It was a fine oak grove, covering about an acre, with no undergrowth and a fair amount of grass, still green under the shade, on which the horses could graze. The trunks of the trees also were close enough together to hide them from anyone else who was not very near. Here the men ate cold food from their haversacks and let their horses nibble the grass for a half hour.
They emerged refreshed and resumed their course toward the Potomac. In the very height of the afternoon blaze they saw a horseman on the crest of a hill, watching them intently through glasses. Sherburne instantly raised his own glasses to his eyes.
“A Yankee scout,” he said. “He sees us and knows us for what we are, but he doesn’t know what we’re about.”
“But he’s trying to guess,” said Harry, who was also using glasses. “I can’t see his face well enough to tell, but I know that in his place I’d be guessing.”
“As we don’t want him hanging on to our heels and watching us, I think we’d better charge him.”
“Have the whole troop turn aside and chase him?”
“No; Harry, you and I and eight men will do it. Marlowe, take the rest of the company straight along the road at an easy gait. But keep well behind the hedge that you see ahead.”
Marlowe was his second in command, and taking the lead he continued with the troop.
Marlowe rode behind one of the hedges, where they were hidden from the lone horseman on the hill, and Sherburne and Harry and the eight men followed. While they were yet hidden, Sherburne and his chosen band suddenly detached themselves from the others at a break in the hedge and galloped toward the horseman who was still standing on the hill, gazing intently toward the point where he had last seen the troop riding.
Sherburne, Harry and the privates rode at a gallop across the field, straight for the Union sentinel. He did not see them until they had covered nearly half the distance, and then with aggravating slowness he turned and rode over the opposite side of the hill. Harry had been watching him intently, and when he had come much nearer the figure seemed familiar to him. At first he could not recall it to mind, but a moment or two later he turned excitedly to Sherburne.
“I know that man, although I’ve never seen him before in a uniform,” he said. “I met him when President Davis was inaugurated at Montgomery and I saw him again at Washington. His name is Shepard, the most skillful and daring of all the Union spies.”
“I’ve heard you speak of that fellow before,” said Sherburne, “and since we’ve put him to flight, I think we’d better stop. Ten to one, if we follow him over the brow of the hill, he’ll lead us into an ambush.”
“I think you’re right, Captain, and it’s likely, too, that he’ll come back soon with a heavy cavalry detachment. I’ve no doubt that thousands of Union horsemen are this side of the river.”
Sherburne was impressed by Harry’s words, and the little detachment, returning at a gallop, joined the main troop, which was now close to a considerable stretch of forest.
“Ah, there they are!” exclaimed Harry, looking back at the hill on which he had seen the lone horseman.
A powerful body of cavalry showed for a moment against the sun, which was burning low and red in the west. The background was so intense and vivid that the horsemen did not form a mass, but every figure stood detached, a black outline against the sky. Harry judged that they were at least a thousand in number.
“Too strong a force for us to meet,” said Sherburne. “They must outnumber us five to one, and since they’ve had practice the Northern cavalry has improved a lot. It must be a part of the big force that made the scout toward our lines. Good thing the forest is just ahead.”
“And a good thing, too, that night is not far off.”
“Right, my boy, we need ’em both, the forest and the dark. The Union cavalry is going to pursue us, and I don’t mean to turn back. General Jackson sent us to find about McClellan’s crossing, and we’ve got to do it.”