Come inside." Sherburne slipped from his horse.

Harry noticed that it was not his usual elastic spring.

He seemed almost to fall to the ground, and the horse, no hand on the reins, still stood motionless, his head drooping.
It was evident that Sherburne was in the last stages of exhaustion, and now that he came nearer his face showed great anxiety as well as weariness.
Harry opened the door promptly and pushed him inside.

Then he helped him off with his wet and muddy overcoat, pushed him into a chair, and said: "I'll announce you to General Jackson, and he'll see you at once." Harry knew that Jackson would not linger a second, when a messenger of importance came, and he went into the library where the minister and the general stood talking.

General Jackson held in one hand a large leather-covered volume, and with the forefinger of the other hand he was pointing to a paragraph in it.