"You were thinking of your cousin, Mr. Kenton," said Shepard suddenly.

"Yes, but how did you know?" asked Dick in surprise.

"Because your face suddenly became melancholy--the moonlight is good,
enabling me to read your look--and sadness is not your natural
expression. You recall that your cousin, of whom you think so much,
is at hand with your enemies, and the rest is an easy matter of putting
two and two together."

"You're right in all you say, Mr. Shepard, but I wish Harry wasn't there."

Shepard was silent and then Dick added passionately:

"Why doesn't the South give up? She's worn down by attrition. She's
blockaded hard and fast! When she loses troops in battle she can't find
new men to take their places! She's short in food, ammunition, medicines,
everything! The whole Confederacy can't be anything but a shell now!
Why don't they quit!"

"Pride, and a lingering hope that the unexpected will happen. Yes,
we've won the war, Mr. Mason, but it's yet far from finished. Many a
good man will fall in this campaign ahead of us in the valley, and in
other campaigns too, but, as I see it, the general result is already
decided. Nothing can change it. Look between these trees, and you can
see the Southern force now."

Dick from his horse gazed into a valley down which ran a good turnpike,
looking white in the moonlight. Upon this road rode the Southern force
in close ranks, but too far away, for any sound of their hoof beats to