The dispatch was pinned into a small inside pocket of his vest.
He rode quickly out of camp, giving the sentinels the pass word, and the head of the horse was pointed west slightly by north.

The ground was now frozen and he did not have the mud to hold him back.
The horse evidently had been longing for action.

Such thews and sinews as his needed exercise.

He stretched out his long neck, neighed joyously, and broke of his own accord into an easy canter.

It was a lonely road, and Dick was glad that it was so.