They might be
hemmed in, with their backs to an unfordable river, and an enemy two or
three times as numerous in front.
"Don't you worry," whispered Dalton, with sublime confidence. "The
general will take us to Virginia."
Harry projected his imagination once more. He sought to put himself in
the place of Lee, receiving all the reports and studying them, trying to
measure space that could not be measured, and to weigh a total that could
not be weighed. Greatness and responsibility were compelled to pay
thrice over for themselves, and he was glad that he was only a young
lieutenant, the chief business of whom was to fetch and carry orders.
Shafts of sunlight were piercing the eastern foliage when the council
broke up, and shortly after daylight the Southern army was again on the
march, with Northern cavalry and riflemen hanging on its flanks and rear.
Harry was permitted to rejoin, for a while, his friends of the
Invincibles and he found Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel
Hector St. Hilaire riding very erect, a fine color in their faces.
"You come from headquarters, Harry, and therefore you are omniscient,"
said Colonel Talbot. "We heard firing in the night. What did it mean?"
"Only skirmishers, Colonel.
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