to an orderly, "and tell him to
build a fire against that rock there, and make us some coffee. We will
not be able to get across the ford before midnight." The orderly rode
off, and the Colonel dismounted and walked forward with the cramped gait
of a man who had been long in the saddle.

Still louder yells arose from the ford. A powerful horse, ridden by
an officer who was trying to force his way across, had slipped on the
river's glassy bedstones, in the midst of a compact throng, and carried
many with it down into the deep water below the crossing.

The Colonel's lip curled with contempt as he continued his walk.

A sharp little click sounded from Fortner's rifle. He had set the hair
trigger.

He stepped out clear of the tree, and gave a peculiar whistle. The
Colonel started as he heard the sound, looked up, saw who uttered it,
and instinctively reached his hand back to the holster for a revolver.

Down would scarcely have been ruffled by Fortner's light touch upon the
trigger.

Fire flamed from the rifle's muzzle.

The Colonel's haughty eyes became sterner than ever. The holster was
torn as he wrenched the revolver out. A clutch at the mane, and he fell
forward on the wet brown leaves--dead!

Dumb amazement filled the horse's great eyes; he stretched out his neck
and smelled his lifeless master inquiringly.

A shot from Harry's musket, fifty from the astounded Rebels, and the two
Unionists sped away unhurt into the cover of the dark cedars.

Chapter XI. Through the Mountains and the Night.

God sits upon the Throne of Kings,
And Judges unto judgement brings:
Why then so long
Maintain your wrong,
And favor lawlesss things?

Defend the poor, the fatherless;
Their crying injuries redress:
And vindicate
The desolate,
Whom wicked men oppress.
--George Sandy's Paraphrase of Psalm XXXII.

Fortner and Glen were soon so far away from the Ford that the only
reminder of its neighborhood were occasional glimpses, caught through
rifts in he forest, of the lofty slope of Rockcastle Mountain, now
outlined in the gathering darkness by twinkling fires, which increased
in number, and climbed higher towards the clouds as fast as the
fugitives succeeded in struggling across the river.

"That's a wonderful sight," said Harry, as they paused on a summit
to rest and catch breath. "It reminds me of some of the war scenes in
Scott, or