d westward beyond the dim blue line of the Alleghanies, and he
knew that he would feel no surprise if Pennington's prediction should
come true. The nest of difficult mountains was a good shelter for
outlaws, and the Winchesters, with the sergeant picking up the trail,
were the very men to hunt them.

He knew too that, unless the task was begun soon, it would prove a
supreme test of endurance, and there would be dangers in plenty. Snow
would be falling before long on the mountains, and they would become a
frozen wilderness, almost as wild and savage as they were before the
white man came.

But it seemed for a while that the intuition of both Dick and Pennington
had failed. They spent many days in the valley trying to catch the
evasive Mosby and his men, although they had little success. Mosby's
rangers knowing the country thoroughly made many daring raids, although
they could not become a serious menace.

When they returned through Winchester from the last of these expeditions
the Winchester men were wrapped in heavy army cloaks, for the wind from
the mountains could now cut through uniforms alone. Dick, glancing
toward the Alleghanies, saw a ribbon of white above their blue line.

"Look, fellows! The first snow!" he said.

"I see," said Warner. "It snows on the just and the unjust, the unjust
being Slade and Skelly, who are surely up there."

"Just before we went out," sad Pennington, "the news of some fresh and
special atrocity of theirs came in. I'm thinking the time is near when
we'll be sent after them."

"We'll need snow shoes," said Warner, shivering as he looked. "I can see
that the snow is increasing. Which way is the wind blowing, Dick?"

"Toward us."

"Then we're likely to get a little of that snow. The clouds will blow
off the mountains and sprinkle us with flakes in the valley."

"I like winter in peace, but not in war," said Pennington. "It makes
campaigning hard. It's no fun marching at night in a driving storm of
snow or hail."

"But what we can't help we must stand," said Warner with resignation.

Both predictions, the one about the snow and the other concerning the
duty that would be assigned to them, quickly came to pass. Before sunset
the blue line of the Alleghanies was lost wholly in mist and vapor.
Then great flakes began to fall on the camp, and the young officers were
glad to find refuge in their tents.

It was not a heavy snow fall where they were, but it blew down a