rose high. Every pulse was beating with exultation. It was he who had
brought the warning to the defenders of the stores. It was he who had
brought Sherburne's troop to help beat off the attack, and now it was he
who, bursting through the ring of steel, was riding to Jackson and sure
relief.

His horse seemed to share his triumph. He ran on and on without a swerve
or jar. Once he stretched out his long head, and uttered a shrill neigh.
The sound died in far echoes, and then followed only the rapid beat of
his hoofs on the hard road.

Harry knew that there was no longer any danger to him from the enemy,
and he resolved now not to go to his own colonel, but to ride straight
to the tent of Jackson himself.

The night had never grown dark. Moon and stars still shed an abundant
light for the flying horseman, and presently he caught fleeting glimpses
through the trees of roofs that belonged to Winchester. Then two men
in gray spring into the road, and, leveling their rifles, gave him the
command to stop.

"I'm Lieutenant Kenton of the Invincibles," he cried, "and I come for
help. A strong force of the Yankees is besieging Hertford, and four
hundred of our men are defending it. There is no time to waste! They
must have help there before dawn, or everything is lost! Which way is
General Jackson's tent?"

"In that field on the hillock!" replied one of the men, pointing two or
three hundred yards away.