"No, why do you ask?"

"If we heard the booming of guns, and we'd hear 'em at four miles, we'd
know that General Jackson himself was engaged. But as there's no sound,
Shields hasn't come up, and we'll wait here a while to see if we can't
have something important to report."

"I don't think so," said Harry. "We know that the enemy is about to
attack here in full force, and that's enough to know about this side of
the river. We ought to gallop back to General Jackson and tell him."

"You're right, Harry," said the Virginian, in whom the sense of duty was
strong. "The general may be attacked by the time we get there, and he'll
want to know exactly how things are."

They galloped back as fast as they could and found that General Jackson
had moved his headquarters to the little village of Port Republic. They
found him and told him the news as he was mounting his horse, but at
the same time an excited and breathless messenger came galloping up
from another direction. The vanguard of Shields had already routed
his pickets, and the second Northern army was pressing forward in full
force.

As he spoke, the Northern cavalry came in sight, and if those Northern
horsemen had known what a prize was almost within their hands, they
would have spared no exertion.

"Make for the bridge! Make for the bridge, general!" cried Dalton.

The horsemen in blue were not coming fast. They rode cautiously through
the streets. Southern villages were not friendly to them, and this
caution saved Stonewall Jackson. He was on his horse in an instant,
galloping for the bridge, and Harry and Dalton were hot behind him. They
thundered over the bridge with the Northern cavalry just at their heels,
and escaped by a hair's breadth. But the chief of artillery and Dr.
McGuire and one of the captains, Willis, were captured, and the rest of
the staff was dispersed.

"My God!" exclaimed Harry, when the Northern cavalry stopped at the
bridge. "What an escape!"

He was thinking of Jackson's escape, not his own, and while he was
wondering what the general would do, he saw him ride to the bank of the
river and watch the Northern cavalry on the other side. Then Harry and
Dalton uttered a shout as they saw a Southern battery push forward from
the village and open on the cavalry. An infantry regiment, which had
been forming in the town, also came up at full speed, uttering the long,
high-pitched rebel yell.

The Northern vanguard, which had come so near t