He had learned the faculty of concentration and
he bent all his powers upon his hearing. Not the slightest sound could
escape the tightly drawn drums of his ears.
He was motionless a full ten minutes. Nor did the horse beside him stir.
It was a test of human endurance, the capacity to keep himself absolutely
silent, but with every nerve attuned, while he waited for an invisible
danger. And those minutes were precious, too. The value of not a single
one of them could have been measured or weighed. It was his duty to
reach Longstreet at speed, because the general and his veterans must be
in line in the morning, when the battle was joined. Yet the incessant
duel between Shepard and himself was at its height again, and he did not
yet see how he could end it.
Harry felt that it must be essentially a struggle of patience, but when
he waited a few minutes longer, the idea to wait with ears close to the
earth, one of the oldest devices of primitive man, occurred to him.
It was fairly dry in the bushes, and he lay down, pressing his ear to the
soil. Then he heard a faint sound, as if some one crawling through the
grass, like a wild animal stalking its prey. It was Shepard, of course,
and then Harry planned his campaign.
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