The day was bright and warm. Andy was in the finest of spirits, so was Firefly, and mile after mile was paced off in the charger’s best style. At noon Andy stopped at a little tavern at a cross-roads for dinner, and here two other cavalrymen joined him, neither belonging to the Grays, but both bound southward. For the rest of the day the trio remained together, and this made the journey even more pleasant than before. “The Yankees are going to give us a shake-up at Richmond, to my way of thinking,” said one of the cavalrymen. “I received a letter from a friend who lives down there last week, and he says the authorities are certain that Yankee spies are around sizing up the defenses.” “Well, I reckon we have spies in Washington, too,” said Andy, and in this he was right. Long afterwards it was found that a spy occupying a confidential government position had given to the Confederates the first intimation that the Army of the Potomac was about leaving for an attack upon Richmond by way of the peninsula. It was such spy work which gave the Confederates time to throw up their defenses at Yorktown and elsewhere and thus hold General McClellan’s forces in check until further re-enforcements for the Confederate Capital could arrive. “They won’t gain a thing by another attack out here,” put in the second cavalryman. “Why, companies of soldiers and bands of cavalry are springing up like mushrooms. We’re bound to wipe ’em out by mere force of numbers.” “That may be true--just now,” returned Andy, seriously. “But what worries me is, sooner or later, they’ll be able to put more men in the field than ourselves. Why, the northern States have four times as many citizens as we have.” “Yes, but they won’t fight like our boys will, Arlington. We are fighting not only for State rights but for our homes. A man can stay at home and fight for it better than he can go off and fight.” “Another thing to remember,” added the other horseman. “They are blockading our ports so that we can’t send our cotton to the foreign countries that want it. It won’t be long before these foreign countries begin to kick, and if we put up our cotton they’ll furnish us with both money and men to show the Yankees their places. Cotton is king in America, and don’t you forget it.” And so the talk went on. The remark about cotton was one heard everywhere, having even been mentioned in Congress before the Southern representatives and senators took leave of the Capitol. Cotton and tobacco did play a prominent part in the war, but they were not as powerful as some of the Confederate leaders imagined. On the third day of his journey, Andy reached Camp Lee, as the spot where the Grays had gone into quarters was designated, out of honor to the illustrious line of Lees that have ever been prominent in Virginia chronicles from Revolutionary days on. The first person to rush up and shake him by the hand was Leroy Wellington, and Captain Montgomery and a dozen others followed.