Aiken demanded in a low voice, motioning Gracchus into the trees surrounding the clearing. The other Rangers, crowding around Richards and the civilian informer, didn’t notice as they slipped into the darkness. “How did you know I was here?”“I’ve got ways of finding things out.” The minstrel show dialect was now in abeyance. “I knew Mosby’s men were raiding up here, so I had a pretty good idea I’d find you.” Was it just his imagination, Aiken wondered, or was there was an undertone of disapproval in Gracchus’s voice?“But why are you looking for me?” Eagerness awoke in Aiken. “Is it news of Commander Thanou?”“No. Sorry, but there’s no word of him and the others. I came for you because I need your help—and it’s something your duty binds you to help me with.” Gracchus suddenly seemed tense, in the way of a man discussing things that lay beyond his understanding but not beyond his fear. “It happened that one of my men, from the Order, was down near Ashby’s Gap.
