e
to watch well.

As they rode on the country was still marked by desolation. The fields
were swept bare or trampled down. Many of the houses and barns and all
the fences had been burned. The roads had been torn up by the passage of
artillery and countless wagons. All the people seemed to have gone away.

But when they came into rougher and more wooded regions they were shot at
often by concealed marksmen. A half-dozen troopers were killed and more
wounded, and, when the cavalrymen forced a path through the brush in
pursuit of the hidden sharpshooters, they found nothing. The enemy
fairly melted away. It was easy enough for a rifleman, knowing every
gully and thicket, to send in his deadly bullet and then escape.

"Although it's merely the buzzing and stinging of wasps," said Warner,
"I don't like it. They can't stop our advance, but I hate to see any
good fellow of ours tumbled from his horse."

"Makes one think of that other ride we took in Mississippi," said Dick.

"In one way, yes, but in others, no. This is hard, firm ground, and we're
not persecuted by mosquitoes. Nor is the country suitable for an ambush
by a great force. Ouch, that burnt!"

A bullet fired from a thicket had grazed Warner's bridle hand. Dick was
compelled to laugh.

"You're free from mosquitoes, George," he said, "but there are still
little bullets flying about, as you see."

A dozen cavalrymen were sent into the thicket, but the sharpshooter was
already far away. Colonel Hertford frowned and said:

"Well, I suppose it's the price we have to pay, but I'd like to see the
people to whom we have to pay it."

"Not much chance of that," said Colonel Winchester. "The Virginians know
their own ground and the lurking sharpshooters won't fire until they're
sure of a safe retreat."

But as they advanced the stinging fire became worse. There was no
Southern force in this part of the country strong enough to meet them in
open combat, but there was forest and thicket sufficient to shelter many
men who were not only willing to shoot, but who knew how to shoot well.
Yet they never caught anybody nor even saw anybody. A stray glimpse or
two of a puff of smoke was the nearest they ever came to beholding an
enemy.

It became galling, intolerable. Three more men were killed and the
number of wounded was doubled. The three colonels held a consultation,
and decided to extend groups of skirmishers far out on either flank.
Dick was chos