s. Before him was
a red mist sown with sparks, but every minute or two the mist was rent
open by the blast of a cannon, and then the fragments of shell whistled
again about his ears. He kept his eyes on Jackson, endeavoring to follow
him as closely as possible.

He heard suddenly a cry behind him. He saw Dalton's horse falling, and
then Dalton and the horse disappeared. He felt a catch at the heart,
but it was not a time to remember long. The Southern troops were still
pouring forward driving hard on the Northern resistance.

He heard a moment or two later a voice by his side and there was Dalton
again mounted.

"I thought you were gone!" Harry shouted.

"I was gone for a minute but it was only my horse that stayed. He was
shot through the heart but I caught another--plenty of riderless ones
are galloping about--and here I am."

The houses and the narrow streets offered some support to the defense
of Banks, but he was gradually driven through the town and out into
the fields beyond. Then the women, careless of bullets, came out of the
houses and weeping and cheering urged on the pursuit. It always seemed
to Harry that the women of this section hated the North more than the
men did, and now it was in very fact and deed the fierce women of the
South cheering on their men.

He came in the fields into contact with the Invincibles. St. Clair was
on foot, his horse killed, but Langdon was still riding, although there
was a faint trickle of blood from his shoulder. Some grim demon seized
him as he saw Harry.

"We said we were coming back to Winchester," he shouted in his comrade's
ear, "and we have come, but we don't stay. Harry, how long does Old Jack
expect us to march and fight without stopping?"

"Until you get through."

Then the Invincibles, curving a little to the right, were lost in the
flame and smoke, and the pursuit, Jackson continually urging it, swept
on. He seemed to Harry to be all fire. He shouted again and again. "We
must follow them to the Potomac! To the Potomac! To the Potomac!" He
sent his staff flying to every regimental commander with orders. He had
the horses cut from the artillery and men mounted on them to continue
the pursuit. He inquired continually for the cavalry. Harry, after
returning from his second errand with orders, was sent on a third to
Ashby. There was no time to write any letter. He was to tell him to come
up with cavalry and attack the Federal rear with all his might.

Harr