Perhaps they would consider themselves strong enough in a day or two to attack.

It was for him to learn.

He was back in the forest and he now turned his course more toward the east.

By dawn he would be well in the rear of the Northern army, and he must judge then how to act.
But all his calculations were upset by a very simple thing, one of Nature's commonest occurrences--rain.

The heavy clouds that had gathered early in the night were gone away merely for a time.