and the men. You'll never get beyond
Gettysburg. Your invasion is over. Hereafter you fight always on the
defensive."

Harry was startled by his emphasis. The man spoke like an inspired
prophet of old. His eyes sparkled like coals of fire in the dark,
tanned face. The boy had never before seen him show so much emotion,
and his heart sank at the appalling prophecy. Then his courage came
back.

"You predict as you hope, Mr. Shepard," he said.

Shepard laughed a little, though not with mirth, and said:

"It is well that it should be settled here. There will be death on a
greater scale than any the war has yet seen, but it will have to come
sooner or later, and why not at Gettysburg? Good-bye, I go back to the
heights. May we both be alive to-morrow night to see which is right."

"The wish is mine, too," said Harry sincerely.

Shepard turned away and disappeared in the darkness. Harry rejoined
Dalton who was on the other side of the spring, and the two returned to
Seminary Ridge, where they walked among sleeping thousands. They found
their way to their comrades of the staff, and their physical powers
collapsing at last they fell on the ground where they soon sank into a
heavy sleep. The great silence came again. Sentinels walked back and
forth along the hostile lines, but they made no noise. There was little
moving of brigades or cannon now. The town itself became a town of
phantom houses in the moonlight, nearly all of them still and deserted.
On all the slopes of the hostile ridges lay the sleeping soldiers,
and on the rocks and fields between lay the dead in thousands. But from
the crest of Little Round Top, the precious hill so hardly won, the
Union officers watched all through the night, and, now and then, they
went through the batteries for which they were sure they were going to
have great use.

Harry and Dalton awoke at the same time. Another day, hot and burning,
had come, and the two armies once more looked across the valley at each
other. Harry soon heard the booming of cannon off to his right, where
Ewell's corps stood. It came from the Northern guns and for a long time
those of the South did not answer. But after a while Harry's practiced
ear detected the reply. The hostile wings facing each other were
engaged in a fierce battle. He saw the flash of the guns and the rising
smoke, but the center of the Army of Northern Virginia and the other
wing did not yet move. He looked questi