“But I’ll see that none of these monsters hurt you,” said Harry consolingly.  “The open is directly behind you, about a mile.  Right about!  Wheel!  Well done!  Now, you won’t see me again, but you’ll hear me giving commands.  Forward, march!  Quit stumbling!  No true forester ever does!  Nor is it necessary for you to run into more than three trees!  Keep going!  No, don’t curve!  Go straight ahead, and remember that if you look back I shoot!”

Michael walked swiftly enough.  He deemed that on the whole he had fared well.  The great brigand, Robin Hood, had spared his life and he had lost nothing.  The army would replace his weapons and ammunition and he was glad enough to escape from that terrible forest, even if he were driven out of it.

Harry watched him until he was out of sight, and then picking up the rifle and belt of cartridges he fled on soundless feet deeper into the forest.  Two or three hundred yards away he stopped and heard a great shouting.  Michael, no longer covered by a gun, had realized that something untoward had happened to him, and he was calling to his comrades.  Harry did not know whether Michael would still call the man who had held him up, Robin Hood, nor did he care.  He had secured an excellent rifle which would be much more useful to him than a shotgun, and his course still led straight toward the point where he should find Lee’s army on the march.  He felt that he ought to throw away the shotgun, as two weapons were heavy, but he could not make up his mind to do so.

A hundred yards farther and he heard replies to Michael’s shouts, and then several shots, undoubtedly fired by the Union troops themselves, as signals of alarm.  He laughed to himself.  Could such men as these overtake one who was born to the woods, the great grandson of Henry Ware, the most gifted of the borderers, who in the woods had not only a sixth sense, but a seventh as well?  And his great grandson had inherited many of his qualities.

Harry, in the forest, felt only contempt for these youths of Central Europe who could not tell one point of the compass from another.  He guided his own course by the sun, and continued at a good pace until he could hear shouts and shots no longer.  Then in the dense woods, where the shadows made a twilight, he came to a tiny stream flowing from under a rock.  He knelt and drank of the cool water, and then he opened Michael’s knapsack.  It was truly well filled, and he ate with deep content.  Then he drank again and rested by the side of the pool.

As he reflected over his journey Harry concluded that Providence had watched over him so far, but there was much yet to do before he reached Lee.  Providence had a strange way of watching over a man for a while, and then letting him go.  He would neglect no precaution.  The forest would not continue forever and then he must take his chances in the open.