e as father to son, and also as man to man.

"I'm more than willing," replied Harry. "I don't think we could choose
a better way. Jarvis and his nephew, I know, will be as true as steel,
and I'd like that journey in the boat."

"Then it's settled, provided Jarvis and his nephew are willing. We'll
see them before breakfast in the morning, and now I think you'd better
go to sleep. A boy who was fished out of the Kentucky only an hour or
two ago needs rest."

Harry promptly went to bed, but sleep was long in coming. Their mission
to Frankfort had failed, and action awaited his young footsteps.
Virginia, the mother state of his own, was a mighty name to him, and men
already believed the great war would be decided there. The mountains,
too, with their wild forests and streams beckoned to him. The old,
inherited blood within him made the great pulses leap. But he slept at
last and dreamed of far-off things.

Harry and his father rose at the first silver shoot of dawn, and went
quickly through the deserted street to a quiet cove in the Kentucky,
where Samuel Jarvis had anchored his raft. It was a crisp morning,
with a tang in the air that made life feel good. A thin curl of smoke
was rising from the raft, showing that the man and his nephew were
already up, and cooking in the little hut on the raft.

Harry stepped upon the logs and his father followed him. Jarvis was
just pouring coffee from a tin pot into a tin cup, and Ike was turning
over some strips of bacon in an iron skillet on an iron stove. Both of
them, watchful like all mountaineers, had heard the visitors coming,
but they did not look up until they were on the raft.

"Mornin'," called Jarvis cheerfully. "Look, Ike, it's the big fish that
we hooked out of the river last night, an' he's got company."

"I want to thank you for saving my son's life," said the Colonel.

"I reckon, then, that you're Colonel George Kenton," said Jarvis.
"Wa'al, you don't owe us no thanks. I'm of an inquirin' turn of mind,
an' whenever I see a man or boy floatin' along in the river I always
fish him out, just to see who an' what he is. My curiosity is pow'ful
strong, colonel, an' it leads me to do a lot o' things that I wouldn't
do if it wasn't fur it. Set an' take a bite with us. This air is
nippin' an' it makes my teeth tremenjous sharp."

"We're with you," said the colonel, who was adaptable, and who saw at
once that Jarvis was a man of high character. "It's co