in the mountains two or three times, and I may be of
some help as a guide."

"I am sure you will do your best," said Colonel Newcomb. "By the way,
that young Vermont friend of yours, Warner, is to be on my staff also,
and it is very likely that you and he will go on many errands together."

"Can't we take Sergeant Whitley with us sometimes?" asked Dick boldly.

"So you can," replied the colonel, laughing a little. "I've noticed that
man, and I've a faint suspicion that he knows more about war than any of
us civilian officers."

"It's our task to learn as much as we can from these old regulars,"
said a Major Hertford, a man of much intelligence and good humor, who,
previous to the war, had been a lawyer in a small town. Alan Hertford
was about twenty-five and of fine manner and appearance.

"Well spoken, Major Hertford," said the thoughtful miner, Colonel
Newcomb. "Now, Dick, you can go, and remember that we are to start for
Washington early in the morning and take a train there for the north. It
will be the duty of Lieutenant Warner and yourself, as well as others,
to see that our men are ready to the last shoe for the journey."

Dick and Warner were so much elated that they worked all that night,
and they did not hesitate to go to Sergeant Whitley for advice or
instruction. At the first spear of dawn the regiment marched away in
splendid order from Arlington to Washington, where the train that was to
bear them to new fields and unknown fortunes was ready.

It was a long train of many coaches, as the regiment numbered seven
hundred men, and it also carried with it four guns, mounted on trucks.
The coaches were all of primitive pattern. The soldiers were to sleep on
the seats, and their arms and supplies were heaped in the aisles. It was
a cold, drizzling day of closing autumn, and the capital looked sodden
and gloomy. Cameron, the Secretary of War, came to see them off and
to make the customary prediction concerning their valor and victory to
come. But he was a cold man, and he was repellent to Dick, used to more
warmth of temperament.

Then, with a ringing of bells, a heave of the engine, a great puffing of
smoke, and a mighty rattling of wheels, the train drew out of Washington
and made its noisy way toward Baltimore. Dick and Warner were on the
same seat. It was only forty miles to Baltimore, but their slow train
would be perhaps three hours in arriving. So they had ample opportunity
to see the country, which