gard's camp, and the boy rode on unnoticed, praying that the
same luck would attend him in the other half of the distance.

CHAPTER XIV

IN WASHINGTON

A quarter of a mile from the forest, the wood ascended considerably,
throwing him into relief. He felt some shivers here, as he did not know
who might be watching him. Field glasses were ugly things when a man
was trying to hide. He glanced at the little group that he had seen
on the hill, and he noticed now that the officer with the glasses was
looking at him. But Harry was a long distance away, and he had the
courage and prudence of mind to keep from falling into a panic. He did
not believe that they could tell the color of his uniform at that range,
but if he whipped his horse into a gallop, pursuit would certainly come
from somewhere.

He rode slowly on, letting his figure sway negligently, and he did not
look back again at the group on the hill, where the officer was watching
him. But he looked from side to side, fearing that horsemen in blue
might appear galloping across the fields. It was a supreme test of
nerve and will. More than once he felt an almost irresistible
temptation to lash his horse and gallop for the wood as hard as he
could. That wood seemed wonderfully deep and dark, fit to hide any
fugitive. But it had acquired an extraordinary habit of moving further
and further away. He had to exert his will so hard that his hand fairly
trembled on his bridle rein. Yet he remained master of himself, and
went on sitting the saddle in the slouchy attitude that he had adopted
when he knew himself to be observed.

The wood was only three or four hundred yards away, when far to his left
he saw several horsemen appear on a slope, and he was quite sure that
their uniforms were blue. The distance to the wood was now so short
that the temptation to gallop was powerful, but he still resisted.
Pride, too, helped him and he did not increase the pace of his horse a
particle. He saw the dark, cool shadow very near now, and he thought he
heard one of the new horsemen on his left shout to him. But he would
not look around. Preserving appearances to the last, he rode into the
forest, and its heavy shadows enveloped him.

He stopped a moment under the trees and wiped the perspiration from his
forehead. He was also seized with a violent fit of trembling, but it
was over in a half minute, and then turning his horse from the path he
rode into the dens