ere, sir! They're firing on our pickets!"

A half-dozen shots came from the front, and then a half-dozen or so
in reply. Harry saw pink flashes, and then spirals of smoke rising.
More shots were fired presently on their right, and then others on their
left. The Northern riflemen were evidently on a long line, and intended
to make a thorough test of their enemy's strength. Harry had no doubt
that Shepard was there. He would surely come to the point where his
enemy was nearest, and his eyes and ears would be the keenest of all.

The little skirmish continued for a few minutes, extending along a
winding line of nearly a mile through the thickets. Only two or three
were wounded and nobody killed on the Southern side. Harry understood
thoroughly, as Ewell had said, that the sharpshooters of the enemy were
merely feeling for them. They wanted to know if a strong force was there,
and now they knew.

The firing ceased, not in dying shots, but abruptly. The Wilderness in
front of them returned to silence, broken only by the rippling leaves.
Harry knew that the Northern sharpshooters had discovered all they wanted,
and were now returning to their leaders.

Ewell turned his horse and rode back toward the main camp, his staff
following. The cooking fires had been put out, the lines were formed
and every gun was in position. As little noise as possible was allowed,
while they waited for Grant; not for Grant himself, but for one of his
lieutenants, pushed forward by his master hand.

Harry and most of the staff officers dismounted, holding their horses by
the bridle. The young lieutenant often searched the thickets with his
glasses, but he saw nothing. Nevertheless he knew that the enemy would
come. Grant having set out to find his foe, would never draw back when
he found him.

A much longer period of silence than he had expected passed. The sun,
flaming red, was moving on toward the zenith, and no sounds of battle
came from either right or left. The suspense became acute, almost
unbearable, and it was made all the more trying by the blindness of that
terrible forest. Harry felt at times as if he would rather fight in the
open fields; but he knew that his commander-in-chief was right when he
drew Grant into the shades of the Wilderness.

When the suspense became so great that heavy weights seemed to be
pressing upon his nerves, rifle shots were fired in front, and
skirmishers uttered the long, shrill rebel yel