l Kenton, has been very good. He left orders with his people to
watch over us here. Pendleton is strongly Southern as you know, but
nobody would do us any harm, unless it was the rough people from the
hills."

Colonel Kenton's wife had been Mrs. Mason's elder sister, and Dick, as
he also sat staring into the coals, wondered why people who were united
so closely should yet be divided so much.

"Mother," he said, "when I came through the mountains with my friends we
stopped at a house in which lived an old, old woman. She must have
been nearly a hundred. She knew your ancestor and mine, the famous and
learned Paul Cotter, from whom you and I are descended, and she also
knew his friend and comrade, the mighty scout and hunter, Henry Ware,
who became the great governor of Kentucky."

"How strange!"

"But the strangest is yet to be told. Harry Kenton, when he went east to
join Beauregard before Bull Run, stopped at the same house, and when
she first saw him she only looked into the far past. She thought it was
Henry Ware himself, and she saluted him as the governor. What do you
think of that, mother?"

"It's a startling coincidence."

"But may it not be an omen? I'm not superstitious, mother, but when
things come together in such a queer fashion it's bound to make you
think. When Harry's paths and mine cross in such a manner maybe it means
that we shall all come together again, and be united as we were."

"Maybe."

"At any rate," said Dick with a little laugh, "we'll hope that it does."

While the boy was not noticing his mother had made a sign to Juliana,
who had crept out of the room. Now she returned, bearing food upon a
tray, and Dick, although he was not hungry, ate to please his mother.

"You will stay until morning?" she said.

"No, mother. I can't afford to be seen here. I must leave in the dark."

"Then until it is nearly morning."

"Nor that either, mother. My time is about up already. I could never
betray the trust that General Thomas has put in me. My dispatches
not only tell of the gathering of our own troops, but they contain
invaluable information concerning the Confederate concentration which
General Thomas learned from his scouts and spies. Mother, I think a
great battle is coming here in the west."

She shuddered, but she did not seek again to delay him in his duty.

"I am proud," she said, "that you have won the confidence of your
general, and that you ride upon such an important errand.