if McClellan and the Army of the
Potomac came up also, and I was laughing over it."

"Well, the next time, don't you laugh at a thing until it happens. You
may have to take your laugh back."

Dick shook himself again, and the nervous excitement passed.

"You always give good advice, George," he said. "Do you know where we
are?"

"I couldn't name the place, but we're not so far from Warrenton that we
can't get back there in a short time and tackle Jackson again. Dick, see
all those moving lights to right and left of us. They're the brigades
coming up in the night. Isn't it a weird and tremendous scene? You and I
and Pennington will see this night over and over again, many and many a
time."

"It's so, George," said Dick, "I feel the truth of what you say all
through me. Listen to the rumble of the cannon wheels! I hear 'em on
both sides of us, and behind us, and I've no doubt, too, that it's going
on before us, where the Southerners are massing their batteries. How the
lights move! It's the field of Manassas again, and we're going to win
this time!"

All of Dick's senses were excited once more, and everything he saw was
vivid and highly colored. Warner, cool of blood as he habitually was,
had no words of rebuke for him now, because he, too, was affected in the
same way. The fields and plains of Manassas were alive not alone with
marching armies, but the ghosts of those who had fallen there the year
before rose and walked again.

Despite the darkness everything swelled into life again for Dick. Off
there was the little river of Manassas, Young's Branch, the railway
station, and the Henry House, around which the battle had raged so
fiercely. They would have won the victory then if it had not been for
Stonewall Jackson. If he had not been there the war would have been
ended on that sanguinary summer day.

But Jackson was in front of them now, and they had him fast. Lee and
Jackson had thought to trap Pope, but Jackson himself was in the
trap, and they would destroy him utterly. His admiration for the great
Southern general had changed for the time into consuming rage. They must
overwhelm him, annihilate him, sweep him from the face of the earth.

They mounted again and moved back, but did not go far.

"Get down, Dick," said Colonel Winchester. "Here's food for us, and hot
coffee. I don't remember myself how long we've been in the saddle and
how long we've been without food, but we mustn't go into battle until
w