The evil figure melted away like a shadow, and two astonished soldiers
seized the youth, who seemed to be running amuck in the camp, pistol in
hand.
"Let go!" exclaimed Dick. "I've seen a man whom I know to be a spy,
and a most dangerous one, too."
They could find no trace of Slade. Dick returned crestfallen to his
blanket, but he recalled something now definitely and clearly. Slade
was the little man whom he had seen carrying the log the morning he left
General Grant's camp, on his mission.
The sergeant, who had never stirred from his own blanket, sat up when
Dick returned.
"Who was he, Mr. Mason?" he asked.
"Slade himself. He must have seen me jump up, because he vanished like
a ghost. But I gained something. I know now that I saw him here in our
uniform just before I started to find Colonel Hertford. That was why I
was followed."
"The cunning of an Indian. Well, we'll be on the watch for him now,
but I imagine he's already on the way to Jackson with the news of our
advance and an estimate of our numbers. We can't do anything to head him
off.
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