been results!"

"What has happened?"

"Colonel Talbot has lost a bishop and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire has
lost a knight. Each claims that he has gained a technical advantage in
position, and they've stopped playing to argue about it. From the way
they act you'd think they were Yankee generals. See 'em over there
under the boughs of that tree, sitting on camp stools, with the chessmen
on another camp stool between them."

Harry looked over a little ridge and saw the two colonels, who were
talking with great earnestness, each obviously full of a desire to
convince the other.

"My dear Hector," said Colonel Talbot, "each of us has taken a piece.
It is not so much a question of the relative value of these pieces as it
is of the position into which you force your opponent."

"Exactly so, Leonidas. I agree with you on that point, and for that
reason I aver that I have made a tactical gain."

"Hector, you are ordinarily a man of great intelligence, but in this
case you seem to have lost some part of your mental powers."

"One of us has suffered such a loss, and while I am too polite to name
him, I am sure that I am not the man."

"Ah, well, we'll not accuse each other while the issue still hangs in
doubt. Progress with the game will show that I am right."

When Harry passed that way an hour later they were still bent over the
board, the best of friends again, but no more losses had been suffered
by either.

May was almost spent and spring was at the full. The Southern army
was now at its highest point in both numbers and effectiveness. Only
Jackson was gone, but he was a host and more, and when Lee said that
he had lost his right arm, he spoke the truth, as he was soon to find.
Yet the Southern power was at the zenith and no shadow hung over the
veteran and devoted troops who were eager to follow Lee in that invasion
of the North of which all now felt sure.

Doubts were dispelled with the close of May. Harry was one of the young
officers who carried the commander-in-chief's orders to the subordinate
generals, and while he knew details, he wondered what the main plan
would be. Young as he was he knew that no passage could be forced
across the Rappahannock in the face of the Army of the Potomac, which
was now as numerous as ever, and which could sweep the river and its
shores with its magnificent artillery. But he had full confidence in
Lee. The spell that Jackson had thrown over him was transferred