Harper's Ferry and halted there, and
Lincoln, detaching a whole corps of nearly 40,000 men from McClellan's
army, ordered them to remain at Manassas to protect the capital against
Jackson. A dispatch was sent to Banks ordering him to push the valley
campaign with his whole strength.

But when Harry rose the next morning from his fence rails he knew
nothing of these things. Nor did anyone else in the Southern army,
unless it was Stonewall Jackson who perhaps half-divined them. Harry
thought afterward that he had foreseen much when he said to the impudent
cavalryman that he was satisfied with the result at Kernstown.

They lingered there a little and then began a retreat, unharrassed by
pursuit. Scouts of the enemy were seen by Ashby's cavalry, who hung like
a curtain between them and the army, but no force strong enough to do
any harm came in sight. Harry had secured another horse and most of his
duty was at the rear, where he was often sent by the general to get the
latest news from Ashby.

He quickly met Sherburne over whose dress difficulties had triumphed
at last. His fine cloak, rent in many places, was stained with mud and
there was one large dark spot made by his own blood. His face was lined
deeply by exhaustion and deep disappointment.

"They were too much for us this time, Harry," he said bitterly. "We
can't beat two to one all the time. How does the general take it?"

"As if it were nothing. He'll be ready to fight again in a few days, and
we must have struck a hard blow anyhow. The enemy are not pursuing."

"That's true," said Sherburne more cheerfully. "Your argument is a good
one."

The army came to a ridge called Rude's Hill and stopped there. Harry was
already soldier enough to see that it was a strong position. Before it
flowed a creek which the melting snows in the mountains had swollen to
a depth of eight or ten feet, and on another side was a fork of the
Shenandoah, also swollen. Here the soldiers began to fortify and prepare
for a longer stay while Jackson sent for aid.

Harry was not among the messengers for help. Jackson had learned his
great ability as a scout, and now he often sent him on missions of
observation, particularly with Captain Sherburne, to whom St. Clair and
Langdon were also loaned by Colonel Talbot. Thus the three were together
when they rode with Sherburne and a hundred men a few days after their
arrival at the ridge.

They were well wrapped in great coats, because the w