A light step aroused him and a large man sat down on the bench beside him.  Dick often wondered at the swift and almost noiseless tread of Shepard, with whom he was becoming well acquainted.  He was tall, built powerfully and must have weighed two hundred pounds, yet he moved with the ease and grace of a boy of sixteen.  Dick thought it must come from his trade.

“I don’t want to intrude, Mr. Mason,” said Shepard, “but I saw you sitting here, looking perhaps too grave and thoughtful for one of your years.”

“You’re most welcome, Mr. Shepard, and I was thinking, that is in a vague sort of way.”

“I saw your face and you were wondering what was to become of Virginia and the Virginians.”

“So I was, but how did you know it?”

“I didn’t know it.  It was just a guess, and the guess was due to the fact that I was having the same thoughts myself.”

“So you regard the war as won?” asked Dick, who had a great respect for Shepard’s opinion.

“If the President keeps General Grant in command, as he will, it’s a certainty, but it will take a long time yet.  We can’t force those trenches down there.  Remember what Cold Harbor cost us.”

Dick shuddered.

“I remember it,” he said.

“It would be worse if we tried to storm Lee’s lines.  After Cold Harbor the general won’t attempt it, and I see a long wait here.  But we can afford it.  The South grows steadily weaker.  Our blockade clamps like a steel band, and presses tighter and tighter all the time.  Food is scarce in the Confederacy.  So is ammunition.  They receive no recruits, and every day the army of Lee is smaller in numbers than it was the day before.”

“You go into Richmond, Mr. Shepard.  I’ve heard from high officers that you do.  How do they feel there with our army only about twenty miles away?”

“They’re quiet and seem to be confident, but I believe they know their danger.”

“Have you by any chance seen or heard of my cousin, Harry Kenton, who is a lieutenant on the staff of the Southern commander-in-chief?”

Shepard smiled, as if the question brought memories that pleased him.

“A fine youth,” he said.  “Yes, I’ve seen him more than once.  I’m free to tell you, Lieutenant Mason, that I know a lot about this rebel cousin of yours.  He and I have come into conflict on several occasions, and I did not win every time.”

“Nobody could beat Harry always,” exclaimed Dick with youthful loyalty.  “He was always the strongest and most active among us, and the best in forest and water.  He could hunt and fish and trail like the scouts of our border days.”

“I found him in full possession of all these qualities and he used them against me.  I should grieve if that cousin of yours were to fall, Mr. Mason.  I want to know him still better after the war.”

Dick would have asked further questions about the encounters between Harry and the spy, but he judged that Shepard did not care to answer them, and he forbore.  Yet the man aroused the most intense curiosity in him.  There were spies and spies, and Shepard was one of them, but he was not like the others.  He was unquestionably a man of great mental power.  His calm, steady gaze and his words to the point showed it.  No one patronized Shepard.