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+Project Gutenberg's The Rock of Chickamauga, by Joseph A. Altsheler
+
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+Title: The Rock of Chickamauga
+
+Author: Joseph A. Altsheler
+
+Release Date: January, 2006 [EBook #9745]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 15, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA ***
+
+
+
+
+This ebook was produced by Ken Reeder <kreeder@mailsnare.net>
+
+
+
+
+THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA
+A STORY OF THE WESTERN CRISIS
+
+by JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+"The Rock of Chickamauga," presenting a critical phase of the great
+struggle in the west, is the sixth volume in the series, dealing with the
+Civil War, of which its predecessors have been "The Guns of Bull Run,"
+"The Guns of Shiloh," "The Scouts of Stonewall," "The Sword of Antietam"
+and "The Star of Gettysburg."  Dick Mason who fights on the Northern side,
+is the hero of this romance, and his friends reappear also.
+
+
+
+
+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 GARDEN, 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 B. 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 B. 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.  AT BELLEVUE
+
+   II.  FORREST
+
+  III.  GRANT MOVES
+
+   IV.  DICK'S MISSION
+
+    V.  HUNTED
+
+   VI.  A BOLD ATTACK
+
+  VII.  THE LITTLE CAPITAL
+
+ VIII.  CHAMPION HILL
+
+   IX.  THE OPEN DOOR
+
+    X.  THE GREAT ASSAULT
+
+   XI.  THE TAKING OF VICKSBURG
+
+  XII.  AN AFFAIR OF THE MOUNTAINS
+
+ XIII.  THE RIVER OF DEATH
+
+  XIV.  THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA
+
+   XV.  BESIDE THE BROOK
+
+
+
+
+THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+AT BELLEVUE
+
+
+"You have the keenest eyes in the troop.  Can you see anything ahead?"
+asked Colonel Winchester.
+
+"Nothing living, sir," replied Dick Mason, as he swept his powerful
+glasses in a half-curve.  "There are hills on the right and in the center,
+covered with thick, green forest, and on the left, where the land lies
+low, the forest is thick and green too, although I think I catch a flash
+of water in it."
+
+"That should be the little river of which our map tells.  And you, Warner,
+what do your eyes tell you?"
+
+"The same tale they tell to Dick, sir.  It looks to me like a wilderness."
+
+"And so it is.  It's a low-lying region of vast forests and thickets,
+of slow deep rivers and creeks, and of lagoons and bayous.  If Northern
+troops want to be ambushed they couldn't come to a finer place for it.
+Forrest and five thousand of his wild riders might hide within rifle shot
+of us in this endless mass of vegetation.  And so, my lads, it behooves
+us to be cautious with a very great caution.  You will recall how we got
+cut up by Forrest in the Shiloh time."
+
+"I do, sir," said Dick and he shuddered as he recalled those terrible
+moments.  "This is Mississippi, isn't it?"
+
+Colonel Winchester took a small map from his pocket, and, unfolding it,
+examined it with minute care.
+
+"If this is right, and I'm sure it is," he replied, "we're far down in
+Mississippi in the sunken regions that border the sluggish tributaries of
+the Father of Waters.  The vegetation is magnificent, but for a home give
+me higher ground, Dick."
+
+"Me too, sir," said Warner.  "The finest state in this Union is Vermont.
+I like to live on firm soil, even if it isn't so fertile, and I like to
+see the clear, pure water running everywhere, brooks and rivers."
+
+"I'll admit that Vermont is a good state for two months in the year,"
+said Dick.
+
+"Why not the other ten?"
+
+"Because then it's frozen up, solid and hard, so I've heard."
+
+The other boys laughed and kept up their chaff, but Colonel Winchester
+rode soberly ahead.  Behind him trailed the Winchester regiment, now
+reorganized and mounted.  Fresh troops had come from Kentucky, and
+fragments of old regiments practically destroyed at Perryville and Stone
+River had been joined to it.
+
+It was a splendid body of men, but of those who had gone to Shiloh only
+about two hundred remained.  The great conflicts of the West, and the
+minor battles had accounted for the others.  But it was perhaps one of
+the reliefs of the Civil War that it gave the lads who fought it little
+time to think of those who fell.  Four years crowded with battles,
+great and small, sieges and marches absorbed their whole attention.
+
+Now two men, the dreaded Forrest and fierce little Joe Wheeler, occupied
+the minds of Winchester and his officers.  It was impossible to keep
+track of these wild horsemen here in their own section.  They had a habit
+of appearing two or three hundred miles from the place at which they were
+expected.
+
+But the young lieutenants while they watched too for their redoubtable
+foes had an eye also for the country.  It was a new kind of region for
+all of them.  The feet of their horses sank deep in the soft black soil,
+and there was often a sound of many splashings as the regiment rode
+across a wide, muddy brook.
+
+Dick noted with interest the magnolias and the live oaks, and the great
+stalks of the sunflower.  Here in this Southern state, which bathed
+its feet in the warm waters of the Gulf, spring was already far along,
+although snows still lingered in the North.
+
+The vegetation was extravagant in its luxuriance and splendor.  The
+enormous forest was broken by openings like prairies, and in every one
+of them the grass grew thick and tall, interspersed with sunflowers and
+blossoming wild plants.  Through the woods ran vast networks of vines,
+and birds of brilliant plumage chattered in the trees.  Twice, deer
+sprang up before them and raced away in the forest.  It was the
+wilderness almost as De Soto had traversed it nearly four centuries
+before, and it had a majesty which in its wildness was not without its
+sinister note.
+
+They approached a creek, deeper and wider than usual, flowing in slow,
+yellow coils, and, as they descended into the marsh that enclosed its
+waters, there was a sharp crackling sound, followed quickly by another
+and then by many others.  The reports did not cease, and, although
+blood was shed freely, no man fell from his horse, nor was any wounded
+mortally.  But the assault was vicious and it was pushed home with the
+utmost courage and tenacity, although many of the assailants fell never
+to rise again.  Cries of pain and anger, and imprecations arose from the
+stricken regiment.
+
+"Slap!  Slap!"
+
+"Bang!  Bang!"
+
+"Ouch!  He's got his bayonet in my cheek!"
+
+"Heavens, that struck me like a minie ball!  And it came, whistling and
+shrieking, too, just like one!"
+
+"Phew, how they sting! and my neck is bleeding in three places!"
+
+"By thunder, Bill, I hit that fellow, fair and square!  He'll never
+trouble an honest Yankee soldier again!"
+
+The fierce buzzing increased all around them and Colonel Winchester
+shouted to his trumpeter:
+
+"Blow the charge at once!"
+
+The man, full willing, put the trumpet to his lips and blew loud and
+long.  The whole regiment went across the creek at a gallop--the water
+flying in yellow showers--and did not stop until, emerging from the marsh,
+they reached the crest of a low hill a mile beyond.  Here, stung,
+bleeding and completely defeated by the enemy they stopped for repairs.
+An occasional angry buzz showed that they were not yet safe from the
+skirmishers, but their attack seemed a light matter after the full
+assault of the determined foe.
+
+"I suppose we're all wounded," said Dick as he wiped a bleeding cheek.
+"At least as far as I can see they're hurt.  The last fellow who got his
+bayonet in my face turned his weapon around and around and sang merrily
+at every revolution."
+
+"We were afraid of being ambushed by Forrest," said Warner, speaking
+from a swollen countenance.  "Instead we struck something worse; we rode
+straight into an ambush of ten billion high-powered mosquitoes, every one
+tipped with fire.  Have we got enemies like these to fight all the way
+down here?"
+
+"They sting the rebels, too," said Pennington.
+
+"Yes, but they like newcomers best, the unacclimated.  When we rode down
+into that swamp I could hear them shouting, to one another: 'That fat
+fellow is mine, I saw him first!  I've marked the rosy-cheeked boy for
+mine.  Keep away the rest of you fellows!'  I feel as if I'd been through
+a battle.  No more marshes for me."
+
+Some of the provident produced bottles of oil of pennyroyal.  Sergeant
+Daniel Whitley, who rode a giant bay horse, was one of the most
+foreseeing in this respect, and, after the boys had used his soothing
+liniment freely, the fiery torment left by the mosquito's sting passed
+away.
+
+The sergeant seemed to have grown bigger and broader than ever.  His
+shoulders were about to swell through his faded blue coat, and the hand
+resting easily on the rein had the grip and power of a bear's paw.
+His rugged face had been tanned by the sun of the far south to the color
+of an Indian's.  He was formidable to a foe, and yet no gentler heart
+beat than that under his old blue uniform.  Secretly he regarded the
+young lieutenants, his superiors in military rank and education, as brave
+children, and often he cared for them where his knowledge and skill were
+greater than theirs or even than that of colonels and generals.
+
+"God bless you, Sergeant," said Dick, "you don't look like an angel,
+but you are one--that is, of the double-fisted, fighting type."
+
+The sergeant merely smiled and replaced the bottle carefully in his
+pocket, knowing that they would have good use for it again.
+
+The regiment after salving its wounds resumed its watchful march.
+
+"Do you know where we're going?" Pennington asked Dick.
+
+"I think we're likely if we live long enough to land in the end before
+Vicksburg, the great Southern fortress, but as I gather it we mean to
+curve and curl and twist about a lot before then.  Grant, they say,
+intends to close in on Vicksburg, while Rosecrans farther north is
+watching Bragg at Chattanooga.  We're a flying column, gathering up
+information, and ready for anything."
+
+"It's funny," said Warner thoughtfully, "that we've already got so far
+south in the western field.  We can't be more than two or three hundred
+miles from the Gulf.  Besides, we've already taken New Orleans, the
+biggest city of the South, and our fleet is coming up the river to meet
+us.  Yet in the East we don't seem to make any progress at all.  We lose
+great battles there and Fredericksburg they say was just a slaughter of
+our men.  How do you make it out, Dick?"
+
+"I've thought of several reasons for it.  Our generals in the West are
+better than our generals in the East, or their generals in the East are
+better than their generals in the West.  And then there are the rivers.
+In the East they mostly run eastward between the two armies, and they
+are no help to us, but a hindrance rather.  Here in the West the rivers,
+and they are many and great, mostly run southward, the way we want to go,
+and they bring our gunboats on their bosoms.  Excuse my poetry, but it's
+what I mean."
+
+"You must be right.  I think that all the reasons you give apply
+together.  But our command of the water has surely been a tremendous
+help.  And then we've got to remember, Dick, that there was never a
+navy like ours.  It goes everywhere and it does everything.  Why, if
+Admiral Farragut should tell one of those gunboats to steam across the
+Mississippi bottoms it would turn its saucy nose, steer right out of the
+water into the mud, and blow up with all hands aboard before it quit
+trying."
+
+"You two fellows talk too much," said Pennington.  "You won't let
+President Lincoln and Grant and Halleck manage the war, but you want to
+run it yourselves."
+
+"I don't want to run anything just now, Frank," rejoined Dick.  "What I'm
+thinking about most is rest and something to eat.  I'd like to get rid,
+too, of about ten pounds of Mississippi mud that I'm carrying."
+
+"Well, I can catch a glint of white pillars through those trees.  It
+means the 'big house' of a plantation, and you'll probably find somewhere
+back of it the long rows of cabins, inhabited by the dark people, whom
+we've come to raise to the level of their masters, if not above them.
+I can see right now the joyous welcome we'll receive from the owners of
+the big house.  They'll be standing on the great piazza, waving Union
+flags and shouting to us that they have ready cooling drinks and
+luxurious food for us all."
+
+"It's hardly a joke to me.  Whatever the cause of the war, it's the
+bitterness of death for these people to be overrun.  Besides, I remember
+the words of that old fellow in the blacksmith shop before we fought the
+battle of Stone River.  He said that even if they were beaten they'd
+still be there holding the land and running things."
+
+"That's true," said Warner.  "I've been wondering how this war would end,
+and now I'm wondering what will happen after it does end.  But here we
+are at the gate.  What big grounds!  These great planters certainly had
+space!"
+
+"And what silence!" said Dick.  "It's uncanny, George.  A place like this
+must have had a thousand slaves, and I don't see any of them rushing
+forward to welcome their liberators."
+
+"Probably contraband, gone long ago to Ben Butler at New Orleans.
+I don't believe there's a soul here."
+
+"Remember that lone house in Tennessee where a slip of a girl brought
+Forrest down on us and had us cut pretty nearly to pieces."
+
+"I couldn't forget it."
+
+Nor could Colonel Winchester.  The house, large and low, stood in grounds
+covering an area of several acres, enclosed by a paling fence, now
+sagging in many places.  Great stone posts stood on either side of the
+gateway, but the gate was opened, and it, too, sagged.
+
+The grounds had evidently been magnificent, both with flowers and forest
+trees.  Already many of the flowers were blooming in great luxuriance and
+brilliancy, but the walks and borders were untrimmed.  The house was of
+wood, painted white with green shutters, and as they drew nearer they
+appreciated its great size, although it was only two stories in height.
+A hundred persons could have slept there, and twice as many could have
+found shade in the wide piazzas which stretched the full length of the
+four sides.
+
+But all the doors and shutters were closed and no smoke rose from any
+chimney.  They caught a glimpse of the cabins for the slaves, on lower
+ground some distance behind the great house.  The whole regiment reined
+up as they approached the carriage entrance, and, although they were
+eight hundred strong, there was plenty of room without putting a single
+hoof upon a flower.
+
+It was a great place.  That leaped to the eye, but it was not marked upon
+Colonel Winchester's map, nor had he heard of it.
+
+"It's a grand house," he said to his aides, "and it's a pity that it
+should go to ruin after the slaves are freed, as they certainly will be."
+
+"But it was built upon slave labor," said Warner.
+
+"So it was, and so were many of the most famous buildings in the world.
+But here, I'm not going to get into an argument about such questions with
+young men under my command.  Besides, I'm fighting to destroy slavery,
+not to study its history.  Sergeant Whitley, you're an experienced
+trailer: do you see any signs that troops have passed here?"
+
+"None at all, sir.  Down near the gate where the drive is out of repair
+I noticed wheel tracks, but they were several days old.  The freshest of
+them were light, as if made by buggies.  I judge, sir, that it was the
+family, the last to leave."
+
+"And the wagons containing their valuables had gone on ahead?"
+
+"It would seem so, sir."
+
+Colonel Winchester sighed.
+
+"An invader is always feared and hated," he said.
+
+"But we do come as enemies," said Dick, "and this feeling toward us can't
+be helped."
+
+"That's true.  No matter what we do we'll never make any friends here in
+one of the Gulf states, the very core of Southern feeling.  Dick, take
+a squad of men and enter the house.  Pennington, you and Warner go with
+him."
+
+Dick sprang down instantly, chose Sergeant Whitley first and with the
+others entered the great portico.  The front door was locked but it was
+easy enough to force it with a gun butt, and they went in, but not before
+Dick had noticed over the door in large letters the name, "Bellevue."
+So this was Bellevue, one of the great cotton plantations of Mississippi.
+He now vaguely remembered that he had once heard his uncle, Colonel
+Kenton, speak of having stopped a week here.  But he could not recall the
+name of the owner.  Strong for the Union as he was Dick was glad that the
+family had gone before the Northern cavalry came.
+
+The house was on a splendid scale inside also, but all the rugs and
+curtains were gone.  As they entered the great parlor Dick saw a large
+piece of paper, and he flushed as he read written upon it in tall letters:
+
+          TO THE YANKEE RAIDERS:
+     YOU NEED NOT LOOK FOR THE SILVER.
+      IT HAS BEEN TAKEN TO VICKSBURG.
+
+
+"Look at that!" he said indignantly to Warner.  "See how they taunt us!"
+
+But Warner laughed.
+
+"Maybe some of our men at New Orleans have laid us open to such a stab,"
+he said.  Then he added whimsically:
+
+"We'll go to Vicksburg with Grant, Dick, and get that silver yet."
+
+"The writing's fresh," said Sergeant Whitley, who also looked at the
+notification.  "The paper hasn't begun to twist and curl yet.  It's not
+been posted up there many hours."
+
+Colonel Winchester entered at that moment and the notice was handed to
+him.  He, too, flushed a little when he read it, but the next instant he
+laughed.  Dick then called his attention to the apparent fact that it had
+been put there recently.
+
+"May I speak a word, Colonel," said Warner, who had been thinking so hard
+that there was a line the full length of his forehead.
+
+"Yes, George, a dozen if you like.  Go ahead.  What is it?"
+
+"The sergeant, who has had much experience as a trailer, told us that
+the tracks made by the buggy wheels were several days old.  The slaves
+probably had been sent southward before that time.  Now some one who
+saw our advance has come back, and, whoever it was, he was thoroughly
+familiar with the house.  He couldn't have been a servant.  Servants
+don't leave taunts of that kind.  It must have been somebody who felt our
+coming deeply, and if it had been an elderly man he would have waited for
+action, he wouldn't have used saucy words.  So, sir, I think it must have
+been a boy.  Just like Pennington there, for instance."
+
+"Good, George, go on with your reasonings."
+
+"As surely, sir, as z plus y equals the total of the two, the one who put
+up the placard was a son of the owner.  He alone would feel deeply enough
+to take so great a risk.  The conditions absolutely demand that the owner
+has such a son and that he has done it."
+
+"Very good, George.  I think you're right, and this youth in giving way
+to a natural burst of anger, although he did not mean to do so, has
+posted up for us a warning.  A lad of his spirit would go in search
+of Forrest, and we cannot forget our experience with that general in
+Tennessee.  Now, boys, we'll make ready for the night, which is not far
+away."
+
+The house was built for a Southern climate, although Dick had learned
+that it could be cold enough in Central Mississippi in midwinter.
+But it was spring now and they opened all the doors and windows, letting
+the pleasant air rush through the musty house.
+
+"It may rain," said Colonel Winchester, "and the officers will sleep
+inside.  The men will spread their blankets on the piazzas, and the
+horses will be tethered in the grounds.  I hate to see the flowers and
+grass trodden down, but nature will restore them."
+
+Some of the soldiers gathered wood from heaps nearby and fires were
+kindled in the kitchen, and also on the hearths in the slave quarters.
+Colonel Winchester had been truly called the father of his regiment.
+He was invariably particular about its health and comfort, and, as he
+always led it in person in battle, there was no finer body of men in the
+Union service.
+
+Now he meant for his men to have coffee, and warm food after this long
+and trying ride and soon savory odors arose, although the cooking was not
+begun until after dark, lest the smoke carry a signal to a lurking enemy.
+The cavalrymen cut the thick grass which grew everywhere, and fed it to
+their horses, eight hundred massive jaws munching in content.  The beasts
+stirred but little after their long ride and now and then one uttered a
+satisfied groan.
+
+The officers drank their coffee and ate their food on the eastern piazza,
+which overlooked a sharp dip toward a creek three or four hundred yards
+away.  The night had rushed down suddenly after the fashion of the far
+South, and from the creek they heard faintly the hoarse frogs calling.
+Beyond the grounds a close ring of sentinels watched, because Colonel
+Winchester had no mind to be surprised again by Forrest or by Fighting
+Joe Wheeler or anybody else.
+
+The night was thick and dark and moist with clouds.  Dick, despite the
+peace that seemed to hang over everything, was oppressed.  The desolate
+house, even more than the sight of the field after the battle was over,
+brought home to him the meaning of war.  It was not alone the death
+of men but the uprooting of a country for their children and their
+children's children as well.  Then his mind traveled back to his uncle,
+Colonel Kenton, and suddenly he smote his knee.
+
+"What is it, Dick," asked Colonel Winchester, who sat only two or three
+yards away.
+
+"Now I remember, sir.  When I was only seven or eight years old I heard
+my uncle tell of stopping, as I told you, at a great plantation in
+Mississippi called Bellevue, but I couldn't recall the name of its owner.
+I know him now."
+
+"What is the name, Dick?"
+
+"Woodville, John Woodville.  He was a member of the Mississippi Senate,
+and he was probably the richest man in the State."
+
+"I think I have heard the name.  He is a Confederate colonel now, with
+Pemberton's army.  No doubt we'll have to fight him later on."
+
+"Meanwhile, we're using his house."
+
+"Fortune of war.  But all war is in a sense unfair, because it's usually
+a question of the greater force.  At any rate, Dick, we won't harm
+Colonel Woodville's home."
+
+"Yet in the end, sir, a lot of these great old country places will go,
+and what will take their place?  You and I, coming from a border state,
+know that the colored race is not made up of Uncle Toms."
+
+"Well, Dick, we haven't won yet, and until we do we won't bother
+ourselves about the aftermath of war.  I'm glad we found so large a
+place as this.  At the last moment I sent part of the men to the cabins,
+but at least three or four hundred must lie here on the piazzas.  And
+most of them are already asleep.  It's lucky they have roofs.  Look how
+the clouds are gathering!"
+
+As much more room had been made upon the piazzas by the assignment of men
+to the cabins, Colonel Winchester and some of his officers also rested
+there.  Dick, lying between the two blankets which he always carried in a
+roll tied to his saddle, was very comfortable now, with his head on his
+knapsack.  The night had turned cooler, and, save when faint and far
+lightning quivered, it was heavy and dark with clouds.  But the young
+lieutenants, hardened by two years of war and life in the open, felt snug
+and cosy on the broad, sheltered piazza.  It was not often they found
+such good quarters, and Dick, like Colonel Winchester, was truly thankful
+that they had reached Bellevue before the coming storm.
+
+It was evident now that the night was going to be wild.  The lightning
+grew brighter and came nearer, cutting fiercely across the southern sky.
+The ominous rumble of thunder, which reminded Dick so much of the mutter
+of distant battle, came from the horizon on which the lightning was
+flashing.
+
+Colonel Winchester, Pennington and Warner had gone to sleep, but Dick was
+wakeful.  He had again that feeling of pity for the people who had been
+compelled to flee from such a house, and who might lose it forever.
+It seemed to him that all the men, save himself and the sentinels,
+were asleep, sleeping with the soundness and indifference to surroundings
+shown by men who took their sleep when they could.
+
+The horses stamped and moved uneasily beneath the threat of the advancing
+storm, but the men slept heavily on.
+
+Dick knew that the sentinels were awake and watchful.  They had a
+wholesome dread of Forrest and Wheeler, those wild riders of the South.
+Some of them had been present at that terrible surprise in Tennessee,
+and they were not likely to be careless when they were sure that Forrest
+might be near, but he remained uneasy nevertheless, and, although he
+closed his eyes and sought a soft place for his head on the saddle,
+sleep did not come.
+
+He was sure that his apprehension did not come from any fear of an attack
+by Forrest or Wheeler.  It was deeper-seated.  The inherited sense
+that belonged to his great grandfather, who had lived his life in the
+wilderness, was warning him.  It was not superstition.  It seemed to
+Dick merely the palpable result of an inheritance that had gone into the
+blood.  His famous great-grandfather, Paul Cotter, and his famous friend,
+Henry Ware, had lived so much and so long among dangers that the very air
+indicated to them when they were at hand.
+
+Dick looked down the long piazza, so long that the men at either end of
+it were hidden by darkness.  The tall trees in the grounds were nodding
+before the wind, and the lightning flashed incessantly in the southwest.
+The thunder was not loud, but it kept up a continuous muttering and
+rumbling.  The rain was coming in fitful gusts, but he knew that it would
+soon drive hard and for a long time.
+
+Everybody within Dick's area of vision was sound asleep, except himself.
+Colonel Winchester lay with his head on his arm and his slumber was so
+deep that he was like one dead.  Warner had not stirred a particle in the
+last half-hour.  Dick was angry at himself because he could not sleep.
+Let the storm burst!  It might drive on the wide roof of the piazza
+and the steady beating sound would make his sleep all the sounder and
+sweeter.  He recalled, as millions of American lads have done, the days
+when he lay in his bed just under the roof and heard hail and sleet drive
+against it, merely to make him feel all the snugger in the bed with his
+covers drawn around him.
+
+The fitful gusts of rain ceased, and then it came with a steady pour and
+roar, driving directly down, thus leaving the men on the outer edges of
+the piazzas untouched and dry.  Still, Dick did not sleep, and at last he
+arose and walked softly into the house.  Here the sense of danger grew
+stronger.  He was reminded again of his early boyhood, when some one
+blindfolded was told to find a given object, and the others called "hot"
+when he was near or "cold" when he was away.  He was feeling hot now.
+That inherited sense, the magnetic feeling out of the past, was warning
+him.
+
+Dick felt sure that some one not of their regiment was in the building.
+He neither saw nor heard the least sign of a presence, but he was
+absolutely certain that he was not alone within Bellevue.  Since the
+lightning had ceased it was pitchy dark inside.  There was a wide hall
+running through the building, with windows above the exits, but he saw
+nothing through them save the driving rain and the dim outline of the
+threshing trees.
+
+He turned into one of the side rooms, and then he paused and pushed
+himself against the wall.  He was sure now that he heard a soft footstep.
+The darkness was so intense that it could be felt like a mist.  He waited
+but he did not hear it again, and then he began to make his way around
+the wall, stepping as lightly as he could.
+
+He had gone through most of the rooms at their arrival and he still
+retained a clear idea of the interior of the house.  He knew that there
+was another door on the far side of the chamber in which he stood,
+and he meant to follow the wall until he reached it.  Some one had been
+in the room with him and Dick believed that he was leaving by the far
+door.
+
+While he heard no further footsteps he felt a sudden light draught on his
+face and he knew that the door had been opened and shut.  He might go to
+Colonel Winchester and tell him that a lurking spy or somebody of that
+character was in the house, but what good would it do?  A spy at such
+a time and in such a place could not harm them, and the whole regiment
+would be disturbed for nothing.  He would follow the chase alone.
+
+He found the door and passed into the next room.  Its windows opened upon
+the southern piazza and two or three shutters were thrown back.  A faint
+light entered and Dick saw that no one was there but himself.  He could
+discern the dim figures of the soldiers sleeping on the piazza and beyond
+a cluster of the small pines grown on lawns.
+
+Dick felt that he had lost the trail for the time, but he did not intend
+to give it up.  Doubtless the intruder was some one who knew the house
+and who was also aware of his presence inside.  He also felt that he
+would not be fired upon, because the stranger himself would not wish to
+bring the soldiers down upon him.  So, with a hand upon his pistol butt,
+he opened the side door and followed once more into the darkness.
+
+The ghostly chase went on for a full half-hour, Dick having nothing to
+serve him save an occasional light footfall.  There was one period of
+more than half an hour when he lost the fugitive entirely.  He wandered
+up to the second floor and then back again.  There, in a room that had
+been the library, he caught a glimpse of the man.  But the figure was so
+shadowy that he could tell nothing about him.
+
+"Halt!" cried Dick, snatching out his pistol.  But when he leveled it
+there was nothing to aim at.  The figure had melted away, or rather
+it had flitted through another door.  Dick followed, chagrined.  The
+stranger seemed to be playing with him.  Obviously, it was some one
+thoroughly acquainted with the house, and that brought to Dick's mind the
+thought that he himself, instead of the other man, was the stranger there.
+
+He came at last to a passage which led to the kitchen, a great room,
+because many people were often guests at Bellevue, and here he stopped
+short, while his heart suddenly beat hard.  A distinct odor coming from
+different points suddenly assailed his nostrils.  He had smelled it too
+often in the last two years to be mistaken.  It was smoke, and Bellevue
+had been set on fire in several places.
+
+He inhaled it once or twice and then he saw again the shadowy figure
+flitting down to the passage and to a small door that, unnoticed by the
+soldiers, opened on the kitchen garden in the rear of the house.
+
+Dick never acted more promptly.  Instantly he fired his pistol into the
+ceiling, the report roaring in the confined spaces of the house, and then
+shouting with all his might: "Fire!  Fire!  Fire!" as he dashed down the
+passage he ran through the little door, which the intruder had left open,
+and pursued him in the darkness and rain into the garden.  There was a
+flash ahead of him and a bullet whistled past his ear, but he merely
+increased his speed and raced in the direction of the flash.  As he ran
+he heard behind him a tremendous uproar, the voices and tread of hundreds
+of soldiers, awakened suddenly, and he knew that they would rush through
+Bellevue in search of the fires.
+
+But it was Dick's impulse to capture the daring intruder who would
+destroy the house over their heads.  Built of wood, it would burn so fast,
+once the torches were set, that the rain would have little effect
+upon the leaping flames, unless measures were taken at once, which he
+knew that the regiment would do, under such a capable man as Colonel
+Winchester.  Meanwhile he was hot in pursuit.
+
+The trail which was not that of footsteps, but of a shadowy figure,
+ran between tall and close rows of grapevines so high on wooden framework
+that they hid any one who passed.  The suspicion that Dick had held at
+first was confirmed.  This was no stranger, no intruder.  He knew every
+inch of both house and grounds, and, after having set the house on fire,
+he had selected the only line of retreat, but a safe one, through the
+thick and lofty vegetation of the garden, which ran down to the edge of
+the ravine in the rear, where he could slip quietly under the fence,
+drop through the thick grass into the ravine unseen by the pickets,
+and escape at his leisure in the darkness.
+
+Dick was so sure of his theory that he strained every effort to overtake
+the figure which was flitting before him like a ghost.  In his eagerness
+he had forgotten to shout any alarm about the pickets, but it would have
+been of no avail, as most of them, under the impulse of alarm, had rushed
+forward to help extinguish the fires.
+
+He saw the fugitive reach the end of the garden, drop almost flat,
+and then slip under a broken place in the palings.  At an ordinary time
+he would have stopped there, but all the instincts of the hunter were
+aroused.  It was still raining, and he was already soaked.  Wet branches
+and leaves struck him in the face as he passed, but his energy and
+eagerness were undimmed.
+
+He, too, dropped at the hole under the broken palings and slid forward
+face foremost.  The wet grass was as slippery as ice, and after he
+passed through the hole Dick kept going.  Moreover, his speed increased.
+He had not realized that the garden went to the very edge of the ravine,
+and he was shooting down a steep slope to the depth of thirty feet.
+He grasped instinctively at weeds and grass as he made his downward
+plunge and fetched up easily at the bottom.
+
+He sprang to his feet and saw the shadowy fugitive running down the
+ravine.  In an instant he followed headlong, tripped once or twice on the
+wet grass, but was up every time like lightning, and once more in swift
+pursuit.  The fugitive turned once, raised his pistol and pulled the
+trigger again, evidently forgetful that it was empty.  When the hammer
+snapped on the trigger he uttered a low cry of anger and hurled the
+useless weapon into the grass.  Then he whirled around and faced Dick,
+who was coming on, eager and panting.
+
+Dick's own pistol was empty and he did not carry his small sword.
+He stopped abruptly when the other turned, and, in the dim light and rain,
+he saw that his opponent was a young man or rather youth of about his own
+size and age.  When he saw the lad cast the pistol aside Dick, moved by
+some chivalrous impulse, dropped his own in the grass.
+
+Then the two stared at each other.  They were far beyond the line of the
+pickets, and as they stood in the deep ravine there was no chance that
+any one would either see or hear them.  As Dick gazed intently, the face
+and figure of his antagonist shaped themselves more distinctly in the dim
+light.  He beheld before him a tall youth, extremely well built, fair of
+face, his brown hair slightly long.  He wore rain-soaked civilian's garb.
+
+He saw that the youth was panting like himself, but it was not wholly the
+result of flight.  His face expressed savage anger and indignation.
+
+"You dirty Yankee!" he said.
+
+Dick started.  No one had ever before addressed him with such venom.
+
+"If by Yankee you mean loyalty to the Union then I'm one," he said,
+"and I'm proud of it.  What's more I'm willing to tell who I am.  My
+name is Richard Mason.  I'm from Kentucky, and I'm a lieutenant in the
+regiment of Colonel Arthur Winchester, which occupies the building behind
+us."
+
+"From Kentucky and consorting with Yankees!  A lot of you are doing it,
+and you ought to be on our side!  We hate you for it more than we do the
+real Yankees!"
+
+"It's our right to choose, and we've chosen.  And now, since you're
+talking so much about right and wrong, who may you be, Mr. Firebug?"
+
+Even in the dark Dick saw his opponent's face flush, and his eyes flash
+with deadly hostility.
+
+"My name is Victor Woodville," he replied, "and my father is Colonel John
+Woodville, C.S.A.  He is the owner of the house in which your infamous
+Yankee regiment is encamped."
+
+"And which you have tried to burn?"
+
+"I'd rather see it burn than shelter Yankees.  You'd burn it anyway later
+on.  Grant's troops have already begun to use the torch."
+
+"At any rate you'll go before our colonel.  He'll want to ask you a lot
+of questions."
+
+"I'm not going before your colonel."
+
+"Oh, yes, you are."
+
+"Who's going to take me?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"Then come on and do it."
+
+Dick advanced warily.  Both had regained their breath and strength now.
+Dick with two years of active service in the army had the size and
+muscles of a man.  But so had his opponent.  Each measured the other,
+and they were formidable antagonists, well matched.
+
+Dick had learned boxing at the Pendleton Academy, and, as he approached
+slowly, looking straight into the eyes of his enemy, he suddenly shot his
+right straight for Woodville's chin.  The Mississippian, as light on his
+feet as a leopard, leaped away and countered with his left, a blow so
+quick and hard that Dick, although he threw his head to one side, caught
+a part of its force just above his ear.  But, guarding himself, he sprang
+back, while Woodville faced him, laughing lightly.
+
+Dick shook his head a little and the singing departed.  Just above his
+ear he felt a great soreness, but he was cool now.  Moreover, he was
+losing his anger.
+
+"First blow for you," he said.  "I see that you know how to use your
+fists."
+
+"I hope to prove it."
+
+Woodville, stepping lightly on his toes and feinting with his left,
+caught Dick on his cheek bone with his right.  Then he sought to spring
+away, but Dick, although staggered, swung heavily and struck Woodville on
+the forehead.  The Mississippian went down full length on the slippery
+grass but jumped to his feet in an instant.  Blood was flowing from his
+forehead, whence it ran down his nose and fell to the earth, drop by
+drop.  Dick himself was bleeding from the cut on his cheek bone.
+
+The two faced each other, cool, smiling, but resolute enemies.
+
+"First knockdown for you," said Woodville, "but I mean that the second
+shall be mine."
+
+"Go in and try."
+
+But Woodville drew back a little, and as Dick followed, looking for
+an opening he was caught again a heavy clip on the side of the head.
+He saw stars and was not able to return the blow, but he sprang back and
+protected himself once more with his full guard, while he regained his
+balance and strength.
+
+"Am I a firebug?" asked Woodville tauntingly.
+
+Dick considered.  This youth interested him.  There was no denying that
+Woodville had great cause for anger, when he found his father's house
+occupied by a regiment of the enemy.  He considered it defilement.
+The right or wrong of the war had nothing to do with it.  It was to him
+a matter of emotion.
+
+"I'll take back the epithet 'firebug,'" he said, "but I must stick to my
+purpose of carrying you to Colonel Winchester."
+
+"Always provided you can: Look out for yourself."
+
+The Mississippian, who was wonderfully agile, suddenly danced in--on his
+toes it seemed to Dick--and landed savagely on his opponent's left ear.
+Then he was away so quickly and lightly that Dick's return merely cut the
+air.
+
+The Kentuckian felt the blood dripping from another point.  His ear,
+moreover, was very sore and began to swell rapidly.  One less enduring
+would have given up, but he had a splendid frame, toughened by incessant
+hardship.  And, above all, enclosed within that frame was a lion heart.
+He shook his head slightly, because a buzzing was going on there, but in
+a moment or two it stopped.
+
+"Are you satisfied?" asked young Woodville.
+
+"You remember what Paul Jones said: 'I've just begun to fight.'"
+
+"Was it Paul Jones?  Well, I suppose it was.  Anyhow, if you feel that
+way about it, so do I.  Then come on again, Mr. Richard Mason."
+
+Dick's blood was up.  The half-minute or so of talk had enabled him to
+regain his breath.  Although he felt that incessant pain and swelling in
+his left ear, his resolution to win was unshaken.  Pride was now added to
+his other motives.
+
+He took a step forward, feinted, parried skillfully, and then stepped
+back.  Woodville, always agile as a panther, followed him and swung for
+the chin, but Dick, swerving slightly to one side, landed with great
+force on Woodville's jaw.  The young Mississippian fell, but, while Dick
+stood looking at him, he sprang to his feet and faced his foe defiantly.
+The blood was running down his cheek and dyeing the whole side of his
+face.  But Dick saw the spirit in his eye and knew that he was far from
+conquered.
+
+Woodville smiled and threw back his long hair from his face.
+
+"A good one for you.  You shook me up," he admitted, "but I don't see any
+sign of your ability to carry me to that Yankee colonel, as you boasted
+you would do."
+
+"But I'm going to do it."
+
+The rain increased and washed the blood from both their faces.  It was
+dark within the ravine, but they had been face to face so long that they
+could read the eyes of each other.  Those of Woodville like those of Dick
+ceased to express great anger.  In the mind of each was growing a respect
+for his antagonist.  The will to conquer remained, but not the desire to
+hate.
+
+"If you're going to do it, then why don't you?" said Woodville.
+
+Dick moved slowly forward, still watching the eyes of the Mississippian.
+He believed now that Woodville, agile and alert though he might be,
+had not fully recovered his strength.  There was terrific steam in that
+last punch and the head of the man who had received it might well be
+buzzing yet.
+
+Dick then moved in with confidence, but a lightning blow crashed through
+his guard, caught him on the chin and sent him to earth.  He rose,
+though still half-stunned, and saw that the confident, taunting look had
+returned to Woodville's face.  Fortunate now for Dick that the pure blood
+of great woods rangers flowed in his veins, and that he had inherited
+from them too an iron frame.  His chin was cut and he had seen a thousand
+stars.  But his eyes cleared and steadily he faced his foe.
+
+"Do I go with you to your colonel?" asked Woodville, ironically.
+
+"You do," replied Dick firmly.
+
+He looked his enemy steadily in the eye again, and he felt a great sense
+of triumph.  After such severe punishment he was stronger than ever and
+he knew it.
+
+Therefore he must win.  He struck heavily, straight for the angle of
+Woodville's chin.  The Mississippian evaded the blow and flashed in with
+his left.  But Dick, who was learning to be very wary, dodged it and came
+back so swiftly that Woodville was caught and beaten to his knees.
+
+But the son of the house of Bellevue was still so agile that he was able
+to recover his feet and spring away.  Dick saw, however, that he was
+panting heavily.  The blow had taken a considerable part of his remaining
+strength.  He also saw that his antagonist was regarding him with a
+curious eye.
+
+"You fight well, Yank," said Woodville, "although I ought not to call you
+Yank, but rather a traitor, as you're a Kentuckian.  Still, I've put my
+marks on you.  You're bleeding a lot and you'd be a sight if it weren't
+for this cleansing rain."
+
+"I've been putting the map of Kentucky on your own face.  You don't look
+as much like Mississippi as you did.  You'll take notice too that you
+didn't burn the house.  If you'll glance up the side of this ravine
+you'll see just a little dying smoke.  Eight hundred soldiers put it out
+in short order."
+
+Woodville's face flushed, and his eyes for the first time since the
+beginning of the encounter shone with an angry gleam.  But the wrathful
+fire quickly died.
+
+"On the whole, I'm not sorry," he said.  "It was an impulse that made me
+do it.  Our army will come and drive you away, and our house will be our
+own again."
+
+"That's putting it fairly.  What's the use of burning such a fine place
+as Bellevue?  Still, we want you.  Our colonel has many questions to ask
+you."
+
+"You can't take me."
+
+Dick judged that the crucial moment had now come.  Woodville was
+breathing much more heavily than he was, and seemed to be near
+exhaustion.  Dick darted boldly in, received a swinging right and left on
+either jaw that cut his cheeks and made the blood flow.  But he sent his
+right to Woodville's chin and the young Mississippian without a sound
+dropped to the ground, lying relaxed and flat upon his back, his white
+face, streaked with red, upturned to the rain.
+
+He was so still that Dick was seized with fear lest he had killed him.
+He liked this boy who had fought him so well and, grasping him by both
+shoulders, he shook him hard.  But when he loosed him Woodville fell back
+flat and inert.
+
+Dick heard the waters of a brook trickling down the ravine, and,
+snatching off his cap, he ran to it.  He filled the cap and returned just
+in time to see Woodville leap lightly to his feet and disappear with the
+speed of a deer among the bushes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+FORREST
+
+
+Dick dashed after the fugitive, but he had disappeared utterly, and the
+dense bushes impeded the pursuer.  He was hot and angry that he had been
+deluded so cleverly, but then came the consolation that, after all,
+he had won in the fistic encounter with an antagonist worthy of anybody.
+And after this came a second thought that caused him to halt abruptly.
+
+He and Woodville had fought it out fairly.  Their fists had printed upon
+the faces of each other the stamp of a mutual liking.  Why should he
+strive to take young Woodville before Colonel Winchester?  Nothing was
+to be gained by it, and, as the Mississippian was in civilian's garb,
+he might incur the punishment of a spy.  He realized in a flash that,
+since he had vindicated his own prowess, he was glad of Woodville's
+escape.
+
+He turned and walked thoughtfully back up the ravine.  Very little
+noise came from the house and the thin spires of smoke had disappeared.
+He knew now that the fires had been put out with ease, thanks to his
+quick warning.  Before starting he had recovered both his own pistol and
+Woodville's, and he was particularly glad to find the latter because it
+would be proof of his story, if proof were needed.  The rain had not
+ceased nor had the heavy darkness lifted, but the looming shadow of the
+big house was sufficient guide.  He found the place where he had slipped
+down the bank and the torn bushes and grass showed that he had made a
+fine trail.  He pulled himself back up by the bushes and reentered the
+garden, where he was halted at once by two watchful sentries.
+
+"Lieutenant Richard Mason of Colonel Winchester's staff," he said,
+"returning from the pursuit of a fugitive."
+
+The men knew him and they said promptly:
+
+"Pass Lieutenant Mason."
+
+But despite the dark they stared at him very curiously, and when he
+walked on toward the piazza one of them muttered to the other:
+
+"I guess he must have overtook that fugitive he was chasin'."
+
+Dick walked up the steps upon the piazza, where some one had lighted a
+small lamp, near which stood Colonel Winchester and his staff.
+
+"Here's Dick!" exclaimed Warner in a tone of great relief.
+
+"And we thought we had lost him," said Colonel Winchester, gladness
+showing in his voice.  Then he added: "My God, Dick, what have you been
+doing to yourself?"
+
+"Yes, what kind of a transformation is this?" added a major.  "You've
+certainly come back with a face very different from the one with which
+you left us!"
+
+Dick turned fiery red.  He suddenly became conscious that he had a left
+ear of enormous size, purple and swollen, that his left eye was closing
+fast, that the blood was dripping from cuts on either cheek, that the
+blood had flowed down the middle of his forehead and had formed a little
+stalactite on the end of his nose, that his chin had been gashed in five
+places by a strong fist, and that he had contributed his share to the
+bloodshed of the war.
+
+"If I didn't know these were modern times," said Warner, "I'd say that
+he had just emerged from a sanguinary encounter bare-handed in the Roman
+arena with a leopard."
+
+Dick glared at him.
+
+"It was you who gave the alarm of fire, was it not?" asked Colonel
+Winchester.
+
+"Yes, sir.  I saw the man who set the fires and I pursued him through the
+garden and into the ravine that runs behind it."
+
+"Your appearance indicates that you overtook him."
+
+Dick flushed again.
+
+"I did, sir," he replied.  "I know I'm no beauty at present, but neither
+is he."
+
+"It looks as if it had been a matter of fists?"
+
+"It was, sir.  Both of us fired our pistols, but missed.  Then we threw
+our weapons to one side and clashed.  It was a hard and long fight, sir.
+He hit like a pile driver, and he was as active as a deer.  But I was
+lucky enough to knock him out at last."
+
+"Then why does your face look like a huge piece of pickled beef?" asked
+the incorrigible Warner mischievously.
+
+"You wait and I'll make yours look the same!" retorted Dick.
+
+"Shut up," said Colonel Winchester.  "If I catch you two fighting I may
+have you both shot as an example."
+
+Dick and Warner grinned good-naturedly at each other.  They knew that
+Colonel Winchester did not dream of carrying out such a threat, and they
+knew also that they had no intention of fighting.
+
+"And after you knocked him out what happened?" asked the colonel.
+
+Dick looked sheepish.
+
+"He lay so still I was afraid he was dead," he replied.  "I ran down to
+a brook, filled my cap with water, and returned with it in the hope of
+reviving him.  I got there just in time to see him vanishing in the
+bushes.  Pursuit was hopeless."
+
+"He was clever," said the Colonel.  "Have you any idea who he was?"
+
+"He told me.  He was Victor Woodville, the son of Colonel John Woodville,
+C.S.A., the owner of this house."
+
+"Ah!" said Colonel Winchester, and then after a moment's thought he added:
+"It's just as well he escaped.  I should not have known what to do with
+him.  But we have you, Dick, to thank for giving the alarm.  Now, go
+inside and change to some dry clothes, if you have any in your baggage,
+and if not dry yourself before a fire they're going to build in the
+kitchen."
+
+"Will you pardon me for speaking of something, sir?"
+
+"Certainly.  Go ahead."
+
+"I think the appearance of young Woodville here indicates the nearness of
+Forrest or some other strong cavalry force."
+
+"You're right, Dick, my officers and I are agreed upon it.  I have
+doubled the watch, but now get yourself to that fire and then to sleep."
+
+Dick obeyed gladly enough.  The night had turned raw and chill, and the
+cold water dripped from his clothes as he walked.  But first he produced
+Woodville's pistol and handed it to Colonel Winchester.
+
+"There's my antagonist's pistol, sir," he said.  "You'll see his initials
+on it."
+
+"Yes, here they are," said Colonel Winchester: "'V.W., C.S.A.' It's a
+fine weapon, but it's yours, Dick, as you captured it."
+
+Dick took it and went to the kitchen, where the big fire had just begun
+to blaze.  He was lucky enough to be the possessor of an extra uniform,
+and before he changed into it--they slept with their clothes on--he
+roasted himself before those glorious coals.  Then, as he was putting on
+the fresh uniform, Warner and Pennington appeared.
+
+"What would you recommend as best for the patient, Doctor," said Warner
+gravely to Pennington.
+
+"I think such a distinguished surgeon as you will agree with me that his
+wounds should first be washed and bathed thoroughly in cold water."
+
+"And after that a plentiful application of soothing liniment."
+
+"Yes, Doctor.  That is the best we can do with the simple medicines we
+have, but it especially behooves us to reduce the size of that left ear,
+or some of the boys will say that we have a case of elephantiasis on our
+hands."
+
+"While you're reducing the size of it you might also reduce the pain in
+it," said Dick.
+
+"We will," said Pennington; "we've got some fine horse liniment here.
+I brought it all the way from Nebraska with me, and if it's good for
+horses it ought to be good for prize fighters, too.  That was surely a
+hefty chap who fought you.  If you didn't have his pistol as proof I'd
+say that he gave you a durned good licking.  Isn't this a pretty cut down
+the right cheek bone, George?"
+
+"Undoubtedly, but nothing can take away the glory of that left ear.
+Why, if Dick could only work his ears he could fan himself with it
+beautifully.  When I meet that Woodville boy I'm going to congratulate
+him.  He was certainly handy with his fists."
+
+"Go on, fellows," said Dick, good-naturedly.  "In a week I won't have a
+wound or a sign of a scar.  Then I'll remember what you've said to me and
+I'll lick you both, one after the other."
+
+"Patient is growing delirious, don't you think so, Doctor?" said Warner
+to Pennington.
+
+"Beyond a doubt.  Violent talk is always proof of it.  Better put him to
+bed.  Spread his two blankets before the fire, and he can sleep there,
+while every particle of cold and stiffness is being roasted out of him."
+
+"You boys are very good to me," said Dick gratefully.
+
+"It's done merely in the hope that your gratitude will keep you from
+giving us the licking you promised," said Pennington.
+
+Then they left him and Dick slept soundly until he was awakened the next
+day by Warner.  The fire was out, the rain had ceased long since and the
+sun was shining brilliantly.
+
+"Hop up, Dick," said Warner briskly.  "Breakfast's ready.  Owing to your
+wound we let you sleep until the last moment.  Come now, take the foaming
+coffee and the luscious bacon, and we'll be off, leaving Bellevue again
+to its masters, if they will come and claim it."
+
+"Has anything happened in the night?"
+
+"Nothing since you ran your face against a pile driver, but Sergeant
+Daniel Whitley, who reads the signs of earth and air and wood and water,
+thinks that something is going to happen."
+
+"Is it Forrest?"
+
+"Don't know, but it's somebody or something.  As soon as we can eat
+our luxurious breakfasts we mean to mount and ride hard toward Grant.
+We're scouts, but according to Whitley the scouts are scouted, and this
+is a bad country to be trapped in."
+
+Dick was so strong and his blood was so pure that he felt his wounds but
+little now.  The cuts and bruises were healing fast and he ate with a
+keen appetite.  He heard then of the signs that Whitley had seen.
+He had found two broad trails, one three miles from the house, and the
+other about four miles.  Each indicated the passage of several hundred
+men, but he had no way of knowing whether they belonged to the same
+force.  They were bound to be Confederate cavalry as Colonel Winchester's
+regiment was known to be the only Union force in that section.
+
+Dick knew their position to be dangerous.  Colonel Winchester had done
+his duty in discovering that Forrest and Wheeler were raiding through
+Mississippi, and that a heavy force was gathering in the rear of Grant,
+who intended the siege of Vicksburg.  It behooved him now to reach Grant
+as soon as he could with his news.
+
+Refreshed and watchful, the regiment rode away from Bellevue.  Dick
+looked back at the broad roof and the great piazzas, and then he thought
+of young Woodville with a certain sympathy.  They had fought a good fight
+against each other, and he hoped they would meet after the war and be
+friends.
+
+It was about an hour after sunrise, and the day was bright and warm.
+The beads of water that stood on every leaf and blade of grass were
+drying fast, and the air, despite its warmth, was pure and bracing.
+Dick, as he looked at the eight hundred men, tanned, experienced and
+thoroughly armed, under capable leaders, felt that they were a match for
+any roving Southern force.
+
+"Just let Forrest come on," he said.  "I know that the Colonel is aching
+to get back at him for that surprise in Tennessee, and I believe we could
+whip him."
+
+"You're showing great spirit for a man who was beaten up in the prize
+ring as you were last night.  I thought you'd want to rest for a few
+days."
+
+"Drop it, George.  I did get some pretty severe cuts and bruises, but I
+was lucky enough to have the services of two very skillful and devoted
+young physicians.  Their treatment was so fine that I'm all right to-day."
+
+"Unless I miss my guess, we'll need the services of doctors again before
+night comes.  No mountains are here, but this is a great country for
+ambush.  It's mostly in forest, and even in the open the grass is already
+very tall.  Besides, there are so many streams, bayous, and ponds.
+Notice how far out on the flanks the skirmishers and scouts are riding,
+and others ride just as far ahead."
+
+Two miles from Bellevue and they came to a small hill, covered with
+forest, from the protection of which the officers examined the country
+long and minutely, while their men remained hidden among the deep
+foliaged trees.  Dick had glasses of his own which he put to his eyes,
+bringing nearer the wilderness, broken here and there by open spaces that
+indicated cotton fields.  Yet the forest was so dense and there was so
+much of it that a great force might easily be hidden within its depths
+only a mile away.
+
+"Have we any information at all about Forrest's strength?" whispered
+Pennington to Dick.
+
+"His full force isn't down here.  It is believed he has not more than a
+thousand or twelve hundred men.  But he and his officers know the country
+thoroughly, and of course the inhabitants, being in full sympathy with
+them, will give them all the information they need.  The news of every
+movement of ours has been carried straight to the rebel general."
+
+"And yet the country seems to have no people at all.  We come to but few
+houses, and those few are deserted."
+
+"So they are.  What was that?  Did you see it, Frank?"
+
+"What was what?"
+
+"I forgot that you are not using glasses.  I caught a momentary glitter
+in the woods.  I think it was a sunbeam passing through the leaves and
+striking upon the polished barrel of a rifle.  Ah! there it is again!
+And Colonel Winchester has seen it too."
+
+The colonel and his senior officers were now gazing intently at the point
+in the wood where Dick had twice seen the gleam, and, keener-eyed than
+they, he continued to search the leafy screen through his own glasses.
+Soon he saw bayonets, rifles, horses and men advancing swiftly, and then
+came two of their own scouts galloping.
+
+"The enemy is advancing!" they cried.  "It's Forrest!"
+
+A thrill shot through Dick.  The name of Forrest was redoubtable, but
+he knew that every man in the regiment was glad to meet him again.  He
+glanced at Colonel Winchester and saw that his face had flushed.  He knew
+that the colonel was more than gratified at this chance.
+
+"We'll make our stand here," said Colonel Winchester.  "The hill runs to
+the right, and, as you see over there, it is covered with forest without
+undergrowth.  Thus we can secure protection, and at the same time be able
+to maneuver, mounted."
+
+The regiment was posted rapidly in two long lines, the second to fire
+between the intervals of the first.  They carried carbines and heavy
+cavalry sabers, and they were the best mounted regiment in the Northern
+service.
+
+Yet these men, brave and skillful as they were, were bound to feel
+trepidation, although they did not show it.  They were far in the
+Southern forest, cut off from their army, and Forrest, in addition to his
+own cavalry, might have brought with him fresh reserves of the enemy.
+
+Dick, Warner, and Pennington, as usual, remained close to their colonel,
+and Sergeant Daniel Whitley was not far away.  But Colonel Winchester
+presently rode along the double line of his veterans, and he spoke to
+them quietly but with emphasis and conviction:
+
+"My lads," he said, "you see Forrest's men coming through the woods to
+attack us.  Forrest is the greatest cavalry leader the South has, west
+of the Alleghanies.  Some of you were with me when we were surprised and
+cut up by him in Tennessee.  But you will not be surprised by him now,
+nor will you be cut up by him.  All of you have become great riders,
+a match for Forrest's own, and as I look upon your faces here I know that
+there is no fear in a single heart.  You have served under Grant, and you
+have served under Thomas.  They are two generals who always set their
+faces toward the front and never turn them toward the rear.  You will
+this day prove yourselves worthy of Grant and Thomas."
+
+They were about to cheer, but he checked it with the simple gesture of
+a raised hand.  Then they did a thing that only a beloved leader could
+inspire.  Every man in the regiment, resting his carbine across the
+pommel of his saddle, drew his heavy cavalry saber and made it whirl in
+coils of glittering light about his head.
+
+The great pulse in Dick's throat leaped as he saw.  The long double
+line seemed to give back a double flash of flame.  Not a word was said,
+and then eight hundred sabers rattled together as they were dropped back
+into their scabbards.  Colonel Winchester's face flushed deeply at the
+splendid salute, but he did not speak either.  He took off his cap and
+swept it in a wide curve to all his men.  Then he turned his face toward
+the enemy.
+
+The Southern trumpet was singing in the forest, and the force of Forrest,
+about twelve hundred strong, was emerging into view.  Dick, through his
+glasses, saw and recognized the famous leader, a powerful, bearded man,
+riding a great bay horse.  He had heard many descriptions of him and he
+knew him instinctively.  He also recognized the fact that the Winchester
+regiment had before it the most desperate work any men could do, if it
+beat off Forrest when he came in his own country with superior numbers.
+
+Neither side had artillery, not even the light guns that could be carried
+horse- or muleback.  It must be left to carbine and saber.  Colonel
+Winchester carefully watched his formidable foe, trying to divine every
+trick and expedient that he might use.  He had a memory to avenge.
+He had news to carry to Grant, and Forrest must not keep him from
+carrying it.  Moreover, his regiment and he would gain great prestige if
+they could beat off Forrest.  There would be glory for the whole Union
+cavalry if they drove back the Southern attack.  Dick saw the glitter of
+his colonel's eye and the sharp compression of his lips.
+
+But the men of Forrest, although nearly within rifle shot, did not
+charge.  Their bugle sang again, but Dick did not know what the tune
+meant.  Then they melted away into the deep forest on their flank,
+and some of the troop thought they had gone, daunted by the firm front
+of their foe.
+
+But Dick knew better.  Forrest would never retreat before an inferior
+force, and he was full of wiles and stratagems.  Dick felt like a
+primitive man who knew that he was being stalked by a saber-toothed tiger
+through the dense forest.
+
+Colonel Winchester beckoned to Sergeant Whitley.  "Pick a half-dozen
+sharp-eyed men," he said, "and ride into those woods.  You're experienced
+in this kind of war, Whitley, and before you go tell me what you think."
+
+"General Forrest, sir, besides fighting as a white man fights, fights
+like an Indian, too; that is, he uses an Indian's cunning, which is
+always meant for ambush and surprise.  He isn't dreaming of going away.
+They're coming back through the thick woods."
+
+"So I think.  But let me know as soon as you can."
+
+Ten minutes after the sergeant had ridden forward with his comrades they
+heard the sound of rapid rifle shots, and then they saw the little band
+galloping back.
+
+"They're coming, sir," reported the sergeant.  "Forrest has dismounted
+several hundred of his men, and they are creeping forward from tree to
+tree with their rifles, while the others hold their horses in the rear."
+
+"Then it's an Indian fight for the present," said Colonel Winchester.
+"We'll do the same."
+
+He rapidly changed his lines of battle.  The entire front rank was
+dismounted, while those behind held their horses.  The four hundred in
+front, spreading out in as long a line as possible in order to protect
+their flanks, took shelter behind the trees and awaited the onset.
+
+The attack was not long in coming.  The Southern sharpshooters, creeping
+from tree to tree, began to fire.  Scores of rifles cracked and Dick,
+from a convenient place behind a tree, saw the spouts of flame appearing
+along a line of four or five hundred yards.  Bullets whizzed about him,
+and, knowing that he would not be needed at present for any message,
+he hugged the friendly bark more tightly.
+
+"It's lucky we have plenty of trees," said a voice from the shelter of
+the tree next to him.  "We have at least one for every officer and man."
+
+It was Warner who spoke and he was quite cheerful.  Like Colonel
+Winchester, he seemed to look forward to the combat with a certain joy,
+and he added:
+
+"You'll take notice, Dick, old man, that we've not been surprised.
+Forrest hasn't galloped over us as he did before.  He's taking the
+trouble to make the approach with protected riflemen.  Now what is the
+sergeant up to?"
+
+Sergeant Whitley, after whispering a little with Colonel Winchester,
+had stolen off toward the right with fifty picked riflemen.  When they
+reached the verge of the open space that lay between the two sides they
+threw themselves down in the thick, tall grass.  Neither Dick nor Warner
+could see them now.  They beheld only the stems of the grass waving as if
+under a gentle wind.  But Dick knew that the rippling movement marked the
+passage of the riflemen.
+
+Meanwhile the attack in their front was growing hotter.  At least six
+or seven hundred sharpshooters were sending a fire which would have
+annihilated them if it had not been for the trees.  As it was, fragments
+of bark, twigs, and leaves showered about them.  The whistling of the
+bullets and their chugging as they struck the trees made a continuous
+sinister note.
+
+The Union men were not silent under this fire.  Their own rifles were
+replying fast, but Colonel Winchester continually urged them to take aim,
+and, while death and wounds were inflicted on the Union ranks, the
+Southern were suffering in the same manner.
+
+Dick turned his eyes toward the right flank, where the fifty picked
+riflemen, Sergeant Whitley at their head, were crawling through the tall
+grass.  He knew that they were making toward a little corner of the
+forest, thrust farther forward than the rest, and presently when the
+rippling in the grass ceased he was sure that they had reached it.
+Then the fifty rifles cracked together and the Southern flank was swept
+by fifty well-aimed bullets.  Lying in their covert, Whitley's men
+reloaded their breech-loading rifles and again sent in a deadly fire.
+
+The main Northern force redoubled its efforts at the same time.  The men
+in blue sent in swarms of whistling bullets and Dick saw the front line
+of the South retreating.
+
+"We're rousing the wolves from their lairs," explained Pennington
+exultantly as he sprang from his tree, just in time for a bullet to send
+his hat flying from his head.  Fortunately, it clipped only a lock of
+hair, but he received in a good spirit Warner's admonishing words:
+
+"Don't go wild, Frank.  We've merely repelled the present attack.
+You don't think that Forrest with superior forces is going to let us
+alone, do you?"
+
+"No, I don't," replied Pennington, "and don't you get behind that tree.
+It's mine, and I'm coming back to it.  I've earned it.  I held it against
+all kinds of bullets.  Look at the scars made on each side of it by rebel
+lead."
+
+The firing now died.  Whitley's flank movement had proved wholly
+successful, and Colonel Winchester reinforced him in the little forest
+peninsula with fifty more picked men, where they lay well hidden, a
+formidable force for any assailant.
+
+The silence now became complete, save for the stamping of the impatient
+horses and the drone of insects in the woods and grass.  Dick, lying on
+his stomach and using his glasses, could see nothing in the forest before
+them.  It was to him in all its aspects an Indian battle, and he believed
+in spite of what Warner had said that the enemy had retired permanently.
+
+Colonel Winchester and all the officers rose to their feet presently and
+walked among the trees.  No bullets came to tell them that they were
+rash and then the senior officers held a conference, while all the men
+remounted, save a dozen or so who would ride no more.  But the colonel
+did not abate one whit of his craft or caution.
+
+They resumed the march toward Grant, but they avoided every field or open
+space.  They would make curves and lose time in order to keep in the
+dense wood, but, as Dick knew, Colonel Winchester still suspected that
+Forrest was hovering somewhere on his flank, covered by the great forest
+and awaiting a favorable opportunity to attack.
+
+They approached one of the deep and narrow streams that ultimately find
+their way to the Mississippi.  It had only one ford, and the scouts
+galloping back informed them that the farther shore was held by a
+powerful force of cavalry.
+
+"It's Forrest," said Colonel Winchester with quiet conviction.  "Knowing
+every path of the woods, they've gone ahead of us, and they mean to cut
+us off from Grant.  Nevertheless we'll make a way."
+
+He spoke firmly, but the junior officers of the staff did not exactly
+see how they were going to force a ford defended by a larger number of
+cavalry under the redoubtable Forrest.
+
+"I didn't think Forrest would let us alone, and he hasn't," said
+Pennington.
+
+"No, he hasn't," said Warner, "and it seems that he's checkmated us, too.
+Why, that river is swollen by the rains so much that it's a hard job to
+cross it if no enemy were on the other side.  But you'll note, also,
+that the enemy, having got to the other side, can't come back again in
+our face to attack us."
+
+"But we want to go on and they don't," said Dick.  "They're satisfied
+with the enforced status quo, and we're not.  Am I right, Professor?"
+
+"You certainly are," replied Warner.  "Now, our colonel is puzzled,
+as you can tell by his looks, and so would I be, despite my great natural
+military talents."
+
+The Winchester regiment fell back into the woods, leaving the two
+forces out of rifle shot of each other.  Sentinels were posted by both
+commanders not far from the river and the rest, dismounting, took their
+ease, save the officers, who again went into close conference.
+
+Afterward they sat among the trees and waited.  It was low ground,
+with the earth yet soaked from the heavy rain of the night before,
+and the heat grew heavy and intense.  The insects began to drone again,
+and once more mosquitoes made life miserable.  But the soldiers did not
+complain.  It was noon now, and they ate food from their knapsacks.
+Two springs of clear water were found a little distance from the river
+and all drank there.  Then they went back to their weary waiting.
+
+On the other side of the river they could see the dismounted troopers,
+playing cards, sleeping or currying their horses.  They seemed to be in
+no hurry at all.  Colonel Winchester sent divisions of scouts up and down
+the stream, and, both returning after a while, reported that the river
+was not fordable anywhere.
+
+Colonel Winchester sat down under a tree and smoked his pipe.  The longer
+he smoked the more corrugated his brow became.  He looked angrily at the
+ford, but it would be folly to attempt a passage there, and, containing
+himself as best he could, he waited while the long afternoon waned.
+His men at least would get a good rest.
+
+Dick and his comrades, selecting the dryest place they could find,
+spread their blankets and lay down.  Protecting their faces from the
+mosquitoes with green leaves, they sank into a deep quiet.  Dick even
+drowsed for a while.  He could not think of a way out of the trap,
+and he was glad it was the duty of older men like Colonel Winchester and
+the majors and captains to save them.
+
+The heat of the day increased with the coming of afternoon, and Dick's
+eyelids grew heavier.  He had become so thoroughly hardened to march and
+battle that the presence of the enemy on the other side of a river did
+not disturb him.  What was the use of bothering about the rebels as long
+as they did not wish to fire upon one?
+
+His eyes closed for a few minutes, and then his dreaming mind traversed
+space with incredible rapidity.  He was back in Pendleton, sitting on
+the portico with his mother, watching the flowers on the lawn nod in the
+gentle wind.  His cousin Harry Kenton saluted him with a halloo and came
+bounding toward the porch, and the halloo caused Dick to awake and sit
+up.  He rubbed his eyes violently and looked around a little bit ashamed.
+But two captains older than himself were sound asleep with their backs
+against trees.
+
+Dick stood up and shook himself violently.  Whatever others might do he
+must not allow himself to relax so much.  He saw that the sun was slowly
+descending and that the full heat of the afternoon was passing.  Colonel
+Winchester had withdrawn somewhat among the trees and he beckoned to him.
+Sergeant Whitley was standing beside the colonel.
+
+"Dick," said Colonel Winchester, "colored men have brought us news that
+Colonel Grierson of our army, with a strong raiding force of nearly two
+thousand cavalry is less than a day's march away and on the same side of
+this river that we are.  We have received the news from three separate
+sources and it must be true.  Probably Forrest's men know it, too,
+but expect Grierson to pass on, wholly ignorant that we're here.  I have
+chosen you and Sergeant Whitley to bring Grierson to our relief.  The
+horses are ready.  Now go, and God speed you.  The sergeant will tell you
+what we know as you ride."
+
+Dick sprang at once into the saddle, and with a brief good-bye he and the
+sergeant were soon in the forest riding toward the southeast.  Dick was
+alive and energetic again.  All that laziness of mind and body was gone.
+He rode on a great ride and every sense was alert.
+
+"Tell me," he said, "just about what the news is."
+
+"Three men," replied the sergeant, "came in at different times with tales,
+but the three tales agree.  Grierson has made a great raid, even further
+down than we have gone.  He has more than double our numbers, and if we
+can unite with him it's likely that we can turn Forrest into the pursued
+instead of the pursuer.  They say we can hit his trail about twenty-five
+miles from here, and if that's so we'll bring him up to the ford by noon
+to-morrow.  Doesn't it look promising to you, Lieutenant Mason?"
+
+"It does look promising, Sergeant Whitley, if we don't happen to be taken
+by the Johnnies who infest this region.  Besides, you'll have to guide
+through the dark to-night.  You're trained to that sort of thing."
+
+"You can see pretty well in the dark yourself, sir; and since our way
+lies almost wholly through forest I see no reason why we should be
+captured."
+
+"That's so, sergeant.  I'm just as much of an optimist as you are.
+You keep the course, and I'm with you to the finish."
+
+They rode rather fast at first as the sun had not yet set, picking
+their way through the woods, and soon left their comrades out of sight.
+The twilight now came fast, adding a mournful and somber red to the vast
+expanse of wilderness.  The simile of an Indian fight returned to Dick
+with increased force.  This was not like any battle with white men in
+the open fields.  It was a combat of raiders who advanced secretly under
+cover of the vast wilderness.
+
+The twilight died with the rapidity of the South, and the darkness,
+thick at the early hours, passed over the curve of the earth.  For a time
+Dick and the sergeant could not see many yards in front and they rode
+very slowly.  After a while, as the sky lightened somewhat and their eyes
+also grew keen, they made better speed.  Then they struck a path through
+the woods leading in the right direction, and they broke into a trot.
+
+The earth was so soft that their horses' feet gave back but little sound,
+and both were confident they would not meet any enemy in the night at
+least.
+
+"Straight southeast," said the sergeant, "and we're bound to strike
+Grierson's tracks.  After that we'd be blind if we couldn't follow the
+trail made by nearly two thousand horsemen."
+
+The path still led in the direction they wished and they rode on silently
+for hours.  Once they saw a farmhouse set back in the woods, and they
+were in fear lest dogs come out and bark alarm, but there was no sound
+and they soon left it far behind.
+
+They passed many streams, some of which were up to their saddle girths,
+and then they entered a road which was often so deep in mud that they
+were compelled to turn into the woods on the side.  But no human being
+had interfered with their journey, and their hopes rose to the zenith.
+
+They came, finally, into an open region of cotton fields, and the
+sergeant now began to watch closely for the great trail they hoped to
+find.  A force as large as Grierson's would not attempt a passage through
+the woods, but would seek some broad road and Sergeant Whitley expected
+to find it long before morning.
+
+It was now an hour after midnight and they reckoned that they had come
+about the right distance.  There was a good moon and plenty of stars and
+the sergeant gave himself only a half-hour to find the trail.
+
+"There's bound to be a wide road somewhere among these fields, the kind
+we call a county road."
+
+"It's over there beyond that rail fence," said Dick.  They urged their
+horses into a trot, and soon found that Dick was right.  A road of red
+clay soft from the rains stretched before them.
+
+"A man doesn't have to look twice here for a trail.  See," said the
+sergeant.
+
+The road from side to side was plowed deep with the hoofs of horses,
+every footprint pointing northward.
+
+"Grierson's cavalry," said Dick.
+
+"I take it that it can't be anything else.  There is certainly in these
+parts no rebel force of cavalry large enough to make this trail."
+
+"How old would you say these tracks are?"
+
+"Hard to tell, but they can't have been made many hours ago.  We'll press
+forward, lieutenant, and we can save time going through the fields on the
+edge of the road."
+
+Although they had to take down fences they made good speed and just as
+the sun was rising they saw the light of a low campfire among some trees,
+lining either bank of a small creek.  They approached warily, until they
+saw the faded blue uniforms.  Then they galloped forward, shouting that
+they were friends, and in a few minutes were in the presence of Grierson
+himself.
+
+He had been making a great raid, but he was eager now for the opportunity
+to strike at Forrest.  He must give his horses a short rest, and then
+Dick and the sergeant should guide him at speed to the ford where the
+opposing forces stood.
+
+"It's twenty-five miles, you tell me?" said Grierson to Dick.
+
+"As nearly as I can calculate, sir.  It's through swampy country, but I
+think we ought to be there in three or four hours."
+
+"Then lead the way," said Grierson.  "Like your colonel, I'll be glad to
+have a try at Forrest."
+
+Sergeant Whitley rode in advance.  A lumberman first and then a soldier
+of the plains, he had noted even in the darkness every landmark and he
+could lead the way back infallibly.  But he warned Grierson that such a
+man as Forrest would be likely to have out scouts, even if they had to
+swim the river.  It was likely that they could not get nearer by three
+or four miles to Colonel Winchester without being seen.
+
+"Then," said Grierson, who had the spirit of a Stuart or a Forrest,
+"we'll ride straight on, brushing these watchers out of our way, and if
+by any chance their whole force should cross, we'll just meet and fight
+it."
+
+"The little river is falling fast," said the sergeant.  "It's likely that
+it'll be fordable almost anywhere by noon."
+
+"Then," said Grierson, "it'll be all the easier for us to get at the
+enemy."
+
+Dick, just behind Grierson, heard these words and he liked them.  Here
+was a spirit like Colonel Winchester's own, or like that of the great
+Southern cavalry leaders.  The Southerners were born on horseback,
+but the Northern men were acquiring the same trick of hard riding.
+Dick glanced back at the long column.  Armed with carbine and saber the
+men were riding their trained horses like Comanches.  Eager and resolute
+it was a formidable force, and his heart swelled with pride and
+anticipation.  He believed that they were going to give Forrest all he
+wanted and maybe a little more.
+
+Up rose the sun.  Hot beams poured over forest and field, but the
+cavalrymen still rode fast, the scent of battle in their nostrils.
+Dick knew that these Southern streams, flooded by torrents of rain,
+rose fast and also fell fast.
+
+"How much further now, sergeant?" asked Grierson, as they turned from a
+path into the deep woods.
+
+"Not more than three miles, sir."
+
+"And they know we're coming.  Listen to that!"
+
+Several rifles cracked among the trees and bullets whizzed by them.
+Forrest's skirmishers and scouts were on the south side of the stream.
+As they had foreseen, the river had sunk so much that it was fordable now
+at many points.  Dick was devoutly grateful that they had found Grierson.
+Otherwise the Winchester regiment would have been flanked, and its
+destruction would have followed.
+
+Skirmishers were detached from Grierson's command and drove off the
+Southern riflemen.  Dick heard the rattling fire of their rifles in the
+deep wood, but he seldom saw a figure.  Then he heard another fire,
+heavy and continuous, in their front, coming quite clearly on a breeze
+that blew toward them.
+
+"Your whole regiment is engaged," exclaimed Grierson.  "Forrest must have
+forded the river elsewhere!"
+
+He turned and shook aloft his saber.
+
+"Forward, lads!" he shouted.  "Gallant men of our own army will be
+overwhelmed unless we get up in time!"
+
+The whole force broke into a gallop through the woods, the fire in their
+front rapidly growing heavier.  In ten minutes they would be there,
+but rifles suddenly blazed from the forest on their flank and many
+saddles were emptied.  Nothing upsets like surprise, and for a few
+moments the whole command was in disorder.  It was evident that Forrest
+was attacking Winchester with only a part of his force, while he formed
+an ambush for Grierson.
+
+But the Northern cavalrymen had not learned in vain through disaster and
+experience.  Grierson quickly restored order and drew his men back into
+the forest.  As the enemy followed the Northern carbines began to flash
+fast.  The troopers in gray were unable to flank them or drive them back.
+Grierson, sure of his superior numbers, pushed on toward Winchester,
+while fighting off the foe at the same time.
+
+Dick and the sergeant kept in the van, and presently they came within
+sight of Colonel Winchester's men, who, dismounted, were holding off as
+best they could the overwhelming attack of Forrest.  The Southern leader,
+after sending the majority of his men to a new crossing lower down had
+forced the ford before the Winchester regiment, and would have crushed it
+if it had not been for the opportune arrival of Grierson.
+
+But a tremendous cheer arose as the Northern cavalry leader, who was
+already proving his greatness, charged into the battle with his grim
+troopers.  The men in blue were now more numerous, and, fighting with the
+resolve to win or die, they gradually forced back Forrest.  Dick began
+to foresee a victory won over the great Southern cavalryman.
+
+But the astute Forrest, seeing that the odds were now heavily against him,
+ordered a retreat.  The trumpets sang the recall and suddenly the
+Southern horsemen, carrying their dead with them, vanished in the forest,
+where the Northern cavalry, fearful of ambushes and new forces, did not
+dare to pursue.
+
+But Winchester and Grierson were shaking hands, and Winchester thanked
+the other in brief but emphatic words.
+
+"Say no more, colonel," exclaimed Grierson.  "We're all trying to serve
+our common country.  You'd help me just the same if we had the chance,
+and I think you'll find the road clear to Grant.  While the siege of
+Vicksburg was determined on long ago, as you know, I believe that he is
+now moving toward Grand Gulf.  You know he has to deal with the armies
+of Johnston and Pemberton."
+
+"We'll find him," said Winchester.
+
+A quarter of an hour later his regiment was galloping toward Grant,
+while Grierson's command rode eastward to deal with other forces of the
+Confederacy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+GRANT MOVES
+
+
+The Winchester regiment had not suffered greatly.  A dozen men who had
+fallen were given speedy burial, and all the wounded were taken away on
+horseback by their friends.  Dick rejoiced greatly at their escape from
+Forrest, and the daring and skill of Grierson.  He felt anew that he was
+in stronger hands in the West than he had been in the East.  In the East
+things seemed to go wrong nearly always, and the West they seemed to
+go right nearly always.  It could not be chance continued so long.  He
+believed in his soul that it was Grant, the heroic Thomas, and the great
+fighting powers of the western men, used to all the roughness of life
+out-of-doors and on the border.
+
+They turned their course toward the Mississippi and that afternoon they
+met a Union scout who told them that Grant, now in the very heart of the
+far South, was gathering his forces for a daring attack upon Grand Gulf,
+a Confederate fortress on the Mississippi.  In the North and at
+Washington his venture was regarded with alarm.  There was a telegram
+to him to stop, but it was sent too late.  He had disappeared in the
+Southern wilderness.
+
+But Dick understood.  He had both knowledge and intuition.  Colonel
+Winchester on his long and daring scout had learned that the Confederate
+forces in the South were scattered and their leaders in doubt.  Grant,
+taking a daring offensive and hiding his movements, had put them on the
+defensive, and there were so many points to defend that they did not know
+which to choose.  Joe Johnston, just recovered from his wound at Fair
+Oaks the year before, and a general of the first rank, was coming,
+but he was not yet here.
+
+Meanwhile Pemberton held the chief command, but he seemed to lack energy
+and decision.  There were forces under other generals scattered along the
+river, including eight thousand commanded by Bowen, who held Grand Gulf,
+but concert of action did not exist among them.
+
+This knowledge was not Dick's alone.  It extended to every man in the
+regiment, and when the colonel urged them to greater speed they responded
+gladly.
+
+"If we don't ride faster," he said, "we won't be up in time for the
+taking of Grand Gulf."
+
+No greater spur was needed and the Winchester regiment went forward as
+fast as horses could carry them.
+
+"I take it that Grant means to scoop in the Johnnies in detail," said
+Warner.
+
+"It seems so," said Pennington.  "This is a big country down here,
+and we can fight one Confederate army while another is mired up a hundred
+miles away.
+
+"That's General Grant's plan.  He doesn't look like any hero of romance,
+but he acts like one.  He plunges into the middle of the enemy, and if he
+gets licked he's up and at 'em again right away."
+
+Night closed in, and they stopped at an abandoned plantation--it seemed
+to Dick that the houses were abandoned everywhere--where they spent the
+night.  The troopers would have willingly pushed on through the darkness,
+but the horses were so near exhaustion that another hour or two would
+have broken them down permanently.  Moreover, Colonel Winchester did not
+feel much apprehension of an attack now.  Forrest had certainly turned
+in another direction, and they were too close to the Union lines to be
+attacked by any other foe.
+
+The house on this plantation was not by any means so large and fine as
+Bellevue, but, like the other, it had broad piazzas all about it, and
+Dick, in view of his strenuous experience, was allowed to take his
+saddle as a pillow and his blankets and go to sleep soon after dark in a
+comfortable place against the wall.
+
+Never was slumber quicker or sweeter.  There was not an unhealthy tissue
+in his body, and most of his nerves had disappeared in a life amid
+battles, scoutings, and marchings.  He slept heavily all through the
+night, inhaling new strength and vitality with every breath of the crisp,
+fresh air.  There was no interruption this time, and early in the morning
+the regiment was up and away.
+
+They descended now into lower grounds near the Mississippi.  All around
+them was a vast and luxuriant vegetation, cut by sluggish streams and
+bayous.  But the same desolation reigned everywhere.  The people had fled
+before the advance of the armies.  Late in the afternoon they saw pickets
+in blue, then the Mississippi, and a little later they rode into a Union
+camp.
+
+"Dick," said Colonel Winchester, "I shall want you to go with the senior
+officers and myself to report to General Grant on the other side of the
+Mississippi.  You rode on that mission to Grierson and he may want to ask
+you questions."
+
+Dick was glad to go with them.  He was eager to see once more the man who
+had taken Henry and Donelson and who had hung on at Shiloh until Buell
+came.  The general's tent was in a grove on a bit of high ground, and
+he was sitting before it on a little camp stool, smoking a short cigar,
+and gazing reflectively in the direction of Grand Gulf.
+
+He greeted the three officers quietly but with warmth and then he
+listened to Colonel Winchester's detailed account of what he had seen and
+learned in his raid toward Jackson.  It was a long narrative, showing how
+the Southern forces were scattered, and, as he listened, Grant's face
+began to show satisfaction.
+
+But he seldom interrupted.
+
+"And you think they have no large force at Jackson?" he said.
+
+"I'm quite sure of it," replied Colonel Winchester.
+
+Grant chewed his cigar a little while and then said:
+
+"Grierson is doing well.  It was an achievement for you and him to beat
+off Forrest.  It will raise the prestige of our cavalry, which needs it.
+I believe it was you, Lieutenant Mason, who brought Grierson."
+
+"It was chiefly, sir, a sergeant named Whitley.  I rode with him and
+outranked him, but he is a veteran of the plains, and it was he who did
+the real work."
+
+The general's stern features were lightened by a smile.
+
+"I'm glad you give the sergeant credit," he said.  "Not many officers
+would do it."
+
+He listened a while longer and then the three were permitted to withdraw
+to their regiment, which was posted back of Grand Gulf, and which had
+quickly become a part of an army flushed with victory and eager for
+further action.
+
+Before sunset Dick, Warner, and Pennington looked at Grand Gulf, a little
+village standing on high cliffs overlooking the Mississippi, just below
+the point where the dark stream known as the Big Black River empties into
+the Father of Waters.  Around the crown of the heights was a ring of
+batteries and lower down, enclosing the town, was another ring.
+
+Far off on the Mississippi the three saw puffing black smoke marking
+the presence of a Union fleet, which never for one instant in the whole
+course of the war relaxed its grip of steel upon the Confederacy.
+Dick's heart thrilled at the sight of the brave ships.  He felt then,
+as most of us have felt since, that whatever happened the American navy
+would never fail.
+
+"I hear the ships are going to bombard," said Warner.
+
+"I heard so, too," said Pennington, "and I heard also that they will have
+to do it under the most difficult circumstances.  The water in front
+of Grand Gulf is so deep that the ships can't anchor.  It has a swift
+current, too, making at that point more than six knots an hour.  There
+are powerful eddies, too, and the batteries crowning the cliffs are so
+high that the cannon of the gunboats will have trouble in reaching them."
+
+"Still, Mr. Pessimist," said Dick, "remember what the gunboats did at
+Fort Henry.  You'll find the same kind of men here."
+
+"I wasn't trying to discourage you.  I was merely telling the worst
+first.  We're going to win.  We nearly always win here in the West,
+but it seems to me the country is against us now.  This doesn't look much
+like the plains, Dick, with its big, deep rivers, its high bluffs along
+the banks, and its miles and miles of swamp or wet lowlands.  How wide
+would you say the Mississippi is here?"
+
+"Somewhere between a mile and a mile and a half."
+
+"And they say it's two or three hundred feet deep.  Look at the steamers,
+boys.  How many are there?"
+
+"I count seven pyramids of smoke," said Warner, "four in one group and
+three in another.  All the pyramids are becoming a little faint as the
+twilight is advancing.  Dick, you call me a cold mathematical person,
+but this vast river flowing in its deep channel, the dark bluffs up there,
+and the vast forests would make me feel mighty lonely if you fellows were
+not here.  It's a long way to Vermont."
+
+"Fifteen hundred or maybe two thousand miles," said Dick, "but look how
+fast the dark is coming.  I was wrong in saying it's coming.  It just
+drops down.  The smoke of the steamers has melted into the night, and you
+don't see them any more.  The surface of the river has turned black as
+ink, the bluffs of Grand Gulf have gone, and we've turned back three or
+four hundred years."
+
+"What do you mean by going back three or four hundred years?" asked
+Warner, looking curiously at Dick.
+
+"Why, don't you see them out there?"
+
+"See them out there?  See what?"
+
+"Why, the queer little ships with the high sides and prows!  On my soul,
+George, they're the caravels of Spain!  Look, they're stopping!  Now they
+lower something in black over the side of the first caravel.  I see a man
+in a black robe like a priest, holding a cross in his hand and standing
+at the ship's edge saying something.  I think he's praying, boys.
+Now sailors cut the ropes that hold the dark object.  It falls into the
+river and disappears.  It's the burial of De Soto in the Father of Waters
+which he discovered!"
+
+"Dick, you're dreaming," exclaimed Pennington.
+
+"Yes, I know, but once there was a Chinaman who dreamed that he was a
+lily.  When he woke up he didn't know whether he was a Chinaman who had
+dreamed he was a lily or a lily now dreaming he was a Chinaman."
+
+"I like that story, Dick, but you've got too much imagination.  The tale
+of the death and burial of De Soto has always been so vivid to you that
+you just stood there and re-created the scene for yourself."
+
+"Of course that's it," said Pennington, "but why can't a fellow create
+things with his mind, when things that don't exist jump right up before
+his eyes?  I've often seen the mirage, generally about dark, far out on
+the western plains.  I've seen a beautiful lake and green gardens where
+there was nothing but the brown swells rolling on."
+
+"I concede all you say," said Dick readily.  "I have flashes sometimes,
+and so does Harry Kenton and others I know."
+
+"Flashes!  What do you mean?" asked Warner.
+
+"Why, a sort of lightning stroke out of the past.  Something that lasts
+only a second, but in which you have a share.  Boys, one day I saw myself
+a Carthaginian soldier following Hannibal over the Alps."
+
+"Maybe," said Pennington, "we have lived other lives on this earth,
+and sometimes a faint glimpse of them comes to us.  It's just a guess."
+
+"That's so," said Warner, "and we'd better be getting back to the
+regiment.  Grand Gulf defended by Bowen and eight thousand good men is
+really enough for us.  I think we're going to see some lively fighting
+here."
+
+The heavy boom of a cannon from the upper circle of batteries swept over
+the vast sheet of water flowing so swiftly toward the Gulf.  The sound
+came back in dying echoes, and then there was complete silence among
+besieged and besiegers.
+
+The Winchesters had found a good solid place, a little hill among the
+marshes, and they were encamped there with their horses.  Dick had no
+messages to carry, but he remained awake, while his comrades slept
+soundly.  He had slept so much the night before that he had no desire for
+sleep now.
+
+From his position he could see the Confederate bluffs and a few lights
+moving there, but otherwise the two armies were under a blanket of
+darkness.  He again felt deeply the sense of isolation and loneliness,
+not for himself alone, but for the whole army.  Grant had certainly shown
+supreme daring in pushing far into the South, and the government at
+Washington had cause for alarm lest he be reckless.  If there were any
+strong hand to draw together the forces of the Confederacy they could
+surely crush him.  But he had already learned in this war that those who
+struck swift and hard were sure to win.  That was Stonewall Jackson's way,
+and it seemed to be Grant's way, too.
+
+Still unable to sleep, he walked to a better position, where he could see
+the shimmering dark of the river and the misty heights with their two
+circles of cannon.  A tall figure standing there turned at his tread and
+he recognized Colonel Winchester.
+
+"Uneasy at our position, Dick?" said the colonel, fathoming his mind at
+once.
+
+"A little, sir, but I think General Grant will pull us through."
+
+"He will, Dick, and he'll take this fort, too.  Grant's the hammer we've
+been looking for.  Look at his record.  He's had backsets, but in the end
+he's succeeded in everything he's tried.  The Confederate government and
+leaders have made a mess of their affairs in the West and Southwest,
+and General Grant is taking full advantage of it."
+
+"Do we attack in the morning, sir?"
+
+"We do, Dick, though not by land.  Porter, with his seven gunboats,
+is going to open on the fort, but it will be a hazardous undertaking."
+
+"Because of the nature of the river, sir?"
+
+"That's it.  They can't anchor, and with full steam up, caught in all the
+violent eddies that the river makes rounding the point, they'll have to
+fire as best they can."
+
+"But the gunboats did great work at Fort Henry, sir."
+
+"So they did, Dick, and we've come a long way South since then, which
+means that we're making progress and a lot of it here in the West.
+Well, we'll see to-morrow."
+
+They walked back to their own camp and sleep came to Dick at last.
+But he awoke early and found that the thrill of expectation was running
+through the whole army.  Their position did not yet enable them to attack
+on land, but far out on the river they saw the gunboats moving.  Porter,
+the commander, divided them into two groups.  Four of the gunboats were
+to attack the lower circle of batteries and three were to pour their fire
+upon the upper ring.
+
+Dick by day even more than by night recognized the difficulty of the
+task.  Before them flowed the vast swift current of the Mississippi,
+gleaming now in the sunshine, and beyond were the frowning bluffs,
+crested and ringed with cannon.  Grant had with him twenty thousand men
+and his seven gunboats, and Bowen, eight thousand troops.  But if the
+affair lasted long other Southern armies would surely come.
+
+Dick and his comrades had little to do but watch and thousands watched
+with them.  When the sun was fully risen the seven boats steamed out in
+two groups, four farther down the river in order to attack the lower
+batteries, while the other three up the stream would launch their fire
+against those on the summit.
+
+He watched the crest of the cliffs.  He saw plainly through his glasses
+the muzzles of cannon and men moving about the batteries.  Then there
+was a sudden blaze of fire and column of smoke and a shell struck in the
+water near one of the gunboats.  The boat replied and its comrades also
+sent shot and shell toward the frowning summit.  Then the batteries,
+both lower and upper, replied with full vigor and all the cliffs were
+wrapped in fire and smoke.
+
+The boats steamed in closer and closer, pouring an incessant fire from
+their heavy guns, and both rings of batteries on the cliffs responded.
+The water of the river spouted up in innumerable little geysers and now
+and then a boat was struck.  Over both cliffs and river a great cloud of
+smoke lowered.  It grew so dense that Dick and his comrades, watching
+with eagerness, were unable to tell much of what was happening.
+
+Yet as the smoke lifted or was shot through with the blaze of cannon fire
+they saw that their prophecies were coming true.  The boats in water too
+deep for anchorage were caught in the powerful eddies and their captains
+had to show their best seamanship while they steamed back and forth.
+
+The battle between ship and shore went on for a long time.  It seemed at
+last to the watching Union soldiers that the fire from the lower line of
+batteries was diminishing.
+
+"We're making some way," said Warner.
+
+"It looks like it," said Dick.  "Their lower batteries are not so well
+protected as the upper."
+
+"If we were only over there, helping with our own guns."
+
+"But there's a big river in between, and we've got to leave it to the
+boats for to-day, anyhow."
+
+"Look again at those lower batteries.  Their fire is certainly
+decreasing.  I can see it die down."
+
+"Yes, and now it's stopped entirely.  The boats have done good work!"
+
+A tremendous cheer burst from the troops on the west shore as they saw
+how much their gallant little gunboats had achieved.  Every gun in the
+lower batteries was silent now, but the top of the cliffs was still alive
+with flame.  The batteries there were far from silent.  Instead their
+fire was increasing in volume and power.
+
+The four gunboats that had silenced the lower batteries now moved up to
+the aid of their comrades, and the seven made a united effort, steaming
+forward in a sort of half-moon, and raining shot and shell upon the
+summits.  But the guns there, well-sheltered and having every advantage
+over rocking steamers, maintained an accurate and deadly fire.  The decks
+of the gunboats were swept more than once.  Many men were killed or
+wounded.  Heavy shot crashed through their sides, and Dick expected every
+instant to see some one of them sunk by a huge exploding shell.
+
+"They can't win!  They can't win!" he exclaimed.  "They'd better draw off
+before they're sunk!"
+
+"So they had," said Warner sadly.  "Boats are at a disadvantage fighting
+batteries.  The old darky was right when he preferred a train wreck to a
+boat wreck, 'ef the train's smashed, thar you are on the solid ground,
+but ef the boat blows up, whar is you?'  That's sense.  The boats are
+retiring!  It's sad, but it's sense.  A boat that steams away will live
+to fight another day."
+
+Dick was dejected.  He fancied he could hear the cheering of their foes
+at what looked like a Union defeat, but he recalled that Grant, the
+bulldog, led them.  He would never think of retiring, and he was sure to
+be ready with some new attempt.
+
+The gunboats drew off to the far western shore and lay there, puffing
+smoke defiantly.  Their fight with the batteries had lasted five hours
+and they had suffered severely.  It seemed strange to Dick that none of
+them had been sunk, and in fact it was strange.  All had been hit many
+times, and one had been pierced by nearly fifty shot or shell.  Their
+killed or wounded were numerous, but their commanders and crews were
+still resolute, and ready to go into action whenever General Grant wished.
+
+"Spunky little fellows," said Pennington.  "We don't have many boats out
+where I live, but I must hand a bunch of laurel to the navy every time."
+
+"And you can bind wreaths around the hair of those navy fellows, too,"
+said Warner, "and sing songs in their honor whether they win or lose."
+
+"Now I wonder what's next," said Dick.
+
+To their surprise the gunboats opened fire again just before sundown,
+and the batteries replied fiercely.  Rolling clouds of smoke mingled
+with the advancing twilight, and the great guns from either side flashed
+through the coming darkness.  Then from a stray word or two dropped
+by Colonel Winchester Dick surmised the reason of this new and rather
+distant cannonade.
+
+He knew that General Grant had transports up the river above Grand Gulf,
+and he believed that they were now coming down the stream under cover
+of the bombardment and the darkness.  He confided his belief to Warner,
+who agreed with him.  Presently they saw new coils of smoke in the
+darkness and knew they were right.  The transports, steaming swiftly,
+were soon beyond the range of the batteries, and then the gun boats,
+drawing off, dropped down the river with them.
+
+Long before the boats reached a point level with Grant's camp the army
+was being formed in line for embarkation on the gunboats and transports.
+The horses were to be placed on one or two of the transports and the men
+filled all the other vessels.
+
+"You can't down Grant," said Pennington.  "A failure with him merely
+means that he's going to try again."
+
+"But don't forget the navy and the Father of Waters," said Dick, as their
+transports swung from the shore upon the dark surface of the river.
+"The mighty rivers help us.  Look how we went up the Cumberland and the
+Tennessee and now we've harnessed a flowing ocean for our service."
+
+"Getting poetical, Dick," said Warner.
+
+"I feel it and so do you.  You can't see the bluffs any more.  There's
+nothing in sight, but the lights of the steamers and the transports.
+We must be somewhere near the middle of the stream, because I can't make
+out either shore."
+
+There were two regiments aboard the transport, the Winchester and one
+from Ohio, which had fought by their side at both Perryville and Stone
+River.  Usually these boys chattered much, but now they were silent,
+permeated by the same feelings that had overwhelmed Dick.  In the
+darkness--all lights were concealed as much as possible--with both banks
+of the vast river hidden from them, they felt that they were in very
+truth afloat upon a flowing ocean.
+
+They knew little about their journey, except that they were destined for
+the eastern shore, the same upon which Grand Gulf stood, but they did not
+worry about this lack of knowledge.  They were willing to trust to Grant,
+and most of them were already asleep, upon the decks, in the cabins,
+or in any place in which a human body could secure a position.
+
+Dick did not sleep.  The feeling of mystery and might made by the
+tremendous river remained longer in his sensitive and imaginative nature.
+His mind, too, looked backward.  He knew that the great grandfathers
+of Harry Kenton and himself, the famous Henry Ware and the famous Paul
+Cotter, had passed up and down this monarch of streams.  He knew of their
+adventures.  How often had he and his cousin, who now, alas! was on the
+other side, listened to the stories of those mighty days as they were
+handed from father to son!  Those lads had floated in little boats and
+he was on a steamer, but it seemed to him that the river with its mighty
+depths took no account of either, steamer or canoe being all the same to
+its vast volume of water.
+
+He was standing by the rail looking over, when happening to glance
+back he saw by the ship's lantern what he thought was a familiar face.
+A second glance and he was sure.  He remembered that fair-haired Ohio lad,
+and, smiling, he said:
+
+"You're one of those Ohio boys who, marching southward from its mouth
+in the Ohio, drank the tributary river dry clear to its source, the
+mightiest achievement in quenching thirst the world has ever known.
+You're the boy, too, who told about it."
+
+The youth moved forward, gazed at him and said:
+
+"Now I remember you, too.  You're Dick Mason of the Winchester regiment.
+I heard the Winchesters were on board, but I haven't had time to look
+around.  It was hot when we drank up the river, but it was hotter that
+afternoon at Perryville.  God! what a battle!  And again at Stone River,
+when the Johnnies surprised us and took us in flank.  It was you
+Kentuckians then who saved us."
+
+"Just as you would have saved us, if it had been the other way."
+
+"I hope so.  But, Mason, we left a lot of the boys behind.  A big crowd
+stopped forever at Perryville, and a bigger at Stone River."
+
+"And we left many of ours, too.  I suppose we'll land soon, won't we,
+and then take these Grand Gulf forts with troops."
+
+"Yes, that's the ticket, but I hear, Mason, it's hard to find a landing
+on the east side.  The banks are low there and the river spreads out to a
+vast distance.  After the boats go as far as they can we'll have to get
+off in water up to our waists and wade through treacherous floods."
+
+The question of landing was worrying Grant at that time and worrying him
+terribly.  The water spread far out over the sunken lands and he might
+have to drop down the river many miles before he could find a landing
+on solid ground, a fact which would scatter his army along a long line,
+and expose it to defeat by the Southern land forces.  But his anxieties
+were relieved early in the morning when a colored man taken aboard from
+a canoe told him of a bayou not five miles below Grand Gulf up which his
+gunboats and transports could go and find a landing for the troops on
+solid ground.
+
+Dick was asleep when the boats entered the bayou, but he was soon
+awakened by the noise of landing.  It was then that most of the
+Winchester and of the Ohio regiment discovered that they were comrades,
+thrown together again by the chances of war, and there was a mighty
+welcome and shaking of hands.  But it did not interfere with the rapidity
+of the landing.  The Winchester regiment was promptly ordered forward and,
+advancing on solid ground, took a little village without firing a shot.
+
+All that day troops came up and Grant's army, after having gone away from
+Grand Gulf in darkness, was coming back to it in daylight.
+
+"They say that Pemberton at Vicksburg could gather together fifty
+thousand men and strike us, while we've only twenty thousand here,"
+said Pennington.
+
+"But he isn't going to do it," said Warner.  "How do I know?  No, I'm not
+a prophet nor the son of a prophet.  There's nothing mysterious about it.
+This man Grant who leads us knows the value of time.  He makes up his
+mind fast and he acts fast.  The Confederate commander doesn't do either.
+So Grant is bound to win.  Let z equal resolution and y equal speed and
+we have z plus y which equals resolution and speed, that is victory."
+
+"I hope it will work out that way," said Dick, "but war isn't altogether
+mathematics."
+
+"Not altogether, but that beautiful study plays a great part in every
+campaign.  People are apt to abuse mathematics, when they don't know what
+they're talking about.  The science of mathematics is the very basis of
+music, divine melody, heaven's harmony."
+
+"You needn't tell me," said Pennington, "that a plus b and z minus y
+lie at the basis of 'Home, Sweet Home' and the 'Star Spangled Banner.'
+I accept a lot of your tales because you come from an old state like
+Vermont, but there's a limit, George."
+
+Warner looked at him pityingly.
+
+"Frank," he said, "I'm not arguing with you.  I'm telling you.  Haven't
+you known me long enough to accept whatever I say as a fact, and to
+accept it at once and without question?  Not to do so is an insult to me
+and to the truth.  Now say over slowly with me: 'The basis of music is
+mathematics.'"
+
+They said slowly together:
+
+"The basis of music is mathematics."
+
+"Now I accept your apologies," said Warner loftily.
+
+Pennington laughed.
+
+"You're a queer fellow, George," he said.  "When this war is over and I
+receive my general's uniform I'm coming up into the Vermont mountains and
+look your people over.  Will it be safe?"
+
+"Of course, if you learn to read and write by then, and don't come
+wearing your buffalo robe.  We're strong on education and manners."
+
+"Why, George," said Pennington in the same light tone, "I could read when
+I was two years old, and, as for writing, I wrote a lot of text-books for
+the Vermont schools before I came to the war."
+
+"Shut up, you two," said Dick.  "Don't you know that this is a war and
+not a talking match?"
+
+"It's not a war just now, or at least there are a few moments between
+battles," retorted Warner, "and the best way I can use them is in
+instructing our ignorant young friend from Nebraska."
+
+Their conversation was interrupted by Colonel Winchester, who ordered the
+regiment to move to a new point.  General Grant had decided to attack a
+little town called Port Gibson, which commanded the various approaches to
+Grand Gulf.  If he could take that he might shut up Bowen and his force
+in Grand Gulf.  On the other hand, if he failed he might be shut in
+himself by Confederate armies gathering from Jackson, Vicksburg, and
+elsewhere.  The region, moreover, was complicated for both armies by
+the mighty Mississippi and the Big Black River, itself a large stream,
+and there were deep and often unfordable bayous.
+
+But Grant showed great qualities, and Dick, who was experienced enough
+now to see and know, admired him more than ever.  He pushed forward with
+the utmost resolution and courage.  His vanguard, led by McClernand,
+and including the Winchester regiment, seized solid ground near Port
+Gibson, but found themselves confronted by a formidable Southern force.
+Bowen, who commanded in Grand Gulf, was brave and able.  Seeing the Union
+army marching toward his rear, and knowing that if Grant took it he would
+be surrounded, both on land and water, by a force outnumbering his nearly
+three to one, he marched out at once and took station two miles in front
+of Port Gibson.
+
+Dick was by the side of Colonel Winchester as he rode forward.  The faint
+echo of shots from the skirmishers far in front showed that they had
+roused up an enemy.  Glasses were put in use at once.
+
+"The Confederates are before us," said Colonel Winchester.
+
+"So they are, and we're going to have hard fighting," said a major.
+"Look what a position!"
+
+Dick said nothing, but he was using his glasses, too.  He saw before him
+rough ground, thickly sown with underbrush.  There was also a deep ravine
+or rather marsh choked with vines, bushes, reeds, and trees that like a
+watery soil.  The narrow road divided and went around either end of the
+long work, where the two divisions united again on a ridge, on which
+Bowen had placed his fine troops and artillery.
+
+"I don't see their men yet, except a few skirmishers," said Dick.
+
+"No, but we'll find them in some good place beyond it," replied Colonel
+Winchester, divining Bowen's plan.
+
+It was night when the army in two divisions, one turning to the right
+and the other to the left, began the circuit of the great marshy ravine.
+Dick noticed that the troops who had struggled so long in mud and water
+were eager.  Here, west of the Alleghanies, the men in blue were always
+expecting to win.
+
+The sky was sown with stars, casting a filmy light over the marching
+columns.  Dick was with the troops passing to the right, and he observed
+again their springy and eager tread.
+
+Nor was the night without a lively note.  Skirmishers, eager riflemen
+prowling among the bushes, fired often at one another, and now and then
+a Union cannon sent a shell screaming into some thick clump of forest,
+lest a foe be lurking there for ambush.
+
+The reports of the rifles and cannon kept every one alert and watchful.
+Early in the night while it was yet clear Dick often saw the flashes from
+the firing, but, as the morning hours approached, heavy mists began to
+rise from that region of damp earth and great waters.  He shivered more
+than once, and on the advice of Sergeant Whitley wrapped his cavalry
+cloak about him.
+
+"Chills and fever," said the sergeant sententiously.  "So much water and
+marsh it's hard to escape it.  The sooner we fight the better."
+
+"Well, that's what General Grant thinks already," said Dick; "so I
+suppose he doesn't need chills and fever to drive him on.  All the same,
+Sergeant, I'll wrap up as you say."
+
+All the men in the Winchester regiment were soon doing the same.  The
+mists of the Mississippi, the Big Black and the bayous were raw and cold,
+although it would be hot later on.  But the period of coldness did not
+last long.  Soon the low sun showed in the east and the warm daylight
+came.  In the new light they saw the Confederate forces strongly posted
+on the ridge where the halves of the road rejoined.  As the Union column
+came into view a cannon boomed and a shell burst in the road so near
+that dirt was thrown upon them as it exploded and one man was wounded.
+At the same time the column on the left under Osterhaus appeared, having
+performed its semicircle about the marsh, and the whole Union army,
+weary of body but eager of soul, pressed forward.  The Winchester
+regiment and the Ohio regiment beside it charged hotly, but were received
+with a fire of great volume and accuracy that swept them from the road.
+Another battery on their far left also raked them with a cross fire,
+and so terrible was their reception that they were compelled to abandon
+some of their own cannon and seek shelter.
+
+The Winchester regiment, except the officers, were not mounted in this
+march, as Grant would not wait for their horses, which were on another
+transport.  The very fact saved from death many who would have made a
+more shining target.  Dick's own horse was killed at the first fire,
+and as he leaped clear to escape he went down to his waist in a marsh,
+another fact which saved his life a second time as the new volleys swept
+over his head.  The horses of other officers also were killed, and the
+remainder, finding themselves such conspicuous targets, sprang to the
+ground.  The frightened animals, tearing the reins from their hands,
+raced through the thickets or fell into the marsh.
+
+All the time Dick heard the shells and bullets shrieking and whining over
+his head.  But, regaining his courage and presence of mind, he slowly
+pulled himself out of the marsh, taking shelter behind a huge cypress
+that grew at its very edge.  As he dashed the mud out of his eyes he
+heard a voice saying:
+
+"Don't push!  There's room enough here for the three of us.  In fact,
+there's room enough behind the big trees for all the officers."
+
+It was Warner who was speaking with such grim irony, and Pennington by
+his side was hugging the tree.  Shells and shot shrieked over their heads
+and countless bullets hummed about them.  The soldiers also had taken
+shelter behind the trees, and Warner's jest about the officers was a jest
+only.  Nevertheless the Southern fire was great in volume and accuracy.
+Bowen was an able commander with excellent men, and from his position
+that covered the meeting of the roads he swept both Union columns with a
+continuous hail of death.
+
+"We must get out of this somehow," said Dick.  "If we're held here in
+these swamps and thickets any longer the Johnnies can shoot us down at
+their leisure."
+
+"But we won't be held!" exclaimed Pennington.  "Look!  One of our
+brigades is through, and it's charging the enemy on the right!"
+
+It was Hovey who had forced his way through a thicket, supposed to be
+impenetrable, and who now, with a full brigade behind him, was rushing
+upon Bowen's flank.  Then, while the Southern defense was diverted to
+this new attack, the Winchester and the Ohio regiment attacked in front,
+shouting with triumph.
+
+Hovey's rush was overpowering.  He drove in the Southern flank, taking
+four cannon and hundreds of prisoners, but the dauntless Confederate
+commander, withdrawing his men in perfect order, retreated to a second
+ridge, where he took up a stronger position than the first.
+
+Resolute and dangerous, the men in gray turned their faces anew to the
+enemy and sent back a withering fire that burned away the front ranks of
+the Union army.  Osterhaus, in spite of every effort, was driven back,
+and the Winchesters and their Ohio friends were compelled to give ground
+too.  It seemed that the utmost of human effort and defiance of death
+could not force the narrow passage.
+
+But a new man, a host in himself, came upon the field.  Grant, who had
+been on foot for two days, endeavoring to get his army through the
+thickets and morasses, heard the booming of the cannon and he knew that
+the vanguards had clashed.  He borrowed a cavalry horse and, galloping
+toward the sound of the guns, reached the field at mid-morning.  Grant
+was not impressive in either figure or manner, but the soldiers had
+learned to believe in him as they always believe in one who leads them
+to victory.
+
+A tremendous shout greeted his coming and the men, snatching off their
+hats and caps, waved them aloft.  Grant took no notice but rapidly
+disposed his troops for a new and heavier battle.  Dick felt the strong
+and sure hand over them.  The Union fire grew in might and rapidity.
+McPherson arrived with two brigades to help Osterhaus, and the
+strengthened division was able to send a brigade across a ravine, where
+it passed further around Bowen's flank and assailed him with fury.
+
+Dick felt that their own division under McClernand was also making
+progress.  Although many men were falling they pressed slowly forward,
+and Grant brought up help for them too.  For a long time the struggle was
+carried on.  It was one of the little battles of the war, but its results
+were important and few were fought with more courage and resolution.
+Bowen, with only eight thousand against twenty thousand, held fast
+throughout all the long hot hours of the afternoon.  Grant, owing to the
+nature of the field, was unable to get all his numbers into battle at
+once.
+
+But when the twilight began to show Dick believed that victory was at
+hand.  They had not yet driven Bowen out, but they were pressing him so
+close and hard, and Grant was securing so many new positions of advantage,
+that the Southern leader could not make another such fight against
+superior numbers in the morning.
+
+Twilight turned into night and Bowen and his men, who had shown so much
+heroism, retreated in the dark, leaving six guns and many prisoners as
+trophies of the victors.
+
+It was night when the battle ceased.  Cannon and rifles flashed at fitful
+intervals, warning skirmishers to keep away, but after a while they too
+ceased and the Union army, exhausted by the long march of the night
+before and the battle of the day, threw itself panting upon the ground.
+The officers posted the sentinels in triple force, but let the remainder
+of the men rest.
+
+As Dick lay down in the long grass two or three bullets dropped from
+his clothes and he became conscious, too, that a bullet had grazed his
+shoulder.  But these trifles did not disturb him.  It was so sweet to
+rest!  Nothing could be more heavenly than merely to lie there in the
+long, soft grass and gaze up at the luminous sky, into which the stars
+now stole to twinkle down at him peacefully.
+
+"Don't go to sleep, Dick," said a voice near him.  "I admit the
+temptation is strong.  I feel it myself, but General Grant may have to
+send you and me forward to-night to win another battle."
+
+"George, I'm glad to hear your preachy voice over there.  Hurt any?"
+
+"No. A million cannon balls brushed my right cheek and another million
+brushed my left cheek, but they didn't touch me.  They scared me to death,
+but in the last few minutes I've begun to come back to life.  In a
+quarter of an hour I'll be just as much alive as I ever was."
+
+"Do you know anything of Pennington?"
+
+"Yes.  The rascal is lying about six feet beyond me, sound asleep.
+In spite of all I could do he wouldn't stay awake.  I've punched him all
+over to see if he was wounded, but as he didn't groan at a single punch,
+he's all right."
+
+"That being the case, I'm going to follow Pennington's example.  You may
+lecture me as much as you please, George, but you'll lecture only the
+night, because I'll be far away from here in a land of sweet dreams."
+
+"All right, if you're going to do it, I will too.  You'll hear my snore
+before I hear yours."
+
+Both sank in a few minutes into a deep slumber, and when they awoke the
+next morning they found that Bowen had abandoned Port Gibson and had
+retreated into Grand Gulf again.  There was great elation among the lads
+and Dick began to feel that the position of the Union army in the far
+South was strengthened immeasurably.  He heard that Sherman, who had
+stood so staunchly at Shiloh, was on his way to join Grant.  Their united
+forces would press the siege of Grand Gulf and would also turn to strike
+at any foe who might approach from the rear.
+
+Never since the war began had Dick felt so elated as he did that morning.
+When he saw the short, thick-set figure of Grant riding by he believed
+that the Union, in the West at least, had found its man at last.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+DICK'S MISSION
+
+
+The night came down warm and heavy.  Spring was far advanced in that
+Southern region, and foliage and grass were already rich and heavy.
+Dick, from his dozing position beside a camp fire, saw a great mass of
+tall grass and green bushes beyond which lay the deep waters of a still
+creek or bayou.  The air, although thick and close, conduced to rest and
+the peace that reigned after the battle was soothing to his soul.
+
+His friends, the two lads, who were knitted to him by so many hardships
+and dangers shared, were sound asleep, and he could see their tanned
+faces when the light of the flickering fires fell upon them.  Good old
+Warner!  Good old Pennington!  The comradeship of war knitted youth
+together with ties that never could be broken.
+
+He moved into an easier position.  He lay upon the soft turf and he had
+doubled his blanket under his head as a pillow.  At first the droning
+noises of camp or preparation had come from afar, but soon they ceased
+and now the frogs down by the sluggish waters began to croak.
+
+It was a musical sound, one that he had heard often in his native state,
+and, singularly enough, the lad drew encouragement from it.  "Be of good
+cheer!  Be of good cheer!  Trust in the future!  Trust in the future!"
+said all those voices down among the swamps and reeds.  And then Dick
+said to himself: "I will trust and I will have hope!"  He remembered his
+last glimpse of Grant's short, strong figure and the confidence that
+this man inspired in him.  He, with tens of thousands of others, Abraham
+Lincoln at their head, had been looking for a man, they had looked long
+and in vain for such a man, but Dick was beginning to believe that they
+had found him at last.
+
+It would take much of a man to stand before the genius of Lee, but it
+might be Grant.  Dick's faith in the star of his country, shattered so
+often for the moment, began to rise that night and never sank again.
+
+He fell asleep to the homely music of the frogs among the reeds, and
+slept without stir until nearly dawn.
+
+Just as the first strip of gray showed in the east Colonel Winchester
+walked toward the spot where Dick and his comrades lay.  The colonel had
+not slept that night.  His fine face was worn and thin, but the blue eyes
+were alight with strength and energy.  He had just left a conference of
+high officers, and he came upon a mission.  He reached the three lads,
+and looked down at them with a sort of pity.  He knew that it was his
+duty to awake them at once and send them upon a perilous errand, but
+they were so young, and they had already been through so much that he
+hesitated.
+
+He put his hand upon Dick's shoulder and shook him.  But it took more
+than one shake to awaken the lad, and it was fully a minute before he
+opened his eyes and sat up.  Dick conscious but partly and rubbing his
+sleepy eyes, asked:
+
+"What is it?  Are we to go into battle again?  Yes, sir!  Yes, sir!
+I'm ready!"
+
+"Not that, Dick, but I've orders for you."
+
+Dick now awoke completely and saw that it was Colonel Winchester.
+He sprang to his feet and saluted.
+
+"We'll wake up Warner and Pennington next," said the colonel, "because
+they go also on the kind of duty to which you're assigned."
+
+"I'm glad of that," said Dick warmly.
+
+Warner and Pennington were aroused with difficulty, but, as soon as they
+realized that Colonel Winchester was before them and that they were
+selected for a grave duty, they became at once keen and alert.
+
+"Lads," said the colonel briefly, "you've all felt that we're now led by
+a great commander.  But energy and daring on the part of a leader demand
+energy and daring on the part of his men.  General Grant is about to
+undertake a great enterprise, one that demands the concentration of his
+troops.  I want you, Warner, to go to General Sherman with this dispatch,
+and here is one for you, Pennington, to take to General Banks."
+
+He paused a moment and Dick asked:
+
+"Am I to be left out?"
+
+Colonel Winchester smiled.
+
+He liked this eagerness on the part of his boys, and yet there was
+sadness in his smile, too.  Young lieutenants who rode forth on errands
+often failed to come back.
+
+"You're included, Dick," he said, "and I think that yours is the most
+perilous mission of them all.  Pennington, you and Warner can be making
+ready and I'll tell Dick what he's to do."
+
+The Vermonter and the Nebraskan hurried away and Colonel Winchester,
+taking Dick by the arm, walked with him beyond the circle of firelight.
+
+"Dick," he said gently, "they asked me to choose the one in my command
+whom I thought most fit for this duty to be done, and I've selected you,
+although I'm sending you into a great peril."
+
+Dick flushed with pride at the trust.  Youth blinded him at present to
+its perils.
+
+"Thank you, sir," he said simply.
+
+"You will recall Major Hertford, who was with us in Kentucky before the
+Shiloh days?"
+
+"I could not forget him, sir.  One of our most gallant officers."
+
+"You speak truly.  He is one of our bravest, and also one of our ablest.
+I speak of him as Major Hertford, but he has lately been promoted to the
+rank of colonel, and he is operating toward the East with a large body of
+cavalry, partly in conjunction with Grierson, who saved us at the ford."
+
+"And you want me to reach him, sir!"
+
+"You've divined it.  He is near Jackson, the capital of this state, and,
+incidentally, you're to discover as much as you can about Jackson and the
+Confederate dispositions in that direction.  We wish Hertford to join
+General Grant's advance, which will presently move toward Jackson,
+and we rely upon you to find him."
+
+"I'll do it, if he's to be found at all," said Dick fervently.
+
+"I knew it, but, Dick, you're to go in your uniform.  I'll not have you
+executed as a spy in case you're taken.  Nor are you to carry any written
+message to Colonel Hertford.  He knows you well, and he'll accept your
+word at once as truth.  Now, this is a ride that will call for woodcraft
+as well as soldiership."
+
+"I start at once, do I not, sir?"
+
+"You do.  Warner and Pennington are ready now, and your own horse is
+waiting for you.  Here is a small map which I have reason to believe is
+accurate, at least fairly so, although few of our men know much of this
+country.  But use it, lad, as best you can."
+
+It was a sheet of thick fibrous paper about six inches square and,
+after a hasty glance at it, Dick folded it up carefully and put it in his
+pocket.  Warner and Pennington appeared then, mounted and armed and ready
+to tell him good-bye.  He and Colonel Winchester watched them a moment or
+two as they rode away, and then an orderly appeared with Dick's own horse,
+a fine bay, saddled, bridled, saddlebags filled with food, pistols in
+holsters, and a breech-loading rifle strapped to the saddle.
+
+"I've made your equipment the best I could," said Colonel Winchester,
+"and after you start, lad, you must use your own judgment."
+
+He wrung the hand of the boy, for whom his affection was genuine and deep,
+and Dick sprang into the saddle.
+
+"Good-bye, colonel," he said, "I thank you for this trust, and I won't
+fail."
+
+It was not a boast.  It was courage speaking from the heart of youth and,
+as Dick rode out of the camp on his good horse, he considered himself
+equal to any task.  He felt an enormous pride because he was chosen for
+such an important and perilous mission, and he summoned every faculty to
+meet its hardships and dangers.
+
+He had the password, and the sentinels wished him good luck.  So did the
+men who were gathering firewood.  One, a small, weazened fellow, gave him
+an envious look.
+
+"Wish I was going riding with you," he said.  "It's fine in the woods
+now."
+
+Dick laughed through sheer exuberance of spirits.
+
+"Maybe it is and maybe it isn't," he said.  "Perhaps the forest is filled
+with rebel sharpshooters."
+
+"If you ride toward Jackson you're likely to strike Confederate bands."
+
+"I didn't say where I'm going, but you may be certain I'll keep a watch
+for those bands wherever I may be."
+
+The little man was uncommonly strong nevertheless, as he carried on his
+shoulder a heavy log which he threw down by one of the fires, but Dick,
+absorbed in his journey, forgot the desire of the soldier to be riding
+through the forest too.
+
+He soon left the camp behind.  He looked back at it only once, and beheld
+the luminous glow of the campfires.  Then the forest shut it out and he
+rode on through a region almost abandoned by its people owing to the
+converging armies.  He did not yet look at his map, because he knew that
+he would soon come into the main road to Jackson.  It would be sufficient
+to determine his course then.
+
+Dick was not familiar with the farther South, which was a very different
+region from his own Kentucky.  His home was a region of firm land,
+hills and clear streams, but here the ground lay low, the soil was soft
+and the waters dark and sluggish.  But his instincts as a woodsman were
+fortified by much youthful training, and he felt that he could find the
+way.
+
+It gave him now great joy to leave the army and ride away through the
+deep woods.  He was tired of battle and the sight of wounds and death.
+The noises of the camp were painful to his ear, and in the forest he
+found peace.
+
+He was absolutely alone in his world, and glad of it.  The woods were in
+all the depth and richness of a Southern spring.  Vast masses of green
+foliage billowed away to right and left.  Great festoons of moss hung
+from the oaks, and trailing vines wrapped many of the trees almost to
+their tops.  Wild flowers, pink, yellow and blue, unknown by name to Dick,
+bloomed in the open spaces.
+
+The air of early morning was crisp with the breath of life.  He had come
+upon a low ridge of hard ground, away from the vast current and low,
+sodden shores of the Mississippi.  Here was a clean atmosphere, and the
+forest, the forest everywhere.  A mockingbird, perched on a bough almost
+over his head, began to pour forth his liquid song, and from another far
+away came the same song like an echo.  Dick looked up but he could not
+see the bird among the branches.  Nevertheless he waved his hand toward
+the place from which the melody came and gave a little trill in reply.
+Then he said aloud:
+
+"It's a happy omen that you give me.  I march away to the sound of
+innocent music."
+
+Then he increased his speed a little and rode without stopping until he
+came to the main road to Jackson.  There he examined his map upon which
+were marked many rivers, creeks, lagoons and bayous, with extensive
+shaded areas meaning forests.  In the southeastern corner of the map was
+Jackson, close to which he meant to go.
+
+He rode on at a fair pace, keeping an extremely careful watch ahead and
+on either side of the road.  He meant to turn aside soon into the woods,
+but for the present he thought himself safe in the road--it was not
+likely that Southern raiders would come so near to the Union camp.
+
+His feeling of peace deepened.  He was so far away now that no warlike
+sound could reach him.  Instead the song of the mockingbird pursued him.
+Dick, full of youth and life, began to whistle the tune with the songster,
+and his horse perhaps soothed too by the rhythm broke into the gentle
+pace which is so easy for the rider.
+
+It was early dawn, and the west was not yet wholly light.  The east was
+full of gold, but the silver lingered on the opposite horizon, and the
+hot sun of Mississippi did not yet shed its rays over the earth.  Instead,
+a cool breeze blew on Dick's face, and the quick blood was still leaping
+in his veins.  The road dipped down and he came to a brook, which was
+clear despite its proximity to the mighty yellow trench of the
+Mississippi.
+
+He let his horse drink freely, and, while he drank, he surveyed the
+country as well as he could.  On his left he saw through a fringe of
+woods a field of young corn and showing dimly beyond it a small house.
+Unbroken forest stretched away on his right, but in field as well as
+forest there was no sign of a human being.
+
+He studied his map again, noting the great number of water courses,
+which in the spring season were likely to be at the flood, and, for
+the first time, he realized the extreme difficulty of his mission.
+Mississippi was in the very heart of the Confederacy.  He could not
+expect any sympathetic farmers to help him or show him the way.  More
+likely as he advanced toward Jackson he would find the country swarming
+with the friends of the Confederacy, and to pass through them would
+demand the last resource of skill and courage.  Perhaps it would have
+been wiser had he put on citizens clothes and taken his chances as a spy!
+He did not know that Colonel Winchester would have ordered the disguise
+had the one who rode on this most perilous mission been any other than he.
+
+The realization brought with it extreme caution.  Growing up in a country
+which was still mainly in forest, not differing much from its primitive
+condition, save for the absence of Indians and big game, he had learned
+to be at home in the woods, and now he turned from the path, riding among
+the trees.
+
+He kept a course some distance from the road, where he was sheltered by
+the deep foliage and could yet see what was passing along the main artery
+of travel.  The ground at times was spongy, making traveling hard,
+and twice his horse swam deep creeks.  He would have turned into the road
+at these points but the bridges were broken down and he had no other
+choice.
+
+The morning waned, and the coolness departed.  The sun hung overhead,
+blazing hot, and the air in the forest grew dense and heavy.  He would
+have been glad to turn back into the road, in the hope of finding a
+breeze in the open space, but caution still kept him in the forest.
+He soon saw two men in brown jeans riding mules, farmers perhaps, but
+carrying rifles on their shoulders, and, drawing his horse behind a big
+tree, he waited until they passed.
+
+They rode on unseeing and he resumed his journey, to stop an hour later
+and eat cold food, while he permitted his horse to graze in an opening.
+He had seen only three houses, one a large colonial mansion, with the
+smoke rising from several chimneys, and the others small log structures
+inhabited by poor farmers, but nobody was at work in the fields.
+
+When he resumed the journey he was thankful that he had kept to the woods
+as a body of Confederate cavalry, coming out of a path from the north,
+turned into the main road and advanced at a good pace toward Jackson.
+They seemed to be in good spirits, as he could hear them talking and
+laughing, but he was glad when they were out of sight as these
+Southerners had keen eyes and a pair of them might have discerned him in
+the brush.
+
+He went deeper into the woods and made another long study of his map.
+It seemed to him now that he knew every hill and lagoon and road and path,
+and he resolved to ride a straight course through the forest.  There
+was a point, distinctly marked north of Jackson, where he was to find
+Hertford if he arrived in time, or to wait for him if he got there ahead
+of time, and he believed that with the aid of the map he could reach it
+through the woods.
+
+He rode now by the sun and he saw neither path nor fields.  He was in the
+deep wilderness once more.  The mockingbirds sang around him again and
+through the rifts in the leaves he saw the sailing hawks seeking their
+prey.  Three huge owls sitting in a row on a bough slept undisturbed
+while he passed.  He took it as an omen that the wilderness was deserted,
+and his confidence was strong.
+
+But the firm ground ceased and he rode through a region of swamps.
+The hoofs of his horse splashed through mud and water.  Now and then a
+snake drew away its slimy length and Dick shuddered.  He could not help
+it.  Snakes, even the harmless, always gave him shivers.
+
+The wilderness now had an evil beauty.  The vegetation was almost
+tropical in its luxuriance, but Dick liked better the tender green of
+his more northern state.  Great beds of sunflowers nodded in the light
+breeze.  Vast masses of vines and creepers pulled down the trees, and
+on many of the vines deep red roses were blooming.  Then came areas of
+solemn live oaks and gloomy cypresses, where no mockingbirds were singing.
+
+He rode for half a mile along a deep lagoon or bayou, he did not know
+which, and saw hawks swoop down and draw fish from its dark surface.
+The whole scene was ugly and cruel, and he was glad when he left it and
+entered the woods again.  Once he thought he heard the mellow voice of a
+negro singing, but that was the only sound, save the flitting of small
+wild animals through the undergrowth.
+
+He came, mid-afternoon, to a river, which he made his horse swim boldly
+and then entered forest that seemed more dense than ever.  But the ground
+here was firmer and he was glad of a chance to rest both himself and his
+mount.  He dismounted, tethered the horse and stretched his own limbs,
+weary from riding.
+
+It was a pretty little glade, surrounded by high forest, fitted for
+rest and peace, but his horse reared suddenly and tried to break loose.
+There was a heavy crashing in the undergrowth and a deer, wild with alarm,
+darting within a dozen feet of Dick, disappeared in the forest, running
+madly.
+
+He knew there were many deer in the Mississippi woods, but he was
+observant and the flight aroused his attention.  His first thought that
+he and his horse had scared the deer could not be true, because it had
+come from a point directly behind and had rushed past them.  Then its
+alarm must have been caused by some other human being near by in the
+forest or by a panther.  His theory inclined to the human being.
+
+Dick was troubled.  The more he thought of the incident the less he liked
+it.  He made no effort to hide from himself the dangers that surrounded
+him in the land of the enemy, and remounting he rode briskly forward.
+As the ground was firm and the forest was free enough from undergrowth to
+permit of speed he finally broke into a gallop which he maintained for a
+half-hour.
+
+He struck marsh again and was a long time in passing through it.  But
+when he was a half-mile on the other side he drew into a dense cluster of
+bushes and waited.  He could not get the flight of the deer out of his
+mind, and knowing that it was well in the wilderness to obey premonitions
+he watched more closely.
+
+Dick sat on his horse behind the bush a full five minutes, and presently
+he became conscious that his heart was pounding heavily.  He exerted his
+will and called himself foolish, but in vain.  The flight of the deer
+persisted in his mind.  It was a warning that somebody else was in the
+woods not far behind him, and, while he waited, he saw a shadow among the
+trees.
+
+It was only a shadow, but it was like the figure of a man.  A single
+glimpse and he was gone.  The stranger, whoever he was, had darted back
+in the undergrowth.  Dick waited another five minutes, but the shadow did
+not reappear.  He felt a measure of relief because all doubts were gone
+now.  He was sure that he was followed, but by whom?
+
+He knew that his danger had increased manifold.  Some Southern scout or
+skirmisher had discovered his presence and, in such a quest, the trailer
+had the advantage of the trailed.  Yet he did not hesitate.  He knew his
+general direction and, shifting the pistols from the saddle-holsters to
+his belt he again urged his horse forward.
+
+When they came to good ground he walked, leading his mount, as the animal
+was much exhausted by the effort the marshes needed.  But whenever the
+undergrowth grew dense he stopped to look and listen.  He did not see
+the shadow and he heard nothing save the ordinary sounds of the woods,
+but either instinct or imagination told him that the stranger still
+followed.
+
+The sun was far down the westward slope, but it was still very hot in the
+woods.  There was no breeze.  Not a leaf, nor a blade of grass stirred.
+Dick heard his heart still pounding.  The unseen pursuit--he had no
+doubt it was there--was becoming a terrible strain upon his nerves.  The
+perspiration ran down his face, and he sought with angry eyes for a sight
+of the fellow who presumed to hang upon his tracks.
+
+He began to wonder what he would do when the night came.  There would be
+no rest, no sleep for him, even in the darkness.  Twice he curved from
+his course and hid in the undergrowth to see his pursuer come up, but
+there was nothing.  Then he reasoned with himself.  He had not really
+seen the flitting figure of a man.  It was merely the effect of an
+alarmed imagination, and he told himself to ride straight on, looking
+ahead, not back.  But reason again yielded to instinct and he curved once
+more into the deep forest, where the tangle of vines and undergrowth also
+was so thick that it would take a keen eye to find him.
+
+Dick looked back along the path which he had come and he was confident
+that he saw some of the tall bushes shake a little.  It could not be wind,
+because the air was absolutely still, and soon he was convinced that his
+instinct had been right all the time.  Fancy had played him no trick and
+the shadow that he had seen was a human figure.
+
+He felt with all the force of conviction that he was in great danger,
+but he did not know what to do.  So he did nothing, but sat quietly on
+his horse among the bushes.  The heat was intense there and innumerable
+flies, gnats, and mosquitoes assailed him.  The mosquitoes were so fierce
+that they drew blood from his face a half-dozen times.
+
+Alone in the heat of the deep marshy wilderness he felt fear more than in
+battle.  Danger threatened here in a mysterious, invisible fashion and he
+could only wait.
+
+He saw a bush move again, but much nearer, and then came the crack of
+a rifle.  If his horse, alarmed perhaps, had not thrown up his head
+suddenly, and received the bullet himself the lad's career would have
+ended there.
+
+The horse made a convulsive leap, then staggered for a few seconds,
+giving his rider time to spring clear, and fell among the bushes.
+Dick dropped down behind him and quickly unstrapped the rifle from the
+saddle, meaning to use the animal's body as a breastwork against renewed
+attack.
+
+His fear, the kind of fear that the bravest feel, had been driven away
+by rage.  The killing of his innocent horse, although the bullet was
+intended for him, angered him as much as if he had received a wound
+himself.  The spirit of his ancestor, the shrewd and wary Indian fighter,
+descended upon him again, and, lying upon his stomach behind the horse,
+with the rifle ready he was anxious for the attack to come.
+
+Dick was firmly convinced that he had but a single enemy.  Otherwise he
+would have been attacked in force earlier, and more than one shot would
+have been fired.  But the report of the rifle was succeeded by deep
+silence.  The forest was absolutely still, not a breath of wind stirring.
+His enemy remained invisible, but the besieged youth was confident that
+he was lying quiet, awaiting another chance.  Dick, still hot with anger,
+would wait too.
+
+But other enemies were far more reckless than the hidden marksman.
+The swarm of gnats, flies, and mosquitoes assailed him again and he could
+have cried out in pain.  His only consolation lay in the fact that the
+other man might be suffering just as much.
+
+He was aware that his enemy might try a circling movement in order to
+reach him on the flank or from behind, but he believed that his ear would
+be keen enough to detect him if he came near.  Moreover he lay in a
+slight dip with the body of the horse in front of him, and it would
+require an uncommon sharpshooter to reach him with a bullet.  If he could
+only stand those terrible mosquitoes an hour he felt that he might get
+away, because then the night would be at hand.
+
+He saw with immense relief that the sun was already very low.  The heat,
+gathered in the woods, was at its worst, and over his head the mosquitoes
+buzzed and buzzed incessantly.  It seemed to him a horrible sort of irony
+that he might presently be forced from his shelter by mosquitoes and be
+killed in flight to another refuge.
+
+But he was endowed with great patience and tenacity and he clung to his
+shelter, relying rather upon ear than eye to note the approach of an
+enemy.  Meanwhile the sun sank down to the rim of the wood, and the
+twilight thickened rapidly in the east.  Then a shot was fired from the
+point from which the first had come.  Dick heard the bullet singing over
+his head, but it gave him satisfaction because he was able to locate his
+enemy.
+
+He sought no return fire, but lay in the dip, wary and patient.  The sun
+sank beyond the rim, the western sky flamed blood red for a few moments,
+and then the Southern night swept down so suddenly that it seemed to come
+with violence.  Dick believed that his escape was now at hand, but he
+still showed an infinite patience.
+
+He did not stir from his place until the night was almost black, and then,
+carrying his weapons and the saddlebag of provisions, he crept among the
+thickets.
+
+When he stood up he found himself stiff from lying long in a cramped
+position.  His face burned from the bites of the mosquitoes, which still
+hung in swarms about him, and he felt dizzy.
+
+But Dick remembered his mission, and his resolve to perform it was not
+shaken a particle.  He had lost his horse, but he could walk.  Perhaps
+his chance of success would be greater on foot in such a dangerous
+country.
+
+He advanced now with extreme caution, feeling the way carefully and
+testing the ground before he put his foot down solidly.  Still trusting
+to his ears he stopped now and then, and listened for some sound from his
+enemy in pursuit.  But nothing came, and soon he became quite sure that
+he had shaken him off.  He was merely a dot in the wilderness in the dark,
+and, feeling secure now, he pressed forward with more speed.
+
+He was hoping to get to a piece of firm, high ground, where he might
+secure a measure of protection from those terrible mosquitoes which still
+buzzed angrily about his head.  In an hour chance favored him, as he
+reached a low ridge much rockier than usual in that region.  He would
+have built a little smudge fire to protect himself from the mosquitoes,
+but it would be sure to draw the lurking sharpshooter, and instead he
+found a nook in the ridge, under the low boughs of a great oak.  Then he
+took a light blanket which he carried tied to his saddlebags, and wrapped
+it around his neck and face, covering everything but his mouth and eyes.
+
+He sank into the nook with his back against the turf, and the reclining
+position was wonderfully easy.  The mosquitoes, apparently finding the
+points of exposure too small, left him alone and went away.  His face
+still burned from numerous stings, but he forgot it in present comfort.
+There was food in the saddlebags, and he ate enough for his needs.
+Then he laid the saddlebags beside him and the rifle across his knees and
+stared out into the darkness.
+
+He felt a great relief after his extreme danger and long exertions.
+It was both physical and mental, and sitting there alone in a sunken
+wilderness he was nevertheless happy.  Believing that the mosquitoes
+would not come back, he wrapped the blanket about his whole body by and
+by, and pulled his cap down over his eyes.
+
+Dick had no plans for the night.  He did not know whether he intended to
+remain there long or not, but nature settled doubts for him.  His head
+drooped, and soon he slept as easily and peacefully as if he had been at
+home at Pendleton in his own bed.
+
+Then the wilderness blotted him out for the time.  The little wild
+animals scurried through the grass or ran up trees.  In the far distance
+an owl hooted solemnly at nothing, and he slept the mighty sleep of
+exhaustion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+HUNTED
+
+
+Dick slept the whole night through, which was a very good thing for him,
+because he needed it, and because he could have made no progress in the
+thick darkness through the marshy wilderness.  No human beings saw him,
+but the wild animals took more than one look.  Not all were little.
+One big clumsy brute, wagging his head in a curious, comic way, shuffled
+up from the edge of the swamp, sniffed the strange human odor, and,
+still wagging his comic head, came rather close to the sleeping boy.
+Then the black bear decided to be afraid, and lumbered back into the
+bushes.
+
+An owl perched on a bough almost over Dick's head, but this was game far
+too large for Mr. Owl's beak and talons, and he soon flew away in search
+of something nearer his size.  A raccoon on a bough stared with glowing
+eyes and then slid out of sight.
+
+Man, although he had just come, became king of this swamp, king for the
+night.  The prowling beasts and birds of prey, after their first look,
+gave Dick all the berth he needed, and he did not awake until a bright
+sun was well above the edge of the earth.  Then he rose, shook himself,
+much like an animal coming from its lair, and bathed his face in a little
+stream which ran down the hill into the swamp.  It was swollen and
+painful from the mosquito bites, but he resolved not to think of them,
+and ate breakfast from the saddlebags, after which he studied his map a
+little.
+
+Baggage and rifle on shoulder, he pursued a course south by east.
+There was a strong breeze which gave him a rest from the dreaded insects,
+and he pushed on with vigorous footsteps.  The country remained
+thoroughly wild, and he soon had proof of it.  Another deer, this time
+obviously started up by himself, sprang from the canebrake and darted
+away in the woods.  He noted tracks of bear and resolved some day when
+the war was over to come there hunting.
+
+His course led him again from firm ground into a region of marshes and
+lagoons, which he crossed with difficulty, arriving about an hour before
+noon at a considerable river, one that would require swimming unless he
+found a ford somewhere near.  He was very weary from the journey through
+the marsh and, sitting on a log, he scraped from his clothes a portion of
+the mud they had accumulated on the way.
+
+He was a good swimmer, but he had his arms and ammunition to keep dry,
+and he did not wish to trust himself afloat on the deep current.  Wading
+would be far better, and, when his strength was restored, he walked up
+the bank in search of a shallower place.
+
+He came soon to a point, where the cliff was rather high, although it was
+clothed in dense forest here as elsewhere, and when he reached the crest
+he heard a sound like the swishing of waters.  Alert and suspicious he
+sank down among the trees and peered over the bank.  Two men in a canoe
+were paddling in a leisurely manner along the stream.
+
+The men were in faded and worn Confederate uniforms, and Dick saw their
+rifles lying in the bottom of the boat.  He also saw that they had strong,
+resolute faces.  They were almost opposite him and they were closely
+scanning the forest on his side of the river.  He was glad that he had
+not tried to swim the stream, and he was glad too that he had kept so
+well under cover.  The men in the canoe were surely keen of eye, and they
+must be a patrol.
+
+He sank closer to the earth and did not stir.  One of the watchers drew
+in his paddle and took up his rifle, while the other propelled the canoe
+very slowly.  It seemed that they expected something or somebody, and it
+suddenly occurred to him that it might be he.  He felt a little shiver of
+apprehension.  How could they know he was coming?  It was mysterious and
+alarming.
+
+He waited for them to pass down the river and out of sight, but at the
+curve they turned and came back against the stream, the man with the
+rifle in his hand still keenly watching the western shore, where Dick lay
+hidden.  Neither of them spoke, and the only sound was the swishing of
+the paddle.  The hoot of an owl came from the depths of the forest behind
+him and he knew that it was a signal.  The hair of his head lifted.
+
+He felt the touch of the supernatural.  The invisible pursuer was behind
+him again, and the silent soldiers held the crossing.  The hoot of the
+owl came again, a little nearer now.  He was tempted to rise and run,
+but his will held him back from such folly.  His unknown enemy could
+pursue, because his boots left a deep trail in the soft earth.  That was
+why he had been able to follow again in the morning.
+
+He crept back some distance from the river and then, rising, retreated
+cautiously up the stream.  He caught glimpses of the water twice through
+the bushes, and each time the canoe was moving up the river also, one man
+paddling and the other, rifle on his arm, watching the western shore.
+
+Dick had a feeling that he was trapped.  Colonel Winchester had been wise
+to make him wear his uniform, because it was now certain that he was
+going to be taken, and death had always been the punishment of a captured
+spy.  He put down the thought resolutely, and began to run through the
+forest parallel with the river.  If it were only the firm hard ground of
+the North he could hide his trail from the man behind him, but here the
+soil was so soft that every footstep left a deep mark.  Yet he might find
+fallen trees thrown down by hurricanes, and in a few minutes he came to a
+mass of them.  He ran deftly from trunk to trunk, and then continued his
+flight among the bushes.  It broke his trail less than a rod, but it
+might take his pursuer ten minutes to recover it, and now ten minutes
+were precious.
+
+The soil grew harder and he made better speed, but when he looked through
+the foliage he saw the canoe still opposite him.  It was easy for them,
+on the smooth surface of the river, to keep pace with him, if such was
+their object.  Furious anger took hold of him.  He knew that he must
+soon become exhausted, while the men in the canoe would scarcely feel
+weariness.  Then came the idea.
+
+The canoe was light and thin almost like the birch bark Indian canoe of
+the north, and he was a good marksman.  It was a last chance, but raising
+his rifle he fired the heavy bullet directly at the bottom of the canoe.
+As the echo of the first shot was dying he slipped in a cartridge and
+sent a second at the same target.  He did not seek to kill the men,
+his object was the canoe, and as he ran rapidly away he saw it fill
+with water and sink, the two soldiers in the stream swimming toward the
+western shore.
+
+Dick laughed to himself.  He had won a triumph, although he did not yet
+know that it would amount to anything.  At any rate the men could no
+longer glide up and down the river at their leisure looking for him to
+come forth from the forest.
+
+He knew that the shots would bring the single pursuer at full speed, and,
+as he had saved some ounces of strength, he now ran at his utmost speed.
+The river curved again and just beyond the curve it seemed shallow to
+him.  He plunged in at once, and waded rapidly, holding his rifle,
+pistols and saddlebags above his head.  He was in dread lest he receive
+a bullet in his back, but he made the farther shore, ran into the dense
+undergrowth and sank down dripping and panting.
+
+He had made the crossing but he did not forget to be ready.  He rapidly
+reloaded his rifle, and fastened the pistols at his belt.  Then he looked
+through the bushes at the river.  The two canoemen, water running from
+them in streams, were on the other bank, though a little farther down the
+stream.  He believed that they were no longer silent.  He fondly imagined
+that they were cursing hard, if not loud.
+
+His relief was so great that, forgetting his own bedraggled condition,
+he laughed.  Then he looked again to see what they were going to do.
+A small man, his face shaded by the broad brim of a hat, emerged from
+the woods and joined them.  Dick was too far away to see his face, even
+had it been uncovered, but his figure looked familiar.  Nevertheless,
+although he tried hard, he could not recall where he had seen him before.
+But, as he carried a long-barreled rifle, Dick was sure that this was his
+unknown pursuer.  There had certainly been collusion also between him and
+the men in the boat, as the three began to talk earnestly, and to point
+toward the woods on the other side.
+
+Dick felt that he had avenged himself upon the boatmen, but his rage rose
+high against the little man under the broad-brimmed hat.  It was he who
+had followed him so long, and who had tried ruthlessly to kill him.
+The lad's rifle was of the most improved make and a bullet would reach.
+He was tempted to try it, but prudence came to his rescue.  Still lying
+close he watched them.  He felt sure that they would soon be hunting for
+his footprints, but he resolved to stay in his covert, until they began
+the crossing of the river, to which his trail would lead when they found
+it.
+
+He saw them cease talking and begin searching among the woods.  It might
+be at least a half-hour before they found the trail and his strength
+would be restored fully then.  His sinking of the canoe had been in
+reality a triumph, and so he remained at ease, watching the ford.
+
+He was quite sure that when his trail was found the little man would
+be the one to find it, and sure enough at the end of a half-hour the
+weazened figure led down to the ford.  Dick might have shot one of them
+in the water, but he had no desire to take life.  It would serve no
+purpose, and, refreshed and strengthened, he set out through the forest
+toward Jackson.
+
+He came to a brook soon, and, remembering the old device of Indian times,
+he waded in it at least a half-mile.  When he left it he passed through a
+stretch of wood, crossed an old cotton field and entered the woods again.
+Then he sat down and ate from his store, feeling that he had shaken off
+his pursuers.  Another examination of his map followed.  He had kept
+fixed in his mind the point at which he was to find Hertford, and,
+being a good judge of direction, he felt sure that he could yet reach it.
+
+The sun, now high and warm, had dried his clothing, and, after the food,
+he was ready for another long march.  He struck into a path and walked
+along it, coming soon to a house which stood back a little distance from
+a road into which the path merged.  A man and two women standing on
+the porch stared at him curiously, but he pretended to take no notice.
+After long exposure to weather, blue uniforms did not differ much from
+gray, and his own was now covered with mud.  He could readily pass as a
+soldier of the Confederacy unless they chose to ask too many questions.
+
+"From General Pemberton's army?" called the man, when he was opposite the
+house.
+
+Dick nodded and stepped a little faster.
+
+"Won't you stop for a bite and fresh water with friends of the cause?"
+
+"Thanks, but important dispatches.  Must hurry."  They repeated the
+invitation.  He shook his head, and went on.  He did not look back,
+but he was sure that they stared at him as long as he was in sight.
+Then, for safety's sake, he left the road and entered the wood once more.
+
+He had now come to country comparatively free from swamp and marsh,
+and pursued his way through a great forest, beautiful with live oaks and
+magnolias.  In the afternoon he took a long rest by the side of a clear
+spring, where he drew further upon the store of food in his saddlebags,
+which he calculated held enough for another day.  After that he would
+have to forage upon the country.
+
+He would sleep the second night in the forest, his blanket being
+sufficient protection, unless rain came, which he would have to endure
+as best he could.  Another look at his map and he believed that on the
+following afternoon he could reach Hertford.
+
+He took the remaining food from his saddlebags, wrapped it in his blanket,
+and strapped the pack on his back.  Then, in order to lighten his burden,
+he hung the saddlebags on the bough of a tree and abandoned them, after
+which he pressed forward through the woods with renewed speed.
+
+He came at times to the edge of the forest and saw houses in the fields,
+but he always turned back among the trees.  He could find only enemies
+here, and he knew that it was his plan to avoid all human beings.
+Precept and example are of great power and he recalled again much that
+he had heard of his famous ancestor, Paul Cotter.  He had been compelled
+to fight often for his life and again to flee for it from an enemy who
+reserved torture and death for the captured.  Dick felt that he must do
+as well, and the feeling increased his vigor and courage.
+
+A little later he heard a note, low, faint and musical.  It was behind
+him, but he was sure at first that it was made by negroes singing.
+It was a pleasing sound.  The negro had a great capacity for happiness,
+and Dick as a young lad had played with and liked the young colored lads
+of his age.
+
+But as he walked on he heard the low, musical note once more and, as
+before, directly behind him.  It seemed a little nearer.  He paused and
+listened.  It came again, always nearer and nearer, and now it did not
+seem as musical as before.  There was a sinister thread in that flowing
+note, and suddenly Dick remembered.
+
+He was a daring horseman and with his uncle and cousin and others at
+Pendleton he had often ridden after the fox.  It was the note of the
+hounds, but of bloodhounds, and this time they were following him.
+From the first he had not the slightest doubt of it.  Somebody, some
+traitor in the Union camp, knew the nature of his errand, and was hanging
+on to the pursuit like death.
+
+Dick knew it was the little man whom he had seen by the river, and
+perhaps the canoemen were with him--he would certainly have comrades,
+or his own danger would be too great--and they had probably obtained the
+bloodhounds at a farmhouse.  Nearly everybody in Mississippi kept hounds.
+
+The long whining note came again and much nearer.  Now all music was gone
+from it for Dick.  It was ferocious, like the howl of the wolf seeking
+prey, and he could not restrain a shudder.  His danger had returned with
+twofold force, because the hounds would unerringly lead his pursuers
+through the forest as fast as they could follow.
+
+He did not yet despair.  A new resolution was drawn from the depths
+of his courage.  He did not forget that he was a good marksman and he
+had both rifle and pistols.  He tried to calculate from that whining,
+ferocious note how many hounds were pursuing, and he believed they were
+not many.  Now he prepared for battle, and, as he ran, he kept his eye
+on the ground in order that he might choose his own field.
+
+He saw it presently, a mass of fallen timber thrown together by a great
+storm, and he took his place on the highest log, out of reach of a
+leaping hound.  Then, lying almost flat on the log and with his rifle
+ready, he waited, his heart beating hard with anger that he should be
+pursued thus like an animal.
+
+The howling of the hounds grew more ferocious, and it was tinged with
+joy.  The trail had suddenly grown very hot, and they knew that the
+quarry was just before them.  Dick caught a good view of a long, lean,
+racing figure bounding among the trees, and he fired straight at a spot
+between the blazing eyes.  The hound fell without a sound, and with equal
+ease he slew the second.  The third and last drew back, although the lad
+heard the distant halloo of men seeking to drive him on.
+
+Dick sprang from his log and ran through the forest again.  He knew
+that the lone hound after his first recoil would follow, but he had his
+reloaded rifle and he had proved that he knew how to shoot.  It would
+please him for the hound to come within range.
+
+When he took to renewed flight the hound again whined ferociously and
+Dick glanced back now and then seeking a shot.  Once he caught a glimpse
+of two or three dusky figures some distance behind the hound, urging him
+on, and his heart throbbed with increased rage.  If they presented an
+equal target he would fire at them rather than the hound.
+
+He could run no longer, and his gait sank to a walk.  His very exhaustion
+brought him his opportunity, as the animal came rapidly within range,
+and Dick finished him with a single lucky shot.  Then, making an extreme
+effort, he fled on a long time, and, while he was fleeing, he saw the sun
+set and the night come.
+
+The strain upon him had been so great that his nerves and brain were
+unsteady.  Although the forest was black with night he saw it through a
+blood-red mist.  Something in him was about to burst, and when he saw a
+human figure rising up before him it broke and he fell.
+
+Dick was unconscious a long time.  But when he awoke he found himself
+wrapped in a blanket, while another was doubled under his head.  It was
+pitchy dark, but he beheld the outline of a human figure, sitting by his
+side.  He strove to rise, but a powerful hand on his shoulder pushed him
+back, though gently, and a low voice said:
+
+"Stay still, Mr. Mason.  We mustn't make any sound now!"
+
+Dick recognized in dim wonder the voice of Sergeant Daniel Whitley.
+How he had come there at such a time, and what he was doing now was past
+all guessing, but Sergeant Whitley was a most competent man.  He knew
+more than most generals, and he was filled with the lore of the woods.
+He would trust him.  He let his head sink back on the folded blanket,
+and his heavy eyes closed again.
+
+When Dick roused from his stupor the sergeant was still by his side, and,
+as his eyes grew used to the darkness, he noticed that Whitley was really
+kneeling rather than sitting, crouched to meet danger, his finger on the
+trigger of a rifle.  Dick's brain cleared and he sat up.
+
+"What is it, Sergeant?" he whispered.
+
+"I see you're all right now, Mr. Mason," the sergeant whispered back,
+"but be sure you don't stir."
+
+"Is it the Johnnies?"
+
+"Lean over a little and look down into that dip."
+
+Dick did so, and saw four men hunting among the trees, and the one who
+seemed to be their leader was the little weazened fellow, with the great,
+flap-brimmed hat.
+
+"They're looking for your trail," whispered the sergeant, "but they won't
+find it.  It's too dark, even for a Sioux Indian, and I've seen them do
+some wonderful things in trailing."
+
+"I seem to have met you in time, Sergeant."
+
+"So you did, sir, but more of that later.  Perhaps you'd better lie down
+again, as you're weak yet.  I'll tell you all they do."
+
+"I'll take your advice, Sergeant, but am I sound and whole?  I felt
+something in me break, and then the earth rose up and hit me in the face."
+
+"I reckon it was just the last ounce of breath going out of you with a
+pop.  They're hunting hard, Mr. Mason, but they can't pick up the trace
+of a footstep.  Slade must be mad clean through."
+
+"Slade!  Slade!  Who's Slade?"
+
+"Slade is a spy partly, and an outlaw mostly, 'cause he often works on
+his own hook.  He's the weazened little fellow with so much hat-brim,
+and he's about twenty different kinds of a demon.  You've plenty of
+reason to fear him, and it's lucky we've met."
+
+"It's more than luck for me, Sergeant.  It's salvation.  I believe it
+wouldn't have been half as hard on me if somebody had been with me,
+and you're the first whom I would have chosen.  Are they still in the dip,
+Sergeant?"
+
+"No, they've passed to the slope on the right, and I think they'll go
+over the hill.  We're safe here so long as we remain quiet; that is,
+safe for the time.  Slade will hang on as long as there's a possible
+chance to find us."
+
+"Sergeant, if they do happen to stumble upon us in the dark I hope you'll
+promise to do one thing for me."
+
+"I'll do anything I can, Mr. Mason."
+
+"Kill Slade first.  That little villain gives me the horrors.  I believe
+the soul of the last bloodhound I shot has been reincarnated in him."
+
+"All right, Mr. Mason," returned the sergeant, placidly, "if we have to
+fight I'll make sure of Slade at once.  Is there anybody else you'd like
+specially to have killed?"
+
+"No thank you, Sergeant.  I don't hate any of the others, and I suppose
+they'd have dropped the chase long ago if it hadn't been for this fellow
+whom you call Slade.  Now, I think I'll lie quiet, while you watch."
+
+"Very good, sir.  I'll tell you everything I can see.  They're passing
+over the hill out of sight, and if they return I won't fail to let you
+know."
+
+Sergeant Whitley, a man of vast physical powers, hardened by the long
+service of forest and plain, was not weary at all, and, in the dusk,
+he looked down with sympathy and pity at the lad who had closed his eyes.
+He divined the nature of the ordeal through which he had gone.  Dick's
+face, still badly swollen from the bites of the mosquitoes, showed all
+the signs of utter exhaustion.  The sergeant could see, despite the
+darkness, that it was almost the face of the dead, and he knew that happy
+chance had brought him in the moment of Dick's greatest need.
+
+He ceased to whisper, because Dick, without intending it, had gone to
+sleep again.  Then the wary veteran scouted in a circle about their
+refuge, but did not discover the presence of an enemy.
+
+He sat down near the sleeping lad, with his rifle between his knees,
+and watched the moon come out.  Owing to his wilderness experience he had
+been chosen also to go on a scout toward Jackson, though he preferred to
+make his on foot, and the sound of Dick's shots at the hounds had drawn
+him to an observation which finally turned into a rescue.
+
+After midnight the sergeant slept a little while, but he never awakened
+Dick until it was almost morning.  Then he told him that he would go with
+him on the mission to Hertford, and Dick was very glad.
+
+"What's become of Slade and his men?" asked Dick.
+
+"I don't know," replied the sergeant, "but as they lost the trail in the
+night, it's pretty likely they're far from here.  At any rate they're not
+bothering us just now.  How're you feeling, Mr. Mason?"
+
+"Fine, except that my face still burns."
+
+"We'll have to hold up a Confederate house somewhere and get oil of
+pennyroyal.  That'll cure you, but I guess you've learned now, Mr. Mason,
+that mosquitoes in a southern swamp are just about as deadly as bullets."
+
+"So they are, Sergeant, and this is not my first experience.  Luck has
+been terribly against me this trip, but it turned when I met you last
+night."
+
+"Yes, Mr. Mason.  In this case two rifles are better than one.  We're
+prowling right through the heart of the Confederacy, but I'm thinking
+we'll make it.  We've got a great general now, and we mustn't fail to
+bring up Colonel Hertford and his cavalry.  I've an idea in my head that
+General Grant is going to carry through big plans."
+
+"Then I think it's time we were starting."
+
+"So do I, Mr. Mason, and now will you take these crackers and smoked ham?
+I've plenty in my knapsack.  I learned on the plains never to travel
+without a food supply.  If a soldier starves to death what use is he to
+his army?  And I reckon you need something to eat.  You were about tired
+out when I met you last night."
+
+"I surely was, Sergeant, but I'm a new man this morning.  You and I
+together can't fail."
+
+Dick, in truth, felt an enormous relief.  He and his young comrades had
+learned to trust Sergeant Whitley implicitly, with his experience of
+forest and plain and his infinite resource.
+
+"Where do you figure we are, Sergeant?" he asked.
+
+"In the deep woods, Mr. Mason, but we haven't turned much from the
+line leading you to the place where you were to meet Colonel Hertford.
+You haven't really lost time, and we'll start again straight ahead,
+but we've got to look out for this fellow Slade, who's as tricky and
+merciless as they ever make 'em."
+
+"Tell me more about Slade, Sergeant."
+
+"I don't know a lot, but I heard of him from some of our scouts.  He was
+an overseer of a big plantation before the war.  From somewhere up North,
+I think, but now he's more of a rebel than the rebels themselves.
+Often happens that way.  But you've got to reckon with him."
+
+"Glad I know that much.  He reminds me of a man I've seen, though I can't
+recall where or when.  It's enough, though, to watch out for Slade.
+Come on, Sergeant, I'm feeling so fine now that with your help I'm able
+to fight a whole army."
+
+The two striding through the forest, started toward the meeting place
+with Hertford.  Now that he had the powerful comradeship of Sergeant
+Whitley, the wilderness became beautiful instead of gloomy for Dick.
+The live oaks and magnolias were magnificent, and there was a wild
+luxuriance of vegetation.  Birds of brilliant plumage darted among the
+foliage, and squirrels chattered on the boughs.  He saw bear tracks again,
+and called the sergeant's attention to them.
+
+"It would be nice to be hunting them, instead of men," said Whitley.
+"You can find nice, black fellows down here, good to eat, and it's a
+deal safer to hunt them than it is the grizzlies and silver-tips of the
+Rockies."
+
+They saw now much cleared land, mostly cotton fields, and now and then
+a white man or a negro working, but there was always enough forest
+for cover.  They waded the numerous brooks and creeks, allowing their
+clothing to dry in the warm sun, as they marched, and about two hours
+before sunrise the sergeant, wary and always suspicious, suggested that
+they stop a while.
+
+"I've an idea," he said, "that Slade and his men are still following us.
+Oh, he's an ugly fellow, full of sin, and if they're not far behind us we
+ought to know it."
+
+"Just as you say," said Dick, glad enough to shift the responsibility
+upon such capable shoulders.  "How would this clump of bushes serve for
+a hiding place while we wait?"
+
+"Good enough.  Indians pursued, often ambush the pursuer, and as we've
+two good men with two good rifles, Mr. Mason, we'll just see what this
+Slade is about."
+
+"When I last saw him," said Dick, "he had the two canoemen with him,
+and perhaps they've picked up the owner of the hounds."
+
+"That's sure, and they're likely to be four.  We're only two, but we've
+got the advantage of the ambush, and that's a big one.  If you agree
+with me, Mr. Mason, we'll wait here for 'em.  We were sent out to take
+messages, not to fight, but since these fellows hang on our trail we may
+get to Colonel Hertford all the quicker because we do fight."
+
+"Your opinion's mine too, Sergeant.  I'm not in love with battle, but I
+wouldn't mind taking a shot or two at these men.  They've given me a lot
+of trouble."
+
+The sergeant smiled.
+
+"That's the way it goes," he said.  "You don't get mad at anybody in
+particular in a big battle, but if two or three fellows lay around in
+the woods popping away at you you soon get so you lose any objections to
+killing, and you draw a bead on 'em as soon as a chance comes."
+
+"That's the way I feel, Sergeant.  It isn't Christian, but I suppose it
+has some sort of excuse."
+
+"Of course it has.  Drop a little lower, Mr. Mason.  I see the bushes out
+there shaking."
+
+"And that's the sign that Slade and his men have come.  Well, I'm not
+sorry."
+
+Both Dick and the sergeant lay almost flat with their heads raised a
+little, and their rifles pushed forward.  The bushes ceased to shake,
+but Dick had no doubt their pursuers were before them.  They had probably
+divined, too, that the quarry was at bay and was dangerous.  Evidently
+the sergeant had been correct when he said Slade was full of craft and
+cunning.
+
+While they waited the spirit of Dick's famous ancestor descended upon him
+in a yet greater measure.  Their pursuers were not Indians, but this was
+the deep wilderness and they were merely on a skirt of the great war.
+Many of the border conditions were reproduced, and they were to fight as
+borderers fought.
+
+"What do you think they're doing?" Dick whispered.
+
+"Feeling around for us.  Slade won't take any more risk than he has to.
+Did you see those two birds fly away from that bough, sudden-like?
+I think one of the men has just crept under it.  But the fellow who
+exposes himself first won't be Slade."
+
+Dick's inherited instinct was strong, and he watched not only in front,
+but to right and left also.  He knew that cunning men would seek to flank
+and surprise them, and he noticed that the sergeant also watched in a
+wide circle.  He still drew tremendous comfort from the presence of the
+skillful veteran, feeling that his aid would make the repulse of Slade a
+certainty.
+
+A rifle cracked suddenly in the bushes to their right, and then another
+by his side cracked so suddenly that only a second came between.  Dick
+heard a bullet whistle over their heads, but he believed that the one
+from his comrade's rifle had struck true.
+
+"I've no way of telling just now," said the sergeant, calmly, "but I
+don't believe that fellow will bother any more.  If we can wing another
+they're likely to let us alone and we can go on.  They must know by
+the trail that we're now two instead of one, and that their danger has
+doubled."
+
+Dick had felt that the danger to their pursuers had more than doubled.
+He had an immense admiration for the sergeant, who was surely showing
+himself a host.  The man, trained so long in border war, was thoroughly
+in his element.  His thick, powerful figure was drawn up in the fashion
+of a panther about to spring.  Bulky as he was he showed ease and grace,
+and wary eyes, capable of reading every sign, continually scanned the
+thickets.
+
+"They know just where we are, of course," whispered the sergeant, "but if
+we stay close they'll never get a good shot at us."
+
+Dick caught sight of a head among some bushes and fired.  The head
+dropped back so quickly that he could not tell whether or not his bullet
+sped true.  After a long wait the sergeant suggested that they creep away.
+
+"I think they've had enough," he said.  "They've certainly lost one man,
+and maybe two.  Slade won't care to risk much more."
+
+Dick was glad to go and, following the sergeant's lead, he crawled four
+or five hundred yards, a most painful but necessary operation.  Then they
+stood up, and made good time through the forest.  Both would have been
+willing to stay and fight it out with Slade and what force he had left,
+but their mission was calling them, and forward they went.
+
+"Do you think they'll follow us?" asked Dick.
+
+"I reckon they've had enough.  They may try to curve ahead of us and give
+warning, but the salute from the muzzles of our rifles has been too warm
+for any more direct pursuit.  Besides, we're going to have a summer storm
+soon, and like as not they'll be hunting shelter."
+
+Dick, in the excitement of battle and flight, had not noticed the
+darkening skies and the rising wind.  Clouds, heavy and menacing, already
+shrouded the whole west.  Low thunder was heard far in the distance.
+
+"It's going to be a whopper," said the sergeant, "something like those
+big storms they have out on the plains.  We must find shelter somewhere,
+Mr. Mason, or it will leave us so bedraggled and worn out that for a long
+time we won't be able to move on."
+
+Dick agreed with him entirely, but neither yet knew where the shelter was
+to be found.  They hurried on, looking hopefully for a place.  Meanwhile
+the storm, its van a continual blaze of lightning and roar of thunder,
+rolled up fast from the southwest.  Then the lightning ceased for a while
+and the skies were almost dark.  Dick knew that the rain would come soon,
+and, as he looked eagerly for shelter, he saw a clearing in which stood a
+small building of logs.
+
+"A cornfield, Sergeant," he exclaimed, "and that I take it is a crib."
+
+"A crib that will soon house more than corn," said the sergeant.  "Two
+good Union soldiers are about to stop there.  It's likely the farmer's
+house itself is just beyond that line of trees, but he won't be coming
+out to this crib to-night."
+
+"Not likely.  Too much darkness and rain.  Hurry, Sergeant, I can hear
+already the rush of the rain in the forest."
+
+They ran across the field, burst open the door of the crib, leaped in and
+banged the door shut again, just as the van of the rain beat upon it with
+an angry rush.
+
+Save for a crack or two they had no light, but they stood upon a dry
+floor covered deep with corn shucks, and heard the rain sweep and roar
+upon the roof.  On one side was a heap of husked corn which they quickly
+piled against the door in order to hold it before the assaults of the
+wind, and then they sought warm places among the shucks.
+
+It was a small crib, and the rain drove in at the cracks, but it
+furnished abundant shelter for its two new guests.  Dick had never been
+in a finer hotel.  He lay warm and dry in a great heap of shucks, and
+heard the wind and rain beat vainly upon walls and roof and the thunder
+rumble as it moved off toward the east.  He felt to the full the power
+of contrast.
+
+"Fine in here, isn't it, Sergeant?" he said.
+
+"Fine as silk," replied the sergeant from his own heap of shucks.
+"We played in big luck to find this place, 'cause I think it's going to
+rain hard all night."
+
+"Let it.  It can't get me.  Sergeant, I've always known that corn is our
+chief staple, but I never knew before that the shucks, which so neatly
+enclose the grains and cob, were such articles of luxury.  I'm lying upon
+the most magnificent bed in the United States, and it's composed wholly
+of shucks."
+
+"It's no finer than mine, Mr. Mason."
+
+"That's so.  Yours is just like mine, and, of course, it's an exception.
+Now, I wish to say, Sergeant, the rain upon the roof is so soothing that
+I'm likely to go to sleep before I know it."
+
+"Go ahead, Mr. Mason, and it's more'n likely I'll follow.  All trails
+will be destroyed by the storm and nobody will think of looking here for
+us to-night."
+
+Both soon slept soundly, and all through the night the rain beat upon the
+roof.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A BOLD ATTACK
+
+
+Dick was the first to awake.  The sergeant had not slept the night before
+at all, and, despite his enormous endurance, he was overpowered.  Having
+fallen once into slumber he remained there long.
+
+It was not yet morning and the rain was yet falling steadily.  Its sweep
+upon the roof was still so pleasant and soothing that Dick resolved to go
+to sleep again, after he had looked about a little.  He had grown used to
+dusk and he could see just a little.  The sergeant, buried all but his
+head among the corn shucks, was breathing deeply and peacefully.
+
+He looked out at one of the cracks, but he saw only rain sweeping by in
+misty sheets.  The road that ran by the field was invisible.  He gave
+devout thanks that this tight little corn crib had put itself in their
+way.  Then he returned to his slumbers, and when he awoke again the
+sergeant was sitting by one of the cracks smoothing his thick hair with a
+small comb.
+
+"I always try to keep as neat as I can, Mr. Mason," he said, apologizing
+for such weakness.  "It gives you more courage, and if I get killed I
+want to make a decent body.  Here's your breakfast, sir.  There's enough
+left for the two of us, and I've divided it equally."
+
+Cold ham, bacon and crackers were laid out on clean shucks, and they ate
+until nothing was left.  It was now full daylight, and the rain was dying
+away to a sprinkle.  The farmer might come out at any time to his crib,
+and they felt that they must be up and away.
+
+They bade farewell to their pleasant shelter of a night, and, after
+pulling through the deep mud of the field, entered again the forest,
+which was now soaking wet.
+
+"If Colonel Hertford is near where we reckon he is we ought to meet him
+by nightfall," said Sergeant Whitley.
+
+"We're sure to reach him before then," said Dick joyously.
+
+"Colonel Hertford is a mighty good man, and if he says he's going to be
+at a certain place at a certain time I reckon he'll be there, Mr. Mason."
+
+"And then we'll bring him back and join General Grant.  What do you think
+of our General, Sergeant?"
+
+Dick spoke with all the freedom then so prevalent in the American armies,
+where officer and man were often on nearly a common footing, and the
+sergeant replied with equal freedom.
+
+"General Grant hits and hammers, and I guess that's what war is," he
+said.  "On the plains we had a colonel who didn't know much about
+tactics.  He said the only way to put down hostile Indians was to find
+'em, and beat 'em, and I guess that plan will work in any war, big or
+little."
+
+"I heard before I left the army that Washington was getting scared,
+afraid that he was taking too big a risk here in the heart of the
+Confederacy, and that his operations might be checked by orders from the
+capital."
+
+Sergeant Whitley smiled a wise smile.
+
+"We sergeants learn to know the officers," he said, "and I've had the
+chance to look at General Grant a lot.  He doesn't say much, but I guess
+he's doing a powerful lot of thinking, while he's chawing on the end of
+his cigar.  You notice, Mr. Mason, that he takes risks."
+
+"He took a big one at Shiloh, and came mighty near being nipped."
+
+"But he wasn't nipped after all, and now, if I can judge by the signs,
+he's going to take another chance here.  I wouldn't be surprised if he
+turned and marched away from the Mississippi, say toward Jackson."
+
+"But that wouldn't be taking Vicksburg."
+
+"No, but he might whip an army of the Johnnies coming to relieve
+Vicksburg, and I've a sneaking idea that the General has another daring
+thought in mind."
+
+"What is it, Sergeant?"
+
+"When he turns eastward he'll be away from the telegraph.  Maybe he
+doesn't want to receive any orders from the capital just now."
+
+"I believe you've hit it, Sergeant.  At least I hope so, and anyway we
+want to reach Colonel Hertford right away."
+
+Still following the map and also consulting their own judgment, they
+advanced now at a good rate.  But as they came into a more thickly
+populated country they were compelled to be exceedingly wary.  Once a
+farmer insisted on questioning them, but they threatened him with their
+rifles and then plunged into a wood, lest he bring a force in pursuit.
+
+In the afternoon, lying among some bushes, they saw a large Confederate
+force, with four cannon, pass on the road toward Jackson.
+
+"Colonel Hertford might do them a lot of damage if he could fall on them
+with his cavalry," said the sergeant thoughtfully.
+
+"So he could," said Dick, "but I imagine that General Grant wants the
+colonel to come at once."
+
+They turned northward now and an hour later found numerous hoofprints in
+a narrow road.
+
+"All these were made by well-shod horses," said the sergeant, after
+examining the tracks critically.  "Now, we've plenty of horseshoes and
+the Johnnies haven't.  That's one sign."
+
+"What's the other?"
+
+"I calculate that about six hundred men have passed here, and that's
+pretty close to the number Colonel Hertford has, unless he's been in a
+hot fight."
+
+"Good reasoning, Sergeant, and I'll add a third.  Those men are riding
+directly toward the place where, according to our maps and information,
+we ought to meet Colonel Hertford."
+
+"All these things make me sure our men have passed here, Mr. Mason.
+Suppose we follow on as hard as we can?"
+
+Cheered by the belief that they were approaching the end of their quest
+they advanced at such a rate that the great trail rapidly grew fresher.
+
+"Their horses are tired now," said the sergeant, "and likely we're going
+as fast as they are.  They're our men sure.  Look at this old canteen
+that one of 'em has thrown away.  It's the kind they make in the North.
+He ought to have been punished for leaving such a sign."
+
+"I judge, Sergeant, from the looks of this road, that they can't now be
+more than a mile away."
+
+"Less than that, Mr. Mason.  When we reach the top of the hill yonder I
+think we'll see 'em."
+
+The sergeant's judgment was vindicated again.  From the crest they saw a
+numerous body of muddy horsemen riding slowly ahead.  Only the brilliant
+sunlight made their uniforms distinguishable, but they were, beyond a
+doubt, the troops of the Union.  Dick uttered a little cry of joy and the
+sergeant's face glowed.
+
+"We've found 'em," said the sergeant.
+
+"And soon we ride," said Dick.
+
+They hurried forward, shouted and waved their rifles.
+
+The column stopped, and two men, one of whom was Colonel Hertford himself,
+rode back, looking curiously at the haggard and stained faces of the two
+who walked forward, still swinging their rifles.
+
+"Colonel Hertford," said Dick joyfully, "we've come with a message for
+you from General Grant."
+
+"And who may you be?" asked Hertford in surprise.
+
+"Why, Colonel, don't you know me?  I'm Lieutenant Richard Mason of
+Colonel Winchester's regiment, and this is Sergeant Daniel Whitley of the
+same regiment."
+
+The colonel broke into a hearty laugh, and then extended his hand to Dick.
+
+"I should have known your voice, my boy," he said, "but it's certainly
+impossible to recognize any one who is as thickly covered with dry
+Mississippi mud as you are.  What's your news, Dick?"
+
+Dick told him and the sergeant repeated the same tale.  He knew them both
+to be absolutely trustworthy, and their coming on such an errand through
+so many dangers carried its own proof.
+
+"We've several spare horses, bearing provisions and arms," said Colonel
+Hertford.  "Two can be unloaded and be made ready for you and the
+sergeant.  I fancy that you don't care to keep on walking, Dick?"
+
+"I've had enough to last me for years, Colonel."
+
+They were mounted in a few minutes, and rode with the colonel.  The world
+had now changed for Dick.  Astride a good horse and in a column of six
+hundred men he was no longer the hunted.  These troopers and he were
+hunters now.
+
+The column turned presently into another road and advanced with speed in
+the direction of Grant.  Colonel Hertford asked Dick many questions about
+Slade.
+
+"I've been hearing of him since we were on this raid," he said.  "He's
+more of a guerilla than a regular soldier, but he may be able to gather a
+considerable force.  I wish we could cut him off."
+
+"So do I," said Dick, but his feeling was prompted chiefly by Slade's
+determined attempts upon his life.
+
+Colonel Hertford now pushed forward his men.  He, too, was filled with
+ambitions.  He began to have an idea of Grant's great plans, in which
+all the Union leaders must cooperate, and he meant that his own little
+command should be there, whenever the great deed, whatever it might be,
+was done.  He talked about it with Dick, who he knew was a trusted young
+staff officer, and the two, the lad and the older man, fed the enthusiasm
+of each other.
+
+This attack deep into the flank of the Confederacy appealed to them with
+its boldness, and created a certain romantic glow that seemed to clothe
+the efforts of a general so far from the great line of battle in the
+East.  They talked, too, of the navy which had run past forts on the
+Mississippi, and which had shown anew all its ancient skill and courage.
+
+As they talked, twilight came, and the road led once more through the
+deep woods, where the shade turned the twilight into the darkness of
+night.  Then rifles flashed suddenly in the thickets, and a half-dozen
+horsemen fell.  The whole column was thrown for an instant or two into
+disorder, frightened horses rearing and stamping, and, before their
+riders could regain control, another volley came, emptying a half-dozen
+saddles.
+
+Colonel Hertford gave rapid commands.  Then, shouting and waving his
+saber he galloped boldly into the forest, reckless of trees and bushes,
+and Dick, the sergeant, and the whole troop followed.  The lad was nearly
+swept from his horse by a bough, but he recovered himself in time to see
+the figures of men on foot fleeing rapidly through the dusk.
+
+Bullets pattered on bark and leaves, and the angry horsemen, after
+discharging their carbines, swept forward with circling sabers.  But the
+irregulars who had ambushed them, save a few fallen before the bullets,
+escaped easily in the dense woods, and under cover of the darkness which
+was now coming down, thick and fast.
+
+A trumpet sounded the recall and the cavalrymen, sore and angry, drew
+back into the road.  They had lost a dozen good men, but Colonel Hertford
+felt that they could not delay for vengeance.  Grant's orders were to
+come at once; and he intended to obey them.
+
+"I'd wager a year's pay against a Confederate five-dollar note," said
+Sergeant Whitley to Dick, "that the man who laid that ambush was Slade.
+He'll keep watch on us all the way to Grant, and he'll tell the Southern
+leaders everything the general is doing.  Oh, he's a good scout and spy."
+
+"He's proved it," said Dick, "and I'd like to get a fair shot at him."
+
+They rode nearly all night and most of the next day, and, in the
+afternoon, they met other men in blue who told them that a heavy Union
+force was advancing.  They had no doubt now that Grant's great plan was
+already working and in a short time they reached McPherson, advancing
+with Logan's division.  Hertford reported at once to McPherson, who was
+glad enough to have his cavalry, and who warmly praised Dick and the
+sergeant for the dangerous service they had done so well.  As it would
+have been unwise for them to attempt to reach Grant then he kept them
+with him in the march on Jackson.
+
+Dick slept that night under the stars, but thousands of Union men were
+around him and he felt neither the weight of responsibility, nor the
+presence of danger.  He missed Warner and Pennington, but he and the
+sergeant were happy.  Beyond a doubt now Grant was going to strike hard,
+and all the men were full of anticipation and hope.  His force in
+different divisions was advancing on Jackson, leaving Vicksburg behind
+him and the Southern army under Pemberton on one side.
+
+Dick heard, too, that the redoubtable Joe Johnston was coming to take
+command of the Southern garrison in Jackson, and a leader less bold than
+Grant might have shrunk from such a circle of enemies, but Grant's own
+courage increased the spirit of his men, and they were full of faith.
+
+"I expect they're alarmed in Washington," said the sergeant, as they
+sat on their blankets.  "There ain't any telegraph station nearer than
+Memphis.  They've heard in the capital that the general has begun to move
+toward Jackson, but they won't know for days what will happen."
+
+"I don't blame the President for being disturbed," said Dick.  "After all
+the army is to serve the nation and fights under the supreme civilian
+authority.  The armies don't govern."
+
+"That's so, but there come times when the general who has to do the
+fighting can judge best how it ought to be done."
+
+Dick lay down on one blanket and put another over him.  It was well into
+May, which meant hot weather in Mississippi, but, if he could, he always
+protected himself at night.  He was not a vain lad, but he felt proud
+over his success.  Hertford's six hundred horse were a welcome addition
+to any army.
+
+He lay back soon with a knapsack as a pillow under his head and listened
+to the noises of the camp, blended now into a rather musical note.
+Several cooking fires still burned here and there and figures passed
+before them.  Dick observed them sleepily, taking no particular note,
+until one, small and weazened, came.  The figure was about fifty yards
+away, and there was a Union cap instead of a great flap-brimmed hat on
+the head, but Dick sprang to his feet at once, snatched a pistol from his
+belt and rushed toward it.
+
+The evil figure melted away like a shadow, and two astonished soldiers
+seized the youth, who seemed to be running amuck in the camp, pistol in
+hand.
+
+"Let go!" exclaimed Dick.  "I've seen a man whom I know to be a spy,
+and a most dangerous one, too."
+
+They could find no trace of Slade.  Dick returned crestfallen to his
+blanket, but he recalled something now definitely and clearly.  Slade
+was the little man whom he had seen carrying the log the morning he left
+General Grant's camp, on his mission.
+
+The sergeant, who had never stirred from his own blanket, sat up when
+Dick returned.
+
+"Who was he, Mr. Mason?" he asked.
+
+"Slade himself.  He must have seen me jump up, because he vanished like
+a ghost.  But I gained something.  I know now that I saw him here in our
+uniform just before I started to find Colonel Hertford.  That was why I
+was followed."
+
+"The cunning of an Indian.  Well, we'll be on the watch for him now,
+but I imagine he's already on the way to Jackson with the news of our
+advance and an estimate of our numbers.  We can't do anything to head him
+off."
+
+On the second day after joining the column Dick was ahead with the
+cavalry, riding beside Colonel Hertford, and listening to occasional
+shots in their front on the Jackson road.  Both believed they would soon
+be in touch with the enemy.  Sergeant Whitley, acting now as a scout,
+had gone forward through a field and in a few minutes galloped back.
+
+"The enemy is not far away," he said.  "They're posted along a creek,
+with high banks and in a wood.  They've got a strong artillery too,
+and I think they about equal us in numbers."
+
+Dick carried the report to the commander of the column, and soon the
+trumpets were calling the men to battle.  The crackle of rifle shots
+ahead increased rapidly.  The skirmishers were already pulling trigger,
+and, as Dick galloped back to Hertford he saw many puffs of white smoke
+down the road and in the fields and woods on either side.  The Union men
+began to cheer.  In the West they had suffered no such defeats as their
+brethren in the East, and every pulse beat with confidence.  As the whole
+line moved forward the Southern cannon began to crash and their shells
+swept the road.
+
+The cavalry were advancing in a field, but they were yet held back to
+a slow walk.  Dick heard many impatient exclamations, but he knew the
+restraint was right.  He saw the accuracy of the Southern gunners.
+They were driving the Northern infantry from the road.  Their fire was
+rapid and deadly, and, for a while, the Union army was checked.
+
+Hertford was calmly examining the Southern position through his glasses,
+while he restrained his eager men.  The volume of Southern fire was
+growing fast.  Shells and shrapnel rained death over a wide area, and the
+air was filled with whistling bullets.  It was certain destruction for
+any force to charge down the road in face of the Southern cannon, and the
+Northern army began to spread out, wheeling toward either flank.
+
+An aide arrived with an order to Hertford, and then he loosed his eager
+cavalry.  Turning to one side they galloped toward the creek.  Some of
+the Southern gunners, seeing them, sent shells toward them, and a swarm
+of riflemen in a wood showered them with bullets.  But they passed so
+rapidly that not many saddles were emptied, and the trumpeter blew a
+mellow note that urged on spirits already willing enough.
+
+The sweep of the cavalry charge exhilarated Dick.  The thought of danger
+passed away for the moment.  He saw all around him the eager faces of men,
+and horses that seemed just as eager.  Dust and dirt flew beneath the
+thudding hoofs, and the dust and floating smoke together made a grimy
+cloud through which they galloped.
+
+They passed around still further on the flank.  They seemed, for a few
+minutes, to be leaving the battle, which was now at its height, the
+Southern artillery still holding the road and presenting an unbroken
+front.
+
+Dick saw a flash of water and then the whole troop thundered into the
+creek, almost without slackened rein.  Up the bank they went, and with
+a wild shout charged upon the Southern infantry.  On the other flank
+another Northern force which also had crossed the creek attacked with
+fire and spirit.
+
+But the battle still swayed back and forth.  Hertford and his cavalry
+were thrown off, merely to return anew to the charge.  A portion of
+the Northern force was driven back on the creek.  The strong Southern
+batteries poured forth death.  Dick felt that they might yet lose,
+but they suddenly heard a tremendous cheer, and a fresh force coming up
+at the double quick enabled them to sweep the field.  Before sunset the
+Southern army retreated toward Jackson, leaving the field to the men in
+blue.
+
+Dick dismounted and, examining himself carefully, found that he had
+suffered no wound.  Colonel Hertford and the sergeant had also taken
+no hurt.  But the lad and his elder comrade secured but little rest.
+They were bidden to ride across the country at once to General Sherman
+with the news of the victory.  Sherman was at the head of another column,
+and Grant was farther away with the main body.
+
+Dick and the sergeant, with the battle smoke still in their eyes, were
+eager for the service.
+
+"When you're with Grant you don't stay idle, that's certain," said Dick
+as they rode across the darkening fields.
+
+"No, you don't," said the sergeant, "and I'm thinking that we've just
+begun.  I know from the feel of it that big things are going to happen
+fast.  Sheer away from the woods there, Mr. Mason.  We don't want to be
+picked off by sharpshooters."
+
+They arrived after dark in Sherman's camp and he received them himself.
+Dick remembered how he had seen this thin, dry man holding fast with his
+command at Shiloh, and he saluted him with the deepest respect.  He knew
+that here was a bold and tenacious spirit, kin to that of Grant.  Sherman
+had heard already of the battle, but he wished more and definite news.
+
+"You say that our victory was complete?" he asked tersely.
+
+"It was, sir," replied Dick.  "The entire force of the enemy retired
+rapidly toward Jackson, and our men are eager to advance on that city."
+
+"It would be a great stroke to take the capital of Mississippi," said
+Sherman musingly.  Then he added in his crisp manner:
+
+"Are you tired?"
+
+"Not if you wish me to do anything," replied Dick quickly.
+
+Sherman smiled.
+
+"The right spirit," he said.  "I wish you and your comrade to ride at
+once with this news to General Grant.  He may hear it from other sources,
+but I want to send a letter by you."
+
+In ten minutes Dick and the sergeant were riding proudly away on another
+mission, and, passing through all the dangers of Southern scouts and
+skirmishers, they reached General Grant, to whom they delivered the
+letter from Sherman.  Grant, who had recently been in doubt owing to the
+threat of Pemberton on his flank, hesitated no longer when he heard of
+the victory, and resolved at once upon the capture of Jackson.
+
+Dick, after his battle and two rides, went to sleep in a wagon, while an
+orderly took his horse.  When he awoke unknown hours afterward he found
+that he was moving.  He knew at once that the army was advancing.
+Before him and behind him he heard all the noises of the march, the beat
+of horses' hoofs, the grinding of wheels, the clanking of cannon, the
+cracking of whips and the sounds of many voices.
+
+He was wonderfully comfortable where he lay and he had the satisfaction
+and pride of much duty done.  He felt that he was entitled to rest, and,
+turning on his side, he went to sleep again.  After another unknown time
+his second awakening came and he remained awake.
+
+He quietly slipped out at the tail of the wagon, and stood for a few
+moments, dazzled by the blazing sunlight.  Then a loud, cheery voice
+called out:
+
+"Well, if it isn't our own Lucky Dick come back again, safe and well to
+the people to whom he belongs!"
+
+"If z equals Dick and y equals his presence then we have z plus y,
+as Dick is certainly present," called out another voice not quite so loud,
+but equally cheery.  "Luck, Frank, is only a minor factor in life.
+What we usually call luck is the result of foresight, skill and courage.
+There are facts that I wouldn't have you to forget, even if it is a hot
+day far down in Mississippi."
+
+Warner and Pennington sprang from their horses and greeted Dick warmly.
+They had returned a day or two before from their own less perilous
+errands, but they were in great anxiety about their comrade.  They were
+glad too, when they heard that the sergeant had joined him and that he
+had come back safe.
+
+"I suppose it means a battle at Jackson," said Warner.  "We're surely on
+the move, and we're going to keep the Johnnies busy for quite a spell."
+
+"Looks like it," said Dick.
+
+Colonel Winchester came soon, and his face showed great relief when he
+shook hands with Dick.
+
+"It was a dangerous errand, Dick, my lad," he said, "but I felt that you
+would succeed and you have.  It was highly important that we gather all
+our forces for a great stroke."
+
+Dick resumed at once his old place in the Winchester regiment, with
+Warner, Pennington and his other comrades around him.  Refreshed by
+abundant sleep and good food he was in the highest of spirits.  They
+were embarked upon a great adventure and he believed that it would be
+successful.  His confidence was shared by all those about him.  Meanwhile
+the army advanced in diverging columns upon the Mississippi capital.
+
+Jackson, on Pearl River, had suddenly assumed a vast importance in Dick's
+mind, and yet it was but a tiny place, not more than three or four
+thousand inhabitants.  The South was almost wholly agricultural, and
+cities, great in a political and military sense, were in reality but
+towns.  Richmond, itself the capital of the Confederacy, around which so
+much centered, had only forty thousand people.
+
+The Winchester regiment was detached that afternoon and sent to join
+the column under McPherson, which was expected to reach Jackson first.
+Dick was mounted again, and he rode with Warner and Pennington on either
+side of him.  They speculated much on what they would find when they
+approached Jackson.
+
+"If Joe Johnston is there," said Warner, "I think we'll have a hard
+fight.  You'll remember that he did great work against us in Virginia,
+until he was wounded."
+
+"And they'll know, of course, just when to expect us and in what force,"
+said Dick.  "Slade will tell them that.  He probably has a large body of
+spies and scouts working under him.  But I don't think he'll come inside
+our camp again."
+
+"Not likely since he's been recognized," said Warner, thoughtfully.
+"But I don't think General Grant is afraid of anything ahead.  That's why
+he made the separation from our own world so complete, and our men are
+out cutting down the telegraph lines, so the Johnnies in Jackson can't
+communicate with their own government either.  It's important to us that
+we take Jackson before Pemberton with his army can come up."
+
+Warner had estimated the plan correctly.  Grant, besides cutting
+himself off from his own superiors at Washington, was also destroying
+communication between the garrison of Jackson and Pemberton's army of
+Vicksburg, which was not far away.  The two united might beat him,
+but he meant to defeat them separately, and then besiege Vicksburg.
+It was a complicated plan, depending upon quickness, courage and
+continued success.  Yet the mind of Grant, though operating afterward
+on fields of greater numbers, was never clearer or more vigorous.
+
+They went into camp again after dark, knowing that Jackson was but a
+short distance away, and they expected to attack early in the morning.
+Dick carried another dispatch to Sherman, who was only a little more than
+two miles from them, and on his way back he joined Colonel Winchester,
+who, with Warner, Pennington and a hundred infantry, had come out for a
+scout.  The dismounted men were chosen because they wished to beat up a
+difficult piece of wooded country.
+
+They went directly toward Jackson, advancing very cautiously through the
+forest, the mounted officers riding slowly.  The night was hot and dark,
+moon and stars obscured by drifting clouds.  Pennington, who was an
+expert on weather, announced that another storm was coming.
+
+"I can feel a dampness in the air," he said.  "I'm willing to risk my
+reputation as a prophet and say that the dawn will come with rain."
+
+"I hope it won't be a big rain," said Colonel Winchester, "because if it
+is it will surely delay our attack.  Our supply of cartridges is small,
+and we can't risk wetting them."
+
+Pennington persisted that a storm was at hand.  His father had taught him,
+he said, always to observe the weather signs on the great Nebraska
+plains.  They were nearly always hoping for rain there, and he had
+learned to smell it before it came.  He could smell it now in the same
+way here in Mississippi.
+
+His opinion did not waver, when the clouds floated away for a while,
+disclosing a faint moon and a few stars.  They were now on the banks of a
+brook, flowing through the wood, and Colonel Winchester thought he saw
+a movement in the forest beyond it.  It was altogether likely that so
+skillful a leader as Joe Johnston would have out bodies of scouts,
+and he stopped, bidding his men to take cover.
+
+Dick sat on his horse by the colonel's side under the thick boughs of a
+great tree, and studied the thickets before them.  He, too, had noticed
+a movement, and he was confident that the Southern sharpshooters were
+there.  At the command of the colonel all of the officers dismounted,
+and orderlies took the horses to the rear.  On foot they continued their
+examination of the thickets, and the colonel sent for Sergeant Whitley,
+who confirmed his opinion that the enemy was before them.  At his
+suggestion the Union force was spread out, lest it be flanked and
+annihilated in the thickets.
+
+Just as the movement was completed rifles began to crack in front and on
+both flanks, and the piercing yell of the South arose.
+
+It was impossible to tell the size of the force that assailed them,
+but the Winchester men were veterans now, and they were not afraid.
+Standing among the bushes or sheltered by the trees they held their fire
+until they saw dusky figures in the thickets.
+
+It had all the aspects of an old Indian battle in the depths of the great
+forest.  Darkness, the ambush and the caution of sharpshooters were
+there.  Dick carried a rifle, but he did not use it.  He merely watched
+the pink beads of flame among the bushes, while he stayed by the side of
+his colonel and observed the combat.
+
+It soon became apparent to him that it would have no definite result.
+Each side was merely feeling out its foe that night, and would not force
+the issue.  Yet the Southern line approached and some bullets whistled
+near him.  He moved a little to one side, and watched for an enemy.
+It was annoying to have bullets come so close, and since they were
+shooting at him he might as well shoot at them.
+
+While he was absorbed in watching, the colonel moved in the other
+direction, and Dick stood alone behind a bush.  The fire in front had
+increased somewhat, although at no time was it violent.  Occasional shots
+from his own side replied.  The clouds that had drifted away were now
+drifting back, and he believed that darkness alone would soon end the
+combat.
+
+Then he saw a bush only a dozen yards in his front move a little, and a
+face peered through its branches.  There was yet enough light for him to
+see that the face was youthful, eager and handsome.  It was familiar, too,
+and then with a shock he remembered.  Woodville, the lad with whom he had
+fought such a good fight, nature's weapons used, was before him.
+
+Dick raised his rifle.  Young Woodville was an easy target.  But the
+motion was only a physical impulse.  He knew in his heart that he had
+no intention of shooting the young Southerner, and he did not feel the
+slightest tinge of remorse because he evaded this part of a soldier's
+work.
+
+Yet Woodville, seeing nobody and hearing nothing, would come on.  Dick,
+holding his rifle in the crook of his left arm, drew a pistol and fired
+it over the lad's head.  At the same moment he dropped almost flat upon
+the ground.  The bullet cut the leaves above Woodville and he sprang back,
+startled.  A half-dozen Southern skirmishers fired at the flash of Dick's
+pistol, but he, too, lying on the ground, heard them cutting leaves over
+his head.
+
+Dick saw the face of Woodville disappear from the bush, and then he crept
+away, rejoining Colonel Winchester and his comrades.  Five minutes later
+the skirmish ceased by mutual consent, and each band fell back on its own
+army, convinced that both were on the watch.
+
+They were to advance at four o'clock in the morning, but Pennington's
+prediction came true.  After midnight, flashes of lightning cut the sky
+and the thunder rolled heavily.  Then the rain came, not any fugitive
+shower, but hard, cold and steady, promising to last many hours.
+
+It was still pouring when the advance began before dawn, but Grant's
+plans were complete.  He had drawn up his forces on the chessboard,
+and they were converging closely upon Jackson.  They must keep their
+cartridges dry and advance at all costs.
+
+The Winchesters were in the van in a muddy road.  Dick, Warner and
+Pennington were in the saddle, and they were wet through and through.
+The rain and dusk were so heavy that they could not see fifty feet,
+and they shivered with cold.  But their souls were eager and high,
+and they were glad when the army toiled slowly forward to battle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE LITTLE CAPITAL
+
+
+Dick was bent down in his saddle, trying to protect himself a little from
+the driving rain which beat in his eyes and soaked through his clothing.
+Warner and Pennington beside him were in the same condition, and he saw
+just before him the bent back of Colonel Winchester, with his left arm
+raised as a shield for his face.  Hoofs and wheels made a heavy, sticky
+sound as they sank in the mud, and were then pulled out again.
+
+"Do you see any signs of daylight, Dick?" asked Pennington.
+
+"Not a sign.  I see only a part of our regiment, trees on either side of
+us bending before the wind, and rain, and mud, mud everywhere.  I'll be
+glad when it's over."
+
+"So will I," said Warner.  "I wonder what kind of hotels they have in
+Jackson.  I'd like to have a bath, good room and a big breakfast."
+
+"The Johnnies are holding breakfast for you," said Pennington.  "Their
+first course is gunpowder, their second bullets, their third shells and
+shrapnel, and their fourth bayonets."
+
+"They'll have to serve a lot at every course," said Dick, "because
+General Grant is advancing with fifty thousand men, and so many need a
+lot of satisfying."
+
+The storm increased in violence.  The rain, falling in a deluge, was
+driven by a wind like a hurricane.  The horses strove to turn their heads
+from it, and confusion arose among the cavalry.  The infantry mixed in
+the mud swore heavily.  Staff officers had the utmost difficulty in
+keeping the regiments together.  It was time for the sun, but it did not
+appear.  Everything was veiled in clouds and driving rain.
+
+Dick looked at his watch, and saw that it was seven o'clock.  They had
+intended to attack at this hour, but further advance was impossible
+for the time, and, bending their heads, they sought to protect their
+ammunition.  Presently they started again and toiled along slowly and
+painfully for more than two hours.  Then, just as they saw the enemy
+ahead of them, the storm seemed to reach the very zenith of its fury.
+
+Dick, in the vanguard, beheld earthworks, cannon and troops before
+Jackson, but the storm still drove so hard that the Union forces could
+not advance to the assault.
+
+"This is certainly a most unusual situation," said Colonel Winchester,
+with an effort at cheerfulness.  "Here we are, ready to attack, and the
+Southerners are ready to defend, but a storm holds us both fast in our
+tracks.  Our duty to protect our cartridges is even greater than our duty
+to attack the enemy."
+
+"The biggest rain must come to an end," said Dick.
+
+But it was nearly noon before they could advance.  Then, as the storm
+decreased rapidly the trumpets sounded the charge, and horse, foot and
+artillery, they pressed forward eagerly through the mud.
+
+The sun broke through the clouds, and Dick saw before them a wood,
+a ravine full of thickets, and the road commanded by strong artillery.
+The Northern skirmishers were already stealing forward through the wet
+bushes and grass, and soon their rifles were crackling.  But the Southern
+sharpshooters in the thickets were in stronger force, and their rapid and
+accurate fire drove back the Northern men.  Then their artillery opened
+and swept the road, while the Northern batteries were making frantic
+efforts to get up through the deep, sticky mud.
+
+But the trumpets were still calling.  The Winchester regiment and others,
+eager for battle and victory, swept forward.  Dick felt once more the
+fierce thrill of combat, and, waving his revolver high above his head,
+he shouted with the others as they rushed on.  The stream of bullets from
+the ravine thickened, and the cannon were crashing fast.  But the Union
+masses did not check their rush for an instant.  Although many fell they
+charged into the ravine, driving out the enemy, and pursued him on the
+other side.
+
+But the Southern cannon, manned by daring gunners, still held the field
+and, aided by the thick mud which held back charging feet, they repulsed
+every attack.  The Winchester regiment was forced to cover, and then Dick
+heard the booming of cannon in another direction.  He knew that Grant and
+Sherman were coming up there, and he expected they would rush at once
+into Jackson, but it was a long time before the distant thunder came any
+nearer.
+
+Johnston, whose astuteness they feared, was proving himself worthy of
+their opinion.  Knowing that his forces were far too small to defend
+Jackson, he had sent away the archives of the state and most of the army.
+Only a small force and seventeen cannon were left to fight and cover his
+retreat.  But so bold and skillful were they that it was far beyond noon
+before Grant and Sherman found that practically nothing was in front of
+them.
+
+But where Dick and his comrades rode the fighting was severe for a while.
+Then everything seemed to melt away before them.  The fire of the
+Southern cannon ceased suddenly, and Colonel Winchester exclaimed that
+their works had been abandoned.  They charged forward, seized the cannon,
+and now rode without resistance into the capital of the state, from which
+the President of the Confederacy hailed, though by birth a Kentuckian.
+
+Dick and his comrades were among the first to enter the town, and not
+until then did they know that Johnston and all but a few hundreds of his
+army were gone.
+
+"We've got the shell only," Dick said.
+
+"Still we've struck a blow by taking the capital of the state," said
+Colonel Winchester.
+
+Dick looked with much curiosity at the little city into which they were
+riding as conquerors.  It was too small and new to be imposing.  Yet
+there were some handsome houses, standing back on large lawns, and
+surrounded by foliage.  The doors and shutters of all of them were closed
+tightly.  Dick knew that their owners had gone away or were sitting,
+hearts full of bitterness, in their sealed houses.
+
+The streets were deep in mud, and at the corners little knots of negroes
+gathered and looked at them curiously.
+
+"They don't seem to welcome us as deliverers," said Warner.
+
+"They don't yet know what to think of us," said Dick.  "There's the
+Capitol ahead of us, and some of our troops are going into it."
+
+"Others have gone into it already," said Pennington.  "Look!"
+
+They saw the flag of the Union break out above its dome, the beautiful
+stars and stripes, waving gently in the light breeze.  A spontaneous
+cheer burst from the Union soldiers, and the bitter hearts in the sealed
+houses grew more bitter.
+
+The army was now pouring in by every road and Colonel Winchester and his
+staff sought quarters.  They were on the verge of exhaustion.  All their
+clothing was wet and they were discolored with mud.  They felt that they
+were bound to have rest and cleanliness.
+
+The victorious troops were making their camp, wherever they could find
+dry ground, and soon they were building the fires for cooking.  But many
+of the officers were assigned to the residences, and Colonel Winchester
+and his staff were directed by the general to take quarters in a large
+colonial house, standing on a broad lawn, amid the finest magnolias and
+live oaks that Dick had ever seen.
+
+Remembering an earlier experience during the Shiloh campaign Colonel
+Winchester and his young officers approached the house with some
+reluctance.  In ordinary times it must have been brilliant with life.
+Two little fountains were playing on either side of the graveled walk
+that led to the front door.  After the old fashion, three or four marble
+statues stood in the shrubbery.  Everything indicated wealth.  Probably
+the town house of a great planter, reflected Dick.  In Mississippi a man
+sometimes owned as many as a thousand slaves, and lived like a prince.
+
+The house offered them no welcome.  Its doors and windows were closed,
+but Dick had seen thin smoke rising from a chimney in the rear.  He
+expected that they would have to force the door, but at the first knock
+it was thrown open by a tall, thin woman of middle years.  The look
+she gave them was full of bitter hatred--Dick sometimes thought that
+women could hate better than men--but her manner and bearing showed
+distinction.  He, as well as his comrades, took her to be the lady of the
+house.
+
+"We ask your pardon, madame, for this intrusion," said Colonel Winchester,
+"but we are compelled to occupy your house a while.  We promise you as
+little trouble as possible."
+
+"We ask no consideration of any kind from men who have come to despoil
+our country and ruin its people," she said icily.
+
+Colonel Winchester flushed.
+
+"But madame," he protested, "we do not come to destroy."
+
+"I do not care to argue with you about it," she said in the same lofty
+tone, "and also you need not address me as madame.  I am Miss Woodville."
+
+Dick started.
+
+"Does this house belong to Colonel John Woodville?" he asked.
+
+"It does not," she replied crisply, "but it belongs to his elder brother,
+Charles Woodville, who is also a colonel, and who is my father.  What do
+you know of Colonel John Woodville?"
+
+"I met his son once," replied Dick briefly.
+
+She glanced at him sharply.  Dick thought for a moment that he saw alarm
+in her look, but he concluded that it was only anger.
+
+They stood confronting each other, the little group of officers and the
+woman, and Colonel Winchester, embarrassed, but knowing that he must do
+something, went forward and pushed back a door opening into the hall.
+Dick automatically followed him, and then stepped back, startled.
+
+A roar like that of a lion met them.  An old man, with a high, bald and
+extremely red forehead lay in a huge bed by a window.  It was a great
+head, and eyes, set deep, blazed under thick, white lashes.  His body was
+covered to the chin.
+
+Dick saw that the man's anger was that of the caged wild beast, and there
+was something splendid and terrible about it.
+
+"You infernal Yankees!" he cried, and his voice again rumbled like that
+of a lion.
+
+"Colonel Charles Woodville, I presume?" said Colonel Winchester politely.
+
+"Yes, Colonel Charles Woodville," thundered the man, "fastened here in
+bed by a bullet from one of your cursed vessels in the Mississippi,
+while you rob and destroy!"
+
+And then he began to curse.  He drew one hand from under the cover and
+shook his clenched fist at them in a kind of rhythmic beat while the
+oaths poured forth.  To Dick it was not common swearing.  There was
+nothing coarse and vulgar about it.  It was denunciation, malediction,
+fulmination, anathema.  It had a certain majesty and dignity.  Its
+richness and variety were unequaled, and it was hurled forth by a voice
+deep, powerful and enduring.
+
+Dick listened with amazement and then admiration.  He had never heard its
+like, nor did he feel any offense.  The daughter, too, stood by, pursing
+her prim lips, and evidently approving.  Colonel Winchester was
+motionless like a statue, while the infuriated man shook his fist at him
+and launched imprecations.  But his face had turned white and Dick saw
+that he was fiercely angry.
+
+When the old man ceased at last from exhaustion Colonel Winchester said
+quietly:
+
+"If you had spoken to me in the proper manner we might have gone away and
+found quarters elsewhere.  But we intend to stay here and we will repay
+your abuse with good manners."
+
+Dick saw the daughter flush, but the old man said:
+
+"Then it will be the first time that good manners were ever brought from
+the country north of the Mason and Dixon line."
+
+Colonel Winchester flushed in his turn, but made no direct reply.
+
+"If you will assign us rooms, Miss Woodville," he said, "we will go
+to them, otherwise we'll find them for ourselves, which may be less
+convenient for you.  I repeat that we desire to give you as little
+trouble as possible."
+
+"Do so, Margaret," interrupted Colonel Woodville, "because then I may get
+rid of them all the sooner."
+
+Colonel Winchester bowed and turned toward the door.  Miss Woodville,
+obedient to the command of her father, led the way.  Dick was the last
+to go out, and he said to the old lion who lay wounded in the bed:
+
+"Colonel Woodville, I've met your nephew, Victor."
+
+He did not notice that the old man whitened and that the hand now lying
+upon the cover clenched suddenly.
+
+"You have?" growled Colonel Woodville, "and how does it happen that you
+and my nephew have anything in common?"
+
+"I could scarcely put it that way," replied Dick, refusing to be angered,
+"unless you call an encounter with fists something in common.  He and I
+had a great fight at his father's plantation of Bellevue."
+
+"He might have been in a better business, taking part in a common brawl
+with a common Yankee."
+
+"But, sir, while I may be common, I'm not a Yankee.  I was born and grew
+up south of the Ohio River in Kentucky."
+
+"Then you're a traitor.  All you Kentuckians ought to be fighting with
+us."
+
+"Difference of opinion, but I hope your nephew is well."
+
+The deep eyes under the thick white thatch glared in a manner that Dick
+considered wholly unnecessary.  But Colonel Woodville made no reply,
+merely turning his face to the wall as if he were weary.
+
+Dick hurried into the hall, closing the door gently behind him.  The
+others, not missing him, were already some yards away, and he quickly
+rejoined Pennington and Warner.  The younger men would have been glad
+to leave the house, but Colonel Winchester's blood was up, and he was
+resolved to stay.  The little party was eight in number, and they were
+soon quartered in four rooms on the lower floor.  Miss Woodville promptly
+disappeared, and one of the camp cooks arrived with supplies, which he
+took to the kitchen.
+
+Dick and Warner were in one of the rooms, and, removing their belts and
+coats, they made themselves easy.  It was a large bedroom with high
+ceilings and wicker furniture.  There were several good paintings on the
+walls and a bookcase contained Walter Scott's novels and many of the
+eighteenth century classics.
+
+"I think this must have been a guest chamber," said Dick, "but for us
+coming from the rain and mud it's a real palace."
+
+"Then it's fulfilling its true function," said Warner, "because it has
+guests now.  What a strange household!  Did you ever see such a peppery
+pair as that swearing old colonel and his acid daughter?"
+
+"I don't know that I blame them.  I think, sometimes, George, that
+you New Englanders are the most selfish of people.  You're too truly
+righteous.  You're always denouncing the faults of others, but you never
+see any of your own.  Away back in the Revolution when Boston called,
+the Southern provinces came to her help, but Boston and New England have
+spent a large part of their time since then denouncing the South."
+
+"What's struck you, Dick?  Are you weakening in the good cause?"
+
+"Not for a moment.  But suppose Mississippi troops walked into your own
+father's house in Vermont, and, as conquerors, demanded food and shelter!
+Would you rejoice over them, and ask them why they hadn't come sooner?"
+
+"I suppose not, Dick.  But, stop it, and come back to your normal
+temperature.  I won't quarrel with you."
+
+"I won't give you a chance, George.  I'm through.  But remember that
+while I'm red hot for the Union, I was born south of the Ohio River
+myself, and I have lots of sympathy for the people against whom I'm
+fighting."
+
+"For the matter of that, so've I, Dick, and I was born north of the Ohio
+River.  But I'm getting tremendously hungry.  I hope that cook will
+hurry."
+
+They were called soon, and eight officers sat at the table.  The cook
+himself served them.  Miss Woodville had vanished, and not a servant was
+visible about the great house.  Despite their hunger and the good quality
+of the food the group felt constraint.  The feeling that they were
+intruders, in a sense brigands, was forced upon them.  Dick was sure
+that the old man with the great bald head was swearing fiercely and
+incessantly under his breath.
+
+The dining-room was a large and splendid apartment, and the silver still
+lay upon the great mahogany sideboard.  The little city, now the camp
+of an overwhelming army, had settled into silence, and the twilight was
+coming.
+
+With the chill of unwelcome still upon them the officers said little.
+As the twilight deepened Warner lighted several candles.  The silver
+glittered under the flame.  Colonel Winchester presently ordered the cook
+to take a plate of the most delicate food to Colonel Woodville.
+
+As the cook withdrew on his mission he left open the door of the
+dining-room and they heard the sound of a voice, uplifted in a thunderous
+roar.  The cook hurried back, the untouched plate in his hand and his
+face a little pale.
+
+"He cursed me, sir," he said to Colonel Winchester.  "I was never cursed
+so before by anybody.  He said he would not touch the food.  He was sure
+that it had been poisoned by the Yankees, and even if it were not he'd
+rather die than accept anything from their hands."
+
+Colonel Winchester laughed rather awkwardly.
+
+"At any rate, we've tendered our good offices," he said.  "I suppose his
+daughter will attend to his wants, and we'll not expose ourselves to
+further insults."
+
+But the refusal had affected the spirits of them all, and as soon as
+their hunger was satisfied they withdrew.  The soldier who had acted as
+cook was directed to put the dining-room back in order and then he might
+sleep in a room near the kitchen.
+
+Dick and Warner returned to their own apartment.  Neither had much to say,
+and Warner, lying down on the bed, was soon fast asleep.  Dick sat by the
+window.  The town was now almost lost in the obscurity.  The exhausted
+army slept, and the occasional glitter from the bayonet of a sentinel was
+almost the only thing that told of its presence.
+
+Dick was troubled.  In spite of will and reason, his conscience hurt him.
+Theory was beautiful, but it was often shivered by practice.  His
+sympathies were strongly with the old colonel who had cursed him so
+violently and the grim old maid who had given them only harsh words.
+Besides, he had pleasant memories of Victor Woodville, and these were his
+uncle and cousin.
+
+He sat for a long time at the window.  The house was absolutely quiet,
+and he was sure that everybody was asleep.  There could be no doubt about
+Warner, because he slumbered audibly.  But Dick was still wide awake.
+There was some tension of mind or muscle that kept sleep far from him.
+So he remained at the window, casting up the events of the day and those
+that might come.
+
+The evening was well advanced when he was quite sure that he heard a
+light step in the hall.  He would have paid little attention to it at
+an ordinary time, but, in all that silence and desolation, it called
+him like a drum-beat.  Only a light step, and yet it filled him with
+suspicion and alarm.  He was in the heart of a great and victorious
+Union army, but at the moment he felt that anything could happen in this
+strange house.
+
+Slipping his pistol from his belt, he opened the door on noiseless hinges
+and stepped into the hall.  A figure was disappearing in its dim space,
+but, as he saw clearly, it was that of a woman.  He was sure that it was
+Miss Woodville and he stepped forward.  He had no intention of following
+her, but his foot creaked on the floor, and, stopping instantly, she
+faced about.  Then he saw that she carried a tray of food.
+
+"Are we to have our house occupied and to be spied upon also?" she asked.
+
+Dick flushed.  Few people had ever spoken to him in such a manner,
+and it was hard to remember that she was a woman.
+
+"I heard a footstep in the hall, and it was my duty to see who was
+passing," he said.
+
+"I have prepared food and I am taking it to my father.  He would not
+accept it from Yankee hands."
+
+"Colonel Woodville sups late.  I should think a wounded man would be
+asleep at this hour, if he could."
+
+She gave him a glance full of venom.
+
+"What does it matter?" she said.
+
+Dick refused to be insulted.
+
+"Let me take the tray for you," he said, "at least to the door.  Your
+father need not know that my hands have touched it."
+
+She shrank back and her eyes blazed.
+
+"Let us alone!" she exclaimed.  "Go back to your room!  Isn't it
+sufficient that this house shelters you?"
+
+She seemed to Dick to show a heat and hate out of all proportion to the
+occasion, but he did not repeat the offer.
+
+"I meant well," he said, "but, since you do not care for my help, I'll
+return to my room and go to sleep.  Believe me, I'm sincere when I say I
+hope your father will recover quickly from his wound."
+
+"He will," she replied briefly.
+
+Dick bowed with politeness and turned toward his own room.  Nevertheless
+his curiosity did not keep him from standing a moment or two in the
+dark against the wall and looking back at the woman who bore the tray.
+He drew a long breath of astonishment when he saw her pass Colonel
+Woodville's door, and hurry forward now with footsteps that made no sound.
+
+The suspicion which had lain deep in his mind sprang at once into life.
+Keeping close to the wall, he followed swiftly and saw her disappear up a
+stairway.  There he let the pursuit end and returned thoughtfully to his
+room.
+
+Dick was much troubled.  An ethical question had presented itself to him.
+He believed that he had divined everything.  The solution had come to him
+with such suddenness and force that he was as fully convinced as if he
+had seen with his own eyes.  Military duty demanded that he invade the
+second floor of the Woodville house.  But there were feelings of humanity
+and mercy, moral issues not less powerful than military duty, and maybe
+more so.
+
+He was pulled back and forth with great mental violence.  He was sorry
+that he had seen Miss Woodville with the tray.  And then he wasn't.
+Nevertheless, he stayed in his own room, and Warner, waking for a moment,
+regarded him with wonder as he sat outlined against the window which they
+had left unshuttered and opened to admit air.
+
+"What's the matter, Dick?  Have you got a fever?" he asked.  "Why haven't
+you gone to bed?"
+
+"I'm going to do so right away.  Don't bother yourself about me, George.
+My nerves have been strained pretty hard, and I had to wait until they
+were quiet until I could go to sleep."
+
+"Don't have nerves," said Warner, as he turned back on his side and
+returned to slumber.
+
+Dick undressed and got into bed.  It was the first time in many nights
+that he had not slept in his clothes, and beds had been unknown for many
+weeks.  It was a luxury so penetrating and powerful that it affected
+him like an opiate.  Such questions as military and moral duty floated
+swiftly away, and he slept the sleep of youth and a good heart.
+
+Breakfast was almost a repetition of supper.  The army cook prepared and
+served it, and the Woodvilles remained invisible.  Colonel Winchester
+informed the young officers that they would remain in Jackson two or
+three days, and then great events might be expected.  All felt sure
+that he was predicting aright.  Pemberton must be approaching with the
+Vicksburg army.  The wary and skillful Johnston had another army, and he
+could not be far away.  Moreover, this was the heart of the Confederacy
+and other unknown forces might be gathering.
+
+They felt the greatness of the hour, Grant's daring stroke, and the
+possibility that he might yet be surrounded and overwhelmed.  Their minds
+were attuned, too, to other and yet mightier deeds, but they were glad,
+nevertheless, of a little rest.  The Woodville house was a splendid place,
+and in the morning they did not feel so much the chill of embarrassment
+that had been created for them the night before.
+
+Dick went straight to the room of Colonel Woodville, opened the door
+without knocking, and closed it behind him quickly but noiselessly.
+
+The colonel was propped up in his bed and a tray bearing light and
+delicate food lay on a chair.  His daughter stood beside the bed,
+speechless with anger at this intrusion.  Dick lifted his hand, and the
+look upon his face checked one of the mightiest oaths that had ever
+welled up from the throat of Colonel Charles Woodville, king of swearers.
+
+"Stop!" said Dick in a voice not loud, but sharp with command.
+
+"Can't we at least have privacy in the room of an old and wounded man?"
+asked Miss Woodville.
+
+"You can hereafter," replied Dick quietly.  "I shall not come again,
+but I tell you now to get him out of the house to-night, unless he's too
+badly hurt to be moved."
+
+"Why should my father be taken away?" demanded Miss Woodville.
+
+"I'm not speaking of your father."
+
+"Of whom, then?"
+
+Dick did not answer, but he met her gaze steadily, and her face fell.
+Then he turned, walked out of the room without a word, and again closed
+the door behind him.  When he went out on the piazza he saw excitement
+among his comrades.  The moment for great action was coming even sooner
+than Colonel Winchester had expected.
+
+"Johnston is communicating with Pemberton," said Warner, "and he has
+ordered Pemberton to unite with him.  Then they will attack us.  He sent
+the same order by three messengers, but one of them was in reality a spy
+of ours, and he came straight to General Grant with it.  We're forewarned,
+and the trap can't shut down on us, because General Grant means to go at
+once for Pemberton."
+
+Dick understood the situation, which was both critical and thrilling.
+Grant was still in the heart of the Confederacy, and its forces were
+converging fast upon him.  But the grim and silent man, instead of merely
+trying to escape, intended to strike a blow that would make escape
+unnecessary.  All the young officers saw the plan and their hearts leaped.
+
+Dick, in the excitement of the day, forgot about the Woodville house and
+its inmates.  Troops were already marching out of Jackson to meet the
+enemy, but the Winchester regiment would not leave until early the next
+morning.  They were to spend a second night, or at least a part of it,
+in Colonel Woodville's house.
+
+It was the same group that ate supper there and the same army cook served
+them.  They did not go to the bedrooms afterward, but strolled about,
+belted, expecting to receive the marching call at any moment.
+
+Dick went into the library, where a single candle burned, and while
+he was there Miss Woodville appeared at the door and beckoned to him.
+She had abated her severity of manner so much that he was astonished,
+but he followed without a word.
+
+She saw that the hall was clear and then she led quickly into her
+father's room.  Colonel Woodville was propped up against the pillows,
+and there was color in his face.
+
+"Young man," he said, "come here.  You can afford to obey me, although
+I'm a prisoner, because I'm so much older than you are.  You have a heart
+and breeding, young sir, and I wish to shake your hand."
+
+He thrust a large hand from the cover, and Dick shook it warmly.
+
+"I wouldn't have shaken it if you had been born north of the Ohio River,"
+said Colonel Woodville.
+
+Dick laughed.
+
+"My chief purpose in having you brought here," said Colonel Woodville,
+"was to relate to you an incident, of which I heard once.  Did I read
+about it, or was it told to me, Margaret?"
+
+"I think, sir, that some one told you of it."
+
+"Ah, well, it doesn't matter.  A few words will tell it.  In an old,
+forgotten war a young soldier quartered in the house of his defeated
+enemy--but defeated only for the time, remember--saw something which made
+him believe that a wounded nephew of the house was hid in an upper room.
+But he was generous and he did not search further.  The second night,
+while the young officer and his comrades were at supper, the nephew,
+who was not hurt badly, was slipped out of the house and escaped from the
+city in the darkness.  It's not apropos of anything, and I don't know why
+I'm relating it to you, but I suppose this terrible war we are fighting
+is responsible for an old man's whim."
+
+"I've found it very interesting, sir," said Dick, "and I think it's
+relevant, because it shows that even in war men may remain Christian
+human beings."
+
+"Perhaps you're right, and I trust, young sir, that you will not be
+killed in this defeat to which you are surely marching."
+
+Dick bowed to both, and left them to their fears and hopes.  The glow was
+still about his heart when he rode forth with the Winchester regiment
+after midnight.  But, owing to the need of horses for the regular cavalry,
+it had become an infantry regiment once more.  Only the officers rode.
+
+At dawn they were with Grant approaching a ridge called Champion Hill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+CHAMPION HILL
+
+
+Dick on that momentous morning did not appreciate the full magnitude of
+the event about to occur, nor did he until long afterward.  He knew it
+was of high importance, and yet it might have ranked as one of the
+decisive battles of history.  There were no such numbers as at Shiloh
+and Chancellorsville, but the results were infinitely greater.
+
+Nor was it likely that such thoughts would float through the head of a
+lad who had ridden far, and who at dawn was looking for an enemy.
+
+The scouts had already brought word that the Southerners were in strong
+force, and that they occupied Champion Hill, the crest of which was bare,
+but with sides dark with forests and thickets.  They were riding at
+present through forests themselves, and they felt that their ignorance
+of the country might take them at any moment into an ambush.
+
+"We know what army we're going against, don't we?" asked Pennington.
+
+"Why, Pemberton's, of course," replied Dick.
+
+"I'm glad of that.  I'd rather fight him than Joe Johnston."
+
+"They've been trying to unite, but we hear they haven't succeeded."
+
+Pemberton, in truth, had been suffering from the most painful doubt.
+Having failed to do what Johnston had expected of him, he had got himself
+into a more dangerous position than ever.  Then, after listening to a
+divided council of his generals, he had undertaken a movement which
+brought him within striking distance of Grant, while Johnston was yet too
+far away to help him.
+
+Dick did not know how much fortune was favoring the daring that morning,
+but he and his comrades were sanguine.  They felt all the time the
+strong hand over them.  Like the soldiers, they had acquired the utmost
+confidence in Grant.  He might make mistakes, but he would not doubt and
+hesitate and draw back.  Where he led the enemy could not win anything
+without having to fight hard for it.
+
+The early summer dawn had deepened, bright and hot, and the sun was now
+clear of the trees, turning the green of the forests to gold.  Coffee and
+warm food were served to them during a momentary stop among the trees,
+and then the Winchester regiment moved forward again toward Champion Hill.
+
+Rifle shots were now heard ahead of them.  They were scattered, but the
+lads knew that the hostile skirmishers had come in contact.  Presently
+the reports increased and through the woods they saw puffs of smoke.
+Trumpets to right and left were calling up the brigades.
+
+"Open up for the guns!" cried an aide, and a battery lumbered through,
+the men swearing at their panting horses.  But the Southern cannon were
+already at work.  From the bare crest of Champion Hill they were sending
+shells which crashed in the ranks of the advancing foe.  Two or three
+of the Winchesters were hit, and a wounded horse, losing its rider, ran
+screaming through the wood.
+
+The forest and thickets now grew so dense that the officers dismounted,
+giving their horses to an orderly, and led on foot.  The country before
+them was most difficult.  Besides the trees and brush it was seared with
+ravines.  A swarm of skirmishers in front whom they could not see now
+poured bullets among them, and the shells, curving over the heads of the
+ambushed sharpshooters, fell in the Union ranks.  On either flank the
+battle opened and swelled rapidly.
+
+"We may have got Pemberton trapped," said Pennington, "but he's got so
+many bristles that we can't reach in a hand and pull out our captive.
+My God, Dick, are you killed?"
+
+He was pulling Dick to his feet and examining him anxiously.
+
+"I'm all right," said Dick in a moment.  "It was the wind of a big round
+shot that knocked me down.  Just now I'm thanking God it was the wind and
+not the shot."
+
+"I wish we could get through these thickets!" exclaimed Warner.  "Our
+comrades must be engaged much more heavily than we are.  What an uproar!"
+
+The combat swelled to great proportions.  The Southern army, being
+compelled to fight, fought now with all its might.  The crest of the long
+hill blazed with fire.  The men in gray used every advantage of position.
+Cannon and rifles raked the woods and thickets, and at many points the
+Union attack was driven back.  The sun rose slowly and they still held
+the hill, fighting with all the fire and valor characteristic of the
+South.  They were cheered at times by the expectation of victory, but the
+stubborn Grant brought up his remaining forces and continually pressed
+the battle.
+
+The Winchester regiment crossed a ravine and knelt among the thickets.
+Its losses had not yet been heavy, as most of the cannon fire was passing
+over their heads.  Grape and canister were whistling among the woods,
+and Dick was devoutly grateful that these deadly missiles were going so
+high.  Yet if they did not hurt they made one shiver, and it was not
+worth while to recall that when he heard the sound the shot had passed
+already.  One shivered anyhow.
+
+As well as Dick could judge from the volume of sound the battle seemed to
+be concentrated directly upon the hill.  He knew that Grant expected to
+make a general attack in full force, and he surmised that one of the
+commanders under him was not pushing forward with the expected zeal.
+His surmise was correct.  A general with fifteen thousand men was
+standing almost passive in front of a much smaller force, but other
+generals were showing great fire and energy.
+
+The Winchester regiment contained many excellent riflemen and they were
+so close now that they could use the weapons for which the Kentuckians
+were famous.  Firing deliberately, they began to cut gaps in the first
+ranks of the defenders on the slope.  Then they rose and with other
+regiments pushed forward again.
+
+But they came to a road in the side of the hill defended powerfully by
+infantry and artillery, and a heavy fire, killing and wounding many,
+was poured upon them.  They sought to cross the road and attack the
+defenders with the bayonet, but they were driven back and their losses
+were so heavy that they were compelled to take cover in the nearest
+thickets.
+
+The men, gasping with heat and exhaustion, threw themselves down, a sleet
+of shells and bullets passing over their heads.  Dick had a sense of
+failure, but it lasted only a moment or two.  From both left and right
+came the fierce crash of battle, and he knew that, if they had been
+driven back before the road, their comrades were maintaining the combat
+elsewhere.
+
+"It's merely a delay.  We pause to make a stronger attack," said Colonel
+Winchester, as if he were apologizing to himself.  "Are you all right,
+Dick?"
+
+"Unhurt, sir, and so are Warner and Pennington, who are lying here beside
+me."
+
+"Unhurt, but uneasy," said Warner.  "I don't like the way twigs and
+leaves are raining down on me.  It shows that if they were to depress
+their fire they would be shearing limbs off of us instead of boughs off
+the trees."
+
+The sun was high and brilliant now, but it could not dispel the clouds of
+smoke gathering in the thickets.  It floated everywhere, and Dick felt
+it stinging his mouth and throat.  Murmurs began to run along the lines.
+They did not like being held there.  They wanted to charge again.
+They were still confident of victory.
+
+Dick was sent toward another part of the army for orders, and he saw that
+all along the hill the battle was raging fiercely.  But Grant could not
+yet hear the roar of guns which should indicate the advance of McClernand
+and his fifteen thousand.  The silent leader was filled with anger,
+but he reserved the expression of it for a later time.
+
+Dick saw the fiery and impetuous Logan, noticeable for his long
+coal-black hair, lead a headlong and successful charge, which carried the
+Union troops higher up the hill.  But another general was driven back,
+losing cannon, although he retook them in a second and desperate charge.
+Still no news from McClernand and his fifteen thousand!  There was
+silence where his guns ought to have been thundering, and Grant burned
+with silent anger.
+
+It was noon, and a half-hour past.  The Union plans, made with so much
+care and judgment, and the movements begun with so much skill and daring
+seemed to be going awry.  Yet Grant with the tenacity, rather than
+lightning intuition, that made him a great general, held on.  His
+lieutenants clung to their ground and prepared anew for attack.
+
+Dick hurried back to his own regiment, which was still lying in the
+thickets, bearing an order for its advance in full strength.  Colonel
+Winchester, who was standing erect, walking among his men and encouraging
+them, received it with joy.  Word was speedily passed to all that the
+time to win or lose had come.  Above the cannon and rifles the music of
+the calling trumpets sounded.  The fire of both sides suddenly doubled
+and tripled in volume.
+
+"Now, boys," shouted Colonel Winchester, waving his sword, "up the hill
+and beat 'em!"
+
+Uttering a deep-throated roar the Winchesters rushed forward, firing
+as they charged.  Dick was carried on the top wave of enthusiasm.  He
+discharged his pistol into the bank of fire and smoke in front of them
+and shouted incessantly.  He heard the bullets and every form of missile
+from the cannon whining all about them.  Leaves and twigs fell upon him.
+Many men went down under the deadly fire, but the rush of the regiment
+was not checked for an instant.
+
+They passed out of the thicket, swept across the road, and drove the
+defenders up the hill.  Along the whole line the Union army, fired with
+the prospect of success, rushed to the attack.  Grant threw every man
+possible into the charge.
+
+The Southern army was borne back by the weight of its enemy.  All of
+the front lines were driven in and the divisions were cut apart.  There
+was lack of coordination among the generals, who were often unable to
+communicate with one another, and Pemberton gave the order to retreat.
+The battle was lost to the South, and with it the chance to crush Grant
+between two forces.
+
+The Union army uttered a great shout of victory, and Grant urged forward
+the pursuit.  Bowen, one of the South's bravest generals, was the last to
+give way.  The Winchester regiment was a part of the force that followed
+him, both fighting hard.  Dick found himself with his comrades, wading a
+creek, and they plunged into the woods and thickets which blazed with the
+fire of South and North.  A Confederate general was killed here, but the
+brave Bowen still kept his division in order, and made the pursuit pay a
+heavy cost for all its gain.
+
+Dick saw besides the Confederate column many irregulars in the woods,
+skilled sharpshooters, who began to sting them on the flank and bring
+down many a good soldier.  He caught a glimpse of a man who was urging on
+the riflemen and who seemed to be their leader.  He recognized Slade, and,
+without a moment's hesitation, fired at him with his pistol.  But the man
+was unhurt and Slade's return bullet clipped a lock of Dick's hair.
+
+Then they lost each other in the smoke and turmoil of the battle, and,
+despite the energy of the pursuit by the Union leaders, they could not
+break up the command of Bowen.  The valiant Southerner not only made good
+his retreat, but broke down behind him the bridge over a deep river,
+thus saving for a time the fragments of Pemberton's army.
+
+The Winchester regiment marched back to the battlefield, and Dick saw
+that the victory had been overwhelming.  Nearly a third of the Southern
+army had been lost and thirty cannon were the trophies of Grant.  Yet the
+fighting had been desperate.  The dead and wounded were so numerous that
+the veteran soldiers who had been at Shiloh and Stone River called it
+"The Hill of Death."
+
+Dick saw Grant walking over the field and he wondered what his feelings
+were.  Although its full result was beyond him he knew, nevertheless,
+that Champion Hill was a great victory.  At one stroke of his sword Grant
+had cut apart the circle of his foes.
+
+Dick came back from the pursuit with Colonel Winchester.  He had lost
+sight of Warner and Pennington in the turmoil, but he believed that they
+would reappear unhurt.  They had passed through so many battles now that
+it did not occur to him that any of the three would be killed.  They
+might be wounded, of course, as they had been already, but fate would
+play them no such scurvy trick as to slay them.
+
+"What will be the next step, Colonel?" asked Dick, as they stood together
+upon the victorious hill.
+
+"Depends upon what Johnston and Pemberton do.  Pemberton, I'm sure,
+will retreat to Vicksburg, but Johnston, if he can prevent it, won't let
+his army be shut up there.  Still, they may not be able to communicate,
+and if they should Pemberton may disobey the far abler Johnston and stay
+in Vicksburg anyhow.  At any rate, I think we're sure to march at once
+on Vicksburg."
+
+A figure approaching in the dusk greeted Dick with a shout of delight.
+Another just behind repeated the shout with equal fervor.  Warner and
+Pennington had come, unharmed as he had expected, and they were exultant
+over the victory.
+
+"Come over here," said Warner to Dick.  "Sergeant Whitley has cooked a
+glorious supper and we're waiting for you."
+
+Dick joined them eagerly, and the sergeant received them with his
+benevolent smile.  They were commissioned officers, and he gave them all
+the respect due to rank, but in his mind they were only his boys, whom
+he must watch and protect.
+
+While the fires sprang up about them and they ate and talked of the
+victory, Washington was knowing its darkest moments.  Lee had already
+been marching thirteen days toward Gettysburg, and he seemed unbeatable.
+Grant, who had won for the North about all the real success of which it
+could yet boast, was lost somewhere in the Southern wilderness.  The
+messages seeking him ran to the end of the telegraph wires and no answer
+came back.  The click of the key could not reach him.  Many a spirit,
+bold at most times, despaired of the Union.
+
+But the old and hackneyed saying about the darkest hour just before the
+dawn was never more true.  The flame of success was already lighted in
+the far South, and Lincoln was soon to receive the message, telling him
+that Grant had not disappeared in the wilderness for nothing.  Thereafter
+he was to trust the silent and tenacious general through everything.
+
+They were up and away at dawn.  Dick was glad enough to leave the hill,
+on which many of the dead yet lay unburied, and he was eager for the new
+field of conflict, which he was sure would be before Vicksburg.  Warner
+and Pennington were as sanguine as he.  Grant was now inspiring in them
+the confidence that Lee and Jackson inspired in their young officers.
+
+"How big is this city of Vicksburg?" asked Pennington.
+
+"Not big at all," replied Warner.  "There are no big cities in the South
+except New Orleans, but it's big as a fortress.  It's surrounded by
+earthworks, Frank, from which the Johnnies can pot you any time."
+
+"Well, at any rate, I'll be glad to see it--from a safe distance.
+I wouldn't mind sitting down before a town.  There's too much wet country
+around here to suit me."
+
+"It's likely that you'll have a chance to sit for a long time.  We won't
+take Vicksburg easily."
+
+But the time for sitting down had not yet come.  The confidence of the
+soldiers in their leader was justified continually.  He advanced rapidly
+toward Vicksburg, and in pursuit of Pemberton's defeated men.  The
+victory at Champion Hill had been so complete that the Southern army was
+broken into detached fragments, and the Southern generals were now having
+the greatest difficulty in getting them together again.
+
+Grant, with his loyal subordinate, Sherman, continued to push upon the
+enemy with the greatest vigor.  Sherman had not believed in the success
+of the campaign, had even filed his written protest, but when Grant
+insisted he had cooperated with skill and energy.  He and Grant stood
+together on a hill looking toward the future field of conflict, and he
+told Grant now that he expected continued success.
+
+It was the fortune of the young officers of the Winchester regiment
+sitting near on their horses to see the two generals who were in such
+earnest consultation, and who examined the whole circle of the country
+so long and so carefully through powerful glasses.
+
+The effects of the victory deep in the South were growing hourly in
+Dick's mind, and the two figures standing there on the hill were full of
+significance to him.  He had a premonition that they were the men more
+than any others who would achieve the success of the Union, if it were
+achieved at all.  They had dismounted and stood side by side, the figure
+of Grant short, thick and sturdy, that of Sherman, taller and more
+slender.  They spoke only at intervals, and few words then, but nothing
+in the country about them escaped their attention.
+
+Dick had glasses of his own, and he, too, began to look.  He saw a region
+much wooded and cut by deep streams.  Before them lay the sluggish waters
+of Chickasaw Bayou, where Sherman had sustained a severe defeat at an
+earlier time, and farther away flowed the deep, muddy Yazoo.
+
+"See the smoke, George, rising above that line of trees along the river?"
+said Dick.
+
+"Yes, Dick," replied Warner, "and I notice that the smoke rises in puffs."
+
+"It has a right to go up that way, because it's expelled violently from
+the smoke-stacks of steamers.  And those steamers are ours, George,
+our warships.  Our navy in this war hasn't much chance to do the
+spectacular, but we can never give it enough credit."
+
+"That's right, Dick.  It keeps the enemy surrounded and cuts off his
+supplies, while our army fights him on land.  Whatever happens the waters
+are ours."
+
+"And the Mississippi has become a Union river, splitting apart the
+Confederacy."
+
+"Right you are, Dick, and we're already in touch with our fleet there.
+The boats do more than fight for us.  They're unloading supplies in vast
+quantities from Chickasaw Bayou.  We'll have good food, blankets, tents
+to shelter us from the rain, and unlimited ammunition to batter the
+enemy's works."
+
+The investment of Vicksburg had been so rapid and complete that Johnston,
+the man whom Grant had the most cause to fear, could not unite with
+Pemberton, and he had retired toward Jackson, hoping to form a new army.
+Only three days after Champion Hill Grant had drawn his semicircle of
+steel around Vicksburg and its thirty thousand men, and the navy in the
+rivers completed the dead line.
+
+Dick rode with Colonel Winchester and took the best view they could get
+of Vicksburg, the little city which had suddenly become of such vast
+military importance.
+
+Now and then on the long, lower course of the Mississippi, bluffs rise,
+although at far intervals.  Memphis stands on one group and hundreds of
+miles south Vicksburg stands on another.  The Vicksburg plateau runs
+southward to the Big Bayou, which curves around them on the south and
+east, and the eastern slope of the uplift has been cut and gulleyed by
+many torrents.  So strong has been the effect of the rushing water upon
+the soft soil that these cuts have become deep winding ravines, often
+with perpendicular banks.  One of the ravines is ten miles long.  Another
+cuts the plateau itself for six miles, and a permanent stream flows
+through it.
+
+The colonel and Dick saw everywhere rivers, brooks, bayous, hills,
+marshes and thickets, the whole turned by the Southern engineers into
+a vast and most difficult line of intrenchments.  Grant now had forty
+thousand men for the attack or siege, but he and his generals did not yet
+know that most of the scattered Confederate army had gathered together
+again, and was inside.  They believed that Vicksburg was held by fifteen
+thousand men at the utmost.
+
+"What do you think of it, Colonel?" asked Dick, as they sat horseback on
+one of the highest hills.
+
+"It will be hard to take, despite the help of the navy.  Did you ever see
+another country cut up so much by nature and offering such natural help
+to defenders?"
+
+"I've heard a lot of Vicksburg.  I remember, Colonel, that, despite its
+smallness, it is one of the great river towns of the South."
+
+"So it is, Dick.  I was here once, when I was a boy before the Mexican
+war.  Down on the bar, the low place between the bluffs and the river,
+was the dueling ground, and it was also the place for sudden fights.
+It and Natchez, I suppose, were rivals for the wild and violent life of
+the great river."
+
+"Well, sir, it has a bigger fight on its hands now than was ever dreamed
+of by any of those men."
+
+"I think you're right, Dick, but the general means to attack at once.
+We may carry it by storm."
+
+Dick looked again at the vast entanglement of creeks, bayous, ravines,
+forests and thickets.  Like other young officers, he had his opinion,
+but he had the good sense to keep it to himself.  He and the colonel
+rejoined the regiment, and presently the trumpets were calling again for
+battle.  The men of Champion Hill, sanguine of success, marched straight
+upon Vicksburg.  All the officers of the Winchester regiment were
+dismounted, as their portion of the line was too difficult for horses.
+
+Their advance, as at Champion Hill, was over ground wooded heavily and
+they soon heard the reports of the rifles before them.  Bullets began
+to cut the leaves and twigs, carrying away the bushes, scarring the
+trees and now and then taking human life.  The Winchester men fired
+whenever they saw an enemy, and with them it was largely an affair of
+sharpshooters, but on both left and right the battle rolled more heavily.
+The Southerners, behind their powerful fortifications at the heads of the
+ravines and on the plateau, beat back every attack.
+
+Before long the trumpets sounded the recall and the short battle ceased.
+Grant had discovered that he could not carry Vicksburg by a sudden rush
+and he recoiled for a greater effort.  He discovered, too, from the
+resistance and the news brought later by his scouts that an army almost
+as numerous as his own was in the town.
+
+The Winchester regiment made camp on a solid, dry piece of ground beyond
+the range of the Southern works, and the men, veterans now, prepared for
+their comfort.  The comrades ate supper to the slow booming of great guns,
+where the advanced cannon of either side engaged in desultory duel.
+
+The distant reports did not disturb Dick.  They were rather soothing.
+He was glad enough to rest after so much exertion and so much danger and
+excitement.
+
+"I feel as if I were an empty shell," he said, "and I've got to wait
+until nature comes along and fills up the shell again with a human being."
+
+"In my school in Vermont," said Warner, "they'd call that a considerable
+abuse of metaphor, but all metaphors are fair in war.  Besides, it's just
+the way I feel, too.  Do you think, Dick, we'll settle down to a regular
+siege?"
+
+"Knowing General Grant as we do, not from what he tells us, since he
+hasn't taken Pennington and you and me into his confidence as he ought to,
+but from our observation of his works, I should say that he would soon
+attack again in full force."
+
+"I agree with you, Knight of the Penetrating Mind, but meanwhile I'm
+going to enjoy myself."
+
+"What do you mean, George?"
+
+"A mail has come through by means of the river, and my good father and
+mother--God bless 'em--have sent me what they knew I would value most,
+something which is at once an intellectual exercise, an entertainment,
+and a consolation in bereavement."
+
+Dick and Pennington sat up.  Warner's words were earnest and portentous.
+Besides, they were very long, which indicated that he was not jesting.
+
+"Go ahead, George.  Show us what it is!" said Dick eagerly.
+
+Warner drew from the inside pocket of his waist coat a worn volume which
+he handled lovingly.
+
+"This," he said, "is the algebra, with which I won the highest honors in
+our academy.  I have missed it many and many a time since I came into
+this war.  It is filled with the most beautiful problems, Dick, questions
+which will take many a good man a whole night to solve.  When I think of
+the joyous hours I've spent over it some of the tenderest chords in my
+nature are touched."
+
+Pennington uttered a deep groan and buried his face in the grass.
+Then he raised it again and said mournfully:
+
+"Let's make a solemn agreement, Dick, to watch over our poor comrade.
+I always knew that something was wrong with his mind, although he means
+well, and his heart is in the right place.  As for me, as soon as I
+finished my algebra I sold it, and took a solemn oath never to look
+inside one again.  That I call the finest proof of sanity anybody could
+give.  Oh, look at him, Dick!  He's studying his blessed algebra and
+doesn't hear a word I say!"
+
+Warner was buried deep in the pages of a plus b and x minus y, and Dick
+and Pennington, rising solemnly, walked noiselessly from the presence
+around to the other side of the little opening where they lay down again.
+The bit of nonsense relieved them, but it was far from being nonsense to
+Warner.  His soul was alight.  As he dived into the intricate problems
+memories came with them.  Lying there in the Southern thickets in the
+close damp heat of summer he saw again his Vermont mountains with their
+slopes deep in green and their crests covered with snow.  The sharp air
+of the northern winter blew down upon him, and he saw the clear waters of
+the little rivers, cold as ice, foaming over the stones.  That air was
+sharp and vital, but, after a while, he came back to himself and closed
+his book with a sigh.
+
+"Pardon me for inattention, boys," he said, "but while I was enjoying
+my algebra I was also thinking of old times back there in Vermont, when
+nobody was shooting at anybody else."
+
+Dick and Pennington walked solemnly back and sat down beside him again.
+
+"Returned to his right mind.  Quite sane now," said Pennington.  "But
+don't you think, Dick, we ought to take that exciting book away from him?
+The mind of youth in its tender formative state can be inflamed easily by
+light literature."
+
+Warner smiled and put his beloved book in his pocket.
+
+"No, boys," he said, "you won't take it away from me, but as soon as this
+war is over I shall advance from it to studies of a somewhat similar
+nature, but much higher in character, and so difficult that solving them
+will afford a pleasure keener and more penetrating than anything else I
+know."
+
+"What is your greatest ambition, Warner?" asked Pennington.  "Do you,
+like all the rest of us, want to be President of the United States?"
+
+"Not for a moment.  I've already been in training several years to be
+president of Harvard University.  What higher place could mortal ask?
+None, because there is none to ask for."
+
+"I can understand you, George," said Dick.  "My great-grandfather became
+the finest scholar ever known in the West.  There was something of the
+poet in him too.  He had a wonderful feeling for nature and the forest.
+He had a remarkable chance for observation as he grew up on the border,
+and was the close comrade in the long years of Indian fighting of Henry
+Ware, who was the greatest governor of Kentucky.  As I think I've told
+you fellows, Harry Kenton, Governor Ware's great-grandson and my comrade,
+is fighting on the other side."
+
+"I knew of the great Dr. Cotter long before I met you, Dick," replied
+Warner.  "I read his book on the Indians of the Northern Mississippi
+Valley.  Not merely their history and habits, but their legends, their
+folk lore, and the wonderful poetic glow so rich and fine that he threw
+over everything.  There was something almost Homeric in his description
+of the great young Wyandot chieftain Timmendiquas or White Lightning,
+whom he acclaimed as the finest type of savage man the age had known."
+
+"He and Henry Ware fought Timmendiquas for years, and after the great
+peace they were friends throughout their long lives."
+
+"And I've studied, too, his wonderful book on the Birds and Mammals
+of North America," continued Warner with growing enthusiasm.  "What
+marvelous stores of observation and memory!  Ah, Dick, those were
+exciting days, and a man had opportunities for real and vital
+experiences!"
+
+Dick and Pennington laughed.
+
+"What about Vicksburg, old praiser of past times?" asked Frank.  "Don't
+you think we'll have some lively experiences trying to take it?  And
+wasn't there something real and vital about Bull Run and Shiloh and
+Perryville and Stone River and all the rest?  Don't you worry, George.
+You're living in exciting times yourself."
+
+"That's so," said Warner calmly.  "I had forgotten it for the moment.
+We've been readers of history and now we're makers of it.  It's funny--
+and maybe it isn't funny--but the makers of history often know little
+about what they're making.  The people who come along long afterward put
+them in their places and size up what they have done."
+
+"They can give all the reasons they please why I won this war," said
+Pennington, "but even history-makers are entitled to a rest.  Since
+there's no order to the contrary I mean to stretch out and go to sleep.
+Dick, you and George can discuss your problems all night."
+
+But they went to sleep also.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE OPEN DOOR
+
+
+"Dick," said Colonel Winchester the next morning, "I think you are the
+best scout and trailer among my young officers.  Mr. Pennington, you are
+probably the best on the plains, and I've no doubt, Warner, that you
+would do well in the mountains, but for the hills, forests and rivers
+I'll have to choose Dick.  I've another errand for you, my boy.  You're
+to go on foot, and you're to take this dispatch to Admiral Porter,
+who commands the iron-clads in the river near the city.  Conceal it
+carefully about you, but I anticipate no great danger for you, as
+Vicksburg is pretty well surrounded by our forces."
+
+The dispatch was written on thin, oiled paper.  Dick hid it away in the
+lining of his coat and departed upon another important mission, full of
+pride that he should be chosen for it.  He had all the passwords and
+carried two good pistols in his belt.  Rich in experience, he felt able
+to care for himself, even should the peril be greater than Colonel
+Winchester had expected.
+
+The sun was not far above the horizon but it was warm and brilliant,
+and it lighted up the earth, throwing a golden glow over the plateau of
+Vicksburg, the great maze of ravines and thickets and the many waters.
+
+He passed along the lines, walking rapidly southward, and saw more than
+one officer of his acquaintance.  Hertford's cavalry were in a field,
+and the colonel himself sat on a portion of the rail fence that had
+enclosed it.  He hailed the lad pleasantly.
+
+"Into the forest again, Dick," he said.
+
+"Not this time, sir," Dick replied.  "It's just a little trip, down the
+river."
+
+"Success to the trip and a speedy return."
+
+Dick nodded and walked on.  He was quite sure that his dispatch was an
+order from Grant for Porter to come up the stream and join in a general
+attack which everybody felt sure was planned for an early date.
+
+As he passed through the regiments and brigades he received much
+good-humored chaff.  The great war of America differed widely from the
+great wars of Europe.  The officers and men were more nearly on a plane
+of equality.  The vast majority of them had been volunteers in the
+beginning and perhaps this feeling of comradeship made them fight all
+the better.  North and South were alike in it.
+
+"Which way, sonny?" called a voice from a group.  "You don't find the
+fighting down there.  It's back toward Vicksburg."
+
+Dick nodded and smiled.
+
+"Maybe he's out walking for exercise.  These officers ride too much."
+
+Dick walked on with a steady swinging step.  He regarded the sunbrowned,
+careless youths with the genuine affection of a brother.  Many of them
+were as young as he or younger, but they were now veterans of battle and
+march.  Napoleon's soldiers themselves could not have boasted of more
+experience than they.
+
+He was coming to the last link in the steel chain, and the colonel of a
+regiment, an old man, warned him to be careful as he approached the river.
+
+"Southern sharpshooters are among the ravines and thickets," he said.
+"They fired on our lads about dawn and then escaped easily in the thick
+cover."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Dick, "I'll be on my guard."  Yet he did not feel
+the presence of danger.  Youth perhaps becomes more easily hardened in
+war than middle age, or perhaps it thinks less of consequences.  The
+Union cannon, many of great weight and power, had begun already to
+fire upon Vicksburg.  Huge shells and shot were rained upon the city.
+Pemberton had two hundred guns facing the river and the army, but to
+spare his ammunition they made little reply.
+
+Dick looked back now and then.  He saw flakes of fire on the northern
+horizon, puffs of smoke and the curving shells.  He felt that Vicksburg
+was no pleasant place to be in just now, and yet it must be full of
+civilians, many of them women and children.  He was sorry for them.
+It was Dick's nature to see both sides of a quarrel.  He could never
+hate the Southerners, because they saw one way and he another.
+
+It was a passing emotion.  It was too fine a morning for youth to grieve.
+At the distance the plumes of smoke made by the shells became decorative
+rather than deadly.  From a crest he saw upon the plateau of Vicksburg
+and even discerned the dim outline of houses.  Looking the other way,
+he saw the smoke of the iron-clads down the river, and he also caught
+glimpses of the Mississippi, gold in the morning sun over its vast
+breadth.
+
+Then he entered the thickets, and, bearing in mind the kindly warning
+of the old colonel, proceeded slowly and with extreme caution.  The
+Southerners knew every inch of the ground here and he knew none.  He
+came to a ravine and to his dismay found that a considerable stream was
+flowing through it toward the bayou.  It was yellow water, and he thought
+he might find a tree, fallen across the stream, which would serve him as
+a foot log, but a hunt of a few minutes disclosed none, and, hesitating
+no longer, he prepared to wade.
+
+He put his belt with the pistols in it around his neck and stepped in
+boldly.  His feet sank in the mud.  The water rose to his knees and then
+to his waist.  It was, in truth, deeper than he had expected--one could
+never tell about these yellow, opaque streams.  He took another step and
+plunged into a hole up to his shoulders.
+
+Angry that he should be wet through and through, and with such muddy
+water too, he crossed the stream.
+
+He looked down with dismay at his uniform.  The sun would soon dry it,
+but until he got a chance to clean it, it would remain discolored and
+yellow, like the jeans clothes which the poorer farmers of the South
+often wore.  And yet the accident that he bemoaned, the bath in water
+thick with mud, was to prove his salvation.
+
+Dick shook himself like a big dog, throwing off as much of the water as
+he could.  He had kept his pistols dry and he rebuckled his belt around
+his waist.  Then he returned to his errand.  Among the thickets he saw
+but little.  Vicksburg, the Mississippi, and the Union camp disappeared.
+He beheld only a soft soil, many bushes and scrub forest.  After going
+a little distance he was compelled to stop again and consider.  It was
+curious how one could lose direction in so small a space.
+
+He paused and listened, intending to regain his course through the sense
+of hearing.  From the north and east came the thunder of the siege guns.
+It had grown heavier and was continuous now.  Once more he was sorry for
+Vicksburg, because the Union gunners were unsurpassed and he was sure
+that bombs and shells were raining upon the devoted town.
+
+Now he knew that he must go west by south, and he made his way over
+difficult country, crossing ravines, climbing hills, and picking his
+path now and then through soft ground, the most exhausting labor of all.
+The sun poured down upon him and his uniform dried fast.  He had just
+crossed one of the ravines and was climbing into the thicket beyond when
+a voice asked:
+
+"See any of the Yanks in front?"
+
+Dick's heart stood still, and then all his presence of mind came back.
+Not in vain had the kindly colonel warned him of the Southern
+sharpshooters in the bush.
+
+"No," he replied.  "They seem to be farther up.  One of our fellows told
+me he saw a whole regiment of them off there to the right."
+
+He plunged deeper into the bush and walked on as if he were among his own
+comrades.  He realized that his faded uniform with its dye of yellow mud
+had caused him to be mistaken for one of Pemberton's men.  His accent,
+which was Kentuckian and therefore Southern, had helped him also.
+He passed three or four other men, bent over, rifle in hand and watching,
+and he nodded to them familiarly.  In such a crisis he knew that boldness
+and ease were his best cards, and he said to one of the men, with a laugh:
+
+"You'll have to tell us Tennesseeans about all your bayous and creeks.
+I've just fallen into one that had no right to be there."
+
+"You Tennesseeans need a bath anyhow," replied the man, chuckling.
+
+"We'd never choose a Mississippi stream for it," said Dick in the same
+vein, and passed on leaving the rifleman in high good humor.  How
+wonderfully these Southerners were like the Northerners!  He noticed
+presently a half-dozen other sharpshooters in the Confederate butternut,
+prowling among the bushes, and through an opening he saw his own people
+to the west, but too far away to be reached by anything but artillery.
+The slow, deep music of the Northern guns came steadily to his ear,
+but their fire was always turned toward Vicksburg.
+
+Dick knew that his position was extremely critical.  Perhaps it was
+growing more so all the while, but he was never cooler.  A quiet lad,
+he always rose wonderfully to an emergency.  He was quite sure that he
+was among Mississippi troops, and they could not possibly know all the
+soldiers from the other states gathered for the defense of Vicksburg.
+He did not differ from those around him in any respect, except that he
+did not carry a rifle.
+
+He paused and looked back thoughtfully at the distant Union troops.
+
+"Can you tell me how they're posted?" he said to a tall, thin middle-aged
+man who had a chew of tobacco in his cheek.  "I carry dispatches to
+General Pemberton, and the more information I can give him the better."
+
+"Yes, I kin tell you," replied the man, somewhat flattered.  "They're
+posted everywhere.  What, with their army and them boats of theirs in the
+river, they've got a high fence around us, all staked and ridered."
+
+"It doesn't take any more work to tear a fence down than it does to build
+it up."
+
+"I reckon you're right thar, stranger.  But was you at Champion Hill?"
+
+"No, I missed that."
+
+"Then it was a good thing for you that you did.  I didn't set much store
+by the Yanks when this war began.  One good Southerner could whip five of
+'em any time, our rip-roarin', fire-eatin' speech-makers said.  I knowed
+then, too, that they was right, but I was up thar in Kentucky a while,
+an' after Donelson I reckoned that four was about as many as I wanted to
+tackle all to oncet.  Then thar was Shiloh, an' I kinder had a thought
+that if three of 'em jumped on me at one time I'd hev my hands purty full
+to lick 'em.  Then come Corinth, an,' reasonin' with myself, I said I
+wouldn't take on more'n two Yanks at the same time.  An' now, since I've
+been at Champion Hill, I know that the Yank is a pow'ful good fighter,
+an' I reckon one to one jest about suits me, an' even then I'd like to
+have a leetle advantage in the draw."
+
+"I feel that way about it, too.  The Yankees are going to make a heap of
+trouble for us here.  But I must be going.  What's the best path into
+Vicksburg?"
+
+"See that little openin' in the bushes.  Follow it.  Jest over the hill
+you'll run into a passel of our fellers, but pay no 'tention to 'em.
+If they ask you who you are an' whar you're boun' tell 'em to go straight
+to blazes, while you go to Vicksburg."
+
+"Thank you," said Dick, "I like to meet an obliging and polite man like
+you.  It helps even in war."
+
+"Don't mention it.  When I wuz a little shaver my ma told me always
+to mind my manners, an' when I didn't she whaled the life out of me.
+An', do you know, stranger, she's just a leetle, withered old woman,
+but if she could 'pear here right now I'd be willin' to set down right
+in these bushes an' say, 'Ma, take up that stick over thar an' beat me
+across the shoulders an' back with it as hard as you kin.'  I'd feel
+good all over."
+
+"I believe you," said Dick, who thought of his own mother.
+
+He followed the indicated path until he was out of sight of everybody,
+and then he plunged into the bushes and marsh toward the river.  When he
+was well hidden he stopped and considered.
+
+It was quite evident that he had wandered from the right road, but it was
+no easy task to get back into it.  There was an unconscious Confederate
+cordon about him and he must pass through it somewhere.  He moved farther
+toward the river, but only went deeper into the swamp.
+
+He turned to the south and soon reached firm ground, but he heard
+Confederate pickets talking in front of him.  Then he caught glimpses of
+two or three men watching among the trees, and he lay down in a clump of
+bushes.  He might pass them as he had passed the others, but he thought
+it wiser not to take the risk.
+
+He was willing also to rest a little, as he had done a lot of hard
+walking.  His clothing was now dry, and the mud had dried upon it.
+
+He turned aside into one of the deep ravines and then into a smaller one
+leading from it.  The bushes were dense there and he lay down among them,
+so completely hidden that he was invisible ten feet away.  Here he still
+heard the mutter of the guns, which came in a long, droning sound,
+and occasionally a rifle cracked at some point closer by.  The Union army
+was still busy and he felt a few moments of despondency.  His dispatch
+undoubtedly was of great importance, and yet he was not able to deliver
+it.  It was highly probable that for precaution's sake other messengers
+bore the same dispatch, but he was anxious to arrive with his
+nevertheless, and he wanted, too, to arrive first.  The last now seemed
+impossible and the first improbable.
+
+The crackling fire came nearer.  Owing to the lack of percussion caps,
+Pemberton had ordered his men to use their rifles sparingly, but
+evidently a considerable body of sharpshooters near Dick were attempting
+a flanking movement of some kind, and meant to carry it out with bullets.
+He was impatient to see, but prudence kept him in his covert, a prudence
+that was soon justified, as presently he heard voices very near him and
+then the sound of footsteps.
+
+He rose up a little and saw several hundred Confederate soldiers passing
+on the slopes not more than a hundred yards away.  They went south of him,
+and he recognized with growing alarm that the wall across his way was
+growing higher.  When they were gone and he could no longer hear their
+tread among the bushes he slipped from his hiding place and went directly
+toward Vicksburg.  Being within an iron ring he thought that perhaps he
+would be safer somewhere near the center.  He might make his way without
+much trouble through the vast confused crowd in Vicksburg, and then in
+the night go down the river's edge and to the fleet.
+
+It was a daring idea, so very daring that it appealed to the strain of
+high adventure in the lad.  He was encouraged, too, by his earlier and
+easy success in passing among the Confederate soldiers.  But in order not
+to appear reckless and to satisfy his own conscience he tried once more
+for the way to the south.  But the soldiers entirely barred the path
+there, and, being on some duty that required extreme vigilance, they were
+likely to prove exacting.
+
+He advanced with a clear mind toward Vicksburg, picking his way among the
+forests and ravines, but, after long walking over most difficult ground,
+he saw before him extensive earthworks thronged with Southern troops.
+When he turned westward the result was the same, and then it became
+evident that there was no flaw in the iron ring.  He could not go through
+to Porter, he could not go back to his own army, but Vicksburg invited
+him as a guest.
+
+He would make the trial at night.  It was a long wait, but he dared not
+risk it by day, and, going back into one of the ravines, he sought a
+secluded and sheltered place.  Threshing the bushes to drive away
+possible snakes, he crawled into a clump and lay there.  Resolved to be
+patient in spite of everything, he did not stir, but listened to the far
+throbbing of the cannon which poured an incessant storm of missiles upon
+unhappy Vicksburg.
+
+The warmth and the heavy air in the ravine were relaxing.  His brain grew
+so dull and heavy that he fell asleep, and when he awoke the twilight was
+coming.  And yet he had lost nothing.  He had gained rather.  The time
+had passed.  His body had been strengthened and his nerves steadied while
+he slept.
+
+The distant booming of the guns still came.  He had expected it.  That
+was Grant.  He had wrapped the coil of steel around Vicksburg and he
+would never relax.  Dick felt that there was no hope for the town,
+unless Johnston outside could gather a powerful army and fight Grant on
+even terms.  But he considered it impossible, and there, too, was the
+great artery of the river along which flowed men and supplies of every
+kind for the Union.
+
+The Southern twilight turned swiftly into night and, coming from his lair,
+Dick walked boldly toward the town.  He had eaten nothing since morning,
+but he had not noticed it, until this moment, when he began to feel a
+little faintness.  He resolved that Vicksburg should supply him.  It was
+curious how much help he expected of Vicksburg, a hostile town.
+
+He saw lights soon both to right and to left and he strengthened his
+soul.  He knew that he must be calm, but alert and quick with the right
+answer.  With his singular capacity for meeting a crisis he advanced into
+the thick of danger with a smiling face, even as his great ancestor,
+Paul Cotter, had often done.
+
+His calm was of short duration.  There was a rushing sound, something
+struck violently, and a tremendous explosion followed.  Fire flashed
+before Dick's eyes, pieces of red hot metal whistled past his head,
+earth spattered him and he was thrown to the ground.
+
+He sprang up again, understanding all instantly.  A shell from his own
+army had burst near him, and he had been thrown down by the concussion.
+But he had not been hurt, and in a few seconds his pulse beat steadily.
+
+He heard a shout of laughter as he stood, brushing the fresh dirt from
+his clothing.  He glanced up in some anger, but he saw at once that the
+arrival of the shell had been most fortunate for his plan.  To come near
+annihilation by a Federal gun certainly invested him with a Confederate
+character.
+
+It was a group of young soldiers who were laughing and their amusement
+was entirely good-natured.  They would have laughed the same way had the
+harmless adventure befallen one of their own number.  Dick judged that
+they were from the Southwest.
+
+"Close call," he said, smiling that attractive smile, which was visible
+even in the twilight.
+
+"It was a friendly shell," said one of the youths, "and it concluded
+not to come too close to you.  These Yankee shells are so loving that
+sometimes they spray themselves in little pieces all over a fellow,
+like a shower of rice over a bride at a wedding."
+
+"How long do you think the Yankees will keep it up?" asked Dick, putting
+indignation in his tone.  "Haven't they any respect for the night?"
+
+"Not a bit.  That fellow Grant is a pounder.  They say he'll blow away
+the whole plateau of Vicksburg if we don't drive him off."
+
+"Well, we'll do it.  You wait till old Joe Johnston comes up.  Then we'll
+shut him between the jaws of a vise and squeeze the life out of him."
+
+"Hope so.  Where've you been?"
+
+"Down below the town.  I'm coming back with messages."
+
+"So long.  Good luck.  Keep straight ahead, and you'll find all the
+generals you want."
+
+The lights increased and he went into a small tavern, where he bought
+food and a cup of coffee, paying in gold.  The tavern keeper asked no
+questions, but his eyes gleamed at sight of the yellow coin.
+
+"Mighty little of this comes my way now," he said frankly, "and our
+own money is worth less and less every day.  If things keep on the way
+they're headed it'll take a bale of it as big as a bale of cotton to pay
+for one good, square meal."
+
+Dick laughed.
+
+"Not so bad as that," he said.  "You wait until we've given Grant a big
+thrashing and have cleared their boats out of the river.  Then you'll see
+our money becoming real."
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+"Seein' will be believin'," he said, "an' as I ain't seein' I ain't
+believin'."
+
+Dick with a friendly good night went out.  Grant, the persistent, was
+still at work.  His cannon flared on the dark horizon and the shells
+crashed in Vicksburg.  Scarcely any portion of the town was safe.
+Now and then a house was smashed in and often the shells found victims.
+
+The town was full of terror and confusion.  Many of the rich planters
+had come there with their families for refuge.  Women and children hid
+from the terrible fire, and the civilians already had begun to burrow.
+Caves had been dug deep into the sides of the ravines and hundreds found
+in them a rude but safe shelter.
+
+Dick now found that his plans were going wrong.  He could wander about
+almost at will and to any one to whom he spoke he still claimed to be a
+Tennesseean, but he knew that it could not last forever.  Sooner or later,
+some officer would question him closely, and then his tale would be too
+thin for truth.
+
+Unable to make a way toward the river, he returned to the slopes and
+ravines, where they were digging the caves, and then fortune which had
+been smiling upon him turned its face the other way.  A small man in
+butternut and an enormous felt hat passed near.  He did not see Dick,
+but his very presence gave the lad a shiver.  He believed afterward that
+before he saw him he had felt the proximity of Slade.
+
+The man, carrying a rifle, was hurrying toward the center of the town,
+and Dick, after one long look, hurried at equal speed the other way.
+He knew that Slade, if he saw him, would recognize him at once.  Dusk and
+a muddy uniform would not protect him.
+
+It was his idea now to go down through the ravines and make another trial
+toward the South.  He saw ahead of him a line of intrenchments, which he
+was resolved to pass in some fashion, but the face of fortune was still
+away from him.  The unknown officers who at any time might ask too many
+questions appeared.
+
+A captain, a sunbrowned, alert man, stopped him at the edge of the bushes
+which clothed the slopes of the ravine.
+
+"Your regiment?" he asked sharply.
+
+"Tennessee regiment, sir," replied Dick, afraid to mention any number,
+since this officer might be a Tennesseean himself, and would want further
+identification.  But the man was not to be put off--Dick judged from his
+uniform that he was a colonel--and demanded sharply his regiment's number
+and his business.
+
+The lad mumbled something under his breath, hopeful that he would pass on,
+but the officer stepped forward, looked at him closely and then suddenly
+turned back the collar of his army jacket, disclosing a bit of the under
+side yet blue.
+
+"Thunderation, a Yankee spy!" he exclaimed.
+
+Dick always believed that his life was due to a sudden and violent
+impulse, or rather a convulsive jerk, because he had no time to think.
+He threw off the officer's hand, dashed his fist into his face, and,
+without waiting to see the effect, ran headlong among the bushes down
+the side of the ravine.  He heard a shouting behind him, the reports of
+several shots, the rapid tread of feet, and he knew that the man-hunt was
+on.
+
+He had all the instincts of the hunted to seek cover, and the night was
+his friend.  But few lights glimmered in that portion of Vicksburg,
+and in many parts of the ravine the bushes were thick.  He darted down
+the slope at great speed, then turned and ran along its side, still
+keeping well under cover.  Where the shadows were darkest and the bushes
+thickest he paused panting.
+
+He heard his pursuers calling to one another, and he also heard the
+excited voices of people in the ravine.  The civilians had been aroused
+by the shots so close by and he thought the confusion would help him.
+He stood in the deep shadow, his breath gradually growing easier, and
+then he started down the ravine, coming to a little path that led along
+the side of the slope.  He noticed a dark opening, and as the voices of
+pursuers were now coming nearer, he popped into it, trusting to blind
+luck.
+
+Dick had thought it was a mere wash-out or deep recess, but at the third
+step his foot struck upon a carpet and he saw ahead a dim light.  He
+paused, amazed, and then he remembered that he had heard about the
+civilians digging caves for shelter from the shells and bombs.  Evidently
+some forethoughtful man had prepared his cave early.
+
+Uncertain what to do he did nothing, pressing his back against the earth
+and listening.  No sound came, and the dim light still flickering ahead
+reassured him.
+
+The opening through which he had come was large, and admitted plenty
+of fresh air.  As he stood four or five feet from the entrance he saw
+several soldiers hurrying along the path, and he knew they were hunting
+for him.  He realized then his fortune in finding this improvised
+cave-house.  After the soldiers passed he walked gently toward the light.
+Apparently the regular occupants were gone away for the time, and he
+might find a hiding place there until it was safe to go out.
+
+The passage was narrow, but the carpet was still under his feet, and
+further in, the sides and roof of the earthen walls had been covered
+with planks.  The light grew brighter and he was quite sure that a room
+of some size was just ahead.  His curiosity became so great that it
+smothered all apprehension, and he stepped boldly into the room, where
+the lamp burned on a table.
+
+He would have stepped back as quickly, but a pair of great burning eyes
+caught his and held them.  A bed was standing against the board wall of
+the cave, and in this bed lay an old man with a huge bald head, immense
+white eyebrows and eyes of extraordinary intensity.
+
+Once more did Colonel Charles Woodville and Richard Mason stare into the
+eyes of each other, and for a long time neither spoke.
+
+"I managed to escape from Jackson with my little family," said the
+colonel at length, "and I thought that in this, so to say, sylvan retreat
+I might drop all undesirable acquaintances that I made there."
+
+The whole scene was grotesque and wild to Dick.  It was like a passage
+out of the Arabian Nights, and an extraordinary spirit of recklessness
+seized him.
+
+"I appreciate your words, sir," he said, "and I can understand your
+feelings.  I have felt myself that it was never wise to go where one
+might not be welcome, and yet chance plays us such tricks that neither
+your wish nor mine is granted."
+
+The old man then raised his head a little higher on the pillow.  A spark
+leaped from the burning eyes.
+
+"A lad of spirit," he said.  "I would not withhold praise where praise is
+due.  I recall meeting some one who resembled you very much.  Perhaps a
+brother of yours, eh?"
+
+"No, he was not my brother."
+
+"Well, it does not matter and we will not pursue the subject.  How does
+it happen that you have come into this hillside castle of mine?"
+
+Young Mason saw a flicker of amusement in the eyes of the old man.
+He was aware that in his muddy uniform he made no imposing figure,
+but his spirit was as high as ever, and the touch of recklessness was
+still there.
+
+"I saw some men coming down the path," he replied; "men with whom I do
+not care to associate, and I turned aside to avoid them.  I beheld the
+open door and stepped within, but I did not know the chamber was occupied,
+and it was far from my purpose to intrude upon you or any one.  I trust,
+sir, that you will believe me."
+
+The lad took off his cap and bowed.  His face was now revealed more
+clearly, and it was a fine one, splendidly molded, intellectual, and
+with noble blue eyes.  After all, despite the mud and stains, he made a
+graceful figure as he stood there, so obviously confident of himself,
+but respectful.
+
+The spark leaped again from the eyes of Colonel Woodville, and,
+remembering something, there was a slight warmth about the heart which
+lately had been so cold and bitter.
+
+"I do not blame you," he said.  "A lad, one in his formative years,
+cannot be too careful about his associates.  Doubtless you were justified
+in taking advantage of the open door.  But now that you are here may I
+ask you what you purpose next to do?"
+
+"I admit, sir, that the question is natural," replied Dick, suiting his
+tone and manner to those of the old man.  "I have scarcely had time yet
+to form a purpose, but, since the danger of contamination of which we
+spoke still exists, it occurs to me that perhaps I might stay here a
+while.  Is there some nook or a cover in which I might rest?  I hope I
+do not trespass too much upon your hospitality."
+
+Colonel Woodville pondered.  His great white eyebrows were drawn together
+and, for a moment or two, he gazed down the beak of his nose.
+
+"I confess," he said, "that the appeal to hospitality moves me.  I am
+stirred somewhat, too, by pleasant recollections of the lad who looked
+like you.  But wait, my daughter is coming.  We will confer with her.
+Margaret is a most capable woman."
+
+Dick heard a light step in the passage and he wheeled quickly.  Miss
+Woodville was before him, a plain, elderly figure in a plain black dress,
+with a basket on her arm.  The basket contained a fowl and some eggs
+which she had just bought at a great price.  When she saw Dick her hand
+flew to her throat, but when the pulse ceased to beat so hard it came
+away and she looked at him fixedly.  Then a slow smile like the dawn
+spread over the severe, worn face.
+
+"Come in, Margaret, and put down your basket," said the colonel in a
+genial tone.  "Meanwhile bid welcome to our unexpected guest, a young man
+of spirit and quality with whom I was holding converse before you came.
+He does not wish to go out to-night, because there are many violent men
+abroad, and he would avoid them."
+
+Then he turned to Dick, and asked in a tone, sharp and commanding:
+
+"I have your word, young sir, that your unexpected visit to our city was
+not of a secret nature; that is, it was not of a lawless character?"
+
+"An accident, sir, an accident pure and simple.  I answer you on my
+honor.  I have seen nothing and I shall not seek to see anything which
+I should not see."
+
+"Margaret," continued the colonel, and now his tone became deferential as
+behooved a gentleman speaking to a lady, "shall we ask him to share our
+simple quarters to-night?"
+
+The lad slowly turned his gaze to the face of the woman.  He felt with
+all the power of intuition that his fate rested on her decision.  But she
+was a woman.  And she was, too, a true daughter of her father.  A kindred
+spark leaped up in her own soul, and she met Dick's gaze.  She noted his
+fearless poise, and she saw the gallant spirit in his eye.  Then she
+turned to her father.
+
+"I think you wish him to stay, sir," she said, "and the wish seems right
+to me.  Our narrow quarters limit our hospitality in quality, but not
+in intent.  We can offer him nothing but the little alcove behind the
+blanket."
+
+She inclined her head toward the blanket, which Dick had not noticed
+before.  It hung near the bed and, wishing to cause this household little
+trouble, he said:
+
+"Then I assume that you will shelter me for the night, and, if I may,
+I will go at once to my room."
+
+Colonel Woodville lowered his head upon the pillow and laughed softly.
+
+"A lad of spirit.  A lad of spirit, I repeat," he said.  "No, Margaret,
+you and I could not have turned him from our earthen roof."
+
+Dick bowed to Miss Woodville, and that little ghost of a tender smile
+flitted about her thin lips.  Then he lifted the blanket, stepped into
+the dark, and let the curtain fall behind him.
+
+He stood for a space until his eyes, used to the dusk, could see dimly.
+It was a tiny room evidently used as a place of storage for clothing and
+bedding, but there was space enough for him to lie down, if he bent his
+knees a little.
+
+The strain upon both muscle and nerve had been very great, and now came
+collapse.  Removing his shoes and outer clothing he dropped upon a
+roll of bedding and closed his eyes.  But he was grateful, deeply and
+lastingly grateful.  The bread that he had cast upon the waters was
+returning to him fourfold.
+
+He heard low voices beyond the blanket, and he did not doubt that they
+were those of Colonel Woodville and his daughter.  The woman in plain
+black, with the basket on her arm, had seemed a pathetic figure to him.
+He could not blame them for feeling such intense bitterness.  What were
+the causes of the war to people who had been driven from a luxurious home
+to a hole in the side of a ravine?
+
+He slept, and when he woke it seemed to be only a moment later, but he
+knew from the slender edge of light appearing where the blanket just
+failed to touch the floor that morning had come.  He moved gently lest
+he disturb his host in the larger room without, and then he heard the
+distant thunder, which he knew was the booming of Grant's great guns.
+And so the night had not stopped them!  All through the hours that he
+slept the cannon had rained steel and death on Vicksburg.  Then came
+a great explosion telling him that a shell had burst somewhere near.
+It was followed by the voice of Colonel Woodville raised in high,
+indignant tones:
+
+"Can't they let a gentleman sleep?  Must they wake him with one of their
+infernal shells?"
+
+He heard a slight rustling sound and he knew that it was the great bald
+head moving impatiently on the pillows.  Inferring that it was early,
+he would have gone back to sleep himself, but slumber would not come.
+He remained a while, thoughtful, for his future lay very heavy upon him,
+and then he heard the sound of several voices beyond the blanket.
+
+He listened closely, trying to number and distinguish them.  There were
+three and two belonged to Colonel Woodville and his daughter.  The third
+repelled and puzzled him.  It seemed to have in it a faint quality of the
+fox.  It was not loud, and yet that light, snarling, sinister note was
+evident.
+
+The sensitive, attuned mind can be easily affected by a voice, and the
+menace of the unknown beyond the blanket deepened.  Dick felt a curious
+prickling at the roots of his hair.  He listened intently, but he could
+not understand anything that was spoken, and then he drew himself forward
+with great caution.
+
+They must be talking about something of importance, because the voices
+were earnest, and sometimes all three spoke at once.  He reached a slow
+hand toward the blanket.  The danger would be great, but he must see.
+
+He drew back the blanket slightly, a quarter of an inch, maybe, and
+looked within the room.  Then he saw the owner of the sinister voice,
+and he felt that he might have known from the first.
+
+Slade, standing before Colonel Woodville's bed, his hat in his hand,
+was talking eagerly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE GREAT ASSAULT
+
+
+The light from the door that was always open illumined the room.  The
+rising sun must have struck full upon it, because it was almost as bright
+as day there.  Slade was in his butternut uniform, and his rifle leaned
+against the wall.  Now that he had made the slight opening Dick could
+understand their words.
+
+"There are spies within Vicksburg, sir," said Slade.  "Colonel Dustin
+detected one last night, but in the darkness he escaped down this ravine.
+The alarm was spread and he could not have got outside our lines.
+I must catch him.  It will be a credit to me to do so.  I was under your
+command, and, although not in active service owing to your wound, your
+word will go far.  I want you to get me an order to search every house
+or place in which he could hide."
+
+"Not too much zeal, my worthy Slade.  Talleyrand said that, but you never
+heard of him.  Excessive suspicion is not a good thing.  It was your
+chief fault as an overseer, although I willingly pay tribute to your
+energy and attention to detail.  This business of hunting spies is
+greatly overdone.  The fate of Vicksburg will be settled by the cannon
+and the rifles."
+
+"But, sir, they can do us great harm."
+
+"Listen to that, my good Slade."
+
+The deep booming note of the distant cannon entered the cave.
+
+"That is the sound of Grant's guns.  He can fight better with those
+weapons than with spies."
+
+But Slade persisted, and Colonel Woodville, with an occasional word from
+his daughter, fenced with him, always using a light bantering tone,
+while the lad who lay so near listened, his pulses beating hard in his
+temples and throat.
+
+"Your vigilance is to be commended, my good Slade," Dick heard Colonel
+Woodville say, "but to-day at least I cannot secure such a commission for
+you from General Pemberton.  We hear that Grant is massing his troops
+for a grand attack, and there is little time to thresh up all our own
+quarters for spies.  We must think more of our battle line.  To-morrow we
+may have a plan.  Come back to me then, and we will talk further on these
+matters."
+
+"But think, sir, what a day may cost us!"
+
+"You show impatience, not to say haste, Slade, and little is ever
+achieved by thoughtless haste.  The enemy is closing in upon us, and it
+must be our chief effort to break his iron ring.  Ah, here is my nephew!
+He may give us further news on these grave matters."
+
+Dick saw the entrance darken for a moment, then lighten again, and that
+gallant youth, Victor Woodville, with whom he had fought so good a fight,
+stood in the room.  He was still pale and he carried his left arm in
+a sling, but it was evident that his recovery from his wound had been
+rapid.  Dick saw the stern face of the old colonel brighten a bit,
+while the tender smile curved again about the thin lips of the spinster.
+
+Young Woodville gave a warm greeting to his uncle and elderly cousin,
+and nodded to Slade.  Dick believed from his gesture that he did not like
+the guerilla leader, or at least he hoped so.
+
+"Victor," said the colonel, "what word do you bring?"
+
+"Grant is advancing his batteries, and they seem to be massing for
+attack.  It will surely come in a day or two."
+
+"As I thought.  Then we shall need all our energies for immediate battle.
+And now, Mr. Slade, as I said before, I will see you again to-morrow
+about the matter of which we were speaking.  I am old, wounded, and I
+grow weary.  I would rest."
+
+Slade rose to go.  He was not a pleasant sight.  His clothes were soiled
+and stained, and his face was covered with ragged beard.  The eyes were
+full of venom and malice.
+
+"Good day, Colonel Woodville," he said, "but I feel that I must bring
+the matter up again.  As a scout and leader of irregulars for the
+Confederacy.  I must be active in order to cope with the enemy's own
+scouts and spies.  I shall return early to-morrow morning."
+
+Colonel Woodville waved his hand and Slade, bowing, withdrew.
+
+"Why was he so persistent, Uncle Charles?" asked Victor.  "He seemed to
+have some underlying motive."
+
+"He always has such a motive, Victor.  He is a man who suspects everybody
+because he knows everybody has a right to suspect him.  He may even have
+been suspecting me, his old, and, I fear, too generous employer.  He has
+a mania about a spy hidden somewhere in Vicksburg."
+
+Young Victor Woodville laughed gayly.
+
+"What folly," he said, "for your old overseer, a man of Northern origin
+to boot, to suspect you, of all men, of helping a Yankee in any way.
+Why, Uncle Charles, everybody knows that you'd annihilate 'em if you
+could, and that you were making good progress with the task until you got
+that wound."
+
+Colonel Woodville drew his great, white eyebrows together in his
+characteristic way.
+
+"I admit, Victor, that I'm the prince of Yankee haters," he said.
+"They've ruined me, and if they succeed they'll ruin our state and the
+whole South, too.  We've fled for refuge to a hole in the ground, and yet
+they come thundering at the door of so poor an abode.  Listen!"
+
+They heard plainly the far rumble of the cannon.  The intensity of the
+fire increased with the growing day.  Shells and bombs were falling
+rapidly on Vicksburg.  The face of Colonel Woodville darkened and the
+eyes under the white thatch burned.
+
+"Nevertheless, Victor," he said, "hate the Yankees as I do, and I hate
+them with all my heart and soul, there are some things a gentleman cannot
+do."
+
+"What for instance, Uncle?"
+
+"He cannot break faith.  He cannot do evil to those who have done good to
+him.  He must repay benefits with benefits.  He cannot permit the burden
+of obligation to remain upon him.  Go to the door, Victor, and see if any
+one is lurking there."
+
+Young Woodville went to the entrance and returned with word that no one
+was near.
+
+"Victor," resumed Colonel Woodville, "this man Slade, who was so
+preposterously wrong, this common overseer from the hostile section
+which seeks with force to put us down, this miserable fellow who had
+the presumption to suspect me, lying here with a wound, received in the
+defense of the Confederacy, was nevertheless right."
+
+Victor stared, not understanding, and Colonel Woodville raised himself a
+little higher on his pillows.
+
+"Since when," he asked of all the world, "has a Woodville refused to
+pay his debts?  Since when has a Woodville refused asylum to one who
+protected him and his in the hour of danger?  Margaret, lift the blanket
+and invite our young friend in."
+
+Dick was on his feet in an instant, and came into the chamber, uttering
+thanks to the man who, in spite of so much bitterness against his cause,
+could yet shelter him.
+
+Young Woodville exclaimed in surprise.
+
+"The Yankee with whom I fought at Bellevue!" he said.
+
+"And the one who ignored your presence at Jackson," said Miss Woodville.
+
+The two lads shook hands.
+
+"And now," said Colonel Woodville, his old sharpness returning, "we shall
+be on even terms, young sir.  Your uniform bears a faint resemblance to
+that of your own army, and Slade, cunning and cruel, may have had you
+shot as a spy.  You would be taken within our lines and this is no time
+for long examinations."
+
+"I know how much I owe you, sir," said Dick, "and I know how much danger
+my presence here brings upon you.  I will leave as soon as the ravine is
+clear.  The gathering of the troops for battle will give me a chance."
+
+"You will do nothing of the kind.  Having begun the task we will carry it
+through.  Our cave home rambles.  There is a little apartment belonging
+to Victor, in which you may put yourself in shape.  I advise you to lie
+quiet here for a day or two, and then if I am still able to put my hand
+on you I may turn you over with full explanations to the authorities."
+
+Dick noted the significance of the words, "if I am still able to put my
+hand on you," but he merely spoke of his gratitude and went with young
+Woodville into the little apartment.  It was on the right side of the
+hall, and a round shutterless hole opened into the ravine, admitting
+light and air.  The "window," which was not more than a foot in diameter
+faced toward the east and gave a view of earthworks, and the region
+beyond, where the Union army stood.
+
+The room itself contained but little, a cot, some blankets, clothing,
+and articles of the toilet.
+
+"Mason," said Woodville, "make yourself as comfortable as you can here.
+I did not know until I escaped from Jackson that it was you who ignored
+my presence there.  You seem in some manner to have won the good opinion
+of my uncle, and, in any event, he could not bear to remain in debt to a
+Yankee.  If you're careful you're safe here for the day, although you may
+be lonesome.  I must go at once to our lines.  Cousin Margaret will bring
+you something to eat."
+
+They shook hands again.
+
+"I can't do much fighting," said Woodville, "owing to this wounded arm of
+mine, but I can carry messages, and the line is so long many are to be
+taken."
+
+He went out and Miss Woodville came soon with food on a tray.  Dick
+suspected that they could ill spare it, but he must eat and he feared to
+offer pay.  It embarrassed him, too, that she should wait upon him, but,
+in their situation, it was absolutely necessary that she do so, even were
+there a servant somewhere, which he doubted.  But she left the tray,
+and when she returned for it an hour later she had only a few words to
+say.
+
+Dick stood at the round hole that served as a window.  There were
+bushes about it, and, at that point, the cliff seemed to be almost
+perpendicular.  He was safe from observation and he looked over a vast
+expanse of country.  The morning was dazzlingly clear, and he saw
+sections of the Confederate earthworks with their men and guns, and far
+beyond them other earthworks and other guns, which he knew were those of
+his own people.
+
+While he stood there alone, free from the tension that had lasted while
+Slade was present, he realized the great volume of fire that the Northern
+cannon were pouring without ceasing upon Vicksburg.  The deep rumble was
+continually in his ears, and at times his imagination made the earth
+shake.  He saw two shells burst in the air, and a shattering explosion
+told that a third struck near by.  To the eastward smoke was always
+drifting.  The Southern cannon seldom replied.
+
+He resolved to attempt escape during the coming night.  It hurt him to
+bring danger upon the Woodvilles and he wished, too, to fulfill his
+mission.  Others, beyond question, would reach the fleet with the message,
+but he wished to reach it also.
+
+Yet nothing new occurred during all the long day.  Miss Woodville brought
+him more food at noon, but scarcely spoke.  Then he returned to the hole
+in the cliff, and remained there until twilight.  Young Woodville came,
+and he gathered from his manner that there had been no important movement
+of the armies, that all as yet was preparation.  But he inferred that the
+storm was coming, and he told Victor that he meant to leave that night.
+
+He was opposed vehemently.  The line of Southern sentinels watched
+everywhere.  Slade was most vigilant.  He might come at any time into the
+ravine.  No, he must wait.  The next night, perhaps, but in any event he
+must remain a while.
+
+Nor did he depart the next night either.  Instead, two or three days
+passed, and he was still in the house dug in the hillside, a guest and
+yet a captive.  The bombardment had gone on, his food was still brought
+to him by Miss Woodville, and once or twice Victor came, but Dick,
+as he was in honor bound, asked him no question about the armies.
+
+The waiting, the loneliness and the suspense were terrible to one so
+young, and so ambitious.  And yet he had fared better than he had a right
+to expect, a fact, however, that did not relieve his situation.
+
+Another night came, and he went to sleep in his lonely cell in the wall,
+but he was awakened while it was yet intensely dark by a cannonade far
+surpassing in violence any that had gone before.  He rushed to the hole,
+but he could see nothing in the ravine.  Yet the whole plateau seemed to
+shake with the violence of the concussions and the crash of exploding
+shells.
+
+The fire came from all sides, from the river as well as the land.
+The boom of the huge mortars on the boats there sounded above everything.
+Dick knew absolutely now that the message he was to carry had been
+delivered by somebody else.
+
+He heard under the continued thunder of the guns sharp commands, and the
+tread of many troops moving.  He knew that the Southern forces were going
+into position, and he felt himself that the tremendous fire was the
+prelude to a great attack.  His excitement grew.  He strained his eyes,
+but he could see nothing in the dark ravine, or out there where the
+cannon roared, save the rapid, red flashes under the dim horizon.
+He had his watch and he had kept it running.  Now he was able to make out
+that it was only three o'clock in the morning.  A long time until day
+and he must wait until then to know what such a furious convulsion would
+achieve.
+
+The slow time passed, and there was no decrease of the fire.  Once or
+twice he came away from the window and listened at the entrance to his
+little room, but he could hear nothing stirring in the larger chamber.
+Yet it was incredible that Colonel Woodville and his daughter should not
+be awake.  They would certainly be listening with an anxiety and suspense
+not less than his.
+
+Dawn came after painful ages, and slowly the region out there where the
+Union army lay rose into the light.  But it was a red dawn, a dawn in
+flame and smoke.  Scores of guns crashed in front, and behind the heavy
+booming of the mortars on the boats formed the overnote of the storm.
+
+The opening was not large, but it afforded the lad a good view, and he
+thrust his head out as far as he could, every nerve in him leaping at the
+deep roar of the cannonade.  He had no doubt that the assault was about
+to be made.  He was wild with eagerness to see it, and it was a cruel
+hurt to his spirit that he was held there, and could not take a part in
+it.
+
+He thought of rushing from the place, and of seeking a way through the
+lines to his own army, but a little reflection showed him that it would
+be folly.  He must merely be a witness, while Colonel Winchester, Warner,
+Pennington, the sergeant, Colonel Hertford, all whom he knew and the tens
+of thousands whom he did not know, fought the battle.
+
+A tremendous sound, distant and steady, would not blot out much smaller
+sounds nearby, and now he heard noises in the larger chamber.  The voice
+of Colonel Woodville was raised in sharp command.
+
+"Lift me up!" he said, "I must see!  Must I lie here, eating my soul out,
+when a great battle is going on!  Help me up, I say!  Wound or no wound,
+I will go to the door!"
+
+Then the voice of Miss Woodville attempting to soothe was heard, but the
+colonel broke forth more furiously than ever, not at her, but at his
+unhappy fate.
+
+Dick, spurred by impulse, left his alcove and entered the room.
+
+"Sir," he said respectfully to Colonel Woodville, "you are eager to see,
+and so am I.  May I help you?"
+
+Colonel Woodville turned a red eye upon him.
+
+"Young man," he said, "you have shown before a sense of fitness, and your
+appearance now is most welcome.  You shall help me to the door, and I
+will lean upon you.  Together we will see what is going to happen,
+although I wish for one result, and you for another.  No, Margaret,
+it is not worth while to protest any further.  My young Yankee and I will
+manage it very well between us."
+
+Miss Woodville stepped aside and smiled wanly.
+
+"I think it is best, Miss Woodville," Dick said in a low tone.
+
+"Perhaps," she replied.
+
+Colonel Woodville impatiently threw off the cover.  He wore a long purple
+dressing gown, and his wound was in the leg, but it was partly healed.
+Dick helped him out of the bed and then supported him with his arm under
+his shoulder.  Within that singular abode the roar of the guns was a
+steady and sinister mutter, but beneath it now appeared another note.
+
+Colonel Woodville had begun to swear.  It was not the torrent of loud
+imprecation that Dick had heard in Jackson, but subdued, and all the more
+fierce because it was so like the ferocious whine of a powerful and hurt
+wild animal.  Swearing was common enough among the older men of the South,
+even among the educated, but Colonel Woodville now surpassed them all.
+
+Dick heard oaths, ripe and rich, entirely new to him, and he heard the
+old ones in new arrangements and with new inflections.  And yet there was
+no blasphemy about it.  It seemed a part of time and place, and, what was
+more, it seemed natural coming from the lips of the old colonel.
+
+They reached the door, the cut in the side of the ravine, and at once a
+wide portion of the battlefield sprang into the light, while the roar of
+the guns was redoubled.  Dick would have stepped back now, but Colonel
+Woodville's hand rested on his shoulder and his support was needed.
+
+"My glasses, Margaret!" said the colonel.  "I must see!  I will see!
+If I am but an old hound, lying here while the pack is in full cry,
+I will nevertheless see the chase!  And even if I am an old hound I could
+run with the best of them if that infernal Yankee bullet had not taken
+me in the leg!"
+
+Miss Woodville brought him the glasses, a powerful pair, and he glued
+them instantly to his eyes.  Dick saw only the field of battle, dark
+lines and blurs, the red flare of cannon and rifle fire, and towers and
+banks of smoke, but the colonel saw individual human beings, and, with
+his trained military eye, he knew what the movements meant.  Dick felt
+the hand upon his shoulder trembling with excitement.  He was excited
+himself.  Miss Woodville stood just behind them, and a faint tinge of
+color appeared in her pale face.
+
+"The Yankees are getting ready to charge," said the colonel.  "At the
+point we see they will not yet rush forward.  They will, of course,
+wait for a preconcerted signal, and then their whole army will attack
+at once.  But the woods and ravines are filled with their skirmishers,
+trying to clear the way.  I can see them in hundreds and hundreds,
+and their rifles make sheets of flame.  All the time the cannon are
+firing over their heads.  Heavens, what a bombardment!  I've never before
+listened to its like!"
+
+"What are our troops doing, father?" asked Miss Woodville.
+
+"Very little yet, and they should do little.  Pemberton is showing more
+judgment than I expected of him.  The defense should hold its fire until
+the enemy is well within range and that's what we're doing!"
+
+The colonel leaned a little more heavily upon him, but Dick steadied
+himself.  The old man still kept the glasses to his eyes, and swept them
+back and forth in as wide an arc as their position permitted.  The hills
+shook with the thunder of the cannon, and the brilliant sun, piercing
+through the smoke, lighted up the vast battle line.
+
+"The attack of the skirmishers grows hotter," said the old man.  "The
+thickets blaze with the fire of their rifles.  Heavy masses of infantry
+are moving forward.  Now they stop and lie on their arms.  They are
+awaiting the word from other parts of the field, and it shows with
+certainty that a grand attack is coming.  Two batteries of eight guns
+each have come nearer.  I did not think it possible for the fire of their
+cannon to increase, but it has done so.  Young sir, would you care to
+look through the glasses?"
+
+"I believe not, Colonel.  I will trust to the naked eye and your report."
+
+It was an odd feeling that made Dick decline the glasses.  If he looked
+he must tell to the others what he saw, and he wished to show neither
+exultation nor depression.  The colonel, the duty of courtesy discharged,
+resumed his own position of witness and herald.
+
+"The columns of infantry are getting up again," he said.  "I see a man in
+what I take to be a general's uniform riding along their front.  He must
+be making a speech.  No doubt he knows the desperate nature of the attack,
+and would inspire them.  Now he is gone and other officers, colonels and
+majors are moving about."
+
+"What are the skirmishers doing, Colonel?"
+
+"Their fire is not so hot.  They must be drawing back.  They have made
+the prelude, and the importance of their role has passed.  The masses of
+infantry are drawing together again.  Now I see men on horseback with
+trumpets to their lips.  Yes, the charge is coming.  Ah-h!  That burnt
+them!"
+
+There was a terrific crash much nearer, and Dick knew that it was the
+Southern batteries opening fire.  The shoulder upon which the colonel's
+hand rested shook a little, but it was from excitement.  He said nothing
+and Colonel Woodville continued:
+
+"The smoke is so heavy I can't see what damage was done!  Now it has
+cleared away!  There are gaps in the Yankee lines, but the men have
+closed up, and they come on at the double quick with their cannon still
+firing over their heads!"
+
+In his excitement he took his hand off Dick's shoulder and leaned forward
+a little farther, supporting himself now against the earthen wall.
+Dick stood just behind him, shielded from the sight of any one who might
+be passing in the ravine, although there was little danger now from
+searchers with a great battle going on.  Meanwhile he watched the combat
+with an eagerness fully equal to that of the old colonel.
+
+The mighty crash of cannon and rifles together continued, but for a
+little while the smoke banked up in front so densely that the whole
+combat was hidden from them.  Then a wind slowly rolled the smoke away.
+The figures of the men began to appear like shadowy tracery, and then
+emerged, distinct and separate from the haze.
+
+"They are nearer now," said the Colonel.  "I can plainly see their long
+lines moving and their light guns coming with them.  But our batteries
+are raking them horribly.  Their men are falling by the scores and
+hundreds."
+
+Miss Woodville uttered a deep sigh and turned her face away.  But she
+looked again in a few moments.  The terrible spell was upon her, too.
+
+Dick's nerves were quivering.  His heart was with the assailants and
+theirs with the assailed, but he would not speak aloud against the hopes
+of Colonel Woodville and his daughter, since he was in their house,
+such as it was, and, in a measure, under their protection.
+
+"Their charge is splendid," continued the colonel, "and I hope Pemberton
+has made full use of the ground for defense!  He will need all the help
+he can get!  Oh, to be out of the battle on such a day!  The smoke is in
+the way again and I can see nothing.  Now it has passed and the enemy is
+still advancing, but our fire grows hotter and hotter!  The shells and
+the grape and the canister and the bullets are smashing through them.
+They cannot live under it!  They must go back!"
+
+Nevertheless the blue lines came steadily toward the Southern earthworks.
+Dick saw officers, some ahorse, and some afoot, rushing about and
+encouraging the men, and he saw many fall and lie still while the
+regiments passed on.
+
+"They are in the nearer thickets," cried the colonel, "and now they're
+climbing the slopes!  Ah, you riflemen, your target is there!"
+
+The Northern army was so near now that the Southern rifle fire was
+beating upon it like a storm.  Never flinching, the men of the west
+and northwest hurled themselves upon the powerful fortified positions.
+Some reached shelves of the plateau almost at the mouths of the guns and
+hung there, their comrades falling dead or dying around them, but now the
+rebel yell began to swell along the vast line, and reached the ears of
+those in the ravine.
+
+"The omen of victory!" exclaimed the colonel exultantly.  "Our brave lads
+feel that they're about to triumph!  Grant can't break through our line!
+Why doesn't he call off his men?  It's slaughter!"
+
+Dick's heart sank.  He knew that the colonel's words were true.  The
+Southern army, posted in its defenses, was breaking the ring of steel
+that sought to crush it to death.  Groups of men in blue who had seized
+ground in the very front of the defenses either died there or were
+gradually driven back.  The inner ring along its front of miles thundered
+incessantly on the outer ring, and repelled every attempt to crush it.
+
+"They yield," said the colonel, after a long time.  "The Northern fire
+has sunk at many points, and there! and there! they're retreating!
+The attack has failed and the South has won a victory!"
+
+"But Grant will come again," said Dick, speaking his opinion for the
+first time.
+
+"No doubt of it," said Colonel Woodville, "but likely he will come to the
+same fate."
+
+He spoke wholly without animosity.  The battle now died fast.  The men
+in gray had been invincible.  Their cannon and rifles had made an
+impenetrable barrier of fire, and Grant, despite the valor of his troops,
+had been forced to draw off.  Many thousands had fallen and the Southern
+generals were exultant.  Johnston would come up, and Grant, having such
+heavy losses, would be unable to withstand the united Confederate armies.
+
+But Grant, as Colonel Woodville foresaw, had no idea of retreating.
+Fresh troops were pouring down the great river for him, and while he
+would not again attempt to storm Vicksburg, the ring of steel around it
+would be made so broad and strong that Pemberton could not get out nor
+could Johnston get in.
+
+When the last cannon shot echoed over the far hills Colonel Woodville
+turned away from the door of his hillside home.
+
+"I must ask your shoulder again, young sir," he said to Dick.  "What I
+have seen rejoices me greatly, but I do not say it to taunt you.  In
+war if one wins the other must lose, and bear in mind that you are the
+invader."
+
+"May I help you back to your bed, sir?" asked Dick.
+
+"You may.  You are a good young man.  I'm glad I saved you from that
+scoundrel, Slade.  As the score between us is even I wish that you were
+out of Vicksburg and with your own people."
+
+"I was thinking, too, sir, that I ought to go.  I may take a quick
+departure."
+
+"Then if you do go I wish you a speedy and safe journey, but I tell you
+to beware of one, Slade, who has a malicious heart and a long memory."
+
+Dick withdrew to his own cell, as he called it, and he passed bitter
+hours there.  The repulse had struck him a hard blow.  Was it possible
+that Grant could not win?  And if he could not win what terrible risks
+he would run in the heart of the Confederacy, with perhaps two armies to
+fight!  He felt that only the Mississippi, that life-line connecting him
+with the North, could save him.
+
+But as dusk came gradually in the ravine he resolved that he would go.
+His supper, as usual, was brought to him by Miss Woodville.  She was as
+taciturn as ever, speaking scarcely a half-dozen words.  When he asked
+her if Victor had gone through the battle unharmed she merely nodded,
+and presently he was alone again, with the dusk deepening in the great
+gully.
+
+Dick was confident that nobody but Colonel Woodville, his daughter,
+and himself were in the cave-home.  It was but a small place, and new
+callous places on her hands indicated that she was doing the cooking and
+all other work.  His resolve to risk everything and go was strengthened.
+
+He waited patiently until the full night had come and only the usual
+sounds of an army in camp arose.  Then he made ready.  He had surrendered
+his holster and pistols to Colonel Woodville, and so he must issue forth
+unarmed, but it could not be helped.  He had several ten dollar gold
+pieces in his pocket, and he put one of them on the tiny table in his
+cell.  He knew that it would be most welcome, and he could not calculate
+how many hundreds in Confederacy currency it was worth.  He was glad that
+he could repay a little at least.
+
+Then he stepped lightly toward the larger chamber in which Colonel
+Woodville lay.  The usual candle was burning on the table near his bed,
+but the great bald head lay motionless on the pillow, and the heavy white
+eyebrows drooped over closed lids.  Sound asleep!  Dick was glad of it.
+The colonel, with his strong loyalty to the South, might seek to hold him,
+at least as his personal prisoner, and now the trouble was avoided.
+
+He moved gently across the floor, and then passed toward the open door.
+How good that puff of fresh air and freedom felt on his face!  He did not
+know that Colonel Woodville raised his head on the pillow, glanced after
+him, and then let his head sink back and his eyes close again.  A low
+sigh came between the colonel's lips, and it would have been difficult to
+say whether it was relief or regret.
+
+Dick stepped into the narrow path cut in the side of the ravine and
+inhaled more draughts of the fresh air.  How sweet and strong it was!
+How it filled one's lungs and brought with it life, courage and
+confidence!  One had to live in a hole in a hill before he could
+appreciate fully the blessed winds that blew about the world.  He knew
+that the path ran in front of other hollows dug in the earth, and he felt
+sorry for the people who were compelled to burrow in them.  He felt sorry,
+in truth, for all Vicksburg, because now that he was outside his fears
+for Grant disappeared, and he knew that he must win.
+
+While he remained in the path a deep boom came from the direction of the
+Union army and a huge shell burst over the town.  It was followed in a
+moment by another and then by many others.  While the besieged rejoiced
+in victory the besiegers had begun anew the terrible bombardment, sending
+a warning that the iron ring still held.
+
+Dick paused no longer, but ran rapidly along the path until he emerged
+upon the open plateau and proceeded toward the center of the town.
+He judged that in the hours following a great battle, while there was yet
+much confusion, he would find his best chance.
+
+He had reckoned rightly.  There was a great passing to and fro in
+Vicksburg, but its lights were dim.  Oil and candles alike were scarce,
+and there was little but the moon's rays to disclose a town to the eye.
+The rejoicings over the victory had brought more people than usual into
+the streets, but the same exultation made them unsuspicious, and Dick
+glided among them in the dusk, almost without fear.
+
+He had concluded that "the longest way around was the shortest way
+through," and he directed his steps toward the river.  He had formed a
+clear plan at last, and he believed that it would succeed.  Twisting and
+turning, always keeping in the shadows, he made good progress, descended
+the bluff, and at last stood behind the ruins of an old warehouse near
+the stream.
+
+Southern batteries were not far away from him and he heard the men
+talking.  Then, strengthening his resolution, he came from behind the
+ruins, flung himself almost flat on the ground, and crawled toward the
+river, pushing in front of him a board, which some Northern gun had shot
+from the warehouse.
+
+He knew that his task was difficult and dangerous, though in the last
+resort he could rush to the water and spring in.  But he was almost at
+the edge before any sentinel saw the black shadow passing over the ground.
+
+A hail came, and Dick flattened himself against the ground and lay
+perfectly still.  Evidently the sentinel was satisfied that his fancy had
+been making merry with him, as he did not look further at the shadow,
+and Dick, after waiting two or three minutes, resumed his slow creeping.
+
+He reached the edge, shoved the board into it, and dropped gently into
+the water beside it, submerged to the head.  Then, pushing his support
+before him, he struck out for the middle of the stream.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE TAKING OF VICKSBURG
+
+
+Dick was a fine swimmer, he had a good stout plank, and the waters of the
+river were warm.  He felt that the chief dangers were passed, and that
+the muddy Mississippi would now bear him safely to the blockading fleet
+below.  He gave the plank another shove, sending it farther out into
+the stream, and then raised himself up until his elbows rested upon it.
+He could thus float gently with a little propulsion from his legs to the
+place where he wanted to go.
+
+He saw lights along the bluff and the bar below, and then, with a sudden
+shoot of alarm he noticed a dim shadow move slowly from the shore.
+It was a long boat, holding a dozen rowers, and several men armed with
+rifles, and it was coming toward him.  He did not know whether it was
+merely an ordinary patrol, or whether they had seen the darker blot on
+the stream that he and the plank made, but in any event the result would
+be the same.
+
+He slipped his arm off the plank and sank in the stream to the chin.
+Then, propelling it gently and without any splashing of the water,
+he continued to move down the stream.  He was hopeful that the riflemen
+would mistake him and his plank for one of those stumps or logs which the
+Mississippi carries so often on its bosom.
+
+The head of the boat turned from him a little, and he felt sure now that
+he would drift away unnoticed, but one of the soldiers suddenly raised
+his rifle and fired.  Dick heard the bullet clip the water close beside
+him, and he swam as hard as he could for a few moments.  Then he
+settled again into quiet, as he saw the boat was not coming toward him.
+Doubtless the man had merely fired the shot to satisfy himself that it
+was really a log, and if Dick allowed it to float naturally he would be
+convinced.
+
+It was a tremendous trial of nerves to run the gantlet in this way,
+but as it was that or nothing he exerted all his will upon his body,
+and let himself float slowly, sunk again to the mouth and with his head
+thrown back, so it would present only a few inches above the surface.
+
+The boat turned, and seemed once upon the point of coming toward him.
+He could hear the creaking of the oars and the men talking, but they
+turned again suddenly and rowed up the stream.  Again, his fate had hung
+on a chance impulse.  He drifted slowly on until the town and the bluffs
+sank in the darkness.  Then he drew himself upon his plank and swam,
+doubling his speed.  He knew that some of the Union gunboats lay not
+far below, and, when he rounded a curve, he saw a light in the stream,
+but near the shore.
+
+He approached cautiously, knowing that the men on the vessel would be on
+guard against secret attack, and presently he discerned the outlines of a
+sidewheel steamer, converted into a warship and bearing guns.  He dropped
+down by the side of his plank until he was quite close, and then, raising
+himself upon it again, he shouted with all his voice: "Ship ahoy!"
+
+He did not know whether that was the customary method of hailing on the
+Mississippi, but it was a memory from his nautical reading, and so he
+shouted a second and yet a third time at the top of his voice: "Ship
+ahoy!"  Figures bearing rifles appeared at the side, and a rough voice
+demanded in language highly unparliamentary who was there and what he,
+she or it wanted.
+
+Dick was in a genial mood.  He had escaped with an ease that surprised
+him, and the warmth of the water in which he was immersed had saved
+him from cramp or chill.  The spirit of recklessness seized him again.
+He threw himself astride his plank, and called out:
+
+"A detachment of the army of the United States escaped from captivity in
+Vicksburg, and wishing to rejoin it.  It's infantry, not marines, and it
+needs land."
+
+"Then advance infantry and give the countersign."
+
+"Grant and Victory," replied Dick in a loud, clear voice.
+
+A laugh came from the steamer, and the rough voice said again:
+
+"Let the detachment advance again, and holding up its hands, show itself."
+
+Dick paddled closer and, steadying himself as well as he could, threw up
+his hands.  The light of a ship's lantern was thrown directly on his face,
+and the same voice ordered men to take a small boat and get him.
+
+When Dick stepped upon the deck of the steamer, water streaming from
+his clothes, several men looked at him curiously.  One in a dingy blue
+uniform he believed to be the owner of the rough voice.  But his face was
+not rough.
+
+"Who are you?" asked the man.
+
+"Lieutenant Richard Mason of Colonel Winchester's regiment in the army
+of General Grant, sent several days ago with a message to the fleet, but
+driven by Confederate scouts and skirmishers into Vicksburg, where he lay
+hidden, seeking a chance of escape."
+
+"And he found it to-night, coming down the river like a big catfish."
+
+"He did, sir.  He could find no other way, and he arrived on the useful
+board which is now floating away on the current."
+
+"What proof have you that you are what you say."
+
+"That I saw you before you saw me and hailed you."
+
+"It's not enough."
+
+"Then here is the message that I was to have delivered to the commander
+of the fleet.  It's pretty wet, but I think you can make it out."
+
+He drew the dispatch from the inside pocket of his waistcoat.  It was
+soaked through, but when they turned the ship's lantern upon it the
+captain could make out its tenor and the names.  Doubt could exist no
+longer and he clapped his hands heartily upon the lad's shoulder.
+
+"Come into the cabin and have something to eat and dry clothes," he said.
+"This is the converted steamer Union, and I'm its commander, Captain
+William Hays.  I judge that you've had an extraordinary time."
+
+"I have, captain, and the hardest of it all was when I saw our army
+repulsed to-day."
+
+"It was bad and the wounded are still lying on the field, but it doesn't
+mean that Vicksburg will have a single moment of rest.  Listen to that,
+will you, lieutenant?"
+
+The far boom of a cannon came, and Dick knew that its shell would break
+over the unhappy town.  But he had grown so used to the cannonade that
+it made little impression upon him, and, shrugging his shoulders, he
+descended the gangway with the captain.
+
+Clothing that would fit him well enough was found, and once more he was
+dry and warm.  Hot coffee and good food were brought him, and while he
+ate and drank Captain Hays asked him many questions.  What was the rebel
+strength in Vicksburg?  Were they exultant over their victory of the day?
+Did they think they could hold out?  What food supply did they have?
+
+Dick answered all the questions openly and frankly as far as he could.
+He really knew little or nothing about those of importance, and, as for
+himself, he merely said that he had hid in a cave, many of which had been
+dug in Vicksburg.  He did not mention Colonel Woodville or his daughter.
+
+"Now," said Captain Hays, when he finished his supper, "you can have
+a bunk.  Yes, lieutenant, you must take it.  I could put you ashore
+to-night, but it's not worth while.  Get a good night's sleep, and we'll
+see to-morrow."
+
+Dick knew that he was right, and, quelling his impatience, he lay down in
+one of the bunks and slept until morning.
+
+Then, after a solid breakfast, he went ashore with the good wishes of
+Captain Hays, and, a few hours later, he was with the Union army and his
+own regiment.  Again he was welcomed as one dead and his own heart was
+full of rejoicing because all of his friends were alive.  Warner alone
+had been wounded, a bullet cutting into his shoulder, but not hurting him
+much.  He wore a bandage, his face had a becoming pallor, and Pennington
+charged that he was making the most of it.
+
+"But it was an awful day," said Warner, "and there's a lot of gloom
+in the camp.  Still, we're not moving away and the reinforcements are
+coming."
+
+Dick explained to Colonel Winchester why he had failed in his mission,
+and the colonel promised to report in turn to the commander that the hand
+of God had intervened.  Dick's conscience was now at rest, and he resumed
+at once his duties with the regiment.
+
+Many days passed.  While Grant did not make any other attack upon
+Vicksburg his circle of steel grew tighter, and the rain of shells and
+bombs upon the devoted town never ceased.  Reinforcements poured forward.
+His army rose to nearly eighty thousand men, and Johnston, hovering near,
+gathering together what men he could, did not dare to strike.  Dick was
+reminded more than once of Caesar's famous siege of Alesia, about which
+he had read not so long ago in Dr. Russell's academy at Pendleton.
+
+There were long, long days of intrenching, skirmishing and idleness.
+May turned into June, and still the steel coil enclosed Vicksburg.
+Here the Union men were hopeful, but the news from the East was bad.
+Not much filtered through, and none of it struck a happy note.  Lee,
+with his invincible legions, was still sweeping northward.  Doubtless the
+Confederate hosts now trod the soil of a free State, and Dick and his
+comrades feared in their very souls that Lee was marching to another
+great victory.
+
+"I wish I could hear from Harry Kenton," said Dick to Warner.  "I'd like
+to know whether he passed through Chancellorsville safely."
+
+"Don't you worry about him," said Warner.  "That rebel cousin of yours
+has luck.  He also has skill.  Let x equal luck and y skill.  Now x plus
+y equals the combination of luck and skill, which is safety.  That proves
+to me mathematically that he is unharmed and that he is riding northward--
+to defeat, I hope."
+
+"We've got to win here," said Dick.  "If we don't, I'm thinking the cause
+of the Union will be more than doubtful.  We don't seem to have the
+generals in the East that we have in the West.  Our leaders hang on here
+and they don't overestimate the enemy."
+
+"That's so," said Pennington.  "Now, I wonder what 'Pap' Thomas is doing."
+
+"He's somewhere in Tennessee, I suppose, watching Bragg," said Dick.
+"That's a man I like, and, I think, after this affair here is over,
+we may go back to his command.  If we do succeed in taking Vicksburg,
+it seems likely to me that the heavy fighting will be up there in
+Tennessee, where Bragg's army is."
+
+"Do you know if your uncle, Colonel Kenton, is in Vicksburg?"
+
+"I don't think so.  In fact, I'm sure he isn't.  His regiment is with
+Bragg.  Well, George, what does your algebra tell us?"
+
+Warner had taken out his little volume again and was studying it
+intently.  But he raised his head long enough to reply.
+
+"I have just achieved the solution of a very important mathematical
+problem," he answered in precise tones.  "An army of about thirty-five
+thousand men occupies a town located on a river.  It is besieged by
+another army of about seventy-five thousand men flushed with victory.
+The besiegers occupy the river with a strong fleet.  They are also led
+by a general who has shown skill and extraordinary tenacity, while the
+commander of the besieged has not shown much of either quality and must
+feel great discouragement."
+
+"But you're only stating the side of the besieged."
+
+"Don't interrupt.  It's impolite.  I mean to be thoroughly fair.  Now
+come the factors favoring the besieged.  The assailing army, despite its
+superior numbers, is far in the enemy's country.  It may be attacked at
+any time by another army outside, small, but led by a very able general.
+Now, you have both sides presented to you, but I have already arrived at
+the determining factor.  What would you say it is, Dick?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"You haven't used your reasoning powers.  Remember that the man who not
+merely thinks, but who thinks hard and continuously always wins.  It's
+very simple.  The answer is in four letters, f-o-o-d, food.  As we know
+positively, Pemberton was able to provision Vicksburg for five or six
+weeks.  We can't break in and he can't break out.  When his food is
+exhausted, as it soon will be, he'll have to give up.  The siege of
+Vicksburg is over.  I know everything, except the exact date."
+
+Dick was inclined to believe that Warner was right, but he forgot about
+his prediction, because a mail came down the river that afternoon,
+and he received a letter from his mother, his beautiful young mother,
+who often seemed just like an elder sister.
+
+She was in Pendleton, she wrote, staying comfortably in their home.
+The town was occupied by three companies of veteran Union troops who
+behaved well.  They were always glad to have a garrison of good soldiers
+whether Federal or Confederate--sometimes it was one and sometimes the
+other.  But she thought the present Union force would remain quite a
+while, as she did not look for the reappearance of the Southern army in
+Kentucky.  But if the town were left without troops she would go back to
+her relatives in the Bluegrass, as Bill Skelly's band to the eastward in
+the mountains was raiding and plundering and had become a great menace.
+Guerillas were increasing in numbers in those doubtful regions.
+
+"The regular troops will have to deal with those fellows later on,"
+said Dick.
+
+"Dr. Russell has had a letter from Harry Kenton," continued Mrs. Mason.
+"It was written from some point near the Pennsylvania line, and, while
+Harry did not say so in his letter, I know that General Lee is expecting
+a great victory in the North.  Harry was not hurt at Chancellorsville,
+but he says he does not see how he escaped, the fire of the cannon and
+rifles being more awful than any that he had ever seen before.  He was
+present when General Jackson was mortally wounded, and he seems to have
+been deeply affected by it.  He writes that the Confederacy could better
+have lost a hundred thousand men."
+
+There was more in the letter, but it was strictly personal to Dick,
+and it closed with her heartfelt prayer that God, who had led him safely
+so far, would lead him safely through all.
+
+After reading it several times he put it in a hidden pocket.  Soldiers
+did not receive many letters and they always treasured them.  Ah, his
+dear, beautiful young mother!  How could anyone ever harm her!  Yet the
+thought of Skelly and his outlaws made him uneasy.  He hoped that the
+Union garrison would remain in Pendleton permanently.
+
+His mind was soon compelled to turn back to the siege.  They were digging
+trenches and creeping closer and closer.  Warner had made no mistake
+in his mathematics.  The army and the people in Vicksburg had begun to
+suffer from a lack of food.  They were down to half rations.  They had
+neither tea nor coffee, and medicines were exhausted.  Many and many a
+time they looked forth from their hills and prayed for Johnston, but he
+could not come.  Always the Union flag floated before them, and the ring
+of steel so strong and broad was contracting inch by inch.
+
+The Northern engineers ran mines under the Confederate works.  They used
+every device of ingenious minds to push the siege.  Spies brought word
+that all food would soon be gone in Vicksburg, and Grant, grim of purpose,
+took another hitch in the steel belt about the hopeless town.  The
+hostile earthworks and trenches were now so near that the men could hear
+one another talking.  Sometimes in a lull of the firing they would come
+out and exchange tobacco or news.  It was impossible for the officers to
+prevent it, and they really did not seek to do so, as the men fought just
+as well when they returned to their works.
+
+June now drew to a close and the great heats of July were at hand.
+Dick was convinced that the defense of Vicksburg was drawing to a like
+close.  They had proof that some of the irregulars in Vicksburg had
+escaped through the lines and he was convinced that Slade would be among
+them.  They were the rats and Vicksburg was the sinking ship.
+
+They heard that Johnston had gathered together twenty-five thousand men
+and was at last marching to the relief of the town.  Dick believed that
+Grant must have laughed one of his grimmest laughs.  They knew that
+Johnston's men were worn and half-starved, and had been harassed by other
+Union troops.  Johnston was skillful, but he would only be a lean and
+hungry wolf attacking a grizzly bear.  He was sure that all danger from
+him had passed.
+
+Now, as they closed in the Northern guns increased their fire.  It seemed
+to Dick that they could have blown away the whole plateau of Vicksburg by
+this time.  The storm of shells raked the town, and he was glad that the
+people had been able to dig caves for refuge.  Colonel Woodville must
+be doing some of his greatest swearing now.  Dick thought of him with
+sympathy and friendliness.
+
+"I don't think it can last much longer, Mr. Mason," said Sergeant Daniel
+Whitley on the morning of the second of July.  "Their guns don't answer
+ours often and it means that they're out of ammunition, or almost.
+Besides, you can stand shells and bullets easier than lack of food.
+'Pears to me I can nearly feel 'em crumpling up before us."
+
+Trumpets blew the next morning.  All the firing ceased suddenly and the
+three lads saw a Southern general with several officers of lower rank,
+riding forward under a white flag.  It was Bowen, who came out to meet
+Grant.
+
+Dick drew a deep, long breath.  He knew that this was the end.  So did
+his comrades.  A cheer started and swept part of the way along the lines,
+but the officers quickly stopped it.
+
+"Vicksburg is ours," said Dick.
+
+"Looks like it," said Warner.
+
+But Grant told Bowen that he would treat only with Pemberton, and after
+delays General Pemberton came out.  General Grant went forward to meet
+him.  The two stood alone under a tree within seventy yards of the
+Confederate lines and talked.
+
+Chance or fortune presented a startling coincidence.  Almost at the very
+moment that Grant and Pemberton met under the tree Pickett's men were
+rising to their feet and preparing for the immortal but fatal charge at
+Gettysburg.  While the cannon had ceased suddenly at Vicksburg they were
+thundering from many score mouths at Gettysburg.  Fortune was launching
+two thunderbolts upon the Confederacy at the same moment.  They were to
+strike upon fields a thousand miles apart, and the double blow was to be
+mortal.
+
+But Dick knew nothing of Gettysburg then, nor was he to know anything
+until days afterward.  He certainly had no thought of the East while he
+watched the two generals under the tree.  Dick's comrades were with him,
+but so intense was their curiosity that none of them spoke.  Thousands of
+men were gazing with the same eagerness, and the Southern earthworks were
+covered with the defenders.
+
+It was one of the most dramatic scenes in Dick's life, the two men under
+the tree, and the tens of thousands who watched.  Nobody moved.  It
+seemed that they scarcely breathed.  After the continuous roar of firing
+the sudden silence was oppressive, and Dick felt the blood pounding in
+his ears.
+
+The heat was close and heavy.  Black clouds were floating up in the west,
+and lightning glimmered now and then on the horizon.  Although the storm
+threatened no one noticed.  All eyes were still for Grant and Pemberton.
+After a while each returned to his own command, and there was an
+armistice until the next day, when the full surrender was made, and Grant
+and his officers rode into Vicksburg.  At the same time Lee was gathering
+his men for the retreat into the South from the stricken field of
+Gettysburg.  It was the Fourth of July, the eighty-seventh anniversary of
+the Declaration of Independence, and no one could have possibly conceived
+a more striking celebration.
+
+As soon as Dick was free for a little space he hurried to the ravine, and,
+as before, found there the open door.  He passed in without hesitation.
+
+The light as of old filtered into the room, and Colonel Woodville lay
+just as before in bed with his great bald head upon the pillow.  Miss
+Woodville sat beside the bed, reading aloud from Addison.  Dick's step
+was light, but the colonel heard him and held up a finger.  The lad
+paused until Miss Woodville, finishing a long sentence, closed the book.
+Then the colonel, raising a little the great white thatch of his eyebrows,
+said:
+
+"Young sir, you have returned again, and, personally, you are welcome,
+but I do not conceive how you can stand the company you keep.  My
+daughter informs me that the Yankees are in Vicksburg, and I have no
+reason to doubt the statement."
+
+He paused, and Dick said:
+
+"Yes, Colonel, it's true."
+
+"I suppose we must endure it.  I should have gone myself and have offered
+my sword to General Grant, but this confounded leg of mine is still weak."
+
+"At least, sir, we come with something besides arms.  May I bring you
+rations?"
+
+"You are generous, young man, and my daughter and I appreciate the
+obvious nature of your errand here.  Speaking for both of us, a little
+food will not be unwelcome."
+
+"Tell me first, what has become of your nephew.  Has he escaped from the
+city?"
+
+"He slipped out nearly a week ago, and will join his father's regiment
+in Bragg's command.  That scoundrel, Slade, is gone too.  Since the city
+had to be surrendered I would gladly have made you a present of Slade,
+but it's out of my power now."
+
+Dick soon returned with ample food for them and helped them later,
+when they moved to quarters outside in the shell-torn city.  Dick saw
+that they were comfortable, and then his mind turned toward Tennessee.
+Detachments from Grant's army were to be sent to that of Rosecrans,
+who was now heavily threatened by Bragg, and the Winchester regiment,
+which really belonged with him, was sure to go.
+
+The order to march soon came, and it was welcome.  The regiment, or
+rather what was left of it, promptly embarked upon one of the river
+steamers and started northward.
+
+As they stood on the deck and looked down at the yellow waters in which
+Dick had swum on his trusty plank Warner said:
+
+"I've news of importance.  It arrived in a telegram to General Grant,
+and I heard it just as we were coming on board."
+
+"What is it?" asked Dick.
+
+"General Lee was defeated in a great battle at a little place called
+Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, and has retreated into Virginia."
+
+"Gettysburg and Vicksburg!" exclaimed Dick.  "The wheel has turned nearly
+'round.  The Confederacy is doomed now."
+
+"I think so, too," said Warner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AN AFFAIR OF THE MOUNTAINS
+
+
+Although they were on board one of the fastest steamers in the Union
+service, Dick and his comrades had a long journey by river.  But it
+was not unpleasant.  They enjoyed the rest and ease after the weeks of
+fighting and service in the trenches before Vicksburg.  The absence of
+war and the roar of cannon and rifles was like a happy dream between days
+of fighting.  As they went northward on the great river it almost seemed
+as if peace had returned.
+
+Warner studied his algebra and two other books of mathematics which he
+was lucky enough to find on board.  Pennington slept a great deal of the
+time.
+
+"I learned it on the plains from the Indians," he said.  "When they don't
+have anything to do they sleep and gather strength for the hour of need.
+I think the time is coming soon when they won't let me sleep at all,
+and then I can draw on the great supply I have in stock."
+
+"Likely enough it's near," said Dick dreamily.  "They say Bragg has a
+great army now, and you know that, while Rosecrans is slow he's pretty
+sure.  Thomas and McCook and the others are with him, too.  I expect to
+see 'Pap' Thomas again.  He's a general to my liking."
+
+"And to mine, too," said Pennington, "but we can talk about him later on,
+because I'm going to sleep again inside of a minute."
+
+Dick was not averse to silence, as he, too, was half asleep; that is,
+he was in a dreamy stage, and he was at peace with the world and his
+fellow men.  From under drooping eyelids he was vaguely watching the low
+shores of the Mississippi, and the great mass of yellow waters moving
+onward from the far vague forests of the North in their journey of four
+thousand miles to the gulf.
+
+Like all boys of the great valley, Dick always felt the romance and spell
+of the Mississippi.  It was to him and them one of the greatest facts
+in the natural world, the grave of De Soto, the stream on which their
+fathers and forefathers had explored and traded and fought since their
+beginnings.  Now it was fulfilling its titanic role again, and the Union
+fleets upon its bosom were splitting the Confederacy asunder.
+
+He, too, fell asleep before long.  Warner glanced at his comrades who
+slept so well on a hard bench, and his look was rather envious.  He
+returned his beloved algebra to his pocket, leaned back on the bench also,
+and, although he had not believed it possible, slept also inside of five
+minutes.  Colonel Winchester passing smiled sympathetically, but his
+glance lingered longest on Dick.
+
+After days on the water the regiment disembarked, marched more days
+across the country, joining other regiments on the way, and reached the
+rear guard of the army of Rosecrans, which was already marching southward
+in the direction of Chattanooga to meet that of Bragg.  They advanced
+now over the Cumberland mountains through a country wild and thinly
+inhabited.  The summer was waning, but it was cool on the mountains and
+in the passes, nor was it so dry as the year before, when they fought
+that terrible battle at Perryville in Kentucky.
+
+Dick was glad to be again in the high country, the land of firm soil and
+of many clear, rushing streams.  Heart and lungs expanded, when he looked
+upon the long ridges, clothed in deep forest, and breathed the pure air
+that blew down from their summits.  Yet his dream of peace was over.
+As they advanced through the forests and passes they were harassed
+incessantly by sharpshooters on the slopes, who melted away before them,
+but who returned on the very heels of the vain pursuit to vex them again
+with bullets.
+
+They heard soon that the most daring of these bands was led by a man
+named Slade, and Dick's pulse took a jump.  He felt in a curious sort of
+way that this man Slade was still following him.  It seemed more than a
+decree of chance that their fates should be intertwined.  He hoped that
+Slade would never hear how he had been hidden in that hole in the ravine
+with the Woodvilles.  Trouble could come of it for gallant young Victor
+Woodville, and even for his uncle.  He was sure that Victor was now with
+Bragg and they might meet face to face again.
+
+As they rode through a defile and came into a wide valley they saw before
+them an extensive Union camp, and they were overjoyed to learn that it
+was the division of Thomas, the general to whom they were to report.
+Dick had once received the personal thanks of Thomas, and the grave,
+able man inspired him with immense respect, mingled with affection.
+
+He stood before Thomas in his tent that evening, Colonel Winchester
+having yielded to his request to take him with him when he reported the
+arrival of his regiment.  Thomas, usually so taciturn, delighted the soul
+of the lad by remembering him at once.
+
+"It was you, Lieutenant Mason, who came to me there in the Kentucky
+mountains with the dispatches," he said, "and you were also with us at
+Perryville and Stone River."
+
+"I was, sir," said Dick, flushing with pride.
+
+"And you were with General Grant at the taking of Vicksburg!  It was a
+great exploit, and it has lifted us up mightily.  But I'm glad to have
+you back along with Colonel Winchester and the rest of his brave lads.
+I think you'll see action before long, action perhaps on a greater scale
+than any witnessed hitherto in the West."
+
+Dick saluted and withdrew.  He knew that a young lieutenant must not stay
+too long in the presence of a commanding general and he quickly rejoined
+Warner and Pennington.
+
+"How's the old man?" asked Pennington, with the familiarity of youth,
+which was not disrespectful in the absence of the "old man."
+
+"'Pap' Thomas is looking well," replied Dick.  "I fancy that his
+digestion was never better.  He did not act in a belligerent way, but I
+think he's hunting for a fight."
+
+"Since you and Warner and I have arrived he can begin it."
+
+"I think it's coming," said Dick earnestly.  "Often you can feel when
+things are moving to some end, and I'm sure that we'll measure strength
+again with Bragg before the autumn has gone far."
+
+The valley in which the camp lay was green and beautiful, and a deep,
+clear little river from the mountains, ran rushing, through it.  The
+three lads lay on their blankets near the bank and listened to the
+musical sweep of the stream.  Pennington suddenly sprang up and hailed:
+
+"Hey, Ohio, is that you?  Come here!"
+
+A tall youth emerged from the dusk and looked at them inquiringly.
+
+"Ohio," said Pennington, "don't you remember your friends?"
+
+The long, lean lad looked again, and then he was enthusiastically shaking
+hands with each in turn.
+
+"Remember you!" he exclaimed.  "Of course I do.  If it hadn't been so
+dark I'd have seen you and called to you first.  I'm glad you're alive.
+It's a lot to live in these times.  I tried to find out about you fellows
+but couldn't.  We came in a detachment ahead of you.  But if you'll
+invite me, I'll stay awhile with you and talk."
+
+They offered him a blanket and he stretched out upon it, turning his eyes
+up to the sky, in which the stars were now coming.
+
+"What are you thinking about, Ohio?" asked Dick.
+
+"I'm thinking how fast I'm growing old.  Two years and a half in the war,
+but it's twenty-five years in fact.  I hadn't finished school when I left
+home and here I am, a veteran of more battles than any soldiers have
+fought since the days of old Bonaparte.  If I happen to live through
+this war, which I mean to do, I wonder how I'll ever settle down at home
+again.  Father will say to me: 'Get the plough and break up the five-acre
+field for corn,' and me, maybe a veteran of a dozen pitched battles in
+every one of which anywhere from one hundred thousand to two hundred
+thousand men have been engaged, not to mention fifty or a hundred smaller
+battles and four or five hundred skirmishes.
+
+"When the flies begin to buzz around me I'll think they make a mighty
+poor noise compared with the roar of three or four hundred big cannon and
+a hundred thousand rifles that I've listened to so often.  If a yellow
+jacket should sting me, I'd say what a little thing it is, compared with
+the piece of shrapnel that hit me at some battle not yet fought.  Maybe
+I'd find things so quiet I just couldn't stand it.  Wars are mighty
+unsettling."
+
+"I'm thinking," said Dick, "that before this war is over all of us will
+get enough of it to last a lifetime.  We've got the edge on 'em now,
+since Vicksburg and Gettysburg, but the Graybacks are not yet beaten by a
+long shot.  We've heard how Lee drew off from Gettysburg carrying all his
+guns and supplies, and even with Gettysburg we haven't been doing so well
+in the East as we have in the West.  You know that, Ohio?"
+
+"Of course, I do.  But I think the Johnnies have made their high-water
+mark.  Great work our army did down there at Vicksburg, and we'll have
+the chance to do just as well against Bragg.  We'll defeat him, of
+course.  Now, Mason, notice that light flickering on the mountain up
+there!"
+
+He pointed to the crest of a ridge two or three miles away, where Dick
+saw a point of flame appearing and reappearing, and answered by another
+point farther down, which flickered in the same manner.
+
+"Signals of some kind, I suppose," replied Dick, "but I don't know who
+makes them or what they mean."
+
+"I don't know what they mean, either," said Ohio; "but I can guess pretty
+well who's making them.  That's Slade."
+
+"Slade!" said Dick.
+
+"Yes, you seem to have heard of him?"
+
+"So I have, and I've seen him, also.  I heard, too, that he was up here
+making things unhappy for our side.  He was in Vicksburg, although you
+may not have heard of him there, but he got out before the surrender.
+A cunning fellow.  A sort of land pirate."
+
+"He's all of that.  Since we've been coming through the mountains he and
+his band have picked off a lot of our men.  Those signals must mean that
+they're preparing for another raid.  I shouldn't like to be a half-mile
+from our lines to-night."
+
+"Why can't we smoke him out, Ohio?"
+
+"Because when we're half way up the slope he and his men are gone on the
+other side.  Besides, they can rake us with bullets from ambush, while
+we're climbing up the ridge.  And when we get there, they're gone.
+It's these mountains that give the irregulars their chance.  See, two
+lights are winking at each other now!"
+
+"How far apart would you say they are, Ohio?"
+
+"A mile, maybe, but one is much higher than the other up the mountain.
+The lower light, doubtless, is signaling information about us to the
+higher.  I see your colonel and our colonel talking together.  Maybe
+we're going to set a trap.  It would be a good thing if we could clean
+out those fellows."
+
+"I'm thinking that your guess is a good one," said Dick, as he rose to
+his feet, "because Colonel Winchester is beckoning to me now."
+
+"And there's a call for me, too," said Ohio, rising.  "Talk of a thing
+and it happens.  We're surely going for those lights."
+
+They had reckoned right.  General Thomas, when he saw the signals,
+had summoned some of his best officers and they had talked together
+earnestly.  The general had not said much before, but the incessant
+sharpshooting from the bushes and slopes as they marched southward had
+caused him intense annoyance, and, if continued, he knew that it would
+hurt the spirit of the troops.
+
+"We shall try to trap Slade's band to-night," said Colonel Winchester to
+Dick and the other young officers who gathered around him.  "We think he
+has three or four hundred men and my regiment can deal with that number.
+We will defile to the right without noise and make our way up the
+mountain.  An Ohio regiment, which can also deal with Slade if it catches
+him, will defile to the left.  Maybe we can trap these irregulars between
+us.  Sergeant Whitley will guide my force."
+
+The sergeant stepped forward, proud of the honor and trust.  Dick,
+looking at him in the moonlight, said to himself for the hundredth time
+that he was a magnificent specimen of American manhood, thick, powerful,
+intelligent, respectful to his superior officers, who often knew less
+than he did, a veteran from whom woods, hills, and plains hid few
+secrets.  He thought it a good thing that the sergeant was to be their
+guide, because he would lead them into no ambush.
+
+As Dick turned away for departure Ohio said to him:
+
+"We'll meet on the mountain side, and I hope we'll catch our game,
+but don't you fellows fire into us in the dark."
+
+Dick promised and his regiment marched away toward the slope.  All were
+on foot, of course, and they had received strict instructions to make no
+noise.  They turned northward, left the camp behind them, and were soon
+hidden in the dark.
+
+Dick was at the head of the column with Colonel Winchester and the
+sergeant.  Warner and Pennington were further back.  The darkness was
+heavy in the shadow of the slope and among the bushes, but, looking
+backward, Dick clearly saw the camp of General Thomas with its thousands
+of men and dozens of fires.  Figures passed and repassed before the
+flames, and the fused noises of a great camp came from the valley.
+
+Dick took only a glance or two.  His whole attention now was for the
+sergeant, who was looking here and there and sniffing the air, like a
+great hound seeking the trail.  The soldier had melted into the scout,
+and Colonel Winchester, knowing him so well, had, in effect, turned the
+regiment over to him.
+
+Dick and other young officers were sent back through the column to see
+that they marched without noise.  It was not difficult to enforce the
+orders, as the men were filled with the ardor of the hunt, and would do
+everything to insure its success.  When Dick came back to the head of the
+column he merely heard the tread of feet and the rustling of uniforms
+against the bushes behind them.
+
+The sergeant led on with unerring skill and instinct.  They were rising
+fast on the slope, and the great forest received and hid them as if they
+were its wild children returned to their home.  The foliage was so dense
+that Dick caught only flitting glimpses of the camp below, although many
+fires were yet burning there.
+
+The wisdom of putting the regiment into the hands of the sergeant was now
+shown.  Rising to the trust, he called up all his reserves of wilderness
+lore.  He listened attentively to the voice of every night bird, because
+it might not be real, but instead the imitation call of man to man.
+He searched in every opening under the moonlight for traces of footsteps,
+which he alone could have seen, and, when at last he found them, Dick,
+despite the dusk, saw his figure expand and his eyes flash.  He had been
+kneeling down examining the imprints and when he arose the colonel asked:
+
+"What is it, Whitley?"
+
+"Men have passed here, sir, and, as they couldn't have been ours, they
+were the enemy.  The tracks lead south on the slope, and they must have
+been going that way to join Slade's command."
+
+"Then you think, Sergeant, we should follow this trail?"
+
+"Undoubtedly, sir, but we must look out for an ambush.  These men know
+the mountains thoroughly, and if we were to walk into their trap they
+might cut us to pieces."
+
+"Then we won't walk into it.  Lead on, Sergeant.  If the enemy is near,
+I know that you will find him in time."
+
+The sergeant's brown face flushed with pride, but he followed on the
+trail without a word and behind him came the whole regiment, implicit in
+its trust, and winding without noise like a great coiling serpent through
+the forest.
+
+Dick was a woodsman himself, and he kept close to the sergeant, watching
+his methods, and seeking also what he could find.  While they lost the
+trail now and then, he saw the sergeant recover it in the openings.
+He noted, too, that it was increasing in size.  Little trails were
+flowing into the big one like brooks into a river, and the main course
+was uniformly south, but bearing slightly upward on the slope.
+
+The sergeant stopped at the melancholy cry of an owl, apparently three
+or four hundred yards ahead.  Both he and Dick raised their heads and
+listened for the answer, which they felt sure was ready.  The long,
+sinister hoot in reply came from a point considerably farther away,
+but at about the same height on the slope.
+
+"They have two forces, sir," said the sergeant to Colonel Winchester,
+"and I think they're about to unite."
+
+"As a wilderness fighter, what would you suggest, Sergeant?"
+
+"To wait here a little and lie hidden in the brush.  We're rightly afraid
+of an ambush if we go on, then why not make the same danger theirs?
+I think it likely that the other force is coming this way.  Anyway,
+we can tell in a minute or two, 'cause them owls are sure to hoot again.
+If I'm right, we can catch 'em napping."
+
+"An excellent idea, Sergeant.  Ah! there are the signals you predicted!"
+
+The owl hooted again from the same point directly in front, and then came
+the reply of the other, now nearer.  The sergeant drew a deep breath of
+satisfaction.
+
+"Yes, sir, I was right," he said.  "Their meeting place is straight in
+front.  Will you let me slip forward a little through the brush and see?"
+
+"Go ahead, Sergeant.  We need all the information we can get, but don't
+walk into any trap yourself, leaving us here without eyes or ears."
+
+"Never fear, sir.  I won't be caught."
+
+Then he disappeared with a suddenness that made the colonel and Dick
+gasp.  He was with them, and then he was not.  But he returned in
+ten minutes, and, although Dick could not see it in his face, he was
+triumphant.
+
+"There's a glade not more'n four hundred yards ahead," he whispered to
+the colonel, "and about a hundred and fifty men, armed with long rifles,
+are lying down in it waiting for a second force, which I judge from the
+cry of the owl will be there inside of five minutes."
+
+"Then," said Colonel Winchester, breathing fast, "we'll wait ten minutes
+and attack.  It would be a great stroke to wipe out Slade's band.
+I'm sorry for those Ohio fellows, but the luck's ours to-night, or I
+should say that the sergeant's skill as a trailer has given us the
+chance."
+
+It was soon known along the black, winding line that the enemy was at
+hand, and the men were eager to attack, but they were ordered to have
+patience for a little while.  Their leader wished to destroy Slade's
+whole force at one stroke.
+
+Colonel Winchester took out his watch and held it before him in the faint
+moonlight.  He would not move until the ten minutes exactly had passed.
+Then he closed the watch and gave the signal, but stationed officers
+along the line to see that the men made as little noise as possible.
+The long black column moved again through the forest and Dick, full of
+excitement was at its head with the colonel and the sergeant.
+
+They reached a slope, crept up it, and then spread out, as they knew that
+the valley and the enemy were within rifle shot.  Dick, glancing through
+the bushes, saw the glitter of steel and caught the murmur of voices.
+He knew that their presence was not yet suspected, and he did not like
+the idea of firing from ambush upon anybody, but there was no occasion
+for testing his scruples, as the advance of so many men created noise
+sufficient to reach the alert ears in the glade.
+
+"Up, men!  The enemy!" he heard a voice shout.  Colonel Winchester at the
+same moment ordered his men to fire and charge with the bayonet.
+
+A terrible volley was poured into the valley, and it seemed to Dick that
+half of Slade's force went down, but as they rushed forward to finish
+the task they met a fire that caused many of the Union soldiers to drop.
+Slade was evidently a man of ability.  Dick saw him springing about and
+blowing a little silver whistle, which he knew was a call to rally.
+
+But the surprise was too sudden and great.  The irregulars, fighting hard,
+were driven out of the valley and into the woods on the upper side of the
+glade.  Sheltered in the underbrush, they might have made a good defense
+there, but a sudden tremendous cheer arose, and they were charged in the
+flank by the Ohio regiment, coming up on the run.
+
+Spurred by emulation the Winchester men also rushed into the underbrush,
+and those of Slade's men who had not fallen quickly threw down their
+arms.  But they did not catch the leader, nor did they know what had
+become of him, until Dick caught sight of a little, weazened figure under
+an enormous wide-brimmed hat running with three or four others along the
+mountain-side.
+
+"Slade!  Slade!" he cried, pointing, and instantly a score, Dick and the
+sergeant among them, were hotfoot after the fugitives.  Several shots
+were fired, but none hit, and the chase lengthened out.
+
+Sergeant Whitley exclaimed to Dick:
+
+"We catch the pack, but if we don't catch the leader there'll be another
+pack soon."
+
+"Right you are!  We must have that little man under the big hat!"
+
+Dick heard panting breaths, and Warner and Pennington drew up by his side.
+
+"Slade's about to escape!" exclaimed Dick.  "We must get him!"
+
+"I'm running my best," said Warner.  "Look out!"  Slade suddenly faced
+about and fired a heavy pistol.  Dick had dropped down at Warner's
+warning cry and the bullet sang over his head.  The sergeant fired in
+return, but the light was too faint, and Slade and the three who were
+with him ran on unharmed.
+
+The pursuit, conducted with such vigor, soon led to the top of the
+mountain, and they began the descent of the far side.  Several more shots
+were fired, but they did no damage, and neither side was able to gain.
+Two of the fugitives turned aside into the woods, but the pursuit kept
+straight after Slade, and his remaining companion, a slender, youthful
+figure.
+
+"I think we'll get 'em," panted the sergeant.  As he spoke one of the
+little mountain rivers so numerous in that region came into view.
+It was narrow, but deep, and without hesitating an instant the fugitives
+sprang into it and shot down the stream, swimming with all their strength,
+and helped by the powerful current.
+
+Slade was in advance, and he was already disappearing in the shadows on
+the far bank, but his comrade, he of the slender figure, was still in the
+moonlight, which fell across his face for a moment.  A soldier raised his
+rifle to fire, but Dick stumbled and fell against him and the bullet went
+high in the air.
+
+The moment had been long enough for Dick to recognize Victor Woodville.
+He did not know how he happened to be with Slade, but he did not intend
+that he should be shot there in the water, and his impulse was quick
+enough to save Victor's life.  In another moment the young Mississippian
+was gone also in the shadows, and although several of the Union men swam
+the river they could discover no trace of either.
+
+"I'm sorry," said the sergeant as they walked back to the other side of
+the mountain, "that they got away."
+
+"Yes," said Dick, "it was too bad that Slade escaped."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE RIVER OF DEATH
+
+
+Dick knew that he had saved young Woodville's life, but his conscience
+was quite dear.  If he had the same chance he would do it over again,
+but he was sorry they had not caught Slade.  He felt no hostility toward
+the regular soldiers of the Confederacy, but he knew there were guerillas
+on their side, as well as his own, who would stop at nothing.  He
+remembered Skelly, who, claiming to be a Union partisan, nevertheless
+robbed and even killed those of either party whenever he felt it safe
+to do so.  Slade was his Southern complement, and he would surely get
+together a new force as venomous as the old.
+
+But Colonel Winchester and the commander of the Ohio regiment were full
+of pride in their exploit, as they had a right to be.  They had destroyed
+a swarm of wasps which had been buzzing and stinging almost beyond
+endurance, and they were still prouder when they received the thanks of
+General Thomas.
+
+The corps moved forward the next day, and soon the whole army was united
+under Rosecrans.  It was a powerful force, about ninety thousand men,
+the staunch fighters of the West, veterans of great battles and victories,
+and to the young officers it appeared invincible.  Their feeling that it
+was marching to another triumph was confirmed by the news that Bragg was
+retreating.
+
+Yet the two armies were so close to each other that the Northern vanguard
+skirmished with the Southern rearguard as they passed through the
+mountains.  At one point in a gap of the Cumberland Mountains the
+Southerners made a sharp resistance, but they were quickly driven from
+their position and the Union mass rolled slowly on.  Exultation among the
+troops increased.
+
+"We'll drive Bragg away down into the South against Grant," said Ohio to
+Dick, "and we'll crush him between the two arms of the vise.  That will
+finish everything in the West."
+
+While Dick was exultant, too, he had certain reservations.  He had seen a
+like confidence carried to disaster in the East, although it did not seem
+possible that the result here could be similar.
+
+"I don't think they'll keep on retreating forever, Ohio," he said.
+"All our supplies are coming from Nashville, and we are getting farther
+away from our base every day."
+
+But Ohio laughed.
+
+"Our chief task is to catch Bragg," he said.  "They said he was going to
+occupy Chattanooga and wait for us.  He's been in Chattanooga, but he
+didn't wait for us there.  He's left it already and gone on, anxious to
+reach the Gulf before winter, I suppose."
+
+The Union army in its turn entered Chattanooga, a little town of which
+Dick had seldom heard before, although he greatly admired its situation.
+The country about it was bold and romantic.  It stood in a sharp curve
+of the great river, the Tennessee.  Not far away was the lofty uplift of
+Lookout Mountain, a half-mile high, and there were long ridges between
+which creeks or little rivers flowed down to the Tennessee.
+
+One of these streams was the Chickamauga, which in the language of the
+Cherokee Indians who had once owned this region means "the river of
+death."  Why they called it so no one knew, but the name was soon to have
+a terrible fitness.  Chattanooga itself meant in the Cherokee tongue "the
+hawk's nest," and anybody could see the aptness of the term.
+
+While Lookout Mountain was the loftiest summit, some of the other ridges
+rose almost as high, through the gaps of which the Northern army must
+pass if it continued the pursuit of Bragg.
+
+September had now come and the winds were growing crisper in the high
+country.  The feel of autumn was in the air, and the coolness made the
+marching brisker.  The division to which Dick belonged was advancing
+slowly.  He often saw Thomas, and his admiration for the grave, silent
+man grew.  It was said that Thomas was slow, but that he never made
+mistakes.  Now the rumor was spreading that he had warned Rosecrans to be
+cautious, that Bragg had a powerful army and when he reached favorable
+positions, would certainly turn and fight.
+
+Not many were impressed by these reports.  They merely said it was "Pap"
+Thomas' way of looking at the dark side of things first.  Hadn't they
+driven Bragg through the Cumberland Mountains and out of Chattanooga,
+and now they would soon be on his heels deep down in Georgia.  But Dick,
+noticing Colonel Winchester's serious face, surmised that he at least
+shared the opinion of his chief.  And when the lad looked up at the great
+coils and ridges he felt that, in truth, they might go too far.  If the
+Northern men were veterans, so were the Southern, and neither had taken
+much change of the other at Shiloh, Perryville and Stone River.
+
+The Winchester regiment was thrown forward as the vanguard of the
+infantry, and the face of the colonel grew more serious than ever,
+when the best scouts rode in with reports that the Southern retreat was
+now very slow.  There was news, too, that Slade had a new band much
+larger than before, and they formed a rear guard of skirmishers which
+made every moment of a Northern scout's life a moment of danger.  The
+Winchester regiment itself was often fired upon from ambush, and there
+were vacant places in the ranks.
+
+Dick did not know whether it was his own intuition or the influence that
+flowed from the opinions of Thomas and Winchester, but much of his high
+exultation was abated.  He regarded the lofty ridges and the deep gaps
+with apprehension.  It was a difficult country and the Southern leaders
+must know that the Northern army was extended over a long line, with
+Thomas holding the left.
+
+His premonitions had ample cause.  Bragg as he fell back slowly had
+gathered new forces.  Rosecrans did not yet know it, but the army before
+him was the most powerful that the South ever assembled in the West.
+Polk and Cleburne and Breckinridge and Forrest and Fighting Joe Wheeler
+and a whole long roll of famous Southern generals were there.  Nor had
+the vigilant eyes of the Confederacy in the East failed to note the
+situation.
+
+Just as the armies were coming into touch a division of the Army of
+Northern Virginia was passing by train over the mountains.  It was led
+by a thick-bearded, powerful man, no less a general than the renowned
+Longstreet, sent to help Bragg.  The veterans of the Army of Northern
+Virginia would swell Bragg's ranks, and the great army, turning a
+sanguine face northward, was eager for Rosecrans to come on.  The
+Southern force would number more than ninety thousand men, more numerous
+than ever before or afterward in the West.
+
+It was now late in September, the eve of the eighteenth, and Dick and his
+comrades lay near the little creek with the rhythmical name, Chickamauga.
+It was the very night that a portion of the Army of Northern Virginia had
+arrived in Bragg's camp.  The preceding days had been full of detached
+fighting, and the night had come heavy with omens and presages.  The
+least intelligent knew now that Bragg had stopped, but they did not know
+that Longstreet was to be with him.
+
+Dick and his comrades sat by a smothered fire, and the vast tangle of
+mountains and passes, of valleys and streams looked sinister to them.
+There had been skirmishing throughout the day, and as the darkness closed
+down they still heard occasional rifle shots on the slopes and ridges.
+
+"Don't these mountains make you think of your native Vermont, George?"
+asked Dick.
+
+"In a way, yes," replied Warner, "but my hills are not bristling with
+steel as these are."
+
+"No, you New Englanders are fortunate.  The war will never be carried on
+on your soil.  You shed your blood, but, after all, the states that are
+trodden under foot by the armies suffer most."
+
+"There are lights winking on the mountains again," said Pennington.
+
+"Let 'em wink," said Dick.  "Their signals can't amount to much now.
+We know that Bragg is before us, and a great battle can't be delayed
+long.  Fellows, I'm not so sure about the result."
+
+"Come!  Come, Dick!" said Warner.  "It's not often you're downhearted.
+What's struck you?"
+
+"Nothing, George, but, between you and me and the gate post, I wish that
+our old 'Pap' Thomas commanded all the army, instead of the left merely.
+I've learned a few things to-day.  The enemy is spreading out, trying to
+enfold us on both wings."
+
+"What of it?"
+
+"It means that they are sanguine of victory, and they want to stand
+between us and Chattanooga, so they can cut off our retreat, after we're
+beaten, as they think we surely will be.  But their main force is not far
+from us now, so a scout told me.  It's massed heavily along the right
+bank of the Chickamauga."
+
+"And if there's a battle to-morrow we're likely to receive the first
+attack?"
+
+"Could it come any better than at the place where Thomas stands?"
+
+They sat long by the fire and Dick could not rest.  Shiloh, his capture,
+and his knowledge of the secret Southern advance, of which he could give
+no warning, came back to him with uncommon vividness.  He knew that
+no such surprise could occur here, but they seemed to be lost in the
+wilderness.  The mountains and forests oppressed him.
+
+"Well, Dick," said Warner, "we're posted strongly.  We've rows of
+sentinels as thick as hedges, and I've the colonel's permission to go to
+sleep.  I'll be slumbering in ten minutes, and I'd advise you to do the
+same."
+
+He lay on a blanket and soon slept.  Pennington followed him to
+slumberland, but Dick lingered.  He saw lights still flashing on the
+mountains, and he heard now and then reports from the rifles of the
+skirmishers, who yet sought each other despite the darkness.  But he
+yielded at last and he, too, slept until the dawn, which should bring
+nearly two hundred thousand men face to face in mortal combat.
+
+Dick was awake early.  The September morning came, crisp and clear,
+the sun showing red gleams over the mountains.  He heard already the
+sound of distant rifle shots in front, and, through his glasses, he saw
+far away faint puffs of smoke.  But it was a familiar sound in this
+mighty war, and he found himself singularly calm.  He never knew how he
+was going to feel on the eve of battle.  Sometimes the constriction at
+his heart was painful, and sometimes its beat was smooth and regular.
+
+All the officers of the Winchester regiment were dismounted owing to the
+rough nature of the country in which they were stationed.  They held the
+most uneven part of the center, where thickets and ravines were many.
+Hot food and coffee were served to them, and new warmth and courage
+flowed through their bodies.
+
+The distant fire increased, and, standing on a hillock, Dick looked
+long through his glasses.  A faint haze which had hung in the south was
+clearing away.  The rays of the sun were intensely bright.  The brown
+of autumn glowed like gold, and the red splashes here and there burned
+scarlet.  He saw pink dots appearing on a long line and he knew that the
+skirmishers were active and wary.
+
+"There can be no doubt of the advance!" he said to Warner.  "A strong
+body of our cavalry disclosed their forward movement, and there are the
+skirmishers signaling that Bragg is near.  Wonderful fellows, those
+sharpshooters!  They're the eyes of the army.  We stand in mass and fight
+together, but every one of them individually takes his life in his own
+hands.  The firing is coming nearer.  I think we'll be attacked first."
+
+After a little pause Warner said:
+
+"I'm sorry our line is extended so much.  What if they should cut through
+and get behind us?"
+
+"They'll never do it while General Thomas is here.  I believe they called
+him 'Old Slow Top' at West Point, but if he's slow in advance he's still
+slower in retreat.  I'd rather have him commanding us just now than any
+other general in the world."
+
+"I think you're right, and here he comes!  Listen to the cheering!"
+
+General Thomas rode slowly along his line, inspecting the position
+of every regiment and making some changes.  He showed no trace of
+excitement.  The face was calm and the heavy jaw was set firmly.  If
+Grant was a bulldog Thomas was another.  The men knew him.  They had seen
+him stand like a rock before, and the thrill of confidence and courage
+which help so much to win ran through them all.
+
+Dick saw the general speak to Colonel Winchester and then ride on and out
+of sight.  All the men in the regiment were lying down, but the officers
+walked back and forth in front of the line.  It was the especial pride
+of the younger ones to appear unconcerned, and some were able to make a
+brave pretense.
+
+But all the while the battle was rolling nearer.  It was no longer an
+affair of scouting parties.  The skirmishers were driven in on either
+side and the mighty Southern advance was coming forward in full battle
+array.  Shells began to shriek and fall among the Northern masses,
+and the fire of cannon and rifles mingled in a sinister crash.  But the
+Union regiments, although not yet replying, remained steady, although the
+shower of steel that was beginning to beat upon them found many a mark.
+Vast columns of smoke pierced by fire rose in front.
+
+It seemed to Dick's vivid fancy that the earth was shaking with the tread
+of the advancing brigades and the thunder of their artillery.  But he was
+still able to preserve his air of indifference, although his heart was
+now beating hard and fast.  Now and then when the smoke eddied or the
+banks of it broke apart he raised his glasses and with their powerful
+vision saw the long and deep Southern columns advancing, the field
+batteries in the intervals pouring a storm of death.
+
+It was a sinister and terrible sight.  The South presented here an army
+outnumbering its force at Shiloh two to one, and they were veterans now,
+led by veteran commanders.  Moreover, they had Longstreet and his
+matchless fighters from Lee's army to bear them up.
+
+"What do you see, Dick?" asked Pennington, his voice distinctly audible
+through the steady roar.
+
+"Johnnies!  Johnnies!  Johnnies!  Thousands and thousands of them and
+then many thousands more.  They're going to strike full upon us here!"
+
+"Let 'em come.  We're taking root, growing deep into the ground and old
+'Pap' Thomas has grown deepest of us all!  It'll be impossible to move
+us!"
+
+"I hope so.  There go our own cannon, too, and it's a welcome sound!
+I can see the gaps smashed in their ranks by our fire, and ah, I see,
+too--"
+
+He stopped short in amazed surprise, and Pennington in wonder asked:
+
+"What is it you see, Dick?"
+
+"There's a heavy cavalry force on their flank, and I caught a glimpse
+of a man on a great horse leading it.  I know him.  He's Colonel George
+Kenton, father of Harry Kenton, that cousin of mine, of whom I've spoken
+to you so often."
+
+"And here he comes charging you!  But it's happened hundreds and hundreds
+of times in this war that relatives have come face to face in battle,
+and it'll happen hundreds of times more.  Are they within rifle shot,
+Dick?"
+
+"Not yet, but they soon will be."
+
+He slung the glasses back over his shoulder.  The eye alone was
+sufficient now to watch the charging columns.  All the artillery on both
+sides was coming into action, and the ripping crash of so many cannon
+became so great that the officers could no longer hear one another unless
+they shouted.  The gorges and hills caught up the sound and gave it back
+in increased volume.
+
+Dick heard a new note in the thunder.  It was made by the swift beat of
+hoofs, thousands of them, and the hair on his neck prickled at the roots.
+Forrest and the wild cavalry of the South were charging on their flanks.
+He felt a sudden horror lest he be trampled under the hoofs of horses.
+By some curious twist of the mind his dread of such a fate was far more
+acute at that moment than his fear of shells and bullets.
+
+Colonel Winchester, shouting imperiously, ordered him and all the other
+young officers to step back now and lie down.  Dick obeyed, and he
+crouched by the side of Warner and Pennington.  The great bank of fire
+and smoke was rolling nearer and yet nearer, and the cannon were fighting
+one another with all the speed and power of the gunners.  Off on the
+flank the ominous tread of Southern horsemen was coming fast.
+
+Bullets began now to rain among them.  The regiment would have been swept
+away bodily had the men not been lying down.  But their time to wait and
+hold their fire was at an end.  The colonel gave the word, and a sheet
+of light leaped from the mouths of their rifles.  A vast gap appeared in
+the Southern line before them, but in a minute or two it closed up, and
+the Southern masses came on again, as menacing as ever.  Again Dick's
+regiment poured its shattering fire upon the Southern columns and their
+front lines were blown away.  Colonel Winchester at once wheeled his men
+into a new position to meet the mass of Forrest's cavalry rushing down
+upon their flank.  He was just in time to help other troops, not in
+numbers enough to withstand the shock.
+
+There were few moments in the lives of these lads as terrifying as those
+when they turned to face the fierce Forrest, the uneducated mountaineer
+who had intuitively mastered Napoleon's chief maxim of war, to pour the
+greatest force upon the enemy's weakest point.
+
+The hurricane sweeping down upon them sent a chill to their hearts.
+Dick saw a long line of foaming mouths, the lips drawn back from the
+cruel white teeth, and manes flying wildly.  Above them rose the faces
+of the riders, their own eyes bloodshot, their sabers held aloft for the
+deadly sweep.  And the thunder of galloping hoofs was more menacing than
+that of the cannon.
+
+Dick looked around him and saw faces turning pale.  His own might be
+whiter than any of theirs for all he knew, but he shouted with the other
+officers:
+
+"Steady!  Steady!  Now pour it into 'em!"
+
+It was well that most of the men in the regiment had become sharpshooters,
+and that despite the thumping of their hearts, they were able to stand
+firm.  Their sleet of bullets emptied a hundred saddles, and slipping
+in the cartridges they fired again at close range.  The cavalry charge
+seemed to stop dead in its tracks, and in an instant a scene of terrible
+confusion occurred.  Wounded horses screaming in pain rushed wildly back
+upon their own comrades or through the ranks of the foe.  Injured men,
+shot from their saddles, were seeking to crawl out of the way.  Whirling
+eddies of smoke alternately hid and disclosed enemies, and from both left
+and right came the continuous and deafening crash of infantry in battle.
+
+But Forrest's men paused only a moment or two.  A great mass of them
+galloped out of the smoke, over the bodies of their dead comrades and
+directly into the Winchester regiment, shouting and slashing with their
+great sabers.  It was well for the men that their leader had so wisely
+chosen ground rough and covered with bushes.  Using every inch of
+protection, they fired at horses and riders and thrust at them with their
+bayonets.
+
+The battle became wild and confused, a turmoil of mingled horse and foot,
+of firing and shouting and of glittering swords and bayonets.  A man on a
+huge horse made a great sweep at Dick's head with a red saber.  The boy
+dropped to his knees, and felt the broad blade whistle where his head had
+been.
+
+The swordsman was borne on by the impetus of his horse, and Dick caught
+one horrified glimpse of his face.  It was Colonel Kenton, but Dick knew
+that he did not know, nor did he ever know.  It was never in the lad's
+heart to tell his uncle how near he had come unwittingly to shearing off
+the head of his own nephew.
+
+The charge of the cavalrymen carried them clear through the Winchester
+regiment, but a regiment coming up to the relief drove them back, and the
+great mass turning aside a little attacked anew and elsewhere.  A few
+moments of rest were permitted Dick and his comrades, although the mighty
+battle wheeled and thundered all about them.
+
+But their regiment was a melancholy sight.  A third of its numbers were
+killed or wounded.  The ground was torn and trampled, as if it had been
+swept by a hurricane of wind and red rain.  Dick had one slight wound
+on his shoulder and another on his arm, but he did not feel them.
+Pennington and Warner both had scratches, but the colonel was unharmed.
+
+"My God," exclaimed Warner, "how did we happen to survive it!"
+
+"I live to boast that I've been ridden over by old Forrest himself,"
+said Pennington.
+
+"How do you know it was Forrest?"
+
+"Because his horse was eight feet high and his sword was ten feet long.
+He slashed at me with it a hundred times.  I counted the strokes."
+
+Then Pennington stopped and laughed hysterically, Dick seized him by the
+arm and shook him roughly.
+
+"Stop it, Frank!  Stop it!" he cried.  "You're yourself, and you're all
+right!"
+
+Pennington shook his body, brushed his hands over his eyes and said:
+
+"Thanks, Dick, old man; you've brought me back to myself."
+
+"Get ready!" exclaimed Warner.  "The cavalry have sheered off, but the
+infantry are coming, a million strong!  I can hear their tread shaking
+the earth!"
+
+The broken regiment reloaded, drew its lines together and faced the enemy
+anew.  It seemed to their bloodshot eyes that the whole Southern army
+was bearing down upon them.  The Southern generals, skillful and daring,
+were resolved to break through the Northern left, and the attack attained
+all the violence of a convulsion.
+
+The great Southern line, blazing with fire and steel, advanced, never
+stopping for a moment, while the fire of their cannon beat incessantly
+upon the devoted brigades.  It was well for the Northern army, well for
+the Union that here was the Rock of Chickamauga.  Amid all the terrible
+uproar and the yet more terrible danger, Thomas never lost his courage
+and presence of mind for a moment.  Dick saw him more than once, and he
+knew how he doubly and triply earned the famous name which that day and
+the next were to give him.
+
+But the weight was so tremendous that they began to give ground.  They
+went back slowly, but they went back.  Dick felt as if the whole weight
+were pressing upon his own chest, and when he tried to shout no words
+would come.
+
+Back they went, inch by inch, leaving the ground covered with their dead.
+Dick was conscious only of a vast roar and shouting and the continuous
+blaze of cannon and rifles in his very face.  But he understood the
+immensity of the crisis.  By a huge victory in the West the Confederacy
+would redress the loss of Gettysburg in the East.  And now it seemed that
+they were gaining it.  For the first and only time in the war they had
+the larger numbers in a great battle, and the ground was of their own
+choosing.
+
+Elated over success gained and greater success hoped, the Southern
+leaders poured their troops continually upon Thomas.  If they could break
+that wing, cut it off in fact, and rush in at the gap, they would be
+between Rosecrans and Chattanooga and the Northern army would be doomed.
+They made gigantic efforts.  The cavalry charged again and again.
+Huge masses of infantry hurled themselves upon the brigades of Thomas,
+and every gun that could be brought into action poured shot and shell
+into his lines.
+
+Many of the young as well as the old officers in Thomas' corps felt the
+terrible nature of the crisis.  Dick knew despite the hideous turmoil
+that Thomas was the chief target of the Southern army.  He divined that
+the fortunes of the Union were swinging in the balance there among those
+Tennessee hills and valleys.  If Thomas were shattered the turn of Grant
+farther south would come next.  Vicksburg would have been won in vain and
+the Union would be broken in the West.
+
+Order and cohesion were lost among many of the regiments, but the men
+stood firm.  The superb, democratic soldier fought for himself and he,
+too, understood the crisis.  They re-formed without orders and fought
+continuously against overwhelming might.  Ground and guns were lost,
+but they made their enemy pay high for everything, and the slow retreat
+never became a panic.
+
+"We're going back," shouted Warner in Dick's ear.  "Yes, we're going back,
+but we'll come forward again.  They'll never crush the old man."
+
+Yet the pressure upon them never ceased.  Bragg and his staff had the
+right idea.  Had anyone but Thomas stood before them they would have
+shattered the Union left long since, but his slow, calm mind rose to its
+greatest heights in the greatest danger.  He understood everything and
+he was resolved that his wing should not be broken.  Wherever the line
+seemed weakest he thrust in a veteran regiment, and he went quickly back
+and forth, observing with a measuring eye every shift and change of the
+battle.
+
+The Winchester regiment in its new position was still among the gullies
+and bushes, and they were thankful for such shelter.  Although veterans
+now, most were lads, and they did not scorn to take cover whenever they
+could.  For a little while they did not reply to the enemy's fire,
+but lay waiting and seeking to get back the breath which seemed to
+be driven from their bodies by the very violence of the concussion.
+Shrapnel, grape and canister whistled incessantly over their heads,
+and on either flank the thunder of the battle swelled rapidly.
+
+The Southern attack was spreading along the whole front, and it was made
+with unexampled vigor.  It even excelled the fiery rush at Stone River,
+and the generals on both sides were largely the same that had fought the
+earlier great battle.  Polk, the bishop-general, still led one wing for
+the South, Buckner massed Kentuckians who faced Kentuckians on the other
+side, and Longstreet and Hill were to play their great part for the
+South.  Resolved to win a victory, the veteran generals spared nothing,
+and the little Chickamauga, so singularly named by the Indians "the river
+of death," was running red.
+
+Dick crouched lower as the storm of shells swept over him.  Despite all
+his experience impulse made him bow his head while the whistling death
+passed by.  He felt a little shame that he, an officer, should seek
+protection, but when he stole a look he saw that all the others, Colonel
+Winchester included, were doing the same.  Sergeant Whitley had sunk down
+the lowest of them all, and, catching Dick's glance, he said in clear,
+low tones audible under the storm:
+
+"Pardon me for saying it to you, an officer, Mr. Mason, but it's our
+business not to get killed when it's not needed, so we can save ourselves
+to be killed when it is needed."
+
+"I suppose you're right, Sergeant.  At any rate I'm glad enough to keep
+under cover, but do you see anything in those woods over there?  We're on
+the extreme left flank here, and maybe they're trying to overlap us."
+
+"I think I do.  Men with rifles are in there.  I'll speak to the colonel."
+
+He crawled to Colonel Winchester, who was crouched a dozen feet away,
+and pointed to the wood, or rather thicket of scrub.  But Dick meanwhile
+saw increasing numbers of men there.  They were beyond the line of battle
+and were not obscured by the clouds of smoke.  As he stared he saw a
+weazened figure under an enormous, broad-brimmed hat, and, although he
+could not discern the face at the distance, he knew that it was Slade,
+come with a new and perhaps larger body of riflemen to burn away the
+extreme left flank of the Union force.
+
+As the colonel and the sergeant crawled back Dick told them what he had
+seen, and they recognized at once the imminence of the danger.  Colonel
+Winchester looked at the great columns of fire and smoke in front of him.
+He did not know when the main attack would sweep down upon them again,
+but he took his resolution at once.
+
+He ordered his men to wheel about, and, using Slade's own tactics,
+to creep forward with their rifles.  Most of his men were sharpshooters
+and he felt that they would be a match for those whom the guerrilla led.
+Sergeant Whitley kept by his side, and out of a vast experience in border
+warfare advised him.
+
+Dick, Warner and Pennington armed themselves with rifles of the fallen,
+and they felt fierce thrills of joy as they crept forward.  Burning with
+the battle fever, and enraged against this man Slade, Dick put all his
+soul in the man-hunt.  He merely hoped that Victor Woodville was not
+there.  He would fire willingly at any of the rest.
+
+Before they had gone far Slade and his riflemen began to fire.  Bullets
+pattered all about them, clipping twigs and leaves and striking sparks
+from stones.
+
+Had the fire been unexpected it would have done deadly damage, but all of
+the Winchesters, as they liked to call themselves, had kept under cover,
+and were advancing Indian fashion.  And now a consuming rage seized them
+all.  They felt as if an advantage had been taken of them.  While they
+were fighting a great battle in front a sly foe sought to ambush them.
+They did not hate the Southern army which charged directly upon them,
+but they did hate this band of sharpshooters which had come creeping
+through the woods to pick them off, and they hated them collectively and
+individually.
+
+It was Dick's single and fierce desire at that moment to catch sight
+of Slade, whom he would shoot without hesitation if the chance came.
+He looked for him continually as he crept from bush to bush, and he
+withheld his fire until fortune might bring into his view the flaps of
+that enormous hat.  The whole vast battle of Chickamauga passed from his
+mind.  He was concentrated, heart and soul, upon this affair of outposts
+in the thickets.
+
+Men around him were firing, and the bullets in return were knocking up
+the leaves about him, but Dick's finger did not yet press the trigger.
+The great hat was still hidden from view, but he heard Slade's whistle
+calling to his men.  Sergeant Whitley was by the lad's side, and he
+glanced at him now and then.  The wise sergeant read the youth's face,
+and he knew that he was upon a quest, a deadly one.
+
+"Is it Slade you're looking for, Mr. Mason?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, I want him!"
+
+"Well, if we see him, and you miss him, I think I'll take a shot at him
+myself."
+
+But Slade, crafty and cunning, kept himself well hidden.  The two bands
+fighting this Indian combat, while the great battle raged so near them,
+were now very near to each other, but as they had both thickets and a
+rocky outcrop for refuge, they fought from hiding.  Nevertheless many
+fell.  Dick, the ferocity of the man-hunt continuing to burn his brain,
+sought everywhere for Slade.  Often he heard his silver whistle directing
+his troop, but the man himself remained invisible.  In his eagerness the
+lad rose too high, but the sergeant pulled him down in time, a bullet
+whistling a second later through the air where his head had been.
+
+"Careful, Mr. Mason!  Careful!" said Sergeant Whitley.  "It won't do you
+much good for one of his men to get you while you are trying to get him!"
+
+Dick became more cautious.  At last he caught a glimpse of the great hat
+that he could not mistake, and, aiming very carefully, he fired.  Then he
+uttered an angry cry.  He had missed, and when the sergeant was ready to
+pull the trigger also Slade was gone.
+
+Now, the colonel called to his men, and rising they charged into the
+wood.  It was evidently no part of Slade's plan to risk destruction as he
+blew a long high call on his whistle, and then he and all his men save
+the dead melted away like shadows.  The Winchesters stood among the trees,
+gasping and staunching their wounds, but victorious.
+
+Now they had only a few moments for rest.  Bugles called and they rushed
+back to their old position just as the Southern cavalry, sabers circling
+aloft swept down upon them again.  They went once more through that
+terrible turmoil of fire and flashing steel, and a second time the
+Winchesters were victorious.  But they could have stood no more, and
+Thomas watching everything hurried to their relief a regiment, which
+formed up before them to give them breathing time.
+
+The young soldiers threw themselves panting upon the ground, and were
+assailed by a burning thirst.  The canteens were soon emptied, and still
+their lips and throats were parched.  Exhausted by their tremendous
+exertions, many of them sank into a stupor, although the battle was at
+its zenith and the earth shook with the crash of the heavy batteries.
+
+"General Thomas has had news that we're driven in elsewhere," said Dick.
+
+"And we've yielded ground here, too," said Warner.
+
+"But so slowly that it's been only a glacial movement.  We've made 'em
+pay such a high price that I think old 'Pap' can boast he has held his
+ground."
+
+Dick did not know it then nor did the general himself, but 'Pap' Thomas
+could boast of far more than having held his ground.  His long and
+stubborn resistance, his skill in moving his troops from point to point
+at the right time, his coolness and judgment in weighing and measuring
+everything right, in all the vast turmoil, confusion and uncertainty of
+a great battle, had saved the Northern army from destruction.
+
+Now, as the Winchester men lay gasping behind the fresh regiment, Thomas,
+who continually passed along the line of battle, came among them.
+He was a soldier's soldier, a soldier's general, and he spoke encouraging
+words, most of which they could not hear amid the roar of the battle,
+but his calm face told their import, and fresh courage came into their
+hearts.
+
+The news spread gradually that Thomas only was holding fast, but now his
+men instead of being discouraged were filled with pride.  It was they
+and they alone whom the Southerners could not overwhelm, and Thomas and
+his generals inspired them with the belief that they were invincible.
+Charge after charge broke against them.  More ground was yielded, but at
+the same immense price, and the corps, sullen, indomitable, maintained
+its order, always presenting a front to the foe, blazing with death.
+
+Thomas stood all day, while the Southern masses, flushed by victory
+everywhere else, pressed harder.  Terrible reports of defeat and
+destruction came to him continually, but he did not flinch.  He turned
+the same calm face to everything, and said to the generals that whatever
+happened they would keep their own front unbroken.
+
+The day closed with the men of Thomas still grim and defiant.  The dead
+lay in heaps along their front, but as the darkness settled down on the
+unfinished battle they meant to fight with equal valor and tenacity on
+the morrow.  The first day had favored the South, had favored it largely,
+but on the Union left hope still flamed high.
+
+Darkness swept over the sanguinary field.  A cold wind of autumn blew off
+the hills and mountains, and the men shivered as they lay on the ground,
+but Thomas allowed no fires to be lighted.  Food was brought in the
+darkness, and those who could find them wrapped themselves in blankets.
+Between the two armies lay the hecatombs of dead and the thousands of
+wounded.
+
+Dick, his comrades and the rest of the regiment sat together in a little
+open space behind a thicket.  It was to be their position for the
+fighting next day.  Thomas, passing by, had merely given them an
+approving look, and then had gone on to re-form his lines elsewhere.
+Dick knew that all through the night he would be conferring with his
+commander, Rosecrans, McCook and the others, and he knew, too, that
+many of the Union soldiers would be at work, fortifying, throwing up
+earthworks, and cutting down trees for abattis.  He heard already the
+ring of the axes.
+
+But the Winchester men rested for the present.  Nature had made their own
+position strong with a low hill, and a thicket in front.  They lay upon
+the ground, sheltering themselves from the cold wind, which cut through
+bodies relaxed and almost bloodless after such vast physical exertions
+and excitement so tremendous.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA
+
+
+Dick, after eating the cold food which was served to him, sank into a
+state which was neither sleep nor stupor.  It was a mystic region between
+the conscious and the unconscious, in which all things were out of
+proportion, and some abnormal.
+
+He saw before him a vast stretch of dead blackness which he knew
+nevertheless was peopled by armed hosts ready to spring upon them at
+dawn.  The darkness and silence were more oppressive than sound and light,
+even made by foes, would have been.  It numbed him to think there was so
+little of stirring life, where nearly two hundred thousand men had fought.
+
+Then a voice arose that made him shiver.  But it was only the cold wind
+from the mountains whistling a dirge.  Nevertheless it seemed human to
+Dick.  It was at once a lament and a rebuke.  He edged over a little and
+touched Warner.
+
+"Is that you, Dick?" asked the Vermonter.
+
+"What's left of me.  I've one or two wounds, mere scratches, George,
+but I feel all pumped out.  I'm like one of those empty wine-skins that
+you read about, empty, all dried up, and ready to be thrown away."
+
+"Something of the same feeling myself, Dick.  I'm empty and dried up, too,
+but I'm not ready to be thrown away.  Nor are you.  We'll fill up in the
+night.  Our hearts will pump all our veins full of blood again, and we'll
+be ready to go out in the morning, and try once more to get killed."
+
+"I don't see how you and Pennington and I, all three of us, came out of
+it alive to-day."
+
+"That question is bothering me, too, Dick.  A million bullets were fired
+at each of us, not to count thousands of pieces of shell, shrapnel,
+canister, grape, and slashes of swords.  Take any ratio of percentage
+you please and something should have got us.  According to every rule of
+algebra, not more than one of us three should be alive now.  Yet here we
+are."
+
+"Maybe your algebra is wrong?"
+
+"Impossible.  Algebra is the most exact of all sciences.  It does not
+admit of error.  Both by algebra and by the immutable law of averages at
+least two of us are dead."
+
+"But we don't know which two."
+
+"That's true.  Nevertheless it's certain that those two, whoever they may
+be, are here on borrowed time.  What do your wounds amount to, Dick?"
+
+"Nothing, I had forgotten 'em.  I've lost a little blood, but what does
+it amount to on a day like this, when blood is shed in rivers?"
+
+"That's true.  My own skin has been broken, but just barely, four times
+by bullets.  I've a notion that those bullets were coming straight for
+some vital part of me, but seeing who it was, and knowing that such a
+noble character ought not to be slain, they turned aside as quickly as
+possible, but not so quickly that they could avoid grazing my skin."
+
+Dick and Pennington laughed.  Warner's fooling amused them and relieved
+the painful tension of their minds.
+
+"But, George," said Pennington, "suppose one of the bullets failed to
+turn aside and killed you.  What could we say then for you?"
+
+"That it was a silly, ignorant bullet not knowing whence it came, or
+where it was going.  Ah, there's light in the darkness!  Look across the
+hill and see that shining flame!"
+
+Dick rose and then the three walked to the brow of the hill, where
+Colonel Winchester stood, using his glasses as well as he could in the
+dusk.
+
+"It's the pine forest on fire in places," he said.  "The shells did it,
+and it's been burning for some time, spreading until it has now come into
+our own sight."
+
+But they were detached fires, and they did not fuse into a general mass
+at any time.  Clumps of trees burnt steadily like vast torches and sent
+up high flames.  Bands of men from either side worked silently, removing
+as many of the wounded as they could.  It was a spontaneous movement,
+as happened so often in this war, and Dick and his comrades took a part
+in it.
+
+North and South met in friendliness in the darkness or by the light of
+the burning pines, and talked freely as they lifted up their wounded.
+Dick asked often about Colonel Kenton, meeting at last some Kentuckians,
+who told him that the colonel had gone through the day without a wound,
+and was with Buckner.  Then Dick asked if any Mississippians were along
+the line.
+
+"What do you want with 'em?" asked a long, lank man with a bilious yellow
+face.
+
+"I've got a friend among 'em.  Woodville is his name, and he's about my
+own age."
+
+"I've heard of the Woodvilles.  Big an' rich family in Missip.  'Roun'
+Vicksburg and Jackson mostly.  I'm from the Yazoo valley myself, an' if I
+hear of the young fellow I'll send him down this way.  But I can't stay
+out long, 'cause it'll soon be time for me to have my chill.  Comes every
+other night reg'lar.  But I'll be all right for battle to-morrow, when
+we lick you Yankees out of the other boot, having licked you out of one
+to-day."
+
+"All right, old Yazoo," laughed Dick.  "Go on and have your chill,
+but if you see Woodville tell him Mason is waiting down here by the wood."
+
+"I'll shorely do it, if the chill don't git me fust," said the yellow
+Mississippian as he strolled away, and Dick knew that he would keep his
+word.
+
+The lad lingered at the spot where he had met the man, hoping that by
+some lucky chance Woodville might come, and fortune gave him his wish.
+A slender figure emerged from the dark, and a voice called softly:
+
+"Is that you, Mason?"
+
+"Nobody else," replied Dick gladly, stepping forward and offering his
+hand, which young Woodville shook warmly.  "I was hoping that I might
+meet you, and I see, too, that you can't be hurt much, if at all."
+
+"I haven't been touched.  It's my lucky day, I suppose."
+
+"Where's your uncle?  I hope he's in some safe place, recovering from his
+wound."
+
+Victor Woodville laughed softly.
+
+"Uncle Charles is recovering from his wound perhaps faster than you hope,"
+he said, "but he's not in a safe place.  Far from it."
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"His wound is so much better that he can walk, though with a hop, and
+he's right here in the thick of this battle, leading his own Mississippi
+regiment.  His horse was killed under him early this morning, and he's
+fought all day on foot, swearing in the strange and melodious fashion
+that you know.  It's hop! swear! hop! swear! in beautiful alternation!"
+
+"Good old colonel!"
+
+"That's what he is, and he's also one of the bravest men that ever lived,
+if he is my uncle.  His regiment did prodigies to-day and they'll do
+greater prodigies to-morrow.  The Woodvilles are well represented here.
+My father is present, leading his regiment, and there are a dozen
+Woodville cousins of mine whom you've never met."
+
+"And I hope I won't meet 'em on this field.  What about your aunt?"
+
+"She's well, and in a safe place."
+
+"I'm glad of that.  Now, tell me, Victor, how did you happen to be with
+Slade on that raid?  Of course it's no business of mine, but I was
+surprised."
+
+"I don't mind answering.  I suppose it was a taste for adventure, and a
+desire to serve our cause.  After I got up the bank and climbed into the
+bushes, I looked back, and I think, Mason, that you may have saved me
+from a bullet.  I don't know, but I think so."
+
+Dick said nothing, but despite the dusk Woodville read the truth in his
+eyes.
+
+"I shan't forget," said the young Mississippian as he moved away.
+
+Dick turned back to his own group.  They had noticed him talking to the
+lad in gray, but they paid no attention, nor thought it anything unusual.
+It was common enough in the great battles of the American civil war,
+most of which lasted more than one day, for the opposing soldiers to
+become friendly in the nights between.
+
+"I think, sir," said Sergeant Whitley, "that we won't be able to get any
+more of our wounded to-night.  Now, pardon me for saying it, Lieutenant,
+but we ought to have some rest, because when day comes there's going
+to be the most awful attack you ever saw.  Some of our spies say that
+Longstreet and the last of the Virginians did not come until night or
+nearly night and that Longstreet himself will lead the attack on us."
+
+"Do you think, Sergeant, that it will be made first on our own corps?"
+
+"I don't know, Mr. Mason.  We've stood firmest, and them rebel generals
+are no fools.  They'll crash in where we've shown the most weakness."
+
+The sergeant walked on, carrying the corner of a litter.  Warner, who had
+stood by, whispered to Dick:
+
+"There goes a general, but he'll never have the title.  He's got a
+general's head on his shoulders, and he thinks and talks like a general,
+but he hasn't any education, and men with much poorer brains go past him.
+Let it be a lesson to you, Dick, my son.  After this war, go to school,
+and learn something."
+
+"Good advice, George, and I'll take it," laughed Dick.  "But he isn't so
+badly off.  I wonder if those fires in the pine forest are going to burn
+all night?"
+
+"Several of 'em will.  The big one on our left will be blazing when day
+comes, and I'm glad of it since no wounded are now in its way.  The
+night's cold.  That's a sharp and searching wind, and the sight of flames
+makes one feel warm even if they are far away."
+
+It would not be long until day now, and the axes ceased to ring in the
+forest.  A long and formidable line of abattis had been made, but the men
+were compelled to seek some rest.  Despite the cold they suffered from a
+burning thirst, and they could reach no water, not even the red stream of
+the Chickamauga.  Dick suffered like the rest, but he was philosophical.
+
+"I fancy that after sunrise we won't have time to think about water,"
+he said.
+
+But Dick was not destined to sleep.  He lay down for a while, and he saw
+hundreds of others around him lying motionless as if dead.  Warner and
+Pennington were among them, but he could not close his own eyes.  His
+brain was still hot and excited, and to calm himself if possible he
+walked along the slope until he saw a faint light in the valley behind
+it.  A tall figure, which he recognized as that of Colonel Winchester,
+was going toward the light.
+
+Dick, being on such good terms with his colonel, would have followed him,
+but when he came to the edge of the glade he drew back.  General Thomas
+was sitting on the huge, upthrust root of an oak, and he was writing
+dispatches by the light of a flickering candle held by an aide.  Officers
+of high rank, one of whom Dick recognized as the young general, Garfield,
+stood around him.  Colonel Winchester joined the group, and stood waiting
+in silence to receive orders, too, Dick supposed.
+
+The lad withdrew hastily, but driven by an overmastering curiosity,
+and knowing that he was doing no harm, he turned back and watched for a
+little space beside a bush.
+
+The flame of the candle wavered under the wind, and sometimes the light
+shone full upon the face of Thomas.  It was the same face that Dick had
+first beheld when he carried the dispatches to him in Kentucky.  He was
+calm, inscrutable at this, the most desperate crisis the Union cause ever
+knew in the west.  Dick could not see that his hand trembled a particle
+as he wrote, although lieutenant and general alike knew that they
+would soon be attacked by a superior force, flushed with all the high
+enthusiasm of victory.  And lieutenant and general alike also knew that
+their supreme commander, Rosecrans, was no genius like Lee or Jackson,
+who could set numbers at naught, and choose time and place to suit
+themselves.  Only stubborn courage to fight and die could avail.
+
+But Dick drew courage from the strong, thick figure sitting there so
+impassively and apparently impervious to alarm.  When he quit writing
+and began to give verbal orders, he spoke in even tones, in which no
+one could detect a trace of excitement.  When the name, "The Rock of
+Chickamauga," became general, Dick remembered that night and knew how
+well it was deserved.
+
+Thomas gave his last order and his generals went to their commands.
+Dick slipped back to his regiment, and lay down, but again could not
+sleep.
+
+He waited in painful anxiety for the day.  He had never before been in
+such a highly nervous state, not at Shiloh, nor Stone River, nor anywhere
+else.  In those battles the chances were with the Union, but here they
+were against it.  He recognized that once more, save for Thomas, the
+North had been outgeneraled.  The army of Rosecrans had marched from
+Chattanooga directly upon the positions chosen by Bragg, where he was
+awaiting them with superior numbers.  And the Confederate government in
+the East had been quick enough to seize the opportunity and quick enough
+to send the stalwart fighter, Longstreet, and his corps to help close
+down the trap.
+
+He wondered with many a painful throbbing of the heart what the dawn
+would bring, and, unable to keep still any longer, he rose and went to
+the brow of the low hill, behind which they lay.  Colonel Winchester was
+there walking through the scrub and trying to pick out something in the
+opposing forest with his glasses.  The cold wind still blew from the
+mountains, and there were three high but distant torches, where the
+clumps of pines still burned.
+
+"Restless, Dick?" said the Colonel.  "Well, so am I."
+
+"We have cause to be so, sir."
+
+"So we have, my lad.  We thought the danger to the Union had passed with
+Vicksburg and Gettysburg, but the day so soon to come may shatter all
+our hopes.  They must have a hundred thousand men out there, and they've
+chosen time and place.  What's more, they've succeeded so far.  I don't
+hesitate to talk to you in this way, Dick, but you mustn't repeat what I
+say."
+
+"I shouldn't dream of doing so, sir."
+
+"I know you would not, but General Thomas apprehends a tremendous and
+terrible attack.  Whatever happens, we have not long to wait for it.
+I think I feel the touch of the dawn in the wind."
+
+"It's coming, sir.  I can see a faint tinge of gray in that cleft between
+the hills toward the east."
+
+"You have a good eye, Dick.  I see it now, too.  It's growing and
+turning to the color of silver.  But I think we'll have time to get our
+breakfasts.  General Thomas does not believe the first attack will be
+made upon our wing."
+
+The wind was freshening, as if it brought the dawn upon its edge.
+The night had been uncommonly cold for the time of the year in that
+latitude, and there was no sun yet to give warmth.  But the men of Thomas
+were being awakened, and, as no fires were allowed, cold food was served
+to them.
+
+"What's happened, Dick, while I was asleep?" asked Pennington.
+
+"Nothing.  The two armies are ready, and I think to-day will decide it."
+
+"I hope so.  Two days are enough for any battle."
+
+Pennington's tone was jocular, but his words were not.  His face was
+grave as he regarded the opposing forest.  He had the feeling of youth
+that others might be killed, but not he.  Nevertheless he was already
+mourning many a good comrade who would be lost before the night came
+again.
+
+"There are the wasps!" said Warner, bending a listening ear.  "You can
+always hear them as they begin to sting.  I wonder if skirmishers ever
+sleep?"
+
+The shots were on the right, but they came from points far away.  In
+front of them the forest and hills were silent.
+
+"It's just as General Thomas thought," said Dick.  "The main volume of
+their attack will be on our right and center.  They know that Thomas
+stands here and that he's a mighty rock, hard to move.  They expect to
+shatter all the rest of the line, and then whirl and annihilate us."
+
+"Let 'em come!" exclaimed Warner, with heightening color.  "Who's afraid?"
+
+The dawn was spreading.  The heavy mists that hung over the Chickamauga
+floated away.  All the east was silver, and the darkness rolled back like
+a blanket.  The west became silver in its turn, and the sun burned red
+fire in the east.  The wind still blew fresh and cool off the mountains.
+The faint sound of trumpets came from far points on the Southern line.
+The crackling fire of the skirmishers increased.
+
+"It's a wait for us," said Colonel Winchester, standing amid his youthful
+staff.  "I can see them advancing in great columns against our right and
+center.  Now their artillery opens!"
+
+Dick put up his glasses and he, too, saw the mighty Southern army
+advancing.  Their guns were already clearing the way for the advance,
+and the valleys echoed with the great concussion.  Longstreet and Hill,
+anxious to show what the veterans of the East could do, were pouring them
+forward alive with all the fire and courage that had distinguished them
+in the Army of Northern Virginia.
+
+The battle swelled fast.  It seemed to the waiting veterans of Thomas
+that it had burst forth suddenly like a volcano.  They saw the vast
+clouds of smoke gather again off there where their comrades stood, and,
+knowing the immense weight about to be hurled upon them, they feared for
+those men who had fought so often by their side.
+
+Yet Thomas had been confident that the first attack would be made upon
+his own part of the line, that Bragg with an overwhelming force would
+seek to roll up his left.  Nor had he reckoned wrong.  The lingering of
+the bishop-general, Polk, over a late breakfast saved him from the first
+shock, and upset the plans of the Southern commander, who had given him
+strict orders to advance.
+
+Dawn was long past, and to Bragg's great astonishment Polk had not moved.
+It seems incredible that the fate of great events can turn upon such
+trifles, and yet one wonders what would have happened had not Polk eaten
+breakfast so late the morning of the second day of Chickamauga.  But
+when he did advance he attacked with the energy and vigor of those great
+churchmen of the Middle Ages, who were at once princes and warriors,
+leading their hosts to battle.
+
+Portions of the men of Thomas were now coming into the combat, but the
+Winchesters were not yet engaged.  They were lying down just behind the
+crest of their low hill and many murmurs were running through the ranks.
+It was the hardest of all things to wait, while shells now and then
+struck among them.  They saw to their right the vast volume of fire and
+smoke, while the roaring of the cannon and rifles was like the continued
+sweep of a storm.
+
+The youthful soldier may be nervous and excited, or he may be calm.
+This was one of Dick's calm moments, and, while he watched and listened
+and tried to measure all that he saw and heard, he noted that the crash
+of the battle was moving slowly backward.  He knew then that the Southern
+advance was succeeding, succeeding so far at least.  He was quite sure
+now that the attack upon Thomas would be made soon and that it would come
+with the greatest violence.
+
+He rose and rejoined Colonel Winchester again, and the two looked with
+awe at the gigantic combat, raging in a vast canopy of smoke, rent
+continuously by flashes of fire.  Dick observed that the colonel was
+depressed and he knew the reason.
+
+"Our men are being driven back," he said.
+
+"So they are," said the colonel, "and I fear that there is confusion
+among them, too."
+
+"But we'll hold fast here as we did yesterday!"
+
+"I hope so.  Yes, I know so, Dick.  I've seen General Thomas twice this
+morning, and I know that this corps will never be routed.  He's made up
+his mind to hold on or die.  He's the Rock of Chickamauga."
+
+It was a name that Dick was to hear often afterward, and he repeated
+under his breath: "The Rock of Chickamauga!  The Rock of Chickamauga!"
+It rolled resoundingly off the tongue, and he liked it.
+
+Then came a beat of hoofs and a cavalry regiment galloped into open
+ground beside them.  It was Colonel Hertford's, numbering about three
+hundred men, some of whom were wounded.  Their leader was excited, and,
+springing to the ground, he ran to Colonel Winchester.  The two talked
+in quick, short sentences.
+
+"Colonel," exclaimed Hertford, "we've just had a sharp brush with that
+demon, Forrest, and we've left some good men back there.  But I've come
+both to help and to warn you.  We're being driven back everywhere else,
+and now they're gathering an immense mass of troops for a gigantic attack
+on Thomas!"
+
+Dick heard and his breath came fast.  Colonel Hertford would bring no
+false news, and he could see with his own eyes that the storm was curving
+toward them.  The two men hurried to Thomas, but in a few minutes
+returned.  Colonel Hertford sprang into the saddle and formed his cavalry
+on the flank as a screen against the dreaded sweep of Forrest.
+
+There was a lull for a moment in the tremendous uproar, and, Colonel
+Winchester walking back and forth before his men, spoke to them briefly.
+He was erect, pale and handsome, and his words came without a quiver.
+Dick had never admired him more.
+
+"Men," he said, "you have never been beaten in battle, but your greatest
+test is now at hand.  Within a few minutes you will be attacked by a
+force outnumbering you more than two to one.  But these are the odds we
+love.  We would not have them less.  I tell you, speaking as a man to men
+who understand and fear not, that the fate of the day may rest with you.
+Many gallant comrades of ours have gone already to the far shore, and if
+we must go, too, to-day, let our journey be not less gallant than theirs.
+We can die but once, and if we must die, let us die here where we can
+serve our country most."
+
+His manner was quiet, but his words were thrilling, and the men of the
+regiment, springing to their feet, uttered a deep, full-throated cheer.
+Then sinking down again at the motion of his hand, they turned their
+faces to the enemy.  The time had come.
+
+The vast Southern front rushed from the wood, and the gray horsemen of
+Forrest, careless of death, swept down.  It was a terrifying sight,
+that army coming on amid the thunder and lightning of battle, tens of
+thousands of rifle muzzles, tens of thousands of fierce brown faces
+showing through the smoke, and the tremendous battle yell of the South
+swelling over everything.
+
+Dick felt a quiver, and then his body stiffened, as if it were about to
+receive a physical shock.  The whole regiment fired as one man, and a gap
+appeared in the charging Southern column.  Hertford and his horse charged
+upon the hostile cavalry, and all the brigades of Thomas met the Southern
+attack with a fire so heavy and deadly that the army of Bragg reeled back.
+
+Then ensued the most tremendous scene through which Dick had yet passed.
+The Southern army came again.  Bragg, Breckinridge, Buckner, Longstreet,
+Hill, Cleburne and the others urged on the attacks.  They had been
+victors everywhere else and they knew that they must drive back Thomas
+or the triumph would not be complete.  They struck and spared not, least
+of all their own men.  They poured them, Kentuckians, Tennesseeans,
+Georgians, Mississippians and all the rest upon Thomas without regard to
+life.
+
+Kentuckians on the opposing sides met once again face to face.  Dick did
+not know it then, but a regiment drawn from neighboring counties charged
+the Winchesters thrice and left their dead almost at his feet.  He had
+little time to notice or measure anything amid the awful din and the
+continued shock of battle in which thousands of men were falling.
+
+The clouds of smoke enveloped them at times, and at other times floated
+away.  New clumps of pines, set on fire by the shells, burned brightly
+like torches, lighting the way to death.  Smoke, thick with the odors of
+burned gunpowder clogged eye, nose and throat.  Dick and the lads around
+him gasped for breath, but they fired so fast into the dense Southern
+masses that their rifle barrels grew hot to the touch.
+
+The South was making her supreme effort.  Her western sons were
+performing prodigies of valor, and Longstreet and the Virginians were
+fighting with all the courage that had distinguished them in the East.
+
+But however violent the charge, and however tremendous the fire of cannon
+and rifles, the Rock of Chickamauga merely sank deeper in the soil,
+and nothing could drive him from his base.  The Union dead heaped up,
+regiments were shattered by the Southern fire, but Thomas, calm, and,
+inspiring courage as on the day before, passed here and there,
+strengthening the weak points, and sending many great guns to the crest
+of Missionary Ridge, whence they swept the front of the enemy with a
+devastating fire.
+
+The hail of death from the heights enabled the infantry and cavalry below
+to gather breath and strength for the new attacks of the enemy.  They
+knew, too, that their cannon were now giving them more help than before,
+and defiant cheers swept along the line in answer to the mighty battle
+cry of the South.  The Rock of Chickamauga had not moved a foot.
+
+Dick caught gleams of the sun through the smoky canopy, but he did not
+know how far the day had advanced.  He seemed to have been in battle many
+hours, but in such moments one had little knowledge of time.  He was
+aware that the battle had been lost in the center and on the right,
+but he had sublime faith in Thomas.  The left would stand, and while it
+stood the South could win but a barren triumph.
+
+The peril was imminent and deadly.  A strong Southern force, having cut
+through another portion of the line, was endeavoring to take Thomas on
+the flank.  Rosecrans, seeing the danger and almost in despair, sent
+Thomas orders which his stern lieutenant fortunately could not obey.
+The rock did not move.
+
+Bragg, an able leader, increased the attack upon Thomas.  His generals
+gathered around him, and seconded his efforts.  Their view was better
+than that of the Union commanders, and they knew it was vital to them to
+move the rock from their path.  Brigades, already victorious on other
+parts of the field, came up, and were hurled, shouting their triumphant
+battle cry against Thomas, only to be hurled back again.
+
+The resolution of the defenders increased with their success.  A sort of
+fever seized upon them all.  Death had become a little thing, or it was
+forgotten.  The blood in their veins was fire, and, transported out of
+themselves, they rained shells and bullets upon men whom in their calm
+moments they did not hate at all.
+
+Dick's regiment had suffered with the rest, but Pennington and Warner and
+the colonel were alive, and he caught a few glimpses of Hertford with his
+gallant horsemen beating back every attack upon their flank.  But nothing
+stood out with sharp precision.  The whole was a huge turmoil of fire,
+smoke, confusion and death.  The weight upon them seemed at last to
+become overwhelming.  In spite of courage the most heroic, and dreadful
+losses, the right of Thomas was driven back, his center was compelled to
+wheel about, but his left where the Winchester regiment stood with others
+held on.  Thomas himself was there among them, still cool and impassive
+in face of threatened ruin.
+
+About twenty thousand men were around Thomas, and they alone stood
+between the Union army and destruction.  At all other points it had been
+not only defeated, but routed.  Vast masses of fugitives were fleeing
+toward Chattanooga.  Rosecrans himself withdrew, and, now wholly in
+despair, telegraphed at four o'clock in the afternoon to Washington:
+"My army has been whipped and routed."
+
+But Thomas was neither routed nor whipped.  Many of the brave generals
+elsewhere refused to flee with the troops, but gathering as many soldiers
+as possible joined Thomas.  Among them was young Sheridan, destined to so
+great a fame, who brought almost all his own division and stood beside
+the Rock of Chickamauga, refusing to yield any further to the terrible
+pressure.
+
+The line of Thomas' army was now almost a semicircle.  Polk was leading
+violent attacks upon his left and center.  Longstreet, used to victory,
+was upon his right and behind him, and the veterans from the Army of
+Northern Virginia had never fought better.
+
+Dick saw the enemy all around him, and he began to lose hope.  How could
+they stand against such numbers?  And if they tried to retreat there was
+Longstreet to cut off the way.  He bumped against Sergeant Whitley in the
+smoke and gasped out:
+
+"We're done for, Sergeant!  We're done for!"
+
+"No, we're not!" shouted the sergeant, firing into the advancing mass.
+"We'll beat 'em back.  They can't run over us!"
+
+The sergeant, usually so cool, was a little mad.  He was wounded in
+the head, and the blood had run down over his face, dyeing it scarlet.
+His brain was hot as with fire, and he hurled epithets at the enemy.
+His life on the plains came back to him, and, for the time, he was like
+a hurt Sioux chief who defies his foes.  He called them names.  He dared
+them to come on.  He mocked them.  He told them how they had attacked
+in vain all day long.  He counted the number of their repulses and then
+exaggerated them.  He reminded them it was yet a long time until dark,
+and asked them why they hesitated, why they did not come forward and meet
+the death that was ready for them.
+
+Dick gazed at him in astonishment.  He heard many of his words through
+the roar of the guns, and he saw his ensanguined face, through which
+his eyes burned like two red-hot coals.  Was this the quiet and kindly
+Sergeant Whitley whom he had known so long?  No, it was a raging tiger.
+Still waters run deep, and, enveloped, at last, with the fury of battle
+the sergeant welcomed wounds, death or anything else it might bring.
+
+He shouted and fired his rifle again.  Then he fell like a log.  Dick
+rushed to him at once, but he saw that he had only fainted from loss of
+blood.  He bound up the sergeant's head as best he could, and, easing him
+against a bank, returned to the battle front.
+
+A shout suddenly arose.  Officers had seen through their glasses a column
+of dust rising far behind them.  It was so vast that it could only be
+made by a great body of marching troops.  But who were the men that were
+making it?  In all the frightful din and excitement of the battle the
+question ran through the army of Thomas.  If fresh enemies were coming
+upon their rear they were lost!  If friends there was yet hope!
+
+But they could not watch the tower of dust long.  The enemy in front
+gave them no chance.  Polk was still beating upon them, and Longstreet,
+having seized a ridge, was pouring an increased fire from his advanced
+position.
+
+"If that cloud of dust encloses gray uniforms we're lost!" shouted Warner
+in Dick's ear.
+
+"But it mustn't enclose 'em," Dick shouted back.  "Fate wouldn't play us
+such an awful trick!  We can't lose, after having done and suffered so
+much!"
+
+Fate would not say which.  They could not send men to see, but as they
+fought they watched the cloud coming nearer and nearer, and Dick, whose
+lips had been moving for some time, realized suddenly that he was
+praying.  "O God, save us! save us!" he was saying over and over.
+"Send the help to us who need it so sorely.  Make us strong, O God,
+to meet our enemies!"
+
+He and all his comrades wore masks of dust and burned gunpowder, often
+stained with scarlet.  Their clothing was torn by bullets and reddened
+by dripping wounds.  When they shouted to one another their voices came
+strained and husky from painful throats.  Half the time they were blinded
+by the smoke and blaze of the firing.  The crash did not seem so loud to
+them now, because they were partly deafened for the time by a cannonade
+of such violence and length.
+
+Dick looked back once more at the great cloud of dust which was now
+much nearer, but there was nothing yet to indicate what it bore within,
+the bayonets of the North or those of the South.  His anxiety became
+almost intolerable.
+
+Thomas himself stood at that moment entirely alone in a clump of trees on
+the elevation called Horseshoe Ridge, watching the battle, seeing the
+enemy in overpowering numbers on both his flanks and even in his rear.
+Apparently everything was lost.  Taciturn, he never described his
+feelings then, but in his soul he must have admired the magnificent
+courage with which his troops stood around him, and repelled the
+desperate assaults of a foe resolved to win.  Although his face
+grew grimmer and his teeth set hard, he, too, must have watched the
+approaching cloud of dust with the most terrible anxiety.  If it bore
+enemies in its bosom, then in very truth everything would be lost.
+
+Down a road some miles from the battlefield a force of eight thousand men
+had been left as a reserve for one of the armies.  They had long heard
+the terrific cannonade which was sending shattering echoes through the
+mountains, and both their chief and his second in command were eager to
+rush to the titanic combat.  They could not obtain orders from their
+commander, but, at last, they marched swiftly to the field, all the eight
+thousand on fire with zeal to do their part.
+
+It was the eight thousand who were making the great cloud of dust, and,
+as they came nearer and nearer, the suspense of Thomas' shattered
+brigades grew more terrible.  Dick, reckless of shell and bullets,
+tried to pierce the cloud with his eyes.  He caught a glimpse of a flag
+and uttered a wild shout of joy.  It was the stars and stripes.  The
+eight thousand were eight thousand of the North!  He danced up and down
+on the stump, and shouted at the top of his voice:
+
+"They're our own men!  Help is here!  Help is here!"
+
+A vast shout of relief rose from Thomas' army as the eight thousand still
+coming swiftly joined them.  Granger was their leader, but Steedman,
+his lieutenant, galloped at once to Thomas, who still stood in the clump
+of trees, and asked him what he wanted him to do.  The general, calm and
+taciturn as ever, pointed toward a long hill that flamed with the enemy's
+guns, and said three words:
+
+"Take that ridge!"
+
+Steedman galloped back and the eight thousand charged at once.  The
+battle in front sank a little, as if the others wished to watch the new
+combat.  Dick had been dragged down from the stump by Warner, but the two
+stood erect with Pennington, their eyes turned toward the ridge.  Colonel
+Winchester was near them, his attention fixed upon the same place.
+
+The eight thousand firing their rifles and supported by artillery charged
+at a great pace.  The whole ridge blazed with fire, and the dead and
+wounded went down in sheaves.  But Dick could not see that they faltered.
+Hoarse shouts came again from his dry and blackened lips:
+
+"They will take it! they will take it!  Look how they face the guns!"
+he was crying.
+
+"So they will!" said Warner.  "See what a splendid charge!  Now they're
+hidden!  What a column of smoke!  It floats aside, and, look, our men are
+still going on!  Nothing can stop them!  They must have lost thousands,
+but they reach the slope, and as sure as there's a sun in the heavens
+they're going up it!"
+
+That tremendous cheer burst again from the beleaguered Union army.
+Granger and Steedman, with their fresh troops, were rushing up the slopes
+of the formidable ridge, and though three thousand of the eight thousand
+fell, they took it, hurling back the advancing columns of the South,
+and securing the rear of Thomas.
+
+Then the Winchester men and others about them went wild with joy.
+They leaped, they danced, they sang, until they were commanded to make
+ready for a new attack.  Rosecrans in Chattanooga, with the most of his
+army there also in wild confusion, had sent word to Thomas to retire,
+to which Thomas had replied tersely: "It will ruin the army to withdraw
+it now; this position must be held till night."
+
+And he made good his resolve.  The Southern masses attacked once more
+with frightful violence, and once more Thomas withstood them.  The field
+was now darkening in the twilight, and, having saved the Union army
+from rout and wreck, Thomas, impervious to attack, fell back slowly to
+Chattanooga.
+
+The greatest battle of the West, one of the most desperate ever fought,
+came to a close.  Thirty-five thousand men, killed or wounded, had fallen
+upon the field.  The South had won a great but barren victory.  She had
+not been able to reap the fruits of so much skill and courage, because
+Thomas and his men, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, had stood in the
+way.  Never had a man more thoroughly earned the title of honor that he
+bore throughout the rest of his life, "The Rock of Chickamauga."
+
+Chickamauga, though, was a sinister word to the North.  Gettysburg and
+Vicksburg had stemmed the high tide of the Confederacy, and many had
+thought the end in sight.  But the news from "The River of Death" told
+them that the road to crowning success was still long and terrible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+BESIDE THE BROOK
+
+
+When the slow retreat began Dick looked for the sergeant.  But a stalwart
+figure, a red bandage around the head, rose up and confronted him.
+It was Sergeant Whitley himself, a little unsteady yet on his feet,
+but soon to be as good as ever.
+
+"Thank you for looking for me, Mr. Mason," he said, "but I came to,
+some time ago.  I guess the bullet found my skull too hard, 'cause it
+just ran 'roun' it, and came out on the other side.  I won't even be
+scarred, as my hair covers up the place."
+
+"Can you walk all right?" asked Dick, overjoyed to find the sergeant was
+not hurt badly.
+
+"Of course I can, Mr. Mason, an' I'm proud to have been with General
+Thomas in such a battle.  I didn't think human bein's could do what our
+men have done."
+
+"Nor did I.  It was impossible, but we've done it all the same."
+
+Colonel Winchester rejoiced no less than the lads over the sergeant's
+escape.  All the officers of the regiment liked him, and they had an
+infinite respect for his wisdom, particularly when danger was running
+high.  They were glad for his own sake that he was alive, and they were
+glad to have him with them as they retreated into Chattanooga, because
+the night still had its perils.
+
+The moon, though clouded, was out as they withdrew slowly.  On their
+flanks there was still firing, as strong detachments skirmished with
+one another, but the Winchester men as yet paid little attention to it.
+They said grimly to one another that two days in the infernal regions
+were enough for one time.  They looked back at the vast battlefield and
+the clumps of pines burning now like funeral torches, and shuddered.
+
+The retreat of Thomas was harried incessantly.  Longstreet and Forrest
+were eager to push the attack that night and the next day and make the
+victory complete.  They and men of less rank dreamed of a triumph which
+should restore the fortunes of the Confederacy to the full, but Bragg was
+cautious.  He did not wish to incur the uttermost risk, and the roll of
+his vast losses might well give him pause also.
+
+Nevertheless Southern infantry and cavalry hung on the flanks and rear of
+the withdrawing Union force.  The cloudy moon gave sufficient light for
+the sharpshooters, whose rifles flashed continuously.  The lighter field
+guns moved from the forests and bushes, and the troops of Thomas were
+compelled to turn again and again to fight them off.
+
+The Winchester regiment was on the extreme flank, where the men were
+exposed to the fiercest attacks, but fortunately the thickets and hills
+gave them much shelter.  At times they lay down and returned the fire of
+the enemy until they beat him off.  Then they would rise and march on
+again.
+
+All the officers had lost their horses, and Colonel Winchester strode at
+the head of his men.  Just behind were Dick, Pennington and some other
+members of his staff.  The rest had fallen.  Further back was Sergeant
+Whitley, his head in a red bandage, but all his faculties returned.
+In this dire emergency he was taking upon himself the duties of a
+commissioned officer, and there was none to disobey him.  Once more was
+the wise veteran showing himself a very bulwark of strength.
+
+Despite the coolness of the night, they had all suffered on the second
+day of the battle from a burning thirst.  And now after their immense
+exertions it grew fiercer than ever.  Dick's throat and mouth were
+parched, and he felt as if he were breathing fire.  He felt that he must
+have water or die.  All the men around him were panting, and he knew
+they were suffering the same torture.
+
+"This country ought to be full of brooks and creeks," he said to
+Pennington.  "If I see water I mean to make a dash for it, Johnnies or
+no Johnnies.  I'm perfectly willing to risk my life for a drink."
+
+"So am I," said Warner, who overheard him, "and so are all who are left
+in this regiment.  If they see the flash of water nothing can hold them
+back, not even Bragg's whole army.  How those skirmishers hang on to us!
+Whizz-z! there went their bullets right over our head!"
+
+The Winchesters turned, delivered a heavy volley into a thicket, whence
+the bullets had come, and marched on, looking eagerly now for water.
+They began to talk about it.  They spoke of the cool brooks, "branches"
+they called them, that they had known at home, and they told how, when
+they found one, they would first drink of it, and then lie down in its
+bed and let its water flow over them.
+
+But Dick's thirst could not wholly take his mind from the tremendous
+scenes accompanying that sullen and defiant retreat.  Hills and mountains
+were in deepest gloom, save when the signal lights of the Southern armies
+flashed back and forth.  The clouded moon touched everything nearer by
+with somber gray.  The fire of cannon rolled through the forest and
+gorges with redoubled echoes.
+
+A shout suddenly came from the head of the Winchester column.
+
+"Water!  Water!" they cried.  A young boy had caught a glimpse of silver
+through some bushes, and he knew that it was made by the swift current
+of a brook.  In an instant the regiment broke into a run for the water.
+Colonel Winchester could not have stopped them if he had tried, and he
+did not try.  He knew how great was their need.
+
+"We're off!" cried Pennington.
+
+"I see it!  The water!" shouted Dick.
+
+"I do, too!" exclaimed Warner, "and it's the most beautiful water that
+ever flowed!"
+
+But they stopped in their rush and dropped down in the thickets.
+Sergeant Whitley had given the warning shout, and fortunately most of a
+volley from a point about a hundred yards beyond the stream swept over
+their heads.  A few men were wounded, and they not badly.
+
+Dick crawled to the head of the column.  The sergeant was already there,
+whispering to Colonel Winchester.
+
+"They've taken to cover, too, sir," said the sergeant.
+
+"How many do you suppose they are?" asked the colonel.
+
+"Not more than we are, sir."
+
+"They run a great risk when they attack us in this manner."
+
+"Maybe, sir," said Dick, "they, too, were coming for the water."
+
+Colonel Winchester looked at Sergeant Whitley.
+
+"I'm of the opinion, sir," said the sergeant, "that Mr. Mason is right."
+
+"I think so, too," said Colonel Winchester.  "It's a pity that men should
+kill each other over a drink of water when there's enough for all.
+Has any man a handkerchief?"
+
+"Here, sir," said Warner; "it's ragged and not very clean, but I hope it
+will do."
+
+The Colonel raised the handkerchief on the point of his sword and gave
+a hail.  The bulk of the two armies had passed on, and now there was
+silence in the woods as the two little forces confronted each other
+across the stream.
+
+Dick saw a tall form in Confederate gray rise up from the bushes on the
+other side of the brook.
+
+"Are you wanting to surrender?" the man called in a long, soft drawl.
+
+"Not by any means.  We want a drink of water, and we're just bound to
+have it."
+
+"You don't want it any more than we do, and you're not any more bound to
+have it than we are."
+
+The colonel hesitated a moment, and then, influenced by a generous
+impulse, said:
+
+"If you won't fire, we won't."
+
+The tall, elderly Southerner, evidently a colonel, also said:
+
+"It's a fair proposition, sir.  My men have been working so hard the last
+two days licking you Yanks that they're plum' burnt up with thirst."
+
+"I don't admit the licking, although it's obvious that you've gained
+the advantage so far, but is it agreed that we shall have a truce for a
+quarter of an hour?"
+
+"It is, sir; the truce of the water, and may we drink well!  Come on,
+boys!"
+
+Colonel Winchester gave a similar order to his men, and each side rose
+from the thickets, and made a rush for the brook.  It was a beautiful
+little stream, the most beautiful in the world just then to Dick and his
+friends.  Clear and cold, the color of silver in the moonlight, it rushed
+down from the mountains.  On one side knelt the men in blue, and on the
+other the men in gray, and the pure water was like the elixir of heaven
+to their parched and burning throats.
+
+Dick drank long, and then as he raised his face from the stream he saw
+opposite him a tall, lean youth, evidently from the far South, Louisiana
+perhaps, a lad with a tanned face and a wide mouth stretched in a
+friendly grin.
+
+"Tastes good, doesn't it, Yank?" he said.
+
+"Yes, it does, Reb," replied Dick.  "I felt that I was drying up and just
+crumbling away like old dead wood.  As soon as the gallon that I've drunk
+has percolated thoroughly through my system I intend to hoist aboard
+another gallon."
+
+"I don't know what percolate means, but I reckon it has something to do
+with travelin' about through your system.  I think I need a couple of
+gallons myself.  Say, will you give a fair answer to a fair question?"
+
+"Yes, go ahead."
+
+"Don't you Yanks feel powerful bad over the thrashing we've given you?"
+
+"Not so bad.  Besides I wouldn't call it a thrashing.  It's just a
+temporary advantage.  And you wait.  We'll take it away from you."
+
+"I don't know about that, but I can't argue with you now.  I'm due for my
+second gallon."
+
+"So am I."
+
+Each bent down and drank again a long, life-giving draught from the
+rushing stream.  For a distance of a hundred yards or more heads black,
+brown and sometimes yellow were bent over the brook.  Far off, both
+to east and west, the cannon thundered in the darkness, but with the
+drinkers it was a peaceful interlude of a quarter of an hour.  Such
+moments often occurred in this war when the men on both sides were blood
+brethren.
+
+Colonel Winchester stood up, and the grizzled Confederate colonel stood
+up on the other side of the stream, facing him.  Their hands rose in a
+simultaneous salute of respect.
+
+"Sir," said Colonel Winchester, "I'm happy to have met you in this
+manner."
+
+"Sir," said the Southern colonel ornately, "we are happy to have drunk
+from the same stream with such brave foes, and now, sir, I propose as
+we retire that neither regiment shall fire a shot within the next five
+minutes."
+
+"Agreed," said Colonel Winchester, and then as the colonels gave the
+signals the two regiments withdrew beyond their respective thickets.
+The truce of the water was over, but these foes did not meet again that
+night.
+
+The regiment had left a great proportion of its numbers dead upon the
+field.  Half the others were wounded more or less, but the slightly
+wounded marched on with the unhurt.  Many of them were now barely
+conscious.  They were either asleep upon their feet or in a daze.
+Nevertheless they soon rejoined the main command.
+
+Dick, having his pride as an officer, sought to keep himself active and
+alert.  He passed among the lads of his own age, and encouraged them.
+He told them how the older men were already speaking of the wonders they
+had done, and presently he saw Thomas himself riding along with the
+young general, Garfield, who had been with him throughout the afternoon.
+All the Winchester men saw their commander, and, worn as they were,
+they stopped and gave a mighty cheer.  Thomas was moved.  Under the
+cloudy moon Dick saw him show emotion for the first time.  He took off
+his hat.
+
+"Gentlemen, comrades," he said, "we have lost the battle of Chickamauga,
+but if all our regiments fight as you fought to-day the war is won."
+
+Another cheer, enthusiastic and spontaneous, burst from the regiment,
+and Thomas rode on.  Dick had never heard him make another speech so long.
+
+When they reached the little town of Chattanooga within its mountains
+they began to realize the full grandeur of their exploit.  The remainder
+of the army of Rosecrans was almost a mob, and brave as he undoubtedly
+was he was soon removed to another field, leaving Thomas in supreme
+command until Grant should come.
+
+Dick had no rest until the next night, when tents were set for the
+battered remains of the Winchester regiment.  He, Warner, Pennington
+and three others were assigned to one of the larger tents.  He had been
+without sleep for two days and two nights, and the tremendous tension
+that had kept him up so long was relaxing fast.  He felt that he must
+sleep or die.  Yet they talked together a little before they stretched
+themselves upon their blankets.
+
+"Do you think Bragg will attack us in Chattanooga, Dick?" asked
+Pennington.
+
+"I don't.  Our position here is too strong, and, as he was the assailant,
+his losses must be something awful.  Moreover, the rivers are always ours
+and reinforcements will soon pour in to us.  I think that General Thomas
+saved the Union.  What have you to say, George?"
+
+"Just about what you are saying, Dick.  We've been beaten, but not enough
+to suit the Johnnies.  They have on their side present victory.  We have
+on ours present but not total defeat.  You might say they have x, while
+we have x + y.  Wait until I look into my algebra, and I can find further
+mathematical and beautiful propositions proving my contention beyond the
+shadow of a doubt."
+
+He took out his algebra and opened it.  A bullet fell from the leaves
+into his lap.  Warner picked it up and examined it carefully.  Then he
+looked at the book.
+
+"It went half way through," he said in tones of genuine solemnity.
+"If it had gone all the way it would have pierced my heart and I could
+never have known how this war is going to end.  It has saved my life,
+and I shall always keep it over my heart until we go back home."
+
+Dick was asleep the next minute, and they did not wake him for twelve
+hours.  When he came from the tent he stood blinking in the sun, and a
+tall lean youth hailed him with a joyous shout:
+
+"Why, it's Mason--Mason of Kentucky!" exclaimed the lad, extending a
+hardened hand.  "I'm glad you're alive.  How are those friends of yours,
+Warner and Pennington?"
+
+"Well, save for scratches, Ohio.  They're about somewhere."
+
+They shook hands again, hunted up the others, and celebrated their escape
+from death.
+
+Dick learned later that all the Woodvilles were still alive and that
+Colonel Kenton, although wounded, was recovering fast.  Slade, with
+troublesome raids, soon gave evidence of his own continued existence.
+
+Then, as they expected, reinforcements poured in.  Grant came, and Dick
+and his comrades took part in the fight at Missionary Ridge and the
+battle "above the clouds" on Lookout Mountain.  He witnessed great
+triumphs and he had a share in them.
+
+He saw Bragg's army broken up, and he rejoiced with the others when the
+news came that Grant for his brilliant successes had been made commander
+of all the armies of the Union, and would go east to match himself
+against the mighty Lee.  The Winchester regiment would go with him and
+Dick, Warner, Pennington and Sergeant Whitley, who was entirely recovered,
+talked of it gravely:
+
+"We've been in the East before," said Pennington, "but we won't be under
+any doubting general now."
+
+"I fancy it will be the death grapple," said Warner.
+
+"And the continent will shake with it," said Dick.
+
+The three, as if by the same impulse, turned and faced the distant East,
+where the shades were already gathering over the Wilderness.
+
+
+
+
+Appendix: Transcription notes:
+
+This etext was transcribed from a volume of the 14th printing.
+
+
+The following modifications were applied while transcribing the
+printed book to etext:
+
+ Chapter 1
+   Page 30, para 1, add missing close-quotes
+
+ Chapter 2
+   Page 39, para 1, add missing close-quotes
+   Page 48, para 4, change "its" to "it's"
+
+ Chapter 3
+   Page 72, para 1, add missing close-quotes
+
+ Chapter 8
+   Page 174, para 2, add a badly-needed comma
+   Page 182, para 3, change "replied Pennington" to "replied Warner"
+   Page 185, para 5, add missing close-quotes
+
+ Chapter 10
+   Page 216, para 2, move a badly-misplaced comma
+   Page 217, para 5, add a badly-needed comma
+
+ Chapter 12
+   Page 258, para 2, add missing open-quotes
+
+ Chapter 14
+   Page 297, para 1, fixed typo "Mississipians"
+
+
+ Chapter 15
+   Page 320, para 2, remove an extra comma
+
+
+
+ Limitations imposed by converting to plain ASCII:
+
+  - The word "cooperated" in chapter 8 was presented in the printed
+    book with an accented "o"
+  - In chapter 11, "Caesar" was presented with the "ae" ligature
+  - In chapter 11, the ship's name "Union" was presented in italics
+  - In chapter 14, "Thermopylae" was presented with the "ae" ligature
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Rock of Chickamauga, by Joseph A. Altsheler
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA ***
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