ed up fallen brushwood in abundance. Then
the fires sprang up and created a wide circle of light and cheerfulness.

Dick joined zealously in the task of finding firewood and his search
took him somewhat further than the others. He passed all the way through
the belt of forest, and noticed fields beyond. He was about to turn back
when he heard a faint, but regular sound. Experience told him that it
was the beat of a horse's hoofs and he knew that some distance away a
road must lead between the fields.

He walked a hundred yards further, and climbing upon a fence waited.
From his perch he could see the road about two hundred yards beyond him,
and the hoof beats were rapidly growing louder. Some one was riding hard
and fast.

In a minute the horseman or rather horsewoman, came into view. There was
enough light for Dick to see the slender figure of a young girl mounted
on a great bay horse. She was wrapped in a heavy cloak, but her head was
bare, and her long dark hair streamed almost straight out behind her, so
great was the speed at which she rode.

She struck the horse occasionally with a small riding whip, but he was
already going like a racer. Dick remembered the slim figure of a girl,
and it occurred to him suddenly that this was she whom he had seen in
the dusk of the room behind her grandmother. He wondered why she was
riding so fast, alone and in the winter night, and then he admitted with
a thrill of admiration that he had never seen any one ride better. The
hoof beats rose, died away and then horse and girl were gone in the
darkness. Dick climbed down from the fence and shook himself. Was it
real or merely fancy, the product of a brain excited by so much siege
and battle?

He picked up a big dead bough in the wood, dragged it back to the camp
and threw it on one of the fires.

"What are you looking so grave about, Dick?" asked Warner.

"When I went across that stretch of woods I saw something that I didn't
expect to see."

"What was it?"

"A girl on a big horse. They came and they went so fast that I just got
a glimpse of them."

"A girl alone, galloping on a horse on a wintry night like this through
a region infested by hostile armies! Why Dick, you're seeing shadows!
Better sit down and have a cup of this good hot coffee."

But Dick shook his head. He knew now that he had seen reality, and he
reported it to Colonel Winchester.

"Are you sure it was the girl you saw at the big house?" asked Colone