who can't be
driven back."

Harry was silent because he had no answer to make, and Shepard resumed:

"I'm willing to tell you, Mr. Kenton, that your cousin, Mr. Mason,
a captain now, is here with General Sheridan, and that he went through
today's battle uninjured."

"I'm glad at any rate that Dick is now a captain."

"He has earned the rank. He is my good friend, as I hope you will be
after the war."

"I see no reason why we shouldn't. You've served the North in your own
way and I've served the South in mine. I want to say to you, Mr. Shepard,
that if in our long personal struggle I held any malice against you it's
all gone now, and I hope that you hold none against me."

"I never felt any. Good-by!"

"Good-by!"

Shepard was gone so quickly and with so little noise that he seemed to
vanish in the air, and Harry turned back to his work, resolved not to
believe the man's assertion that the war was over. He slept a little,
and so did Dalton, but both were awake, when a red dawn came alive with
the crash of cannon and rifles.

Shepard had spoken truly, when he said that the North now had generals
who would not be driven back. Nor would they cease to attack. As soon
as the light was sufficient, Grant and Sheridan began to press Lee with
all their might. Pickett, who had led the great charge at Gettysburg,
and Johnson, who held a place called Five Forks, were assailed fiercely
by overpowering numbers, and, despite a long and desperate resistance,
their command was cut in pieces and the fragments scattered, leaving
Lee's right flank uncovered.

The day, like the one before it, ended in defeat and confusion, and,
at the next dawn, Grant, silent, tenacious, came anew to the attack,
his dense columns now assailing the front before Petersburg, and carrying
the trenches that had held them so long. The thin Confederate lines
there fought in vain to hold them, but the Union brigades, exultant and
cheering, burst through everything, flung aside those of their foes whom
they did not overthrow, and advanced toward the city. Here fell the
famous Lieutenant General A. P. Hill, a man of frail body and valiant
soul, beloved of Lee and the whole army.

The next noon came, somber to Harry beyond all description. The youngest
officer knew that while General Lee was still in Petersburg he could no
longer hold it, and that they were nearly surrounded by the victorious
and powerful Union host. The break in the lines had