ds--"

Kirby straightened in his saddle, the lazy good humor gone from his
face.

"Kid, don't git so lippy 'bout what you ain't rightly learned yet.
Yankees can fight--they can fight good. You saw 'em do that today. And
don't you ever forgit it!"

Boyd was disconcerted, but he clung doggedly to his belief. "One of
Morgan's men can take on five Yankees."

Drew laughed dryly. "You saw _that_ happen just this mornin', Boyd. And
what happened? We ran. They fight just as hard and as long, and most of
them just as tough as we do. And don't ever think that the man facin'
you across a gun is any less than you are; maybe he's a little better.
Keep that in mind!"

"Yes, you read the aces an' queens in your hand 'fore you spreads your
money out recklesslike," Kirby agreed. "So, if we find the right setup,
we move, but--"

Drew swung up one hand in the horseman's signal of warning.
"Something--or someone--_is_ on the move ... ahead there!" he warned.

4

_The Eleventh Ohio Cavalry_

They had worked their way around the edge of the cornfield, and now they
could look out on a hard-surfaced road which must be the pike. Riding
along that in good order were a company of men--thirty, Drew counted.
And four of those had extra horses on leading reins. He also saw ten
carbines ... and the owners of those were alert.

"Stand where you are!" The slight man leading that skeleton troop posted
ahead. His shell jacket had the three yellow bars of a captain on its
standing collar, and Drew saluted. This was the first group of fugitives
he had seen who were more than frightened men running their horses and
themselves into exhaustion.

"Rennie, Private, Quirk's Scouts," Drew reported himself.

Kirby's salute was delivered with less snap but as promptly. "Kirby,
Private, Gano's."

"Captain William Campbell," the officer identified himself crisply. "Any
more of you?" He looked to Boyd and then at the cornfield beyond.

"Barrett's a volunteer," Drew explained. This was no time to clarify
Boyd's exact status. "There're just the three of us."

"You headin' somewheah special, Cap'n?" the Texan asked. "Or jus'
travelin' for your continued health?"

Campbell laughed. "You might call it that, Kirby. But if we stick
together, I think all of us may stay healthy."

Kirby turned his horse into the pike. "Sounds like a good argument to
me, suh. You have any idea wheah at we are, or wheah we could be
headin'?"

"Northwest is the be