making things unhappy for our side. He was in Vicksburg, although you
may not have heard of him there, but he got out before the surrender. A
cunning fellow. A sort of land pirate."

"He's all of that. Since we've been coming through the mountains he and
his band have picked off a lot of our men. Those signals must mean that
they're preparing for another raid. I shouldn't like to be a half-mile
from our lines to-night."

"Why can't we smoke him out, Ohio?"

"Because when we're half way up the slope he and his men are gone on the
other side. Besides, they can rake us with bullets from ambush, while
we're climbing up the ridge. And when we get there, they're gone. It's
these mountains that give the irregulars their chance. See, two lights
are winking at each other now!"

"How far apart would you say they are, Ohio?"

"A mile, maybe, but one is much higher than the other up the mountain.
The lower light, doubtless, is signaling information about us to the
higher. I see your colonel and our colonel talking together. Maybe we're
going to set a trap. It would be a good thing if we could clean out
those fellows."

"I'm thinking that your guess is a good one," said Dick, as he rose to
his feet, "because Colonel Winchester is beckoning to me now."

"And there's a call for me, too," said Ohio, rising. "Talk of a thing
and it happens. We're surely going for those lights."

They had reckoned right. General Thomas, when he saw the signals,
had summoned some of his best officers and they had talked together
earnestly. The general had not said much before, but the incessant
sharpshooting from the bushes and slopes as they marched southward had
caused him intense annoyance, and, if continued, he knew that it would
hurt the spirit of the troops.

"We shall try to trap Slade's band to-night," said Colonel Winchester to
Dick and the other young officers who gathered around him. "We think he
has three or four hundred men and my regiment can deal with that number.
We will defile to the right without noise and make our way up the
mountain. An Ohio regiment, which can also deal with Slade if it catches
him, will defile to the left. Maybe we can trap these irregulars between
us. Sergeant Whitley will guide my force."

The sergeant stepped forward, proud of the honor and trust. Dick,
looking at him in the moonlight, said to himself for the hundredth time
that he was a magnificent specimen of American manhood, thick, powerful,
intel