knew that his task to find a passage for the army
across the swollen Potomac was of the utmost importance and he meant to
achieve it. He understood to the full the dangerous position in which
the chief army of the Confederacy stood. His own force might be attacked
at any moment by overwhelming numbers and be cut off and destroyed or
captured, but he also knew the quality of the men he led, and he believed
they were equal to any task.

As he sat by the fire thinking somberly, a figure in the brush no great
distance away was watching him. Shepard, the spy, in the darkness had
passed with ease between the sentinels, using the skill of an Indian in
stalking or approaching, and now, lying well hidden, almost flat upon his
stomach, he surveyed the camp. He looked at Sherburne, sitting on a log
and brooding, and he made out Harry's figure wrapped in a blanket and
lying with his feet to the fire.

Shepard's mind was powerfully affected. An intense patriot, something
remote and solitary in his nature had caused him to undertake this most
dangerous of all trades, to which he brought an intellectual power and
comprehension that few spies possess. As Harry had discovered long since,
he was a most uncommon man.

Now Shepard as he gazed at this little group felt no hatred for them or
their men. He had devoted his life to the task of keeping the Union
intact. His work must be carried out in obscure ways. He could never
hope for material reward, and if he perished it would be in some
out-of-the-way corner, perhaps at the end of a rope, a man known to so
few that there would be none to forget him. And yet his patriotism was
so great and of such a fine quality that he viewed his enemies around the
fire as his brethren. He felt confident that the armies of the North
would bring them back into the Union, and when that occurred they must
come as Americans on an equal footing with other Americans. They could
not be in the Union and not of it.

But Shepard's feeling for his official enemies would not keep him from
acting against them with all the skill, courage and daring that he
possessed in such supreme measure. He knew that it was Sherburne's task
to open a way for the Army of Northern Virginia to the Potomac and to
find a ford, or, in cooperation with some other force, to build a bridge.
It was for him to defeat the plan if he could.

While the rain all the day before had brought gloom to the hearts of
Sherburne and his