Dick, all unconscious of distant opinion, watched the tightening of the steel belt, and helped in the task.  He and his comrades never doubted.  They knew that Sherman had crushed the Southeast, and that Thomas, that stern old Rock of Chickamauga, had annihilated the Southern army of Hood at Nashville.  Dick was glad that the triumph there had gone to Thomas, whom he always held in the greatest respect and admiration.

He often saw Grant in those days, a silent, resolute man, thinner than of old and stooped a little with care and responsibility.  Dick, like the others, felt with all the power of conviction that Grant would never go back, and Shepard, who had entered Petersburg twice at the imminent risk of his life, assured him that Lee’s force was wearing away.  There was left only a fraction of the great Army of Northern Virginia that had fought so brilliantly at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness and on many another battlefield.

“Only we who are here and who can see with our own eyes know what is about to happen,” said the spy.  “Even our own Northern states, so long deluded by false hopes, can’t yet believe, but we know.”

“Did you hear anything of the Invincibles when you were in Petersburg?” asked Dick.

“I heard of them, and I also saw them, although they did not know I was near.  I suppose Harry Kenton could scarcely have contained himself had he known it was my sister who filched that map from the Curtis house in Richmond and that it was to me she gave it.”

“But he was all right?  He escaped unhurt from the Valley?”

“Yes, or if he took a hurt it was but a slight one, from which he soon recovered.  He and his comrades, Dalton, St. Clair and Langdon, and the two Colonels, Talbot and St. Hilaire, are back with Lee, and they’ve organized another regiment called the Invincibles, which Talbot and St. Hilaire lead, although your cousin and Dalton are on Lee’s staff again.”

“I suppose we’ll come face to face again, and this time at the very last,” said Dick.  “I hope they’ll be reasonable about it, and won’t insist on fighting until they’re all killed.  Have you heard anything of those two robbers and murderers, Slade and Skelly?”

“Not a thing.  But I didn’t expect it.  They’d never leave the mountains.  Instead they’ll go farther into ’em.”

That night many messengers rode with dispatches, and the lines of the Northern army were tightened.  Dick saw all the signs that portended a great movement, signs with which he had long since grown familiar.  The big batteries were pushed forward, and heavy masses of infantry were moved closer to the Confederate trenches.  He felt quite sure that the final grapple was at hand.

CHAPTER XVI

THE CLOSING DAYS