He did not yet know how he would save it, but he felt that he would.
All the courage of those border ancestors who won every new day of life
as the prize of skill and courage sprang up in him. It was no vain
heritage. Happy chance must aid those who trusted, and, taking a
deep curve to the left, he galloped through the woods. His horse
comparatively fresh after easy riding, went many miles without showing
any signs of weariness.

The boy knew the country well, and it was the object of his circuit to
take him ahead of the Union troop and to the village which held a small
guard of perhaps two hundred men. If the happy chance in which he
trusted should fail him after all, these men could carry off a part of
the supplies, and the rest could be destroyed to keep them from falling
into Northern hands.

He gave his horse a little breathing space and then galloped harder than
ever, reckoning that he would reach the village in another hour. He
turned from the woods into one of the narrow roads between farms, just
wide enough for wagons, and increased his speed.

The afternoon sun was declining, filling the west with dusky gold,
and Harry still rode at a great pace along the rough road, wondering all
the while what would be the nature of the lucky chance, in which he was
trusting so firmly. Lower sank the sun and the broad band of dusky gold
was narrowing before the advance of the twilight. The village was not
now more than two miles away, and the road dipped down before him.
Sounds like that made by the force behind him, the rattle of arms,
the creak of leather and the beat of hoofs, came suddenly to his ears.

Harry halted abruptly and reined his horse into some bushes beside the