boats increased rather than diminished, and Dick saw that Colonel
Winchester's words were bound to come true.

Inside the fort there was only depression. It had been raked through
by shells and solid shot. Most of the devoted band were wounded and
scarcely a gun could be worked. Tilghman, standing amid his dead and
wounded, saw that hope was no longer left, and gave the signal.

Dick and his comrades uttered a great shout as they saw the white flag
go up over Fort Henry, and then the cannonade ceased, like a mighty
crash of thunder that had rolled suddenly across the sky.

CHAPTER X. BEFORE DONELSON

Dick was the first in Colonel Winchester's troop to see the white flag
floating over Fort Henry and he uttered a shout of joy.

"Look! look!" he cried, "the fleet has taken the fort!"

"So it has," said Colonel Winchester, "and the army is not here. Now I
wonder what General Grant will say when he learns that Foote has done
the work before he could come."

But Dick believed that General Grant would find no fault, that he would
approve instead. The feeling was already spreading among the soldiers
that this man, whose name was recently so new among them, cared only
for results. He was not one to fight over precedence and to feel petty
jealousies.

The smoke of battle was beginning to clear away. Officers were landing
from the boats to receive the surrender of the fort, and Colonel
Winchester and his troops galloped rapidly back toward the army, which
they soon met, toiling through swamps and even through shallow overflow
toward the Tennessee. The men had been hearing for more than an hour the
steady booming of the cannon, and every face was eager.

Colonel Winchester rode straight toward a short, thickset figure on a
stout bay horse near the head of one of the columns. This man, like all
the others, was plastered with mud, but Colonel Winchester gave him a
salute of deep respect.

"What does the cessation of firing mean, Colonel?" asked General Grant.

"It means that Fort Henry has surrendered to the fleet. The Southern
force, which was drawn up outside, retreated southward, but the fort,
its guns and immediate defenders, are ours."

Dick saw the faintest smile of satisfaction pass over the face of the
General, who said:

"Commodore Foote has done well. Ride back and tell him that the army is
coming up as fast as the nature of the ground will allow."

In a short time the army was in the fort which had