d suppress. The scattered cannon shots blended
into a steady thunder already, but it was distant and to the watchers
told nothing. The darkness, too, was still so great that they could see
no flashes.

The Secretary, mounted on an Accomack pony, rode out of the woods and
looked a little while at the house, then turned away and continued in
the direction of the new battle. He was in a good humour that morning,
smiling occasionally when no one could see. The combat already begun did
not trouble Mr. Sefton, although it was his business there to see how it
was going and supplement, or, rather, precede, the General's reports
with such news as he could obtain, and so deft a mind as his could
obtain much. Yet he was not worried over either its progress or its
result. He had based his judgment on calculations made long ago by a
mind free from passion or other emotion and as thoroughly arithmetical
as a human mind can be, and he had seen nothing since to change the
estimates then formed.

When he thought how they missed Jackson it was with no intention of
depreciating Wood. Both were needed, and he knew that the mountain
General would be wherever the combat was fiercest that day. And then, he
might not come back! The Secretary pondered over this phase of the
matter. He had been growing suspicious of late, and Wood was a good
general, but he was not sure that he liked him. But pshaw! There was
nothing to dread in such a crude, rough mountaineer.

He glanced to the left and saw there the heads of horses and horsemen
rising and falling like waves as they swept over the uneven ground. He
believed them to be Wood's troopers, and, taking his field-glass, he
studied the figure that rode at their head. It was Wood, and the
Secretary saw that they were about to strike the Northern flank. He was
not a soldier, but he had an acute mind and a keen eye for effect. He
recognized at once the value of the movement, the instinct that had
prompted it and the unflinching way in which it was being carried out.
"Perhaps Wood will fall there! He rides in the very van," he thought,
but immediately repented, because his nature was large enough to admit
of admiration for a very brave man.

The sun shone through the clouds a little and directly upon the point in
the Northern lines where Wood was aiming to strike, and the Secretary
watched intently. He saw the ranks of horsemen rising and falling
quickly and then pausing for a second or two before hur