k him for that one good step, if he never take
another; for it saved the scout, and, may-be, it saved Kentucky. When
the scout returned that way, he halted abreast of that tree, and
examined the ground about it. Right there, in the road, was the mare's
track, with the print of the man's foot still upon the inner quarter! He
uncovered his head, and from his heart went up a simple thanksgiving.

The horsemen gone, the scout came down from the tree, and pushed on into
the misty morning. There might be danger ahead, but there surely was
danger behind him. His pursuers were only half convinced that they had
struck his trail; and some sensible fiend might put it into their heads
to divide and follow, part by one route, part by the other.

He pushed on over the sloshy road, his mare every step going slower and
slower. The poor beast was jaded out; for she had travelled sixty miles,
eaten nothing, and been stabled in the timber. She would have given out
long before, had her blood not been the best in Kentucky. As it was, she
staggered along as if she had taken a barrel of whiskey. Five miles
farther on was the house of a Union man. She must reach it, or die by
the wayside; for the merciful man regardeth not the life of his beast,
when he carries dispatches.

The loyalist did not know the scout, but his honest face secured him a
cordial welcome. He explained that he was from the Union camp on the Big
Sandy, and offered any price for a horse to go on with.

"Yer nag is wuth ary two o' my critters," said the man. "Ye kin take the
best beast I've got; and when ye 'r' ag'in this way, we'll swop back
even."

The scout thanked him, mounted the horse, and rode off into the mist
again, without the warm breakfast which the good woman had, half-cooked,
in the kitchen. It was eleven o'clock; and at twelve that night he
entered Colonel Cranor's quarters at Paris,--having ridden a hundred
miles with a rope round his neck, for thirteen dollars a month,
hard-tack, and a shoddy uniform.

The Colonel opened the dispatch. It was dated, Louisa, Kentucky,
December 24th, midnight; and directed him to move at once with his
regiment, (the Fortieth Ohio, eight hundred strong,) by the way of Mount
Sterling and McCormick's Gap, to Prestonburg. He would incumber his men
with as few rations and as little luggage as possible, bearing in mind
that the safety of his command depended on his expedition. He would also
convey the dispatch to Lieutenant-Colo