the sleep I need.
What the General wants to know chiefly is whether there are enough
troops of the enemy between Colonel Abbey and Newville to prevent a
junction between the cavalry and General Bean's brigade, isn't it?"

"Right! I can't give you any special orders. You'll have to use your own
judgment, and do whatever seems best when the time comes. This is the
sort of a situation that changes literally from minute to minute, and if
I gave you special orders before you started they would probably hamper
you more than they helped you."

"Can I have Tom Binns again, sir?"

"Certainly! I'll have Crawford tell him to report to you at the garage.
Overhaul your car carefully--you don't want any little mechanical
trouble to come along and spoil your work just as you are on the verge
of success."

"The car's all right, sir. I went over every bit of it before I turned
in. I had an idea I might be called for some sort of emergency work when
every minute would count, and she's ready for any sort of a run right
now."

"Good enough! That's the way to be. 'Be prepared'--that's a pretty good
motto. It has certainly been proved abundantly in the last few hours."

It would take the Scouts a good three hours to come up with Colonel
Abbey's regiment of cavalry, but Jack and Tom Binns, in the big grey car
that moved silently, like a grey ghost, in the moonlight, were well
ahead of them as the column swung out of the little town.

"Well, we're off again!" said Jack. "No telling what's going to come up
before the night's over, either, Tom. We've got a roving commission,
with no orders to hold us down, and I'm out to see just as much as the
road will show us."

"Are you going to stick to the main road, Jack?"

"No. There's a cross road a little way beyond here. If they've blocked
Colonel Abbey's advance on this road, we couldn't get beyond his
position, anyhow, and it won't do us any good to get as far as that and
no further. It's what they're doing beyond there that General Harkness
wants to know."

"Where is the main body of our army now, Jack?"

"Right around Hardport. The only troops that are moving to-night are
Abbey's cavalry regiment, and General Bean's brigade. General Bean, with
the rest of the army closing toward him, is to hold the enemy in check
if they occupy Newville before we get to the place ourselves. The rest
of the army, at Hardport, can move to his support, or it can develop a
big flanking movement that wil