Winchester spoke hopefully to his young aides and said that the
retreat was right.

"We're drawing out of a trap," he said, "and time is always on our side.
The South to win has to hit hard and fast, and in this case the Army of
the Potomac and the Army of Virginia may join before Lee and Jackson can
come up."

The lads tried to reconcile themselves, but nevertheless they did not
like retreat. Dick with his powerful glasses often looked back toward
the dark bulk of Clark's Mountain. He saw nothing there, nor anything in
the low country between, save the rear ranks of the Union army marching
on.

But Shepard had been right. Lee and Jackson, advancing silently and with
every avenue of news guarded, were there behind the mountain with sixty
thousand men, flushed with victories, and putting a supreme faith in
their great commanders who so well deserved their trust. The men of
the valley and the Seven Days, wholly confident, asked only to be led
against Pope and his army, and most of them expected a battle that very
day, while the Northern commander was slipping from the well-laid trap.

Pope's judgment in this case was good and fortune, too, favored him.
Before the last of his men had left the Rapidan Lee himself, with his
staff officers, climbed to the summit of Clark's Mountain. They were
armed with the best of glasses, but drifting fogs coming down from
the north spread along the whole side of the mountain and hung like a
curtain between it and the retreating army. None of their glasses could
pierce the veil, and it was not until nearly night that rising winds
caught the fog and took it away. Then Lee and his generals saw a vast
cloud of dust in the northwest and they knew that under it marched
Pope's retreating army.

The Southern army was at once ordered forward in pursuit and in the
night the vanguard, wading the Rapidan, followed eagerly. Dick and his
comrades did not know then that they were followed so closely, but
they were destined to know it before morning. The regiment of Colonel
Winchester, one of the best and bravest in the whole service, formed a
part of the rearguard, and Dick, Warner and Pennington rode with their
chief.

The country was broken and they crossed small streams. Sometimes they
were in open fields, and again they passed through long stretches of
forest. There was a strong force of cavalry with the regiment, and the
beat of the horses' hoofs made a steady rolling sound which was not
un