He felt intuitively that when he rode into the forest with Shepard he rode into no danger, or if by any chance he did ride into danger, they would, under the guidance of the spy, ride safely out of it again.
Shepard turned his horse toward the deeper forest, which lay on the left, and very soon they were out of sight of the main column, although the sound of hoofs and of arms, clinking against one another, still came faintly to them.

Yet peace, the peace for which Dick longed so ardently, seemed to dwell there in the woods.

The summer was well advanced and as the light winds blew, the leaves, already beginning to dry, rustled against one another.

The sound was pleasant and soothing.

He and Harry Kenton and other lads of their age had often heard it on autumn nights, when they roamed through the forests around Pendleton in search of the raccoon and the opossum.