But he was gone.

They had looked upon the smoldering ruins of their great supply camp, but they had found there no trace of a Confederate soldier.

Was Harry Kenton right, when he told them they could not beat Jackson?
He asked himself angrily why the man would not stay and fight.

He believed, too, that he must be off there somewhere to the right, and he listened eagerly but vainly for the distant throb of guns in the east.
A cloud of dust hovered over the ten thousand as they marched on in the blazing sunshine.

The country was well peopled, but all the inhabitants had disappeared save a few, and from not one of these could they obtain a scrap of information.
Dick noticed through the dusty veil a heavy wood on their left extending for a long distance.