Captain Hays, and, a few hours later, he was with the Union army and his
own regiment. Again he was welcomed as one dead and his own heart was
full of rejoicing because all of his friends were alive. Warner alone
had been wounded, a bullet cutting into his shoulder, but not hurting him
much. He wore a bandage, his face had a becoming pallor, and Pennington
charged that he was making the most of it.

"But it was an awful day," said Warner, "and there's a lot of gloom
in the camp. Still, we're not moving away and the reinforcements are
coming."

Dick explained to Colonel Winchester why he had failed in his mission,
and the colonel promised to report in turn to the commander that the hand
of God had intervened. Dick's conscience was now at rest, and he resumed
at once his duties with the regiment.

Many days passed. While Grant did not make any other attack upon
Vicksburg his circle of steel grew tighter, and the rain of shells and
bombs upon the devoted town never ceased. Reinforcements poured forward.
His army rose to nearly eighty thousand men, and Johnston, hovering near,
gathering together what men he could, did not dare to strike. Dick was
reminded more than once of Caesar's famous siege of Alesia, about which
he had read not so long ago in Dr. Russell's academy at Pendleton.

There were long, long days of intrenching, skirmishing and idleness.
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