His devotion to his father had always been
strong and Dick Mason had stood in the place of a brother. They were
alive for the present at least, but Harry knew of the sinister threat
that hung over the west. The terrible battle that was to be fought at
Stone River was already sending forth its preliminary signals, and for
a little while Harry thought more of those marching forces in Tennessee
than of the great army to which he belonged and of the one yet more
numerous that faced it.

But these thoughts could not last long. The events in which he was to
have a part were too imminent and mighty for anyone to detach himself
from them more than a few minutes. He quickly returned, heart and soul,
to his duties, which in these days took all his time. Many messages
were passing between Lee and Jackson and Longstreet and the commanders
next to them in rank, and Harry carried his share.

A few days after the letter from Dr. Russell the cold abated
considerably. The ice in the river broke, the melting snows made the
country a sea of mud and slush and horses often became mired so deeply
that it took a dozen soldiers to drag them out again. It was on such a
day as this that Dalton came to him, his grave face wearing a look of
importance.

"General Jackson has just told me," he said, "to take you and join
General Stuart, who is going with his horse to the neighborhood of Port
Royal on the river."

"What's up?"

"Nothing's up yet. But we understand that some of the Yankee gunboats
are trying to get up, now that they have a clear passage through the
ice."

"Cavalry can't stop them."

"No, but Stuart is taking horse artillery with him, and he's likely to
make it warm for the enemy in the water. Harry, if we only had a navy,
too, this war wouldn't be doubtful."

"But, as we haven't got a navy, it is doubtful, very doubtful."

They quickly joined General Stuart, who was eager for the duty, and
falling in line with the troop of Sherburne rode swiftly toward Port
Royal, the cavalrymen carrying with them several light guns.

As they galloped along, mixed mud and snow flew in every direction,
but most of them had grown so used to it that they paid little
attention. The river flowed a deep and somber stream, and all the hills
about were yet white with snow. At that time, colored too, as it was
by his feelings, it was the most sinister landscape that Harry had ever
looked upon. Black winter and red war, neither of whic