hts in those days and the boy moved along in
the dusk, until he came near the Capitol. There he saw the flame of
lamps shining from several windows, and he knew that men were still at
work, striving to draw a state into the arms of the North or the South.
He paused a few minutes at the corner of the lawn and drew many long,
deep breaths. The soreness was almost gone from his chest. The oil
with which Samuel Jarvis had kneaded his bruises was certainly wonderful,
and he hoped that "Aunt Suse," who got it from the Indians, would fill
out her second hundred years.

He reached the hotel without meeting any one whom he knew, and went up
the stairway to his room, where he found his father writing at a small
desk. Colonel Kenton glanced at him, and noticed at once his change of
costume.

"What does that clothing mean, Harry?" he asked. "It's jeans, and it
doesn't fit."

"I know it's jeans, and I know it doesn't fit, but I was mighty glad to
get it, as everything else I had on was soaked with water."

Colonel Kenton raised his eyebrows.

"I was hunting the bottom of the Kentucky River," continued Harry.

"Fall in?"

"No, thrown in."

Colonel Kenton raised his eyebrows higher than ever.

Harry sat down and told him the whole story, Colonel Kenton listening
intently and rarely interrupting.

"It was great good fortune that the men on the raft came just at the
right time," he said, when Harry had finished. "There are bad
mountaineers and good mountaineers--Jarvis and his nephew represent one
type and Skelly the other. Skelly hates us because we drove back his
band when they attacked our house. In peaceful times we could have him
hunted out and punished, but we cannot follow him into his mountains
now. We shall be compelled to let this pass for the present, but as
your life would not be safe here you must leave Frankfort, Harry."

"I can't go back to Pendleton," said the boy, "and stay there, doing
nothing."

"I had no such purpose. I know that you are bound to be in active life,
and I was already meditating a longer journey for you. Listen clearly
to me, Harry. The fight here is about over, and we are going to fail.
It is by the narrowest of margins, but still we will fail. We who are
for the South know it with certainty. Kentucky will refuse to go out
of the Union, and it is a great blow to us. I shall have to go back to
Pendleton for a week or two and then I will take a command. But since
you are