able to read its face.

"A quarter to six," he said. "According to the watch it is less than
three hours since we first heard those alarm guns, but my five known
senses and all the unknown tell me that it has been at least a week."

"In an hour we should see something," said Dalton. "Confound this fog.
If it weren't so thick we could see now."

Harry's pulses began to beat hard again in the next hour. He strove
with glasses even for a glimpse of the winter sun which he knew would
come so late, but as yet the fog showed nothing save a faint luminous
tinge low down in the east. An orderly brought food to them, and while
they ate they saw the luminous tinge broaden and deepen.

"The sun's rising behind that fog," said Dalton, "but here comes a
little wind that will drive away the fog or thin it out so we can see."

"Yes, I feel it," said Harry, "and you can see the dull, somber red of
the sun trying to break through. Look, George, unless I'm mistaken the
fog's moving down the river!"

"So it is, there's the flash of the stream, the color of steel, and by
all the stars, there's their bridge two-thirds of the way across!"

Heavier puffs of wind came and the fog billowed off down the river.
The whole gigantic theater of action sprang at once into the light.
There were the two great armies clustered on opposing ridges, there was
the deserted town, there was the deep river, the color of lead, flowing
between the foes, two-thirds of its width already spanned by the Union