on replied. No movement of the two pursuing armies
was unknown to the Southern leader.

Harry, with an hour's leave, visited once more his friends of the
Invincibles. He had begged a package of fine West Indian cigarettes
from Sherburne, and he literally laid them at the feet of the two
colonels--he found them sitting together on the grass, lean gray men who
seemed to be wholly reduced to bone and muscle.

"This is a great gift, Harry, perhaps greater than you think," said
Colonel Leonidas Talbot gravely. "I tried to purchase some from the
commissariat, but they had none--it seems that General Stonewall Jackson
doesn't consider cigarettes necessary for his troops. Anyhow, the way
our Confederate money is going, I fancy a package of cigarettes will
soon cost a hundred dollars. Here, Hector, light up. We divide this box,
half and half. That's right, isn't it, Harry?"

"Certainly, sir."

Harry passed on to the junior officers and found St. Clair and Happy Tom
lying on the grass. Happy pretended to rouse from sleep when Harry came.

"Hello, old omen of war," he said. "What's Old Jack expecting of us
now?"

"I told you never to ask me such a question as that again. The general
isn't what you'd call a garrulous man. How's your shoulder, Arthur?"

"About well. The muscles were not torn. It was just loss of blood that
troubled me for the time."

"I hear," said Langdon, "that the two Yankee armies are to join soon.
The Massanuttons won't be between them much longer, and then they'll
have only one of the forks of the river to cross before they fall upon
each other's breasts and weep with joy. Harry, it seems to me that we're
always coming to a fork of the Shenandoah. How many forks does it have
anyhow?"

"Only two, but the two forks have forks of their own. That's the reason
we're always coming to deep water and by the same token the Yankees are
always coming to it, too, which is a good thing for us, as we get there
first, when the bridges are there, and when the Yankees come they are
gone."

But not one of these boys understood the feeling in the Northern
armies. Late the day before a messenger from Shields had got through the
Massanuttons to Fremont, and had informed him that an easy triumph
was at hand. Jackson and his army, he said, fearing the onset of
overwhelming numbers, was retreating in great disorder.

The two generals were now convinced of speedy victory. They had
communicated at last, and they could hav