m. And if he showed signs of retreat,
also to follow and attack with the utmost vigor.

The moaning of the cannon ceased with the night, and it brought Harry
intense relief. He was glad that those guns were silent for a while,
although he knew that they would be far busier on the morrow. The bands
of red and yellow left by the sun sank away, and as the cool, spring
night came down, a pleasant breeze began to blow through the forest.
Harry felt all the thrill of a mighty movement which was at hand,
but the nature of which he did not yet know.

He had no wish to sleep. The feeling of tremendous events impending was
too strong and his nervous system was keyed too highly for such thoughts
to enter his mind. He was used to great battles now, but there was a
mystery, a weirdness about the one near at hand that sometimes turned
the blood in his veins to ice.

They were not far from Fredericksburg, but the country about them looked
wild and lonely, despite the fact that nearly two hundred thousand
men were moving somewhere in those shades and thickets, preparing for
desperate combat. Harry knew that just back of them lay the Wilderness,
a desolate and somber region. Dalton, a Virginian, had been there,
and he told Harry that in ordinary times one could walk through it for
many miles without meeting a single human being.

"And they say that Hooker is along its edge with the bulk of his army,"
said Dalton. "He is in our rear ready to attack with his veterans.
What conclusion do you draw from it, Harry?"

"I infer that Lee and Jackson will not attack Sedgwick at Fredericksburg.
They will go for Hooker. They will strike where the enemy is strongest.
It's their way, isn't it?"

"Right, of course, Harry. We'll be marching against Hooker long before
the dawn."

Dalton's prediction came true earlier than he had expected. Jackson
marched at midnight from his position on the Massaponnax Hills to join
the small command of Anderson, which alone faced Hooker. He was as
silent as ever, the figure bent forward a little and the brow knitted
with thought. Close behind him came his staff, Harry and Dalton knee to
knee. They had known as soon as Jackson mounted his horse and turned
his head southwestward that they were marching toward the Wilderness and
against Hooker. Sedgwick at Fredericksburg might do as he pleased.

Harry and Dalton were glad. They were quite sure now that Lee and
Jackson had formed their plan, and, as