the trunk of the beech. He was breathing
heavily; he looked, veritably, a wounded man. "I will go now," said
Cleave. "I had to speak to you and I had to warn you. Good-day."

He turned, the leaves crisp beneath his footfall. "Wait," said Stafford.
"One moment--" He drew himself up against the beech. "I wish to tell you
why I--as you phrase it--lied to you. I allowed you to rest under that
impression which I am not sure that I myself gave you, because I thought
her yet trembling between us, and that your withdrawal would be
advantageous to my cause. Not for all of Heaven would I have had her turn
to you! Now that, apparently, I have lost her irrevocably, I will tell you
that you do not love her as I do. Have I not watched you? Did she die
to-day, you would go on to-morrow with your _Duty_--_Duty_--_Duty_--! For
me, I would kill myself on her grave. Where you and I were rivals and
enemies, now we are enemies. Look out for me, Richard Cleave!" He began to
laugh, a broken and mirthless sound. "Look out for me, Richard Cleave. Go!"

"I shall," said Cleave. "I will not keep a watch upon you in such a
moment, nor remember it. I doubt neither your passion nor your
suffering. But in one thing, Maury Stafford, you have lied again. I love
as strongly, and I love more highly than you do! As for your
threats--threatened men live long."

He turned, left the forest glade and came out into the camp lying now
beneath the last rays of the sun. That evening he spent with Ewell and
his staff, passed the night in a friendly tent, and at dawn turned
Dundee's head toward the Blue Ridge.

CHAPTER XVIII

McDOWELL

At Stanardsville he heard from a breathless crowd about the small hotel
news from over the mountains. Banks was at last in motion--was marching,
nineteen thousand strong, up the Valley--had seized New Market, and,
most astounding and terrific of all to the village boys, had captured a
whole company of Ashby's! "General Jackson?" General Jackson had burned
the railway station at Mt. Jackson and fallen back--was believed to be
somewhere about Harrisonburg.

"Any other news?"

"Yes, sir! Fremont's pressing south from Moorefield, Milroy east from
Monterey! General Edward Johnson's had to fall back from the
Alleghenies!--he's just west of Staunton. He hasn't got but a brigade
and a half."

"Anything more?"

"Stage's just brought the Richmond papers. All about Albert Sydney
Johnston's death at Shiloh. He led the charge