“And what happened then?”

“The aide returned to General Early with his story, but without his dispatch.  The general believed his account, of course, but he called him names for allowing himself to be surprised and overcome by a single Yankee.  He cursed until the air for fifty yards about him smelled strongly of sulphur and brimstone.”

“Did he do anything more?”

“Yes, General.  He sent a duplicate of the dispatch by an aide whom he said he could trust.  In an hour the second man came back with the same big lump on his head and with the same story.  He had been ambushed at the crossing of a ravine full of small cedars, and the highwayman was undoubtedly the same, too, a big, powerful fellow, as bold as you please.”

Harry’s pulse throbbed hard for a few moments, when he first heard mention of the man.  The description, not only physical, but of manner and action as well, answered perfectly.  He had not the slightest doubt that it was Shepard.

“A daring deed,” said General Lee.  “We must see that it is not repeated.”

“But that wasn’t all of the tale, sir.  While the second man was sitting on the bank, nursing his broken head, the Yankee Dick Turpin read the dispatch and saw that it was a duplicate of the first.  He became red-hot with wrath, and talked furiously about the extra and unnecessary work that General Early was forcing upon him.  He ended by cramming the dispatch into the man’s hands, directing him to take it back, and to tell General Early to stop his foolishness.  The aide was a bit dazed from the blow he received and he delivered that message word for word.  Why, sir, General Early exploded.  People who have heard him swear for years and who know what an artist he is in swearing, heard him then utter swear words that they had never heard before, words invented on the spur of the moment, and in the heat of passion, words full of pith and meaning.”

“And that was all, I suppose?”

“Not by any means, sir.  General Early picked two sharpshooters and sent them with another copy of the dispatch.  They passed the place of the first hold-up, and next the ravine without seeing anybody.  But as they were riding some distance further on both of their horses were killed by shots from a small clump of pines.  Before they could regain their feet Dick Turpin came out and covered them with his rifle—­it seems that he had one of those new repeating weapons.

“The men saw that his eye was so keen and his hand so steady that they did not dare to move a hand to a pistol.  Then as he looked down the sights of his rifle he lectured them.  He told them they were foolish to come that way, when the two who came before them had found out that it was a closed road.  He said that real soldiers learned by experience, and would not try again to do what they had learned to be impossible.