Dick climbed down from the fence and shook himself.

Was it real or merely fancy, the product of a brain excited by so much siege and battle?
He picked up a big dead bough in the wood, dragged it back to the camp and threw it on one of the fires.
"What are you looking so grave about, Dick ?" asked Warner.
"When I went across that stretch of woods I saw something that I didn't expect to see." "What was it ?" "A girl on a big horse.

They came and they went so fast that I just got a glimpse of them." "A girl alone, galloping on a horse on a wintry night like this through a region infested by hostile armies! Why Dick, you're seeing shadows! Better sit down and have a cup of this good hot coffee." But Dick shook his head.

He knew now that he had seen reality, and he reported it to Colonel Winchester.
"Are you sure it was the girl you saw at the big house ?" asked Colonel Winchester.

"It might have been some farmer's wife galloping home from an errand late in the evening." "It was the girl.