He waited a little while for precaution, and then resumed his own
careful journey through the gorge. Just as the dawn was breaking he
emerged from the stream and entered the forest. It was a cold dawn,
that of late October, white with frost, and Harry shivered. There was
still food in his knapsack, and he ate hungrily as he rode through the
deserted country, and wondered what had become of Shepard and the others.

It was not yet full day. The grass was still white with frost. The
early wind, blowing out of the north, brought an increased chill.
The food Harry had eaten defended him somewhat against the cold, but his
body had been weakened by so much riding and loss of sleep that he found
it wise to unroll his blanket and wrap it around his shoulders and chest.

He was, perhaps, affected by the cold and anxiety, but the country
seemed singularly lonesome and depressing. Sweeping the whole circle of
the horizon with his glasses, he saw several farm houses, but no smoke
was rising from their chimneys. Silent and cold, they added to his own
feeling of desolation. He wondered what had become of his comrades.
Perhaps Sherburne had been taken, or killed. He was not one to
surrender, even to overwhelming numbers, without a fight.

But he would go on. Drawing the blanket more tightly around his body,
he turned into the narrow road by which he had come, and urged his horse
into that easy Southern gait known as a pace. He would have been glad
to go faster, but he was too wise to push a horse that had already been
traveling twenty hours.

Harry did not yet feel secure by any means. The lads of the South,
where the cities were few and small, had been used from childhood to the
horse. They had become at once cavalry of the highest order; but the
lads of the North were learning, too. He had no doubt that bands of
Northern horsemen were now ranging the country to the very verge of the
camps of Jackson and Lee.

The belief became a certainty when a score of riders in blue appeared on
a hill behind him. One of their number blew a musical note on a trumpet,
and then all of them, with a shout, urged their horses in pursuit of
Harry, who felt as if it were for all the world a fox chase, with
himself as the fox.

He knew that his danger was great, but he resolved to triumph over it.
He must get through to Jackson with the news that the Army of the
Potomac was in Virginia. Others from Sherburne's troop might arrive
w