still smoldered. In the hollows,
where the bushes had grown thickest, were great beds of coals. The smoke
which the low heavy skies kept close to the earth was thick and hot.
Gusts of wind sent showers of sparks flying, and, despite the greatest
care to protect the ammunition, they marched in constant danger of
explosion.

Harry thought at one time that General Anderson intended to camp in
the Wilderness for the night, but he soon saw that it was impossible.
One could not camp on hot ground in a smoldering forest.

"I believe it's a march till day," he said to Dalton. "It's bound to be.
If a man were to lie down here, he'd find himself a mass of cinders in
the morning, and it will take us till daylight and maybe past to get out
of the Wilderness."

"If he didn't burn to death he'd choke to death. I never breathed such
smoke before."

"That's because it's mixed with ashes and the fumes of burned gunpowder.
A villainous compound like this can't be called air. How long is it
until dawn?"

"About three hours, I think."

"You remember those old Greek stories about somebody or other going down
to Hades, and then having a hard climb out again. We're the modern
imitators. If this isn't Hades then I don't know what it is."

"It surely is. Phew, but that hurt!"

"What happened?"

"I brushed my hand against a burning bush. The result was not happy.
Don't imitate me."

Dalton's horse leaped to one side, and he had difficulty in keeping the
saddle. His hoof had been planted squarely in the midst of a mass of hot
twigs.

"The sooner I get out of this Inferno or Hades of a place the happier
I'll be!" said Dalton.

"I've never seen the like," said Harry, "but there's one thing about it
that makes me glad."

"And what's the saving grace?"

"That it's in Virginia and not in Kentucky, though for the matter of that
it couldn't be in Kentucky."

"And why couldn't it be in Kentucky?"

"Because there's no such God-forsaken region in all that state of mine."

"It certainly gets upon one's soul," said Dalton, looking at the gloomy
region, so terribly torn by battle.

"But if we keep going we're bound to come out of it some time or other."

"And we're not stopping. A man can't make his bed on a mass of coals,
and there'll be no rest for us until we're clear out of the Wilderness."

They marched on a long time, and, as day dawned, hundreds of voices
united in a shout of gladness. Behind them were the shades