that you like. I like a horizon that doesn't touch the ground anywhere
within fifteen or eighteen miles of me. And think of seeing a buffalo
herd, as I have, that's all day passing you, a million of 'em, maybe!"

"And think of being scalped by the Sioux or Cheyennes, as your people out
there often are," said Warner.

Pennington took off his cap and disclosed an uncommonly thick head of
hair.

"You see that I haven't lost mine yet," he said. "If a fellow can live
through big battles as I've lived through 'em he can escape Sioux and
Cheyennes."

"So you should. Look back now, and you can see the armies face to face."

They were on the highest hill, and all the cavalry had turned for a last
glance. Dick saw again the flashes from occasional rifle fire, and a
dark column of smoke still rising from a spot which he knew to be the
crater. He shuddered, and was glad when the force, riding on again,
passed over the hill. Before them now stretched a desolated country,
trodden under foot by the armies, and his heart bled again for Virginia,
the most reluctant of all the states to secede, and the greatest of them
all to suffer.

Colonel Hertford, Colonel Winchester, and the colonel of the third
regiment, a Pennsylvanian named Bedford, rode together and their young
officers were just behind. All examined the country continually through
glasses to guard against ambush. Stuart was gone and Forrest was far
away, but they knew that danger from the fierce riders of the South was