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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31488-h.zip b/31488-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac61b23 --- /dev/null +++ b/31488-h.zip diff --git a/31488-h/31488-h.htm b/31488-h/31488-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..04bd1a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/31488-h/31488-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4342 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Little Regiment, by Stephen Crane. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Little Regiment, by Stephen Crane + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Little Regiment + And Other Episodes of the American Civil War + +Author: Stephen Crane + +Release Date: March 3, 2010 [EBook #31488] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE REGIMENT *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h1>THE LITTLE REGIMENT</h1> + +<h3>AND OTHER EPISODES OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR</h3> + +<h2>BY STEPHEN CRANE</h2> + +<h4>Author of The Red Badge of Courage, and Maggie</h4> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1896,<br /> +By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.</h4> + +<h4><i>Copyright, 1895, 1896, by Stephen Crane.</i></h4> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#THE_LITTLE_REGIMENT">THE LITTLE REGIMENT.</a><br /> +<a href="#I">I.</a><br /> +<a href="#II">II.</a><br /> +<a href="#III">III.</a><br /> +<a href="#IV">IV.</a><br /> +<a href="#V">V.</a><br /> +<a href="#VI">VI.</a><br /> +<a href="#VII">VII.</a><br /> +<a href="#VIII">VIII.</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#THREE_MIRACULOUS_SOLDIERS">THREE MIRACULOUS SOLDIERS.</a><br /> +<a href="#IA">I.</a><br /> +<a href="#IIA">II.</a><br /> +<a href="#IIIA">III.</a><br /> +<a href="#IVA">IV.</a><br /> +<a href="#VA">V.</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#A_MYSTERY_OF_HEROISM">A MYSTERY OF HEROISM.</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#AN_INDIANA_CAMPAIGN">AN INDIANA CAMPAIGN.</a><br /> +<a href="#IB">I.</a><br /> +<a href="#IIB">II.</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#A_GRAY_SLEEVE">A GRAY SLEEVE.</a><br /> +<a href="#IC">I.</a><br /> +<a href="#IIC">II.</a><br /> +<a href="#IIIC">III.</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#THE_VETERAN">THE VETERAN.</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#Other_Books_by_Stephen_Crane">Other Books by Stephen Crane.</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_LITTLE_REGIMENT" id="THE_LITTLE_REGIMENT"></a>THE LITTLE REGIMENT.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I.</h2> + + +<p>The fog made the clothes of the men of the column in the roadway seem of +a luminous quality. It imparted to the heavy infantry overcoats a new +colour, a kind of blue which was so pale that a regiment might have been +merely a long, low shadow in the mist. However, a muttering, one part +grumble, three parts joke, hovered in the air above the thick ranks, and +blended in an undertoned roar, which was the voice of the column.</p> + +<p>The town on the southern shore of the little river loomed spectrally, a +faint etching upon the gray cloud-masses which were shifting with oily +languor. A long row of guns upon the northern bank had been pitiless in +their hatred, but a little battered belfry could be dimly seen still +pointing with invincible resolution toward the heavens.</p> + +<p>The enclouded air vibrated with noises made by hidden colossal things. +The infantry tramplings, the heavy rumbling of the artillery, made the +earth speak of gigantic preparation. Guns on distant heights thundered +from time to time with sudden, nervous roar, as if unable to endure in +silence a knowledge of hostile troops massing, other guns going to +position. These sounds, near and remote, defined an immense +battle-ground, described the tremendous width of the stage of the +prospective drama. The voices of the guns, slightly casual, unexcited in +their challenges and warnings, could not destroy the unutterable +eloquence of the word in the air, a meaning of impending struggle which +made the breath halt at the lips.</p> + +<p>The column in the roadway was ankle-deep in mud. The men swore piously +at the rain which drizzled upon them, compelling them to stand always +very erect in fear of the drops that would sweep in under their +coat-collars. The fog was as cold as wet cloths. The men stuffed their +hands deep in their pockets, and huddled their muskets in their arms. +The machinery of orders had rooted these soldiers deeply into the mud +precisely as almighty nature roots mullein stalks.</p> + +<p>They listened and speculated when a tumult of fighting came from the dim +town across the river. When the noise lulled for a time they resumed +their descriptions of the mud and graphically exaggerated the number of +hours they had been kept waiting. The general commanding their division +rode along the ranks, and they cheered admiringly, affectionately, +crying out to him gleeful prophecies of the coming battle. Each man +scanned him with a peculiarly keen personal interest, and afterward +spoke of him with unquestioning devotion and confidence, narrating +anecdotes which were mainly untrue.</p> + +<p>When the jokers lifted the shrill voices which invariably belonged to +them, flinging witticisms at their comrades, a loud laugh would sweep +from rank to rank, and soldiers who had not heard would lean forward and +demand repetition. When were borne past them some wounded men with gray +and blood-smeared faces, and eyes that rolled in that helpless +beseeching for assistance from the sky which comes with supreme pain, +the soldiers in the mud watched intently, and from time to time asked of +the bearers an account of the affair. Frequently they bragged of their +corps, their division, their brigade, their regiment. Anon they referred +to the mud and the cold drizzle. Upon this threshold of a wild scene of +death they, in short, defied the proportion of events with that +splendour of heedlessness which belongs only to veterans.</p> + +<p>"Like a lot of wooden soldiers," swore Billie Dempster, moving his feet +in the thick mass, and casting a vindictive glance indefinitely; +"standing in the mud for a hundred years."</p> + +<p>"Oh, shut up!" murmured his brother Dan. The manner of his words implied +that this fraternal voice near him was an indescribable bore.</p> + +<p>"Why should I shut up?" demanded Billie.</p> + +<p>"Because you're a fool," cried Dan, taking no time to debate it; "the +biggest fool in the regiment."</p> + +<p>There was but one man between them, and he was habituated. These insults +from brother to brother had swept across his chest, flown past his face, +many times during two long campaigns. Upon this occasion he simply +grinned first at one, then at the other.</p> + +<p>The way of these brothers was not an unknown topic in regimental gossip. +They had enlisted simultaneously, with each sneering loudly at the other +for doing it. They left their little town, and went forward with the +flag, exchanging protestations of undying suspicion. In the camp life +they so openly despised each other that, when entertaining quarrels were +lacking, their companions often contrived situations calculated to bring +forth display of this fraternal dislike.</p> + +<p>Both were large-limbed, strong young men, and often fought with friends +in camp unless one was near to interfere with the other. This latter +happened rather frequently, because Dan, preposterously willing for any +manner of combat, had a very great horror of seeing Billie in a fight; +and Billie, almost odiously ready himself, simply refused to see Dan +stripped to his shirt and with his fists aloft. This sat queerly upon +them, and made them the objects of plots.</p> + +<p>When Dan jumped through a ring of eager soldiers and dragged forth his +raving brother by the arm, a thing often predicted would almost come to +pass. When Billie performed the same office for Dan, the prediction +would again miss fulfilment by an inch. But indeed they never fought +together, although they were perpetually upon the verge.</p> + +<p>They expressed longing for such conflict. As a matter of truth, they had +at one time made full arrangement for it, but even with the +encouragement and interest of half of the regiment they somehow failed +to achieve collision.</p> + +<p>If Dan became a victim of police duty, no jeering was so destructive to +the feelings as Billie's comment. If Billie got a call to appear at the +headquarters, none would so genially prophesy his complete undoing as +Dan. Small misfortunes to one were, in truth, invariably greeted with +hilarity by the other, who seemed to see in them great re-enforcement of +his opinion.</p> + +<p>As soldiers, they expressed each for each a scorn intense and blasting. +After a certain battle, Billie was promoted to corporal. When Dan was +told of it, he seemed smitten dumb with astonishment and patriotic +indignation. He stared in silence, while the dark blood rushed to +Billie's forehead, and he shifted his weight from foot to foot. Dan at +last found his tongue, and said: "Well, I'm durned!" If he had heard +that an army mule had been appointed to the post of corps commander, his +tone could not have had more derision in it. Afterward, he adopted a +fervid insubordination, an almost religious reluctance to obey the new +corporal's orders, which came near to developing the desired strife.</p> + +<p>It is here finally to be recorded also that Dan, most ferociously +profane in speech, very rarely swore in the presence of his brother; and +that Billie, whose oaths came from his lips with the grace of falling +pebbles, was seldom known to express himself in this manner when near +his brother Dan.</p> + +<p>At last the afternoon contained a suggestion of evening. Metallic cries +rang suddenly from end to end of the column. They inspired at once a +quick, business-like adjustment. The long thing stirred in the mud. The +men had hushed, and were looking across the river. A moment later the +shadowy mass of pale blue figures was moving steadily toward the stream. +There could be heard from the town a clash of swift fighting and +cheering. The noise of the shooting coming through the heavy air had its +sharpness taken from it, and sounded in thuds.</p> + +<p>There was a halt upon the bank above the pontoons. When the column went +winding down the incline, and streamed out upon the bridge, the fog had +faded to a great degree, and in the clearer dusk the guns on a distant +ridge were enabled to perceive the crossing. The long whirling outcries +of the shells came into the air above the men. An occasional solid shot +struck the surface of the river, and dashed into view a sudden vertical +jet. The distance was subtly illuminated by the lightning from the +deep-booming guns. One by one the batteries on the northern shore +aroused, the innumerable guns bellowing in angry oration at the distant +ridge. The rolling thunder crashed and reverberated as a wild surf +sounds on a still night, and to this music the column marched across the +pontoons.</p> + +<p>The waters of the grim river curled away in a smile from the ends of the +great boats, and slid swiftly beneath the planking. The dark, riddled +walls of the town upreared before the troops, and from a region hidden +by these hammered and tumbled houses came incessantly the yells and +firings of a prolonged and close skirmish.</p> + +<p>When Dan had called his brother a fool, his voice had been so decisive, +so brightly assured, that many men had laughed, considering it to be +great humour under the circumstances. The incident happened to rankle +deep in Billie. It was not any strange thing that his brother had called +him a fool. In fact, he often called him a fool with exactly the same +amount of cheerful and prompt conviction, and before large audiences, +too. Billie wondered in his own mind why he took such profound offence +in this case; but, at any rate, as he slid down the bank and on to the +bridge with his regiment, he was searching his knowledge for something +that would pierce Dan's blithesome spirit. But he could contrive nothing +at this time, and his impotency made the glance which he was once able +to give his brother still more malignant.</p> + +<p>The guns far and near were roaring a fearful and grand introduction for +this column which was marching upon the stage of death. Billie felt it, +but only in a numb way. His heart was cased in that curious dissonant +metal which covers a man's emotions at such times. The terrible voices +from the hills told him that in this wide conflict his life was an +insignificant fact, and that his death would be an insignificant fact. +They portended the whirlwind to which he would be as necessary as a +butterfly's waved wing. The solemnity, the sadness of it came near +enough to make him wonder why he was neither solemn nor sad. When his +mind vaguely adjusted events according to their importance to him, it +appeared that the uppermost thing was the fact that upon the eve of +battle, and before many comrades, his brother had called him a fool.</p> + +<p>Dan was in a particularly happy mood. "Hurray! Look at 'em shoot," he +said, when the long witches' croon of the shells came into the air. It +enraged Billie when he felt the little thorn in him, and saw at the same +time that his brother had completely forgotten it.</p> + +<p>The column went from the bridge into more mud. At this southern end +there was a chaos of hoarse directions and commands. Darkness was coming +upon the earth, and regiments were being hurried up the slippery bank. +As Billie floundered in the black mud, amid the swearing, sliding crowd, +he suddenly resolved that, in the absence of other means of hurting Dan, +he would avoid looking at him, refrain from speaking to him, pay +absolutely no heed to his existence; and this done skilfully would, he +imagined, soon reduce his brother to a poignant sensitiveness.</p> + +<p>At the top of the bank the column again halted and rearranged itself, as +a man after a climb rearranges his clothing. Presently the great +steel-backed brigade, an infinitely graceful thing in the rhythm and +ease of its veteran movement, swung up a little narrow, slanting street.</p> + +<p>Evening had come so swiftly that the fighting on the remote borders of +the town was indicated by thin flashes of flame. Some building was on +fire, and its reflection upon the clouds was an oval of delicate pink.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.</h2> + + +<p>All demeanour of rural serenity had been wrenched violently from the +little town by the guns and by the waves of men which had surged through +it. The hand of war laid upon this village had in an instant changed it +to a thing of remnants. It resembled the place of a monstrous shaking of +the earth itself. The windows, now mere unsightly holes, made the +tumbled and blackened dwellings seem skeletons. Doors lay splintered to +fragments. Chimneys had flung their bricks everywhere. The artillery +fire had not neglected the rows of gentle shade-trees which had lined +the streets. Branches and heavy trunks cluttered the mud in drift-wood +tangles, while a few shattered forms had contrived to remain dejectedly, +mournfully upright. They expressed an innocence, a helplessness, which +perforce created a pity for their happening into this cauldron of +battle. Furthermore, there was under foot a vast collection of odd +things reminiscent of the charge, the fight, the retreat. There were +boxes and barrels filled with earth, behind which riflemen had lain +snugly, and in these little trenches were the dead in blue with the dead +in gray, the poses eloquent of the struggles for possession of the town +until the history of the whole conflict was written plainly in the +streets.</p> + +<p>And yet the spirit of this little city, its quaint individuality, poised +in the air above the ruins, defying the guns, the sweeping volleys; +holding in contempt those avaricious blazes which had attacked many +dwellings. The hard earthen sidewalks proclaimed the games that had been +played there during long lazy days, in the careful shadows of the trees. +"General Merchandise," in faint letters upon a long board, had to be +read with a slanted glance, for the sign dangled by one end; but the +porch of the old store was a palpable legend of wide-hatted men, +smoking.</p> + +<p>This subtle essence, this soul of the life that had been, brushed like +invisible wings the thoughts of the men in the swift columns that came +up from the river.</p> + +<p>In the darkness a loud and endless humming arose from the great blue +crowds bivouacked in the streets. From time to time a sharp spatter of +firing from far picket lines entered this bass chorus. The smell from +the smouldering ruins floated on the cold night breeze.</p> + +<p>Dan, seated ruefully upon the doorstep of a shot-pierced house, was +proclaiming the campaign badly managed. Orders had been issued +forbidding camp-fires.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he ceased his oration, and scanning the group of his comrades, +said: "Where's Billie? Do you know?"</p> + +<p>"Gone on picket."</p> + +<p>"Get out! Has he?" said Dan. "No business to go on picket. Why don't +some of them other corporals take their turn?"</p> + +<p>A bearded private was smoking his pipe of confiscated tobacco, seated +comfortably upon a horse-hair trunk which he had dragged from the house. +He observed: "<i>Was</i> his turn."</p> + +<p>"No such thing," cried Dan. He and the man on the horse-hair trunk held +discussion in which Dan stoutly maintained that if his brother had been +sent on picket it was an injustice. He ceased his argument when another +soldier, upon whose arms could faintly be seen the two stripes of a +corporal, entered the circle. "Humph," said Dan, "where you been?"</p> + +<p>The corporal made no answer. Presently Dan said: "Billie, where you +been?"</p> + +<p>His brother did not seem to hear these inquiries. He glanced at the +house which towered above them, and remarked casually to the man on the +horse-hair trunk: "Funny, ain't it? After the pelting this town got, +you'd think there wouldn't be one brick left on another."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Dan, glowering at his brother's back. "Getting mighty smart, +ain't you?"</p> + +<p>The absence of camp-fires allowed the evening to make apparent its +quality of faint silver light in which the blue clothes of the throng +became black, and the faces became white expanses, void of expression. +There was considerable excitement a short distance from the group around +the doorstep. A soldier had chanced upon a hoop-skirt, and arrayed in it +he was performing a dance amid the applause of his companions. Billie +and a greater part of the men immediately poured over there to witness +the exhibition.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with Billie?" demanded Dan of the man upon the +horse-hair trunk.</p> + +<p>"How do I know?" rejoined the other in mild resentment. He arose and +walked away. When he returned he said briefly, in a weather-wise tone, +that it would rain during the night.</p> + +<p>Dan took a seat upon one end of the horse-hair trunk. He was facing the +crowd around the dancer, which in its hilarity swung this way and that +way. At times he imagined that he could recognise his brother's face.</p> + +<p>He and the man on the other end of the trunk thoughtfully talked of the +army's position. To their minds, infantry and artillery were in a most +precarious jumble in the streets of the town; but they did not grow +nervous over it, for they were used to having the army appear in a +precarious jumble to their minds. They had learned to accept such +puzzling situations as a consequence of their position in the ranks, and +were now usually in possession of a simple but perfectly immovable faith +that somebody understood the jumble. Even if they had been convinced +that the army was a headless monster, they would merely have nodded with +the veteran's singular cynicism. It was none of their business as +soldiers. Their duty was to grab sleep and food when occasion permitted, +and cheerfully fight wherever their feet were planted until more orders +came. This was a task sufficiently absorbing.</p> + +<p>They spoke of other corps, and this talk being confidential, their +voices dropped to tones of awe. "The Ninth"—"The First"—"The +Fifth"—"The Sixth"—"The Third"—the simple numerals rang with +eloquence, each having a meaning which was to float through many years +as no intangible arithmetical mist, but as pregnant with individuality +as the names of cities.</p> + +<p>Of their own corps they spoke with a deep veneration, an idolatry, a +supreme confidence which apparently would not blanch to see it match +against everything.</p> + +<p>It was as if their respect for other corps was due partly to a wonder +that organizations not blessed with their own famous numeral could take +such an interest in war. They could prove that their division was the +best in the corps, and that their brigade was the best in the division. +And their regiment—it was plain that no fortune of life was equal to +the chance which caused a man to be born, so to speak, into this +command, the keystone of the defending arch.</p> + +<p>At times Dan covered with insults the character of a vague, unnamed +general to whose petulance and busy-body spirit he ascribed the order +which made hot coffee impossible.</p> + +<p>Dan said that victory was certain in the coming battle. The other man +seemed rather dubious. He remarked upon the fortified line of hills, +which had impressed him even from the other side of the river. "Shucks," +said Dan. "Why, we—" He pictured a splendid overflowing of these hills +by the sea of men in blue. During the period of this conversation Dan's +glance searched the merry throng about the dancer. Above the babble of +voices in the street a far-away thunder could sometimes be +heard—evidently from the very edge of the horizon—the boom-boom of +restless guns.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.</h2> + + +<p>Ultimately the night deepened to the tone of black velvet. The outlines +of the fireless camp were like the faint drawings upon ancient tapestry. +The glint of a rifle, the shine of a button, might have been of threads +of silver and gold sewn upon the fabric of the night. There was little +presented to the vision, but to a sense more subtle there was +discernible in the atmosphere something like a pulse; a mystic beating +which would have told a stranger of the presence of a giant thing—the +slumbering mass of regiments and batteries.</p> + +<p>With fires forbidden, the floor of a dry old kitchen was thought to be a +good exchange for the cold earth of December, even if a shell had +exploded in it and knocked it so out of shape that when a man lay curled +in his blanket his last waking thought was likely to be of the wall that +bellied out above him as if strongly anxious to topple upon the score of +soldiers.</p> + +<p>Billie looked at the bricks ever about to descend in a shower upon his +face, listened to the industrious pickets plying their rifles on the +border of the town, imagined some measure of the din of the coming +battle, thought of Dan and Dan's chagrin, and rolling over in his +blanket went to sleep with satisfaction.</p> + +<p>At an unknown hour he was aroused by the creaking of boards. Lifting +himself upon his elbow, he saw a sergeant prowling among the sleeping +forms. The sergeant carried a candle in an old brass candle-stick. He +would have resembled some old farmer on an unusual midnight tour if it +were not for the significance of his gleaming buttons and striped +sleeves.</p> + +<p>Billie blinked stupidly at the light until his mind returned from the +journeys of slumber. The sergeant stooped among the unconscious +soldiers, holding the candle close, and peering into each face.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Haines," said Billie. "Relief?"</p> + +<p>"Hello, Billie," said the sergeant. "Special duty."</p> + +<p>"Dan got to go?"</p> + +<p>"Jameson, Hunter, McCormack, D. Dempster. Yes. Where is he?"</p> + +<p>"Over there by the winder," said Billie, gesturing. "What is it for, +Haines?"</p> + +<p>"You don't think I know, do you?" demanded the sergeant. He began to +pipe sharply but cheerily at men upon the floor. "Come, Mac, get up +here. Here's a special for you. Wake up, Jameson. Come along, Dannie, me +boy."</p> + +<p>Each man at once took this call to duty as a personal affront. They +pulled themselves out of their blankets, rubbed their eyes, and swore at +whoever was responsible. "Them's orders," cried the sergeant. "Come! Get +out of here." An undetailed head with dishevelled hair thrust out from a +blanket, and a sleepy voice said: "Shut up, Haines, and go home."</p> + +<p>When the detail clanked out of the kitchen, all but one of the remaining +men seemed to be again asleep. Billie, leaning on his elbow, was gazing +into darkness. When the footsteps died to silence, he curled himself +into his blanket.</p> + +<p>At the first cool lavender lights of daybreak he aroused again, and +scanned his recumbent companions. Seeing a wakeful one he asked: "Is Dan +back yet?"</p> + +<p>The man said: "Hain't seen 'im."</p> + +<p>Billie put both hands behind his head, and scowled into the air. "Can't +see the use of these cussed details in the night-time," he muttered in +his most unreasonable tones. "Darn nuisances. Why can't they—" He +grumbled at length and graphically.</p> + +<p>When Dan entered with the squad, however, Billie was convincingly +asleep.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV.</h2> + + +<p>The regiment trotted in double time along the street, and the colonel +seemed to quarrel over the right of way with many artillery officers. +Batteries were waiting in the mud, and the men of them, exasperated by +the bustle of this ambitious infantry, shook their fists from saddle and +caisson, exchanging all manner of taunts and jests. The slanted guns +continued to look reflectively at the ground.</p> + +<p>On the outskirts of the crumbled town a fringe of blue figures were +firing into the fog. The regiment swung out into skirmish lines, and the +fringe of blue figures departed, turning their backs and going joyfully +around the flank.</p> + +<p>The bullets began a low moan off toward a ridge which loomed faintly in +the heavy mist. When the swift crescendo had reached its climax, the +missiles zipped just overhead, as if piercing an invisible curtain. A +battery on the hill was crashing with such tumult that it was as if the +guns had quarrelled and had fallen pell-mell and snarling upon each +other. The shells howled on their journey toward the town. From short +range distance there came a spatter of musketry, sweeping along an +invisible line and making faint sheets of orange light.</p> + +<p>Some in the new skirmish lines were beginning to fire at various shadows +discerned in the vapour, forms of men suddenly revealed by some humour +of the laggard masses of clouds. The crackle of musketry began to +dominate the purring of the hostile bullets. Dan, in the front rank, +held his rifle poised, and looked into the fog keenly, coldly, with the +air of a sportsman. His nerves were so steady that it was as if they had +been drawn from his body, leaving him merely a muscular machine; but his +numb heart was somehow beating to the pealing march of the fight.</p> + +<p>The waving skirmish line went backward and forward, ran this way and +that way. Men got lost in the fog, and men were found again. Once they +got too close to the formidable ridge, and the thing burst out as if +repulsing a general attack. Once another blue regiment was apprehended +on the very edge of firing into them. Once a friendly battery began an +elaborate and scientific process of extermination. Always as busy as +brokers, the men slid here and there over the plain, fighting their +foes, escaping from their friends, leaving a history of many movements +in the wet yellow turf, cursing the atmosphere, blazing away every time +they could identify the enemy.</p> + +<p>In one mystic changing of the fog, as if the fingers of spirits were +drawing aside these draperies, a small group of the gray skirmishers, +silent, statuesque, were suddenly disclosed to Dan and those about him. +So vivid and near were they that there was something uncanny in the +revelation.</p> + +<p>There might have been a second of mutual staring. Then each rifle in +each group was at the shoulder. As Dan's glance flashed along the barrel +of his weapon, the figure of a man suddenly loomed as if the musket had +been a telescope. The short black beard, the slouch hat, the pose of the +man as he sighted to shoot, made a quick picture in Dan's mind. The same +moment, it would seem, he pulled his own trigger, and the man, smitten, +lurched forward, while his exploding rifle made a slanting crimson +streak in the air, and the slouch hat fell before the body. The billows +of the fog, governed by singular impulses, rolled between.</p> + +<p>"You got that feller sure enough," said a comrade to Dan. Dan looked at +him absent-mindedly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V.</h2> + + +<p>When the next morning calmly displayed another fog, the men of the +regiment exchanged eloquent comments; but they did not abuse it at +length, because the streets of the town now contained enough galloping +aides to make three troops of cavalry, and they knew that they had come +to the verge of the great fight.</p> + +<p>Dan conversed with the man who had once possessed a horse-hair trunk; +but they did not mention the line of hills which had furnished them in +more careless moments with an agreeable topic. They avoided it now as +condemned men do the subject of death, and yet the thought of it stayed +in their eyes as they looked at each other and talked gravely of other +things.</p> + +<p>The expectant regiment heaved a long sigh of relief when the sharp call: +"Fall in," repeated indefinitely, arose in the streets. It was +inevitable that a bloody battle was to be fought, and they wanted to get +it off their minds. They were, however, doomed again to spend a long +period planted firmly in the mud. They craned their necks, and wondered +where some of the other regiments were going.</p> + +<p>At last the mists rolled carelessly away. Nature made at this time all +provisions to enable foes to see each other, and immediately the roar of +guns resounded from every hill. The endless cracking of the skirmishers +swelled to rolling crashes of musketry. Shells screamed with +panther-like noises at the houses. Dan looked at the man of the +horse-hair trunk, and the man said: "Well, here she comes!"</p> + +<p>The tenor voices of younger officers and the deep and hoarse voices of +the older ones rang in the streets. These cries pricked like spurs. The +masses of men vibrated from the suddenness with which they were plunged +into the situation of troops about to fight. That the orders were +long-expected did not concern the emotion.</p> + +<p>Simultaneous movement was imparted to all these thick bodies of men and +horses that lay in the town. Regiment after regiment swung rapidly into +the streets that faced the sinister ridge.</p> + +<p>This exodus was theatrical. The little sober-hued village had been like +the cloak which disguises the king of drama. It was now put aside, and +an army, splendid thing of steel and blue, stood forth in the sunlight.</p> + +<p>Even the soldiers in the heavy columns drew deep breaths at the sight, +more majestic than they had dreamed. The heights of the enemy's position +were crowded with men who resembled people come to witness some mighty +pageant. But as the column moved steadily to their positions, the guns, +matter-of-fact warriors, doubled their number, and shells burst with red +thrilling tumult on the crowded plain. One came into the ranks of the +regiment, and after the smoke and the wrath of it had faded, leaving +motionless figures, everyone stormed according to the limits of his +vocabulary, for veterans detest being killed when they are not busy.</p> + +<p>The regiment sometimes looked sideways at its brigade companions +composed of men who had never been in battle; but no frozen blood could +withstand the heat of the splendour of this army before the eyes on the +plain, these lines so long that the flanks were little streaks, this +mass of men of one intention. The recruits carried themselves +heedlessly. At the rear was an idle battery, and three artillery men in +a foolish row on a caisson nudged each other and grinned at the +recruits. "You'll catch it pretty soon," they called out. They were +impersonally gleeful, as if they themselves were not also likely to +catch it pretty soon. But with this picture of an army in their hearts, +the new men perhaps felt the devotion which the drops may feel for the +wave; they were of its power and glory; they smiled jauntily at the +foolish row of gunners, and told them to go to blazes.</p> + +<p>The column trotted across some little bridges, and spread quickly into +lines of battle. Before them was a bit of plain, and back of the plain +was the ridge. There was no time left for considerations. The men were +staring at the plain, mightily wondering how it would feel to be out +there, when a brigade in advance yelled and charged. The hill was all +gray smoke and fire-points.</p> + +<p>That fierce elation in the terrors of war, catching a man's heart and +making it burn with such ardour that he becomes capable of dying, +flashed in the faces of the men like coloured lights, and made them +resemble leashed animals, eager, ferocious, daunting at nothing. The +line was really in its first leap before the wild, hoarse crying of the +orders.</p> + +<p>The greed for close quarters which is the emotion of a bayonet charge, +came then into the minds of the men and developed until it was a +madness. The field, with its faded grass of a Southern winter, seemed to +this fury miles in width.</p> + +<p>High, slow-moving masses of smoke, with an odour of burning cotton, +engulfed the line until the men might have been swimmers. Before them +the ridge, the shore of this gray sea, was outlined, crossed, and +re-crossed by sheets of flame. The howl of the battle arose to the noise +of innumerable wind demons.</p> + +<p>The line, galloping, scrambling, plunging like a herd of wounded horses, +went over a field that was sown with corpses, the records of other +charges.</p> + +<p>Directly in front of the black-faced, whooping Dan, carousing in this +onward sweep like a new kind of fiend, a wounded man appeared, raising +his shattered body, and staring at this rush of men down upon him. It +seemed to occur to him that he was to be trampled; he made a desperate, +piteous effort to escape; then finally huddled in a waiting heap. Dan +and the soldier near him widened the interval between them without +looking down, without appearing to heed the wounded man. This little +clump of blue seemed to reel past them as boulders reel past a train.</p> + +<p>Bursting through a smoke-wave, the scampering, unformed bunches came +upon the wreck of the brigade that had preceded them, a floundering mass +stopped afar from the hill by the swirling volleys.</p> + +<p>It was as if a necromancer had suddenly shown them a picture of the fate +which awaited them; but the line with muscular spasm hurled itself over +this wreckage and onward, until men were stumbling amid the relics of +other assaults, the point where the fire from the ridge consumed.</p> + +<p>The men, panting, perspiring, with crazed faces, tried to push against +it; but it was as if they had come to a wall. The wave halted, shuddered +in an agony from the quick struggle of its two desires, then toppled, +and broke into a fragmentary thing which has no name.</p> + +<p>Veterans could now at last be distinguished from recruits. The new +regiments were instantly gone, lost, scattered, as if they never had +been. But the sweeping failure of the charge, the battle, could not make +the veterans forget their business. With a last throe, the band of +maniacs drew itself up and blazed a volley at the hill, insignificant to +those iron intrenchments, but nevertheless expressing that singular +final despair which enables men coolly to defy the walls of a city of +death.</p> + +<p>After this episode the men renamed their command. They called it the +Little Regiment.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI.</h2> + + +<p>"I seen Dan shoot a feller yesterday. Yes sir. I'm sure it was him that +done it. And maybe he thinks about that feller now, and wonders if <i>he</i> +tumbled down just about the same way. Them things come up in a man's +mind."</p> + +<p>Bivouac fires upon the sidewalks, in the streets, in the yards, threw +high their wavering reflections, which examined, like slim, red fingers, +the dingy, scarred walls and the piles of tumbled brick. The droning of +voices again arose from great blue crowds.</p> + +<p>The odour of frying bacon, the fragrance from countless little +coffee-pails floated among the ruins. The rifles, stacked in the +shadows, emitted flashes of steely light. Wherever a a flag lay +horizontally from one stack to another was the bed of an eagle which had +led men into the mystic smoke.</p> + +<p>The men about a particular fire were engaged in holding in check their +jovial spirits. They moved whispering around the blaze, although they +looked at it with a certain fine contentment, like labourers after a +day's hard work.</p> + +<p>There was one who sat apart. They did not address him save in tones +suddenly changed. They did not regard him directly, but always in little +sidelong glances.</p> + +<p>At last a soldier from a distant fire came into this circle of light. He +studied for a time the man who sat apart. Then he hesitatingly stepped +closer, and said: "Got any news, Dan?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Dan.</p> + +<p>The new-comer shifted his feet. He looked at the fire, at the sky, at +the other men, at Dan. His face expressed a curious despair; his tongue +was plainly in rebellion. Finally, however, he contrived to say: "Well, +there's some chance yet, Dan. Lots of the wounded are still lying out +there, you know. There's some chance yet."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Dan.</p> + +<p>The soldier shifted his feet again, and looked miserably into the air. +After another struggle he said: "Well, there's some chance yet, Dan." He +moved hastily away.</p> + +<p>One of the men of the squad, perhaps encouraged by this example, now +approached the still figure. "No news yet, hey?" he said, after coughing +behind his hand.</p> + +<p>"No," said Dan.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the man, "I've been thinking of how he was fretting about +you the night you went on special duty. You recollect? Well, sir, I was +surprised. He couldn't say enough about it. I swan, I don't believe he +slep' a wink after you left, but just lay awake cussing special duty and +worrying. I was surprised. But there he lay cussing. He——"</p> + +<p>Dan made a curious sound, as if a stone had wedged in his throat. He +said: "Shut up, will you?"</p> + +<p>Afterward the men would not allow this moody contemplation of the fire +to be interrupted.</p> + +<p>"Oh, let him alone, can't you?"</p> + +<p>"Come away from there, Casey!"</p> + +<p>"Say, can't you leave him be?"</p> + +<p>They moved with reverence about the immovable figure, with its +countenance of mask-like invulnerability.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII.</h2> + + +<p>After the red round eye of the sun had stared long at the little plain +and its burden, darkness, a sable mercy, came heavily upon it, and the +wan hands of the dead were no longer seen in strange frozen gestures.</p> + +<p>The heights in front of the plain shone with tiny camp-fires, and from +the town in the rear, small shimmerings ascended from the blazes of the +bivouac. The plain was a black expanse upon which, from time to time, +dots of light, lanterns, floated slowly here and there. These fields +were long steeped in grim mystery.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, upon one dark spot, there was a resurrection. A strange thing +had been groaning there, prostrate. Then it suddenly dragged itself to a +sitting posture, and became a man.</p> + +<p>The man stared stupidly for a moment at the lights on the hill, then +turned and contemplated the faint colouring over the town. For some +moments he remained thus, staring with dull eyes, his face unemotional, +wooden.</p> + +<p>Finally he looked around him at the corpses dimly to be seen. No change +flashed into his face upon viewing these men. They seemed to suggest +merely that his information concerning himself was not too complete. He +ran his fingers over his arms and chest, bearing always the air of an +idiot upon a bench at an almshouse door.</p> + +<p>Finding no wound in his arms nor in his chest, he raised his hand to his +head, and the fingers came away with some dark liquid upon them. Holding +these fingers close to his eyes, he scanned them in the same stupid +fashion, while his body gently swayed.</p> + +<p>The soldier rolled his eyes again toward the town. When he arose, his +clothing peeled from the frozen ground like wet paper. Hearing the sound +of it, he seemed to see reason for deliberation. He paused and looked at +the ground, then at his trousers, then at the ground.</p> + +<p>Finally he went slowly off toward the faint reflection, holding his +hands palm outward before him, and walking in the manner of a blind man.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII.</h2> + + +<p>The immovable Dan again sat unaddressed in the midst of comrades, who +did not joke aloud. The dampness of the usual morning fog seemed to make +the little camp-fires furious.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a cry arose in the streets, a shout of amazement and delight. +The men making breakfast at the fire looked up quickly. They broke forth +in clamorous exclamation: "Well! Of all things! Dan! Dan! Look who's +coming! Oh, Dan!"</p> + +<p>Dan the silent raised his eyes and saw a man, with a bandage of the size +of a helmet about his head, receiving a furious demonstration from the +company. He was shaking hands, and explaining, and haranguing to a high +degree.</p> + +<p>Dan started. His face of bronze flushed to his temples. He seemed about +to leap from the ground, but then suddenly he sank back, and resumed his +impassive gazing.</p> + +<p>The men were in a flurry. They looked from one to the other. "Dan! Look! +See who's coming!" some cried again. "Dan! Look!"</p> + +<p>He scowled at last, and moved his shoulders sullenly. "Well, don't I +know it?"</p> + +<p>But they could not be convinced that his eyes were in service. "Dan! Why +can't you look? See who's coming!"</p> + +<p>He made a gesture then of irritation and rage. "Curse it! Don't I know +it?"</p> + +<p>The man with a bandage of the size of a helmet moved forward, always +shaking hands and explaining. At times his glance wandered to Dan, who +saw with his eyes riveted.</p> + +<p>After a series of shiftings, it occurred naturally that the man with the +bandage was very near to the man who saw the flames. He paused, and +there was a little silence. Finally he said: "Hello, Dan."</p> + +<p>"Hello, Billie."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THREE_MIRACULOUS_SOLDIERS" id="THREE_MIRACULOUS_SOLDIERS"></a>THREE MIRACULOUS SOLDIERS.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IA" id="IA"></a>I.</h2> + + +<p>The girl was in the front room on the second floor, peering through the +blinds. It was the "best room." There was a very new rag carpet on the +floor. The edges of it had been dyed with alternate stripes of red and +green. Upon the wooden mantel there were two little puffy figures in +clay—a shepherd and a shepherdess probably. A triangle of pink and +white wool hung carefully over the edge of this shelf. Upon the bureau +there was nothing at all save a spread newspaper, with edges folded to +make it into a mat. The quilts and sheets had been removed from the bed +and were stacked upon a chair. The pillows and the great feather +mattress were muffled and tumbled until they resembled great dumplings. +The picture of a man terribly leaden in complexion hung in an oval frame +on one white wall and steadily confronted the bureau.</p> + +<p>From between the slats of the blinds she had a view of the road as it +wended across the meadow to the woods, and again where it reappeared +crossing the hill, half a mile away. It lay yellow and warm in the +summer sunshine. From the long grasses of the meadow came the rhythmic +click of the insects. Occasional frogs in the hidden brook made a +peculiar chug-chug sound, as if somebody throttled them. The leaves of +the wood swung in gentle winds. Through the dark-green branches of the +pines that grew in the front yard could be seen the mountains, far to +the southeast, and inexpressibly blue.</p> + +<p>Mary's eyes were fastened upon the little streak of road that appeared +on the distant hill. Her face was flushed with excitement, and the hand +which stretched in a strained pose on the sill trembled because of the +nervous shaking of the wrist. The pines whisked their green needles with +a soft, hissing sound against the house.</p> + +<p>At last the girl turned from the window and went to the head of the +stairs. "Well, I just know they're coming, anyhow," she cried +argumentatively to the depths.</p> + +<p>A voice from below called to her angrily: "They ain't. We've never seen +one yet. They never come into this neighbourhood. You just come down +here and 'tend to your work insteader watching for soldiers."</p> + +<p>"Well, ma, I just know they're coming."</p> + +<p>A voice retorted with the shrillness and mechanical violence of +occasional housewives. The girl swished her skirts defiantly and +returned to the window.</p> + +<p>Upon the yellow streak of road that lay across the hillside there now +was a handful of black dots—horsemen. A cloud of dust floated away. The +girl flew to the head of the stairs and whirled down into the kitchen.</p> + +<p>"They're coming! They're coming!"</p> + +<p>It was as if she had cried "Fire!" Her mother had been peeling potatoes +while seated comfortably at the table. She sprang to her feet. "No—it +can't be—how you know it's them—where?" The stubby knife fell from her +hand, and two or three curls of potato skin dropped from her apron to +the floor.</p> + +<p>The girl turned and dashed upstairs. Her mother followed, gasping for +breath, and yet contriving to fill the air with questions, reproach, and +remonstrance. The girl was already at the window, eagerly pointing. +"There! There! See 'em! See 'em!"</p> + +<p>Rushing to the window, the mother scanned for an instant the road on the +hill. She crouched back with a groan. "It's them, sure as the world! +It's them!" She waved her hands in despairing gestures.</p> + +<p>The black dots vanished into the wood. The girl at the window was +quivering and her eyes were shining like water when the sun flashes. +"Hush! They're in the woods! They'll be here directly." She bent down +and intently watched the green archway whence the road emerged. "Hush! I +hear 'em coming," she swiftly whispered to her mother, for the elder +woman had dropped dolefully upon the mattress and was sobbing. And +indeed the girl could hear the quick, dull trample of horses. She +stepped aside with sudden apprehension, but she bent her head forward in +order to still scan the road.</p> + +<p>"Here they are!"</p> + +<p>There was something very theatrical in the sudden appearance of these +men to the eyes of the girl. It was as if a scene had been shifted. The +forest suddenly disclosed them—a dozen brown-faced troopers in +blue—galloping.</p> + +<p>"Oh, look!" breathed the girl. Her mouth was puckered into an expression +of strange fascination as if she had expected to see the troopers change +into demons and gloat at her. She was at last looking upon those curious +beings who rode down from the North—those men of legend and colossal +tale—they who were possessed of such marvellous hallucinations.</p> + +<p>The little troop rode in silence. At its head was a youthful fellow with +some dim yellow stripes upon his arm. In his right hand he held his +carbine, slanting upward, with the stock resting upon his knee. He was +absorbed in a scrutiny of the country before him.</p> + +<p>At the heels of the sergeant the rest of the squad rode in thin column, +with creak of leather and tinkle of steel and tin. The girl scanned the +faces of the horsemen, seeming astonished vaguely to find them of the +type she knew.</p> + +<p>The lad at the head of the troop comprehended the house and its +environments in two glances. He did not check the long, swinging stride +of his horse. The troopers glanced for a moment like casual tourists, +and then returned to their study of the region in front. The heavy +thudding of the hoofs became a small noise. The dust, hanging in sheets, +slowly sank.</p> + +<p>The sobs of the woman on the bed took form in words which, while strong +in their note of calamity, yet expressed a querulous mental reaching for +some near thing to blame. "And it'll be lucky fer us if we ain't both +butchered in our sleep—plundering and running off horses—old Santo's +gone—you see if he ain't—plundering——"</p> + +<p>"But, ma," said the girl, perplexed and terrified in the same moment, +"they've gone."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but they'll come back!" cried the mother, without pausing her wail. +"They'll come back—trust them for that—running off horses. O John, +John! why did you, why did you?" She suddenly lifted herself and sat +rigid, staring at her daughter. "Mary," she said in tragic whisper, "the +kitchen door isn't locked!" Already she was bended forward to listen, +her mouth agape, her eyes fixed upon her daughter.</p> + +<p>"Mother," faltered the girl.</p> + +<p>Her mother again whispered, "The kitchen door isn't locked."</p> + +<p>Motionless and mute they stared into each other's eyes.</p> + +<p>At last the girl quavered, "We better—we better go and lock it." The +mother nodded. Hanging arm in arm they stole across the floor toward the +head of the stairs. A board of the floor creaked. They halted and +exchanged a look of dumb agony.</p> + +<p>At last they reached the head of the stairs. From the kitchen came the +bass humming of the kettle and frequent sputterings and cracklings from +the fire. These sounds were sinister. The mother and the girl stood +incapable of movement. "There's somebody down there!" whispered the +elder woman.</p> + +<p>Finally, the girl made a gesture of resolution. She twisted her arm from +her mother's hands and went two steps downward. She addressed the +kitchen: "Who's there?" Her tone was intended to be dauntless. It rang +so dramatically in the silence that a sudden new panic seized them as if +the suspected presence in the kitchen had cried out to them. But the +girl ventured again: "Is there anybody there?" No reply was made save by +the kettle and the fire.</p> + +<p>With a stealthy tread the girl continued her journey. As she neared the +last step the fire crackled explosively and the girl screamed. But the +mystic presence had not swept around the corner to grab her, so she +dropped to a seat on the step and laughed. "It was—was only the—the +fire," she said, stammering hysterically.</p> + +<p>Then she arose with sudden fortitude and cried: "Why, there isn't +anybody there! I know there isn't." She marched down into the kitchen. +In her face was dread, as if she half expected to confront something, +but the room was empty. She cried joyously: "There's nobody here! Come +on down, ma." She ran to the kitchen door and locked it.</p> + +<p>The mother came down to the kitchen. "Oh, dear, what a fright I've had! +It's given me the sick headache. I know it has."</p> + +<p>"Oh, ma," said the girl.</p> + +<p>"I know it has—I know it. Oh, if your father was only here! He'd settle +those Yankees mighty quick—he'd settle 'em! Two poor helpless +women——"</p> + +<p>"Why, ma, what makes you act so? The Yankees haven't——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, they'll be back—they'll be back. Two poor helpless women! Your +father and your uncle Asa and Bill off galavanting around and fighting +when they ought to be protecting their home! That's the kind of men they +are. Didn't I say to your father just before he left——"</p> + +<p>"Ma," said the girl, coming suddenly from the window, "the barn door is +open. I wonder if they took old Santo?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course they have—of course——Mary, I don't see what we are +going to do—I don't see what we are going to do."</p> + +<p>The girl said, "Ma, I'm going to see if they took old Santo."</p> + +<p>"Mary," cried the mother, "don't you dare!"</p> + +<p>"But think of poor old Sant, ma."</p> + +<p>"Never you mind old Santo. We're lucky to be safe ourselves, I tell you. +Never mind old Santo. Don't you dare to go out there, Mary—Mary!"</p> + +<p>The girl had unlocked the door and stepped out upon the porch. The +mother cried in despair, "Mary!"</p> + +<p>"Why, there isn't anybody out here," the girl called in response. She +stood for a moment with a curious smile upon her face as of gleeful +satisfaction at her daring.</p> + +<p>The breeze was waving the boughs of the apple trees. A rooster with an +air importantly courteous was conducting three hens upon a foraging +tour. On the hillside at the rear of the gray old barn the red leaves of +a creeper flamed amid the summer foliage. High in the sky clouds rolled +toward the north. The girl swung impulsively from the little stoop and +ran toward the barn.</p> + +<p>The great door was open, and the carved peg which usually performed the +office of a catch lay on the ground. The girl could not see into the +barn because of the heavy shadows. She paused in a listening attitude +and heard a horse munching placidly. She gave a cry of delight and +sprang across the threshold. Then she suddenly shrank back and gasped. +She had confronted three men in gray seated upon the floor with their +legs stretched out and their backs against Santo's manger. Their +dust-covered countenances were expanded in grins.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IIA" id="IIA"></a>II.</h2> + + +<p>As Mary sprang backward and screamed, one of the calm men in gray, still +grinning, announced, "I knowed you'd holler." Sitting there comfortably +the three surveyed her with amusement.</p> + +<p>Mary caught her breath, throwing her hand up to her throat. "Oh!" she +said, "you—you frightened me!"</p> + +<p>"We're sorry, lady, but couldn't help it no way," cheerfully responded +another. "I knowed you'd holler when I seen you coming yere, but I +raikoned we couldn't help it no way. We hain't a-troubling this yere +barn, I don't guess. We been doing some mighty tall sleeping yere. We +done woke when them Yanks loped past."</p> + +<p>"Where did you come from? Did—did you escape from the—the Yankees?" +The girl still stammered and trembled. The three soldiers laughed. "No, +m'm. No, m'm. They never cotch us. We was in a muss down the road yere +about two mile. And Bill yere they gin it to him in the arm, kehplunk. +And they pasted me thar, too. Curious. And Sim yere, he didn't get +nothing, but they chased us all quite a little piece, and we done lose +track of our boys."</p> + +<p>"Was it—was it those who passed here just now? Did they chase you?"</p> + +<p>The men in gray laughed again. "What—them? No, indeedee! There was a +mighty big swarm of Yanks and a mighty big swarm of our boys, too. +What—that little passel? No, m'm."</p> + +<p>She became calm enough to scan them more attentively. They were much +begrimed and very dusty. Their gray clothes were tattered. Splashed mud +had dried upon them in reddish spots. It appeared, too, that the men had +not shaved in many days. In the hats there was a singular diversity. One +soldier wore the little blue cap of the Northern infantry, with corps +emblem and regimental number; one wore a great slouch hat with a wide +hole in the crown; and the other wore no hat at all. The left sleeve of +one man and the right sleeve of another had been slit and the arms were +neatly bandaged with clean cloth. "These hain't no more than two little +cuts," explained one. "We stopped up yere to Mis' Leavitts—she said her +name was—and she bind them for us. Bill yere, he had the thirst come on +him. And the fever too. We——"</p> + +<p>"Did you ever see my father in the army?" asked Mary. "John +Hinckson—his name is."</p> + +<p>The three soldiers grinned again, but they replied kindly: "No, m'm. No, +m'm, we hain't never. What is he—in the cavalry?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the girl. "He and my uncle Asa and my cousin—his name is +Bill Parker—they are all with Longstreet—they call him."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said the soldiers. "Longstreet? Oh, they're a good smart ways from +yere. 'Way off up nawtheast. There hain't nothing but cavalry down yere. +They're in the infantry, probably."</p> + +<p>"We haven't heard anything from them for days and days," said Mary.</p> + +<p>"Oh, they're all right in the infantry," said one man, to be consoling. +"The infantry don't do much fighting. They go bellering out in a big +swarm and only a few of 'em get hurt. But if they was in the +cavalry—the cavalry——"</p> + +<p>Mary interrupted him without intention. "Are you hungry?" she asked.</p> + +<p>The soldiers looked at each other, struck by some sudden and singular +shame. They hung their heads. "No, m'm," replied one at last.</p> + +<p>Santo, in his stall, was tranquilly chewing and chewing. Sometimes he +looked benevolently over at them. He was an old horse and there was +something about his eyes and his forelock which created the impression +that he wore spectacles. Mary went and patted his nose. "Well, if you +are hungry, I can get you something," she told the men. "Or you might +come to the house."</p> + +<p>"We wouldn't dast go to the house," said one. "That passel of Yanks was +only a scouting crowd, most like. Just an advance. More coming, likely."</p> + +<p>"Well, I can bring you something," cried the girl eagerly. "Won't you +let me bring you something?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said a soldier with embarrassment, "we hain't had much. If you +could bring us a little snack-like—just a snack—we'd——"</p> + +<p>Without waiting for him to cease, the girl turned toward the door. But +before she had reached it she stopped abruptly. "Listen!" she whispered. +Her form was bent forward, her head turned and lowered, her hand +extended toward the men in a command for silence.</p> + +<p>They could faintly hear the thudding of many hoofs, the clank of arms, +and frequent calling voices.</p> + +<p>"By cracky, it's the Yanks!" The soldiers scrambled to their feet and +came toward the door. "I knowed that first crowd was only an advance."</p> + +<p>The girl and the three men peered from the shadows of the barn. The view +of the road was intersected by tree trunks and a little henhouse. +However, they could see many horsemen streaming down the road. The +horsemen were in blue. "Oh, hide—hide—hide!" cried the girl, with a +sob in her voice.</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute," whispered a gray soldier excitedly. "Maybe they're +going along by. No, by thunder, they hain't! They're halting. Scoot, +boys!"</p> + +<p>They made a noiseless dash into the dark end of the barn. The girl, +standing by the door, heard them break forth an instant later in +clamorous whispers. "Where'll we hide? Where'll we hide? There hain't a +place to hide!" The girl turned and glanced wildly about the barn. It +seemed true. The stock of hay had grown low under Santo's endless +munching, and from occasional levyings by passing troopers in gray. The +poles of the mow were barely covered, save in one corner where there was +a little bunch.</p> + +<p>The girl espied the great feed box. She ran to it and lifted the lid. +"Here! here!" she called. "Get in here."</p> + +<p>They had been tearing noiselessly around the rear part of the barn. At +her low call they came and plunged at the box. They did not all get in +at the same moment without a good deal of a tangle. The wounded men +gasped and muttered, but they at last were flopped down on the layer of +feed which covered the bottom. Swiftly and softly the girl lowered the +lid and then turned like a flash toward the door.</p> + +<p>No one appeared there, so she went close to survey the situation. The +troopers had dismounted and stood in silence by their horses. A +gray-bearded man, whose red cheeks and nose shone vividly above the +whiskers, was strolling about with two or three others. They wore +double-breasted coats, and faded yellow sashes were wound under their +black leather sword belts. The gray-bearded soldier was apparently +giving orders, pointing here and there.</p> + +<p>Mary tiptoed to the feed box. "They've all got off their horses," she +said to it. A finger projected from a knothole near the top and said to +her very plainly, "Come closer." She obeyed, and then a muffled voice +could be heard: "Scoot for the house, lady, and if we don't see you +again, why, much obliged for what you done."</p> + +<p>"Good-bye," she said to the feed box.</p> + +<p>She made two attempts to walk dauntlessly from the barn, but each time +she faltered and failed just before she reached the point where she +could have been seen by the blue-coated troopers. At last, however, she +made a sort of a rush forward and went out into the bright sunshine.</p> + +<p>The group of men in double-breasted coats wheeled in her direction at +the instant. The gray-bearded officer forgot to lower his arm which had +been stretched forth in giving an order.</p> + +<p>She felt that her feet were touching the ground in a most unnatural +manner. Her bearing, she believed, was suddenly grown awkward and +ungainly. Upon her face she thought that this sentence was plainly +written: "There are three men hidden in the feed box."</p> + +<p>The gray-bearded soldier came toward her. She stopped; she seemed about +to run away. But the soldier doffed his little blue cap and looked +amiable. "You live here, I presume?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she answered.</p> + +<p>"Well, we are obliged to camp here for the night, and as we've got two +wounded men with us I don't suppose you'd mind if we put them in the +barn."</p> + +<p>"In—in the barn?"</p> + +<p>He became aware that she was agitated. He smiled assuringly. "You +needn't be frightened. We won't hurt anything around here. You'll all be +safe enough."</p> + +<p>The girl balanced on one foot and swung the other to and fro in the +grass. She was looking down at it. "But—but I don't think ma would like +it if—if you took the barn."</p> + +<p>The old officer laughed. "Wouldn't she?" said he. "That's so. Maybe she +wouldn't." He reflected for a time and then decided cheerfully: "Well, +we will have to go ask her, anyhow. Where is she? In the house?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied the girl, "she's in the house. She—she'll be scared to +death when she sees you!"</p> + +<p>"Well, you go and ask her then," said the soldier, always wearing a +benign smile. "You go ask her and then come and tell me."</p> + +<p>When the girl pushed open the door and entered the kitchen, she found it +empty. "Ma!" she called softly. There was no answer. The kettle still +was humming its low song. The knife and the curl of potato skin lay on +the floor.</p> + +<p>She went to her mother's room and entered timidly. The new, lonely +aspect of the house shook her nerves. Upon the bed was a confusion of +coverings. "Ma!" called the girl, quaking in fear that her mother was +not there to reply. But there was a sudden turmoil of the quilts, and +her mother's head was thrust forth. "Mary!" she cried, in what seemed to +be a supreme astonishment, "I thought—I thought——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, ma," blurted the girl, "there's over a thousand Yankees in the +yard, and I've hidden three of our men in the feed box!"</p> + +<p>The elder woman, however, upon the appearance of her daughter had begun +to thrash hysterically about on the bed and wail.</p> + +<p>"Ma," the girl exclaimed, "and now they want to use the barn—and our +men in the feed box! What shall I do, ma? What shall I do?"</p> + +<p>Her mother did not seem to hear, so absorbed was she in her grievous +flounderings and tears. "Ma!" appealed the girl. "Ma!"</p> + +<p>For a moment Mary stood silently debating, her lips apart, her eyes +fixed. Then she went to the kitchen window and peeked.</p> + +<p>The old officer and the others were staring up the road. She went to +another window in order to get a proper view of the road, and saw that +they were gazing at a small body of horsemen approaching at a trot and +raising much dust. Presently she recognised them as the squad that had +passed the house earlier, for the young man with the dim yellow chevron +still rode at their head. An unarmed horseman in gray was receiving +their close attention.</p> + +<p>As they came very near to the house she darted to the first window +again. The gray-bearded officer was smiling a fine broad smile of +satisfaction. "So you got him?" he called out. The young sergeant sprang +from his horse and his brown hand moved in a salute. The girl could not +hear his reply. She saw the unarmed horseman in gray stroking a very +black mustache and looking about him coolly and with an interested air. +He appeared so indifferent that she did not understand he was a prisoner +until she heard the graybeard call out: "Well, put him in the barn. +He'll be safe there, I guess." A party of troopers moved with the +prisoner toward the barn.</p> + +<p>The girl made a sudden gesture of horror, remembering the three men in +the feed box.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IIIA" id="IIIA"></a>III.</h2> + + +<p>The busy troopers in blue scurried about the long lines of stamping +horses. Men crooked their backs and perspired in order to rub with +cloths or bunches of grass these slim equine legs, upon whose splendid +machinery they depended so greatly. The lips of the horses were still +wet and frothy from the steel bars which had wrenched at their mouths +all day. Over their backs and about their noses sped the talk of the +men.</p> + +<p>"Moind where yer plug is steppin', Finerty! Keep 'im aff me!"</p> + +<p>"An ould elephant! He shtrides like a schoolhouse."</p> + +<p>"Bill's little mar—she was plum beat when she come in with Crawford's +crowd."</p> + +<p>"Crawford's the hardest-ridin' cavalryman in the army. An he don't use +up a horse, neither—much. They stay fresh when the others are most +a-droppin'."</p> + +<p>"Finerty, will yeh moind that cow a yours?"</p> + +<p>Amid a bustle of gossip and banter, the horses retained their air of +solemn rumination, twisting their lower jaws from side to side and +sometimes rubbing noses dreamfully.</p> + +<p>Over in front of the barn three troopers sat talking comfortably. Their +carbines were leaned against the wall. At their side and outlined in the +black of the open door stood a sentry, his weapon resting in the hollow +of his arm. Four horses, saddled and accoutred, were conferring with +their heads close together. The four bridle reins were flung over a +post.</p> + +<p>Upon the calm green of the land, typical in every way of peace, the hues +of war brought thither by the troops shone strangely. Mary, gazing +curiously, did not feel that she was contemplating a familiar scene. It +was no longer the home acres. The new blue, steel, and faded yellow +thoroughly dominated the old green and brown. She could hear the voices +of the men, and it seemed from their tone that they had camped there for +years. Everything with them was usual. They had taken possession of the +landscape in such a way that even the old marks appeared strange and +formidable to the girl.</p> + +<p>Mary had intended to go and tell the commander in blue that her mother +did not wish his men to use the barn at all, but she paused when she +heard him speak to the sergeant. She thought she perceived then that it +mattered little to him what her mother wished, and that an objection by +her or by anybody would be futile. She saw the soldiers conduct the +prisoner in gray into the barn, and for a long time she watched the +three chatting guards and the pondering sentry. Upon her mind in +desolate weight was the recollection of the three men in the feed box.</p> + +<p>It seemed to her that in a case of this description it was her duty to +be a heroine. In all the stories she had read when at boarding school in +Pennsylvania, the girl characters, confronted with such difficulties, +invariably did hair breadth things. True, they were usually bent upon +rescuing and recovering their lovers, and neither the calm man in gray +nor any of the three in the feed box was lover of hers, but then a real +heroine would not pause over this minor question. Plainly a heroine +would take measures to rescue the four men. If she did not at least make +the attempt, she would be false to those carefully constructed ideals +which were the accumulation of years of dreaming.</p> + +<p>But the situation puzzled her. There was the barn with only one door, +and with four armed troopers in front of this door, one of them with his +back to the rest of the world, engaged, no doubt, in a steadfast +contemplation of the calm man and, incidentally, of the feed box. She +knew, too, that even if she should open the kitchen door, three heads +and perhaps four would turn casually in her direction. Their ears were +real ears.</p> + +<p>Heroines, she knew, conducted these matters with infinite precision and +despatch. They severed the hero's bonds, cried a dramatic sentence, and +stood between him and his enemies until he had run far enough away. She +saw well, however, that even should she achieve all things up to the +point where she might take glorious stand between the escaping and the +pursuers, those grim troopers in blue would not pause. They would run +around her, make a circuit. One by one she saw the gorgeous contrivances +and expedients of fiction fall before the plain, homely difficulties of +this situation. They were of no service. Sadly, ruefully, she thought of +the calm man and of the contents of the feed box.</p> + +<p>The sum of her invention was that she could sally forth to the commander +of the blue cavalry, and confessing to him that there were three of her +friends and his enemies secreted in the feed box, pray him to let them +depart unmolested. But she was beginning to believe the old graybeard to +be a bear. It was hardly probable that he would give this plan his +support. It was more probable that he and some of his men would at once +descend upon the feed box and confiscate her three friends. The +difficulty with her idea was that she could not learn its value without +trying it, and then in case of failure it would be too late for remedies +and other plans. She reflected that war made men very unreasonable.</p> + +<p>All that she could do was to stand at the window and mournfully regard +the barn. She admitted this to herself with a sense of deep humiliation. +She was not, then, made of that fine stuff, that mental satin, which +enabled some other beings to be of such mighty service to the +distressed. She was defeated by a barn with one door, by four men with +eight eyes and eight ears—trivialities that would not impede the real +heroine.</p> + +<p>The vivid white light of broad day began slowly to fade. Tones of gray +came upon the fields, and the shadows were of lead. In this more sombre +atmosphere the fires built by the troops down in the far end of the +orchard grew more brilliant, becoming spots of crimson colour in the +dark grove.</p> + +<p>The girl heard a fretting voice from her mother's room. "Mary!" She +hastily obeyed the call. She perceived that she had quite forgotten her +mother's existence in this time of excitement.</p> + +<p>The elder woman still lay upon the bed. Her face was flushed and +perspiration stood amid new wrinkles upon her forehead. Weaving wild +glances from side to side, she began to whimper. "Oh, I'm just sick—I'm +just sick! Have those men gone yet? Have they gone?"</p> + +<p>The girl smoothed a pillow carefully for her mother's head. "No, ma. +They're here yet. But they haven't hurt anything—it doesn't seem. Will +I get you something to eat?"</p> + +<p>Her mother gestured her away with the impatience of the ill. +"No—no—just don't bother me. My head is splitting, and you know very +well that nothing can be done for me when I get one of these spells. +It's trouble—that's what makes them. When are those men going? Look +here, don't you go 'way. You stick close to the house now."</p> + +<p>"I'll stay right here," said the girl. She sat in the gloom and listened +to her mother's incessant moaning. When she attempted to move, her +mother cried out at her. When she desired to ask if she might try to +alleviate the pain, she was interrupted shortly. Somehow her sitting in +passive silence within hearing of this illness seemed to contribute to +her mother's relief. She assumed a posture of submission. Sometimes her +mother projected questions concerning the local condition, and although +she laboured to be graphic and at the same time soothing, unalarming, +her form of reply was always displeasing to the sick woman, and brought +forth ejaculations of angry impatience.</p> + +<p>Eventually the woman slept in the manner of one worn from terrible +labour. The girl went slowly and softly to the kitchen. When she looked +from the window, she saw the four soldiers still at the barn door. In +the west, the sky was yellow. Some tree trunks intersecting it appeared +black as streaks of ink. Soldiers hovered in blue clouds about the +bright splendour of the fires in the orchard. There were glimmers of +steel.</p> + +<p>The girl sat in the new gloom of the kitchen and watched. The soldiers +lit a lantern and hung it in the barn. Its rays made the form of the +sentry seem gigantic. Horses whinnied from the orchard. There was a low +hum of human voices. Sometimes small detachments of troopers rode past +the front of the house. The girl heard the abrupt calls of sentries. She +fetched some food and ate it from her hand, standing by the window. She +was so afraid that something would occur that she barely left her post +for an instant.</p> + +<p>A picture of the interior of the barn hung vividly in her mind. She +recalled the knot-holes in the boards at the rear, but she admitted that +the prisoners could not escape through them. She remembered some +inadequacies of the roof, but these also counted for nothing. When +confronting the problem, she felt her ambitions, her ideals tumbling +headlong like cottages of straw.</p> + +<p>Once she felt that she had decided to reconnoitre at any rate. It was +night; the lantern at the barn and the camp fires made everything +without their circle into masses of heavy mystic blackness. She took two +steps toward the door. But there she paused. Innumerable possibilities +of danger had assailed her mind. She returned to the window and stood +wavering. At last, she went swiftly to the door, opened it, and slid +noiselessly into the darkness.</p> + +<p>For a moment she regarded the shadows. Down in the orchard the camp +fires of the troops appeared precisely like a great painting, all in +reds upon a black cloth. The voices of the troopers still hummed. The +girl started slowly off in the opposite direction. Her eyes were fixed +in a stare; she studied the darkness in front for a moment, before she +ventured upon a forward step. Unconsciously, her throat was arranged for +a sudden shrill scream. High in the tree branches she could hear the +voice of the wind, a melody of the night, low and sad, the plaint of an +endless, incommunicable sorrow. Her own distress, the plight of the men +in gray—these near matters as well as all she had known or imagined of +grief—everything was expressed in this soft mourning of the wind in the +trees. At first she felt like weeping. This sound told her of human +impotency and doom. Then later the trees and the wind breathed strength +to her, sang of sacrifice, of dauntless effort, of hard carven faces +that did not blanch when Duty came at midnight or at noon.</p> + +<p>She turned often to scan the shadowy figures that moved from time to +time in the light at the barn door. Once she trod upon a stick, and it +flopped, crackling in the intolerable manner of all sticks. At this +noise, however, the guards at the barn made no sign. Finally, she was +where she could see the knot-holes in the rear of the structure gleaming +like pieces of metal from the effect of the light within. Scarcely +breathing in her excitement she glided close and applied an eye to a +knothole. She had barely achieved one glance at the interior before she +sprang back shuddering.</p> + +<p>For the unconscious and cheerful sentry at the door was swearing away in +flaming sentences, heaping one gorgeous oath upon another, making a +conflagration of his description of his troop horse.</p> + +<p>"Why," he was declaring to the calm prisoner in gray, "you ain't got a +horse in your hull —— army that can run forty rod with that there +little mar'!"</p> + +<p>As in the outer darkness Mary cautiously returned to the knothole, the +three guards in front suddenly called in low tones: "S-s-s-h!"</p> + +<p>"Quit, Pete; here comes the lieutenant." The sentry had apparently been +about to resume his declamation, but at these warnings he suddenly posed +in a soldierly manner.</p> + +<p>A tall and lean officer with a smooth face entered the barn. The sentry +saluted primly. The officer flashed a comprehensive glance about him. +"Everything all right?"</p> + +<p>"All right, sir."</p> + +<p>This officer had eyes like the points of stilettos. The lines from his +nose to the corners of his mouth were deep and gave him a slightly +disagreeable aspect, but somewhere in his face there was a quality of +singular thoughtfulness, as of the absorbed student dealing in +generalities, which was utterly in opposition to the rapacious keenness +of the eyes which saw everything.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he lifted a long finger and pointed. "What's that?"</p> + +<p>"That? That's a feed box, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"What's in it?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I——"</p> + +<p>"You ought to know," said the officer sharply. He walked over to the +feed box and flung up the lid. With a sweeping gesture, he reached down +and scooped a handful of feed. "You ought to know what's in everything +when you have prisoners in your care," he added, scowling.</p> + +<p>During the time of this incident, the girl had nearly swooned. Her hands +searched weakly over the boards for something to which to cling. With +the pallor of the dying she had watched the downward sweep of the +officer's arm, which after all had only brought forth a handful of feed. +The result was a stupefaction of her mind. She was astonished out of her +senses at this spectacle of three large men metamorphosed into a handful +of feed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IVA" id="IVA"></a>IV.</h2> + + +<p>It is perhaps a singular thing that this absence of the three men from +the feed box at the time of the sharp lieutenant's investigation should +terrify the girl more than it should joy her. That for which she had +prayed had come to pass. Apparently the escape of these men in the face +of every improbability had been granted her, but her dominating emotion +was fright. The feed box was a mystic and terrible machine, like some +dark magician's trap. She felt it almost possible that she should see +the three weird men floating spectrally away through the air. She +glanced with swift apprehension behind her, and when the dazzle from the +lantern's light had left her eyes, saw only the dim hillside stretched +in solemn silence.</p> + +<p>The interior of the barn possessed for her another fascination because +it was now uncanny. It contained that extraordinary feed box. When she +peeped again at the knothole, the calm, gray prisoner was seated upon +the feed box, thumping it with his dangling, careless heels as if it +were in nowise his conception of a remarkable feed-box. The sentry also +stood facing it. His carbine he held in the hollow of his arm. His legs +were spread apart, and he mused. From without came the low mumble of the +three other troopers. The sharp lieutenant had vanished.</p> + +<p>The trembling yellow light of the lantern caused the figures of the men +to cast monstrous wavering shadows. There were spaces of gloom which +shrouded ordinary things in impressive garb. The roof presented an +inscrutable blackness, save where small rifts in the shingles glowed +phosphorescently. Frequently old Santo put down a thunderous hoof. The +heels of the prisoner made a sound like the booming of a wild kind of +drum. When the men moved their heads, their eyes shone with ghoulish +whiteness, and their complexions were always waxen and unreal. And there +was that profoundly strange feed box, imperturbable with its burden of +fantastic mystery.</p> + +<p>Suddenly from down near her feet the girl heard a crunching sound, a +sort of a nibbling, as if some silent and very discreet terrier was at +work upon the turf. She faltered back; here was no doubt another +grotesque detail of this most unnatural episode. She did not run, +because physically she was in the power of these events. Her feet +chained her to the ground in submission to this march of terror after +terror. As she stared at the spot from which this sound seemed to come, +there floated through her mind a vague, sweet vision—a vision of her +safe little room, in which at this hour she usually was sleeping.</p> + +<p>The scratching continued faintly and with frequent pauses, as if the +terrier was then listening. When the girl first removed her eyes from +the knothole the scene appeared of one velvet blackness; then gradually +objects loomed with a dim lustre. She could see now where the tops of +the trees joined the sky and the form of the barn was before her dyed in +heavy purple. She was ever about to shriek, but no sound came from her +constricted throat. She gazed at the ground with the expression of +countenance of one who watches the sinister-moving grass where a serpent +approaches.</p> + +<p>Dimly she saw a piece of sod wrenched free and drawn under the great +foundation beam of the barn. Once she imagined that she saw human hands, +not outlined at all, but sufficient in colour, form, or movement to make +subtle suggestion.</p> + +<p>Then suddenly a thought that illuminated the entire situation flashed in +her mind like a light. The three men, late of the feed box, were beneath +the floor of the barn and were now scraping their way under this beam. +She did not consider for a moment how they could come there. They were +marvellous creatures. The supernatural was to be expected of them. She +no longer trembled, for she was possessed upon this instant of the most +unchangeable species of conviction. The evidence before her amounted to +no evidence at all, but nevertheless her opinion grew in an instant from +an irresponsible acorn to a rooted and immovable tree. It was as if she +was on a jury.</p> + +<p>She stooped down hastily and scanned the ground. There she indeed saw a +pair of hands hauling at the dirt where the sod had been displaced. +Softly, in a whisper like a breath, she said, "Hey!"</p> + +<p>The dim hands were drawn hastily under the barn. The girl reflected for +a moment. Then she stooped and whispered: "Hey! It's me!"</p> + +<p>After a time there was a resumption of the digging. The ghostly hands +began once more their cautious mining. She waited. In hollow +reverberations from the interior of the barn came the frequent sounds of +old Santo's lazy movements. The sentry conversed with the prisoner.</p> + +<p>At last the girl saw a head thrust slowly from under the beam. She +perceived the face of one of the miraculous soldiers from the feed box. +A pair of eyes glintered and wavered, then finally settled upon her, a +pale statue of a girl. The eyes became lit with a kind of humorous +greeting. An arm gestured at her.</p> + +<p>Stooping, she breathed, "All right." The man drew himself silently back +under the beam. A moment later the pair of hands resumed their cautious +task. Ultimately the head and arms of the man were thrust strangely from +the earth. He was lying on his back. The girl thought of the dirt in his +hair. Wriggling slowly and pushing at the beam above him he forced his +way out of the curious little passage. He twisted his body and raised +himself upon his hands. He grinned at the girl and drew his feet +carefully from under the beam. When he at last stood erect beside her, +he at once began mechanically to brush the dirt from his clothes with +his hands. In the barn the sentry and his prisoner were evidently +engaged in an argument.</p> + +<p>The girl and the first miraculous soldier signalled warily. It seemed +that they feared that their arms would make noises in passing through +the air. Their lips moved, conveying dim meanings.</p> + +<p>In this sign language the girl described the situation in the barn. With +guarded motions, she told him of the importance of absolute stillness. +He nodded, and then in the same manner he told her of his two companions +under the barn floor. He informed her again of their wounded state, and +wagged his head to express his despair. He contorted his face, to tell +how sore were their arms; and jabbed the air mournfully, to express +their remote geographical position.</p> + +<p>This signalling was interrupted by the sound of a body being dragged or +dragging itself with slow, swishing sound under the barn. The sound was +too loud for safety. They rushed to the hole and began to semaphore +until a shaggy head appeared with rolling eyes and quick grin.</p> + +<p>With frantic downward motions of their arms they suppressed this grin +and with it the swishing noise. In dramatic pantomime they informed this +head of the terrible consequences of so much noise. The head nodded, and +painfully but with extreme care the second man pushed and pulled himself +from the hole.</p> + +<p>In a faint whisper the first man said, "Where's Sim?"</p> + +<p>The second man made low reply. "He's right here." He motioned +reassuringly toward the hole.</p> + +<p>When the third head appeared, a soft smile of glee came upon each face, +and the mute group exchanged expressive glances.</p> + +<p>When they all stood together, free from this tragic barn, they breathed +a long sigh that was contemporaneous with another smile and another +exchange of glances.</p> + +<p>One of the men tiptoed to a knothole and peered into the barn. The +sentry was at that moment speaking. "Yes, we know 'em all. There isn't a +house in this region that we don't know who is in it most of the time. +We collar 'em once in a while—like we did you. Now, that house out +yonder, we——"</p> + +<p>The man suddenly left the knothole and returned to the others. Upon his +face, dimly discerned, there was an indication that he had made an +astonishing discovery. The others questioned him with their eyes, but he +simply waved an arm to express his inability to speak at that spot. He +led them back toward the hill, prowling carefully. At a safe distance +from the barn he halted and as they grouped eagerly about him, he +exploded in an intense undertone: "Why, that—that's Cap'n Sawyer they +got in yonder."</p> + +<p>"Cap'n Sawyer!" incredulously whispered the other men.</p> + +<p>But the girl had something to ask. "How did you get out of that feed +box?" He smiled. "Well, when you put us in there, we was just in a +minute when we allowed it wasn't a mighty safe place, and we allowed +we'd get out. And we did. We skedaddled 'round and 'round until it +'peared like we was going to get cotched, and then we flung ourselves +down in the cow stalls where it's low-like—just dirt floor—and then we +just naturally went a-whooping under the barn floor when the Yanks come. +And we didn't know Cap'n Sawyer by his voice nohow. We heard 'im +discoursing, and we allowed it was a mighty pert man, but we didn't know +that it was him. No, m'm."</p> + +<p>These three men, so recently from a situation of peril, seemed suddenly +to have dropped all thought of it. They stood with sad faces looking at +the barn. They seemed to be making no plans at all to reach a place of +more complete safety. They were halted and stupefied by some unknown +calamity.</p> + +<p>"How do you raikon they cotch him, Sim?" one whispered mournfully.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," replied another, in the same tone.</p> + +<p>Another with a low snarl expressed in two words his opinion of the +methods of Fate: "Oh, hell!"</p> + +<p>The three men started then as if simultaneously stung and gazed at the +young girl who stood silently near them. The man who had sworn began to +make agitated apology: "Pardon, miss! 'Pon my soul I clean forgot you +was by. 'Deed, and I wouldn't swear like that if I had knowed. 'Deed, I +wouldn't."</p> + +<p>The girl did not seem to hear him. She was staring at the barn. Suddenly +she turned and whispered, "Who is he?"</p> + +<p>"He's Cap'n Sawyer, m'm," they told her sorrowfully. "He's our own +cap'n. He's been in command of us yere since a long time. He's got folks +about yere. Raikon they cotch him while he was a-visiting."</p> + +<p>She was still for a time and then, awed, she said, "Will they—will they +hang him?"</p> + +<p>"No, m'm. Oh, no, m'm. Don't raikon no such thing. No, m'm."</p> + +<p>The group became absorbed in a contemplation of the barn. For a time no +one moved nor spoke. At last the girl was aroused by slight sounds, and +turning, she perceived that the three men who had so recently escaped +from the barn were now advancing toward it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VA" id="VA"></a>V.</h2> + + +<p>The girl, waiting in the darkness, expected to hear the sudden crash and +uproar of a fight as soon as the three creeping men should reach the +barn. She reflected in an agony upon the swift disaster that would +befall any enterprise so desperate. She had an impulse to beg them to +come away. The grass rustled in silken movements as she sped toward the +barn.</p> + +<p>When she arrived, however, she gazed about her bewildered. The men were +gone. She searched with her eyes, trying to detect some moving thing, +but she could see nothing.</p> + +<p>Left alone again, she began to be afraid of the night. The great +stretches of darkness could hide crawling dangers. From sheer desire to +see a human, she was obliged to peep again at the knothole. The sentry +had apparently wearied of talking. Instead, he was reflecting. The +prisoner still sat on the feed box, moodily staring at the floor. The +girl felt in one way that she was looking at a ghastly group in wax. She +started when the old horse put down an echoing hoof. She wished the men +would speak; their silence re-enforced the strange aspect. They might +have been two dead men.</p> + +<p>The girl felt impelled to look at the corner of the interior where were +the cow stalls. There was no light there save the appearance of peculiar +gray haze which marked the track of the dimming rays of the lantern. All +else was sombre shadow. At last she saw something move there. It might +have been as small as a rat, or it might have been a part of something +as large as a man. At any rate, it proclaimed that something in that +spot was alive. At one time she saw it plainly and at other times it +vanished, because her fixture of gaze caused her occasionally to greatly +tangle and blur those peculiar shadows and faint lights. At last, +however, she perceived a human head. It was monstrously dishevelled and +wild. It moved slowly forward until its glance could fall upon the +prisoner and then upon the sentry. The wandering rays caused the eyes to +glitter like silver. The girl's heart pounded so that she put her hand +over it.</p> + +<p>The sentry and the prisoner remained immovably waxen, and over in the +gloom the head thrust from the floor watched them with its silver eyes.</p> + +<p>Finally, the prisoner slipped from the feed box, and, raising his arms, +yawned at great length. "Oh, well," he remarked, "you boys will get a +good licking if you fool around here much longer. That's some +satisfaction, anyhow, even if you did bag me. You'll get a good +walloping." He reflected for a moment, and decided: "I'm sort of willing +to be captured if you fellows only get a d——d good licking for being +so smart."</p> + +<p>The sentry looked up and smiled a superior smile. "Licking, hey? Nixey!" +He winked exasperatingly at the prisoner. "You fellows are not fast +enough, my boy. Why didn't you lick us at ——? and at ——? and at +----?" He named some of the great battles.</p> + +<p>To this the captive officer blurted in angry astonishment, "Why, we +did!"</p> + +<p>The sentry winked again in profound irony. "Yes—I know you did. Of +course. You whipped us, didn't you? Fine kind of whipping that was! Why, +we——"</p> + +<p>He suddenly ceased, smitten mute by a sound that broke the stillness of +the night. It was the sharp crack of a distant shot that made wild +echoes among the hills. It was instantly followed by the hoarse cry of a +human voice, a far-away yell of warning, singing of surprise, peril, +fear of death. A moment later there was a distant, fierce spattering of +shots. The sentry and the prisoner stood facing each other, their lips +apart, listening.</p> + +<p>The orchard at that instant awoke to sudden tumult. There were the thud +and scramble and scamper of feet, the mellow, swift clash of arms, men's +voices in question, oath, command, hurried and unhurried, resolute and +frantic. A horse sped along the road at a raging gallop. A loud voice +shouted, "What is it, Ferguson?" Another voice yelled something +incoherent. There was a sharp, discordant chorus of command. An +uproarious volley suddenly rang from the orchard. The prisoner in gray +moved from his intent, listening attitude. Instantly the eyes of the +sentry blazed, and he said with a new and terrible sternness, "Stand +where you are!"</p> + +<p>The prisoner trembled in his excitement. Expressions of delight and +triumph bubbled to his lips. "A surprise, by Gawd! Now—now, you'll +see!"</p> + +<p>The sentry stolidly swung his carbine to his shoulder. He sighted +carefully along the barrel until it pointed at the prisoner's head, +about at his nose. "Well, I've got you, anyhow. Remember that! Don't +move!"</p> + +<p>The prisoner could not keep his arms from nervously gesturing. "I won't; +but——"</p> + +<p>"And shut your mouth!"</p> + +<p>The three comrades of the sentry flung themselves into view. +"Pete—devil of a row!—can you——"</p> + +<p>"I've got him," said the sentry calmly and without moving. It was as if +the barrel of the carbine rested on piers of stone. The three comrades +turned and plunged into the darkness.</p> + +<p>In the orchard it seemed as if two gigantic animals were engaged in a +mad, floundering encounter, snarling, howling in a whirling chaos of +noise and motion. In the barn the prisoner and his guard faced each +other in silence.</p> + +<p>As for the girl at the knothole, the sky had fallen at the beginning of +this clamour. She would not have been astonished to see the stars +swinging from their abodes, and the vegetation, the barn, all blow away. +It was the end of everything, the grand universal murder. When two of +the three miraculous soldiers who formed the original feed-box corps +emerged in detail from the hole under the beam and slid away into the +darkness, she did no more than glance at them.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she recollected the head with silver eyes. She started forward +and again applied her eyes to the knothole. Even with the din resounding +from the orchard, from up the road and down the road, from the heavens +and from the deep earth, the central fascination was this mystic head. +There, to her, was the dark god of the tragedy.</p> + +<p>The prisoner in gray at this moment burst into a laugh that was no more +than a hysterical gurgle. "Well, you can't hold that gun out forever! +Pretty soon you'll have to lower it."</p> + +<p>The sentry's voice sounded slightly muffled, for his cheek was pressed +against the weapon. "I won't be tired for some time yet."</p> + +<p>The girl saw the head slowly rise, the eyes fixed upon the sentry's +face. A tall, black figure slunk across the cow stalls and vanished back +of old Santo's quarters. She knew what was to come to pass. She knew +this grim thing was upon a terrible mission, and that it would reappear +again at the head of the little passage between Santo's stall and the +wall, almost at the sentry's elbow; and yet when she saw a faint +indication as of a form crouching there, a scream from an utterly new +alarm almost escaped her.</p> + +<p>The sentry's arms, after all, were not of granite. He moved restively. +At last he spoke in his even, unchanging tone: "Well, I guess you'll +have to climb into that feed box. Step back and lift the lid."</p> + +<p>"Why, you don't mean——"</p> + +<p>"Step back!"</p> + +<p>The girl felt a cry of warning arising to her lips as she gazed at this +sentry. She noted every detail of his facial expression. She saw, +moreover, his mass of brown hair bunching disgracefully about his ears, +his clear eyes lit now with a hard, cold light, his forehead puckered in +a mighty scowl, the ring upon the third finger of the left hand. "Oh, +they won't kill him! Surely they won't kill him!" The noise of the fight +in the orchard was the loud music, the thunder and lightning, the +rioting of the tempest which people love during the critical scene of a +tragedy.</p> + +<p>When the prisoner moved back in reluctant obedience, he faced for an +instant the entrance of the little passage, and what he saw there must +have been written swiftly, graphically in his eyes. And the sentry read +it and knew then that he was upon the threshold of his death. In a +fraction of time, certain information went from the grim thing in the +passage to the prisoner, and from the prisoner to the sentry. But at +that instant the black formidable figure arose, towered, and made its +leap. A new shadow flashed across the floor when the blow was struck.</p> + +<p>As for the girl at the knothole, when she returned to sense she found +herself standing with clinched hands and screaming with her might.</p> + +<p>As if her reason had again departed from her, she ran around the barn, +in at the door, and flung herself sobbing beside the body of the soldier +in blue.</p> + +<p>The uproar of the fight became at last coherent, inasmuch as one party +was giving shouts of supreme exultation. The firing no longer sounded in +crashes; it was now expressed in spiteful crackles, the last words of +the combat, spoken with feminine vindictiveness.</p> + +<p>Presently there was a thud of flying feet. A grimy panting, red-faced +mob of troopers in blue plunged into the barn, became instantly frozen +to attitudes of amazement and rage, and then roared in one great chorus, +"He's gone!"</p> + +<p>The girl who knelt beside the body upon the floor turned toward them her +lamenting eyes and cried: "He's not dead, is he? He can't be dead?"</p> + +<p>They thronged forward. The sharp lieutenant who had been so particular +about the feed box knelt by the side of the girl and laid his head +against the chest of the prostrate soldier. "Why, no," he said, rising +and looking at the man. "He's all right. Some of you boys throw some +water on him."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?" demanded the girl, feverishly.</p> + +<p>"Of course! He'll be better after awhile."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said she softly, and then looked down at the sentry. She started +to arise, and the lieutenant reached down and hoisted rather awkwardly +at her arm.</p> + +<p>"Don't you worry about him. He's all right."</p> + +<p>She turned her face with its curving lips and shining eyes once more +toward the unconscious soldier upon the floor. The troopers made a lane +to the door, the lieutenant bowed, the girl vanished.</p> + +<p>"Queer," said a young officer. "Girl very clearly worst kind of rebel, +and yet she falls to weeping and wailing like mad over one of her +enemies. Be around in the morning with all sorts of doctoring—you see +if she ain't. Queer."</p> + +<p>The sharp lieutenant shrugged his shoulders. After reflection he +shrugged his shoulders again. He said: "War changes many things; but it +doesn't change everything, thank God!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_MYSTERY_OF_HEROISM" id="A_MYSTERY_OF_HEROISM"></a>A MYSTERY OF HEROISM.</h2> + + +<p>The dark uniforms of the men were so coated with dust from the incessant +wrestling of the two armies that the regiment almost seemed a part of +the clay bank which shielded them from the shells. On the top of the +hill a battery was arguing in tremendous roars with some other guns, and +to the eye of the infantry, the artillerymen, the guns, the caissons, +the horses, were distinctly outlined upon the blue sky. When a piece was +fired, a red streak as round as a log flashed low in the heavens, like a +monstrous bolt of lightning. The men of the battery wore white duck +trousers, which somehow emphasized their legs; and when they ran and +crowded in little groups at the bidding of the shouting officers, it was +more impressive than usual to the infantry.</p> + +<p>Fred Collins, of A Company, was saying: "Thunder! I wisht I had a drink. +Ain't there any water round here?" Then somebody yelled, "There goes th' +bugler!"</p> + +<p>As the eyes of half the regiment swept in one machinelike movement there +was an instant's picture of a horse in a great convulsive leap of a +death wound and a rider leaning back with a crooked arm and spread +fingers before his face. On the ground was the crimson terror of an +exploding shell, with fibres of flame that seemed like lances. A +glittering bugle swung clear of the rider's back as fell headlong the +horse and the man. In the air was an odour as from a conflagration.</p> + +<p>Sometimes they of the infantry looked down at a fair little meadow which +spread at their feet. Its long, green grass was rippling gently in a +breeze. Beyond it was the gray form of a house half torn to pieces by +shells and by the busy axes of soldiers who had pursued firewood. The +line of an old fence was now dimly marked by long weeds and by an +occasional post. A shell had blown the well-house to fragments. Little +lines of gray smoke ribboning upward from some embers indicated the +place where had stood the barn.</p> + +<p>From beyond a curtain of green woods there came the sound of some +stupendous scuffle, as if two animals of the size of islands were +fighting. At a distance there were occasional appearances of +swift-moving men, horses, batteries, flags, and, with the crashing of +infantry volleys were heard, often, wild and frenzied cheers. In the +midst of it all Smith and Ferguson, two privates of A Company, were +engaged in a heated discussion, which involved the greatest questions of +the national existence.</p> + +<p>The battery on the hill presently engaged in a frightful duel. The white +legs of the gunners scampered this way and that way, and the officers +redoubled their shouts. The guns, with their demeanours of stolidity and +courage, were typical of something infinitely self-possessed in this +clamour of death that swirled around the hill.</p> + +<p>One of a "swing" team was suddenly smitten quivering to the ground, and +his maddened brethren dragged his torn body in their struggle to escape +from this turmoil and danger. A young soldier astride one of the leaders +swore and fumed in his saddle, and furiously jerked at the bridle. An +officer screamed out an order so violently that his voice broke and +ended the sentence in a falsetto shriek.</p> + +<p>The leading company of the infantry regiment was somewhat exposed, and +the colonel ordered it moved more fully under the shelter of the hill. +There was the clank of steel against steel.</p> + +<p>A lieutenant of the battery rode down and passed them, holding his right +arm carefully in his left hand. And it was as if this arm was not at all +a part of him, but belonged to another man. His sober and reflective +charger went slowly. The officer's face was grimy and perspiring, and +his uniform was tousled as if he had been in direct grapple with an +enemy. He smiled grimly when the men stared at him. He turned his horse +toward the meadow.</p> + +<p>Collins, of A Company, said: "I wisht I had a drink. I bet there's water +in that there ol' well yonder!"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but how you goin' to git it?"</p> + +<p>For the little meadow which intervened was now suffering a terrible +onslaught of shells. Its green and beautiful calm had vanished utterly. +Brown earth was being flung in monstrous handfuls. And there was a +massacre of the young blades of grass. They were being torn, burned, +obliterated. Some curious fortune of the battle had made this gentle +little meadow the object of the red hate of the shells, and each one as +it exploded seemed like an imprecation in the face of a maiden.</p> + +<p>The wounded officer who was riding across this expanse said to himself, +"Why, they couldn't shoot any harder if the whole army was massed here!"</p> + +<p>A shell struck the gray ruins of the house, and as, after the roar, the +shattered wall fell in fragments, there was a noise which resembled the +flapping of shutters during a wild gale of winter. Indeed, the infantry +paused in the shelter of the bank appeared as men standing upon a shore +contemplating a madness of the sea. The angel of calamity had under its +glance the battery upon the hill. Fewer white-legged men laboured about +the guns. A shell had smitten one of the pieces, and after the flare, +the smoke, the dust, the wrath of this blow were gone, it was possible +to see white legs stretched horizontally upon the ground. And at that +interval to the rear, where it is the business of battery horses to +stand with their noses to the fight awaiting the command to drag their +guns out of the destruction or into it or wheresoever these +incomprehensible humans demanded with whip and spur—in this line of +passive and dumb spectators, whose fluttering hearts yet would not let +them forget the iron laws of man's control of them—in this rank of +brute-soldiers there had been relentless and hideous carnage. From the +ruck of bleeding and prostrate horses, the men of the infantry could see +one animal raising its stricken body with its fore legs, and turning its +nose with mystic and profound eloquence toward the sky.</p> + +<p>Some comrades joked Collins about his thirst. "Well, if yeh want a drink +so bad, why don't yeh go git it!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I will in a minnet, if yeh don't shut up!"</p> + +<p>A lieutenant of artillery floundered his horse straight down the hill +with as great concern as if it were level ground. As he galloped past +the colonel of the infantry, he threw up his hand in swift salute. +"We've got to get out of that," he roared angrily. He was a +black-bearded officer, and his eyes, which resembled beads, sparkled +like those of an insane man. His jumping horse sped along the column of +infantry.</p> + +<p>The fat major, standing carelessly with his sword held horizontally +behind him and with his legs far apart, looked after the receding +horseman and laughed. "He wants to get back with orders pretty quick, or +there'll be no batt'ry left," he observed.</p> + +<p>The wise young captain of the second company hazarded to the lieutenant +colonel that the enemy's infantry would probably soon attack the hill, +and the lieutenant colonel snubbed him.</p> + +<p>A private in one of the rear companies looked out over the meadow, and +then turned to a companion and said, "Look there, Jim!" It was the +wounded officer from the battery, who some time before had started to +ride across the meadow, supporting his right arm carefully with his left +hand. This man had encountered a shell apparently at a time when no one +perceived him, and he could now be seen lying face downward with a +stirruped foot stretched across the body of his dead horse. A leg of the +charger extended slantingly upward precisely as stiff as a stake. Around +this motionless pair the shells still howled.</p> + +<p>There was a quarrel in A Company. Collins was shaking his fist in the +faces of some laughing comrades. "Dern yeh! I ain't afraid t' go. If yeh +say much, I will go!"</p> + +<p>"Of course, yeh will! You'll run through that there medder, won't yeh?"</p> + +<p>Collins said, in a terrible voice, "You see now!" At this ominous threat +his comrades broke into renewed jeers.</p> + +<p>Collins gave them a dark scowl and went to find his captain. The latter +was conversing with the colonel of the regiment.</p> + +<p>"Captain," said Collins, saluting and standing at attention—in those +days all trousers bagged at the knees—"captain, I want t' get +permission to go git some water from that there well over yonder!"</p> + +<p>The colonel and the captain swung about simultaneously and stared across +the meadow. The captain laughed. "You must be pretty thirsty, Collins?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, I am."</p> + +<p>"Well—ah," said the captain. After a moment, he asked, "Can't you +wait?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir."</p> + +<p>The colonel was watching Collins's face. "Look here, my lad," he said, +in a pious sort of a voice—"look here, my lad"—Collins was not a +lad—"don't you think that's taking pretty big risks for a little drink +of water?"</p> + +<p>"I dunno," said Collins uncomfortably. Some of the resentment toward his +companions, which perhaps had forced him into this affair, was beginning +to fade. "I dunno wether 'tis."</p> + +<p>The colonel and the captain contemplated him for a time.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the captain finally.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the colonel, "if you want to go, why, go."</p> + +<p>Collins saluted. "Much obliged t' yeh."</p> + +<p>As he moved away the colonel called after him. "Take some of the other +boys' canteens with you an' hurry back now."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, I will."</p> + +<p>The colonel and the captain looked at each other then, for it had +suddenly occurred that they could not for the life of them tell whether +Collins wanted to go or whether he did not.</p> + +<p>They turned to regard Collins, and as they perceived him surrounded by +gesticulating comrades, the colonel said: "Well, by thunder! I guess +he's going."</p> + +<p>Collins appeared as a man dreaming. In the midst of the questions, the +advice, the warnings, all the excited talk of his company mates, he +maintained a curious silence.</p> + +<p>They were very busy in preparing him for his ordeal. When they inspected +him carefully it was somewhat like the examination that grooms give a +horse before a race; and they were amazed, staggered by the whole +affair. Their astonishment found vent in strange repetitions.</p> + +<p>"Are yeh sure a-goin'?" they demanded again and again.</p> + +<p>"Certainly I am," cried Collins, at last furiously.</p> + +<p>He strode sullenly away from them. He was swinging five or six canteens +by their cords. It seemed that his cap would not remain firmly on his +head, and often he reached and pulled it down over his brow.</p> + +<p>There was a general movement in the compact column. The long animal-like +thing moved slightly. Its four hundred eyes were turned upon the figure +of Collins.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, if that ain't th' derndest thing! I never thought Fred +Collins had the blood in him for that kind of business."</p> + +<p>"What's he goin' to do, anyhow?"</p> + +<p>"He's goin' to that well there after water."</p> + +<p>"We ain't dyin' of thirst, are we? That's foolishness."</p> + +<p>"Well, somebody put him up to it, an' he's doin' it."</p> + +<p>"Say, he must be a desperate cuss."</p> + +<p>When Collins faced the meadow and walked away from the regiment, he was +vaguely conscious that a chasm, the deep valley of all prides, was +suddenly between him and his comrades. It was provisional, but the +provision was that he return as a victor. He had blindly been led by +quaint emotions, and laid himself under an obligation to walk squarely +up to the face of death.</p> + +<p>But he was not sure that he wished to make a retraction, even if he +could do so without shame. As a matter of truth, he was sure of very +little. He was mainly surprised.</p> + +<p>It seemed to him supernaturally strange that he had allowed his mind to +man[oe]uvre his body into such a situation. He understood that it might +be called dramatically great.</p> + +<p>However, he had no full appreciation of anything, excepting that he was +actually conscious of being dazed. He could feel his dulled mind groping +after the form and colour of this incident. He wondered why he did not +feel some keen agony of fear cutting his sense like a knife. He wondered +at this, because human expression had said loudly for centuries that men +should feel afraid of certain things, and that all men who did not feel +this fear were phenomena—heroes.</p> + +<p>He was, then, a hero. He suffered that disappointment which we would all +have if we discovered that we were ourselves capable of those deeds +which we most admire in history and legend. This, then, was a hero. +After all, heroes were not much.</p> + +<p>No, it could not be true. He was not a hero. Heroes had no shames in +their lives, and, as for him, he remembered borrowing fifteen dollars +from a friend and promising to pay it back the next day, and then +avoiding that friend for ten months. When at home his mother had aroused +him for the early labour of his life on the farm, it had often been his +fashion to be irritable, childish, diabolical; and his mother had died +since he had come to the war.</p> + +<p>He saw that, in this matter of the well, the canteens, the shells, he +was an intruder in the land of fine deeds.</p> + +<p>He was now about thirty paces from his comrades. The regiment had just +turned its many faces toward him.</p> + +<p>From the forest of terrific noises there suddenly emerged a little +uneven line of men. They fired fiercely and rapidly at distant foliage +on which appeared little puffs of white smoke. The spatter of skirmish +firing was added to the thunder of the guns on the hill. The little line +of men ran forward. A colour sergeant fell flat with his flag as if he +had slipped on ice. There was hoarse cheering from this distant field.</p> + +<p>Collins suddenly felt that two demon fingers were pressed into his ears. +He could see nothing but flying arrows, flaming red. He lurched from the +shock of this explosion, but he made a mad rush for the house, which he +viewed as a man submerged to the neck in a boiling surf might view the +shore. In the air, little pieces of shell howled and the earthquake +explosions drove him insane with the menace of their roar. As he ran the +canteens knocked together with a rhythmical tinkling.</p> + +<p>As he neared the house, each detail of the scene became vivid to him. He +was aware of some bricks of the vanished chimney lying on the sod. There +was a door which hung by one hinge.</p> + +<p>Rifle bullets called forth by the insistent skirmishers came from the +far-off bank of foliage. They mingled with the shells and the pieces of +shells until the air was torn in all directions by hootings, yells, +howls. The sky was full of fiends who directed all their wild rage at +his head.</p> + +<p>When he came to the well, he flung himself face downward and peered into +its darkness. There were furtive silver glintings some feet from the +surface. He grabbed one of the canteens and, unfastening its cap, swung +it down by the cord. The water flowed slowly in with an indolent gurgle.</p> + +<p>And now as he lay with his face turned away he was suddenly smitten with +the terror. It came upon his heart like the grasp of claws. All the +power faded from his muscles. For an instant he was no more than a dead +man.</p> + +<p>The canteen filled with a maddening slowness, in the manner of all +bottles. Presently he recovered his strength and addressed a screaming +oath to it. He leaned over until it seemed as if he intended to try to +push water into it with his hands. His eyes as he gazed down into the +well shone like two pieces of metal and in their expression was a great +appeal and a great curse. The stupid water derided him.</p> + +<p>There was the blaring thunder of a shell. Crimson light shone through +the swift-boiling smoke and made a pink reflection on part of the wall +of the well. Collins jerked out his arm and canteen with the same motion +that a man would use in withdrawing his head from a furnace.</p> + +<p>He scrambled erect and glared and hesitated. On the ground near him lay +the old well bucket, with a length of rusty chain. He lowered it swiftly +into the well. The bucket struck the water and then, turning lazily +over, sank. When, with hand reaching tremblingly over hand, he hauled it +out, it knocked often against the walls of the well and spilled some of +its contents.</p> + +<p>In running with a filled bucket, a man can adopt but one kind of gait. +So through this terrible field over which screamed practical angels of +death Collins ran in the manner of a farmer chased out of a dairy by a +bull.</p> + +<p>His face went staring white with anticipation—anticipation of a blow +that would whirl him around and down. He would fall as he had seen other +men fall, the life knocked out of them so suddenly that their knees were +no more quick to touch the ground than their heads. He saw the long blue +line of the regiment, but his comrades were standing looking at him from +the edge of an impossible star. He was aware of some deep wheel ruts and +hoofprints in the sod beneath his feet.</p> + +<p>The artillery officer who had fallen in this meadow had been making +groans in the teeth of the tempest of sound. These futile cries, +wrenched from him by his agony, were heard only by shells, bullets. When +wild-eyed Collins came running, this officer raised himself. His face +contorted and blanched from pain, he was about to utter some great +beseeching cry. But suddenly his face straightened and he called: "Say, +young man, give me a drink of water, will you?"</p> + +<p>Collins had no room amid his emotions for surprise. He was mad from the +threats of destruction.</p> + +<p>"I can't!" he screamed, and in his reply was a full description of his +quaking apprehension. His cap was gone and his hair was riotous. His +clothes made it appear that he had been dragged over the ground by the +heels. He ran on.</p> + +<p>The officer's head sank down and one elbow crooked. His foot in its +brass-bound stirrup still stretched over the body of his horse and the +other leg was under the steed.</p> + +<p>But Collins turned. He came dashing back. His face had now turned gray +and in his eyes was all terror. "Here it is! here it is!"</p> + +<p>The officer was as a man gone in drink. His arm bent like a twig. His +head drooped as if his neck were of willow. He was sinking to the +ground, to lie face downward.</p> + +<p>Collins grabbed him by the shoulder. "Here it is. Here's your drink. +Turn over. Turn over, man, for God's sake!"</p> + +<p>With Collins hauling at his shoulder, the officer twisted his body and +fell with his face turned toward that region where lived the unspeakable +noises of the swirling missiles. There was the faintest shadow of a +smile on his lips as he looked at Collins. He gave a sigh, a little +primitive breath like that from a child.</p> + +<p>Collins tried to hold the bucket steadily, but his shaking hands caused +the water to splash all over the face of the dying man. Then he jerked +it away and ran on.</p> + +<p>The regiment gave him a welcoming roar. The grimed faces were wrinkled +in laughter.</p> + +<p>His captain waved the bucket away. "Give it to the men!"</p> + +<p>The two genial, skylarking young lieutenants were the first to gain +possession of it. They played over it in their fashion.</p> + +<p>When one tried to drink the other teasingly knocked his elbow. "Don't, +Billie! You'll make me spill it," said the one. The other laughed.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there was an oath, the thud of wood on the ground, and a swift +murmur of astonishment among the ranks. The two lieutenants glared at +each other. The bucket lay on the ground empty.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AN_INDIANA_CAMPAIGN" id="AN_INDIANA_CAMPAIGN"></a>AN INDIANA CAMPAIGN.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IB" id="IB"></a>I.</h2> + + +<p>When the able-bodied citizens of the village formed a company and +marched away to the war, Major Tom Boldin assumed in a manner the burden +of the village cares. Everybody ran to him when they felt obliged to +discuss their affairs. The sorrows of the town were dragged before him. +His little bench at the sunny side of Migglesville tavern became a sort +of an open court where people came to speak resentfully of their +grievances. He accepted his position and struggled manfully under the +load. It behooved him, as a man who had seen the sky red over the +quaint, low cities of Mexico, and the compact Northern bayonets gleaming +on the narrow roads.</p> + +<p>One warm summer day the major sat asleep on his little bench. There was +a lull in the tempest of discussion which usually enveloped him. His +cane, by use of which he could make the most tremendous and impressive +gestures, reposed beside him. His hat lay upon the bench, and his old +bald head had swung far forward until his nose actually touched the +first button of his waistcoat.</p> + +<p>The sparrows wrangled desperately in the road, defying perspiration. +Once a team went jangling and creaking past, raising a yellow blur of +dust before the soft tones of the field and sky. In the long grass of +the meadow across the road the insects chirped and clacked eternally.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a frouzy-headed boy appeared in the roadway, his bare feet +pattering rapidly. He was extremely excited. He gave a shrill whoop as +he discovered the sleeping major and rushed toward him. He created a +terrific panic among some chickens who had been scratching intently near +the major's feet. They clamoured in an insanity of fear, and rushed +hither and thither seeking a way of escape, whereas in reality all ways +lay plainly open to them.</p> + +<p>This tumult caused the major to arouse with a sudden little jump of +amazement and apprehension. He rubbed his eyes and gazed about him. +Meanwhile, some clever chicken had discovered a passage to safety and +led the flock into the garden, where they squawked in sustained alarm.</p> + +<p>Panting from his run and choked with terror, the little boy stood before +the major, struggling with a tale that was ever upon the tip of his +tongue.</p> + +<p>"Major—now—major——"</p> + +<p>The old man, roused from a delicious slumber, glared impatiently at the +little boy. "Come, come! What's th' matter with yeh?" he demanded. +"What's th' matter? Don't stand there shaking! Speak up!"</p> + +<p>"Lots is th' matter!" the little boy shouted valiantly, with a courage +born of the importance of his tale. "My ma's chickens 'uz all stole, +an'—now—he's over in th' woods!"</p> + +<p>"Who is? Who is over in the woods? Go ahead!"</p> + +<p>"Now—th' rebel is!"</p> + +<p>"What?" roared the major.</p> + +<p>"Th' rebel!" cried the little boy, with the last of his breath.</p> + +<p>The major pounced from his bench in tempestuous excitement. He seized +the little boy by the collar and gave him a great jerk. "Where? Are yeh +sure? Who saw 'im? How long ago? Where is he now? Did you see 'im?"</p> + +<p>The little boy, frightened at the major's fury, began to sob. After a +moment he managed to stammer: "He—now—he's in the woods. I saw 'im. He +looks uglier'n anythin'."</p> + +<p>The major released his hold upon the boy, and, pausing for a time, +indulged in a glorious dream. Then he said: "By thunder! we'll ketch th' +cuss. You wait here," he told the boy, "an' don't say a word t' anybody. +Do yeh hear?"</p> + +<p>The boy, still weeping, nodded, and the major hurriedly entered the inn. +He took down from its pegs an awkward, smoothbore rifle and carefully +examined the enormous percussion cap that was fitted over the nipple. +Mistrusting the cap, he removed it and replaced it with a new one. He +scrutinized the gun keenly, as if he could judge in this manner of the +condition of the load. All his movements were deliberate and deadly.</p> + +<p>When he arrived upon the porch of the tavern he beheld the yard filled +with people. Peter Witheby, sooty-faced and grinning, was in the van. He +looked at the major. "Well?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Well?" returned the major, bridling.</p> + +<p>"Well, what's 'che got?" said old Peter.</p> + +<p>"'Got?' Got a rebel over in th' woods!" roared the major.</p> + +<p>At this sentence the women and boys, who had gathered eagerly about him, +gave vent to startled cries. The women had come from adjacent houses, +but the little boys represented the entire village. They had +miraculously heard the first whisper of rumour, and they performed +wonders in getting to the spot. They clustered around the important +figure of the major and gazed in silent awe. The women, however, burst +forth. At the word "rebel," which represented to them all terrible +things, they deluged the major with questions which were obviously +unanswerable.</p> + +<p>He shook them off with violent impatience. Meanwhile Peter Witheby was +trying to force exasperating interrogations through the tumult to the +major's ears. "What? No! Yes! How d' I know?" the maddened veteran +snarled as he struggled with his friends. "No! Yes! What? How in thunder +d' I know?" Upon the steps of the tavern the landlady sat, weeping +forlornly.</p> + +<p>At last the major burst through the crowd, and went to the roadway. +There, as they all streamed after him, he turned and faced them. "Now, +look a' here, I don't know any more about this than you do," he told +them forcibly. "All that I know is that there's a rebel over in Smith's +woods, an' all I know is that I'm agoin' after 'im."</p> + +<p>"But hol' on a minnet," said old Peter. "How do yeh know he's a rebel?"</p> + +<p>"I know he is!" cried the major. "Don't yeh think I know what a rebel +is?"</p> + +<p>Then, with a gesture of disdain at the babbling crowd, he marched +determinedly away, his rifle held in the hollow of his arm. At this +heroic moment a new clamour arose, half admiration, half dismay. Old +Peter hobbled after the major, continually repeating, "Hol' on a +minnet."</p> + +<p>The little boy who had given the alarm was the centre of a throng of +lads who gazed with envy and awe, discovering in him a new quality. He +held forth to them eloquently. The women stared after the figure of the +major and old Peter, his pursuer. Jerozel Bronson, a half-witted lad who +comprehended nothing save an occasional genial word, leaned against the +fence and grinned like a skull. The major and the pursuer passed out of +view around the turn in the road where the great maples lazily shook the +dust that lay on their leaves.</p> + +<p>For a moment the little group of women listened intently as if they +expected to hear a sudden shot and cries from the distance. They looked +at each other, their lips a little ways apart. The trees sighed softly +in the heat of the summer sun. The insects in the meadow continued their +monotonous humming, and, somewhere, a hen had been stricken with fear +and was cackling loudly.</p> + +<p>Finally, Mrs. Goodwin said, "Well, I'm goin' up to th' turn a' th' road, +anyhow." Mrs. Willets and Mrs. Joe Petersen, her particular friends, +cried out at this temerity, but she said, "Well, I'm goin', anyhow."</p> + +<p>She called Bronson. "Come on, Jerozel. You're a man, an' if he should +chase us, why, you mus' pitch inteh 'im. Hey?"</p> + +<p>Bronson always obeyed everybody. He grinned an assent, and went with her +down the road.</p> + +<p>A little boy attempted to follow them, but a shrill scream from his +mother made him halt.</p> + +<p>The remaining women stood motionless, their eyes fixed upon Mrs. Goodwin +and Jerozel. Then at last one gave a laugh of triumph at her conquest of +caution and fear, and cried, "Well, I'm goin' too!"</p> + +<p>Another instantly said, "So am I." There began a general movement. Some +of the little boys had already ventured a hundred feet away from the +main body, and at this unanimous advance they spread out ahead in little +groups. Some recounted terrible stories of rebel ferocity. Their eyes +were large with excitement. The whole thing with its possible dangers +had for them a delicious element. Johnnie Peterson, who could whip any +boy present, explained what he would do in case the enemy should happen +to pounce out at him.</p> + +<p>The familiar scene suddenly assumed a new aspect. The field of corn +which met the road upon the left was no longer a mere field of corn. It +was a darkly mystic place whose recesses could contain all manner of +dangers. The long green leaves, waving in the breeze, rustled from the +passing of men. In the song of the insects there were now omens, +threats.</p> + +<p>There was a warning in the enamel blue of the sky, in the stretch of +yellow road, in the very atmosphere. Above the tops of the corn loomed +the distant foliage of Smith's woods, curtaining the silent action of a +tragedy whose horrors they imagined.</p> + +<p>The women and the little boys came to a halt, overwhelmed by the +impressiveness of the landscape. They waited silently.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Goodwin suddenly said, "I'm goin' back." The others, who all wished +to return, cried at once disdainfully:</p> + +<p>"Well, go back, if yeh want to!"</p> + +<p>A cricket at the roadside exploded suddenly in his shrill song, and a +woman who had been standing near shrieked in startled terror. An +electric movement went through the group of women. They jumped and gave +vent to sudden screams. With the fears still upon their agitated faces, +they turned to berate the one who had shrieked. "My! what a goose you +are, Sallie! Why, it took my breath away. Goodness sakes, don't holler +like that again!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IIB" id="IIB"></a>II.</h2> + + +<p>"Hol' on a minnet!" Peter Witheby was crying to the major, as the +latter, full of the importance and dignity of his position as protector +of Migglesville, paced forward swiftly. The veteran already felt upon +his brow a wreath formed of the flowers of gratitude, and as he strode +he was absorbed in planning a calm and self-contained manner of wearing +it. "Hol' on a minnet!" piped old Peter in the rear.</p> + +<p>At last the major, aroused from his dream of triumph, turned about +wrathfully. "Well, what?"</p> + +<p>"Now, look a' here," said Peter. "What 'che goin' t' do?"</p> + +<p>The major, with a gesture of supreme exasperation, wheeled again and +went on. When he arrived at the cornfield he halted and waited for +Peter. He had suddenly felt that indefinable menace in the landscape.</p> + +<p>"Well?" demanded Peter, panting.</p> + +<p>The major's eyes wavered a trifle. "Well," he repeated—"well, I'm goin' +in there an' bring out that there rebel."</p> + +<p>They both paused and studied the gently swaying masses of corn, and +behind them the looming woods, sinister with possible secrets.</p> + +<p>"Well," said old Peter.</p> + +<p>The major moved uneasily and put his hand to his brow. Peter waited in +obvious expectation.</p> + +<p>The major crossed through the grass at the roadside and climbed the +fence. He put both legs over the topmost rail and then sat perched +there, facing the woods. Once he turned his head and asked, "What?"</p> + +<p>"I hain't said anythin'," answered Peter.</p> + +<p>The major clambered down from the fence and went slowly into the corn, +his gun held in readiness. Peter stood in the road.</p> + +<p>Presently the major returned and said, in a cautious whisper, "If yeh +hear anythin', you come a-runnin', will yeh?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I hain't got no gun nor nuthin'," said Peter, in the same low +tone; "what good 'ud I do?"</p> + +<p>"Well, yeh might come along with me an' watch," said the major. "Four +eyes is better'n two."</p> + +<p>"If I had a gun——" began Peter.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yeh don't need no gun," interrupted the major, waving his hand. +"All I'm afraid of is that I won't find 'im. My eyes ain't so good as +they was."</p> + +<p>"Well——"</p> + +<p>"Come along," whispered the major. "Yeh hain't afraid, are yeh?"</p> + +<p>"No, but——"</p> + +<p>"Well, come along, then. What's th' matter with yeh?"</p> + +<p>Peter climbed the fence. He paused on the top rail and took a prolonged +stare at the inscrutable woods. When he joined the major in the +cornfield he said, with a touch of anger:</p> + +<p>"Well, you got the gun. Remember that. If he comes for me, I hain't got +a blame thing!"</p> + +<p>"Shucks!" answered the major. "He ain't agoin' t' come for yeh."</p> + +<p>The two then began a wary journey through the corn. One by one the +long aisles between the rows appeared. As they glanced along each of +them it seemed as if some gruesome thing had just previously vacated +it. Old Peter halted once and whispered: "Say, look a' here; +supposin'—supposin'——"</p> + +<p>"Supposin' what?" demanded the major.</p> + +<p>"Supposin'——" said Peter. "Well, remember you got th' gun, an' I +hain't got anythin'."</p> + +<p>"Thunder!" said the major.</p> + +<p>When they got to where the stalks were very short because of the shade +cast by the trees of the wood, they halted again. The leaves were gently +swishing in the breeze. Before them stretched the mystic green wall of +the forest, and there seemed to be in it eyes which followed each of +their movements.</p> + +<p>Peter at last said, "I don't believe there's anybody in there."</p> + +<p>"Yes, there is, too," said the major. "I'll bet anythin' he's in there."</p> + +<p>"How d' yeh know?" asked Peter. "I'll bet he ain't within a mile o' +here."</p> + +<p>The major suddenly ejaculated, "Listen!"</p> + +<p>They bent forward, scarce breathing, their mouths agape, their eyes +glinting. Finally, the major turned his head. "Did yeh hear that?" he +said hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"No," said Peter, in a low voice. "What was it?"</p> + +<p>The major listened for a moment. Then he turned again. "I thought I +heered somebody holler!" he explained cautiously.</p> + +<p>They both bent forward and listened once more. Peter in the intentness +of his attitude lost his balance and was obliged to lift his foot +hastily and with noise. "S-s-sh!" hissed the major.</p> + +<p>After a minute Peter spoke quite loudly, "Oh, shucks! I don't believe +yeh heered anythin'."</p> + +<p>The major made a frantic downward gesture with his hand. "Shet up, will +yeh!" he said, in an angry undertone.</p> + +<p>Peter became silent for a moment, but presently he said again, "Oh, yeh +didn't hear anythin'."</p> + +<p>The major turned to glare at his companion in despair and wrath.</p> + +<p>"What's th' matter with yeh? Can't yeh shet up?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, this here ain't no use. If you're goin' in after 'im, why don't yeh +go in after 'im?"</p> + +<p>"Well, gimme time, can't yeh?" said the major, in a growl. And, as if to +add more to this reproach, he climbed the fence that compassed the +woods, looking resentfully back at his companion.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Peter, when the major paused.</p> + +<p>The major stepped down upon the thick carpet of brown leaves that +stretched under the trees. He turned then to whisper, "You wait here, +will yeh?" His face was red with determination.</p> + +<p>"Well, hol' on a minnet!" said Peter. "You—I—we'd better——"</p> + +<p>"No," said the major. "You wait here."</p> + +<p>He went stealthily into the thickets. Peter watched him until he grew to +be a vague, slow-moving shadow. From time to time he could hear the +leaves crackle and twigs snap under the major's awkward tread. Peter, +intent, breathless, waited for the peal of sudden tragedy. Finally, the +woods grew silent in a solemn and impressive hush that caused Peter to +feel the thumping of his heart. He began to look about him to make sure +that nothing should spring upon him from the sombre shadows. He +scrutinized this cool gloom before him, and at times he thought he could +perceive the moving of swift silent shapes. He concluded that he had +better go back and try to muster some assistance to the major.</p> + +<p>As Peter came through the corn, the women in the road caught sight of +the glittering figure and screamed. Many of them began to run. The +little boys, with all their valour, scurried away in clouds. Mrs. Joe +Peterson, however, cast a glance over her shoulders as she, with her +skirts gathered up, was running as best she could. She instantly stopped +and, in tones of deepest scorn, called out to the others, "Why, it's +on'y Pete Witheby!" They came faltering back then, those who had been +naturally swiftest in the race avoiding the eyes of those whose limbs +had enabled them to flee a short distance.</p> + +<p>Peter came rapidly, appreciating the glances of vivid interest in the +eyes of the women. To their lightning-like questions, which hit all +sides of the episode, he opposed a new tranquillity gained from his +sudden ascent in importance. He made no answer to their clamour. When he +had reached the top of the fence, he called out commandingly: "Here you, +Johnnie, you and George, run an' git my gun! It's hangin' on th' pegs +over th' bench in th' shop."</p> + +<p>At this terrible sentence, a shuddering cry broke from the women. The +boys named sped down the road, accompanied by a retinue of envious +companions.</p> + +<p>Peter swung his legs over the rail and faced the woods again. He twisted +his head once to say: "Keep still, can't yeh? Quit scufflin' aroun'!" +They could see by his manner that this was a supreme moment. The group +became motionless and still. Later, Peter turned to say, "S-s-sh!" to a +restless boy, and the air with which he said it smote them all with awe.</p> + +<p>The little boys who had gone after the gun came pattering along +hurriedly, the weapon borne in the midst of them. Each was anxious to +share in the honour. The one who had been delegated to bring it was +bullying and directing his comrades.</p> + +<p>Peter said, "S-s-sh!" He took the gun and poised it in readiness to +sweep the cornfield. He scowled at the boys and whispered angrily: "Why +didn't yeh bring th' powder horn an' th' thing with th' bullets in? I +told yeh t' bring 'em. I'll send somebody else next time."</p> + +<p>"Yeh didn't tell us!" cried the two boys shrilly.</p> + +<p>"S-s-sh! Quit yeh noise," said Peter, with a violent gesture.</p> + +<p>However, this reproof enabled other boys to recover that peace of mind +which they had lost when seeing their friends loaded with honours.</p> + +<p>The women had cautiously approached the fence and, from time to time, +whispered feverish questions; but Peter repulsed them savagely, with an +air of being infinitely bothered by their interference in his intent +watch. They were forced to listen again in silence to the weird and +prophetic chanting of the insects and the mystic silken rustling of the +corn.</p> + +<p>At last the thud of hurrying feet in the soft soil of the field came to +their ears. A dark form sped toward them. A wave of a mighty fear swept +over the group, and the screams of the women came hoarsely from their +choked throats. Peter swung madly from his perch, and turned to use the +fence as a rampart.</p> + +<p>But it was the major. His face was inflamed and his eyes were glaring. +He clutched his rifle by the middle and swung it wildly. He was bounding +at a great speed for his fat, short body.</p> + +<p>"It's all right! it's all right!" he began to yell, some distance away. +"It's all right! It's on'y ol' Milt' Jacoby!"</p> + +<p>When he arrived at the top of the fence, he paused and mopped his brow.</p> + +<p>"What?" they thundered, in an agony of sudden unreasoning +disappointment.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Joe Petersen, who was a distant connection of Milton Jacoby, +thought to forestall any damage to her social position by saying at once +disdainfully, "Drunk, I s'pose!"</p> + +<p>"Yep," said the major, still on the fence, and mopped his brow. "Drunk +as a fool. Thunder! I was surprised. I—I—thought it was a rebel, +sure."</p> + +<p>The thoughts of all these women wavered for a time. They were at a loss +for precise expression of their emotion. At last, however, they hurled +this superior sentence at the major:</p> + +<p>"Well, yeh might have known."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_GRAY_SLEEVE" id="A_GRAY_SLEEVE"></a>A GRAY SLEEVE.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IC" id="IC"></a>I.</h2> + + +<p>"It looks as if it might rain this afternoon," remarked the lieutenant +of artillery.</p> + +<p>"So it does," the infantry captain assented. He glanced casually at the +sky. When his eyes had lowered to the green-shadowed landscape before +him, he said fretfully: "I wish those fellows out yonder would quit +pelting at us. They've been at it since noon."</p> + +<p>At the edge of a grove of maples, across wide fields, there occasionally +appeared little puffs of smoke of a dull hue in this gloom of sky which +expressed an impending rain. The long wave of blue and steel in the +field moved uneasily at the eternal barking of the far-away +sharpshooters, and the men, leaning upon their rifles, stared at the +grove of maples. Once a private turned to borrow some tobacco from a +comrade in the rear rank, but, with his hand still stretched out, he +continued to twist his head and glance at the distant trees. He was +afraid the enemy would shoot him at a time when he was not looking.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the artillery officer said, "See what's coming!"</p> + +<p>Along the rear of the brigade of infantry a column of cavalry was +sweeping at a hard gallop. A lieutenant, riding some yards to the right +of the column, bawled furiously at the four troopers just at the rear of +the colours. They had lost distance and made a little gap, but at the +shouts of the lieutenant they urged their horses forward. The bugler, +careering along behind the captain of the troop, fought and tugged like +a wrestler to keep his frantic animal from bolting far ahead of the +column.</p> + +<p>On the springy turf the innumerable hoofs thundered in a swift storm of +sound. In the brown faces of the troopers their eyes were set like bits +of flashing steel.</p> + +<p>The long line of the infantry regiments standing at ease underwent a +sudden movement at the rush of the passing squadron. The foot soldiers +turned their heads to gaze at the torrent of horses and men.</p> + +<p>The yellow folds of the flag fluttered back in silken, shuddering waves +as if it were a reluctant thing. Occasionally a giant spring of a +charger would rear the firm and sturdy figure of a soldier suddenly head +and shoulders above his comrades. Over the noise of the scudding hoofs +could be heard the creaking of leather trappings, the jingle and clank +of steel, and the tense, low-toned commands or appeals of the men to +their horses. And the horses were mad with the headlong sweep of this +movement. Powerful under jaws bent back and straightened so that the +bits were clamped as rigidly as vices upon the teeth, and glistening +necks arched in desperate resistance to the hands at the bridles. +Swinging their heads in rage at the granite laws of their lives, which +compelled even their angers and their ardours to chosen directions and +chosen faces, their flight was as a flight of harnessed demons.</p> + +<p>The captain's bay kept its pace at the head of the squadron with the +lithe bounds of a thoroughbred, and this horse was proud as a chief at +the roaring trample of his fellows behind him. The captain's glance was +calmly upon the grove of maples whence the sharpshooters of the enemy +had been picking at the blue line. He seemed to be reflecting. He +stolidly rose and fell with the plunges of his horse in all the +indifference of a deacon's figure seated plumply in church. And it +occurred to many of the watching infantry to wonder why this officer +could remain imperturbable and reflective when his squadron was +thundering and swarming behind him like the rushing of a flood.</p> + +<p>The column swung in a sabre-curve toward a break in a fence, and dashed +into a roadway. Once a little plank bridge was encountered, and the +sound of the hoofs upon it was like the long roll of many drums. An old +captain in the infantry turned to his first lieutenant and made a remark +which was a compound of bitter disparagement of cavalry in general and +soldiery admiration of this particular troop.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the bugle sounded, and the column halted with a jolting +upheaval amid sharp, brief cries. A moment later the men had tumbled +from their horses, and, carbines in hand, were running in a swarm toward +the grove of maples. In the road one of every four of the troopers was +standing with braced legs, and pulling and hauling at the bridles of +four frenzied horses.</p> + +<p>The captain was running awkwardly in his boots. He held his sabre low so +that the point often threatened to catch in the turf. His yellow hair +ruffled out from under his faded cap. "Go in hard now!" he roared, in a +voice of hoarse fury. His face was violently red.</p> + +<p>The troopers threw themselves upon the grove like wolves upon a great +animal. Along the whole front of woods there was the dry, crackling of +musketry, with bitter, swift flashes and smoke that writhed like stung +phantoms. The troopers yelled shrilly and spanged bullets low into the +foliage.</p> + +<p>For a moment, when near the woods, the line almost halted. The men +struggled and fought for a time like swimmers encountering a powerful +current. Then with a supreme effort they went on again. They dashed +madly at the grove, whose foliage from the high light of the field was +as inscrutable as a wall.</p> + +<p>Then suddenly each detail of the calm trees became apparent, and with a +few more frantic leaps the men were in the cool gloom of the woods. +There was a heavy odour as from burned paper. Wisps of gray smoke wound +upward. The men halted and, grimy, perspiring, and puffing, they +searched the recesses of the woods with eager, fierce glances. Figures +could be seen flitting afar off. A dozen carbines rattled at them in an +angry volley.</p> + +<p>During this pause the captain strode along the line, his face lit with a +broad smile of contentment. "When he sends this crowd to do anything, I +guess he'll find we do it pretty sharp," he said to the grinning +lieutenant.</p> + +<p>"Say, they didn't stand that rush a minute, did they?" said the +subaltern. Both officers were profoundly dusty in their uniforms, and +their faces were soiled like those of two urchins.</p> + +<p>Out in the grass behind them were three tumbled and silent forms.</p> + +<p>Presently the line moved forward again. The men went from tree to tree +like hunters stalking game. Some at the left of the line fired +occasionally, and those at the right gazed curiously in that direction. +The men still breathed heavily from their scramble across the field.</p> + +<p>Of a sudden a trooper halted and said: "Hello! there's a house!" Every +one paused. The men turned to look at their leader.</p> + +<p>The captain stretched his neck and swung his head from side to side. "By +George, it is a house!" he said.</p> + +<p>Through the wealth of leaves there vaguely loomed the form of a large, +white house. These troopers, brown-faced from many days of campaigning, +each feature of them telling of their placid confidence and courage, +were stopped abruptly by the appearance of this house. There was some +subtle suggestion—some tale of an unknown thing—which watched them +from they knew not what part of it.</p> + +<p>A rail fence girded a wide lawn of tangled grass. Seven pines stood +along a drive-way which led from two distant posts of a vanished gate. +The blue-clothed troopers moved forward until they stood at the fence +peering over it.</p> + +<p>The captain put one hand on the top rail and seemed to be about to climb +the fence, when suddenly he hesitated, and said in a low voice, "Watson, +what do you think of it?"</p> + +<p>The lieutenant stared at the house. "Derned if I know!" he replied.</p> + +<p>The captain pondered. It happened that the whole company had turned a +gaze of profound awe and doubt upon this edifice which confronted them. +The men were very silent.</p> + +<p>At last the captain swore and said: "We are certainly a pack of fools. +Derned old deserted house halting a company of Union cavalry, and making +us gape like babies!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but there's something—something——" insisted the subaltern in a +half stammer.</p> + +<p>"Well, if there's 'something—something' in there, I'll get it out," +said the captain. "Send Sharpe clean around to the other side with about +twelve men, so we will sure bag your 'something—something,' and I'll +take a few of the boys and find out what's in the d——d old thing!"</p> + +<p>He chose the nearest eight men for his "storming party," as the +lieutenant called it. After he had waited some minutes for the others to +get into position, he said "Come ahead" to his eight men, and climbed +the fence.</p> + +<p>The brighter light of the tangled lawn made him suddenly feel +tremendously apparent, and he wondered if there could be some mystic +thing in the house which was regarding this approach. His men trudged +silently at his back. They stared at the windows and lost themselves in +deep speculations as to the probability of there being, perhaps, eyes +behind the blinds—malignant eyes, piercing eyes.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a corporal in the party gave vent to a startled exclamation, +and half threw his carbine into position. The captain turned quickly, +and the corporal said: "I saw an arm move the blinds. An arm with a gray +sleeve!"</p> + +<p>"Don't be a fool, Jones, now!" said the captain sharply.</p> + +<p>"I swear t'——" began the corporal, but the captain silenced him.</p> + +<p>When they arrived at the front of the house, the troopers paused, while +the captain went softly up the front steps. He stood before the large +front door and studied it. Some crickets chirped in the long grass, and +the nearest pine could be heard in its endless sighs. One of the +privates moved uneasily, and his foot crunched the gravel. Suddenly the +captain swore angrily and kicked the door with a loud crash. It flew +open.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IIC" id="IIC"></a>II.</h2> + + +<p>The bright lights of the day flashed into the old house when the captain +angrily kicked open the door. He was aware of a wide hallway carpeted +with matting and extending deep into the dwelling. There was also an old +walnut hatrack and a little marble-topped table with a vase and two +books upon it. Farther back was a great, venerable fireplace containing +dreary ashes.</p> + +<p>But directly in front of the captain was a young girl. The flying open +of the door had obviously been an utter astonishment to her, and she +remained transfixed there in the middle of the floor, staring at the +captain with wide eyes.</p> + +<p>She was like a child caught at the time of a raid upon the cake. She +wavered to and fro upon her feet, and held her hands behind her. There +were two little points of terror in her eyes, as she gazed up at the +young captain in dusty blue, with his reddish, bronze complexion, his +yellow hair, his bright sabre held threateningly.</p> + +<p>These two remained motionless and silent, simply staring at each other +for some moments.</p> + +<p>The captain felt his rage fade out of him and leave his mind limp. He +had been violently angry, because this house had made him feel hesitant, +wary. He did not like to be wary. He liked to feel confident, sure. So +he had kicked the door open, and had been prepared to march in like a +soldier of wrath.</p> + +<p>But now he began, for one thing, to wonder if his uniform was so dusty +and old in appearance. Moreover, he had a feeling that his face was +covered with a compound of dust, grime, and perspiration. He took a step +forward and said, "I didn't mean to frighten you." But his voice was +coarse from his battle-howling. It seemed to him to have hempen fibres +in it.</p> + +<p>The girl's breath came in little, quick gasps, and she looked at him as +she would have looked at a serpent.</p> + +<p>"I didn't mean to frighten you," he said again.</p> + +<p>The girl, still with her hands behind her, began to back away.</p> + +<p>"Is there any one else in the house?" he went on, while slowly following +her. "I don't wish to disturb you, but we had a fight with some rebel +skirmishers in the woods, and I thought maybe some of them might have +come in here. In fact, I was pretty sure of it. Are there any of them +here?"</p> + +<p>The girl looked at him and said, "No!" He wondered why extreme agitation +made the eyes of some women so limpid and bright.</p> + +<p>"Who is here besides yourself?"</p> + +<p>By this time his pursuit had driven her to the end of the hall, and she +remained there with her back to the wall and her hands still behind her. +When she answered this question, she did not look at him but down at the +floor. She cleared her voice and then said, "There is no one here."</p> + +<p>"No one?"</p> + +<p>She lifted her eyes to him in that appeal that the human being must make +even to falling trees, crashing bowlders, the sea in a storm, and said, +"No, no, there is no one here." He could plainly see her tremble.</p> + +<p>Of a sudden he bethought him that she continually kept her hands behind +her. As he recalled her air when first discovered, he remembered she +appeared precisely as a child detected at one of the crimes of +childhood. Moreover, she had always backed away from him. He thought now +that she was concealing something which was an evidence of the presence +of the enemy in the house.</p> + +<p>"What are you holding behind you?" he said suddenly.</p> + +<p>She gave a little quick moan, as if some grim hand had throttled her.</p> + +<p>"What are you holding behind you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing—please. I am not holding anything behind me; indeed I'm +not."</p> + +<p>"Very well. Hold your hands out in front of you, then."</p> + +<p>"Oh, indeed, I'm not holding anything behind me. Indeed, I'm not."</p> + +<p>"Well," he began. Then he paused, and remained for a moment dubious. +Finally, he laughed. "Well, I shall have my men search the house, +anyhow. I'm sorry to trouble you, but I feel sure that there is some one +here whom we want." He turned to the corporal, who with the other men +was gaping quietly in at the door, and said, "Jones, go through the +house."</p> + +<p>As for himself, he remained planted in front of the girl, for she +evidently did not dare to move and allow him to see what she held so +carefully behind her back. So she was his prisoner.</p> + +<p>The men rummaged around on the ground floor of the house. Sometimes the +captain called to them, "Try that closet," "Is there any cellar?" But +they found no one, and at last they went trooping toward the stairs +which led to the second floor.</p> + +<p>But at this movement on the part of the men the girl uttered a cry—a +cry of such fright and appeal that the men paused. "Oh, don't go up +there! Please don't go up there!—ple—ease! There is no one there! +Indeed—indeed there is not! Oh, ple—ease!"</p> + +<p>"Go on, Jones," said the captain calmly.</p> + +<p>The obedient corporal made a preliminary step, and the girl bounded +toward the stairs with another cry.</p> + +<p>As she passed him, the captain caught sight of that which she had +concealed behind her back, and which she had forgotten in this supreme +moment. It was a pistol.</p> + +<p>She ran to the first step, and standing there, faced the men, one hand +extended with perpendicular palm, and the other holding the pistol at +her side. "Oh, please, don't go up there! Nobody is there—indeed, there +is not! P-l-e-a-s-e!" Then suddenly she sank swiftly down upon the step, +and, huddling forlornly, began to weep in the agony and with the +convulsive tremors of an infant. The pistol fell from her fingers and +rattled down to the floor.</p> + +<p>The astonished troopers looked at their astonished captain. There was a +short silence.</p> + +<p>Finally, the captain stooped and picked up the pistol. It was a heavy +weapon of the army pattern. He ascertained that it was empty.</p> + +<p>He leaned toward the shaking girl, and said gently, "Will you tell me +what you were going to do with this pistol?"</p> + +<p>He had to repeat the question a number of times, but at last a muffled +voice said, "Nothing."</p> + +<p>"Nothing!" He insisted quietly upon a further answer. At the tender +tones of the captain's voice, the phlegmatic corporal turned and winked +gravely at the man next to him.</p> + +<p>"Won't you tell me?"</p> + +<p>The girl shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Please tell me!"</p> + +<p>The silent privates were moving their feet uneasily and wondering how +long they were to wait.</p> + +<p>The captain said, "Please won't you tell me?"</p> + +<p>Then this girl's voice began in stricken tones half coherent, and amid +violent sobbing: "It was grandpa's. He—he—he said he was going to +shoot anybody who came in here—he didn't care if there were thousands +of 'em. And—and I know he would, and I was afraid they'd kill him. And +so—and—so I stole away his pistol—and I was going to hide it when +you—you—you kicked open the door."</p> + +<p>The men straightened up and looked at each other. The girl began to weep +again.</p> + +<p>The captain mopped his brow. He peered down at the girl. He mopped his +brow again. Suddenly he said, "Ah, don't cry like that."</p> + +<p>He moved restlessly and looked down at his boots. He mopped his brow +again.</p> + +<p>Then he gripped the corporal by the arm and dragged him some yards back +from the others. "Jones," he said, in an intensely earnest voice, "will +you tell me what in the devil I am going to do?"</p> + +<p>The corporal's countenance became illuminated with satisfaction at being +thus requested to advise his superior officer. He adopted an air of +great thought, and finally said: "Well, of course, the feller with the +gray sleeve must be upstairs, and we must get past the girl and up there +somehow. Suppose I take her by the arm and lead her——"</p> + +<p>"What!" interrupted the captain from between his clinched teeth. As he +turned away from the corporal, he said fiercely over his shoulder, "You +touch that girl and I'll split your skull!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IIIC" id="IIIC"></a>III.</h2> + + +<p>The corporal looked after his captain with an expression of mingled +amazement, grief, and philosophy. He seemed to be saying to himself that +there unfortunately were times, after all, when one could not rely upon +the most reliable of men. When he returned to the group he found the +captain bending over the girl and saying, "Why is it that you don't want +us to search upstairs?"</p> + +<p>The girl's head was buried in her crossed arms. Locks of her hair had +escaped from their fastenings and these fell upon her shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Won't you tell me?"</p> + +<p>The corporal here winked again at the man next to him.</p> + +<p>"Because," the girl moaned—"because—there isn't anybody up there."</p> + +<p>The captain at last said timidly, "Well, I'm afraid—I'm afraid we'll +have to——"</p> + +<p>The girl sprang to her feet again, and implored him with her hands. She +looked deep into his eyes with her glance, which was at this time like +that of the fawn when it says to the hunter, "Have mercy upon me!"</p> + +<p>These two stood regarding each other. The captain's foot was on the +bottom step, but he seemed to be shrinking. He wore an air of being +deeply wretched and ashamed. There was a silence.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the corporal said in a quick, low tone, "Look out, captain!"</p> + +<p>All turned their eyes swiftly toward the head of the stairs. There had +appeared there a youth in a gray uniform. He stood looking coolly down +at them. No word was said by the troopers. The girl gave vent to a +little wail of desolation, "O Harry!"</p> + +<p>He began slowly to descend the stairs. His right arm was in a white +sling, and there were some fresh blood stains upon the cloth. His face +was rigid and deathly pale, but his eyes flashed like lights. The girl +was again moaning in an utterly dreary fashion, as the youth came slowly +down toward the silent men in blue.</p> + +<p>Six steps from the bottom of the flight he halted and said, "I reckon +it's me you're looking for."</p> + +<p>The troopers had crowded forward a trifle and, posed in lithe, nervous +attitudes, were watching him like cats. The captain remained unmoved. At +the youth's question he merely nodded his head and said, "Yes."</p> + +<p>The young man in gray looked down at the girl, and then, in the same +even tone which now, however, seemed to vibrate with suppressed fury, he +said, "And is that any reason why you should insult my sister?"</p> + +<p>At this sentence, the girl intervened, desperately, between the young +man in gray and the officer in blue. "Oh, don't, Harry, don't! He was +good to me! He was good to me, Harry—indeed he was!"</p> + +<p>The youth came on in his quiet, erect fashion until the girl could have +touched either of the men with her hand, for the captain still remained +with his foot upon the first step. She continually repeated: "O Harry! O +Harry!"</p> + +<p>The youth in gray man[oe]uvred to glare into the captain's face, first +over one shoulder of the girl and then over the other. In a voice that +rang like metal, he said: "You are armed and unwounded, while I have no +weapons and am wounded; but——"</p> + +<p>The captain had stepped back and sheathed his sabre. The eyes of these +two men were gleaming fire, but otherwise the captain's countenance was +imperturbable. He said: "You are mistaken. You have no reason to——"</p> + +<p>"You lie!"</p> + +<p>All save the captain and the youth in gray started in an electric +movement. These two words crackled in the air like shattered glass. +There was a breathless silence.</p> + +<p>The captain cleared his throat. His look at the youth contained a +quality of singular and terrible ferocity, but he said in his stolid +tone, "I don't suppose you mean what you say now."</p> + +<p>Upon his arm he had felt the pressure of some unconscious little +fingers. The girl was leaning against the wall as if she no longer knew +how to keep her balance, but those fingers—he held his arm very still. +She murmured: "O Harry, don't! He was good to me—indeed he was!"</p> + +<p>The corporal had come forward until he in a measure confronted the youth +in gray, for he saw those fingers upon the captain's arm, and he knew +that sometimes very strong men were not able to move hand nor foot under +such conditions.</p> + +<p>The youth had suddenly seemed to become weak. He breathed heavily and +clung to the rail. He was glaring at the captain, and apparently +summoning all his will power to combat his weakness. The corporal +addressed him with profound straightforwardness, "Don't you be a derned +fool!" The youth turned toward him so fiercely that the corporal threw +up a knee and an elbow like a boy who expects to be cuffed.</p> + +<p>The girl pleaded with the captain. "You won't hurt him, will you? He +don't know what he's saying. He's wounded, you know. Please don't mind +him!"</p> + +<p>"I won't touch him," said the captain, with rather extraordinary +earnestness; "don't you worry about him at all. I won't touch him!"</p> + +<p>Then he looked at her, and the girl suddenly withdrew her fingers from +his arm.</p> + +<p>The corporal contemplated the top of the stairs, and remarked without +surprise, "There's another of 'em coming!"</p> + +<p>An old man was clambering down the stairs with much speed. He waved a +cane wildly. "Get out of my house, you thieves! Get out! I won't have +you cross my threshold! Get out!" He mumbled and wagged his head in an +old man's fury. It was plainly his intention to assault them.</p> + +<p>And so it occurred that a young girl became engaged in protecting a +stalwart captain, fully armed, and with eight grim troopers at his back, +from the attack of an old man with a walking-stick!</p> + +<p>A blush passed over the temples and brow of the captain, and he looked +particularly savage and weary. Despite the girl's efforts, he suddenly +faced the old man.</p> + +<p>"Look here," he said distinctly, "we came in because we had been +fighting in the woods yonder, and we concluded that some of the enemy +were in this house, especially when we saw a gray sleeve at the window. +But this young man is wounded, and I have nothing to say to him. I will +even take it for granted that there are no others like him upstairs. We +will go away, leaving your d——d old house just as we found it! And we +are no more thieves and rascals than you are!"</p> + +<p>The old man simply roared: "I haven't got a cow nor a pig nor a chicken +on the place! Your soldiers have stolen everything they could carry +away. They have torn down half my fences for firewood. This afternoon +some of your accursed bullets even broke my window panes!"</p> + +<p>The girl had been faltering: "Grandpa! O grandpa!"</p> + +<p>The captain looked at the girl. She returned his glance from the shadow +of the old man's shoulder. After studying her face a moment, he said, +"Well, we will go now." He strode toward the door and his men clanked +docilely after him.</p> + +<p>At this time there was the sound of harsh cries and rushing footsteps +from without. The door flew open, and a whirlwind composed of +blue-coated troopers came in with a swoop. It was headed by the +lieutenant. "Oh, here you are!" he cried, catching his breath. "We +thought——Oh, look at the girl!"</p> + +<p>The captain said intensely, "Shut up, you fool!"</p> + +<p>The men settled to a halt with a clash and a bang. There could be heard +the dulled sound of many hoofs outside of the house.</p> + +<p>"Did you order up the horses?" inquired the captain.</p> + +<p>"Yes. We thought——"</p> + +<p>"Well, then, let's get out of here," interrupted the captain morosely.</p> + +<p>The men began to filter out into the open air. The youth in gray had +been hanging dismally to the railing of the stairway. He now was +climbing slowly up to the second floor. The old man was addressing +himself directly to the serene corporal.</p> + +<p>"Not a chicken on the place!" he cried.</p> + +<p>"Well, I didn't take your chickens, did I?"</p> + +<p>"No, maybe you didn't, but——"</p> + +<p>The captain crossed the hall and stood before the girl in rather a +culprit's fashion. "You are not angry at me, are you?" he asked timidly.</p> + +<p>"No," she said. She hesitated a moment, and then suddenly held out her +hand. "You were good to me—and I'm—much obliged."</p> + +<p>The captain took her hand, and then he blushed, for he found himself +unable to formulate a sentence that applied in any way to the situation.</p> + +<p>She did not seem to heed that hand for a time.</p> + +<p>He loosened his grasp presently, for he was ashamed to hold it so long +without saying anything clever. At last, with an air of charging an +intrenched brigade, he contrived to say, "I would rather do anything +than frighten or trouble you."</p> + +<p>His brow was warmly perspiring. He had a sense of being hideous in his +dusty uniform and with his grimy face.</p> + +<p>She said, "Oh, I'm so glad it was you instead of somebody who might +have—might have hurt brother Harry and grandpa!"</p> + +<p>He told her, "I wouldn't have hurt 'em for anything!"</p> + +<p>There was a little silence.</p> + +<p>"Well, good-bye!" he said at last.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye!"</p> + +<p>He walked toward the door past the old man, who was scolding at the +vanishing figure of the corporal. The captain looked back. She had +remained there watching him.</p> + +<p>At the bugle's order, the troopers standing beside their horses swung +briskly into the saddle. The lieutenant said to the first sergeant:</p> + +<p>"Williams, did they ever meet before?"</p> + +<p>"Hanged if I know!"</p> + +<p>"Well, say——"</p> + +<p>The captain saw a curtain move at one of the windows. He cantered from +his position at the head of the column and steered his horse between two +flower beds.</p> + +<p>"Well, good-bye!"</p> + +<p>The squadron trampled slowly past.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye!"</p> + +<p>They shook hands.</p> + +<p>He evidently had something enormously important to say to her, but it +seems that he could not manage it. He struggled heroically. The bay +charger, with his great mystically solemn eyes, looked around the corner +of his shoulder at the girl.</p> + +<p>The captain studied a pine tree. The girl inspected the grass beneath +the window. The captain said hoarsely, "I don't suppose—I don't +suppose—I'll ever see you again!"</p> + +<p>She looked at him affrightedly and shrank back from the window. He +seemed to have woefully expected a reception of this kind for his +question. He gave her instantly a glance of appeal.</p> + +<p>She said, "Why, no, I don't suppose we will."</p> + +<p>"Never?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no, 'tain't possible. You—you are a—Yankee!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know it, but——" Eventually he continued, "Well, some day, you +know, when there's no more fighting, we might——" He observed that she +had again withdrawn suddenly into the shadow, so he said, "Well, +good-bye!"</p> + +<p>When he held her fingers she bowed her head, and he saw a pink blush +steal over the curves of her cheek and neck.</p> + +<p>"Am I never going to see you again?"</p> + +<p>She made no reply.</p> + +<p>"Never?" he repeated.</p> + +<p>After a long time, he bent over to hear a faint reply: "Sometimes—when +there are no troops in the neighbourhood—grandpa don't mind if I—walk +over as far as that old oak tree yonder—in the afternoons."</p> + +<p>It appeared that the captain's grip was very strong, for she uttered an +exclamation and looked at her fingers as if she expected to find them +mere fragments. He rode away.</p> + +<p>The bay horse leaped a flower bed. They were almost to the drive, when +the girl uttered a panic-stricken cry.</p> + +<p>The captain wheeled his horse violently and upon his return journey went +straight through a flower bed.</p> + +<p>The girl had clasped her hands. She beseeched him wildly with her eyes. +"Oh, please, don't believe it! I never walk to the old oak tree. Indeed, +I don't! I never—never—never walk there."</p> + +<p>The bridle drooped on the bay charger's neck. The captain's figure +seemed limp. With an expression of profound dejection and gloom he +stared off at where the leaden sky met the dark green line of the woods. +The long-impending rain began to fall with a mournful patter, drop and +drop. There was a silence.</p> + +<p>At last a low voice said, "Well—I might—sometimes I +might—perhaps—but only once in a great while—I might walk to the old +tree—in the afternoons."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_VETERAN" id="THE_VETERAN"></a>THE VETERAN.</h2> + + +<p>Out of the low window could be seen three hickory trees placed +irregularly in a meadow that was resplendent in springtime green. +Farther away, the old, dismal belfry of the village church loomed over +the pines. A horse meditating in the shade of one of the hickories +lazily swished his tail. The warm sunshine made an oblong of vivid +yellow on the floor of the grocery.</p> + +<p>"Could you see the whites of their eyes?" said the man who was seated on +a soap box.</p> + +<p>"Nothing of the kind," replied old Henry warmly. "Just a lot of flitting +figures, and I let go at where they 'peared to be the thickest. Bang!"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Fleming," said the grocer—his deferential voice expressed somehow +the old man's exact social weight—"Mr. Fleming, you never was +frightened much in them battles, was you?"</p> + +<p>The veteran looked down and grinned. Observing his manner, the entire +group tittered. "Well, I guess I was," he answered finally. "Pretty well +scared, sometimes. Why, in my first battle I thought the sky was falling +down. I thought the world was coming to an end. You bet I was scared."</p> + +<p>Every one laughed. Perhaps it seemed strange and rather wonderful to +them that a man should admit the thing, and in the tone of their +laughter there was probably more admiration than if old Fleming had +declared that he had always been a lion. Moreover, they knew that he had +ranked as an orderly sergeant, and so their opinion of his heroism was +fixed. None, to be sure, knew how an orderly sergeant ranked, but then +it was understood to be somewhere just shy of a major general's stars. +So, when old Henry admitted that he had been frightened, there was a +laugh.</p> + +<p>"The trouble was," said the old man, "I thought they were all shooting +at me. Yes, sir, I thought every man in the other army was aiming at me +in particular, and only me. And it seemed so darned unreasonable, +you know. I wanted to explain to 'em what an almighty good fellow +I was, because I thought then they might quit all trying +to hit me. But I couldn't explain, and they kept on being +unreasonable—blim!—blam!—bang! So I run!"</p> + +<p>Two little triangles of wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes. +Evidently he appreciated some comedy in this recital. Down near his +feet, however, little Jim, his grandson, was visibly horror-stricken. +His hands were clasped nervously, and his eyes were wide with +astonishment at this terrible scandal, his most magnificent grandfather +telling such a thing.</p> + +<p>"That was at Chancellorsville. Of course, afterward I got kind of used +to it. A man does. Lots of men, though, seem to feel all right from the +start. I did, as soon as I 'got on to it,' as they say now; but at first +I was pretty well flustered. Now, there was young Jim Conklin, old Si +Conklin's son—that used to keep the tannery—you none of you recollect +him—well, he went into it from the start just as if he was born to it. +But with me it was different. I had to get used to it."</p> + +<p>When little Jim walked with his grandfather he was in the habit of +skipping along on the stone pavement in front of the three stores and +the hotel of the town and betting that he could avoid the cracks. But +upon this day he walked soberly, with his hand gripping two of his +grandfather's fingers. Sometimes he kicked abstractedly at dandelions +that curved over the walk. Any one could see that he was much troubled.</p> + +<p>"There's Sickles's colt over in the medder, Jimmie," said the old man. +"Don't you wish you owned one like him?"</p> + +<p>"Um," said the boy, with a strange lack of interest. He continued his +reflections. Then finally he ventured, "Grandpa—now—was that true what +you was telling those men?"</p> + +<p>"What?" asked the grandfather. "What was I telling them?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, about your running."</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, that was true enough, Jimmie. It was my first fight, and +there was an awful lot of noise, you know."</p> + +<p>Jimmie seemed dazed that this idol, of its own will, should so totter. +His stout boyish idealism was injured.</p> + +<p>Presently the grandfather said: "Sickles's colt is going for a drink. +Don't you wish you owned Sickles's colt, Jimmie?"</p> + +<p>The boy merely answered, "He ain't as nice as our'n." He lapsed then +into another moody silence.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>One of the hired men, a Swede, desired to drive to the county seat for +purposes of his own. The old man loaned a horse and an unwashed buggy. +It appeared later that one of the purposes of the Swede was to get +drunk.</p> + +<p>After quelling some boisterous frolic of the farm hands and boys in the +garret, the old man had that night gone peacefully to sleep, when he was +aroused by clamouring at the kitchen door. He grabbed his trousers, and +they waved out behind as he dashed forward. He could hear the voice of +the Swede, screaming and blubbering. He pushed the wooden button, and, +as the door flew open, the Swede, a maniac, stumbled inward, chattering, +weeping, still screaming: "De barn fire! Fire! Fire! De barn fire! Fire! +Fire! Fire!"</p> + +<p>There was a swift and indescribable change in the old man. His face +ceased instantly to be a face; it became a mask, a gray thing, with +horror written about the mouth and eyes. He hoarsely shouted at the foot +of the little rickety stairs, and immediately, it seemed, there came +down an avalanche of men. No one knew that during this time the old lady +had been standing in her night clothes at the bedroom door, yelling: +"What's th' matter? What's th' matter? What's th' matter?"</p> + +<p>When they dashed toward the barn it presented to their eyes its usual +appearance, solemn, rather mystic in the black night. The Swede's +lantern was overturned at a point some yards in front of the barn doors. +It contained a wild little conflagration of its own, and even in their +excitement some of those who ran felt a gentle secondary vibration of +the thrifty part of their minds at sight of this overturned lantern. +Under ordinary circumstances it would have been a calamity.</p> + +<p>But the cattle in the barn were trampling, trampling, trampling, and +above this noise could be heard a humming like the song of innumerable +bees. The old man hurled aside the great doors, and a yellow flame +leaped out at one corner and sped and wavered frantically up the old +gray wall. It was glad, terrible, this single flame, like the wild +banner of deadly and triumphant foes.</p> + +<p>The motley crowd from the garret had come with all the pails of the +farm. They flung themselves upon the well. It was a leisurely old +machine, long dwelling in indolence. It was in the habit of giving out +water with a sort of reluctance. The men stormed at it, cursed it; but +it continued to allow the buckets to be filled only after the wheezy +windlass had howled many protests at the mad-handed men.</p> + +<p>With his opened knife in his hand old Fleming himself had gone headlong +into the barn, where the stifling smoke swirled with the air currents, +and where could be heard in its fulness the terrible chorus of the +flames, laden with tones of hate and death, a hymn of wonderful +ferocity.</p> + +<p>He flung a blanket over an old mare's head, cut the halter close to the +manger, led the mare to the door, and fairly kicked her out to safety. +He returned with the same blanket, and rescued one of the work horses. +He took five horses out, and then came out himself, with his clothes +bravely on fire. He had no whiskers, and very little hair on his head. +They soused five pailfuls of water on him. His eldest son made a clean +miss with the sixth pailful, because the old man had turned and was +running down the decline and around to the basement of the barn, where +were the stanchions of the cows. Some one noticed at the time that he +ran very lamely, as if one of the frenzied horses had smashed his hip.</p> + +<p>The cows, with their heads held in the heavy stanchions, had thrown +themselves, strangled themselves, tangled themselves: done everything +which the ingenuity of their exuberant fear could suggest to them.</p> + +<p>Here, as at the well, the same thing happened to every man save one. +Their hands went mad. They became incapable of everything save the power +to rush into dangerous situations.</p> + +<p>The old man released the cow nearest the door, and she, blind drunk with +terror, crashed into the Swede. The Swede had been running to and fro +babbling. He carried an empty milk pail, to which he clung with an +unconscious, fierce enthusiasm. He shrieked like one lost as he went +under the cow's hoofs, and the milk pail, rolling across the floor, made +a flash of silver in the gloom.</p> + +<p>Old Fleming took a fork, beat off the cow, and dragged the paralyzed +Swede to the open air. When they had rescued all the cows save one, +which had so fastened herself that she could not be moved an inch, they +returned to the front of the barn and stood sadly, breathing like men +who had reached the final point of human effort.</p> + +<p>Many people had come running. Some one had even gone to the church, and +now, from the distance, rang the tocsin note of the old bell. There was +a long flare of crimson on the sky, which made remote people speculate +as to the whereabouts of the fire.</p> + +<p>The long flames sang their drumming chorus in voices of the heaviest +bass. The wind whirled clouds of smoke and cinders into the faces of the +spectators. The form of the old barn was outlined in black amid these +masses of orange-hued flames.</p> + +<p>And then came this Swede again, crying as one who is the weapon of the +sinister fates. "De colts! De colts! You have forgot de colts!"</p> + +<p>Old Fleming staggered. It was true; they had forgotten the two colts in +the box stalls at the back of the barn. "Boys," he said, "I must try to +get 'em out." They clamoured about him then, afraid for him, afraid of +what they should see. Then they talked wildly each to each. "Why, it's +sure death!" "He would never get out!" "Why, it's suicide for a man to +go in there!" Old Fleming stared absent-mindedly at the open doors. "The +poor little things!" he said. He rushed into the barn.</p> + +<p>When the roof fell in, a great funnel of smoke swarmed toward the sky, +as if the old man's mighty spirit, released from its body—a little +bottle—had swelled like the genie of fable. The smoke was tinted +rose-hue from the flames, and perhaps the unutterable midnights of the +universe will have no power to daunt the colour of this soul.</p> + + +<h3>THE END.</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Other_Books_by_Stephen_Crane" id="Other_Books_by_Stephen_Crane"></a>Other Books by Stephen Crane.</h2> + + +<h3>The Red Badge of Courage.</h3> + +<h3>An Episode of the American Civil War.</h3> + +<blockquote><p>"Never before have we had the seamy side of glorious war so well +depicted."—<i>Chicago Evening Post.</i></p> + +<p>"Of such interest that no one having begun it will lay it aside +until the end is reached."—<i>Philadelphia Ledger.</i></p> + +<p>"We have had many stories of the war; this stands absolutely +alone."—<i>Boston Transcript.</i></p> + +<p>"Has no parallel, unless it be Tolstoy's 'Sebastopol.'"—<i>San +Francisco Chronicle.</i></p> + +<p>"A strong book, and it is a true book; true to life."—<i>The +Critic.</i></p> + +<p>"Has been surpassed by few writers dealing with war."—<i>New York +Mail and Express.</i></p></blockquote> + +<h3>Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.</h3> + +<blockquote><p>"By writing 'Maggie' Mr. Crane has made for himself a permanent +place in literature."—<i>New York Mail and Express.</i></p> + +<p>"Full of clever descriptions.... Written in short, terse sentences, +which compel the imagination rather than stimulate it."—<i>Boston +Herald.</i></p> + +<p>"A powerful portrayal."—<i>New York Times.</i></p></blockquote> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Little Regiment, by Stephen Crane + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE REGIMENT *** + +***** This file should be named 31488-h.htm or 31488-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/4/8/31488/ + +Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Little Regiment + And Other Episodes of the American Civil War + +Author: Stephen Crane + +Release Date: March 3, 2010 [EBook #31488] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE REGIMENT *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + +THE LITTLE REGIMENT + +AND OTHER EPISODES OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR + +BY STEPHEN CRANE + +Author of The Red Badge of Courage, and Maggie + + COPYRIGHT, 1896, + By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. + + _Copyright, 1895, 1896, by Stephen Crane._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +THE LITTLE REGIMENT + +THREE MIRACULOUS SOLDIERS + +A MYSTERY OF HEROISM + +AN INDIANA CAMPAIGN + +A GRAY SLEEVE + +THE VETERAN + + + + +THE LITTLE REGIMENT. + + + + +I. + + +The fog made the clothes of the men of the column in the roadway seem of +a luminous quality. It imparted to the heavy infantry overcoats a new +colour, a kind of blue which was so pale that a regiment might have been +merely a long, low shadow in the mist. However, a muttering, one part +grumble, three parts joke, hovered in the air above the thick ranks, and +blended in an undertoned roar, which was the voice of the column. + +The town on the southern shore of the little river loomed spectrally, a +faint etching upon the gray cloud-masses which were shifting with oily +languor. A long row of guns upon the northern bank had been pitiless in +their hatred, but a little battered belfry could be dimly seen still +pointing with invincible resolution toward the heavens. + +The enclouded air vibrated with noises made by hidden colossal things. +The infantry tramplings, the heavy rumbling of the artillery, made the +earth speak of gigantic preparation. Guns on distant heights thundered +from time to time with sudden, nervous roar, as if unable to endure in +silence a knowledge of hostile troops massing, other guns going to +position. These sounds, near and remote, defined an immense +battle-ground, described the tremendous width of the stage of the +prospective drama. The voices of the guns, slightly casual, unexcited in +their challenges and warnings, could not destroy the unutterable +eloquence of the word in the air, a meaning of impending struggle which +made the breath halt at the lips. + +The column in the roadway was ankle-deep in mud. The men swore piously +at the rain which drizzled upon them, compelling them to stand always +very erect in fear of the drops that would sweep in under their +coat-collars. The fog was as cold as wet cloths. The men stuffed their +hands deep in their pockets, and huddled their muskets in their arms. +The machinery of orders had rooted these soldiers deeply into the mud +precisely as almighty nature roots mullein stalks. + +They listened and speculated when a tumult of fighting came from the dim +town across the river. When the noise lulled for a time they resumed +their descriptions of the mud and graphically exaggerated the number of +hours they had been kept waiting. The general commanding their division +rode along the ranks, and they cheered admiringly, affectionately, +crying out to him gleeful prophecies of the coming battle. Each man +scanned him with a peculiarly keen personal interest, and afterward +spoke of him with unquestioning devotion and confidence, narrating +anecdotes which were mainly untrue. + +When the jokers lifted the shrill voices which invariably belonged to +them, flinging witticisms at their comrades, a loud laugh would sweep +from rank to rank, and soldiers who had not heard would lean forward and +demand repetition. When were borne past them some wounded men with gray +and blood-smeared faces, and eyes that rolled in that helpless +beseeching for assistance from the sky which comes with supreme pain, +the soldiers in the mud watched intently, and from time to time asked of +the bearers an account of the affair. Frequently they bragged of their +corps, their division, their brigade, their regiment. Anon they referred +to the mud and the cold drizzle. Upon this threshold of a wild scene of +death they, in short, defied the proportion of events with that +splendour of heedlessness which belongs only to veterans. + +"Like a lot of wooden soldiers," swore Billie Dempster, moving his feet +in the thick mass, and casting a vindictive glance indefinitely; +"standing in the mud for a hundred years." + +"Oh, shut up!" murmured his brother Dan. The manner of his words implied +that this fraternal voice near him was an indescribable bore. + +"Why should I shut up?" demanded Billie. + +"Because you're a fool," cried Dan, taking no time to debate it; "the +biggest fool in the regiment." + +There was but one man between them, and he was habituated. These insults +from brother to brother had swept across his chest, flown past his face, +many times during two long campaigns. Upon this occasion he simply +grinned first at one, then at the other. + +The way of these brothers was not an unknown topic in regimental gossip. +They had enlisted simultaneously, with each sneering loudly at the other +for doing it. They left their little town, and went forward with the +flag, exchanging protestations of undying suspicion. In the camp life +they so openly despised each other that, when entertaining quarrels were +lacking, their companions often contrived situations calculated to bring +forth display of this fraternal dislike. + +Both were large-limbed, strong young men, and often fought with friends +in camp unless one was near to interfere with the other. This latter +happened rather frequently, because Dan, preposterously willing for any +manner of combat, had a very great horror of seeing Billie in a fight; +and Billie, almost odiously ready himself, simply refused to see Dan +stripped to his shirt and with his fists aloft. This sat queerly upon +them, and made them the objects of plots. + +When Dan jumped through a ring of eager soldiers and dragged forth his +raving brother by the arm, a thing often predicted would almost come to +pass. When Billie performed the same office for Dan, the prediction +would again miss fulfilment by an inch. But indeed they never fought +together, although they were perpetually upon the verge. + +They expressed longing for such conflict. As a matter of truth, they had +at one time made full arrangement for it, but even with the +encouragement and interest of half of the regiment they somehow failed +to achieve collision. + +If Dan became a victim of police duty, no jeering was so destructive to +the feelings as Billie's comment. If Billie got a call to appear at the +headquarters, none would so genially prophesy his complete undoing as +Dan. Small misfortunes to one were, in truth, invariably greeted with +hilarity by the other, who seemed to see in them great re-enforcement of +his opinion. + +As soldiers, they expressed each for each a scorn intense and blasting. +After a certain battle, Billie was promoted to corporal. When Dan was +told of it, he seemed smitten dumb with astonishment and patriotic +indignation. He stared in silence, while the dark blood rushed to +Billie's forehead, and he shifted his weight from foot to foot. Dan at +last found his tongue, and said: "Well, I'm durned!" If he had heard +that an army mule had been appointed to the post of corps commander, his +tone could not have had more derision in it. Afterward, he adopted a +fervid insubordination, an almost religious reluctance to obey the new +corporal's orders, which came near to developing the desired strife. + +It is here finally to be recorded also that Dan, most ferociously +profane in speech, very rarely swore in the presence of his brother; and +that Billie, whose oaths came from his lips with the grace of falling +pebbles, was seldom known to express himself in this manner when near +his brother Dan. + +At last the afternoon contained a suggestion of evening. Metallic cries +rang suddenly from end to end of the column. They inspired at once a +quick, business-like adjustment. The long thing stirred in the mud. The +men had hushed, and were looking across the river. A moment later the +shadowy mass of pale blue figures was moving steadily toward the stream. +There could be heard from the town a clash of swift fighting and +cheering. The noise of the shooting coming through the heavy air had its +sharpness taken from it, and sounded in thuds. + +There was a halt upon the bank above the pontoons. When the column went +winding down the incline, and streamed out upon the bridge, the fog had +faded to a great degree, and in the clearer dusk the guns on a distant +ridge were enabled to perceive the crossing. The long whirling outcries +of the shells came into the air above the men. An occasional solid shot +struck the surface of the river, and dashed into view a sudden vertical +jet. The distance was subtly illuminated by the lightning from the +deep-booming guns. One by one the batteries on the northern shore +aroused, the innumerable guns bellowing in angry oration at the distant +ridge. The rolling thunder crashed and reverberated as a wild surf +sounds on a still night, and to this music the column marched across the +pontoons. + +The waters of the grim river curled away in a smile from the ends of the +great boats, and slid swiftly beneath the planking. The dark, riddled +walls of the town upreared before the troops, and from a region hidden +by these hammered and tumbled houses came incessantly the yells and +firings of a prolonged and close skirmish. + +When Dan had called his brother a fool, his voice had been so decisive, +so brightly assured, that many men had laughed, considering it to be +great humour under the circumstances. The incident happened to rankle +deep in Billie. It was not any strange thing that his brother had called +him a fool. In fact, he often called him a fool with exactly the same +amount of cheerful and prompt conviction, and before large audiences, +too. Billie wondered in his own mind why he took such profound offence +in this case; but, at any rate, as he slid down the bank and on to the +bridge with his regiment, he was searching his knowledge for something +that would pierce Dan's blithesome spirit. But he could contrive nothing +at this time, and his impotency made the glance which he was once able +to give his brother still more malignant. + +The guns far and near were roaring a fearful and grand introduction for +this column which was marching upon the stage of death. Billie felt it, +but only in a numb way. His heart was cased in that curious dissonant +metal which covers a man's emotions at such times. The terrible voices +from the hills told him that in this wide conflict his life was an +insignificant fact, and that his death would be an insignificant fact. +They portended the whirlwind to which he would be as necessary as a +butterfly's waved wing. The solemnity, the sadness of it came near +enough to make him wonder why he was neither solemn nor sad. When his +mind vaguely adjusted events according to their importance to him, it +appeared that the uppermost thing was the fact that upon the eve of +battle, and before many comrades, his brother had called him a fool. + +Dan was in a particularly happy mood. "Hurray! Look at 'em shoot," he +said, when the long witches' croon of the shells came into the air. It +enraged Billie when he felt the little thorn in him, and saw at the same +time that his brother had completely forgotten it. + +The column went from the bridge into more mud. At this southern end +there was a chaos of hoarse directions and commands. Darkness was coming +upon the earth, and regiments were being hurried up the slippery bank. +As Billie floundered in the black mud, amid the swearing, sliding crowd, +he suddenly resolved that, in the absence of other means of hurting Dan, +he would avoid looking at him, refrain from speaking to him, pay +absolutely no heed to his existence; and this done skilfully would, he +imagined, soon reduce his brother to a poignant sensitiveness. + +At the top of the bank the column again halted and rearranged itself, as +a man after a climb rearranges his clothing. Presently the great +steel-backed brigade, an infinitely graceful thing in the rhythm and +ease of its veteran movement, swung up a little narrow, slanting street. + +Evening had come so swiftly that the fighting on the remote borders of +the town was indicated by thin flashes of flame. Some building was on +fire, and its reflection upon the clouds was an oval of delicate pink. + + + + +II. + + +All demeanour of rural serenity had been wrenched violently from the +little town by the guns and by the waves of men which had surged through +it. The hand of war laid upon this village had in an instant changed it +to a thing of remnants. It resembled the place of a monstrous shaking of +the earth itself. The windows, now mere unsightly holes, made the +tumbled and blackened dwellings seem skeletons. Doors lay splintered to +fragments. Chimneys had flung their bricks everywhere. The artillery +fire had not neglected the rows of gentle shade-trees which had lined +the streets. Branches and heavy trunks cluttered the mud in drift-wood +tangles, while a few shattered forms had contrived to remain dejectedly, +mournfully upright. They expressed an innocence, a helplessness, which +perforce created a pity for their happening into this cauldron of +battle. Furthermore, there was under foot a vast collection of odd +things reminiscent of the charge, the fight, the retreat. There were +boxes and barrels filled with earth, behind which riflemen had lain +snugly, and in these little trenches were the dead in blue with the dead +in gray, the poses eloquent of the struggles for possession of the town +until the history of the whole conflict was written plainly in the +streets. + +And yet the spirit of this little city, its quaint individuality, poised +in the air above the ruins, defying the guns, the sweeping volleys; +holding in contempt those avaricious blazes which had attacked many +dwellings. The hard earthen sidewalks proclaimed the games that had been +played there during long lazy days, in the careful shadows of the trees. +"General Merchandise," in faint letters upon a long board, had to be +read with a slanted glance, for the sign dangled by one end; but the +porch of the old store was a palpable legend of wide-hatted men, +smoking. + +This subtle essence, this soul of the life that had been, brushed like +invisible wings the thoughts of the men in the swift columns that came +up from the river. + +In the darkness a loud and endless humming arose from the great blue +crowds bivouacked in the streets. From time to time a sharp spatter of +firing from far picket lines entered this bass chorus. The smell from +the smouldering ruins floated on the cold night breeze. + +Dan, seated ruefully upon the doorstep of a shot-pierced house, was +proclaiming the campaign badly managed. Orders had been issued +forbidding camp-fires. + +Suddenly he ceased his oration, and scanning the group of his comrades, +said: "Where's Billie? Do you know?" + +"Gone on picket." + +"Get out! Has he?" said Dan. "No business to go on picket. Why don't +some of them other corporals take their turn?" + +A bearded private was smoking his pipe of confiscated tobacco, seated +comfortably upon a horse-hair trunk which he had dragged from the house. +He observed: "_Was_ his turn." + +"No such thing," cried Dan. He and the man on the horse-hair trunk held +discussion in which Dan stoutly maintained that if his brother had been +sent on picket it was an injustice. He ceased his argument when another +soldier, upon whose arms could faintly be seen the two stripes of a +corporal, entered the circle. "Humph," said Dan, "where you been?" + +The corporal made no answer. Presently Dan said: "Billie, where you +been?" + +His brother did not seem to hear these inquiries. He glanced at the +house which towered above them, and remarked casually to the man on the +horse-hair trunk: "Funny, ain't it? After the pelting this town got, +you'd think there wouldn't be one brick left on another." + +"Oh," said Dan, glowering at his brother's back. "Getting mighty smart, +ain't you?" + +The absence of camp-fires allowed the evening to make apparent its +quality of faint silver light in which the blue clothes of the throng +became black, and the faces became white expanses, void of expression. +There was considerable excitement a short distance from the group around +the doorstep. A soldier had chanced upon a hoop-skirt, and arrayed in it +he was performing a dance amid the applause of his companions. Billie +and a greater part of the men immediately poured over there to witness +the exhibition. + +"What's the matter with Billie?" demanded Dan of the man upon the +horse-hair trunk. + +"How do I know?" rejoined the other in mild resentment. He arose and +walked away. When he returned he said briefly, in a weather-wise tone, +that it would rain during the night. + +Dan took a seat upon one end of the horse-hair trunk. He was facing the +crowd around the dancer, which in its hilarity swung this way and that +way. At times he imagined that he could recognise his brother's face. + +He and the man on the other end of the trunk thoughtfully talked of the +army's position. To their minds, infantry and artillery were in a most +precarious jumble in the streets of the town; but they did not grow +nervous over it, for they were used to having the army appear in a +precarious jumble to their minds. They had learned to accept such +puzzling situations as a consequence of their position in the ranks, and +were now usually in possession of a simple but perfectly immovable faith +that somebody understood the jumble. Even if they had been convinced +that the army was a headless monster, they would merely have nodded with +the veteran's singular cynicism. It was none of their business as +soldiers. Their duty was to grab sleep and food when occasion permitted, +and cheerfully fight wherever their feet were planted until more orders +came. This was a task sufficiently absorbing. + +They spoke of other corps, and this talk being confidential, their +voices dropped to tones of awe. "The Ninth"--"The First"--"The +Fifth"--"The Sixth"--"The Third"--the simple numerals rang with +eloquence, each having a meaning which was to float through many years +as no intangible arithmetical mist, but as pregnant with individuality +as the names of cities. + +Of their own corps they spoke with a deep veneration, an idolatry, a +supreme confidence which apparently would not blanch to see it match +against everything. + +It was as if their respect for other corps was due partly to a wonder +that organizations not blessed with their own famous numeral could take +such an interest in war. They could prove that their division was the +best in the corps, and that their brigade was the best in the division. +And their regiment--it was plain that no fortune of life was equal to +the chance which caused a man to be born, so to speak, into this +command, the keystone of the defending arch. + +At times Dan covered with insults the character of a vague, unnamed +general to whose petulance and busy-body spirit he ascribed the order +which made hot coffee impossible. + +Dan said that victory was certain in the coming battle. The other man +seemed rather dubious. He remarked upon the fortified line of hills, +which had impressed him even from the other side of the river. "Shucks," +said Dan. "Why, we--" He pictured a splendid overflowing of these hills +by the sea of men in blue. During the period of this conversation Dan's +glance searched the merry throng about the dancer. Above the babble of +voices in the street a far-away thunder could sometimes be +heard--evidently from the very edge of the horizon--the boom-boom of +restless guns. + + + + +III. + + +Ultimately the night deepened to the tone of black velvet. The outlines +of the fireless camp were like the faint drawings upon ancient tapestry. +The glint of a rifle, the shine of a button, might have been of threads +of silver and gold sewn upon the fabric of the night. There was little +presented to the vision, but to a sense more subtle there was +discernible in the atmosphere something like a pulse; a mystic beating +which would have told a stranger of the presence of a giant thing--the +slumbering mass of regiments and batteries. + +With fires forbidden, the floor of a dry old kitchen was thought to be a +good exchange for the cold earth of December, even if a shell had +exploded in it and knocked it so out of shape that when a man lay curled +in his blanket his last waking thought was likely to be of the wall that +bellied out above him as if strongly anxious to topple upon the score of +soldiers. + +Billie looked at the bricks ever about to descend in a shower upon his +face, listened to the industrious pickets plying their rifles on the +border of the town, imagined some measure of the din of the coming +battle, thought of Dan and Dan's chagrin, and rolling over in his +blanket went to sleep with satisfaction. + +At an unknown hour he was aroused by the creaking of boards. Lifting +himself upon his elbow, he saw a sergeant prowling among the sleeping +forms. The sergeant carried a candle in an old brass candle-stick. He +would have resembled some old farmer on an unusual midnight tour if it +were not for the significance of his gleaming buttons and striped +sleeves. + +Billie blinked stupidly at the light until his mind returned from the +journeys of slumber. The sergeant stooped among the unconscious +soldiers, holding the candle close, and peering into each face. + +"Hello, Haines," said Billie. "Relief?" + +"Hello, Billie," said the sergeant. "Special duty." + +"Dan got to go?" + +"Jameson, Hunter, McCormack, D. Dempster. Yes. Where is he?" + +"Over there by the winder," said Billie, gesturing. "What is it for, +Haines?" + +"You don't think I know, do you?" demanded the sergeant. He began to +pipe sharply but cheerily at men upon the floor. "Come, Mac, get up +here. Here's a special for you. Wake up, Jameson. Come along, Dannie, me +boy." + +Each man at once took this call to duty as a personal affront. They +pulled themselves out of their blankets, rubbed their eyes, and swore at +whoever was responsible. "Them's orders," cried the sergeant. "Come! Get +out of here." An undetailed head with dishevelled hair thrust out from a +blanket, and a sleepy voice said: "Shut up, Haines, and go home." + +When the detail clanked out of the kitchen, all but one of the remaining +men seemed to be again asleep. Billie, leaning on his elbow, was gazing +into darkness. When the footsteps died to silence, he curled himself +into his blanket. + +At the first cool lavender lights of daybreak he aroused again, and +scanned his recumbent companions. Seeing a wakeful one he asked: "Is Dan +back yet?" + +The man said: "Hain't seen 'im." + +Billie put both hands behind his head, and scowled into the air. "Can't +see the use of these cussed details in the night-time," he muttered in +his most unreasonable tones. "Darn nuisances. Why can't they--" He +grumbled at length and graphically. + +When Dan entered with the squad, however, Billie was convincingly +asleep. + + + + +IV. + + +The regiment trotted in double time along the street, and the colonel +seemed to quarrel over the right of way with many artillery officers. +Batteries were waiting in the mud, and the men of them, exasperated by +the bustle of this ambitious infantry, shook their fists from saddle and +caisson, exchanging all manner of taunts and jests. The slanted guns +continued to look reflectively at the ground. + +On the outskirts of the crumbled town a fringe of blue figures were +firing into the fog. The regiment swung out into skirmish lines, and the +fringe of blue figures departed, turning their backs and going joyfully +around the flank. + +The bullets began a low moan off toward a ridge which loomed faintly in +the heavy mist. When the swift crescendo had reached its climax, the +missiles zipped just overhead, as if piercing an invisible curtain. A +battery on the hill was crashing with such tumult that it was as if the +guns had quarrelled and had fallen pell-mell and snarling upon each +other. The shells howled on their journey toward the town. From short +range distance there came a spatter of musketry, sweeping along an +invisible line and making faint sheets of orange light. + +Some in the new skirmish lines were beginning to fire at various shadows +discerned in the vapour, forms of men suddenly revealed by some humour +of the laggard masses of clouds. The crackle of musketry began to +dominate the purring of the hostile bullets. Dan, in the front rank, +held his rifle poised, and looked into the fog keenly, coldly, with the +air of a sportsman. His nerves were so steady that it was as if they had +been drawn from his body, leaving him merely a muscular machine; but his +numb heart was somehow beating to the pealing march of the fight. + +The waving skirmish line went backward and forward, ran this way and +that way. Men got lost in the fog, and men were found again. Once they +got too close to the formidable ridge, and the thing burst out as if +repulsing a general attack. Once another blue regiment was apprehended +on the very edge of firing into them. Once a friendly battery began an +elaborate and scientific process of extermination. Always as busy as +brokers, the men slid here and there over the plain, fighting their +foes, escaping from their friends, leaving a history of many movements +in the wet yellow turf, cursing the atmosphere, blazing away every time +they could identify the enemy. + +In one mystic changing of the fog, as if the fingers of spirits were +drawing aside these draperies, a small group of the gray skirmishers, +silent, statuesque, were suddenly disclosed to Dan and those about him. +So vivid and near were they that there was something uncanny in the +revelation. + +There might have been a second of mutual staring. Then each rifle in +each group was at the shoulder. As Dan's glance flashed along the barrel +of his weapon, the figure of a man suddenly loomed as if the musket had +been a telescope. The short black beard, the slouch hat, the pose of the +man as he sighted to shoot, made a quick picture in Dan's mind. The same +moment, it would seem, he pulled his own trigger, and the man, smitten, +lurched forward, while his exploding rifle made a slanting crimson +streak in the air, and the slouch hat fell before the body. The billows +of the fog, governed by singular impulses, rolled between. + +"You got that feller sure enough," said a comrade to Dan. Dan looked at +him absent-mindedly. + + + + +V. + + +When the next morning calmly displayed another fog, the men of the +regiment exchanged eloquent comments; but they did not abuse it at +length, because the streets of the town now contained enough galloping +aides to make three troops of cavalry, and they knew that they had come +to the verge of the great fight. + +Dan conversed with the man who had once possessed a horse-hair trunk; +but they did not mention the line of hills which had furnished them in +more careless moments with an agreeable topic. They avoided it now as +condemned men do the subject of death, and yet the thought of it stayed +in their eyes as they looked at each other and talked gravely of other +things. + +The expectant regiment heaved a long sigh of relief when the sharp call: +"Fall in," repeated indefinitely, arose in the streets. It was +inevitable that a bloody battle was to be fought, and they wanted to get +it off their minds. They were, however, doomed again to spend a long +period planted firmly in the mud. They craned their necks, and wondered +where some of the other regiments were going. + +At last the mists rolled carelessly away. Nature made at this time all +provisions to enable foes to see each other, and immediately the roar of +guns resounded from every hill. The endless cracking of the skirmishers +swelled to rolling crashes of musketry. Shells screamed with +panther-like noises at the houses. Dan looked at the man of the +horse-hair trunk, and the man said: "Well, here she comes!" + +The tenor voices of younger officers and the deep and hoarse voices of +the older ones rang in the streets. These cries pricked like spurs. The +masses of men vibrated from the suddenness with which they were plunged +into the situation of troops about to fight. That the orders were +long-expected did not concern the emotion. + +Simultaneous movement was imparted to all these thick bodies of men and +horses that lay in the town. Regiment after regiment swung rapidly into +the streets that faced the sinister ridge. + +This exodus was theatrical. The little sober-hued village had been like +the cloak which disguises the king of drama. It was now put aside, and +an army, splendid thing of steel and blue, stood forth in the sunlight. + +Even the soldiers in the heavy columns drew deep breaths at the sight, +more majestic than they had dreamed. The heights of the enemy's position +were crowded with men who resembled people come to witness some mighty +pageant. But as the column moved steadily to their positions, the guns, +matter-of-fact warriors, doubled their number, and shells burst with red +thrilling tumult on the crowded plain. One came into the ranks of the +regiment, and after the smoke and the wrath of it had faded, leaving +motionless figures, everyone stormed according to the limits of his +vocabulary, for veterans detest being killed when they are not busy. + +The regiment sometimes looked sideways at its brigade companions +composed of men who had never been in battle; but no frozen blood could +withstand the heat of the splendour of this army before the eyes on the +plain, these lines so long that the flanks were little streaks, this +mass of men of one intention. The recruits carried themselves +heedlessly. At the rear was an idle battery, and three artillery men in +a foolish row on a caisson nudged each other and grinned at the +recruits. "You'll catch it pretty soon," they called out. They were +impersonally gleeful, as if they themselves were not also likely to +catch it pretty soon. But with this picture of an army in their hearts, +the new men perhaps felt the devotion which the drops may feel for the +wave; they were of its power and glory; they smiled jauntily at the +foolish row of gunners, and told them to go to blazes. + +The column trotted across some little bridges, and spread quickly into +lines of battle. Before them was a bit of plain, and back of the plain +was the ridge. There was no time left for considerations. The men were +staring at the plain, mightily wondering how it would feel to be out +there, when a brigade in advance yelled and charged. The hill was all +gray smoke and fire-points. + +That fierce elation in the terrors of war, catching a man's heart and +making it burn with such ardour that he becomes capable of dying, +flashed in the faces of the men like coloured lights, and made them +resemble leashed animals, eager, ferocious, daunting at nothing. The +line was really in its first leap before the wild, hoarse crying of the +orders. + +The greed for close quarters which is the emotion of a bayonet charge, +came then into the minds of the men and developed until it was a +madness. The field, with its faded grass of a Southern winter, seemed to +this fury miles in width. + +High, slow-moving masses of smoke, with an odour of burning cotton, +engulfed the line until the men might have been swimmers. Before them +the ridge, the shore of this gray sea, was outlined, crossed, and +re-crossed by sheets of flame. The howl of the battle arose to the noise +of innumerable wind demons. + +The line, galloping, scrambling, plunging like a herd of wounded horses, +went over a field that was sown with corpses, the records of other +charges. + +Directly in front of the black-faced, whooping Dan, carousing in this +onward sweep like a new kind of fiend, a wounded man appeared, raising +his shattered body, and staring at this rush of men down upon him. It +seemed to occur to him that he was to be trampled; he made a desperate, +piteous effort to escape; then finally huddled in a waiting heap. Dan +and the soldier near him widened the interval between them without +looking down, without appearing to heed the wounded man. This little +clump of blue seemed to reel past them as boulders reel past a train. + +Bursting through a smoke-wave, the scampering, unformed bunches came +upon the wreck of the brigade that had preceded them, a floundering mass +stopped afar from the hill by the swirling volleys. + +It was as if a necromancer had suddenly shown them a picture of the fate +which awaited them; but the line with muscular spasm hurled itself over +this wreckage and onward, until men were stumbling amid the relics of +other assaults, the point where the fire from the ridge consumed. + +The men, panting, perspiring, with crazed faces, tried to push against +it; but it was as if they had come to a wall. The wave halted, shuddered +in an agony from the quick struggle of its two desires, then toppled, +and broke into a fragmentary thing which has no name. + +Veterans could now at last be distinguished from recruits. The new +regiments were instantly gone, lost, scattered, as if they never had +been. But the sweeping failure of the charge, the battle, could not make +the veterans forget their business. With a last throe, the band of +maniacs drew itself up and blazed a volley at the hill, insignificant to +those iron intrenchments, but nevertheless expressing that singular +final despair which enables men coolly to defy the walls of a city of +death. + +After this episode the men renamed their command. They called it the +Little Regiment. + + + + +VI. + + +"I seen Dan shoot a feller yesterday. Yes sir. I'm sure it was him that +done it. And maybe he thinks about that feller now, and wonders if _he_ +tumbled down just about the same way. Them things come up in a man's +mind." + +Bivouac fires upon the sidewalks, in the streets, in the yards, threw +high their wavering reflections, which examined, like slim, red fingers, +the dingy, scarred walls and the piles of tumbled brick. The droning of +voices again arose from great blue crowds. + +The odour of frying bacon, the fragrance from countless little +coffee-pails floated among the ruins. The rifles, stacked in the +shadows, emitted flashes of steely light. Wherever a a flag lay +horizontally from one stack to another was the bed of an eagle which had +led men into the mystic smoke. + +The men about a particular fire were engaged in holding in check their +jovial spirits. They moved whispering around the blaze, although they +looked at it with a certain fine contentment, like labourers after a +day's hard work. + +There was one who sat apart. They did not address him save in tones +suddenly changed. They did not regard him directly, but always in little +sidelong glances. + +At last a soldier from a distant fire came into this circle of light. He +studied for a time the man who sat apart. Then he hesitatingly stepped +closer, and said: "Got any news, Dan?" + +"No," said Dan. + +The new-comer shifted his feet. He looked at the fire, at the sky, at +the other men, at Dan. His face expressed a curious despair; his tongue +was plainly in rebellion. Finally, however, he contrived to say: "Well, +there's some chance yet, Dan. Lots of the wounded are still lying out +there, you know. There's some chance yet." + +"Yes," said Dan. + +The soldier shifted his feet again, and looked miserably into the air. +After another struggle he said: "Well, there's some chance yet, Dan." He +moved hastily away. + +One of the men of the squad, perhaps encouraged by this example, now +approached the still figure. "No news yet, hey?" he said, after coughing +behind his hand. + +"No," said Dan. + +"Well," said the man, "I've been thinking of how he was fretting about +you the night you went on special duty. You recollect? Well, sir, I was +surprised. He couldn't say enough about it. I swan, I don't believe he +slep' a wink after you left, but just lay awake cussing special duty and +worrying. I was surprised. But there he lay cussing. He----" + +Dan made a curious sound, as if a stone had wedged in his throat. He +said: "Shut up, will you?" + +Afterward the men would not allow this moody contemplation of the fire +to be interrupted. + +"Oh, let him alone, can't you?" + +"Come away from there, Casey!" + +"Say, can't you leave him be?" + +They moved with reverence about the immovable figure, with its +countenance of mask-like invulnerability. + + + + +VII. + + +After the red round eye of the sun had stared long at the little plain +and its burden, darkness, a sable mercy, came heavily upon it, and the +wan hands of the dead were no longer seen in strange frozen gestures. + +The heights in front of the plain shone with tiny camp-fires, and from +the town in the rear, small shimmerings ascended from the blazes of the +bivouac. The plain was a black expanse upon which, from time to time, +dots of light, lanterns, floated slowly here and there. These fields +were long steeped in grim mystery. + +Suddenly, upon one dark spot, there was a resurrection. A strange thing +had been groaning there, prostrate. Then it suddenly dragged itself to a +sitting posture, and became a man. + +The man stared stupidly for a moment at the lights on the hill, then +turned and contemplated the faint colouring over the town. For some +moments he remained thus, staring with dull eyes, his face unemotional, +wooden. + +Finally he looked around him at the corpses dimly to be seen. No change +flashed into his face upon viewing these men. They seemed to suggest +merely that his information concerning himself was not too complete. He +ran his fingers over his arms and chest, bearing always the air of an +idiot upon a bench at an almshouse door. + +Finding no wound in his arms nor in his chest, he raised his hand to his +head, and the fingers came away with some dark liquid upon them. Holding +these fingers close to his eyes, he scanned them in the same stupid +fashion, while his body gently swayed. + +The soldier rolled his eyes again toward the town. When he arose, his +clothing peeled from the frozen ground like wet paper. Hearing the sound +of it, he seemed to see reason for deliberation. He paused and looked at +the ground, then at his trousers, then at the ground. + +Finally he went slowly off toward the faint reflection, holding his +hands palm outward before him, and walking in the manner of a blind man. + + + + +VIII. + + +The immovable Dan again sat unaddressed in the midst of comrades, who +did not joke aloud. The dampness of the usual morning fog seemed to make +the little camp-fires furious. + +Suddenly a cry arose in the streets, a shout of amazement and delight. +The men making breakfast at the fire looked up quickly. They broke forth +in clamorous exclamation: "Well! Of all things! Dan! Dan! Look who's +coming! Oh, Dan!" + +Dan the silent raised his eyes and saw a man, with a bandage of the size +of a helmet about his head, receiving a furious demonstration from the +company. He was shaking hands, and explaining, and haranguing to a high +degree. + +Dan started. His face of bronze flushed to his temples. He seemed about +to leap from the ground, but then suddenly he sank back, and resumed his +impassive gazing. + +The men were in a flurry. They looked from one to the other. "Dan! Look! +See who's coming!" some cried again. "Dan! Look!" + +He scowled at last, and moved his shoulders sullenly. "Well, don't I +know it?" + +But they could not be convinced that his eyes were in service. "Dan! Why +can't you look? See who's coming!" + +He made a gesture then of irritation and rage. "Curse it! Don't I know +it?" + +The man with a bandage of the size of a helmet moved forward, always +shaking hands and explaining. At times his glance wandered to Dan, who +saw with his eyes riveted. + +After a series of shiftings, it occurred naturally that the man with the +bandage was very near to the man who saw the flames. He paused, and +there was a little silence. Finally he said: "Hello, Dan." + +"Hello, Billie." + + + + +THREE MIRACULOUS SOLDIERS. + + + + +I. + + +The girl was in the front room on the second floor, peering through the +blinds. It was the "best room." There was a very new rag carpet on the +floor. The edges of it had been dyed with alternate stripes of red and +green. Upon the wooden mantel there were two little puffy figures in +clay--a shepherd and a shepherdess probably. A triangle of pink and +white wool hung carefully over the edge of this shelf. Upon the bureau +there was nothing at all save a spread newspaper, with edges folded to +make it into a mat. The quilts and sheets had been removed from the bed +and were stacked upon a chair. The pillows and the great feather +mattress were muffled and tumbled until they resembled great dumplings. +The picture of a man terribly leaden in complexion hung in an oval frame +on one white wall and steadily confronted the bureau. + +From between the slats of the blinds she had a view of the road as it +wended across the meadow to the woods, and again where it reappeared +crossing the hill, half a mile away. It lay yellow and warm in the +summer sunshine. From the long grasses of the meadow came the rhythmic +click of the insects. Occasional frogs in the hidden brook made a +peculiar chug-chug sound, as if somebody throttled them. The leaves of +the wood swung in gentle winds. Through the dark-green branches of the +pines that grew in the front yard could be seen the mountains, far to +the southeast, and inexpressibly blue. + +Mary's eyes were fastened upon the little streak of road that appeared +on the distant hill. Her face was flushed with excitement, and the hand +which stretched in a strained pose on the sill trembled because of the +nervous shaking of the wrist. The pines whisked their green needles with +a soft, hissing sound against the house. + +At last the girl turned from the window and went to the head of the +stairs. "Well, I just know they're coming, anyhow," she cried +argumentatively to the depths. + +A voice from below called to her angrily: "They ain't. We've never seen +one yet. They never come into this neighbourhood. You just come down +here and 'tend to your work insteader watching for soldiers." + +"Well, ma, I just know they're coming." + +A voice retorted with the shrillness and mechanical violence of +occasional housewives. The girl swished her skirts defiantly and +returned to the window. + +Upon the yellow streak of road that lay across the hillside there now +was a handful of black dots--horsemen. A cloud of dust floated away. The +girl flew to the head of the stairs and whirled down into the kitchen. + +"They're coming! They're coming!" + +It was as if she had cried "Fire!" Her mother had been peeling potatoes +while seated comfortably at the table. She sprang to her feet. "No--it +can't be--how you know it's them--where?" The stubby knife fell from her +hand, and two or three curls of potato skin dropped from her apron to +the floor. + +The girl turned and dashed upstairs. Her mother followed, gasping for +breath, and yet contriving to fill the air with questions, reproach, and +remonstrance. The girl was already at the window, eagerly pointing. +"There! There! See 'em! See 'em!" + +Rushing to the window, the mother scanned for an instant the road on the +hill. She crouched back with a groan. "It's them, sure as the world! +It's them!" She waved her hands in despairing gestures. + +The black dots vanished into the wood. The girl at the window was +quivering and her eyes were shining like water when the sun flashes. +"Hush! They're in the woods! They'll be here directly." She bent down +and intently watched the green archway whence the road emerged. "Hush! I +hear 'em coming," she swiftly whispered to her mother, for the elder +woman had dropped dolefully upon the mattress and was sobbing. And +indeed the girl could hear the quick, dull trample of horses. She +stepped aside with sudden apprehension, but she bent her head forward in +order to still scan the road. + +"Here they are!" + +There was something very theatrical in the sudden appearance of these +men to the eyes of the girl. It was as if a scene had been shifted. The +forest suddenly disclosed them--a dozen brown-faced troopers in +blue--galloping. + +"Oh, look!" breathed the girl. Her mouth was puckered into an expression +of strange fascination as if she had expected to see the troopers change +into demons and gloat at her. She was at last looking upon those curious +beings who rode down from the North--those men of legend and colossal +tale--they who were possessed of such marvellous hallucinations. + +The little troop rode in silence. At its head was a youthful fellow with +some dim yellow stripes upon his arm. In his right hand he held his +carbine, slanting upward, with the stock resting upon his knee. He was +absorbed in a scrutiny of the country before him. + +At the heels of the sergeant the rest of the squad rode in thin column, +with creak of leather and tinkle of steel and tin. The girl scanned the +faces of the horsemen, seeming astonished vaguely to find them of the +type she knew. + +The lad at the head of the troop comprehended the house and its +environments in two glances. He did not check the long, swinging stride +of his horse. The troopers glanced for a moment like casual tourists, +and then returned to their study of the region in front. The heavy +thudding of the hoofs became a small noise. The dust, hanging in sheets, +slowly sank. + +The sobs of the woman on the bed took form in words which, while strong +in their note of calamity, yet expressed a querulous mental reaching for +some near thing to blame. "And it'll be lucky fer us if we ain't both +butchered in our sleep--plundering and running off horses--old Santo's +gone--you see if he ain't--plundering----" + +"But, ma," said the girl, perplexed and terrified in the same moment, +"they've gone." + +"Oh, but they'll come back!" cried the mother, without pausing her wail. +"They'll come back--trust them for that--running off horses. O John, +John! why did you, why did you?" She suddenly lifted herself and sat +rigid, staring at her daughter. "Mary," she said in tragic whisper, "the +kitchen door isn't locked!" Already she was bended forward to listen, +her mouth agape, her eyes fixed upon her daughter. + +"Mother," faltered the girl. + +Her mother again whispered, "The kitchen door isn't locked." + +Motionless and mute they stared into each other's eyes. + +At last the girl quavered, "We better--we better go and lock it." The +mother nodded. Hanging arm in arm they stole across the floor toward the +head of the stairs. A board of the floor creaked. They halted and +exchanged a look of dumb agony. + +At last they reached the head of the stairs. From the kitchen came the +bass humming of the kettle and frequent sputterings and cracklings from +the fire. These sounds were sinister. The mother and the girl stood +incapable of movement. "There's somebody down there!" whispered the +elder woman. + +Finally, the girl made a gesture of resolution. She twisted her arm from +her mother's hands and went two steps downward. She addressed the +kitchen: "Who's there?" Her tone was intended to be dauntless. It rang +so dramatically in the silence that a sudden new panic seized them as if +the suspected presence in the kitchen had cried out to them. But the +girl ventured again: "Is there anybody there?" No reply was made save by +the kettle and the fire. + +With a stealthy tread the girl continued her journey. As she neared the +last step the fire crackled explosively and the girl screamed. But the +mystic presence had not swept around the corner to grab her, so she +dropped to a seat on the step and laughed. "It was--was only the--the +fire," she said, stammering hysterically. + +Then she arose with sudden fortitude and cried: "Why, there isn't +anybody there! I know there isn't." She marched down into the kitchen. +In her face was dread, as if she half expected to confront something, +but the room was empty. She cried joyously: "There's nobody here! Come +on down, ma." She ran to the kitchen door and locked it. + +The mother came down to the kitchen. "Oh, dear, what a fright I've had! +It's given me the sick headache. I know it has." + +"Oh, ma," said the girl. + +"I know it has--I know it. Oh, if your father was only here! He'd settle +those Yankees mighty quick--he'd settle 'em! Two poor helpless +women----" + +"Why, ma, what makes you act so? The Yankees haven't----" + +"Oh, they'll be back--they'll be back. Two poor helpless women! Your +father and your uncle Asa and Bill off galavanting around and fighting +when they ought to be protecting their home! That's the kind of men they +are. Didn't I say to your father just before he left----" + +"Ma," said the girl, coming suddenly from the window, "the barn door is +open. I wonder if they took old Santo?" + +"Oh, of course they have--of course----Mary, I don't see what we are +going to do--I don't see what we are going to do." + +The girl said, "Ma, I'm going to see if they took old Santo." + +"Mary," cried the mother, "don't you dare!" + +"But think of poor old Sant, ma." + +"Never you mind old Santo. We're lucky to be safe ourselves, I tell you. +Never mind old Santo. Don't you dare to go out there, Mary--Mary!" + +The girl had unlocked the door and stepped out upon the porch. The +mother cried in despair, "Mary!" + +"Why, there isn't anybody out here," the girl called in response. She +stood for a moment with a curious smile upon her face as of gleeful +satisfaction at her daring. + +The breeze was waving the boughs of the apple trees. A rooster with an +air importantly courteous was conducting three hens upon a foraging +tour. On the hillside at the rear of the gray old barn the red leaves of +a creeper flamed amid the summer foliage. High in the sky clouds rolled +toward the north. The girl swung impulsively from the little stoop and +ran toward the barn. + +The great door was open, and the carved peg which usually performed the +office of a catch lay on the ground. The girl could not see into the +barn because of the heavy shadows. She paused in a listening attitude +and heard a horse munching placidly. She gave a cry of delight and +sprang across the threshold. Then she suddenly shrank back and gasped. +She had confronted three men in gray seated upon the floor with their +legs stretched out and their backs against Santo's manger. Their +dust-covered countenances were expanded in grins. + + + + +II. + + +As Mary sprang backward and screamed, one of the calm men in gray, still +grinning, announced, "I knowed you'd holler." Sitting there comfortably +the three surveyed her with amusement. + +Mary caught her breath, throwing her hand up to her throat. "Oh!" she +said, "you--you frightened me!" + +"We're sorry, lady, but couldn't help it no way," cheerfully responded +another. "I knowed you'd holler when I seen you coming yere, but I +raikoned we couldn't help it no way. We hain't a-troubling this yere +barn, I don't guess. We been doing some mighty tall sleeping yere. We +done woke when them Yanks loped past." + +"Where did you come from? Did--did you escape from the--the Yankees?" +The girl still stammered and trembled. The three soldiers laughed. "No, +m'm. No, m'm. They never cotch us. We was in a muss down the road yere +about two mile. And Bill yere they gin it to him in the arm, kehplunk. +And they pasted me thar, too. Curious. And Sim yere, he didn't get +nothing, but they chased us all quite a little piece, and we done lose +track of our boys." + +"Was it--was it those who passed here just now? Did they chase you?" + +The men in gray laughed again. "What--them? No, indeedee! There was a +mighty big swarm of Yanks and a mighty big swarm of our boys, too. +What--that little passel? No, m'm." + +She became calm enough to scan them more attentively. They were much +begrimed and very dusty. Their gray clothes were tattered. Splashed mud +had dried upon them in reddish spots. It appeared, too, that the men had +not shaved in many days. In the hats there was a singular diversity. One +soldier wore the little blue cap of the Northern infantry, with corps +emblem and regimental number; one wore a great slouch hat with a wide +hole in the crown; and the other wore no hat at all. The left sleeve of +one man and the right sleeve of another had been slit and the arms were +neatly bandaged with clean cloth. "These hain't no more than two little +cuts," explained one. "We stopped up yere to Mis' Leavitts--she said her +name was--and she bind them for us. Bill yere, he had the thirst come on +him. And the fever too. We----" + +"Did you ever see my father in the army?" asked Mary. "John +Hinckson--his name is." + +The three soldiers grinned again, but they replied kindly: "No, m'm. No, +m'm, we hain't never. What is he--in the cavalry?" + +"No," said the girl. "He and my uncle Asa and my cousin--his name is +Bill Parker--they are all with Longstreet--they call him." + +"Oh," said the soldiers. "Longstreet? Oh, they're a good smart ways from +yere. 'Way off up nawtheast. There hain't nothing but cavalry down yere. +They're in the infantry, probably." + +"We haven't heard anything from them for days and days," said Mary. + +"Oh, they're all right in the infantry," said one man, to be consoling. +"The infantry don't do much fighting. They go bellering out in a big +swarm and only a few of 'em get hurt. But if they was in the +cavalry--the cavalry----" + +Mary interrupted him without intention. "Are you hungry?" she asked. + +The soldiers looked at each other, struck by some sudden and singular +shame. They hung their heads. "No, m'm," replied one at last. + +Santo, in his stall, was tranquilly chewing and chewing. Sometimes he +looked benevolently over at them. He was an old horse and there was +something about his eyes and his forelock which created the impression +that he wore spectacles. Mary went and patted his nose. "Well, if you +are hungry, I can get you something," she told the men. "Or you might +come to the house." + +"We wouldn't dast go to the house," said one. "That passel of Yanks was +only a scouting crowd, most like. Just an advance. More coming, likely." + +"Well, I can bring you something," cried the girl eagerly. "Won't you +let me bring you something?" + +"Well," said a soldier with embarrassment, "we hain't had much. If you +could bring us a little snack-like--just a snack--we'd----" + +Without waiting for him to cease, the girl turned toward the door. But +before she had reached it she stopped abruptly. "Listen!" she whispered. +Her form was bent forward, her head turned and lowered, her hand +extended toward the men in a command for silence. + +They could faintly hear the thudding of many hoofs, the clank of arms, +and frequent calling voices. + +"By cracky, it's the Yanks!" The soldiers scrambled to their feet and +came toward the door. "I knowed that first crowd was only an advance." + +The girl and the three men peered from the shadows of the barn. The view +of the road was intersected by tree trunks and a little henhouse. +However, they could see many horsemen streaming down the road. The +horsemen were in blue. "Oh, hide--hide--hide!" cried the girl, with a +sob in her voice. + +"Wait a minute," whispered a gray soldier excitedly. "Maybe they're +going along by. No, by thunder, they hain't! They're halting. Scoot, +boys!" + +They made a noiseless dash into the dark end of the barn. The girl, +standing by the door, heard them break forth an instant later in +clamorous whispers. "Where'll we hide? Where'll we hide? There hain't a +place to hide!" The girl turned and glanced wildly about the barn. It +seemed true. The stock of hay had grown low under Santo's endless +munching, and from occasional levyings by passing troopers in gray. The +poles of the mow were barely covered, save in one corner where there was +a little bunch. + +The girl espied the great feed box. She ran to it and lifted the lid. +"Here! here!" she called. "Get in here." + +They had been tearing noiselessly around the rear part of the barn. At +her low call they came and plunged at the box. They did not all get in +at the same moment without a good deal of a tangle. The wounded men +gasped and muttered, but they at last were flopped down on the layer of +feed which covered the bottom. Swiftly and softly the girl lowered the +lid and then turned like a flash toward the door. + +No one appeared there, so she went close to survey the situation. The +troopers had dismounted and stood in silence by their horses. A +gray-bearded man, whose red cheeks and nose shone vividly above the +whiskers, was strolling about with two or three others. They wore +double-breasted coats, and faded yellow sashes were wound under their +black leather sword belts. The gray-bearded soldier was apparently +giving orders, pointing here and there. + +Mary tiptoed to the feed box. "They've all got off their horses," she +said to it. A finger projected from a knothole near the top and said to +her very plainly, "Come closer." She obeyed, and then a muffled voice +could be heard: "Scoot for the house, lady, and if we don't see you +again, why, much obliged for what you done." + +"Good-bye," she said to the feed box. + +She made two attempts to walk dauntlessly from the barn, but each time +she faltered and failed just before she reached the point where she +could have been seen by the blue-coated troopers. At last, however, she +made a sort of a rush forward and went out into the bright sunshine. + +The group of men in double-breasted coats wheeled in her direction at +the instant. The gray-bearded officer forgot to lower his arm which had +been stretched forth in giving an order. + +She felt that her feet were touching the ground in a most unnatural +manner. Her bearing, she believed, was suddenly grown awkward and +ungainly. Upon her face she thought that this sentence was plainly +written: "There are three men hidden in the feed box." + +The gray-bearded soldier came toward her. She stopped; she seemed about +to run away. But the soldier doffed his little blue cap and looked +amiable. "You live here, I presume?" he said. + +"Yes," she answered. + +"Well, we are obliged to camp here for the night, and as we've got two +wounded men with us I don't suppose you'd mind if we put them in the +barn." + +"In--in the barn?" + +He became aware that she was agitated. He smiled assuringly. "You +needn't be frightened. We won't hurt anything around here. You'll all be +safe enough." + +The girl balanced on one foot and swung the other to and fro in the +grass. She was looking down at it. "But--but I don't think ma would like +it if--if you took the barn." + +The old officer laughed. "Wouldn't she?" said he. "That's so. Maybe she +wouldn't." He reflected for a time and then decided cheerfully: "Well, +we will have to go ask her, anyhow. Where is she? In the house?" + +"Yes," replied the girl, "she's in the house. She--she'll be scared to +death when she sees you!" + +"Well, you go and ask her then," said the soldier, always wearing a +benign smile. "You go ask her and then come and tell me." + +When the girl pushed open the door and entered the kitchen, she found it +empty. "Ma!" she called softly. There was no answer. The kettle still +was humming its low song. The knife and the curl of potato skin lay on +the floor. + +She went to her mother's room and entered timidly. The new, lonely +aspect of the house shook her nerves. Upon the bed was a confusion of +coverings. "Ma!" called the girl, quaking in fear that her mother was +not there to reply. But there was a sudden turmoil of the quilts, and +her mother's head was thrust forth. "Mary!" she cried, in what seemed to +be a supreme astonishment, "I thought--I thought----" + +"Oh, ma," blurted the girl, "there's over a thousand Yankees in the +yard, and I've hidden three of our men in the feed box!" + +The elder woman, however, upon the appearance of her daughter had begun +to thrash hysterically about on the bed and wail. + +"Ma," the girl exclaimed, "and now they want to use the barn--and our +men in the feed box! What shall I do, ma? What shall I do?" + +Her mother did not seem to hear, so absorbed was she in her grievous +flounderings and tears. "Ma!" appealed the girl. "Ma!" + +For a moment Mary stood silently debating, her lips apart, her eyes +fixed. Then she went to the kitchen window and peeked. + +The old officer and the others were staring up the road. She went to +another window in order to get a proper view of the road, and saw that +they were gazing at a small body of horsemen approaching at a trot and +raising much dust. Presently she recognised them as the squad that had +passed the house earlier, for the young man with the dim yellow chevron +still rode at their head. An unarmed horseman in gray was receiving +their close attention. + +As they came very near to the house she darted to the first window +again. The gray-bearded officer was smiling a fine broad smile of +satisfaction. "So you got him?" he called out. The young sergeant sprang +from his horse and his brown hand moved in a salute. The girl could not +hear his reply. She saw the unarmed horseman in gray stroking a very +black mustache and looking about him coolly and with an interested air. +He appeared so indifferent that she did not understand he was a prisoner +until she heard the graybeard call out: "Well, put him in the barn. +He'll be safe there, I guess." A party of troopers moved with the +prisoner toward the barn. + +The girl made a sudden gesture of horror, remembering the three men in +the feed box. + + + + +III. + + +The busy troopers in blue scurried about the long lines of stamping +horses. Men crooked their backs and perspired in order to rub with +cloths or bunches of grass these slim equine legs, upon whose splendid +machinery they depended so greatly. The lips of the horses were still +wet and frothy from the steel bars which had wrenched at their mouths +all day. Over their backs and about their noses sped the talk of the +men. + +"Moind where yer plug is steppin', Finerty! Keep 'im aff me!" + +"An ould elephant! He shtrides like a schoolhouse." + +"Bill's little mar--she was plum beat when she come in with Crawford's +crowd." + +"Crawford's the hardest-ridin' cavalryman in the army. An he don't use +up a horse, neither--much. They stay fresh when the others are most +a-droppin'." + +"Finerty, will yeh moind that cow a yours?" + +Amid a bustle of gossip and banter, the horses retained their air of +solemn rumination, twisting their lower jaws from side to side and +sometimes rubbing noses dreamfully. + +Over in front of the barn three troopers sat talking comfortably. Their +carbines were leaned against the wall. At their side and outlined in the +black of the open door stood a sentry, his weapon resting in the hollow +of his arm. Four horses, saddled and accoutred, were conferring with +their heads close together. The four bridle reins were flung over a +post. + +Upon the calm green of the land, typical in every way of peace, the hues +of war brought thither by the troops shone strangely. Mary, gazing +curiously, did not feel that she was contemplating a familiar scene. It +was no longer the home acres. The new blue, steel, and faded yellow +thoroughly dominated the old green and brown. She could hear the voices +of the men, and it seemed from their tone that they had camped there for +years. Everything with them was usual. They had taken possession of the +landscape in such a way that even the old marks appeared strange and +formidable to the girl. + +Mary had intended to go and tell the commander in blue that her mother +did not wish his men to use the barn at all, but she paused when she +heard him speak to the sergeant. She thought she perceived then that it +mattered little to him what her mother wished, and that an objection by +her or by anybody would be futile. She saw the soldiers conduct the +prisoner in gray into the barn, and for a long time she watched the +three chatting guards and the pondering sentry. Upon her mind in +desolate weight was the recollection of the three men in the feed box. + +It seemed to her that in a case of this description it was her duty to +be a heroine. In all the stories she had read when at boarding school in +Pennsylvania, the girl characters, confronted with such difficulties, +invariably did hair breadth things. True, they were usually bent upon +rescuing and recovering their lovers, and neither the calm man in gray +nor any of the three in the feed box was lover of hers, but then a real +heroine would not pause over this minor question. Plainly a heroine +would take measures to rescue the four men. If she did not at least make +the attempt, she would be false to those carefully constructed ideals +which were the accumulation of years of dreaming. + +But the situation puzzled her. There was the barn with only one door, +and with four armed troopers in front of this door, one of them with his +back to the rest of the world, engaged, no doubt, in a steadfast +contemplation of the calm man and, incidentally, of the feed box. She +knew, too, that even if she should open the kitchen door, three heads +and perhaps four would turn casually in her direction. Their ears were +real ears. + +Heroines, she knew, conducted these matters with infinite precision and +despatch. They severed the hero's bonds, cried a dramatic sentence, and +stood between him and his enemies until he had run far enough away. She +saw well, however, that even should she achieve all things up to the +point where she might take glorious stand between the escaping and the +pursuers, those grim troopers in blue would not pause. They would run +around her, make a circuit. One by one she saw the gorgeous contrivances +and expedients of fiction fall before the plain, homely difficulties of +this situation. They were of no service. Sadly, ruefully, she thought of +the calm man and of the contents of the feed box. + +The sum of her invention was that she could sally forth to the commander +of the blue cavalry, and confessing to him that there were three of her +friends and his enemies secreted in the feed box, pray him to let them +depart unmolested. But she was beginning to believe the old graybeard to +be a bear. It was hardly probable that he would give this plan his +support. It was more probable that he and some of his men would at once +descend upon the feed box and confiscate her three friends. The +difficulty with her idea was that she could not learn its value without +trying it, and then in case of failure it would be too late for remedies +and other plans. She reflected that war made men very unreasonable. + +All that she could do was to stand at the window and mournfully regard +the barn. She admitted this to herself with a sense of deep humiliation. +She was not, then, made of that fine stuff, that mental satin, which +enabled some other beings to be of such mighty service to the +distressed. She was defeated by a barn with one door, by four men with +eight eyes and eight ears--trivialities that would not impede the real +heroine. + +The vivid white light of broad day began slowly to fade. Tones of gray +came upon the fields, and the shadows were of lead. In this more sombre +atmosphere the fires built by the troops down in the far end of the +orchard grew more brilliant, becoming spots of crimson colour in the +dark grove. + +The girl heard a fretting voice from her mother's room. "Mary!" She +hastily obeyed the call. She perceived that she had quite forgotten her +mother's existence in this time of excitement. + +The elder woman still lay upon the bed. Her face was flushed and +perspiration stood amid new wrinkles upon her forehead. Weaving wild +glances from side to side, she began to whimper. "Oh, I'm just sick--I'm +just sick! Have those men gone yet? Have they gone?" + +The girl smoothed a pillow carefully for her mother's head. "No, ma. +They're here yet. But they haven't hurt anything--it doesn't seem. Will +I get you something to eat?" + +Her mother gestured her away with the impatience of the ill. +"No--no--just don't bother me. My head is splitting, and you know very +well that nothing can be done for me when I get one of these spells. +It's trouble--that's what makes them. When are those men going? Look +here, don't you go 'way. You stick close to the house now." + +"I'll stay right here," said the girl. She sat in the gloom and listened +to her mother's incessant moaning. When she attempted to move, her +mother cried out at her. When she desired to ask if she might try to +alleviate the pain, she was interrupted shortly. Somehow her sitting in +passive silence within hearing of this illness seemed to contribute to +her mother's relief. She assumed a posture of submission. Sometimes her +mother projected questions concerning the local condition, and although +she laboured to be graphic and at the same time soothing, unalarming, +her form of reply was always displeasing to the sick woman, and brought +forth ejaculations of angry impatience. + +Eventually the woman slept in the manner of one worn from terrible +labour. The girl went slowly and softly to the kitchen. When she looked +from the window, she saw the four soldiers still at the barn door. In +the west, the sky was yellow. Some tree trunks intersecting it appeared +black as streaks of ink. Soldiers hovered in blue clouds about the +bright splendour of the fires in the orchard. There were glimmers of +steel. + +The girl sat in the new gloom of the kitchen and watched. The soldiers +lit a lantern and hung it in the barn. Its rays made the form of the +sentry seem gigantic. Horses whinnied from the orchard. There was a low +hum of human voices. Sometimes small detachments of troopers rode past +the front of the house. The girl heard the abrupt calls of sentries. She +fetched some food and ate it from her hand, standing by the window. She +was so afraid that something would occur that she barely left her post +for an instant. + +A picture of the interior of the barn hung vividly in her mind. She +recalled the knot-holes in the boards at the rear, but she admitted that +the prisoners could not escape through them. She remembered some +inadequacies of the roof, but these also counted for nothing. When +confronting the problem, she felt her ambitions, her ideals tumbling +headlong like cottages of straw. + +Once she felt that she had decided to reconnoitre at any rate. It was +night; the lantern at the barn and the camp fires made everything +without their circle into masses of heavy mystic blackness. She took two +steps toward the door. But there she paused. Innumerable possibilities +of danger had assailed her mind. She returned to the window and stood +wavering. At last, she went swiftly to the door, opened it, and slid +noiselessly into the darkness. + +For a moment she regarded the shadows. Down in the orchard the camp +fires of the troops appeared precisely like a great painting, all in +reds upon a black cloth. The voices of the troopers still hummed. The +girl started slowly off in the opposite direction. Her eyes were fixed +in a stare; she studied the darkness in front for a moment, before she +ventured upon a forward step. Unconsciously, her throat was arranged for +a sudden shrill scream. High in the tree branches she could hear the +voice of the wind, a melody of the night, low and sad, the plaint of an +endless, incommunicable sorrow. Her own distress, the plight of the men +in gray--these near matters as well as all she had known or imagined of +grief--everything was expressed in this soft mourning of the wind in the +trees. At first she felt like weeping. This sound told her of human +impotency and doom. Then later the trees and the wind breathed strength +to her, sang of sacrifice, of dauntless effort, of hard carven faces +that did not blanch when Duty came at midnight or at noon. + +She turned often to scan the shadowy figures that moved from time to +time in the light at the barn door. Once she trod upon a stick, and it +flopped, crackling in the intolerable manner of all sticks. At this +noise, however, the guards at the barn made no sign. Finally, she was +where she could see the knot-holes in the rear of the structure gleaming +like pieces of metal from the effect of the light within. Scarcely +breathing in her excitement she glided close and applied an eye to a +knothole. She had barely achieved one glance at the interior before she +sprang back shuddering. + +For the unconscious and cheerful sentry at the door was swearing away in +flaming sentences, heaping one gorgeous oath upon another, making a +conflagration of his description of his troop horse. + +"Why," he was declaring to the calm prisoner in gray, "you ain't got a +horse in your hull ---- army that can run forty rod with that there +little mar'!" + +As in the outer darkness Mary cautiously returned to the knothole, the +three guards in front suddenly called in low tones: "S-s-s-h!" + +"Quit, Pete; here comes the lieutenant." The sentry had apparently been +about to resume his declamation, but at these warnings he suddenly posed +in a soldierly manner. + +A tall and lean officer with a smooth face entered the barn. The sentry +saluted primly. The officer flashed a comprehensive glance about him. +"Everything all right?" + +"All right, sir." + +This officer had eyes like the points of stilettos. The lines from his +nose to the corners of his mouth were deep and gave him a slightly +disagreeable aspect, but somewhere in his face there was a quality of +singular thoughtfulness, as of the absorbed student dealing in +generalities, which was utterly in opposition to the rapacious keenness +of the eyes which saw everything. + +Suddenly he lifted a long finger and pointed. "What's that?" + +"That? That's a feed box, I suppose." + +"What's in it?" + +"I don't know. I----" + +"You ought to know," said the officer sharply. He walked over to the +feed box and flung up the lid. With a sweeping gesture, he reached down +and scooped a handful of feed. "You ought to know what's in everything +when you have prisoners in your care," he added, scowling. + +During the time of this incident, the girl had nearly swooned. Her hands +searched weakly over the boards for something to which to cling. With +the pallor of the dying she had watched the downward sweep of the +officer's arm, which after all had only brought forth a handful of feed. +The result was a stupefaction of her mind. She was astonished out of her +senses at this spectacle of three large men metamorphosed into a handful +of feed. + + + + +IV. + + +It is perhaps a singular thing that this absence of the three men from +the feed box at the time of the sharp lieutenant's investigation should +terrify the girl more than it should joy her. That for which she had +prayed had come to pass. Apparently the escape of these men in the face +of every improbability had been granted her, but her dominating emotion +was fright. The feed box was a mystic and terrible machine, like some +dark magician's trap. She felt it almost possible that she should see +the three weird men floating spectrally away through the air. She +glanced with swift apprehension behind her, and when the dazzle from the +lantern's light had left her eyes, saw only the dim hillside stretched +in solemn silence. + +The interior of the barn possessed for her another fascination because +it was now uncanny. It contained that extraordinary feed box. When she +peeped again at the knothole, the calm, gray prisoner was seated upon +the feed box, thumping it with his dangling, careless heels as if it +were in nowise his conception of a remarkable feed-box. The sentry also +stood facing it. His carbine he held in the hollow of his arm. His legs +were spread apart, and he mused. From without came the low mumble of the +three other troopers. The sharp lieutenant had vanished. + +The trembling yellow light of the lantern caused the figures of the men +to cast monstrous wavering shadows. There were spaces of gloom which +shrouded ordinary things in impressive garb. The roof presented an +inscrutable blackness, save where small rifts in the shingles glowed +phosphorescently. Frequently old Santo put down a thunderous hoof. The +heels of the prisoner made a sound like the booming of a wild kind of +drum. When the men moved their heads, their eyes shone with ghoulish +whiteness, and their complexions were always waxen and unreal. And there +was that profoundly strange feed box, imperturbable with its burden of +fantastic mystery. + +Suddenly from down near her feet the girl heard a crunching sound, a +sort of a nibbling, as if some silent and very discreet terrier was at +work upon the turf. She faltered back; here was no doubt another +grotesque detail of this most unnatural episode. She did not run, +because physically she was in the power of these events. Her feet +chained her to the ground in submission to this march of terror after +terror. As she stared at the spot from which this sound seemed to come, +there floated through her mind a vague, sweet vision--a vision of her +safe little room, in which at this hour she usually was sleeping. + +The scratching continued faintly and with frequent pauses, as if the +terrier was then listening. When the girl first removed her eyes from +the knothole the scene appeared of one velvet blackness; then gradually +objects loomed with a dim lustre. She could see now where the tops of +the trees joined the sky and the form of the barn was before her dyed in +heavy purple. She was ever about to shriek, but no sound came from her +constricted throat. She gazed at the ground with the expression of +countenance of one who watches the sinister-moving grass where a serpent +approaches. + +Dimly she saw a piece of sod wrenched free and drawn under the great +foundation beam of the barn. Once she imagined that she saw human hands, +not outlined at all, but sufficient in colour, form, or movement to make +subtle suggestion. + +Then suddenly a thought that illuminated the entire situation flashed in +her mind like a light. The three men, late of the feed box, were beneath +the floor of the barn and were now scraping their way under this beam. +She did not consider for a moment how they could come there. They were +marvellous creatures. The supernatural was to be expected of them. She +no longer trembled, for she was possessed upon this instant of the most +unchangeable species of conviction. The evidence before her amounted to +no evidence at all, but nevertheless her opinion grew in an instant from +an irresponsible acorn to a rooted and immovable tree. It was as if she +was on a jury. + +She stooped down hastily and scanned the ground. There she indeed saw a +pair of hands hauling at the dirt where the sod had been displaced. +Softly, in a whisper like a breath, she said, "Hey!" + +The dim hands were drawn hastily under the barn. The girl reflected for +a moment. Then she stooped and whispered: "Hey! It's me!" + +After a time there was a resumption of the digging. The ghostly hands +began once more their cautious mining. She waited. In hollow +reverberations from the interior of the barn came the frequent sounds of +old Santo's lazy movements. The sentry conversed with the prisoner. + +At last the girl saw a head thrust slowly from under the beam. She +perceived the face of one of the miraculous soldiers from the feed box. +A pair of eyes glintered and wavered, then finally settled upon her, a +pale statue of a girl. The eyes became lit with a kind of humorous +greeting. An arm gestured at her. + +Stooping, she breathed, "All right." The man drew himself silently back +under the beam. A moment later the pair of hands resumed their cautious +task. Ultimately the head and arms of the man were thrust strangely from +the earth. He was lying on his back. The girl thought of the dirt in his +hair. Wriggling slowly and pushing at the beam above him he forced his +way out of the curious little passage. He twisted his body and raised +himself upon his hands. He grinned at the girl and drew his feet +carefully from under the beam. When he at last stood erect beside her, +he at once began mechanically to brush the dirt from his clothes with +his hands. In the barn the sentry and his prisoner were evidently +engaged in an argument. + +The girl and the first miraculous soldier signalled warily. It seemed +that they feared that their arms would make noises in passing through +the air. Their lips moved, conveying dim meanings. + +In this sign language the girl described the situation in the barn. With +guarded motions, she told him of the importance of absolute stillness. +He nodded, and then in the same manner he told her of his two companions +under the barn floor. He informed her again of their wounded state, and +wagged his head to express his despair. He contorted his face, to tell +how sore were their arms; and jabbed the air mournfully, to express +their remote geographical position. + +This signalling was interrupted by the sound of a body being dragged or +dragging itself with slow, swishing sound under the barn. The sound was +too loud for safety. They rushed to the hole and began to semaphore +until a shaggy head appeared with rolling eyes and quick grin. + +With frantic downward motions of their arms they suppressed this grin +and with it the swishing noise. In dramatic pantomime they informed this +head of the terrible consequences of so much noise. The head nodded, and +painfully but with extreme care the second man pushed and pulled himself +from the hole. + +In a faint whisper the first man said, "Where's Sim?" + +The second man made low reply. "He's right here." He motioned +reassuringly toward the hole. + +When the third head appeared, a soft smile of glee came upon each face, +and the mute group exchanged expressive glances. + +When they all stood together, free from this tragic barn, they breathed +a long sigh that was contemporaneous with another smile and another +exchange of glances. + +One of the men tiptoed to a knothole and peered into the barn. The +sentry was at that moment speaking. "Yes, we know 'em all. There isn't a +house in this region that we don't know who is in it most of the time. +We collar 'em once in a while--like we did you. Now, that house out +yonder, we----" + +The man suddenly left the knothole and returned to the others. Upon his +face, dimly discerned, there was an indication that he had made an +astonishing discovery. The others questioned him with their eyes, but he +simply waved an arm to express his inability to speak at that spot. He +led them back toward the hill, prowling carefully. At a safe distance +from the barn he halted and as they grouped eagerly about him, he +exploded in an intense undertone: "Why, that--that's Cap'n Sawyer they +got in yonder." + +"Cap'n Sawyer!" incredulously whispered the other men. + +But the girl had something to ask. "How did you get out of that feed +box?" He smiled. "Well, when you put us in there, we was just in a +minute when we allowed it wasn't a mighty safe place, and we allowed +we'd get out. And we did. We skedaddled 'round and 'round until it +'peared like we was going to get cotched, and then we flung ourselves +down in the cow stalls where it's low-like--just dirt floor--and then we +just naturally went a-whooping under the barn floor when the Yanks come. +And we didn't know Cap'n Sawyer by his voice nohow. We heard 'im +discoursing, and we allowed it was a mighty pert man, but we didn't know +that it was him. No, m'm." + +These three men, so recently from a situation of peril, seemed suddenly +to have dropped all thought of it. They stood with sad faces looking at +the barn. They seemed to be making no plans at all to reach a place of +more complete safety. They were halted and stupefied by some unknown +calamity. + +"How do you raikon they cotch him, Sim?" one whispered mournfully. + +"I don't know," replied another, in the same tone. + +Another with a low snarl expressed in two words his opinion of the +methods of Fate: "Oh, hell!" + +The three men started then as if simultaneously stung and gazed at the +young girl who stood silently near them. The man who had sworn began to +make agitated apology: "Pardon, miss! 'Pon my soul I clean forgot you +was by. 'Deed, and I wouldn't swear like that if I had knowed. 'Deed, I +wouldn't." + +The girl did not seem to hear him. She was staring at the barn. Suddenly +she turned and whispered, "Who is he?" + +"He's Cap'n Sawyer, m'm," they told her sorrowfully. "He's our own +cap'n. He's been in command of us yere since a long time. He's got folks +about yere. Raikon they cotch him while he was a-visiting." + +She was still for a time and then, awed, she said, "Will they--will they +hang him?" + +"No, m'm. Oh, no, m'm. Don't raikon no such thing. No, m'm." + +The group became absorbed in a contemplation of the barn. For a time no +one moved nor spoke. At last the girl was aroused by slight sounds, and +turning, she perceived that the three men who had so recently escaped +from the barn were now advancing toward it. + + + + +V. + + +The girl, waiting in the darkness, expected to hear the sudden crash and +uproar of a fight as soon as the three creeping men should reach the +barn. She reflected in an agony upon the swift disaster that would +befall any enterprise so desperate. She had an impulse to beg them to +come away. The grass rustled in silken movements as she sped toward the +barn. + +When she arrived, however, she gazed about her bewildered. The men were +gone. She searched with her eyes, trying to detect some moving thing, +but she could see nothing. + +Left alone again, she began to be afraid of the night. The great +stretches of darkness could hide crawling dangers. From sheer desire to +see a human, she was obliged to peep again at the knothole. The sentry +had apparently wearied of talking. Instead, he was reflecting. The +prisoner still sat on the feed box, moodily staring at the floor. The +girl felt in one way that she was looking at a ghastly group in wax. She +started when the old horse put down an echoing hoof. She wished the men +would speak; their silence re-enforced the strange aspect. They might +have been two dead men. + +The girl felt impelled to look at the corner of the interior where were +the cow stalls. There was no light there save the appearance of peculiar +gray haze which marked the track of the dimming rays of the lantern. All +else was sombre shadow. At last she saw something move there. It might +have been as small as a rat, or it might have been a part of something +as large as a man. At any rate, it proclaimed that something in that +spot was alive. At one time she saw it plainly and at other times it +vanished, because her fixture of gaze caused her occasionally to greatly +tangle and blur those peculiar shadows and faint lights. At last, +however, she perceived a human head. It was monstrously dishevelled and +wild. It moved slowly forward until its glance could fall upon the +prisoner and then upon the sentry. The wandering rays caused the eyes to +glitter like silver. The girl's heart pounded so that she put her hand +over it. + +The sentry and the prisoner remained immovably waxen, and over in the +gloom the head thrust from the floor watched them with its silver eyes. + +Finally, the prisoner slipped from the feed box, and, raising his arms, +yawned at great length. "Oh, well," he remarked, "you boys will get a +good licking if you fool around here much longer. That's some +satisfaction, anyhow, even if you did bag me. You'll get a good +walloping." He reflected for a moment, and decided: "I'm sort of willing +to be captured if you fellows only get a d----d good licking for being +so smart." + +The sentry looked up and smiled a superior smile. "Licking, hey? Nixey!" +He winked exasperatingly at the prisoner. "You fellows are not fast +enough, my boy. Why didn't you lick us at ----? and at ----? and at +----?" He named some of the great battles. + +To this the captive officer blurted in angry astonishment, "Why, we +did!" + +The sentry winked again in profound irony. "Yes--I know you did. Of +course. You whipped us, didn't you? Fine kind of whipping that was! Why, +we----" + +He suddenly ceased, smitten mute by a sound that broke the stillness of +the night. It was the sharp crack of a distant shot that made wild +echoes among the hills. It was instantly followed by the hoarse cry of a +human voice, a far-away yell of warning, singing of surprise, peril, +fear of death. A moment later there was a distant, fierce spattering of +shots. The sentry and the prisoner stood facing each other, their lips +apart, listening. + +The orchard at that instant awoke to sudden tumult. There were the thud +and scramble and scamper of feet, the mellow, swift clash of arms, men's +voices in question, oath, command, hurried and unhurried, resolute and +frantic. A horse sped along the road at a raging gallop. A loud voice +shouted, "What is it, Ferguson?" Another voice yelled something +incoherent. There was a sharp, discordant chorus of command. An +uproarious volley suddenly rang from the orchard. The prisoner in gray +moved from his intent, listening attitude. Instantly the eyes of the +sentry blazed, and he said with a new and terrible sternness, "Stand +where you are!" + +The prisoner trembled in his excitement. Expressions of delight and +triumph bubbled to his lips. "A surprise, by Gawd! Now--now, you'll +see!" + +The sentry stolidly swung his carbine to his shoulder. He sighted +carefully along the barrel until it pointed at the prisoner's head, +about at his nose. "Well, I've got you, anyhow. Remember that! Don't +move!" + +The prisoner could not keep his arms from nervously gesturing. "I won't; +but----" + +"And shut your mouth!" + +The three comrades of the sentry flung themselves into view. +"Pete--devil of a row!--can you----" + +"I've got him," said the sentry calmly and without moving. It was as if +the barrel of the carbine rested on piers of stone. The three comrades +turned and plunged into the darkness. + +In the orchard it seemed as if two gigantic animals were engaged in a +mad, floundering encounter, snarling, howling in a whirling chaos of +noise and motion. In the barn the prisoner and his guard faced each +other in silence. + +As for the girl at the knothole, the sky had fallen at the beginning of +this clamour. She would not have been astonished to see the stars +swinging from their abodes, and the vegetation, the barn, all blow away. +It was the end of everything, the grand universal murder. When two of +the three miraculous soldiers who formed the original feed-box corps +emerged in detail from the hole under the beam and slid away into the +darkness, she did no more than glance at them. + +Suddenly she recollected the head with silver eyes. She started forward +and again applied her eyes to the knothole. Even with the din resounding +from the orchard, from up the road and down the road, from the heavens +and from the deep earth, the central fascination was this mystic head. +There, to her, was the dark god of the tragedy. + +The prisoner in gray at this moment burst into a laugh that was no more +than a hysterical gurgle. "Well, you can't hold that gun out forever! +Pretty soon you'll have to lower it." + +The sentry's voice sounded slightly muffled, for his cheek was pressed +against the weapon. "I won't be tired for some time yet." + +The girl saw the head slowly rise, the eyes fixed upon the sentry's +face. A tall, black figure slunk across the cow stalls and vanished back +of old Santo's quarters. She knew what was to come to pass. She knew +this grim thing was upon a terrible mission, and that it would reappear +again at the head of the little passage between Santo's stall and the +wall, almost at the sentry's elbow; and yet when she saw a faint +indication as of a form crouching there, a scream from an utterly new +alarm almost escaped her. + +The sentry's arms, after all, were not of granite. He moved restively. +At last he spoke in his even, unchanging tone: "Well, I guess you'll +have to climb into that feed box. Step back and lift the lid." + +"Why, you don't mean----" + +"Step back!" + +The girl felt a cry of warning arising to her lips as she gazed at this +sentry. She noted every detail of his facial expression. She saw, +moreover, his mass of brown hair bunching disgracefully about his ears, +his clear eyes lit now with a hard, cold light, his forehead puckered in +a mighty scowl, the ring upon the third finger of the left hand. "Oh, +they won't kill him! Surely they won't kill him!" The noise of the fight +in the orchard was the loud music, the thunder and lightning, the +rioting of the tempest which people love during the critical scene of a +tragedy. + +When the prisoner moved back in reluctant obedience, he faced for an +instant the entrance of the little passage, and what he saw there must +have been written swiftly, graphically in his eyes. And the sentry read +it and knew then that he was upon the threshold of his death. In a +fraction of time, certain information went from the grim thing in the +passage to the prisoner, and from the prisoner to the sentry. But at +that instant the black formidable figure arose, towered, and made its +leap. A new shadow flashed across the floor when the blow was struck. + +As for the girl at the knothole, when she returned to sense she found +herself standing with clinched hands and screaming with her might. + +As if her reason had again departed from her, she ran around the barn, +in at the door, and flung herself sobbing beside the body of the soldier +in blue. + +The uproar of the fight became at last coherent, inasmuch as one party +was giving shouts of supreme exultation. The firing no longer sounded in +crashes; it was now expressed in spiteful crackles, the last words of +the combat, spoken with feminine vindictiveness. + +Presently there was a thud of flying feet. A grimy panting, red-faced +mob of troopers in blue plunged into the barn, became instantly frozen +to attitudes of amazement and rage, and then roared in one great chorus, +"He's gone!" + +The girl who knelt beside the body upon the floor turned toward them her +lamenting eyes and cried: "He's not dead, is he? He can't be dead?" + +They thronged forward. The sharp lieutenant who had been so particular +about the feed box knelt by the side of the girl and laid his head +against the chest of the prostrate soldier. "Why, no," he said, rising +and looking at the man. "He's all right. Some of you boys throw some +water on him." + +"Are you sure?" demanded the girl, feverishly. + +"Of course! He'll be better after awhile." + +"Oh!" said she softly, and then looked down at the sentry. She started +to arise, and the lieutenant reached down and hoisted rather awkwardly +at her arm. + +"Don't you worry about him. He's all right." + +She turned her face with its curving lips and shining eyes once more +toward the unconscious soldier upon the floor. The troopers made a lane +to the door, the lieutenant bowed, the girl vanished. + +"Queer," said a young officer. "Girl very clearly worst kind of rebel, +and yet she falls to weeping and wailing like mad over one of her +enemies. Be around in the morning with all sorts of doctoring--you see +if she ain't. Queer." + +The sharp lieutenant shrugged his shoulders. After reflection he +shrugged his shoulders again. He said: "War changes many things; but it +doesn't change everything, thank God!" + + + + +A MYSTERY OF HEROISM. + + +The dark uniforms of the men were so coated with dust from the incessant +wrestling of the two armies that the regiment almost seemed a part of +the clay bank which shielded them from the shells. On the top of the +hill a battery was arguing in tremendous roars with some other guns, and +to the eye of the infantry, the artillerymen, the guns, the caissons, +the horses, were distinctly outlined upon the blue sky. When a piece was +fired, a red streak as round as a log flashed low in the heavens, like a +monstrous bolt of lightning. The men of the battery wore white duck +trousers, which somehow emphasized their legs; and when they ran and +crowded in little groups at the bidding of the shouting officers, it was +more impressive than usual to the infantry. + +Fred Collins, of A Company, was saying: "Thunder! I wisht I had a drink. +Ain't there any water round here?" Then somebody yelled, "There goes th' +bugler!" + +As the eyes of half the regiment swept in one machinelike movement there +was an instant's picture of a horse in a great convulsive leap of a +death wound and a rider leaning back with a crooked arm and spread +fingers before his face. On the ground was the crimson terror of an +exploding shell, with fibres of flame that seemed like lances. A +glittering bugle swung clear of the rider's back as fell headlong the +horse and the man. In the air was an odour as from a conflagration. + +Sometimes they of the infantry looked down at a fair little meadow which +spread at their feet. Its long, green grass was rippling gently in a +breeze. Beyond it was the gray form of a house half torn to pieces by +shells and by the busy axes of soldiers who had pursued firewood. The +line of an old fence was now dimly marked by long weeds and by an +occasional post. A shell had blown the well-house to fragments. Little +lines of gray smoke ribboning upward from some embers indicated the +place where had stood the barn. + +From beyond a curtain of green woods there came the sound of some +stupendous scuffle, as if two animals of the size of islands were +fighting. At a distance there were occasional appearances of +swift-moving men, horses, batteries, flags, and, with the crashing of +infantry volleys were heard, often, wild and frenzied cheers. In the +midst of it all Smith and Ferguson, two privates of A Company, were +engaged in a heated discussion, which involved the greatest questions of +the national existence. + +The battery on the hill presently engaged in a frightful duel. The white +legs of the gunners scampered this way and that way, and the officers +redoubled their shouts. The guns, with their demeanours of stolidity and +courage, were typical of something infinitely self-possessed in this +clamour of death that swirled around the hill. + +One of a "swing" team was suddenly smitten quivering to the ground, and +his maddened brethren dragged his torn body in their struggle to escape +from this turmoil and danger. A young soldier astride one of the leaders +swore and fumed in his saddle, and furiously jerked at the bridle. An +officer screamed out an order so violently that his voice broke and +ended the sentence in a falsetto shriek. + +The leading company of the infantry regiment was somewhat exposed, and +the colonel ordered it moved more fully under the shelter of the hill. +There was the clank of steel against steel. + +A lieutenant of the battery rode down and passed them, holding his right +arm carefully in his left hand. And it was as if this arm was not at all +a part of him, but belonged to another man. His sober and reflective +charger went slowly. The officer's face was grimy and perspiring, and +his uniform was tousled as if he had been in direct grapple with an +enemy. He smiled grimly when the men stared at him. He turned his horse +toward the meadow. + +Collins, of A Company, said: "I wisht I had a drink. I bet there's water +in that there ol' well yonder!" + +"Yes; but how you goin' to git it?" + +For the little meadow which intervened was now suffering a terrible +onslaught of shells. Its green and beautiful calm had vanished utterly. +Brown earth was being flung in monstrous handfuls. And there was a +massacre of the young blades of grass. They were being torn, burned, +obliterated. Some curious fortune of the battle had made this gentle +little meadow the object of the red hate of the shells, and each one as +it exploded seemed like an imprecation in the face of a maiden. + +The wounded officer who was riding across this expanse said to himself, +"Why, they couldn't shoot any harder if the whole army was massed here!" + +A shell struck the gray ruins of the house, and as, after the roar, the +shattered wall fell in fragments, there was a noise which resembled the +flapping of shutters during a wild gale of winter. Indeed, the infantry +paused in the shelter of the bank appeared as men standing upon a shore +contemplating a madness of the sea. The angel of calamity had under its +glance the battery upon the hill. Fewer white-legged men laboured about +the guns. A shell had smitten one of the pieces, and after the flare, +the smoke, the dust, the wrath of this blow were gone, it was possible +to see white legs stretched horizontally upon the ground. And at that +interval to the rear, where it is the business of battery horses to +stand with their noses to the fight awaiting the command to drag their +guns out of the destruction or into it or wheresoever these +incomprehensible humans demanded with whip and spur--in this line of +passive and dumb spectators, whose fluttering hearts yet would not let +them forget the iron laws of man's control of them--in this rank of +brute-soldiers there had been relentless and hideous carnage. From the +ruck of bleeding and prostrate horses, the men of the infantry could see +one animal raising its stricken body with its fore legs, and turning its +nose with mystic and profound eloquence toward the sky. + +Some comrades joked Collins about his thirst. "Well, if yeh want a drink +so bad, why don't yeh go git it!" + +"Well, I will in a minnet, if yeh don't shut up!" + +A lieutenant of artillery floundered his horse straight down the hill +with as great concern as if it were level ground. As he galloped past +the colonel of the infantry, he threw up his hand in swift salute. +"We've got to get out of that," he roared angrily. He was a +black-bearded officer, and his eyes, which resembled beads, sparkled +like those of an insane man. His jumping horse sped along the column of +infantry. + +The fat major, standing carelessly with his sword held horizontally +behind him and with his legs far apart, looked after the receding +horseman and laughed. "He wants to get back with orders pretty quick, or +there'll be no batt'ry left," he observed. + +The wise young captain of the second company hazarded to the lieutenant +colonel that the enemy's infantry would probably soon attack the hill, +and the lieutenant colonel snubbed him. + +A private in one of the rear companies looked out over the meadow, and +then turned to a companion and said, "Look there, Jim!" It was the +wounded officer from the battery, who some time before had started to +ride across the meadow, supporting his right arm carefully with his left +hand. This man had encountered a shell apparently at a time when no one +perceived him, and he could now be seen lying face downward with a +stirruped foot stretched across the body of his dead horse. A leg of the +charger extended slantingly upward precisely as stiff as a stake. Around +this motionless pair the shells still howled. + +There was a quarrel in A Company. Collins was shaking his fist in the +faces of some laughing comrades. "Dern yeh! I ain't afraid t' go. If yeh +say much, I will go!" + +"Of course, yeh will! You'll run through that there medder, won't yeh?" + +Collins said, in a terrible voice, "You see now!" At this ominous threat +his comrades broke into renewed jeers. + +Collins gave them a dark scowl and went to find his captain. The latter +was conversing with the colonel of the regiment. + +"Captain," said Collins, saluting and standing at attention--in those +days all trousers bagged at the knees--"captain, I want t' get +permission to go git some water from that there well over yonder!" + +The colonel and the captain swung about simultaneously and stared across +the meadow. The captain laughed. "You must be pretty thirsty, Collins?" + +"Yes, sir, I am." + +"Well--ah," said the captain. After a moment, he asked, "Can't you +wait?" + +"No, sir." + +The colonel was watching Collins's face. "Look here, my lad," he said, +in a pious sort of a voice--"look here, my lad"--Collins was not a +lad--"don't you think that's taking pretty big risks for a little drink +of water?" + +"I dunno," said Collins uncomfortably. Some of the resentment toward his +companions, which perhaps had forced him into this affair, was beginning +to fade. "I dunno wether 'tis." + +The colonel and the captain contemplated him for a time. + +"Well," said the captain finally. + +"Well," said the colonel, "if you want to go, why, go." + +Collins saluted. "Much obliged t' yeh." + +As he moved away the colonel called after him. "Take some of the other +boys' canteens with you an' hurry back now." + +"Yes, sir, I will." + +The colonel and the captain looked at each other then, for it had +suddenly occurred that they could not for the life of them tell whether +Collins wanted to go or whether he did not. + +They turned to regard Collins, and as they perceived him surrounded by +gesticulating comrades, the colonel said: "Well, by thunder! I guess +he's going." + +Collins appeared as a man dreaming. In the midst of the questions, the +advice, the warnings, all the excited talk of his company mates, he +maintained a curious silence. + +They were very busy in preparing him for his ordeal. When they inspected +him carefully it was somewhat like the examination that grooms give a +horse before a race; and they were amazed, staggered by the whole +affair. Their astonishment found vent in strange repetitions. + +"Are yeh sure a-goin'?" they demanded again and again. + +"Certainly I am," cried Collins, at last furiously. + +He strode sullenly away from them. He was swinging five or six canteens +by their cords. It seemed that his cap would not remain firmly on his +head, and often he reached and pulled it down over his brow. + +There was a general movement in the compact column. The long animal-like +thing moved slightly. Its four hundred eyes were turned upon the figure +of Collins. + +"Well, sir, if that ain't th' derndest thing! I never thought Fred +Collins had the blood in him for that kind of business." + +"What's he goin' to do, anyhow?" + +"He's goin' to that well there after water." + +"We ain't dyin' of thirst, are we? That's foolishness." + +"Well, somebody put him up to it, an' he's doin' it." + +"Say, he must be a desperate cuss." + +When Collins faced the meadow and walked away from the regiment, he was +vaguely conscious that a chasm, the deep valley of all prides, was +suddenly between him and his comrades. It was provisional, but the +provision was that he return as a victor. He had blindly been led by +quaint emotions, and laid himself under an obligation to walk squarely +up to the face of death. + +But he was not sure that he wished to make a retraction, even if he +could do so without shame. As a matter of truth, he was sure of very +little. He was mainly surprised. + +It seemed to him supernaturally strange that he had allowed his mind to +man[oe]uvre his body into such a situation. He understood that it might +be called dramatically great. + +However, he had no full appreciation of anything, excepting that he was +actually conscious of being dazed. He could feel his dulled mind groping +after the form and colour of this incident. He wondered why he did not +feel some keen agony of fear cutting his sense like a knife. He wondered +at this, because human expression had said loudly for centuries that men +should feel afraid of certain things, and that all men who did not feel +this fear were phenomena--heroes. + +He was, then, a hero. He suffered that disappointment which we would all +have if we discovered that we were ourselves capable of those deeds +which we most admire in history and legend. This, then, was a hero. +After all, heroes were not much. + +No, it could not be true. He was not a hero. Heroes had no shames in +their lives, and, as for him, he remembered borrowing fifteen dollars +from a friend and promising to pay it back the next day, and then +avoiding that friend for ten months. When at home his mother had aroused +him for the early labour of his life on the farm, it had often been his +fashion to be irritable, childish, diabolical; and his mother had died +since he had come to the war. + +He saw that, in this matter of the well, the canteens, the shells, he +was an intruder in the land of fine deeds. + +He was now about thirty paces from his comrades. The regiment had just +turned its many faces toward him. + +From the forest of terrific noises there suddenly emerged a little +uneven line of men. They fired fiercely and rapidly at distant foliage +on which appeared little puffs of white smoke. The spatter of skirmish +firing was added to the thunder of the guns on the hill. The little line +of men ran forward. A colour sergeant fell flat with his flag as if he +had slipped on ice. There was hoarse cheering from this distant field. + +Collins suddenly felt that two demon fingers were pressed into his ears. +He could see nothing but flying arrows, flaming red. He lurched from the +shock of this explosion, but he made a mad rush for the house, which he +viewed as a man submerged to the neck in a boiling surf might view the +shore. In the air, little pieces of shell howled and the earthquake +explosions drove him insane with the menace of their roar. As he ran the +canteens knocked together with a rhythmical tinkling. + +As he neared the house, each detail of the scene became vivid to him. He +was aware of some bricks of the vanished chimney lying on the sod. There +was a door which hung by one hinge. + +Rifle bullets called forth by the insistent skirmishers came from the +far-off bank of foliage. They mingled with the shells and the pieces of +shells until the air was torn in all directions by hootings, yells, +howls. The sky was full of fiends who directed all their wild rage at +his head. + +When he came to the well, he flung himself face downward and peered into +its darkness. There were furtive silver glintings some feet from the +surface. He grabbed one of the canteens and, unfastening its cap, swung +it down by the cord. The water flowed slowly in with an indolent gurgle. + +And now as he lay with his face turned away he was suddenly smitten with +the terror. It came upon his heart like the grasp of claws. All the +power faded from his muscles. For an instant he was no more than a dead +man. + +The canteen filled with a maddening slowness, in the manner of all +bottles. Presently he recovered his strength and addressed a screaming +oath to it. He leaned over until it seemed as if he intended to try to +push water into it with his hands. His eyes as he gazed down into the +well shone like two pieces of metal and in their expression was a great +appeal and a great curse. The stupid water derided him. + +There was the blaring thunder of a shell. Crimson light shone through +the swift-boiling smoke and made a pink reflection on part of the wall +of the well. Collins jerked out his arm and canteen with the same motion +that a man would use in withdrawing his head from a furnace. + +He scrambled erect and glared and hesitated. On the ground near him lay +the old well bucket, with a length of rusty chain. He lowered it swiftly +into the well. The bucket struck the water and then, turning lazily +over, sank. When, with hand reaching tremblingly over hand, he hauled it +out, it knocked often against the walls of the well and spilled some of +its contents. + +In running with a filled bucket, a man can adopt but one kind of gait. +So through this terrible field over which screamed practical angels of +death Collins ran in the manner of a farmer chased out of a dairy by a +bull. + +His face went staring white with anticipation--anticipation of a blow +that would whirl him around and down. He would fall as he had seen other +men fall, the life knocked out of them so suddenly that their knees were +no more quick to touch the ground than their heads. He saw the long blue +line of the regiment, but his comrades were standing looking at him from +the edge of an impossible star. He was aware of some deep wheel ruts and +hoofprints in the sod beneath his feet. + +The artillery officer who had fallen in this meadow had been making +groans in the teeth of the tempest of sound. These futile cries, +wrenched from him by his agony, were heard only by shells, bullets. When +wild-eyed Collins came running, this officer raised himself. His face +contorted and blanched from pain, he was about to utter some great +beseeching cry. But suddenly his face straightened and he called: "Say, +young man, give me a drink of water, will you?" + +Collins had no room amid his emotions for surprise. He was mad from the +threats of destruction. + +"I can't!" he screamed, and in his reply was a full description of his +quaking apprehension. His cap was gone and his hair was riotous. His +clothes made it appear that he had been dragged over the ground by the +heels. He ran on. + +The officer's head sank down and one elbow crooked. His foot in its +brass-bound stirrup still stretched over the body of his horse and the +other leg was under the steed. + +But Collins turned. He came dashing back. His face had now turned gray +and in his eyes was all terror. "Here it is! here it is!" + +The officer was as a man gone in drink. His arm bent like a twig. His +head drooped as if his neck were of willow. He was sinking to the +ground, to lie face downward. + +Collins grabbed him by the shoulder. "Here it is. Here's your drink. +Turn over. Turn over, man, for God's sake!" + +With Collins hauling at his shoulder, the officer twisted his body and +fell with his face turned toward that region where lived the unspeakable +noises of the swirling missiles. There was the faintest shadow of a +smile on his lips as he looked at Collins. He gave a sigh, a little +primitive breath like that from a child. + +Collins tried to hold the bucket steadily, but his shaking hands caused +the water to splash all over the face of the dying man. Then he jerked +it away and ran on. + +The regiment gave him a welcoming roar. The grimed faces were wrinkled +in laughter. + +His captain waved the bucket away. "Give it to the men!" + +The two genial, skylarking young lieutenants were the first to gain +possession of it. They played over it in their fashion. + +When one tried to drink the other teasingly knocked his elbow. "Don't, +Billie! You'll make me spill it," said the one. The other laughed. + +Suddenly there was an oath, the thud of wood on the ground, and a swift +murmur of astonishment among the ranks. The two lieutenants glared at +each other. The bucket lay on the ground empty. + + + + +AN INDIANA CAMPAIGN. + + + + +I. + + +When the able-bodied citizens of the village formed a company and +marched away to the war, Major Tom Boldin assumed in a manner the burden +of the village cares. Everybody ran to him when they felt obliged to +discuss their affairs. The sorrows of the town were dragged before him. +His little bench at the sunny side of Migglesville tavern became a sort +of an open court where people came to speak resentfully of their +grievances. He accepted his position and struggled manfully under the +load. It behooved him, as a man who had seen the sky red over the +quaint, low cities of Mexico, and the compact Northern bayonets gleaming +on the narrow roads. + +One warm summer day the major sat asleep on his little bench. There was +a lull in the tempest of discussion which usually enveloped him. His +cane, by use of which he could make the most tremendous and impressive +gestures, reposed beside him. His hat lay upon the bench, and his old +bald head had swung far forward until his nose actually touched the +first button of his waistcoat. + +The sparrows wrangled desperately in the road, defying perspiration. +Once a team went jangling and creaking past, raising a yellow blur of +dust before the soft tones of the field and sky. In the long grass of +the meadow across the road the insects chirped and clacked eternally. + +Suddenly a frouzy-headed boy appeared in the roadway, his bare feet +pattering rapidly. He was extremely excited. He gave a shrill whoop as +he discovered the sleeping major and rushed toward him. He created a +terrific panic among some chickens who had been scratching intently near +the major's feet. They clamoured in an insanity of fear, and rushed +hither and thither seeking a way of escape, whereas in reality all ways +lay plainly open to them. + +This tumult caused the major to arouse with a sudden little jump of +amazement and apprehension. He rubbed his eyes and gazed about him. +Meanwhile, some clever chicken had discovered a passage to safety and +led the flock into the garden, where they squawked in sustained alarm. + +Panting from his run and choked with terror, the little boy stood before +the major, struggling with a tale that was ever upon the tip of his +tongue. + +"Major--now--major----" + +The old man, roused from a delicious slumber, glared impatiently at the +little boy. "Come, come! What's th' matter with yeh?" he demanded. +"What's th' matter? Don't stand there shaking! Speak up!" + +"Lots is th' matter!" the little boy shouted valiantly, with a courage +born of the importance of his tale. "My ma's chickens 'uz all stole, +an'--now--he's over in th' woods!" + +"Who is? Who is over in the woods? Go ahead!" + +"Now--th' rebel is!" + +"What?" roared the major. + +"Th' rebel!" cried the little boy, with the last of his breath. + +The major pounced from his bench in tempestuous excitement. He seized +the little boy by the collar and gave him a great jerk. "Where? Are yeh +sure? Who saw 'im? How long ago? Where is he now? Did you see 'im?" + +The little boy, frightened at the major's fury, began to sob. After a +moment he managed to stammer: "He--now--he's in the woods. I saw 'im. He +looks uglier'n anythin'." + +The major released his hold upon the boy, and, pausing for a time, +indulged in a glorious dream. Then he said: "By thunder! we'll ketch th' +cuss. You wait here," he told the boy, "an' don't say a word t' anybody. +Do yeh hear?" + +The boy, still weeping, nodded, and the major hurriedly entered the inn. +He took down from its pegs an awkward, smoothbore rifle and carefully +examined the enormous percussion cap that was fitted over the nipple. +Mistrusting the cap, he removed it and replaced it with a new one. He +scrutinized the gun keenly, as if he could judge in this manner of the +condition of the load. All his movements were deliberate and deadly. + +When he arrived upon the porch of the tavern he beheld the yard filled +with people. Peter Witheby, sooty-faced and grinning, was in the van. He +looked at the major. "Well?" he said. + +"Well?" returned the major, bridling. + +"Well, what's 'che got?" said old Peter. + +"'Got?' Got a rebel over in th' woods!" roared the major. + +At this sentence the women and boys, who had gathered eagerly about him, +gave vent to startled cries. The women had come from adjacent houses, +but the little boys represented the entire village. They had +miraculously heard the first whisper of rumour, and they performed +wonders in getting to the spot. They clustered around the important +figure of the major and gazed in silent awe. The women, however, burst +forth. At the word "rebel," which represented to them all terrible +things, they deluged the major with questions which were obviously +unanswerable. + +He shook them off with violent impatience. Meanwhile Peter Witheby was +trying to force exasperating interrogations through the tumult to the +major's ears. "What? No! Yes! How d' I know?" the maddened veteran +snarled as he struggled with his friends. "No! Yes! What? How in thunder +d' I know?" Upon the steps of the tavern the landlady sat, weeping +forlornly. + +At last the major burst through the crowd, and went to the roadway. +There, as they all streamed after him, he turned and faced them. "Now, +look a' here, I don't know any more about this than you do," he told +them forcibly. "All that I know is that there's a rebel over in Smith's +woods, an' all I know is that I'm agoin' after 'im." + +"But hol' on a minnet," said old Peter. "How do yeh know he's a rebel?" + +"I know he is!" cried the major. "Don't yeh think I know what a rebel +is?" + +Then, with a gesture of disdain at the babbling crowd, he marched +determinedly away, his rifle held in the hollow of his arm. At this +heroic moment a new clamour arose, half admiration, half dismay. Old +Peter hobbled after the major, continually repeating, "Hol' on a +minnet." + +The little boy who had given the alarm was the centre of a throng of +lads who gazed with envy and awe, discovering in him a new quality. He +held forth to them eloquently. The women stared after the figure of the +major and old Peter, his pursuer. Jerozel Bronson, a half-witted lad who +comprehended nothing save an occasional genial word, leaned against the +fence and grinned like a skull. The major and the pursuer passed out of +view around the turn in the road where the great maples lazily shook the +dust that lay on their leaves. + +For a moment the little group of women listened intently as if they +expected to hear a sudden shot and cries from the distance. They looked +at each other, their lips a little ways apart. The trees sighed softly +in the heat of the summer sun. The insects in the meadow continued their +monotonous humming, and, somewhere, a hen had been stricken with fear +and was cackling loudly. + +Finally, Mrs. Goodwin said, "Well, I'm goin' up to th' turn a' th' road, +anyhow." Mrs. Willets and Mrs. Joe Petersen, her particular friends, +cried out at this temerity, but she said, "Well, I'm goin', anyhow." + +She called Bronson. "Come on, Jerozel. You're a man, an' if he should +chase us, why, you mus' pitch inteh 'im. Hey?" + +Bronson always obeyed everybody. He grinned an assent, and went with her +down the road. + +A little boy attempted to follow them, but a shrill scream from his +mother made him halt. + +The remaining women stood motionless, their eyes fixed upon Mrs. Goodwin +and Jerozel. Then at last one gave a laugh of triumph at her conquest of +caution and fear, and cried, "Well, I'm goin' too!" + +Another instantly said, "So am I." There began a general movement. Some +of the little boys had already ventured a hundred feet away from the +main body, and at this unanimous advance they spread out ahead in little +groups. Some recounted terrible stories of rebel ferocity. Their eyes +were large with excitement. The whole thing with its possible dangers +had for them a delicious element. Johnnie Peterson, who could whip any +boy present, explained what he would do in case the enemy should happen +to pounce out at him. + +The familiar scene suddenly assumed a new aspect. The field of corn +which met the road upon the left was no longer a mere field of corn. It +was a darkly mystic place whose recesses could contain all manner of +dangers. The long green leaves, waving in the breeze, rustled from the +passing of men. In the song of the insects there were now omens, +threats. + +There was a warning in the enamel blue of the sky, in the stretch of +yellow road, in the very atmosphere. Above the tops of the corn loomed +the distant foliage of Smith's woods, curtaining the silent action of a +tragedy whose horrors they imagined. + +The women and the little boys came to a halt, overwhelmed by the +impressiveness of the landscape. They waited silently. + +Mrs. Goodwin suddenly said, "I'm goin' back." The others, who all wished +to return, cried at once disdainfully: + +"Well, go back, if yeh want to!" + +A cricket at the roadside exploded suddenly in his shrill song, and a +woman who had been standing near shrieked in startled terror. An +electric movement went through the group of women. They jumped and gave +vent to sudden screams. With the fears still upon their agitated faces, +they turned to berate the one who had shrieked. "My! what a goose you +are, Sallie! Why, it took my breath away. Goodness sakes, don't holler +like that again!" + + + + +II. + + +"Hol' on a minnet!" Peter Witheby was crying to the major, as the +latter, full of the importance and dignity of his position as protector +of Migglesville, paced forward swiftly. The veteran already felt upon +his brow a wreath formed of the flowers of gratitude, and as he strode +he was absorbed in planning a calm and self-contained manner of wearing +it. "Hol' on a minnet!" piped old Peter in the rear. + +At last the major, aroused from his dream of triumph, turned about +wrathfully. "Well, what?" + +"Now, look a' here," said Peter. "What 'che goin' t' do?" + +The major, with a gesture of supreme exasperation, wheeled again and +went on. When he arrived at the cornfield he halted and waited for +Peter. He had suddenly felt that indefinable menace in the landscape. + +"Well?" demanded Peter, panting. + +The major's eyes wavered a trifle. "Well," he repeated--"well, I'm goin' +in there an' bring out that there rebel." + +They both paused and studied the gently swaying masses of corn, and +behind them the looming woods, sinister with possible secrets. + +"Well," said old Peter. + +The major moved uneasily and put his hand to his brow. Peter waited in +obvious expectation. + +The major crossed through the grass at the roadside and climbed the +fence. He put both legs over the topmost rail and then sat perched +there, facing the woods. Once he turned his head and asked, "What?" + +"I hain't said anythin'," answered Peter. + +The major clambered down from the fence and went slowly into the corn, +his gun held in readiness. Peter stood in the road. + +Presently the major returned and said, in a cautious whisper, "If yeh +hear anythin', you come a-runnin', will yeh?" + +"Well, I hain't got no gun nor nuthin'," said Peter, in the same low +tone; "what good 'ud I do?" + +"Well, yeh might come along with me an' watch," said the major. "Four +eyes is better'n two." + +"If I had a gun----" began Peter. + +"Oh, yeh don't need no gun," interrupted the major, waving his hand. +"All I'm afraid of is that I won't find 'im. My eyes ain't so good as +they was." + +"Well----" + +"Come along," whispered the major. "Yeh hain't afraid, are yeh?" + +"No, but----" + +"Well, come along, then. What's th' matter with yeh?" + +Peter climbed the fence. He paused on the top rail and took a prolonged +stare at the inscrutable woods. When he joined the major in the +cornfield he said, with a touch of anger: + +"Well, you got the gun. Remember that. If he comes for me, I hain't got +a blame thing!" + +"Shucks!" answered the major. "He ain't agoin' t' come for yeh." + +The two then began a wary journey through the corn. One by one the +long aisles between the rows appeared. As they glanced along each of +them it seemed as if some gruesome thing had just previously vacated +it. Old Peter halted once and whispered: "Say, look a' here; +supposin'--supposin'----" + +"Supposin' what?" demanded the major. + +"Supposin'----" said Peter. "Well, remember you got th' gun, an' I +hain't got anythin'." + +"Thunder!" said the major. + +When they got to where the stalks were very short because of the shade +cast by the trees of the wood, they halted again. The leaves were gently +swishing in the breeze. Before them stretched the mystic green wall of +the forest, and there seemed to be in it eyes which followed each of +their movements. + +Peter at last said, "I don't believe there's anybody in there." + +"Yes, there is, too," said the major. "I'll bet anythin' he's in there." + +"How d' yeh know?" asked Peter. "I'll bet he ain't within a mile o' +here." + +The major suddenly ejaculated, "Listen!" + +They bent forward, scarce breathing, their mouths agape, their eyes +glinting. Finally, the major turned his head. "Did yeh hear that?" he +said hoarsely. + +"No," said Peter, in a low voice. "What was it?" + +The major listened for a moment. Then he turned again. "I thought I +heered somebody holler!" he explained cautiously. + +They both bent forward and listened once more. Peter in the intentness +of his attitude lost his balance and was obliged to lift his foot +hastily and with noise. "S-s-sh!" hissed the major. + +After a minute Peter spoke quite loudly, "Oh, shucks! I don't believe +yeh heered anythin'." + +The major made a frantic downward gesture with his hand. "Shet up, will +yeh!" he said, in an angry undertone. + +Peter became silent for a moment, but presently he said again, "Oh, yeh +didn't hear anythin'." + +The major turned to glare at his companion in despair and wrath. + +"What's th' matter with yeh? Can't yeh shet up?" + +"Oh, this here ain't no use. If you're goin' in after 'im, why don't yeh +go in after 'im?" + +"Well, gimme time, can't yeh?" said the major, in a growl. And, as if to +add more to this reproach, he climbed the fence that compassed the +woods, looking resentfully back at his companion. + +"Well," said Peter, when the major paused. + +The major stepped down upon the thick carpet of brown leaves that +stretched under the trees. He turned then to whisper, "You wait here, +will yeh?" His face was red with determination. + +"Well, hol' on a minnet!" said Peter. "You--I--we'd better----" + +"No," said the major. "You wait here." + +He went stealthily into the thickets. Peter watched him until he grew to +be a vague, slow-moving shadow. From time to time he could hear the +leaves crackle and twigs snap under the major's awkward tread. Peter, +intent, breathless, waited for the peal of sudden tragedy. Finally, the +woods grew silent in a solemn and impressive hush that caused Peter to +feel the thumping of his heart. He began to look about him to make sure +that nothing should spring upon him from the sombre shadows. He +scrutinized this cool gloom before him, and at times he thought he could +perceive the moving of swift silent shapes. He concluded that he had +better go back and try to muster some assistance to the major. + +As Peter came through the corn, the women in the road caught sight of +the glittering figure and screamed. Many of them began to run. The +little boys, with all their valour, scurried away in clouds. Mrs. Joe +Peterson, however, cast a glance over her shoulders as she, with her +skirts gathered up, was running as best she could. She instantly stopped +and, in tones of deepest scorn, called out to the others, "Why, it's +on'y Pete Witheby!" They came faltering back then, those who had been +naturally swiftest in the race avoiding the eyes of those whose limbs +had enabled them to flee a short distance. + +Peter came rapidly, appreciating the glances of vivid interest in the +eyes of the women. To their lightning-like questions, which hit all +sides of the episode, he opposed a new tranquillity gained from his +sudden ascent in importance. He made no answer to their clamour. When he +had reached the top of the fence, he called out commandingly: "Here you, +Johnnie, you and George, run an' git my gun! It's hangin' on th' pegs +over th' bench in th' shop." + +At this terrible sentence, a shuddering cry broke from the women. The +boys named sped down the road, accompanied by a retinue of envious +companions. + +Peter swung his legs over the rail and faced the woods again. He twisted +his head once to say: "Keep still, can't yeh? Quit scufflin' aroun'!" +They could see by his manner that this was a supreme moment. The group +became motionless and still. Later, Peter turned to say, "S-s-sh!" to a +restless boy, and the air with which he said it smote them all with awe. + +The little boys who had gone after the gun came pattering along +hurriedly, the weapon borne in the midst of them. Each was anxious to +share in the honour. The one who had been delegated to bring it was +bullying and directing his comrades. + +Peter said, "S-s-sh!" He took the gun and poised it in readiness to +sweep the cornfield. He scowled at the boys and whispered angrily: "Why +didn't yeh bring th' powder horn an' th' thing with th' bullets in? I +told yeh t' bring 'em. I'll send somebody else next time." + +"Yeh didn't tell us!" cried the two boys shrilly. + +"S-s-sh! Quit yeh noise," said Peter, with a violent gesture. + +However, this reproof enabled other boys to recover that peace of mind +which they had lost when seeing their friends loaded with honours. + +The women had cautiously approached the fence and, from time to time, +whispered feverish questions; but Peter repulsed them savagely, with an +air of being infinitely bothered by their interference in his intent +watch. They were forced to listen again in silence to the weird and +prophetic chanting of the insects and the mystic silken rustling of the +corn. + +At last the thud of hurrying feet in the soft soil of the field came to +their ears. A dark form sped toward them. A wave of a mighty fear swept +over the group, and the screams of the women came hoarsely from their +choked throats. Peter swung madly from his perch, and turned to use the +fence as a rampart. + +But it was the major. His face was inflamed and his eyes were glaring. +He clutched his rifle by the middle and swung it wildly. He was bounding +at a great speed for his fat, short body. + +"It's all right! it's all right!" he began to yell, some distance away. +"It's all right! It's on'y ol' Milt' Jacoby!" + +When he arrived at the top of the fence, he paused and mopped his brow. + +"What?" they thundered, in an agony of sudden unreasoning +disappointment. + +Mrs. Joe Petersen, who was a distant connection of Milton Jacoby, +thought to forestall any damage to her social position by saying at once +disdainfully, "Drunk, I s'pose!" + +"Yep," said the major, still on the fence, and mopped his brow. "Drunk +as a fool. Thunder! I was surprised. I--I--thought it was a rebel, +sure." + +The thoughts of all these women wavered for a time. They were at a loss +for precise expression of their emotion. At last, however, they hurled +this superior sentence at the major: + +"Well, yeh might have known." + + + + +A GRAY SLEEVE. + + + + +I. + + +"It looks as if it might rain this afternoon," remarked the lieutenant +of artillery. + +"So it does," the infantry captain assented. He glanced casually at the +sky. When his eyes had lowered to the green-shadowed landscape before +him, he said fretfully: "I wish those fellows out yonder would quit +pelting at us. They've been at it since noon." + +At the edge of a grove of maples, across wide fields, there occasionally +appeared little puffs of smoke of a dull hue in this gloom of sky which +expressed an impending rain. The long wave of blue and steel in the +field moved uneasily at the eternal barking of the far-away +sharpshooters, and the men, leaning upon their rifles, stared at the +grove of maples. Once a private turned to borrow some tobacco from a +comrade in the rear rank, but, with his hand still stretched out, he +continued to twist his head and glance at the distant trees. He was +afraid the enemy would shoot him at a time when he was not looking. + +Suddenly the artillery officer said, "See what's coming!" + +Along the rear of the brigade of infantry a column of cavalry was +sweeping at a hard gallop. A lieutenant, riding some yards to the right +of the column, bawled furiously at the four troopers just at the rear of +the colours. They had lost distance and made a little gap, but at the +shouts of the lieutenant they urged their horses forward. The bugler, +careering along behind the captain of the troop, fought and tugged like +a wrestler to keep his frantic animal from bolting far ahead of the +column. + +On the springy turf the innumerable hoofs thundered in a swift storm of +sound. In the brown faces of the troopers their eyes were set like bits +of flashing steel. + +The long line of the infantry regiments standing at ease underwent a +sudden movement at the rush of the passing squadron. The foot soldiers +turned their heads to gaze at the torrent of horses and men. + +The yellow folds of the flag fluttered back in silken, shuddering waves +as if it were a reluctant thing. Occasionally a giant spring of a +charger would rear the firm and sturdy figure of a soldier suddenly head +and shoulders above his comrades. Over the noise of the scudding hoofs +could be heard the creaking of leather trappings, the jingle and clank +of steel, and the tense, low-toned commands or appeals of the men to +their horses. And the horses were mad with the headlong sweep of this +movement. Powerful under jaws bent back and straightened so that the +bits were clamped as rigidly as vices upon the teeth, and glistening +necks arched in desperate resistance to the hands at the bridles. +Swinging their heads in rage at the granite laws of their lives, which +compelled even their angers and their ardours to chosen directions and +chosen faces, their flight was as a flight of harnessed demons. + +The captain's bay kept its pace at the head of the squadron with the +lithe bounds of a thoroughbred, and this horse was proud as a chief at +the roaring trample of his fellows behind him. The captain's glance was +calmly upon the grove of maples whence the sharpshooters of the enemy +had been picking at the blue line. He seemed to be reflecting. He +stolidly rose and fell with the plunges of his horse in all the +indifference of a deacon's figure seated plumply in church. And it +occurred to many of the watching infantry to wonder why this officer +could remain imperturbable and reflective when his squadron was +thundering and swarming behind him like the rushing of a flood. + +The column swung in a sabre-curve toward a break in a fence, and dashed +into a roadway. Once a little plank bridge was encountered, and the +sound of the hoofs upon it was like the long roll of many drums. An old +captain in the infantry turned to his first lieutenant and made a remark +which was a compound of bitter disparagement of cavalry in general and +soldiery admiration of this particular troop. + +Suddenly the bugle sounded, and the column halted with a jolting +upheaval amid sharp, brief cries. A moment later the men had tumbled +from their horses, and, carbines in hand, were running in a swarm toward +the grove of maples. In the road one of every four of the troopers was +standing with braced legs, and pulling and hauling at the bridles of +four frenzied horses. + +The captain was running awkwardly in his boots. He held his sabre low so +that the point often threatened to catch in the turf. His yellow hair +ruffled out from under his faded cap. "Go in hard now!" he roared, in a +voice of hoarse fury. His face was violently red. + +The troopers threw themselves upon the grove like wolves upon a great +animal. Along the whole front of woods there was the dry, crackling of +musketry, with bitter, swift flashes and smoke that writhed like stung +phantoms. The troopers yelled shrilly and spanged bullets low into the +foliage. + +For a moment, when near the woods, the line almost halted. The men +struggled and fought for a time like swimmers encountering a powerful +current. Then with a supreme effort they went on again. They dashed +madly at the grove, whose foliage from the high light of the field was +as inscrutable as a wall. + +Then suddenly each detail of the calm trees became apparent, and with a +few more frantic leaps the men were in the cool gloom of the woods. +There was a heavy odour as from burned paper. Wisps of gray smoke wound +upward. The men halted and, grimy, perspiring, and puffing, they +searched the recesses of the woods with eager, fierce glances. Figures +could be seen flitting afar off. A dozen carbines rattled at them in an +angry volley. + +During this pause the captain strode along the line, his face lit with a +broad smile of contentment. "When he sends this crowd to do anything, I +guess he'll find we do it pretty sharp," he said to the grinning +lieutenant. + +"Say, they didn't stand that rush a minute, did they?" said the +subaltern. Both officers were profoundly dusty in their uniforms, and +their faces were soiled like those of two urchins. + +Out in the grass behind them were three tumbled and silent forms. + +Presently the line moved forward again. The men went from tree to tree +like hunters stalking game. Some at the left of the line fired +occasionally, and those at the right gazed curiously in that direction. +The men still breathed heavily from their scramble across the field. + +Of a sudden a trooper halted and said: "Hello! there's a house!" Every +one paused. The men turned to look at their leader. + +The captain stretched his neck and swung his head from side to side. "By +George, it is a house!" he said. + +Through the wealth of leaves there vaguely loomed the form of a large, +white house. These troopers, brown-faced from many days of campaigning, +each feature of them telling of their placid confidence and courage, +were stopped abruptly by the appearance of this house. There was some +subtle suggestion--some tale of an unknown thing--which watched them +from they knew not what part of it. + +A rail fence girded a wide lawn of tangled grass. Seven pines stood +along a drive-way which led from two distant posts of a vanished gate. +The blue-clothed troopers moved forward until they stood at the fence +peering over it. + +The captain put one hand on the top rail and seemed to be about to climb +the fence, when suddenly he hesitated, and said in a low voice, "Watson, +what do you think of it?" + +The lieutenant stared at the house. "Derned if I know!" he replied. + +The captain pondered. It happened that the whole company had turned a +gaze of profound awe and doubt upon this edifice which confronted them. +The men were very silent. + +At last the captain swore and said: "We are certainly a pack of fools. +Derned old deserted house halting a company of Union cavalry, and making +us gape like babies!" + +"Yes, but there's something--something----" insisted the subaltern in a +half stammer. + +"Well, if there's 'something--something' in there, I'll get it out," +said the captain. "Send Sharpe clean around to the other side with about +twelve men, so we will sure bag your 'something--something,' and I'll +take a few of the boys and find out what's in the d----d old thing!" + +He chose the nearest eight men for his "storming party," as the +lieutenant called it. After he had waited some minutes for the others to +get into position, he said "Come ahead" to his eight men, and climbed +the fence. + +The brighter light of the tangled lawn made him suddenly feel +tremendously apparent, and he wondered if there could be some mystic +thing in the house which was regarding this approach. His men trudged +silently at his back. They stared at the windows and lost themselves in +deep speculations as to the probability of there being, perhaps, eyes +behind the blinds--malignant eyes, piercing eyes. + +Suddenly a corporal in the party gave vent to a startled exclamation, +and half threw his carbine into position. The captain turned quickly, +and the corporal said: "I saw an arm move the blinds. An arm with a gray +sleeve!" + +"Don't be a fool, Jones, now!" said the captain sharply. + +"I swear t'----" began the corporal, but the captain silenced him. + +When they arrived at the front of the house, the troopers paused, while +the captain went softly up the front steps. He stood before the large +front door and studied it. Some crickets chirped in the long grass, and +the nearest pine could be heard in its endless sighs. One of the +privates moved uneasily, and his foot crunched the gravel. Suddenly the +captain swore angrily and kicked the door with a loud crash. It flew +open. + + + + +II. + + +The bright lights of the day flashed into the old house when the captain +angrily kicked open the door. He was aware of a wide hallway carpeted +with matting and extending deep into the dwelling. There was also an old +walnut hatrack and a little marble-topped table with a vase and two +books upon it. Farther back was a great, venerable fireplace containing +dreary ashes. + +But directly in front of the captain was a young girl. The flying open +of the door had obviously been an utter astonishment to her, and she +remained transfixed there in the middle of the floor, staring at the +captain with wide eyes. + +She was like a child caught at the time of a raid upon the cake. She +wavered to and fro upon her feet, and held her hands behind her. There +were two little points of terror in her eyes, as she gazed up at the +young captain in dusty blue, with his reddish, bronze complexion, his +yellow hair, his bright sabre held threateningly. + +These two remained motionless and silent, simply staring at each other +for some moments. + +The captain felt his rage fade out of him and leave his mind limp. He +had been violently angry, because this house had made him feel hesitant, +wary. He did not like to be wary. He liked to feel confident, sure. So +he had kicked the door open, and had been prepared to march in like a +soldier of wrath. + +But now he began, for one thing, to wonder if his uniform was so dusty +and old in appearance. Moreover, he had a feeling that his face was +covered with a compound of dust, grime, and perspiration. He took a step +forward and said, "I didn't mean to frighten you." But his voice was +coarse from his battle-howling. It seemed to him to have hempen fibres +in it. + +The girl's breath came in little, quick gasps, and she looked at him as +she would have looked at a serpent. + +"I didn't mean to frighten you," he said again. + +The girl, still with her hands behind her, began to back away. + +"Is there any one else in the house?" he went on, while slowly following +her. "I don't wish to disturb you, but we had a fight with some rebel +skirmishers in the woods, and I thought maybe some of them might have +come in here. In fact, I was pretty sure of it. Are there any of them +here?" + +The girl looked at him and said, "No!" He wondered why extreme agitation +made the eyes of some women so limpid and bright. + +"Who is here besides yourself?" + +By this time his pursuit had driven her to the end of the hall, and she +remained there with her back to the wall and her hands still behind her. +When she answered this question, she did not look at him but down at the +floor. She cleared her voice and then said, "There is no one here." + +"No one?" + +She lifted her eyes to him in that appeal that the human being must make +even to falling trees, crashing bowlders, the sea in a storm, and said, +"No, no, there is no one here." He could plainly see her tremble. + +Of a sudden he bethought him that she continually kept her hands behind +her. As he recalled her air when first discovered, he remembered she +appeared precisely as a child detected at one of the crimes of +childhood. Moreover, she had always backed away from him. He thought now +that she was concealing something which was an evidence of the presence +of the enemy in the house. + +"What are you holding behind you?" he said suddenly. + +She gave a little quick moan, as if some grim hand had throttled her. + +"What are you holding behind you?" + +"Oh, nothing--please. I am not holding anything behind me; indeed I'm +not." + +"Very well. Hold your hands out in front of you, then." + +"Oh, indeed, I'm not holding anything behind me. Indeed, I'm not." + +"Well," he began. Then he paused, and remained for a moment dubious. +Finally, he laughed. "Well, I shall have my men search the house, +anyhow. I'm sorry to trouble you, but I feel sure that there is some one +here whom we want." He turned to the corporal, who with the other men +was gaping quietly in at the door, and said, "Jones, go through the +house." + +As for himself, he remained planted in front of the girl, for she +evidently did not dare to move and allow him to see what she held so +carefully behind her back. So she was his prisoner. + +The men rummaged around on the ground floor of the house. Sometimes the +captain called to them, "Try that closet," "Is there any cellar?" But +they found no one, and at last they went trooping toward the stairs +which led to the second floor. + +But at this movement on the part of the men the girl uttered a cry--a +cry of such fright and appeal that the men paused. "Oh, don't go up +there! Please don't go up there!--ple--ease! There is no one there! +Indeed--indeed there is not! Oh, ple--ease!" + +"Go on, Jones," said the captain calmly. + +The obedient corporal made a preliminary step, and the girl bounded +toward the stairs with another cry. + +As she passed him, the captain caught sight of that which she had +concealed behind her back, and which she had forgotten in this supreme +moment. It was a pistol. + +She ran to the first step, and standing there, faced the men, one hand +extended with perpendicular palm, and the other holding the pistol at +her side. "Oh, please, don't go up there! Nobody is there--indeed, there +is not! P-l-e-a-s-e!" Then suddenly she sank swiftly down upon the step, +and, huddling forlornly, began to weep in the agony and with the +convulsive tremors of an infant. The pistol fell from her fingers and +rattled down to the floor. + +The astonished troopers looked at their astonished captain. There was a +short silence. + +Finally, the captain stooped and picked up the pistol. It was a heavy +weapon of the army pattern. He ascertained that it was empty. + +He leaned toward the shaking girl, and said gently, "Will you tell me +what you were going to do with this pistol?" + +He had to repeat the question a number of times, but at last a muffled +voice said, "Nothing." + +"Nothing!" He insisted quietly upon a further answer. At the tender +tones of the captain's voice, the phlegmatic corporal turned and winked +gravely at the man next to him. + +"Won't you tell me?" + +The girl shook her head. + +"Please tell me!" + +The silent privates were moving their feet uneasily and wondering how +long they were to wait. + +The captain said, "Please won't you tell me?" + +Then this girl's voice began in stricken tones half coherent, and amid +violent sobbing: "It was grandpa's. He--he--he said he was going to +shoot anybody who came in here--he didn't care if there were thousands +of 'em. And--and I know he would, and I was afraid they'd kill him. And +so--and--so I stole away his pistol--and I was going to hide it when +you--you--you kicked open the door." + +The men straightened up and looked at each other. The girl began to weep +again. + +The captain mopped his brow. He peered down at the girl. He mopped his +brow again. Suddenly he said, "Ah, don't cry like that." + +He moved restlessly and looked down at his boots. He mopped his brow +again. + +Then he gripped the corporal by the arm and dragged him some yards back +from the others. "Jones," he said, in an intensely earnest voice, "will +you tell me what in the devil I am going to do?" + +The corporal's countenance became illuminated with satisfaction at being +thus requested to advise his superior officer. He adopted an air of +great thought, and finally said: "Well, of course, the feller with the +gray sleeve must be upstairs, and we must get past the girl and up there +somehow. Suppose I take her by the arm and lead her----" + +"What!" interrupted the captain from between his clinched teeth. As he +turned away from the corporal, he said fiercely over his shoulder, "You +touch that girl and I'll split your skull!" + + + + +III. + + +The corporal looked after his captain with an expression of mingled +amazement, grief, and philosophy. He seemed to be saying to himself that +there unfortunately were times, after all, when one could not rely upon +the most reliable of men. When he returned to the group he found the +captain bending over the girl and saying, "Why is it that you don't want +us to search upstairs?" + +The girl's head was buried in her crossed arms. Locks of her hair had +escaped from their fastenings and these fell upon her shoulder. + +"Won't you tell me?" + +The corporal here winked again at the man next to him. + +"Because," the girl moaned--"because--there isn't anybody up there." + +The captain at last said timidly, "Well, I'm afraid--I'm afraid we'll +have to----" + +The girl sprang to her feet again, and implored him with her hands. She +looked deep into his eyes with her glance, which was at this time like +that of the fawn when it says to the hunter, "Have mercy upon me!" + +These two stood regarding each other. The captain's foot was on the +bottom step, but he seemed to be shrinking. He wore an air of being +deeply wretched and ashamed. There was a silence. + +Suddenly the corporal said in a quick, low tone, "Look out, captain!" + +All turned their eyes swiftly toward the head of the stairs. There had +appeared there a youth in a gray uniform. He stood looking coolly down +at them. No word was said by the troopers. The girl gave vent to a +little wail of desolation, "O Harry!" + +He began slowly to descend the stairs. His right arm was in a white +sling, and there were some fresh blood stains upon the cloth. His face +was rigid and deathly pale, but his eyes flashed like lights. The girl +was again moaning in an utterly dreary fashion, as the youth came slowly +down toward the silent men in blue. + +Six steps from the bottom of the flight he halted and said, "I reckon +it's me you're looking for." + +The troopers had crowded forward a trifle and, posed in lithe, nervous +attitudes, were watching him like cats. The captain remained unmoved. At +the youth's question he merely nodded his head and said, "Yes." + +The young man in gray looked down at the girl, and then, in the same +even tone which now, however, seemed to vibrate with suppressed fury, he +said, "And is that any reason why you should insult my sister?" + +At this sentence, the girl intervened, desperately, between the young +man in gray and the officer in blue. "Oh, don't, Harry, don't! He was +good to me! He was good to me, Harry--indeed he was!" + +The youth came on in his quiet, erect fashion until the girl could have +touched either of the men with her hand, for the captain still remained +with his foot upon the first step. She continually repeated: "O Harry! O +Harry!" + +The youth in gray man[oe]uvred to glare into the captain's face, first +over one shoulder of the girl and then over the other. In a voice that +rang like metal, he said: "You are armed and unwounded, while I have no +weapons and am wounded; but----" + +The captain had stepped back and sheathed his sabre. The eyes of these +two men were gleaming fire, but otherwise the captain's countenance was +imperturbable. He said: "You are mistaken. You have no reason to----" + +"You lie!" + +All save the captain and the youth in gray started in an electric +movement. These two words crackled in the air like shattered glass. +There was a breathless silence. + +The captain cleared his throat. His look at the youth contained a +quality of singular and terrible ferocity, but he said in his stolid +tone, "I don't suppose you mean what you say now." + +Upon his arm he had felt the pressure of some unconscious little +fingers. The girl was leaning against the wall as if she no longer knew +how to keep her balance, but those fingers--he held his arm very still. +She murmured: "O Harry, don't! He was good to me--indeed he was!" + +The corporal had come forward until he in a measure confronted the youth +in gray, for he saw those fingers upon the captain's arm, and he knew +that sometimes very strong men were not able to move hand nor foot under +such conditions. + +The youth had suddenly seemed to become weak. He breathed heavily and +clung to the rail. He was glaring at the captain, and apparently +summoning all his will power to combat his weakness. The corporal +addressed him with profound straightforwardness, "Don't you be a derned +fool!" The youth turned toward him so fiercely that the corporal threw +up a knee and an elbow like a boy who expects to be cuffed. + +The girl pleaded with the captain. "You won't hurt him, will you? He +don't know what he's saying. He's wounded, you know. Please don't mind +him!" + +"I won't touch him," said the captain, with rather extraordinary +earnestness; "don't you worry about him at all. I won't touch him!" + +Then he looked at her, and the girl suddenly withdrew her fingers from +his arm. + +The corporal contemplated the top of the stairs, and remarked without +surprise, "There's another of 'em coming!" + +An old man was clambering down the stairs with much speed. He waved a +cane wildly. "Get out of my house, you thieves! Get out! I won't have +you cross my threshold! Get out!" He mumbled and wagged his head in an +old man's fury. It was plainly his intention to assault them. + +And so it occurred that a young girl became engaged in protecting a +stalwart captain, fully armed, and with eight grim troopers at his back, +from the attack of an old man with a walking-stick! + +A blush passed over the temples and brow of the captain, and he looked +particularly savage and weary. Despite the girl's efforts, he suddenly +faced the old man. + +"Look here," he said distinctly, "we came in because we had been +fighting in the woods yonder, and we concluded that some of the enemy +were in this house, especially when we saw a gray sleeve at the window. +But this young man is wounded, and I have nothing to say to him. I will +even take it for granted that there are no others like him upstairs. We +will go away, leaving your d----d old house just as we found it! And we +are no more thieves and rascals than you are!" + +The old man simply roared: "I haven't got a cow nor a pig nor a chicken +on the place! Your soldiers have stolen everything they could carry +away. They have torn down half my fences for firewood. This afternoon +some of your accursed bullets even broke my window panes!" + +The girl had been faltering: "Grandpa! O grandpa!" + +The captain looked at the girl. She returned his glance from the shadow +of the old man's shoulder. After studying her face a moment, he said, +"Well, we will go now." He strode toward the door and his men clanked +docilely after him. + +At this time there was the sound of harsh cries and rushing footsteps +from without. The door flew open, and a whirlwind composed of +blue-coated troopers came in with a swoop. It was headed by the +lieutenant. "Oh, here you are!" he cried, catching his breath. "We +thought----Oh, look at the girl!" + +The captain said intensely, "Shut up, you fool!" + +The men settled to a halt with a clash and a bang. There could be heard +the dulled sound of many hoofs outside of the house. + +"Did you order up the horses?" inquired the captain. + +"Yes. We thought----" + +"Well, then, let's get out of here," interrupted the captain morosely. + +The men began to filter out into the open air. The youth in gray had +been hanging dismally to the railing of the stairway. He now was +climbing slowly up to the second floor. The old man was addressing +himself directly to the serene corporal. + +"Not a chicken on the place!" he cried. + +"Well, I didn't take your chickens, did I?" + +"No, maybe you didn't, but----" + +The captain crossed the hall and stood before the girl in rather a +culprit's fashion. "You are not angry at me, are you?" he asked timidly. + +"No," she said. She hesitated a moment, and then suddenly held out her +hand. "You were good to me--and I'm--much obliged." + +The captain took her hand, and then he blushed, for he found himself +unable to formulate a sentence that applied in any way to the situation. + +She did not seem to heed that hand for a time. + +He loosened his grasp presently, for he was ashamed to hold it so long +without saying anything clever. At last, with an air of charging an +intrenched brigade, he contrived to say, "I would rather do anything +than frighten or trouble you." + +His brow was warmly perspiring. He had a sense of being hideous in his +dusty uniform and with his grimy face. + +She said, "Oh, I'm so glad it was you instead of somebody who might +have--might have hurt brother Harry and grandpa!" + +He told her, "I wouldn't have hurt 'em for anything!" + +There was a little silence. + +"Well, good-bye!" he said at last. + +"Good-bye!" + +He walked toward the door past the old man, who was scolding at the +vanishing figure of the corporal. The captain looked back. She had +remained there watching him. + +At the bugle's order, the troopers standing beside their horses swung +briskly into the saddle. The lieutenant said to the first sergeant: + +"Williams, did they ever meet before?" + +"Hanged if I know!" + +"Well, say----" + +The captain saw a curtain move at one of the windows. He cantered from +his position at the head of the column and steered his horse between two +flower beds. + +"Well, good-bye!" + +The squadron trampled slowly past. + +"Good-bye!" + +They shook hands. + +He evidently had something enormously important to say to her, but it +seems that he could not manage it. He struggled heroically. The bay +charger, with his great mystically solemn eyes, looked around the corner +of his shoulder at the girl. + +The captain studied a pine tree. The girl inspected the grass beneath +the window. The captain said hoarsely, "I don't suppose--I don't +suppose--I'll ever see you again!" + +She looked at him affrightedly and shrank back from the window. He +seemed to have woefully expected a reception of this kind for his +question. He gave her instantly a glance of appeal. + +She said, "Why, no, I don't suppose we will." + +"Never?" + +"Why, no, 'tain't possible. You--you are a--Yankee!" + +"Oh, I know it, but----" Eventually he continued, "Well, some day, you +know, when there's no more fighting, we might----" He observed that she +had again withdrawn suddenly into the shadow, so he said, "Well, +good-bye!" + +When he held her fingers she bowed her head, and he saw a pink blush +steal over the curves of her cheek and neck. + +"Am I never going to see you again?" + +She made no reply. + +"Never?" he repeated. + +After a long time, he bent over to hear a faint reply: "Sometimes--when +there are no troops in the neighbourhood--grandpa don't mind if I--walk +over as far as that old oak tree yonder--in the afternoons." + +It appeared that the captain's grip was very strong, for she uttered an +exclamation and looked at her fingers as if she expected to find them +mere fragments. He rode away. + +The bay horse leaped a flower bed. They were almost to the drive, when +the girl uttered a panic-stricken cry. + +The captain wheeled his horse violently and upon his return journey went +straight through a flower bed. + +The girl had clasped her hands. She beseeched him wildly with her eyes. +"Oh, please, don't believe it! I never walk to the old oak tree. Indeed, +I don't! I never--never--never walk there." + +The bridle drooped on the bay charger's neck. The captain's figure +seemed limp. With an expression of profound dejection and gloom he +stared off at where the leaden sky met the dark green line of the woods. +The long-impending rain began to fall with a mournful patter, drop and +drop. There was a silence. + +At last a low voice said, "Well--I might--sometimes I +might--perhaps--but only once in a great while--I might walk to the old +tree--in the afternoons." + + + + +THE VETERAN. + + +Out of the low window could be seen three hickory trees placed +irregularly in a meadow that was resplendent in springtime green. +Farther away, the old, dismal belfry of the village church loomed over +the pines. A horse meditating in the shade of one of the hickories +lazily swished his tail. The warm sunshine made an oblong of vivid +yellow on the floor of the grocery. + +"Could you see the whites of their eyes?" said the man who was seated on +a soap box. + +"Nothing of the kind," replied old Henry warmly. "Just a lot of flitting +figures, and I let go at where they 'peared to be the thickest. Bang!" + +"Mr. Fleming," said the grocer--his deferential voice expressed somehow +the old man's exact social weight--"Mr. Fleming, you never was +frightened much in them battles, was you?" + +The veteran looked down and grinned. Observing his manner, the entire +group tittered. "Well, I guess I was," he answered finally. "Pretty well +scared, sometimes. Why, in my first battle I thought the sky was falling +down. I thought the world was coming to an end. You bet I was scared." + +Every one laughed. Perhaps it seemed strange and rather wonderful to +them that a man should admit the thing, and in the tone of their +laughter there was probably more admiration than if old Fleming had +declared that he had always been a lion. Moreover, they knew that he had +ranked as an orderly sergeant, and so their opinion of his heroism was +fixed. None, to be sure, knew how an orderly sergeant ranked, but then +it was understood to be somewhere just shy of a major general's stars. +So, when old Henry admitted that he had been frightened, there was a +laugh. + +"The trouble was," said the old man, "I thought they were all shooting +at me. Yes, sir, I thought every man in the other army was aiming at me +in particular, and only me. And it seemed so darned unreasonable, +you know. I wanted to explain to 'em what an almighty good fellow +I was, because I thought then they might quit all trying +to hit me. But I couldn't explain, and they kept on being +unreasonable--blim!--blam!--bang! So I run!" + +Two little triangles of wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes. +Evidently he appreciated some comedy in this recital. Down near his +feet, however, little Jim, his grandson, was visibly horror-stricken. +His hands were clasped nervously, and his eyes were wide with +astonishment at this terrible scandal, his most magnificent grandfather +telling such a thing. + +"That was at Chancellorsville. Of course, afterward I got kind of used +to it. A man does. Lots of men, though, seem to feel all right from the +start. I did, as soon as I 'got on to it,' as they say now; but at first +I was pretty well flustered. Now, there was young Jim Conklin, old Si +Conklin's son--that used to keep the tannery--you none of you recollect +him--well, he went into it from the start just as if he was born to it. +But with me it was different. I had to get used to it." + +When little Jim walked with his grandfather he was in the habit of +skipping along on the stone pavement in front of the three stores and +the hotel of the town and betting that he could avoid the cracks. But +upon this day he walked soberly, with his hand gripping two of his +grandfather's fingers. Sometimes he kicked abstractedly at dandelions +that curved over the walk. Any one could see that he was much troubled. + +"There's Sickles's colt over in the medder, Jimmie," said the old man. +"Don't you wish you owned one like him?" + +"Um," said the boy, with a strange lack of interest. He continued his +reflections. Then finally he ventured, "Grandpa--now--was that true what +you was telling those men?" + +"What?" asked the grandfather. "What was I telling them?" + +"Oh, about your running." + +"Why, yes, that was true enough, Jimmie. It was my first fight, and +there was an awful lot of noise, you know." + +Jimmie seemed dazed that this idol, of its own will, should so totter. +His stout boyish idealism was injured. + +Presently the grandfather said: "Sickles's colt is going for a drink. +Don't you wish you owned Sickles's colt, Jimmie?" + +The boy merely answered, "He ain't as nice as our'n." He lapsed then +into another moody silence. + + * * * * * + +One of the hired men, a Swede, desired to drive to the county seat for +purposes of his own. The old man loaned a horse and an unwashed buggy. +It appeared later that one of the purposes of the Swede was to get +drunk. + +After quelling some boisterous frolic of the farm hands and boys in the +garret, the old man had that night gone peacefully to sleep, when he was +aroused by clamouring at the kitchen door. He grabbed his trousers, and +they waved out behind as he dashed forward. He could hear the voice of +the Swede, screaming and blubbering. He pushed the wooden button, and, +as the door flew open, the Swede, a maniac, stumbled inward, chattering, +weeping, still screaming: "De barn fire! Fire! Fire! De barn fire! Fire! +Fire! Fire!" + +There was a swift and indescribable change in the old man. His face +ceased instantly to be a face; it became a mask, a gray thing, with +horror written about the mouth and eyes. He hoarsely shouted at the foot +of the little rickety stairs, and immediately, it seemed, there came +down an avalanche of men. No one knew that during this time the old lady +had been standing in her night clothes at the bedroom door, yelling: +"What's th' matter? What's th' matter? What's th' matter?" + +When they dashed toward the barn it presented to their eyes its usual +appearance, solemn, rather mystic in the black night. The Swede's +lantern was overturned at a point some yards in front of the barn doors. +It contained a wild little conflagration of its own, and even in their +excitement some of those who ran felt a gentle secondary vibration of +the thrifty part of their minds at sight of this overturned lantern. +Under ordinary circumstances it would have been a calamity. + +But the cattle in the barn were trampling, trampling, trampling, and +above this noise could be heard a humming like the song of innumerable +bees. The old man hurled aside the great doors, and a yellow flame +leaped out at one corner and sped and wavered frantically up the old +gray wall. It was glad, terrible, this single flame, like the wild +banner of deadly and triumphant foes. + +The motley crowd from the garret had come with all the pails of the +farm. They flung themselves upon the well. It was a leisurely old +machine, long dwelling in indolence. It was in the habit of giving out +water with a sort of reluctance. The men stormed at it, cursed it; but +it continued to allow the buckets to be filled only after the wheezy +windlass had howled many protests at the mad-handed men. + +With his opened knife in his hand old Fleming himself had gone headlong +into the barn, where the stifling smoke swirled with the air currents, +and where could be heard in its fulness the terrible chorus of the +flames, laden with tones of hate and death, a hymn of wonderful +ferocity. + +He flung a blanket over an old mare's head, cut the halter close to the +manger, led the mare to the door, and fairly kicked her out to safety. +He returned with the same blanket, and rescued one of the work horses. +He took five horses out, and then came out himself, with his clothes +bravely on fire. He had no whiskers, and very little hair on his head. +They soused five pailfuls of water on him. His eldest son made a clean +miss with the sixth pailful, because the old man had turned and was +running down the decline and around to the basement of the barn, where +were the stanchions of the cows. Some one noticed at the time that he +ran very lamely, as if one of the frenzied horses had smashed his hip. + +The cows, with their heads held in the heavy stanchions, had thrown +themselves, strangled themselves, tangled themselves: done everything +which the ingenuity of their exuberant fear could suggest to them. + +Here, as at the well, the same thing happened to every man save one. +Their hands went mad. They became incapable of everything save the power +to rush into dangerous situations. + +The old man released the cow nearest the door, and she, blind drunk with +terror, crashed into the Swede. The Swede had been running to and fro +babbling. He carried an empty milk pail, to which he clung with an +unconscious, fierce enthusiasm. He shrieked like one lost as he went +under the cow's hoofs, and the milk pail, rolling across the floor, made +a flash of silver in the gloom. + +Old Fleming took a fork, beat off the cow, and dragged the paralyzed +Swede to the open air. When they had rescued all the cows save one, +which had so fastened herself that she could not be moved an inch, they +returned to the front of the barn and stood sadly, breathing like men +who had reached the final point of human effort. + +Many people had come running. Some one had even gone to the church, and +now, from the distance, rang the tocsin note of the old bell. There was +a long flare of crimson on the sky, which made remote people speculate +as to the whereabouts of the fire. + +The long flames sang their drumming chorus in voices of the heaviest +bass. The wind whirled clouds of smoke and cinders into the faces of the +spectators. The form of the old barn was outlined in black amid these +masses of orange-hued flames. + +And then came this Swede again, crying as one who is the weapon of the +sinister fates. "De colts! De colts! You have forgot de colts!" + +Old Fleming staggered. It was true; they had forgotten the two colts in +the box stalls at the back of the barn. "Boys," he said, "I must try to +get 'em out." They clamoured about him then, afraid for him, afraid of +what they should see. Then they talked wildly each to each. "Why, it's +sure death!" "He would never get out!" "Why, it's suicide for a man to +go in there!" Old Fleming stared absent-mindedly at the open doors. "The +poor little things!" he said. He rushed into the barn. + +When the roof fell in, a great funnel of smoke swarmed toward the sky, +as if the old man's mighty spirit, released from its body--a little +bottle--had swelled like the genie of fable. The smoke was tinted +rose-hue from the flames, and perhaps the unutterable midnights of the +universe will have no power to daunt the colour of this soul. + + +THE END. + + + + +Other Books by Stephen Crane. + + +The Red Badge of Courage. + +An Episode of the American Civil War. + + "Never before have we had the seamy side of glorious war so well + depicted."--_Chicago Evening Post._ + + "Of such interest that no one having begun it will lay it aside + until the end is reached."--_Philadelphia Ledger._ + + "We have had many stories of the war; this stands absolutely + alone."--_Boston Transcript._ + + "Has no parallel, unless it be Tolstoy's 'Sebastopol.'"--_San + Francisco Chronicle._ + + "A strong book, and it is a true book; true to life."--_The + Critic._ + + "Has been surpassed by few writers dealing with war."--_New York + Mail and Express._ + +Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. + + "By writing 'Maggie' Mr. Crane has made for himself a permanent + place in literature."--_New York Mail and Express._ + + "Full of clever descriptions.... Written in short, terse sentences, + which compel the imagination rather than stimulate it."--_Boston + Herald._ + + "A powerful portrayal."--_New York Times._ + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Little Regiment, by Stephen Crane + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE REGIMENT *** + +***** This file should be named 31488.txt or 31488.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/4/8/31488/ + +Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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