that the Confederacy had
already received a mortal blow. It was not alone sufficient for the
South to win victories. She must keep on winning them, and the failure
at Gettysburg and the defeat at Vicksburg had put her on the defensive
everywhere. Fewer blockade runners were getting through. Above all,
there was less human material upon which to draw. But he roused himself
presently and said to Harry:

"There was something humorous in the exploits of the man who held up
General Early's messengers, but the fellow is dangerous, exceedingly
dangerous at such a time."

"I've an idea who he is, sir," said Harry.

"Indeed! What do you know?"

Then Harry told nearly all that he knew about Shepard, but not all--
that struggle in the river, and his sparing of the spy and the filching
of the map at the Curtis house, for instance--and the commander-in-chief
listened with great attention.

"A bold man, uncommonly bold, and it appears uncommonly skilled, too.
We must send out a general alarm, that is, we must have all our own
scouts and spies watching for him."

Harry said nothing, but he did not believe that anybody would catch
Shepard. The man's achievements had been so startling that they had
created the spell of invincibility. His old belief that he was worth ten
thousand men on the Northern battle line returned. No movement of the
Army of Northern Virginia could escape him, and no lone messenger could
ever be safe from him.

Lee returned to his camp on Clarke's Mountain, and, a great revival
meeting being in progress, he joined it, sitting with a group of
officers. Fitzhugh Lee, W. H. F. Lee, Jones, Rosser, Wickham, Munford,
Young, Wade Hampton and a dozen others were there. Taylor and Marshall
and Peyton of his staff were also in the company.

The preacher was a man of singular power and earnestness, and after
the sermon he led the singing himself, in which often thirty or forty
thousand voices joined. It was a moving sight to Harry, all these men,
lads, mostly, but veterans of many fields, united in a chorus mightier
than any other that he had ever heard. It would have pleased Stonewall
Jackson to his inmost soul, and once more, as always, a tear rose to his
eye as he thought of his lost hero.

Harry and Dalton left their horses with an orderly and came back to the
edge of the great grove, in which the meeting was being held. They had
expected to find St. Clair and Happy Tom there, but not seeing them