They welcomed him joyfully.
"We did not miss you until we were nearly to our own pickets," said the colonel.

"Then we concluded that you had fallen and had been taken by the enemy, but we intended to see if we could find you.

We've been hovering about here for some time." Dick told what he had seen and heard, and the colonel considered it of much importance.
"I judge from what you heard that they will attack us," he said.
"Buckner and Forrest will be strongly for it, and they're likely to have their way.

We must report at once to General Grant." The Southern attack had been planned for the next morning, but it did not come then.

Pillow, for reasons unknown, decided to delay another day, and his fiery subordinates could do nothing but chafe and wait.
Dick spent most of the day carrying orders for his chief, and the continuous action steadied his nerves.
As he passed from point to point he saw that the Union army itself was far from ready.