iment you
left in garrison there has been driven out and without support is
marching northward. I have here, sir, a dispatch from Colonel Connor,
the commander of the Georgians."

He handed the folded paper to the general, who received it but did not
open it for a moment. There was something halfway between a sigh and a
groan from the officers, but Jackson said nothing. He smiled, but, as
Harry saw it, it was a strange and threatening smile. Then he opened the
dispatch, read it carefully, tore it into tiny bits and threw them away.
Harry saw the fragments picked up by the wind and whirled across the
field. Jackson nearly always destroyed his dispatches in this manner.

"Very good," he said to the officer, "you can rejoin Colonel Connor."

He went back to his seat. The train puffed, heaved and started again.
Jackson leaned against the back of the seat and closed his eyes. He
seemed to be asleep. But the desire for sleep was driven from Harry.
The news of the retaking of Front Royal had stirred the whole train.
Officers talked of it in low tones, but with excitement. The Northern
generals were acting with more than their customary promptness. Already
they had struck a blow and Ord with his ten thousand men had undoubtedly
passed from the Luray Valley into the main Valley of Virginia to form a
junction with Shields and his ten thousand.

What would Jackson do? Older men in the train than Harry and Dalton were
asking that question, but he remained silent. He kept his eyes closed
for some time, and Harry thought that he must be fast asleep, although
it seemed incredible that a man with such responsibilities could sleep
at such a time. But he opened his eyes presently and began to talk with
a warm personal friend who occupied the other half of the seat.

Harry did not know the tenor of this conversation then, but he heard of
it later from the general's friend. Jackson had remarked to the man that
he seemed to be surrounded, and the other asked what he would do if the
Northern armies cut him off entirely. Jackson replied that he would go
back toward the north, invade Maryland and march straight on Baltimore
and Washington. Few more daring plans have ever been conceived, but,
knowing Jackson as he learned to know him, Harry always believed that he
would have tried it.

But the Southern leaders within that mighty and closing ring in the
valley were not the only men who had anxious minds. At the Union capital
they did not k