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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tree of Appomattox, 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.org
+
+
+Title: The Tree of Appomattox
+
+Author: Joseph A. Altsheler
+
+Release Date: February 4, 2006 [EBook #17677]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TREE OF APPOMATTOX ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Ken Reeder  <kreeder@mailsnare.net>
+
+
+
+
+THE TREE OF APPOMATTOX
+A STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR'S CLOSE
+
+by JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
+
+
+
+
+This book, now in the public domain in the USA, was originally:
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+  Copyright, 1944, By Sallie B. Altsheler
+
+  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
+
+  APPLETON-CENTURY-CROFTS, INC.
+
+  NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+"The Tree of Appomattox" concludes the series of connected romances
+dealing with the Civil War, begun in "The Guns of Bull Run," and
+continued successively through "The Guns of Shiloh," "The Scouts of
+Stonewall," "The Sword of Antietam," "The Star of Gettysburg," "The Rock
+of Chickamauga" and "The Shades of the Wilderness" to the present volume.
+It has been completed at the expense of vast labor, and the author has
+striven at all times to be correct, wherever facts are involved.  So far,
+at least, no historic detail has been challenged by critic or reader.
+
+More than half a century has passed since the Civil War's close.  Not
+many of the actors in it are left.  It was one of the most tremendous
+upheavals in the life of any nation, and it was the greatest of all
+struggles, until the World War began, but scarcely any trace of partisan
+rancor or bitterness is left.  So, it has become easier to write of it
+with a sense of fairness and detachment, and the lapse of time has made
+the perspective clear and sharp.
+
+However lacking he may be in other respects, the author perhaps had an
+advantage in being born, and having grown up in a border state, where
+sentiment was about equally divided concerning the Civil War.  He was
+surrounded during his early youth by men who fought on one side or the
+other, and their stories of camp, march and battle were almost a part of
+the air he breathed.  So he hopes that this circumstance has aided him to
+give a truthful color to the picture of the mighty combat, waged for four
+such long and terrible years.
+
+
+
+
+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 APPLE TREE
+
+    II.  THE WOMAN AT THE HOUSE
+
+   III.  OVER THE HILLS
+
+    IV.  THE FIGHT AT THE CROSSWAYS
+
+     V.  AN OLD ENEMY
+
+    VI.  THE FISHERMEN
+
+   VII.  SHERIDAN'S ATTACK
+
+  VIII.  THE MESSENGER FROM RICHMOND
+
+    IX.  AT GRIPS WITH EARLY
+
+     X.  AN UNBEATEN FOE
+
+    XI.  CEDAR CREEK
+
+   XII.  IN THE COVE
+
+  XIII.  DICK'S GREAT EXPLOIT
+
+   XIV.  THE MOUNTAIN SHARPSHOOTER
+
+    XV.  BACK WITH GRANT
+
+   XVI.  THE CLOSING DAYS
+
+  XVII.  APPOMATTOX
+
+ XVIII.  THE FINAL RECKONING
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE APPLE TREE
+
+
+Although he was an officer in full uniform he was a youth in years,
+and he had the spirits of youth.  Moreover, it was one of the finest
+apple trees he had ever seen and the apples hung everywhere, round,
+ripe and red, fairly asking to be taken and eaten.  Dick Mason looked up
+at them longingly.  They made him think of the orchards at home in his
+own state, and a touch of coolness in the air sharpened his appetite for
+them all the more.
+
+"If you want 'em so badly, Dick," said Warner, "why don't you climb the
+tree and get 'em?  There's plenty for you and also for Pennington and me."
+
+"I see.  You're as anxious for apples as I am, and you wish me to gather
+'em for you by making a strong appeal to my own desires.  It's your
+clever New England way."
+
+"We're forbidden to take anything from the people, but it won't hurt
+to keep a few apples from rotting on the ground.  If you won't get 'em
+Pennington will."
+
+"I understand you, George.  You're trying to play Frank against me,
+while you keep yourself safe.  You'll go far.  Never mind.  I'll gather
+apples for us all."
+
+He leaped up, caught the lowest bough, swung himself lightly into the
+fork, and then climbing a little higher, reached for the reddest and
+ripest apples, which he flung down in a bountiful supply.
+
+"Now, gluttons," he said, "satiate yourselves, but save a lot for me."
+
+Then he went up as far as the boughs would sustain him and took a look
+over the country.  Apple trees do not grow very tall, but Dick's tree
+stood on the highest point in the orchard, and he had a fine view,
+a view that was in truth the most remarkable the North American continent
+had yet afforded.
+
+He always carried glasses over his shoulder, and lately Colonel
+Winchester had made him a gift of a splendid pair, which he now put into
+use, sweeping the whole circle of the horizon.  With their powerful aid
+he was able to see the ancient city of Petersburg, where Lee had thrown
+himself across Grant's path in order to block his way to Richmond,
+the Southern capital, and had dug long lines of trenches in which his
+army lay.  It was Lee who first used this method of defense for a smaller
+force against a larger, and the vast trench warfare of Europe a half
+century later was a repetition of the mighty struggle of Lee and Grant
+on the lines of Petersburg.
+
+Dick through his glasses saw the trenches, lying like a brown bar across
+the green country, and opposite them another brown bar, often less than
+a hundred yards away, which marked where the Northern troops also had
+dug in.  The opposing lines extended a distance of nearly forty miles,
+and Richmond was only twenty miles behind them.  It was the nearest the
+Army of the Potomac had come to the Southern capital since McClellan had
+seen the spires of its churches, and that was more than two years away.
+
+Warner and Pennington were lying on the ground, eating big red apples
+with much content and looking up lazily at Mason.
+
+"You're curving those glasses about a lot.  What do you see, Dick?"
+asked Pennington at length.
+
+"I see Petersburg, an old, old town, half buried in foliage, and with
+many orchards and gardens about it.  A pity that two great armies should
+focus on such a pleasant place."
+
+"No time for sentiment, Dick.  What else do you see?"
+
+"Jets of smoke and flame from the trenches, an irregular sort of firing,
+sometimes a half-dozen shots at one place, and then a long and peaceful
+break until you come to another place, where they're exchanging bullets."
+
+"What more do you see, Brother Richard?"
+
+"I see a Johnny come out of his trench hands up and advance toward one of
+our Yanks opposite, who also has come out of his trench hands up."
+
+"What are they trading?" asked Warner.
+
+"The Reb offers a square of plug tobacco, and the Yank a bundle of
+newspapers.  Now they've made the exchange, now they've shaken hands and
+each is going back to his own trench."
+
+"It's a merry world, my masters, as has been said before," resumed Warner,
+"but I should add that it's also a mad wag of a world.  Here we are face
+to face for forty miles, at some points seeking to kill one another in
+a highly impersonal way, and at other points conducting sale and barter
+according to the established customs of peace.  People at home wouldn't
+believe it, and later on a lot more won't believe it, when the writers
+come to write about it.  But it's true just the same.  What else do you
+see from the apple tower, Brother Richard?"
+
+"A long line of wagons approaching a camp some distance behind the
+Confederate trenches.  They must be loaded pretty heavily, because the
+drivers are cracking their whips over the horses and mules."
+
+"That's bad.  Provisions, I suppose," said Warner.  "The more these
+Johnnies get to eat the harder they fight, and they're not supposed to
+be receiving supplies now.  Our cavalry ought to have cut off that wagon
+train.  I shall have to speak to Sheridan about it.  This is no way to
+starve the Johnnies to death.  Seest aught more, Brother Richard?"
+
+"I do!  I do!  Jump up, boys, and use your own glasses!  I behold a large
+man on a gray horse, riding slowly along, as if he were inspecting troops
+away behind the trenches.  Wherever he passes the soldiers snatch off
+their caps and, although I can't hear 'em, I know they're cheering.
+It's Lee himself!"
+
+Both Warner and Pennington swung themselves upon the lower boughs of the
+tree and put their glasses to their eyes.
+
+"It's surely Lee," said Warner.  "I'm glad to get a look at him.  He's
+been giving us a lot of trouble for more than three years now, but I
+think General Grant is going to take his measure."
+
+"They're terribly reduced," said Pennington, "and if we stick to it we're
+bound to win.  Still, you boys will recall for some time that we've had a
+war.  What else do you see from the heights of the apple tree, Dick?"
+
+"Distant dust behind our own lines, and figures moving in it dimly.
+Cavalry practicing, I should say.  Have you fellows fruit enough?"
+
+"Plenty.  You can climb down and if the farmer hurries here with his dog
+to catch you we'll protect you."
+
+"This is a fine apple tree," said Dick, as he descended slowly.  "Apple
+trees are objects of beauty.  They look so well in the spring all in
+white bloom, and then they look just as well in the fall, when the red or
+yellow apples hang among the leaves.  And this is one of the finest I've
+ever seen."
+
+He did not dream then that he should remember an apple tree his whole
+life, that an apple tree, and one apple tree in particular, should always
+call to his mind a tremendous event, losing nothing of its intensity
+and vividness with the passing years.  But all that was in the future,
+and when he joined his comrades on the ground he made good work with the
+biggest and finest apple he could find.
+
+"Early apples," he said, looking up at the tree.  "It's not the end of
+July yet."
+
+"But good apples, glorious apples, anyhow," said Pennington, taking
+another.  "Besides, it's fine and cool like autumn."
+
+"It won't stay," said Dick.  "We've got the whole of August coming.
+Virginia is like Kentucky.  Always lots of hot weather in August.
+Glad there's no big fighting to be done just now.  But it's a pity,
+isn't it, to tear up a fine farming country like this.  Around here is
+where the United States started.  John Smith and Rolfe and Pocahontas and
+the rest of them may have roamed just where this orchard stands.  And
+later on lots of the great Americans rode about these parts, some of the
+younger ones carrying their beautiful ladies on pillions behind them.
+You are a cold-blooded New Englander, Warner, and you believe that anyone
+fighting against you ought to burn forever, but as for me I feel sorry
+for Virginia.  I don't care what she's done, but I don't like to see the
+Old Dominion, the Mother of Presidents, stamped flat."
+
+"I'm not cold-blooded at all, but I don't gush.  I don't forget that this
+state produced George Washington, but I want victory for our side just
+the same, no matter how much of Virginia we may have to tread down.
+Is that farm house over there still empty?"
+
+"Of course, or we wouldn't have taken the apples.  It belongs to a man
+named Haynes, and he left ahead of us with his family for Richmond.
+I fancy it will be a long time before Haynes and his people sleep in
+their own rooms again.  Come, fellows, we'd better be going back.
+Colonel Winchester is kind to us, but he doesn't want his officers to
+be prowling about as they please too long."
+
+They walked together toward the edge of the orchard and looked at the
+farm house, from the chimneys of which no smoke had risen in weeks.
+Dick felt sure it would be used later on as headquarters by some general
+and his staff, but for the present it was left alone.  And being within
+the Union lines no plunderer had dared to touch it.
+
+It was a two-story wooden house, painted white, with green shutters,
+all closed now.  The doors were also locked and sealed until such time
+as the army authorities wished to open them, but on the portico, facing
+the Southern lines were two benches, on which the three youths sat, and
+looked again over the great expanse of rolling country, dotted at
+intervals by puffs of smoke from the long lines of trenches.  Where they
+sat it was so still that they could hear the faint crackle of the distant
+rifles, and now and then the heavier crash of a cannon.
+
+Dick's mind went back to the Wilderness and its gloomy shades, the
+sanguinary field of Spottsylvania, and then the terrific mistake of
+Cold Harbor.  The genius of Lee had never burned more brightly.  He had
+handled his diminishing forces with all his old skill and resolution,
+but Grant had driven on and on.  No matter what his losses the North
+always filled up his ranks again, and poured forward munitions and
+supplies in a vast and unbroken stream.  A nation had summoned all its
+powers for a supreme effort to win, and Dick felt that the issue of the
+war was not now in doubt.  The genius of Lee and the bravery of his
+devoted army could no longer save the South.  The hammer strokes of Grant
+would surely crush it.
+
+And then what?  He had the deepest sympathy for these people of Virginia.
+What would become of them after the war?  Defeat for the South meant
+nearer approach to destruction than any nation had suffered in
+generations.  To him, born south of the Ohio River, and so closely united
+by blood with these people, victory as well as defeat had its pangs.
+
+Warner and Pennington rose and announced that they would return to the
+regiment which was held in reserve in a little valley below, but Dick,
+their leave not having run out yet, decided to stay a while longer.
+
+"So long," said Warner.  "Let the orchard alone.  Leave apples for
+others.  Remember that they are protected by strict orders against all
+wandering and irresponsible officers, but ourselves."
+
+"Yes, be good, Dick," said Pennington, and the two went down the slope,
+leaving Dick on the portico.  He liked being alone at times.  The serious
+cast of mind that he had inherited from his famous great grandfather,
+Paul Cotter, demanded moments of meditation.  It was peaceful too on the
+portico, and a youth who had been through Grant's Wilderness campaign,
+a month of continuous and terrible fighting, was glad to rest for a while.
+
+The distant rifle fire and the occasional cannon shot had no significance
+and did not disturb him.  They blended now with the breeze that blew
+among the leaves of the apple trees.  He had never felt more like peace,
+and the pleasant open country was soothing to the eye.  What a contrast
+to that dark and sodden Wilderness where men fought blindly in the dusk.
+He shuddered as he remembered the forests set on fire by the shells,
+and burning over the fallen.
+
+A light step aroused him and a large man sat down on the bench beside
+him.  Dick often wondered at the swift and almost noiseless tread of
+Shepard, with whom he was becoming well acquainted.  He was tall, built
+powerfully and must have weighed two hundred pounds, yet he moved with
+the ease and grace of a boy of sixteen.  Dick thought it must come from
+his trade.
+
+"I don't want to intrude, Mr. Mason," said Shepard, "but I saw you
+sitting here, looking perhaps too grave and thoughtful for one of your
+years."
+
+"You're most welcome, Mr. Shepard, and I was thinking, that is in a vague
+sort of way."
+
+"I saw your face and you were wondering what was to become of Virginia
+and the Virginians."
+
+"So I was, but how did you know it?"
+
+"I didn't know it.  It was just a guess, and the guess was due to the
+fact that I was having the same thoughts myself."
+
+"So you regard the war as won?" asked Dick, who had a great respect for
+Shepard's opinion.
+
+"If the President keeps General Grant in command, as he will, it's a
+certainty, but it will take a long time yet.  We can't force those
+trenches down there.  Remember what Cold Harbor cost us."
+
+Dick shuddered.
+
+"I remember it," he said.
+
+"It would be worse if we tried to storm Lee's lines.  After Cold Harbor
+the general won't attempt it, and I see a long wait here.  But we can
+afford it.  The South grows steadily weaker.  Our blockade clamps like a
+steel band, and presses tighter and tighter all the time.  Food is scarce
+in the Confederacy.  So is ammunition.  They receive no recruits, and
+every day the army of Lee is smaller in numbers than it was the day
+before."
+
+"You go into Richmond, Mr. Shepard.  I've heard from high officers that
+you do.  How do they feel there with our army only about twenty miles
+away?"
+
+"They're quiet and seem to be confident, but I believe they know their
+danger."
+
+"Have you by any chance seen or heard of my cousin, Harry Kenton, who is
+a lieutenant on the staff of the Southern commander-in-chief?"
+
+Shepard smiled, as if the question brought memories that pleased him.
+
+"A fine youth," he said.  "Yes, I've seen him more than once.  I'm free
+to tell you, Lieutenant Mason, that I know a lot about this rebel cousin
+of yours.  He and I have come into conflict on several occasions, and I
+did not win every time."
+
+"Nobody could beat Harry always," exclaimed Dick with youthful loyalty.
+"He was always the strongest and most active among us, and the best in
+forest and water.  He could hunt and fish and trail like the scouts of
+our border days."
+
+"I found him in full possession of all these qualities and he used them
+against me.  I should grieve if that cousin of yours were to fall,
+Mr. Mason.  I want to know him still better after the war."
+
+Dick would have asked further questions about the encounters between
+Harry and the spy, but he judged that Shepard did not care to answer them,
+and he forbore.  Yet the man aroused the most intense curiosity in him.
+There were spies and spies, and Shepard was one of them, but he was not
+like the others.  He was unquestionably a man of great mental power.
+His calm, steady gaze and his words to the point showed it.  No one
+patronized Shepard.
+
+"I should like to go into Richmond with you some dark night," said Dick,
+who hid a strong spirit of adventure under his quiet exterior.
+
+"You're not serious, Lieutenant Mason?"
+
+"I wasn't, maybe, when I began to say it, but I believe I am now.
+Why shouldn't I be curious about Richmond, a place that great armies have
+been trying to take for three years?  Just at present it's the center
+of the world to me in interest."
+
+"You must not think of such a thing, Mr. Mason.  Detection means certain
+death."
+
+"No more for me than for you."
+
+"But I have had a long experience and I have resources of which you can't
+know.  Don't think of it again, Mr. Mason."
+
+"I was merely jesting.  I won't," said Dick.
+
+He involuntarily looked toward the point beyond the horizon where
+Richmond lay, and Shepard meanwhile studied him closely.  Young Mason had
+not come much under his notice until lately, but now he began to interest
+the spy greatly.  Shepard observed what a strong, well-built young fellow
+he was, tall and slender but extremely muscular.  He also bore a marked
+resemblance to his cousin, Harry Kenton, and such was the quality of
+Shepard that the likeness strongly recommended Dick to him.  Moreover,
+he read the lurking thought that persisted in Dick's mind.
+
+"You mustn't dream of such a thing as entering Richmond, Mr. Mason,"
+he said.
+
+"It was just a passing thought.  But aren't you going in again?"
+
+"Later on, no doubt, but not just now.  I understand that we're planning
+some movement.  I don't know what it is, but I'm to wait here until it's
+over.  Good-by, Mr. Mason.  Since things are closing in it's possible
+that you and I will see more of each other than before."
+
+"Of course, when I'm personally conducted by you on that trip into
+Richmond."
+
+Shepard, who had left the portico, turned and shook a warning finger.
+
+"Dismiss that absolutely and forever from your mind, Mr. Mason," he said.
+
+Dick laughed, and watched the stalwart figure of the spy as he strode
+away.  Again the singular ease and lightness of his step struck him.
+To the lad's fancy the grass did not bend under his feet.  Upon Dick as
+upon Harry, Shepard made the impression of power, not only of strength
+but of subtlety and courage.
+
+"I'm glad that man's on our side," said Dick to himself, as Shepard's
+figure disappeared among the trees.  Then he left the portico and went
+down in the valley to Colonel Winchester's regiment, where he was
+received with joyous shouts by several young men, including Warner and
+Pennington, who had gone on before.  Colonel Winchester himself smiled
+and nodded, and Dick saluted respectfully.
+
+The Winchesters, as they loved to call themselves, were faring well at
+this particular time.  Like the Invincibles on the other side, this
+regiment had been decimated and filled up again several times.  It had
+lost heavily in the Wilderness and at Spottsylvania, but its colonel
+had escaped without serious hurt and had received special mention for
+gallantry and coolness.  It had been cut up once more at Cold Harbor,
+and because of its great services and losses it was permitted to remain a
+while in the rear as a reserve, and obtain the rest it needed so sorely.
+
+The brave youths were recovering fast from their wounds and exertions.
+Their camp was beside a clear brook and there were tents for the officers,
+though they were but seldom used, most of them, unless it should be
+raining, preferring to sleep in their blankets under the trees.  The
+water was good to drink, and farther down were several deep pools in
+which they bathed.  Food, as usual in the Northern army, was good and
+plentiful, and for the Winchesters it seemed more a period of play than
+of war.
+
+"What did you see at the house, Dick?" asked Colonel Winchester.
+
+"The spy, Shepard.  I talked a while with him.  He says the Confederacy
+is growing weaker every day, but if we try to storm Lee's lines we'll be
+cut to pieces."
+
+"I think he's right in both respects, although I feel sure that some kind
+of a movement will soon be attempted.  But Dick, a mail from the west has
+arrived and here is a letter for you."
+
+He handed the lad a large square envelope, addressed in tall, slanting
+script, and Dick knew at once that it was from his mother.  He seized it
+eagerly, and Colonel Winchester, suppressing the wish to know what was
+inside, turned away.
+
+          *          *          *          *
+
+I have not heard from my dearest boy since the terrible battles in the
+east [Mrs. Mason wrote], but I hope and pray that you have come safely
+through them.  You have escaped so many dangers that I feel you must
+escape all the rest.  The news reaches us that the fighting in Virginia
+has been of the most dreadful character, but when it arrives in
+Pendleton it has two meanings.  Those of our little town who are for the
+Confederacy say General Grant's losses have been so enormous that he can
+go no farther, and that the last and greatest effort of the North has
+failed.
+
+Those who sympathize with the Union say General Lee has been reduced
+so greatly that he must be crushed soon and with him the Confederacy.
+As you know, I wish the latter to be true, but I suspect that the truth
+is somewhere between the two statements.
+
+But the truth either way brings me great grief.  I cannot hate the
+Southern people.  We are Southern ourselves in all save this war, and,
+although our dear little town is divided in feeling, I have received
+nothing but kindness from those on the other side.  Dr. Russell often
+asks about you.  He says you were the best Latin scholar in the Academy,
+and he expects you to have a great future, as a learned man, after the
+war.  He speaks oftenest of you and Harry Kenton, and I believe that
+you two were his favorite pupils.  He says that Harry's is the best
+mathematical mind he has ever found in his long years of teaching.
+
+Your room remains just as it was when you left.  Juliana brushes and airs
+it every day, and expects at any time to see her young Master Dick come
+riding home.  She keeps in her mind two pictures of you, absolutely
+unlike.  In one of these pictures you are a great officer, carrying much
+of the war's weight on your shoulders, consulted continually by General
+Grant, who goes wrong only when he fails to take your advice.  In the
+other you are a little boy whom she alternately scolds and pets.  And it
+may be that I am somewhat like Juliana in this respect.
+
+The garden is very fine this year.  The vegetables were never more
+plentiful, and never of a finer quality.  I wish you were here for your
+share.  It must be a trial to have to eat hard crackers and tough beef
+and pork day after day.  I should think that you would grow to hate
+the sight of them.  Sam, the colored man who has been with us so long,
+has proved as faithful and trustworthy as Juliana.  He makes a most
+excellent farmer, and the yield of corn in the bottom land is going to
+be amazing.
+
+They say that since the Federal successes in the West the operations of
+Skelly's band of guerrillas have become bolder, but he has not threatened
+Pendleton again.  They say also that a little farther south a band of
+like character, who call themselves Southern, under a man named Slade,
+are ravaging, but I suppose that you, who see great generals and great
+armies daily, are not much concerned about outlaws.
+
+Always keep your feet dry and warm if you can, and never fail to spread
+a blanket between you and the damp grass.  Give my respects to Colonel
+Winchester.  Tell him that we hear of him now and then in Kentucky and
+that we hear only good.  Don't forget about the blanket.
+
+          *          *          *          *
+
+There was more, but it was these passages over which Dick lingered
+longest.
+
+He read the letter three times--letters were rare in those years, and men
+prized them highly--and put it away in his strongest pocket.  Colonel
+Winchester was standing by the edge of the brook, and Dick, saluting him,
+said:
+
+"My mother wishes me to deliver to you her respects and best wishes."
+
+A flush showed through the tan of the colonel's face, and Dick, noticing
+it, was startled by a sudden thought.  At first his feeling was jealousy,
+but it passed in an instant, never to come again.  There was no finer man
+in the world than Colonel Winchester.
+
+"She is well," he added, "and affairs could go no better at Pendleton."
+
+"I am glad," said Colonel Winchester simply.  Then he turned to a man
+with very broad shoulders and asked:
+
+"How are the new lads coming on?"
+
+"Very well, sir," replied Sergeant Daniel Whitley.  "Some of 'em are a
+little awkward yet, and a few are suffering from change of water, but
+they're good boys and we can depend on 'em, sir, when the time comes."
+
+"Especially since you have been thrashing 'em into shape for so many days,
+sergeant."
+
+"Thank you, sir."
+
+An orderly came with a message for Colonel Winchester, who left at once,
+but Dick and the sergeant, his faithful comrade and teacher, stood beside
+the stream.  They could easily see the bathers farther down, splashing in
+the water, pulling one another under, and, now and then, hurling a man
+bodily into the pool.  They were all boys to the veteran.  Many of them
+had been trained by him, and his attitude toward them was that of a
+school teacher toward his pupils.
+
+"You have ears that hear everything, sergeant," said Dick.  "What is this
+new movement that I've heard two or three men speak of?  Something sudden
+they say."
+
+"I've heard too," replied Sergeant Whitley, "but I can't guess it.
+Whatever it is, though, it's coming soon.  There's a lot of work going on
+at a point farther down the line, but it's kept a secret from the rest
+of us here."
+
+The sergeant went away presently, and Dick, going down stream, joined
+some other young officers in a pool.  He lay on the bank afterward, but,
+shortly after dark, Colonel Winchester returned, gave an order, and the
+whole regiment marched away in the dusk.  Dick felt sure that the event
+Sergeant Whitley had predicted was about to happen, but the colonel gave
+no hint of its nature, and he continued to wonder, as they advanced
+steadily in the dusk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE WOMAN AT THE HOUSE
+
+The men marched on for a long time, and, after a while, they heard the
+hum of many voices and the restless movements that betokened the presence
+of numerous troops.  Dick, who had dismounted, walked forward a little
+distance with Colonel Winchester, and, in the moonlight, he was able
+to see that a large division of the army was gathered near, resting on
+its arms.  It was obvious that the important movement, of which he had
+been hearing so much, was at hand, but the colonel volunteered nothing
+concerning its nature.
+
+The troops were allowed to lie down, and, with the calmness that comes
+of long experience, they soon fell asleep.  But the officers waited and
+watched, and Dick saw other regiments arriving.  Warner, who had pushed
+through some bushes, came back and said in a whisper:
+
+"I've seen a half-dozen great mounds of fresh earth."
+
+"Earth taken out to make a trench, no doubt," said Dick.
+
+But Warner shook his head.
+
+"There's too much of it," he said, "and it's been carried too far to the
+rear.  In my opinion extensive mining operations have been going on here."
+
+"For what?" asked Pennington.  "Not for silver or gold.  We're no
+treasure hunters, and besides, there's none here."
+
+Warner shook his head again.
+
+"I don't know," he replied, "but I'm quite sure that it has something to
+do, perhaps all to do, with the movement now at hand.  To the right of us,
+regiments, including several of colored troops, are already forming in
+line of battle, and I've no doubt our turn will come before long."
+
+"We must be intending to make an attack," said Dick, "but I don't suppose
+we'll move until day."
+
+He had learned long since that night attacks were very risky.  Friend was
+likely to fire into friend and the dusk and confusion invariably forbade
+victory.  But the faculties that create anxiety and alarm had been dulled
+for the time by immense exertions and dangers, and he placidly awaited
+the event, whatever it might be.
+
+"What time is it?" asked Pennington.
+
+"Half past three in the morning," replied Dick, who was able to see the
+face of his watch.
+
+"Not such a long wait then.  Day comes early this time of the year."
+
+"You lads can sit down and make yourselves comfortable," said Colonel
+Winchester.  "It's desirable for you to be as fresh as possible when
+you're wanted.  I'm glad to see the men sleeping.  They'll receive a
+signal in ample time."
+
+The young officers followed his suggestion, but they kept very wide awake,
+talking for a little while in whispers and then sinking away into
+silence.  The noise from the massed troops near them decreased also
+and Dick's curiosity began to grow again.  He stood up, but he saw no
+movement, nothing to indicate the nature of any coming event.  He looked
+at his watch again.  Dawn was almost at hand.  A narrow band of gray
+would soon rim the eastern hills.  An aide arrived, gave a dispatch to
+Colonel Winchester, and quickly passed on.
+
+The men were awakened and stood up, shaking the sleep from their eyes and
+then, through habit, looking to their arms and ammunition.  The thread of
+gray showed in the east.
+
+"Whatever it is, it will come soon," whispered Warner to Dick.
+
+The gray thread broadened and became a ribbon of silver.  The silver,
+as it widened, was shot through with pink and red and yellow, the colors
+of the morning.  Dick caught a glimpse of massed bayonets near him,
+and of the Southern trenches rising slowly out of the dusk not far away.
+Then the earth rocked.
+
+He felt a sudden violent and convulsive movement that nearly threw him
+from his feet, and the whole world in front of him blazed with fire,
+as if a volcano, after a long silence, had burst suddenly into furious
+activity.  Black objects, the bodies of men, were borne upon the mass of
+shooting flames, and the roar was so tremendous that it was heard thirty
+miles away.
+
+Dick had been expecting something, but no such red dawn as this, and when
+the fires suddenly sank, and the world-shaking crash turned to echoes he
+stood for a few moments appalled.  He believed at first that a magazine
+had exploded, but, as the dawn was rapidly advancing, he beheld in front
+of them, where Southern breastworks had stood, a vast pit two or three
+hundred feet long and more than thirty feet deep.  At the bottom of it,
+although they could not be seen through the smoke, lay the fragments of
+Confederate cannon and Confederate soldiers who had been blown to pieces.
+
+"A mine breaking the rebel line!" cried Warner, "and our men are to
+charge through it!"
+
+Trumpets were already sounding their thrilling call, and blue masses,
+before the smoke had lifted, were rushing into the pit, intending to
+climb the far side and sever the Southern line.  But Colonel Winchester
+did not yet give the word to his own regiment, and Dick knew that they
+were to be held in reserve.
+
+Into the great chasm went white troops and black troops, charging
+together, and then Dick suddenly cried in horror.  Those were veterans on
+the other side, and, recovering quickly from the surprise, they rushed
+forward their batteries and riflemen.  Mahone, a little, alert man,
+commanded them, and in an instant they deluged the pit, afterward famous
+under the name of "The Crater," with fire.  The steep slope held back the
+Union troops and from the edges everywhere the men in gray poured a storm
+of shrapnel and canister and bullets into the packed masses.
+
+Colonel Winchester groaned aloud, and looked at his men who were eager to
+advance to the rescue, but it was evident to Dick that his orders held
+him, and they stood in silence gazing at the appalling scene in the
+crater.  A tunnel had been run directly under the Confederates, and then
+a huge mine had been exploded.  All that part was successful, but the
+Union army had made a deep pit, more formidable than the earthwork itself.
+
+Never had men created a more terrible trap for themselves.  The name,
+the crater, was well deserved.  It was a seething pit of death filled
+with smoke, and from which came shouts and cries as the rim of it blazed
+with the fire of those who were pouring in such a stream of metal.
+Inside the pit the men could only cower low in the hope that the
+hurricane of missiles would pass over their heads.
+
+"Good God!" cried Dick.  "Why don't we advance to help them!"
+
+"Here we go now, and we may need help ourselves!" said Warner.
+
+Again the trumpets were sending forth their shrill call to battle and
+death, and, as the colonel waved his sword, the regiment charged forward
+with others to rescue the men in the crater.  A bright sun was shining
+now, and the Southern leaders saw the heavy, advancing column.  They were
+rapidly bringing up more guns and more riflemen, and, shifting a part of
+their fire, a storm of death blew in the faces of those who would go to
+the rescue.
+
+As at Cold Harbor, the men in blue could not live before such a fire at
+close quarters, and the regiments were compelled to recoil, while those
+who were left alive in the crater surrendered.  The trumpets sounded the
+unwilling call to withdraw, and the Winchester men, many of them shedding
+tears of grief and rage, fell back to their old place, while from some
+distant point, rising above the dying fire of the cannon and rifles,
+came the long, fierce rebel yell, full of defiance and triumph.
+
+The effect upon Dick of the sight in the crater was so overwhelming that
+he was compelled to lie down.
+
+"Why do we do such things?" he exclaimed, after the faintness passed.
+"Why do we waste so many lives in such vain efforts?"
+
+"We have to try," replied Warner, gloomily.  "The thing was all right as
+far as it went, but it broke against a hedge of fire and steel, crowning
+a barrier that we had created for ourselves."
+
+"Let's not talk about it," said Pennington, who had been faint too.
+"It's enough to have seen it.  I am going to blot it out of my mind if I
+can."
+
+But not one of the three was ever able wholly to forget that hideous
+dawn.  Luckily the Winchesters themselves had suffered little, but they
+were quite content to remain in their old place by the brook, where the
+next day a large man in civilian dress introduced himself to Dick.
+
+"Perhaps you don't remember me, Mr. Mason," he said, "but in such times
+as these it's easy to forget chance acquaintances."
+
+Dick looked at him closely.  He was elderly, with heavy pouches under his
+eyes and a rotund figure, but he looked uncommonly alert and his pale
+blue eyes had a penetrating quality.  Then Dick recalled him.
+
+"You're Mr. Watson, the contractor," he said.
+
+"Right.  Shake hands."
+
+Dick shook his hand, and he noticed that, while it was fat, it was strong
+and dry.  He hated damp hands, which always seemed to him to have a slimy
+touch, as if their owner were reptilian.
+
+"I suppose business is good with you, Mr. Watson," he said.
+
+"It couldn't be better, and such affairs as the one I witnessed this
+morning mean more.  But doubtless I have grieved over it as much as you.
+I may profit by the great struggle, but I have not wished either the
+war or its continuance.  Someone must do the work I am doing.  You're a
+bright boy, Lieutenant Mason, and I want you still to bear in mind the
+hint that I gave you once in Washington."
+
+"I don't recall it, this instant."
+
+"That to go into business with me is a better trade than fighting."
+
+"I thank you for the offer, but my mind turns in other directions.
+I'm not depreciating your occupation, Mr. Watson, but I'm interested in
+something else."
+
+"I knew that you were not, Lieutenant Mason.  You have too much sense.
+Your kind could not fight if my kind did not find the sinews, and after
+the war the woods will be full of generals, and colonels and majors who
+will be glad to get jobs from men like me."
+
+"I've no doubt of it," said Dick, "but what happened this morning made me
+think the war is yet far from over."
+
+"We shall see what we shall see, but if you ever want a friend write to
+me in Washington.  General delivery, there will do.  Good-by."
+
+"Good-by," said Dick, and, as he watched the big man walk away, he felt
+that he was beginning to understand him.  He had never been interested
+greatly in mercantile pursuits.  Public and literary life and the soil
+were the great things to him.  Now he realized that the vast strength
+of the North, a strength that could survive any number of defeats, lay
+largely in her trade and commerce.  The South, almost stationary upon the
+soil, had fallen behind, and no amount of skill and courage could save
+her.
+
+Colonel Winchester gave the young officers who had been awake all night
+permission to sleep, and Dick was glad to avail himself of it.  He still
+felt weak, and ill, and, with a tender smile, remembering his mother's
+advice about the blanket, he spread one in the shade of a small oak and
+lay down upon it.
+
+Despite the terrible repulse of the morning most of the men had regained
+their usual spirits.  Several were playing accordions, and the others
+were listening.  The Winchesters were known as a happy regiment, because
+they had an able colonel, strong but firm, efficient and tactful minor
+officers.  They seldom got into mischief, and always they pooled their
+resources.
+
+One lad was reading now to a group from a tattered copy of "Les
+Miserables," which had just reached them.  He was deep in Waterloo and
+Dick heard their comments.
+
+"You wait till the big writers begin to tell about Chickamauga and
+Gettysburg and Shiloh," said one.  "They'll class with Waterloo or ahead
+of it, and the French and English never fought any such campaign as that
+when Grant came down through the Wilderness.  What's that about the
+French riding into the sunken road?  I'm willin' to bet it was nothing
+but a skirmish beside Pickett's charge at Gettysburg."
+
+"And both failed," said Warner.  "There are always brave men on every
+side in any war.  I don't know whether Napoleon was right or wrong--
+I suppose he was wrong at that time--but it always makes me feel sad to
+read of Waterloo."
+
+"Just as a lot of our own people were grieved at the death of Stonewall
+Jackson, although next to Lee he was our most dangerous foe," said
+Pennington.
+
+The reader resumed, and, although he was interrupted from time to time
+by question or comment, his monotone was pleasant and soothing, and Dick
+fell asleep.  When he awoke his nerves were restored, and he could think
+of the crater without becoming faint again.
+
+That night Colonel Hertford of the cavalry came to their camp and talked
+with Colonel Winchester in the presence of Dick and his comrades of the
+staff.  The disastrous failure of the morning, so the cavalryman said,
+had convinced all the generals that Lee's trenches could not be forced,
+and the commander-in-chief was turning his eye elsewhere.  While the
+deadlock before Petersburg lasted he would push the operations in some
+other field.  He was watching especially the Valley of Virginia, where
+Early, after his daring raid upon the outskirts of Washington, was being
+pursued by Sheridan, though not hard enough in the opinion of General
+Grant.
+
+"It's almost decided that help will be sent to Sheridan," said Hertford,
+"and in that event my regiment is sure to go.  Yours has served as a
+mounted regiment, and I think I have influence enough to see that it is
+sent again as cavalry, if you wish."
+
+Colonel Winchester accepted the offer gladly, and his young officers,
+in all eagerness, seconded him.  They were tiring of inactivity, and of
+the cramped and painful life in the trenches.  To be on horseback again,
+riding over hills and across valleys, seemed almost Heaven to them, and,
+as Colonel Hertford walked away, earnest injunctions to use his influence
+to the utmost followed him.
+
+"It will take the sight of the crater from my mind," said Warner.
+"That's one reason why I want to go."
+
+Dick, searching his own mind, concluded it was the chief reason with him,
+although he, too, was eager enough for a more spacious life than that of
+the trench.
+
+"I'm going to wish so hard for it," said Pennington, "that it'll come
+true."
+
+Whether Pennington's wish had any effect or not, they departed two days
+later, three mounted regiments under the general command of Hertford,
+his right as a veteran cavalry leader.  All regiments, despite new men,
+had been reduced greatly by the years of fighting, and the three combined
+did not number more than fifteen hundred horse.  But there was not one
+among them from the oldest to the youngest who did not feel elation as
+they rode away on the great curve that would take them into the Valley
+of Virginia.
+
+"It's glorious to be on a horse again, with the world before you,"
+said Pennington.  "I was born horseback, so to speak, and I never had to
+do any walking until I came to this war.  The great plains and the free
+winds that blow all around the earth for me."
+
+"But you don't have rivers and hills and forests like ours," said Dick.
+
+"I know it, but I don't miss them.  I suppose it's what you're used to
+that you like.  I like a horizon that doesn't touch the ground anywhere
+within fifteen or eighteen miles of me.  And think of seeing a buffalo
+herd, as I have, that's all day passing you, a million of 'em, maybe!"
+
+"And think of being scalped by the Sioux or Cheyennes, as your people out
+there often are," said Warner.
+
+Pennington took off his cap and disclosed an uncommonly thick head of
+hair.
+
+"You see that I haven't lost mine yet," he said.  "If a fellow can live
+through big battles as I've lived through 'em he can escape Sioux and
+Cheyennes."
+
+"So you should.  Look back now, and you can see the armies face to face."
+
+They were on the highest hill, and all the cavalry had turned for a last
+glance.  Dick saw again the flashes from occasional rifle fire, and a
+dark column of smoke still rising from a spot which he knew to be the
+crater.  He shuddered, and was glad when the force, riding on again,
+passed over the hill.  Before them now stretched a desolated country,
+trodden under foot by the armies, and his heart bled again for Virginia,
+the most reluctant of all the states to secede, and the greatest of them
+all to suffer.
+
+Colonel Hertford, Colonel Winchester, and the colonel of the third
+regiment, a Pennsylvanian named Bedford, rode together and their young
+officers were just behind.  All examined the country continually through
+glasses to guard against ambush.  Stuart was gone and Forrest was far
+away, but they knew that danger from the fierce riders of the South was
+always present.  Just when the capital seemed safest Early's men had
+appeared in its very suburbs, and here in Virginia, where the hand of
+every man and of every woman and child also was against them, it was wise
+to watch well.
+
+As they rode on the country was still marked by desolation.  The fields
+were swept bare or trampled down.  Many of the houses and barns and all
+the fences had been burned.  The roads had been torn up by the passage of
+artillery and countless wagons.  All the people seemed to have gone away.
+
+But when they came into rougher and more wooded regions they were shot at
+often by concealed marksmen.  A half-dozen troopers were killed and more
+wounded, and, when the cavalrymen forced a path through the brush in
+pursuit of the hidden sharpshooters, they found nothing.  The enemy
+fairly melted away.  It was easy enough for a rifleman, knowing every
+gully and thicket, to send in his deadly bullet and then escape.
+
+"Although it's merely the buzzing and stinging of wasps," said Warner,
+"I don't like it.  They can't stop our advance, but I hate to see any
+good fellow of ours tumbled from his horse."
+
+"Makes one think of that other ride we took in Mississippi," said Dick.
+
+"In one way, yes, but in others, no.  This is hard, firm ground, and we're
+not persecuted by mosquitoes.  Nor is the country suitable for an ambush
+by a great force.  Ouch, that burnt!"
+
+A bullet fired from a thicket had grazed Warner's bridle hand.  Dick was
+compelled to laugh.
+
+"You're free from mosquitoes, George," he said, "but there are still
+little bullets flying about, as you see."
+
+A dozen cavalrymen were sent into the thicket, but the sharpshooter was
+already far away.  Colonel Hertford frowned and said:
+
+"Well, I suppose it's the price we have to pay, but I'd like to see the
+people to whom we have to pay it."
+
+"Not much chance of that," said Colonel Winchester.  "The Virginians know
+their own ground and the lurking sharpshooters won't fire until they're
+sure of a safe retreat."
+
+But as they advanced the stinging fire became worse.  There was no
+Southern force in this part of the country strong enough to meet them in
+open combat, but there was forest and thicket sufficient to shelter many
+men who were not only willing to shoot, but who knew how to shoot well.
+Yet they never caught anybody nor even saw anybody.  A stray glimpse or
+two of a puff of smoke was the nearest they ever came to beholding an
+enemy.
+
+It became galling, intolerable.  Three more men were killed and the
+number of wounded was doubled.  The three colonels held a consultation,
+and decided to extend groups of skirmishers far out on either flank.
+Dick was chosen to lead a band of thirty picked men who rode about a mile
+on the right, and he had with him as his second, and, in reality, as
+his guide and mentor in many ways, the trusty Sergeant Whitley.  It was
+altogether likely that Colonel Winchester would not have sent Dick unless
+he had been able to send the wise sergeant with him.
+
+"While you are guarding us from ambush," he said to Dick, "be sure you
+don't fall into an ambush yourself."
+
+"Not while Whitley, here, is with us," replied Dick.  "He learned while
+out on the plains, not only to have eyes in the back of his head, but to
+have 'em in the sides of it as well.  In addition he can hear the fall of
+a leaf a mile away."
+
+The sergeant shook his head and uttered an emphatic no in protest,
+but in his heart he was pleased.  He was a sergeant who liked being a
+sergeant, and he was proud of all his wilderness and prairie lore.
+
+Dick gave the word and the little troop galloped away to the right,
+zealous in its task and beating up every wood and thicket for the hidden
+riflemen who were so dangerous.  At intervals they saw the cavalry force
+riding steadily on, and again they were hidden from it by forest or bush.
+More than an hour passed and they saw no foe.  Dick concluded that the
+sharpshooters had been scared off by the flanking force, and that they
+would have no further trouble with them.  His spirits rose accordingly
+and there was much otherwise to make them rise.
+
+It was like Heaven to be on horseback in the pleasant country after being
+cramped up so much in narrow trenches, and there was the thrill of coming
+action.  They were going to join Sheridan and where he rode idle moments
+would be few.
+
+"Ping!" a bullet whistled alarmingly near his head and then cut leaves
+from a sapling beyond him.  The young lieutenant halted the troop
+instantly, and Sergeant Whitley pointed to a house just visible among
+some trees.
+
+"That's where it came from, and, since it hasn't been followed by a
+second, it's likely that only one man is there, and he is lying low,
+waiting a chance for another bullet," he said.
+
+"Then we'll rout him out," said Dick.
+
+He divided his little troop, in order that it could approach the house
+from all sides, and then he and the sergeant and six others advanced
+directly in front.  He knew that if the marksman were still hidden inside
+he would not fire now, but would seek rather to hide, since he could
+easily observe from a window that the building was surrounded.
+
+It was a small house, but it was well built and evidently had been
+occupied by people of substance.  It was painted white, except the
+shutters which were green, and a brick walk led to a portico, with fine
+and lofty columns.  There was nobody outside, but as the shutters were
+open it was probable that someone was inside.
+
+Dick disliked to force an entrance at such a place, but he had been sent
+out to protect the flank and he could not let a rifleman lie hidden there,
+merely to resume his deadly business as soon as they passed on.  They
+pushed the gate open and rode upon the lawn, an act of vandalism that
+he regretted, but could not help.  They reached the door without any
+apparent notice being taken of them, and as the detachments were
+approaching from the other sides, Dick dismounted and knocked loudly.
+Receiving no answer, he bade all the others dismount.
+
+"Curley, you hold the horses," he said, "and Dixon, you tell the men
+in the other detachments to seize anybody trying to escape.  Sergeant,
+you and I and the others will enter the house.  Break in the lock with
+the butt of your rifle, sergeant!  No, I see it's not locked!"
+
+He turned the bolt, and, the door swinging in, they passed into an empty
+hall.  Here they paused and listened, which was a wise thing for a man to
+do when he entered the house of an enemy.  Dick's sense of hearing was
+not much inferior to that of the sergeant, and while at first they heard
+nothing, they detected presently a faint click, click.  He could not
+imagine what made the odd sound, and, listening as hard as he could,
+he could detect no other with it.
+
+He pushed open a door that led into the hall and he and his men entered
+a large room with windows on the side, opening upon a rose garden.  It
+was a pleasant room with a high ceiling, and old-fashioned, dignified
+furniture.  A blaze of sunlight poured in from the windows, and, where a
+sash was raised, came the faint, thrilling perfume of roses, a perfume
+to which Dick was peculiarly susceptible.  Yet, for years afterward, the
+odor of roses brought back to him that house and that room.
+
+He thought at first that the room, although the faint clicking noise
+continued, contained no human being.  But presently he saw sitting at a
+table by the open window a woman whose gray dress and gray hair blended
+so nearly with the gray colors of the chamber that even a soldier could
+have been excused for not seeing her at once.  Her head and body were
+perfectly still, but her hands were moving rapidly.  She was knitting,
+and it was the click of her needles that they had heard.
+
+She did not look up as Dick entered, and, taking off his cap, he stood,
+somewhat abashed.  He knew at once by her dress and face, and the dignity,
+disclosed even by the manner in which she sat, that she was a great lady,
+one of those great ladies of old Virginia who were great ladies in fact.
+She was rather small, Martha Washington might have looked much like her,
+and she knitted steadily on, without showing by the least sign that she
+was aware of the presence of Union soldiers.
+
+A long and embarrassed silence followed.  Dick judged that she was about
+sixty-five years of age, though she seemed strong and he felt that she
+was watching them alertly from covert eyes.  There was no indication that
+anyone else was in the building, but it did not seem likely that
+a great lady of Virginia would be left alone in her house, with
+a Union force marching by.
+
+He approached, bowed and said:
+
+"Madame!"
+
+She raised her head and looked at him slowly from head to foot, and then
+back again.  They were fierce old eyes, and Dick felt as if they burned
+him, but he held his ground knowing that he must.  Then she turned back
+to her knitting, and the needles clicked steadily as before.
+
+"Madame!" repeated Dick, still embarrassed.
+
+She lifted the fierce old eyes.
+
+"I should think," she said, "that the business of General Grant's
+soldiers was to fight those of General Lee rather than to annoy lone
+women."
+
+Dick flushed, but angry blood leaped in his veins.
+
+"Pardon me, madame," he said, "but we have not come here to annoy a
+woman.  We were fired upon from this house.  The man who did it has had
+no opportunity to escape, and I'm sure that he's still concealed within
+these walls."
+
+"Seek and ye shall--not find," she half quoted.
+
+"I must search the house."
+
+"Proceed."
+
+"First question her," the sergeant whispered in the young lieutenant's
+ear.
+
+Dick nodded.
+
+"Pardon me, madame," he said, "but I must obtain information from you.
+This is war, you know."
+
+"I have had many rude reminders that it is so."
+
+"Where is your husband?"
+
+She pointed upward.
+
+"Forgive me," said Dick impulsively.  "I did not intend to recall a
+grief."
+
+"Don't worry.  You and your comrades will never intrude upon him there."
+
+"Perhaps you have sons here in this house?"
+
+"I have three, but they are not here."
+
+"Where are they?"
+
+"One fell with Jackson at Chancellorsville.  It was a glorious death,
+but he is not dead to me.  I shall always see him, as he was when he went
+away, a tall, strong man with brown hair and blue eyes.  Another fell in
+Pickett's charge at Gettysburg.  They told me that his body lay across
+one of the Union guns on Cemetery Hill.  That, too, was a glorious death,
+and like his brother he shall live for me as long as I live.  The third
+is alive and with Lee."
+
+She had stopped knitting, but now she resumed it, and, during another
+embarrassed pause, the click, click of the needles was the only sound
+heard in the room.
+
+"I regret it, madame," resumed Dick, "but we must search the house
+thoroughly."
+
+"Proceed," she said again in that tone of finality.
+
+"Take the men and look carefully through every room," said Dick to the
+sergeant.  "I will remain here."
+
+Whitley and the troopers withdrew quietly.  When the last of them had
+disappeared he walked to one of the windows and looked out.  He saw his
+mounted men beyond the rose garden on guard, and he knew that they were
+as vigilant on the other sides of the house.  The sharpshooter could
+not escape, and he was firmly resolved not to go without him.  Yet his
+conscience hurt him.  It was hard, too, to wait there, while the woman
+said not a word, but knitted on as placidly as if he did not exist.
+
+"Madame," he said at last, "I pray that you do not regard this as an
+intrusion.  The uses of war are hard.  We must search.  No one can regret
+it more than I do, in particular since I am really a Southerner myself,
+a Kentuckian."
+
+"A traitor then as well as an enemy."
+
+Dick flushed deeply, and again there was angry blood in his veins,
+but he restrained his temper.
+
+"You must at least allow to a man the liberty of choice," he said.
+
+"Provided he has the intelligence and honesty to choose right."
+
+Dick flushed again and bit his lip.  And yet he felt that a woman who had
+lost two sons before Northern bullets might well be unforgiving.  There
+was nothing more for him to say, and while he turned back to the window
+the knitting needles resumed their click, click.
+
+He waited a full ten minutes and he knew that the sergeant and his men
+were searching the house thoroughly.  Nothing could escape the notice of
+Whitley, and he would surely find the sharpshooter.  Then he heard their
+footsteps on a stairway and in another minute they entered the great
+room.  The face of the sergeant clearly showed disappointment.
+
+"There's nobody in the house," he said, "or, if he is he's so cleverly
+hidden, that we haven't been able to find him--that is so far.  Perhaps
+Madame here can tell us something."
+
+"I know nothing," she said, "but if I knew anything I would not tell it
+to you."
+
+The sergeant smiled sourly, but Dick said:
+
+"We must look again.  The man could not have escaped with the guard that
+we've set around the house."
+
+The sergeant and his men made another search.  They penetrated every
+place in which a human being could possibly hide.  They thrust their
+rifle barrels up the chimneys, and they turned down the bed covers,
+but again they found nothing.  Dick meanwhile remained as before in the
+large room, covertly watching the woman, lest she give a signal to the
+rifleman who must be somewhere.
+
+All the while the perfume of the roses was growing stronger and more
+penetrating, a light wind that had sprung up bringing it through the open
+window.  It thrilled Dick in some singular manner, and the strangeness of
+the scene heightened its effect.  It was like standing in a room in a dim
+old castle to which he had been brought as a prisoner, while the terrible
+old woman was his jailer.  Then the click of the knitting needles brought
+him back to the present and reality, but reality itself, despite the
+sunshine and the perfume of the roses, was heavy and oppressive.
+
+Dick apparently was looking from the window at the garden, brilliant with
+flowers, but in fact he was closely watching the woman out of the corner
+of his eye.  He had learned to read people by their own eyes, and he
+had seen how hers burned when she looked at them.  Strength of will and
+intent lie in the human eye.  Unless it is purposely veiled it tells the
+mind and power that are in the brain back of it.
+
+A fear of her crept slowly over him.  Perhaps the fear came because,
+obviously, she had no fear at all of him, or of Whitley or of the
+soldiers.  After their short dialogue she had returned to her old
+immobility.  Neither her body nor her head moved, only her hands, and
+the motion was wholly from the wrists.  She was one of the three Fates,
+knitting steadily and knitting up the destiny of men.
+
+He shook himself.  His was a sound and healthy mind, and he would allow
+no taint of morbidness to enter it.  He knew that there was nothing
+supernatural in the world, but he did believe that this woman with the
+gray hair, the burning eyes and the sharp chin, looking as if it had been
+cut from a piece of steel, was the possessor of uncanny wisdom.  Beyond a
+doubt she knew where the marksman was hidden, and, unless he watched her
+ceaselessly, she would give him a signal of some kind.
+
+Perhaps he was hidden in the garden among the rose bushes, and he would
+see her hand, if it was raised ever so slightly.  Maybe that was why the
+window was open, because the clearest glass even could obscure a signal
+meant to be faint, unnoticed by all except the one for whom it was
+intended.  He would have that garden searched thoroughly when the
+sergeant returned, and his heart beat with a throb of relief when he
+heard the stalwart Whitley's footstep once more at the door.
+
+"We have found nothing, sir," said the sergeant.  "We've explored every
+place big enough to hide a cat."
+
+"Search the garden out there," said Dick.  "Look behind every vine and
+bush."
+
+"You will at least spare my roses," said the woman.
+
+"They shall not be harmed," replied the lieutenant, "but my men must see
+what, if anything, is in the garden."
+
+She said no more.  She had not even raised her head when she spoke,
+and the sergeant and his men went into the garden.  They looked
+everywhere but they damaged nothing.  They did not even break off a
+single flower for themselves.  Dick had felt confident that after the
+failure to find the sharpshooter in the house he would be discovered
+there, but his net brought in no fish.
+
+He glanced at the sergeant, who happened to glance at him at the same
+time.  Each read the look in the eyes of the other.  Each said that they
+had failed, that they were wasting time, that there was nothing to be
+gained by hunting longer for a single enemy, that it was time to ride on,
+as flankers on the right of the main column.
+
+"Madame," said Dick politely, "we leave you now.  I repeat my regret at
+being compelled to search your house in this manner.  My duty required it,
+although we have found nobody."
+
+"You found nobody because nobody is here."
+
+"Evidently it is so.  Good-by.  We wish you well."
+
+"Good-by.  I hope that all of you will be shot by our brave troops before
+night!"
+
+The wish was uttered with the most extraordinary energy and fierceness.
+For the first time she had raised her level tone, and the lifted
+eyes that looked into Dick's were blazing with hate.  He uttered an
+exclamation and stepped back.  Then he recovered himself and said
+politely:
+
+"Madame, I do not wish any such ill to you or yours."
+
+But she had resumed her knitting, and Dick, without another word, walked
+out of the house, followed by the sergeant and his men.
+
+"I did not know a woman could be so vindictive," he said.
+
+"Our army has killed two of her sons," said the sergeant.  "To her we,
+like all the rest of our troops, are the men who killed them."
+
+"Perhaps that is so," said Dick thoughtfully, as he remounted.
+
+They rode beside the walk and out at the open gate.  Dick carried a
+silver whistle, upon which he blew a signal for the rest of his men to
+join them, and then he and the sergeant went slowly up the road.  He was
+deeply chagrined at the escape of the rifleman, and the curse of the
+woman lay heavily upon him.
+
+"I don't see how it was done," he said.
+
+"Nor I," said the sergeant, shaking his head.
+
+There was a sharp report, the undoubted whip-like crack of a rifle,
+and a man just behind, uttering a cry, held up a bleeding arm.  Dick had
+a lightning conviction that the bullet was intended for himself.  It was
+certain also that the shot had come from the house.
+
+"Back with me, sergeant!" he exclaimed.  "We'll get that fellow yet!"
+
+They galloped back, sprang from their horses, and rushed in, followed by
+the original little troop that had entered, Dick shouting a direction to
+the others to remain outside.  The fierce little old woman was sitting as
+before by the table, knitting, and she had never appeared more the great
+lady.
+
+"Once was enough," she said, shooting him a glance of bitter contempt.
+
+"But twice may succeed," Dick said.  "Sergeant, take the men and go
+through all the house again.  Our friend with the rifle may not have had
+time to get back into his hidden lair.  I will remain here."
+
+The sergeant and his men went out and he heard their boots on the
+stairway and in the other rooms.  The window near him was still open
+and the perfume of the roses came in again, strangely thrilling,
+overpowering.  But something had awakened in Dick.  The sixth, and even
+the germ of a seventh sense, which may have been instinct, were up and
+alive.  He did not look again at the rose garden, nor did he listen any
+longer to the footsteps of his men.
+
+He had concentrated all his faculties, the known, and the unknown,
+which may have been lying dormant in him, upon a single object.  He
+heard only the click of the knitting needles, and he saw only the small,
+strong hands moving swiftly back and forth.  They were very white,
+and they were firm like those of a young woman.  There were none of the
+heavy blue veins across the back that betoken age.
+
+The hands fascinated him.  He stared at them, fairly pouring his gaze
+upon them.  They were beautiful, as the hands of a great lady should be
+kept, and it was all the more wonderful then that the right should have
+across the back of it a faint gray smudge, so tiny that only an eye like
+his, and a concentrated gaze like his, could have seen it.
+
+He took four swift steps forward, seized the white hand in his and held
+it up.
+
+"Madame," he said, and now his tone was as fierce as hers had ever been,
+"where is the rifle?"
+
+She made no attempt to release her hand, nor did she move at all, save to
+lift her head.  Then her eyes, hard, defiant and ruthless, looked into
+his.  But his look did not flinch from hers.  He knew, and, knowing,
+he meant to act.
+
+"Madame," he repeated, "where is the rifle?  It is useless for you to
+deny."
+
+"Have I denied?"
+
+"No, but where is the rifle?"
+
+He was wholly unconscious of it, but his surprise and excitement were so
+great that his hand closed upon hers in a strong muscular contraction.
+Thrills of pain shot through her body, but she did not move.
+
+"The rifle!  The rifle!" repeated Dick.
+
+"Loose my hand, and I will give it to you."
+
+His hand fell away and she walked to the end of the room where a rug,
+too long, lay in a fold against the wall.  She turned back the fold
+and took from its hiding place a slender-barreled cap-and-ball rifle.
+Without a word she handed it to Dick and he passed his hand over the
+muzzle, which was still warm.
+
+He looked at her, but she gave back his gaze unflinching.
+
+"I could not believe it, were it not so," he said.
+
+"But it is so.  The bullets were not aimed well enough."  Dick felt an
+emotion that he did not wholly understand.
+
+"Madame," he said, "I shall take the rifle, and again say good-by.
+As before, I wish you well."
+
+She resumed her seat in the chair and took up the knitting.  But she
+did not repeat her wish that Dick and all his men be shot before night.
+He went out in silence, and gently closed the door behind him.  In the
+hall he met Sergeant Whitley and said:
+
+"We needn't look any farther.  I know now that the man has gone and we
+shall not be fired upon again from this house."
+
+The sergeant glanced at the rifle Dick carried and made no comment.
+But when they were riding away, he said:
+
+"And so that was it?"
+
+"Yes, that was it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+OVER THE HILLS
+
+
+Dick and his little troop rode on through the silent country, and they
+were so watchful and thorough that they protected fully the right flank
+of the marching column.  One or two shots were fired, but the reports
+came from such distant points that he knew the bullets had fallen short.
+
+But while he beat up the forests and fields for sharpshooters he was very
+thoughtful.  He had a mind that looked far ahead, even in youth, and the
+incident at the house weighed upon him.  He foresaw the coming triumph
+of the North and of the Union, a triumph won after many great disasters,
+but he remembered what an old man at a blacksmith shop in Tennessee had
+told him and his comrades before the Battle of Stone River.  Whatever
+happened, however badly the South might be defeated, the Southern soil
+would still be held by Southern people, and their bitterness would be
+intense for many a year to come.  The victor forgives easily, the
+vanquished cannot forget.  His imagination was active and vivid, often
+attaining truths that logic and reason do not reach, and he could
+understand what had happened at the house, where the ordinary mind would
+have been left wondering.
+
+It is likely also that the sergeant had a perception of it, though not as
+sharp and clear as Dick's.
+
+"When the war is over and the soldiers all go back, that is them that's
+livin'," he said, "it won't be them that fought that'll keep the grudge.
+It's the women who've lost their own that'll hate longest."
+
+"I think what you say is true, Whitley," said Dick, "but let's not talk
+about it any more.  It hurts."
+
+"Me too," said the sergeant.  "But don't you like this country that we're
+ridin' through, Mr. Mason?"
+
+"Yes, it's fine, but most of it has been cropped too hard.  I remember
+reading somewhere that George Washington himself said, away back in the
+last century, that slave labor, so careless and reckless, was ruining the
+soil of Virginia."
+
+"Likely that's true, sir, but it won't have much chance to keep on
+ruinin' it.  Wouldn't you say, sir, that was a Johnny on his horse up
+there?"
+
+"I can soon tell you," said Dick, unslinging his glasses.
+
+On their right was a hill towering above the rest.  The slopes were
+wooded densely, but the crest was quite bare.  Upon it sat a solitary
+figure on horseback, evidently watching the marching column.
+
+Dick put his glasses to his eyes.  The hill and the lone sentinel
+enlarged suddenly and came nearer.  The pulses in his temples beat hard.
+Although he could not see the watcher's face clearly, because he too was
+using glasses, he knew him instantly.  He would have known that heroic
+figure and the set of the shoulders and head anywhere.  He felt
+astonishment at first, but it passed quickly.  It was likely that they
+should meet again some time or other, since the field of battle had
+narrowed so much.
+
+Sergeant Whitley, who invariably saw everything, had seen Dick's slight
+start.
+
+"Someone you know, sir?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, sergeant.  It's my cousin, Harry Kenton.  You've heard me talk of
+him often.  A finer and braver and stronger fellow never lived.  He's
+using glasses too and I've no doubt he's recognized me."
+
+Dick suddenly waved his glasses aloft, and Harry Kenton replied in like
+manner.
+
+"He sees and knows me!" cried Dick.
+
+But the sergeant was very sober.  He foresaw that these youths, bound by
+such ties of blood and affection, might come into battle against each
+other.  The same thought was in Dick's mind, despite his pleasure at the
+distant view of Harry.
+
+"We exchanged shots in the Manassas campaign," said Dick.  "We were
+sheltered and we didn't know each other until several bullets had passed."
+
+"Three more horsemen have joined him," said the sergeant.
+
+"Those are his friends," said Dick, who had put the glasses back to his
+eyes.  "Look how they stand out against the sun!"
+
+The four horsemen in a row, at equal distances from one another, were
+enlarged against a brilliant background of red and gold.  Their attitude
+was impressive, as they sat there, unmoving, like statues cut in stone.
+They were in truth Harry and Dalton, St. Clair and Happy Tom, and farther
+on the Invincibles were marching, the two colonels at their head, to the
+Valley of Virginia to reinforce Early, and to make headway, if possible,
+against Sheridan.
+
+Harry was deeply moved.  Kinship and the long comradeship of youth count
+for much.  Perhaps for more in the South than anywhere else.  Stirred by
+a sudden emotion he took off his cap and waved it as a signal of hail and
+farewell.  The four removed their own caps and waved them also.  Then
+they turned their horses in unison, rode over the hill and were gone from
+Dick's sight.
+
+Sergeant Whitley was not educated, but his experience was vast, he knew
+men and he had the gift of sympathy.  He understood Dick's feelings.
+
+"All civil wars are cruel," he said.  "The killing of one's own people is
+worst of all."
+
+But as they went on, Dick's melancholy fell from him, and he had only
+pleasant recollections of the meeting.  Besides, the continued movement
+and freedom were inspiriting in the highest degree to youth.  Although
+it was August the day was cool, and the blue sky of Virginia was never
+brighter.  A refreshing breeze blew from dim, blue mountains that they
+could see far ahead, and, as they entered a wide stretch of open country
+where ambush was impossible, the trumpets called in the flankers.
+
+"We shall make the lower mountains about midnight, and we'd better camp
+then until dawn.  Don't you think so, gentlemen?" asked Colonel Hertford
+of his associate colonels, Winchester and Bedford.
+
+"The plan seems sound to me," replied Bedford, the Pennsylvanian.  "Of
+course, we want to reach Sheridan as soon as possible, but if we push
+the horses too hard we'll break them down."
+
+Dick had dropped back with Warner and Pennington, but he heard the
+colonels talking.
+
+"We all saw General Sheridan at the great battles in the West," he said.
+"I particularly remember how he planted himself and the batteries at
+Perryville and saved us from defeat, but he seems to be looming up so
+much more now in the East."
+
+"He's become the Stuart of our side," said Warner.  "I've heard some of
+the people at Washington don't believe in him, but he has General Grant's
+confidence and that's enough for me.  Not that I put military authority
+over civil rule, but war has to be fought by soldiers.  I look for lively
+times in the Valley of Virginia."
+
+"Anyway, the Lord has delivered me from the trenches at Petersburg,"
+said Pennington.  "Think of me, used to roaming over a thousand miles of
+plains, shut up between mud walls only four or five feet apart."
+
+"I believe that, with Sheridan, you're going to have all the roaming you
+want," said Dick.
+
+They passed silent farm houses, but took nothing from them.  Ample
+provision was carried on extra horses or their own, and the three
+colonels were anxious not to inflame the country by useless seizures.
+Twilight came, and the low mountains sank away in the dusk.  But they had
+already reached a higher region where nearly all the hills were covered
+with forest, and Colonel Hertford once more spread out the flankers,
+Dick and the sergeant, as before, taking the right with their little
+troop.
+
+The night was fortunately clear, almost as light as day, with a burnished
+moon and brilliant stars, and they did not greatly fear ambush.  Dick
+shrewdly reckoned that Early would need all his men in the valley, and,
+after the first day at sharpshooting, they would withdraw to meet greater
+demands.
+
+Nevertheless he took a rather wide circuit and came into a lonely portion
+of the hills, where the forest was unbroken, save for the narrow path on
+which they rode.  The sergeant dismounted once and examined the ground.
+
+"Nothing has passed here," he said, "and the woods and thickets are so
+dense that men can't ride through 'em."
+
+The path admitted of only two abreast, and the forest was so heavy that
+it shut out most of the moonlight.  But they rode on confidently, Dick
+and the sergeant leading.  If it had not been for the size of the trees,
+Dick would have thought that he was back in the Wilderness.  They heard
+now and then the wings of night birds among the leaves, and occasionally
+some small animal would scuttle across the path.  They forded a narrow
+but deep stream, its waters black from decayed vegetation, and continued
+to push on briskly through the unbroken forest, until the sergeant said
+in a low voice to Dick:
+
+"I think I hear something ahead of us."
+
+They pulled back on the reins so suddenly that those behind almost rode
+into them.  Then they sat there, a solid, compact little group, while
+Dick and the sergeant listened intently.
+
+"It's hoofbeats," said Dick, "very faint, because they are far away."
+
+"I think you are right, sir," said the sergeant.
+
+"But they're coming this way."
+
+"Yes, and at a steady pace.  No stops and no hesitation."
+
+"Which shows that it's somebody who doesn't fear any harm."
+
+"The beats are pretty solid.  A heavy man on a heavy horse."
+
+"About three hundred yards away, don't you think?"
+
+"About that, sir."
+
+"Maybe a farmer going home?"
+
+"Maybe, but I don't think so, sir."
+
+"At any rate, we'll soon see, because our unknown comes on without a
+break.  There he is now!"
+
+They had a comparatively clear view straight ahead, and the figure of a
+man and a horse emerged from the shadows.
+
+The sergeant raised his rifle, but, as the man came on without fear,
+he dropped it again.  Some strange effect of the moonlight exaggerated
+the rider and his horse, making both look gigantic, blending them
+together in such manner that a tremendous centaur seemed to be riding
+them down.  In an instant or two the general effect vanished and as a
+clear beam fell upon the man's face Dick uttered an exclamation of relief.
+
+"Shepard!" he said, and he felt then that he should have known before
+that it was Shepard who was coming.  He, alone of all men, seemed to have
+the gift of omniscience and omnipresence.  The spy drew his horse to a
+halt directly in front of him and saluted:
+
+"Lieutenant Mason, sir?" he said.
+
+"I'm glad it's you, Mr. Shepard," said Dick.  "I think that in this wood
+we'll need the hundred eyes that once belonged to Argus, but which he has
+passed on to you."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Shepard.
+
+But the man at whom he looked most was the sergeant, and the sergeant
+looked most at him.  One was a sergeant and the other was a spy, but
+each recognized in the other a king among men.  Eyes swept over powerful
+chests and shoulders and open, bold countenances, and signified approval.
+They had met before, but they were more than well met here in the
+loneliness and the dark, amid dangers, where skill and courage, and not
+rank, counted.  Then they nodded without speaking, as an Indian chief
+would to an Indian chief, his equal.
+
+"You were coming to meet us, Mr. Shepard?" said Dick.
+
+"I expected to find you on this path."
+
+"And you have something to tell?"
+
+"A small Confederate force is in the mountains, awaiting Colonel
+Hertford.  It is inferior to his in numbers, but it knows the country
+thoroughly and has the sympathy of all the inhabitants, who bring to it
+news of everything."
+
+"Do you know these Confederate troops?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  Their corps is a regiment called in General Lee's army the
+Invincibles, but it includes two other skeleton regiments.  Colonel
+Talbot who leads the Invincibles is the commander of them all.  He has,
+I should say, slightly less than a thousand men."
+
+"You know a good deal about this regiment called the Invincibles, do you
+not, Mr. Shepard?"
+
+"I do, sir.  Its colonel, Talbot, and its lieutenant-colonel, St. Hilaire,
+are as brave men as any that ever lived, and the regiment has an
+extraordinary reputation in the Southern army for courage.  Two of
+General Lee's young staff officers are also with them now."
+
+"Who are they?"
+
+"Lieutenant Harry Kenton and Lieutenant George Dalton."
+
+Dick with his troop rode at once to Colonel Hertford and reported.
+
+Colonel Hertford listened and then glanced at Dick.
+
+"Kenton is your cousin, I believe," he said.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Dick.  "He has been in the East all the time.
+Once in the second Manassas campaign we came face to face and fired at
+each other, although we did not know who was who then."
+
+"And now here you are in opposing forces again.  With the war converging
+as it is, it was more than likely that you should confront each other
+once more."
+
+"But I don't expect to be shooting at Harry, and I don't think he'll be
+shooting at me."
+
+"Will you ride into the woods again on the right, Mr. Shepard?" said
+Colonel Hertford.  "Perhaps you may get another view of this Confederate
+force.  Dick, you go with him.  Warner, you and Pennington come with me."
+
+Dick and Shepard entered the woods side by side, and the youth who had
+a tendency toward self-analysis found that his liking and respect for
+the spy increased.  The general profession of a spy might be disliked,
+but in Shepard it inspired no repulsion, rather it increased his
+heroic aspect, and Dick found himself relying upon him also.  He felt
+intuitively that when he rode into the forest with Shepard he rode into
+no danger, or if by any chance he did ride into danger, they would,
+under the guidance of the spy, ride safely out of it again.
+
+Shepard turned his horse toward the deeper forest, which lay on the left,
+and very soon they were out of sight of the main column, although the
+sound of hoofs and of arms, clinking against one another, still came
+faintly to them.  Yet peace, the peace for which Dick longed so ardently,
+seemed to dwell there in the woods.  The summer was well advanced and
+as the light winds blew, the leaves, already beginning to dry, rustled
+against one another.  The sound was pleasant and soothing.  He and Harry
+Kenton and other lads of their age had often heard it on autumn nights,
+when they roamed through the forests around Pendleton in search of the
+raccoon and the opossum.  It all came back to him with astonishing
+vividness and force.
+
+He was boy and man in one.  But he could scarcely realize the three years
+and more of war that had made him a man.  In one way it seemed a century,
+and in another it seemed but yesterday.  The water rose in his eyes at
+the knowledge that this same cousin who was like a brother to him,
+one with whom he had hunted, fished, played and swum, was there in the
+woods less than a mile away, and that he might be in battle with him
+again before morning.
+
+"You were thinking of your cousin, Mr. Kenton," said Shepard suddenly.
+
+"Yes, but how did you know?" asked Dick in surprise.
+
+"Because your face suddenly became melancholy--the moonlight is good,
+enabling me to read your look--and sadness is not your natural
+expression.  You recall that your cousin, of whom you think so much,
+is at hand with your enemies, and the rest is an easy matter of putting
+two and two together."
+
+"You're right in all you say, Mr. Shepard, but I wish Harry wasn't there."
+
+Shepard was silent and then Dick added passionately:
+
+"Why doesn't the South give up?  She's worn down by attrition.  She's
+blockaded hard and fast!  When she loses troops in battle she can't find
+new men to take their places!  She's short in food, ammunition, medicines,
+everything!  The whole Confederacy can't be anything but a shell now!
+Why don't they quit!"
+
+"Pride, and a lingering hope that the unexpected will happen.  Yes,
+we've won the war, Mr. Mason, but it's yet far from finished.  Many a
+good man will fall in this campaign ahead of us in the valley, and in
+other campaigns too, but, as I see it, the general result is already
+decided.  Nothing can change it.  Look between these trees, and you can
+see the Southern force now."
+
+Dick from his horse gazed into a valley down which ran a good turnpike,
+looking white in the moonlight.  Upon this road rode the Southern force
+in close ranks, but too far away, for any sound of their hoof beats to
+come to the watchers.  The moon which was uncommonly bright now colored
+them all with silver, and Dick, with his imaginative mind, easily turned
+them into a train of the knights of old, clad in glittering mail.
+They created such a sense of illusion and distance, time as well as space,
+that the peace of the moment was not disturbed.  It was a spectacle out
+of the past, rather than present war.
+
+"You are familiar with the country, of course," said Dick.
+
+"Yes," replied Shepard.  "Our road, as you know, is now running parallel
+with that on which the Southern force is traveling, with a broad ridge
+between.  But several miles farther on the ridge becomes narrower and the
+roads merge.  We're sure to have a fight there.  Like you, I'm sorry your
+cousin Harry Kenton is with them."
+
+"It seems that you and he know a good deal of each other."
+
+"Yes, circumstances have brought us into opposition again and again from
+the beginning of the war, but the same circumstances have made me know
+more about him than he does about me.  Yet I mean that we shall be
+friends when peace comes, and I don't think he'll oppose my wish."
+
+"He won't.  Harry has a generous and noble nature.  But he wouldn't stand
+being patronized, merely because he happened to be on the beaten side."
+
+"I shouldn't think of trying to do such a thing.  Now, we've seen enough,
+and I think we'd better go back to the colonels, with our news."
+
+They rode through the woods again, and, for most of the distance, there
+was no sound from the marching troops.  The wonderful feeling of peace
+returned.  The sky was as blue and soft as velvet.  The great stars
+glittered and danced, and the wind among the rustling leaves was like the
+soft singing of a violin.  At one point they crossed a little brook which
+ran so swiftly down among the trees that it was a foam of water.  They
+dismounted, drank hastily, and then let the horses take their fill.
+
+"I like these hills and forests and their clear waters," said Dick,
+"and judging by the appearance it must be a fine country to which we're
+coming."
+
+"It is.  It's something like your Kentucky Blue Grass, although it's
+smaller and it's hemmed in by sharper and bolder mountains.  But I should
+say that the Shenandoah Valley is close to a hundred and twenty miles
+long, and from twenty-five to forty miles wide, not including its spur,
+the Luray Valley, west of the Massanuttons."
+
+"As large as one of the German Principalities."
+
+"And as fine as any of them."
+
+"It's where Stonewall Jackson made that first and famous campaign of his."
+
+"And it's lucky for us that we don't have to face him there now.  Early
+is a good general, they say, but he's no Stonewall Jackson."
+
+"And we're to be led by Sheridan.  I think he saved us at Perryville in
+Kentucky, but they say he's become a great cavalry commander.  Do you
+know him, Mr. Shepard?"
+
+"Well.  A young man, and a little man.  Why, you'd overtop him more than
+half a head, Mr. Mason, but he has a great soul for battle.  He's the
+kind that will strike and strike, and keep on striking, and that's the
+kind we need now."
+
+"Here are our own men just ahead.  I see the three colonels riding
+together."
+
+They went forward swiftly and told what they had seen, Shepard also
+describing the nature of the ground ahead, and the manner in which the
+two roads converged.
+
+"Which column do you think will reach the junction first?" asked Colonel
+Hertford.
+
+"They'll come to it about the same time," replied Shepard.
+
+"And so a clash is unavoidable.  It was not our purpose to fight before
+we reached General Sheridan, but since the enemy wants it, it must be
+that way."
+
+Orders were issued for the column to advance as quietly as possible,
+while skirmishers were thrown out to prevent any ambush.  Shepard rode
+again into the forest but Dick remained with Warner and Pennington.
+Warner as usual was as cool as ice, and spoke in the precise, scholarly
+way that he liked.
+
+"We march parallel with the enemy," he said, "and yet we're bound to meet
+him and fight.  It's a beautiful mathematical demonstration.  The roads
+are not parallel in an exact sense but converge to a point.  Hence,
+it is not our wish, but the convergence of these roads that brings us
+together in conflict.  So we see that the greatest issues of our life are
+determined by mathematics.  It's a splendid and romantic study.  I wish
+you fellows would pay more attention to it."
+
+"Mathematics beautiful and romantic!" exclaimed Pennington.  "Why, George,
+you're out of your head!  There's nothing in the world I hate more than
+the sight of an algebra!"
+
+"The trouble is with you and not with the algebra.  You were alluding
+in a depreciatory manner to my head but it's your own head that fails.
+When I said algebra was a beautiful and romantic study I used the
+adjectives purposely.  Out of thousands of adjectives in the dictionary I
+selected those two to fit the case.  What could be more delightful than
+an abstruse problem in algebra?  You never know along what charming
+paths of the mind it will lead you.  Moreover there is over it a veil of
+mystery.  You can't surmise what delightful secrets it will reveal later
+on.  What will the end be?  What a powerful appeal such a question will
+always make to a highly intelligent and imaginative mind like mine!
+No poetry!  No beauty!  Why every algebraic problem from the very nature
+of its being is surcharged with it!  It's like the mystery of life itself,
+only in this case we solve the mystery!  And if I may change the metaphor,
+an algebraic formula is like a magnificent diamond, cutting its way
+through the thick and opaque glass, which represents the unknown!
+I long for the end of the war for many reasons, but chief among them is
+the fact that I may return to the romantic and illimitable fields of the
+mathematical problem!"
+
+"I didn't know anyone could ever become dithyrambic about algebra,"
+said Dick.
+
+"What's dithyrambic?" asked Pennington.
+
+"Spouting, Frank.  But George, as we know, is a queer fellow.  They grow
+'em in Vermont, where they love steep mountains, deep ravines and hard
+mathematics."
+
+They had been speaking in low tones, but now they ceased entirely.
+Shepard had come back from the forest, reporting that the junction of the
+roads was near, and the Confederate force was marching toward it at the
+utmost speed.
+
+The hostile columns might be in conflict in a half hour now, and the men
+prepared themselves.  Innumerable battles and skirmishes could never keep
+their hearts from beating harder when it became evident that they were to
+go under fire once more.  After the few orders necessary, there was no
+sound save that of the march itself.  Meanwhile the moon and stars were
+doing full duty, and the night remained as bright as ever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE FIGHT AT THE CROSSWAYS
+
+
+Colonel Hertford was near the head of the Union column, while the three
+youths rode a little farther back with Colonel Winchester, the regiment
+of Colonel Bedford bringing up the rear.  Just behind Dick was Sergeant
+Whitley, mounted upon a powerful bay horse.  The sergeant had shown
+himself such a woodsman and scout, and he was so valuable in these
+capacities that Colonel Winchester had practically made him an aide,
+and always kept him near for orders.
+
+Dick noticed now that the sergeant leaned a little forward in his saddle
+and was using his eyes and ears with all the concentration of the great
+plainsman that he was.  In that attitude he was a formidable figure, and,
+though he lacked the spy's subtlety and education, he seemed to have much
+in common with Shepard.
+
+As for Dick himself his nerves had not been so much on edge since he went
+into his first battle, nor had his heart beat so hard, and he knew it
+was because Harry Kenton and those comrades of his would be at the
+convergence of the roads, and they would meet, not in the confused
+conflict of a great battle, when a face might appear and disappear the
+next second, but man to man with relatively small numbers.  The moon
+was dimmed a little by fleecy clouds, but the silvery color, instead of
+vanishing was merely softened, and when Dick looked back at the Union
+column it, like the troop of the South, had the quality of a ghostly
+train.  But the clouds floated away and then the light gleamed on the
+barrels of the short carbines that the horsemen carried.  From a point on
+the other side of the forest came the softened notes of a trumpet and the
+great pulse in Dick's throat leaped.  Only a few minutes more and they
+would be at the meeting of the ways.
+
+Colonel Hertford sent a half dozen mounted skirmishers into the road,
+but the column moved forward at its even pace, still silvered in the
+moonlight, but ready for battle, wounds and death.  Sergeant Whitley
+whispered to Dick:
+
+"Other men than our own are moving in the forest.  I can hear the tread
+of horses' hoofs on the dry leaves and twigs at the far edge.  Our scouts
+should meet them in a moment or two."
+
+It came as the sergeant had predicted, and Dick saw a tiny flash of fire,
+not much larger than a pink dot in the woods, heard the sharp report of a
+rifle and then the crack of another rifle in reply.  Silence followed for
+an instant, but it was evident that the hostile forces were in touch and
+then in another moment or two the horses of the scouts crashed in the
+brush, as they rode back to the main column.  They had seen enough.
+
+Colonel Hertford gave the order and the entire Union force now advanced
+at a gallop.  Through the woods, narrowing so rapidly, came the swift
+beat of hoofs on the other side, and it was apparent that coincidence
+would bring the two forces to the point of convergence at the same time.
+The moonlight seemed to Dick to grow so bright and intense that it had
+almost the quality of sunlight.  Nature, in the absence of day, was
+making the field of battle as light as possible.
+
+"What's the lay of the land at the point of meeting?" he whispered
+hurriedly to Shepard who had ridden up by his side.
+
+"Almost level," came the quick response.
+
+A few more rapid hoofbeats and the shrouding woods between disappeared.
+One column saw another column, both clad in the moonlight, in Dick's
+fancy, all in silver mail.  The two forces wheeled and faced each other
+across the open space, their horses staring with red eyes, and the men
+looking intently at their opponents.  Both were oppressed for an instant
+or two by a deep and singular silence.
+
+Dick's eyes swept fearfully along the gray column of the South, and he
+saw the one whom he did not wish to see--at least not there--Harry Kenton
+himself, sitting on his bay horse with his friends around him.  The two
+elderly men must be Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector
+St. Hilaire, and the three youths beside Harry were surely St. Clair,
+Langdon and Dalton.
+
+As he looked, Colonel Leonidas Talbot raised his sword, and at the same
+time came the sharp command of Colonel Hertford.  Rifles and carbines
+flashed from either side across the open space, and two streams of
+bullets crossed.  In an instant the silver of the moonlight was hidden by
+clouds of smoke through which flashed the fire from hundreds of rifles
+and carbines.  All around Dick's ears was the hissing sound of bullets,
+like the alarm from serpents.
+
+The fire at close range was so deadly to both sides that holes were
+smashed in the mounted ranks.  The shrill screams of wounded horses,
+far more terrible than the cries of wounded men, struck like knife points
+on the drums of Dick's ears.  He saw Shepard's horse go down, killed
+instantly by a heavy bullet, but the spy himself leaped clear, and
+then Dick lost him in the smoke.  A bullet grazed his own wrist and he
+glanced curiously at the thin trickle of blood that came from it.  Yet,
+forgetting it the next instant, he waved his saber above his head,
+and began to shout to the men.
+
+Rifles and pistols emptied, the Southern horsemen were preparing to
+charge.  The lifting smoke disclosed a long line of tossing manes and
+flashing steel.  At either end of the line a shrill trumpet was sounding
+the charge, and the Northern bugles were responding with the same
+command.  The two forces were about to meet in that most terrible of all
+combats, a cavalry charge by either side, when enemies looked into the
+eyes of one another, and strong hands swung aloft the naked steel,
+glittering in the moonlight.
+
+"Bend low in the saddle," exclaimed the sergeant, "and then you'll miss
+many a stroke!"
+
+Dick obeyed promptly and their whole line swept forward over the grass to
+meet the men in gray who were coming so swiftly against them.  He saw a
+thousand sabers uplifted, making a stream of light, and then the two
+forces crashed together.  It seemed to him that it was the impact of one
+solid body upon another as solid, and then so much blood rushed to his
+head that he could not see clearly.  He was conscious only of a mighty
+crash, of falling bodies, sweeping sabers, that terrible neigh again of
+wounded horses, of sun-tanned faces, and of fierce eyes staring into his
+own, and then, as the red mist thinned a little, he became conscious that
+someone just before him was slashing at him with a long, keen blade.
+He bent yet lower, and the sword passed over him, but as he rose a little
+he cut back.  His edge touched only the air, but he uttered a gasp of
+horror as he saw Harry Kenton directly before him, and knew that they had
+been striking at each other.  He saw, too, the appalled look in Harry's
+eyes, who at the same time had recognized his opponent, and then, in the
+turmoil of battle, other horsemen drove in between.
+
+That shiver of horror swept over Dick once more, and then came relief.
+The charging horsemen had separated them in time, and he did not think it
+likely that the chances of battle would bring Harry and him face to face
+more than once.  Then the red blur enclosed everything and he was warding
+off the saber strokes of another man.  The air was yet filled with the
+noise of shouting men, and neighing horses, of heavy falls and the ring
+of steel on steel.  Neither gave way and neither could advance.  The
+three Union colonels rode up and down their lines encouraging their men,
+and the valiant Talbot and St. Hilaire were never more valiant than on
+that night.
+
+A combat with sabers cannot last long, and cavalry charges are soon
+finished.  North and South had met in the center of the open space,
+and suddenly the two, because all their force was spent, fell back from
+that deadly line, which was marked by a long row of fallen horses and
+men.  They reloaded their rifles and carbines and began to fire at one
+another, but it was at long range, and little damage was done.  They fell
+back a bit farther, the firing stopped entirely, and they looked at one
+another.
+
+It was perhaps the effect of the night, with its misty silver coloring,
+and perhaps their long experience of war, giving them an intuitive
+knowledge, that made these foes know nothing was to be gained by further
+combat.  They were so well balanced in strength and courage that they
+might destroy one another, but no one could march away from the field
+victorious.  Perhaps, too, it was a feeling that the God of Battles had
+already issued his decree in regard to this war, and that as many lives
+as possible should now be spared.  But whatever it was, the finger fell
+away from the trigger, the saber was returned to the scabbard, and they
+sat on their horses, staring at one another.
+
+Dick took his glasses from his shoulder and began to scan the hostile
+line.  His heart leaped when he beheld Harry in the saddle, apparently
+unharmed, and near him three youths, one with a red bandage about his
+shoulder.  Then he saw the two colonels, both erect men with long,
+gray hair, on their horses near the center of the line, and talking
+together.  One gestured two or three times as he spoke, and he moved his
+arm rather stiffly.
+
+The three Union colonels were in a little group not far from Dick,
+and they also were talking with one another.  Dick wondered what they
+would do, but he was saved from long wonderment by the call of a trumpet
+from the Southern force, and the appearance of a horseman not older than
+himself riding forward and bearing a white flag.
+
+"They want a truce," said Colonel Hertford.  "Go and meet them, Mason."
+
+Dick, willing enough, turned his horse toward the young man who, heavily
+tanned, was handsome, well-built and dressed with scrupulous care in a
+fine gray uniform.
+
+"My name is St. Clair," he said, "and I'm an officer on the staff of
+Colonel Leonidas Talbot, who commands the force behind me."
+
+"I think we've met once before," said Dick.  "My name is Mason, Richard
+Mason, and I am with Colonel Arthur Winchester, who commands one of the
+regiments that has just been fighting you."
+
+"It's so!  Upon my life it's so, and you're the same Dick Mason that's
+the cousin of our Harry Kenton, the fellow he's always talking about!
+He's on General Lee's staff, but he's been detached for temporary duty
+with us.  He's over there all right.  But I've come to tell you that
+Colonel Talbot, who commands us, offers a flag of truce to bury the dead.
+He sees that neither side can win, that to continue the battle would only
+involve us in mutual destruction.  He wishes, too, that I convey to your
+commander his congratulations upon his great skill and courage.  I may
+add, myself, Mr. Mason, that Colonel Talbot knows a brave man when he
+sees him."
+
+"I've no doubt the offer will be accepted.  Will you wait a moment?"
+
+"Certainly," replied St. Clair, giving his most elegant salute with his
+small sword.
+
+Dick went back to the Union colonels, and they accepted at once.  That
+long line of dead and wounded, and the mournful song of the wind through
+the trees, affected the colonels on both sides.  More flags of truce
+were hoisted, and the officers in blue or gray rode forward to meet one
+another, and to talk together as men who bore no hate in their hearts for
+gallant enemies.
+
+The troopers rapidly dug shallow graves with their bayonets in the soft
+soil, and the dead were laid away.  The feeling of friendship and also of
+curiosity among these stern fighters grew.  They were anxious to see and
+talk a little with men who had fought one another so hard more than three
+years.  Nearly all of them had lost blood at one time or another, and the
+venom of hate had gone out with it.
+
+Dick found Harry dismounted and standing with a group of officers,
+among whom were St. Clair and Langdon.  The two cousins shook hands with
+the greatest warmth.
+
+"Well, Dick," said Harry, "we didn't think to meet again in this way,
+did we?"
+
+"No, but both of us at least have come out of it alive, and unwounded.
+I'm sorry to see that your friend there is hurt."
+
+"It's nothing," said Langdon, whose left arm was in a hasty bandage.
+"A scratch only.  I'll be able to use my arm as well as ever three days
+from now."
+
+"Your force," said St. Clair, "was marching to reinforce General Sheridan
+in the Valley of Virginia.  I'm not asking for information, which of
+course you wouldn't give.  I'm merely stating the fact."
+
+"And yours," said Dick, "was marching to reinforce General Early in the
+same valley.  I, like you, am just making a statement."
+
+"We've met, but you haven't been able to stop us."
+
+"Nor have you been able to stop _us_."
+
+"And so it's checkmate."
+
+"Checkmate it is."
+
+"Why don't you fellows give up and go home?" exclaimed Dick, moved by
+an irresistible impulse.  "You know that your armies are wearing out,
+while ours are growing stronger!"
+
+"We couldn't think of such a thing," replied St. Clair, in a tone of
+cool assurance.  "My friend Langdon here, has taken an oath to sleep
+in the White House.  We also intend to make a triumphal march through
+Philadelphia, and then down Broadway in New York.  You would not have us
+break our oaths or change our purposes."
+
+"It's true, Dick," said Harry, "we can't do either.  We'd like to
+oblige you Yankees, but we must make those triumphal parades through
+Philadelphia and New York."
+
+"I should have known that I couldn't reason with you Johnny Rebs,"
+said Dick, smiling, "but I hope that none of you will get killed, and
+here and now I make you a promise."
+
+"What is it, Dick?" asked Harry.
+
+"When you suffer your final defeat, and all of you become my prisoners,
+I'll treat you well.  I'll turn you loose in a Blue-grass pasture,
+and you can roam as you please within its limits."
+
+"Thank you," said Happy Tom, "but I'm no Nebuchadnezzar.  I can't live on
+grass.  If I become a prisoner at any time I demand the very best of food,
+especially as you Yankees already have more than your share."
+
+"There go the trumpets recalling us," said St. Clair.  "The men have
+finished the gruesome task.  I want you to know, Mr. Mason, that we bear
+you no animosity, and we're quite sure that you bear us none."
+
+He extended his hand and Dick's met it in a warm grasp.  Langdon also
+shook hands with him, and as his eyes twinkled he said:
+
+"Don't fail to notice my haughty bearing when I march at the head of a
+triumphal troop down Broadway!"
+
+"I promise," said Dick.  Then he and Harry gave each other the final
+clasp.  But with the pride of the young they strove not to show emotion.
+
+"Take care of yourself, Dick, old man!" said Harry.  "Don't get in the
+way of bullets and shell.  Remember they're harder than you are."
+
+"The same to you, Harry.  It's not worth while to take any more risks
+than necessary."
+
+Then, obeying the call of the trumpets, they mounted and rode to their
+own commands.  There was something strange in this brief half hour of
+friendship, when they buried the dead together.  Blue and gray formed
+again in long lines facing one another, but midway between was another
+long line of fresh earth, and it rose up suddenly, an impassable barrier
+to a charge by either force.
+
+"We can't beat them and they can't beat us.  That's been proved," said
+Colonel Hertford to Colonel Winchester and Colonel Bedford.
+
+"So it has," said Colonel Winchester, "and I'd like to march from here.
+I don't care for any more fighting on this spot."
+
+"Nor I.  Hark, they've decided it for us!"
+
+The Southern trumpet sounded another call, and the line of men in gray,
+turning away, began to march into the southwest.  Colonel Hertford
+promptly gave an order, the Union trumpet sounded also, and the men in
+blue, curving also, rode toward the northwest.
+
+Dick and his comrades were silent a long time.  Their feelings were
+perhaps the same.  To youth a year is a long time, and two years are
+almost a life time.  Three years and more of it had made war to them a
+normal state.  They had not thought much before of an end to the great
+struggle between North and South, and of what was to come after.  Now
+they realized that peace, not war, was normal, and that it must return.
+
+The moonlight faded and then the stars were dimmed, as the darkness that
+precedes the dawn came.  The silvery veil that had been thrown over
+them vanished and the column became a ghostly train riding in the dusk.
+But the road into which Shepard guided them led over a pleasant land
+of hills and clear streams.  Although the scouts on their flanks kept
+vigilant watch, many of the men slept soundly in their saddles.  Dick
+himself dozed awhile, and slept awhile, and, when he roused himself from
+his last nap, the dawn was breaking over the brown hills and the column
+was halting for food and a little rest.
+
+It was August, the time of great heat in Virginia, but they were already
+building fires to cook the breakfast and make coffee, and most of the
+men had dismounted.  Dick sprang down also and turned his horse loose to
+graze with the others.  Then he joined Warner and Pennington and fell
+hungrily to work.  When he thought of it afterward he could scarcely
+remember a time in the whole war when he was not hungry.
+
+The sense of unreality disappeared with the brilliant dawn, though the
+night itself with the battle in the moonlight seemed to be almost a
+dream.  Yet the combat had been fought, and he had met Harry Kenton and
+his friends.  The empty saddles proved it.
+
+"I see a great country opening out before us," said Warner.  "I suppose
+it's this Valley of Virginia, of which we've all heard and seen so much,
+and in which once upon a time Stonewall Jackson thumped us so often."
+
+"It's a branch of it," said Pennington, "but Stonewall Jackson is gone,
+God rest his soul--I say that from the heart, even if he was against us--
+and I've an idea that instead of getting thumped we're going to do the
+thumping.  There's something about this man Sheridan that appeals to me.
+We've seen him in action with artillery, but now he's a cavalry
+commander.  They say he rides fast and far and strikes hard.  People are
+beginning to talk about Little Phil.  Well, I approve of Little Phil."
+
+"He'll be glad to hear of it," said Dick.  "It will brace him up a lot."
+
+"He may be lucky to get it," replied Pennington calmly.  "There are many
+generals in this war, and two or three of them have been commander-in-
+chief, of whom I don't approve at all.  I think you'll find, too, that
+history will have a habit of agreeing with me."
+
+"But don't make predictions," said Dick.  "There have been no genuine,
+dyed-in-the-wool prophets since those ancient Hebrews were gathered to
+their fathers, and that was a mighty long time ago."
+
+"There you're wrong, Dick," said Warner, earnestly.  "It's all a matter
+of mathematics, the scientific application of a romantic and imaginative
+science to facts.  Get all your premises right, arrange them correctly,
+and the result follows as a matter of course."
+
+The trumpet sounded boots and saddles, and cut him short.  In a few more
+minutes they were all up and away, riding over the hills and across the
+dips toward the main sweep of the famous valley which played such a great
+part in the tactics and fighting of the Civil War.  It had already been
+ravaged much by march and battle and siege, but its heavier fate was yet
+to come.
+
+But Dick did not think much of what might happen as he rode with his
+comrades across the broken country and saw, rising before them, the dim
+blue line of the mountains that walled in the eastern side of the valley.
+The day was not so warm as usual, and among the higher hills a breeze was
+blowing, bringing currents of fresh, cool air that made the lungs expand
+and the pulses leap.  The three youths felt almost as if they had been
+re-created, and Pennington became vocal.
+
+"Woe is the day!" he said.  "I lament what I have lost!"
+
+"If what you have lost was worth keeping I lament with you," said Dick.
+"O, woe is the day!"
+
+"O, woe is the day for me, too!" said Warner, "but why do we utter cries
+of woe, Frank?"
+
+"Because of the narrow, little, muddy little, ugly little, mean little
+trench we've left behind us!  O, woe is me that I've left such a trench,
+where one could sit in mud to the knees and touch the mud wall on either
+side of him, for this open, insecure world, where there is nothing but
+fresh air to breathe, nothing but water to drink, nothing but food to eat,
+and no world but blue skies, hills, valleys, forests, fields, rivers,
+creeks and brooks!"
+
+"O, woe is me!" the three chanted together.  "We sigh for our narrow
+trench, and its muddy bottom and muddy sides and foul air and lack of
+space, and for the shells bursting over our heads, and for the hostile
+riflemen ready to put a bullet through us at the first peep!  Now,
+do we sigh for all those blessings we've left behind us?"
+
+"Never a sigh!" said Dick.
+
+"Not a tear from me," said Pennington.
+
+"The top of the earth for me," said Warner.
+
+Their high spirits spread to the whole column.  So thoroughly inured were
+they to war that their losses of the night before were forgotten, and
+they lifted up their voices and sang.  Youth and the open air would have
+their way and the three colonels did not object.  They preferred men who
+sang to men who groaned.
+
+"Do you know just where we're going, and where we expect to find this
+Little Phil of yours?" asked Warner.
+
+"I've heard that we're to report to him at Halltown, a place south of the
+Potomac, and about four miles from Harper's Ferry," replied Dick.
+
+"As that's a long distance, we'll have a long ride to reach it," said
+Warner, "and I'm glad of it.  I'm enjoying this great trail, and I hope
+we won't meet again those fire-eating friends of yours, Dick, who gave
+us so much trouble last night."
+
+"I hope so too," said Dick, "for their sake as well as ours.  I don't
+like fighting with such close kin.  They must be well along on the
+southwestern road now to join Early."
+
+"There's no further danger of meeting them, at least before this campaign
+opens," said Warner.  "Shepard has just come back from a long gallop
+and he reports that they are now at least twenty miles away, with the
+distance increasing all the time."
+
+Dick felt great relief.  He was softening wonderfully in these days,
+and while he had the most intense desire for the South to yield he had no
+wish for the South to suffer more.  He felt that the republic had been
+saved and he was anxious for the war to be over soon.  His heart swelled
+with pride at the way in which the Union states had stood fast, how
+they had suffered cruel defeats, but had come again, and yet again, how
+mistakes and disaster had been overcome by courage and tenacity.
+
+"A Confederate dollar for your thoughts," said Warner.
+
+"You can have 'em without the dollar," replied Dick.  "I was thinking
+about the end of the war and after.  What are all the soldiers going to
+do then?"
+
+"Go straight back to peace," replied Warner promptly.  "I know my own
+ambition.  I've told you already that I intend to be president of Harvard
+University, and, barring death, I'm bound to succeed.  I give myself
+twenty-five years for the task.  If I choose my object now and bend every
+energy toward it for twenty-five years I'm sure to obtain it.  It's a
+mathematical certainty."
+
+"I'm going to be a great ranchman in Western Nebraska with my father,"
+said Pennington.  "He's under fifty yet, and he's as strong as a horse.
+The buffalo in Western Nebraska must go and then Pennington and Son will
+have fifty thousand fine cattle in their place.  And you, Dick, have you
+already chosen the throne on which you're going to sit?"
+
+"Yes, I've been thinking about it for some time.  I've made up my mind to
+be an editor.  After the war I'm going to the largest city in our state,
+get a place on a newspaper there and strive to be its head.  Then I'll
+try to cement the reunion of North and South.  That will be my greatest
+topic.  We soldiers won't hate one another when the war is over, and
+maybe the fact that I've fought through it will give weight to my words."
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do," said Warner.  "When I'm president of
+Harvard I'll invite the great Kentucky editor, Richard Mason, to deliver
+the annual address to my young men.  I like that idea of yours about
+making the Union firmer than it was before the war.  Since the Northern
+States and the Southern States must dwell together the more peace and
+brotherly love we have the better it will be for all of us."
+
+"When you give me that invitation, George, you'd better ask my cousin,
+Harry Kenton, at the same time, because it's almost a certainty that he
+will then be governor of Kentucky.  His great grandfather, the famous
+Henry Ware, was the greatest governor the state ever had, and, as I know
+that Harry intends to study law and enter politics, he's bound to follow
+in his footsteps."
+
+"Of course I'll ask him," said Warner in all earnestness, "and he shall
+speak too.  You can settle it between you who speaks first.  It will be
+an exceedingly effective scene, the two cousins, the great editor who
+fought on the Northern side and the great governor who fought on the
+Southern side, speaking from the same stage to the picked youth of New
+England.  Pennington, the representative of the boundless West, shall be
+there too, and if the owner of fifty thousand fine cattle roaming far and
+wide wants to make an address he shall do so."
+
+"I don't think I'd care to speak, George," said Pennington.  "I'm not
+cut out for oratory, but I certainly accept right now your invitation to
+come.  I'll sit on the stage with Dick and the Johnny Reb, his cousin
+Harry, and I'll smile and smile and applaud and applaud, and after it's
+all over I'll choose a few of your picked youth of New England, take 'em
+out west with me, teach 'em how to rope cattle, how to trail stray steers
+and how to take care of themselves in a blizzard.  Oh, I'll make men of
+'em, I will!  Now, what is that on the high hill to the south?"
+
+The three put their glasses to their eyes and saw a man on horseback
+waving a flag.  The head of the horse was turned toward some hill farther
+south, and the man was evidently making signals to another patrol there.
+
+"A Johnny," said Pennington.  "I suppose they're sending the word on
+toward Early that we're passing."
+
+"From hill to hill," said Dick.  "A message can be sent a long way in
+that manner."
+
+"I don't think it will interfere with us," said Warner.  "They're merely
+telling about us.  They don't intend to attack us.  They haven't the men
+to spare."
+
+"No, they won't attack, they know I'm here," said Pennington.
+
+The three colonels did not stop the column, but they watched the signals
+as they rode.  Nobody was able to interpret them, not even Shepard,
+but they felt that they could ignore them.  Colonel Hertford,
+nevertheless, sent off a strong scouting party in that direction, but
+as it approached the horseman on the hill rode over the other side and
+disappeared.
+
+All that day they advanced through a lonely and hostile country.  It
+was a region intensely Southern in its sympathies, and it seemed that
+everybody, including the women and children, had fled before them.
+Horses and cattle were gone also and its loneliness was accentuated by
+the fact that not so long before it had been a well-peopled land, where
+now the houses stood empty and silent.  They saw no human beings, save
+other watchmen on the hills making signals, but they were far away and
+soon gone.
+
+By noon both horses and men showed great fatigue.  They had slept but
+little the night before, and, toughened as they were by war, they had
+reached the limit of endurance.  So the trumpet sounded the halt in a
+meadow beside a fine stream, and all, save those who were to ride on the
+outskirts and watch for the enemy, dismounted gladly.  A vast drinking
+followed.  The water was clear, running over clean pebbles, and a
+thousand men knelt and drank again and again.  Then the horses were
+allowed to drink their fill, which they did with mighty gurglings of
+satisfaction, and the men cooked their midday meal.
+
+Meanwhile they talked of Sheridan.  All expected battle and then battle
+again when they joined him, and they looked forward to a great campaign
+in the valley.  That valley was not so far away.  The blue walls of the
+mountains that hemmed its eastern edge were very near now.  Dick looked
+at them through his glasses, not to find an enemy, but merely for the
+pleasure of bringing out the heavy forests on their slopes.  It was true
+that the leaves were already touched by the summer's heat, but in the
+distance at least the mass looked green.  He knew also that under the
+screen of the leaves the grass preserved its freshness and there were
+many little streams, foaming in white as they rushed down the steep
+slopes.  It was a marvelously pleasing sight to him, and, as the
+wilderness thus called, he was once more deeply grateful that he had
+escaped from the muddy trench.
+
+"We'll pass through a gap, sir, tomorrow morning," said Sergeant Whitley,
+"and go into the main valley."
+
+"The gap would be the place for the Southern force to meet us."
+
+But Sergeant Whitley shook his head.
+
+"There are too many gaps and too few Southern troops," he said.  "I think
+we'll find this one clear.  Besides, Colonel Hertford is sure to send
+a scouting party ahead tonight.  But if you don't mind taking a little
+advice from an old trooper, sir, I'd lie on the grass and sleep while
+we're here.  An hour even will do a lot of good."
+
+Dick followed his advice gladly and thanked him.  He was always willing
+to receive instruction from Sergeant Whitley, who had proved himself his
+true friend and who in reality was able to teach men of much higher rank.
+He lay down upon the brown grass, and despite all the noise, despite all
+the excitement of past hours, fell fast asleep in a few minutes.  He
+slept an hour, but it seemed to him that he had scarcely closed his eyes,
+when the trumpets were calling boots and saddles again.  Yet he felt
+refreshed and stronger when he sprang up, and Sergeant Whitley's advice,
+as always, had proved good.
+
+The column resumed its march before mid-afternoon, continuing its
+progress through a silent and empty country.  The blue wall came closer
+and closer and Dick and his comrade saw the lighter line, looking in
+the distance like the slash of a sword, that marked the gap.  Shepard,
+who rode a very swift and powerful horse, came back from another scouting
+trip and reported that there was no sign of the enemy, at least at the
+entrance to the gap.
+
+Later in the afternoon, as they were passing through a forest several
+shots were fired at them from the covert.  No damage was done beyond
+one man wounded slightly, and Dick, under orders, led a short pursuit.
+He was glad that they found no one, as prisoners would have been an
+incumbrance, and it was not the custom in the United States to shoot men
+not in uniform who were defending the soil on which they lived.  He had
+no doubt that those who had fired the shots were farmers, but it had been
+easy for them to make good their escape in the thickets.
+
+He thought he saw relief on Colonel Hertford's face also, when he
+reported that the riflemen had escaped, and, after spreading out
+skirmishers a little farther on either flank, the column, which had never
+broken its march, went on at increased pace.  It was growing warm now,
+and the dust and heat of the long ride began to affect them.  The blue
+line of the mountains, as they came close, turned to green and Dick,
+Warner and Pennington looked enviously at the deep shade.
+
+"Not so bad," said Warner.  "Makes me think a little of the Green
+Mountains of Vermont, though not as high and perhaps not as green."
+
+"Of course," said Dick.  "Nothing outside of Vermont is as good as
+anything inside of it."
+
+"I'm glad you acknowledge it so readily, Dick.  I have found some people
+who would not admit it at first, and I was compelled to talk and persuade
+them of the fact, a labor that ought to be unnecessary.  The truth should
+always speak for itself.  Vermont isn't the most fertile state in the
+Union and it's not the largest, but it's the best producer of men,
+or I should say the producer of the best men."
+
+"What will Massachusetts say to that?  I've read Daniel Webster's speech
+in reply to Hayne."
+
+"Oh, Massachusetts, of course, has more people, I'm merely speaking of
+the average."
+
+"Nebraska hasn't been settled long," said Pennington, "but you just wait.
+When we get a population we'll make both Vermont and Massachusetts take a
+back seat."
+
+"And that population, or at least the best part of it," rejoined the
+undaunted Warner, "will come from Vermont and Massachusetts and other New
+England states."
+
+"Sunset and the gap together are close at hand," said Dick, "and however
+the mountains of Virginia may compare with those of Vermont, it's quite
+certain that the sun setting over the two states is the same."
+
+"I concede that," said Warner; "but it looks more brilliant from the
+Vermont hills."
+
+Nevertheless, the sun set in Virginia in a vast and intense glow of color,
+and as the twilight came they entered the gap.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+AN OLD ENEMY
+
+
+Despite the brilliant sunset the night came on very dark and heavy with
+damp.  The road through the gap was none too good and the lofty slopes
+clothed in forest looked menacing.  Many sharpshooters might lurk there,
+and the three colonels were anxious to reach Sheridan with their force
+intact, at least without further loss after the battle with Colonel
+Talbot's command.
+
+The column was halted and it was decided to send out another scouting
+party to see if the way was clear.  Twenty men, of whom the best for
+such work were Shepard and Whitley, were chosen, and Dick, owing to his
+experience, was put in nominal command, although he knew in his heart
+that the spy and the sergeant would be the real leaders, a fact which he
+did not resent.  Warner and Pennington begged to go too, but they were
+left behind.
+
+Shepard had received a remount, and, as all of them rode good horses,
+they advanced at a swift trot through the great gap.  The spy, who knew
+the pass, led the way.  The column behind, although it was coming forward
+at a good pace, disappeared with remarkable quickness.  Dick, looking
+back, saw a dusky line of horsemen, and then he saw nothing.  He did not
+look back again.  His eyes were wholly for Shepard and the dim path ahead.
+
+The aspect of the mountains, which had been so inviting before they came
+to them, changed wholly.  Dick did not long so much for green foliage now,
+as a chill wind began to blow.  All of them carried cloaks or overcoats
+rolled tightly and tied to their saddles, which they loosed and put on.
+The wind rose, and, confined within the narrow limits of the pass,
+it began to groan loudly.  A thin sheet of rain came on its edge, and the
+drops were almost as cold as those of winter.
+
+Dick's first sensation of uneasiness and discomfort disappeared quickly.
+Like his cousin, Harry, he had inherited a feeling for the wilderness.
+His own ancestor, Paul Cotter, had been a great woodsman too, and,
+as he drew on the buckskin gauntlets and wrapped the heavy cloak about
+his body, his second sensation was one of actual physical pleasure.
+Why should he regard the forest with a hostile eye?  His ancestors had
+lived in it and often its darkness had saved them from death by torture.
+
+He looked up at the dark slopes, but he could see only the black masses
+of foliage and the thin sheets of driven rain.  For a little while,
+at least, his mind reproduced the wilderness.  It was there in all its
+savage loneliness and majesty.  He could readily imagine that the Indians
+were lurking in the brush, and that the bears and panthers were seeking
+shelter in their dens.  But his own feeling of safety and of mental and
+physical pleasure in the face of obstacles deepened.
+
+"I've been just that way myself," said Sergeant Whitley, who was riding
+beside him and who could both see and read his face.  "On the plains
+when we were so well wrapped up that the icy winds whistling around us
+couldn't get at us then we felt all the better.  But it was best when we
+were inside the fort and the winter blizzard was howling."
+
+"A lot of us were talking a little while back about what they were going
+to do after the war.  What's your plan, sergeant, if you have any?"
+
+"I do have a plan, Mr. Mason.  I was a lumberman, as you know, before I
+entered the regular army, and when the fighting's done I think I'll go
+back to it.  I can swing an axe with the best of 'em, but I mean after a
+while to have others swinging axes for me.  If I can I'm going to become
+a big lumberman.  I'd rather be that than anything else."
+
+"It's a just and fine ambition, sergeant, I feel sure that you're going
+to become a man of money and power.  Mr. Warner means to become president
+of Harvard, twenty or twenty-five years from now, and my cousin Harry
+Kenton, a reconstructed rebel, is going to deliver an address there to
+the new president's young men, while Mr. Pennington and I, as the
+president's guests, are going to sit on the stage and smile.  Right now,
+and with authority from Mr. Warner, I'm going to invite you as the lumber
+king of the Northwest to sit on the stage with us on that occasion,
+as the guest of President Warner, and smile with us."
+
+"If I become what you predict I'll accept," said the sergeant.
+
+The chances were a thousand to one against the prophecy, but it all came
+true, just as they wished.
+
+The rain increased a little, although it was not yet able to penetrate
+Dick's heavy coat, but they were compelled to go more slowly on account
+of the thickening darkness.  They reached very soon the crest of the pass
+and halted there a little while to see or hear any sign of a human being.
+But no sound came to them and they resumed the scout in the darkness,
+riding now down the slope which would end before long in a great valley.
+
+The ground softened by the rain deadened the footsteps of their horses,
+and they made little noise as they rode down the narrow pass, examining
+as well as they could the dripping forest on either side of the road.
+Shepard was a bit ahead, and Dick and the sergeant, riding side by side,
+came next.  Behind were the troopers, a small picked band, daring
+horsemen, used to every kind of danger.
+
+They did not really anticipate the presence of an enemy in the pass.
+They knew that Colonel Talbot's command had turned toward the southwest.
+All the other Confederate forces must be gathering far up the valley
+to meet Sheridan, and the South was too much reduced to raise new men.
+Yet after a half hour's moderate riding down the slope Dick became sure
+that some one was in the narrow belt of forest on their right, where the
+slope was less steep than on their left.
+
+At first it seemed to be an intuition, merely a feeling brought on waves
+of air that men, enemies, were in the wood.  Then he knew that the
+feeling was due to sounds as of someone moving lightly through a wet
+thicket, but unable to keep the boughs from giving forth a rustle.
+He was about to call to Shepard, but before he could do so the spy
+stopped.  Then all the others stopped also.
+
+"Did you hear it?" Dick whispered to Sergeant Whitley.
+
+"Yes," replied the sergeant.  "Men are moving in the thicket on our
+right.  I couldn't hear much, but they must be as numerous as we are.
+They're enemies or they'd have come out.  They're on foot, too, as they
+couldn't manage horses in those deep woods.  Likely they've left their
+mounts with a guard on top of a ridge, as men on foot wouldn't be abroad
+at such a time on such a night."
+
+"Then it's an ambush!" said Dick, and he added in a sharp voice:
+
+"Pull away to the left, men, under cover!"
+
+Shepard was the first to turn and all the others followed instantly.
+Three jumps of the horses and they were among the bushes and trees on the
+left.  It was lucky for them that they had heard the sound of the wet
+bushes rustling together, as a dozen rifles flashed in the dusk on the
+other side of the road.  Bullets cut the leaves about them.  Two or three
+buried themselves with a plunk in the trunks of trees, one killed a horse,
+the trooper springing clear without hurt, and one man was wounded
+slightly in the arm.
+
+"Take cover," called Dick, "but don't lose your horses!"
+
+They dismounted and concealed themselves behind the trunks of trees.
+Some hastily tethered their horses to bushes, but others hung the bridle
+over an arm.  They knew that if a combat was to occur it must be fought
+on foot, but, for the present, they were compelled to wait.  Yet if their
+enemy was hidden from them they also were hidden from him.  All the
+conditions of an old Indian battle in darkness and ambush were reproduced,
+and Dick was deeply grateful that he had at his elbow two redoubtable
+champions like Whitley and Shepard.  They were peculiarly fitted for such
+work as that which lay before them, and he was ready and willing to take
+advice from either.
+
+"It's a small party," whispered Shepard, "probably not much larger than
+ours.  They must have expected to make a complete ambush, but we heard
+them too soon."
+
+"It's surely not a part of Colonel Talbot's command," said Dick.  "If so,
+Harry Kenton and his friends would certainly be there and I shouldn't
+like to be in battle with them again."
+
+"Never a fear of that," said Sergeant Whitley.  "It's more likely to be
+some guerrilla band, roaming around as it pleases.  The condition of the
+country and these mountains give such fellows a chance.  I'm going to lie
+down and creep forward as we used to do on the plains.  I want to get a
+sight of those fellows, that is, if you say so, sir."
+
+"Of course," said Dick, "but don't take too big risks, sergeant.  We
+can't afford to let you be shot."
+
+"Never fear," said the sergeant, dropping almost flat upon his face,
+and creeping slowly forward.
+
+The dusky figure worming itself through the bushes heightened the
+illusion of an old Indian combat.  The sergeant was a scout and trailer
+feeling for the enemy and he reminded Dick of his famous ancestor,
+Paul Cotter.  Several more shots were fired by the foe, but they did not
+hurt anybody, all of them flying overhead.  Dick's men were anxious to
+send random bullets in reply into the thickets, but he restrained them.
+It would be only a waste, and while it was annoying to be held there,
+it could not be helped.  Some of the horses reared and plunged with
+fright at the shots, but silence soon came.
+
+Dick still watched the sergeant as he edged forward, inch by inch.
+Had not his eyes been following the dusky figure he could not have picked
+it out from the general darkness.  But he still saw it faintly, a darker
+blur against the dark earth.  Yielding a little to his own anxiety,
+he handed the bridle of his horse to his orderly, and moved toward the
+edge of the woodland strip, bending low, and using the tree trunks for
+shelter.
+
+At the last tree he knelt and looked for those on the other side.
+The sergeant was already beyond cover, but he lay so low in the grass
+that Dick himself could scarcely discern him.
+
+The wind was still driving the thin sheets of rain before it, and was
+keeping up a howling and whistling in the pass, a most sinister sound to
+one not used to the forest and darkness, although Dick paid no attention
+to it.
+
+Twice the clouds parted slightly and showed a bit of moonlight, but the
+gleam was so brief that it was gone in a second or two.  Nevertheless at
+the second ray Dick saw crouched beside a tree at the far side of the
+road a small hunched figure holding a rifle, the head crowned by an
+enormous flap-brimmed hat.  His imagination also made him see small,
+close-set, menacing red eyes, and he knew at once that it was Slade,
+the same guerrilla leader who had once pursued him with such deadly
+vindictiveness through the Mississippi forest and swamps.  He had heard
+that he had come farther north and had united his band with that of
+Skelly, who pretended to be on the other side.  But one could never tell
+about these outlaws.  When they were distant from the regular armies
+nobody was safe from them.
+
+"Did you see?" whispered Dick to the sergeant who had crept to his side.
+
+"Yes, I caught a glimpse of him.  It was Slade, who tried so hard to kill
+you down there in the Vicksburg campaign.  If we get another ray of the
+moonlight I'll pick him off, that is if you say so, sir."
+
+"I've no objection, sergeant.  Such a man as Slade cumbers the earth.
+Besides, he'll do everything he can now to kill us."
+
+The sergeant knelt, carbine raised, and waited for the ray of moonlight.
+He was a dead shot, and he believed that he would not miss, but when the
+ray came at last Slade was not there.  Whitley uttered a low exclamation
+of disgust.
+
+"A good chance gone," he said, "and it may never come again.  I'd have
+saved the lives of a lot of good men."
+
+But a flash came from the thicket, and the sergeant from the grass
+replied.  A cry followed his shot, showing that some one had received his
+bullet, but Dick knew instinctively that it was not Slade, the crafty
+leader he was sure now being safe behind the trunk of a tree.
+
+Presently the sergeant fired from another point, and then crept hastily
+away lest the flash of his rifle betray him.  A dozen shots were fired by
+Slade's band, but no harm was done, and then, the sergeant coming back,
+Dick held a consultation with his two lieutenants and advisers.
+
+"Perhaps we may flank them," he said.  "We can divide our force, and
+taking them by surprise drive them out of the wood."
+
+But Sergeant Whitley, wary and weatherwise, was against it.
+
+"The risk would be too great, sir," he said.  "We can afford to wait
+while they can't.  Our whole column will be up in time, while it's not
+likely that anybody can come to help Slade.  It's true too, sir, that
+this rain is going to stop.  The clouds are beginning to clear away,
+and when there's light we'll have a fair chance at 'em."
+
+"I think," said Dick, "that it will be best for Mr. Shepard to return and
+hurry up a relieving column.  What do you say?"
+
+"I think so too, sir," said Shepard.  "I can lead my horse back some
+distance through the forest, then mount and gallop up the road.  They may
+be gone before I come again, but if they are not we can soon drive them
+away."
+
+"We'll cover you with our rifles against any rush made by Slade's men,"
+said Dick.
+
+But it did not become necessary to fire.  Shepard was able to lead his
+horse through the woods without noise, until he was at least three
+hundred yards on the return journey.  Then he mounted and galloped at
+great speed up the pass.  Dick heard the distant thud of hoofs growing
+fainter and fainter until they died away altogether, and he knew that
+Slade must have heard them too.  And a man as acute and experienced as
+the guerrilla chief would easily divine their meaning.
+
+The rain ceased, and the moaning and whistling of the wind in the pass
+became a murmur.  The clouds parted and sank away toward every horizon,
+leaving the full dome of the sky, shot with a bright moon and millions of
+dancing stars.  A silvery light over the woods and thickets drove away
+the deep darkness, and when Sergeant Whitley crept forward again to spy
+out the enemy he found that they were gone.  He trailed them up the lofty
+slope and discovered, as he had surmised, that they had left their horses
+there while they attempted the ambush.  He was sure now that they were
+far away, and he returned with his story, just as Shepard arrived with
+the vanguard of the column, led by Colonel Winchester.
+
+"And so it was Slade!" said the Colonel.
+
+"Undoubtedly, sir," said Dick.  "I saw him plainly, and so did Sergeant
+Whitley."
+
+"I'm not sorry he's here," said Colonel Winchester thoughtfully, "and I
+hope the story that he and Skelly have joined bands is true, because if
+they are in this region they're so far away from Pendleton that your
+people are safe from mischief at their hands."
+
+"I hadn't thought of it in that way, sir, but it's just as you say.
+I'd rather have to fight them here than have them attacking our innocent
+people at home.  In the early part of the war Skelly called himself a
+Unionist, did he not?"
+
+"Yes, and he may do so yet, but names are nothing to him.  He'd rob,
+and murder, too, with equal zest under either flag."
+
+"It's so," said Dick, and he felt the full truth as he thought of
+Pendleton, and his beautiful young mother, alone in her house, save for
+the gigantic and faithful Juliana.  But Juliana was an armed host herself,
+and Dick smiled at the recollection of the strong and honest black face
+that had bent over him so often.  He prayed without words that these
+ruthless guerrillas, no matter what flag they bore, should never come to
+Pendleton.
+
+"I don't think our column on its present march need fear anything from
+Slade and his band," said Colonel Winchester.  "Such as he can operate
+only from ambush, and so far as Virginia is concerned, in the mountains.
+Shepard says we'll be out of the pass in another hour, and by that time
+it will be day.  I'll be glad, too, as the cold rain and the darkness and
+the long ride are beginning to affect the men."
+
+The column resumed its march, Dick rode by the side of Colonel
+Winchester.  Time, propinquity, genuine esteem, and a fourth influence
+which Dick did not as yet suspect, were fast knitting these two, despite
+the difference in age, into a friendship which nothing could break.
+The meeting with Slade was forgotten quickly, by all except those
+concerned, and by most of those too, so vast was the war and so little
+space did it afford for the memory of brief events.  Yet it lingered a
+while with Dick.  Twice now he had met Slade and he felt that he would
+meet him yet again at points far apart.
+
+Dawn came slow and gray in a cloudy sky, but the sun soon broke through.
+The heat returned and the earth began to dry.  The three colonels felt
+it necessary to give their men rest and food, and let them dry their
+uniforms, which had become wet in many cases, despite their overcoats and
+heavy cloaks.
+
+They were now in a deep cove of the great Valley of Virginia, with the
+steep mountains just behind them, and far beyond the dim blue outline of
+other mountains enclosing it on the west.  As the fires blazed up and
+the men made coffee and cooked their breakfasts, Dick's heart leaped.
+This was the great valley once more, where so much history had been made.
+Lee and Grant were deadlocked in the trenches before Petersburg, but here
+in the valley history would be made again.  It was the finest part of
+Virginia, the greatest state of the Confederacy, and Dick knew in his
+heart that some heavy blows would soon be struck, where fields already
+had been won and lost in desperate strife.
+
+But the men were very cheerful.  The little band of skirmishers or
+sharpshooters under Slade had been brushed aside easily, and now that
+they were in the valley they did not foresee any further attempt to stop
+their march to Sheridan.  The three colonels shared in the view, and when
+the men had finished breakfast and dried themselves at their fires they
+remounted and rode away gaily.  High spirits rose again in youthful veins,
+and some lad of a mellow voice began to sing.  By and by all joined and a
+thousand voices thundered out:
+
+    "Oh, share my cottage, gentle maid,
+      It only waits for thee
+     To give a sweetness to its shade
+      And happiness to me.
+
+    "Here from the splendid, gay parade
+      Of noise and folly free
+     No sorrows can my peace invade
+      If only blessed with thee.
+
+    "Then share my cottage, gentle maid,
+      It only waits for thee
+     To give a sweetness to its shade
+      And happiness to me."
+
+Colonel Hertford made no attempt to check them as they rode across the
+fields, yet green here, despite the summer's heat.
+
+"They're bravest when they sing," he said to Colonel Winchester.
+
+"It encourages them," said Colonel Winchester, "and I like to hear it
+myself.  It's a wonderful effect, a thousand or more strong lads singing,
+as they sweep over the valley toward battle."
+
+Dick, Pennington and Warner had joined in the song, but the youth some
+distance ahead of them was leader.  They finished "Gentle Maid" and then,
+with the same lad leading them, swung into a song that made Dick start
+and that for a moment made other mountains and another valley stand out
+before him, sharp and clear.
+
+ "Soft o'er the fountain, ling'ring falls the Southern moon
+  Far o'er the mountain, breaks the day too soon.
+  In thy dark eyes' splendor, where the warm light 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.
+
+ "When in thy dreaming moons like these shall shine again,
+  And daylight beaming prove thy dreams are vain,
+  Wilt thou not, relenting, for thy absent lover sigh?
+  In thy heart consenting to a prayer gone by!
+  Nita!  Juanita!  Let me linger by thy side.
+  Nita!  Juanita!  Be my own fair bride."
+
+They put tremendous heart and energy into the haunting old song as they
+sang, and Dick still saw Sam Jarvis, the singer of the hills, and his
+valley, where the paths of Harry Kenton and himself had crossed, though
+at times far apart.
+
+"Now!" shouted the young leader, "The last verse again!" and with
+increased heart and energy they thundered out:
+
+ "When in thy dreaming moons like these shall shine again,
+  And daylight beaming prove thy dreams are vain,
+  Wilt thou not, relenting, for thy absent lover sigh?
+  In thy heart consenting to a prayer gone by!
+  Nita!  Juanita!  Let me linger by thy side.
+  Nita!  Juanita!  Be my own fair bride."
+
+The mighty chorus sank away and the hills gave it back in echoes until
+the last one died.
+
+"It's sung mostly in the South," said Dick to Warner and Pennington.
+
+"True," said Warner, "but before the war songs were not confined to one
+section.  They were the common property of both.  We've as much right to
+sing Juanita as the Johnnies have."
+
+All that day they rode and sang, going north toward Halltown, where the
+forces of Sheridan were gathering, and the valley, although lone and
+desolate, continually unfolded its beauty before them.  The mountains
+were green near by and blue in the distance, and the fertile floor that
+they enclosed, like walls, was cut by many streams.  Here, indeed,
+was a region that had bloomed before the war, and that would bloom again,
+no matter what war might do.
+
+They found inhabited houses now and then, but all the men of military age
+were gone away and the old men, the women and the children would answer
+nothing.  The women were not afraid to tell the Yankees what they thought
+of them, and in this war which was never a war on women the troopers
+merely laughed, or, if they felt anger, they hid it.
+
+On they went through night and day, and now they drew near to Sheridan.
+Scouts in blue met them and the gallant column shook their sabers and
+saluted.  Yes, it was true, they said, that Sheridan was gathering a
+fine army and he and all of his men were eager to march, but Colonel
+Hertford's force, sent by General Grant to help, would be welcomed with
+shouts.  The fame of its three colonels had gone on before.
+
+It was bright noon when they approached the northern end of the valley,
+and Dick saw a horseman followed by a group of about twenty men galloping
+toward them.  The leader was a short, slender man, sitting firmly in his
+saddle.
+
+"General Sheridan!" exclaimed Shepard.
+
+Colonel Hertford instantly ordered his trumpeter to sound a signal,
+and the troopers, stopping and drawing up in a long line, awaited the
+man who was to command them, and who was coming on so fast.  Again Dick
+examined him closely through his glasses, and he saw the young, tanned
+face under the broad brim of his hat, and the keen, flashing eyes.
+He noticed also how small he was.  Sheridan was but five feet five inches
+in height and he weighed in the momentous campaign now about to begin,
+only one hundred and fifteen pounds!  As slight as a young boy, he gave,
+nevertheless, an impression of the greatest vigor and endurance.
+
+He reined in his horse a score of yards in front of the long line and was
+about to speak to Colonel Hertford, who sat his saddle before it, Colonel
+Winchester and Colonel Bedford on either side of him, but there was a
+sudden interruption.
+
+Fifteen hundred sabers flashed aloft, the blazing sunlight glittering
+for a moment on their broad blades.  Then they swept in mighty curves,
+all together, and from fifteen hundred throats thundered:
+
+"Sheridan!  Sheridan!  Sheridan!"
+
+The sabers made another flashing curve, sank back into their scabbards,
+and the men were silent.
+
+Sheridan's tanned face flushed deeply, and a great light leaped up in his
+eyes, as he received the magnificent salute.  His own sword sprang out,
+and made the salute in reply.  Then, riding a little closer, he said in a
+loud, clear tone that all could hear:
+
+"Men, I have been looking for you!  I have come forward to meet you!
+I knew that you were great horsemen, gallant soldiers, but I see that
+you are even greater and more gallant men than I had hoped.  The Army of
+the Potomac has sent its best as a gift to the Army of the Shenandoah.
+Men, I thank you for this welcome, the warmest I have ever received!"
+
+Again the sabers flashed aloft, made their glittering curve, and again
+from muscular throats came the thunderous cheer:
+
+"Sheridan!  Sheridan!  Sheridan!"
+
+Then the young general shook hands heartily with the three colonels,
+the young aides were introduced, and with Sheridan himself at their head
+the whole column swept off toward the north, and to the camp of the Army
+of the Shenandoah which lay but a little distance away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE FISHERMEN
+
+
+The welcome that the column found in Sheridan's camp was as warm as they
+had hoped, and more.  Fifteen hundred sabers such as theirs were not
+to be valued lightly, and Sheridan knew well the worth of three such
+colonels as Hertford, Winchester and Bedford, with all three of whom
+he was acquainted personally, and with whose records he was familiar.
+Dick, Pennington and Warner also came in for his notice, and he recalled
+having seen Dick at the fierce battle of Perryville in Kentucky, a fact
+of which Dick was very proud.
+
+"Now don't become too haughty because he remembers you," said Warner
+reprovingly.  "Bear in mind that trifles sometimes stick longer in our
+minds than more important things."
+
+"It's just jealousy on your part," said Dick.  "You New Englanders are
+able people, but you can't bear for anybody else to achieve distinction."
+
+"We don't have to feel that jealousy often," said Warner calmly.
+
+"Merit like charity begins with you at home."
+
+"And modesty can't keep us from admitting it, but you Kentuckians do
+fight well--under our direction."
+
+"Don't talk with him, Dick," said Pennington.  "Against his wall of
+mountainous conceit wisdom breaks in vain."
+
+"I'm glad to see you expressing yourself so poetically, Frank," said
+Warner.  "The New England seed planted in Nebraska will flower into bloom
+some day."
+
+Sergeant Whitley came at that moment and asked them to go and see the new
+horses provided for them, and the three went with him, friends bound to
+one another by hooks of steel.  The horses given to them by special favor
+of Sheridan in place of their worn-out mounts, were splendid animals,
+and Sergeant Whitley himself had prepared them for their first appearance
+before their new masters.
+
+"They'll do!  They'll do!" said Dick with enthusiasm.  "Grand fellows!
+They ought to carry us anywhere!"
+
+"Upon this point I must confess myself somewhat your inferior," said
+Warner in his precise manner.  "The mountainous character of our state
+keeps us from making horses a specialty.  You, I believe, in Kentucky,
+pay great attention to their breeding, and so I ask you, young Mr. Mason,
+if the horse chosen for me is all that he should be."
+
+"He asks it as a matter of condescension, Dick, and not as a favor,"
+said Pennington.
+
+"It's all right any way you take it," laughed Dick.  "Yes, George,
+your horse has no defect.  You can always lead the charge on him against
+Early."
+
+"If I'm not at the very front I expect to be somewhere near it," said
+Warner.  "But don't you like the looks of this camp, boys?  It shows
+order, method and precision.  Everything has been done according to the
+best algebraic formulae.  I call it mathematics, charged with fire.
+Our Little Phil is a great commander.  One can feel his spirit in the
+air all about us."
+
+Dick himself had noticed the military workmanship and that, too, of a
+high order, and he understood thoroughly that Sheridan had gathered a
+most formidable army.  It was not much short of thirty thousand men,
+veteran troops, and he had with him Wright, Emory, Crook, Merritt,
+Averill, Torbert, Wilson and Grover, all able generals.  Nor had Sheridan
+neglected to inform himself of the country over which he intended to
+march.  With his lieutenant of engineers, Meigs, a man of great talent,
+he had spent days and nights studying maps of the valley.  Now he knew
+all the creeks and brooks and roads and towns, and he understood the
+country as well as Early himself, who faced him with as large a
+Confederate force as he could gather.
+
+Dick and his comrades expected immediate action, but it did not come.
+They lingered for days, due, they supposed, to orders from Washington,
+but they did not bother themselves about it, as they liked their new camp
+and were making many new friends.  September days passed and they saw the
+summer turning into autumn.  The mountains in the distance looked blue,
+but, near at hand, their foliage had turned brown.  The great heat gave
+way to a crisper air and the lads who had come from the trenches before
+Petersburg enjoyed for a little while the luxury of early autumn and
+illimitable space.
+
+They rode now and then with the cavalry outposts.  Early and his men
+stretched across the valley to oppose them, and often Northern and
+Southern pickets were in touch, though they seldom fired upon one
+another.  Dick, whenever he rode with the advanced guard, watched for
+Harry Kenton, St. Clair and Langdon, but it was nearly a week before
+he saw them.  Then they rode with a small group, headed by two elderly
+but very upright men, whom he knew to be Colonel Leonidas Talbot and
+Lieutenant Colonel Hector St. Hilaire.
+
+He felt genuine gladness, and, shouting at the top of his voice, he
+waved his hand.  They recognized him, and all waved a welcome in return.
+He saw the two colonels studying him through their glasses, but he knew
+that no attack would be made upon him and the little party with which he
+rode.  It was one of those increasing intervals of peace and friendship
+between battles.  The longer the war and the greater the losses the less
+men troubled themselves to shoot one another save when real battle was
+joined.
+
+They were about four hundred yards apart and Dick used his glasses also,
+enabling him to see that the young Southern officers were unwounded--
+Langdon's slight hurt had healed long since--and were strong and hearty.
+He thought it likely that they, as well as he, had found the brief period
+of rest and freedom from war a genuine luxury.
+
+He waved his hand once more, and they waved back as before.  Then the
+course of the two little troops took them away from each other, and the
+Southerners were hid from his view by a belt of forest.  But he was very
+glad that he had seen them.  It had been almost as if there were no war.
+
+Dick rode back to the camp, gave his horse to an orderly, and, walking
+toward his tent, was met by Warner and Pennington, carrying long slender
+rods on their shoulders--Warner in fact carrying two.
+
+"What's this?" he exclaimed.
+
+"We're going fishing," replied Warner.  "We've permission for you also.
+There's a fine stream about a half mile west of us, running through the
+woods, and it's been fished in but little since the war started.  Here,
+take your rod!  You don't expect me to carry it for you any longer do
+you?  It has a good hook and line and it's easy for us to find bait under
+a big stone on soft soil."
+
+"Thank you, George," said Dick happily.  "You couldn't keep me from going
+with you two.  Do you know, I haven't been fishing in more than three
+years, and me not yet of age?"
+
+"Well, now's your chance, and you may not have another until after the
+war is over.  They say it's a fine stream, though, of course, it's not
+like the beautiful little rivers of Vermont, that come dashing down from
+the mountains all molten silver, where they're not white foam.  Splendid
+fish!  Splendid rivers!  Splendid sport!  Dick, do you think I'm facing
+now in the exact direction of Vermont?"
+
+He had turned about and was gazing with a rapt look into the northeast.
+
+"I should say," said Dick, "that if your gaze went far enough it would
+strike squarely upon the Green Mountains of Vermont."
+
+Warner's hand rose in a slow and majestic salute.
+
+"Great little state, mother of men, I salute thee!" he said.  "Thou art
+stern and yet beautiful to the eye and thy sons love thee!  I, who am
+but one among them, love all thy rocks, and clear streams, and noble
+mountains and green foliage!  Here, from the battle fields and across the
+distance I salute thee, O great little state!  O mother of men!"
+
+"Quite dithyrambic," said Dick, "and now that your burst of rhetoric is
+over let's go on and catch our fish.  Will you also use your romantic
+science of mathematics in fishing?  By the way, what has become of that
+little algebra book of yours?"
+
+"It's here," said Warner, taking it from the breast pocket of his tunic.
+"I never part with it and I most certainly expect to use its principles
+when I reach the fishing stream.  Let x express my equipment and myself,
+let y equal skill and patience; x we shall say also equals the number 7,
+while y equals the number 5.  Now the fish are represented by z which
+is equal to 12.  It is obvious even to slow minds like yours and
+Pennington's that neither x nor y alone can equal z, the fish, otherwise
+12, but when combined they represent that value exactly, that is x plus y
+equals 12.  So, if I and my equipment coordinate perfectly with my skill
+and patience, which most certainly will happen, the fish are as good as
+caught by me already.  The rest is a mere matter of counting."
+
+"Best give in, Dick," said Pennington.  "He'll always prove to you by his
+algebra that he knows everything, and that everything he does is right.
+Of course, he's the best fisherman in the world!"
+
+"I'd have you to know, Francis Pennington," said Warner, with dignity,
+"that I was a very good fisherman when I was five years old, and that
+I've been improving ever since, and that Vermont is full of fine deep
+streams, in which one can fish with pleasure and profit.  What do you
+know, you prairie-bred young ruffian, about fishing?  I've heard that
+your creeks and brooks are nothing but strips of muddy dew.  The Platte
+River itself, I believe, is nearly two inches deep at its deepest parts.
+I don't suppose there's another stream in America which takes up so much
+space on the map and so little on the ground."
+
+"The Platte is a noble river," rejoined Pennington.  "What it lacks in
+depth it makes up in length, and I'll not have it insulted by anybody in
+its absence."
+
+While they talked they passed through the brown woods and came to the
+creek, flowing with a fine volume of water down from the mountains into
+one of the rivers of the valley.
+
+"It's up to its advertisements," said Warner, looking at it with
+satisfaction.  "It's clear, deep and it ought to have plenty of good
+fish.  I see a snug place between the roots of that oak growing upon the
+bank, and there I sit."
+
+"There are plenty of good places," said Dick, as they seated themselves
+and unwrapped their lines, "and I've a notion that our fishing is going
+to prove good.  Isn't it fine?  Why, it's like being back home!"
+
+"Time's rolled back and we're just boys again," said Pennington.
+
+"Don't try to be poetic, Frank," said Warner.  "I've told you already
+that a man who has nothing but muddy streaks of dew to fish in can't know
+anything about fishing."
+
+"Stop quarreling, you two," said Dick.  "Don't you know that such voices
+as yours raised in loud tones would scare away the boldest fish that ever
+swam?"
+
+The three cast their lines out into the stream.  They were of the
+old-fashioned kind, a hook, a lead sinker, and a cork on the line to keep
+it from sinking too far.  Dick had used just such an equipment since he
+was eight years old, in the little river at Pendleton, and now he was
+anxious to prove to himself that he had not lost his skill.  All three
+were as eager to catch a fish as they were to win a battle, and, for the
+time, the war was forgotten.  It seemed to Dick as he sat on the brown
+turf between the enclosing roots of the tree, and leaning against its
+trunk, that his lost youth had returned.  He was just a boy again,
+fishing and with no care save to raise something on his hook.  The wood,
+although small, was dense, and it shut out all view of the army.  Nor
+did any martial sounds come to them.  The rustle of the leaves under the
+gentle wind was soothing.  He was back at Pendleton.  Harry Kenton was
+fishing farther up the stream, and so were other boys, his old friends
+of the little town.
+
+The bit of forest was to all intents a wilderness just then, and it was
+so pleasant in the comfortable place between the supporting roots of
+the tree that Dick fell into a dreamy state, in which all things were
+delightful.  It was perhaps the power of contrast, but after so much
+riding and fighting he felt a sheer physical pleasure in sitting there
+and watching the clear stream flow swiftly by.  He smiled too at the way
+in which his cork bobbed up and down on the water, and he began to feel
+that it would not matter much whether he caught any fish or not.  It was
+just enough to sit there and go through all the motions of fishing.
+
+A shout from a point twenty yards below and he looked up, startled,
+from his dream.
+
+"A bite!" exclaimed Warner, "I thought I had him, but he slipped off the
+hook!  I raised him to the surface and I know he was two feet long!"
+
+"Nine inches, probably," said Dick.  "Allow at least fifteen inches for
+your imagination, George."
+
+"I suppose you're right, Dick.  At least, I have to do it down here.
+If it were a Vermont river he'd be really two feet long."
+
+Dick heard his line and sinker strike the water again, and then silence
+returned to the little wood, but it did not endure long.  From a point
+beyond Warner came a shout, and this was undeniably a cry of triumph.
+It was accompanied by a swishing through the air and the sound of an
+object striking the leaves.
+
+"I got him!  I got him!  I got him!" exclaimed Pennington, dancing about
+as if he were only twelve years old.
+
+Dick stood up and saw that Pennington, in truth, had caught a fine fish,
+at least a foot long, which was now squirming over the leaves, its silver
+scales gleaming.
+
+"It seems to me," said Dick, "that the very young Territory of Nebraska
+has scored over the veteran State of Vermont."
+
+"A victor merely in a preliminary skirmish," said Warner serenely.
+"The fish happened to be there.  Frank's baited hook was close by.
+The fish was hungry and the result was a mathematical certainty.  Frank
+is entitled to no credit whatever.  As for me, I lure my fish within the
+catching area."
+
+As Dick resumed his seat he felt a sharp pull at his own line, and
+drawing it in smartly he drew with it a fish as large as Pennington's,
+a fact that he announced with pride.
+
+"I think, Frank," he called, "that this is not good old Vermont's day.
+Either we're more skillful or the fish like us better than they do
+Warner.  Which do you think it is?"
+
+"It's both, Dick."
+
+"On second thought, I don't agree with you, Frank.  The fish in this
+river are entirely new to us.  They've never seen us before, and they
+know nothing about us by hearsay and reputation.  It's a case of skill,
+pure skill, Frank.  We've got Mr. Vermont down, and we're going to hold
+him down."
+
+Warner said nothing, but Dick rose up a little and saw his face.  It was
+red, the teeth clenched tightly, and the mouth drawn down at the corners.
+His eyes were fixed eagerly on his cork in the hope of seeing it bob for
+a moment and then be drawn swiftly under.
+
+"Good old George," said Dick, under his breath.  "He hates to be beaten--
+well, so do we all."
+
+Pennington caught another fish and then Dick drew in his second.  Warner
+did not have a bite since his first miss and his two comrades did not
+spare him.  They insinuated that there were no fish in Vermont, and they
+doubted whether the state had any rivers either.  In any event it was
+obvious that Warner had never fished before.  For several minutes they
+carried on this conversation, the words, in a way, as they went back
+and forth, passing directly by his head.  But Warner did not speak.  He
+merely clenched his teeth more tightly and watched his floating cork.
+Meanwhile Dick caught his third fish and then Pennington equaled him.
+Now their taunts, veiled but little, became more numerous.
+
+Warner never spoke, nor did he take his eyes from his cork.  He had heard
+every word, but he would not show annoyance.  He was compelled to see
+Dick draw in yet another fine fellow, while his own cork seemed to have
+all the qualities of a lifeboat.  It danced and bobbed around, but
+apparently it had not the slightest intention of sinking.  Why did he
+have such luck, or rather lack of it?  Was fortune going to prove unkind
+to the good old rock-ribbed Green Mountain State?
+
+There came a tremendous jerk upon the line!  The cork shot down like a
+bullet, but Warner, making a mighty pull and snap with the rod, landed a
+glorious gleaming fish upon the bank, a full two feet in length, probably
+as large as any that had ever been caught in that stream.  He detached
+the hook and looked down at his squirming prize, while Dick and
+Pennington also came running to see.
+
+"I've been waiting for you, my friend," said Warner serenely to the fish.
+"Various small brothers of yours have come along and looked at my bait,
+but I've always moved it out of reach, leaving them to fall a prey to my
+friends who are content with little things.  I had to wait for you some
+time, O King of Fishes, but you came at last and you are mine."
+
+"You can't put him down, Dick, and it's not worth while trying," said
+Pennington, and Dick agreeing they went back to their own places.
+
+The fishing now went on with uninterrupted success.  Dick caught a big
+fellow too, and so did Pennington.  Fortune, after wavering in her choice,
+decided to favor all three about equally, and they were content.  The
+silvery heaps grew and they rejoiced over the splendid addition they
+would make to their mess.  The colonels would enjoy this fine fresh food,
+and they were certainly enjoying the taking of it.
+
+They ran out of chaff and fell into silence again, while they fished
+industriously.  Dick, who was farthest up the stream, noticed a small
+piece of wood floating in the center of the current.  It seemed to have
+been cut freshly.  "Loggers at work farther up," he said to himself.
+"May be cutting wood for the army."
+
+He caught another fish and a fresh chip passed very near his line.
+Then came a second, and a third touched the line itself.  Dick's
+curiosity was aroused.  Loggers at such a time would not take the trouble
+to throw their chips into the stream.  He lifted his line, caught an
+unusually large white chip on the hook and drew it to the land.  When he
+picked it up and looked at it he whistled.  Someone had cut upon its face
+with a sharp penknife these clear and distinct words:
+
+     Yankees Beware
+     This is our River
+     Don't Fish in It
+     These Fish are Ours.
+               JOHNNY REBS.
+
+"Well, this is surely insolence," said Dick, and calling his comrades he
+showed them the chip.  Both were interested, but Warner had admiration
+for its sender.
+
+"It shows a due consideration for us," he said.  "He merely warns us away
+as trespassers before shooting at us.  And perhaps he's right.  The river
+and the fish in it really belong to them.  We're invaders.  We came down
+here to crush rebellion, not to take away property."
+
+"But I'm going to keep my fish, just the same," said Pennington.  "You
+can't crush a rebellion without eating.  Nor am I going to quit fishing
+either."
+
+"Here comes another big white chip," said Dick.
+
+Warner caught it on his hook and towed it in.  It bore the inscription,
+freshly cut:
+
+     Let our river alone
+     Take in your lines
+     You're in danger,
+     As you'll soon see.
+
+It was unsigned and they stared at it in wonder.
+
+"Do you think this is really a warning?" said Pennington, "or is it some
+of the fellows playing tricks on us?"
+
+"I believe it's a warning," said Warner soberly.  "Probably a farmer a
+little distance up the stream has been cutting wood, and these chips
+have come from his yard, but he didn't send them.  Dick, can you tell
+handwriting when it's done with a knife?"
+
+Dick looked at the chip long and critically.
+
+"It may be imagination," he said, "but the words cut there bear some
+resemblance to the handwriting of Harry Kenton.  He makes a peculiar L
+and a peculiar A and they're just the same way on this chip.  The writing
+is different on the other chip, but on this one I believe strongly that
+it's Harry's."
+
+"It looks significant to me," said Warner thoughtfully.  "A mile or two
+farther up, this stream, so I'm told, makes an elbow, and beyond that it
+comes with a rush out of the mountains.  Its banks are lined with woods
+and thickets and some of the enemy may have slipped in and launched these
+chips.  I've a sort of feeling, Dick, that it's really your cousin and
+his friends who have done it."
+
+"I incline to that belief myself," said Dick.  "You know they're ready
+to dare anything, and they don't anticipate any great danger, because we
+don't care to shoot at one another, until the campaign really begins."
+
+"At least," said Warner, "it's best to apply to the problem a good
+algebraic formula.  Here we are in a wood, some distance from our main
+camp.  Messages, bearing a warning either in jest or in earnest, have
+come floating down from a point which may be within the enemy's country.
+One of the facts is x and the other is y, but what they amount to is an
+unknown quantity.  Hence we are left in doubt, and when you're in doubt
+it's best to do the safe thing."
+
+"Which means that we should go back to the camp," said Dick.  "But we'll
+take our fish with us, that's sure."
+
+They began to wind up their lines, but knowing that departure would be
+prudent they were yet reluctant to go in the face of a hidden danger,
+which after all might not be real.
+
+"Suppose I climb this tree," said Pennington, indicating a tall elm,
+"and I may be able to get a good look over the country, while you fellows
+keep watch."
+
+"Up you go, Frank," said Dick.  "George and I will be on guard, pistols
+in one hand and fish in the other."
+
+Pennington climbed the elm rapidly and then announced from the highest
+bough able to support him that he saw open country beyond, then more
+woods, a glimpse of the stream above the elbow, but no human being.
+He added that he would remain a few minutes in the tree and continue his
+survey of the country.
+
+Dick's eyes had followed Frank's figure until it disappeared among the
+brown leaves, and he had listened to him carefully, while he was telling
+the result of his outlook, but his attention now turned back to the
+river.  No more chips were floating down its stream.  Nothing foreign
+appeared upon the clear surface of its waters, but Dick's sharp vision
+caught sight of something in a thicket on the far shore that made his
+heart beat.
+
+It was but little he saw, merely the brown edge of an enormous flap-
+brimmed hat, but it was enough.  Slade and his men undoubtedly were there--
+practically within the Union lines--and he was the danger!  He called up
+the tree in a fierce sibilant whisper that carried amazingly far:
+
+"Come down, Frank!  Come down at once, for your life!"
+
+It was a call so alarming and insistent that Pennington almost dropped
+from the tree.  He was upon the ground, breathless, in a half minute,
+his fish in one hand and the pistol that he had snatched from his belt
+in the other.
+
+"What is it?" exclaimed Warner, who had not yet seen anything.
+
+"Slade and his men are in the bush on the other side of the river.
+The warning was real and I've no doubt Harry sent it.  They've seen Frank
+come down the tree!  Drop flat for your lives!"
+
+Again his tone was so compelling that the other two threw themselves
+flat instantly, and Dick went down with them.  They were barely in time.
+A dozen rifles flashed from the thickets beyond the stream, but all the
+bullets passed over their heads.
+
+"Now we run for it!" exclaimed Dick, once more in that tone of compelling
+command.  All three rose instantly, though not forgetting their fish and
+their fishing rods, and ran at their utmost speed for fifty or sixty
+yards, when at Dick's order they threw themselves flat again.  Three or
+four more shots were fired from the thickets, but they did not come near
+their targets.
+
+"Thank God for that little river in between us!" said Pennington, piously
+and sincerely.  "Rivers certainly have their uses!"
+
+Then they heard a sharp, shrill note blown upon a whistle.
+
+"That's Slade recalling his men," said Dick.  "I heard him use the same
+whistle in Mississippi and I know it.  His wicked little scheme to
+slaughter us has failed and knowing it he prudently withdraws."
+
+"For which, perhaps, we have a chip to thank," said Warner.  "Shall we
+rise and run again?"
+
+"Yes," said Dick.  "I think they've gone, but fifty yards farther and
+nobody in those thickets can reach us."
+
+They stooped as they ran, and they ran fast, but, when they dropped down
+again, it was behind a little hill, and they knew that all danger had
+passed.  The thumping of their hearts ceased, and they looked thankfully
+at one another.
+
+"Our lives were in danger," said Warner proudly, "but I didn't forget my
+fish.  See, the silver beauties!"
+
+"And here are mine too!" said Pennington, holding up his string.
+
+"And mine also!" said Dick.
+
+"I don't like the way we had to run," said Warner.  "We were practically
+within our own lines and we were compelled to be undignified.  I've been
+insulted by that flap-brimmed scoundrel, Slade, and I shall not forget
+it.  If he hangs upon our flank in this campaign I shall make a point of
+it, if I am able, to present him with a bullet."
+
+The sound of thudding hoofs came, and Colonel Winchester and a troop
+galloped up.
+
+"We heard shots!" he exclaimed.  "What was it?"
+
+Dick held up his fish.
+
+"We've been fishing, sir," he replied, "and as you can see, we've had
+success, but we were interrupted by the guerrilla Slade, whom I met in
+Mississippi, and his men.  We got off, though, unhurt, and brought our
+fish with us."
+
+Colonel Winchester's troop numbered more than a hundred men, and
+crossing the river they beat up the country thoroughly, but they saw no
+Confederate sign.  When he came back Dick told him all the details of the
+episode, and Colonel Winchester agreed with him that Harry had sent the
+warning.
+
+"You'd better keep it to yourself," he said.  "It's too vague and
+mysterious to make a peg upon which to hang anything.  Since we've
+cleared the bush of enemies we'll go eat the fish you and your friends
+have caught."
+
+Sergeant Whitley cooked them, and, as Dick and a score of others sat
+around the fire and ate fish for supper, they were so exuberant and
+chaffed so much that he forgot for the time all about Slade.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SHERIDAN'S ATTACK
+
+
+More days passed and the army of Sheridan lay waiting at the head of the
+valley, apparently without any aim in view.  But Dick knew that if Little
+Phil delayed it was with good cause.  As Colonel Winchester was high in
+the general's confidence Dick saw the commander every day.  He soon
+learned that he was of an intensely energetic and active nature, and that
+he must put a powerful rein upon himself to hold back, when he had such a
+fine army to lead.
+
+Many of the younger officers expressed impatience and Dick saw by the
+newspapers that the North too was chafing at the delay.  Newspapers from
+the great cities, New York, Philadelphia and Boston, reached their camp
+and they always read them eagerly.  Criticisms were leveled at Sheridan,
+and from the appearance of things they had warrant, but Dick had faith in
+their leader.  Yet another period of depression had come in the North.
+The loss of life in Grant's campaign through the Wilderness had been
+tremendous, and now he seemed to be held indefinitely by Lee in the
+trenches before Petersburg.  The Confederacy, after so many great battles,
+and such a prodigious roll of killed and wounded, was still a nut
+uncracked, and Sheridan, who was expected to go up the valley and turn
+the Southern flank, was resting quietly in his camp.
+
+Such was the face of matters, but Dick knew that, beneath, great plans
+were in the making and that the armies would soon stir.  The more he saw
+of Sheridan the more he was impressed by him.  He might prove to be the
+Stonewall Jackson of the North.  Young, eager, brave, he never fell into
+the fault some of the other Union commanders had of overestimating the
+enemy.  He always had a cheery word for his young officers, and when he
+was not poring over the maps with his lieutenant of engineers, Meigs,
+he was inspecting his troops, and seeing that their equipment and
+discipline were carried to the highest pitch.  He was the very essence
+of activity and the army, although not yet moving, felt at all times the
+tonic of his presence.
+
+Cavalry detachments were sent out on a wider circle.  Slade and his men
+had no opportunity to come so close again, but Shepard informed Dick that
+he was in the mountains hemming in the valley on the west, and that the
+statement of his having formed a junction with a band under Skelly from
+the Alleghanies was true.  He had seen the big man and the little man
+together and they had several hundred followers.
+
+Shepard in these days showed an almost superhuman activity.  He would
+leave the camp, disguised as a civilian, and after covering a great
+distance and risking his life a dozen times he would return with precious
+information.  A few hours of rest and he was gone again on a like errand.
+He seemed to be burning with an inward fire, not a fire that consumed him,
+but a fire of triumph.  Dick, who had formed a great friendship with him
+and who saw him often, had never known him to speak more sanguine words.
+Always cautious and reserved in his opinions, he talked now of the
+certainty of victory.  He told them that the South was not only failing
+in men, having none to fill up its shattered ranks, but that food also
+was failing.  The time would come, with the steel belt of the Northern
+navy about it and the Northern armies pressing in on every side, when the
+South would face starvation.
+
+But a day arrived when there were signs of impending movements in the
+great Northern camp.  Long columns of wagons were made ready and orders
+were issued for the vanguard of cavalry to start at an appointed time.
+Then, to the intense disappointment of the valiant young troops, the
+orders were countermanded and the whole army settled back into its
+quarters.  Dick, who persistently refused to be a grumbler, knew that a
+cause must exist for such an action, but before he could wonder about it
+long Colonel Winchester told him, Warner and Pennington to have their
+horses saddled, and be ready to ride at a moment's notice.
+
+"We're to be a part of General Sheridan's escort," he said, "and we're to
+go to a little place called Charlestown."
+
+The three were delighted.  They were eager to move, and above all in
+the train of Sheridan.  The mission must be of great importance or the
+commander himself would not ride upon it.  Hence they saddled up in five
+minutes, hoping that the call would come in the next five.
+
+"Did Colonel Winchester tell you why we were going to ride?" asked Warner
+of Dick.
+
+"No."
+
+"Then perhaps we're going to receive the surrender of Early and all his
+men."
+
+Dick laughed.
+
+"I've heard that old Jube Early is one of the hardest swearers in the
+Southern army," he said, "and I've heard, too, that he's just as hard a
+fighter.  I don't think he'll be handing us his surrender on a silver
+platter at Charlestown or anywhere else."
+
+"I know it," said Warner.  "I was only joking, but I'm wondering why we
+go."
+
+In ten minutes an orderly came with a message for them and they were in
+the saddle as quickly as if they intended to ride to a charge.  Sheridan
+himself and his staff and escort were as swift as they, and the whole
+troop swept away with a thunder of hoofs and the blood leaping in their
+veins.  It was now almost the middle of September, and the wind that blew
+down from the crest of the mountains had a cool breath.  It fanned Dick's
+face and the great pulse in his throat leaped.  He felt that this ride
+must portend some important movement.  Sheridan would not gallop away
+from his main camp, except on a vital issue.
+
+It was not a long distance to Charlestown, and when they arrived there
+they dismounted and waited.  Dick saw Colonel Winchester's face express
+great expectancy and he must know why they waited, but the youth did not
+ask him any questions, although his own curiosity increased.
+
+An hour passed, and then a short, thickset, bearded man, accompanied by a
+small staff, appeared.  Dick drew a deep breath.  It was General Grant,
+Commander-in-Chief of all the armies of the Union, and Sheridan hastened
+forward to meet him.  Then the two, with several of the senior officers,
+went into a house, while the younger men remained outside, and on guard.
+
+"I knew that we were waiting for somebody of importance," said Warner,
+"but I didn't dream that it was the biggest man we've got in the field."
+
+"Didn't your algebra give you any hint of it?" asked Dick.
+
+"No.  An algebra reasons.  It doesn't talk and waste its time in idle
+chatter."
+
+The young officers with their horses walked back and forth a long time,
+while Grant and Sheridan talked.  Dick, surprised that Grant had left the
+trenches before Petersburg and had come so far to meet his lieutenant,
+felt that the meeting must be momentous.  But it was even more crowded
+with the beginnings of great events than he thought.  Grant, as he wrote
+long afterward, had come prepared with a plan of campaign for Sheridan,
+but, as he wrote, "seeing that he was so clear and so positive in his
+views I said nothing about this and did not take it out of my pocket."
+It was a quality of Grant's greatness, like that of Lee, to listen to a
+lieutenant, and when he thought his plan was better than his own to adopt
+the lieutenant's and put his own away.
+
+In that memorable interview, from which such stirring campaigns dated,
+Grant was impressed more and more by the earnestness and clearness of the
+famous Little Phil, and, when they parted, he gave him a free rein and an
+open road.  Sheridan, when they rode away from the conference, was sober
+and thoughtful.  He was to carry out his own plan, but the full weight of
+the responsibility would be his, and it was very great for a young man
+who was not much more than thirty.
+
+But Dick and his comrades felt exultation, and did not try to hide it.
+Now that Grant himself had come to see Sheridan the army was bound to
+move.  Pennington looked toward the South and waved his hand.
+
+"You've been waiting for us a long time, old Jube," he said, "but we're
+coming.  And you'll see and hear our resistless tread."
+
+"But don't forget, Frank," said Warner soberly, "that we'll have a big
+bill of lives to pay.  We don't ride unhurt over the Johnnies."
+
+"Don't I know it?" said Pennington.  "Haven't I been learning it every
+day for three years?"
+
+Action was prompt as the young officers had hoped.  The very next day
+after the meeting with his superior, Sheridan prepared to march, and the
+hopes of Dick and his friends rose very high.  They did not know that
+daring Southern spies had learned of the meeting of Grant and Sheridan,
+and Early, judging that it portended a great movement against him,
+was already consolidating his forces and preparing to meet it.  And Jubal
+Early was an able and valiant general.
+
+Dick did not sleep that night.  All had received orders to hold
+themselves in readiness for an instant march, and his blood tingled with
+expectancy.  At midnight the Winchester regiment rode off to the left to
+join the cavalry under Wilson which was to lead the advance, moving along
+a pike road and then crossing the little river Opequan.
+
+Dick rode close behind Colonel Winchester and Warner and Pennington were
+on either side of him.  Not far away from them was Sergeant Whitley,
+ready for use as a scout.  Shepard had disappeared already in the
+darkness.  They joined Wilson's command and waited in silence.  At three
+o'clock in the morning the word to advance was given and the whole
+division marched forward in the starlight.
+
+They had not gone far before Shepard rode back telling them that the
+crossing of the Opequan was guarded by Confederate troops.  The cavalry
+increased their speed.  After the long period of inaction they were
+anxious to come to grips with their foe.  Dick still rode knee to knee
+with Warner and Pennington, as they went on at a rapid pace in the
+starlight, the fields and strips of forest gliding past.  Men on
+horseback talk less at night than in the day and moreover these had
+little to say.  Their part was action, and they were waiting to see what
+the little Opequan would disclose to them.
+
+"Do you think they'll have a big force at the river?" asked Pennington.
+
+"No," replied Dick.  "I fancy from what we've heard of Early's army that
+he won't have the men to spare."
+
+"But we can look for a brush there," said Warner.
+
+The night began to darken as a premonition of the coming dawn, a veil
+of vapor was drawn before the stars, trees blended together and the air
+became chill.  Then the vapor was pierced in the east by a lance of
+light.  The rift widened, and the pale light of the first dawn appeared
+over the hills.  Dick, using his glasses, saw a flash which he knew was
+the Opequan.  And with that silvery gleam of water came other flashes of
+red and rapid crackling reports.  The Southern sharpshooters along the
+stream were already opening fire.
+
+A great shout went up from the cavalry.  All the forces restrained so
+long in these young men burst forth.  The dawn was now deepening rapidly,
+its pallor turning to silver, and the river, for a long length, lay
+clear to view before them.  Trumpets to right and left and in the center
+sounded the charge, the mellow notes coming back in many echoes.
+
+The horsemen firing their own carbines and swinging aloft their sabers,
+galloped forward in a mighty rush.  The beat of hundreds of hoofs made a
+steady sound, insistent and threatening.  The yellow light of the sun,
+replacing the silver of the first dawn, gilded them with gold, glittering
+on the upraised blades and tense faces.  The bullets of the Southern
+sharpshooters, in the bushes and trees along the Opequan, crashed among
+them, and horses and men went down, but the mighty sweep of the mass was
+not delayed for an instant.
+
+Dick was flourishing the cavalry saber that he now carried and was
+shouting with the rest.  Nearer and nearer came the belt of clear water,
+and the fire of the Southern skirmishers increased in volume and
+accuracy.  No great Southern force was there, but the men were full of
+courage and activity.  Their rifle fire emptied many of the Northern
+saddles.  A bullet went through the sleeve of Dick's tunic and grazed the
+skin, but he only felt a slight burning touch and then soon forgot it.
+
+Then the whole column started together, as they swept into the Opequan,
+driving before them through sheer weight of mass the skirmishers and
+sharpshooters, who were hidden among the trees and thickets.  The water
+itself proved but little obstacle.  It was churned to foam by hundreds
+of trampling hoofs, and Dick felt it falling upon him like rain, but the
+drops were cool and refreshing.
+
+Still at a gallop, they emerged from the river, wet and dripping, so much
+water had been dashed up by the beating hoofs, and charged straight on,
+driving the scattered Southern riflemen before them.  Dick's exultation
+swelled, and so did that of Warner and Pennington.  The young Nebraskan
+was compelled to give voice to his.
+
+"Hurrah!" he shouted.  "We'll gallop the whole length of the valley!
+Nothing can stop us!"
+
+But Warner, naturally cautious, despite his rejoicings, would not go so
+far.
+
+"Not the whole length of the valley, Frank!" he exclaimed.  "Only half of
+it!"
+
+"All or nothing!" shouted Pennington, carried away by his enthusiasm.
+"Hurrah!  Hurrah!"
+
+Before them now lay a small earthwork, from which field pieces began to
+send ugly gusts of fire, but so great was the sweep of the cavalry that
+they charged directly upon it.  The defenders, too few to hold it,
+withdrew and retreated in haste, and in a few minutes the Northern
+cavalry were in possession.
+
+"Didn't I tell you," exclaimed Pennington, "that we were going to gallop
+the whole length of the valley!  We've taken a fort with horsemen!"
+
+"Yes," said Warner, "but we'll stop here a while.  Listen to the trumpets
+sounding the halt, and yonder you can see the main lines of the Johnnies."
+
+It was obvious that it was unwise to go farther until the whole army came
+up, as they heard other trumpets calling now, and they were not their own
+but those of their enemies.  Early had not been caught napping.  The dark
+lines of his infantry were advancing to retake the little fort.  The
+cavalry was reduced in an instant from the offensive to the defensive,
+and dismounting and sending their horses to the rear, where they were
+held by every tenth man, they waited with carbines ready, the masses of
+men in gray bearing down upon them.  Dick wondered if the Invincibles
+were there before him.  Second thought told him that it was unlikely,
+as the advancing troops were infantry, and he knew that the Invincibles
+were now mounted.
+
+"Now, lads," said Colonel Winchester, going down the ranks, "ready with
+your rifles!"
+
+The Southern infantry came on to the steady beating of a drum somewhere,
+but as they drew near the fort a sheet of bullets poured upon them,
+and drove them back, leaving the ground sprinkled with the fallen.
+Again and again they reformed and returned to the charge always to meet
+the same fate.
+
+"Brave fellows!" exclaimed Warner, "but they can't retake this fort from
+us!"
+
+After the last repulse Colonel Winchester drew out his men, mounted them,
+and charging the infantry in flank sent them far down the road toward
+Winchester, where heavy columns came to their support.  But the
+Winchester men had time to breathe, and also to exult, as they had
+suffered but little loss.  While they remained at the captured fort,
+awaiting further orders, they watched the battle elsewhere, flaring in a
+long irregular line across the valley.
+
+The rifle fire was heavy and the big guns of Early were sweeping the
+roads with shell and grapeshot.  As well as Dick could see through his
+glasses, the only success yet achieved was that of the cavalry at the
+fort.  Sheridan himself had not yet appeared, and the hopes of the three
+sank a little.  They had seen so many triumphs nearly achieved and then
+lost that they could believe in nothing until it was done.
+
+But the morning was yet very young.  While the east had long been full of
+light, the golden glow was just enveloping the west.  The rifles crashed
+incessantly and the heavy thunder of the cannon gave the steady sound a
+deeper note.  The fire of the defending Southern force made a red stream
+across the hills and fields.
+
+"It's too early to have a battle," said Warner, looking at the sun,
+which was not yet far above the horizon.
+
+"Too early for us or too early for the Johnnies?" said Pennington.
+"I think, Dick, I see those rebel friends of yours.  Turn your glasses to
+the right, and look at that regiment of horses by the edge of the grove.
+I see at the head of it two men with longish hair.  Apparently they
+are elderly, and they must be Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel
+St. Hilaire."
+
+Dick turned his glasses eagerly and the officers of the Invincibles were
+at once recognizable to his more familiar eye.  He could not mistake
+Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel Hector St. Hilaire,
+both of whom were watching the progress of the battle through glasses,
+and he knew that the four young men who sat their horses just behind them
+were Harry, St. Clair, Dalton and Langdon.
+
+As no further attack was made on the fort, and Colonel Winchester's
+troop remained stationary for the time, Dick kept his glasses bearing
+continually upon the Invincibles.  The glasses were powerful and they
+told him much.  He inferred from the manner in which the men were drawn
+up that they would charge soon.  Near them a battery of four Confederate
+guns was planted on a hill, and it was firing rapidly and effectively,
+sending shell and shrapnel into advancing lines of blue infantry.
+
+A singular feeling took hold of him, one of which he was not then
+conscious.  He knew six of the officers who sat in the front of the
+Invincibles, and one of them was his own cousin, almost his brother.
+He did not know a soul in the blue columns advancing upon them, and his
+hopes and fears centered suddenly around that little group of six.
+
+The wood was filled with Southern infantry, as it was now spouting flame,
+and the battery continued to thunder as fast as the men could reload and
+fire.  The Invincibles who carried short rifles, much like the carbines
+of the North, raised them and pulled the triggers.  Many in the blue
+column fell, but the others went on without faltering.
+
+Dick knew from long experience what would follow, and he watched it alike
+with the eye and the mind that divines.  Either his eye or his fancy saw
+the Invincibles lean forward a little, fasten their rifles, shake loose
+the reins with one hand, and drop the other hand to the hilt of the
+saber.  It was certain that in the next minute they would charge.
+
+He saw a trumpeter raise a trumpet to his lips and blow, loud and shrill.
+Then the column of the Invincibles leaped forward, the necks of the
+horses outstretched, the men raising their sabers and flashing them above
+their heads.  Dick drew deep breaths and his pulses beat painfully.
+Had he realized what his wishes were then he would have considered
+himself a traitor.  In those swift moments his heart was with the
+Invincibles and not with the blue columns that stood up against them.
+
+He saw the gray horsemen sweep forward into a cloud of fire and smoke,
+in which he caught the occasional flash of a saber.  The combat behind
+the veil lasted only a minute or two, though it seemed an hour to Dick,
+and then he saw the blue infantry reeling back, their advance checked by
+the charge of the Invincibles.  A cheer rose in Dick's throat, but he
+checked it, and then, remembering, he trembled in a brief chill, as if
+shaken by the knowledge that for a few moments at least he had not been
+true to the cause for which he fought.
+
+"A gallant charge those Johnnies made," said Warner, "and it's been
+effective, too.  Our men are falling back, while the Johnnies are
+returning to their place near the wood."
+
+Dick was straining his eyes through the glasses to see whether any one of
+the five whom he knew had fallen, but as the Invincibles returned from
+their victorious charge in a close mass it was impossible for him to
+tell.  A number of saddles had been emptied, as riderless horses were
+galloping wildly over the plain.  He sighed a little and replaced his
+glasses in their case.
+
+"Here come more of our cavalry!" said Warner.
+
+They heard the heavy beat of many hoofs and in an instant many horsemen
+swarmed about them.  It was Sheridan himself who led them, his face
+flushed and eager and his eyes blazing.  He was a little man, but he was
+electric in his energy, and his very presence seemed to communicate more
+spirit and fire to the troops.  The officers crowded about him, and,
+while he swept the field with his glasses, he also gave a rapid command.
+
+The Southern resistance, despite inferior numbers, was valiant and
+enduring.  Their heavy guns were pouring a deadly fire upon the Northern
+center.  Beyond the taking of the fort by the cavalry the Army of the
+Shenandoah had made no progress, and the Southern troops were rapidly
+concentrating at every critical point.  Old Jube Early, mighty swearer,
+was proving himself a master of men.
+
+Dick could not watch Sheridan long, as the cavalry were quickly sent off
+to the left to clear away skirmishers, and let the infantry and artillery
+get up on that front.  There were many groups of trees, and from every
+one of these the Southern riflemen sent swarms of bullets.  It seemed to
+Dick that he was preserved miraculously.  Many a bullet coming straight
+for his head must have turned aside at the last moment to seek a target
+elsewhere.  To him at least these bullets were merciful that morning.
+
+But they cleared the ground, though some of their own saddles were
+emptied, and the infantry and the artillery came up behind them.  The
+big guns were planted and began to reply to those of the South.  Yet the
+Confederate lines still held fast.  Clouds of smoke floated over the
+field, but whenever they lifted sufficiently Dick saw the gray army
+maintaining all its positions.  He looked for the Invincibles again but
+could not find them.  Doubtless they were hid from his view by the hills.
+
+"It's anybody's fight," said Warner, surveying the field with his cool,
+mathematical eye.  "We have the greater numbers but our infantry are
+coming up slowly and, besides, the enemy has the advantage of interior
+lines."
+
+"And the morning wanes," said Dick.  "I thought we'd make a grand rush
+and sweep over 'em!"
+
+"Oh, these Johnnies are tough.  They have to be.  There's not much
+marching over the other by either side in this war."
+
+A heavy battle of cannon and rifles, with no advantage to either side,
+went on for a long time.  Dick saw Sheridan galloping here and there,
+and urging on his troops, but the reserves were slow in coming and he
+was not yet able to hurl his full strength upon his enemy.  Noon came,
+the battle already having lasted four or five hours, and Sheridan had no
+triumph to show, save the little fort that the cavalry had seized early
+in the morning.
+
+"Do you think we'll have to draw off?" asked Pennington.
+
+"Maybe we'll have to, but we won't," replied Dick.  "Sheridan refuses to
+recognize necessities when they're not in his favor.  You'll now see the
+difference between a man and men."
+
+Colonel Winchester's regiment was sent off further to the left to prevent
+any flanking movement, but they could still see most of the field.
+For the moment they were not engaged, and they watched the thrilling and
+terrific panorama as it passed before them.
+
+Colonel Winchester himself suddenly broke from his calm and pointed to
+the rear of the Union lines.
+
+"Look!" he exclaimed.  "All our reserves of artillery and infantry are
+coming up!  The whole army will now advance!"
+
+They saw very clearly the deepening of the lines in the center.  Sheridan
+was there massing the new troops for the attack, and soon the trumpets
+sounded the charge along the whole front.  The Northern batteries
+redoubled their fire, and the South, knowing that a heavier shock of
+battle was coming, replied in kind.
+
+"Here we go again!" cried Pennington, and the horsemen rode straight at
+their enemy.  It seemed to Dick that the Southern regiments came forward
+to meet them and a battle long, fierce and wavering in its fortunes
+ensued.  The wing to which the Winchesters belonged pressed forward,
+driving their enemy before them, only to be caught when they went too far
+by a savage flanking fire of artillery.  Early had brought in his reserve
+guns, and so powerful was their attack that at this point the Northern
+line was almost severed, and a Southern wedge was driven into the gap.
+
+But Sheridan did not despair.  He had a keen eye and a collected mind,
+infused with a fiery spirit.  Where his line had been weakened he sent
+new troops.  With charge after charge he drove the Confederates out of
+the gap and closed it up.  A whole division was then hurled with its
+full weight against the Southern line and broke it, although the gallant
+general who led the column fell shot through the heart.
+
+But Early formed new lines.  It was only a temporary success for
+Sheridan.  An important division of cavalry sent on a wide flanking
+movement had not yet arrived, and he wondered why.  Perhaps the thought
+came into his own dauntless heart that he might not succeed at all, but,
+if so, he hid it, and called up fresh resources of strength and courage.
+It was now far into the afternoon but he resolved nevertheless to win
+victory before the day was over.  Everywhere the call for a new charge
+was sounded.
+
+The Winchesters had a good trumpeter, a deep-chested young fellow who
+loved to blow forth mellow notes, and now as his brazen instrument sang
+the song that summoned men to death the young men unconsciously tightened
+the grip of the knee on their horses, and leaned a little forward,
+as if they would see the enemy more closely.  To the right the fire grew
+heavier and heavier, and most of the field was hidden by a thick veil of
+smoke.
+
+Dick saw other cavalry massing on either side of the Winchester regiment,
+and he knew their charge was to be one of great weight and importance.
+
+"I feel that we're going to win or lose here," he said to Warner.
+
+"Looks like it," replied the Vermonter, "but I think you can put your
+money on the cavalry today.  It's Sheridan's great striking arm."
+
+"It'll have to strike with all its might, that's sure," said Dick.
+
+He did not know that the force in front of him was commanded by a general
+from his own state, Breckinridge, once Vice-President of the United
+States and also high in the councils of the Confederacy.  Breckinridge
+was inspiring his command with the utmost vigor and already his heavy
+guns were sweeping the front of the Union cavalry, while the riflemen
+stood ready for the charge.
+
+The great mass of Northern horsemen were eager and impatient.  A thrill
+of anticipation seemed to run through them, as if through one body,
+and when the final command was given they swept forward in a mighty,
+irresistible line.  In Dick's mind then anticipation became knowledge.
+He was as sure as he was of his own name that they were going to win.
+
+Again he was knee to knee with Warner and Pennington, and with these good
+comrades on his right and left he rode into the Southern fire, among the
+shell and shrapnel and grapeshot and bullets that had swept so often
+around him.  In spite of the most desperate courage, the Southern troops
+gave way before the terrific onset--they had to give ground or they would
+have been trampled under the feet of the horses.  Cannon and many rifles
+were taken, and the whole Confederate division was driven in disorder
+down the road.
+
+Warner's stern calm was broken, and he shouted in delight "We win!
+We win!"  Then Dick and Pennington shouted with him: "We win!  We win!"
+and as the smoke of their own battle lifted they saw that the Union army
+elsewhere was triumphant also.  Sheridan along his whole line was forcing
+the enemy back toward Winchester, raking him with his heavy guns, and
+sending charge after charge of cavalry against him.  Unable to withstand
+the weight hurled upon them the Southern troops gave ground at an
+increased rate.
+
+Yet Early and his veterans never showed greater courage than on that day.
+His brave officers were everywhere, checking the fugitives and, his best
+division turning a front of steel to the enemy, covered the retreat.
+Neither infantry nor cavalry could break it, although every man in the
+Southern command knew that the battle was lost.  Yet they were resolved
+that it should not become a rout, and though many were falling before the
+Union force they never shrank for a moment from their terrible task.
+
+The Invincibles were in the division that covered the retreat, and they
+were exposed at all times to the full measure of the Union attack.
+Dalton had joined them that morning, but the bullets and shells seemed
+resolved to spare the four youths and the two colonels, or at least not
+to doom them to death.  Nearly every one of them bore slight wounds,
+and often men had been killed only a few feet away, but the valiant band,
+led by its daring officers, fought with undimmed courage and resolution.
+
+"I fear that we have been defeated, Hector," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot.
+
+"Don't call it a defeat, Leonidas.  It's merely a masterly retreat before
+superior numbers, after having inflicted great loss upon the enemy.
+As you see, we are protecting our withdrawal.  Every attack of the enemy
+upon our division has been beaten back, and we will continue to beat him
+back as long as he comes."
+
+"True, true, Hector, and the Invincibles are bearing a great part in this
+glorious feat of arms!  But the Yankee general, Sheridan, is not like
+the other Yankee generals who operated in the valley earlier in the war.
+We're bound to admit that."
+
+"We do admit it, Leonidas, and alas! we have now no Stonewall Jackson to
+meet him, brave and capable as General Early is!"
+
+The two colonels looked at the setting sun, and hoped that it would go
+down with a rush.  The division could not hold forever against the
+tremendous pressure upon it that never ceased, but darkness would put an
+end to the battle.  The first gray of twilight was already showing on the
+eastern hills, and Early's men still held the broad turnpike leading into
+the South.  Here, fighting with all the desperation of imminent need,
+they beat off every effort of the Northern cavalry to gain their ground,
+and when night came they still held it, withdrawing slowly and in good
+order, while Sheridan's men, exhausted by tremendous marches and heavy
+losses, were unable to pursue.  Yet the North had gained a great and
+important victory.
+
+          *          *          *          *
+
+Darkness closed over a weary but exultant army.  It had not destroyed
+the forces of Early, and it had been able to pursue only three miles.
+It had lost five thousand men in killed and wounded, but the results,
+nevertheless, were great and the soldiers knew it.  The spell of Southern
+invincibility in the famous valley, where Jackson had won so often,
+was broken, and the star of Sheridan had flashed out with brilliancy,
+to last until the war's close.  They knew, too, that they now held all
+of the valley north of Winchester, and they were soon to know that they
+would continue to hold it.  They commanded also a great railway and a
+great canal, and the South was cut off from Maryland and Pennsylvania,
+neither of which it could ever invade again.
+
+Although a far smaller battle than a dozen that had been fought, it was
+one of the greatest and most complete victories the North had yet won.
+After a long and seemingly endless deadlock a terrible blow had been
+struck at the flank of Lee, and the news of the triumph filled the North
+with joy.  It was also given on this occasion to those who had fought in
+the battle itself to know what they had done.  They were not blinded by
+the dust and shouting of the arena.
+
+Dick with his two young comrades sat beneath an oak and ate the warm food
+and drank the hot coffee the camp cook brought to them.  They had escaped
+without hurt, and they were very happy over the achievement of the day.
+The night was crisp, filled with starshine, and the cooking fires had
+been built along a long line, stretching away like a series of triumphant
+bonfires.
+
+"I felt this morning that we would win," said Dick.
+
+"I've felt several times that we would win, when we didn't," said
+Pennington.
+
+"But this time I felt it right.  They say that Stonewall Jackson always
+communicated electricity to his men, and I think our Little Phil has the
+same quality.  Since we first came to him here I haven't doubted that we
+would win, and when I saw him and Grant talking I knew that we'd be up
+and doing."
+
+"It's the spirit that Grant showed at Vicksburg," said Warner, seriously.
+"Little Phil--I intend to call him that when I'm not in his presence,
+because it's really a term of admiration--is another Grant, only younger
+and on horseback."
+
+"It's fire that does it," said Dick.  "No, Frank, I don't mean this
+material fire burning before us, but the fire that makes him see
+obstacles little, and advantages big, the fire that makes him rush over
+everything to get at the enemy and destroy him."
+
+"Well spoken, Dick," said Warner.  "A bit rhetorical, perhaps, but that
+can be attributed to your youth and the region from which you come."
+
+"It's a great pity, George, about my youth and the region from which I
+come.  If so many youths in blue didn't come from that same region the
+whole Mississippi Valley might now be in the hands of the Johnnies."
+
+"Didn't I tell you, Dick, not to argue with him?" said Pennington.
+"What's the use?  New England has the writers and when this war is ended
+victoriously they'll give the credit of all the fighting to New England.
+And after a while, through the printed word, they'll make other people
+believe it, too."
+
+"Then you Nebraskans and Kentuckians should learn to read and write.
+Why blame me?" said Warner with dignity.
+
+Colonel Winchester joined them at that moment, having returned from a
+brief council with Sheridan and his officers.  Dick, without a word,
+passed him a plate of hot ham and a tin cup of sizzling coffee.  The
+colonel, who looked worn to the bone but triumphant, ate and drank.
+Then he settled himself into an easy place before one of the fires and
+said:
+
+"A messenger has gone to General Grant with the news of our victory,
+and it will certainly be a most welcome message.  The news will also
+be sent to the nearest telegraph station, and then it will travel on
+hundreds of wires to every part of the North, but while it's flashing
+through space we'll be riding forward to new battle."
+
+"I expected it, sir," said Dick.  "I suppose we advance again at dawn."
+
+"And maybe a little sooner.  Now you boys must rest.  You've had eighteen
+hours of marching and fighting.  I've been very proud of my regiment
+today, and fortunately we have escaped without large losses."
+
+"And you sleep, too, sir, do you not?" said Warner, respectfully.
+"If we've been marching and fighting for eighteen hours so have you."
+
+"I shall do so a little later, but that's no reason why the rest of you
+should delay.  How that coffee and ham refreshed me!  I didn't know I was
+so nearly dead."
+
+"Here's more, Colonel!"
+
+"Thank you, Dick.  I believe I will.  But as I say, go to sleep.  I want
+all my regiment to sleep.  We don't know what is before us tomorrow,
+but whatever it is it won't be easy.  Now you boys have had enough to eat
+and drink.  Into the blankets with you!"
+
+He did not wait to see his order obeyed, but strode away on another hasty
+errand.  But it was obeyed and that, too, without delay.  The young
+warriors rolled themselves in their blankets and hunted a soft place for
+their heads.  But their nerves were not yet quiet, and sleep did not come
+for a little while.  The long lines of fires still glowed, and the sounds
+of an army came to them.  Dick looked up into the starshine.  He was
+still rejoicing in the victory, not because the other side had lost,
+but because, in his opinion, it brought peace much nearer.  He realized
+as he lay there gazing into the skies that the South could never win as
+long as the North held fast.  And the North was holding fast.  The stars
+as they winked at him seemed to say so.
+
+He propped himself upon his elbow and said:
+
+"George, does your little algebra tell you anything about the meaning of
+this victory?"
+
+Warner tapped his breast.
+
+"That noble book is here in the inside pocket of my tunic," he replied.
+"It's not necessary for me to take it out, but tucked away on the 118th
+page is a neat little problem which just fits this case.  Let x equal
+the Army of Northern Virginia, let y equal the army of Early here in
+the valley, and let x plus y equal a possibly successful defense by the
+South.  But when y is swept away it's quite certain that x standing alone
+cannot do so.  My algebra tells you on the 118th page, tucked away neatly
+in a paragraph, that this is the beginning of the end."
+
+"It sounds more like a formula than a problem, George, but still I'm
+putting my faith in your little algebra book."
+
+"George's algebra is all right," said Pennington, "but it doesn't always
+go before, it often comes after.  It doesn't show us how to do a thing,
+but proves how we've done it.  As for me, I'm pinning my faith to Little
+Phil.  He won a great victory today, when all our other leaders for
+years have been beaten in the Valley of Virginia, and sometimes beaten
+disgracefully too."
+
+"Your argument is unanswerable, Frank," said Dick.  "I didn't expect such
+logic from you."
+
+"Oh, I think I'm real bright at times."
+
+"Despite popular belief," said Warner.
+
+"I don't advertise my talents," said Pennington.
+
+"But you ought to.  They need it."
+
+Dick laughed.
+
+"Frank," he said, "I give you your own advice to me.  Don't argue with
+him.  With him the best proof that he's always right is because he thinks
+he is."
+
+"I think clearly and directly, which can be said of very few of my
+friends," rejoined Warner.
+
+Then all three of them laughed and lay down again, resting their heads on
+soft lumps of turf.
+
+They were under the boughs of a fine oak, on which the leaves were yet
+thick.  Birds, hidden among the leaves, began to sing, and the three,
+astonished, raised themselves up again.  It was a chorus, beautiful and
+startling, and many other soldiers listened to the sound, so unlike that
+which they had been hearing all day.
+
+"Strange, isn't it?" said Pennington.
+
+"But fine to hear," said Warner.
+
+"Likely they were in the tree this morning when the battle began,"
+said Dick, "and the cannon and the rifles frightened 'em so much that
+they stayed close within the leaves.  Now they're singing with joy,
+because it's all over."
+
+"A good guess, I think, Dick," said Warner, "but isn't it beautiful at
+such a time and such a place?  How these little fellows must be swelling
+their throats!  I don't believe they ever sang so well before."
+
+"I didn't think today that I'd be sung to sleep tonight," said Dick,
+"but it's going to happen."
+
+When his eyes closed and he floated away to slumberland it was to the
+thrilling song of a bird on a bough above his head.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE MESSENGER FROM RICHMOND
+
+
+It seemed that Dick and his comrades were to see an activity in the
+valley under Sheridan much like that which Harry and his friends had
+experienced under Stonewall Jackson earlier in the war.  All of the men
+before they went to sleep that night had felt confirmed in the belief
+that a strong hand was over them, and that a powerful and clear mind
+was directing them.  There would be no more prodigal waste of men and
+supplies.  No more would a Southern general have an opportunity to beat
+scattered forces in detail.  The Union had given Sheridan a splendid
+army and a splendid equipment, and he would make the most of both.
+
+Their belief in Sheridan's activity and energy was justified fully,
+perhaps to their own discomfort, as the trumpets sounded before dawn,
+and they ate a hasty breakfast, while the valley was yet dark.  Then
+they were ordered to saddle and ride at once.
+
+"What, so early?" exclaimed Pennington.  "Why, it's not daylight yet.
+Isn't this new general of ours overdoing it?"
+
+"We wanted a general who would lead," said Warner, "and we've got him."
+
+"But a battle a day!  Isn't that too large an allowance?"
+
+"No.  We've a certain number of battles to fight, and the sooner we fight
+them the sooner the war will be over."
+
+"Here comes the dawn," said Dick, "and the bugles are singing to us to
+march.  It's the cavalry that are to show the way."
+
+The long line of horsemen rode on southward, leaving behind them
+Winchester, the little city that had been beloved of Jackson, and
+approached the Massanuttons, the bold range that for a while divided the
+valley into two parts.  The valley was twenty miles wide before they came
+to the Massanuttons, but after the division the western extension for
+some distance was not more than four miles across, and it was here that
+they were going.  At the narrower part, on Fisher's Hill, Early had
+strong fortifications, defended by his finest infantry, and Colonel
+Winchester did not deem it likely that Sheridan would make a frontal
+attack upon a position so well defended.
+
+It was about noon when the cavalry arrived before the Southern works.
+Dick, through his glasses, clearly saw the guns and columns of infantry,
+and also a body of Southern horse, drawn up on one flank of the hill.
+He fancied that the Invincibles were among them, but at the distance he
+could not pick them from the rest.
+
+The regiment remained stationary, awaiting the orders of Sheridan,
+and Dick still used his glasses.  He swept them again and again across
+the Confederate lines, and then he turned his attention to the mountains
+which here hemmed in the valley to such a straitened width.  He saw a
+signal station of the enemy on a culminating ridge called Three Top
+Mountain, and as the flags there were waving industriously he knew that
+every movement of the Union army would be communicated to Early's troops
+below.
+
+Yet the whole scene despite the fact that it was war, red war, appealed
+to Dick's sense of the romantic and beautiful.  The fertile valley looked
+picturesque with its woods and fields, and on either side rose the ranges
+as if to protect it.  Mountains like trees always appealed to him,
+and the steep slopes were wooded densely.  Lower down they were brown,
+with touches of green that yet lingered, but higher up the glowing reds
+and golds of autumn were beginning to appear.  The wind that blew down
+from the crests was full of life.
+
+Sheridan arrived and, riding before the center of his army, looked long
+and well at the Southern defenses.  Then he called his generals, and some
+of the colonels, including Winchester, and held a brief council.
+
+"It means," said Warner, while the colonel was yet away at the meeting,
+"that we won't fight any this afternoon, but that we'll do a lot of
+riding tonight.  That position is too strong to be attacked.  It would
+cost us too many men to take it straight away, but having seen a specimen
+of Little Phil's quality we know that he'll try something else."
+
+"You mean get on their flank," said Dick.  "Maybe we can make a passage
+along the slopes of the mountains."
+
+"As the idea has occurred to me I take it that it will occur to Little
+Phil also," said Warner.
+
+"Are you sure that he hasn't thought of it first?"
+
+"My politeness forbids an answer.  I am but a lieutenant and he is our
+commander."
+
+The rest of the day was spent in massing the troops across the valley,
+the Winchester regiment being sent further west until it was against
+the base of the Massanuttons.  Here Shepard came in the twilight and
+conferred with Colonel Winchester, who called Dick.
+
+"Dick," he said, "Mr. Shepard thinks he can obtain information of value
+on the mountain.  He has an idea that some fighting may occur, and so
+it's better for a small detachment to go with him.  I've selected you to
+lead the party, because you're at home in the woods."
+
+"May I take Lieutenant Warner and Lieutenant Pennington with me?  It
+would hurt their feelings to be left behind."
+
+"Yes.  Under no circumstances must the feelings of those two young men be
+hurt," laughed Colonel Winchester.
+
+"And Sergeant Whitley, too?  He's probably the best scout in our army.
+He can follow a trail where there is no trail.  He can see in the pitchy
+dark, and he can hear the leaves falling."
+
+"High recommendations, but they're almost true.  Take the sergeant by all
+means.  I fancy you'll need him."
+
+The whole party numbered about a dozen, and Shepard was the guide.
+It was dismounted, of course, as the first slope they intended to carry
+was too steep for a horse to climb.  They were also heavily armed,
+it being absolutely certain that Southern riflemen were on Massanutton
+Mountain.
+
+Dick and Shepard were in the lead, and, climbing up at a sharp angle,
+they quickly disappeared from the view of those below.  It was as if
+night and the wilderness had blotted them out, but every member of
+the little party felt relief and actual pleasure in the expedition.
+Something mysterious and unknown lay before them, and they were anxious
+to find out what it was.
+
+Shepard whispered to Dick of the care that they must take against their
+foes, and Warner whispered to Pennington that the mountain was really
+fine, although finer ridges could be found in Vermont.
+
+Two hundred yards up, and Shepard, touching Dick's shoulder, pointed
+to the valley.  The whole party stopped and looked back.  Although
+themselves buried in brown foliage they saw the floor of the valley all
+the way to the mountains on the other side, and it was a wonderful sight,
+with its two opposing lines of camp fires that shot up redly and glowed
+across the fields.  Now and then they saw figures of men moving against a
+crimson background, but no sound of the armies came to them.  Peace and
+silence were yet supreme on the mountain.
+
+"It makes you feel that you're not only above it in the body, but that
+you are not a part of it at all," said Shepard.
+
+Dick was not surprised at his words.  He had learned long since that
+the spy was an uncommon man, much above most of those who followed his
+calling.
+
+"It gives me a similar feeling of detachment," he said, "but we know
+just the same that they're going to fight again tomorrow, and that we'll
+probably be in the thick of it.  I hope, Mr. Shepard, that our victory
+yesterday marks the beginning of the end."
+
+"I think it does, Mr. Mason.  If we clean up the valley, and we'll do it,
+Lee's flank and Richmond will be exposed.  He'll have to come out of his
+trenches then, and that will give Grant a chance to attack him with an
+overwhelming force.  The Confederacy is as good as finished, but I've
+never doubted the result for a moment."
+
+"I've worried a little at times.  It seemed to me now and then that all
+those big defeats in Virginia might make our people too weary to go on.
+Why is that light flaring so high on Fisher's Hill?"
+
+"It may be a signal.  Possibly the Southerners are replying to it with
+another fiery signal on this mountain.  We can't see the crest of
+Massanutton from this slope."
+
+"You seem to know every inch of the ground in this region.  How did you
+manage to learn it so thoroughly?"
+
+"I was born in the valley not far from here.  I've climbed over
+Massanutton many a time.  Not far above us is a grove of splendid nut
+trees, and along the edge of it runs a ravine.  I mean to lead the way up
+the ravine, Mr. Mason.  It will give us shelter from the scouts and spies
+of the enemy."
+
+"Shelter is what we want.  I've no taste for being shot obscurely here on
+the side of the mountain."
+
+"Then keep close behind me, all of you," said Shepard.  "We're above the
+steepest part now, and I know a little path that leads to the ravine.
+Don't stumble if you can help it."
+
+The path was nothing more than a trace, but it sufficed to give them
+a surer footing, and in eight or ten minutes they reached the ravine
+which ran in a diagonal line across the face of the mountain, gradually
+ascending to the summit.  The ravine itself was not more than three or
+four feet deep, but as its banks were thickly lined with dwarfed cedar
+they were completely hidden unless they should chance to meet the
+Southern riflemen, coming down the mountain by the same way.
+
+The ravine at one point led out on a bare shoulder of the slope, and
+looking over the little pines they clearly saw a fire blazing on the
+crest and waving flags silhouetted before its glow.  Far below, at
+Fisher's Hill, flags were waving also.
+
+"Quite a lively talk," whispered Shepard.  "I suppose the lookouts are
+telling a lot about our army."
+
+"But it won't make much difference," said Dick.  "By the time they've
+spelled out from the flags what Sheridan is doing he'll be doing
+something else."
+
+They resumed their climb and the ravine led again into dense forest.
+Sergeant Whitley had moved up by the side of Shepard, as they were now
+near the enemy, and his great scouting abilities were needed.  It was a
+wise precaution, as presently he held up his hand, and then, at a signal
+from him, the whole party climbed softly out of the ravine, and crouched
+among the little cedars.
+
+Now Dick himself heard what the sergeant had heard perhaps a half minute
+earlier, that is, the footsteps of two men coming swiftly down the
+ravine.  In another minute they came in sight, Confederate troopers,
+obviously scouting.  Luckily, the ravine being stony and the light bad,
+they did not see any trail, left by Shepard's troop, and they went on
+down the ravine.
+
+"Shall we go on?" asked Dick.
+
+"Not yet, sir," replied Shepard.  "They don't suspect that we're up here,
+and it's likely they're trying for a good view of our army.  But I fancy
+they'll be returning in a few minutes.  We'd best be very quiet, sir."
+
+Dick cautioned the men, and they lay as still as wild animals in their
+coverts.  In about ten minutes the two riflemen came back up the ravine,
+and the hidden troopers could hear them talking.
+
+"We'll try some other part of the slope, Jack," said one.
+
+"Yes, that was a bad view," rejoined the other.  "We couldn't tell a
+thing about the Yankee movements from down there.  We can leave the
+ravine higher up, and I know a path that leads toward the north."
+
+"There's not much good in finding out about 'em anyway.  That fellow
+Sheridan is going to press us hard, and they have everything, numbers,
+arms, food, while we have next to nothing."
+
+"But we'll fight 'em anyhow.  Still, I wish old Stonewall was here."
+
+"But he ain't here, and we'll have to do the best we can without him."
+
+Their voices were lost, as they passed up the ravine and disappeared.
+Then Dick and his little party came out cautiously, and followed.
+
+"I gather from what those two said that Early's men are depressed,"
+said Dick.
+
+"They've a right to be," replied Shepard.  "Their army is in bad shape,
+besides being small, and now that we have a real leader we are, I think,
+sure to clean up the valley."
+
+"But there'll be plenty of hard fighting."
+
+"Yes.  We'll have to win what we get."
+
+The ravine widened and deepened a little, and they stopped.  Sergeant
+Whitley in his capacity of chief scout and trailer climbed up the rocky
+side and looked about a little, while the others waited.  He returned
+in two or three minutes, and Dick saw, by the moonlight, that his face
+expressed surprise.
+
+"What is it, sergeant?" asked Dick.
+
+"A woman is on the mountain.  She passed by the ravine not long since,
+perhaps not a half hour ago."
+
+"A woman at such a time?  Why, sergeant, it's impossible!"
+
+"No, sir, it isn't.  See here!"
+
+He opened his left hand.  Within the palm lay a tiny bit of thin gray
+cloth.
+
+"There may not be more than a dozen threads here," he said, "but I found
+'em sticking to a thorn bush not twenty yards away.  A half hour ago they
+were a part of a woman's dress.  A thorn bush grows among the cedars
+above.  She was in a hurry, and when her dress caught in it she jerked it
+loose."
+
+"But how do you know it was only a half hour or less ago?" asked Dick.
+
+"Because she broke two 'or three of the thorns when she jerked, and it
+was so late that their wounds are still bleeding, that is, a faint bit of
+sap is oozing out at the fractures."
+
+"That sounds conclusive," said Dick, "but likely it was a mountain woman
+who lives somewhere along the slope."
+
+The sergeant shook his head.
+
+"No, sir, it was no mountain woman," he said.  "When I found the cloth
+on the thorns I knelt and looked for a trail.  It's hard ground mostly,
+but I thought I might find the trace of a footstep somewhere.  I found
+several, and not one of them was made by the flat, broad shoe that
+mountain women wear.  I found small rounded heel prints which the shoes
+worn by city women make."
+
+"If any city woman is on this mountain she's a long way from home,"
+said Warner.
+
+"But I'm quite sure of what I say, sir," said the sergeant.
+
+"And so am I," said Shepard, who had been listening with the keenest
+attention.  "Will you mind letting me lead the way for a little while,
+sir?"
+
+"Go ahead, of course," said Dick.  "In such work as this we rely upon the
+sergeant and you."
+
+"Then I'd like to take a look at those heel prints also."
+
+Dick thought he detected a quiver of excitement or emotion in the
+voice of Shepard, always so calm and steady hitherto, and he wondered.
+Nevertheless he asked no questions as he led the way out of the ravine.
+
+The sergeant showed the heel prints to Shepard, and beyond question they
+had been made by a woman.  By careful scrutiny they found a half dozen
+more leading in a diagonal direction up the side of the mountain, but
+beyond that the ground was so hard and rocky that they could discover no
+further traces.
+
+"You agree with me that the tracks have just been made?" said the
+sergeant to Shepard.
+
+"I do," replied the spy, his voice showing growing excitement, "and I
+think I know who made them.  I didn't believe it at first.  It seemed
+incredible.  I want to try a little experiment.  Will all of you remain
+perfectly still?"
+
+"Of course," said Dick.
+
+He took a small whistle from his pocket and blew upon it.  The sound
+was not shrill like that of Slade's whistle, but was very low, soft and
+musical.  He blew only a few notes.  Then he took the whistle from his
+lips and waited.  Dick saw that his excitement was growing.  It showed
+clearly in the spy's eyes, and he felt his own excitement increasing,
+too.  He divined that something extraordinary was going to happen.
+
+Out of the cedars to their right and a little higher up the slope came
+the notes of a whistle, exactly similar, low, soft and musical.
+
+"Ah, I knew it!" breathed Shepard.  He waited perhaps half a minute and
+then blew again, notes similar and just the same in number.  In a few
+moments came the reply, a precise duplicate.
+
+"We'll wait," said Shepard.  "She'll be here in a minute or two."
+
+Dick and his comrades looked eagerly toward the point from which the
+sound of the second whistle had come.  This was something amazing,
+something beyond their experience, but the excitement of Shepard seemed
+to have passed.  His face had become a mask once more, and he was waiting
+with certainty.
+
+Dick's sharp ear caught the sound of a light footstep approaching them,
+evidently coming straight and with confidence.  He realized that
+until now he had not really believed, despite the footprints, despite
+everything, that a woman was on the mountain.  But he knew at last.
+He even heard the swish of her skirts once or twice against the bushes.
+Then she came through the dwarfed cedars, stepping boldly, and stood
+before them.
+
+The stranger stood full in the moonlight, and Dick saw her very clearly.
+She was thin, small and elderly, clothed in a gray riding suit, and with
+a sort of small gray turban on her head.  But despite her smallness and
+thinness and years there was nothing insignificant in her appearance.
+As she stood there looking at them, she showed a pair of the brightest
+and most intelligent eyes that Dick had ever seen.  Her small, pointed
+chin had the firmness of steel, and figure, manner and appearance alike
+betokened courage and resolution in the highest degree.
+
+All these impressions were made upon Dick in a single instant, as if in a
+flash of light, and he also noticed in her face a resemblance to some one,
+although he could not recall, for a moment, who it was.  But the silence
+that endured for a half minute, while the men regarded the woman and the
+woman regarded the men, was broken by Shepard, who uttered a low cry and
+strode forward.
+
+"Henrietta," he exclaimed, "you here at such a time!"
+
+He put his arms around her and kissed her.
+
+She returned his kiss, laughed a little, and the two turned toward the
+others.  Then Dick saw whom she resembled.  As they stood side by side
+the likeness was marked, the same eyes, the same nose, the same mouth,
+the same chin, only hers were in miniature, in comparison with his,
+and in addition she was eight or ten years older.
+
+"Mr. Mason," said Shepard, addressing himself directly to their nominal
+leader.  "This is my sister.  She also serves as I do, and for her,
+hardships and dangers are not less than mine for me.  She works chiefly
+in Richmond itself.  But as you see, she has now come alone into the
+mountains, and also into the very fringe of the armies."
+
+"Then," said Dick, "she must come on a mission of great importance and it
+is for us to honor so brave a messenger."
+
+He and all the others took off their caps in silence.  They might
+have cheered, but every one knew that the foe was not far away in the
+thickets.  There was sufficient light for him to see a little flush of
+pride appear for a moment on the face of the woman.  Strange as her
+position was, she seemed easy and confident, lightly swinging in her
+hand a small riding whip.
+
+"I'll not ask you for the present, Henrietta, how you come to be here,"
+said Shepard, "but I'll ask instead what you've brought.  These young
+men are Lieutenant Mason, Lieutenant Warner and Lieutenant Pennington.
+As I've indicated already, Lieutenant Mason leads us."
+
+"I bring information," she replied, "information that you will be glad to
+carry to General Sheridan.  As a woman I could go where men could not,
+and you remember, Brother William, that I know the country."
+
+"Almost as well as I do," said Shepard.  "As a girl you rode like a man
+and were afraid of nothing.  Nor do you fear anything today."
+
+"Tell General Sheridan," she said, turning to Dick, "that the Confederate
+numbers are even less than he thinks, that a large area at the base of
+Little North Mountain is wholly unoccupied."
+
+"And if we get there," exclaimed Dick, eagerly, "we can crash in on the
+flank of Early."
+
+"I'm not a soldier," she said, "but that plan was in my mind.  A large
+division could be hidden in the heavy timber along Cedar Creek, and then,
+if the proper secrecy were observed, reach the Confederate flank tomorrow
+night, unseen."
+
+"And that's on the other side of the valley," said Dick.
+
+"But at this point it's only four or five miles across."
+
+"I wasn't making difficulties, I was merely locating the places as you
+tell them."
+
+"I've drawn a map of the Confederate position.  It's in pencil, but it
+ought to help."
+
+"It will be beyond price!" exclaimed Dick.  "You will give it to me?"
+
+"Of course!  But you must wait a minute!  Until I heard my brother's
+whistle I didn't know whether it was North or South that I was going to
+meet on the mountain."
+
+She disappeared in the bushes, and Dick heard a light rustling, but in
+a few moments she returned and held out a broad sheet of heavy paper,
+upon which a map had been drawn with care and skill.  He had divined
+already its great value, and now his opinion was confirmed.
+
+"I can't thank you," he said, as he took it, "but General Sheridan and
+General Grant can.  And I've no doubt they'll do it when the time comes."
+
+Again the light flush appeared in her cheeks and she looked actually
+handsome.
+
+"Since my present task is finished," she said, "I'd better go."
+
+"Where did you leave your horse?" asked Shepard.
+
+"He's tethered in the bushes about a hundred yards farther down the side
+of the mountain.  I'll mount and ride back in the direction of Richmond.
+I know all the roads."
+
+Sergeant Whitley, who had gone a little higher up and who was watching
+while they talked, whistled softly.  Yet the whistle, low as it was,
+was undoubtedly a signal of alarm.
+
+"Go at once, Henrietta," whispered Shepard, urgently.  "It's important
+that you shouldn't be held here, that you be left with a free hand."
+
+"It's so," she said.
+
+He stooped and kissed her on the brow, and, without another word, she
+vanished among the cedars on the lower slope.  Dick thought he heard a
+moment later the distant beat of hoofs and he felt sure she was riding
+fast and far.  Then he turned his attention to the danger confronting
+them, because a danger it certainly was, and that, too, of the most
+formidable kind.  But, first, he gave the map to Shepard to carry.
+
+Sergeant Whitley came down the slope and joined them.
+
+"I think we'd better lie down, all of us," he said.
+
+Now the real leadership passed to the sergeant, scout, trailer and
+skilled Indian fighter.  It passed to him, because all of them knew that
+the conditions made him most fit for the place.  They knelt or lay but
+held their weapons ready.  The sergeant knelt by Dick's side and the
+youth saw that he was tense and expectant.
+
+"Is it a band of the Johnnies?" he whispered.
+
+"I merely heard 'em.  I didn't see 'em," replied the sergeant, "but I'm
+thinkin' from the way they come creepin' through the woods that it's
+Slade and his gang."
+
+"If that's so we'd better look out.  Those fellows are woodsmen and
+they'll be sure to see signs that we're here."
+
+"Right you are, Mr. Mason.  It's well the lady left so soon, and that
+we're between them and her."
+
+"It looks as if this fellow Slade had set out to be our evil genius.
+We're always meeting him."
+
+"Yes, sir, but we can take care of him.  I don't specially mind this kind
+of fighting, Mr. Mason.  We had to do a lot of it in the heavy timber
+on the slopes of some of them mountains out West, the names of which I
+don't know, and generally we had to go up against the Sioux and Northern
+Cheyennes, and them two tribes are king fighters, I can tell you.
+Man for man they're a match for anybody."
+
+"Slade's men don't appear to be moving," said Shepard, who was on the
+other side of the sergeant.
+
+"Not so's you could hear 'em," said Sergeant Whitley.  "They heard us
+and they're creeping now so's to see what we are and then fall on us
+by surprise.  Guess them that's kneeling had better bend down a little
+lower."
+
+Warner, who had been crouched on his knees, lay down almost flat.
+He did not understand forests and darkness as Dick did, nor did he have
+the strong hereditary familiarity with them, and he felt uncomfortable
+and apprehensive.
+
+"I don't like it," he said to Pennington.  "I'd rather fight in the open."
+
+"So would I," said Pennington.  "It's awful to lie here and feel yourself
+being surrounded by dangers you can't see.  I guess a man in the African
+wilderness stalked at night by a dozen hungry lions would feel just about
+as I do."
+
+"I'm going to creep a little distance up the slope again," said the
+sergeant, "and try to spy 'em out."
+
+"A good idea, but be very careful."
+
+"I certainly will, Mr. Mason.  I want to live."
+
+He slid among the bushes so quietly that Dick did not hear the noise of
+him passing, nor was there any sound until he came back a few minutes
+later.
+
+"I saw 'em," he whispered.  "They're lying among the bushes, and they're
+not moving now, 'cause they're not certain what's become of us.  It's
+Slade sure.  I saw him sitting under a tree, wearing that big flap-
+brimmed hat, and sitting beside him was a great, black-haired, red-faced
+man, a most evil-looking fellow, too."
+
+"Skelly!  Bill Skelly, beyond a doubt!" said Dick.
+
+"That's him!  From what you said Skelly started out by being for the
+Union.  Now, as we believed before, he's joined hands with Slade who's
+for the South."
+
+"They're just guerrillas, sergeant.  They're for themselves and nobody
+else."
+
+"I reckon that's true, and they're expecting to get some plunder from us.
+But if you'll listen to me, Mr. Mason, we'll burn their faces while
+they're about it."
+
+"You're our leader now, sergeant.  Tell us what to do."
+
+"Just to our right is a shallow gully, running through the cedars.
+We can take shelter in it, crawl up it, and open fire on 'em.  They don't
+know our numbers, and if we take 'em by surprise maybe we can scatter 'em
+for the time."
+
+"I suppose we'll have to.  I'd like to get away with this map at once,
+but they'd certainly follow and force us to a fight."
+
+"That's true.  We must deal with 'em, now.  I'll have to ask all of you
+to be very careful.  Don't slip, and look out for the dead wood lying
+about.  If a piece of it cracks under you Slade and Skelly will be sure
+to notice it, and it'll be all up with our surprise."
+
+"You hear," whispered Dick to the others.  "If you don't do as the
+sergeant says, very likely you'll get shot by Slade's men."
+
+With life as the price it was not necessary to say anything more about
+the need of silence, and nobody slipped and no stick broke as they crept
+into the gully after the sergeant.  The cedars and thickets almost met
+over the narrow depression, shutting out the moonlight, but every one was
+able to discern the man before him creeping forward like a wild animal.
+It was easy enough for Dick to imagine himself that famous great
+grandfather of his, Paul Cotter reincarnated, and that the days of the
+wilderness and the Indian war bands had come back again.  He even felt
+exultation as he adapted himself so readily to the situation, and became
+equal to it.  But Warner was grieved and exasperated.  It hurt his
+dignity to prowl on his knees through the dark.
+
+They advanced about two hundred yards in a diagonal course along the side
+of the mountain until they came to a point where the cedars thinned out a
+little.  Then the sergeant whispered to the others to stop, rose from his
+knees, and Dick rose beside him.
+
+"See!" he said, nodding his head in the direction in which he wished Dick
+to look.
+
+Dick saw a number of dark figures standing among the trees.  Two were in
+close conference, evidently trying to decide upon a plan.  One, a giant
+in size, was Skelly, and the other, little, weazened and wearing an
+enormous flap-brimmed hat, could be none but Slade.
+
+"A pretty pair," said Dick, "but I don't like to fire on 'em from ambush."
+
+"Nor do I," said the sergeant, "but we've got to do it, or we won't get
+the surprise we need so bad."
+
+But they were saved from firing the first shot as some one in the gully--
+they never knew or asked his name--stumbled at last.  Slade and Skelly
+instantly sprang for the trees and Slade blew sharply upon his whistle.
+Twenty shots were fired in the direction of the gully, but they whistled
+harmlessly over the heads of its occupants.
+
+It was Dick who gave the command for the return volley, and with a mighty
+shouting they swept the woods with their breech-loading rifles.  They
+were not sure whether they hit anything, but as the gully blazed with
+fire they presented all the appearance of a formidable force that might
+soon charge.
+
+"Cease firing!" said Dick, presently.
+
+A cloud of smoke rose from the gully, and, as it lifted, they could see
+nothing in the woods beyond, but the sergeant announced that for an
+instant or two he heard the sound of running feet.
+
+"It means they've gone," said Dick, "and that being the case we'll be off,
+too.  I fancy we've a great prize in this map.  Your sister, Mr. Shepard,
+must be a woman of extraordinary daring and ability."
+
+"She's all that," replied the spy earnestly.  "I think sometimes that
+God gave to me the size and physical strength of the family, but to her
+the mind.  Think of her life there in Richmond, surrounded by dangers!
+She has done great service to our cause tonight, and she has done other
+services, equally as great, before."
+
+Shepard was silent for a little while and then he began to chuckle to
+himself, almost under his breath, but Dick heard.
+
+"What is it?" he asked.
+
+"I was thinking of my sister," Shepard replied.  "Your cousin, Harry
+Kenton, if you should ever meet him again--and I know that you will--
+could tell you a story of a dark night in Richmond, or at least a part
+of it, and he could also tell an interesting story, or a part of it, of
+another map, almost as valuable as this, which disappeared mysteriously
+from the house of a rich man in Richmond where he and other Southern
+officers were being entertained.  It vanished almost from under their
+hands."
+
+"Tell me now," said Dick, feeling great curiosity.
+
+"I think I'd better wait, if you'll pardon me, sir," said Shepard.
+
+"I'll have to wait anyhow," said Dick, "because I hear the tread of men
+coming toward us."
+
+"But they're our own," said Sergeant Whitley, who was a little ahead,
+peering between the cedars.
+
+"I suppose they heard the shots and are hurrying to our relief," said
+Dick.  "But we routed the enemy, we did not lose a man, and we've brought
+away the prize."
+
+The two forces joined and they were shortly back with Colonel Winchester,
+who fully appreciated the great value of the information obtained by such
+a remarkable coordination of effort.
+
+"Dick," he said, "you and Mr. Shepard shall ride at once with me and this
+map to General Sheridan."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AT GRIPS WITH EARLY
+
+
+Dick felt great excitement and elation as he rode before dawn with
+Colonel Winchester and the spy to see Sheridan.  They found him sitting
+by a small fire receiving or sending reports, and talking with a
+half-dozen of his generals.  It was not yet day, but the flames lighted
+up the commander's thin, eager face, and made him look more boyish than
+ever.
+
+Dick felt as he had felt before that he was in the presence of a man.
+He had had the same impression when he stood near Grant and Thomas.
+Did strong men send off electric currents of will and power which were
+communicated to other men, by which they could know them, or was it the
+effect of deeds achieved?  He could not decide the question for himself,
+but he knew that he believed implicitly in their leader.
+
+Colonel Winchester paused near Sheridan, but the general's keen eye
+caught him at once.
+
+"Good morning, Colonel Winchester!" he exclaimed.  "You bring news of
+value.  I can tell it by your face!"
+
+"I do, sir," replied the colonel, "but it was Mr. Shepard here, whom you
+know, and Lieutenant Mason who obtained it.  Mr. Shepard, show General
+Sheridan the map."
+
+It was characteristic of Colonel Winchester, a man of the finest feelings,
+that he should have Shepard instead of himself carry the map to General
+Sheridan.  He wanted the spy to have the full measure of credit,
+including the outward show, for the triumph he had achieved with the
+aid of his sister.  And Shepard's swift glance of thanks showed that he
+appreciated it.  He drew the map from his pocket and handed it to the
+general.
+
+Sheridan held it down, where the full glow of the flames fell upon it,
+and he seemed to comprehend at once the meaning of the lines.  A great
+light sprang up in his eyes.
+
+"Ah!" he exclaimed.  "The location of the Confederate forces and the
+openings between them and the mountains!  This is important!  Splendid!
+Did you make it yourself, Mr. Shepard?"
+
+"No, sir.  It was made by my sister who came from Richmond.  We met her
+on the mountain."
+
+Sheridan looked at Shepard and the eyes of general and spy met in
+complete understanding.
+
+"I know of her," the general murmured.  "A noble woman!  There are many
+such as she who have done great service to our cause that can never be
+repaid!  But this is a stroke of fortune!"
+
+"Look, Merritt, Averill and all of you," he said aloud.  "Here lies our
+path!  Mr. Shepard, you will go over the details of this with us and,
+Colonel Winchester, you and your aide remain also to help."
+
+Dick felt complimented, and so did Colonel Winchester.  Sheridan knew how
+to handle men.  While the sentinels, rifle on shoulder, walked up and
+down a little distance away, a dozen eager faces were soon poring over
+the map, Shepard filling in details as to the last little hill or brook.
+
+"Since we know where they are and how many they are," said Sheridan,
+"we'll make a big demonstration in front of Fisher's Hill, where Early's
+works are too strong to be carried, and while we keep him occupied there
+we'll turn his left flank with a powerful force, marching it just here
+into the open space that Mr. Shepard's map shows.  Tomorrow--or rather
+today, for I see the dawn comes--will be a day of great noise and of
+much burning of powder.  But behind the curtain of smoke we'll make our
+movements.  Merritt with his cavalry shall go to the right and Averill
+will go with him.  Crook shall take his two divisions and hold the north
+bank of Cedar Creek, and later on Crook shall be the first to strike.
+Gentlemen, we've won one victory, and I know that all of you appreciate
+the value of a second and a third.  The opportunity of the war lies here
+before us.  We can uncover the entire left flank of the Confederacy here
+in Virginia, and who knows what will follow!"
+
+He looked up, his eyes glowing and his confidence was communicated to
+them all.  They were mostly young men and they responded in kind to his
+burning words.  Sheridan knew that he could command from them the utmost
+fidelity and energy, and he uttered a little exclamation of confidence.
+
+"I shall consider the victory already won," he said.
+
+The generals left for their commands, and Sheridan again thanked Colonel
+Winchester, Dick and Shepard.
+
+"I recommend that all three of you take some rest," he said, "you won't
+have much to do this morning."
+
+They saluted, mounted and rode back.  "You take his advice, Dick, and
+roll yourself in your blanket," said Colonel Winchester, when they were
+on the way.
+
+"I will, sir," said Dick, "although I know that great history is being
+made now."
+
+"I feel that way, too," said the colonel.  "Look, the sun is coming up,
+and you can see the Confederate outposts."
+
+The thin, clear air of September was brilliant with morning light,
+and through glasses the Confederate outposts and works around Fisher's
+Hill were quite clear and distinct.  Some of the Northern and Southern
+sentinels were already exchanging compliments with one another, and they
+heard the faint popping of rifles.  But Dick well knew from Sheridan's
+words that this early firing meant nothing.  It would grow much heavier
+bye and bye and it would yet be but the cover for something else.
+
+He found Warner and Pennington already sound asleep, and wrapping himself
+in his blanket he lay down under a tree and fell asleep to the distant
+crackle of rifles and the occasional thud of great guns.  He slept on
+through the morning while the fire increased, and great volumes of smoke
+rolled, as the wind shifted up or down the valley.  But it did not
+disturb him, nor did he dream.  His slumbers were as sound as if he lay
+in his distant bed in Pendleton.
+
+While Dick and his comrades slept Sheridan was moving the men on his
+chess board.  Young in years, but great in experience, he was never more
+eager and never more clear of mind than on this, one of the most eventful
+days of his life.  He saw the opportunity, and he was resolved that it
+should not escape him.  Two great reputations were made in the valley
+by men very unlike, Stonewall Jackson and Little Phil Sheridan.  In the
+earlier years of the war the Union armies had suffered many disasters
+there at the hands of the leader under the old slouch hat, and now
+Sheridan was resolved to retrieve everything, not with one victory alone,
+but with many.
+
+There was firing in the valley all day long, the crackling of the rifles,
+the thudding of the great guns, and the occasional charge of horsemen.
+The curtain of smoke hung nearly always.  Sometimes it grew thicker,
+and sometimes it became thinner, but Sheridan's mind was not upon these
+things, they were merely the veil before him, while behind it, as a
+screen, he arranged the men on his chess board.  When night came his
+whole line was pushed forward.  His vanguard held the northern part of
+the little town of Strasburg, while Early's held the southern part,
+only a few hundred yards away.  In the night the large force under Crook
+was moved into the thick forest along Cedar Creek, where it was to lie
+silent and hidden until it received the word of command.
+
+All the next day the movements were continued, while Crook's force,
+intended to be the striking arm, was still concealed in the timber.
+Yet before dark there was a heavy combat, in which the Southern troops
+were driven out of Strasburg, enabling the Northern batteries to advance
+to strong positions.  That night Crook's whole strength was brought
+across Cedar Creek, but was hidden again in heavy timber.  To the great
+pleasure of its colonel and other officers the Winchester regiment was
+sent to join it as a cavalry support.
+
+It was quite dark when they rode their horses across the creek and
+Shepard was again with them as guide.  Although he concealed it, the spy
+felt a great exultation.  The map that he had brought from his sister had
+proved invaluable.  Sheridan was using it every hour, and Shepard was
+giving further assistance through his thorough knowledge of the ground.
+Dick was glad to ride beside him and whisper with him, now and then.
+
+"I haven't known things to go so well before," Dick said, when they were
+across the creek.
+
+"They're going well, Mr. Mason," said Shepard, "because everything
+is arranged.  There is provision against every unlucky chance.  It's
+leadership.  The difference between a good general and a bad general is
+about fifty thousand men."
+
+The entire division moved forward in the dusk at a fair pace, but so
+many troops with cavalry and guns could not keep from making some noise.
+Dick with Shepard and the sergeant rode off in the woods towards the
+open valley to see if the enemy were observing them.  Dick's chief
+apprehensions were in regard to Slade and Skelly, but they found no trace
+of the guerrillas, nor of any other foes.
+
+The night was fairly bright, and from the edge of the wood they saw far
+over hills and fields, dotted with two opposing lines of camp fires.
+A dark outline was Fisher's Hill, and lights burned there too.  From a
+point in front of it a gun boomed now and then, and there was still an
+intermittent fire of skirmishers and sharpshooters.
+
+"That hill will be ours inside of twenty-four hours," said Shepard.
+"We'll fall upon Early from three sides and he'll have to retreat to
+save himself.  He hasn't numbers enough to stand against an army driven
+forward by a hand like that of General Sheridan."
+
+          *          *          *          *
+
+While Dick, the sergeant and the spy looked from the woods upon the
+lights of Fisher's Hill the Invincibles lay in an earthwork before it
+facing their enemy.  Harry Kenton sat with St. Clair, Langdon and Dalton.
+The two colonels were not far away.  For almost the first time, Harry's
+heart failed him.  He did not wish to depreciate Early, but he felt that
+he was not the great Jackson or anything approaching him.  He knew that
+the troops felt the same way.  They missed the mighty spirit and the
+unfaltering mind that had led them in earlier years to victory.  They
+were ragged and tired, too, and had but little food.
+
+Happy Tom, who concealed under a light manner uncommonly keen perceptions,
+noticed Harry's depression.
+
+"What are you thinking about, Harry?" he asked.
+
+"Several things, Happy.  Among them, the days when we rode here with
+Stonewall from one victory to another."
+
+"We'll have to think of something else.  Cheer up.  Remember the old
+saying that the darkest hour is just before the dawn."
+
+"Whose dawn?"
+
+"That's not like you, Harry.  You've usually put up the boldest front of
+us all."
+
+"Happy's giving you good advice," said St. Clair.
+
+"So he is," said Harry, as he shook himself.  "We'll fight 'em off
+tomorrow.  They can't beat us again.  The spirit of Old Jack will hover
+over us."
+
+"If we only had more men," said Dalton.  "Then we could spread out and
+cover the slopes of the mountains on either side.  I wish I knew whether
+those dark fringes hid anything we ought to know."
+
+"They hide rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, birds and maybe a black bear or
+two," said Happy Tom.  "When we shatter Sheridan's army and drive the
+fragments across the Potomac I think I'll come back here and do a little
+hunting, leaving to Lee the task of cleaning up the Army of the Potomac."
+
+"I'd like to come with you," said St. Clair, "but I wouldn't bring any
+gun.  I'd just roam through the woods for a week and disturb nothing.
+If I saw a bear I'd point my finger at him and say: 'Go away, young
+fellow, I won't bother you if you won't bother me,' and then he'd amble
+off peacefully in one direction, and I'd amble off peacefully in another.
+I wouldn't want to hear a gun fired during all that week.  I'd just rest,
+rest, rest my nerves and my soul.  I wouldn't break a bough or a bush.
+I'd even be careful how hard I stepped on the leaves.  Birds could walk
+all over me if they liked.  I'd drink from those clear streams, and I'd
+sleep in my blanket on a bed of leaves."
+
+"But suppose it rained, Arthur?"
+
+"I wouldn't let it rain in that enchanted week of mine.  Nothing would
+happen except what I wanted to happen.  It would be a week of the most
+absolute peace and quiet the world has ever known.  There wouldn't be any
+winds, they would be zephyrs.  The skies would all be made out of the
+softest and finest of blue satin and any little clouds that floated
+before 'em would be made of white satin of the same quality.  The nights
+would be clear with the most wonderful stars that ever shone.  Great new
+stars would come out for the first time, and twinkle for me, and the man
+in the most silvery moon known in the history of time would grin down at
+me and say without words: 'St. Clair, old fellow, this is your week of
+peace, everything has been fixed for you, so make the most of it.'
+And then I'd wander on.  The birds would sing to me and every one of 'em
+would sing like a prima donna.  Wherever I stepped, wild flowers would
+burst into bloom as I passed, and if a gnat should happen to buzz before
+my face I wouldn't brush him away for fear of hurting him.  The universe
+and I would be at peace with each other."
+
+"Hear him!  O, hear him!" exclaimed Happy Tom.  "Old Arthur grows
+dithyrambic and hexametrical.  He fairly distills the essence of
+highfalutin poetry."
+
+"I don't know that he's so far fetched," said sober Dalton.  "I feel a
+good deal that way myself.  I suppose, Thomas Langdon, that the colors of
+the world depend upon one's own eyes.  What I call green may appear to
+you like the color of blue to me.  Now, Arthur really sees all these
+things that he's telling about, because he has the eye of the mind with
+which to see them.  I've quit saying that people don't see things,
+because I don't see 'em myself."
+
+"Good for you, Professor," said Langdon.  "That's quite a lecture you
+gave me, long though not windy, and I accept it.  Those Elysian fields
+that Arthur was painting are real and he's going to have his enchanted
+week as he calls it.  Arthur is a poet, sure enough."
+
+"I have written a few little verses which were printed in the Charleston
+Mercury," said St. Clair.
+
+"What's this?  What's this?" asked a mellow voice.  "Can it be possible
+that young gentlemen are discussing poetry between battles and with the
+enemy in sight?"
+
+It was Colonel Leonidas Talbot, coming down the trench, and Lieutenant
+Colonel Hector St. Hilaire was just behind him.  The young officers rose
+and saluted promptly, but they knew there was no reproof in Colonel
+Talbot's tone.
+
+"We had to do it, sir," said Harry respectfully.  "Something struck
+Arthur here, and like a fountain he gushed suddenly into poetry.  He had
+a most wonderful vision of the Elysian fields and of himself wandering
+through them for a week, knee deep in flowers, and playing the softest
+of music on a guitar."
+
+"He's put that in about the guitar," protested St. Clair.  "I never
+mentioned such a thing, but all the rest is true."
+
+"Well, if I had my way," said the colonel, "you should have a guitar, too,
+if you wanted it, and I like that idea of yours about a week in the
+Elysian fields.  We'll join you there and we'll all walk around among
+the flowers, and Hector's relative, that wonderful musician, young De
+Langeais, shall play to us on his violin, and maybe the famous Stonewall
+will come walking to us through the flowers, and he'll have with him
+Albert Sidney Johnston, and Turner Ashby and all the great ones that have
+gone."
+
+The colonel stopped, and Harry felt a slight choking in his throat.
+
+"In the course of this lull, Leonidas and I had some thought of resuming
+our unfinished game of chess," said Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire,
+"but the time is really unpropitious and too short.  It may be that we
+shall have to wait until the war is over to conclude the match.  The
+enemy is pressing us hard, and I need not conceal from you lads that he
+will press us harder tomorrow."
+
+"So he will," agreed Colonel Talbot.  "There was some heavy and extremely
+accurate artillery fire from his ranks this afternoon.  The way the guns
+were handled and the remarkable rapidity and precision with which the
+discharges came convinces me that John Carrington is here in the valley,
+ready to concentrate all the fire of the Union batteries upon us.
+It is bad, very bad for us that the greatest artilleryman in the world
+should come with Sheridan, and yet we shall have the pleasure of seeing
+how he achieves wonders with the guns.  It was in him, even in the old
+days at West Point, when we were but lads together, and he has shown more
+than once in this war how the flower that was budding then has come into
+full bloom."
+
+As if in answer to his words the deep boom of a cannon rolled over the
+hills, and a shell burst near the earthwork.
+
+"That, I think, was John talking to us," said Colonel Talbot.  "He was
+saying to us: 'Beware of me, old friends.  I'm coming tomorrow, not with
+one gun but with many!'  Well, be it so.  We shall give John and Sheridan
+a warm welcome, and we shall try to make it so very warm that it will
+prove too hot for them.  Now, my lads, there is no immediate duty for you,
+and if you can sleep, do so.  Good-night."
+
+They rose and saluted again as the two colonels went back to their own
+particular place.
+
+"I hope those two will be spared," said St. Clair.  "I want them to
+finish their chess game, and I'd like, too, to see their meeting after
+the war with their old friend, John Carrington."
+
+"It will all come to pass," said Harry.  "If Arthur is a poet as he seems
+to be, then I'm a prophet, as I know I am."
+
+"At least you're an optimist," said Dalton.
+
+"Go to sleep, all of you, as the colonel told you to do," said Harry.
+"If you don't stop talking you'll keep the enemy awake all night."
+
+But Harry himself was the last of them to sleep.  He could not keep from
+rising at times, and, in the starlight, looking at the fires of the foe
+and the dark slopes of the mountains.  His glasses passed more than once
+over the forests along Cedar Creek, but no prevision, no voice out of the
+dark, told him that Dick was there, one of a formidable force that was
+lying hidden, ready to strike the fatal blow.  His last dim sight,
+as he fell asleep, was a spectacle evoked from the past, a vision of Old
+Jack riding at the head of his phantom legions to victory.
+
+          *          *          *          *
+
+At dawn all of Crook's forces marched out of the woods along Cedar Creek,
+the Winchester men, Shepard at their head, leading, but they still kept
+to the shelter of the forest and wide ravines along the lower slopes of
+the mountain.  The sun was not clear of the eastern hills before the
+heavy thudding of the great guns and the angry buzz of the rifles came
+from the direction of Fisher's Hill.
+
+The demonstration had begun and it was a big one, big enough to make the
+defenders think it was reality and not a sham.  Before Early's earthworks
+a great cloud of smoke was gathering.  Dick looked over his shoulder at
+it.  It gave him a curious feeling to be marching past, while all that
+crash of battle was going on in the valley.  It almost looked as if they
+were deserting their general.
+
+"How far are we going?" he asked Warner.
+
+"I don't know," replied the Vermonter, "but I fancy we'll go far enough.
+My little algebra, although it remains unopened in my pocket, tells me
+that we shall continue our progress unseen until we reach the desired
+point.  These woods have grown up and these gullies have been furrowed
+at a very convenient time for us."
+
+The light was yet dim in the forests along the slopes, but the valley
+itself was flooded with the sun's rays.  The echoes of the firing rolled
+continuously through the gorges and multiplied it.  Despite the clouds
+about the earthworks and the hill, Dick saw continual flashes of light,
+and he knew now that the battle below was a reality and not a sham.
+Early and all his men would be kept too busy to see the march of Crook
+and his force on his flank, and Dick, like Warner, became sure that the
+great movement would be a success.
+
+But their progress, owing to the nature of the ground and the need to
+keep under cover, was slow.  It seemed to Dick that they marched an
+interminable time under the trees, while the battle flashed and roared
+in the plain.  He saw noon pass and the sun rise to the zenith.  He saw
+the brilliant light dim on the eastern mountains, and they were still
+marching through the forests.
+
+The battle was now behind them and the sun was very low, but the command
+halted and turned toward the east.  Nevertheless, they were still hidden
+by the woods and the low hills of the valley.  Yet they lay behind and
+on the side of their enemy who would speedily be exposed where he was
+weakest, to their full weight.  The long flanking movement had been a
+complete success so far.
+
+Little of the day was left.  The sun was almost hidden behind the eastern
+mountains but it still flamed in the west, glittering along the bayonets
+of the men in the forest, and showing their eager faces.  Dick's heart
+throbbed.  In that moment of anticipated victory he forgot all about
+Harry and his friends who were in the closing trap.  Then trumpets sang
+the charge, and the cavalry thundered out of the wood, followed by the
+infantry and the artillery.
+
+At the same time, another powerful division that had been moved forward
+by Sheridan, charged, while those in front increased their fire.  The
+unfortunate Southern army was overwhelmed by troops who had moved forward
+in such complete unison.  They were swept out of their earthworks,
+driven from their fortified hill, and those who did not fall or were not
+taken were sent in rapid flight down the valley.
+
+The battle was short.  Completeness of preparation and superiority in
+numbers and resources made it so.  Early and what was left of his army
+had no choice but the flight they made.  The sun had nearly set when the
+deadly charge issued from the wood, and, by the time it had set, the
+pursuit was thundering along the valley, the Winchester men in the very
+forefront of it.  Long after dark it continued.  Several miles from the
+field the fragments of the Invincibles and some others rallied on a hill,
+posted two cannon and made a desperate resistance.  But the attack upon
+them was so fierce that they were compelled to retreat again, and they
+did not have time to take the guns with them.
+
+It was a strange night to Dick, alike joyous and terrible.  He believed
+that the army of the enemy was practically destroyed, and yet he had a
+great sympathy for some who were in it.  He was in constant fear lest he
+should find them dead, or wounded mortally.  But he had no time to look
+for them.  Sheridan was pressing the pursuit to the utmost.  Midnight did
+not stop it.  Fugitives were captured continually.  Here and there an
+abandoned cannon was taken.  Rifles flashed all through the darkness,
+and the horses of the Union cavalry were driven to the utmost.
+
+Neither Dick nor his companions felt exhaustion.  Their excitement was
+too great, and the taste of triumph was too strong.  They had seen no
+such victory before, and eager and willing they still led the advance.
+Midnight passed and the pursuit never ceased until it reached Woodstock,
+ten miles from Fisher's Hill.  By that time Sheridan's infantry was
+exhausted, and as Early was beginning to draw together the remains of his
+force he would prove too strong for the cavalry alone.
+
+At dawn the army of Sheridan stopped, the troopers almost falling from
+their horses in exhaustion, while Early used the opportunity to escape
+with what was left of his men, leaving behind many prisoners and twenty
+cannon.  Yet the triumph had been great, and again, when the telegraph
+brought the news of it, the swell of victory passed through the North.
+
+The Winchester regiment was drawn up near Woodstock, already dismounted,
+the men standing beside their horses.  The camp cooks were lighting the
+fires for breakfast, but many of the young cavalrymen fell asleep first.
+Dick managed to keep awake long enough for his food, and then, at the
+order of the colonel, he slept on the ground, awaiting the command of
+Sheridan which might come at any moment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+AN UNBEATEN FOE
+
+
+Dick's belief that he would not be allowed to sleep long was justified.
+In three or four hours the whole Winchester regiment was up, mounted and
+away again.  Early and his army left the great valley pike, and took a
+road leading toward the Blue Ridge, where he eventually entered a gap,
+and fortified to await supplies and fresh men from Richmond, leaving all
+the great Valley of Virginia, where in former years the Northern armies
+had suffered so many humiliations, in the possession of Sheridan.
+It was the greatest and most solid triumph that the Union had yet
+achieved and Dick and the youths with him rejoiced.
+
+After many days of marching and fighting they lay once more in the shadow
+of the mountains, within a great grove of oak and beech, hickory and
+maple.  The men and then the horses had drunk at a large brook flowing
+near by, and both were content.  The North, as always, sent forward food
+in abundance to its troops, and now, just as the twilight was coming,
+the fires were lighted and the pleasant aromas of supper were rising.
+Colonel Winchester and his young staff sat by one of the fires near the
+edge of the creek.  They had not taken off their clothes in almost a week,
+and they felt as if they had been living like cave-men.  Nevertheless the
+satisfaction that comes from deeds well done pervaded them, and as they
+lay upon the leaves and awaited their food and coffee they showed great
+good humor.
+
+"Have you any objection, sir, to my taking a census?" said Warner to
+Colonel Winchester.
+
+"No, Warner, but what kind of a census do you mean?"
+
+"I want to count our wounds, separately and individually and then make up
+the grand total."
+
+"All right, George, go ahead," said Colonel Winchester, laughing.
+
+"Dick," said Warner, "what hurts have you sustained in the past week?"
+
+"A bullet scratch on the shoulder, another on the side, a slight cut from
+a saber on my left arm, about healed now, a spent bullet that hit me on
+the head, raising a lump and ache for the time being, and a kick from one
+of our own horses that made me walk lame for a day."
+
+"The kick from a horse, as it was one of our horses, doesn't go."
+
+"I didn't put it forward seriously.  I withdraw my claim on its account."
+
+"That allows you four wounds.  Now, Pennington, how about you?"
+
+"First I had a terrible wound in the foot," replied the Nebraskan.
+"A bullet went right through my left shoe and cut the skin off the top
+of my little toe."
+
+"Leave out the 'terrible.'  That's no dreadful wound."
+
+"No, but it burned like the sting of a wasp and bled in a most
+disgraceful manner all over my sock.  Then my belt buckle was shot away."
+
+"That doesn't count either.  A wound's a wound only when you're hit
+yourself, not when some piece of your clothing is struck."
+
+"All right.  The belt buckle's barred, although it gave me a shock when
+the bullet met it.  A small bullet went through the flesh of my left arm
+just above the elbow.  It healed so fast that I've hardly noticed it, due,
+of course, to the very healthy and temperate life I've led.  I suppose,
+George, it would have laid up a fellow of your habits for a week."
+
+"Never mind about my habits, but go on with the list of your wounds.
+A great beauty of mathematics is that it compels you to keep to your
+subject.  When you're solving one of those delightful problems in
+mathematics you can't digress and drag in irrelevant things.  Algebra is
+the very thing for a confused mind like yours, Frank, one that doesn't
+coordinate.  But get on with your list."
+
+"When we were in pursuit my horse stumbled in a gully and fell so hard
+that I was thrown over his shoulder, giving my own shoulder a painful
+bruise that's just getting well."
+
+"We'll allow that, since it happened in battle.  What else now?  Speak
+up!"
+
+"That's all.  Three good wounds, according to your own somewhat severe
+definition of a wound.  I'm one behind Dick, but I believe that when I
+was thrown over my horse's head I was hurt worse than he was at any time."
+
+"Frank Pennington, you're a good comrade, but you're a liar, an
+unmitigated liar."
+
+"George, if I weren't so tired and so unwilling to be angry with anybody
+I'd get up and belt you on the left ear for that."
+
+"But you're a liar, just the same.  You're holding something back."
+
+"What are you driving at, you chattering Green Mountaineer?"
+
+"Why don't you tell something about the time the trooper fell from his
+horse wounded, and you, dismounting under the enemy's fire, helped him on
+your own horse, although you got two wounds in your body while doing it,
+and brought him off in safety?  Didn't I say that you were a liar,
+a convicted liar from modesty?"
+
+Pennington blushed.
+
+"I didn't want to say anything about that," he muttered.  "I had to do
+it."
+
+"Lots of men wouldn't have had to do it.  You go down for five good
+wounds, Frank Pennington."
+
+"Now, then, what about yourself, George?" asked Dick.
+
+"One in the arm, one on the shoulder and one across the ankle.  I don't
+waste time in words, like you two, my verbose friends.  That gives the
+three of us combined twelve wounds, a fair average of four apiece."
+
+"And it's our great good luck that not one of the twelve is a disabling
+hurt," said Dick.
+
+"But we get the credit for the full twelve, all the same," said Warner,
+"and we maintain our prestige in the army.  Our consciences also are
+satisfied.  But the last two or three weeks of battles and marches have
+fairly made me dizzy.  I can't remember them or their sequence.  All I
+know is that we've cleaned up the valley, and here we are ready at last
+to take a couple of minutes of well earned rest."
+
+"Do you know," said Pennington, "there were times when I clear forgot
+to be hungry, and I've been renowned in our part of Nebraska for my
+appetite.  But nature always gets even.  For all those periods of
+forgetfulness memory is now rushing upon me.  I'm hungry not only for the
+present but from the past.  It'll take a lot to satisfy me."
+
+The briskness of the night also sharpened Pennington's appetite.  They
+were deep in autumn, and the winds from the mountains had an edge.
+The foliage had turned and it glowed in vivid reds and yellows on the
+slopes, although the intense colors were hidden now by the coming of
+night.
+
+The wind was cold enough to make the fires feel good to their relaxed
+systems, and they spread out their hands to the welcome flames, as they
+had often done at home on wintry nights, when children.  Beyond the trees
+the horses, under guard, were grazing on what was left of the late grass,
+but within the wood the men themselves, save those who were preparing
+food, were mostly lying down on the dry leaves or their blankets, and
+were talking of the things they had done, or the things they were going
+to do.
+
+"I wonder what the bill of fare will be tonight," said Pennington,
+who was growing hungrier and hungrier.
+
+"I had several engraved menus," said Warner, "but I lost them, and so we
+won't be able to order.  We'll just have to take what they offer us."
+
+"A month or so later they'll be having fresh sausage and spare ribs in
+old Kentucky," said Dick, "and I wish we had 'em here now."
+
+"And a month later than that," said Pennington, "they'll be having a
+roasted bull buffalo weighing five thousand pounds for Christmas dinner
+in Nebraska."
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Warner.  "No buffalo ever weighed five thousand
+pounds."
+
+Pennington looked at him pityingly.
+
+"You have no romance or poetry after all, George," he said.  "Why can't
+you let me put on an extra twenty-five hundred or three thousand pounds
+for the sake of effect?"
+
+"Besides, you don't roast buffaloes whole and bring them in on a platter!"
+
+"No, we don't, but that's no proof that we can't or won't.  Now, what
+would you like to have, George?"
+
+"After twelve or fifteen other things, I'd like to finish off with a
+whole pumpkin pie, and a few tin cups of cider would go along with it
+mighty well.  That's the diet to make men, real men, I mean."
+
+"Any way," said Dick, raising a tin cup of hot coffee, "here's to food.
+You may sleep without beds, and, in tropical climates, you may go without
+clothes, but in whatever part of the world you may be, you must have
+food.  And it's best when you've ridden hard all day, and, in the cool of
+an October evening, to sit down by a roaring fire in the woods with the
+dry leaves beneath you, and the clear sky above you."
+
+"Hear! hear!" said Warner.  "Who's dithyrambic now?  But you're right,
+Dick.  War is a terrible thing.  Besides being a ruthless slaughter it's
+an economic waste,--did you ever think of that, you reckless youngsters?--
+but it has a few minor compensations, and one of them is an evening like
+this.  Why, everything tastes good to us.  Nothing could taste bad.
+Our twelve wounds don't pain us in the least, and they'll heal absolutely
+in a few days, our blood being so healthy.  The air we breathe is
+absolutely pure and the sky over our heads is all blue and silver,
+spangled with stars, a canopy stretched for our especial benefit, and
+upon which we have as much claim of ownership as anybody else has.
+We've lived out of doors so much and we've been through so much hard
+exercise that our bodies are now pretty nearly tempered steel.  I doubt
+whether I'll ever be able to live indoors again, except in winter."
+
+"I'm the luckiest of all," said Pennington.  "Out on the plains we don't
+have to live indoors much anyway.  I've lived mostly in the saddle since
+I was seven or eight years old, but the war has toughened me just the
+same.  I'll be able to sleep out any time, except in the blizzards."
+
+"As soon as you finish devouring the government stores," said a voice
+behind them, "it would be well for all of you to seek the sleep you're
+telling so much about."
+
+It was Colonel Winchester who spoke, and they looked at him, inquiringly.
+
+"Can I ask, sir, which way we ride?" said Dick.
+
+"Northward with General Sheridan," replied the Colonel.
+
+"But there is no enemy to the north, sir!"
+
+"That's true, but we go that way, nevertheless.  Although you're discreet
+young officers I'm not going to tell you any more.  Now, as you've eaten
+enough food and drunk enough coffee, be off to your blankets.  I want all
+of you to be fresh and strong in the morning."
+
+Fresh and strong they were, and promptly General Sheridan rode away,
+taking with him all the cavalry, his course taking him toward Front
+Royal.  The news soon spread among the horsemen that from Front Royal
+the general would go on to Washington for a conference with the War
+Department, while the cavalry would turn through a gap in the mountains,
+and then destroy railroads in order to cut off General Early's
+communications with Richmond.
+
+"We're to be an escort and then a fighting and destroying force," said
+Dick.  "But it's quite sure that we'll meet no enemy until we go through
+the gap.  Meanwhile we'll enjoy a saunter along the valley."
+
+But when they reached Front Royal a courier, riding hard, overtook them.
+He demanded to be taken at once to the presence of General Sheridan,
+and then he presented a copy of a dispatch which read:
+
+
+ To Lieutenant-General Early:
+
+   Be ready to move as soon as my forces join you, and we will
+ crush Sheridan.
+                    Longstreet, Lieutenant-General.
+
+
+Sheridan read the dispatch over and over again, and pondered it gravely.
+The courier informed him that it was the copy of a signal made by the
+Confederate flags on Three Top Mountain, and deciphered by Union officers
+who had obtained the secret of the Confederate code.  General Wright,
+whom he had left in command, had sent it to him in all haste for what it
+was worth.
+
+The young general not only pondered the message gravely, but he pondered
+it long.  Finally he called his chief officers around him and consulted
+with them.  If the grim and bearded Longstreet were really coming into
+the valley with a formidable force, then indeed it would be the dance
+of death.  Longstreet, although he did not have the genius of Stonewall
+Jackson, was a fierce and dangerous fighter.  All of them knew how he
+had come upon the field of Chickamauga with his veterans from Virginia,
+and had turned the tide of battle.  His presence in the valley might
+quickly turn all of Sheridan's great triumphs into withered laurels.
+
+But Sheridan had a great doubt in his mind.  The Confederate signal from
+Three Top Mountain that his own officers had read might not be real.
+It might have been intended to deceive, Early's signalmen learning that
+the Union signalmen had deciphered their code, or it might be some sort
+of a grim joke.  He did not believe that the Army of Northern Virginia
+could spare Longstreet and a large force, as it would be weakened so
+greatly that it could no longer stand before Grant, even with the aid of
+the trenches.
+
+His belief that this dispatch, upon which so much turned, as they were to
+learn afterward, was false, became a conviction and most of his officers
+agreed with him.  He decided at last that the coming of Longstreet with
+an army into the valley was an impossibility, and he would go on to
+Washington.  But Sheridan made a reservation, and this, too, as the event
+showed, was highly important.  He ordered all the cavalry back to General
+Wright, while he proceeded with a small escort to the capital.
+
+It was Dick who first learned what had happened, and soon all knew.
+They discussed it fully as they rode back on their own tracks, and on
+the whole they were glad they were to return.
+
+"I don't think I'd like to be tearing up railroads and destroying
+property," said Dick.  "I prefer anyhow for the valley to be my home
+at present, although I believe that dispatch means nothing.  Why, the
+Confederates can't possibly rally enough men to attack us!"
+
+"I think as you do," said Warner.  "I suppose it's best for the cavalry
+to go back, but I wish General Sheridan had taken me on to Washington
+with him.  I'd like to see the lights of the capital again.  Besides,
+I'd have given the President and the Secretary of War some excellent
+advice."
+
+"He isn't jesting.  He means it," said Pennington to Dick.
+
+"Of course I do," said Warner calmly.  "When General Sheridan failed to
+take me with him, the government lost a great opportunity."
+
+But their hearts were light and they rode gaily back, unconscious of the
+singular event that was preparing for them.
+
+          *          *          *          *
+
+The army of Early had not been destroyed entirely.  Sheridan, with all
+his energy, and with all the courage and zeal of his men could not
+absolutely crush his foe.  Some portions of the hostile force were
+continually slipping away, and now Early, refusing to give up, was
+gathering them together again, and was meditating a daring counter
+stroke.  The task might well have appalled any general and any troops,
+but if Early had one quality in preeminence it was the resolution to
+fight.  And most of his officers and men were veterans.  Many of them had
+ridden with Jackson on his marvelous campaigns.  They were familiar with
+the taste of victory, and defeat had been very bitter to them.  They
+burned to strike back, and they were willing to dare anything for the
+sake of it.
+
+Orders had already gone to all the scattered and ragged fragments,
+and the men in gray were concentrating.  Many of them were half starved.
+The great valley had been stripped of all its live stock, all its grain
+and of every other resource that would avail an army.  Nothing could be
+obtained, except at Staunton, ninety miles back of Fisher's Hill, and
+wagons could not bring up food in time from such a distant place.
+
+Nevertheless the men gleaned.  They searched the fields for any corn that
+might be left, and ate it roasted or parched.  Along the slopes of the
+mountains they found nuts already ripening, and these were prizes indeed.
+
+Among the gleaners were Harry Kenton, the staunch young Presbyterian,
+Dalton, and the South Carolinians, St. Clair and Langdon.  St. Clair
+alone was impeccable of uniform, absolutely trim, and Langdon alone
+deserved his nickname of Happy.
+
+"Don't be discouraged, boys," he said as he pulled from the stalk an ear
+of corn that the hoofs of the Northern cavalry had failed to trample
+under.  "Now this is a fine ear, a splendid ear, and if you boys search
+well you may be able to find others like it.  All things come to him who
+looks long enough.  Remember how Nebuchadnezzar ate grass, and he must
+have had to do some hunting too, because I understand grass didn't grow
+very freely in that part of the world, and then remember also that we
+are not down to grass yet.  Corn, nuts and maybe a stray pumpkin or two.
+'Tis a repast fit for the gods, noble sirs."
+
+"I can go without, part of the time," said Harry, "but it hurts me to
+have to hunt through a big field for a nubbin of corn and then feel happy
+when I've got the wretched, dirty, insignificant little thing.  My father
+often has a hundred acres of corn in a single field, producing fifty
+bushels to the acre."
+
+"And my father," said Dalton, "has a single field of fifty acres that
+produces fifteen hundred bushels of wheat, but it's been a long time
+since I've seen a shock of wheat."
+
+"Console yourself with the knowledge," said Harry, "that it's too late in
+the year for wheat to be in the stack."
+
+"Or anywhere else, either, so far as we're concerned."
+
+"Don't murmur," said Happy.  "Mourners seldom find anything, but
+optimists find, often.  Didn't I tell you so?  Here's another ear."
+
+Harry had approached the edge of the field and he saw something red
+gleaming through a fringe of woods beyond.  The experienced eye of youth
+told him at once what it was, and he called to his comrades.
+
+"Come on, boys," he said.  "There's a little orchard beyond the wood.
+I know there is because I caught a glimpse of a red apple hanging from a
+tree.  I suppose the skirt of forest kept the Yankee raiders from seeing
+it."
+
+They followed with a shout of joy.
+
+"Treasure trove!" exclaimed Happy.
+
+"Who's an optimist now?" asked Harry.
+
+"All of us are," said St. Clair.
+
+They passed through the wood and entered a small orchard of not more than
+half an acre.  But it was filled with apple trees loaded with red apples,
+big juicy fellows, just ripened by the October sun.  A little beyond the
+orchard in a clearing was a small log house, obviously that of the owner
+of the orchard, and also obviously deserted.  No smoke rose from the
+chimneys, and windows and doors were nailed up.  The proprietor no doubt
+had gone with his family to some town and the apples would have rotted on
+the ground had the young officers not found them.
+
+"There must be bushels and bushels here," said St. Clair.  "We'll fill up
+our sacks first and then call the other men."
+
+They had brought sacks with them for the corn, but the few ears they had
+found took up but little space.
+
+"I'll climb the trees, and shake 'em down," said Harry.  He was up a
+tree in an instant, all his boyhood coming back to him, and, as he shook
+with his whole strength, the red apples, held now by twigs nearly dead,
+rained down.  They passed from tree to tree and soon their sacks were
+filled.
+
+"Now for the colonels," said St. Clair, "and on our way we'll tell the
+others."
+
+Bending under the weight of the sacks, they took their course toward a
+snug cove in the first slope of the Massanuttons, hailing friends on
+the way and sending them with swift steps toward the welcome orchard.
+They passed within the shadow of a grove, and then entered a small open
+space, where two men sat on neighboring stumps, with an empty box between
+them.  Upon the box reposed a board of chessmen and at intervals the two
+intent players spoke.
+
+"If you expect to capture my remaining knight, Hector, you'll have to
+hurry.  We march tomorrow."
+
+"I can't be hurried, Leonidas.  This is an intellectual game, and if it's
+played properly it demands time.  If I don't take your remaining knight
+before tomorrow I'll take him a month from now, after this campaign is
+over."
+
+"I have my doubts, Hector; I've heard you boast before."
+
+"I never boast, Leonidas.  At times I make statements and prophecies,
+but I trust that I'm too modest a man ever to boast."
+
+"Then advance your battle line, Hector, and see what you can do.  It's
+your move."
+
+The two gray heads bent so low over the narrow board that they almost
+touched.  For a little space the campaign, the war, and all their
+hardships floated away from them, their minds absorbed thoroughly in the
+difficult game which had come in the dim past out of the East.  They did
+not see anything around them nor did they hear Harry as he approached
+them with the heavy sack of apples upon his back.
+
+Harry's affection for both of the colonels was strong and as he looked at
+them he realized more than ever their utter unworldliness.  He, although
+a youth, saw that they belonged to a passing era, but in their very
+unworldliness lay their attraction.  He knew that whatever the fortunes
+of the war, they would, if they lived, prove good citizens after its
+close.  All rancor--no, not rancor, because they felt none--rather all
+hostility would be buried on the battlefield, and the friend whom they
+would be most anxious to see and welcome was John Carrington, the great
+Northern artilleryman, who had done their cause so much damage.
+
+He opened his sack and let the red waterfall of apples pour down at
+their feet.  Startled by the noise, they looked up, despite a critical
+situation on the board.  Then they looked down again at the scarlet heap
+upon the grass, and, powerful though the attractions of chess were,
+they were very hungry men, and the shining little pyramid held their gaze.
+
+"Apples! apples, Harry!" said Colonel Talbot.  "Many apples, magnificent,
+red and ripe!  Is it real?"
+
+"No, Leonidas, it can't be real," said Lieutenant Colonel Hector
+St. Hilaire.  "It can't be possible in a country that Sheridan swept as
+bare as the palm of my hand.  It's only an idle dream, Leonidas.  I was
+deceived by it myself, for a moment, but we will not yield any longer to
+such weakness.  Come, we will return to our game, where every move has
+now become vital."
+
+"But it isn't a dream, sir!  It's real!" exclaimed Harry joyfully.
+"We found an abandoned orchard, and it was just filled with 'em.  Help
+yourselves!"
+
+The colonels put away their chessmen, remembering well where every one
+had stood, and fell on with the appetites of boys.  Other officers,
+and then soldiers who were made welcome, joined them.  Harry and Dalton,
+after having eaten their share, were walking along the slope of the
+mountain, when they heard the sound of a shot.  It seemed to come from
+a dense thicket, and, as no Northern skirmishers could be near, their
+curiosity caused them to rush forward.  When they entered the thicket
+they heard Langdon's voice raised in a shout of triumph.
+
+"I got him!  I got him!" he cried.  Then they heard a heavy sliding sound,
+as of something being dragged, and the young South Carolinian appeared,
+pulling after him by its hind legs a fine hog which he had shot through
+the head.
+
+"It was fair game," he cried, as he saw his friends.  "Piggy here was
+masterless, roaming around the woods feeding on nuts until he was fat and
+juicy!  My, how good he will taste!  At first I thought he was a bear,
+but bear or hog he was bound to fall to my pistol!"
+
+Langdon had indeed found a prize, and he had robbed no farmer to obtain
+it.  Harry and Dalton stood by for a half minute and gloated with him.
+Then they helped him drag the hog into the cove, where the colonels sat.
+A half dozen experts quickly dressed the animal, and the Invincibles had
+a feast such as they had not tasted in a long time.
+
+"Didn't I tell you," said Happy as he gazed contentedly into the coals
+over which the hog had been roasted in sections, "that those who look
+hard generally discover, that is, 'seek and ye shall find.'  It's the
+optimists who arrive.  Your pessimist quits before he comes to the apple
+trees, or before he reaches the thicket that conceals the fine fat pig.
+As for me, I'm always an optimist, twenty-four carats fine, and therefore
+I'm the superior of you fellows."
+
+"You're happier than we are because you don't feel any sense of
+responsibility," said Dalton.  "I'd rather be unhappy than have an empty
+head."
+
+"Oh, it's just jealous you are, George Dalton.  Born with a sour
+disposition you can't bear to see me shedding joy and light about me."
+
+Dalton laughed.
+
+"It's true, Happy," he said.  "You do help, and for that reason we
+tolerate you, not because of your prowess in battle."
+
+"Has anybody seen that fellow Slade again?" asked St. Clair.
+
+"I'm thankful to say no," replied Harry.  "He came out of the Southwest
+promising big things, and he certainly does have great skill in the
+forest, but our officers don't like his looks.  Nor did I.  If there was
+ever a thorough villain I'm sure he's one.  I've heard that he's drawn
+off and is operating with a band of guerrillas in the mountains, robbing
+and murdering, I suppose."
+
+"And they say that a big ruffian from the Kentucky mountains with another
+band has joined him," said Happy.
+
+"What's his name?" asked Harry with sudden interest.
+
+"Skelly, I think, Bill Skelly."
+
+"Why, I know that fellow!  He comes from the hills back of our town of
+Pendleton, and he claimed to be on the Union side.  He and his band fired
+upon me at the very opening of the war."
+
+"If you are not careful he'll be firing upon you again.  He may have
+started out as a Union man, but he's shifting around now, I fancy,
+to suit his own plundering and robbing forces.  We'll hear of their
+operations later, and it won't be a pretty story."
+
+They talked of many things, and after a while Harry and St. Clair were
+sent with a message to the crest of Three Top Mountain, where the
+Confederate signal station was located, and from which the Union officers
+had taken the dispatch about the coming of Longstreet with a strong
+force.  Both were fully aware of the great movement contemplated by Early
+and their minds now went back to march and battle.
+
+The climb up the mountain was pleasant to such muscles and sinews as
+theirs, and they stopped at intervals to look over the valley, now a
+great desolation, until nature should come again with her healing touch.
+Harry smothered a sigh as he recalled their early and wonderful victories
+there, and the tremendous marches with the invincible Stonewall.  Old
+Jack, as he sat somewhere with Washington and Cromwell and all the group
+of the mighty, must feel sad when he looked down upon this, his beloved
+valley, now trodden into a ruin by the heel of the invader.
+
+He resolutely put down the choking in his throat, and would not let
+St. Clair see his emotion.  They reached the signal station, which at
+that hour was in charge of a young officer named Mortimer, but little
+older than themselves.  They delivered to him their message and stood by,
+while he talked with flags to another station on the opposite mountain.
+Harry watched curiously although he could read none of the signals.
+
+"This is our only newspaper and I can't read it," he said when Mortimer
+had finished.  "What's the news?"
+
+"There's a lot of it, and it's heavy with importance," replied Mortimer.
+
+"Tell us a bit of it, can't you?"
+
+"Sheridan has left his army and gone north.  That's one bit."
+
+"What?"
+
+"It's so.  We know absolutely, and we've signaled it to General Early.
+But we don't know why he has gone."
+
+"That is important."
+
+"It surely is, and he's taken his cavalry with him.  Our men have seen
+the troops riding northward.  Since Sheridan went away, the Union
+commander, whoever he is, has been strengthening his right, fearing an
+attack there, since he learned of our reappearance in the valley."
+
+"Therefore General Early will attack on the left?"
+
+"Correct.  You can see now the value of signal stations like ours.
+We can look down upon the enemy and see his movements.  Then we know
+what to do."
+
+"And what have they on their left?" asked Harry.  "Do you know that, too?"
+
+"Of course.  General Crook with two divisions is there.  He has Cedar
+Creek in front of him, and on his own left the north fork of the
+Shenandoah.  He's considerably in front of the main Union force, and
+they haven't posted much of a picket line."
+
+"I suppose they're relying upon the natural strength of the ground."
+
+"That's it, I take it, but we may give them a surprise."
+
+Harry and Dalton used their glasses and far to the north they saw dim
+figures, not larger than toys.  At first view they appeared to be
+stationary, but, as the eyes became used to the distance, Harry knew they
+were moving.  Apparently they were infantry going toward the Union right,
+where danger was feared, and he felt a grim satisfaction in knowing
+that the real danger lay on their left.  But could Early with his small
+numbers, with the habit now of defeat, make any impression upon the large
+Union armies flushed with victories?
+
+Harry wondered if Dick was among those moving troops, but his second
+thought told him it was not likely.  They had learned from spies that the
+Winchester regiment was mounted, and in all probability it was part of
+the cavalry that had gone north with Sheridan.  But he thought again how
+strange it was that the two should have been face to face at the Second
+Manassas, and then after a wide separation, involving so many great
+battles and marches, should come here into the Valley of Virginia,
+face to face once more.
+
+Mortimer and his assistants presently began to manipulate the flags again,
+and Confederate signalmen, on a far peak, replied.  Harry and St. Clair
+watched them with all the curiosity that a mystery inspires.
+
+"Can we ask again," said Harry, when they had finished, "what you fellows
+were saying?"
+
+Mortimer laughed.
+
+"It was a quick dialogue," he replied, "but it was intended for the
+Yankees down in the valley, who, we learn, have deciphered some of our
+signals.  I said to Strother on the other peak: 'Six thousand?'  He
+replied: 'No, eight thousand!'  I said: 'In center or on their right
+flank?'  He replied: 'On their right flank.'  I said: 'Two thousand
+fresh horses?'  He replied: 'Nearer twenty-five hundred.'  I said: 'Five
+hundred fresh beeves from the other side of the Blue Ridge.'  He replied:
+'Great news, we need 'em!'  I wish it was true, but it will set our
+Yankee friends to thinking."
+
+"I see.  Your talk was meant to fool the Yankees."
+
+"Yes, and we need to fool 'em as much as we can.  It's a daring venture
+that we're entering upon, but it's great luck for us to have Sheridan
+away.  It looks like a good omen to me."
+
+"And to me, too.  We used to say that Old Jack was an army corps, and he
+was, two of them for that matter.  Then Sheridan is worth at least ten
+thousand men to the Yankees.  Good-by, we'd like to see more of your work
+with the flags, but down below they need Captain St. Clair, who is a
+terrible fighter.  We can't hope to beat the Yankees with St. Clair away."
+
+Mortimer smiled, waved them farewell, and, a few minutes later, was at
+work once more with the flags.  Meanwhile, Harry and St. Clair were
+descending the mountain, pausing now and then to survey the valley with
+their glasses, where they could yet mark the movements of the Northern
+troops.  When they reached the cove they found that the board and the
+chess men were put away, and the two colonels were inspecting the
+Invincibles to see that the last detail was done, while Early made ready
+for his desperate venture.
+
+Harry and his comrades were fully conscious that it was a forlorn hope.
+They had been driven out of the valley once by superior numbers and
+equipment, directed by a leader of great skill and energy, but now they
+had come back to risk everything in a daring venture.  The Union forces,
+of course, knew of their presence in the old lines about Fisher's Hill--
+Shepard alone was sufficient to warn them of it--but they could scarcely
+expect an attack by a foe of small numbers, already defeated several
+times.
+
+Harry's thought of Shepard set him to surmising.  The spy no longer
+presented himself to his mind as a foe to be hated.  Rather, he was an
+official enemy whom he liked.  He even remembered with a smile their long
+duel when Lee was retreating from Gettysburg, and particularly their
+adventure in the river.  Would that duel between them be renewed?
+Intuition told him that Shepard was in the valley, and if Sheridan was
+worth ten thousand men the spy was worth at least a thousand.
+
+The Invincibles were ready to the last man, and it did not require any
+great counting to reach the last.  Yet the two colonels, as they rode
+before their scanty numbers, held themselves as proudly as ever, and the
+hearts of their young officers, in spite of all the odds, began to beat
+high with hope.  The advance was to be made after dark, and their pulses
+were leaping as the twilight came, and then the night.
+
+The march of the Southern army to deal its lightning stroke was prepared
+well, and, fortunately for it, a heavy fog came up late in the night from
+the rivers and creeks of the valley to cover its movements and hide the
+advancing columns from its foe.  When Harry felt the damp touch of the
+vapor on his face his hopes rose yet higher.  He knew that weather, fog,
+rain, snow and flooding rivers played a great part in the fortunes of
+war.  Might not the kindly fog, encircling them with its protection,
+be a good omen?
+
+"Chance favors us," he said to St. Clair and Langdon, as the fog grew
+thicker and thicker, almost veiling their faces from one another.
+
+"I told you that the optimists usually had their way," said Happy.
+"We persisted and found that orchard of apples.  We persisted and found
+that fat porker.  Now, I have been wishing for this fog, and I kept on
+wishing for it until it came."
+
+Harry laughed.
+
+"You do make the best of things, Happy," he said.
+
+The fog thickened yet more, but the Invincibles made their sure way
+through it, the different portions of the army marching in perfect
+coordination.  Gordon led three divisions of infantry, supported by
+a brigade of cavalry across the Shenandoah River and marched east of
+Fisher's Hill.  Then he went along the slope of the Massanuttons,
+recrossed the river, and silently came in behind the left flank of the
+Union force under Crook.
+
+Early himself, with two divisions of infantry and all the artillery,
+marched straight toward Cedar Creek, where he would await the sound of
+firing to tell him that Gordon had completed his great circling movement.
+Then he would push forward with all his might, and he and Gordon
+appearing suddenly out of the fog and dark would strike sledge hammer
+blows from different sides at the surprised Union army.  It was a
+conception worthy of Old Jack himself, although there was less strength
+with which to deal the blows.
+
+The Invincibles were with Early, and they arrived in position before
+Cedar Creek long before Gordon could complete his wide flanking movement.
+Both artillery and infantry were up, and there was nothing for them to
+do but wait.  The officers dismounted and naturally those who led the
+Invincibles kept close together.  The wait was long.  Midnight came,
+and then the hours after it passed one by one.
+
+It was late in the year, the eighteenth of October, and the night was
+chill.  The heavy fog which hung low made it chillier.  Harry as he stood
+by his horse felt it cold and damp on his face, but it was a true friend
+for all that.  Whether Happy wishing for the fog had made it come or not
+they could have found no better aid.
+
+He could not see far, but out of the vapors came the sound of men moving,
+because they were restless and could not help it.  He heard too the
+murmur of voices, and now and then the clank of a cannon, as it was
+advanced a little.  More time passed.  It was the hour when it would be
+nearly dawn on a clear day, and thousands of hearts leaped as the sound
+of shots came from a distant point out of the fog.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+CEDAR CREEK
+
+
+The Winchester Regiment and the rest of the cavalry returned to the Union
+army, and, on the memorable night of the eighteenth of October, they were
+north of Cedar Creek with the Eighth Corps, most of the men being then
+comfortably asleep in tents.  A courier had brought word to General
+Wright that all was quiet in front, and the same word was sent to
+Sheridan, who, returning, had come as far as Winchester where he slept
+that night, expecting to rejoin his command the next day.
+
+But there were men of lower rank than Wright and Sheridan who were uneasy,
+and particularly so Sergeant Daniel Whitley, veteran of the plains,
+and of Indian ambush and battle.  None of the Winchester officers had
+sought sleep either in the tents or elsewhere, and, in the night, Dick
+stood beside the suspicious sergeant and peered into the fog.
+
+"I don't like it," said the veteran.  "Fogs ain't to be taken lightly.
+I wish this one hadn't come at this time.  I'm generally scared of most
+of the things I can't see."
+
+"But what have we to be afraid of?" asked Dick.  "We're here in strong
+force, and the enemy is too weak to attack."
+
+"The Johnnies are never too weak to attack.  Rec'lect, too, that this is
+their country, and they know every inch of it.  I wish Mr. Shepard was
+here."
+
+"I think he was detailed for some scout duty off toward the Blue Ridge"
+
+"I don't know who sent him, but I make bold to say, Mr. Mason, that he
+could do a lot more good out there in the fog on the other side of Cedar
+Creek, a-spyin' and a-spyin', a-lookin' and a-lookin', a-listenin' and
+a-listenin'."
+
+"And perhaps he would neither see nor hear anything"
+
+"Maybe, sir, but if I may make bold again, I think you're wrong.  Why,
+I just fairly smell danger."
+
+"It's the fog and your fear of it, sergeant."
+
+"No, sir; it's not that.  It's my five senses working all together and
+telling me the truth."
+
+"But the pickets have brought in no word."
+
+"In this fog, pickets can't see more'n a few yards beyond their beats.
+What time is it, Mr. Mason?"
+
+"A little past one in the morning, sergeant."
+
+"Enough of the night left yet for a lot of mischief.  I'm glad, sir,
+if I may make bold once more, that the Winchester men stay out of the
+tents and keep awake."
+
+Warner joined them, and reported that fresh messengers from the front had
+given renewed assurances of quiet.  Absolutely nothing was stirring along
+Cedar Creek, but Sergeant Daniel Whitley was still dissatisfied.
+
+"It's always where nothin' is stirrin' that most is doin', sir," he said
+to Dick.
+
+"You're epigrammatic, sergeant."
+
+"I'm what, sir?  I was never called that before."
+
+"It doesn't depreciate you.  It's a flattering adjective, but you've set
+my own nerves to tingling and I don't feel like sleeping."
+
+"It never hurts, sir, to watch in war, even when nothing happens.
+I remember once when we were in a blizzard west of the Missouri, only a
+hundred of us.  It was in the country of the Northern Cheyennes, an' no
+greater fighters ever lived than them red demons.  We got into a kind of
+dip, surrounded by trees, an' managed to build a fire.  We was so busy
+tryin' to keep from freezin' to death that we never gave a thought to
+Indians, that is 'ceptin' one, the guide, Jim Palmer, who knowed them
+Cheyennes, an' who kept dodgin' about in the blizzard, facin' the icy
+blast an' the whirlin' snow, an' always lookin' an' listenin'.  I owe my
+life to him, an' so does every other one of the hundred.  Shore enough
+the Cheyennes come, ridin' right on the edge of the blizzard, an' in
+all that terrible storm they tried to rush us.  But we'd been warned by
+Palmer an' we beat 'em off at last, though a lot of good men bit the
+snow.  I say again, sir, that you can't ever be too careful in war.
+Do everything you can think of, and then think of some more.  I wish
+Mr. Shepard would come!"
+
+They continued to walk back and forth, in front of the lines, and,
+at times, they were accompanied by Colonel Winchester or Warner or
+Pennington.  The colonel fully shared the sergeant's anxieties.  The fact
+that most of the Union army was asleep in the tents alarmed him, and the
+great fog added to his uneasiness.  It came now in heavy drifts like
+clouds sweeping down the valley, and he did not know what was in the
+heart of it.  The pickets had been sent far forward, but the vast moving
+column of heavy whitish vapor hid everything from their eyes, too,
+save a circle of a few yards about them.
+
+Toward morning Dick, the colonel and the sergeant stood together, trying
+to pierce the veil of vapor in front of them.  The colonel did not
+hesitate to speak his thought to the two.
+
+"I wish that General Sheridan was here," he said.
+
+"But he's at Winchester," said Dick.  "He'll join us at noon."
+
+"I wish he was here now, and I wish, too, that this fog would lift,
+and the day would come.  Hark, what was that?"
+
+"It was a rifle shot, sir," said the sergeant.
+
+"And there are more," exclaimed Dick.  "Listen!"
+
+There was a sudden crackle of firing, and in front of them pink dots
+appeared through the fog.
+
+"Here comes the Southern army!" said Sergeant Whitley.
+
+Out of the fog rose a tremendous swelling cry from thousands of throats,
+fierce, long-drawn, and full of menace.  It was the rebel yell, and from
+another point above the rising thunder of cannon and rifles came the same
+yell in reply, like a signal.  The surprise was complete.  Gordon had
+hurled himself upon the Union flank and at the same moment Early,
+according to his plan, drove with all his might at the center.
+
+Dick was horrified, and, for a moment or two, the blood was ice in his
+veins.
+
+"Back!" cried Colonel Winchester to him and the sergeant, and then after
+shouting, "Up men!  Up!" he blew long and loud upon his whistle.  All of
+his men were on their feet in an instant, and they were first to return
+the Southern fire, but it had little effect upon the torrent that was
+now pouring down upon them.  Other troops, so rudely aroused from sleep,
+rushed from their tents, still dazed, and firing wildly in the fog.
+
+Again that terrible yell arose, more distinct than ever with menace and
+triumph, and so great was the rush of the men in gray that they swept
+everything before them, their rifles and cannon raking the Union camp
+with a withering fire.  The Winchesters, despite their quickness to form
+in proper order, were driven back with the others, and the whole corps,
+assailed with frightful force on the flank also, was compelled
+continually to give ground, and to leave long rows of dead and wounded.
+
+"Keep close to me!" shouted Colonel Winchester to his young officers,
+and then he added to the sergeant, who stood beside him: "Whitley,
+you were right!"
+
+"I'm sorry to say I was, sir," replied the sergeant.  "It was a great
+ambush, and it's succeeding so far."
+
+"But we must hold them!  We must find some way to hold them!" cried the
+colonel.
+
+He said more, but it was lost in the tremendous uproar of the firing and
+the shouting.  All the officers were dismounted--their horses already had
+been taken by the enemy--and now, waving their swords, they walked up
+and down in front of the lines, seeking to encourage their own troops.
+Despite the surprise and the attack from two sides, the men in blue
+sustained their courage and made a stubborn fight.  Nevertheless the
+attack in both front and flank was fatal.  Again and again they sought to
+hold a position, but always they were driven from it, leaving behind more
+dead and wounded and more prisoners.
+
+Dick's heart sank.  It was bitter to see a defeat, after so many
+victories.  Perhaps the fortunes of the South had not passed the zenith
+after all!  If Sheridan were defeated and driven from the valley, and
+Lee's flank left protected, Grant might sit forever before him at
+Petersburg and not be able to force his trenches.  All these thoughts
+and fears swept before him, vague, disconnected, and swift.
+
+But he saw that Warner, Pennington and the colonel were still unhurt,
+and that the Winchesters, despite their exposed position, had not
+suffered as much loss as some of the other regiments.  General Wright in
+the absence of Sheridan retained his head, and formed a strong core of
+resistance which, although it could not yet hold the ground, might give
+promise of doing so, if help arrived.
+
+Dawn came, driving the fog away, and casting a red glow over the field of
+battle.  The ground where the Union troops had slept the night before was
+now left far behind, and the Southern army, full of fire and the swell of
+victory, was pushing on with undiminished energy, its whole front blazing
+with the rapid discharge of cannon and rifles.
+
+The terrible retreat lasted a long time, and the whole Union army was
+driven back a full five miles before it could make a permanent stand.
+Then, far in the morning, the regiments reformed, held their ground,
+and Dick, for the first time, took a long free breath.
+
+"We've been defeated but not destroyed," he said.
+
+"No, we haven't," said a voice beside him, "but the fact that the
+Johnnies were so hungry has saved us a lot."
+
+It was Shepard, who seemed to have risen from the ground.
+
+"I've got back from places farther north," he said.  "Chance kept me away
+from here last night."
+
+"What do you mean about the Southern hunger helping us?" asked Dick.
+
+"I've been on the flank, and I saw that when they drove us out of our
+camps the temptation was too great for many of their men.  They scattered,
+seizing our good food and devouring it.  It was impossible for their
+officers to restrain them.  They've suffered losses too, and they can
+drive us no farther."
+
+Then Shepard spoke briefly with Colonel Winchester, and disappeared
+again.  The fire had now died somewhat and the banks of smoke were rising,
+enabling Dick to see the field with a degree of clearness.  Union
+batteries and regiments were in line, but behind them a mass of fugitives,
+who had not yet recovered from the surprise and who thought the defeat
+complete, were pouring along the turnpike toward Winchester.  When Dick
+saw their numbers his fears were renewed.  He believed that if the
+Southern army could gather up all its forces and attack once more it
+would win another success.
+
+But while he looked at the long line of fire in front of them a sudden
+roar of cheering rose from the Union ranks.  It became a shout,
+tremendous and thrilling.  Dick turned in excitement and he was about to
+ask what it meant, when he distinguished a name thundered again and again:
+
+"Sheridan!  Sheridan!  Sheridan!"
+
+Then before them galloped their own Little Phil, seeming to bring
+strength, courage and victory with him.  His hat was thrown back, his
+face flushed, and his eyes sparkling.  Everywhere the men rallied to his
+call and the shouts: "Sheridan!  Sheridan!" rolled up and down.  The
+fugitives too came pouring back to swell the line of battle.  Dick
+caught the enthusiasm at once, and felt his own pulses leaping.  He
+and Pennington and Warner joined in the shouts: "Sheridan!  Sheridan!"
+and snatching off their caps waved them with all their vigor.
+
+It was an amazing transformation.  A beaten and dispirited army, holding
+on from a sense of duty, suddenly became alive with zeal, and asked only
+to be led against the enemy by the general they trusted.  One man alone
+had worked the miracle and as his enemies had truly said his presence was
+worth ten thousand men.
+
+His coming had been dramatic.  He had spent the night quietly at
+Winchester, but, early in the morning, he had heard the sounds of firing
+which steadily grew louder.  Apprehensive, he rode at once toward the
+distant field, and, before he had gone two miles, he met the first
+stragglers, bringing wild tales that the army had been routed, and that
+the Southerners were hot on their heels.  Sheridan rode rapidly now.
+He met thicker streams of fugitives, but turned them back toward the
+enemy, and when he finally came upon the field itself he brought with
+him all the retreating regiments.
+
+Dick never beheld a more thrilling and inspiring sight than that which
+occurred when Sheridan galloped among them, swinging his hat in his hand.
+
+"What troops are these?" he had asked.
+
+"The Sixth Corps!" hundreds of voices shouted in reply.
+
+"We are all right!  We'll win!" cried Sheridan.
+
+And then, as he galloped along the line he added:
+
+"Never mind, boys, we'll whip 'em yet!  We'll whip 'em yet!  We'll sleep
+in their quarters tonight!"
+
+The roar of cheering swept up and down the line again, and Sheridan
+and his officers began to prepare the restored army for a new battle.
+All the time the Union numbers swelled, and, as the Southern army was
+hesitating, Sheridan was able to post his divisions as he pleased.
+
+The Winchester regiment was drawn up towards the flank.  All the officers
+were still on foot, but they stood a little in front, ready to lead their
+men into the new battle.  It was now about noon, and there was a pause
+in the combat, enabling the smoke to lift yet higher, and disclosing the
+whole field.  Sheridan was still riding up and down the lines, cool,
+determined and resolved to turn defeat into victory.  Wherever he went
+he spoke words of encouragement to his troops, but all the time his eye,
+which was the eye of a true general, swept the field.  He put the gallant
+young Custer with his cavalry on the right, Crook and Merritt with their
+horse on the left, while the infantry were massed in the center.  The
+Winchester men were sent to the right.
+
+The doubts in the ranks of the South helped Sheridan.  Early after his
+victory in the morning was surprised to see the Union army gather itself
+together again and show such a formidable front.  Neither he nor his
+lieutenants could understand the sudden reversal, and the pause, which
+at first had been meant merely to give the troops opportunity for fresh
+breath, grew into a long delay.  Here and there, skirmishers were firing,
+feeling out one another, but the masses of the army paid no attention to
+those scattered shots.
+
+The Winchester men were elated.  Colonel Winchester and the young
+officers knew that delay worked steadily for them.  All the defeated
+troops of the morning were coming back into line, and now they were
+anxious to retrieve their disaster.  Dick, through his glasses, saw that
+the Confederates so far from continuing the advance were now fortifying
+behind stone fences and also were spreading across the valley to keep
+from being flanked on either side by the cavalry.  But he saw too that
+their ranks were scanty.  If they spread far enough to protect their
+flanks they would become dangerously thin in the center.  He handed his
+glasses to the sergeant, and asked him to take a look.
+
+"Their surprise," said Whitley, "has spent its force.  Their army is not
+big enough.  Our general has seen it, and it's why he delays so long.
+Time works for us, because we can gather together much greater numbers
+than they have."
+
+The delay lasted far into the afternoon.  The smoke and dust settled,
+and the October sun gleamed on cannon and bayonets.  Dick's watch showed
+that it was nearly four o'clock.
+
+"We attack today surely," said Pennington, who was growing nervous with
+impatience.
+
+"Don't you worry, young man," said Warner.  "The two armies are here in
+line facing each other and as it would be too much trouble to arrange it
+all again tomorrow the battle will be fought today.  The whole program
+will be carried out on time."
+
+"I think," said Dick, "that the attack is very near, and that it's we who
+are going to make it.  Here is General Sheridan himself."
+
+The general rode along the line just before the Winchesters and nodded to
+them approvingly.  He came so close that Dick saw the contraction of his
+face, and his eager burning look, as if the great moment had arrived.
+Suddenly, he raised his hand and the buglers blew the fierce notes of the
+charge.
+
+"Now we go!" cried Pennington in uncontrollable excitement, and the whole
+right wing seemed to lift itself up bodily and rush forward.  The men,
+eager to avenge the losses of the morning, began to shout, and their
+cheers mingled with the mighty tread of the charge, the thunder of the
+cannon and the rapid firing of thousands of rifles.  They knew, too,
+that Sheridan's own eye was upon them, and it encouraged them to a
+supreme effort.
+
+Infantry and cavalry swept on together in an overwhelming mass.  Cannon
+and rifles sent a bitter hail upon them, but nothing could stop their
+rush.  Dick felt all his pulses beating heavily and he saw a sea of fire
+before him, but his excitement was so intense that he forgot about danger.
+
+The center also swung into the charge and then the left.  All the
+divisions of the army, as arranged by Sheridan, moved in perfect time.
+The soldiers advanced like veterans going from one victory to another,
+instead of rallying from a defeat.  The war had not witnessed another
+instance of such a quick and powerful recovery.
+
+Dick knew, as their charge gathered force at every step, that they were
+going to certain triumph.  The thinness of the Southern lines had already
+told him that they could not withstand the impact of Sheridan.  A moment
+later the crash came and the whole Union force rushed to victory.
+Early's army, exhausted by its efforts of the morning, was overwhelmed.
+It was swept from the stone fences and driven back in defeat, while the
+men in blue, growing more eager as they saw success achieved, pressed
+harder and harder.
+
+No need for bugle and command to urge them on now.  The Southern army
+could not withstand anywhere such ardor and such weight.  Position after
+position was lost, then there was no time to take a new stand, and the
+defeat became a rout.  Early's army which had come forward so gallantly
+in the morning was compelled to flee in disorder in the afternoon.
+The brave Ramseur, fighting desperately, fell mortally wounded, Kershaw
+could save but a few men, Evans held a ford a little while, but he too
+was soon hurled from it.  The Invincibles were driven on with the rest,
+cannon and wagons were lost, and all but the core of Early's force ceased
+to exist.
+
+The sun set upon the Union army in the camps that it had lost in the fog
+of the morning.  It had been driven five miles but had come back again.
+It had recovered all its own guns, and had taken twenty-four belonging
+to the South.  It was the most complete victory that had yet been won by
+either side in the war, and it had been snatched from the very jaws of
+defeat and humiliation.  Small wonder that there was great rejoicing in
+the ranks of northern youth!  Despite their immense exertions and the
+commands of their officers they could not yet lie down and sleep or rest.
+Now and then a tremendous cheer for Little Phil who had saved them arose.
+Huge bonfires sprang up in the night, where they were burning the
+captured Confederate ambulances and wagons, because they did not have the
+horses with which to take them away.
+
+Long after the battle was over, Dick's heart beat hard with exertion and
+excitement.  But he shared too in the joy.  He would not have been human,
+and he would not have been young if he had not.  Warner and Pennington
+and he had collected four more small wounds among them, but they were
+so slight that they had not noticed them in the storm and fury of the
+battle.  Colonel Winchester had not been touched.
+
+When Dick was at last able to sit still, he joined his comrades about one
+of the fires, where they were serving supper to the victors.  Shepard had
+just galloped back from a long ride after the enemy to say that they had
+been scattered to the winds, and that another surprise was not possible,
+because there were no longer enough Southern soldiers in the valley to
+make an army.
+
+"They made a great effort," said Colonel Winchester.  "We must give
+them credit for what they achieved against numbers and resources.  They
+organized and carried out their surprise in a wonderful manner, and
+perhaps they would be the victors tonight if we didn't have such a
+general as Sheridan."
+
+"It was a great sight," said Warner, "when he appeared, galloping before
+our line, calling upon us to renew our courage and beat the enemy."
+
+"One man can influence an army.  I've found out that," said Dick.
+
+They rose and saluted as General Sheridan walked past with some of the
+higher officers.  He returned the salutes, congratulated them on their
+courage and went on.  After a long while the exhausted victors fell
+asleep.
+
+          *          *          *          *
+
+That night a band of men, a hundred perhaps, entered the woods along the
+slopes of the Massanuttons.  They were the remains of the Invincibles.
+Throughout those fatal hours they had fought with all the courage and
+tenacity for which they had been famous so long and so justly.  In the
+heat and confusion of the combat they had been separated from the other
+portions of Early's army, and, the Northern cavalry driving in between,
+they had been compelled to take refuge in the forest, under cover of
+darkness.  They might have surrendered with honor, but not one among them
+thought of such a thing.  They had been forced to leave their dead behind
+them, and of those who had withdrawn about a third were wounded.  But,
+their hurts bandaged by their comrades, they limped on with the rest.
+
+The two colonels were at the head of the sombre little column.  It had
+seemed to Harry Kenton as they left the field that each of them had
+suddenly grown at least ten years older, but now as they passed within
+the deep shadows they became erect again and their faces grew more
+youthful.  It was a marvelous transformation, but Harry read their
+secret.  All the rest of the Invincibles were lads, or but little more,
+and they two middle-aged men felt that they were responsible for them.
+In the face of defeat and irretrievable disaster they recovered their
+courage, and refused to abandon hope.
+
+"A dark sunset, Hector," said Colonel Talbot, "but a bright dawn will
+come, even yet."
+
+"Who can doubt it, Leonidas?  We won a glorious victory over odds in
+the morning, but when a million Yankees appeared on the field in the
+afternoon it was too much."
+
+"That's always the trouble, Hector.  We are never able to finish our
+victories, because so many of the enemy always come up before the work
+is done."
+
+"It's a great pity, Leonidas, that we didn't count the Yankees before the
+war was started."
+
+"It's too late now.  Don't call up a sore subject, Hector.  We've got to
+take care of these lads of ours, and try to get them across the mountain
+somehow to Lee.  It's useless to seek Early and we couldn't reach him if
+we tried.  He's done for."
+
+"Alas!  It's true, Leonidas!  We're through with the valley for this
+autumn at least, and, since the organization of the army here is broken
+up, there is nothing for us to do but go to Lee.  Harry, is this a high
+mountain?"
+
+"Not so very high, sir," replied Harry Kenton, who was just behind him,
+"but I don't think we can cross it tonight."
+
+"Maybe we don't want to do so," said Colonel Talbot.  "You boys have food
+in your knapsacks, taken from the Union camps, which we held for a few
+short and glorious hours.  At least we have brought off those valuable
+trophies, and, when we have climbed higher up the mountain side, we will
+sup and rest."
+
+The colonel held himself very erect, and spoke in a firm proud tone.
+He would inspire a high spirit into the hearts of these boys of his,
+and in doing so he inspired a great deal of it into his own.  He looked
+back at his column, which still limped bravely after him.  It was too
+dark for him to see the faces of the lads, but he knew that none of them
+expressed despair.
+
+"That's the way, my brave fellows," he said.  "I know we'll find a warm
+and comfortable cove higher up.  We'll sleep there, and tomorrow we'll
+start toward Lee.  When we join him we'll whip Grant, come back here and
+rout Sheridan and then go on and take Washington."
+
+"Where I mean yet, sir, to sleep in the White House with my boots on,"
+said the irrepressible Happy.
+
+"You are a youth frivolous of speech, Thomas Langdon," said Colonel
+Leonidas Talbot gravely, "but I have always known that beneath this
+superficiality of manner was a brave and honest heart.  I'm glad to see
+that your courage is so high."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Happy sincerely.
+
+Half way up the mountain they found the dip they wished, sheltered by
+cedars and pines.  Here they rested and ate, and from their covert saw
+many lights burning in the valley.  But they knew they were the lights
+of the victorious foe, and they would not look that way often.
+
+The October winds were cold, and they had lost their blankets, but the
+dry leaves lay in heaps, and they raked them up for beds.  The lads,
+worn to the bone, fell asleep, and, after a while, only the two colonels
+remained awake.
+
+"I do not feel sleepy at all, Hector," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot.
+
+"I could not possibly sleep, Leonidas," said Lieutenant Colonel
+St. Hilaire.
+
+"Then shall we?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+Colonel Talbot produced from under his coat a small board, and Lieutenant
+Colonel St. Hilaire took from under his own coat a small box.
+
+They put the board upon a broad stone, arranged the chessmen, as they
+were at the latest interruption, and, as the moonlight came through the
+dwarfed pines and cedars, the two gray heads bent over the game.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+IN THE COVE
+
+
+General Sheridan permitted the Winchester men to rest a long time,
+or rather he ordered them to do so.  No regiment had distinguished itself
+more at Cedar Creek or in the previous battles, and it was best for it to
+lie by a while, and recover its physical strength--strength of the spirit
+it had never lost.  It also gave a needed chance to the sixteen slight
+wounds accumulated by Dick, Pennington and Warner to heal perfectly.
+
+"Unless something further happens," said Warner, regretfully, "I won't
+have a single honorable scar to take back with me and show in Vermont."
+
+"I'll have one slight, though honorable, scar, but I won't be able to
+show it," said Pennington, also with regret.
+
+"I trust that it's in front, Frank," said Dick.
+
+"It is, all right.  Don't worry about that.  But what about you, Dick?"
+
+"I had hopes of a place on my left arm just above the elbow.  A bullet,
+traveling at the rate of a million miles a minute, broke the skin there
+and took a thin flake of flesh with it, but I'm so terribly healthy it's
+healed up without leaving a trace."
+
+"There's no hope for us," said Warner, sighing.  "We can never point to
+the proof of our warlike deeds.  You didn't find your cousin among the
+prisoners?"
+
+"No, nor was he among their fallen whom we buried.  Nor any of his
+friends either.  I'm quite sure that he escaped.  My intuition tells me
+so."
+
+"It's not your intuition at all," said Warner reprovingly.  "It's a
+reasonable opinion, formed in your mind by antecedent conditions.
+You call it intuition, because you don't take the trouble to discover the
+circumstances that led to its production.  It's only lazy minds that fall
+back upon second sight, mind-reading and such things."
+
+"Isn't he the big-word man?" said Pennington admiringly.  "I tell you
+what, George, General Early is still alive somewhere, and we're going to
+send you to talk him to death.  They say he's a splendid swearer, one of
+the greatest that ever lived, but he won't be able to get out a single
+cuss, with you standing before him, and spouting the whole unabridged
+dictionary to him."
+
+"At least when I talk I say something," replied Warner sternly.  "It
+seems strange to me, Frank Pennington, that your life on the plains,
+where conditions, for the present at least, are hard, has permitted you
+to have so much frivolity in your nature."
+
+"It's not frivolity, George.  It's a gay and bright spirit, in the rays
+of which you may bask without price.  It will do you good."
+
+"Do you know what's to be our next duty?"
+
+"No, I don't, and I'm not going to bother about it.  I'll leave that
+directly to Colonel Winchester, and indirectly to General Sheridan.
+When you rest, put your mind at rest.  Concentration on whatever you are
+doing is the secret of continued success."
+
+They were lying on blankets near the foot of the mountain, and the time
+was late October.  The days were growing cold and the nights colder,
+but a fine big fire was blazing before them, and they rejoiced in the
+warmth and brightness, shed from the flames and the heaps of glowing
+coals.
+
+"I'll venture the prediction," said Pennington, "that our next march is
+not against an army, but against guerrillas.  They say that up there in
+the Alleghanies Slade and Skelly are doing a lot of harm.  They may have
+to be hunted out and the Winchester men have the best reputation in the
+army for that sort of work.  We earned it by our work against these very
+fellows in Tennessee."
+
+"For which most of the credit is due to Sergeant Whitley," said Dick.
+"He's a grand trailer, and he can lead us with certainty, when other
+regiments can't find the way."
+
+Dick gazed westward beyond the dim blue line of the Alleghanies, and he
+knew that he would feel no surprise if Pennington's prediction should
+come true.  The nest of difficult mountains was a good shelter for
+outlaws, and the Winchesters, with the sergeant picking up the trail,
+were the very men to hunt them.
+
+He knew too that, unless the task was begun soon, it would prove a
+supreme test of endurance, and there would be dangers in plenty.  Snow
+would be falling before long on the mountains, and they would become a
+frozen wilderness, almost as wild and savage as they were before the
+white man came.
+
+But it seemed for a while that the intuition of both Dick and Pennington
+had failed.  They spent many days in the valley trying to catch the
+evasive Mosby and his men, although they had little success.  Mosby's
+rangers knowing the country thoroughly made many daring raids, although
+they could not become a serious menace.
+
+When they returned through Winchester from the last of these expeditions
+the Winchester men were wrapped in heavy army cloaks, for the wind from
+the mountains could now cut through uniforms alone.  Dick, glancing
+toward the Alleghanies, saw a ribbon of white above their blue line.
+
+"Look, fellows!  The first snow!" he said.
+
+"I see," said Warner.  "It snows on the just and the unjust, the unjust
+being Slade and Skelly, who are surely up there."
+
+"Just before we went out," sad Pennington, "the news of some fresh and
+special atrocity of theirs came in.  I'm thinking the time is near when
+we'll be sent after them."
+
+"We'll need snow shoes," said Warner, shivering as he looked.  "I can see
+that the snow is increasing.  Which way is the wind blowing, Dick?"
+
+"Toward us."
+
+"Then we're likely to get a little of that snow.  The clouds will blow
+off the mountains and sprinkle us with flakes in the valley."
+
+"I like winter in peace, but not in war," said Pennington.  "It makes
+campaigning hard.  It's no fun marching at night in a driving storm of
+snow or hail."
+
+"But what we can't help we must stand," said Warner with resignation.
+
+Both predictions, the one about the snow and the other concerning the
+duty that would be assigned to them, quickly came to pass.  Before sunset
+the blue line of the Alleghanies was lost wholly in mist and vapor.
+Then great flakes began to fall on the camp, and the young officers were
+glad to find refuge in their tents.
+
+It was not a heavy snow fall where they were, but it blew down at
+intervals all through the night, and the next morning it lay upon the
+ground to the depth of an inch or so.  Then the second part of the
+prophecy was justified.  Colonel Winchester himself aroused all his staff
+and heads of companies.
+
+"A fine crisp winter morning for us to take a ride," he said cheerfully.
+"General Sheridan has become vexed beyond endurance over the doings of
+Slade and Skelly, and he has chosen his best band of guerrilla-hunters to
+seek 'em out in their lairs and annihilate 'em."
+
+"I knew it," groaned Pennington in an undertone to Dick.  "I was as
+certain of it as if I had read the order already."  But aloud he said as
+he saluted: "We're glad we're chosen for the honor, sir.  I speak for
+Mr. Mason, Mr. Warner and myself."
+
+"I'm glad you're thankful," laughed the colonel.  "A grateful and
+resolute heart always prepares one for hardships, and we'll have plenty
+of them over there in the high mountains, where the snow lies deep.
+But we have new horses, furnished especially for this expedition, and
+Sergeant Whitley and Mr. Shepard will guide us.  The sergeant can hear or
+see anything within a quarter of a mile of him, and Mr. Shepard, being
+a native of the valley, knows also all the mountains that close it in."
+
+The young lieutenants were sincerely glad the sergeant and Shepard were
+to go along, as with them they felt comparatively safe from ambush,
+a danger to be dreaded where Slade and Skelly were concerned.
+
+"We agreed that General Sheridan was worth ten thousand men," said Warner,
+"and I believe that the battle of Cedar Creek proved it.  Now if Sheridan
+is worth ten thousand, the sergeant and Shepard are certainly worth a
+thousand each.  It's a simple algebraic problem which I could demonstrate
+to you by the liberal use of x and y, but in your case it's not
+necessary.  You must accept my word for it."
+
+"We'll do it!  We'll do it! say no more!" exclaimed Pennington hastily.
+
+It was a splendid column of men that rode out from the Union camp and
+General Sheridan himself saw them off.  Colonel Winchester at their head
+was a man of fine face and figure, and he had never looked more martial.
+The hardships of war had left no mark upon him.  His face was tanned a
+deep red by the winds of summer and winter, and although a year or two
+over forty he seemed to be several years less.  Behind him came Dick,
+Pennington and Warner, hardy and well knit, who had passed through the
+most terrible of all schools, three and a half years of incessant war,
+and who although youths were nevertheless stronger and more resourceful
+than most men.
+
+Near them rode the sergeant, happy in his capacity as scout and guide,
+and welcoming the responsibility that he knew would be his, as soon as
+they reached the mountains, looming so near and white.  He felt as if
+he were back upon the plains, leading a troop in a great blizzard, and
+guarding it with eye and ear and all his five senses against Sioux or
+Cheyenne ambush.  He was not a mere trainer of a squad of men, he was,
+in a real sense, a leader of an army.
+
+Shepard, the spy, also felt a great uplift of the spirits.  He was a
+man of high ideals, whose real nature the people about him were just
+beginning to learn.  He did not like his trade of a spy, but being aware
+that he was peculiarly fitted for it intense patriotism had caused him to
+accept its duties.  Now he felt that most of his work in such a capacity
+was over.  He could freely ride with the other men and fight openly as
+they did.  But if emergency demanded that he renew his secret service he
+would do so instantly and without hesitation.
+
+Colonel Winchester looked back with pride at his column.  Like most of
+the regiments at that period of the war it was small, three hundred
+sinewy well-mounted young men, who had endured every kind of hardship
+and who could endure the like again.  All of them were wrapped in heavy
+overcoats over their uniforms, and they rode the best of horses, animals
+that Colonel Winchester had been allowed to choose.
+
+The colonel felt so good that he took out his little silver whistle,
+and blew upon it a mellow hunting call.  The column broke into a trot
+and the snow flew behind the beating hoofs in a long white trail.
+Spontaneously the men burst into a cheer, and the cold wind blowing past
+them merely whipped their blood into high exaltation.
+
+But as they rode across the valley Dick could not help feeling some
+depression over its ruined and desolate appearance, worse now in winter
+than in summer.  No friendly smoke rose from any chimney, there were no
+horses nor cattle in the fields, the rails of the fences had gone long
+since to make fires for the soldiers and the roads rutted deep by the
+rains had been untouched.  Silence and loneliness were supreme everywhere.
+
+He was glad when they left it all behind, and entered the mountains
+through a pass fairly broad and sufficient for horsemen.  He did not feel
+so much oppression here.  It was natural for mountains to be lonely and
+silent also, particularly in winter, and his spirits rose again as they
+rode between the white ridges.
+
+At the entrance to the pass a mountaineer named Reed met them.  It was
+he who had brought the news of the latest exploit by Slade and Skelly,
+but he had returned quickly to warn some friends of his in the foothills
+and was back again in time to meet the soldiers.  He was a long thin man
+of middle age, riding a large black mule.  An immense gray shawl was
+pinned about his shoulders, and woollen leggings came high over his
+trousers.  As he talked much he chewed tobacco vigorously.  But Dick saw
+at once that like many of the mountaineers he was a shrewd man, and,
+despite lack of education, was able to look, see and judge.
+
+Reed glanced over the column, showed his teeth, yellowed by the constant
+use of tobacco, and the glint of a smile appeared in his eyes.
+
+"Look like good men.  I couldn't hev picked 'em better myself, colonel,"
+he said, with the easy familiarity of the hills.
+
+"They've been in many battles, and they've never failed," said the
+colonel with some pride.
+
+"You'll hev to do somethin' more than fight up thar on the high ridges,"
+said the mountaineer, showing his yellow teeth again.  "You'll hev to
+look out fur traps, snares an' ambushes.  Slade an' Skelly ain't soldiers
+that come out an' fight fa'r an' squar' in the open.  No, sirree, they're
+rattlesnakes, a pair uv 'em an' full uv p'ison.  We've got to find our
+rattlesnakes an' ketch 'em.  Ef we don't, they'll be stingin' jest the
+same after you've gone."
+
+"That's just the way I look at it, Mr. Reed.  Sergeant Whitley here is
+a specialist in rattlesnakes.  He used to hunt down and kill the big
+bloated ones on the plains, and even the snow won't keep him from tracing
+'em to their dens here in the mountains."
+
+Reed, after the custom of his kind, looked the sergeant up and down with
+a frank stare.
+
+"'Pears to be a good man," he said, "hefty in build an' quick in the eye.
+Glad to know you, Mr. Whitley.  You an' me may take part in a shootin'
+bee together an' this old long-barreled firearm uv mine kin give a good
+account uv herself."
+
+He patted his rifle affectionately, a weapon of ancient type, with a long
+slender barrel of blue steel, and a heavy carved stock.  It was just such
+a rifle as the frontiersmen used.  Dick's mind, in an instant, traveled
+back into the wilderness and he was once more with the great hunters and
+scouts who fought for the fair land of Kain-tuck-ee.  His imagination
+was so vivid that it required only a touch to stir it into life, and the
+aspect of the mountains, wild and lonely and clothed in snow, heightened
+the illusion.
+
+"I s'pose from what you tell us that you'll have the chance to use it,
+Mr. Reed," said the sergeant.
+
+"I reckon so," replied the mountaineer emphatically.  "'Bout five miles
+up this pass you'll come to a cove in which Jim Johnson's house stood.
+Some uv them gorillers attacked it, three nights ago.  Jim held 'em off
+with his double-barreled shotgun, 'til his wife an' children could git
+out the back way.  Then he skedaddled hisself.  They plundered the house
+uv everythin' wuth carryin' off an' then they burned it plum' to the
+groun'.  Jim an' his people near froze to death on the mounting, but
+they got at last to the cabin uv some uv their kin, whar they are now.
+Then they've carried off all the hosses an' cattle they kin find in
+the valleys an' besides robbin' everybody they've shot some good men.
+Thar is shorely a good dose uv lead comin' to every feller in that band."
+
+The mountaineer's face for a moment contracted violently.  Dick saw that
+he was fairly burning for revenge.  Among his people the code of an eye
+for an eye and a tooth for a tooth still prevailed, unquestioned, and
+there would be no pity for the guerrilla who might come under the muzzle
+of his rifle.  But his feelings were shown only for the moment.  In
+another instant, he was a stoic like the Indians whom he had displaced.
+After a little silence he added:
+
+"That man Slade, who is the brains uv the outfit, is plum' devil.
+So fur ez his doin's in these mountings are concerned he ain't human at
+all.  He hez no mercy fur nuthin' at no time."
+
+His words found an echo in Dick's own mind.  He remembered how venomously
+Slade had hunted for his own life in the Southern marshes, and chance,
+since then, had brought them into opposition more than once.  Just as
+Harry had felt that there was a long contest between Shepard and himself,
+Dick felt that Slade and he were now to be pitted in a long and mortal
+combat.  But Shepard was a patriot, while Slade was a demon, if ever a
+man was.  If he were to have a particular enemy he was willing that it
+should be Slade, as he could see in him no redeeming quality that would
+cause him to stay his hand, if his own chance came.
+
+"Have you any idea where the guerrillas are camped now?" asked Colonel
+Winchester.
+
+"When we last heard uv 'em they wuz in Burton's Cove," replied the
+mountaineer, "though uv course they may hev moved sence then.  Still,
+the snow may hev held 'em.  It's a-layin' right deep on the mountings,
+an' even the gorillers ain't so anxious to plough thar way through it."
+
+"How long will it take us to reach Burton's Cove?"
+
+"It's jest ez the weather sez, colonel.  Ef the snow holds off we might
+make it tomorrow afore dark, but ef the snow makes up its mind to come
+tumblin' down ag'in, it's the day after that, fur shore."
+
+"At any rate, another fall of snow is no harder for us than it is for
+them," said the colonel, who showed the spirit of a true leader.  "Now,
+Mr. Reed, do you think we can find anybody on this road who will tell us
+where the band has gone?"
+
+"It ain't much uv a road an' thar ain't many people to ride on it in the
+best uv times, so I reckon our chance uv meetin' a traveler who knows
+much is jest about ez good as our chance uv findin' a peck uv gold in the
+next snowdrift."
+
+"Which means there's no chance at all."
+
+"I reckon that's 'bout the size uv it.  But, colonel, we don't hev to
+look to the road fur the word."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"We'll turn our eyes upward, to the mounting heights.  Some uv us who
+are jest bound to save the Union are settin' up on top uv high ridges,
+whar that p'ison band can't go, waitin' to tell us whar _we_ ought to go.
+They've got some home-made flags, an' they'll wave 'em to me."
+
+"Mr. Reed, you're a man of foresight and perception."
+
+"Foresight?  I know what that is.  It's the opposite uv hindsight,
+but I ain't made the acquaintance uv perception."
+
+"Perception is what you see after you think, and I know that you're a man
+who thinks."
+
+"Thank you, colonel, but I reckon that in sech a war ez this a man hez
+jest got to set right plum' down, an' think sometimes.  It's naterally
+forced upon him.  Them that starts a war mebbe don't do much thinkin',
+but them that fights it hev to do a power uv it."
+
+"Your logic is sound, Mr. Reed."
+
+"I hev a pow'ful good eye, colonel, an' I think I see a man on top uv
+that high ridge to the right.  But my eye ain't ez good ez your glasses,
+an' would you min' takin' a look through 'em?  Foller a line from that
+little bunch of cedars to the crest."
+
+"Yes, it's a man.  I can see him quite plainly.  He has a big, gray shawl
+like your own, wrapped around his shoulders.  Perhaps he's one of your
+friends."
+
+"I reckon so, but sence he ain't makin' no signs he ain't got nuthin' to
+tell.  It wuz agreed that them that didn't know nuthin' wuz to keep it to
+theirselves while we rode on until we come to them that did.  It saves
+time.  Now he's gone, ain't he, colonel?"
+
+"Yes, something has come in between."
+
+"It's the first thin edge uv the mist.  Them's clouds out thar in the
+northwest, floatin' over the mountings.  I'm sorry, colonel, but more
+snow is comin'.  The signs is too plain.  Look through that gap an' see
+what big brown clouds are sailin' up!  They're just chock full uv
+millions uv millions uv tons uv snow!"
+
+"You know your own country and its winter ways, Mr. Reed.  How long will
+it be before the snow comes?"
+
+"Lend me your glasses a minute, colonel."
+
+He examined the clouds a long time through the powerful lenses, and when
+he handed them back he replied:
+
+"Them clouds are movin' up in a hurry, colonel.  They hev saw us here
+ridin' into the mountings, an' they want to pour their snow down on us
+afore we git whar we want to go."
+
+Colonel Winchester looked anxious.
+
+"I don't like it," he said.  "It doesn't suit cavalry to be plunging
+around in snowdrifts."
+
+"You're right, colonel.  Deep snow is shorely hard on hosses.  It looks
+ez ef we'd be holed up.  B'ars an' catamounts, how them clouds are
+a-trottin' 'cross the sky!  Here come the fust flakes an' they look ez
+big ez feathers!"
+
+The colonel's anxiety deepened, turning rapidly to alarm.
+
+"You spoke of our being holed up, Mr. Reed, what did you mean by it?"
+he asked.
+
+"Shet in by the snow.  But I know a place, colonel, that we kin reach,
+an' whar we kin stay ef the snow gits too deep fur us.  These mountings
+are full uv little valleys an' coves.  They say the Alleghanies run more
+than a thousand miles one way an' mebbe three hundred or so another.
+I reckon that when the Lord made 'em, an' looked at His job, he wondered
+how He wuz goin' to hev people live in sech a mass uv mountings.  Then He
+took His fingers an' pressed 'em down into the ground lots an' lots uv
+times, an' He made all sorts of purty valleys an' ravines through which
+the rivers an' creeks an' branches could run, an' snug little coves in
+which men could build thar cabins an' be sheltered by the big cliffs
+above an' the forest hangin' on 'em.  I reckon that He favored us up here,
+'cause the mountings jest suit me.  Nuthin' on earth could drive me out
+uv 'em."
+
+He looked up at the lofty ridges hidden now and then by the whirling snow,
+and his eyes glistened.  It was a stern and wild scene, but he knew that
+it made the snug cove and the log cabins all the snugger.  The flakes
+were increasing now, and an evil wind was driving them hard in the men's
+faces.  The wind, as it came through the gorges, had many voices, too,
+howling and shrieking in wrath.  The young troopers were devoutly
+grateful for the heavy overcoats and gloves with which a thoughtful
+general had provided them.
+
+But there was one man in the regiment to whom wind and snow brought a
+certain pleasure.  It took Sergeant Whitley back to earlier days.
+He was riding once more with his command over the great plains, and the
+foe they sought was a Cheyenne or Sioux band.  Here, they needed him and
+his wilderness lore, and he felt that a full use for them all would come.
+
+The mountaineer now led them on rapidly, but the snow was increasing with
+equal rapidity.  Fortunately, the road through the pass was level enough
+to provide good footing for the horses, and they proceeded without fear
+of falls.  Soon the entire column turned into a white procession.
+Men and horses alike were covered with snow, but, after their first chill,
+the hardy young riders began to like it.  They sang one of their marching
+songs, and the colonel made no effort to restrain them, knowing that it
+was raising their spirits.
+
+"It's all rather picturesque," said Warner, when the song was over,
+"but it'll be a good thing when Reed leads us into one of those heavenly
+coves that he talks so much about.  I think this snow is going to be
+about forty feet deep, and it will be hard for a column of three hundred
+men to proceed by means of tunnels."
+
+The mountaineer riding by the side of Colonel Winchester was looking
+eagerly, whenever a break in the clouds occurred.  At length, he asked
+him for the glasses again and, after looking intently, said:
+
+"Jest between the edges uv two clouds I caught a glimpse uv a man,
+an' he wuz wavin' a flag, which wuz a sheet from his own bed.  It would
+be Jake Hening, 'cause that wuz his place, an' he told me to go straight
+on to the cove, ez they wuz now expectin' us thar!"
+
+"Who is expecting us?"
+
+"Friends uv ours.  People 'roun' here in the mountings who want to see
+you make hash uv them gorillers.  I reckon they're fixin' things to keep
+you warm.  We oughter see another man an' his sheet afore long.  Thar
+would be no trouble 'bout it, ef this snow wuzn't so thick."
+
+As they advanced farther into the mountains the noise of the wind
+increased.  Confined in the gorges it roared in anger to get out, and
+then whistled and shrieked as it blew along the slopes.  The snow did not
+cease to fall.  The road had long since been covered up, but Reed led
+them on with sure eye and instinct.
+
+An hour later he was able to detect another figure on the crest of a
+ridge, this time to their left, and he observed the waving of the signal
+with great satisfaction.
+
+"It's all right," he said to Colonel Winchester.  "They're waitin' for us
+in the cove, not many uv 'em, uv course, but they'll help."
+
+"Have we much more riding?" asked the colonel.  "I don't think the men
+are suffering, but our horses can't stand it much longer."
+
+"Not more'n an hour."
+
+They passed soon between high cliffs, and faced a fierce wind which
+almost blinded them for the time, but, when they emerged they found
+better shelter and, presently, Reed led them off the main road, then
+through another narrow gorge and into the cove.  They had passed around a
+curving wall of the mountain and, as it burst upon them suddenly, the
+spectacle was all the more pleasant.
+
+Before them, like a sunken garden, lay a space of twenty or thirty acres,
+hemmed in by the high mountains, which seemed fairly to overhang its
+level spaces.  A small creek flowed down from a ravine on one side,
+and dashed out of a ravine on the other.  Splendid oaks, elms and maples
+grew in parts of the valley, and there was an orchard and a garden,
+but the greater part of it was cleared, and so well protected by the
+lofty mountains that most of the snow seemed to blow over it.  In the
+snuggest corner of the cove stood a stout double log cabin and, in the
+open space around, great fires were roaring and sending up lofty flames,
+a welcome sight to the stiff and cold horsemen.  Fully twenty
+mountaineers, long and lank like Reed, were gathered around them, and
+were feeding them constantly.
+
+"What's this I see?" exclaimed Warner.  "A little section of heaven?"
+
+"Not heaven, perhaps," said Dick, "but the next door to it."
+
+"This wuz Dick Snyder's home an' place, colonel," said Reed.  "On account
+uv the gorillers he found it convenient to light out with his folks three
+or four days ago, but he's come back hisself, an' he's here to he'p
+welcome you.  Thar's room in the house, an' the stable, which you can't
+see 'cause uv the trees, fur all the officers, an' they're buildin'
+lean-tos here to protect the soldiers an' the hosses.  A lot uv the
+fellers hev brought forage down on thar own hosses fur yourn."
+
+"Mr. Reed," said the colonel, gratefully, "you and your men are true
+friends.  But there's no danger of an ambush here?"
+
+"Nary a chance, colonel.  We've got watchers on the mountings, men that
+hev lived here all thar lives, an' them gorillers hev about ez much
+chance to steal up on us ez the snowflakes hev to live in the fires thar."
+
+"That being so, we'll all alight and prepare for the night."
+
+When Dick sprang from his horse he staggered at first, not realizing how
+much the cold had affected him, but a little vigorous flexing of the
+muscles restored the circulation, and, when an orderly had taken their
+mounts, his comrades and he went to one of the fires, where they spread
+out their hands and basked in the glow.
+
+They had brought food on extra horses, and expert cooks were at work at
+once.  Colonel Winchester knew that if his men had plenty to eat and good
+shelter they would be better fitted for the fierce work before them,
+and he spared nothing.  Bacon and ham were soon frying on the coals and
+the pots of coffee were bubbling.
+
+The horses were put behind the high trees which formed a kind of windrow,
+and there they ate their forage, and raised their heads now and then to
+neigh in content.  Around the fires the hardy youths were jesting with
+one another, and were dragging up logs, on which they could sit before
+the fires, while they ate their food and drank their coffee.  Far over
+their heads the wind was screaming among the ridges, but they did not
+heed it nor did they pay any attention to the flakes falling around them.
+The sheltered cove caused such a rebound after the long cold ride that
+they were boys again, although veterans of a hundred battles large and
+small.
+
+Dick shared the exaltation of the rest, and had words of praise for the
+mountaineer who had guided them to so sheltered a haven.  He had no doubt
+that his famous ancestor, Paul Cotter, and the great Henry Ware had often
+found refuge in such cosy nooks as this, and it pleased him to think that
+he was following in their steps.  But he was surrounded by comrades and
+the great fires shed warmth and light throughout the whole basin.
+
+"It's a good log house," said Warner, who had been investigating, "and
+as it's two stories, with two rooms on each floor, a lot of us can sleep
+there.  The stable and the corn crib will hold many more, but, as for me,
+I think I'll sleep against one of these lean-tos the mountaineers are
+throwing up.  With that behind me, a big fire before me, two heavy
+blankets around me, and dead leaves under me, I ought to fare well.
+It will at least have better air than those sod houses in which some of
+the best families of Nebraska live, Frank Pennington."
+
+"Never mind about the sod houses," rejoined Pennington, cheerfully.
+"They're mighty good places in a blizzard.  But I think I'll stay outside
+too, if Colonel Winchester will let us."
+
+The colonel soon disposed his force.  The younger officers were to sleep
+before a fire as they wished, although about half way between midnight
+and morning they were to join the watch, which he intended to be strong
+and vigilant.  Meanwhile they ate supper and their spirits were so high
+that they almost made a festival of it.  The aroma of the ham and bacon,
+broiled in the winter open, would have made a jaded epicure hungry.
+They had sardines and oysters, in tins, and plenty of coffee, with army
+biscuits which were not hard to them.  Some of them wanted to sing,
+but the colonel would not allow it in the cove, although they could
+chatter as much as they pleased around the fires.
+
+"We don't need to sing," said Dick.  "The wind is doing it for us.
+Just listen to it, will you?"
+
+All the mountain winds were blowing that night, coming from every
+direction, and then circling swiftly in vast whirlwinds, while the ridges
+and peaks and gorges made them sing their songs in many keys.  Now it
+was a shriek, then a whistle, and then a deep full tone like an organ.
+Blended, it had a majestic effect which was not lost on the young
+soldiers.
+
+"I've heard it in the Green Mountains," said Warner, "but not under such
+conditions as we have here.  I'm glad I have so much company.  I think it
+would give me the creeps to be in the cove alone, with that storm howling
+over my head."
+
+"Not to mention Slade and Skelly hunting through the snowdrifts for you,"
+said Pennington.  "They'd take a good long look for you, George, knowing
+what a tremendous fellow you are, and then Dick and I would be compelled
+to take the trouble and danger of rescuing you."
+
+"I hold you to that," said Warner.  "You do hereby promise and solemnly
+pledge yourselves in case of my capture by Slade, Skelly or anybody else,
+to come at once through any hardship and danger to my rescue."
+
+"We do," they said together, and they meant it.
+
+Their situation was uncommon, and their pleasure in it deepened.  The
+snow still fell, but the lean-tos, built with so much skill by soldiers
+and mountaineers, protected them, and the fires before them sank to great
+beds of gleaming coals that gave out a grateful warmth.  Far overhead the
+wind still shrieked and howled, as if in anger because it could not get
+at them in the deep cleft.  But for Dick all these shrieks and howls
+were transformed into a soothing song by his feeling of comfort, even of
+luxury.  The cove was full of warmth and light and he basked in it.
+
+Pennington and Warner fell asleep, but Dick lay a while in a happy,
+dreaming state.  He felt as he looked up at the cloudy sky and driving
+snow that, after all, there was something wild in every man that no
+amount of civilization could drive out.  An ordinary bed and an ordinary
+roof would be just as warm and better sheltered, but they seldom gave him
+the same sense of physical pleasure that he felt as he lay there with the
+storm driving by.
+
+His dreamy state deepened, and with it the wilderness effect which the
+little valley, the high mountains around it and the raging winter made.
+His mind traveled far back once more and he easily imagined himself his
+great ancestor, Paul Cotter, sleeping in the woods with his comrades and
+hidden from Indian attack.  While the feeling was still strong upon him
+he too fell asleep, and he did not awaken until it was time for him to
+take the watch with Pennington and Warner.
+
+It was then about two o'clock in the morning, and the snow had ceased to
+fall, but it lay deep in all places not sheltered, while the wind had
+heaped it up many feet in all the gorges and ravines of the mountains.
+Dick thought he had never beheld a more majestic world.  All the clouds
+were gone and hosts of stars glittered in a sky of brilliant blue.
+On every side of them rose the lofty peaks and ridges, clothed in
+gleaming white, the forests themselves a vast, white tracery.  The air
+was cold but pure and stimulating.  The wind had ceased to blow, but from
+far points came the faint swish of sliding snow.
+
+Dick folded his blankets, laid them away carefully, put on his heavy
+overcoat and gloves, and was ready.  Colonel Winchester maintained a
+heavy watch, knowing its need, fully fifty men, rifle on shoulder and
+pistol at belt, patrolling all the ways by which a foe could come.
+
+Dick and his comrades were with a picket at the farther end of the valley,
+where the creek made its exit, rushing through a narrow and winding
+gorge.  There was a level space on either side of the creek, but it was
+too narrow for horsemen, and, clogged as it was with snow, it looked
+dangerous now for those on foot too.  Nevertheless, the picket kept a
+close watch.  Dick and his friends were aware that guerrillas knew much
+of the craft and lore of the wilderness, else they could never have
+maintained themselves, and they did not cease for an instant to watch the
+watery pass.
+
+They were joined very soon by Shepard, upon whose high boots snow
+was clinging to the very tops, and he said when Dick looked at him
+inquiringly:
+
+"I see that you're an observer, Mr. Mason.  Yes, I've been out on the
+mountainside.  Colonel Winchester suggested it, and I was glad to do as
+he wished.  It was difficult work in the snow, but Mr. Reed, our guide,
+was with me part of the time, and we climbed pretty high."
+
+"Did you see anything?"
+
+"No footsteps.  That was impossible, because of the falling snow, but I
+think our friends, the enemy, are abroad in the mountains.  The heavy
+snow may have kept them from coming much nearer to us than they are now."
+
+"What makes you think so?"
+
+Shepard smiled.
+
+"We heard sounds, odd sounds," he replied.
+
+"Were they made by a whistle?" Dick asked eagerly.  Shepard smiled again.
+
+"It was natural for you to ask that question, Mr. Mason," he replied,
+"but it was not a whistle.  It was a deeper note, and it carried much
+farther, many times farther.  Mr. Reed explained it to me.  Somebody with
+powerful lungs was blowing on a cow's horn."
+
+"I've heard 'em.  They use 'em in the hills back of us at home.  The
+sound will carry a tremendous distance on a still night like this.
+Do you think it was intended as a signal?"
+
+"It's impossible to say, but I think so.  I think, too, that the bands--
+there were two of them, one replying to the other--belong to the Slade
+and Skelly outfit.  Skelly has lived all his life in the mountains and
+Slade is learning 'em fast."
+
+"Then it behooves us to be watchful, and yet more watchful."
+
+"It does.  Maybe they're attempting an ambush, with which they might
+succeed against an ordinary troop, but not against such a troop as this,
+led by such a man as Colonel Winchester.  Hark, did you hear that noise?"
+
+All of them listened.  It sounded at first like the cow's horn, but they
+concluded that it was the rumble, made by sliding snow, which would be
+sending avalanches down the slopes all through the night.
+
+"Are you going out again, Mr. Shepard?" Dick asked.
+
+"I think not, sir.  Colonel Winchester wants me to stay here, and,
+even if the enemy should come, we'll be ready for him."
+
+They did not speak again for a while and they heard several times the
+noise of the sliding snow.  Then they heard a note, low and deep, which
+they were sure was that of the cow's horn, or its echo.  It was
+multiplied and repeated, however, so much by the gorges that it was
+impossible to tell from what point of the compass it came.
+
+But it struck upon Dick's ears like a signal of alarm, and he and all the
+others of the picket stiffened to attention.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+DICK'S GREAT EXPLOIT
+
+
+It was a singular and weird sound, the blowing of the great cow's horn
+on the mountain, and then the distant reply from another horn as great.
+It was both significant and sinister, such an extraordinary note that,
+despite Dick's experience and courage, his hair lifted a little.  He was
+compelled to look back at the camp and the coals of the fire yet glowing
+to reassure himself that everything was normal and real.
+
+"I wish there wasn't so much snow," said Shepard, "then the sergeant,
+Mr. Reed and myself could scout all over the country around here,
+mountains or no mountains."
+
+They were joined at that moment by Reed, the long mountaineer, who had
+also been listening to the big horns.
+
+"That means them gorillers, shore," he said.  "We've got some p'ison
+people uv our own, an' when the gorillers come in here they j'ined 'em,
+and knowin' ev'ry inch uv the country, they kin guide the gorillers
+wharever they please."
+
+"You agree then with Mr. Shepard that these signals are made by Slade and
+Skelly's men?" asked Dick.
+
+"Shorely," replied the mountaineer, "an' I think they're up to some sort
+uv trick.  It pesters me too, 'cause I can't guess it nohow.  I done told
+the colonel that we'd better look out."
+
+Colonel Winchester joined them as he was speaking, and listened to the
+double signal which was repeated later.  But it did not come again,
+although they waited some time.  Instead they heard, as they had heard
+all through the night, the occasional swish of the soft snow sliding
+down the slopes.  But Dick saw that the colonel was uneasy, and that his
+apprehensions were shared both by Shepard and the mountaineer.
+
+"Do you know how many men these brigands have?" Colonel Winchester asked
+of Reed.
+
+"I reckon thar are five hundred uv them gorillers," replied the
+mountaineer.  "Some uv our people spied on 'em in Burton's Cove an'
+counted 'bout that number."
+
+Colonel Winchester glanced at his sleeping camp.
+
+"I have three hundred," he said, "but they're the very flower of our
+youth.  In the open they could take care of a thousand guerrillas and
+have something to spare.  Still in here--"
+
+He stopped short, but the shrewd mountaineer read his meaning.
+
+"In the mountings it ain't sech plain sailin'," he said, "an' you've
+got to watch fur tricks.  I reckon that when it comes to fightin' here,
+it's somethin' like the old Injun days."
+
+"I can't see how they can get at us here," said Colonel Winchester,
+more to himself than to the others.  "A dozen men could hold the exit
+by the creek, and fifty could hold the entrance."
+
+Despite his words, his uneasiness continued and he sent for the sergeant,
+upon whose knowledge and instincts he relied greatly in such a situation.
+The sergeant, who had been watching at the other end of the valley,
+came quickly and, when the colonel looked at him with eyes of inquiry,
+he said promptly:
+
+"Yes, sir; I think there's mischief a-foot.  I can't rightly make out
+where it's going to be started, but I can hear it, smell it an' feel it.
+It's like waitin' in a dip on the prairies for a rush by the wild Sioux
+or Cheyenne horsemen.  The signs seem to come through the air."
+
+Dick's oppression increased.  A mysterious danger was the worst of all,
+and his nerves were on edge.  Think as he might, he could not conceive
+how or where the attack would be made.  The only sound in the valley was
+the occasional stamp of the horses in the woods and behind the windrows.
+The soldiers themselves made no noise.  The steps of the sentinels were
+softened in the snow, and the fires, having sunk to beds of coals,
+gave forth no crackling sounds.
+
+He stared down the gap, and then up at the white world of walls circling
+them about.  The sky seemed to have become a more dazzling blue than ever,
+and the great stars with the hosts of their smaller brethren around them
+gleamed and quivered.  The stamp of a horse came again, and then a loud
+shrill neigh, a piercing sound and full of menace in the still night.
+
+"What was that?" exclaimed the sergeant in alarm.  "A horse does not
+neigh at such a time without good reason!"
+
+And then the storm broke loose in the valley.  There was a series of
+short, fierce shouts.  Torches were suddenly waved in the air.  Many
+horses neighed in the wildest terror and, all of them breaking through
+the forest and windrows, poured in a confused and frightened stream
+toward the entrance of the valley.
+
+Then the experience of the sergeant in wild Indian warfare was worth
+more than gold and diamonds.  He knew at once what was occurring and he
+shouted:
+
+"It's a stampede!  There have been traitors here, and they've driven the
+horses with fire!"
+
+"And maybe some of them have managed to slip down the mountain side!"
+said Shepard.
+
+It was well for them all that they were men of decision and supreme
+courage.  The terrible tumult in the valley was increasing.  The horses,
+a stampeded mass, were driving directly for the entrance.  Only one thing
+could stop them and that the guards then did.  They snatched many burning
+brands from the nearest fire and waved them furiously in the face of the
+frightened herd, which turned and ran back the other way, only to be
+confronted by other waving brands that filled them with terror.  Then the
+horses, instinctively following some leader, turned again and ran back
+to their old places among the trees and behind the windrows, where they
+stood, quivering with terror.
+
+A crackling of rifles had begun before the horses were driven back,
+and bullets pattered in the valley.  Dark figures appeared crouched
+against the slopes, and jets of fire ran like a red ribbon upon the white
+of the snow.
+
+"The gorillers!" cried Reed.  "They've crep' over the ridges, spite uv
+all our watchin'."
+
+Colonel Winchester did not lose his head for an instant, nor did any
+of his young soldiers, who had been trained to think as well as obey.
+Without waiting for orders they had already won an important victory by
+turning the horses back with fire, and the colonel, with the help of his
+officers, formed them rapidly to meet the attack.  The house, the stable
+and the corn crib were filled with sharpshooters and others lay down
+among the trees or behind any shelter they could find.  A number were
+detailed rapidly to tether the horses, and make them secure against a
+second fright.  Warner was sent to the men guarding the entrance,
+Pennington to those at the exit, while Dick was kept with the colonel,
+who crouched, after his arrangements were made, in a little clump of
+trees near the center of the valley.
+
+Colonel Winchester was willing enough to risk his life but knowing that
+it was of the highest importance now to preserve it he did not take any
+risks through false pride.  Besides Dick he kept Reed, Shepard and the
+sergeant with him.
+
+The ring of fire on the slopes had been increasing fast, and the
+assailants found much shelter there among the dwarf pines and cedars.
+Bullets were pattering all over the valley.  Several of the Winchesters
+had been slain in the early firing, and they lay where they had fallen.
+Others were wounded, but they bound up their own hurts and used their
+rifles, whenever they could pick out a figure on the slopes.
+
+"You spoke of traitors, Mr. Reed," said the colonel.  "Did you know well
+all the men who came to help in the preparations for us?"
+
+"All but two," replied the mountaineer.  "One was named Leonard and the
+other Bosley.  They come from the other side uv the mounting with some uv
+the boys an' we thought they wuz all right, but I reckon they must be the
+traitors, an' I reckon too they must hev helped some uv the gorillers
+into the camp.  I ain't seed a sign uv either sence them hosses wuz
+headed back.  I guess we wuz took in, an' I'm pow'ful sorry, colonel."
+
+"You're not to blame, Mr. Reed.  It's not always possible to guard
+against treachery, but since we've defeated their attempt to stampede
+our horses we'll defeat all other efforts of theirs."
+
+"Colonel, would you mind lendin' me them glasses uv yourn fur a look?
+The night's so bright I guess I kin use 'em nigh ez well ez in the day."
+
+"Certainly you can have them, Mr. Reed.  Here they are."
+
+The mountaineer took a long look through them, and when he handed them
+back he uttered a clucking sound, significant of satisfaction.
+
+"I 'lowed it was him, when I saw him crawlin' behind that bush," he said,
+"an' now I know."
+
+"Who is who?" said Dick.
+
+"It's that feller Bosley what came with the rest uv the boys.  I know
+that gray comfort what's tied 'roun' his neck, an' the 'coonskin cap
+what's on his head.  He jest crawled behind that little twisted pine up
+thar, an' took a pot shot at some uv us down here."
+
+"I wish I could reach him," said Shepard.
+
+"Ef you could I wouldn't let you," said the mountaineer grimly.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"'Cause he's my meat.  He come here with my people, an' played a trick
+on us, a trick that might hev wiped out all uv Colonel Winchester's men.
+No man kin do that with me an git away.  He's piled up a pow'ful big
+score an' I'm goin' to settle it myself."
+
+"How?"
+
+"See this rifle uv mine?  I reckon it ain't got all the fancy tricks that
+some uv the new repeatin' breech-loadin' rifles hev.  It's jest a cap an'
+ball rifle, but it's got a long, straight barrel an' a delicate trigger,
+an' it sends a bullet wherever you p'int it.  It's killed squirrels,
+an' rabbits, an' wil' turkeys an' catamounts, an' b'ars, an' now I reckon
+it's goin' to hunt higher game."
+
+The man was talking very quietly, but when Dick caught the light in his
+eye he knew that he meant every word.  It was a cold, implacable look,
+and the face of the mountaineer was like that of an avenging fate.
+
+"I loaded it with uncommon care," he continued, looking affectionately at
+his rifle, and then looking up again, "an' now that the colonel's glasses
+hev showed the way I kin see that feller peepin' from roun' his bush,
+tryin' to git another shot, mebbe at me an' mebbe at you.  It's a long
+carry, but I'm shore to hit.  I had a chance at him then, but I 'low to
+wait a little!"
+
+"Why do you wait?" asked Dick curiously.
+
+"I'm givin' him time to say his prayers."
+
+"Why, he doesn't know that you're going to shoot at him, and he wouldn't
+pray, even if he did."
+
+"Mebbe not, but I was raised right, an' I know my duty.  I ain't goin' to
+send no man to kingdom without givin' him _time_ to pray.  Ef he won't
+use it the blame is his'n, but that ain't no reason why I oughtn't to
+give him the _time_."
+
+"How long?"
+
+"Wa'al, I reckon 'bout three minutes is 'nough fur a right good prayer.
+Thar, he's shot ag'in, but I don't know whar his bullet went.  He's usin'
+up his prayin' time fast."
+
+Reed never altered his quiet, assured tone.  He reminded Dick of Warner,
+talking about his algebra, and the lad was impressed so much by his
+manner that he believed he was going to do as he said.  He began
+unconsciously to count the seconds.
+
+"Time's up," said Reed at length, "an' that traitor is pokin' his head
+'roun' fur another shot."
+
+He raised suddenly his long-barreled rifle, took a quick aim, and pulled
+the trigger.  A stream of fire poured from the muzzle, the figure of a
+man leaped from the bush and then rolled down the snowy slope.
+
+"I give him plenty uv time," said Reed as he reloaded.  "Now I reckon
+I'll look fur that other feller, Leonard.  I'll know him when I see him,
+an' this old cap-an'-ball rifle uv mine knows too how to talk to
+traitors."
+
+Dick left presently with a message to a captain who was in command of the
+force detached to hold the entrance to the valley.  He ran part of the
+way in the shelter of the trees and crept the rest, reaching the captain
+in safety.  Warner was there also, and the fire upon them from the slopes
+was hot.
+
+"There has been no attempt to force the gate-way here," said Warner.
+"Since they failed with the horses they wouldn't dare try it.  Besides,
+our sharpshooters are doing execution.  Those in the upper story of the
+house have an especially good chance.  Look at the black dots in the snow
+high up on the slopes.  Those are dead guerrillas.  There, two men fell!
+Perhaps if they had known the kind of regiment it was they were coming
+after they wouldn't have been in such a hurry to attack us."
+
+He spoke with pride, but Dick felt some chagrin.
+
+"That's true," he said, "though I don't like our regiment to be besieged
+here by a lot of guerrillas.  It's an ignominy.  It's not enough for us
+to hold our own against 'em, because they're the people we came to get,
+and we ought to get 'em."
+
+"I dare say the colonel thinks as you do and he's already planning how to
+do it.  This is a smart little battle, as it is.  Those sharpshooters of
+ours in the houses are certainly making it warm for the enemy!"
+
+The firing was now very fast, and, as long as the brilliancy of the night
+remained unobscured, much of it was deadly, but a great amount of smoke
+gathered, and, as it rose, it formed a cloud.  The showers of bullets
+then decreased in volume and a comparative lull came.  But the men of
+Slade and Skelly could yet be seen on the crests and slopes, and there
+was no indication that they would draw off.
+
+Dick made his way back to Colonel Winchester, who was still in the clump
+of trees, a central point, from which he could direct the defense.
+The colonel, as Dick clearly saw, felt chagrin.  While they had prevented
+the stampede of the horses, and were holding off Slade and Skelly,
+the roles which he had intended for the forces to play were reversed.
+They had come forth to destroy the guerrillas, and now they had to fight
+hard to keep the guerrillas from destroying them.  Despite their shelter,
+about fifteen of the Winchester men had been slain, and perhaps
+twenty-five wounded, a loss over which the colonel grieved.  Doubtless as
+many of the guerrillas had fallen or had been hurt, but that was a poor
+consolation.
+
+It was obvious too that Slade and Skelly were handling their forces with
+much skill, utilizing for shelter every bush and dwarfed tree on the
+slopes, and never exposing themselves, except for a moment or two.
+Had there not been so many sharpshooters among the Winchester men they
+might have escaped almost without any damage, but for some of the deadly
+riflemen in the valley a single glimpse was enough.  Nevertheless Colonel
+Winchester's dissatisfaction remained.  He felt that a force such as his,
+which had come forth to do so much, should do it, and he ransacked his
+brain for a plan.
+
+"Mr. Reed," he said to the mountaineer, who had remained with him,
+"do you think we could send a detachment through the pass down the stream
+and take them in the rear?  That is, this force might climb the slopes
+behind them, and attack from above?"
+
+The mountaineer chewed his tobacco thoughtfully, looked up at the ridges,
+and then at the gorge down which they could hear the waters of the little
+creek rushing.
+
+"It's a big risk," he replied, "but I 'low it kin be done, though you'll
+hev to pick your men, colonel.  You let me be guide and be shore to send
+the sergeant, 'cause he's a full fo'-hoss team all by hisself.  An'
+Mr. Shepard ought to go along too.  All the others ought to be youngsters,
+an' spose you let Mr. Mason here lead 'em."
+
+Colonel Winchester did not resent at all these suggestions, which he knew
+to be excellent, and, while at first, for personal reasons of his own,
+he hesitated about sending Dick on so perilous an errand, he knew that
+he was better fitted for it than any other young officer in his command,
+and so he chose him.  The plan, too, appealed to him strongly.  He had
+taken lessons from the grand tactics of Lee and Jackson.  Lee would keep
+up a great demonstration in front, while Jackson, circling in silence,
+would strike a tremendous and deadly blow on the flank.  The longer he
+thought about it the more he was pleased with it.  If the flanking
+force could cut through the gorge the prospect of success was good, and
+fortunately the night had turned darker, the snow clouds reappearing.
+
+The colonel picked one hundred and fifty of his best men, with Shepard,
+Reed and Whitley to guide, and Dick to lead them.  Warner and Pennington
+protested when they were not allowed to go, but the colonel quieted them
+with the assurance that they would soon have plenty of dangerous work to
+do in the valley.  To Dick he said gravely:
+
+"Before now you've nearly always been a staff officer and messenger,
+and this is the most important command you've ever held.  I know you'll
+acquit yourself well, but trust a lot to your guides."
+
+"I will, sir," said Dick earnestly.  He felt the full weight of his
+responsibility, but his courage rose to meet it.  It was the largest
+task yet confided to him, and he was resolved to make it a success.  He
+noticed also that fortune, as if determined to help the brave, was
+already giving him aid.  More stars were withdrawing into the void,
+and the clouds were increasing.  The night had grown much darker, and a
+few flakes of snow wandered lazily down, messengers of the multitude that
+might follow.
+
+The increasing dusk did not diminish the activity of the brigands on the
+slopes.  It was obvious that they had an unlimited supply of ammunition,
+as they sent an unbroken stream of bullets into the valley, and pink dots
+ran like ribbons around its entire snowy rim.  But in the valley itself
+all the fires had been put out, and it was fairly dark there, enabling
+Dick's command to gather unseen by the enemy.
+
+"Now, Dick," said Colonel Winchester, "I trust you.  Go, and may luck go
+with you."
+
+He led his men away, the three guides by his side, and they used every
+particle of cover they could find, in order that the movement might
+remain invisible until the last possible moment.  They hugged the fringe
+of forest, and when they reached the gorge he felt sure they were still
+unseen, although it was only the easy part of their task that had yet
+been done.  But the lazy flakes had increased in number, and the canopy
+of cloud was still being drawn across the heavens.  He gave the word to
+his men to be as silent as possible, not to let any weapon rattle or fall,
+and then they entered the gorge in two files separated by the creek,
+the narrow ledges affording room for only one man on either side.
+
+Dick kept his outward calm, but the great pulses in his throat and
+temples were beating hard.  Reed was just ahead of him, and on the other
+side of the creek the sergeant led, with Shepard following.  Large
+flakes of snow fell on his face and melted there, but they were welcome
+messengers, telling him that the cloak for the movement would not only
+remain, but would increase in extent.
+
+After the first curve the stream took a sharp descent, but the land on
+either side widened a little, permitting two to walk abreast.  The valley
+and the slopes encircling it were now entirely shut out from their view,
+but they heard the crackling of the rifles in greater volume than ever.
+Colonel Winchester, true to Lee and Jackson's plan of grand tactics,
+had opened an extremely heavy fire on the enemy, as soon as his flanking
+column had disappeared in the gorge.
+
+"I 'low the signs are good," whispered Reed.  "Them that lay an ambush
+sometimes git laid in an ambush theirselves.  I felt pow'ful bad at bein'
+held in a trap here in my own mountings by them gorillers, but mebbe
+we'll do some trap-layin' uv our own."
+
+"I feel sure of it," said Dick.  "Look! the stream ahead of us is lined
+with bushes which will afford concealment for our march, and the slopes
+beyond are covered with scrub forest."
+
+"Like ez not the gorillers come that way, an' when we circle about we kin
+foller in thar tracks."
+
+Dick felt that fortune was showering her favors upon him.  The last star
+was now gone, and the entire sky was veiled.  The big flakes of snow were
+falling fast enough to help their concealment, but not fast enough to
+impede their movements.  A mile down the gorge and they halted, still
+unseen by the enemy, due doubtless to the heavy firing in the valley
+which was engrossing all the attention of the guerrillas.  They could
+hear it very distinctly where they were, and they were quite sure that it
+would not permit Slade and Skelly to detach any part of their force for
+purposes of observation.  So Dick gave orders for his men to turn and
+begin the ascent of the slope, under shelter of the scrub forest of
+cedars.  They were to go in a column four abreast, carefully treading in
+the tracks of one another, in order that they might not start a slide of
+snow.
+
+Dick's pulses beat hard, until they reached the shelter of the cedars,
+but no lurking guerrilla or posted sentinel saw them and they drew into
+the forest in silence and unobserved.  Here they paused a few minutes and
+listened to the heavy rifle fire in the valley.
+
+"It looks like a success, sir," said Shepard.  "If we catch 'em between
+two fires victory is surely ours."
+
+"Besides beatin' 'em, thar's one thing I hope fur," said Reed.  "Ef that
+traitor Leonard hasn't fell already I'm prayin' that I git a look at him.
+My old cap-an'-ball rifle here is jest ez true ez ever."
+
+The mountaineer's eyes glittered again, and Dick did not feel that
+Leonard's fate was in any doubt.  But there was little time for talk,
+as the column began the march again and pressed on under cover of the
+cedars until they came without interruption and triumphantly to the
+very crest of the slope.  The firing was still distinctly audible here,
+and the other half of the army was undoubtedly keeping the guerrillas
+busy.
+
+On the summit Dick gave his men another brief breathing spell, and then
+they began their advance toward the battle.  He threw in advance the best
+of the sharpshooters and scouts, including Whitley, Shepard and Reed,
+and then followed swiftly with the others.  Half the distance and a man
+behind a tree saw them, shouted, fired and ran toward the guerrillas.
+
+Dick, knowing that concealment was no longer possible, cried to his
+men to rush forward at full speed.  A light, scattering fire met them.
+Two or three were wounded but none fell, and the entire column swept on
+at as much speed as the deep snow would allow, sending in shot after shot
+from their own rifles at the guerrillas clustered along the crests and
+slopes.  The light was sufficient for them to take aim, and as they were
+sharpshooters the fire was accurate and deadly.
+
+Their shout of victory rose and swelled, and the mountain gave it back
+in many echoes.  Dick, feeling his responsibility, managed to keep cool,
+but he continually shouted to his men to press on, knowing how full
+advantage should be taken of a surprise.  But they needed no urging.
+Aflame with fire and zeal they charged upon the guerrillas, pulling the
+trigger as fast as they could slip in the cartridges, and Slade and
+Skelly, despite all their cunning and quickness, were unable to make a
+stand against them.
+
+A great shout came up from the valley.  The moment Colonel Winchester
+heard the fire on the flank he knew that his plan, executed with skill by
+one of his lieutenants, was a success, and, gathering up his own force,
+he crept up the slopes, his men sending their fire into the guerrillas,
+who were already breaking.
+
+Dick's troop was doing great damage.  The guerrillas in their rovings and
+robberies had never before faced such a fire and they fell fast, the deep
+snow making flight difficult.  Reed, who was at Dick's side, suddenly
+uttered a cry.
+
+"I see him!  I see him!" he shouted.
+
+The long-barreled cap-and-ball rifle leaped to his shoulder, and when the
+stream of fire gushed from the muzzle, Leonard, the mountaineer, fell in
+the snow and would never betray anybody else.  Most of the guerrillas
+were now fleeing in panic, and Dick heard the shrill, piercing notes of
+Slade's whistle as he tried to draw his men off in order.  For a moment
+or two he forgot his duties as a leader as, pistol in hand, he looked
+for the little man under the enormous slouch hat.  Once more the feeling
+seized him that it was a long duel between Slade and himself that must
+end in the death of one or the other, and he meant to end it now.
+Despite the fierce notes of the whistle, coming from one point and then
+another, he did not see him.  He caught a glimpse of the gigantic form of
+Skelly, but he too was soon gone, and then when he felt the restraining
+hand of Shepard upon his arm he came out of his rage.
+
+"Look there!" cried Shepard.
+
+About a score of the guerrillas had been cut off from their comrades and
+were driven toward the valley, where they remained on its edge, crouched
+down, and firing.  The deep snow in which they knelt was quivering.
+Dick shouted to his men to draw back.  Then the huge bank of snow gave
+way and slid down the slope, carrying the guerrillas, and gathering
+volume and force as it went.  A terrified shouting came from the thick of
+it, as the avalanche hurled itself into the valley, where the bruised and
+broken guerrillas were taken prisoners without resistance.
+
+Dick, after one glance at their fate, continued the pursuit of the main
+band down the other slope.  He knew that they were robbers and murderers,
+and he felt little scruple.  His sharpshooters fairly mowed them down
+as they fled in terror, but all who threw up their hands or signified
+otherwise that they wished to surrender were spared.
+
+Still bearing in mind that it was their duty not merely to scatter but
+to destroy, he urged on the pursuit continually, and Shepard and the
+sergeant aided him.  They gave Slade and Skelly no time to reform their
+men, driving them from every clump of trees, when they attempted it,
+and continually reducing their numbers.
+
+The rout was complete, and Dick's heart beat high with triumph, because
+he knew that his force had been the striking arm.  They were nearly at
+the foot of the far side of the mountain, when he saw Slade among the
+bushes.  He shouted to him to surrender, but the outlaw, suddenly aiming
+a pistol, fired pointblank at the young lieutenant's face.  Dick felt the
+bullet grazing his head, and he raised his own pistol to fire, but Slade
+was gone, and, although they trailed him a long distance in the snow,
+they did not find him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE MOUNTAIN SHARPSHOOTER
+
+
+Colonel Winchester's own mellow whistle finally recalled his men, as he
+did not wish them to become scattered among the mountains in pursuit of
+detached guerrillas.  Although the escape of both Slade and Skelly was
+a great disappointment the victory nevertheless was complete.  The two
+leaders could not rally the brigand force again, because it had ceased
+to exist.  Nearly half, caught between the jaws of the Union vise, had
+fallen, and most of the others were taken.  Perhaps not more than fifty
+had got away, and they would be lucky if they were not captured by the
+mountaineers.
+
+Dick's head was bound up hastily but skillfully by Sergeant Whitley and
+Shepard.  Slade's bullet had merely cut under the hair a little, and
+the bandage stopped the flow of blood.  The sting, too, left, or in his
+triumph he did not notice it.  His elation, in truth, was great, as
+he had succeeded in carrying out the hardest part of a difficult and
+delicate operation.
+
+As he led his men back toward the valley, their prisoners driven before
+them, he felt no weariness from his great exertions, and both his head
+and his feet were light.  At the rim of the valley Colonel Winchester met
+him, shook his hand with great heartiness, and congratulated him on his
+success, and Warner and Pennington, who were wholly without envy, added
+their own praise.
+
+"I think it will be Captain Mason before long," said Warner.  "Lots of
+boys under twenty are captains and some are colonels.  Your right to
+promotion is a mathematical certainty, and I can demonstrate it with
+numerous formulae from the little algebra which even now is in the inside
+pocket of my tunic."
+
+"Don't draw the algebra!" exclaimed Pennington.  "We take your word for
+it, of course."
+
+"I shouldn't want to be a captain," said Dick sincerely, "unless you
+fellows became captains too."
+
+Further talk was interrupted by the necessity for care in making the
+steep descent into the valley, where the fires were blazing anew from
+the fresh wood which the young soldiers in their triumph had thrown upon
+the coals.  Nor did Colonel Winchester and his senior officers make any
+effort to restrain them, knowing that a little exultation was good for
+youth, after deeds well done.
+
+It was still snowing lazily, but the flames from a dozen big fires filled
+the valley with light and warmth and illuminated the sullen faces of
+the captives.  They were a sinister lot, arrayed in faded Union or
+Confederate uniforms, the refuse of highland and lowland, gathered
+together for robbery and murder, under the protecting shadow of war.
+Their hair was long and unkempt, their faces unshaven and dirty, and they
+watched their captors with the restless, evasive eyes of guilt.  They
+were herded in the center of the valley, and Colonel Winchester did not
+hesitate to bind the arms of the most evil looking.
+
+"What are you going to do with us?" asked one bold, black-browed villain.
+
+"I'm going to take you to General Sheridan," replied the colonel.
+"I'm glad I don't have the responsibility of deciding your fate, but I
+think it very likely that he'll hang some of you, and that all of you
+richly deserve it."
+
+The man muttered savage oaths under his breath and the colonel added:
+
+"Meanwhile you'll be surrounded by at least fifty guards with rifles of
+the latest style, rifles that they can shoot very fast, and they are
+instructed to use them if you make the slightest sign of an attempt to
+escape.  I warn you that they will obey with eagerness."
+
+The man ceased his mutterings and he and the other captives cowered by
+the fire, as if their blood had suddenly grown so thin that they must
+almost touch the coals to secure warmth.  Then Colonel Winchester ordered
+the cooks to prepare food and coffee again for his troopers, who had done
+so well, while a surgeon, with amateur but competent assistants, attended
+to the hurt.
+
+While they ate and drank and basked in the heat, the mountaineer, Reed,
+came again to Colonel Winchester.  Dick, who was standing by, observed
+his air of deep satisfaction, and he wondered again at the curious
+mixture of mountain character, its strong religious strain, mingled with
+its merciless hatred of a foe.  He knew that much of Reed's great content
+came from his slaying of the two traitors, but he did not feel that he
+had a right, at such a time, to question the man's motives and actions.
+
+"Colonel," said Reed, "it's lucky that my men brought along plenty of
+axes, an' that your men ez well ez mine know how to use 'em."
+
+"Why so, Mr. Reed?"
+
+"'Cause it's growin' warmer."
+
+"But that doesn't hurt us.  We're certainly not asking for more cold."
+
+"It will hurt us, ef we don't take some shelter ag'in it.  It's snowin'
+now, colonel, an' ef it gits a little warmer it'll turn to rain, an' it
+kin rain pow'ful hard in these mountings."
+
+"Thank you for calling my attention to it, Mr. Reed.  I can't afford
+to have the troops soaked by winter rains.  Not knowing what we had to
+expect in the mountains I fortunately ordered about twenty of my own men
+to bring axes at their saddlebows.  We'll put 'em all at work."
+
+In a few minutes thirty good axmen were cutting down trees, saplings and
+bushes, and more than a hundred others were strengthening the lean-tos,
+thatching roofs, and making rude but serviceable floors.  Dick, owing to
+his slight wound, but much against his wish, was ordered into the house,
+where he spread his blankets near a window, although he could not yet
+sleep, all the heat of the battle and pursuit not yet having left him.
+His nerves still tingling with excitement, he stood at the window and
+looked out.
+
+He saw the great fire blazing and many persons passing and repassing
+before the red glow.  He saw the captives crouching together, and the red
+gleam on the bayonets of the men who guarded them.  He saw Warner and
+Pendleton go into one of the lean-tos, and he saw Colonel Winchester,
+accompanied by Shepard and the sergeant, go down the valley toward the
+exit.
+
+After a while the prisoners moved to the lean-tos, and then everybody
+took shelter.  The crackle of the big fires changed to a hiss, and more
+smoke arose from them.  The reason was obvious.  The big flakes of snow
+had ceased to fall, and big drops of rain were falling in their place.
+Reed had been a true prophet, and he had not given his warning too soon.
+
+The rain increased.  Dick heard it driving on the window panes and
+beating on the roof.  All the fires in the valley were out now, and
+rising mists and vapors hid nearly everything.  The faint, sliding
+sound of more snow-falls precipitated by the rain came to his ears.  He
+realized suddenly how fine a thing it was to be inside four walls,
+and with it came a great feeling of comfort.  It was the same feeling
+that he had known often in childhood, when he lay in his bed and heard
+the storm beat against the house.
+
+There were others in the room--the floor was almost covered with them--
+but all of them were asleep already, and Dick, wrapping himself in his
+blanket, joined them, the last thing that he remembered being the swish
+of the rain against the glass.  He slept heavily and was not awakened
+until nearly noon, when he saw through the window a world entirely
+changed.  The rain had melted only a portion of the snow, and when it
+ceased after sunrise the day had turned much colder, freezing every thing
+hard and tight.  The surface of valley, slopes and ridges was covered
+with a thick armor of ice, smooth as glass, and giving back the rays of
+a brilliant sun in colors as vivid and varied as those of a rainbow.
+Every tree and bush, to the last little twig, was sheathed also in silver,
+and along the slopes the forests of dwarfed cedar and pines were a vast
+field of delicate and complex tracery.
+
+It was a glittering and beautiful world, but cold and merciless.  Dick
+saw at once that the whole force, captors and captured, was shut in for
+the time.  It was impossible for horses to advance over a field of ice,
+and it was too difficult even for men to be considered seriously.
+There was nothing to do but remain in the valley until circumstances
+allowed them to move, and reflection told him they would not lose much
+by it.  They had done the errand on which they were sent, and there was
+little work left in the great valley itself.
+
+The big fires had been lighted again, the cove furnishing wood enough
+for many days, and within its limited area they brought back glow and
+cheeriness.  Dick went outside and found all the men in high spirits.
+They expected to be held there until a thaw came, but there would be no
+difficulty, except to obtain forage for the horses, which they must dig
+from under the snow, or which some of the surest footed mountaineers
+must bring over the ridge.  He heard that Colonel Winchester was already
+making arrangements with Reed, and he was too light-hearted to bother
+himself any more about it.
+
+Warner and Pennington saluted him with bows as a coming captain, and
+declared that he looked extremely interesting with a white bandage around
+his head.
+
+"It's merely to prevent bleeding," said Dick.  "The bullet didn't really
+hurt me, and it won't leave a scar under the hair."
+
+"Then since you're not even an invalid," said Pennington, "come on and
+take your bath.  The boys have broken the ice for a long distance on the
+creek and all of us early risers have gone there for a plunge, and a
+short swim.  It'll do you a world of good, Dick, but don't stay in too
+long."
+
+"Not over a half hour," said Warner.
+
+"O, a quarter of an hour will be long enough," said Pennington, "but I'd
+advise you to rub yourself down thoroughly, Dick."
+
+"I'll do just as you did," laughed Dick.
+
+"And what's that?"
+
+"I'll go to the edge of the creek, look at it, and shiver when I see how
+cold its waters are.  Then I'll kneel down on the bank, bathe my face,
+and come away."
+
+"You've estimated him correctly, Dick," said Warner, "but you don't have
+to shiver as much as Frank did."
+
+The cold bath, although it was confined to the face only, made his blood
+leap and sparkle.  He was not a coming captain but a boy again, and he
+began to think about pleasant ways of passing the time while the ice held
+them.  After his breakfast he joined Colonel Winchester, who debated
+the question further with a group of officers.  But there was only one
+conclusion to which they could come, and that had presented itself
+already to Dick's mind, namely, to wait as patiently as they could for
+a thaw, while Shepard, the sergeant and two or three others made their
+way on foot into the Shenandoah valley to inform Sheridan of what had
+transpired.
+
+The messengers departed as soon as the conference closed, and the little
+army was left to pass the time as it chose in the cove.  But time did not
+weigh heavily upon the young troops.  As it grew colder and colder they
+added to the walls and roofs of their improvised shelters.  There was
+scarcely a man among them who had not been bred to the ax, and the forest
+in the valley rang continually with their skillful strokes.  Then the
+logs were notched and in a day or two rude but real cabins were raised,
+in which they slept, dry and warm.
+
+The fires outside were never permitted to die down, the flames always
+leaped up from great beds of coals, and warmth and the comforts that
+follow were diffused everywhere.  The lads, when they were not working on
+the houses, mended their saddles and bridles or their clothes, and when
+they had nothing else to do they sang war songs or the sentimental
+ballads of home.  It was a fine place for singing--Warner described the
+acoustics of the valley as perfect--and the ridges and gorges gave back
+the greatest series of echoes any of them had ever heard.
+
+"If this place didn't have a name already," said Pennington, "I'd call it
+Echo Cove, and the echoes are flattering, too.  Whenever George sings his
+voice always comes back in highly improved tones, something that we can
+stand very well."
+
+"My voice may not be as mellow as Mario's," said Warner calmly, "but my
+technique is perfect.  Music is chiefly an affair of mathematics, as
+everybody knows, or at least it is eighty per cent, the rest being voice,
+a mere gift of birth.  So, as I am unassailable in mathematics, I'm a
+much better singer than the common and vulgar lot who merely have voice."
+
+"That being the case," said Pennington, "you should sing for yourself
+only and admire your own wonderful technique."
+
+"I never sing unless I'm asked to do so," said Warner, with his old
+invincible calm, "and then the competent few who have made an exhaustive
+study of this most complex science appreciate my achievement.  As I said,
+I should consider it a mark of cheapness if I pleased the low, vulgar and
+common herd."
+
+"With that iron face and satisfied mind of yours you ought to go far,
+George," said Pennington.
+
+"Everything is arranged already.  I will go far," said Warner in even
+tones.
+
+"I wonder what's happening outside in the big valley," said Dick.
+
+"Whatever it is it's happening without us," said Warner.  "But I fancy
+that General Sheridan will be more uneasy about us than we are about him.
+We know what we have done, that our task is finished, but for all he
+knows we may have been trapped and destroyed."
+
+"But Shepard or the sergeant will get through to him."
+
+"Not for three or four days anyhow.  Not even men on foot can travel fast
+on a glassy sheet of ice.  Every time I look at it on the mountain it
+seems to grow smoother.  If I were standing on top of that ridge and were
+to slip I'd come like a catapult clear into the camp."
+
+"Nothing could tempt me to go up there now," said Dick.
+
+"Maybe not, nor me either, but as I live somebody is on top of that ridge
+now."
+
+Dick's eyes followed his pointing finger, saw a black dot on the utmost
+summit, and then he snatched up his glasses.
+
+"It's Slade, his very self!" he exclaimed in excitement.  "I'd know that
+hat anywhere.  Now, how under the sun did he come there!"
+
+"It's more important to know why he has come," said Warner, using his own
+glasses.  "I see him clearly and there is no doubt that it's the same
+robber, traitor and assassin who, unfortunately, escaped when we shot his
+horde to pieces."
+
+"He has a rifle with him, and as sure as we live he's sitting down on the
+ice, and picking out a target here in the valley."
+
+"A risky business for Slade.  Shooting upward we can take better aim at
+him than he can at us."
+
+There was a great stir in the valley, as others saw the figure on the
+mountain and read Slade's intentions.  Fifty men sprang to their feet
+and seized their rifles.  But the guerrilla moved swiftly along the
+knife-edge of the ridge, obviously sure of his footing, and before any
+of them could fire, dropped down behind a little group of cedars.  Every
+stem and bough was cased in a sheath of silver mail, but they hid him
+well.  Dick, with his glasses, could not discern a single outline of the
+man behind the glittering tracery.
+
+But as they looked, a head of red appeared suddenly in the silver,
+smoke floated away, and a bullet knocked up the ice near them.  They
+scattered in lively fashion, and from shelter watched the silver bush.
+A second bullet came from its foliage and wounded slightly a man who
+was carrying wood to one of the fires.  But the annoying sharpshooter
+remained invisible.
+
+"He's lying down on the ice like a Sioux or Cheyenne in a gully," said
+Pennington.
+
+"Maybe he has a gully in the ice," said Dick, "and he can crouch here and
+shoot at us all day, almost in perfect safety."
+
+But Colonel Winchester appeared and ordered a score of the men, with the
+heaviest rifles, to shoot away the entire clump of cedars.  They did it
+with a method and a regard for mathematics that filled Warner's soul with
+delight, firing in turn and planting their bullets in a line along the
+front of the clump, cutting down everything like a mower with a scythe.
+
+Dick with the glasses saw the ice fly into the air in a silver spray as
+bush after bush fell.  Presently they were all cut away by that stream of
+heavy bullets, but no human being was disclosed.
+
+"He's just gone over the other side of the ridge," said Warner in disgust,
+"and is waiting there until we finish.  We couldn't shoot through a
+mountain, even if we had one of our biggest cannon here.  He'll find
+another clump of bushes soon and be potting us from it."
+
+"But we can shoot that away too," said Dick hopefully.
+
+"We can't shoot down all the forests on the mountain.  He must have heavy
+hobnails, or, like the mountaineers, he has drawn thick yarn socks over
+his boots, else he couldn't scoot about on the ice the way he does."
+
+"Ah, there goes his rifle, behind the clump of bushes to the right of the
+one that we shot away!"
+
+A second man was wounded by the bullet, and then an extraordinary siege
+ensued, a siege of three hundred men by a single sharpshooter on top of a
+mountain as smooth as glass.  Whenever they shot his refuge away he moved
+to another, and, while they were shooting at it he had nothing to do but
+drop down a few feet on the far side of the ridge and remain in entire
+safety until he chose another ambush.
+
+"I suppose this was visited upon us because we were puffed up with pride
+over our exploits," said Pennington, "but it's an awful jolt to us to
+have the whole Winchester regiment penned up here and driven to hiding by
+a single brigand."
+
+"It's not a jolt," said Warner, "it's a tragedy.  Unless we get him we
+can never live it down.  We may win another Gettysburg all by ourselves,
+but history and also the voice of legend and ironic song will tell first
+of the time when Slade, the outlaw, held us all in the cove at the muzzle
+of his rifle."
+
+Colonel Winchester, although he did not show it, raged the most of them
+all.  The great taunt would be for him rather than his young officers and
+troopers, and the blood burned in his veins as he watched the operations
+of the sharpshooter on the ridges.  One of his men had been killed,
+three had been wounded, and all of them were compelled to seek shelter
+for their lives as none knew where Slade's bullet would strike next.
+In his perplexity he called in Reed, the mountaineer, who fortunately was
+in camp, and he suggested that they send out a group of men through the
+entrance, who might stalk him from the far side in the same way that they
+had crushed his band.
+
+"But how are they to climb on the smooth ice?" asked the colonel.
+
+"Wrap the feet uv the men in blankets, an' let 'em use their bayonets
+for a grip in the ice," replied the mountaineer, "an' ef you don't mind,
+colonel, I'd like to go along with the party.  Mebbe I'd git a shot at
+that big hat uv Slade's."
+
+The idea appealed to the colonel, especially as none other offered,
+and Warner, to his great delight, received command of the party detailed
+for the difficult and dangerous duty.  Several of the coarsest and
+heaviest blankets were cut up, and the feet of the men were wrapped
+in them in such manner that they would not slip on the ice, although
+retaining full freedom of movement.  They tried their "snow shoes"
+behind the house, where they were sheltered from Slade's bullets, and
+found that they could make good speed over the ice.
+
+"Now be careful, Warner," said Colonel Winchester.  "Remember that your
+party also may present a fair target to him, and we don't wish to lose
+another man."
+
+"I'll use every precaution possible, sir," replied Warner, "and I thank
+you for giving me this responsibility."
+
+Then keeping to the shelter of trees he led his men out through the pass,
+and the soul of Warner, despite his calm exterior, was aflame.  Dick had
+achieved his great task with success, and, in the lesser one, he wished
+to do as well.  It was not jealousy of his comrade, but emulation,
+and also a desire to meet his own exacting standards.  As he disappeared
+with his picked sharpshooters and turned the shoulder of the mountain
+his blood was still hot, but his Vermont head was as cool as the ice upon
+which he trod.
+
+Warner heard the distant reports of Slade's rifle, and also the crackle
+of the firing in reply.  He knew the colonel would keep Slade so busy
+that he was not likely to notice the flank movement, and he pressed
+forward with all the energy of himself and his men.  The heavy cloth
+around their shoes gave them a secure foothold until they reached the
+steeper slopes, and there, in accordance with Reed's suggestion, they
+used their bayonets as alpenstocks.
+
+A third of the way up the slope, and they reached one of the clumps of
+cedars, into which they crawled.  Although a glittering network of silver
+it was a cold covert, but they lay on the ice there and watched for
+Slade's next shot.  They heard it a minute later, and then saw him behind
+a pine about five hundred yards away.  After sending his bullet into the
+valley he had withdrawn a little and was slipping another cartridge into
+the fine breech-loading rifle that he carried, the most modern and highly
+improved weapon then used, as Warner could clearly see.
+
+"Would you let me take a look at him through your glasses?" asked Reed.
+
+"Certainly," replied Warner, handing them to him.
+
+"Jest as I thought," said Reed, as he took a long look.  "He's done gone
+plum' mad with the wish to kill.  It strikes them evil-minded critters
+that way sometimes, an' he's had so much luck shootin' down at us,
+an' keepin' a whole little army besieged that it's mounted to his head.
+Ef he had his way he'd jest wipe us all out."
+
+"A sanguinary and savage mind," said Warner.  "It's the spirit of the
+rattlesnake or the cobra, and we must exterminate him.  He's moving
+further along the ridge, and he's exactly between us and that clump of
+cedars, higher up and about three hundred yards away.  If we could make
+those cedars we would bring him within range.  It's a pretty steep climb,
+but I want to try it."
+
+"We kin do it shore by stabbin' our bayonets into the ice and hangin' on
+to 'em ez we edge up," said Reed optimistically.  "The clump itself will
+help hide us, an' Slade ain't likely to look this way.  Ez I told you
+he hez gone plum' mad with the blood fever, an' he ain't got eyes for
+anythin' except the soldiers in the valley what he wants to shoot."
+
+"Poison, nothing but poison," said Warner.  "We must remove him as
+speedily as possible for the sake of the universe.  Come on!  I mean to
+lead."
+
+He emerged from the clump and took his way toward the second cluster,
+digging a heavy hunting knife into the ice whenever he felt that he was
+about to slip.  Reed was just behind him, breathing hard from the climb,
+and then came the whole detachment.  Warner felt a momentary shiver lest
+the guerrilla see them.  If he caught them on the steep ice between the
+two cedar clumps he could decimate them with ease.
+
+But fortune was kind and they breathed mighty sighs of relief as they
+drew into the second network of silver, where they lay close watching for
+Slade, who had fired three times into the valley while they were on the
+way.
+
+He had gone farther down the ridge, but they saw him partially as he
+kneeled for another shot.  If he moved again in the same direction after
+firing they would not be able to reach him, and Warner, Reed agreeing
+with him, decided that they must make the attempt to remove him now or
+never.  It was a hard target, not much of Slade's body showing, but the
+entire party took aim and fired together at the leader's word.
+
+Slade threw up his arms, fell back on their side of the mountain and
+then slid down the slippery slope.  Warner watched him with a kind of
+horrified fascination as he shot over the clear ice.  His body struck
+a small pine presently and shattered it, the broken pieces of the icy
+sheath flying in the air like crystals.  After a momentary pause from the
+resistance Slade went on, slid over a shelf, and disappeared in a deep
+drift.
+
+"He's out o' business," said Reed.  "I reckon we'd better go down thar,
+an' see ef he's all broke to pieces."
+
+They climbed down slowly and painfully, reaching the drift, but to their
+amazement Slade was not there.  They found his rifle and spots of blood,
+but the outlaw was gone, a thin red trail that led down a rift showing
+the way he went.
+
+"We hit our b'ar an' took the bite out uv him," said Reed philosophically,
+"but we ain't got his hide to show.  Still he's all broke up, jest the
+same, 'cause he didn't even think to take his gun, an' this red trail
+shows that we won't be bothered by him ag'in fur a long time."
+
+Warner would have preferred the annihilation or capture of Slade, whom he
+truly called a rattlesnake or cobra, but he was satisfied, nevertheless.
+He had destroyed the guerrilla's power to harm for a long time, at least,
+and not a man of his had been hurt.  He was sure to receive Colonel
+Winchester's words of approval, and he felt the swell of pride, but did
+not show it by word or manner.
+
+Carrying the rifle, as the visible proof of victory, they returned to the
+cove, and received from Colonel Winchester the words for which they were
+grateful.  Further proof was the failure of Slade to return and the
+lifting of the terrible weight which a single man had put upon them.
+They could now go about in the open, as they pleased, the big fires were
+built up again, and cheerfulness returned.
+
+The mountaineers brought in more food the next day, and the following
+night Reed and another mountaineer crossed the ridge and were lucky
+enough to shoot a fat bear in a ravine.  They dressed it there, and,
+between them, managed to bring the body back to the camp.  A day later
+they secured another, and there was a great feast of fresh meat.
+
+That night the weather rapidly turned warmer and all knew the big thaw
+was at hand.  A long heavy rain that lasted almost until daylight
+hastened it and great floods roared down the slopes.  Tons and tons of
+melting snow also slid into the valley, and the creek became a booming
+torrent.  They were more thankful than ever for their huts and lean-tos,
+and all except the sentinels clung closely to their shelter.
+
+Throughout the day the mountains were veiled in vapors from the rain
+and the melting snow, and, after another night, the troop saddled and
+departed, the horses treading ankle deep in mud, but their riders eager
+to get away.
+
+"We overstayed our time," said Dick, looking back, "but it was a good
+cove for us.  Our presence there tempted the enemy to battle, and we
+destroyed him.  Then we had shelter and a home when the great storm came."
+
+"A good cove, truly," said Pennington, "and we sha'n't forget it."
+
+When they reached the main pass they found it also deep in mud and
+melting snow, and their progress was slow and painful.  But before noon
+they met Shepard and the sergeant returning with news that they had
+carried an account of the victory to General Sheridan, but that nothing
+had happened in the main valley save a few raids by Mosby.  Shepard,
+who acted as spokesman, was too tactful to say much, but he indicated
+very clearly that the commander-in-chief was highly pleased with the
+destruction of the Slade and Skelly band, the maraudings of which had
+become a great annoyance and danger.  Dick was eager to hear more, and,
+when the opportunity presented itself, he questioned the sergeant
+privately.
+
+"What do we hear from Petersburg?" he asked.  "Is the deadlock there
+broken?"
+
+"Not yet, sir," replied the sergeant.  "The winter being so very severe
+the troops are not able to do much.  General Lee still holds his lines."
+
+"I suppose that General Grant doesn't care to risk another Cold Harbor,
+but what has been done here in the Valley of Virginia should enable him
+to turn Lee's flank in the spring."
+
+"I take it that you're right, sir.  General Lee is a hard nut to crack,
+as we all know, but his army is wearing away.  In the spring the shell of
+the nut will be so thin that we'll smash it."
+
+The column, after its exploit, reported to Sheridan at Winchester,
+the little city around which and through which the war rolled for four
+long years, and where two great commanders, one of the gray and the other
+of the blue, had their headquarters at times.  But Colonel Winchester and
+his young staff officers rode through streets that were faced by closed
+shutters and windows.  Nowhere was the hostility to the Northern troops
+more bitter and intense than in Winchester, the beloved city of the great
+Stonewall which had seen with its own eyes so many of his triumphs.
+
+Dick and his comrades had learned long since not to speak to the women
+and girls for fear of their sharp tongues, and in his heart he could
+not blame them.  Youth did not keep him from having a philosophical and
+discerning mind, and he knew that in the strongest of people the emotions
+often triumph over logic and reason.  Warner's little algebra was all
+right, when the question was algebraic, but sentiment and passion had
+a great deal to do with the affairs of the world, and, where they were
+concerned, the book was of no value at all.
+
+Dick's new rank of captain was conferred upon him by General Sheridan
+himself, and it was accompanied by a compliment which though true made
+him blush in his modesty.  A few days later Warner received the same rank
+for his achievement in driving away Slade, and it was conferred upon
+Pennington too for general excellence.  The three were supremely happy
+and longed for more enemies to conquer, but a long period of comparative
+idleness ensued.  The winter continued of unexampled severity, and they
+spent most of the time in camp, although they did not waste it.  Several
+books of mathematics came from the North to Warner and he spent many
+happy evenings in their study.  Dick got hold of a German grammar and
+exercise book, and, several others joining him, they made a little class,
+which though it met irregularly, learned much.  Pennington was a wonder
+among the horses.  When the veterinarians were at a loss they sent for
+him and he rarely failed of a cure.  He modestly ascribed his merit to
+his father who taught him everything about horses on the great plains,
+where a man's horse was so often the sole barrier between him and death.
+
+Thus the winter went on, and they longed eagerly for spring, the breaking
+up of the great cold, and the last campaign.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+BACK WITH GRANT
+
+
+Despite the inevitable hostility of the people their stay at Winchester
+was pleasant and fruitful.  All three of the new young captains
+experienced a mental growth, and their outlook upon the enemy was
+tempered greatly.  They had been through so many battles and they had
+measured their strength and courage against the foe so often that all
+hatred and malice had departed.  North and South, knowing too little of
+each other before the war, had now learned mutual respect upon the field
+of combat.  And Dick, Warner and Pennington, feeling certain that the
+end was at hand, could understand the loss and sorrow of the South, and
+sympathize with the fallen.  Their generous young hearts did not exult
+over a foe whom they expected soon to conquer.
+
+Late in January of the fateful year 1865 Dick was walking through the
+streets of Winchester one cold day.  The wind from the mountains had
+a fierce edge, and, as he bent his head to protect his face from it,
+he did not see a stout, heavily built man of middle age coming toward him,
+and did not stop until the stranger, standing squarely in his way,
+hailed him.
+
+"Does the fact that you've become a captain keep you from seeing anything
+in your path, Mr. Mason?" asked the man in a deep bass, but wholly
+good-natured voice.
+
+Dick looked up in surprise, because the tones were familiar.  He saw a
+ruddy face, with keen, twinkling eyes and a massive chin, a face in which
+shrewdness and a humorous view of the world were combined.  He hesitated
+a moment, then he remembered and held out his hand.
+
+"It's Mr. Watson, the contractor," he said.
+
+"So it is, lad," said John Watson, grasping the outstretched hand and
+shaking it heartily.  "Don't mind my calling you lad, even if you are
+a captain.  All things are comparative, and to me, a much older man,
+you're just a lad.  I've heard of your deed in the mountains, in fact,
+I keep track of all of you, even of General Sheridan himself.  It's my
+business to know men and what they do."
+
+"I hope you're still making money," said Dick, smiling.
+
+"I am.  That's part of a merchant's duty.  If he doesn't make money he
+oughtn't to be a merchant.  Oh, I know that a lot of you soldiers look
+down upon us traders and contractors."
+
+"I don't and I never did, Mr. Watson."
+
+"I know it, Captain Mason, because you're a lad of intelligence.  The
+first time I saw you I noticed that the reasoning quality was strong in
+you, and that was why I made you an offer to enter my employ after the
+war.  That offer is still open and will remain open at all times."
+
+"I thank you very much, Mr. Watson, but I can't accept it, as I have
+other ambitions."
+
+"I was sure you wouldn't take it, but I like to feel it's always waiting
+for you.  It's well to look ahead.  This war, vast and terrible as it
+has been, will be over before the year is.  Two or three million men who
+have done nothing but fighting for four years will be out of employment.
+Vast numbers of them will not know which way to turn.  They will be
+wholly unfit, until they have trained themselves anew, for the pursuits
+of peace.  Captains, majors, colonels and, yes, generals, will be
+besieging me for jobs, as zealously as they're now besieging Lee's army
+in the trenches before Petersburg, and with as much cause.  When the war
+is over the soldier will not be of so much value, and the man of peace
+will regain his own.  I hope you've thought of these things, Captain
+Mason."
+
+"I've thought of them many times, Mr. Watson, and I've thought of them
+oftener than ever this winter.  My comrades and I have agreed that as
+soon as the last battle is fought we'll plunge at once into the task
+of rebuilding our country.  We amount to little, of course, in such a
+multitude, but one can do only what one can."
+
+"That's so, but if a million feel like you and push all together, they
+can roll mountains away."
+
+"You're not a man to come to Winchester for nothing.  You've been doing
+business with the army?"
+
+"I've been shoeing, clothing and bedding you.  I deliver within two weeks
+thirty thousand pairs of shoes, thirty thousand uniforms, and sixty
+thousand blankets.  They are all honest goods and the price is not too
+high, although I make the solid and substantial profit to which I am
+entitled.  You soldiers on the battle line don't win a war alone.
+We who feed and clothe you achieve at least half.  I regret again,
+Captain Mason, that you can't join me later.  Mine's a noble calling.
+It's a great thing to be a merchant prince, and it's we, as much as any
+other class of people, who spread civilization over the earth."
+
+"I know it," said Dick earnestly.  "I'm not blind to the great arts of
+peace.  Now, here come my closest friends, Captain Warner and Captain
+Pennington, who have understanding.  I want you to meet them."
+
+Dick's hearty introduction was enough to recommend the contractor to his
+comrades, but Warner already knew him well by reputation.
+
+"I've heard of you often from some of our officers, Mr. Watson," he said.
+"You deliver good goods and you're a New Englander, like myself.  Ten
+years from now you'll be an extremely rich man, a millionaire, twenty
+years from now you'll be several times a millionaire.  About that
+time I'll become president of Harvard, and we'll need money--a great
+university always needs money--and I'll come to you for a donation of one
+hundred thousand dollars to Harvard, and you'll give it to me promptly."
+
+John Watson looked at him fixedly, and slowly a look of great admiration
+spread over his face.
+
+"Of course you're a New Englander," he said.  "It was not necessary for
+you to say so.  I could have told it by looking at you and hearing you
+talk.  But from what state do you come?"
+
+"Vermont."
+
+"I might have known that, too, and I'm glad and proud to meet you,
+Captain Warner.  I'm glad and proud to know a young man who looks ahead
+twenty years.  Nothing can keep you from being president of Harvard,
+and that hundred thousand dollars is as good as given.  Your hand again!"
+
+The hands of the two New Englanders met a second time in the touch of
+kinship and understanding.  Theirs was the clan feeling, and they had
+supreme confidence in each other.  Neither doubted that the promise would
+be fulfilled, and fulfilled it was and fourfold more.
+
+"You New Englanders certainly stand together," said Dick.
+
+"Not more than you Kentuckians," replied the contractor.  "I was in
+Kentucky several times before the war, and you seemed to be one big
+family there."
+
+"But in the war we've not been one big family," said Dick, somewhat
+sadly.  "I suppose that no state has been more terribly divided than
+Kentucky.  Nowhere has kin fought more fiercely against kin."
+
+"But you'll come together again after the war," said Watson cheerfully.
+"That great bond of kinship will prove more powerful than anything else."
+
+"I hope so," said Dick earnestly.
+
+They had the contractor to dinner with them, and he opened new worlds
+of interest and endeavor for all of them.  He was a mighty captain
+of industry, a term that came into much use later, and mentally they
+followed him as he led the way into fields of immense industrial
+achievement.  They were fascinated as he talked with truthful eloquence
+of what the country could become, the vast network of railroads to be
+built, the limitless fields of wheat and corn to be grown, the mines of
+the richest mineral continent to be opened, and a trade to be acquired,
+that would spread all over the world.  They forgot the war while he
+talked, and their souls were filled and stirred with the romance of peace.
+
+"I leave for Washington tonight," said the contractor, when the dinner
+was finished.  "My work here is done.  Our next meeting will be in
+Richmond."
+
+All three of the young men took it as prophetic and when John Watson
+started north they waved him a friendly farewell.  Another long wait
+followed, while the iron winter, one of the fiercest in the memory of man,
+still gripped both North and South.  But late in February there was a
+great bustle, portending movement.  Supplies were gathered, horses were
+examined critically, men looked to their arms and ammunition, and the
+talk was all of high anticipation.  An electric thrill ran through the
+men.  They had tasted deep of victory since the previous summer, and they
+were eager to ride to new triumphs.
+
+"It's to be an affair of cavalry altogether," said Warner, who obtained
+the first definite news.  "We're to go toward Staunton, where Early and
+his remnants have been hanging out, and clean 'em up.  Although it's to
+be done by cavalry alone, as I told you, it'll be the finest cavalry you
+ever saw."
+
+And when Sheridan gathered his horsemen for the march Warner's words came
+true.  Ten thousand Union men, all hardy troopers now, were in the saddle,
+and the great Sheridan led them.  The eyes of Little Phil glinted as he
+looked upon his matchless command, bold youths who had learned in the
+long hard training of war itself, to be the equals of Stuart's own famous
+riders.  And the eyes of Sheridan glinted again when they passed over the
+Winchesters, the peerless regiment, the bravest of the brave, with the
+colonel and the three youthful captains in their proper places.
+
+The weather was extremely cold, but they were prepared for it, and when
+they swung up the valley, and forty thousand hoofs beat on the hard road,
+giving back a sound like thunder, their pulses leaped, and they took with
+delight deep draughts of the keen frosty air.
+
+While they carried food for the entire march, the rest of their equipment
+was light, four cannon, ammunition wagons, some ambulances and pontoon
+boats.  Dick thought they would make fast time, but fortune for awhile
+was against them.  The very morning the great column started the weather
+rapidly turned warmer, and then a heavy rain began to fall.  The hard
+road upon which the forty thousand hoofs had beat their marching song
+turned to mud, and forty thousand hoofs made a new sound, as they sank
+deep in it, and were then pulled out again.
+
+"If it keeps us from going fast," said the philosophical sergeant,
+"it'll keep them that we're goin' after from gettin' away.  We're as
+good mud horses as they are."
+
+"Do you think we'll go through to Staunton?" asked Dick of Warner.
+
+"I've heard that we will, and that we'll go on and take Lynchburg too.
+Then we're to curve about and in North Carolina join Sherman who has
+smashed the Confederacy in the west."
+
+"I don't like the North Carolina part," said Dick.  "I hope we'll go to
+Grant and march with him on Richmond, because that's where the death blow
+will be dealt, if it's dealt at all."
+
+"And that it will be dealt we don't doubt, neither you, nor I nor any of
+us."
+
+"Yes, that's so."
+
+While mud and rain could impede the progress of the great column they
+could not stop it.  Neither could they dampen the spirits of the young
+troopers who rode knee to knee, and who looked forward to new victories.
+Through the floods of rain the ten thousand, scouts and skirmishers
+on their flanks, swept southward, and they encountered no foe.  A few
+Southern horsemen would watch them at a great distance and then ride
+sadly away.  There was nothing in the valley that could oppose Sheridan.
+
+Dick's leggings, and his overcoat with an extremely high collar, kept
+him dry and warm and he was too seasoned to mind the flying mud which
+thousands of hoofs sent up, and which soon covered them.  The swift
+movement and the expectation of achieving something were exhilarating
+in spite of every hardship and obstacle.
+
+That night they reached the village of Woodstock, and the next day they
+crossed the north fork of the Shenandoah, already swollen by the heavy
+rains.  The engineers rapidly and dexterously made a bridge of the
+pontoon boats, and the ten thousand thundered over in safety.
+
+The next night they were at a little place called Lacy's Springs, sixty
+miles from Winchester, a wonderful march for two days, considering the
+heavy rains and deep mud, and they had not yet encountered an enemy.
+How different it would have been in Stonewall Jackson's time!  Then,
+not a mile of the road would have been safe for them.  It was ample
+proof of the extremities to which the Confederacy was reduced.  Lee, at
+Petersburg, could not reinforce Early, and Early, at Staunton, could not
+reinforce Lee!
+
+They intended to move on the next day, and they heard that night that
+Rosser, a brave Confederate general, had gathered a small Confederate
+force and was hastening forward to burn all the bridges over the middle
+fork of the Shenandoah, in order that he might impede Sheridan's
+progress.  Then it was the call of the trumpet and boots and saddles
+early in the morning in order that they might beat Rosser to the bridges.
+
+"I hope for their own sake that they won't try to fight us," said Dick.
+
+"I'm with you on that," said Pennington.  "They can't be more than a few
+hundreds, and it would take thousands, even with a river to help, to stop
+an army like ours."
+
+It was not raining now and the roads growing dryer thundered with the
+hoofs of ten thousand horses.  The Winchesters had an honored place in
+the van, and, as they approached the middle fork of the Shenandoah,
+the three young captains raised themselves in their saddles to see if the
+bridge yet stood.  It was there, but on the other side of the stream a
+small body of cavalrymen in gray were galloping forward, and some had
+already dismounted for the attempt to destroy it.  The arrival of the
+two forces was almost simultaneous, but the Union army, overwhelming in
+numbers, exulting in victory, swept forward to the call of the trumpets.
+
+"They're not more than five or six hundred over there," said Warner,
+"too few to put up a fight against us.  I feel sorry for 'em, and wish
+they'd go away."
+
+The Southerners nevertheless were sweeping the narrow bridge with a heavy
+rifle fire, and Sheridan drew back his men for a few minutes.  Then
+followed a series of mighty splashes, as two West Virginia regiments sent
+their horses into the river, swam it, and, as they emerged dripping on
+the farther shore, charged the little Confederate force in flank,
+compelling it to retreat so swiftly that it left behind prisoners and its
+wagons.
+
+It was all over in a few minutes, and the whole army, crossing the river,
+moved steadily on toward Staunton, where Early had been in camp, and
+where Sheridan hoped to find him.  The little victory did not bring Dick
+any joy.  He knew that the Confederacy could now make no stand in the
+Valley of Virginia, and it was like beating down those who were already
+beaten.  He sincerely hoped that Early would not await them at Staunton
+or anywhere else, but would take his futile forces out of the valley and
+join Lee.
+
+The heavy rains began again.  Winter was breaking up and its transition
+into spring was accompanied by floods.  The last snow on the mountains
+melted and rushed down in torrents.  The roads, already ruined by war,
+became vast ruts of mud, but Sheridan was never daunted by physical
+obstacles.  The great army of cavalry, scarcely slacking speed, pressed
+forward continually, and Dick knew that Early did not have the shadow of
+a chance to withstand such an army.
+
+The next day they entered Staunton, another of the neat little Virginia
+cities devoted solidly and passionately to the Southern cause.  Here,
+they were faced again by blind doors and windows, but Early and his force
+were gone.  Shepard brought news that he had prepared for a stand at
+Waynesborough, although he had only two thousand men.
+
+"Our general will attack him at once," said Warner, when he heard of it.
+"He sweeps like a hurricane."
+
+"He is surely the general for us at such a time," said Pennington,
+who began to feel himself a military authority.
+
+"It's humane, at least," said Dick.  "The quicker it's over the smaller
+the toll of ruin and death."
+
+Nor had they judged Sheridan wrongly.  His men advanced with speed,
+hunting Early, and they found him fortified with his scanty forces on a
+ridge near the little town of Waynesborough.  The daring young leader,
+Custer, and Colonel Winchester, riding forward, found his flank exposed,
+and it was enough for Sheridan.  He formed his plan with rapidity and
+executed it with precision.  The Custer and Winchester men were
+dismounted and assailed the exposed flank at once, while the remainder
+of the army made a direct and violent charge in front.
+
+It seemed to Dick that Early was swept away in an instant, and the attack
+was so swift and overwhelming that there was but little loss of life
+on either side.  Four fifths of the Southern men and their cannon were
+captured, while Early, several of his generals and a few hundred soldiers
+escaped to the woods.  His army, however, had ceased to exist, and
+Sheridan and his muddy victors rode on to the ancient town of
+Charlottesville, which, having no forces to defend it, the mayor and the
+leading citizens surrendered.
+
+Dick, Warner and Pennington walked through the silent halls of the
+University of Virginia, the South's most famous institution of learning,
+founded by Thomas Jefferson, one of the republic's greatest men.
+
+"I hope they will re-open it next year," said Warner generously, "and
+that it will grow and grow, until it becomes a rival of Harvard.  We want
+to defeat the South, but not to destroy it.  Since it is to be a part of
+the Union again, and loyal forever I hope and believe, we want it strong
+and prosperous."
+
+"I'm with you in that," said Dick, "and I feel it with particular
+strength while I am here.  There have been many great Virginians and I
+hope there'll be many more."
+
+They also visited Monticello, the famous colonial mansion which the
+great Jefferson had built, and in which he had lived and planned for the
+republic.  They trod there with light steps, feeling that his spirit was
+still present.  Virginia was the greatest of the border states, but it
+seemed to Dick that here he was in the very heart of the South.  Virginia
+was the greatest of the Southern fighting states too, and it had
+furnished most of the great Southern leaders, at least two of her sons
+ranking among the foremost military geniuses of modern times.  For nearly
+four years they had barred the way to every Northern advance, and had won
+great victories over numbers, but Dick was sure as he stood on a portico
+at Monticello, in the very heart of valiant Virginia, that the fate of
+the South was sealed.
+
+They did not stay long at Charlottesville and Monticello, but a portion
+of the army, including the Winchester men, went on, tearing up the
+railroad, while another column demolished a canal used for military
+purposes.  Then the two forces united at a town called New Market,
+but they could go no farther.  The heavy rains and the melting snows had
+swollen the rivers enormously, all the bridges before them were destroyed,
+and their own pontoons proved inadequate in face of the great rushing
+streams.  Then they turned back.
+
+Dick and his comrades were secretly glad.  The rising of the waters
+had prevented them from going into North Carolina and joining Sherman.
+Hence, they deduced that so active a man as Sheridan would march for a
+junction with Grant, and that was where they wanted to go.  They did
+not believe that the Confederacy was to be finished in North Carolina,
+but at Richmond.  They knew that Lee's army yet stood between Grant and
+the Southern capital, and, there, would be the heart of great affairs.
+
+Spring was now opening and Sheridan's army marched eastward.  Men and
+horses were covered with mud, but they still had the flush of victories
+won, and the incentive of others expected.  They were even yet worn by
+hard marching and some fighting, but it was a healthy leanness, making
+their muscles as tough as whipcord, while their eyes were keen like those
+of hawks.
+
+Dick did not rejoice now in the work they were doing, although he saw its
+need.  Theirs was a task of destruction.  For a distance of more than
+fifty miles they ruined a canal important to the Confederacy.  Boats,
+locks, everything went, and they also made cuts by which the swollen
+James poured into the canal, flooding it and thrusting it out of its
+banks.  They met no resistance save a few distant shots, and Sheridan
+rejoiced over his plan to join the Army of the Potomac, although he had
+not yet been able to send word of it to Grant.
+
+But the omens remained propitious.  They saw now that there were no walls
+in the rear of the Confederacy and they had little to do but march.
+The heavy rains followed them, roads disappeared, and it seemed to the
+young captains that they lived in eternal showers of mud.  Horses and
+riders alike were caked with it, and they ceased to make any effort to
+clean themselves.
+
+"This is not a white army," said Warner, looking down a long column,
+"it's brown, although it would be hard to name the shade of brown."
+
+"It's not always brown," said Pennington.  "Lots of the Virginia mud is a
+rich, ripe red.  Bet you anything that before tomorrow night we will have
+turned to some hue of scarlet."
+
+"We won't take the wager," said Dick, "because you bet on a certainty."
+
+That afternoon the scouts surprised a telegraph station on the railroad,
+and found in it a dispatch from General Early.  To the great amazement of
+Sheridan, Early was not far away.  He had only two hundred men, but with
+them the grim old fighter prepared to attack the Union army.  Sheridan
+himself felt a certain pity for his desperate opponent, but he promptly
+sent Custer in search of him.  The young cavalryman quickly found him and
+scattered or captured the entire band.
+
+Early escaped from the fight with a lone orderly as his comrade, and
+the next day the general who had lost all through no fault of his own,
+rode into Richmond with his single companion, and from him Jefferson
+Davis, President of the Confederacy, heard the full tale of Southern
+disaster in the Valley of Virginia.
+
+Meanwhile Sheridan and his victorious army rode on to a place called
+White House, where they found plenty of stores, and where they halted for
+a long rest, and also to secure new mounts, if they could.  Their horses
+were worn out completely by the great campaign and were wholly unfit for
+further service.  But it was hard to obtain fresh ones and the delay was
+longer than the general had intended.  Nevertheless his troops profited
+by it.  They had not realized until they stopped how near they too had
+come to utter exhaustion, and for several days they were in a kind of
+physical torpor while their strength came back gradually.
+
+"I think I've removed the last trace of the Virginia mud from my clothes
+and myself," said Warner on the morning of the second day, "but I've had
+to work hard to do it, as time seemed to have made it almost a part of my
+being."
+
+"I've spent most of my time learning to walk again, and getting the bows
+out of my legs," said Dick.  "I've been a-horse so long that I felt like
+a sailor coming ashore from a three years' cruise."
+
+"Agreed with me pretty well, all except the mud, since I was born on
+horseback," said Pennington.  "But I don't like to ride in a brown
+plaster suit of armor.  What do you think is ahead, boys?"
+
+"Junction with General Grant," said Dick.  "They say, also, that General
+Sherman, after completing his great work in Georgia and North Carolina,
+is coming to join them too.  It will be a great meeting, that of the
+three successful generals who have destroyed the Confederacy, because
+there's nothing of it left now but Lee's army, and that they say is
+mighty small."
+
+It was in reality a triumphant march that they began after they left
+White House, refreshed, remounted and ready for new conquests.  They
+soon came into touch with the Army of the Potomac, and the great meeting
+between Grant, Sherman and Sheridan took place, Sherman having come north
+especially for the purpose.  Then Sheridan's force became attached to the
+Army of the Potomac, and his cavalry columns advanced into the marshes
+about Petersburg.  All fear that they would be sent to cooperate with
+Sherman passed, and Dick knew that the Winchester men would be in the
+final struggle with Lee, a struggle the success of which he felt assured.
+
+April was not far away.  The fierce winter was broken up completely,
+but the spring rains were uncommonly heavy and much of the low country
+about Petersburg was flooded, making it difficult for cavalry and
+impossible for infantry.  Nevertheless the army of Grant, with Sheridan
+now as a striking arm, began to close in on the beleaguered men in gray.
+Lee had held the trenches before Petersburg many months, keeping at bay
+a resolute and powerful army, led by an able and tenacious general, but
+it was evident now that he could not continue to hold them.  Sheridan's
+victorious force on his flank made it impossible.
+
+The Winchester men were in a skirmish or two, but for a few days most
+of their work was maneuvering, that is, they were continually riding in
+search of better positions.  At times, the rain still poured, but the
+three young captains were so full of expectancy that they scarcely
+noticed it.  Dick often heard the trumpets singing across the marshes,
+and now and then he saw the Confederate skirmishers and the roofs of
+Petersburg.  He beheld too with his own eyes the circle of steel closing
+about the last hope of the Confederacy, and he felt every day, with
+increasing strength, that the end was near.
+
+But the outside world did not realize that the great war was to close so
+suddenly.  It had raged with the utmost violence for four years and it
+seemed the normal condition in America.  Huge battles had been fought,
+and they had ended in nothing.  Three years before, McClellan had been
+nearer to Richmond than Grant now was, and yet he had been driven away.
+Lee and Jackson had won brilliant victories or had held the Union numbers
+to a draw, and to those looking from far away the end seemed as distant
+as ever.  At that very moment, they were saying in Europe that the
+Confederacy was invincible, and that it was stronger than it had been a
+year or two years earlier.
+
+Dick, all unconscious of distant opinion, watched the tightening of the
+steel belt, and helped in the task.  He and his comrades never doubted.
+They knew that Sherman had crushed the Southeast, and that Thomas,
+that stern old Rock of Chickamauga, had annihilated the Southern army
+of Hood at Nashville.  Dick was glad that the triumph there had gone to
+Thomas, whom he always held in the greatest respect and admiration.
+
+He often saw Grant in those days, a silent, resolute man, thinner than of
+old and stooped a little with care and responsibility.  Dick, like the
+others, felt with all the power of conviction that Grant would never go
+back, and Shepard, who had entered Petersburg twice at the imminent risk
+of his life, assured him that Lee's force was wearing away.  There was
+left only a fraction of the great Army of Northern Virginia that had
+fought so brilliantly at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness and
+on many another battlefield.
+
+"Only we who are here and who can see with our own eyes know what is
+about to happen," said the spy.  "Even our own Northern states, so long
+deluded by false hopes, can't yet believe, but we know."
+
+"Did you hear anything of the Invincibles when you were in Petersburg?"
+asked Dick.
+
+"I heard of them, and I also saw them, although they did not know I was
+near.  I suppose Harry Kenton could scarcely have contained himself had
+he known it was my sister who filched that map from the Curtis house in
+Richmond and that it was to me she gave it."
+
+"But he was all right?  He escaped unhurt from the Valley?"
+
+"Yes, or if he took a hurt it was but a slight one, from which he soon
+recovered.  He and his comrades, Dalton, St. Clair and Langdon, and the
+two Colonels, Talbot and St. Hilaire, are back with Lee, and they've
+organized another regiment called the Invincibles, which Talbot and
+St. Hilaire lead, although your cousin and Dalton are on Lee's staff
+again."
+
+"I suppose we'll come face to face again, and this time at the very last,"
+said Dick.  "I hope they'll be reasonable about it, and won't insist on
+fighting until they're all killed.  Have you heard anything of those two
+robbers and murderers, Slade and Skelly?"
+
+"Not a thing.  But I didn't expect it.  They'd never leave the mountains.
+Instead they'll go farther into 'em."
+
+That night many messengers rode with dispatches, and the lines of the
+Northern army were tightened.  Dick saw all the signs that portended
+a great movement, signs with which he had long since grown familiar.
+The big batteries were pushed forward, and heavy masses of infantry were
+moved closer to the Confederate trenches.  He felt quite sure that the
+final grapple was at hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE CLOSING DAYS
+
+
+Within the Southern lines and just beyond the range of the Northern guns,
+two men sat playing chess.  They were elderly, gray and thin, but
+never had the faces of the two colonels been more defiant.  With the
+Confederacy crumbling about them it was characteristic of both that they
+should show no despair, if in truth they felt it.  Their confidence in
+Lee was sublime.  He could still move mountains, although he had no tools
+with which to move them, and the younger officers, mere boys many of them,
+would come back to them again and again for encouragement.  Spies had
+brought word that Grant, after nine months of waiting, and with Sheridan
+and a huge cavalry force on his flank, was about to make his great
+attack.  But the dauntless souls of Colonel Leonidas Talbot and
+Lieutenant Colonel Hector St. Hilaire remained unmoved.
+
+"I'm glad the rains are apparently about to cease, Hector," said Colonel
+Talbot.  "When the ground grows firmer it will give General Lee a chance
+to make one of his great circling swoops, and rout the Yankee army."
+
+"So it will, Leonidas.  We've been waiting for it a long time, but the
+chance is here at last.  We've had enough of the trenches.  It's a
+monotonous life at best.  Ah, I take your pawn, the one for which I've
+been lying in ambush more than a month."
+
+"But that pawn dies in a good cause, Hector.  When he fell, he uncovered
+the path to your remaining knight, as a dozen more moves will show you.
+What is it, Harry?"
+
+Harry Kenton, thin, but hardy and strong, saluted.
+
+"We have news, sir," he replied, "that the portion of the Union army
+under General Sheridan is moving.  I bring you a dispatch from General
+Lee to march and meet them.  Other regiments, of course, will go with
+you."
+
+They put away the chessmen and with St. Clair and Langdon marshaled the
+troops in line of battle.  Harry felt a sinking of the heart when he saw
+how thin their ranks were, but the valiant colonels made no complaint.
+Then he went back to General Lee, whose manner was calm in face of the
+storm that was so obviously impending.  The information had come that
+Grant and the bulk of his army were marching to the attack on the White
+Oak road, and, if he broke through there, nothing could save the Army of
+Northern Virginia.
+
+Harry, after taking the dispatch to the Invincibles, carried orders to
+another regiment, while Dalton was engaged on similar errands.  It was
+obvious to him that Lee was gathering his men for a great effort, and
+his heart sank.  There was not much to gather.  Throughout all that
+long autumn and winter the Army of Northern Virginia had disintegrated
+steadily.  Nobody came to take the place of the slain, the wounded and
+the sick.  All the regiments were skeletons.  Many of them could not
+muster a hundred men apiece.
+
+But Harry saw no sign of discouragement on the face of the chief whom he
+respected and admired so much.  Lee was thinner and his hair was whiter,
+but his figure was as erect and vigorous as ever, and his face retained
+its ruddy color.  Yet he knew the odds against him.  Grant outside his
+works mustered a hundred thousand trained fighters, not raw levies,
+and the seasoned Army of the Potomac, that had persisted alike through
+victory and defeat, and proof now against any adversity, saw its prize
+almost in its hand.  And the worn veterans whom the Southern leader could
+marshal against Grant were not one third his numbers.
+
+The orderly who usually brought Lee's horse was missing on another errand,
+and Harry himself was proud to bring Traveler.  The general was absorbed
+in deep thought, and he did not notice until he was in the saddle who
+held the bridle.
+
+"Ah, it is you, Lieutenant Kenton!" he said.  "You are always where you
+are needed.  You have been a good soldier."
+
+Harry flushed deeply with pleasure at such a compliment from such a
+source.
+
+"I've tried to do my best, sir," he replied modestly.
+
+"No one can do any more.  You and Mr. Dalton keep close to me.  We must
+go and deal with those people, once more."
+
+His calm, steady tones brought Harry's courage back.  To the young
+hero-worshiper Lee himself was at least fifty thousand men, and even with
+his scanty numbers he would pluck victory from the very heart of defeat.
+
+There could no longer be any possible doubt that Grant was about to
+attack, and Lee made his dispositions rapidly.  While he led the bulk of
+his army in person to battle, Longstreet was left to face the army north
+of the James, while Gordon at the head of Ewell's old corps stood in
+front of Petersburg.  Then Lee turned away to the right with less than
+twenty thousand men to meet Grant, and fortified himself along the White
+Oak Road.  Here he waited for the Union general, who had not yet brought
+up his masses, but Harry and Dalton felt quite sure that despite the
+disparity of numbers Lee was the one who would attack.  It had been so
+all through the war, and they knew that in the offensive lay the best
+defensive.  The event soon proved that they read their general's mind
+aright.
+
+It was the last day of March when Lee suddenly gave the order for his
+gaunt veterans to advance, and they obeyed without faltering.  The rains
+had ceased, a bright sun was shining, and the Southern trumpets sang the
+charge as bravely as at the Second Manassas or Chancellorsville.  They
+had only two thousand cavalry on their flank, under Fitz Lee, but the
+veteran infantry advanced with steadiness and precision.  Colonel
+Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel Hector St. Hilaire were on foot
+now, having lost their horses long since, but, waving their small swords,
+they walked dauntlessly at the head of their little regiment, St. Clair
+and Langdon, a bit farther back, showing equal courage.
+
+The speed of the Southern charge increased and they were met at first by
+only a scattering fire.  The Northern generals, not expecting Lee to move
+out of his works, were surprised.  Before they could take the proper
+precautions Lee was upon them and once more the rebel yell that had
+swelled in victory on so many fields rang out in triumph.  The front
+lines of the men in blue were driven in, then whole brigades were thrown
+back, and Harry felt a wild thrill of delight when he beheld success
+where success had not seemed possible.
+
+He saw near him the Invincibles charging home, and the two colonels still
+waving their swords as they led them, and he saw also the worn faces
+of the veterans about him suffused once more with the fire of battle.
+He watched with glowing eyes as the fierce charge drove the Northern
+masses back farther and farther.
+
+But the Union leaders, though taken by surprise, did not permit
+themselves and their troops to fall into a panic.  They had come too
+far and had fought too many battles to lose the prize at the very last
+moment.  Their own trumpets sounded on a long line, calling back the
+regiments and brigades.  Although the South had gained much ground Harry
+saw that the resistance was hardening rapidly.  Grant and Sheridan were
+pouring in their masses.  Heavy columns of infantry gathered in their
+front, and Sheridan's numerous and powerful cavalry began to cut away
+their flanks.  The Southern advance became slow and then ceased entirely.
+
+Harry felt again that dreadful sinking of the heart.  Leadership, valor
+and sacrifice were of no avail, when they were faced by leadership,
+valor and sacrifice also added to overwhelming numbers.
+
+The battle was long and fierce, the men in gray throwing away their
+lives freely in charge after charge, but they were gradually borne back.
+Lee showed all his old skill and generalship, marshaling his men with
+coolness and precision, but Grant and Sheridan would not be denied.
+They too were cool and skillful, and when night came the Southern army
+was driven back at all points, although it had displayed a valor never
+surpassed in any of the great battles of the war.  But Lee's face had not
+yet shown any signs of despair, when he gathered his men again in his old
+works.
+
+It was to Harry, however, one of the gloomiest nights that he had ever
+known.  As a staff officer, he knew the desperate position of the
+Southern force, and his heart was very heavy within him.  He saw across
+the swamps and fields the innumerable Northern campfires, and he heard
+the Northern bugles calling to one another in the dusk.  But as the night
+advanced and he had duties to do his courage rose once more.  Since their
+great commander-in-chief was steady and calm he would try to be so too.
+
+The opposing sentinels were very close to one another in the dark and as
+usual they often talked.  Harry, as he went on one errand or another,
+heard them sometimes, but he never interfered, knowing that nothing was
+to be gained by stopping them.  Deep in the night, when he was passing
+through a small wood very close to the Union lines, a figure rose up
+before him.  It was so dark that he did not know the man at first,
+but at the second look he recognized him.
+
+"Shepard!" he exclaimed.  "You here!"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Kenton," replied the spy, "it's Shepard, and you will not
+try to harm me.  Why should you at such a moment?  I am within the
+Confederate lines for the last time."
+
+"So, you mean to give up your trade?"
+
+"It's going to give me up.  Chance has made you and me antagonists,
+Mr. Kenton, but our own little war, as well as the great war in which we
+both fight, is about over.  I will not come within the Southern lines
+again because there is no need for me to do so.  In a few days there will
+be no Southern lines.  Don't think that I'm trying to exult over you,
+but remember what I told you four years ago in Montgomery.  The South has
+made a great and wonderful fight, but it was never possible for her to
+win."
+
+"We are not beaten yet, Mr. Shepard."
+
+"No, but you will be.  I suppose you'll fight to the last, but the end is
+sure as the rising of tomorrow's sun.  We have generals now who can't be
+driven back."
+
+Harry was silent because he had no answer to make, and Shepard resumed:
+
+"I'm willing to tell you, Mr. Kenton, that your cousin, Mr. Mason,
+a captain now, is here with General Sheridan, and that he went through
+today's battle uninjured."
+
+"I'm glad at any rate that Dick is now a captain."
+
+"He has earned the rank.  He is my good friend, as I hope you will be
+after the war."
+
+"I see no reason why we shouldn't.  You've served the North in your own
+way and I've served the South in mine.  I want to say to you, Mr. Shepard,
+that if in our long personal struggle I held any malice against you it's
+all gone now, and I hope that you hold none against me."
+
+"I never felt any.  Good-by!"
+
+"Good-by!"
+
+Shepard was gone so quickly and with so little noise that he seemed to
+vanish in the air, and Harry turned back to his work, resolved not to
+believe the man's assertion that the war was over.  He slept a little,
+and so did Dalton, but both were awake, when a red dawn came alive with
+the crash of cannon and rifles.
+
+Shepard had spoken truly, when he said that the North now had generals
+who would not be driven back.  Nor would they cease to attack.  As soon
+as the light was sufficient, Grant and Sheridan began to press Lee with
+all their might.  Pickett, who had led the great charge at Gettysburg,
+and Johnson, who held a place called Five Forks, were assailed fiercely
+by overpowering numbers, and, despite a long and desperate resistance,
+their command was cut in pieces and the fragments scattered, leaving
+Lee's right flank uncovered.
+
+The day, like the one before it, ended in defeat and confusion, and,
+at the next dawn, Grant, silent, tenacious, came anew to the attack,
+his dense columns now assailing the front before Petersburg, and carrying
+the trenches that had held them so long.  The thin Confederate lines
+there fought in vain to hold them, but the Union brigades, exultant and
+cheering, burst through everything, flung aside those of their foes whom
+they did not overthrow, and advanced toward the city.  Here fell the
+famous Lieutenant General A. P. Hill, a man of frail body and valiant
+soul, beloved of Lee and the whole army.
+
+The next noon came, somber to Harry beyond all description.  The youngest
+officer knew that while General Lee was still in Petersburg he could no
+longer hold it, and that they were nearly surrounded by the victorious
+and powerful Union host.  The break in the lines had been made just after
+sunrise, and had been widened in the later hours of the morning.  Now
+there was a momentary lull in the firing, but the lifting clouds of smoke
+enabled them to see vast masses of men in blue advancing and already in
+the suburbs of the town.
+
+Lee's headquarters were about a mile and a half west of Petersburg,
+where he stood on a lawn and watched the progress of the combat.  Nearly
+opposite him was a tall observatory that the Union men had erected,
+and from its summit the Northern generals also were watching.  Harry and
+Dalton stood near Lee, awaiting with others his call, and every detail
+he saw that day always remained impressed upon Harry Kenton's mind.
+
+He intently watched his general.  Feeling that the Southern army was so
+near destruction he thought that the face of Lee would show agitation.
+But it was not so.  His calm and grave demeanor was unchanged.  He was
+in full uniform of fine gray, and had even buckled to his belt his dress
+sword which he seldom carried.  It was told of him that he said that
+morning if he were compelled to surrender he would do so in his best.
+But he had not yet given up hope.
+
+Harry turned his eyes away from Lee to the enemy.  Without the aid of
+glasses now, he saw the great columns in blue advancing, preceded by a
+tremendous fire of artillery that filled the air with bursting shells.
+The infantry themselves were advancing with the bayonet, the sunlight
+gleaming on the polished metal.  As far as he could see the ring of fire
+and steel extended.  One heavy column was advancing toward the very lawn
+on which they stood.
+
+"Looks as if they were going to trample us under foot," said Dalton.
+
+"Yes, but the general may still find a way out of it," said Harry.
+
+"They are still coming," said Dalton.
+
+The shells were bursting about them and bullets too soon began to strike
+upon the lawn.  A battery that sought to drive back the advancing column
+was exposed to such a heavy fire that it was compelled to limber up and
+retreat.  The officers urged Lee to withdraw and at length, mounting
+Traveler, he rode back slowly and deliberately to his inner line.
+Harry often wondered what his feelings were on that day, but whatever
+they were his face expressed nothing.  When he stopped in his new
+position he said to one of his staff, but without raising his voice:
+
+"This is a bad business, colonel."
+
+Harry heard him say a little later to another officer:
+
+"Well, colonel, it has happened as I told them it would at Richmond.
+The line has stretched until it has broken."
+
+But the general and his staff were not permitted to remain long at their
+second stop.  The Union columns never ceased to press the shattered
+Southern army.  Their great artillery, served with the rapidity and
+accuracy that had marked it all through the war, poured showers of shell
+and grape and canister upon the thin ranks in gray, and the rifles were
+close enough to add their own stream of missiles to the irresistible fire.
+
+Harry was in great fear for his general.  It seemed as if the Northern
+gunners had recognized him and his staff.  Perhaps they knew his famous
+war horse, Traveler, as he rode slowly away, but in any event, the shells
+began to strike on all sides of the little group.  One burst just behind
+Lee.  Another killed the horse of an officer close to him, and the
+bursting fragments inflicted slight wounds upon members of the staff.
+Lee, for the first time, showed emotion.  Looking back over his shoulder
+his eyes blazed, and his cheeks flushed.  Harry knew that he wished to
+turn and order a charge, but there was nothing with which to charge, and,
+withdrawing his gaze from the threatening artillery, he rode steadily on.
+
+The general's destination now was an earthwork in the suburbs of the city,
+manned by a reserve force, small but ardent and defiant.  It welcomed Lee
+and his staff with resounding cheers, and Harry's heart sprang up again.
+Here, at least, was confidence, and as they rode behind them the guns
+replied fiercely to the advancing Northern batteries, checking them for a
+little while, and giving the retreating troops a chance to rest.
+
+Now came a lull in the fighting, but Harry knew well that it was only
+a lull.  Presently Grant and Sheridan would press harder than ever.
+They were fully aware of the condition of the Southern army, its
+smallness and exhaustion, and they would never cease to hurl upon it
+their columns of cavalry and infantry, and to rake it with the numerous
+batteries of great guns, served so well.  Once more his heart sank low,
+as he thought of what the next night might bring forth.  He knew that
+General Lee had sent in the morning a messenger to the capital with the
+statement that Petersburg could be held no longer and that he would
+retreat in the night.
+
+Every effort was made to gather the remaining portion of the Southern
+army into one strong, cohesive body.  Longstreet, at the order of Lee,
+left his position north of the James River, while Gordon took charge of
+the lines to the east of Petersburg.  It was when they gathered for this
+last stand that Harry realized fully how many of the great Confederate
+officers were gone.  It was here that he first heard of the death of
+A. P. Hill, of whom he had seen so much at Gettysburg.  And he choked as
+he thought of Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, Turner Ashby and all the
+long roll of the illustrious fallen, who were heroes to him.
+
+The Northern infantry and cavalry did not charge now, but the cannon
+continued their work.  Battery after battery poured its fire upon the
+earthworks, although the men there, sheltered by the trenches, did not
+suffer so much for the present.
+
+Harry found time to look up his friends, and discovered the Invincibles
+in a single trench, about sixty of them left, but all showing a
+cheerfulness, extraordinary in such a situation.  It was characteristic
+of both Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire that they
+should present a bolder front, the more desperate their case.  Nor
+were the younger officers less assured.  Captain Arthur St. Clair was
+carefully dusting from his clothing dirt that had been thrown there by
+bursting shells, and Lieutenant Thomas Langdon was contemplating with
+satisfaction the track of a bullet that had gone through his left sleeve
+without touching the arm.
+
+"The sight of you is welcome, Harry," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot in
+even tones.  "It is pleasant to know at such a time that one's friend is
+alive, because the possibilities are always against it.  Still, Harry,
+I've always felt that you bear a charmed life, and so do St. Clair and
+Langdon.  Tell me, is it true that we evacuate Petersburg tonight?"
+
+"It's no secret, sir.  The orders have been issued and we do."
+
+"If we must go, we must, and it's no time for repining.  Well, the town
+has been defended long and valiantly against overwhelming numbers.
+If we lose it, we lose with glory.  It can never be said of the South
+that we were not as brave and tenacious as any people that ever lived."
+
+"The Northern armies that fight us will be the first to give us that
+credit, sir."
+
+"That is true.  Soldiers who have tested the mettle of one another on
+innumerable desperate fields do not bear malice and are always ready to
+acknowledge the merits of the foe.  Ah, see how closely that shell burst
+to us!  And another!  And a third!  And a fourth!  Hector, you read the
+message, do you not?"
+
+"Certainly, Leonidas, it's as plain as print to you and me.  John
+Carrington--good old John! honest old John!--is now in command of that
+group of batteries on the right.  He has been in charge of guns elsewhere,
+and has been suddenly shifted to this point.  The great increase in
+volume and accuracy of fire proves it."
+
+"Right, Hector!  He's as surely there as we are here.  The voice of those
+cannon is the voice of John Carrington.  Well, if we're to be crushed I
+prefer for good old John to do it."
+
+"But we're not crushed, Leonidas.  We'll go out of Petersburg tonight,
+beating off every attack of the enemy, and then if we can't hold Richmond
+we'll march into North Carolina, gather together all the remaining forces
+of the Confederacy, and, directed by the incomparable genius of our great
+commander, we'll yet win the victory."
+
+"Right, Hector!  Right!  Pardon me my moment of depression, but it was
+only a moment, remember, and it will not occur again.  The loss of a
+capital--even if it should come to that--does not necessarily mean the
+loss of a cause.  Among the hills and mountains of North Carolina we can
+hold out forever."
+
+Harry was cheered by them, but he did not fully share their hopes and
+beliefs.
+
+"Aren't they two of the greatest men you've ever known?" whispered
+St. Clair to him.
+
+"If honesty and grandeur of soul make greatness they surely are," replied
+Harry feelingly.
+
+He returned now to his general's side, and watched the great bombardment.
+Scores of guns in a vast half circle were raining shells upon the slender
+Confederate lines.  The blaze was continuous on a long front, and huge
+clouds of smoke gathered above.  Harry believed that the entire Union
+army would move forward and attack their works, but the charge did not
+come.  Evidently Grant remembered Cold Harbor, and, feeling that his
+enemy was in his grasp, he refrained from useless sacrifices.
+
+Another terrible night, lighted up by the flash of cannon and thundering
+with the crash of the batteries came, and Lee, collecting his army of
+less than twenty thousand men, moved out of Petersburg.  It tore Harry's
+heart to leave the city, where they had held Grant at bay so long,
+but he knew the necessity.  They could not live another day under that
+concentrated and awful fire.  They might stay and surrender or retreat
+and fight again, and valiant souls would surely choose the latter.
+
+The march began just after twilight turned to night, and the darkness and
+clouds of skirmishers hid it from the enemy.  They crossed the Appomattox,
+and then advanced on the Hickory road on the north side of the river.
+General Lee stood on foot, but with the bridle of Traveler in his hand
+and his staff about him, at the entrance to the road, and watched the
+troops as they marched past.
+
+His composure and steadiness seemed to Harry as great as ever, and his
+voice never broke, as he spoke now and then to the marching men.  Nor was
+the spirit of the men crushed.  Again and again they cheered as they saw
+the strong figure of the gray commander who had led them so often to
+victory.  Nor were they shaken by the booming of the cannon behind them,
+nor by the tremendous crashes that marked the explosions of the magazines
+in Petersburg.
+
+When the last soldier had passed, General Lee and his staff mounted their
+horses and followed the army in the dusk and gloom.  Behind them lofty
+fires shed a glaring light over fallen Petersburg.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+APPOMATTOX
+
+
+The morning after Lee's retreat the Winchester regiment rode into
+Petersburg and looked curiously at the smoldering fires and what was left
+of the town.  They had been before it so long it seemed almost incredible
+to Dick Mason that they were in it now.  But the Southern leader and his
+army were not yet taken.  They were gone, and they still existed as a
+fighting power.
+
+"We have Petersburg at last," he said, "but it's only a scorched and
+empty shell."
+
+"We've more than that," said Warner.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"We've Richmond, too.  The capital of the Confederacy, inviolate for four
+years, has fallen, and our troops have entered it.  Jefferson Davis,
+his government and its garrison have fled, burning the army buildings and
+stores as they went.  A part of the city was burned also, but our troops
+helped to put out the fires and saved the rest.  Dick, do you realize it?
+Do you understand that we have captured the city over which we have
+fought for four years, and which has cost more than a half million lives?"
+
+Dick was silent, because he had no answer to make.  Neither he nor Warner
+nor Pennington could yet comprehend it fully.  They had talked often of
+the end of the war, they had looked forward to the great event, they had
+hoped for the taking of Richmond, but now that it was taken it scarcely
+seemed real.
+
+"Tell it over, George," he said, "was it Richmond you were speaking of,
+and did you say that it was taken?"
+
+"Yes, Dick, and it's the truth.  Of course it doesn't look like it to you
+or to me or to Frank, but it's a fact.  Today or tomorrow we may go there
+and see it with our own eyes, and then if we don't believe the sight we
+can read an account of it in the newspapers."
+
+It was a process of saturation, but in the next hour or two they believed
+it and understood it fully.  On the following day they rode into the
+desolate and partly burned capital, now garrisoned heavily by the North,
+and looked with curiosity at the little city for which such torrents of
+blood had been shed.  But as at Winchester and Petersburg, they gazed
+upon blind doors and windows.  Nor did they expect anything else.
+It was only natural, and they refrained carefully from any outward show
+of exultation.
+
+Richmond was to hold them only a few hours, as Grant and Sheridan
+continued hot on the trail of Lee.  They knew that he was marching along
+the Appomattox, intending to concentrate at Amelia Court House, and they
+were resolved that he should not escape.  Sheridan's cavalry, with the
+Winchester regiment in the van, advanced swiftly and began to press
+hard upon the retreating army.  The firing was almost continuous.  Many
+prisoners and five guns were taken, but at the crossing of a creek near
+nightfall the men in gray, still resolute, turned and beat off their
+assailants for the time.
+
+The pursuit was resumed before the next daylight, and both Grant and
+Sheridan pressed it with the utmost severity.  In the next few days Dick
+felt both pity and sympathy for the little army that was defending itself
+so valiantly against extermination or capture.  It was almost like the
+chase of a fox now, and the hounds were always growing in number and
+power.
+
+The Northern cavalry spread out and formed a great net.  The Southern
+communications were cut off, their scouts were taken, and all the
+provision trains intended for Lee were captured.  The prisoners reported
+that the Southern army was starving, and the condition of their own
+bodies proved the truth of their words.  As Dick looked upon these ragged
+and famished men his feeling of pity increased, and he sincerely hoped
+that the hour of Lee's surrender would be hastened.
+
+During these days and most of the nights too Dick lived in the saddle.
+Once more he and his comrades were clothed in the Virginia mud, and all
+the time the Winchester regiment brought in prisoners or wagons.  They
+knew now that Lee was seeking to turn toward the South and effect a
+junction with Johnston in North Carolina, but Dick, his thoughts being
+his own, did not see how it was possible.  When the Confederacy began to
+fall it fell fast.  It was only after they passed through Richmond that
+he saw how frail the structure had become, and how its supporting timbers
+had been shot away.  It was great cause of wonder to him that Lee should
+still be able to hold out, and to fight off cavalry raids, as he was
+doing.
+
+And the Army of Northern Virginia, although but a fragment, was
+dangerous.  In these its last hours, reduced almost to starvation and
+pitiful in numbers, it fought with a courage and tenacity worthy of its
+greatest days.  It gave to Lee a devotion that would have melted a heart
+of stone.  Whenever he commanded, it turned fiercely upon its remorseless
+pursuers, and compelled them to give ground for a time.  But when it
+sought to march on again the cavalry of Sheridan and the infantry of
+Grant followed closely once more, continually cutting off the fringe of
+the dwindling army.
+
+Dick saw Lee himself on a hill near Sailor's Creek, as Sheridan pressed
+forward against him.  The gray leader had turned.  The troops of Ewell
+and Anderson were gathered at the edge of a forest, and other infantry
+masses stood near.  Lee on Traveler sat just in front of them, and was
+surveying the enemy through his glasses.  Dick used his own glasses,
+and he looked long, and with the most intense curiosity, mingled with
+admiration, at the Lion of the South, whom they were about to bring
+to the ground.  The sun was just setting, and Lee was defined sharply
+against the red blaze.  Dick saw his features, his gray hair, and he
+could imagine the defiant blaze of his eyes.  It was an unforgettable
+picture, the one drawn there by circumstances at the closing of an era.
+
+Then he took notice of a figure, also on horseback, not far behind Lee,
+a youthful figure, the face thin and worn, none other than his cousin,
+Harry Kenton.  Dick's heart took a glad leap.  Harry still rode with
+his chief, and Dick's belief that he would survive the war was almost
+justified.
+
+Then followed a scattering fire to which sunset and following darkness
+put an end, and once more the Southern leader retreated, with Sheridan
+and his cavalry forever at his heels, giving him no rest, keeping food
+from reaching him, and capturing more of his men.  The wounded lion
+turned again, and, in a fierce attack drove back Sheridan and his men,
+but, when the battle closed, and Lee resumed his march, Sheridan was at
+his heels as before, seeking to pull him down, and refusing to be driven
+off.
+
+Grant also dispatched Custer in a cavalry raid far around Lee, and the
+daring young leader not only seized the last wagon train that could
+possibly reach the Confederate commander, but also captured twenty-five
+of his guns that had been sent on ahead.  Dick knew now that the end,
+protracted as it had been by desperate courage, was almost at hand,
+and that not even a miracle could prevent it.
+
+The column with which he rode was almost continually in sight of the Army
+of Northern Virginia, and the field guns never ceased to pour shot and
+shell upon it.  The sight was tragic to the last degree, as the worn men
+in gray retreated sullenly along the muddy roads, in rags, blackened
+with mire, stained with wounds, their horses falling dead of exhaustion,
+while the pursuing artillery cut down their ranks.  Then the news of
+Custer's exploit came to Grant and Sheridan, and the circle of steel,
+now complete, closed in on the doomed army.
+
+It was the seventh of April when the Winchester men rested their weary
+horses, not far from the headquarters of General Grant, and also gave
+their own aching bones and muscles a chance to recover their strength.
+Dick, after his food and coffee, watched the general, who was walking
+back and forth before his tent.
+
+"He looks expectant," said Dick.
+
+"He has the right to look so," said Warner.  "He may have news of
+earth-shaking importance."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I know that he sent a messenger to Lee this morning, asking him to
+surrender in order to stop the further effusion of blood."
+
+"I wish Lee would accept.  The end is inevitable."
+
+"Remember that they don't see with our eyes."
+
+"I know it, George, but the war ought to stop.  The Confederacy is gone
+forever."
+
+"We shall see what we shall see."
+
+They didn't see, but they heard, which was the same thing.  To the polite
+request of Grant, Lee sent the polite reply that his means of resistance
+were not yet exhausted, and the Union leader took another hitch in the
+steel girdle.  The second morning afterward, Lee made a desperate effort
+to break through at Appomattox Court House, but crushing numbers drove
+him back, and when the short fierce combat ceased, the Army of Northern
+Virginia had fired its last shot.
+
+The Winchester men had borne a gallant part in the struggle, and
+presently when the smoke cleared away Dick uttered a shout.
+
+"What is it?" exclaimed Colonel Winchester.
+
+"A white flag!  A white flag!" cried Dick in excitement.  "See it waving
+over the Southern lines."
+
+"Yes, I see it!" shouted the colonel, Warner and Pennington all together.
+Then they stood breathless, and Dick uttered the words:
+
+"The end!"
+
+"Yes," said Colonel Winchester, more to himself than to the others.
+"The end!  The end at last!"
+
+Thousands now beheld the flag, and, after the first shouts and cheers,
+a deep intense silence followed.  The soldiers felt the immensity of the
+event, but as at the taking of Richmond, they could not comprehend it all
+at once.  It yet seemed incredible that the enemy, who for four terrible
+years had held them at bay, was about to lay down his arms.  But it was
+true.  The messenger, bearing the flag, was now coming toward the Union
+lines.
+
+The herald was received within the Northern ranks, bearing a request that
+hostilities be suspended in order that the commanders might have time
+to talk over terms of surrender, and, at the same time, General Grant,
+who was seven or eight miles from Appomattox Court House in a pine wood,
+received a note of a similar tenor, the nature of which he disclosed to
+his staff amid much cheering.  The Union chief at once wrote to General
+Lee:
+
+
+  Your note of this date is but at this moment (11:50 A. M.) received,
+  in consequence of my having passed from the Richmond and Lynchburg
+  road to the Farmville and Lynchburg road.  I am at this writing
+  about four miles west of Walker's Church, and will push forward to
+  the front for the purpose of meeting you.  Notice sent to me on
+  this road where you wish the interview to take place will meet me.
+
+
+It was a characteristic and modest letter, and yet the heart under the
+plain blue blouse must have beat with elation at the knowledge that
+he had brought, what was then the greatest war of modern times, to a
+successful conclusion.  The dispatch was given to Colonel Babcock of
+his staff, who was instructed to ride in haste to Lee and arrange the
+interview.  The general and his staff followed, but missing the way,
+narrowly escaped capture by Confederate troops, who did not yet know of
+the proposal to suspend hostilities.  But they at last reached Sheridan
+about a half mile west of Appomattox Court House.
+
+Dick and his comrades meanwhile spent a momentous morning.  It would have
+been impossible for him afterward to have described his own feelings,
+they were such an extraordinary compound of relief, elation, pity and
+sympathy.  The two armies faced each other, and, for the first time,
+in absolute peace.  The men in blue were already slipping food and
+tobacco to their brethren in gray whom they had fought so long and so
+hard, and at many points along the lines they were talking freely with
+one another.  The officers made no effort to restrain them, all alike
+feeling sure that the bayonets would now be rusting.
+
+The Winchester men were dismounted, their horses being tethered in a
+grove, and Dick with the colonel, Warner and Pennington were at the front,
+eagerly watching the ragged little army that faced them.  He saw soon
+a small band of soldiers, at the head of whom stood two elderly men in
+patched but neat uniforms, their figures very erect, and their faces
+bearing no trace of depression.  Close by them were two tall youths whom
+Dick recognized at once as St. Clair and Langdon.  He waved his hand to
+them repeatedly, and, at last, caught the eye of St. Clair, who at once
+waved back and then called Langdon's attention.  Langdon not only waved
+also, but walked forward, as if to meet him, bringing St. Clair with him,
+and Dick, responding at once, advanced with Warner and Pennington.
+
+They shook hands under the boughs of an old oak, and were unaffectedly
+glad to see one another, although the three youths in blue felt
+awkwardness at first, being on the triumphant side, and fearing lest
+some act or word of theirs might betray exultation over a conquered foe.
+But St. Clair, precise, smiling, and trim in his attire, put them at ease.
+
+"General Lee will be here presently," he said, "and you, as well as we,
+know that the war is over.  You are the victors and our cause is lost."
+
+"But you have lost with honor," said Dick, won by his manner.  "The odds
+were greatly against you.  It's wonderful to me that you were able to
+fight so long and with so much success."
+
+"It was a matter of mathematics, Captain St. Clair," said Warner.
+"The numbers, the big guns and the resources were on our side, If we held
+on we were bound to win, as anyone could demonstrate.  It's certainly
+no fault of yours to have been defeated by mathematics, a science that
+governs the world."
+
+St. Clair and Langdon smiled, and Langdon said lightly:
+
+"It would perhaps be more just to say, Mr. Warner, that we have not been
+beaten, but that we've worn ourselves out, fighting.  Besides, the spring
+is here, a lot of us are homesick, and it's time to put in the crops."
+
+"I think that's a good way to leave it," said Dick.  "Do you know where
+my cousin, Harry Kenton, is?"
+
+"I saw him this morning," replied St. Clair, "and I can assure you that
+he's taken no harm.  He's riding ahead of the commander-in-chief, and he
+should be here soon."
+
+A trumpet sounded and they separated, returning respectively to their own
+lines.  Standing on a low hill, Dick saw Harry Kenton and Dalton dismount
+and then stand on one side, as if in expectancy.  Dick knew for whom they
+were waiting, and his own heart beat hard.  A great hum and murmur arose,
+when the gray figure of an elderly man riding the famous war horse,
+Traveler, appeared.
+
+It was Lee, and in this moment, when his heart must have bled, his
+bearing was proud and high.  He was worn somewhat, and he had lost
+strength from the great privations and anxieties of the retreat, but he
+held himself erect.  He was clothed in a fine new uniform, and he wore
+buckled at his side a splendid new sword, recently sent to him as a
+present.
+
+Near by stood a farm house belonging to Wilmer McLean, but, Grant not yet
+having come, the Southern commander-in-chief dismounted, and, as the air
+was close and hot, he remained a little while under the shade of an apple
+tree, the famous apple tree of Appomattox, around which truth and legend
+have played so much.
+
+Dick was fully conscious of everything now.  He realized the greatness of
+the moment, and he would not miss any detail of any movement on the part
+of the principals.  It was nearly three o'clock in the afternoon when
+Grant and his staff rode up, the Union leader still wearing his plain
+blue blouse, no sword at his side, his shoulder straps alone signifying
+his rank.
+
+The two generals who had faced each other with such resolution in that
+terrible conflict shook hands, and Dick saw them talking pleasantly as
+if they were chance acquaintances who had just met once more.  Presently
+they went into the McLean house, several of General Grant's staff
+accompanying him, but Lee taking with him only Colonel Thomas Marshall.
+
+Before the day was over Dick learned all that had occurred inside that
+unpretentious but celebrated farm house.  The two great commanders,
+at first did not allude to the civil war, but spoke of the old war in
+Mexico, where Lee, the elder, had been General Winfield Scott's chief
+of staff, and the head of his engineer corps, with Grant, the younger,
+as a lieutenant and quartermaster.  It never entered the wildest dreams
+of either then that they should lead the armies of a divided nation
+engaged in mortal combat.  Now they had only pleasant recollections of
+each other, and they talked of the old days, of Contreras, Molino del Rey,
+and other battles in the Valley of Mexico.
+
+They sat down at a plain table, and then came in the straightforward
+manner characteristic of both to the great business in hand.  Colonel
+Marshall supplied the paper for the historic documents now about to be
+written and signed.
+
+General Grant, humane, and never greater or more humane than in the
+hour of victory, made the terms easy.  All the officers of the Army of
+Northern Virginia were to give their parole not to take up arms against
+the United States, until properly exchanged, and the company or
+regimental commanders were to sign a like parole for their men.  The
+artillery, other arms and public property were to be turned over to the
+Union army, although the officers were permitted to retain their side
+arms and their own horses and baggage.  Then officers and men alike could
+go to their homes.
+
+It was truly the supreme moment of Grant's greatness, of a humanity
+and greatness of soul the value of which to his nation can never be
+overestimated.  Surrenders in Europe at the end of a civil war had always
+been followed by confiscations, executions and a reign of terror for the
+beaten.  Here the man who had compelled the surrender merely told the
+defeated to go to their homes.
+
+Lee looked at the terms and said:
+
+"Many of the artillerymen and cavalrymen in our army own their horses,
+will the provisions allowing the officers to retain their horses apply to
+them also?"
+
+"No, it will not as it is written," replied Grant, "but as I think this
+will be the last battle of the war, and as I suppose most of the men
+in the ranks are small farmers who without their horses would find it
+difficult to put in their crops, the country having been swept of
+everything movable, and as the United States does not want them, I will
+instruct the officers who are to receive the paroles of your troops to
+let every man who claims to own a horse or mule take the animal to his
+home."
+
+"It will have a pleasant effect," said Lee, and then he wrote a formal
+letter accepting the capitulations.  The two generals, rising, bowed to
+each other, but as Lee turned away he said that his men had eaten no food
+for several days, except parched corn, and he would have to ask that
+rations, and forage for their horses, be given to them.
+
+"Certainly, general," replied Grant.  "For how many men do you need them?"
+
+"About twenty-five thousand," was Lee's reply.
+
+Then General Grant requested him to send his own officers to Appomattox
+Station for the food and forage.  Lee thanked him.  They bowed to each
+other again, and the Southern leader who no longer had an army, but who
+retained always the love and veneration of the South, left the McLean
+house.  Thus and in this simple fashion--the small detached fighting
+elsewhere did not count--did the great civil war in America, which had
+cost six or seven hundred thousand lives, and the temporary ruin of one
+section, come to an end.
+
+Dick saw Lee come out of the house, mount Traveler and, followed by
+Colonel Marshall, ride back toward his own men who already had divined
+the occurrences in the house.  The army saluted him with undivided
+affection, the troops crowding around him, cheering him, and, whenever
+they had a chance, shaking his hand.  The demonstration became so great
+that Lee was moved deeply and showed it.  The water rose in his eyes and
+his voice trembled as he said, though with pride:
+
+"My lads, we have fought through the war together.  I have done the best
+I could for you.  My heart is too full to say more."
+
+He could not be induced to speak further, although the great
+demonstration continued, but rode in silence to his headquarters in a
+wood, where he entered his tent and sat alone, no one ever knowing what
+his thoughts were in that hour.
+
+Twenty-six thousand men who were left of the Army of Northern Virginia
+surrendered the next day, and the blue and the gray fraternized.  The
+Union soldiers did not wait for the rations ordered by Grant, but gave
+of their own to the starved men who were so lately their foes.  Dick and
+his friends hastened at once to find Harry Kenton and his comrades, and
+presently they saw them all sitting together on a log, thin and pale,
+but with no abatement of pride.  Harry rose nevertheless, and received
+his cousin joyfully.
+
+"Dick," he said as their hands met, "the war is over, and over forever.
+But you and I were never enemies."
+
+"That's so, Harry," said Dick Mason, "and the thing for us to do now is
+to go back to Kentucky, and begin life where we left it off."
+
+"But you don't start this minute," said Warner.  "There is a small matter
+of business to be transacted first.  We know all of you, but just the
+same we've brought our visiting cards with us."
+
+"I don't understand," said Harry.
+
+"We'll show you.  Frank Pennington, remove that large protuberance from
+beneath your blouse.  Behold it!  A small ham, my friends, and it's for
+you.  That's Frank's card.  And here I take from my own blouse the half
+of a cheese, which I beg you to accept with my compliments.  Dick,
+you rascal, what's that you have under your arm?"
+
+"It's a jar of prime bacon that I've brought along for the party, George."
+
+"I thought so.  We're going to have the pleasure of dining with our
+friends here.  We've heard, Captain Kenton, that you people haven't eaten
+anything for a month."
+
+"It's not that bad," laughed Harry.  "We had parched corn yesterday."
+
+"Well, parched corn is none too filling, and we're going to prepare the
+banquet at once.  A certain Sergeant Whitley will arrive presently with
+a basket of food, such as you rebels haven't tasted since you raided our
+wagon trains at the Second Manassas, and with him will come one William
+Shepard, whom you have met often, Mr. Kenton."
+
+"Yes," said Harry, "we've met often and under varying circumstances,
+but we're going to be friends now."
+
+"Will you tell me, Captain St. Clair," said Dick, "what has become of the
+two colonels of your regiment, which I believe you call the Invincibles?"
+
+St. Clair led them silently to a little wood, and there, sitting on logs,
+Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel Hector St. Hilaire were
+bent intently over the chess board that lay between them.
+
+"Now that the war is over we'll have a chance to finish our game, eh,
+Hector?" said Colonel Talbot.
+
+"A just observation, Leonidas.  It's a difficult task to pursue a game
+to a perfect conclusion amid the distractions of war, but soon I shall
+checkmate you in the brilliant fashion in which General Lee always snares
+and destroys his enemy."
+
+"But General Lee has yielded, Hector."
+
+"Pshaw, Leonidas!  General Lee would never yield to anybody.  He has
+merely quit!"
+
+"Ahem!" said Harry loudly, and, as the colonels glanced up, they saw the
+little group looking down at them.
+
+"Our friends, the enemy, have come to pay you their respects," said Harry.
+
+The two colonels rose and bowed profoundly.
+
+"And to invite you to a banquet that is now being prepared not far from
+here," continued Harry.  "It's very tempting, ham, cheese, and other
+solids, surrounded by many delicacies."
+
+The two colonels looked at each other, and then nodded approval.
+
+"You are to be the personal guests of our army," said Dick, "and we act
+as the proxies of General Grant."
+
+"I shall always speak most highly of General Grant," said Colonel
+Leonidas Talbot.  "His conduct has been marked by the greatest humanity,
+and is a credit to our common country, which has been reunited so
+suddenly."
+
+"But reunited with our consent, Leonidas," said Lieutenant Colonel
+St. Hilaire.  "Don't forget that I, for one, am tired of this war,
+and so is our whole army.  It was a perfect waste of life to prolong it,
+and with the North reannexed, the Union will soon be stronger and more
+prosperous than ever."
+
+"Well spoken, Hector!  Well spoken.  It is perhaps better that North
+and South should remain together.  I thought otherwise for four years,
+but now I seem to have another point of view.  Come, lads, we shall dine
+with these good Yankee boys and we'll make them drink toasts of their own
+excellent coffee to the health and safety of our common country."
+
+The group returned to a little hollow, in which Sergeant Whitley and
+Shepard had built a fire, and where they were already frying strips of
+bacon and slices of ham over the coals.  Shepard and Harry shook hands.
+
+"I may as well tell you now, Mr. Kenton," said Shepard, "that Miss
+Henrietta Carden, whom you met in Richmond, is my sister, and that it was
+she who hid in the court at the Curtis house and took the map.  Then it
+was I who gave you the blow."
+
+"It was done in war," said Harry, "and I have no right to complain.
+It was clever and I hope that I shall be able to give your sister my
+compliments some day.  Now, if you don't mind, I'll take a strip of that
+wonderful bacon.  It is bacon, isn't it?  It's so long since I've seen
+any that I'm not sure of its identity, but whatever it is its odor is
+enticing."
+
+"Bacon it surely is, Mr. Kenton.  Here are three pieces that I broiled
+myself and a broad slice of bread for them.  Go ahead, there's plenty
+more.  And see this dark brown liquid foaming in this stout tin pot!
+Smell it!  Isn't it wonderful!  Well, that's coffee!  You've heard of
+coffee, and maybe you remember it."
+
+"I do remember tasting it some years ago and finding it good.  I'd like
+to try it again.  Yes, thank you.  It's fine."
+
+"Here's another cup, and try the ham also."
+
+Harry tried it, not once but several times.  Langdon sat on the ground
+before the fire, and his delight was unalloyed and unashamed.
+
+"We have raided a Yankee wagon train again," he said, "and the looting
+is splendid.  Arthur, I thought yesterday that I should never eat again.
+Food and I were such strangers that I believed we should never know each
+other, any more, or if knowing, we could never assimilate.  And yet we
+seem to get on good terms at once."
+
+While they talked a tall thin youth of clear dark complexion, carrying
+a long bundle under his arm, approached the fire and Lieutenant Colonel
+St. Hilaire welcomed him with joy.
+
+"Julien!  Julien de Langeais, my young relative!" he cried.  "And you are
+indeed alive!  I thought you lost!"
+
+"I'm very much alive, sir," said young De Langeais, "but I'm starved."
+
+"Then this is the place to come," said Dick, putting before him food,
+which he strove to eat slowly, although the effort at restraint was
+manifestly great.  Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire introduced him to the
+Union men, and then asked him what was the long black bag that he carried
+under his arm.
+
+"That, sir," replied De Langeais, smiling pathetically, "is my violin.
+I've no further use for my rifle and sword, but now that peace is coming
+I may be able to earn my bread with the fiddle."
+
+"And so you will!  You'll become one of the world's great musicians.
+And as soon as we've finished with General Grant's hospitality, which
+will be some time yet, you shall play for us."
+
+De Langeais looked affectionately at the black bag.
+
+"You're very good to me, sir," he said, "to encourage me at such a time,
+and, if you and the others care for me to play, I'll do my best."
+
+"Paganini himself could do no more, but, for the present, we must pay due
+attention to the hospitality of General Grant.  He would not like it,
+if it should come to his ears that we did not show due appreciation,
+and since, in the course of events, and in order to prevent the mutual
+destruction of the sections, it became necessary for General Lee to
+arrange with someone to stop this suicidal war, I am glad the man was
+General Grant, a leader whose heart does him infinite credit."
+
+"General Grant is a very great man, and he has never proved it more fully
+than today," said Dick, who sat near the colonels--his first inclination
+had been to smile, but he restrained it.
+
+"Truly spoken, young sir," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot.  "General Lee
+and General Grant together could hold this continent against the world,
+and, now that we have quit killing one another, America is safe in their
+hands.  Harry, do you think I've eaten too much?  I wouldn't go beyond
+the exploits of a gentleman, but this food has a wonderful savor, and I
+can't say that I have dined before in months."
+
+"Not at all, sir, you have just fairly begun.  As Lieutenant Colonel
+St. Hilaire pointed out, General Grant would be displeased if we didn't
+fully appreciate his hospitality and prove it by our deeds.  Here are
+some sardines, sir.  You haven't tasted 'em yet, but you'll find 'em
+wonderfully fine."
+
+Colonel Leonidas Talbot took the sardines, and then he and Lieutenant
+Colonel St. Hilaire rose suddenly and simultaneously to their feet,
+a look of wonder and joy spreading over their faces.
+
+"Is it really he?" exclaimed Colonel Talbot.
+
+"It's he and none other," said Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire.
+
+A tall, powerfully built, gray-haired man was coming toward them, his
+hands extended.  Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire
+stepped forward, and each grasped a hand.
+
+"Good old John!"
+
+"Why, John, it's worth a victory to shake your hand again!"
+
+"Leonidas, I've been inquiring, an hour or two, for you and Hector."
+
+"John Carrington, you've fulfilled your promise and more.  We always said
+at West Point that you'd become the greatest artilleryman in the world,
+and in this war you've proved it on fifty battle fields.  We've often
+watched your work from the other side, and we've always admired the
+accuracy with which you sent the shells flying about us.  It was
+wonderful, John, wonderful, and it did more than anything else to save
+the North from complete defeat!"
+
+A smile passed over John Carrington's strong face, and he patted his old
+comrade on the shoulder.
+
+"It's good to know, Leonidas, that neither you nor Hector has been
+killed," he said, "and that we can dine together again."
+
+"Truly, truly, John!  Sit down!  It's the hospitality of your own general
+that you share when you join us.  General Lee would never make terms with
+men like McClellan, Burnside and Hooker.  No, sir, he preferred to defeat
+them, much as it cost our Union in blood and treasure, but with a man
+of genius like General Grant he could agree.  Really great souls always
+recognize one another.  Is it not so, John?"
+
+"Beyond a doubt, Leonidas.  We fully admit the greatness and lofty
+character of General Lee, as you admit the greatness and humanity of
+General Grant.  One nation is proud to have produced two such men."
+
+"I agree with you, John.  All of us agree with you.  The soldiers of
+General Lee's army who are here today will never dispute what you say.
+Now fall on, and join us at this board which, though rustic, is indeed a
+most luxurious and festive one.  As I remember at West Point, you were a
+first-class trencherman."
+
+"And I am yet," said John Carrington, as he took his share.  They were
+joined a little later by a gallant young Southern colonel, Philip
+Sherburne, who had led in many a cavalry attack, and then the equally
+gallant Northern colonel, Alan Hertford, came also, and as everybody was
+introduced to everybody else the good feeling grew.  At last the hunger
+that had been increasing so long was satisfied, and as they leaned back,
+Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire turned to Julien de Langeais:
+
+"Julien," he said, "take out your violin.  There is no more fitting
+time than this to play.  Julien, John, is a young relative of mine from
+Louisiana who has a gift.  He is a great musician who is going to become
+much greater.  Perhaps it was wrong to let a lad of his genius enter this
+war, but at any rate he has survived it, and now he will show us what he
+can do."
+
+De Langeais, after modest deprecations, took out his violin and played.
+Upon his sensitive soul the war had made such a deep impression that his
+spirit spoke through his instrument.  He had never before played so well.
+His strings sang of the march, the camp, of victory and defeat, and
+defeat and victory, and as he played he became absorbed in his music.
+The people around him, although they were rapidly increasing in numbers,
+were not visible to him.  Yet he played upon their hearts.  There was not
+one among them who did not see visions and dream dreams as he listened.
+At last his bow turned into the old and ever young, "Home Sweet Home."
+
+   'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
+    Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
+    An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain,
+    Oh! give me my lowly, thatched cottage again.
+
+Into the song he poured all his skill and all his heart, and as he played
+he saw the house in which he was born on the far Louisiana plantation.
+And those who listened saw also, in spirit, the homes which many of them
+had not seen in fact for four years.  Stern souls were softened, and
+water rose to eyes which had looked fearlessly and so often upon the
+charging bayonets of the foe.
+
+He stopped suddenly and put away his violin.  There was a hush, and then
+a long roll of applause, not loud, but very deep.
+
+"I hear Pendleton calling," said Harry to Dick.
+
+"So do I," said Dick.  "I wonder what they're doing there.  Have you
+heard from your father?"
+
+"Not for several months.  I think he's in North Carolina with Johnston,
+and I mean to go home that way.  I've a good horse, and he'll carry me
+through the mountains.  I think I'll find father there.  An hour or two
+ago, Dick, I felt like a man and I was a man, but since De Langeais
+played I've become a boy again, and I'm longing for Pendleton, and its
+green hills, and the little river in which we used to swim."
+
+"So am I, Harry, and it's likely that I'll go with you.  The war is over
+and I can get leave at once.  I want to see my mother."
+
+They stayed together until night came over Appomattox and its famous
+apple tree, and a few days later Harry Kenton was ready to start on
+horseback for Kentucky.  But he was far from being alone.  The two
+colonels, St. Clair, Langdon, Dick, De Langeais, Colonel Winchester and
+Sergeant Whitley were to ride with him.  Warner was to go north and
+Pennington west as soon as they were mustered out.  Dick wrung their
+hands.
+
+"Good-by, George!  Good-by, Frank!  Old comrades!" he said.  "But
+remember that we are to see a good deal of one another all through our
+lives!"
+
+"Which I can reduce to a mathematical problem and demonstrate by means of
+my little algebra here," said Warner, fumbling for his book to hide his
+emotion.
+
+"I may come through Kentucky to see you and Harry," said Pennington,
+"when I start back to Nebraska."
+
+"Be sure to come," said Dick with enthusiasm, "and remember that the
+latch string is hanging out on both doors."
+
+Then, carrying their arms, and well equipped with ammunition, food and
+blankets, the little party rode away.  They knew that the mountains were
+still extremely unsettled, much infested by guerrillas, but they believed
+themselves strong enough to deal with any difficulty, and, as the April
+country was fair and green, their hearts, despite everything, were light.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE FINAL RECKONING
+
+
+They rode a long time through a war-torn country, and the days bound the
+young men together so closely that, at times, it seemed to them they
+had fought on the same side all through the war.  Sergeant Whitley was
+usually their guide and he was an expert to bargain for food and forage.
+He exhibited then all the qualities that afterward raised him so high in
+the commercial world.
+
+Although they were saddened often by the spectacle of the ruin the long
+war had made, they kept their spirits, on the whole, wonderfully well.
+The two colonels, excellent horsemen, were an unfailing source of
+cheerfulness.  When they alluded to the war they remembered only the
+great victories the South had won, and invariably they spoke of its end
+as a compromise.  They also began to talk of Charleston, toward which
+their hearts now turned, and a certain handsome Madame Delaunay whom
+Harry Kenton remembered well.
+
+As they left Virginia and entered North Carolina they heard that the
+Confederate troops everywhere were surrendering.  The war, which had
+been so terrible and sanguinary only two or three months before, ended
+absolutely with the South's complete exhaustion.  Already the troops were
+going home by the scores of thousands.  They saw men who had just taken
+off their uniforms guiding the ploughs in the furrows.  Smoke rose once
+more from the chimneys of the abandoned homes, and the boys who had faced
+the cannon's mouth were rebuilding rail fences.  The odor of grass and
+newly turned earth was poignant and pleasant.  The two colonels expanded.
+
+"Though my years have been devoted to military pursuits, Hector," said
+Colonel Leonidas Talbot, "the agricultural life is noble, and many of
+the hardy virtues of the South are due to the fact that we are chiefly a
+rural population."
+
+"Truly spoken, Leonidas, but for four years agriculture has not had
+much chance with us, and perhaps agriculture is not all.  It was the
+mechanical genius of the North that kept us from taking New York and
+Boston."
+
+"Which reminds me, Happy," said St. Clair to Langdon, "that, after all,
+you didn't sleep in the White House at Washington with your boots on."
+
+"I changed my mind," replied Happy easily.  "I didn't want to hurt
+anybody's feelings."
+
+Soon they entered the mountains, and they met many Confederate soldiers
+returning to their homes.  Harry always sought from them news of his
+father, and he learned at last that he was somewhere in the western
+part of the state.  Then he heard, a day or two later, that a band of
+guerrillas to the south of them were plundering and sometimes murdering.
+They believed from what details they could gather that it was Slade and
+Skelly with a new force, and they thought it advisable to turn much
+farther toward the west.
+
+"The longest way 'round is sometimes the shortest way through," said
+Sergeant Whitley, and the others agreed with him.  They came into a
+country settled then but little.  The mountains were clothed in deep
+forest, now in the full glory of early spring, and the log cabins were
+few.  Usually they slept, the nights through, in the forest, and they
+helped out their food supply with game.  The sergeant shot two deer,
+and they secured wild turkeys and quantities of smaller game.
+
+Although they heard that the guerrillas were moving farther west, which
+necessitated the continuation of their own course in that direction,
+they seemed to have entered another world.  Where they were, at least,
+there was nothing but peace, the peace of the wilderness which made a
+strong appeal to all of them.  In the evenings by their campfire in the
+forest De Langeais would often play for them on his violin, and the great
+trees about them seemed to rustle with approval, as a haunting melody
+came back in echoes from the valleys.
+
+They had been riding a week through a wilderness almost unbroken when,
+just before sunset, they heard a distant singing sound, singularly like
+that of De Langeais' violin.
+
+"It is a violin," said De Langeais, "but it's not mine.  The sound comes
+from a point at the head of the cove before us."
+
+They rode into the little valley and the song of the violin grew louder.
+It was somebody vigorously playing "Old Dan Tucker," and as the woods
+opened they saw a stout log cabin, a brook and some fields.  The musician,
+a stalwart young man, sat in the doorway of the house.  A handsome young
+woman was cooking outside, and a little child was playing happily on the
+grass.
+
+"I'll ride forward and speak to them," said Harry Kenton.  "That man and
+I are old friends."
+
+The violin ceased, as the thud of hoofs drew near, but Harry, springing
+from his horse, held out his hand to the man and said:
+
+"How are you, Dick Jones?  I see that the prophecy has come true!"
+
+The man stared at him a moment or two in astonishment, and then grasped
+his hand.
+
+"It's Mr. Kenton!" he cried, "an' them's your friends behind you.
+'Light, strangers, 'light!  Yes, Mr. Kenton, it's come true.  I've been
+back home a week, an' not a scratch on me, though I've fit into nigh onto
+a thousand battles.  I reckon my wife, that's Mandy there, wished so hard
+fur me to come back that the Lord let her have her way.  But 'light,
+strangers!  'Light an' hev supper!"
+
+"We will," said Harry, "but we're not going to crowd you out of your
+house.  We've plenty of food with us, and we're accustomed to sleeping
+out of doors."
+
+Nevertheless the hospitality of Dick Jones and his wife, Mandy, was
+unbounded.  It was arranged that the two colonels should sleep inside,
+while the others took to the grass with their blankets.  Liberal
+contributions were made to the common larder by the travelers, and they
+had an abundant supper, after which the men sat outside, the colonels
+smoking good old North Carolina weed, and Mrs. Jones knitting in the dusk.
+
+"Don't you and your family get lonesome here sometimes, Mr. Jones?"
+asked Harry.
+
+"Never," replied the mountaineer.  "You see I've had enough o' noise an'
+multitudes.  More than once I've seen two hundred thousand men fightin',
+and I've heard the cannon roarin', days without stoppin'.  I still git to
+dreamin' at night 'bout all them battles, an' when I awake, an' set up
+sudden like an' hear nothin' outside but the tricklin' o' the branch an'
+the wind in the leaves, I'm thankful that them four years are over,
+an' nobody is shootin' at nobody else.  An' it's hard now an' then to
+b'lieve that they're really an' truly over."
+
+"But how about Mrs. Jones?"
+
+"She an' the baby stayed here four whole years without me, but we've got
+neighbors, though you can't see 'em fur the trees.  Jest over the ridge
+lives her mother, an' down Jones' Creek, into which the branch runs,
+lives her married sister, an' my own father ain't more'n four miles away.
+The settlements are right thick 'roun' here, an' we hev good times."
+
+Mrs. Jones nodded her emphatic assent.
+
+"Which way do you-all 'low to be goin' tomorrow?" asked Jones.
+
+"We think we'd better keep to the west," replied Colonel Talbot.  "We've
+heard of a guerrilla band under two men, Slade and Skelly, who are making
+trouble to the southward."
+
+"I've heard of 'em too," said Jones, "an' I reckon they're 'bout the
+meanest scum the war hez throwed up.  The troops will be after 'em afore
+long, an' will clean 'em out, but I guess they'll do a lot o' damage
+afore then.  You gen'lemen will be wise to stick to your plan, an' keep
+on toward the west."
+
+They departed the next morning, taking with them the memory of a very
+pleasant meeting, and once more pursued their way through the wilderness.
+Harry, despite inquiries at every possible place, heard nothing more of
+his father, and concluded that, after the surrender, he must have gone at
+once to Kentucky, expecting his son to come there by another way.
+
+But the reports of Slade and Skelly were so numerous and so sinister that
+they made a complete change of plan.  The colonels, St. Clair and Langdon,
+would not try to go direct to South Carolina, but the whole party would
+cling together, ride to Kentucky, and then those who lived farther south
+could return home chiefly by rail.  It seemed, on the whole, much the
+wiser way, and, curving back a little to the north, they entered by and
+by the high mountains on the line between Virginia and Kentucky.  Other
+returning soldiers had joined them and their party now numbered thirty
+brave, well-armed men.
+
+They entered Kentucky at a point near the old Wilderness Road, and,
+from a lofty crest, looked down upon a sea of ridges, heavy with green
+forest, and narrow valleys between, in which sparkled brooks or little
+rivers.  The hearts of Harry and Dick beat high.  They were going home.
+What awaited them at Pendleton?  Neither had heard from the town or
+anybody in it for a long time.  Anticipation was not unmingled with
+anxiety.
+
+Two days later they entered a valley, and when they stopped at noon for
+their usual rest Harry Kenton rode some distance up a creek, thinking
+that he might rouse a deer out of the underbrush.  Although the country
+looked extremely wild and particularly suited to game, he found none,
+but unwilling to give up he continued the hunt, riding much farther than
+he was aware.
+
+He was just thinking of the return, when he heard a rustling in a thicket
+to his right, and paused, thinking that it might be the deer he wanted.
+Instead, a gigantic figure with thick black hair and beard rose up in the
+bush.  Harry uttered a startled exclamation.  It was Skelly, and beside
+him stood a little man with an evil face, hidden partly by an enormous
+flap-brimmed hat.  Both carried rifles, and before Harry could take his
+own weapon from his shoulder Skelly fired.  Harry's horse threw up his
+head in alarm, and the bullet, instead of hitting the rider, took the
+poor animal in the brain.
+
+As the horse fell, Harry sprang instinctively and alighted upon his feet,
+although he staggered.  Then Slade pulled trigger, and a searing, burning
+pain shot through his left shoulder.  Dizzy and weak he raised his rifle,
+nevertheless, and fired at the hairy face of the big man.  He saw the
+huge figure topple and fall; he heard another shot, and again felt the
+thrill of pain, this time in the head, heard a shrill whistle repeated
+over and over, and did not remember anything definite until some time
+afterward.
+
+When his head became clear once more Harry believed that he had wandered
+a long distance from that brief but fierce combat, but he did not know in
+what direction his steps had taken him.  Nearly all his strength was gone,
+and his head ached fearfully.  He had dropped his rifle, but where he did
+not know nor care.  He sat down on the ground with his back against a
+tree, and put his right hand to his head.  The wound there had quit
+bleeding, clogged up with its own blood.  He was experienced enough to
+know that it was merely a flesh wound, and that any possible scar would
+be hidden by his hair.
+
+But the wound in his left shoulder was more serious.  The bullet had gone
+entirely through, for which he was glad, but the hurt was still bleeding.
+He made shift to bandage it with strips torn from his underclothing, and,
+after a long rest, he undertook to walk back to the camp.  He was not
+sure of the way, and after two or three hundred yards he grew dizzy and
+sat down again.  Then he shouted for help, but his voice sounded so weak
+that he gave it up.
+
+He was never sure, but he thought another period of unconsciousness
+followed, because when he aroused himself the sun seemed to be much
+farther down in the west.  His head was still aching, though not quite so
+badly as before, and he made a new effort to walk.  He did not know where
+he was going, but he must go somewhere.  If he remained there in the
+wilderness, and his comrades could not find him, he would die of weakness
+and starvation.  He shuddered.  It would be the very irony of fate that
+one who had gone through Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and all the great
+battles in the East should be slain on his way home by a roving guerrilla.
+
+He rested again and summoned all his strength and courage, and he was
+able to go several hundred yards farther.  As he advanced the forest
+seemed to thin and he was quite sure that he saw through it a valley and
+open fields.  The effect upon him was that of a great stimulant, and he
+found increased strength.  He tottered on, but stopped soon and leaned
+against a tree.  He dimly saw the valley, the fields, and a distant roof,
+and then came something that gave him new strength.  It was a man's voice
+singing, a voice clear, powerful and wonderfully mellow:
+
+    They bore him away when the day had fled,
+      And the storm was rolling high,
+    And they laid him down in his lonely bed
+      By the light of an angry sky.
+    The lightning flashed and the wild sea lashed
+      The shore with its foaming wave,
+    And the thunder passed on the rushing blast
+      As it howled o'er the rover's grave.
+
+He knew that voice.  He had heard it years ago, a century it seemed.
+It was the voice of a friend, the voice of Sam Jarvis, the singer of
+the mountains.  He rushed forward, but overtaxing his strength, fell.
+He pulled himself up by a bush and stood, trembling with weakness and
+anxiety.  Still came the voice, but the song had changed:
+
+  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 warm light 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!
+
+It was an old song of pathos and longing, but Harry remembered well that
+mellow, golden voice.  If he could reach Sam Jarvis he would secure help,
+and there was the happy valley in which he lived.  As he steadied himself
+anew fresh strength and courage poured into his veins, and leaving the
+fringe of forest he entered a field, at the far end of which Jarvis was
+ploughing.
+
+The singer was happy.  He drove a stout bay horse, and as he walked
+along in the furrow he watched the rich black earth turn up before the
+ploughshare.  He hated no man, and no man hated him.  The war had never
+invaded his valley, and he sang from the sheer pleasure of living.
+The world about him was green and growing, and the season was good.
+His nephew, Ike Simmons, was ploughing in another field, and whenever he
+chose he could see the smoke rising from the chimney of the strong log
+house in which he lived.
+
+Harry thought at first that he would go down the end of the long field
+to Jarvis, but the ploughed land pulled at his feet, and made him very
+weak again.  So he walked straight across it, though he staggered, and
+approached the house, the doors of which stood wide open.
+
+He was not thinking very clearly now, but he knew that rest and help were
+at hand.  He opened the gate that led to the little lawn, went up the
+walk and, scarcely conscious of what he was doing, stood in the doorway,
+and stared into the dim interior.  As his eyes grew used to the dusk the
+figure of an old, old woman, lean and wrinkled, past a hundred, suddenly
+rose from a chair, stood erect, and regarded him with startled, burning
+eyes.
+
+"Ah, it's the governor, the great governor, Henry Ware!" she exclaimed.
+"Didn't I say to you long ago: '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!"
+
+As she spoke, the young man in the tattered Southern uniform, stained
+with the blood of two wounds, reeled and fell unconscious in the doorway.
+
+When Harry came back to the world he was lying in a very comfortable bed,
+and all the pain had gone from his head.  A comfortable, motherly woman,
+whom he recognized as Mrs. Simmons, was sitting beside him, and Colonel
+Leonidas Talbot, looking very tall, very spare and very precise, was
+standing at a window.
+
+"Good morning, Mrs. Simmons," said Harry in a clear, full voice.
+
+She uttered an exclamation of joy, and Colonel Talbot turned from the
+window.
+
+"So you've come back to us, Harry," he said.  "We knew that it was only a
+matter of time, although you did lose a lot of blood from that wound in
+the shoulder."
+
+"I never intended to stay away, sir."
+
+"But you remained in the shadowy world three days."
+
+"That long, sir?"
+
+"Yes, Harry, three days, and a great deal of water has flowed under the
+bridge in those three days."
+
+"What do you mean, colonel?"
+
+"There was a military operation of a very sharp and decisive character.
+When you fell in the doorway here, Mrs. Simmons, who happened to be in
+the kitchen, ran at once for her brother, Mr. Jarvis, a most excellent
+and intelligent man.  You were past telling anybody anything just then,
+but he followed your trail, and met some of us, led by Sergeant Whitley,
+who were also trailing you."
+
+"And Slade and Skelly, what of them?"
+
+"They'll never plunder or murder more.  We divined much that had
+happened.  You were ambushed, were you not?"
+
+"Yes, Slade and Skelly fired upon me from the bushes.  I shot back and
+saw Skelly fall."
+
+"You shot straight and true.  We found him there in the bushes, where
+your bullet had cut short his murderous life.  Then we organized, pursued
+and surrounded the others.  They were desperate criminals, who knew the
+rope awaited them, and all of them died with their boots on.  Slade made
+a daring attempt to escape, but the sergeant shot him through the head at
+long range, and a worse villain never fell."
+
+"And our people, colonel, where are all of them?"
+
+"Most of the soldiers have gone on, but the members of our own immediate
+group are scattered about the valley, engaged chiefly in agricultural or
+other homely pursuits, while they await your recovery, and incidentally
+earn their bread.  Sergeant Whitley, Captain St. Clair and Captain Mason
+are putting a new roof on the barn, and, as I inspected it myself,
+I can certify that they are performing the task in a most workmanlike
+manner.  Captain Thomas Langdon is ploughing in the far field, by the
+side of that stalwart youth, Isaac Simmons, and each is striving in a
+spirit of great friendliness to surpass the other.  My associate and
+second in command, Lieutenant Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, has gone
+down the creek fishing, a pursuit in which he has had much success,
+contributing greatly to the larder of our hostess, Mrs. Simmons."
+
+"And where is Sam Jarvis?"
+
+The colonel raised the window.
+
+"Listen!" he said:
+
+Up from the valley floated the far mellow notes:
+
+  I'm dreaming now of Hallie, sweet Hallie,
+    For the thought of her is one that never dies.
+  She's sleeping in the valley
+    And the mocking bird is singing where she lies.
+  Listen to the mocking bird singing o'er her grave,
+  Listen to the mocking bird, where the weeping willows wave.
+
+"The words of the song are sad," said Colonel Talbot, "but sad music
+does not necessarily make one feel sad.  On the contrary we are all very
+cheerful here, and Mr. Jarvis is the happiest man I have ever known.
+I think it's because his nature is so kindly.  A heart of gold, pure gold,
+Harry, and that extraordinary old woman, Aunt Suse, insists that you are
+your own greatgrandfather, the famous governor of Kentucky."
+
+"I was here before in the first year of the war, colonel, and she
+foretold that I would return just as I did.  How do you account for that,
+sir?"
+
+"I don't try to account for it.  A great deal of energy is wasted in
+trying to account for the unknowable.  I shall take it as it is."
+
+"What has become of Colonel Winchester, sir?"
+
+"He rode yesterday to a tiny hamlet about twenty miles away.  We had
+heard from a mountaineer that an officer returning from the war was there,
+and since we old soldiers like to foregather, we decided to have him come
+and join our party.  They are due here, and unless my eyes deceive me--
+and I know they don't--they're at the bead of the valley now, riding
+toward this house."
+
+Harry detected a peculiar note in Colonel Talbot's voice, and his mind
+leaped at once to a conclusion.
+
+"That officer is my father!" he exclaimed.
+
+"According to all the descriptions, it is he, and now you can sit up and
+welcome him."
+
+The meeting between father and son was not demonstrative, but both felt
+deep emotion.
+
+"Fortune has been kind to us, Harry, to bring us both safely out of the
+long war," said Colonel Kenton.
+
+"Kinder than we had a right to hope," said Harry.
+
+The entire group rode together to Pendleton, and Dick was welcomed like
+one risen from the dead by his mother, who told him a few weeks later
+that he was to have a step-father, the brave colonel, Arthur Winchester.
+
+"He's the very man I'd have picked for you, mother," said Dick gallantly.
+
+The little town of Pendleton was unharmed by the war, and, since bitter
+feeling had never been aroused in it, the reunion of North and South
+began there at once.  In an incredibly short period everything went on
+as before.
+
+The two colonels and their younger comrades remained a while as the
+guests of Colonel Kenton and his son, and then they started for the
+farther south where St. Clair and Langdon were to begin the careers in
+which they achieved importance.
+
+Harry and Dick in Pendleton entered upon their own life work, which they
+were destined to do so well, but often, in their dreams and for many
+years, they rode again with Stonewall in the Valley, charged with Pickett
+at Gettysburg, stood with the Rock of Chickamauga, or advanced with Grant
+to the thunder of the guns through the shades of the Wilderness.
+
+
+
+
+Appendix: Transcription notes:
+
+The following modifications were applied while transcribing the
+printed book to etext:
+
+ Chapter 6
+   Page 103, para 11, change "Turner" to "Warner"
+
+ Chapter 7
+   Page 112, para 6, insert missing period
+
+ Chapter 11
+   Page 186, para 2, fix punctuation typos
+
+ Chapter 17
+   Page 290, para 2, fix typo "unforgetable"
+
+The following words were printed with accented vowels, but I chose
+not to post an 8-bit version of this text:
+
+ Chapter 6
+   Page 94, para 1, "coordinate" with accented "o"
+
+ Chapter 15
+  Page 270, para 1, accented "o" in "cooperate"
+
+
+As is typical in this series, there are a number of instances where
+the use of the comma in the printed book seems to me inappropriate.
+However, I have adhered to the punctuation as printed (except for
+obvious printing errors, which are noted above).
+
+For example:
+
+  The horses given to them by special favor of Sheridan in place of
+  their worn-out mounts, were splendid animals, and Sergeant Whitley
+  himself had prepared them for their first appearance before their
+  new masters.
+
+  The horsemen firing their own carbines and swinging aloft their
+  sabers, galloped forward in a mighty rush.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Tree of Appomattox, by Joseph A. Altsheler
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