May turned into June, and still the steel coil enclosed Vicksburg.

Here the Union men were hopeful, but the news from the East was bad.

Not much filtered through, and none of it struck a happy note.

Lee, with his invincible legions, was still sweeping northward.

Doubtless the Confederate hosts now trod the soil of a free State, and Dick and his comrades feared in their very souls that Lee was marching to another great victory.
"I wish I could hear from Harry Kenton," said Dick to Warner.