s marching away from
Jackson," said the Vermonter.

"We'll march back again," said Dick hopefully.

"But when?" said Pennington. "Look through the trees there on our right.
Aren't those rebel troops?"

Dick's startled gaze beheld a long line of horsemen in gray on their
flank and only a few hundred yards away.

CHAPTER II. AT THE CAPITAL

The Southern cavalry was seen almost at the same time by many men in the
regiments, and nervous and hasty, as was natural at such a time, they
opened a scattering fire. The horsemen did not return the fire, but
seemed to melt away in the darkness.

But the shrewdest of the officers, among whom was Colonel Winchester,
took alarm at this sudden appearance and disappearance. Dick would have
divined from their manner, even without their talk, that they believed
Jackson was at hand. Action followed quickly. The army stopped and
began to seek a strong position in the wood. Cannon were drawn up, their
mouths turned to the side on which the horsemen had appeared, and the
worn regiments assumed the attitude of defense. Dick's heart throbbed
with pride when he saw that they were as ready as ever to fight,
although they had suffered great losses and the bitterest of
disappointments.

"What I said I've got to say over again," said Pennington ruefully: "the
night's no time for fighting. It's heathenish in Stonewall Jackson to
follow us, and annoy us in such a way."

"Such a way! Such a way!" said Dick impatiently. "We've got to learn to
fight as he does. Good God, Frank, think of all the sacrifices we are
making to save our Union, the great republic! Think how the hateful old
monarchies will sneer and rejoice if we fall, and here in the East our
generals just throw our men away! They divide and scatter our armies in
such a manner that we simply ask to be beaten."

"Sh! sh!" said Warner, as he listened to the violent outbreak, so
unusual on the part of the reserved and self-contained lad. "Here come
two generals."

"Two too many," muttered Dick. A moment or two later he was ashamed of
himself, not because of what he had said, but because he had said it.
Then Warner seized him by the arm and pointed.

"A new general, bigger than all the rest, has come," he said, "and
although I've never seen him before I know with mathematical certainty
that it's General John Pope, commander-in-chief of the Army of
Virginia."

Both Dick and Pennington knew instinctively that Warner was right.