e some concert of movement.
Jackson was less than thirty miles away, and his army was now but a
confused mass of stragglers which would dissolve under slight impact.
Both had defeats and disappointments to avenge, and they pushed forward
now with increased speed, Shields in particular showing the greatest
energy in pursuit. But the roads were still deep in mud, and his army
was forced to toil on all that day and the next, while the signalmen
on the top of the Massanuttons told every movement he made to Stonewall
Jackson.

The signals the second evening told Jackson that the two Northern armies
were advancing fast, and that he would soon have before him an enemy
outnumbering him anywhere from two to three to one. He had been talking
with Ewell just before the definite news was brought, and Harry, Dalton
and other officers of the staff stood near, as their duty bade them.

Harry knew the nature of the information, as it was not a secret from
any member of the staff, and now they all stood silently on one side
and watched Jackson. Even Ewell offered no suggestion, but kept his
eyes fixed anxiously on his chief. Harry felt that another one of those
critical moments, perhaps the most dangerous of all, had arrived. They
had fought army after army in detail, but now they must fight armies
united, or fly. He did not know that the silent general was preparing
the most daring and brilliant of all his movements in the valley. In the
face of both Shields and Fremont his courage flamed to the highest, and
the brain under the old slouch hat grew more powerful and penetrating
than ever. And flight never for a moment entered into his scheme.

Jackson at length said a few words to Ewell, who sprang upon his horse
and rode away to his division. Then, early in the morning, Jackson
led the rest of the army into a strange district, the Grottoes of the
Shenandoah. It was a dark region, filled beneath with great caves and
covered thickly with heavy forest, through the leaves of which the
troops caught views of the Massanuttons to the north or of the great
masses of the Blue Ridge to the east, while far to the west lay other
mountains, range on range. But all around them the country was wooded
heavily.

The army did not make a great amount of noise when it camped in the
forest over the caves, and the fires were few. Perhaps some of the men
were daunted by the dangers which still surrounded them so thickly after
so many days of such fierce