t, and I used to get a letter from him now and then, even if he
is in the Yankee army. He says that when Grant takes hold of a thing he
never lets go, and that he'll win the war for his side."

"Your cousin may be right about Grant's hanging on," said Dalton with
sudden angry emphasis, "but neither he nor anybody else will win this war
for the Yankees. We've lost Vicksburg, and an army with it, and we've
retreated from Gettysburg, with enough men fallen there to make another
army, but they'll never break through the iron front of Lee and his
veterans."

"Hope you're right," said Sherburne, "but I'm off now. I'm in the saddle
all night with my troop. We've got to watch the Yankee cavalry. Custer
and Pleasanton and the rest of them have learned to ride in a way that
won't let Jeb Stuart himself do any nodding."

He cantered off and the lads sat under the trees, ready for possible
orders. They saw the fire die. They heard the murmur of the camp sink.
Lee lay down on his bed of boughs, other generals withdrew to similar
beds or to tents, and the two boys still sat under the trees, waiting and
watching, and never knowing at what moment they would be needed.

CHAPTER II

THE NORTHERN SPY

But the night remained very quiet. Harry and Dalton, growing tired of
sitting, walked about the camp, and looked again to their horses, which,
saddled and bridled, were nevertheless allowed to nip the grass as best
they could at the end of their lariats. The last embers of the fire
went out, but the moon and stars remained bright, and they saw dimly the
sleeping forms of Lee and his generals. Harry, who had seen nothing
strange in Meade's lack of pursuit, now wondered at it. Surely when the
news of Vicksburg came the exultant Army of the Potomac would follow,
and try to deliver a crushing blow.

It was revealed to him as he stood silent in the moonlight that a gulf
had suddenly yawned before the South. The slash of Grant's sword in the
West had been terrible, and the wound that it made could not be cured
easily. And the Army of Northern Virginia had not only failed in its
supreme attempt, but a great river now flowed between it and Virginia.
If the Northern leaders, gathering courage anew, should hurl their masses
upon Lee's retreating force, neither skill nor courage might avail to
save them. He suddenly beheld the situation in all its desperation;
he shivered from head to foot.

Dalton saw the muscles of Harr