eir saddle-skirts
half-way to the bridge, and between the first two, wading in water to
his waist, Darby. He was bare-headed and he waved his hat to her, and
she heard a single cheer. She waved her hand to him, and there was
a little puff of smoke and something occurred in the water among the
horses. The smoke from the fire suddenly closed around her and shut out
everything from her eyes, and when it blew away again one of the horses
had thrown his rider in the water. There was a lot of firing both from
the edge of the wood and from the horsemen in the water, and Darby had
disappeared.

She made her way back to the bank and plunged into a clump of bushes,
where she was hidden and watched the raiders. She saw several of them
try to ford the river, one got across but swam back, the others were
swept down by the current, and the horse of one got out below without
his rider. The other she did not see again.

Soon after their comrade had rejoined them, the men on the edge of the
wood turned around and disappeared, and a half-hour later she saw the
glint of the sun on their arms and accoutrements as they crossed over
the top of the hill returning two miles above.

*****

This is the story of the frustration of the raid upon which so much hope
was built by some in high position at Washington. A day was lost, and
warning was given to the Confederate Government, and the bold plan of
the commander of the raiding party was defeated.

As to Little Darby, the furlough he had applied for came, but came too
late and was returned. For a time some said he was a deserter; but two
women knew differently.

A Federal soldier who was taken prisoner gave an account of the raid. He
said that a contraband had come from Washington and undertaken to lead
them across the country, and that he had brought them around the head
of the streams, when one night a rebel deserter came into camp and
undertook to show them a better way by a road which ran between the
rivers, but crossed lower down by a bridge; that they had told him that,
if for any reason they failed to get through by his road they would hang
him, a bargain which he had accepted. That he had led them straight, but
when they had got to the bridge it had been set on fire and was burning
at that moment; that a half-dozen men, of whom he, the narrator, was
one, rode in, taking the guide along with them, to see if they could not
put the fire out, or, failing that, find the ford; and when