. Harry understood +thoroughly, as Ewell had said, that the sharpshooters of the enemy were +merely feeling for them. They wanted to know if a strong force was there, +and now they knew. + +The firing ceased, not in dying shots, but abruptly. The Wilderness in +front of them returned to silence, broken only by the rippling leaves. +Harry knew that the Northern sharpshooters had discovered all they wanted, +and were now returning to their leaders. + +Ewell turned his horse and rode back toward the main camp, his staff +following. The cooking fires had been put out, the lines were formed +and every gun was in position. As little noise as possible was allowed, +while they waited for Grant; not for Grant himself, but for one of his +lieutenants, pushed forward by his master hand. + +Harry and most of the staff officers dismounted, holding their horses by +the bridle. The young lieutenant often searched the thickets with his +glasses, but he saw nothing. Nevertheless he knew that the enemy would +come. Grant having set out to find his foe, would never draw back when +he found him. + +A much longer period of silence than he had expected passed. The sun, +flaming red, was moving on toward the zenith, and no sounds of battle +came from either right or left. The suspense became acute, almost +unbearable, and it was made all the more trying by the blindness of that +terrible forest. Harry felt at times as if he would rather fight in the +open fields; but he knew that his commander-in-chief was right when he +drew Grant into the shades of the Wilderness. + +When the suspense became so great that heavy weights seemed to be +pressing upon his nerves, rifle shots were fired in front, and +skirmishers uttered the long, shrill rebel yell. Then above both shots +and shouts rose the far, clear call of a bugle. + +"Here they come!" Harry heard Ewell say to himself, and the next moment +the sound of human voices was drowned in the thunder of great guns and +the crash of fifty thousand rifles. The battle was so sudden and the +charge so swift that it seemed to leap into full volume in an instant. +Warren, a resolute and daring general, led the Northern column and it +struck with such weight and force that the Southern division was driven +back. Harry felt it yielding, as if the ground were sliding under his +feet. + +There was so much flame and smoke that he could not see well, but the +sensation of slipping was distinct. General Ewell was near him, shouting +orders. His hat had fallen off, and his round, bald head had turned red, +either from the rush of blood or the cannon's glare. It shone like a red +dome, but Harry knew that there was no better man in such a crisis than +this veteran lieutenant of Stonewall Jackson. + +The Wilderness, usually so silent, was an inferno now. The battle, +despite its tremendous beginning, increased in violence and fury. +Although Grant himself was not there, the spirit that had animated him +at Shiloh and Vicksburg was. He had communicated it to his generals, +and Warren brought every ounce of his strength into action. The long +line of his bayonets gleamed through the thickets and the Northern +artillery, superb as usual, rained shells upon the Southern army. + +Ewell's men, fighting with all the courage and desperation that they had +shown on so many a field, were driven back further and further. Ewell, +strapped in his saddle, flourishing his sword, his round, bald head +glowing, rode among them, bidding them to stand, that help would soon +come. They continued to go backward, but those veterans of so many +campaigns never lost cohesion nor showed sign of panic. Their own +artillery and rifles replied in full volume. The heads of the charging +columns were blown away, but other men took their places, and Warren's +force came on with undiminished fire and strength. + +Harry wondered if the attack at other points had been made with such +impetuosity, but there was such a roar and crash about him that it was +impossible to hear sounds of battle elsewhere. Men were falling very +fast, but the general was unharmed, and neither the young lieutenant nor +his horse was touched. + +A sudden shout arose, and it was immediately followed by the piercing +rebel yell, swelling wild and fierce above the tumult of the battle. +Help was coming. Regiments in gray were charging down the paths and on +the left flank rose the thunder of hoofs as a formidable body of cavalry +under Sherburne, sabers aloft, swept down on the Northern flank. + +Ewell's entire division stopped its retreat and, reinforced by the new +men, charged directly upon the Northern bayonets. Men met almost face to +face. The saplings and bushes were mown down by cannon and rifles and +the air was full of bursting shells. From time to time Ewell's men +uttered their fierce, defiant yell, and with a great bound of the heart +Harry saw that they were gaining. Warren was being driven back. Two of +his cannon were captured already, and the Southern men, feeling the glow +of the advance after retreat, charged again and again, reckless of death. +But Harry soon saw that ultimate victory here would rest with the South. +The troops of Warren, exhausted by their early rush, were driven from +one position to another by the seasoned veterans who faced them. The +Confederates retained the captured cannon and thrust harder and harder. +It became obvious that Warren must soon fall back to the main Northern +line, and though the battle was still raging with great fury Ewell +beckoned Harry to him. + +"Don't stay here any longer," he shouted in his ear. "Ride to General +Lee and tell him we're victorious at this point for the day at least!" + +Harry saluted and galloped away through the thickets. Behind him the +battle still roared and thundered. A stray shell burst just in front of +him, and another just behind him, but he and his horse were untouched. +Once or twice he glanced back and it looked as if the Wilderness were on +fire, but he knew that it was instead the blaze of battle. He saw also +that Ewell was still moving forward, winning more ground, and his heart +swelled with gladness. + +How proud Jackson would have been had he been able to see the valor and +skill of his old lieutenant! Perhaps his ghost did really hover over +the Wilderness, where a year before he had fallen in the moment of +his greatest triumph! Harry urged his horse into a gallop. All his +faculties now became acute. He was beyond the zone of fire, but the roar +of the battle behind him seemed as loud as ever. Yet it was steadily +moving back on the main Union lines, and there could be no doubt of +Ewell's continued success. + +The curves of the low hills and the thick bushes hid everything from +Harry's sight, as he rode swiftly through the winding paths of the +Wilderness. When the tumult sank at last he heard a new thunder in front +of him, and now he knew that the Southern center under Hill had been +attacked also, and with the greatest fierceness. + +As Harry approached, the roar of the second battle became terrific. +Uncertain where General Lee would now be, he rode through the sleet of +steel, and found Hill engaged with the very flower of the Northern army. +Hancock, the hero of Gettysburg, was making desperate exertions to crush +him, pouring in brigade after brigade, while Sheridan, regardless of +thickets, made charge after charge with his numerous cavalry. + +Harry remained in the rear on his horse, watching this furious struggle. +The day had become much darker, either from clouds or the vast volume of +smoke, and the thickets were so dense that the officers often could not +see their enemy at all, only their own men who stood close to them. +The struggle was vast, confused, carried on under appalling conditions. +The charging horsemen were sometimes swept from the saddle by bushes and +not by bullets. Infantrymen stepped into a dark ooze left by spring +rains, and pulling themselves out, charged, black to the waist with mud. +Sometimes the field pieces became mired, and men and horses together +dragged them to firmer ground. + +Grant here, as before Ewell, continually reinforced his veterans, but +Hill, although he was not able to advance, held fast. The difficult +nature of the ground that Lee had chosen helped him. In marsh and +thickets it was impossible for the more numerous enemy to outflank him. +Harry saw Hill twice, a slender man, who had suffered severe wounds but +one of the greatest fighters in the Southern army. He had been ordered +to hold the center, and Harry knew now that he would do it, for the day +at least. Night was not very far away, and Grant was making no progress. + +He rode on in search of Lee and before he was yet beyond the range of +fire he met Dalton, mounted and emerging from the smoke. + +"The commander-in-chief, where is he?" asked Harry. + +"On a little hill not far from here, watching the battle. I'm just +returning with a dispatch from Hill." + +"I saw that Hill was holding his ground." + +"So my dispatch says, and it says also that he will continue to hold it. +You come from Ewell?" + +"Yes, and he has done more than stand fast. He was driven back at first, +but when reinforcements came he drove Warren back in his turn, and took +guns and prisoners." + +"The chief will be glad to hear it. We'll ride together. Look out for +your horse! He may go knee deep into mire at any time. Harry, the +Wilderness looks even more somber to me than it did a year ago when we +fought Chancellorsville." + +"I feel the same way about it. But see, George, how they're fighting! +General Hill is making a great resistance!" + +"Never better. But if you look over those low bushes you can see General +Lee on the hill." + +Harry made out the figure of Lee on Traveller, outlined against the sky, +with about a dozen men sitting on their horses behind him. He hurried +forward as fast as he could. The commander-in-chief was reading a +dispatch, while the fierce struggle in the thickets was going on, but +when Harry saluted and Marshall told him that he had come to report the +general put away the dispatch and said: + +"What news from General Ewell?" + +"General Ewell was at first borne back by the enemy's numbers, but when +help came he returned to the charge, and has been victorious. He has +gained much ground." + +A gleam of triumph shot from Lee's eyes, usually so calm. + +"Well done, Ewell!" he said. "The loss of a leg has not dimmed his ardor +or judgment. I truly believe that if he were to lose the other one also +he would still have himself strapped into the saddle and lead his men to +victory. We thank you for the news you have brought, Lieutenant Kenton." + +He put his glasses to his eyes and Harry and Dalton as usual withdrew to +the rear of the staff. But they used their glasses also, bringing nearer +to them the different phases of the battle, which now raged through +the Wilderness. They saw at some points the continuous blaze of guns, +and the acrid powder smoke, lying low, was floating through all the +thickets. + +But Harry now knew that the combat, however violent and fierce, was only +a prelude. The sun was already setting, and they could not fight at +night in those wild thickets, where men and guns would become mired +and tangled beyond extrication. The great struggle, with both leaders +hurling in their full forces, would come on the morrow. + +The sun already hung very low, and in the twilight and smoke the savagery +of the Wilderness became fiercer than ever. The dusk gathered around Lee, +but his erect figure and white horse still showed distinctly through it. +Harry, his spirit touched by the tremendous scenes in the very center +of which he stood, regarded him with a fresh measure of respect and +admiration. He was the bulwark of the Confederacy, and he did not doubt +that on the morrow he would stop Grant as he had stopped the others. + +The darkness increased, sweeping down like a great black pall over the +Wilderness. The battle in the center and on the left died. Lee and his +staff dismounting, prepared for the labors of the night. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE WILDERNESS + + +When night settled down over the Wilderness the two armies lay almost +face to face on a long line. The preliminary battle, on the whole, +had favored the Confederacy. Hill had held his ground and Ewell had +gained, but Grant had immense forces, and, though naturally kind of heart, +he had made up his mind to strike and keep on striking, no matter what +the loss. He could afford to lose two men where the Confederacy lost one. + +Harry, like many others, felt that this would be the great Northern +general's plan. To-morrow's battle might end in Southern success, +but Grant would be there to fight the following day with undiminished +resolution. He was as sure of this as he was sure that the day would +come. + +The night itself was somber and sinister, the heavens dusky and a raw +chill in the air. Heavy vapors rose from the marshes, and clouds of +smoke from the afternoon's battle floated about over the thickets, +poisoning the air as if with gas, and making the men cough as they +breathed it. It made Harry's heart beat harder than usual, and his head +felt as if it were swollen. Everything seemed clothed in a black mist +with a slightly reddish tint. + +A small fire had been built in a sheltered place for the commander-in- +chief and his staff, and the cooks were preparing the supper, which was +of the simplest kind. While they ate the food and drank their coffee, +the darkness increased, with the faint lights of other fires showing here +and there through it. Around the muddy places frogs croaked in defiance +of armies, and, from distant points, came the crackling fire of +skirmishers prowling in the dusk. + +Harry's horse, saddled and bridled, was tied to a bush not far away. +He knew that it was to be no night of rest for him, or any other member +of the staff. Lee would be sending messages continually. Longstreet, +although he had been marching hard, was not yet up on the right, and he +and his veterans must be present when the shock of Grant's mighty attack +came in the morning. + +Hill, thin and pale, yet suffering from the effects of his wounds, +but burning as usual with the fire of battle, rode up and consulted long +and earnestly with Lee. Presently he went back to his own place nearer +the center, and then Lee began to send away his staff one by one with +messages. Harry was among the last to go, but he bore a dispatch to +Longstreet. + +He had heard that Longstreet had criticized Lee for ordering Pickett's +famous charge at Gettysburg, but if so, Lee had taken no notice of it, +and Longstreet had proved himself the same stalwart fighter as of old. +He and the prompt arrival of his veterans had enabled Bragg to win +Chickamauga, and it was not Longstreet's fault that the advantage gained +there was lost afterward. Now Harry knew that he would be up in time +with his seasoned veterans. + +As the young lieutenant rode away he saw General Lee walking back and +forth before the low fire, his hands clasped behind him, and his eyes +as serious as those of any human being could be. Harry appreciated the +immensity of his task, and in his heart was a sincere pity for the man +who bore so great a burden. He was familiar with the statement that to +Lee had been offered the command of the Northern armies at the beginning +of the war, but believing his first duty was to his State he had gone +with Virginia when Virginia reluctantly went out of the Union. Truly no +one could regret the war more than he, and yet he had struck giant blows +for its success. + +A moment more and the tall figure standing beside the low fire was +lost to sight. Then Harry rode among the thickets in the rear of the +Confederate line and it was a weird and ghastly ride. Now and then his +horse's feet sank in mud, and the frogs still dared to croak around the +pools, making on such a night the most ominous of all sounds. It seemed +a sort of funeral dirge for both North and South, a croak telling of the +ruin and death that were to come on the morrow. + +Damp boughs swept across his face, and the vapors, rising from the earth +and mingled with the battle smoke, were still bitter to the tongue and +poisonous to the breath. Rotten logs crushed beneath his horse's feet +and Harry felt a shiver as if the hoofs had cut through a body of the +dead. Riflemen rose out of the thickets, but he always gave them the +password, and rode on without stopping. + +Then came a space where he met no human being, the gap between Hill and +Longstreet, and now the Wilderness became incredibly lonely and dreary. +Harry felt that if ever a region was haunted by ghosts it was this. +The dead of last year's battle might be lying everywhere, and as the +breeze sprang up the melancholy thickets waved over them. + +He was two-thirds of the way toward the point where he expected to find +Longstreet when he heard the sough of a hoof in the mud behind him. + +Harry listened and hearing the hoof again he was instantly on his guard. +He did not know it, but the character of the night and the wild aspect of +the Wilderness were bringing out all the primeval and elemental qualities +in his nature. He was the great borderer, Henry Ware, in the Indian- +haunted forest, feeling with a sixth sense, even a seventh sense, the +presence of danger. + +He was following a path, scarcely traceable, used by charcoal burners and +wood-cutters, but when he heard the hoof a second time he turned aside +into the deepest of the thickets and halted there. The hoofbeat came a +third time, a little nearer, and then no more. Evidently the horseman +behind him knew that he had turned aside, and was waiting and watching. +He was surely an enemy of great skill and boldness, and it was equally +sure that he was Shepard. Harry never felt a doubt that he was pursued +by the formidable Union spy, and he felt too that he had never been in +greater danger, as Shepard at such a moment would not spare his best +friend. + +But he was not afraid. Danger had become so common that one looked upon +it merely as a risk. Moreover, he was never cooler or more ample of +resource. He dismounted softly, standing beside his horse's head, +holding the reins with one hand and a heavy pistol with the other. +He suspected that Shepard would do the same, but he believed that his +eyes and ears were the keener. The man must have been inside the +Confederate lines all the afternoon. Probably he had seen Harry riding +away, and, deftly appropriating a horse, had followed him. There was +no end to Shepard's ingenuity and daring. + +Harry's horse was trained to stand still indefinitely, and the young man, +with the heavy pistol, who held the reins was also immovable. The +silence about him was so deep that Harry could hear the frogs croaking +at a distant pool. + +He waited a full five minutes, and now, like the wild animals, he relied +more upon ear than eye. He had learned the faculty of concentration and +he bent all his powers upon his hearing. Not the slightest sound could +escape the tightly drawn drums of his ears. + +He was motionless a full ten minutes. Nor did the horse beside him stir. +It was a test of human endurance, the capacity to keep himself absolutely +silent, but with every nerve attuned, while he waited for an invisible +danger. And those minutes were precious, too. The value of not a single +one of them could have been measured or weighed. It was his duty to +reach Longstreet at speed, because the general and his veterans must be +in line in the morning, when the battle was joined. Yet the incessant +duel between Shepard and himself was at its height again, and he did not +yet see how he could end it. + +Harry felt that it must be essentially a struggle of patience, but when +he waited a few minutes longer, the idea to wait with ears close to the +earth, one of the oldest devices of primitive man, occurred to him. +It was fairly dry in the bushes, and he lay down, pressing his ear to the +soil. Then he heard a faint sound, as if some one crawling through the +grass, like a wild animal stalking its prey. It was Shepard, of course, +and then Harry planned his campaign. Shepard had left his horse, and was +endeavoring to reach him by stealth. + +Leaving his own horse, he crept a little to the right, and then rising +carefully in another thicket he picked out every dark spot in the gloom. +He made out presently the figure of a riderless horse, standing partly +behind the trunk of an oak, larger than most of those that grew in the +Wilderness. + +Harry knew that it was Shepard's mount and that Shepard himself was some +distance in front of it creeping toward the thicket which he supposed +sheltered his foe. There was barely enough light for Harry to see the +horse's head and regretfully he raised his heavy pistol. But it had to +be done, and when his aim was true he pulled the trigger. + +The report of the pistol was almost like the roar of a cannon in the +desolate Wilderness and made Harry himself jump. Then he promptly threw +himself flat upon his face. Shepard's answering fire came from a point +about thirty yards in front of the horse, and the bullet passed very +close over Harry's head. It was a marvelous shot to be made merely at +the place from which a sound had come. It all passed in a flash, and +the next moment Harry heard the sound of a horse falling and kicking a +little. Then it too was still. + +He remained only a half minute in the grass. Then he began to creep back, +curving a little in his course, toward his own horse. He did not believe +that Shepard's faculty of hearing was as keen as his own, and he moved +with the greatest deftness. He relied upon the fact that Shepard had not +yet located the horse, and if Harry could reach it quickly it would not +be hard for him, a mounted man, to leave behind Shepard, dismounted. +It might be possible, too, that Shepard had gone back to see about his +own horse, not knowing that it was slain. + +He saw the dusky outline of his horse, and, rising, made two or three +jumps. Then he snatched the rein loose, sprang upon his back, and lying +down upon his neck to avoid bullets, crashed away, reckless of bushes and +briars. He heard one bullet flying near him, but he laughed in delight +and relief as his horse sped on toward Longstreet. + +He did not diminish his speed until he had gone two or three miles, +and then, knowing that Shepard had been left hopelessly behind, even +if he had attempted pursuit, he brought his horse down to a walk, and +laughed. There was a bit of nervous excitement in the laugh. He had +outwitted Shepard again. He had never seen the man, but it did not enter +his mind that it was not he. Each had scored largely over the other from +time to time, but Harry believed that he was at least even. + +He steadied his nerves now and rode calmly toward Longstreet, coming soon +upon his scouts, who informed him that the heavy columns were not far +behind, marching with stalwart step to their appointed place in the line. +But it was Harry's business to see Longstreet himself, and he continued +his way toward the center of the division, where they told him the +general could be found. + +He rode forward and in the moonlight recognized Longstreet at once, +a heavy-set, bearded man, mounted on a strong bay horse. He had a very +small staff, and he was first to notice the young lieutenant advancing. +He knew Harry well, having seen him with Lee at Gettysburg and with +Jackson before. He stopped and said abruptly: + +"You come from the commander-in-chief, do you not?" + +"Yes, sir," replied Harry, "and I've been coming as fast as I could." + +He did not deem it necessary to say anything about his encounter with +Shepard. + +"There has been heavy fighting. What are his orders?" + +Harry told him, also giving him a written message, which the general read +by the light of a torch an aide held. + +"You can tell General Lee that all my men will be in position for battle +before dawn," said the Georgian crisply. + +Even as he spoke, Harry heard the heavy, regular tread of the brigades +marching forward through the Wilderness. He saluted General Longstreet. + +"I shall return at once with your message," he said. + +But Harry, having had one such experience, was resolved not to risk +another. He would make a wider circuit in the rear of the army. Shepard, +on foot, and anxious to avenge his defeat, might be waiting for him, +but he would go around him. So when he started back he made a wide curve, +and soon was in the darkness and silence again. + +He had a good horse and his idea of direction being very clear he rode +swiftly in the direction he had chosen. But his curve was so great that +when he reached the center of it he was so far in the rear of the army +that no sound came from it. If the skirmishers were still firing the +reports of their rifles were lost in the distance. Where he rode the +only noises were those made by the wild animals that inhabited the +Wilderness, creatures that had settled back into their usual haunts after +the armies had passed beyond. + +Once a startled deer sprang from a clump of bushes and crashed away +through the thickets. Rabbits darted from his path, and an owl, +wondering what all the disturbance was about, hooted mournfully from a +bough. + +Long before dawn Harry reached the Southern sentinels in the center and +was then passed to General Lee, who remained at the same camp, sitting on +a log by some smothered coals. Several other members of his staff had +returned already, and the general, looking up when Harry came forward, +merely said: + +"Well!" + +"I have seen General Longstreet, sir," said Harry, "and he bids me tell +you that he and his men will be in position before dawn. He was nearly +up when I left, and he has also sent you this note." + +He handed the note to General Lee, who, bending low over the coals, +read it. + +"Everything goes well," he said with satisfaction. "We shall be ready +for them. What time is it, Peyton?" + +"Five minutes past four o'clock, sir." + +"Then I think the attack should come within an hour." + +"Perhaps before daybreak, sir." + +"Perhaps. And even after the sun begins to rise it will be like twilight +in this gloomy place." + +Grant, in truth, prompt and ready as always, had ordered the advance to +be begun at half-past four, but Meade, asking more time for arrangements +and requesting that it be delayed until six, he had consented to a +postponement until five o'clock and no more. + +Harry had one more message to carry, a short distance only, and on his +return he found the Invincibles posted on the commander-in-chief's right, +and not more than two hundred yards away. + +"You must be a body guard for the general," he said to Colonel Leonidas +Talbot. + +"There could be no greater honor for the Invincibles, nor could General +Lee have a better guard." + +"I'm sure of that, sir." + +"What's happening, Harry? Tell us what's been going on in the night!" + +"Our line of battle has been formed. General Longstreet and his men on +the right are soon to be in touch with General Hill. I returned from him +a little while ago. I can't yet smell the dawn, but I think the battle +will come before then." + +Harry rode back and resumed his place beside Dalton. The troops +everywhere were on their feet, cannon and rifles ready, because it was a +certainty that the two armies would meet very early. + +In fact, the Army of Northern Virginia began to slide slowly forward. +It was not the habit of these troops to await attack. Lee nearly always +had taken the offensive, and the motion of his men was involuntary. +They felt that the enemy was there and they must go to meet him. + +"What time is it now?" whispered Dalton. + +Harry was barely able to discern the face of his watch. + +"Ten minutes to five," he replied. + +"And the dawn comes early. It won't be long before Grant comes poking +his nose through the Wilderness." + +Harry was silent. A few minutes more, and there was a sudden crackle of +rifles in front of them. + +"The dawn isn't here, but Grant is," said Harry. + +The crackling fire doubled and tripled, and then the fire of the Southern +rifles replied in heavy volume. The lighter field guns opened with a +crash, and the heavier batteries followed with rolling thunder. Leaves +and twigs fell in showers, and men fell with them. The deep Northern +cheer swelled through the Wilderness and the fierce rebel yell replied. + +Gray dawn, rising as if with effort, over the sodden Wilderness found two +hundred thousand men locked fast in battle. It might have been a bright +sun elsewhere, but not here among the gloomy shades and the pine barrens. +The firing was already so tremendous that the smoke hung low and thick, +directly over the tops of the bushes, and the men, as they fought, +breathed mixed and frightful vapors. + +Both sides fought for a long time in a heavy, smoky dusk, that was +practically night. Officers coming from far points, led, compass in hand, +having no other guide save the roar of battle. As the Southern leaders +had foreseen, Grant was throwing in the full strength of his powerful +army, hoping with superior numbers and better equipment to crush Lee +utterly that day. + +The great Northern artillery was raking the whole Southern front. +Hancock, the superb, was hurling the heavy Northern masses directly upon +the main position of the South. He had half the Army of the Potomac, +and at other points Warren, Wadsworth, Sedgwick and Burnside were +advancing with equal energy and contempt of death. Fiercer and fiercer +grew the conflict. Hancock, remembering how he had held the fatal hill +at Gettysburg, and resolved to win a complete victory now, poured in +regiment after regiment. But in all the fire and smoke and excitement +and danger he did not neglect to keep a cool head. Hearing that a +portion of Longstreet's corps was near, he sent a division and numerous +heavy artillery to attack it, driving it back after a sanguinary struggle +of more than an hour. + +Then he redoubled his attack upon the Southern center, compelling it to +give ground, though slowly. Harry felt that gliding movement backward +and a chill ran through his blood. The heavy masses of Grant and his +powerful artillery were prevailing. The strongest portion of the +Southern army was being forced back, and a gap was cut between Hill and +Longstreet. Had Hancock perceived the gap that he had made he might have +severed the Southern army, inflicting irretrievable retreat, but the +smoke and the dusk of the Wilderness hid it, and the moment passed into +one of the great "Ifs" of history. + +Harry, on horseback, witnessed this conflict, all the more terrible +because of the theater in which it was fought. The batteries and the +riflemen alike were frequently hidden by the thickets. The great banks +of smoke hung low, only to be split apart incessantly by the flashes of +fire from the big guns. But the bullets were more dangerous than the +cannon balls and shells. They whistled and shrieked in thousands and +countless thousands. + +Lee sat on his horse impassive, watching as well as he could the tide of +battle. Messengers covered with smoke and sweat had informed him of the +gap between Hill and Longstreet, and he was dispatching fresh troops to +close it up. Harry saw the Invincibles march by. The two colonels at +their head beheld Lee on his white horse, and their swords flew from +their scabbards as they made a salute in perfect unison. Close behind +them rode St. Clair and Happy Tom, and they too saluted in like manner. +Lee took off his hat in reply and Harry choked. "About to die, we salute +thee," he murmured under his breath. + +Then with a shout the Invincibles, their officers at their head, plunged +into the fire and smoke, and were lost from Harry's view. But he could +not stay there long and wonder at their fate. In a few minutes he was +riding to Longstreet with a message for him to bear steadily toward Hill, +that the gap might be closed entirely, and as soon as possible. + +He galloped behind the lines, but bullets fell all around him, and often +a shell tore the earth. The air had become more bitter and poisonous. +Fumes from swamps seemed to mingle with the smoke and odors of burned +gunpowder. His lips and his tongue were scorched. But he kept on, +without exhaustion or mishap, and reached Longstreet, who had divined his +message. + +"The line will be solid in a few minutes," he said, and while the battle +was still at its height on the long front he touched hands with Hill. +Then both drove forward with all their might against Hancock, rushing to +the charge, with the Southern fire and recklessness of death that had +proved irresistible on so many fields. The advance, despite the most +desperate efforts of Hancock and his generals, was stopped. Then he was +driven back. All the ground gained at so much cost was lost and the +Southern troops, shouting in exultation, pushed on, pouring in a terrible +rifle fire. Longstreet, in his eagerness, rode a little ahead of his +troops to see the result. Turning back, he was mistaken in the smoke +by his own men for a Northern cavalryman, and they fired upon him, just +as Jackson had been shot down by his own troops in the dusk at +Chancellorsville. + +The leader fell from his horse, wounded severely, and the troops +advancing to victory became confused. The rumor spread that Longstreet +had been killed. There was no one to give orders, and the charge +stopped. Harry and a half-dozen others who had seen the accident or +heard of it, galloped to Lee, who at once rode into the very thick of the +command, giving personal orders and sending his aides right and left with +others. The whole division was reformed under his eye, and he sent it +anew to the attack. + +The battle now closed in with the full strength of both armies. Hancock +strove to keep his place. The valiant Wadsworth had been killed already. +The dense thickets largely nullified Grant's superior numbers. Lee +poured everything on Hancock, who was driven from every position. +Fighting furiously behind a breastwork built the night before, he was +driven from that too. + +Often in the dense shades the soldiers met one another face to face and +furious struggles hand-to-hand ensued. Bushes and trees, set on fire by +the shells, burned slowly like torches put there to light up the ghastly +scene of man's bravery and folly. Jenkins, a Confederate general, +was killed and colonels and majors fell by the dozen. But neither side +would yield, and Grant hurried help to his hard-pressed troops. + +Harry had been grazed on the shoulder by a bullet, but his horse was +unharmed, and he kept close to Lee, who continued to direct the battle +personally. He knew that they were advancing. Once more the genius of +the great Confederate leader was triumphing. Grant, the redoubtable and +tenacious, despite his numbers, could set no trap for him! Instead he +had been drawn into battle on a field of Lee's own choosing. + +The conflict had now continued for a long time, and was terrible in all +its aspects. It was far past noon, and for miles a dense cloud of smoke +hung over the Wilderness, which was filled with the roar of cannon, +the crash of rifles and the shouts of two hundred thousand men in deadly +conflict. The first meeting of the two great protagonists of the war, +Lee and Grant, was sanguinary and terrible, beyond all expectation. + +Hundreds fell dead, their bodies lying hidden under the thickets. +The forest burned fiercely here and there, casting circles of lurid light +over the combatants, while the wind rained down charred leaves and twigs. +The fires spread and joined, and at points swept wide areas of the forest, +yet the fury of the battle was not diminished, the two armies forgetting +everything else in their desire to crush each other. + +Harry's horse was killed, as he sat near Lee, but he quickly obtained +another, and not long afterward he was sent with a second message to +Ewell. He rode on a long battle front, not far behind the lines, and he +shuddered with awe as he looked upon the titanic struggle. The smoke +was often so heavy and the bushes so thick that he could not see the +combatants, except when the flame of the firing or the burning trees +lighted up a segment of the circle. + +Halfway to Ewell and he stopped when he saw two familiar figures, sitting +on a log. They were elderly men in uniforms riddled by bullets. The +right arm of one and the left leg of the other were tightly bandaged. +Their faces were very white and it was obvious that they were sitting +there, because they were not strong enough to stand. + +Harry stopped. No message, no matter how important, could have kept him +from stopping. + +"Colonel Talbot! Colonel St. Hilaire!" he cried. + +"Yes, here we are, Harry," replied Colonel Leonidas Talbot in a voice, +thin but full of courage. "Hector has been shot through the leg and has +lost much blood, but I have bound up his wound, and he has done as much +for my arm, which has been bored through from side to side by a bullet, +which must have been as large as my fist." + +"And so for a few minutes," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire, +valiantly, "we must let General Lee conduct the victory alone." + +"And the Invincibles!" exclaimed Harry, horrified. "Are they all gone +but you?" + +"Not at all," replied Colonel Talbot. "There is so much smoke about that +you can't see much, but if it clears a little you will behold Lieutenant +St. Clair and the youth rightly called Happy Tom and some three score +others, lying among the bushes, not far ahead of you, giving thorough +attention to the enemy." + +"And is that all that's left of the Invincibles?" + +"It's a wonder that they're so many. You were right about this man, +Grant, Harry. He's a fighter, and their artillery is numerous and +wonderful. John Carrington himself must be in front of us. We have not +seen him, but the circumstantial evidence is conclusive. Nobody else in +the world could have swept this portion of the Wilderness with shell and +shrapnel in such a manner. Why, he has mowed down the bushes in long +swathes as the scythe takes the grass and he has cut down our men with +them. How does the battle go elsewhere?" + +"We're succeeding. We're driving 'em back. I can stop only a moment +now. I'm on my way to General Ewell." + +"Then hurry. Don't be worried about us. I'll help Hector and Hector +will help me. And do you curve further to the rear, Harry. The worst +thing that a dispatch bearer can do is to get himself shot." + +Waving his hand in farewell Harry galloped away. He knew that Colonel +Talbot had given him sound advice, and he bore back from the front, +coming once more into lonely thickets, although the flash of the battle +was plainly visible in front of him, and its roar filled his ears. +Yet when he rode alone he almost expected to see Shepard rise up before +him, and bid him halt. His encounters with this man had been under +such startling circumstances that it now seemed the rule, and not the +exception, for him to appear at any moment. + +But Shepard did not come. Instead Harry began to see the badly wounded +of his own side drifting to the rear, helping one another as hurt +soldiers learn to do. Two of them he allowed to hang on his stirrups a +little while. + +"They're fighting hard," said one, a long, gaunt Texan, "an' they're so +many they might lap roun' us. This man of theirs, Grant, ain't much of a +fellow to get scared, but I guess Marse Bob will take care of him just ez +he has took care of the others who came into Virginia." + +"They're led in the main attack by Hancock," said the other, a Virginian. +"I caught a glimpse of him through the smoke, just as I had a view of him +for a minute back there by the clump of trees on the ridge at Gettysburg." + +"Are you one of Pickett's men?" asked Harry. + +"I am, sir, one of the few that's left. I went clear to the clump of +trees and how I got back I've never known. It was a sort of red dream, +in which I couldn't pick out anything in particular, but I was back with +the army, carrying three bullets that the doctors took away from me, +and here I've gathered up two more they'll rob me of in just the same +way." + +He spoke quite cheerfully, and when Harry, curving again, was compelled +to release them, both, although badly wounded, wished him good luck. + +He found General Ewell in front, stamping back and forth on his crutches, +watching the battle with excitement. + +"And so you're here again, Harry. Well it's good news at present!" +he cried. "It seems that their man, Grant, is going to school to Lee +just like the others." + +"But some pupils learn too fast, sir!" + +"That's so, but, Harry, I wish I could see more of the field. An +invisible battle like this shakes my nerves. Batteries that we can't see +send tornadoes of shot and shell among us. Riflemen, by the thousands, +hidden in the thickets rain bullets into our ranks. It's inhuman, wicked, +and our only salvation lies in the fact that it's as bad for them as it +is for us. If we can't see them they can't see us." + +"You can hold your ground here?" + +"Against anything and everything. Tell General Lee that we intend to eat +our suppers on the enemy's ground." + +"That's all he wants to know." + +As Harry rode back he saw that the first fires were spreading, passing +over new portions of the battlefield. Sparks flew in myriads and fine, +thin ashes were mingled with the powder smoke. The small trees, burnt +through, fell with a crash, and the flames ran as if they were alive up +boughs. Other trees fell too, cut through by cannon balls, and some were +actually mown down by sheets of bullets, as if they had been grass. + +His way now led through human wreckage, made all the more appalling by an +approaching twilight, heavy with fumes and smoke, and reddened with the +cannon and rifle blaze. His frightened horse pulled wildly at the bit, +and tried to run away, but Harry held him to the path, although he +stepped more than once in hot ashes and sprang wildly. The dead were +thick too and Harry was in horror lest the hoof of his horse be planted +upon some unheeding face. + +He knew that the day was waning fast and that the dark was due in some +degree to the setting sun, and not wholly to the smoke and ashes. +Yet the fury of the battle was sustained. The southern left maintained +the ground that it had gained, and in the center and right it could not +be driven back. It became obvious to Grant that Lee was not to be beaten +in the Wilderness. His advance suffered from all kinds of disadvantages. +In the swamps and thickets he could mass neither his guns nor his cannon. +Communications were broken, the telegraph wires could be used but little +and as the twilight darkened to night he let the attack die. + +Harry was back with the commander-in-chief, when the great battle of the +Wilderness, one of the fiercest ever fought, sank under cover of the +night. It was not open and spectacular like Gettysburg, but it had a +gloomy and savage grandeur all its own. Grant had learned, like the +others before him, that he could not drive headlong over Lee, but sitting +in silence by his campfire, chewing his cigar, he had no thought, unlike +the others, of turning back. Nearly twenty thousand of his men had +fallen, but huge resources and a President who supported him absolutely +were behind him and he was merely planning a new method of attack. + +In the Southern camp there was exultation, but it was qualified and +rather grim. These men, veterans of many battles and able to judge for +themselves, believed that they had won the victory, but they knew that it +was by no means decisive. The numerous foe with his powerful artillery +was still before them. They could see his campfires shining through +the thickets, and their spies told them that, despite his great losses, +there was no sign of retreat in Grant's camp. + +An appalling night settled down on the Wilderness. The North American +Continent never saw one more savage and terrible. Twenty thousand +wounded were scattered through the thickets and dense shades, and +spreading fires soon brought death to many whom the bullets had not +killed at once. The smoke, the mists and vapors gathered into one dense +cloud, that hung low and made everything clammy to the touch. + +Lee stood under the boughs of an oak, and ate food that had been prepared +for him hastily. But, as Harry saw, the act was purely mechanical. +He was watching as well as he could what was going on in front, and he +was giving orders in turns to his aides. Harry's time had not yet come, +and he kept his eyes on his chief. + +There was no exultation in the face of Lee. He had drawn Grant into the +Wilderness and then he had held him fast in a battle of uncommon size and +fierceness. But nothing was decided. He had studied the career of Grant, +and he knew that he had a foe of great qualities with whom to deal. +He would have to fight him again, and fight very soon. He heard too with +a sorrow, hard to conceal, the reports of his own losses. They were +heavy enough and the gaps now made could never be refilled. The Army of +Northern Virginia, which had been such a powerful instrument in his hands, +must fight with ever diminishing numbers. + +Harry was sent to inquire into the condition of Longstreet, whom he found +weak physically and suffering much pain. But the veteran was upborne by +the success of the day and his belief in ultimate victory. He bade Harry +tell the commander-in-chief that his men were fit to fight again and +better than ever, at the first shoot of dawn. + +Harry rode back in the night, the burning trees serving him for torches. +Nearly all the soldiers were busy. Some were gathering up the wounded +and others were building breastworks. His eyes were reddened by the +powder-smoke, and often the heavy black masses of vapor were impenetrable, +save where the forest burned. Now he came to a region where the dead and +wounded were so thick that he dismounted and led his horse, lest a hoof +be planted upon any one of them. But he noticed that here as in other +battles the wounded made but little complaint. They suffered in silence, +waiting for their comrades to take them away. + +Then he passed around a section of forest that was burning fiercely. +Here Southern and Union soldiers had met on terms of peace and were +making desperate efforts to save their helpless comrades. Harry would +have been glad to give aid himself, but he was too well trained now to +turn aside when he rode for Lee. + +He saw many dark figures passing before the flaming background, and as +he walked more slowly than he thought, he saw one that looked remarkably +familiar to him. It was impossible to see the face, but he knew the +walk and the lift of the shoulders. Discipline gave way to impulse now, +and he ran forward crying: + +"Dick! Dick!" + +Dick Mason, who had just dragged a wounded man beyond the range of the +flames, turned at the sound of the voice. Even had Harry seen his face +at first he would not have known him nor would Dick have known Harry. +Both were black with ashes, smoke and burned gunpowder. But Dick knew +the voice in an instant. Once more were the two cousins to meet in peace +on an unfinished battlefield. + +Each driven by the same impulse stepped forward, and their hands met in +the strong grasp of blood kindred and friendship, which war itself could +not sever. + +"You're alive, Harry!" said Dick. "It seems almost impossible after what +has happened to-day." + +"And you too are all right. Not harmed, I see, though your face is an +African black." + +"I should call your own color dark and smoky." + +"I wasn't sure that you were in the East. When did you come?" + +"With General Grant, and I knew that you were on General Lee's staff. +I've a message to give him by you. Oh! you needn't laugh. It's a good +straight talk." + +"Go ahead then and say it to me." + +"You say to General Lee that it's all over. Tell him to quit and send +his soldiers home. If he doesn't he'll be crushed." + +Harry laughed again and waved his finger at the somber battlefield, +upon which he stood. + +"Does this look like it?" he asked. "We're farther forward to-night than +we were this morning. Wouldn't General Grant be glad if he could say as +much?" + +"It makes no difference. I know you don't believe me, but it's so. +The North is prepared as it never was before. And Grant will hammer and +hammer forever. We know what a man Lee is. The whole North admits it, +but I tell you the sun of the South is setting." + +"You're growing poetical and poetry is no argument." + +"But unlimited men, unlimited cannon and rifles, unlimited ammunition and +supplies and a general who is willing to use them, are. Of course I know +that you can't carry any such message to General Lee, but I feel it to be +the truth." + +"We've a great general and a great army that say, no." + +Nobody paid any attention to the two. It was merely another one of those +occasions when men of the opposing sides stood together amid the dead and +wounded, and talked in friendly fashion. But Harry knew that he could +not delay long. + +"I've got to go, Dick," he said. "And I've a message too, one that I +want you to deliver to General Grant." + +"What is it?" + +"Tell him that we've more than held our own to-day, and that we'll thrash +him like thunder to-morrow, and whenever and wherever he may choose, +no matter what the odds are against us." + +Dick laughed. + +"I see that you won't believe even a little bit of what I tell you," +he said "and maybe if I were in your place I wouldn't either. But it's +true all the same. Good-by, Harry." + +The two hands, covered with battle grime, met again in the strong grasp +of blood kindred and friendship. + +"Take care of yourself, old man!" + +The words, exactly alike, were uttered by the two simultaneously. + +Both were stirred deeply. Harry sprang on his horse, looked back once, +waving his hand, and rode rapidly to General Lee. Later in the night, +he received permission to hunt up the Invincibles, his heart full of fear +that they had perished utterly in the gloomy pit called the Wilderness, +lit now only by the fire of death. + +He left his horse with an orderly and walked toward the point where he +had last seen them. He passed thousands of soldiers, many wounded, +but silent as usual, while the unhurt were sleeping where they had +dropped. The Invincibles were not at the point where he had seen them +last, and the colonels of several scattered regiments could not tell him +what had become of them. But he continued to seek them although the fear +was growing in his heart that the last man of the Invincibles had died +under the Northern cannon. + +His search led toward the enemy's lines. Almost unconsciously he went in +that direction, however, his knowledge of the two colonels telling him +that they would take the same course. He turned into a little cove, +partly sheltered by the dwarfed trees and he heard a thin voice saying: + +"Nonsense, Leonidas. I scarcely felt it, but yours, old friend, is +pretty bad. You must let me attend to it. Keep still! I'll adjust the +bandage." + +"Hector, why do you make a fuss over me, when I'm only slightly hurt, +and sacrifice yourself, a severely injured man!" + +"With all due respect you'd better let me attend to you both," said a +voice that Harry recognized as St. Clair's. + +"And maybe I could help a little," said another that he knew to be Happy +Tom's. But their voices, like those of the colonels, were weak. Still +he had positive proof that they were alive, and, as his heart gave a +joyful throb or two, he stepped into the glade. There was enough light +for him to see Colonel Leonidas Talbot, and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector +St. Hilaire, sitting side by side on the grass with their backs against +the earthly wall, very pale from loss of blood, but with heads erect and +eyes shining with a certain pride. St. Clair and Langdon lay on the +grass, one with an old handkerchief, blood-soaked, bound about his head +and the other with a bandage tightly fastened over his left shoulder. +Beyond them lay a group of soldiers. + +"Good evening, heroes!" said Harry lightly as he stepped forward. + +He was welcomed with an exclamation of joy from them all. + +"We meet again, Harry," said Colonel Talbot, "and it is the second time +since morning. I fancy that second meetings to-day have not been common. +We have the taste of success in our mouths, but you'll excuse us for not +rising to greet you. We are all more or less affected by the missiles of +the enemy and for some hours at least neither walking nor standing will +be good for us." + +"Mohammed must come to all the mountains," said St. Clair, weakly holding +out a hand. + +Harry greeted them all in turn, and sat down with them. He was +overflowing with sympathy, but it was not needed. + +"A glorious day," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot. + +"Truly," said Harry. + +"A most glorious day," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire. + +"Most truly," said Harry. + +"An especially glorious day for the Invincibles," said Colonel Talbot. + +"The most glorious of all possible days for the Invincibles," said +Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire. + +There was an especial emphasis to their words that aroused Harry's +attention. + +"The Invincibles have had many glorious days," he said. "Why should this +be the most glorious of them all?" + +"We went into battle one hundred and forty-seven strong," replied Colonel +Talbot quietly, "and we came out with one hundred and forty-seven +casualties, thirty-nine killed and one hundred and eight wounded. +We lay no claim to valor, exceeding that of many other regiments in +General Lee's glorious army, but we do think we've made a fairly +excellent record. Do you see those men?" + +He pointed to a silent group stretched upon the turf, and Harry nodded. + +"Not one of them has escaped unhurt, but most of us will muster up +strength enough to meet the enemy again to-morrow, when our great general +calls." + +Harry's throat contracted for a moment. + +"I know it, Colonel Talbot," he said. "The Invincibles have proved +themselves truly worthy of their name. General Lee shall hear of this." + +"But in no boastful vein, Harry," said Colonel Talbot. "We would not +have you to speak thus of your friends." + +"I do not have to boast for you. The simple truth is enough. I shall +see that a surgeon comes here at once to attend to your wounded. Good +night, gentlemen." + +"Good night," said the four together. Harry walked back toward General +Lee's headquarters, full of pride in his old comrades. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +SPOTTSYLVANIA + + +Harry secured a little sleep toward morning, and, although his nervous +tension had been very great, when he lay down, he felt greatly +strengthened in body and mind. He awakened Dalton in turn, and the two, +securing a hasty breakfast, sat near the older members of the staff, +awaiting orders. The commander-in-chief was at the edge of the little +glade, talking earnestly with Hill, and several other important generals. + +Harry often saw through the medium of his own feelings, and the rim of +the sun, beginning to show over the eastern edge of the Wilderness, +was blood red. The same crimson and sinister tinge showed through the +west which was yet in the dusk. But in east and west there were certain +areas of light, where the forest fires yet smoldered. + +Both sides had thrown up hasty breastworks of earth or timber, but the +two armies were unusually silent. A space of perhaps a mile and a half +lay between them, but as the light increased neither moved. There was no +crackle of rifle fire along their fronts. The skirmishers, usually so +active, seemed to be exhausted, and the big guns were at rest. The +fierce and tremendous fighting of the two days before seemed to have +taken all the life out of both North and South. + +Harry, inured to war, understood the reasons for silence and lack of +movement. Grant had been drawn into a region that he did not like, +where he could not use his superior numbers to advantage, and he must be +shuddering at the huge losses he had suffered already. He would seek +better ground. Lee too, was in no condition to take advantage of his +successful defense. The old days when he could send Jackson on a great +turning movement, to fall with all the crushing impact of a surprise upon +the Northern flank, were gone forever. Stuart, the brilliant cavalryman, +was there, but his men were not numerous enough, and, however brilliant, +he was not Jackson. + +The sun rose higher. Midmorning came, and the two armies still lay +close. Harry grew stronger in his opinion that they would not fight +again that day, although he watched, like the others, for any sign of +movement in the Northern camp. + +Noon came, and the same dead silence. The fires had burned themselves +out now and the dusk that had reigned over the Wilderness, before the +battle, recovered its ground, thickened still further by the vast +quantities of smoke still hanging low under a cloudy sky. But the aspect +of the Wilderness itself was more mournful than ever. Coals smoldered in +the burned areas, and now and then puffs of wind picked up the hot ashes +and sent them in the faces of the soldiers. Thickets and bushes had been +cut down by bullets and cannon balls, and lay heaped together in tangled +confusion. Back of the lines, the surgeons, with aching backs, toiled +over the wounded, as they had toiled through the night. + +Harry saw nearly the whole Southern front. The members of Lee's staff +were busy that day, carrying orders to all his generals to rectify their +lines, and to be prepared, to the last detail, for another tremendous +assault. It was not until the afternoon that he was able to look up the +Invincibles again. The two colonels and the two lieutenants were doing +well, and the colonels were happy. + +"We've already been notified," said Colonel Talbot, "that we're to retain +our organization as a regiment. We're to have about a hundred new men +now, the fragments of destroyed regiments. Of course, they won't be like +the veterans of the Invincibles, but a half-dozen battles like that of +yesterday should lick them into shape." + +"I should think so," said Harry. + +"Do you believe that Grant is retreating?" asked Lieutenant-Colonel +St. Hilaire. + +"Our scouts don't say so." + +"Then he is merely putting off the evil day. The sooner he withdraws the +more men he will save. No Yankee general can ever get by General Lee. +Keep that in your mind, Harry Kenton." + +Harry was silent, but rejoicing to find that his friends would soon +recover from their wounds, he went back to his place, and saw all the +afternoon pass, without any movement indicating battle. + +Night came again and the scouts reported to Lee that the Union army +was breaking camp, evidently with the intention of getting out of the +Wilderness and marching to Fredericksburg. Harry was with the general +when he received the news, and he saw him think over it long. Other +scouts brought in the same evidence. + +Harry did not know what the general thought, but as for himself, although +he was too young to say anything, it was incredible that Grant should +retreat. It was not at all in accordance with his character, now tested +on many fields, and his resources also were too great for withdrawal. + +But the night was very dark and no definite knowledge yet came out of it. +Lee stayed by his little campfire and received reports. Far after dusk +Harry saw the look of doubt disappear from his eyes, and then he began +to send out messengers. It was evident that he had formed his opinion, +and intended to act upon it at once. + +He beckoned to Harry and Dalton, and bade them go together with written +instructions to General Anderson, who had taken the place of General +Longstreet. + +"You will stay with General Anderson subject to his orders," he said, +as Harry and Dalton, saluting, rode toward Anderson's command. + +Their way led through torn, tangled and burned thickets. Sometimes a +horse sprang violently to one side and neighed in pain. His hoof had +come down on earth, yet so hot that it scorched like fire. Now and then +sparks fell upon them, but they pursued their way, disregarding all +obstacles, and delivered their sealed orders to General Anderson, who at +once gathered up his full force, and marched away from the heart of the +Wilderness toward Spottsylvania Court House. + +Harry surmised that Grant was attempting some great turning movement, +and Lee, divining it, was sending Anderson to meet his advance. He never +knew whether it was positive knowledge or a happy guess. + +But he was quite sure that the night's ride was one of the most singular +and sinister ever made by an army. If any troops ever marched through +the infernal regions it was they. In this part of the Wilderness the +fires had been of the worst. Trees still smoldered. In the hollows, +where the bushes had grown thickest, were great beds of coals. The smoke +which the low heavy skies kept close to the earth was thick and hot. +Gusts of wind sent showers of sparks flying, and, despite the greatest +care to protect the ammunition, they marched in constant danger of +explosion. + +Harry thought at one time that General Anderson intended to camp in +the Wilderness for the night, but he soon saw that it was impossible. +One could not camp on hot ground in a smoldering forest. + +"I believe it's a march till day," he said to Dalton. "It's bound to be. +If a man were to lie down here, he'd find himself a mass of cinders in +the morning, and it will take us till daylight and maybe past to get out +of the Wilderness." + +"If he didn't burn to death he'd choke to death. I never breathed such +smoke before." + +"That's because it's mixed with ashes and the fumes of burned gunpowder. +A villainous compound like this can't be called air. How long is it +until dawn?" + +"About three hours, I think." + +"You remember those old Greek stories about somebody or other going down +to Hades, and then having a hard climb out again. We're the modern +imitators. If this isn't Hades then I don't know what it is." + +"It surely is. Phew, but that hurt!" + +"What happened?" + +"I brushed my hand against a burning bush. The result was not happy. +Don't imitate me." + +Dalton's horse leaped to one side, and he had difficulty in keeping the +saddle. His hoof had been planted squarely in the midst of a mass of hot +twigs. + +"The sooner I get out of this Inferno or Hades of a place the happier +I'll be!" said Dalton. + +"I've never seen the like," said Harry, "but there's one thing about it +that makes me glad." + +"And what's the saving grace?" + +"That it's in Virginia and not in Kentucky, though for the matter of that +it couldn't be in Kentucky." + +"And why couldn't it be in Kentucky?" + +"Because there's no such God-forsaken region in all that state of mine." + +"It certainly gets upon one's soul," said Dalton, looking at the gloomy +region, so terribly torn by battle. + +"But if we keep going we're bound to come out of it some time or other." + +"And we're not stopping. A man can't make his bed on a mass of coals, +and there'll be no rest for us until we're clear out of the Wilderness." + +They marched on a long time, and, as day dawned, hundreds of voices +united in a shout of gladness. Behind them were the shades of the +Wilderness, that dismal region reeking with slaughter and ruin, and +before them lay firm soil, and green fields, in all the flush of a +brilliant May morning. + +"Well, we did come out of Hades, Harry," said Dalton. + +"And it does look like Heaven, but the trouble with our Hades, George, +is that the inmates will follow us. Put your glasses to your eyes and +look off there." + +"Horsemen as sure as we're sitting in our own saddles." + +"And Northern horsemen, too. Their uniforms are new enough for me to +tell their color. I take it that Grant's vanguard has moved by our right +flank and has come out of the Wilderness." + +"And our surmises that we were to meet it are right. Spottsylvania Court +House is not far away, and maybe we are bound for it." + +"And maybe the Yankees are too." + +Harry's words were caused by the sound of a distant and scattering fire. +In obedience to an order from Anderson, he and Dalton galloped forward, +and, from a ridge, saw through their glasses a formidable Union column +advancing toward Spottsylvania. As they looked they saw many men fall +and they also saw flashes of flame from bushes and fences not far from +its flank. + +"Our sharpshooters are there," said Harry. And he was right. While the +Union force was advancing in the night Stuart had dismounted many of his +men and using them as skirmishers had incessantly harassed the march of +Grant's vanguard led by Warren. + +"Each army has been trying to catch the other napping," said Dalton. + +"And neither has succeeded," said Harry. + +"Now we make a race for the Spottsylvania ridge," said Dalton. "You see +if we don't! I know this country. It's a strong position there, and +both generals want it." + +Dalton was right. A small Union force had already occupied Spottsylvania, +but the heavy Southern division crossing the narrow, but deep, river Po, +drove it out and seized the defensive position. + +Here they rested, while the masses of the two armies swung toward them, +as if preparing for a new battlefield, one that Harry surveyed with great +interest. They were in a land of numerous and deep rivers. Here were +four spreading out, like the fingers of a human hand, without the thumb, +and uniting at the wrist. The fingers were the Mat, the Ta, the Po, +and the Nye, and the unit when they united was called the Mattopony. + +Lee's army was gathering behind the Po. A large Union force crossed it +on his flank, but, recognizing the danger of such a position, withdrew. +Lee himself came in time. Hill, overcome by illness and old wounds, +was compelled to give up the command of his division, and Early took his +place. Longstreet also was still suffering severely from his injuries. +Lee had but few of the able and daring generals who had served him in +so many fields. But Stuart, the gay and brilliant, the medieval knight +who had such a strong place in the commander-in-chief's affections, was +there. Nor was his plumage one bit less splendid. The yellow feather +stood in his hat. There was no speck or stain on the broad yellow sash +and his undimmed courage was contagious. + +But Harry with his sensitive and imaginative mind, that leaped ahead, +knew their situation to be desperate. His opinion of Grant had proved to +be correct. Although he had found in Lee an opponent far superior to any +other that he had ever faced, the Union general, undaunted by his repulse +and tremendous losses in the Wilderness, was preparing for a new battle, +before the fire from the other had grown cold. + +He knew too that another strong Union army was operating far to the south +of them, in order to cut them off from Richmond, and scouts had brought +word that a powerful force of cavalry was about to circle upon their +flank. The Confederacy was propped up alone by the Army of Northern +Virginia, which having just fought one great battle was about to begin +another, and by its dauntless commander. + +The Southern admiration for Lee, both as the general and as the man, +can never be shaken. How much greater then was the effect that he +created in the mind of impressionable youth, looking upon him with +youth's own eyes in his moments of supreme danger! He was in very truth +to Harry another Hannibal as great, and better. The long list of his +triumphs, as youth counted them, was indeed superior to those of the +great Carthaginian, and he believed that Lee would repel this new danger. + +Nearly all that day the two armies constructed breastworks which stood +for many years afterward, but neither made any attempt at serious work, +although there was incessant firing by the skirmishers and an occasional +cannon shot. Harry, whether carrying an order or not, had ample chance +to see, and he noted with increasing alarm the growing masses of the +Union army, as they gathered along the Spottsylvania front. + +"Can we beat them?" "Can we beat them?" was the question that he +continually asked himself. He wondered too where the Winchester regiment +and Dick Mason lay, and where the spy, Shepard, was. But Shepard was not +likely to remain long in one place. Skill and courage such as his would +be used to the utmost in a time like this. Doubtless he was somewhere in +the Confederate lines, discovering for Grant the relatively small size of +the army that opposed him. + +Near dusk and having the time he followed his custom and sought the +Invincibles. Both colonels had recovered considerable strength, and, +although one of them could not walk, he would be helped upon his horse +whenever the battle began, and would ride into the thick of it. But the +faces of St. Clair and Happy Tom glowed and their wounds apparently were +forgotten. + +"Lieutenant Arthur St. Clair and Lieutenant Thomas Langdon are gone +forever," said Colonel Talbot. "In their places we have Major Arthur +St. Clair and Captain Thomas Langdon. All our majors and captains have +been killed, and with our reduced numbers these two will fill their +places, as best they can; and that they can do so most worthily we all +know. They received their promotions this afternoon." + +Harry congratulated them both with the greatest warmth. They were very +young for such rank, but in this war the toll of officers was so great +that men sometimes became generals when they were but little older. + +"Is it to be to-morrow?" asked Colonel Talbot. + +"I think it likely that we'll fight again then," said Harry. + +"And Grant has not yet had enough. He wants a little more of the same, +does he!" + +"It would appear so, sir." + +"Then I take it without consulting General Lee that he is ready to deal +with the Yankees as he dealt with them in the Wilderness." + +"I hope so. Good night." + +"Good night!" they called to him, and Harry returned to the staff. +Taylor, the adjutant general, told him and Dalton to lie down and seek +a little sleep. Harry was not at all averse, as he was completely +exhausted again after the tremendous excitement of the battle, and the +long hours of strain and danger. But his nerves were so much on edge +that he could not yet sleep. His eyes were red and smarting from the +smoke and burned powder, and he felt as if accumulated smoke and dust +encased him like a suit of armor. + +"I'd give a hundred dollars for a good long drink, just as long as I +liked to make it," he groaned, "and I mean a drink of pure cold water, +too." + +"Confederate paper or money?" said Dalton. + +"I mean real money, but at the same time you oughtn't to make invidious +comparisons." + +"Then the money's mine, but you can pay me whenever you feel like it, +which I suppose will be never. There's a spring in the thick woods just +back of your quarters. It flows out from under rocks, at the distance of +several yards makes a deep pool, and then the overflow of the pool goes +on through the forest to the Po. Come on, Harry! We'll luxuriate and +then tell the others." + +Harry found that it was a most glorious spring, indeed; clear and cold. +He and Dalton drank slowly at first, and then deeply. + +"I didn't know I could hold so much," said Dalton. + +"Nor I," said Harry. + +"Let's take another." + +"I'm with you." + +"Let's make it two more." + +"I still follow you." + +"Horace wrote about his old Falernian, and the other wines which he +enjoyed, as he and the leading Roman sports sat around the fountain, +flirting with the girls," said Dalton, "but I don't believe any wine ever +brewed in Latium was the equal of this water." + +"I've always had an idea that Horace wasn't as gay as he pretended to be, +else he wouldn't have written so much about Chloe and her comrades. +I imagine that an old Roman boy would keep pretty quiet about his dancing +and singing, and not publish it to the public." + +"Well, let him be. He's dead and the Romans are dead, and the Americans +are doing their best to kill off one another, but let's forget it for a +few minutes. That pool there is about four feet deep, the water is clear +and the bottom is firm ground; now do you know what I'm going to do?" + +"Yes, and I'm going to do the same. Bet you even that I beat you into +the water." + +"Taken." + +They threw off their clothes rapidly, but the splashes were simultaneous +as their bodies struck the water. Although the limits of the pool were +narrow they splashed and paddled there for a while, and it was a long +time since they had known such a luxury. Then they walked out, dried +themselves and spread the good news. All night long the pool was filled +with the bathers, following one another in turn. + +The water taken internally and externally soothed Harry's nerves. +His excitement was gone. A great army with which they were sure to fight +on the morrow was not far away, but for the time he was indifferent. +The morrow could take care of itself. It was night, and he had +permission to go to sleep. Hence he slumbered fifteen minutes later. + +He slept almost through the night, and, when he was awakened shortly +before dawn, he found that his strength and elasticity had returned. +He and Dalton went down to the spring again, drank many times, and then +ate breakfast with the older members of the staff, a breakfast that +differed very little from that of the common soldiers. + +Then a day or two of waiting, and watching, and of confused but terrible +fighting ensued. The forests were again set on fire by the bursting +shells and they were not able to rescue many of the wounded from the +flames. Vast clouds again floated over the whole region, drawing a veil +of dusk between the soldiers and the sun. But neither army was willing +to attack the other in full force. + +Grant commanding all the armies of the East was moving meanwhile. +A powerful cavalry division, he heard, had got behind Beauregard, who was +to protect Richmond, and was tearing up an important railway line used +by the Confederacy. The daring Sheridan with another great division of +cavalry had gone around Lee's left and was wrecking another railway, +and with it the rations and medical supplies so necessary to the +Confederates. Grant, recognizing his antagonist's skill and courage and +knowing that to succeed he must destroy the main Southern army, resolved +to attack again with his whole force. + +The day had been comparatively quiet and the Army of Northern Virginia +had devoted nearly the whole time to fortifying with earthworks and +breastworks of logs. The young aides, as they rode on their missions, +could easily see the Northern lines through their glasses. Harry's heart +sank as he observed their extent. The Southern army was sadly reduced +in numbers, and Grant could get reinforcement continually. + +But such is the saving grace of human nature that even in these moments +of suspense, with one terrible battle just over and another about to +begin, soldiers of the Blue and Gray would speak to one another in +friendly fashion in the bushes or across the Po. It was on the banks of +this narrow river that Harry at last saw Shepard once more. He happened +to be on foot that time, the slope being too densely wooded for his horse, +and Shepard hailed him from the other side. + +"Good day, Mr. Kenton. Don't fire! I want to talk," he said, holding up +both hands as a sign of peace. + +"A curious place for talking," Harry could not keep from saying. + +"So it is, but we're not observed here. It was almost inevitable while +the armies remained face to face that we should meet in time. I want +to tell you that I've met your cousin, Richard Mason, here, and his +commanding officer, Colonel Winchester. Oh, I know much more about you +and your relationships than you think." + +"How is Dick?" + +"He has not been hurt, nor has Colonel Winchester. Mr. Mason has +received a letter from his home and your home in Pendleton in Kentucky. +The outlaws to the eastward are troublesome, but the town is occupied by +an efficient Union garrison and is in no danger. His mother and all of +his and your old friends, who did not go to the war, are in good health. +He thought that in my various capacities as ranger, scout and spy I might +meet you, and he asked me, if it so happened, to tell these things to +you." + +"I thank you," said Harry very earnestly, "and I'm truly sorry, +Mr. Shepard, that you and I are on different sides." + +"I suppose it's too late for you to come over to the Union and the true +cause." + +Harry laughed. + +"You know, Mr. Shepard, there are no traitors in this war." + +"I know it. I was merely jesting." + +He slipped into the underbrush and disappeared. Harry confessed to +himself once more that he liked Shepard, but he felt more strongly than +ever that it had become a personal duel between them, and they would meet +yet again in violence. + +That night he had little to do. It was a typical May night in Virginia, +clear and beautiful with an air that would have been a tonic to the +nerves, had it not been for the bitter smoke and odors that yet lingered +from the battle of the Wilderness. + +Before dawn the scouts brought in a rumor that there was a heavy movement +of Federal troops, although they did not know its meaning. It might +portend another flank march by Grant, but a mist that had begun to rise +after midnight hid much from them. The mist deepened into a fog, which +made it harder for the Southern leaders to learn the meaning of the +Northern movement. + +Just as the dawn was beginning to show a little through the fog, Hancock +and Burnside, with many more generals, led a tremendous attack upon the +Southern right center. They had come so silently through the thickets +that for once the Southern leaders were surprised. The Union veterans, +rushing forward in dense columns, stormed and took the breastworks with +the bayonet. + +Many of the Southern troops, sound asleep, awoke to find themselves in +the enemy's hands. Others, having no time to fire them, fought with +clubbed rifles. + +Harry, dozing, was awakened by the terrific uproar. Even before the dawn +had fairly come the battle was raging on a long front. The center of +Lee's army was broken, and the Union troops were pouring into the gap. +Grant had already taken many guns and thousands of prisoners, and the +bulldog of Shiloh and Vicksburg and Chattanooga was hurrying fresh +divisions into the combat to extend and insure his victory. Through the +forests swelled the deep Northern cry of triumph. + +Harry had never before seen the Southern army in such danger, and he +looked at General Lee, who had now mounted Traveller. The turmoil and +confusion in front of them was frightful and indescribable. The Union +troops had occupied an entire Confederate salient, and their generals, +feeling that the moment was theirs, led them on, reckless of life, +and swept everything before them. + +Harry never took his eyes from Lee. The rising sun shot golden beams +through the smoke and disclosed him clearly. His face was calm and his +voice did not shake as he issued his orders with rapidity and precision. +The lion at bay was never more the lion. + +A new line of battle was formed, and the fugitives formed up with it. +Then the Southern troops, uttering once more the fierce rebel yell, +charged directly upon their enemy and under the eye of the great chief +whom they almost worshiped. + +Now Harry for the first time saw his general show excitement. Lee +galloped to the head of one of the Virginia regiments, and ranging his +horse beside the colors snatched off his hat and pointed it at the enemy. +It was a picture which with all the hero worship of youth he never +forgot. It did not even grow dim in his memory--the great leader on +horseback, his hat in his hand, his eyes fiery, his face flushed, his +hand pointing the way to victory or death. + +It was an occasion, too, when the personal presence of a leader meant +everything. Every man knew Lee and tremendous rolling cheers greeted +his arrival, cheers that could be heard above the thunder of cannon and +rifles. It infused new courage into them and they gathered themselves +for the rush upon their victorious foe. + +Gordon of Georgia, spurring through the smoke, seized Lee's horse by the +bridle. He did not mean to have their commander-in-chief sacrificed in a +charge. + +"This is no place for you, General Lee!" he cried. "Go to the rear!" + +Lee did not yet turn, and Gordon shouted: + +"These men are Virginians and Georgians who have never failed. Go back, +I entreat you!" + +Then Gordon turned to the troops and cried, as he rose on his toes in his +stirrups: + +"Men, you will not fail now!" + +Back came the answering shout: + +"No! No!" and the whole mass of troops burst into one thunderous, echoing +cry: + +"Lee to the rear! Lee to the rear! Lee to the rear!" + +Nor would they move until Lee turned and rode back. Then, led by Gordon, +they charged straight upon their foe, who met them with an equal valor. +All day long the battle of Spottsylvania, equal in fierceness and +desperation to that of the Wilderness, swayed to and fro. To Harry as he +remembered them they were much alike. Charge and defense, defense and +charge. Here they gained a little, and there they lost a little. +Now they were stumbling through sanguinary thickets, and then they rushed +across little streams that ran red. + +The firing was rapid and furious to an extraordinary degree. The air +rained shell and bullets. Areas of forest between the two armies were +mowed down. More than one large tree was cut through entirely by rifle +bullets. Other trees here, as in the Wilderness, caught fire and flamed +high. + +Midnight put an end to the battle, with neither gaining the victory +and both claiming it. Harry had lost another horse, killed under him, +and now he walked almost dazed over the terrible field of Spottsylvania, +where nearly thirty thousand men had fallen, and nothing had yet been +decided. + +Yet in Harry's heart the fear of the grim and silent Grant was growing. +The Northern general had fought within a few days two battles, each the +equal of Waterloo, and Harry felt sure that he was preparing for a third. +The combat of the giants was not over, and with an anxious soul he waited +the next dawn. They remained some days longer in the Wilderness, or the +country adjacent to it, and there was much skirmishing and firing of +heavy artillery, but the third great pitched battle did not come quite as +soon as Harry expected. Even Grant, appalled by the slaughter, hesitated +and began to maneuver again by the flank to get past Lee. Then the +fighting between the skirmishers and heavy detached parties became +continuous. + +During the days that immediately followed Harry was much with Sherburne. +The brave colonel was one of Stuart's most trusted officers. Despite the +forests and thickets there was much work for the cavalry to do, while the +two armies circled and circled, each seeking to get the advantage of the +other. + +Sheridan, they heard, was trying to curve about with his horsemen and +reach Richmond, and Stuart, with his cavalry, including Sherburne's, +was sent to intercept him, Harry riding by Sherburne's side. It was near +the close of May, but the air was cool and pleasant, a delight to breathe +after the awful Wilderness. + +Stuart, despite his small numbers, was in his gayest spirits, and when +he overtook the enemy at a little place called Yellow Tavern he attacked +with all his customary fire and vigor. In the height of the charge, +Harry saw him sink suddenly from his horse, shot through the body. +He died not long afterward and the greatest and most brilliant horseman +of the South passed away to join Jackson and so many who had gone before. +Harry was one of the little group who carried the news to Lee, and he saw +how deeply the great leader was affected. So many of his brave generals +had fallen that he was like the head of a family, bereft. + +Nevertheless the lion still at bay was great and terrible to strike. +It was barely two weeks after Spottsylvania when Lee took up a strong +position at Cold Harbor, and Grant, confident in his numbers and powerful +artillery, attacked straightaway at dawn. + +Harry was in front during that half-hour, the most terrible ever seen on +the American continent, when Northern brigade after brigade charged to +certain death. Lee's men, behind their earthworks, swept the field with +a fire in which nothing could live. The charging columns fairly melted +away before them and when the half-hour was over more than twelve +thousand men in blue lay upon the red field. + +Grant himself was appalled, and the North, which had begun to anticipate +a quick and victorious end of the war, concealed its disappointment as +best it could, and prepared for another campaign. + +Grant and Lee, facing each other, went into trenches along the lines +of Cold Harbor, and the hopes of the young Southern soldiers after the +victory there rose anew. But Harry was not too sanguine, although he +kept his thoughts to himself. + +The officers of the Invincibles had recovered from their wounds, and +Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, +sitting in a trench, resumed their game of chess. + +Colonel Talbot took a pawn, the first man captured by either since early +spring. + +"That was quite a victory," he said. + +"Not important! Not important, Leonidas!" + +"And why not, Hector?" + +"Because you've left the way to your king easier. I shall promptly move +along that road." + +"As Grant moved through the Wilderness." + +"Don't depreciate Grant, Leonidas. He never stops pounding. We've +fought two great battles with him in the Wilderness and a third at Cold +Harbor, but he's still out there facing us. Can't you see the Yankees +with your glasses, Harry?" + +"Yes, sir, quite clearly. They're about to fire a shot from a big gun in +a wood. There it goes!" + +The deep note of the cannon came to them, passed on, and then rolled back +in echoes like a threat. + + + + +Appendix: Transcription notes: + +The following modifications were applied while transcribing the +printed book to etext: + + Chapter 1 + Page 6, para 1, change "criticise" to "criticize", for consistency + Page 20, para 6, fix typo, "calvaryman" + Page 21, para 8, change "things" to "thing" + + Chapter 2 + Page 35, para 2, add missing hyphen in "commander-in-chief" + + Chapter 3 + Page 48, para 1, change "where-ever" to "wherever" + Page 49, para 2, fix typo, period should be comma + Page 49, para 2, change "gaints" to "giants", which is my best guess + as to what it should be + + Chapter 4 + Page 74, para 7, add missing period + + Chapter 7 + Page 124, para 6, fix typo "qouth" + Page 132, para 14, "Pleasonton" should be "Pleasanton" + + Chapter 10 + Page 182, para 5, add missing close-quotes + + Chapter 11 + Page 208, para 6, add missing close-quotes + + Chapter 12 + Page 229, para 3, fix typo, "dulplicate" + + Chapter 13 + Page 245, para 3, change "with" to "was" + + Chapter 14 + Page 260, para 2, removed a badly-misplaced comma + + Chapter 16 + Page 301, para 4, moved a badly-misplaced comma + +Chapter 2, page 34, para 3 contains the phrase "rest and realization". +Probably should be "relaxation", but maybe not, so I left it as is. + +The following words were printed with accented vowels or with the "ae" +ligature, but these few occurrences hardly warrant an 8-bit version of +the text: + cooperation fete reentered Plataea Thermopylae + +As with all the books in this series, there are many instances where +commas seem to be missing or misplaced, but, except as noted above, +I refrained from "fixing" these. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Shades of the Wilderness +by Joseph A. Altsheler + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS *** + +***** This file should be named 12532.txt or 12532.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.net/1/2/5/3/12532/ + +This eBook was produced by Ken Reeder <kreeder@mailsnare.net> + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.net/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.net + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. For example: + + http://www.gutenberg.net/etext06 + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + http://www.gutenberg.net/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + http://www.gutenberg.net/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + http://www.gutenberg.net/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/old/12532-20040605.zip b/old/old/12532-20040605.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9f4cf5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/12532-20040605.zip |