darkened room. "Do you mean it? What news?"

"Thought maybe thet wud wake ye up," he chuckled.

"'Speed on the signal, clansman, speed!' Stan' up on ther bench, Cap,
an' put yer ear up yere an' I'LL tell ye. This yere's gospel truth:
Sheridan hes started his infantry on a half-circle march fer
Minersville. Ther first division left et three o'clock, an' thar won't
be nary Yank loafin' en ther valley by noon termorrow. An' more," he
added rapidly, his eyes dancing wildly with suppressed excitement,--
"Hancock is a swingin' of his corps west ter meet 'em thar, an' I
reckon, as how thar'll be hell fer sartain up ther Shenandoah in less
ner a week--es Scott ses, 'the wild sounds of border war.'"

"But how do you know all this?" I questioned incredulously, as the
whole scene and its dread possibilities unrolled before my mental
vision.

"Ther nigger I held up hed a despatch fer Heintzelman over on ther
left, an' then Mariar she sorter pumped a young fule staff officer fer
ther rest o' it," he replied promptly. "Oh, it's a sure go, Cap, an' I
reckon as how maybe Lee's whole army hangs on one of us gittin' out o'
yere ternight.

"'Where, where was Roderick then?
One blast upon his bugle horn
Were worth a thousand men.'"

That he meant every word he spoke I felt convinced, and his enthusiasm
was contagious. My blood leaped within me at this call to action; all