and the hill and he felt safe,
at least so far as the troop of Captain Lester was concerned. Fortune
seemed to have made him a favorite again, but he knew that dangers were
still as thick around him as leaves in Vallombrosa.

He tied his horse, climbed a tree, and used his glasses. Two miles to
the west the bright sun flashed on long lines of mounted men, obviously
the horsemen of Pleasanton. How was he to get through that cavalry
screen and reach Lee? He did not see a way, but he knew that to find,
one must seek. His desire to get through, intense as it always had been,
was now doubled. He not only carried the news to Lee about the possible
ford, but he also bore Meade's dispatch to Pleasanton, directing a
movement which, if successful, must be most dangerous to the Army of
Northern Virginia.

He descended the tree and waited a while in the forest. He found a
spring at which he drank, and he filled the canteen. It was a precious
canteen with the name of John Haskell engraved upon it, and he meant that
it should carry him through all dangers into his camp. But he did not
mean to use it yet. If he rode into Pleasanton's ranks they would merely
take his letter to the general, and that would be the failure of his real
mission.

Night was now not far distant, and, concluding that he had a much better
chance to run the gantlet under its cover, he still waited in the wood
until the twilight came.

Wrapped in a coil of dangers he was ready to risk anything. Quickness,
resource and boldness, of which the last had been most valuable, had
brought him so far, and, encouraged by success, he rode forward full of
confidence.

On his right was a small house standing among the usual shade trees, and,
approaching it without hesitation, he spoke to a man who stood in the
yard.

"Which way is General Pleasanton?" he asked.

The man hesitated.

"I belong to the Fifth Pennsylvania," said Harry, pointing to the name on
the canteen, still visible in the twilight. The man's eyes brightened
and he replied:

"Down there," pointing toward the southwest.

"I've a message for him and I don't want to run into any of the rebel
raiders."

"Then you keep away from there," he said, pointing due west.

"What's the trouble in that direction?"

"Jim Hurley was here about an hour ago. The whole country is terribly
excited about these big armies marching over it, and he said that our
cavalry was riding on fast. A lot of it was