CHAPTER XIX.
THROUGH THE GAP.
Joe Burnap was perfectly familiar with the country, and Tom readily accepted him as a guide; and, as they had a common object in view, neither had good cause for mistrusting the other.

They walked, without stopping to rest, till the sun set behind the mountains towards which they were travelling.
"I reckon we needn't hurry now," said Joe, as he seated himself on a rock.
"I don't think there is any danger of their catching us," replied Tom, as he seated himself beside his fellow-traveller.

"Can you tell me where we are ?" "I reckon I can.

There ain't a foot of land in these yere parts that I hain't had my foot on.

I've toted plunder of all sorts through these woods more'n ten thousand times." "Well, where are we ?" asked Tom, whose doubts in regard to the locality had not yet been solved.
In the pressure of more exciting matters, he had not attempted to explain why he did not come to Fairfax station while following the railroad.
"If we keep on a little while longer, I reckon we shall come to Thoroughfare Gap," answered Joe.
"But where do you live?
What town is your house in ?" asked Tom, who had never heard of Thoroughfare Gap before.
"Haymarket is the nearest town to my house." "What railroad is that over there ?" asked Tom, who was no nearer the solution of the question than he had been in the beginning.
"That's the Manassas Gap Railroad, I reckon," replied Joe, who seemed to be astonished at the ignorance of his companion.
"Just so," added Tom, who now, for the first time, comprehended where he was.
When he left Sudley church, he walked at random till he came to the railroad; but he had struck the Manassas Gap Railroad instead of the main line, and it had led him away from the great body of the rebels, though it also conducted him away from Washington, where he desired to go.