ran troops, and he had with him Wright, Emory, Crook, Merritt,
Averill, Torbert, Wilson and Grover, all able generals. Nor had Sheridan
neglected to inform himself of the country over which he intended to
march. With his lieutenant of engineers, Meigs, a man of great talent,
he had spent days and nights studying maps of the valley. Now he knew
all the creeks and brooks and roads and towns, and he understood the
country as well as Early himself, who faced him with as large a
Confederate force as he could gather.

Dick and his comrades expected immediate action, but it did not come.
They lingered for days, due, they supposed, to orders from Washington,
but they did not bother themselves about it, as they liked their new camp
and were making many new friends. September days passed and they saw the
summer turning into autumn. The mountains in the distance looked blue,
but, near at hand, their foliage had turned brown. The great heat gave
way to a crisper air and the lads who had come from the trenches before
Petersburg enjoyed for a little while the luxury of early autumn and
illimitable space.

They rode now and then with the cavalry outposts. Early and his men
stretched across the valley to oppose them, and often Northern and
Southern pickets were in touch, though they seldom fired upon one
another. Dick, whenever he rode with the advanced guard, watched for
Harry Kenton, St. Clair and Langdon, but it was nearly a week before
he saw them. Then they rode with a small group, headed by two elderly
but very upright men, whom he knew to be Colonel Leonidas Talbot and
Lieutenant Colonel Hector St. Hilaire.

He felt genuine gladness, and, shouting at the top of his voice, he
waved his hand. They recognized him, and all waved a welcome in return.
He saw the two colonels studying him through their glasses, but he knew
that no attack would be made upon him and the little party with which he
rode. It was one of those increasing intervals of peace and friendship
between battles. The longer the war and the greater the losses the less
men troubled themselves to shoot one another save when real battle was
joined.

They were about four hundred yards apart and Dick used his glasses also,
enabling him to see that the young Southern officers were unwounded--
Langdon's slight hurt had healed long since--and were strong and hearty.
He thought it likely that they, as well as he, had found the brief period
of rest and freedom fr