bent upon service in the field, I want you to go to the East."

Harry's face flushed with pleasure. It was his dearest wish. Colonel
Kenton, looking at him out of the corner of his eyes, smiled.

"I fancied that you would be quite willing to go," he said. "I had a
letter this morning from a man who likes you well, Colonel Leonidas
Talbot. He is at Richmond and he says that President Davis, his cabinet,
and all the equipment of a capital will arrive there about the last of
the month. The enemy is massing before Washington and also toward the
West in the Maryland and Virginia mountains. A great battle is sure
to be fought in the summer and he wants you on his staff. General
Beauregard, whom you knew at Charleston, is to be in supreme command.
Can you leave here in a day or two for Richmond?"

Harry's eyes were sparkling, and the flush was still in his face.

"I could go in an hour," he replied.

"Such an abrupt departure as that is not needed. Moreover the choice
of a route is of great importance and requires thought. If you were to
take one of the steamers up the Ohio, say to Wheeling, in West Virginia,
you would almost surely fall into the hands of the Northern troops.
The North also controls about all the railway connections there are
between Kentucky and Virginia."

"Then I must ride across the mountains."

"These new friends of yours who saved you from the river, are they going
to stay long in Frankfort?"

"Not more than a day or two, I think. I gathered from what Jarvis said
that they were not willing to remain long where trouble was thick."

"How are their sympathies placed in this great division of our people?"

Harry laughed.

"I inferred," he replied, "from what Jarvis said that they intend to
keep the peace. He intimated to me that the silence of the mountains
was more welcome to him than the cause of either North or South."

Colonel Kenton smiled again.

"Perhaps he is wiser than the rest of us," he said, "but in any event,
I think he is our man. He will sell his logs and pull back up the
Kentucky in a small boat. I gather from what you say that he came
down the most southerly fork of the Kentucky, which, in a general way,
is the route you wish to take. You can go with him and his nephew until
they reach their home in the mountains. Then you must take a horse,
strike south into the old Wilderness Road, cross the ranges into
Virginia and reach Richmond. Are you willing?"

He spok