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What wonder that his name was rife in rumors which flew about the country; that soon it was not only “the grapevine telegraph” that vibrated with the sound, but he was mentioned in official despatches; nay, on one signal occasion the importance of his dashing exploit was recognized by the commander of the Army Corps in a general order published to specially commend it. Naturally his spirit rose to meet these expanding liberties of achievement. He looked for further promotion–for eminence. In a vague glimmer, growing ever stronger and clearer, he could see himself in the astral splendor of the official stars of a major-general–for in the far day of the anticipated success of the Confederacy he looked to be an officer of the line.

And now suddenly this light was dimmed; his laurels were wilting. What prestige would the capture of Tolhurst have conferred! Never had a golden opportunity like this been lost–by what uncovenanted chance had Tolhurst escaped!

“He must have had a guide! Right here in the Cove!” Ackert exclaimed. “Nobody outside would know a hole in the ground, a cave, a water-gap, a tunnel like that! Where’s the man?”

“Naw, sir–naw, Cap’n! Nobody viewed the troop but one gal person an’ she ‘lowed she never seen no guide.”

The charger whirled under the touch of the hand on the rein, and Ackert’s eyes scanned with a searching intentness the group.

“Where’s this girl–you?”

As the old squire with most unwelcome officiousness seized Ethelinda’s arm and hurried her forward, her heart sank within her. For one moment the guerilla’s fiery, piercing eyes dwelt upon her as she stood looking on, her delicately white face grown deathly pallid, her golden hair frivolously blowsed in the wind, which tossed the full skirts of her lilac-hued calico gown till she seemed poised on the very wings of flight. Her sapphire eyes, bluer than ever azure skies could seem, sought to gaze upward, but ever and anon their long-lashed lids fluttered and fell.

He was quick of perception.

“You have no call to be afraid,” he remarked–a sort of gruff upbraiding, as if her evident trepidation impugned his justice in reprisal. “Come, you can guide me. Show me just where they came in, and just where they got out–damn ’em!”

She could scarcely control her terror when she saw that he intended her to ride with him to the spot, yet she feared even more to draw back, to refuse. He held out one great spurred boot. Her little low-cut shoe looked tiny upon it as she stepped up. He swung her to the saddle behind him, and the great warhorse sprang forward so suddenly, with such long, swift strides, that she swayed precariously for a moment and was glad to catch the guerilla’s belt–to seize, too, with an agitated clutch, his right gauntlet that he held backward against his side. His fingers promptly closed with a reassuring grasp on hers, and thus skimming the red sunset-tide they left behind them the staring group about the blacksmith shop, which the cavalrymen had now approached, watering their horses at the trough and lifting the saddles to rest the animals from the constriction of the pressure of the girths.

Soon the guerilla and the girl disappeared in the distance; the fences flew by; the shocks of corn seemed all a-trooping down the fields; the evening star in the red haze above the purple western mountains had spread its invisible pinions, and was a-wing above their heads. Presently the heavy shadows of the looming wooded range, darkening now, showing only blurred effects of red and brown and orange, fell upon them, and the guerilla checked the pace, for the horse was among boulders and rough ledges that betokened the dry bed of a stream. Great crags had begun to line the way, first only on one marge of the channel; then; the clifty banks appeared on the other side, and at length a deep>