After circling around the rear he rode back toward the front, and he left Harry and several others to go more slowly along the flanks and report to him later.
When Harry was left alone he was saluted with the usual good-humored chaff by the soldiers who again demanded his horse of him, or asked him whether they were to fight or whether they were training to be foot-racers.

Harry merely smiled, and he came presently to the Invincibles, who were trudging along stubbornly, with the officers riding on their flanks.

Langdon was as cheerful as usual.
"Things have to come to their worst before they get better," he said to Harry, "and I suppose we've about reached the worst.

A sight of the enemy would be pleasant, even if it meant battle." "We're marching on Bath," said Harry, "and we ought to strike it to-night, though I'm afraid the Yankees have got warning of our coming." He was thinking of Shepard, who now loomed very large to him.

The circumstances of their meetings were always so singular that this Northern scout and spy seemed to him to possess omniscience.