ard the Potomac.
In the very height of the afternoon blaze they saw a horseman on the
crest of a hill, watching them intently through glasses. Sherburne
instantly raised his own glasses to his eyes.

"A Yankee scout," he said. "He sees us and knows us for what we are,
but he doesn't know what we're about."

"But he's trying to guess," said Harry, who was also using glasses.
"I can't see his face well enough to tell, but I know that in his place
I'd be guessing."

"As we don't want him hanging on to our heels and watching us, I think
we'd better charge him."

"Have the whole troop turn aside and chase him?"

"No; Harry, you and I and eight men will do it. Marlowe, take the rest
of the company straight along the road at an easy gait. But keep well
behind the hedge that you see ahead."

Marlowe was his second in command, and taking the lead he continued with
the troop.

Marlowe rode behind one of the hedges, where they were hidden from the
lone horseman on the hill, and Sherburne and Harry and the eight men
followed. While they were yet hidden, Sherburne and his chosen band
suddenly detached themselves from the others at a break in the hedge and
galloped toward the horseman who was still standing on the hill, gazing
intently toward the point where he had last seen the troop riding.

Sherburne, Harry and the privates rode at a gallop across the field,
straight for the Union sentinel. He did not see them until they had
covered nearly half the distance, and then with aggravating slowness
he turned and rode over the opposite side of the hill. Harry had been
watching him intently, and when he had come much nearer the figure
seemed familiar to him. At first he could not recall it to mind,
but a moment or two later he turned excitedly to Sherburne.

"I know that man, although I've never seen him before in a uniform,"
he said. "I met him when President Davis was inaugurated at Montgomery
and I saw him again at Washington. His name is Shepard, the most
skillful and daring of all the Union spies."

"I've heard you speak of that fellow before," said Sherburne, "and since
we've put him to flight, I think we'd better stop. Ten to one, if we
follow him over the brow of the hill, he'll lead us into an ambush."

"I think you're right, Captain, and it's likely, too, that he'll come
back soon with a heavy cavalry detachment. I've no doubt that thousands
of Union horsemen are this side of the river."

Sherburne was