tion of Grant. Colonel Hertford asked Dick many questions about
Slade.

"I've been hearing of him since we were on this raid," he said. "He's
more of a guerilla than a regular soldier, but he may be able to gather
a considerable force. I wish we could cut him off."

"So do I," said Dick, but his feeling was prompted chiefly by Slade's
determined attempts upon his life.

Colonel Hertford now pushed forward his men. He, too, was filled with
ambitions. He began to have an idea of Grant's great plans, in which
all the Union leaders must cooperate, and he meant that his own little
command should be there, whenever the great deed, whatever it might be,
was done. He talked about it with Dick, who he knew was a trusted
young staff officer, and the two, the lad and the older man, fed the
enthusiasm of each other.

This attack deep into the flank of the Confederacy appealed to them with
its boldness, and created a certain romantic glow that seemed to clothe
the efforts of a general so far from the great line of battle in the
East. They talked, too, of the navy which had run past forts on the
Mississippi, and which had shown anew all its ancient skill and courage.

As they talked, twilight came, and the road led once more through the
deep woods, where the shade turned the twilight into the darkness of
night. Then rifles flashed suddenly in the thickets, and a half-dozen
horsemen fell. The whole column was thrown for an instant or two into
disorder, frightened horses rearing and stamping, and, before their
riders could regain control, another volley came, emptying a half-dozen
saddles.

Colonel Hertford gave rapid commands. Then, shouting and waving his
saber he galloped boldly into the forest, reckless of trees and bushes,
and Dick, the sergeant, and the whole troop followed. The lad was nearly
swept from his horse by a bough, but he recovered himself in time to see
the figures of men on foot fleeing rapidly through the dusk.

Bullets pattered on bark and leaves, and the angry horsemen, after
discharging their carbines, swept forward with circling sabers. But the
irregulars who had ambushed them, save a few fallen before the bullets,
escaped easily in the dense woods, and under cover of the darkness which
was now coming down, thick and fast.

A trumpet sounded the recall and the cavalrymen, sore and angry, drew
back into the road. They had lost a dozen good men, but Colonel Hertford
felt that they could not delay for veng