l
Winchester. "It might have been some farmer's wife galloping home from
an errand late in the evening."

"It was the girl. I am sure of it," said Dick confidently.

Just at that moment Sergeant Whitley came up and saluted.

"What is it, sergeant?" asked the Colonel.

"I have been up the road some distance, sir, and I came to another road
that crossed it. The second road has been cut by hoofs of eight or nine
hundred horses, and I am sure, sir, that the tracks are not a day old."

Colonel Winchester looked grave. He knew that he was deep in the country
of the enemy and he began to put together what Dick had seen and what
the sergeant had seen. But the thought of withdrawing did not occur to
his brave soul. He had been sent on an errand by General Grant and he
meant to do it. But he changed his plans for the night. He had intended
to keep only one man in ten on watch. Instead, he kept half, and
Sergeant Whitley, veteran of Indian wars, murmured words of approval
under his breath.

Whitley and Pennington were in the early watch. Dick and Warner were to
come on later. The colonel spoke as if he would keep watch all night.
All the horses were tethered carefully inside the ring of pickets.

"It doesn't need any mathematical calculation," said Warner, "to tell
that the colonel expects trouble of some kind tonight. What its nature
is, I don't know, but I mean to go to sleep, nevertheless. I have
already seen so much of hardship and war that the mere thought of danger
does not trouble me. I took a fort on the Tennessee, I took a much
larger one on the Cumberland, first defeating the enemy's army in a big
battle, and now I am preparing to march on Nashville. Hence, I will not
have my slumbers disturbed by a mere belief that danger may come."

"It's a good resolution, George," said Dick, "but unlike you, I am
subject to impulses, emotions, thrills and anxieties."

"Better cure yourself," said the Vermonter, as he rolled himself in the
blankets and put his head on his arm. In two minutes he was asleep, but
Dick, despite his weariness, had disturbed nerves which refused to
let him sleep for a long time. He closed his eyes repeatedly, and then
opened them again, merely to see the tethered horses, and beyond them
the circle of sentinels, a clear moonlight falling on their rifle
barrels. But it was very warm and cosy in the blankets, and he would
soon fall asleep again.

He was awakened about an hour after midnight to take