After he had walked two or three hours upon the railroad, he thought it was about time for Fairfax station to heave in sight, if he had chosen the right way--or for the rebel camps to appear if he had chosen the wrong way.

With the first place he was familiar, as his regiment had encamped a short distance from it.
He was sorely perplexed by the non-appearance of either of these expected points.

The country began to look wilder and less familiar as he proceeded.

The region before him looked rugged and mountainous, and the dark outlines of several lofty peaks touched the sky in front of him.

But with the feeling that every step he advanced placed a wider space between him and his captors at Sudley church, he continued on his way till the gray streaks of daylight appeared behind him.
This phenomenon promised to afford him a gleam of intelligence upon which to found a correct solution of his course.