start this minute," said Warner. "There is a small matter
of business to be transacted first. We know all of you, but just the
same we've brought our visiting cards with us."

"I don't understand," said Harry.

"We'll show you. Frank Pennington, remove that large protuberance from
beneath your blouse. Behold it! A small ham, my friends, and it's for
you. That's Frank's card. And here I take from my own blouse the half
of a cheese, which I beg you to accept with my compliments. Dick,
you rascal, what's that you have under your arm?"

"It's a jar of prime bacon that I've brought along for the party, George."

"I thought so. We're going to have the pleasure of dining with our
friends here. We've heard, Captain Kenton, that you people haven't eaten
anything for a month."

"It's not that bad," laughed Harry. "We had parched corn yesterday."

"Well, parched corn is none too filling, and we're going to prepare the
banquet at once. A certain Sergeant Whitley will arrive presently with
a basket of food, such as you rebels haven't tasted since you raided our
wagon trains at the Second Manassas, and with him will come one William
Shepard, whom you have met often, Mr. Kenton."

"Yes," said Harry, "we've met often and under varying circumstances,
but we're going to be friends now."

"Will you tell me, Captain St. Clair," said Dick, "what has become of the
two colonels of your regiment, which I believe you call the Invincibles?"

St. Clair led them silently to a little wood, and there, sitting on logs,
Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel Hector St. Hilaire were
bent intently over the chess board that lay between them.

"Now that the war is over we'll have a chance to finish our game, eh,
Hector?" said Colonel Talbot.

"A just observation, Leonidas. It's a difficult task to pursue a game
to a perfect conclusion amid the distractions of war, but soon I shall
checkmate you in the brilliant fashion in which General Lee always snares
and destroys his enemy."

"But General Lee has yielded, Hector."

"Pshaw, Leonidas! General Lee would never yield to anybody. He has
merely quit!"

"Ahem!" said Harry loudly, and, as the colonels glanced up, they saw the
little group looking down at them.

"Our friends, the enemy, have come to pay you their respects," said Harry.

The two colonels rose and bowed profoundly.

"And to invite you to a banquet that is now being prepared not far from
here," continued H