careful not to ride into an ambush of rear guard pickets, dropped back a
little, and also kept slightly to the left of the great trail. He could
not see the soldiers now, but occasionally he heard the deep sound of so
many hoofs sinking into the soft turf. Beyond that turfy sigh no sound
from the marching men came to him.

The Union troop halted about two o'clock in the afternoon, and the men
ate cold food from the knapsacks. They also rested a full hour, and
Harry, watching from a distance, felt sure that their lack of hurry
indicated a night attack of some kind. They had altered their course
slightly, twice, and when they started anew they did so a third time.

Now their purpose occurred suddenly to Harry. It came in a flash of
intuition, and he did not again doubt it for a moment. The head of the
column was pointed straight toward a tiny village in which food and
ammunition for Stonewall Jackson were stored. The place did not have
more than a dozen houses, but one of them was a huge tobacco barn stuffed
with powder, lead, medicines, which were already worth their weight in
gold in the Confederacy, and other invaluable supplies. It had been
planned to begin their removal on the morrow to the Southern camp at
Winchester, but it would be too late unless he intervened.

If he did not intervene! He, a boy, riding alone through the forest,
to defeat the energies of so many men, equipped splendidly! The
Confederacy was almost wholly agricultural, and was able to produce few
such supplies of its own. Nor could it obtain them in great quantities
from Europe as the Northern navy was drawing its belt of steel about the
Southern coasts. That huge tobacco barn contained a treasure beyond
price, and Harry was resolved to save it.