you questions."

Dick was glad to go with them. He was eager to see once more the man who
had taken Henry and Donelson and who had hung on at Shiloh until Buell
came. The general's tent was in a grove on a bit of high ground, and
he was sitting before it on a little camp stool, smoking a short cigar,
and gazing reflectively in the direction of Grand Gulf.

He greeted the three officers quietly but with warmth and then he
listened to Colonel Winchester's detailed account of what he had seen and
learned in his raid toward Jackson. It was a long narrative, showing how
the Southern forces were scattered, and, as he listened, Grant's face
began to show satisfaction.

But he seldom interrupted.

"And you think they have no large force at Jackson?" he said.

"I'm quite sure of it," replied Colonel Winchester.

Grant chewed his cigar a little while and then said:

"Grierson is doing well. It was an achievement for you and him to beat
off Forrest. It will raise the prestige of our cavalry, which needs it.
I believe it was you, Lieutenant Mason, who brought Grierson."

"It was chiefly, sir, a sergeant named Whitley. I rode with him and
outranked him, but he is a veteran of the plains, and it was he who did
the real work."