orders. They saw the fire die. They heard the murmur of the camp sink.
Lee lay down on his bed of boughs, other generals withdrew to similar
beds or to tents, and the two boys still sat under the trees, waiting and
watching, and never knowing at what moment they would be needed.




CHAPTER II

THE NORTHERN SPY


But the night remained very quiet. Harry and Dalton, growing tired of
sitting, walked about the camp, and looked again to their horses, which,
saddled and bridled, were nevertheless allowed to nip the grass as best
they could at the end of their lariats. The last embers of the fire
went out, but the moon and stars remained bright, and they saw dimly the
sleeping forms of Lee and his generals. Harry, who had seen nothing
strange in Meade's lack of pursuit, now wondered at it. Surely when the
news of Vicksburg came the exultant Army of the Potomac would follow,
and try to deliver a crushing blow.

It was revealed to him as he stood silent in the moonlight that a gulf
had suddenly yawned before the South. The slash of Grant's sword in the
West had been terrible, and the wound that it made could not be cured
easily. And the Army of Northern Virginia had not only failed in its
supreme attempt, but a great river now flowed between it and Virginia.
If the Northern leaders, gathering courage anew, should hurl their masses
upon Lee's retreating force, neither skill nor courage might avail to