would announce the new day at points all along the seaboard. His West
Point comrades were scattered far, and the fancy seized him that the
bugle brought them together every day of their lives as it sounded the
morning calls that would soon begin echoing down the coast from Kennebec
Arsenal and Fort Preble in Maine, through Myer and Monroe, to McPherson,
in Georgia, and back through Niagara and Wayne to Sheridan, and on to
Ringgold and Robinson and Crook, zigzagging back and forth over mountain
and plain to the Pacific, and thence ringing on to Alaska, and echoing
again from Hawaii to lonely outposts in Asian seas.

He was so intent with the thought that he hummed reveille, and was about
to rebuke himself for unsoldierly behavior on duty when Armitage whistled
for him to advance.

"It's all right; they haven't passed yet. I met a railroad track-walker
down there and he said he had seen no one between here and Lamar. Now
they're handicapped by the big country horse they had to take for that
Servian devil, and we can push them as hard as we like. We must get them
beyond Lamar before we crowd them; and don't forget that we want to drive
them into my land for the round-up. I'm afraid we're going to have a wet
morning."

They rode abreast beside the railroad through the narrow gap. A long
freight-train rumbled and rattled by, and a little later they passed a
coal shaft, where a begrimed night shift loaded cars under flaring
torches.

"Their message to Winkelried is still on this side of the Atlantic," said
Armitage; "but Winkelried is in a strong room by this time, if the
existing powers at Vienna are what they ought to be. I've done my best
to get him there. The message would only help the case against him if
they sent it."

Claiborne groaned mockingly.

"I suppose I'll know what it's all about when I read it in the morning
papers. I like the game well enough, but it might be more amusing to know
what the devil I'm fighting for."

"You enlisted without reading the articles of war, and you've got to take
the consequences. You've done what you set out to do--you've found me;
and you're traveling with me over the Virginia mountains to report my
capture to Baron von Marhof. On the way you are going to assist in
another affair that will be equally to your credit; and then if all goes
well with us I'm going to give myself the pleasure of allowing Monsieur
Chauvenet to tell you exactly who I am. The incident appeals to my