"Oh, she enquired about father and me--and you, too, I believe. Oh, yes; she wanted me to say to you that she was well---and so is that other girl--what's her name?" "Letty Lynden?" "Oh, yes--Letty Lynden. They're in a horrible kind of a temporary hospital down on the York River along with the Sisters of Charity; and she said she had just received orders to pack up and start west with the ambulances." "West?" "I believe so." After a silence Berkley said: "I heard from her yesterday." "You did!" "Yes. Unless your father already knows, it might be well to say to him that Ailsa's ambulance train is ordered to rendezvous in the rear of the 5th Provisional Corps head-quarters." "Our corps!" "That looks like it, doesn't it? The 5th Provisional Corps is Porter's." He turned and looked back, out across the country. "She may be somewhere out yonder, at this very moment, Steve." He made a vague gesture toward the west, stood looking for a while, then turned and walked slowly on with head lowered. "I wish my mother and Ailsa were back in New York," said the boy fretfully. "I don't see why the whole family should get into hot water at the same time." "It wouldn't surprise me very much if Ailsa's ambulance landed beside your mother's door at Paigecourt," said Berkley. "The head-quarters of the 5th Corps cannot be very far from Paigecourt." At the cavalry lines he offered his hand to Stephen in farewell. "Good-bye," said the boy. "I wish you the luck of the 6th Lancers. Since Hanover Court-House nobody calls 'em 'fresh fish'--just because they charged a few Johnnies with the lance and took a few prisoners and lost thirty horses." Berkley laughed. "Thanks; and I wish you the luck of the 5th Zouaves. They're into everything, I hear, particularly hen-coops and pigpens. Casson says they live high in the 5th Zouaves. . . Good-bye, old fellow . . . will you remember me to your father?" "I will when he lets me talk to him," grinned Stephen. "We're a disciplined regiment--I found that out right away--and there's nothing soft for me to expect just because my father is colonel and Josiah Lent happens to be major." The regimental bands played the next day; the distant cannonade had ceased; sunshine fell from a cloudless sky, and the army watched a military balloon, the "Intrepid," high glistening above the river, its cables trailing in gracious curves earthward.