Hero the raiders dismounted their twenty-five hundred men and prepared
to attack the entrenchments. Wade Hampton immediately moved out to meet
him. Bradley Johnson's Marylanders drew up in Kilpatrick's rear at the
same moment, and captured five men bearing dispatches from Dahlgren. He
would attack on the rear at sunset. He asked Kilpatrick to strike at the
same moment.

Johnson boldly charged Kilpatrick's rear with his handful of men and
drove him headlong down the Peninsula to the York River. The Confederate
leader had but seventy-five men and two pieces of artillery but he hung
on Kilpatrick's division of twenty-five hundred and captured a hundred
and forty prisoners.

Dahlgren at night with but four hundred men boldly attacked the defenses
on the north side of the city. He was met by a company of Richmond boys
under eighteen years of age. The youngsters gave such good account of
themselves that he withdrew from the field, leaving forty of his men
dead and wounded.

In his retreat down the Peninsula, he failed to find Kilpatrick's
division. His command was cut to pieces and captured and Dahlgren
himself killed.

The part which Socola had played in this raid was successfully
accomplished without a hitch. He was compelled to answer the drum which
called every clerk of his Department to arms for the defense of the
city. In the darkness he succeeded in pressing into Dahlgren's lines and
on his retreat made his way back to his place in the ranks of the
Confederates.

It was a little thing which betrayed him after the real danger was past
and brought him face to face with Jennie Barton.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

THE DISCOVERY

From the moment Captain Welford had discovered the plot of the prisoners
to cooeperate with Kilpatrick and Dahlgren he was morally sure that Miss
Van Lew had been their messenger. He was equally sure that Socola had
been one of her accomplices.

On the day of the announcement of his powder plant to the prisoners he
set a guard to watch the house on Church Hill, and report to him the
moment "Crazy Bet" should emerge.

Within two hours he received the message that she was on her way down
town with her market basket swinging on her arm. Dick knew that this
woman could not recognize him personally. He was only distantly related
to the Welfords of Richmond.

Miss Van Lew was in a nervous agony to deliver her dispatch to
Kilpatrick, warning him that the purpose of the raid had been discove