y shook them at each other in friendly salute, and the little group
moved away from the river bank.

"I'm glad I've seen Bill again," said the sergeant. "Fine feller an'
that Mississippian with him was quaint like. Mighty big bragger."

"You did some bragging yourself, sergeant," said Dick.

"So I did, but it was in answer to Henderson. I'm glad we had that
little talk across the river. It was a friendly thing to do, before we
fall to slaughterin' one another."

They rejoined Colonel Winchester, and Dick worked through a part of the
night carrying orders and other messages. A great movement was going
on. Fresh troops were continually coming up, but there was little noise
beyond the Antietam, although he saw the light of many fires.

He slept after midnight and awoke at dawn, expecting to go at once into
battle. Some of the troops were moved about and Colonel Winchester began
to rage again.

"Good God! can it be possible!" he exclaimed, "that another day will be
lost? Is General McClellan instead of General Lee waiting for Jackson to
come? With the enemy safely within the trap, we refuse to shut it down
upon him!"

He said these things only within the hearing of Dick, who he knew would
never repeat them. But he was not the only one to complain. Men higher
in rank than he, generals, spoke their discontent openly. Why would
not McClellan attack? He had claimed that the rebels had two hundred
thousand men at the Seven Days, when it was well known that half that
figure or less was their true number. Why should he persist in seeing
the enemy double, and even if Lee did have fifty thousand men on the
other side of the Antietam, instead of the twenty thousand the scouts
assigned to him, the Army of the Potomac could defeat him before Jackson
came up.

But McClellan was overcome by caution. In spite of everything he doubled
or tripled the numbers of the enemy. Personally brave beyond dispute, he
feared for his army. The position of the enemy on the peninsula seemed
to have changed somewhat through the night. He believed that the
batteries had been moved about, and he telegraphed to Washington that
he must find out exactly the disposition of Lee's forces and where the
fords were.

Meanwhile the long, hot hours dragged on. The dust trodden up by so many
marching feet was terrible. It hung in clouds and added a sting to the
burning heat. Dick was wild with impatience, but he knew that it was not
worth while to say anythi