The blood sprang into Harry's face and his heart beat hard. There was
something dominating and powerful in the voice. It now had the tone of a
man who spoke to one over whom he ruled. Yet he could do nothing. He saw
that Shepard was alert and watchful. He felt instinctively that his foe
would fire if he were forced to do so and that he would not miss. Then
despite himself, he felt admiration for the man's skill and power, and a
pronounced intellectual quality that he discovered in him.

"Very well," he replied, "I'll turn and go back, but I want to tell you,
Mr. Shepard, that while you have been estimating what General Jackson's
army can do you must make that estimate high."

"I've already done so," called Shepard--Harry was riding away as he
spoke. The boy at the edge of the wood looked back, but the shadow was
already gone. He rode straight across the open and Seth Moore met him.

"Did you find anything?" the young mountaineer asked.

"Yes, there was a mounted man in a blue uniform, a spy, who has been
watching, but he made off. You had good eyes, Seth, and I'm going to
report this at once to General Jackson."

Harry knew that he was the bearer of an unpleasant message. General
Jackson was relying upon surprise, and it would not please him to know
that his movements were watched by an active and intelligent scout or
spy. But the man had already shown his greatness by always insisting
upon hearing the worst of everything.

He found the chief, still sitting before one of the fires and reported
to him fully. Jackson listened without comment, but at the end he said
to two of the brigadiers who were sitting with him:

"We march again at earliest dawn. We will not wait for the wagons."

Then he added to Harry:

"You've done good service. Join the sleepers, there."

He pointed to a group of young officers rolled in their blankets, and
Harry obeyed quickly.

CHAPTER IV. WAR AND WAITING

Harry slept like one dead, but he was awakened at dawn, and he rose yet
heavy with sleep and somewhat stiff from the severe exertions of the day
before. But it all came back in an instant, the army, the march, and the
march yet to come.

They had but a scanty breakfast, the wagons not yet having come up,
and in a half hour they started again. They grumbled mightily at first,
because the day was bleak beyond words, heavy with clouds, and sharp
with chill. The country seemed deserted and certainly that somber air
was char