It's lucky
we found you."
"It is, sir, and I not only look like a wreck but I feel like one.
But I had made up my mind to reach General Pope's camp, with the news of
the Confederates crossing, and I think I'd have done it."
"I know you would. But what a night! What a night! Not many men can be
abroad at such a time. We have seen nothing."
"But I have, sir."
"You have! What did you see?"
"A mile or two back I passed a line of Southern horsemen, just as wet and
bedraggled as ours."
"Might they not have been our own men? It would be hard to tell blue and
gray apart on such a night."
"One could make such a mistake, but in this case it was not possible.
I saw my own cousin, Harry Kenton, riding with them. I recognized them
perfectly."
"Then that settles it. The Confederate scouts and cavalry are abroad
to-night also, and on our side of the river. But they must be few who
dare to ride in such a storm."
"That's surely true, sir."
But both Dick and his commanding officer were mistaken. They still
underrated the daring and resolution of the Confederate leaders, the
extraordinary group of men who were the very bloom and flower of
Virginia's military glory, the equal of whom--two at least being in the
very first rank in the world's history--no other country with so small a
population has produced in so short a time.
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