[Illustration: "Stand, gentlemen! Every man is covered by two!"]

THE CAVALIER

BY

GEORGE W. CABLE

1901

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. She Wanted to Laugh II. Lieutenant Ferry III. She IV. Three Days' Rations V. Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty VI. A Handsome Stranger VII. A Plague on Names! VIII. Another Curtained Wagon IX. The Dandy's Task X. The Soldier's Hour XI. Captain Jewett XII. In the General's Tent XIII. Good-Bye, Dick XIV. Coralie Rothvelt XV. Venus and Mars XVI. An Aching Conscience XVII. Two Under One Hat-Brim XVIII. The Jayhawkers XIX. Asleep in the Death-Trap XX. Charlotte Oliver XXI. The Fight on the Bridge XXII. We Speed a Parting Guest XXIII. Ferry Talks of Charlotte XXIV. A Million and a Half XXV. A Quiet Ride XXVI. A Salute Across the Dead-Line XXVII. Some Fall, Some Plunge XXVIII. Oldest Game on Earth XXIX. A Gnawing in the Dark XXX. Dignity and Impudence XXXI. The Red Star's Warning XXXII. A Martyr's Wrath XXXIII. Torch and Sword XXXIV. The Charge in the Lane XXXV. Fallen Heroes XXXVI. "Says Quinn, S'e" XXXVII. A Horse! A Horse!XXXVIII. "Bear a Message and a Token" XXXIX. Charlotte Sings XL. Harry Laughs XLI. Unimportant and Confidential XLII. "Can I Get There by Candle-Light?" XLIII. "Yes, and Back Again" XLIV. Charlotte in the Tents of the Foe XLV. Stay Till To-Morrow XLVI. The Dance at Gilmer's XLVII. He's Dead--Is She Alive? XLVIII. In the Hollow of His Right Arm XLIX. A Cruel Book and a Fool or Two L. The Bottom of the Whirlwind LI. Under the Room Where Charlotte Lay LII. Same Book and Light-Head Harry LIII. "Captain, They've Got Us" LIV. The Fight in the Doorway LV. Rescue and Retreat LVI. Hôtel des Invalides LVII. A Yes and a No LVIII. The Upper Fork of the Road LIX. Under Charlotte's Window LX. Tidings LXI. While Destiny Moved On LXII. A Tarrying Bridegroom LXIII. Something I Have Never Told Till Now LXIV. By Twos. March

ILLUSTRATIONS

"Stand, gentlemen! Every man is covered by two!"

"I surrender, " he said, with amiable ease

"Well, you _air_ in a hurry!"

With the rein dangling under the bits he went over the fence like a deer

Ferry saluted with his straight blade

"Don't you like him?" she asked, and tried to be very arch

Ferry fired under his flash and sent him reeling into the arms of hisfollowers

Springing to the ground between our two candles, she bent over the openpage

I

SHE WANTED TO LAUGH

Our camp was in the heart of Copiah County, Mississippi, a mile or sowest of Gallatin and about six miles east of that once robber-hauntedroad, the Natchez Trace. Austin's brigade, we were, a detached body ofmixed Louisiana and Mississippi cavalry, getting our breath again aftertwo weeks' hard fighting of Grant. Grierson's raid had lately gone theentire length of the State, and we had had a hard, vain chase afterhim, also. 

Joe Johnston's shattered army was at Jackson, about forty-five miles tonorthward; beleaguered Vicksburg was in the Northwest, a trifle fartheraway; Natchez lay southwest, still more distant; and nearly twice as farin the south was our heartbroken New Orleans. We had paused torecuperate our animals, and there was a rumor that we were to get newclothing. Anyhow we had rags with honor, and a right to make as muchnoise as we chose. 

It was being made. The air was in anguish with the din of tree-fellingand log-chopping, of stamping, neighing, braying, whooping, guffawing, and singing--all the daybreak charivari beloved of a camp ofConfederate "critter companies. " In the midst of it a chum and I satclose together on a log near the mess fire, and as the other boys of themess lifted their heads from their saddle-tree pillows, from two of themat once came a slow, disdainful acceptance of the final lot of thewicked, made unsolicited on discovering that this chum and I had satthere talking together all night. I had the day before been wheedledinto letting myself be detailed to be a quartermaster's clerk, and thiscomrade and I were never to snuggle under the one blanket again. Thethought forbade slumber. 

"If I go to sleep, " I said, --"you know how I dream. I shall have one ofthose dreams of mine to carry around in my memory for a year, like abullet in my back. " So there the dear fellow had sat all night to giveme my hourly powders of reassurance that I could be a quartermaster'sclerk without shame. 

"Certainly you can afford to fill a position which the leader of Ferry'sscouts has filled just before you. "

But my unsoldierly motive for going to headquarters kept my misgivingsalive. I was hungry for the gentilities of camp; to be where Shakespearewas part of the baggage, where Pope was quoted, where Coleridge andByron and Poe were recited, Macaulay criticized, and "LesMisérables"--Madame Le Vert's Mobile translation--lent round; and wheremen, when they did steal, stole portable volumes, not currycombs. NedFerry had been Major Harper's clerk, but had managed in severalinstances to display such fitness to lead that General Austin had latelynamed him for promotion, and the quartermaster's clerk was nowLieutenant Ferry, raised from the ranks for gallantry, and followedubiquitously by a chosen sixty or so drawn from the whole brigade. Couldthe like occur again? And could it occur to a chap who could notcomprehend how it had ever occurred at all?

By and by we breakfasted. After which, my precious horse not havingfinished his corn, I spread my blanket and let myself doze, but was soonawakened by the shouts of my companions laughing at me for laughing sopiteously in my sleep. 

"Would I not tell my dream, as nice young men in the Bible always did?"

"No, I would not!" But I had to yield. My dream was that our General hadtold me a fable. It was of a young rat, which seeing a cockerel, whosetail was scarcely longer than his own, leap down into a barrel, gathersome stray grains of corn and fly out again, was tempted to follow hisexample, but having got in, could only stay there. The boys furnishedthe moral; it was not complimentary. 

"Well, good-bye, fellows. "

"Good-bye, Smith. " I have never liked my last name, but at that momentthe boys contrived to put a kindness of tone into it which made italmost pleasing. "Good-bye, Smith, remember your failings. "

Remember! I had yet to make their discovery. But I was on the eve ofmaking it. 

As I passed up the road through the midst of our nearly tentless camp Imet a leather-curtained spring-wagon to which were attached a pair oflittle striped-legged mules driven by an old negro. Behind him, amongthe curtains, sat a lady and her black maid. The mistress was ofstrikingly graceful figure, in a most tasteful gown and broad Leghornhat. Her small hands were daintily gloved. The mules stopped, andthrough her light veil I saw that she was handsome. Her eyes, full ofthought, were blue, and yet were so spirited they might as well havebeen black, as her hair was. She, or fate for her, had crowded thirtyyears of life into twenty-five of time. 

For many a day I had not seen such charms of feminine attire, and yet Iwas not charmed. Every item of her fragrant drapery was from the world'sopen market, hence flagrantly un-Confederate, unpatriotic, reprehensible. Otherwise it might not have seemed to me that her thinnostrils had got their passionateness lately. 

"Are you not a New Orleans boy?" she asked as I lifted my képi and drewrein. 

Boy! humph! I frowned, made myself long, and confessed I had the honorto be from that city. Whereupon she let her long-lashed eyes take on asravishing a covetousness as though I had been a pretty baby. 

"I knew it!" she said delightedly. "But tell me, honor bright, "--shesparkled with amusement--"you're not regularly enlisted, are you?"

I clenched my teeth. "I am nineteen, madam. "

Her eyes danced, her brows arched. "Haven't you got"--she hid her smilewith an embroidered handkerchief--"haven't you got your second figureupside down?" I glared, but with one look of hurt sisterliness shemelted me. Then, pensive just long enough to say, "I was nineteen once, "she shot me a sidelong glance so roguish that I was dumb withindignation and tried to find my mustache, forgetting I had shaved itoff to stimulate it. She smiled in sweet propitiation and then camegravely to business. "Have you come from beyond the pickets?"

"No, madam. "

"Have you met any officer riding toward them?"

I had not. Her driver gathered the reins and I drew back. 

"Good-bye, New Orleans soldier-boy, " she said, gaily, and as I raised mycap she gave herself a fetching air and added, "I'll wager I knowyour name. "

"Madam, "--my cap went higher, my head lower--"I never bet. "

I could not divine what there was ridiculous about me, except a certaindamage to my dress, of which she could not possibly be aware as long asI remained in the saddle. Yet plainly she wanted to laugh. I made it asplain that I did not. 

"Good-day, sir, " she said, with forced severity, but as I smiledapologetically and moved my rein, she broke down under new temptationand, as the wagon moved away, twittered after me unseen, --"Good-bye, Mr. Smith. "

II

LIEUTENANT FERRY

I passed on, flattered but scandalized, wasting no guesses on how sheknew me--if she really knew me at all--but taking my revenge bymoralizing on her, to myself, as a sign of the times, until brigadeheadquarters were in full view, a few rods off the road; four or fivegood, white wall-tents in a green bit of old field backed by a thicketof young pines. 

Midway of this space I met Scott Gholson, clerk to the Adjutant-general. It was Gholson who had first spoken of me for this detail. He was anEast Louisianian, of Tangipahoa; aged maybe twenty-six, but in effectolder, having from birth eaten only ill-cooked food, and looking it;profoundly unconscious of any shortcoming in his education, which he hadgot from a small church-pecked college of the pelican sort that feed itraw from their own bosoms. One of his smallest deficiencies was that hehad never seen as much art as there is in one handsome dinner-plate. Now, here he was, riding forth to learn for himself, privately, he said, why I did not appear. Yet he halted without turning, and seemed to wishhe had not found me. 

"Did you"--he began, and stopped; "did you notice a"--he stopped again. 

"What, a leather-curtained spring-wagon?"

"No-o!" he said, as if nobody but a gaping idiot would expect anybodynot a gaping idiot to notice a leather-curtained spring-wagon. "No-o!did you notice the brown horse that man was riding who just now passedyou as you turned off the road?"

No, I barely remembered the rider had generously moved aside to let mego by. In pure sourness at the poverty of my dress and the perfection ofhis, I had avoided looking at him higher than his hundred-dollar boots. My feet were in uncolored cowhide, except the toes. 

"He noticed you, " said Gholson; "he looked back at you and your bay. Wouldn't you like to turn back and see his horse?"

"Why, hardly, if I'm behindhand now. Is it so fine as that?"

"Well, no. It's the horse he captured the time he got the Yankee who hadhim prisoner. "

"Who?" I cried. "What! You don't mean to say--was that LieutenantFerry?"

"Yes, so called. He wa'n't a lieutenant then, he was a clerk, like youor me. "

"Oh, I wish I had noticed him!"

"We can see him yet if you--"

"Do you want to see him?" I gathered my horse. 

"Me!--No, sir. But you spoke as if--"

I shook my head and we moved toward the tents. This was worse than thedream; the rat had not seen the cockerel, but the cockerel had observedthe rat--dropping into the barrel: the cockerel, yes, and not thecockerel alone, for I saw that Gholson was associating him with her ofthe curtained wagon. By now they were side and side. I asked if Ferrycame often to headquarters. "Yes, quite as often as he's any businessto. " "Ah, ha!" thought I, and presently said I had heard he was agreat favorite. 

"Well, --yes, --he--he is, --with some. "

"Don't you like him?"

"Who, me? Oh!--I--I admire Ned Ferry--for a number of things. He's morefoolhardy than brave; he's confessed as much to me. Women call himhandsome. He sings; beautifully, I suppose; I can't sing a note; andwouldn't if I could. Still, if he only wouldn't sing drinking-songs--but, Smith, I think that to sing drinking-songs--and allthe more to sing them as well as some folks think he does--is toadvocate drinking, and to advocate drinking is next door to excusingdrunkenness!"

"Then Ned Ferry doesn't drink?"

"Indeed he does! I don't like to say it, and I don't say he drinks 'toomuch', as they call it; but, Smith, he drinks with men who do! Oh, _I_admire him; only I do wish--"

"Wish what?"

"Oh, I--I wish he wouldn't play cards. Smith, I've seen him play cardswith the shells bursting over us!"

For my part I privately wished this saint wouldn't rub my uninterestingsurname into me every time he spoke. As we dismounted near the tents Ileaned against my saddle and asked further concerning the object of hisloving anxiety. Was Ned Ferry generous, pleasant, frank?

"Why, in outward manner, yes; but, Smith, he was raised to be a Catholicpriest. I could a heap-sight easier trust him if he'd sometimes showdistrust, himself. If he ever does I've never seen it. And yet--Oh, we're the best of friends, and I'm speaking now only as a friend and_toe_ a friend. Oh, if it wa'n't for just one thing, I could admit whatMajor Harper said of him not ten minutes ago to me; that you neverfinish talking to Ned Ferry without feeling a little brighter, happierand cleaner than when you began; whereas talking with some men it's justthe reverse. "

I looked carefully at my companion and asked him if the Major had said_all_ of that. He had, and Gholson's hide had turned it without taking ascratch. "That's fine!--as to Ferry, " I said. 

"Oh, yes, --it would be--if it was only _iso_. Trouble is, you keepremembering he's such a stumbling-block to any real spiritual inquirer. Yes, and to himself; for, you know, spiritually there's so much lesshope for the moralist than what there is for the up-and-down reprobate!You know that, --_Smith_. "

My silence implied that I knew it, though I did not feel any brighter, happier or cleaner. 

"Smith, Ned Ferry is not only a Romanist, he's a romanticist. We--youand me--are religionists. _Our_ brightness and happiness air thebrightness and happiness of faith; our cleanness is the cleanness ofreligious scruples. Worst of it with Ned is he's satisfied with thedifference, I'm afraid! That's what makes him so pleasant to fellows whodon't care a sou marquee about religion. "

I said one might respect religion even if he did not--

"Oh, he's always _polite_ to it; but he's--he's read Voltaire! Oh, yes, Voltaire, George Sand, all those men. He questions the Bible, Smith. Notto me, though; hah, he knows better! Smith, I can discuss religion andnot get mad, with any one who don't question the Bible; but if he doesthat, I just tell you, I wouldn't risk my soul in such a discussion!Would you?"

I could hardly say, and we moved pensively toward Major Harper's tent. Evidently the main poison was still in Gholson's stomach, and when Iglanced at him he asked, "What d'you reckon brought Ned Ferry here justat this time?"

I made no reply. He looked momentous, leaned to me sidewise with a handhorizontally across his mouth, and whispered a name. It was new to me. "Charlie Toliver?" I murmured, for we were at the tent door. 

"The war-correspondent, " whispered Gholson; "don't you know?" But theflap of the tent lifted and I could not reply. 

III

SHE

Major Harper was the most capable officer on the brigade staff. I hadnever met a man of such force and dignity who was so modestly affable. His new clerk dined with him that first day, at noon in his tent, alone. Hot biscuits! with butter! and rock salt. Fried bacon also--somewhatvivacious, but still bacon. When the tent began to fill with the smokeof his meerschaum pipe, and while his black boy cleared the table for usto resume writing, we talked of books. Here was joy! I vaunted my lovefor history, biography, the poets, but spoke lightly of fiction. 

The smoker twinkled. "You're different from Ned Ferry, " he said. 

"Has he a taste for fiction?" I asked, with a depreciative smirk. 

"Yes, a beautiful story is a thing Ned Ferry loves with a positivepassion. "

"I suppose we might call him a romanticist, " said I, "might we not?"

The patient gentleman smiled again as he said, "Oh--Gholson can attendto that. "

I took up my pen, and until twilight we spoke thereafter only ofabstracts and requisitions. But then he led me on to tell him all aboutmyself. I explained why my first name was Richard and my second nameThorndyke, and dwelt especially on the enormous differences between theSmiths from whom we were and those from whom we were not descended. 

And then he told me about himself. He was a graduate of West Point, theonly one on the brigade staff; was a widower, with a widowed brother, amaiden sister, two daughters, and a niece, all of one New Orleanshousehold. The brothers and sister were Charlestonians, but the two menhad married in New Orleans, twin sisters in a noted Creole family. Thebrother's daughter, I was told, spoke French better than English; theMajor's elder daughter spoke English as perfectly as her father; and theyounger, left in her aunt's care from infancy, knew no French at all. Iwondered if they were as handsome as their white-haired father, andwhen I asked their names I learned that the niece, Cécile, was a yearthe junior of Estelle and as much the senior of Camille; but of the daysof the years of the pilgrimage of any of the three "children" he gave meno slightest hint; they might be seven years older, or seven yearsyounger, than his new clerk. 

To show him how little I cared for any girl's age whose father preferrednot to mention it, I reverted to his sister and brother. She was in NewOrleans, he said, with her nieces, but might at any moment be sent intothe Confederacy, being one of General Butler's "registered enemies. " Thebrother was--

"Out here somewhere. No, not in the army exactly; no, nor in the navy, but--I expect him in camp to-night. If he comes you'll have to work whenyou ought to be asleep. No, he is not in the secret service, only in _a_secret service; running hospital supplies through the enemy's linesinto ours. "

I was thrilled. _I_ was taken into the staff's confidence! Me, _Smith!_That _Major Harper_ would tell me part of a matter to conceal the restof it did not enter my dreams, good as I was at dreaming. The flatterywent to my brain, and presently, without the faintest preamble, I askedif there was any war-correspondent at headquarters just now. There camea hostile flash in his eyes, but instantly it passed, and with all hishappy mildness he replied, "No, nor any room for one. "

Just then entered an ordnance-sergeant, so smart in his rags that theMajor's affability seemed hardly a condescension. He asked me to supperwith his mess--"of staff _attatchays_, " he said, winking one eye andhitching his mouth; at which the Major laughed with kind disapprobation, and the jocose sergeant explained as we went that that was only one ofScott Gholson's mispronunciations the boys were trying to tease himout of. 

I found the clerks' mess a bunch of bright good fellows. After supper, stretched on the harsh turf under the June stars, with everyone's head(save mine) in some one's lap, we smoked, talked and sang. Only Gholsonwas called away, by duty, and so failed to hear the laborious jests gotoff at his expense. To me the wits were disastrously kind. Never had Ibeen made a tenth so much of; I was even urged to sing "All quiet alongthe Potomac to-night, " and was courteously praised when I had done so. But there is where affliction overtook me; they debated its authorship. One said a certain newspaper correspondent, naming him, had proved it tobe the work--I forget of whom. But I shall never forget what followed. Two or three challenged the literary preeminence of that correspondent, and from as many directions I was asked for my opinion. Ah me! Lyingback against a pile of saddles with my head in my hands, sodden withself-assurance, I replied, magnanimously, "Oh, I don't set up for acritic, but--well--would you call him a better man thanCharlie Toliver?"

"Who--o?" It was not one who asked; the whos came like shrapnel; andwhen, not knowing what else to do, I smiled as one dying, there went upa wail of mirth that froze my blood and then heated it to a fever. Thecompany howled. They rolled over one another, crying, "CharlieToliver!--Charlie Toliver!--Oh, Lord, where's Scott Gholson!--CharlieToliver!"--and leaped up and huddled down and moaned and rolled androse and looked for me. 

But, after all, fortune was merciful, and I was gone; the Major hadsummoned me--his brother had come. I went circuitously and alone. As Istarted, some fellow writhing on the grass cried, "Charlie Tol--oh, thisis better than a tcharade!" and a flash of divination enlightened me. While I went I burned with shame, rage and nervous exhaustion; the nameScott Gholson had gasped in my ear was the name of her in the curtainedwagon, and I cursed the day in which I had heard of Charlotte Oliver. 

IV

THREE DAYS' RATIONS

In the vocabulary of a prig, but in the wrath of a fishwoman, Iexecrated Scott Gholson; his jealousies, his disclosures, his religion, his mispronunciations; and Ned Ferry--that cockerel! Here was I in thebarrel, and able only to squeal in irate terror at whoever looked downupon me. I could have crawled under a log and died. At the door of theMajor's tent I paused to learn and joy of one to whom comes reprievewhen the rope is on his neck, I overheard Harry Helm, the General'snephew and aide de-camp, who had been with us, telling what a howlinggood joke Smith had just got off on Gholson!

"We shall have to get Ned Ferry back here, " the Major was saying as Ientered, "to make you boys let Scott Gholson alone. "

The young man laughed and turned to go. "Why doesn't Ned Ferry make_her_ let Gholson alone? He can do it; he's got her round his finger astight as she's got Gholson round hers. "

"Harry, " replied the Major, from his table full of documents, "don't youknow that any man who's got a woman wrapped round his finger has alsogot her wrapped round his throat?"

The aide-de-camp laughed like a rustic and vanished. "Smith, " said theMajor, "your eyes are--"

"I've been awake for forty-eight hours, Major. But--oh, I'm notsleepy. "

"Well, go get some sleep. --No, go at once; you'll be called whenneeded. "

But I was not needed; while I slept, who should come back and do my workin my stead but Ned Ferry. When I awoke it was with a bound of alarm tosee clear day. The command was breaking camp. I rushed out of the tentwith canteen, soap and comb, and ran into the arms of the mess-cook. Wewere alone. "Oh, yass, seh, " he laughed as he poured the water into myhands, "th'ee days' rairtion. Seh? Lawd! dey done drawed and cook' befo'de fus' streak o' light. But you all right; here yo' habbersack, fullup. Oh, I done fed yo' hoss. Here yo' jacket an' cap; and here yo'saddle an' bridle--Oh, you welcome; I dess tryin' to git shet of 'emso's I kin strak de tent. "

As I mounted, our wagonmaster rode by me, busy as a skipper in a storm. "Oh, here!" he cried, wheeled, and reaching something to me added, "that's your pass. Major Harper wants you as quick as you can show up. He says never mind the column, ride straight after him. Keep this roadto Hazlehurst and then go down the main Brookhaven road till youovertake him. He's by himself--nearly. "

As the rider wheeled away I blurted out with anxious loudness in thegeneral hubbub, "Isn't his brother with him?"

He flashed back a glare of rebuke and then bellowed to heaven and earth, "Oh, the devil and Tom Walker! I don't keep run of sutlers andcitizens!" He took a circuit, standing in his stirrups and callingorders to his teamsters, and as he neared me again he said very gently, "Good Lord! my boy, don't you know better than to shoot your mouth offlike that? You'll find nobody with the Major but Ned Ferry, and I don'tsay you'll find him. "

I galloped to the road. Away down through the woods it was full ofhorsemen falling into line. With the nearest colonel was LieutenantHelm, the aide-de-camp. I turned away from them toward Hazlehurst, butlooked back distrustfully. Yes, sure enough, the whole command wasfacing into column the other way! My horse and I whirled and stoodstaring and swelling with indignation--we ordered south, and the brigadeheading westward! He fretted, tramped, neighed, and began hurriedly topaw through the globe to head them off on the other side. He eventhreatened to rear; but when I showed him I was ashamed of that, he boreme proudly, and I sat him as proudly as he bore me, for he made me morethan half my friends. And now as the aide-de-camp wheeled about from thereceding column and came our way saluting cordially, we turned andtrotted beside him jauntily. Our first talk was of saddles, but verysoon I asked where the General was. 

"Out on the Natchez Trace waiting for the command. I'm carrying ordersto Fisher's battery, down here by the cross-roads. Haven't you seen theGeneral this morning? What! haven't seen him in his new uniform? Whoop!he's a blaze of glory! Look here, Smith, I believe you know who broughtit to him!"

"How on earth should I know?"

"Oh, how innocent you always are! Look here! just tell me this; was itthe Major's brother brought it, or was it Ned Ferry?"

"Suppose it wasn't either. "

"I knew it! I knew it was her! Ah, you rogue, you know it was her!"

"Well, that _might_ depend on who 'her' is. " We had reached thecross-roads and he was turning south. 

"Look!" he said, and gave the glance and smile of the lady in thecurtained wagon so perfectly that I cackled like a small boy. "Oh, youknow that, do you? I dare you to say she didn't bring it!"

"I give you my word I don't know!" called I as the distance grew betweenus. "And I give you my word I don't care!" he crowed back as wegalloped apart. His speech was two or three words longer, but they areinappropriate at the end of a chapter, and I expurgate. 

V

EIGHTEEN, NINETEEN, TWENTY

On entering Hazlehurst I observed all about the railway-station asurprising amount of quartermaster's stores. A large part were cases ofboots and shoes. Laden with such goods, a train of shabby box-cars stoodfacing south, its beggarly wood-burner engine sniffing and weeping, while the cork-legged conductor helped all hands wood up. Though homely, the picture was a stirring one. Up through the blue summer morning camethe sun, bringing to mind the words of the dying Mirabeau, "If that isnot God, at least it's his first cousin. "

Even in the character of the goods there was eloquence, and not adrollery in the scene, not even an ugliness, but was touched, was rife, with the woe of a war whose burning walls were falling in on us. Andoutward, too, upon others; a few up-ended cottonbales leaned againsteach other ragged and idle, while women and babes starved for want ofthem in far-away Lancaster. 

One of the cars furthest from the engine had no freight proper, only anumber of trunks; and these were nearly hidden by the widely crinolinedflounces of an elegant elderly lady who sat on the middle one. And nowshe, too, was hidden, and the wide doorway in the side of the car morethan filled, by the fashionable gowns of three girls. On the groundbelow there stood a lieutenant in a homemade gray uniform, and at hisback half a dozen big, slouching, barefoot boys squirted tobacco juiceand gazed at the ladies. The officer scanned me, spoke to the ladies, scanned me again, and threw up an arm. "Ho--o! Come here! Hullo! Comehere--if you please. "

If he had not said please he should have ho'd and hullo'd in vain, butat that word I turned. Before I had covered half the distance I read NewOrleans! my dear, dear old New Orleans! in every line of those ladies'draperies, and at twenty-five yards I saw one noble family likeness inall four of their sweet faces. Oh, but those three maidens were fair!and I could name each by her name at a glance: Camille, Cécile, Estelle;eighteen, nineteen, twenty!

There was a hush of attention among them as the lieutenant and Isaluted. His left hand was gone at the wrist and the sleeve pinned backon itself. He asked my name; I told him. In the car there was a stir ofdeepening interest. I inquired if he was the post-quartermaster here. He was. 

"Ain't you Major Harper's quartermaster-sergeant?" he asked. 

"I am his clerk. " In the car a flash of joy and then great decorum. 

As he handed me a writing he glowed kindly. It proved to be from MajorHarper; a requisition upon this officer for shoes and clothing; not fora brigade, regiment or company, but for me alone, from hat to shoes. Itendered it back silently, and saw that he knew its purport already fromthe Major, and that the ladies knew it from him. The good fellow lookedquite happy a moment, but then reddened as they joyfully crowded thecar's doorway to see me fitted!

"We can select out sev'l pair--" he began, but heard a puerile titterand lost his nerve. "Now, you boys that ain't got any business here, jest clair out!--Go! I tell you, aw I'll--" The boys loitered off towardthe engine. "We can select out sev'l si-izes, " he drawled, uncovering abox, "and fit you ove' in my office. You ain't so pow'ful long nor sopow'ful slim, but these-yeh gov'ment contrac's they seldom ev' allowfo' anybody so slim in the waist bein' so long in the, eh, --so, eh, --solong f'om thah down. But yet still, if you'll jest light off yo' hossand come and look into this-yeh box--"

Hmm! yes! I wouldn't have got off my horse and leaned over that box tosave the Confederacy. "I thank you, Lieutenant, but I can't stop. Ifyou'll hand me up a jacket and pair of shoes I'll sign for them and go. I don't want a hat, but I reckon I'd as well include shoes, althoughreally, --" I glanced down brazenly at the stirrup-leathers that sosnugly hid my naked toes. 

As the quartermaster lifted out a pair of brogans as broad as they werelong, there came a cry of protestation from the freight-car group, thatbrought the entire herd of rustics from the woodpile and the locomotive. Miss Harper rose behind her nieces, tall, slender, dark, with keenblack eyes as kind as they were penetrating. "My boy!" she cried, "youcannot wear those things!"

Camille, the youngest, whispered to her, whereupon she beckoned. "Oh!--oh, do come here!--Mr. Smith, I am the sister of Major Harper. You're from New Orleans? Does your mother live in Apollo Street?"

"Yes, madam, between Melpomene and Terpsichore. "

"Richard Thorndyke Smith! My dear boy, " she cried, while the niecesgasped at each other with gestures and looks all the way betweenTerpsichore and Melpomene, and then the four cried in chorus, "We knowyour mother!"

"We've got a letter for you from her!" exclaimed Camille. 

"And a suit of unie-fawm!" called Cécile, with her Creole accent. 

"We smuggled it through!" chanted the trio, ready to weep for virtuousjoy. And then they clasped arms like the graces, about their aunt, andlet her speak. 

"We all helped your mother make your uniform, " she said. "In the shorttime we've known her we've learned to love her dearly. " With militarybrevity she told how they had unexpectedly got a pass and were just outof New Orleans--"poor New Orleans!" put in Estelle, the eldest, thepensive one; that they had come up from Pontchatoula yesterday and lastnight, and had thrown themselves on beds in the "hotel" yonder withoutventuring to disrobe, and so had let her brother pass within a fewsteps of them while they slept! "Telegraph? My dear boy, we came but tenmiles an hour, but we outran our despatch!" Now they had telegraphedagain, to Brookhaven, and thanks to the post-quartermaster, were goingdown there at once on this train. While this was being told somethingelse was going on. The youngest niece, Camille, had put herself entirelyout of sight. Now she reappeared with very rosy cheeks, saying, "Here'sthe letter. "

My thanks were few and awkward, for there still hung to the missive abasting thread, and it was as warm as a nestling bird. I bentlow--everybody was emotional in those days--kissed the fragrant thing, thrust it into my bosom, and blushed worse than Camille. 

"Poor boy!" said the aunt. "It's the first line you've had for months. Your sweet mother wrote, but her letters were all intercepted, and thelast time she was warned that next time she'd be dealt with according tomilitary usage! I'm glad we could give you this one at once. We can'tgive you the uniform, for we--why, girls, what--why, what nonsense!"

Maybe I did not say vindictive things inside me just then! The threenieces had turned open-mouthed upon one another and sunk down upon theirluggage with averted faces. 

"I say we can't give it to you now, " Miss Harper persisted, with amotherly smile; "we're wearing it ourselves. We've had no time to takeit off. I couldn't get the boots off me last night. And even if you hadthe boots, the other things--"

"Aunt Martha!" moaned some one. "Well, in short, " said the aunt, twinkling like her brother, "we can't deliver the goods, and--" Shestarted as though some one had slapped her between the shoulder-blades. It was the engine caused it, whistling in the old, lawless way, puttinga whoop, a howl, a scream and a wail into one. The young ladies quailed, the train jerked like several collisions, the bell began tardily toclang, and my steed whirled, cleared a packing case, whirled again, andstood facing the train, his eyes blazing, his nostrils flapping, nothalf so much frightened as insulted. The post-quartermaster waved to theladies and they to us. For a last touch I lifted my cap high and backedmy horse on drooping haunches--you've seen Buffalo Bill do it--andthen, with a leap like a cricket's, and to a clapping of maidens' handsthat made me whooping drunk, we stretched away, my horse and I, on along smooth gallop, for Brookhaven. 

VI

A HANDSOME STRANGER

Certainly no cricket ever dropped blither music from his legs than didmy beautiful horse that glorious morning as we clattered in perfectrhythm on the hard clean road of the wide pine forest. Ah! the forest isnot there now; the lumbermen--

For an hour or so the world seemed to have taken me for its center assmoothly as a sleeping top. Only after a good seven miles did mymeditations begin to reveal any bitter in the sweet; but it was inrecalling for the twentieth time the last sight of Camille, that Iheard myself say, I know not whether softly or loudly, "Oh, hang the uniform!"

The morning was almost sultry. As I halted in the clear ripples of agravelly "branch" to let my horse drink, I heard no great way off theHarpers' train shrieking at cattle on the track, and looking up Inoticed just behind me an unfrequented by-road carefully masked withbrush, according to a new habit of the "citizens". The next moment myhorse threw up his head to listen. Then I heard hoofs and voices, andpresently there came trotting through the oak bushes and around the maskof brush two horsemen unusually well mounted, clad and armed. Their verydark gray uniforms were so trim and so nearly blue that my heart cameinto my throat; but then I noticed they carried neither carbines norsabres, but repeaters only, a brace to each. They splashed lightly toeither side of me, and the three horses drank together. 

"Good-morning, " we said. One of the men was a sergeant. He scanned myanimal, and then me, with a dawning smile. "That's a fightin'-cock of ahorse you've got, sonny. "

"Yes, bub, " I replied. The two men laughed so explosively that my horselifted his head austerely. 

"Jim, " said the younger, "I don't believe all the conscripts we'vecaught these three days are worth the powder they've cost!"

"No, " replied Sergeant Jim, "I doubt if the most of 'em are. " I turnedto him and drew down my under eyelid. "Will you kindly tell me, sir, ifyou see any unnatural discoloration in there?"

He smiled. "No, but I can put some there if you want it. "

"Thank you, I couldn't let you take so much trouble--or risk. "

The three of us pattered out of the stream abreast. "No trouble, "replied the sergeant, "it wouldn't take half a minute. "

"No, " I rejoined, "the first step would be the last. "

The men laughed again. "You must a-been born with all your teeth, " saidthe private, as we quickened to a trot. "What makes you think we ain'tafter conscripts?"

"Oh, if you were you wouldn't say so. You'd let on to be looking forgood crossings on Pearl River, so that if Johnston should get chewed upwe needn't be caught here in a hole, Ferry's scouts and all. "

The pair looked at each other behind my neck for full ten seconds. Thenthe younger man leaned to his horse's mane in a silent laugh whileSergeant Jim looked me over again and remarked that he would behorn-swoggled!

"I'm willing, " I responded, and we all laughed. The younger horsemanasked my name. "Smith, " I said, with dignity, and they laughed again, their laugh growing louder when I would not smile. 

"Well, say; maybe you'll tell us who this is we're about to meet upwith. "

Through the shifting colonnades of pine, a hundred yards in front ofus, came two horsemen in the same blue-gray of the pair beside me. "Whoever he is, " I said, "that gray he's riding is his second best, orit's borrowed, " for his mount, though good, was no match for him. 

"Borrowed!" echoed the sergeant. "If he doesn't own that mare no mandoes. "

"Nor no woman?" I asked, and again across the back of my neck my twocompanions gazed at each other. 

"By ganny!" exclaimed one, and--"You're a coon, " murmured the other, asthe new-comers drew near. The younger of these also was a private. Behind his elbow was swung a Maynard rifle. Both carried revolvers. Theelder wore a long straight sword whose weather-dimmed orange sash showedat the front of a loose cut-away jacket. Under this garment was a shirtof strong black silk, made from some lady's gown and daintily cordedwith yellow. On the jacket's upturned collar were the two gilt bars of afirst lieutenant, but the face above them shone with a combinedintelligence and purity that drew my whole attention. 

A familiar friendship lighted every countenance but mine as this secondpair turned and rode with us, the lieutenant in front on Sergeant JimLongley's right, and the two privates with me between them behind. Forsome minutes the sergeant, in under-tone, made report to his youngsuperior. Then in a small clearing he turned abruptly into aneighborhood road, and at his word my two companions pricked after himwestward. I closed up beside the lieutenant; he praised the weather, andsoon our talk was fluent though broken, as we moved sometimes at a trotand often faster. In stolen moments I scanned him with the jealousy ofmy youth. Five feet, ten; humph! I was five, nine and a thirty-second. In weight he looked to be just what I always had in mind in thoseprayers without words with which I mounted every pair of commissaryscales I came to. The play of his form as our smooth-gaited horses spedthrough the flecking shades was worth watching for its stanch and supplegrace. Alike below the saddle and above it he was as light as a leaf andas firm as a lance. I had long yearned to own a pair of shoulders nottoo square for beauty nor too sloping for strength, and lo, here theywere, not mine, but his. No matter; the slender mustache he sported hewas welcome to, I had shaved off nearly as good a one; wished now Ihadn't. As once or twice he lifted his képi to the warm breeze I tooknew despair from the soft locks of darkest chestnut that lay on his headin manly order, ready enough to curl but waiving the privilege. 

"Cock-a-doodle-doo, " thought I; "if those are not the samehundred-dollar boots I saw yesterday morning, at least they are theirfirst cousins!"

VII

A PLAGUE ON NAMES!

Once more I measured my man. Celerity, valor, endurance, they were hisiridescent neck and tail feathers. On a certain piece of road where wewent more slowly I mentioned abruptly my clerkship under Major Harperand watched for the effect, but there was none. Did he know the Major?Oh, yes, and we fell to piling item upon item in praise of thequartermaster's virtues and good looks. Presently, with shrewdestintent, I said the Major was fine enough to be the hero of a novel! Didnot my companion think so?

Yes, he thought so; but I believed the glow in his tone was for novels. I extolled the romance of actual life! I denounced that dullness whichfails to see the poetry of daily experience, and goes wandering afterthe mirages of fiction! And I was ready to fight him if he liked. But heagreed with me most cordially. 

"And yet, " he began to add, --

"Yet what?" I snapped out, with horse eyes. 

"Doesn't a good story revive the poetry of our actual lives?" He wipedthe rim of his cap with a handkerchief of yellow silk enriched at onecorner with needlework. 

"Um-hm!" I thought; "Charlotte Oliver, eh?" I responded tartly that Ihad that very morning met four ladies the poetry of whose actual, visible loveliness had abundantly illustrated to me the needlessness andimpertinence of fiction! By the way, did he not think feminine beautywas always in its ripest perfection at eighteen?

Well, he thought a girl might be prettiest at eighteen and handsomestmuch later. And again I said to myself, "Charlotte Oliver!" But when Ilooked searchingly into his eyes their manly sweetness so abashed methat I dropped my glance and felt him looking at me. I remembered myfable and flinched. "Isn't your name--" I cried, and choked, and when Iwould have said Ferry, another word slipped out instead. He did not hearit plainly:

"Cockerel, did you say?"

A sweet color was I. "Yes, that's what I said; Cockerel. Isn't your lastname Cockerel?"

"No, " he said, "my last name is Durand. " He gave it the Frenchpronunciation. 

"Mine is Smith, " I said, and we galloped. 

A plague on names! But I was not done with them yet. We met other scoutscoming out of the east, who also gave reports and went on westward, sometimes through the trackless woods. At a broad cross-road whichspanned the whole State from the Alabama line to the Mississippi Riverstood another sergeant, with three men, waiting. They were the last. 

Again we galloped alone; and as our horses' hoofs beat drummers' musicout of the round earth our dialogue drifted into confessions of our ownmost private theories of conduct, character and creation. Now that thisman's name was not--Cockerel, my heart opened to him and we began toadmit to each other the perplexities of this great, strange thing calledLife. Especially we confessed how every waking hour found us jostled andtorn between two opposite, unappeasable tendencies of soul; one anupward yearning after everything high and pure, the other adown-dragging hunger for every base indulgence. I was warmed and fed. Yet I was pained to find him so steeped in presumptuous error, sowayward of belief and unbelief. The sweet ease with which he overturnedand emptied out some of my arguments gave me worse failure of thediaphragm than a high swing ever did. Nevertheless I responded; and herejoined; and I rejoined again, and presently he gave me the notion thathe was suffering some cruel moral strain. 

VIII

ANOTHER CURTAINED WAGON

Upon whatever fundamental scheme we perseveringly concentrate ourpowers, upon whatever main road of occupation we take life'sjourney, --art, politics, commerce, science, --if only we will take itsupper fork as often as the road divides, then will that road itself, andnot necessarily any cross-road, lead us to the noblest, truest plane ofconvictions, affections, aspirations. Such a frame of mind may be quitewithout religiosity, as unconscious as health; but the proof of itsreligious reality will be that, as if it were a lighthouse light and weits keeper, everybody else, or at any rate everybody _out on the deep_, will see it plainer than we. Such is the gist of what this young man wassaying to me, when our speculations were brought to an end by ourovertaking a man well mounted, and a woman whose rough-gaited wasfollowed by a colt. 

The pair took our pace, the man plying me with questions, and his wife, in front, telling Lieutenant Durand all the rumors of the day. Her scanthair was of a scorched red tone, she was freckled down into her collar, her elbows waggled to the mare's jog, and her voice was as flat as aduck's. Her nag had trouble to keep up, and her tiny faded bonnet hadeven more to keep on. Yet the day was near when the touch of thosefreckled hands was to seem to me kinder than the breath of flowers, asthey bathed my foul-smelling wounds, and she would say, in the words ofthe old song, "Let me kiss him for his mother, " and I should be helplessto prevent her. By and by the man raised his voice:--

"Why, yo' name _is_ Smith, to be sho'! I thought you was jest a-tryin'to chaw me. Why, Major Harper alludened to you not mo'n a half-ow ago. Why, Miz Wall! oh, Miz Wall!"

But the wife was absorbed. "Yayse, seh, " she was saying to thelieutenant, "and he told us about they comin' in on the freight-kyahsf'om Hazlehurst black with dust and sut and a-smuttyin' him all ovehwith they kisses and goin's-on. He tol' me he ain't neveh so enjoyedhavin' his face dirty sence he was a boy. He would a-been plumb happy, ef on'y he could a-got his haynds on that clerk o' his'n. And when hetol' us what a gay two-hoss turn-out he'd sekyo'ed for the ladies totravel in, s' I, Majo', that's all right! You jest go on whicheveh wayyou got to go! Husband and me, we'll ride into Brookhaven and bring 'emout to ow place and jest take ca'e of 'em untel yo' clerk is _found_. "

"Miz Wall!" cried the husband--"She's busy talkin'. --Miz Wall!--shedon't hyuh me. I hate to interrupt heh. --Oh, Miz Wall! hyuh's Majo'Harper's clerk, right now!"

"Law, you hain't!" cried Mrs. Wall, smiling back as she jounced. "If youair, the Majo's sisteh's got written awdehs fo' you. "

I shot forward, but had hardly more than sent back my good-bye whenaround a bend of the road, in a wagon larger than Charlotte Oliver's, with the curtains rolled up, came the four Miss Harpers, unsooted andradiant. The aunt drove. We turned, all four, and rode with them, andwhile the seven chatted gaily I read to myself the Major's note. It bademe take these four ladies into my most jealous care and conduct them toa point about thirty miles west of where we then were. A dandy's task ina soldier's hour! I ground my teeth, but as I lifted my glance I foundCamille's eyes resting on me and read anxiety in them before she couldput on a smile of unemotional friendliness that faded rapidly intoabstraction. She was as pretty as the bough of wild azaleas in her hand, yet moving forward I told her aunt the order's purport and that itimplied the greatest despatch compatible with mortal endurance. Thewhole four seemed only delighted. 

But Mrs. Wall protested. No, no, her hospitality first, and a basket ofrefreshments to be stowed in the vehicle, besides. "Why, that'll_sa-ave_ ti-ime. You-all goin' to be supprised to find how hungryy'all ah, befo' you come to yo' journey's en', to-night, and them col'victuals goin' taste pow'ful fi-ine!"

Our acceptance was unanimous. I even decided not to inform LieutenantDurand until after the repast, that ladies under my escort did not pickacquaintanceship with soldiers on the public highway. But before thebrief meal was over I was wishing him hanged. Hang the heaven-hightheories that had so lately put me in love with him! Hang his melodiousvoice, his modest composure, his gold-barred collar, his easy command oftopics! Hang the women! they feasted on his every word and look! Ah, ladies! if I were mean enough to tell it--that man doesn't believe inhell! He has a down-dragging hunger for every base indulgence; he hastold me so!

How fast acquaintance grew! When he addressed himself to Cécile, thecousin of the other two, her black eyes leapt with delight; for ascalmly as if that were the only way, he spoke to her in French--askedher a question. She gave answer in happiest affirmation, and explainedto her aunt that her Durand schoolmates of a year or two back werecousins to the Lieutenant. When the throng came out to the carry-all Iwas there and mounted. Squire Wall took me a few rods to point out wherea fork of his private road led into the highway. Then the carry-all camemerrily after, and with a regret that surprised me I answered ourLieutenant's farewell wave, forgave him all his charms, and saw him facewestward and disappear by a bridle-path. 

IX

THE DANDY'S TASK

Westward likewise we soon were bickering. The morning sun shone high;the thin, hot dust blew out over the blackened ground of some forest"burn" or through the worm fence of some field where a gang of slave menand women might be ploughing or hoeing between the green rows of youngcotton or corn. The level stretches were many, the slopes gradual, andto those sweet city-bird ladies everything was new and delightful; a logcabin!--with clay chimney on the outside!--a well and itswell-sweep!--another cabin with its gourd-vines! They knew that blessedalchemy which turns all things into the poetry of the moment. Sweet theywould have been anywhere to any eye or mind; but I was a homelesstrooper lad, and sweeter to the soldier boy than water on thebattlefield are short hours with ladies who love him for his bannerand his rags. 

These four were charmed with an old field given up to sedge, its deeprain-gullies as red as gaping wounds, its dead trees in tatters of longgray moss. Estelle became a student of flowers, Cécile of birds, Camilleof trees. All my explanations were alike enchantingly strange. To theirminds it had never occurred that the land sloped the same way the waterran! When told that these woods abounded in deer and wild turkey theybegan to look out for them at every new turn of the road. And the turnscame fast. Happy miles, happy leagues; each hour was of a mellowersweetness than the last; they seemed to ripen in the sun. The onlydrawback was my shame of a sentimental situation, but once or twice Ilonged to turn the whole equipage into the woods--or the ditch. As, forinstance, when three pine-woods cavalrymen had no sooner got by us thanthey set up that ribald old camp-song, "We're going to get married, mamma, mamma; We're going to get married, but don't tell pa--"

"Deserters, I don't doubt!" was my comment to the ladies. Tongue revengeis poor, but it is something. 

Except in such moments, however, the war seemed farther away than it hadfor months and months. But about eleven o'clock we began to find the wayscored by the fresh ruts of heavy wheels and the dust deepened byhundred of hoofs. The tops and faces of the roadside banks were newlytrampled and torn by clambering human feet. Here was a canteen, smashedin a wheel-track; yonder a fragment of harness; here lay a broken hame, there was the half of a russet brogan and yonder a ragged sock stainedand bloody. 

"Why, what does all this mean?" asked Miss Harper amid her nieces'cries. 

I said it meant Fisher's battery hurrying to the front. Twenty milessince five that morning was a marvel, horse artillery though they were, for, as I pointed out by many signs, their animals were in illcondition. "We shall have to go round them by neighborhood roads, " Isaid, and presently we were deeper than ever in woodland shades andsources of girlish wonderment. The humid depths showed every sort ofgreen and gray, their trunks, bushes and boughs, bearded with hangingmoss, robed with tangled vines and chapleted with mistletoe. We seemedto have got this earth quite to ourselves and very much to our liking. 

One o'clock. Miss Harper suggested a halt to feed the horses. I, knowingwhat it would cost me to dismount and go walking about, said no, thriceno; let us first get back upon the main road in front of that battery. On, therefore, we hurried, and soon the reality of the war was vivid tous again. In a stretch of wet road where the team had mutely beggedleave to walk and the ladies had urged me to sing we had at lengthpaused in a pebbly rivulet to allow the weary animals to drink, and thegirls and the aunt and the greenwood and I were all in chorusbidding somebody

 "Unloose the west port and let us go free, "

when, just as our last note died among the trees one of us cried, "Listen!" and through the stillness there came from far away on ourright the last three measures of a bugle sounding The March. 

My eyes rested in Camille's and hers in mine. A musical license gave usthe courage. At the last note our gaze did not sink but took on moreglow, while out of the forest behind us a distant echo answered the lastmeasure of the strain. Then our eyes slowly fell; and however it mayhave seemed to her, to me it was as if the vanished strains were notonly or chiefly of bugle and echo, but as though our two hearts hadcalled and answered in that melodious unison. 

All that warm afternoon we paid the tiresome penalty of having pushedour animals too smartly at the outset. We grew sedate; sedate were thebrows of the few strangers we met. We talked in pairs. When I spoke withMiss Harper the four listened. She asked about the evils of camp life;for she was one of that fine sort to whom righteousness seems everyman's and woman's daily business, one of the most practical items in theworld's affairs. And I said camp life was fearfully corrupting; that themerest boys cursed and swore and stole, or else were scorned asweaklings. Then I grew meekly silent and we talked in pairs again, andbecause I yearned to talk most with Camille I talked most with Estelle. Three times when I turned abruptly from her to Camille and called, "Hark!" the fagged-out horses halted, and as we struck our listeningpose the bugle's faint sigh ever farther in our rear was but feeblyproportioned to the amount of our gazing into each other's eyes. 

Once, when we were not halted or harkening, we heard overmuch; heardthat which brought us to an instant stand and caused even Miss Harper togaze on me with dismayed eyes and parted lips, and the blood to gothumping through my veins. From a few hundred yards off in thenorthwest, beyond the far corner of an old field and the woods at itsback, two gunshots together, then a third, with sharp, hot cries ofalarum and command, and then another and another shot, rang out andspread wanderingly across the tender landscape. 

X

THE SOLDIER'S HOUR

To regain the highroad we had turned into a northerly fork, and were inas lovely a spot as we had seen all day. Before us and close on ourright were the dense woods of magnolia, water-oak, tupelo and a hundredother affluent things that towered and spread or clambered and hung. Onthe left lay the old field, tawny with bending sedge and teeming withthe yellow rays of the sun's last hour. This field we overlooked througha fence-row of persimmon and wild plum. Among these bushes, half falleninto a rain-gully, a catalpa, of belated bloom, was loaded with blossomsand bees, and I was directing Camille's glance to it when the shotscame. Another outcry or two followed, and then a weird silence. 

"Some of our boys attacked by a rabbit, " I suggested, but stillhearkened. 

"That was not play, Mr. Smith, " Miss Harper had begun to respond, when avoice across the sedge-field called with startling clearness, "Hi! there goes one of them!--Halt!--Halt, you blue--" pop!--pop!--pop!

"Prisoners making a break!" I forgot all my tatters and stood on tiptoein the stirrups to overpeer the fence-row. The next instant--"Sh--sh!"said I and slid to the ground. "Hold this bridle!" I gave it to Camille. "Don't one of you make a sound or a motion; there's a Yankee comingacross this field in the little gully just behind us. "

I bent low, ran a few steps, cocking my revolver as I went. Then I rose, peeped, bent again, ran, rose, peeped, waited a few seconds behind thecatalpa, and without rising peeped once more. Here he came! He was anofficer. His uniform was torn and one whole side of him showed he had atsome earlier hour ridden through a hedge and fallen from his horse. Onhe came! nearer--nearer--oh, what a giant! Quickly, warily, he crouchedunder the fence where it hung low across the gully, and half through itin that huddled posture he found my revolver between his astonishedeyes. I did not yell at him, for I did not want the men he had escapedfrom to come and take him from me; yet when I said, "Halt, or you die!"the four ladies heard me much too plainly. For, frankly, I said more andworse. I felt my slenderness, my beardless youth, my rags, and hisdaring, and to offset them all in a bunch, I--I cursed him. I let goonly one big damn and I've never spoken one since, though I've done manya worse thing, of course. I protest it was my modesty prompted it then. 

"I surrender, " he said, with amiable ease. I stepped back a pace and hedrew out and straightened up--the tallest man I had ever seen. I laughed, he smiled, laughed; my eyes filled with tears, I blazed with rage, and inplain sight and hearing of those ladies he said, "That's all right, myson, get as scared as you like; only, you don't need to cry about it. "

"Hold your tongue!" I barked my wrath like a frightened puppy, drawingback a stride and laying my eye closer along the pistol. "If you call meyour son again I'll send you to your fathers. "

His smile darkened. "I am your prisoner, " he said, with a suddensplendid stateliness, and right then I guessed who he was. 

"Yess, sir, you are!" I retorted. "Move to that wagon! And if you takeone step out of common time you'll never take another. "

The aunt and her nieces were standing in the carry-all, she majestic, they laughing and weeping in the one act. I waved them into their seats. 

"Halt!" We halted. "About face!" As the prisoner eyed me both of uslistened. His equanimity was almost winsome, and I saw that friendlinesswas going to be his tactics. 

"Guess I'm the first Yankee y' ever caught, ain't I?" His smile wassuperior, but congratulatory. 

"You'll be the first prisoner I ever shot if you get any funnier!"

We listened again. "They've gone the wrong way, " I said, still savage. 

"No, " he replied, "I came the wrong way. "

The ladies smiled; I glowered. "Take those horses by their heads andturn them to me!"

An instant his superb eye resented, but then he pleasantly did mybidding. "Suits me well; rather chance it with you than with those I'vejust left. "

[Illustration: "I surrender, " he said, with amiable ease. ]

"Easier to get away, you think?" I asked, with a worse frown than ever, as he stepped into the carry-all and took the lines. 

"No, not so easy; but those fellows are Arkansans, and they're in a badhumor with me. "

I took the hint and grew less ferocious. "While you, " I said, "areCaptain Jewett. "

"I am, " was his reply, and my heart leaped for joy. We hurried away. Mycaptive was the most daring Union scout between Vicksburg and NewOrleans; these very Harpers knew that. The thing unknown to us was thatalready his fate was entangled with Ned Ferry's and Charlotte Oliver's, as yet more it would be, with theirs and ours, in days close at hand. 

XI

CAPTAIN JEWETT

Once more we were in the by-road which had brought us westward parallelwith the highway. The prisoner drove. Aunt Martha sat beside him, slim, dark, black-eyed, stately, her silver-gray hair rolled high à laPompadour. With a magnanimity rare in those bitter days she incited himto talk, first of New Orleans, where he had spent a month in camp on oneof the public squares, and then of his far northern home, and of lovedones there, mother, wife and child. The nieces, too, gave a generousattention. Only I, riding beside the hind wheels, held solemnly aloof. 

"Front!" I once snapped out with a ring that made the trees reply andthe ladies catch their breath. "If you steal one more look back hereI'll put a ball into your leg. "

He smiled, chirped the horses up and resumed his chat. I heard himpraise my horse and compare him not unfavorably with his own which hehad lost that morning'. He and a few picked men had been surprised in afarmhouse at breakfast. They had made a leap and a dash, he said, butone horse and rider falling dead, his horse, unhurt, had tumbled overthem, and here was his rider. 

I prompted Camille to ask if he had ever encountered Ned Ferry, and helaughed. 

"No, " he said, but Ned Ferry had lately restored to him, by proxy, somelost letters, with an invitation to _come and see him_. 

I laughed insolently. The young ladies sparkled, and so did Miss Harper, as she asked him who had been the proxy. 

He said the proxy was a young woman who had a knack of getting passesthrough the lines, and the three girls exchanged looks as knowing asthey were delighted. 

"I tell her as a friend, " he said, "she'll get one into Fortress Monroeyet!"

Miss Harper's keen eyes glittered. "You northerners hardly realize ourfeelings concerning the imprisonment of women, I think. "

"My dear madam, you don't realize ours. We don't want to imprisonwomen. "

So there came a silence, and then a gay laugh as three of us at onceasked if he had ever heard of Lieutenant Durand. "Durand!" he cried, andlooked squarely around at me. I lifted the cocked revolver, but he kepthis fine eyes on mine and I rubbed my ear with my wrist. "What?" hesaid, "an elegant, Creole-seeming young fellow, very handsome? Why, thatfellow saved my life this very afternoon. "

The young ladies were in rapture. Miss Harper asked how he had done it. 

"If I tell you that, " said the Captain, "you won't like me the leastbit. "

Whereat Cécile replied, "Ah--well! we cou'n' like you the leaz bitany-'ow. "

"I suppose that's so, " laughed the officer. "I'll tell you how it was. My guard were just about to hang me for saying I thought we had a rightto make soldiers of the darkies, when your friend came galloping along, saw the thing, and rushed in and cut the halter with his sword. And whenthey demanded to know who and what he was, he told them Durand, and thatthey'd hear it again, for he should report them. "

"Oh, sir, " cried Estelle, whose eyes, brows, lashes and hair were all ofthe same luminous red-brown, and in whose cheeks the rose seemed alwaysto burn through the olive, "how can you and your people seek to killsuch men as that?"

"Such as which?" asked the Yankee, with a twinkle. "There were twokinds. "

"But, o-oh! sir!" exclaimed the trio, when Miss Harper waved them toforbear. There was yet some daylight left as we trundled into a broadhighroad and turned northward. We passed a picket guard and then a wholeregiment of cavalry going into camp. They scrambled to the sides of theroad and stormed us with questions, chaffing us cruelly when I remainedsilent. "Lawd! look a' this-yeh Yank a-bringin' in ow desertehs!" "Hey, you big Yank, you jest let that po' little conscrip' go!"

Headquarters, we heard from a courier who said he was the third sent outto find us, were at the "Sessions house" two miles further on. We senthim galloping back there, and after a while here came Major Harper andthree or four others of the staff, including Harry Helm. What a flood ofmirthful compliment there was at sight of us and our captive; Harry waspositively silly. In the series of introductions that followed he wasleft paired with Camille, and I said things to myself. Major Harper rodeby the prisoner. "Well, Captain, " he said, "you've had some experiencessince you left me this morning. Don't you want to give us your parolethis time, temporarily, for an hour or so, and be more comfortable?"

"Thank you, Major, " the Federal affably replied, "that would be a greatrelief to this most extraordinary youngster that I've brought with me. "He gave it and we turned into a lofty grove whitened with ourheadquarters tents. 

"Smith, " said the Major, "your part is done, and well done. You needn'treport to me again to-night; the General wishes to see you a moment. Captain, will you go with this young man to General Austin's tent?"

XII

IN THE GENERAL'S TENT

I went to Gholson. He told me I was relieved of my captive and bade mego care for my horse and return in half an hour. In going I passed closeby the Sessions plantation house. Every door and window was thrown wideto the night air, and preparations were in progress for a dance; and asI returned, a slave boy ran across my path, toward the house, bearing aflaming pine torch and followed by two ambulances filled with daughtersof the neighborhood in clouds of white gauze. I found the General infatigue dress. His new finery hung on the tent-pole at his back. OldDismukes, the bull-necked colonel of the Arkansans, lounged on acamp-cot. Both smoked cigars. 

The General asked me a number of idle questions and then said myprisoner had called me a good soldier. Old Dismukes smiled so broadlythat I grew hot, believing the Yankee had told them of my tears. 

"Smith, " said the Colonel, and then smoked and smiled again till my browbeaded, --"tired?"

"No, sir. "

"That's a lie, " he pleasantly remarked, and lay back, enjoying my silentwrath. "Send him, General, " he added, "he's your man. "

The General looked at me between puffs of his cigar. "I hear you'veridden over fifty miles to-day. "

"Yes, General. " "If I give you a good fresh horse can you gotwenty-three miles more by midnight?"

"Yes, General, if I don't have to save the horse. "

"The horse may have to save you, " drawled the Arkansan. 

"I think you know Lieutenant Durand?" asked the General, with aquizzical eye. 

"Slightly. "

"Well, Smith, on his suggestion approved by Major Harper, I havedetailed another clerk to the Major. "

Rills of perspiration tickled my back like flies. "Can't one man do thework?"

"Yes, the new man is detailed in your place. "

I almost leaped from the ground in consternation. My whole framethrobbed, my mouth fell open, my tongue was tied. 

The man who had got me into this thing--this barrel--lifted thetent-flap. "Mr. Gholson, " said the General, "write an order assigningSmith to Ferry's scouts. "

The flap fell again and my panic was turned into a joy qualified only bya reduced esteem for my general as a judge of character. 

Old Dismukes rose. "Good-night. Shall I send this boy that Yankee'shorse?"

"Oh I was forgetting that; yes, do!"

At the door the Colonel gave me a last look. "Good-night, Legs. "

I dared not retort, but I looked so hard at his paunch that the Generalsmiled. Then he asked me if I knew where we were then camped, and I saidwe were on the Meadville and Fayette road, near Franklin, twenty milessoutheast of Fayette and--

"That will do. Now, beyond Fayette, about seven miles north, there's aplace--"

"Clifton?"

"Don't interrupt me, Smith. Yes, Clifton. You're not to reach thereto-night--"

"I can do it, General. "

"You can do as you're told; understand?" I understood. 

"The enemy are in Fayette to-night, " he continued. "So when you gethalf-way to Fayette, just across Morgan's Creek, you'll take a dim forkon the right running north along the creek. Ever travel by the stars?"

I began to tell how well I knew the stars, but he stopped me. "Yes;well, keep straight north till you strike the road running east and westbetween Fayette and Union Church. You'll find there a littlepolling-place called Wiggins. Turn west, toward Fayette, and on thenorth side of the main road, opposite the blacksmith's shop, you'll cometo a small--"

"I see. "

"What do you see?" His frown scared me to my finger-tips. 

"Why, I suppose I'm to find there a road down Cole's Creek to Clifton. "

"Smith, if you interrupt me again, sir, you'll find the road back toyour regiment. Opposite that blacksmith's shop you'll see a whitecottage. There's a young lady stopping there to-night, a stranger, atraveller. The old lady who lives there has taken her in at my request. See that the young lady gets this envelope. It's no great matter, merelya pass through our lines; but it's your ostensible business till you getthere; understand?"

I thought I did until I glanced at the superscription: Miss CoralieRothvelt. 

"Now, here is another matter of much more importance. " He showed, butretained, another envelope. "Behind the house where you're to find MissRothvelt there's a road into Cole's Creek bottom. The house you're tostop at to-night, say from twelve o'clock till three or half-past, is onthat road, about five miles from Wiggins, from Clifton and from Fayette. I'm sending you there expecting the people in that house will rob you ifyou give them half a chance. "

"I understand, General; they'll not get it. "

"Smith, I want them to get it. I want them to rob you of this. " Hewaggled the envelope. "I want this to fall into the hands of the enemy;as it will if those people rob you of it. "

I snapped my eyes. He smiled and then frowned. "I don't want a clumsyjob, now, mind! I don't want you to get captured if you can possiblyavoid it; but all the same they mustn't get this so easily as to suspectit's a bait. So I want you to give those villains that half-chance torob you, but not the other half, or they may--oh, it's no play! You mustmanage to have this despatch taken from you totally against your will!Then you must reach Clifton shortly after daylight. Ferry's scouts arethere, and you'll say to Lieutenant Ferry the single word, Rodney. Understand?" He pretended to be reconsidering. "I--don't knowbut--after all--I'd better send one of my staff instead of you. "

"Oh, General, if you send an officer they'll see the ruse! I can do it!I'll do it all right!"

"I'm most afraid, " he said, abstractedly, as he read my detail, whichGholson brought in. "Here, "--he handed it to me--"and here, here's thedespatch too. "

"What's the name, General, of the man whose house I'm to go to?"

"You'd best not know; I want you to seem to have stumbled upon theplace. You can't miss it; there's no other house within two miles of it. Good-bye, my lad;"--he gave me his hand;--"good luck to you. "

Gholson, in the Adjutant-general's tent, told me Ned Ferry had named meto the General as a first-class horseman and the most insignificant-looking person he knew of who was fit for this venture. 

"Ned Ferry! What does Ned Ferry know about my fitness?"

"Read the address on your despatch, " said Gholson, resuming his pen. 

I snatched the document from my bosom, into which I had thrust it toseize the General's hand "Oh, Gholson!" I said, in deep-toned grief, asI looked up from the superscription, "is that honest!"

He admitted that by the true religionist's standard it was not honest, but reminded me that Ned Ferry--in his blindness--was only a poorromanticist. The despatch was addressed to Lieutenant EdgardFerry-Durand. 

Major Harper's black boy brought me the Yankee's horse with my bridleand saddle on him; an elegant animal as fresh as a dawn breeze. Also heproduced a parcel, my new uniform, and a wee note whose breath smelt oflavender as it said, --

"Papa tells us you are being sent off on courier duty to-night. What aheart-breaking thing is war! How full of cruel sepa'--"

That piece of a word was scored out and "dangers" written in its place. The missive ended all too soon, with the statement that I was requestedto call, on my way out of camp, at the side gallery of the house--Sessions's--and let the writer and her sister and her cousin and herfather and her aunt see me in my new uniform and bid me good-bye. 

XIII

GOOD-BYE, DICK

I found but one white figure under the dim veranda eaves. "MissCamille?"

"Wh'--who is that?" responded a musical voice. "Why, is that Mr. Smith?"as if I were the last person in the world one should have expected tosee there. The like of those moments I had never known. I saw her eyesnote the perfect fit of my uniform, though neither of us mentioned it. Itried to tell her that Lieutenant Durand was Ned Ferry and that I wasnow one of his scouts, but she had already heard both facts, and wouldnot tell me what her father had said about me, it was so good. Standingat the veranda's edge a trifle above me, with her cheek against one ofthe posts and her gaze on her slipper, she asked if I was glad I wasgoing with Ned Ferry, and I had no more sense than to say I was; but shewould neither say she was glad nor tell why she was not. 

Through the open windows we could see the dancers. Now and then a pairof fanning promenaders came down the veranda, but on descrying us turnedback. I said I was keeping her from the dance. To which she replied, drooping her head again, that she shouldn't dance that night. 

"Too tired?"

"No. "

"Too warm?"

"Oh, no, not too warm. "

"Why, then?"

"Oh--I--just don't feel as if I could, that's all. "

My heart beat wildly and I wanted to ask if it was on my account; but Iwas too pusillanimous a coward, and when I feebly tried to look into hereyes she would not let me, which convinced me that she lacked candor. Adance ended. Gold-laced fellows came and sat on the veranda rail wipingwrists and brows with over-tasked handkerchiefs, and explaining thesmall mishaps of the floor. Two promenaders mentioned the hour. I gaspedmy amazement and extended my hand. "Good-bye. "

"Wait a moment, " she murmured, and watched the promenading pair turnback. Then she asked if I had read my mother's letter. I said I had. Andthen, very pensively, with head bent and eyes once more down, sheinquired if I liked to get letters. Which led, quite accidentally, to myasking leave to write to her. 

She replied that she did not mean that. Nevertheless, I insisted, wouldshe? She only bent lower still. I asked the third time; and with nothingbut the parting of her hair for me to look at, she nodded, and one ofher braids fell over in front, and I took the pink-ribboned live end ofit timorously between thumb and finger and felt as if I had hold of anelectric battery. 

She backed half a step, and quite needlessly I let it go. Then she bademe not forget I had promised her the words of a certain song. "Wantthem? Indeed, yes! Did you not say it was an unpublished song writtenby a messmate of yours?--oh, Mr. Smith! I see why you stammer! You said'a member of your mess'! oh!--oh!--oh!--you wrote it, yourself! And youwrote it to-day! That explains--" She drew an awesome breath, rose toher toes and knit her knuckles under her throat. 

I was in the sweetest consternation. With the end of her braid once morein my fingers I made her promise to keep the dark secret, and sorecited them. 

"Maiden passing fair, turn away thine eyes! Turn away thine eyes ere my bosom burn, Lit with foolish hope to hear thy fondling sighs, Like yon twilight dove's, breathe, Return, return!Turn away thine eyes, maiden passing fair. O maiden passing fair, turn away thine eyes!

"Maiden passing fair, turn again thine eyes! Turn again thine eyes, love's true mercy learn. Breathe, O! breathe to me, as these love-languid skies To yon twilight star breathe, Return, return!Turn again thine eyes, maiden passing fair. O maiden passing fair, turn again thine eyes!"

"Mis-ter Smith! you wrote that?--to-day! Wh'--who is she?"

"One too modest, " I murmured, "to know her own portrait. " I clutched thebraid emotionally and let it go intending to retake it; but she droppedit behind her and said I was too imaginative to be safe. 

I stiffened proudly, turned and mounted my steed, but her eyes drewmine. I pressed close, bent over the saddle-bow, and said, "Good-bye, Camille. "

"Good-bye. " I could barely hear it. 

"Oh!--good-bye, just anybody?" I asked; and thereupon she gathered upall her misplaced trust in me, all her maiden ignorance of what is inman, and all her sweet daring, to murmur--

"Good-bye, --Dick. "

I caught my breath in rapture and rode away. She was there yet when Ilooked back--once--and again--and again. And when I looked a last timestill she had not moved. Oh, Camille, Camille! to this day I see youstanding there in pink-edged white, pure, silent, motionless, asummer-evening cloud; while I, my body clad in its unstained--onlybecause unused--new uniform, and my soul tricked out in thefoolhardiness and vanity of a boy's innocence, rode forth into the nightand into the talons of overmastering temptation. 

XIV

CORALIE ROTHVELT

The night was still and sultry. At one of the many camp-fires on theedge of the road I saw the Arkansas colonel sitting cross-legged on theground, in trousers, socks and undershirt, playing poker. 

Out in the open country how sweet was the silence. Not yet have Iforgotten one bright star of that night's sky. My mother and I hadstudied the stars together. Lately Camille, her letter said, had learnedthem with her. Now the heavens dropped meanings that were for me and forthis night alone. While the form of the maiden--passing fair--yetglimmered in the firmament of my own mind, behind me in the south soaredthe Virgin; but as some trees screened the low glare of our camp I saw, just rising into view out of the southeast, the unmistakable eyes of theScorpion. But these fanciful oracles only flattered my moralself-assurance, and I trust that will be remembered which I forgot, thatI had not yet known the damsel from one sun to the next. 

I was moving briskly along, making my good steed acquainted with me, testing his education, how promptly for instance, he would respond torein-touch and to leg-pressure, when I saw, in front, coming toward me, three riders. Two of them were very genteel chaps, though a hand of eachwas on the lock of his carbine. The third was a woman, veiled, and cladin some dark stuff that in the starlight seemed quite black andcontrasted strongly with the paleness of her horse. Her hat, inparticular, fastened my attention; if that was not the same soft-brimmedLeghorn I had seen yesterday morning, at least it was its twin sister. Ihalted, revolver in hand, and said, as they drew rein, --"Good-evening. "

"Good-evening, " replied the nearer man. "How far is it tocamp--Austin's?"

"A short three miles. "

"To what command do you belong?" he asked. 

"Ferry's scouts. What command is yours, gentlemen?"

"Ferry's scouts. " He scrutinized me. "What command do you say you--"

"Ferry's scouts, " I repeated. "F-e-r-r-y-apostrophe s, Ferry's--s-k-o-w-t-s--scouts. "

The trio laughed, the young woman most musically. 

"How long have you belonged to Ferry's scouts?" sceptically demandedtheir spokesman. 

"About an hour and a quarter. "

"Oh! that-a-way. "

"Yes, " I replied, "in that direction. "

The three laughed again and the men sank their carbines across theirlaps, while in a voice as refined as her figure their companion said, "Good-evening, Mr. Smith. " She laid back her veil and even in thedarkness I felt the witchery of her glance. "I was just coming to meetyou, " she continued, "to get the letter you're bringing me from GeneralAustin. I feared you might try to come around by Fayette, not knowingthe Yankees are there. These gentlemen didn't know it. " "She just didsave us!" laughed the man hitherto silent. 

"I'm Miss Coralie Rothvelt, " she added, and then how she sparkled in thedark as she said, "I see you remember me. "

"I am but human. "

"And yet you never take a lady's name for granted?"

"I am to know Miss Rothvelt by finding her in a certain place. " Myhoneyed bow implied that her being just now very much out of place wasno fault of mine. 

"Nonsense!" muttered both men, and I liked them the better. 

"My dear Smith, " said Miss Rothvelt, "keep your trust. But if I parthere with these two kind gentlemen--"

"Who don't belong to Ferry's scouts at all, " I still more sweetly added. 

"No, " she laughed, "and if I go back with you to Wiggins--to the littlewhite cottage, you know, opposite the blacksmith's shop, --you'll give mewhat you've got for me, won't you?" She dropped her head to one side anda mocking-bird chuckle rippled in her throat. 

"I shall count myself honored, " said I, and we went, together and alone. 

XV

VENUS AND MARS

Since those days men have made "fire-proof" buildings. You know them;let certain aggravations combine--they burn like straw. We had barelystarted when I began to be threatened with a conflagration against whichI should have called it an insult to have been warned. The adroit beautyat my side set in to explain more fully her presence. From her windowshe had seen those two trim fellows hurrying along in a fair way toblunder into the Federal pickets within an hour, had cautioned them, andhad finally asked leave to come with them, they under her guidance, sheunder their protection. 

"You were so anxious to get the General's letter?" I asked. 

"I was so anxious about you, " she replied, with feeling, and then brokeinto a quizzical laugh. 

I had not the faintest doubt she was lying. What was I to her? The timeswere fearfully out of joint; women as well as men were taking war'slicenses, and with a boy's unmerciful directness I sprang to theconclusion that here was an adventuress. Yet I had some better thoughtstoo. While I felt a moral tipsiness going into all my veins, I askedmyself if it was not mainly due to my own inability to rise in fullmanliness to a most exceptional situation. Her jaunty method ofconfronting it, was I not failing to regard _that_ with due magnanimity?Was this the truth, or after all ought I really to see that at everyturn of her speech, by coy bendings of the head, by the dark seductionsof dim half-captive locks about her oval temples, and by many anindescribable swaying of the form and of the voice, I was being--tospeak it brutally--challenged? Even in the poetic obscurity of the nightI lost all steadiness of eye as I pertly said--

"And so here you are in this awful fix. "

"I'm enjoying one advantage, " she replied, "which you do not. "

"What is that?"

"Why, I can read my safety in your face. You can't read anything inmine; you're afraid to look. "

All I got by looking then was a mellow laugh from behind her reloweredveil; but we were going at a swift trot, nearing a roadside fire offence-rails left by some belated foraging team, and as she came into theglare of it I turned my eyes a second time. She was revealed in a garbof brown enriched by the red beams of the fire, and was on the gray mareI had seen that morning under Lieutenant Edgard Ferry-Durand. 

"You recognize her?" the rider asked, delightedly. "She's not stolen, she's only served her country a little better than usual to-day; haven'tyou, Cousin Sallie?" (Cousin Sallie was short for Confederate States. )

The note of patriotism righted me and I looked a third time. The one artof dress worth knowing in '63 was to slight its fashions withoutoffending them, and this pretty gift I had marked all day in theHarpers. But never have I seen it half so successful as in the veiledhorsewoman illumined by the side-lights of those burning fence-rails. The white apparition at the veranda's edge gleamed in my mind, yetswiftly faded out, and a new fascination, more sudden than worthy heavedat my heart. Then the fire was behind us and we were in the deep night. 

On the crest of a ridge we slackened speed and my fellow-travellerlifted her veil and asked exultantly what those two splendid stars werethat overhung yonder fringe of woods so low and so close to each other. The less brilliant one, I said, the red one, was Mars. 

"And the one following, almost at his side?"

"Don't you know?" I asked. 

Her eyes flashed round upon me like stars themselves. "Not--Venus?" shewhispered, snatched in her breath, bit her lip, and half averting herface, shot me through with both "twinklers" at once. Then she took along look at the planets and suddenly exclaimed with a scandalized air--

"They're going down into the woods together!"

"Yes, " I responded, "and without even waiting for Diana. "

She dropped the rein and lifted both arms toward them. "Oh, blessings onyour glorious old heathen hearts, what do you want of Diana, or of anyone in heaven or earth except each other!"

Foolish, idle cry, and meant for no more, by a heart on fire withtemptations of which I knew nothing. But then and there my pooradolescent soul found out that the preceptive stuff of which it hadbuilt its treasure-house and citadel was not fire-proof. 

XVI

AN ACHING CONSCIENCE

Yet great is precept. Precept is a well. Up from its far depths by slow, humble, constant process you may draw, in a slender silver thread, andstore for sudden use, the pure waters of character. 

It has happened, however, that a man's own armor has been the death ofhim. So the moral isolation of a young prig of good red blood who islaudably trying to pump his conduct higher than his character--forthat's the way he gets his character higher--has its own peculiardangers. Take this example: that he does not dream any one will, or can, in mere frivolity, coquette, dally, play mud-pies, with a passion thesacredest in subjection, the shamefulest in mutiny, and the deepest andmost perilous to tamper with, in our nature. As hotly alive in thenethermost cavern of his heart as in that of the vilest rogue there is akennel of hounds to which one word of sophistry is as the call to thechase, and such a word I believed my companion had knowingly spoken. Iwas gone as wanton-tipsy as any low-flung fool, and actually fanciedmyself invited to be valiant by this transparent embodiment of passionwhose outburst of amorous rebellion had been uttered not because I wasthere, but only in pure recklessness of my presence. Of course I oughtto have seen that this was a soul only over-rich in woman's love;mettlesome, aspiring, but untrained to renunciation; consciouslysuperior in mind and soul to the throng about her, and caught in somehideous gin of iron-bound--convention-bound--or even law-bound--foulplay. But I was so besotted as to suggest a base analogy between us andthose two sinking stars. 

Unluckily she retorted with some playful parry that just lacked thesaving quality of true resentment. How I rejoined would be small profitto tell. I had a fearful sense of falling; first like a woundedsquirrel, dropping in fierce amazement, catching, holding on for apanting moment, then dropping, catching and dropping again, down fromthe top of the great tree where I had so lately sat scolding all theforest; and then, later, with an appalling passivity. And at every freshexchange of words, while she laughed and fended, and fended and laughed, along with this passivity came a yet more appalling perversity; apassivity and perversity as of delirium, and as horrid to her as to me, though I little thought so then. 

We came where a line of dense woods on our left marked the bottom-landsof Morgan's Creek. With her two earlier companions my fellow-travellerhad crossed a ford here shortly after sunset, seeing no one; but a guardmight easily have been put here since, by the Federals in Fayette. Pretty soon the road, bending toward it, led us down between two fencedfields and we stealthily walked our horses. Close to a way-side tree Imurmured that if she would keep my horse I would steal nearer on footand reconnoitre, and I had partly risen from the saddle, when I wasthrilled by the pressure of her hand upon mine on the saddle-bow. "Don'tcommit the soldier's deadliest sin, my dear Mr. Smith, " she said underher breath, and smiled at my agitation; "I mean, don't lose time. "

I was about to put a false meaning even on that, when she added "Wedon't need the ford this time of year; let us ride back as if we gave upthe trip--for there may be a vidette looking at us now in the edge ofthose bushes--and as soon as we get where we can't be seen let us take acircuit. We can cross the creek somewhere above and strike the Wigginsroad up in the woods. You can find your way by the blessed stars, can'tyou--being the angel you are?"

My whole nature was upheaved. You may smile, but my plight was awful. Inthe sultry night I grew cold. My bridle-hand, still lying under herpalm, turned and folded its big stupid fingers over hers. Then our handsslid apart and we rode back. "I wish I were good enough to know thestars, " she said, gazing up. "Tell me some of them. "

I told them. Two or three times my voice stuck in my throat, I found thesky so filled, so possessed, by constellations of evil name. At our backthe Dragon writhed between the two Bears; over us hung the Eagle, and inthe south were the Wolf, the Crow, the Hydra, the Serpent--"Oh, don'ttell any more, " she exclaimed. "Or rather--what are those three brightstars yonder? Why do you skip them?"

"Those? That one is the Virgin's sheaf; and those two are the Balances. "

I failed to catch her reply. She spoke in a tone of pain and sunk herface in her hand. "Head ache?" I asked. "No. " She straightened, andfrom under her coquettish hat bent upon me such a look as I had neverseen. In her eyes, in her tightened lips, and in the lift of her head, was a whole history of hope, pride, pain, resolve, strife, bafflementand defiance. She could not have chosen to betray so much; she must havecounted too fully on the shade of her hat-brim. The beautiful frownrelaxed into a smile. "No, " she repeated, "only an aching conscience. Ever have one?"

I averted my face and answered with a nod. 

"I don't believe you! I don't believe you ever had cause for one!" Shelaid a hand again upon mine. 

I covered it fiercely and sunk my brow upon it. And thereupon the waveof folly drew back, and on the bared sands of recollection I saw, likedrowned things, my mother's face, and Gholson's and the General's, andMajor Harper's, and Ned Ferry's, and Camille's. Each in turn brought itsseparate and peculiar pang; and among those that came a second time andwith a crueler pang than before was Camille's. 

"You're tired!" murmured the voice beside me, and the wave rolled inagain. I lifted my brow and moved one hand from hers to make room on itfor my lips, but her fingers slipped away and alighted compassionatelyon my neck. "You must be one ache from head to foot!" she whispered. 

I turned upon her choking with anger, but her melting beauty rendered mehelpless. Black woods were on our left. "Shall we turn in here?"I asked. 

"Yes. " She stooped low under the interlacing boughs and plunged with meinto the double darkness. 

XVII

TWO UNDER ONE HAT-BRIM

"Is this the conservatory?" playfully whispered Miss Rothvelt; and if ahot, damp air, motionless, and heavy with the sleeping breath ofcountless growths could make it so, a conservatory it was. Everyslightest turn had to be alertly chosen, and the tangle of branches andvines made going by the stars nearly impossible. The undergrowth crowdedus into single file. We scarcely exchanged another word until our horsescame abreast in the creek and stopped to drink. Conditions beyond weremuch the same until near the end of our détour, when my horse swervedabruptly and the buzz of a rattlesnake sounded almost under foot. Themare swerved, too, and hurried forward to my horse's side. 

"That was almost an adventure, itself, " laughingly murmured mycompanion, as if adventures were what we were in search of. While shespoke we came out into a slender road and turned due north. "Did you, "she went on, childishly, "ever take a snake up by the tail, in yourthumb and finger, and watch him try to double on himself and bite you? Ihave, it's great fun; makes you feel so creepy, and yet you knowyou're safe!"

She laughed under her breath as if at hide-and-seek. Then we galloped, then trotted again, galloped, walked and trotted again. Two miles, three, four, we reckoned off, and slowed to a walk to come outcautiously upon the Union Church and Fayette road. A sound brought usto a halt. From the right, out on the main road, it came; it was made bythe wheels of a loaded wagon. I leaned sidewise until her hat-brim wasover me and whispered "Yankee foragers;" but as I drew my revolver weheard voices, I breathed a sigh of relief, and with her locks touchingmine we chuckled to each other in the dark. The passers were slavesescaping to the Federal camp. 

Now they came into view, on the broader road, two whole ragged familieswith a four-mule team. They passed on. And then all at once the wholesituation was too much for me. In the joy of release I groped outcaressingly and touched my companion's cheek. Whereat she took myfingers and drew them to her lips--twice. The next moment I found--wefound--my lifted wrists in the slender grasp of her two hands and shewas murmuring incoherent protests. Suddenly she grew eloquent. "Oh, think what you are and have always been! Do you think I don't know? Doyou suppose I would have put myself into this situation, or taken theliberties I have taken with you, if I had not known you, and known youwell, before ever I saw you? Ah! I have heard such good things of you!and the moment I saw you I saw they were true!--Yes, --yes, I tell youthey were, they are! And I'm not going to take my trust away from younow! You shall keep my trust as you have kept all others. You shall beas miserly of it as of your general's. You will keep it!" Her whispersgrew more and more gentle. "My dear friend, my dear friend! what is thistrust compared to the trust I wish I might lay on you?" What did shemean by that! Had she some schemer's use for me? I could not ask, forher little hands had gradually slipped from my wrists to my fingers andwere softly, torturingly fondling them. Suddenly she laughed and threwher hands behind her back. "I'm blundering! Oh, Richard Smith, be kindto a woman's poor wits, and let me say to-morrow that I know one man whocan be trusted--who I know can be trusted--to make a woman's folly herprotection. Do you know, dear, that any woman who can say that, isricher than any who cannot? And I am but a woman, sometimes a bit silly. Trouble is I'm a live one and a whole one!--or else I'm a live one andnot quite a whole one--I wonder which it is!"

I mumbled something about never wishing to tempt any one. 

"Oh, you haven't tempted me, " she replied, with kind amusement. "Youcouldn't if you should try. You're a true soldier, with a true soldier'sideals; and I'm pledged to help you keep them. "

"What do you mean?" I demanded. "To whom are you pledged for any such--"

"Oh!--don't you wish you knew! Why, to myself, for instance. Come! dutycalls. "

"Come!" I echoed. We swung into the broader road and followed thecontrabands. 

We came as close to them as was wise, and had to walk our horses. Icould discern Miss Rothvelt's features once more, and felt a truerdeference than I had yet given her. Near the blacksmith's shop, in thedusk of some shade-trees, she once more touched my shoulder. I turnedresentfully to bid her not do it, but her shadowy gaze stopped me. 

"Don't be moody, " she said; "the whole mistake is four-fifths mine. Andanyhow, repining is only a counterfeit repentance, you know. Come, Idon't want to tease you. It's only myself I love to torment. I'm thesnake I like to hold up by the tail. Did you never have some dull, incessant ache that seemed to pain less when you pressed hard on it?"She laughed, left me and rode into the cottage gate. 

What do you say?--Yes, she might have spoken more wisely. Yet alwaysthere vibrated in her voice a wealth of thought, now bitter, now sweet, and often both at once, and a splendor of emotions, beyond the scope ofall ordinary natures. How far beyond my own scope they were, even withmy passions at flood-tide and turbid as a back-street overflow, Ifailed to ponder while I passed around the paling fence alone. 

In the edge of the woods at the rear of this enclosure I found the roadthat led into Cole's Creek bottom, and there turned and waited. A cornerof the cottage was still in view among its cedars and china-trees. In anintervening melon-patch blinked the yellow lamps of countless fireflies. And now there came the ghost of a sound from beyond the patch, then aglimpse of drapery, and I beheld again the subject of my thoughts. Suchthoughts! Ah! why had I neither modesty, wit nor charity enough to seethat yonder came a woman whose heart beat only more strongly than thehearts of all the common run of us, with impulses both kind and high, although society, by the pure defects of its awkward machinery, hadincurably mutilated her fate; a woman wrestling with a deep-founded lovethat, held by her at arm's length, yielded only humiliations and by itstorments kept her half ripe for any sudden treason even against thatlove itself. 

She came without her horse, pointing eagerly at the brightness of thesky above the unrisen moon. "Diana!" she whispered, and tossed a kisstoward it. "You saw me put the mare into the stable and go into thehouse by the back door?"

"Yes, " I said, and handed her, as I dismounted, the General's gift, thepass. 

She snatched it gaily, loosed a fastening at her throat and dropped themissive into her bosom. Then with passionate gravity she asked, "Now, are you going straight on to Clifton to-night--without stopping?"

"I haven't been ordered to tell any one where I'm going. "

"Neither was Lieutenant Ferry, " she dryly responded, "yet I have it fromhim. "

"He told you?--Ah! you're only guessing, " I said, and saw that I washelping her to guess more correctly. 

"Pooh!" she replied, ever so prettily, "do you suppose I don't know?Ferry's scouts are at Clifton, and you've got a despatch forLieutenant--eh, --Durand--hem!" She posed playfully. "Now, tell me;you're not to report to him till daylight, are you? Then why need youhurry on now? This house where I am is the only safe place for you tosleep in between here and Clifton. I'll wake you, myself, in good time. "My heart pounded and rose in my throat, yet I managed to say, "Myorders are plain. " I flinched visibly, for again I had told too much. Ipretended to listen toward the depths of the wood. 

She struck a mock-sentimental attitude and murmured musically--

 "'The beating of our own hearts Was all the sound we heard. '

"Yes, "--she put away gaiety--"your orders are plain; and they're ascruel as they are plain!"

"Cruel to you?" I took her hand from my arm and held it. 

"Oh! cruel to you, Richard, dear; to you! And--yes!--yes!--I'llconfess. I'll confess--if only you'll do as I beg! Yes, ah yes, cruel tome! But don't ask how, and we'll see if you are man enough to keep areal woman's real secret! And first, promise me not to put up at thathouse which the General and Lieutenant Ferry--"

"Lieutenant Ferry is not sending me to any house. "

"Pardon me, I know better. This is his scheme. " She laid her free handon our two. "Tell me you will not go to that house!"

I attempted an evasion. "Oh--a blanket on the ground--face covered up init from the mosquitos--is really--"

"Right!" She laughed. "I wish a woman could choose that way. Oh! ifyou'll do that I'll go with you and stand guard over you!"

Dolt that I was, I would have drawn her close, but she put me off withan outstretched arm and forbidden smile. "No!--No! this is a matter oflife and death. "

I stepped back, heaving. "Who and what are you? Who and what are you?"

"Why, who and what should I be?"

"Charlotte Oliver!"

"Hmm; Charlotte Oliver. Are you sure you have the name just right?"

"Why haven't I got it right?"

"Oh, I don't doubt you have; though I didn't know but it might beCharlie Toliver or something. "

I dilated. "Who told--did Ned Ferry tell you that story?"

"He did. Or, to be accurate, Lieutenant Ferry-Durand. My dear Richard, we cannot be witty and remain un-talked-about. "

"I--I believe it yet! You are Charlotte Oliver!"

She became frigid. "Do you know who and what Charlotte Oliver is?--No?Well, to begin with, she's a married woman--but pshaw! you believenothing till it's proved. If I tell you who and what I am will you dowhat I've asked you; will you promise not to stop at Lucius Oliver'shouse?" She softly reached for my hand and pressed and stroked it. "Don't stop there, dear. Oh, say you will not!"

"Is it so dangerous?"

"General Austin believes it is. You're being used to bait a trap, Richard. "

I laughed a gay disdain. "Who is Lucius; is he Charlotte's husband?"

The reply came slowly. "No; her husband is quite another man; thisman's wife has been dead for years. No, Charlotte Oliver livesin--hark!"

The sound we had heard was only some stir of nature in her sleep. "Imust go, " I said. 

"Oh, no, no! I cannot let you!" She clutched the hand she had beenstroking. 

"Coralie! Coralie Rothvelt!"--my cry was an honest one--"you tempt mebeyond human endurance. "

She threw my hand from her. "I know I do! I'm so unworthy to do it thatI wouldn't have believed I could. You thought I was CharlotteOliver--Heavens! boy, if you should breathe the atmosphere CharlotteOliver has to live in! But understand again, for your soul's comfort, you haven't tempted me. Go, if you must; go, take your chances; and ifyou're spared ever to see your dear, dear little mother--"

"My mother! Do you know my mother?"

"Tell her I tried to keep my promise to her. "

"You promised her--what did you promise her?"

"Only to take care of you whenever I had the chance. Go, now, you must!"

"And was care for me your only motive in--"

"No; no, Richard, I wanted, and I still want, you to take care of me!But go, now, go! at once or not at all! Good-bye!" She laughed andfluttered away. I sprang upon my horse and sped into the forest. 

Another mile, another half; then my horror and dismay broke into gestureand speech, and over and over I reviled myself as a fool, a traitorousfool, to be fooled into confession of my errand! I moaned with physicalpain; every fatigue of the long day now levied payment, and my back, knees, shoulders, ached cruelly. But my heart ached most, and I bowed inthe saddle and cried--

"What have I done, oh, what have I done? My secret! my general's, mycountry's secret! That woman has got it--bought it with flatteries andlies! She has drawn it from my befouled soul like a charge from a gun!"

For a moment I quite forgot how evident it was that she had gatheredearlier inklings of it from some one else. Suddenly my thought was ofsomething far more startling. It stopped my breath; I halted; I held mytemples; I stared. What would she do with a secret she had taken suchhazards to extort? Ah! she'd carry it straight to market--why not? Shewould give it to the enemy! Before my closed eyes came a vision of theissue--disaster to our arms; bleeding, maiming, death, and widows' andorphans' tears. 

"My God! she shall not!" I cried, and whirled about and galloped back. 

At the edge of the wood, where we had parted, I tied my horse, and creptalong the moonlight shadows of the melon-patch to the stable. The doorwas ajar. In the interior gloom I passed my hands over the necks andheads of what I recognized to be the pair of small mules I had seen atGallatin. Near a third stall were pegs for saddle and bridle, but theywere empty. So was the stall; the mare was gone. 

"Gone to the Yankees at Fayette!" I moaned, and hurried back to myhorse. To attempt to overtake one within those few miles would only makefailure complete, and I scurried once more into the north with such aburden of alarm and anguish as I had never before known. 

XVIII

THE JAYHAWKERS

IT was well that I was on the Federal captain's horse. He knew this sortof work and could do it quicker and more quietly than mine. Mine wouldhave whinnied for the camp and watched for short cuts to it. Anotheradvantage was the moon, and the hour was hardly beyond midnight when Isaw a light in a window and heard the scraping of a fiddle. At the edgeof a clearing enclosed by a worm fence I came to a row of slave-cabins. Mongrel dogs barked through the fence, and in one angle of it a youngwhite man with long straight hair showed himself so abruptly as tostartle my horse. Only the one cabin was lighted, and thence came therhythmic shuffle of bare-footed dancers while the fiddle played "I layten dollars down. " There were three couples on the floor, and I saw--forthe excited dogs had pushed the door open--that two of the men werewhite, though but one wore shoes. On him the light fell revealingly ashe and the yellow girl before him passed each other in the dance andfaced again. He was decidedly blond. The other man, though silhouettedagainst the glare of burning pine-knots, I knew to be white by theflapping of his lank locks about his cheeks as he lent his eyes to theimprovisation of his steps. His partner was a young black girl. Iburned with scorn, and doubtless showed it, although I only asked whoseplantation this was. 

"This-yeh pla-ace?" The rustic dragged his words lazily, chewed tobaccowith his whole face, and looked my uniform over from cap to spur. "Theysay this-yeh place belong to a man which his name Lu-ucius Ol-i-veh. "

So! I honestly wished myself back in my old rags, until I reflected thatmy handsome mount was enough to get me all the damage these wretchescould offer. Still I thought it safest to show an overbearing frown. 

"To what command do you fellows belong?"

He spurted a pint to reply, "Fishe's batt'ry. "

"Oh! And where is the battery?"

"You sa-ay 'Whah is it?'--ow batt'ry"--he champed noisily--"I dunno. Does you? Whah is it?"

"It's twenty miles off; why are you not with it? What are you doinghere?"

"You sa-ay 'What we a-doin' hyuh?' Well, suh, I mought sa-ay we ain'ta-doin' nuth'n'; but I"--he squirted again--"_will_ sa-ay that so fah asyou _see_ what we a-doin', you _kin_ see, an' welcome; an' so fah as youdon't see, it ain't none o' yo' damn' busi-ness. "

"Oh, that's all right, I was only asking a friendly question. "

"Yaas; well, that's all right, too, suh; I uz on'y a-givin' you afrien'ly aynsweh. I hope you like it. "

Our intercourse became more amiable and the fellow dragged in his advicethat I spend the rest of the night at the house of Mr. Oliver. Hisacquaintance with that gentleman seemed to grow while we talked, andbroke into bloom like a magician's rosebush. He described him as a kindold bird who made hospitality to strangers his meat and drink. Aconjecture darted into my mind. "Why, yes! that is his married son, ishe not, yonder in the cabin; the one with the fair hair?"

"Who?--eh, --ole man Ol-i-veh? You sa--ay 'Is that his ma'-ied son, inyondeh; the one 'ith the fah hah? '--Eh, --no--o, suh, --eh, --yass, suh, --yass! Oh, yass, suh, thass his--tha'--thass his ma'ied son, inthah; yass, suh, the one 'ith the fah hah; yass, suh. I thought youmeant the yetheh one. "

"I don't believe, " said I, "I'd better put myself on the old gentlemanwhen the mistress of the house is away. "

"_She_ ain't awa-ay. "

"Is she not! Isn't she the Mrs. Oliver--Charlotte Oliver--who is suchfriends--she and her husband, I mean, of course, --"

"_Uv_ co'se!" The reptile giggled, squirted and nodded. 

"--With General Austin, " I continued, "--and with Lieutenant Ferry?"

"She air!" He was pleased. "Yass, we all good frien's togetheh. "

"But if she--oh, yes!--Yes, to be sure; she could easily have got hereyesterday afternoon. "

"Thass thess when she arrove!" It was fascinating to watch the animal'scunning play across his face. The fiddle's tune changed and the dancequickened. 

"I naturally thought, " resumed I, with a smile meant to refer to theblond dancer, "that the madam _must_ be away somewhere. "

My hearer grinned. "Oh, that ain't no sign. Boys will be boys. You knowthat, yo'se'f. An' o' co'se she know it. Oh, yass, she at home. "

"Well, I reckon I'll stop all night. " I began to move on. His eyesfollowed greedily. 

"Sa-ay! I'll wrastle you fo' them-ah clo'es. "

I waved a pleasant refusal and rode toward the house. 

XIX

ASLEEP IN THE DEATH-TRAP

The dwelling was entirely dark. I came close in the bright moonlight andhallooed. At my second hail the door came a small way open, and after abrief parley a man's voice bade me put up my horse and come in. Thestable was a few steps to the right and rear. Returning, I took care tonotice the form of the house: a hall from front to rear; one front andone rear room on each side of it; above the whole a low attic, probablyoccupied by the slave housemaids. 

I was met in the bare unpainted hall by a dropsical man of nearly sixty, holding a dim candle, a wax-myrtle dip wrapped on a corncob. He had aretreating chin, a throat-latch beard and a roving eye; stepped with onefoot and slid with the other, spoke in a dejected voice, and had verypoor use of his right hand. I followed him to the rear corner chamber, the one nearest the stable, feeling that, poor as the choice was, Ishould rather have him for my robber and murderer than those villainsdown at the quarters. I detained him in conversation while I drew off myboots and threw my jacket upon the back of a chair in such a way as tolet my despatch be seen. The toss was a lucky one; the document, sealedwith red wax, stuck out arrogantly from an inside pocket. Then, askinglively questions the while as if to conceal a blunder and itscorrection, I moved quickly between him and it and slipped the missiveunder a pillow of the fourpost bedstead. 

He was not wordy, and he tarried but a moment, yet he explained hisparalysis. In the dreary monotone of a chronic sour temper he relatedthat some Confederates, about a year before, had come here impressinghorses, and their officer, on being called by him "no gentleman, " hadstruck him behind the ear with the butt of a carbine. I asked whatpunishment the officer received, and I noticed the plural pronoun as heicily replied, "We didn't enter any complaint. "

I said with genuine warmth that if he would give me that man'sname--etc. 

He waited on the threshold with his dropsical back to me for my lastword, and then, still in the same attitude, droned, "O-oh, he's dead. And anyhow, " he finished out of sight in the hall, "that's not our way. "

I sat on the edge of the bed, in the moonlight, wishing I knew whattheir way was. I considered my small stock of facts. The one thatappalled me most was the inward guilt which I brought with me to thisordeal. I wanted to say my childhood prayers and I could not. For Icould not repent; at least the _emotion_ of repentance would not come. Moreover, every now and then there leapt across this blackness of guilta forked lightning of fright, as I realized that I could no more planthan I could pray. No doubt Coralie Rothvelt, by this time in Fayette, was telling some Federal commander that a certain Confederate courier, now asleep at the house of Lucius Oliver, had let slip to her the factthat his despatches were written to be captured, and that, read withthat knowledge, they would be of guiding value. What mine host himselfmight have in view for me I could not guess, but most likely those threerapscallions down at the quarters were already plotting my murder. Sonow for a counterplot--alas! the counterplot would not unfold for me!

I rallied all my wits. Here was an open window. Through it the moonlightpoured in upon the lower half of the bed. If I should lie with my eyesin the shadow of the headboard no one entering by the door oppositecould see that I was looking. Good! but what to do when the time shouldcome--ah me!--and "Oh, God!" and "Oh, God!" again. Ought I, now, to letthe enemy get the despatch, or must I not rather keep it from him atwhatever risk of death or disgrace? Ah! if I might only fight, and letthe outcome decide for me! And why not? Yes, I would fight! And oh! howI would fight! If by fighting too well I should keep the despatch, why, that, as matters now stood, was likely to be the very best for mycountry's cause. On the other hand, should I fight till I fell dead orsenseless and only then lose it, surely then it would be counted genuineand retain all its value to mislead. Oh, yes, --I could contrive nothingbetter--I would fight!

I drew the counterpane aside, lay down under it revolver in hand, andthen, for the first time since I had put on the glorious gray, found Icould not face the thought of death. I grew steadily, penetratingly, excruciatingly cold, and presently--to the singular satisfaction of myconscience--began to shake from head to foot with a nervous chill. Itwas agonizing, but it was so much better than the spiritual chill ofwhich it took the place! I felt as though I should never be warm again. Yet the attack slowly passed away, and with my finger once more close tothe trigger, I lay trying to use my brain, when, without prayer or plan, I solved the riddle, what I should do, by doing the only thing I knew Iought not to do. I slept. 

XX

CHARLOTTE OLIVER

An envelope sealed with sealing-wax, unless it has also a wrapping oftwine or tape whose only knot is under the seal, can be opened withoutbreaking the seal. Gholson had once told me this. Hold a thin, sharpknife-blade to the spout of a boiling tea-kettle; then press theblade's edge under the edge of the seal. Repeat this operation manytimes. The wax will yield but a hair's-breadth each time, but ahair's-breadth counts, and in a few minutes the seal will be liftedentire. A touch of glue or paste will fasten it down again, and a sealso tampered with need betray the fact only to an eye already suspicious. 

As I say, I slept. The door between me and the hall had a lock, but nokey; another door, letting from my room to the room in front of it, hadno lock, but was bolted. I slept heavily and for an hour or more. Then Iwas aware of something being moved--slowly--slyly--by littles--under mypillow. The pillow was in a case of new unbleached cotton. When I firstlay down, the cotton had so smelt of its newness that I thought it wasenough, of itself, to keep me awake. Now this odor was veiled byanother; a delicate perfume; a perfume I knew, and which brought againto me all the incidents of the night, and all their woe. I looked, andthere, so close to the bedside that she could see my eyes as plainly asI saw hers, stood Coralie Rothvelt. In the door that opened into thehall were two young officers, staff swells, in the handsomest Federalblue. The moonlight lay in a broad flood between them and me. Itsilvered Miss Rothvelt from the crown of her hat to the floor, andbrightened the earnest animation of her lovely face as she daintilytiptoed backward with one hand delicately poised in the air behind her, and the other still in the last pose of withdrawing from under thepillow--empty!

My problem was indeed simplified. The despatch had been stolen, opened, read, re-sealed and returned. All I now had to do was to lie here tilldaybreak and then get away if I could, deliver the despatch to NedFerry, and tell him--ah! what?--how much? Oh, my bemired soul, how muchmust I tell? My shame I might bear; I might wash it out in blood at thebattle's front; but my perfidy! how much was it perfidy to withhold; howmuch was it perfidy to confess?

The heaviness of my soul, by reacting upon my frame and counterfeitingsleep better than I could have done it in cold blood, saved me, I fancy, from death or a northern prison. When I guessed my three visitors weregone I stirred, as in slumber, a trifle nearer the window, and for someminutes lay with my face half buried in the pillow. So lying, therestole to my ear a footfall. My finger felt the trigger, my lids liftedalertly, and as alertly reclosed. Outside the window one of theofficers, rising by some slender foothold, had been looking in upon me, and in sinking down again and turning away had snapped a twig. Heglanced back just as I opened my eyes, but once more my head was inshadow and the moonlight between us. When I peeped again he wasmoving away. 

Five, ten, fifteen minutes dragged by. Counting them helped me to liestill. Then I caught another pregnant sound, a mumbling of male voicesin the adjoining front room. I waited a bit, hearkening laboriously, andthen ever so gradually I slid from the bed, put on everything except myboots, and moved by inches to the door between the two rooms. It wasvery thin; "a good sounding-board, " thought I as I listened for life ordeath and hoped my ear was the only one against it. 

The discussion warmed and I began to catch words and meanings. Oftenestthey were old Lucius Oliver's, whose bad temper made him incautious. While his son and the other two jayhawkers obstinately pressed theirscheme he kept saying, sourly, "That's--not--our--wa-ay!"

At length he lost all prudence. "Nn--o!--Nnno--o, sir! Not in this houseyou don't; and not on this place! Wait till he's off my land; I'm notgoin' to have the infernal rebels a-turpentinin' my house and a-burnin'it over my head. What _air_ you three skunks in such a sweat to gitfound out for, like a pack o' daymn' fools! I've swone to heaven andhell to git even ef revenge can ever git me even, and this ain't the wayto git even. It's not--our--wa-ay!"

His son's attitude exasperated him. "_You_ know this ain't ever been ourway; you'd say so, yourself, ef you wa'n't skin full o' china-ballwhiskey! What in all hell is the reason we can't do him as we've alwaysdone the others?"

"Oh, shut your dirty face!" replied the son, while one of his cronieswarned both against being overheard. But when this one added somethingfurther the old man snarled:

"What's that about the horse?--The horse might git away and be evidenceag'inst us?--What?--Oh, now give the true reason; you want the horse, that's all! You two lickskillets air in this thing pyo'ly for thestealin's. Me and my son ain't bushwhackers, we're gentlemen! At leastI'm one. Our game's revenge!"

Not because of this speech, but of a soft rubbing sound on thewindow-sill behind me, my heart turned cold. Yet there I saw a mostwelcome sight. Against the outer edge of the sill an unseen hand wasmoving a forked stick to and fro. The tip of one of its tines was slit, in the slit was a white paper, and in the fork hung the bridle of myhorse. I glided to the window. But there bethinking me how many a manhad put his head out at just such a place and never got it back, I madea long sidewise reach, secured the paper, and read it. 

It was the envelope which had contained Coralie Rothvelt's pass. Itsfour flaps were spread open, and on the inside was scrawled in a largeblack writing the following:

_Yankees gone, completely fooled. Do not stir till day, then ride foryour life. We're not thwarting Lieutenant Ferry's plan, we're onlyimproving upon it. When you report to him don't let blame fall upon thefather and son whose roof this night saves you from a bloody death. Dothis for the sake of her who is risking her life to save yours. We serveone cause; be wary--be brave--be true_. 

I stood equally amazed and alert. The voices still growled in the nextroom, and my horse's bridle still hung before the window. I peered out;there stood the priceless beast. I came a sly step nearer, and lo! inhis shadow, flattened against the house, face outward, was CoralieRothvelt comically holding the forked stick at a present-arms. Throbbing with a grateful, craving allegiance, I seized the rein. Then Ibent low out the window and with my free hand touched her face as itturned upward into a beam of moonlight. She pressed my fingers to herlips, and then let me draw her hand as far as it could come and cover itwith kisses. Then she drew me down and whispered "You'll do whatI've asked?"

When I said I would try she looked distressfully unassured and I added"I'll do whatever risks no life but mine. "

Her face spoke passionate thanks. "That's all I can ask!" she said, whispered "When you go--_keep the plain road, "_--and vanished. 

I sat by the window, capped, booted, belted, my bridle in one hand, revolver in the other. In all the house, now, there was no sound, andwithout there was a stillness only more vast. I could not tell whethercertain sensations in my ear were given by insects in the grass andtrees or merely by my overwrought nerves and tired neck. The moon sailedhigh, the air was at last comfortably cool, my horse stood and slept. Ithought it must be half-past two. 

"Now it must be three. " Miss Rothvelt's writing lay in my bosom besidemy despatch. At each half-hour I re-read it. At three-and-a-half Ihappened to glance at the original superscription. A thought flashedupon me. I stared at her name, and began to mark off its letters one byone and to arrange them in a new order. I took C from Coralie and h fromRothvelt; after them I wrote a from Coralie and r from Rothvelt, l and ofrom Coralie and two t's and an e from Rothvelt, and behold, Charlotte!while the remaining letters gave me Oliver. 

Ah! where had my wits been? Yet without a suspicion that she wasCharlotte Oliver one might have let the anagram go unsuspected for alifetime. Evidently it concealed nothing from General Austin or NedFerry; most likely it was only the name she used in passing through thelines. At any rate I was convinced she was a good Confederate, and myheart rose. 

But why, then, this ardent zeal to save the necks of the two traitors"whose roof this night--" etc. ? Manifestly she was moved by passion, notduty; love drove her on; but surely not love for them. "No, " I guessedin a reverent whisper, "but love for Ned Ferry. " It must have beenthrough grace of some of her nobility and his, caught in my heart evenbefore I was quite sure of it in theirs, that I sat and framed thefollowing theory: Ned Ferry, loving Charlotte Oliver, yet coerced by hissense of a soldier's duty, had put passion's dictates wholly aside andhad set about to bring these murderers to justice; doing this though heknew that she could never with honor or happiness to either of thembecome the wife of a man who had made her a widow, while she, aware ofhis love, a love so true that he would not breathe it to her while thishideous marriage held her, had ridden perilously in the dead of night tocircumvent his plans if, with honor to both of them, it could be done. 

The half-hour dragged round to four. My horse roused up but kept asquiet as a clever dog. I heard a light sound in the hall; first a stepand then a slide, then a step again and then a slide; Lucius Oliver wascoming toward my door. The cords gathered in my throat and my fingerstole to the trigger; Heaven only knew what noiseless feet might befollowing behind that loathsome shuffle. It reached the door and wasstill. And now the door opened, softly, slowly, and the paralytic stoodlooking in. The moonlight had swung almost out of the room, but a bandof it fell glittering upon the revolver lying in my lap with my fingerson it, each exactly in place. Also it lighted my other hand, on thewindow-sill, with the bridle in it. Old Lucius was alone. In the gloom Icould not see his venom gathering, but I could almost smell it. 

XXI

THE FIGHT ON THE BRIDGE

"Good-morning, " I murmured. 

"Good-morning, " he responded, tardily and grimly. "Well, you _air_ in ahurry. "

"Not at all, sir. I'm sorry to seem so; it's not the tip-top ofcourtesy, --"

"No, it ain't too stinkin' polite. "

"True; but neither are the enemy, and they're early risers, you know. "

"Well, good Lord! don't hang back for my sake!"

I put on an offended esteem. "My dear sir, you've no call to takeoffence at me. I'm waiting because my business is too--well, if I mustexplain, it's--it's too important to be risked except by good safedaylight; that's all. "

[Illustration: "Well, you _air_ in a hurry!"]

Oh, he wasn't taking offence. His reptile temper crawled into hiding, and when I said day was breaking, he said he would show me my way. 

"Why, I keep the plain road, don't I?"

No, he would not; only wagons went that way, to cross the creek by asmall bridge. I could cut off nearly two miles by taking the bridle-paththat turned sharply down into the thick woods of the creek-bottom abouta quarter of a mile from the house and crossed the stream at a sandyford. "Ride round, " he said, "and I'll show you from the front ofthe house. "

Thence he pointed out a distant sycamore looming high against the softdawn. There was the fence-corner at which the bridle-path left the road. He icily declined pay for my lodging. "We never charge a Confederatesoldier for anything; that's not our way. "

Day came swiftly. By the time I could trot down to the sycamore it wasperfectly light even in the shade of an old cotton-gin house closeinside the corner of the small field around which I was to turn. Thevast arms of its horse-power press, spreading rigidly downward, offeredthe only weird aspect that lingered in the lovely morning. I have alater and shuddering memory of it, but now the dewy air was full ofsweet odors, the squirrel barked from the woods, the woodpecker tapped, and the lark, the cardinal and the mocking-bird were singing all around. The lint-box of the old cotton-press was covered with wetmorning-glories. I took the bridle-path between the woods and the fieldand very soon was down in the dense forest beyond them. But the momentI was hid from house and clearing I turned my horse square to the left, stooped to his neck, and made straight through the pathless tangle. 

Silence was silver this time, speed was golden. But every step met itsobstacle; there were low boughs, festoons of long-moss, bushes, briers, brake-cane, mossy logs, snaky pools, and things half fallen and helddead. If at any point on the bridle-path, near the stream, some cowpath, footpath, any trail whatever, led across to the road, my liers-in-waitwere certainly guarding it and would rush to the road by that way assoon as they found I was flanking them. And so I strove on at the bestspeed I could make, and burst into the road with a crackle and crashthat might have been heard a hundred yards away. One glance up theembowered alley, one glance down it, and I whirled to the right, drovein the spur, and flew for the bridge. A wild minute so--a turn in theroad--no one in sight! Two minutes--another turn--no one yet!Three--three--another turn--no one in front, no one behind--

The thunder of our own hoofs Was all the sound we heard. 

A fourth turn and no one yet! A fifth--more abrupt than the others--andthere--here--yonder now behind--was the path I had feared, but no onewas in it, and the next instant the bridge flashed into view. With agreat clatter I burst upon it, reached the middle, glanced back, anddropped complacently into a trot. Tame ending if--but as I lookedforward again, what did I see? A mounted man. At the other end of thebridge, in the shade of overhanging trees, he moved into view, and wellI knew the neat fit of that butternut homespun. He flourished a revolverabove his head and in a drunken voice bade me halt. 

I halted; not making a point of valor or discretion, but because he wasCharlotte Oliver's husband. I read his purpose and listened behind me aswe parleyed. "Don't halt me, sir, I'm a courier and in a hurry. "

He hiccoughed. "Let's--s'--see y' orders. "

I took my weapon into my bridle-hand by the barrel and began to drawfrom my bosom the empty envelope addressed Coralie Rothvelt. At the sametime I let my horse move forward again, while I still listened backwardwith my brain as busy as a mill. Was there here no hidden succor? Wasthat no part of Ned Ferry's plan--if the plan was his? Were thosevillains waiting yet, up at the ford? I could hear nothing at my backbut the singing of innumerable birds. 

"Halt!" the drunkard growled again, and again I halted, wearing a lookof timid awe, but as full of guile as a weasel. I reined in abruptly soas to make the reach between us the fullest length of my outstretchedarm with the paper in two fingers as I leaned over the saddle-bow. Hebent and reached unsteadily, and took the envelope; but hardly could hiseye light upon the superscription before it met the muzzle of my weapon. 

"Don't move. " My tone was affectionate. "Don't holla, or I'll give youto the crows. Back. Back off this bridge--quick! or I'll--" I pushedthe pistol nearer; the danger was no less to him because I wasthoroughly frightened. He backed; but he glared a devilish elation, forbehind me beat the hoofs of both his horsemen. I had to changemy tactics. 

"Halt! Turn as I turn, and keep your eye on _this. "_

Glad was I then to be on a true cavalryman's horse that answered theclosing of my left leg and moved steadily around till I could see downthe bridge. Oliver, after a step or two, stopped. "Turn!" I yelled, andswelled. "One, two, --"

He turned. There was not a second to spare. The two long-haired fellowscame nip and tuck. I see yet their long deer-hunters' rifles. But Iremembered my pledge to this man's wife, and proudly found I had thenerve to hold the trigger still unpressed when at the apron of thebridge the rascals caught their first full sight of us as we sathumpshouldered, eye to eye, like one gray tomcat and one yellow one. They dragged their horses back upon their haunches. One leaped to theground, the other aimed from the saddle; but the first shot that wokethe echoes was neither theirs nor mine, but Sergeant Jim Langley's, though that, of course, I did not know. It came from a tree on our sideof the water, some forty yards downstream. The man in the saddle firedwild, and as his horse wheeled and ran, the rider slowly toppled overbackward out of saddle and stirrups and went slamming to the ground. 

His companion had no time to fire. Instantly after these two shots camea third, and some willows upstream filled with its white smoke. Thesecond long rifle fell upon the bridge and its owner sank to his kneesheaving out long cries of agony that swelled in a tremor of echoes upand down the stream. Another voice, stalwart, elated, cut through itlike a sword. "Don't shoot, Smith, we're coming; save that hound forthe halter!"

The groans of the wounded man closed in behind it, a flood of agony, andmy own outcry increased the din as I called "Come quick, come quick! thewounded fellow's remounting!"

The wretch had lifted himself to his feet by a stirrup. Then, givingout, he had sunk prone, and now, still torturing the air with his horridcries, was crawling for his rifle. Oliver saw I had a new inspiration. All the drunkenness left his eyes and they became the eyes of a snake, but too quickly for him to guess my purpose I turned my weapon from hisface and fired. His revolver flew from his bleeding hand, a stream ofcurses started from his lips, and as I thrust my pistol into his faceagain and snatched his bridle he screamed to the crawling woodman"Shoot! shoot! Kill one or the other of us! Oh! shoot! shoot!"

The rifle cracked, but its ball sang over us; a shot answered it behindme; the howling man's voice died in a gurgle, and Sergeant Jim ran byme, leaped upon the horse that had stayed beside his fallen rider, andwas off hot-footed after the other. "Turn your prisoner over to Kendall, Smith, " he cried, "and put out like hell for Clifton!"

I gave no assent, and I believe Oliver guessed my purpose to save him, though his eyes were as venomous as ever. I flirted the rein off hishorse's neck and said, savagely "Come! quick! trot! gallop!" Thesergeant's young companion of the morning before dashed out of thebushes on his horse with Jim's horse in lead. "I've got him safe, Kendall, " I cried, and my captive and I sped by him at a gallop on ourway to Ned Ferry's command. 

XXII

WE SPEED A PARTING GUEST

Rising to higher ground, we turned into the Natchez, and Port Gibsonroad where a farm-house and country "store" constituted Clifton. Stillat a gallop we left these behind and entered a broad lane between fieldsof tasselling corn, where we saw a gallant sight. In the early sunlightand in the pink dust of their own feet, down the red clay road at aneasy trot in column by fours, the blue-gray of their dress flashing withthe glint of the carbines at their backs, came Ferry's scouts with NedFerry at their head. There was his beautiful brown horse under him, too. My captive and I dropped to a walk, the column did the same, and Ferrytrotted forward, beckoning us to halt. His face showed triumph andcommendation, but no joy. Oliver answered his scrutiny with a blazeof defiance. 

"Good-morning, Smith, who is your prisoner?"

"His name is Oliver. "

Ferry looked behind to the halted column. "Lieutenant Quinn, send twomen to guard this one. Smith, where's Sergeant Langley; where's Kendall?Kendall?"

While I told of the scrimmage, the guard relieved me of Oliver, and as Ifinished, three men galloped up and reined in. "All right, " saidone, saluting. 

"South?" asked our leader. 

"Before day, " replied the new-comer, glowing with elation, and I graspedthe fact that the enemy had taken our bait and I had not betrayed mycountry. The three men went to the column, and Ferry, looking up fromthe despatch which I had delivered to him, said--

"Of course no one has seen this despatch, eh?--Oh!"--a smile--"yes?who?"

"Two Federal officers. "

"Two--what?" His smile broadened. "You _know_ that?"

"I saw them, Lieutenant, looking in at the door to see the despatch putback under my pillow. Yes, sir, by the same hand that had shown itto them. "

"Whose hand was it; that fellow's, yonder?" Oliver was several pacesaway. 

"No, Lieutenant, I don't believe he had anything to do with it; and I'veno absolute proof, either, that he was at the bridge to rob or kill me. I threatened his life first, sir. At any rate that hand under my pillowwas neither his nor his father's. "

"But they were present, eh?"

"They were neither of them present, Lieutenant; that hand was MissCoralie Rothvelt's. "

"Oh, no!" he murmured, "that cannot be!" "I saw her face, Lieutenant, nearer to mine than yours is now. But she did it to help us--oh, but Iknow that, sir! She came under my window and told me she had done it!She told me to tell you she hadn't thwarted your plan, but only improvedon it, and I believe--Lieutenant, if you will hear me patiently througha confession which--" I choked with emotion. 

He lighted up with happy relief. "No, you need not make it. And you neednot turn so pale. " Whereat I turned red. "She saw the despatch was atrap for the Yankees, and used it so, you think? Ah, yes, Smith, I seeit all, now; she pumped you dry. "

I could not speak, I shook my head, and for evidence in rebuttal Ishowed in my eyes two fountains of standing tears. 

"How, then, did she know?"

"Lieutenant, she guessed! She must have just put two and two togetherand guessed! Or else, Lieutenant, --"

"She must have pumped others before she pumped you, eh?" There wasconfession in his good humor. "But tell me; did she not see also thisother trap, for this man and his father, and try to save them out ofit?--oh, if you don't want--never mind. " He laid a leg over the front ofhis saddle and sat thinking. So I see him to-day: his chestnut locks, his goodly limbs and shoulders, the graceful boots, cut-away jacket, faded sash, straight sword, and that look of care on his features whichintensified the charm of their spiritual cleanness; behind him his bandof picked heroes, and for background the June sky. Whenever I smelldewy corn-fields smitten with the sun that picture comes back to me. 

"No, " he said again, "you need not tell me. " By a placid light in hisface I saw he understood. He drew his watch, put it back, thought on, and smiled at my uniform. "It has not the blue of the others, " he said, "but indeed they are not all alike, and it will match the most ofthem--after a rain or two--and some dust. You have been trading horses?"

I explained. While doing so I saw one of the guard reaching theprisoner's bridle to the other. Hah! Oliver had slapped the bridle free. In went his spurs! By a great buffet on the horse's neck he wheeled him, and with the rein dangling under the bits went over the fence like adeer. "Bang! bang! bang!"

It was idle; a magic seems to shield a captive's leap for life. Awayacross the corn he went to the edge of a tangled wood, over the fencethere again, and into the brush. "Halt! bang!" and "Halt! bang!" it was, at every bound, but now the pursuers came back empty-handed, somecontemptuously silent, some laughing. Ferry glanced again at the time, and I was having within me a quarrel with him for his indifference atthe prisoner's escape, when with cold severity he asked--

"Why did you not fire?"

I flushed with indignation, and my eye retorted to his that I had onlyfollowed his example. His answer was a smile. "You, also, have beenguessing, eh?" he said, and when I glowed with gratitude he added, "Never mind, we must have a long talk. At present there is a verbalmessage for me; what is it?"

"Verbal message? No, Lieutenant, she didn't--oh!--from the General! Yes!the General says--'Rodney. '"

He turned and moved to the head of the column. I followed. There, "Leftinto line wheel--march!" chanted our second in command. "Backwards--march!" and then "Right dress!" and the line, that had beena column, dressed along the western edge of the road with the morningsun in their faces. Then Ferry called "Fours from the right, to march tothe left--march!" and he and Quinn passed up the middle of the roadalong the front of the line, with yours truly close at their heels, while behind us the command broke into column again by fours from theright and set the pink dust afloat as they followed back northward overtheir own tracks with Sergeant Jim beside the first four as squadronright guide. I had got where I was by some mistake which I did not knowhow to correct, --I was no drill-master's pride, --and there was muchsuppressed amusement at my expense along the front as we rode down it. At every few steps until the whole line was a column Ned Ferry droppedsome word of cheer, and each time there would come back an equally quietand hearty reply. Near the middle he said "Brisk work ahead of usto-day, boys, " and I heard the reiteration of his words run among theranks. I also heard one man bid another warm some milk for the baby. Trotting by a grove where the company had passed the night, we presentlytook the walk to break by twos, and as we resumed the trot and turnedwestward into a by-road, Lieutenant Quinn dropped back to the column andsent me forward to the side of Ned Ferry. I went with cold shivers. 

[Illustration: With the rein dangling under the bits he went over thefence like a deer. ]

XXIII

FERRY TALKS OF CHARLOTTE

"You have no carbine, " said my commander. "And you have but onerevolver; here is another. "

I knew it at a glance. "It's Oliver's, " I said. 

"We'll call it yours now, " he replied. "Kendall picked it up, but he hasno need of it. "

I remarked irrelevantly that I had not noticed when Sergeant Jim andKendall rejoined us, but Ferry stuck to the subject of the capturedweapon. "Take it, " he insisted; "if you are not fully armed you willfind yourself holding horses every time we dismount to fight. And now, Smith, I shall not report to the General this matter of the Olivers; youshall tell him the whole of it, yourself; you are my scout, but you arehis courier. "

"Lieutenant, I--I wish I knew the whole of it. "

"Tell him all you know. "

"Even things _she_ doesn't want told?"

"Ah!"--he gave a Creole shrug--"that you must decide, on the honor of agood soldier. She has taken you into her confidence?"

"Only into her service, " I said, but he raised his brows. "That ismore; certainly you are honored. What is it you would rather not tellthe General and yet you must; do I know that already?"

"Yes, for one thing, I've got to tell him that old Lucius Oliver can'tbe hung too high or too soon. For months he has been--"

Ferry showed pain. "I know; save that for the General. And what else?"

"Why, the other one--the son. Lieutenant, is she that monster's wife?"

Ferry stroked his horse's neck and said very softly, "She is his wife. "I had to wait long for him to say more, but at length, with the samemeasured mildness, he spoke on. This amazing Charlotte, bereft offather, brother and mother, ward of a light-headed married sister, andin these distracted times lacking any friend with the courage, wisdomand kind activity to probe the pretensions of her suitor, had beenliterally snared into marriage by this human spider, this Oliver, a manof just the measure to simulate with cunning and patient labor thecharacter, bearing and antecedents of a true and exceptional gentlemanfor the sake of devouring a glorious woman. 

"But, eh!" I exclaimed, "how could ever such as she mistake him for--"

"Ah, he is, I doubt not, but the burnt-out ruin of what he was half ayear ago. You perceive, he has not succeeded; he has not devoured her;actually she has turned his fangs upon himself and has defeated hisdesigns toward her as if by magic. And yet the only magic has been hervigilance, her courage, her sagacity. Smith, "--again he stroked themane of his charger--"if I tell you--"

I gave him no pledge but a look. 

"Since the hour of her marriage she has never gone into her chamberwithout locking the door; she has never come out of it unarmed. "

I remarked that had I been in her place I should either have sunk intothe mire, so to speak, or thrown myself, literally, into the river. 

"Yes, " he responded, "but not she! Her life is still hers; she willneither give it away nor throw it away. She wants it, and she wantsit whole. "

"Did she say that to you?"

He looked at me in wide surprise. "Ah! could you think she would speakwith me on that subject? No, I have learned what I know from a man weshall meet to-day; the brother of Major Harper; and he, he has itfrom--" my companion smiled--"somebody you have known a pretty longtime, I think, eh?"

"I see; I see; you mean my mother!"

He let me ponder the fact a long time. "Lieutenant, " I asked at length, "did you know your plot against the two Olivers would cross her wishes?"

"Ah!" was his quick response, "it crossed mine, like-wise. But, youknow, this life we have to live, it is never for two people only. "

"No, " I replied, with my eagerness to moralize, "no two persons, andabove all no one man and one woman, can ever be sure of their duty, oreven of their happiness, till they consider at least one thirdperson, --"

"Hoh!" interrupted Ferry, in the manner of one to whom the fact wassomehow of the most immediate and lively practical interest, "and toconsider a thousand is better. " Then, after a pause, "Yes, " he said, "Iknow she could not like that move, but you remember our talk ofyesterday, where we first met?"

Indeed I did. Between young men, to whom the principles of living werestill unproved weapons, there was, to my taste, just one sort of talkbetter than table-talk, and that was saddle-talk; I remembered vividly. 

"You mean when we were saying that on whatever road a man's journeylies, if he will, first of all, stick to that road, and then every timeit divides take the--I see! you came to where the road divided!"

"Yes, and of course I had to take the upper fork. I am glad you saidthat yesterday morning; it came as sometimes the artillery, eh?--just atthe right moment. "

"I didn't say it, Lieutenant; you said it. "

"No, I think you said it;--sounds like you. "

"It was you who said it! and anyhow, it was you who had the strength todo it!"

He laughed. "Oh!--a little strength, a littlevanity, --pride--self-love--we have to use them all--as a good politicianuses men. "

I looked him squarely in the eyes and began to burn. At every newunfolding of his confidence I had let my own vanity, pride, self-love bemore and more flattered, and here at length was getting ready to esteemhim less for showing such lack of reserve as to use _me_ as anescape-valve for his pent-up thoughts, when all at once I fancied I sawwhat he was trying to do. I believed he had guessed my temptations ofthe night and was making use of himself to warn me how to fight them. "Iunderstand, " said I, humbly. 

But this only pleasantly mystified him. He glanced all over me with aplayful eye and said, "You must have a carbine the first time ourordnance-wagon finds us. Drop back, now, into the ranks. "

I did so; but I felt sure I should ride beside him again as soon as hecould make an opportunity; for it was plain that by a subtle unconfessedaccord he and _she_ had chosen me to be a true friend between them. 

About noon, while taking a brief rest to give our horses a bite, we werejoined by an ambulance carrying Major Harper's brother and some freightwhich certainly was not hospital stores. When we remounted, this vehiclemoved on with us, in the middle of the column, and I was called to ridebeside it and tell all about the arrival of Miss Harper and her niecesat Hazlehurst, and their journey from Brookhaven to camp. Ned Ferry rodeon the side opposite me and I noticed that all the fellows nearest theambulance were choice men; Sergeant Jim was not there, but Kendall wasone, and a young chap on a large white-footed pacer was another. Havingfinished my task I had gathered my horse to fall back to my place at therear, when my distinguished auditor said, "I'm acquainted with yourmother, you know. "

He was not so handsome as his brother, though younger. His affabilitycame by gleams. I asked how that good fortune had come to my mother, andhe replied that there was hardly time now for another story; we mightbe interrupted--by the Yankees. "Ask the young lady you met yesterdayevening, " he added, with a knowing gleam, and smiled me away; and whenby and by the enemy did interrupt, I had forgiven him. Whoever failed toanswer my questions, in those days, incurred my forgiveness. 

XXIV

A MILLION AND A HALF

About mid-afternoon I awoke from deep sleep on a bed of sand in theroasting shade of a cottonwood jungle. A corporal was shaking me andwhispering "Make no noise; mount and fall in. "

Round about in the stifling thicket a score of men were doing so. Lieutenant Quinn stood by, and at his side Sergeant Jim seemed to havejust come among us. The place was pathless; only in two directions couldone see farther than a few yards. Through one narrow opening came anintolerable glare of sunlight from a broad sheet of gliding water, whileby another break in the motionless foliage could be seen in milderlight, filling nearly the whole northern view, the tawny flood of theMississippi. A stretch of the farther shore was open fields lying verylow and hidden by a levee. 

As we noiselessly fell into line, counting off in a whisper and rubbingfrom ourselves and our tortured horses the flies we were forbidden toslap, I noticed rising from close under that farther levee and some twomiles upstream, a small cloud of dust coming rapidly down the hiddenlevee road. It seemed to be raised entirely by one or two vehicles. Behind us our own main shore was wholly concealed by this mass ofcottonwoods on the sands between it and the stream, on a spit of whichwe stood ambushed. On the water, a hundred and fifty yards or so fromthe jungle, pointed obliquely across the vast current, was a large skiffwith six men in it. Four were rowing with all their power, a fifth satin the bow and the other in the stern. Quinn, in the saddle, watchedthrough his glass the cottonwoods from which the skiff had emerged atthe bottom of a sheltered bay. Now he shifted his gaze to the littlewhirl of dust across the river, and now he turned to smile at Jim, buthis eye lighted on me instead. I risked a knowing look and motioned withmy lips, "Just in time!"

"No, " he murmured, "they're late; we've been waiting for them. "

The sergeant's low order broke the platoon into column by file, Quinnrode toward its head with his blade drawn, and as he passed me he handedme his glass. "Here, you with no carbine, stay and watch that boat tillI send for you. If there's firing, look sharp to see if any one there ishit, and who, and how hard. Watch the boat, nothing else. "

He moved straight landward through the cottonwoods, followed by the menin single file, but halted them while the rear was still discernible inthe green tangle. Presently they unslung carbines, and I distinctlyheard galloping. It was not far beyond the cottonwoods. The Yankees wereafter us. Suddenly it ceased. Over yonder, shoreward in the thicket, came a sharp command and then a second, and then, right on the front ofthe jungle, at the water's edge, the shots began to puff and crack, andthe yellow river out here around the boat to spit!--spit!--in wickedwhite splashes. Every second their number grew. Behind me Quinn and hismen stole away. But orders are orders and I had no choice but to watchthe boat. The man in the stern had his back to me, and no face among theother five did I know. They were fast getting away, but the splashescame thick and close and presently one ball found its mark. The man atthe stern hurriedly changed places with an oarsman; and as the relievedrower took his new seat he turned slowly upon his face as if in mortalpain, and I saw that the fresh hand at the oar was the brother of MajorHarper. Just as I made the discovery "Boom!" said my small dust-cloudacross the river, and "hurry-hurry-hurry-hurry-hurry-hurry-hurry--" likea train on a trestle-work--"boom!"--a shell left its gray track in thestill air over the skiff and burst in the tops of the cottonwoods. Thegreen thicket grew pale with the bomb's white smoke, yet "crack! crack!"and "spit! spit!" persisted the blue-coats' rifles. "Boom!" said againthe field-piece on yonder side the water. Its shell came rattlingthrough the air to burst on this side, out of the flashing and crackingof rifles and the sulphurous bomb smoke arose cries of men gettingmangled, and I whimpered and gnawed my lips for joy, and I watched theboat, but no second shot came aboard, and--"Boom!--hurry-hurry-hurry-hurry"--ah! the frightful skill of it! A third shell tore thecottonwoods, its smoke slowly broadened out, a Federal bugle beyondthe thicket sounded the Rally, and the cracking of carbines ceased. 

Now Major Harper's brother passes a word to the man at the boat's bow, whereupon this man springs up and a Confederate officer's braids flashon his sleeve as he waves to the western shore to cease firing. I stillwatch the boat, but I listen behind me. I hear voices of command, theFederal sergeants hurrying the troop out of the jungle and back to theirhorses. Then there comes a single voice, the commander's evidently; butbefore it can cease it is swallowed up in a low thunder of hoofs andthen in a burst of cries and cheers which themselves the next moment aredrowned in a rattle of carbine and pistol shots--Ferry is down on themout of hiding. Thick and silent above the din rises the dust of theturmoil, and out of all the hubbub under it I can single out the voiceof the Federal captain yelling curses and orders at his panic-strickenmen. And now the mêlée rolls southward, the crackle of shots grows lessand then more again, and then all at once comes the crash of Quinn'splatoon out of ambush, their cheer, their charge, the crackle of pistolsagain, and then another cheer and charge--what is that! Ferry re-formedand down on them afresh? No, it was the hard-used but gallant foecutting their way out and getting off after all. 

The skiff was touching the farther shore and the three oarsmen liftingtheir stricken comrade out and bearing him to the top of the levee, whenKendall came to recall me. On our way back he told me of the fight, beginning with the results: none of our own men killed outright, butfour badly wounded and already started eastward in the ambulance left usby the Major's brother; some others more slightly hurt. My questionswere headlong and his answers quiet; he was a slow-spoken daredevil; Iwish he came more than he does into this story. 

Not slow-spoken did we find the command when we reached the road wherethey were falling into line. After a brief but vain pursuit, here werealmost the haste and tumult of the onset; the sweat of it still reekedon everyone; the ground was strewn with its wreckage and its brute andhuman dead, and the pools of their blood were still warm. Squarelyacross the middle of the road, begrimed with dust, and with a deadFederal under him and another on top, lay the big white-footed pacer. Atone side the enemy's fallen wounded were being laid in the shade to beleft behind. In our ranks, here was a man with an arm in a bloodyhandkerchief, there one with his head so bound, and yonder a youngfellow jesting wildly while he let his garments be cut and a flesh-woundin his side be rudely stanched. Here there was laughter at one who hadbeen saved by his belt-buckle, and here at one who had dropped like deadfrom his horse, but had caught another horse and charged on. But thesedetails imply a delay where in fact there was none; the moment Ferryspied me he asked "Did he get across?" and while I answered he motionedme into the line. Then he changed it into a column, commanded silence, and led us across country eastward. For those few wounded who would notgive up their places in the ranks it was a weary ten miles that broughtus swiftly back to a point within five miles of that Clifton which wehad left in the morning. And yet a lovely ten miles it was, withal. Youwould hardly have known this tousled crowd for the same dandy crew thathad smiled so flippantly upon me at sunrise, though they smiled asflippantly now with faces powder-blackened, hair and eyelashes mattedand gummed with sweat and dust, and shoulders and thighs caked withgrime. Yet to Ned Ferry as well as to me--I saw it in his eye every timehe looked at them--these grimy fellows did more to beautify those tenmiles than did June woods beflowered and perfumed with magnolia, bay andmuscadine, or than slant sunlight in glade or grove. 

In a stretch of timber where we broke ranks for a short rest, unbittingbut not unsaddling, a lot of fellows pressed me to tell them about theboat on the river. "You heard what was in it, didn't you?" asked onenearly as young as I. 

"Besides the men? No. Same that was in the ambulance, I suppose; whatwas it?"

"Don't you know? Oh, I remember, you were asleep when Quinn told us. Well, sir, "--he tried to speak calmly but he had to speak somehow orexplode--"it was soldiers' pay--for Dick Taylor's army, over in theTrans-Mississippi; a million and a half dollars!" He was as proud totell the news as he would have been to own the money. 

XXV

A QUIET RIDE

Where Ferry's scouts camped that night I do not know, for we had goneonly two or three miles beyond our first momentary halting-place whentheir leader left them to Quinn and sprang away southward over fence, hedge, road, ditch--whatever lay across his bee-line, and by his order Ifollowed at his heels. 

In a secluded north-and-south road he looked back and beckoned me to hisside: "You saw Major Harper's brother land safe and sound, you say? Hetold you this morning he is acquainted with your mother, eh; butnot how?"

"No, except that it was through--"

"Yes, I know. But you don't know even how your mother is acquainted withher. "

"No, though of course if she lived in the city, common sympathies mighteasily bring them together. "

"She did not live in the city; she lived across the river from the city. 'Tis but a year ago her father died. He was an owner of steamboats. Shemade many river trips with him, and I suppose that explains how sheknows the country about Baton Rouge, Natchez, Grand Gulf, Rodney, betterthan she knows the city. But the boats are gone now; some turned intogunboats, one burnt when the city fell, another confiscated. I thinkthey didn't manage her bringing-up very well. "

"Maybe not, " I replied, being nothing if not disputatious, "and she doesstrike me as one thrown upon her own intuitions for everything; but ifshe's the lady she is entirely by her own personal quality, Lieutenant, she's a wonder!"

"Ah, but she is a wonder. In a state of society more finished--"

"She would be incredible, " I said for him, and he accepted the clause bya gesture, and after a meditative pause went on with her history. Thesubject of our conversation had first met Oliver, it seemed, when byreason of some daring performance in the military field--near Milliken'sBend, in the previous autumn--he was the hero of the moment. Even so itwas strange enough that he should capture her; one would as soon look tosee Vicksburg fall; but the world was upside down, everything washappening as if in a tornado, and he cast his net of lies; lies of hisown, and lies of two or three match-making friends who chose to believe, at no cost to themselves, that war, with one puff of its breath, hadcleansed him of his vices and that marriage would complete the happychange. This was in Natchez, Ferry went on to say. Most fortunately forthe bride one of the bridegroom's wedding gifts was a certain youngslave girl; before the wedding was an hour past--before theorange-blossoms were out of the bride's hair--this slave maid had toldher what he was, "And you know what that is. "

We rode in silence while I tried to think what it must be to a woman ofher warmth--of her impulsive energies--to be, week in, week out, monthafter month, besieged by that man's law-protected blandishments andstratagems. "I wish you would use me in her service every time there isa chance, " I said. 

"The chances are few, " he answered; "even to General Austin she laughsand says we must let the story work itself out; that she is the fool init, but there is a chance for the fool to win if not too much burdenedwith help. "

"How did you make her acquaintance?" I ventured to ask. 

"You remember the last time the brigade was in this piece of country?"he rejoined. 

I did; it had been only some five weeks earlier; Grant had driven usthrough Port Gibson, General Bowen had retired across the north fork ofBayou Pierre, and we had been cut off and forced to come down here. 

"Yes; well, she came to us that night, round the enemy's right, with aletter from Major Harper's brother--he was then in New Orleans--and withinformation of her own that saved the brigade. I had just got mycompany. I took it off next morning on my first scout, whilst thebrigade went to Raymond. She was my guide all that day; six times shewas my guide before the end of May. Yet the most I have learned abouther has come to me in the last few days. "

"She has a fearful game to play. "

"Oh!--yes, that is what she would call it; but me, I say--though not asGholson would mean it, you know, --she has a soul to save. If it is agame, it is a very delicate one; let her play it as nearly alone as shecan. " "Yes, " said I, "a man's hand in it would be only his foot in it;"and Ferry was pleased. He scanned me all over in the same bright way hehad done it in the morning, and remarked "This time I see they havegiven you a carbine. "

We went down into some low lands, crossed a creek or two, and in one ofthem gave our horses and ourselves a good scrubbing. On a dim path inthick woods we paused at a worm fence lying squarely across our way. Itwas staked and ridered and its zig-zags were crowded with brambles andwild-plum. A hundred yards to our left, still overhung by the woods, itturned south. Beyond it in our front lay a series of open fields, inwhich, except this one just at hand, the crops were standing high. Thenearer half of this one, a breadth of maybe a hundred yards, thoughplanted in corn, was now given up to grass, and live-stock, getting intoit at some unseen point, had eaten and trampled everywhere. The fartherhalf was thinly covered with a poor stand of cotton, and between thecorn and the cotton a small, trench-like watercourse crossed our line ofview at right angles and vanished in the woods at the field's easternedge. The farther border of this run was densely masked by a growth ofbrake-cane entirely lacking on the side next us. Between the cotton andthe next field beyond, a double line of rail fence indicated the Fayetteand Union Church road. Suddenly Ferry looked through his field-glasses, and my glance followed the direction in which they were pointed. Dustagain; one can get tired of dust! Some two miles off, a little southwardof the setting sun, a golden haze of it floated across a lowbackground of trees. 

"'Tis the enemy, I think, " he said, "but only scouts, I suppose. "

XXVI

A SALUTE ACROSS THE DEAD-LINE

I was not seeking enemies just then and was not pleased. "Didn't theYankees fall back this morning before day and move southward?" I asked. 

"For what would they do that?" inquired my leader, still using theglass, but before I could reply he gave a soft hiss, dropped the glass, and turned his unaided eye upon a point close beyond our field, in theroad. Now again he lifted the glass, and I saw over there two small, black, moving objects. They passed behind some fence-row foliage, reappeared nearer, and suddenly bobbed smartly up to the roadsidefence--the dusty hats of two Federal horsemen. The wearers sat lookingover into the field between them and us. I asked Ferry if he wasn'tafraid they would see us. 

"That is what we want, " was his reply; "only, they must not know we wantit. Keep very still; don't move. " At that word they espied us andgalloped back. 

We turned to our left and hurried along our own fence-line, firsteastward, then south, and reined up behind some live brush at the edgeof the public road. "Soon know how many they are, now, " he said, smilingback at me. 

"Are you going to count them?" It seemed so much easier to let themcount us. 

"Yes, " he replied. "Wish we had our boys here, " he added, and did notneed to tell me how he would have posted them; the place was sofavorable for an ambush that those Yankees had no doubt been looking forus before they saw us. Half of us would be in the locks of thesehighroad fences to lure them on, and half in the little gully maskedwith canes to take them in the flank. "We would count many times our ownnumber before they should pass, " he added. 

"Can't we make them think our men are here?" I suggested. "Couldn't I goback to where this fence crosses the gully and let them see me opening agap in it?"

He was amused. "Go if you want; but be quick; here they come already, asmall bunch of them. "

By the time I reached the spot they were in plain view, six men and anofficer. I leaped to the ground, tugged at a rail and threw one end off. I thought I had never handled rails so heavy and slippery in my life. AsI got a second one down I looked across to the road. The officer wasdistributing his men. Barely a mile behind was the dust of their column. The third rail stuck and the sweat began to pour down into my eyes andcollar. Two of the blue-coats easily let down a panel of fence on thefar side of the road and pushed into the tall corn; three others camegalloping across the thin cotton to reconnoitre the fringe of canes; theofficer and the remaining man cantered on up the road toward the spotwhere I could see Ferry observing everything from the saddle behind hismask of leaves. Of a sudden the Federal commander descried me wildly atwork. He paused and pointed me out to the man at his back, but had noglass and seemed puzzled. At his word the man pricked up to the fenceto come over it, but his horse was of another mind, and the impatientofficer, crowding him away, cleared the fence himself and came acrossthe furrows at a nimble trot. Still I tussled with the rails, and grewpeevish. The enemy was counted, closely enough! one troop. Their dustshowed it, the small advance guard proved it. 

"Hello!" called the Federal officer, "who are you, over there?"

He might have known by looking a trifle more narrowly; I saw plainly, thrillingly, who he was; but his attention was diverted by some signalfrom the men he had sent to the fringe of cane; they had found thetracks of horses leading through the canes into the corn. But now hehailed me again. "Here, you! what are you doing at that fence? Whoare you?"

He was within easy range and was still trotting nearer. I snatched up mycarbine, aimed, and then recovered, looking sharply to my left as ifrestrained by the command of some one behind the canes. The Federal'scool daring filled me with admiration. Had the foes he was looking forbeen actually in hiding here they could have picked him out of hissaddle like a bird off a bush. His only chance was that they would notlet themselves be teased into firing prematurely on any one man or six. Ferry beckoned me. I mounted and trotted down the woods side of thefence, at the same time the Federal's six men approached from threedirections, and down the road the main column entered upon the scene. 

The officer halted with revolver drawn and sent a man back with someorder to the main body. And then Ferry's beautiful brown horse, asthough of his own choice, reared straight up where he stood, dropped hisforelegs upon his breast, rose, over the fence, master and all, asunlaboriously as a kite, trotted out from the brush and halted in theopen field. His rider's outdrawn sword flashed to the setting sun. TheFederal, pointing here and there was deploying his remaining five mentoward the spot I had left, but glancing round and seeing Ferry hetrotted toward him. Thereupon Ferry advanced at a walk, and I--for I hadfollowed him--moved at the same gait a few paces behind. "Halt him, "said my leader. 

"Halt!" I yelled with carbine at a ready, and the Federal halted. Infact he had come to a small hollow full of bushes and grapevines and hadno choice but to halt or go round it. 

"Don't swallow him, " said Ferry, smilingly, "this isn't your privatewar. "

"He's on my private horse!" I retorted. 

"Well, you're on his, " replied my commander. The giant before us, mounted on Cricket, was my prisoner of the previous day. 

"Who are you?" he was calling imperiously. 

"Captain Jewett ought to know, " Ferry called back, and on that thequestioner recognized us both. He became very stately. "LieutenantDurand, I believe. "

"At times, " said Lieutenant Durand. 

"And at other times--?"

"Lieutenant Ferry--Ferry's scouts. "

The Federal expanded with surprise and then with austere pleasure. Heglanced toward his five men galloping back to him having found no enemy, and then at his column, which had just halted. Frowning, he motioned theadvance guard to the road again and once more hailed Ferry while hepointed at me. He straightened and swelled still more as he began hisquestion, but as he finished it a smile went all over him. "Is that yourentire present force?"

"It is. "

"Then what the devil do you want?" he thundered. 

"We have what we wanted, " said Ferry, "only now we desire to cross theroad. "

"You're not asking my permission?"

"I am afraid not. "

"I admit you are quite able to cross without. "

"Thank you, " said Ferry; "will you pardon me for passing in front ofyou?"

The Federal's pistol slid into its holster and his sabre flashed out. Hethrew its curved point up in a splendid salute. Ferry saluted with hisstraight blade. Then both swords rang back into their scabbards, andJewett whirled away toward his column. For a moment we lingered, thenfaced to the left, trotted, galloped. Over the fence and into the roadwent he--went I. Down it, as we crossed, the blue column was just movingagain. Then the woods on the south swallowed us up. 

[Illustration: Ferry saluted with his straight blade. ]

"If Captain Jewett will only go on to Union Church, " said Ferry, "Quinnwill see that he never gets back. "

"But you think he will not go on?"

"Ah, now he is discovered, surely not. I think he will turn back atWiggins. "

"Why Wiggins? does he know Coralie Rothvelt?"

"Yes, he does; and if since last night he has maybe found out she isCharlotte Oliver, --"

"Oh! Lieutenant Ferry, oh! would such a man as that come hunting down awoman, with a troop of cavalry?"

"He is not hunting her; yet, should he find her, I have the fear hewould do his duty as a soldier, anyhow. No, he _was_ looking, I think, for Ferry's scouts. "

"But if she should be at Wiggins--"

My leader smiled at my simplicity. "She is not at Wiggins. "

"Where is she?"

"I do not know. "

XXVII

SOME FALL, SOME PLUNGE

At a farm-house well hidden in the woods of a creek we got a bravesupper for the asking and had our uniforms wonderfully cleaned andpressed, and at ten that evening we dismounted before the three brightlyillumined tents of General Austin, Major Harper and that amiable cipherour Adjutant-general. On the front of the last the shadow of a deeplyabsorbed writer showed through the canvas, and Ferry murmured to me "Theever toiling. " It was Scott Gholson. I had heard the same name for himthe evening before, from her whose own lovely shadow fell so visibly andso often upon the bright curtain of Ned Ferry's thought. 

My leader went in while I held our horses. Then he and Gholson came outand entered the General's tent; from which Gholson soon emerged againand sent an orderly away into the gloom of the sleeping camp, and Iheard a small body of men mount and set off northward. Presently Ferrycame out and sent me in, and to my delight I found, on standing beforethe General, that I did not need to tell what Charlotte Oliver wantedkept back. 

"No, never mind that, " he said, "Miss Rothvelt was here and saw me thisafternoon, herself. " Up to the point of my arrival at the bridge I hadmerely to fumble my cap and answer his crisp questions. But there helighted a fresh cigar and said "Now, go on. "

Gholson dropped in with something to be signed, and the General wavedhim to wait and hear. For Gholson, despite the sappy fetor of his mentaltemperament, had abilities that made him almost a private secretary tothe General. Who, nevertheless, knew him thoroughly. When I haddescribed Oliver's escape and would have hurried on to later details, General Austin raised a hand. 

"Hold on; you say nearly everybody fired at Oliver; who did not?" "Idid not, General. "

"Did Lieutenant Ferry fire?"

I said he did not. The General turned his strong eyes to Gholson's andkept them there while he took three luxurious puffs at his cigar. Thenhe took the waiting paper, and as he wrote his name on it he said, smiling, "I wish you had been in Lieutenant Ferry's place, Mr. Gholson;you would have done your duty. "

The flattered Gholson received the signed paper and passed out, and theGeneral smiled again, at his back. I hope no one has ever smiled thesame way at mine. 

Ferry and I slept side by side that night, and he told me two companiesof our Louisianians were gone to cut off Jewett and his band. "Still, Ithink they will be much too late, " he said, and when I rather violentlyturned the conversation aside to the subject of Scott Gholson, saying, to begin with, that Gholson had wonderful working powers, he replied, "'Tis true. Yet he says the brigade surgeon told him to-day he is on theverge of a nervous break-down. " But on my inquiring as to the cause ofour friend's condition, my bedmate pretended to be asleep. 

We rose at dawn and rode eastward, he and I alone, some fourteen miles, to the Sessions's, where the dance had been two nights earlier. Onentering the stable to put up our horses we suddenly looked at eachother very straight, while Ferry's countenance confessed more pleasurethan surprise, though a touch of care showed with it. "I did not knowthis, " he said, "and I did not expect it. "

What we saw was the leather-curtained spring-wagon and its littlestriped-legged mules. The old negro in charge of them bowed gravely tome and smiled affectionately upon Ferry. About an hour later Gholsonappeared. He took such hurried pains to explain his coming that any foolcould have seen the real reason. The brigade surgeon had warned him--Oh!had I heard?--Oh! from Ned Ferry, yes. The cause of his threatenedbreakdown, he said, was the perpetual and fearful grind of work intowhich of late he had--fallen. 

"Did the doctor say 'fallen'?" I shrewdly asked. 

"No, the doctor said 'plunged, ' but--did Ned Fer'--who put that intoyour head?"

"Nobody; some fall, you know, some plunge. " I did not ask the cause ofthe plunge; the two little mules told me that. He would never have come, Gholson hurried on to say, had not Major Harper kindly suggested that aSabbath spent with certain four ladies would be a timely preventive. 

"What!" I cried, "are they here t'--too? Why, --where's their carryall?'Tisn't in the stable; I've looked!"

"No, it was here, but yesterday, when the fighting threatened to beheavy, it was sent to the front. Smith, I didn't know Charlie Tolliverwas here!"

I believed him. But I saw he was not in search of a preventive. Ah, no!he was ill of that old, old malady which more than any other abhors apreventive. Waking in the summer dawn and finding Ned Ferry risen andvanished hitherward, a rival's instinct had moved him to follow, as theseeker for wild honey follows the bee. He had come not for the cure ofhis honey-sickness, but for more--more--more--all he could find--of thehoney. "Smith, " he said, with a painful screw of his features, "I'mmightily troubled about Ned Ferry!"

"Yes, " I dishonestly responded, "his polished irreligion--"

"Oh, no! No, " he groaned, "it isn't that so much just now, though I knowthat to a true religionist like you the society of such a mereromanticist--"

We were interrupted. 

XXVIII

OLDEST GAME ON EARTH

The cause of our interruption was Camille Harper. We had been pacing theside veranda and she came out upon it with an unconscious song on herlips, and on one finger a tiny basket. 

Her gentle irruption found me standing almost on the spot where she hadstood two evenings before and said good-bye to me. From this point apath led to the rear of the house, where within a light paling fencebloomed a garden. She gave us a blithe good-morning as she passed, descended the two or three side steps, and tripped toward the gardengate, a wee affair which she might have lifted off its hinges with onethumb. I saw her try its latch two or three times and then turn backdiscomfited because the loose frame had sagged a trifle and needed to beraised half an inch. I did not understand the helplessness of girls aswell then as I do now; I ran and opened the gate; and when I shut itagain she and I were alone inside. 

She let me cut the flowers. "You know who's here?" she asked. 

"Yes, " I guilefully replied, "I came with him. "

"I don't mean Lieutenant Ferry, " she responded, "nor anybody you'd everguess if you don't know; but you do, don't you?"

I said I knew and went on gathering sweet-pea blossoms. 

"Did you ever see her?"

"Yes, " I replied, stepping away for some roses, "I--saw her--bychance--for a moment--she was in the wagon she's got here--last--eh, --Thursday--morn'--" I came back trimming the roses, andas she reached for them and our glances met, she laughed and replied, with a roguish droop of the head--

"She told us about it. And you needn't look so disturbed; she onlypraised you. "

Still I frowned. "How does it come that she's here, anyhow?"

"Why! she's got to be everywhere! She's a war-correspondent! She was atthe front yesterday nearly the whole time, near enough to see some ofthe fighting, and to hear it all! she calls it 'only a skirmish'!"

"When did she get here?"

"About five in the morning. But we didn't see her then; she shut herselfup and wrote and wrote and wrote! They say she runs the most daringrisks! And they say she's so wise in finding out what the Yankees aregoing to do and why they're going to do it, that they'd be nearly asglad to catch her as to catch Lieutenant Ferry! Didn't you know? Ah, youknew!" She attempted a reproachful glance, but exhaled happiness like afragrance. I asked how she had heard these things. 

"How did I hear them? Let me see. Oh, yes! from--from Harry. "

I flinched angrily. "From what?"

She looked into her basket and fingered its flowers. "That's what heasked me to call him. "

I stiffened up as though I heard a thief picking the lock of my lawfultreasure. She threw me, side wise, a bantering smile and then a morewinsome glance, but I refused to see either. I burned with so manyfeelings at once that I could no more have told them than I could haveraised a tune. "Don't you like him?" she asked, and tried to bevery arch. 

"Like whom?"

"You know perfectly well, " she replied. 

"No, I do not like him. Do you?"

"Why, --yes, --I do. I--I thought everybody did. " She averted her face andtoyed with the sweet-pea vines. Suddenly she gulped, faced me, blinkedrapidly, and said "If I oughtn't to call him--that, --then I oughtn't tohave called--" she dropped her eyes and bit her lip. 

"_That_, " I replied, "is a very different matter! At least I had hopedit was!"

Her rejoinder came in a low, grieved monotone: "Did you say _had_hoped?"

It was the sweetest question my ear had ever caught, and I asked her, Iscarce know how, if I might still say "do hope". 

"Why, I--I didn't know you ever did say it. I don't see that I have anyright to forbid you saying things--to--to yourself. "

So we played the game--oldest game on earth--and loveliest. Bunglingmoves we made, as you see, and sometimes did not know whose move it was. At length she admitted that this _is_ a very unsafe world in which to bekind to soldiers. I told how _fickle_ some of them were. She would notsay she would--or wouldn't--make my case a permanent exception or asolitary one; yet with me she blissfully pooh-poohed the idea that ouracquaintance was new, she being so wonderfully like my mother, and Ibeing so wonderfully ditto, ditto. And when I burst into a blazingeulogy of my mother, my listener gave me kinder looks than I everdeserved of any woman alive. On my trying to reciprocate, she asked mefor more flowers and hurried back to our earlier theme. 

"And really, you know, they say she's almost as truly a scout as NedFer'--as Lieutenant Ferry-Durand. She's from New Orleans, you know, andshe's like us, half-Creole; but her other half is Highland Scotch--isn'tthat romantic! When she told us about it she laughed and said itexplained some things in her which nothing else could excuse! Wasn'tthat funny!--oh, pshaw! it doesn't sound a bit funny as I tell it, butshe said it in such a droll way! She was so full of fun and frolic thatday! You can't conceive how full of them she is--sometimes; how soberlyshe _can_ say the funniest things, and how _funnily_ she can say thesoberest things!"

[Illustration: "Don't you like him?" she asked, and tried to be veryarch. ]

"You say she was so full of fun that day; what day?"

The young thing gaped at me, gasped, and melted half to the ground:"O--oh--I've let it out!"

"Yes, you may as well go right on, now. "

She straightened to her toes, covered her open mouth an instant, andthen said "Yes, we knew her--at our house--in New Orleans--poor NewOrleans! Your mother--oh, your splendid, lovely little mother is such abrave Confederate!"

"My mother brought her to your house?"

"Yes, oh, yes! and that's why it isn't wrong to tell _you_. Charlotte'sbeen three times through the lines, to and from the city; once by way ofNatchez and twice through Baton Rouge. And oh, the things she's broughtout to our poor boys in the hospitals!"

"Generals' uniforms, for example?"

"Oh, now you're real mean! No! what she's brought the most of is--guess!You'll never guess it in the world!"

"Hindoo grammars!--No? Well, then, --perfumery!"

"Ah, you! No, I'll tell you. " She spoke prudently; I had to bow my earso close that it tingled: "Dolls!"

My amazement was genuine. "For our sick soldiers!" I sighed. 

Her eyes danced; she leaned away and nodded. Then she drew nearer thanbefore: "Dolls!" she murmured again;--"and pincushions!--andemeries!--and 'rats'! you know, for ladies' hair--and chignon-cushions!"

"For our sick soldiers!"

"Yes!--stuffed with quinine!" She laughed in her handkerchief till thesmell of the sweet-peas was lost in the odor of frangipani, and shestaggered almost into my arms. But that sobered her. "And when we speakof the risk she runs of being sent to Ship Island she laughs and says, 'Life is strife. ' She says she'd like it long, but she's got to haveit broad. "

"Life is strife indeed to her, " I said. 

"Oh! do you know that too?--and another reason she gives for takingthose awful risks is that 'it's the best use she can make of her sillystreak'--as if she had any such thing!"

"Why did my mother bring her to you?"

"Oh! she had letters from uncle to aunt Martha! He thinks she'swonderful!"

"Does your father think so, too?"

"My father? no; but he's prejudiced! That's one of the things I cannever understand--why nearly all the girls I know have suchprejudiced fathers. "

XXIX

A GNAWING IN THE DARK

On our return to the veranda, Camille and I, we found on its front thehouse's entire company except only the children of the family. Mrs. Sessions, Estelle and Cécile formed one group, Squire Sessions andCharlotte Oliver made a pair, and Ferry and Miss Harper another. Ourposies created a lively demonstration; Camille yielded them to Estelle, and Estelle took them into the house to arrange them in water. Gholsonwent with her; it was painful to see her zest for his society. 

Miss Harper "knocked me down, " as we boys used to say, to CharlotteOliver; "Charlotte, my dear, you already know Mr. Smith, I believe?"

I had expected to see again, and to feel, as well, the starry charms ofCoralie Rothvelt; but what I confronted was far different. The charmswere here, unquenched by this stare of daylight, but from them shone alustre of womanliness wholly new. It seemed to grow on even when atricksy gleam shot through it as she replied, "Yes, our acquaintancedates from Gallatin. "

With a spasm of eagerness I said it did: "Ouracquai'--hh--Gallatin--hh--" But my soul cried like a culprit, "No, no, it begins only now!" and my whole being stood under arrest before theaccusing truth that from Gallatin till now my acquaintance had beensolely with that false phase of her which I knew as Coralie Rothvelt. Atthe same her kind eyes sweetly granted me a stripling's acquittal--oh!why did it have to be a stripling's?

Wonderful eyes she had; deep blue, as I have said, in color; black, inspirit; never so wonderful as when having sparkled black they quieted toblue again. Always then there came the slightest of contractions at theouter corners of the delicate lids, that gave a fourfold expression ofthought, passion, tenderness and intrepidity. I never saw that silentmeaning in but one other pair of eyes; wherever it turned it said--atthe same time saying many other things but saying this alwaysplainest--"I see both out and in; I know myself--and thee. " Never but inone other pair of eyes? no; and whose were those? Ned Ferry's. 

"Don't you love to see Charlotte and him look at each other in thatsteady way when they're talking together?" Camille asked me later. Butrather coldly I inquired why I should; I felt acutely enough withoutadmitting it to Camille, that Charlotte and Ferry were meeting on groundfar above me; and when Gholson, in his turn, called to my notice, inCharlotte's case, this unique gaze, and contrasted it with her beautifulyet strangely childish mouth, I asked a second time why she washere, anyhow. 

"She's here, " murmured Gholson, "because she has to live! To live shemust have means, Smith, and to have means she must either get themherself or she must--" and again he poised his hand horizontally acrosshis mouth and whispered--"live with her hus'--"

I jerked my head away--"Yes, yes. " Scott Gholson was the only one of uswho could give that wretch that title. "Gholson, " I said, for I kept himplied with questions to prevent his questioning me, "how did that manever get her?"

The rest of the company were going into the house; he glanced furtivelyafter them and grabbed my arm; you would have thought he was about tolay bare the whole tragedy in five words; "Smith, --nobody knows!"

"Do you believe she has told Ned Ferry anything?"

"Never! About herself? no, sir!" He bent and whispered: "She despiseshim; she keeps in with him, but it's to get the news, that's all; that'spositively all. " On our way to the stable to saddle up--for we were allgoing to church--he told me what he knew of her story. I had heard itall and more, but I listened with unfeigned interest, for he recited itwith flashes of heat and rancor that betrayed a cruel infatuation eatinginto his very bone and brain, the guilt of which was only intensified bythe sour legality of his moral sense. 

The church we went to was in Franklin, but the preacher was a man ofnote, a Vicksburg refugee. On the way back Gholson and I rode for a timenear enough to Squire Sessions and Ned Ferry to know the sermon wasbeing discussed by them, and something they said gave my companionoccasion to murmur to me in a tone of eager censure that Ned Ferry'smorals were better than his religion. 

I said I wished mine were. 

"Ah, Smith, be not deceived! Whenever you see a man bringing forth thefruits of the Spirit while he neglects the regularly appointed means ofgrace, you _know_ there's something wrong, don't you? He went to churchthis morning--_of course_; but how often does he go? What's wrong withour dear friend--I don't like to say it, for I admire him so; I don'tlike to say it, and I never have said it, but, Smith, --Ned Ferry's aromanticist. We are relig'--what?"

"O--oh, nothing!"

At one point our way sloped down to a ramshackle wooden bridge thatspanned a narrow bit of running water at the edge of a wood. Beyond itthe road led out between two fields whose high worm-fences made it abroad lane. The farther limit of this sea of sunlight was the grove thathid the Sessions house on the left; on the right it was thewoods-pasture in which lay concealed a lily-pond. As Gholson and Icrossed the bridge we came upon a most enlivening view of our ownprocession out in the noonday blaze before us; the Sessions buggy; thenCharlotte' little wagon; next the Sessions family carriage full ofyoungsters; and lastly, on their horses, Squire Sessions--tall, fleshy, clean-shaven, silver-haired--and Ned Ferry. Mrs. Sessions and MissHarper, in the buggy, were just going by a big white gate in theright-hand fence, through which a private way led eastward to thelily-pond. A happy sight they were, the children in the rear vehiclewaving handkerchiefs back at us, and nothing in the scene made thefaintest confession that my pet song, which I was again humming, was patto the hour:

 "To the lairds o' Convention 'twas Claverhouse spoke, Ere the sun shall go down there are heads to be broke. "

"Gholson, if it isn't Ned Ferry's religion that's worrying you just nowabout him, what is it?"

My companion looked at me as if what he must say was too large for histhroat. He made a gesture of lament toward Ferry and broke out, "O--ohSmith, "--nearly all Gholson's oh's were groans--"why is he here? Thescout is 'the eyes of the army'! a man whose perpetual vigilance at thevery foremost front--"

"Why, what do you mean? You know we're here to rejoin the company as itcomes down from Union Church to camp here to-night. _That's_ what we'rehere for. "

"Yes, --yes, --but, oh, don't you _see_, Smith? For you, yourself, that'sall right; you've got to stay with him, and I'm glad you have. Buthe--oh why did he not go on hours ago, to meet them?"

"Why should he? Isn't it good to leave one's lieutenant sometimes incommand; isn't it bad not to?"

Gholson's eyes turned green. "Does Ned Ferry give that as his reason?"

"I haven't asked his reason; I've asked you a question. "

"Well, I'll answer it. Do you think Jewett has run back into his ownlines?"

"Of course I do, and Ned Ferry does; don't you?"

"No! Smith, there ain't a braver man in Grant's army than that oneright now a-straddle of your horse. Why, just the way he got your horsenight before--"

"Oh, hang him and the horse! you've told me that three times; what ofit?"

"Smith, he's out here to make a new record for himself, at whatevercost!"

"And do you imagine Ned Ferry hasn't thought of that?"

"Ah-h, there are times when a man hasn't got his thinking powers; youought to know that, Smith, --"

"Mr. Gholson, what do you mean by that?"

"Oh! I certainly didn't mean anything against you, Smith. Why is yourmanner so strange to me to-day? Oh, Smith, if you knew what--if I couldspeak to you in sacred confidence--I--I wouldn't injure Ned Ferry inyour eyes, nor in anybody's; I only tell you what I do tell so you mayhelp me to help him. But he's staying here, Smith, and keeping you here, to be near one whose name--without her a-dreaming of it--is alreadycoupled with--why, --why, what made you start that a-way again, Smith?"

"Nothing; I didn't start. 'Coupled with somebody's name, ' you say. Withwhose? Go on. "

"With his, Smith, and most injuriously. He's here to tempt her to forgetshe's not--" He faltered. 

"Free?" said I, and he nodded with tragic solemnity. 

"You know who I mean, of course?"

"Certainly; you mean Mrs. Sessions. "

He shook his head bitterly. "Oh, well, then, of course I know. How am Ito help you to help him; help him to do what?"

"O--oh! to tear himself away from her, Smith. I want you to appeal tohim. He's taken a great shine to you. You can appeal to his feeling forromance--poetry--whatever he calls his hell-fired--I mean hisunfortunate impiety. You know how, and I don't. And there you reach thefoundations of his character, as far as it's got any; there's hisconscience if it's anywhere!"

I find myself giving but a faint impression of the spirit in whichGholson spoke; it went away beyond a mere backbiting mood and became atemper so vindictive and so venomously purposeful that I was startled;his condition seemed so fearfully like that of the old paralytic when hewhined "That's not our way. "

"Smith, " my companion went on, "we ought to protect Ned Ferry fromhimself!" The words came through his clenched teeth. "And even more weought to protect her. Who's to do it if we don't? Smith, I believeProvidence has been a-preparing you to do this, all through these lastthree nights and days!"

He looked at me for an answer until I became frightened. Was my latefolly known to this crawling maligner after all? A sweet-scentedpreparation I've had, thought I, but aloud I said only, "If Ned Ferryclears out, I suppose we must clear out, too. "

"Why, eh, --I--I don't know that my movements need have anything to dowith his. Yours, of course, --"

"Yes, " I interrupted, beginning to boil. 

"I know, " he said, "that comes hard; you'll have to tear _yourself_away--"

He stared at me and hushed. A panic was surging through me; must I bebrought to book by such as he? "Mr. Gholson, " I cried, all scornwithout, all terror within; "Mr. Gholson, I--Mr. Gholson, sir!--" andset my jaws and heaved for breath. 

"Why, Smith, --" He extended a soothing hand. 

"No explanation, sir, if you please! I can get away from here withouttearing myself, which is more than you can boast. Any fool can see why_you_ are here. Stop, I take that back, sir! I don't play tit-for-tatwith my tongue. "

Gholson turned red on the brow and ashen about the lips. "I don't callthat tit-for-tat, Mr. Smith. I remind you of an innocent attachment fora young girl; you accuse me of harboring a guilty passion for--" All atonce he ceased with open lips, and then said as he drew a long breath ofrelief, "Smith, I beg your pardon! We've each misunderstood the other; Isee, now, who you meant; you meant Miss Estelle Harper!"

"Whom else could I mean?" Disdain was in my voice, but he ought to haveseen the falsehood in my eye, for I could feel it there. 

"_Of_ course!" he said; "of course! But, Smith, my mind was sofull--just for the moment, you know, --of her we were speaking of inconnection with Ned Ferry--Do you know? she's so unprotected and taggedafter and talked about that it seems to me sometimes, in this nervouscondition of mine, that if I could catch the entire gang of herpursuers in one hole I'd--I'd _end 'em_ like so many rats. That sort offeeling is mere impulse, of course, " he went on, "and only shows hownear I am to that nervous breakdown. Yes, the Harper ladies are mightylovely and hard enough to leave, but that's all I meant to you, and I'msorry I touched your feelings. I'm _tchagrined_. Anyhow, all this isbetween us, you know. I wouldn't ever have confessed such feelings as Idid just now except to a friend who knows as well as you do that if Iever should do a man a mortal injury I wouldn't do it in a spirit ofresentment. You know that, don't you? No, that's not my way--Why, Smith, what gives you those starts? That's the third time you've donethat this morning. "

I said that entering the cool shade of the Sessions grove after theblazing heat of that long lane gave any one the right to a littleshudder, and as we turned toward the house Gholson murmured "If you sayyou'll speak to Ned as I've asked you, I'll sort o' toll Squire Sessionsoff with me so's to give you the chance. It's for his own sake, youknow, and you're the only one can do it. "

XXX

DIGNITY AND IMPUDENCE

I knew Ned Ferry was having that inner strife with which we ought alwaysto credit even Gholson's sort, and I had a loving ambition to help him"take the upper fork. " So doing, I might help Charlotte Oliver fulfilthe same principle, win the same victory. When, therefore, Gholson putthe question to me squarely, Would I speak to Ferry? I consented, and asthe four of us, horsemen, left our beasts in the stable munching corn, Gholson began a surprisingly animated talk with our host, and Ferry, with a quizzical smile, said to me "Talk with you?--shall be happy to;we'll just make a slight _détour_ on this side the grove andwoods-pasture, eh?"

He meant the north side, opposite that one by which we had come fromchurch. Here the landscape was much the same as there; wide fields oneach side the fenced highway that still ran north and south, and woodsfor the sky-line everywhere. We chose an easy footpath along thenorthern fence of the grove, crossed the highway, and passed on a fewsteps alongside the woods-pasture fence. We talked as we went, he givingthe kindest heed to my every word though I could see that, like any goodsoldier, he was scanning all the ground for its fighting values, and, not to be outdone, I, myself, pointed out, a short way up the publicroad, a fence-gap on the left, made by our camping soldiers two nightsbefore. It was at another such gap, in the woods-pasture fence, that weturned back by a path through it which led into the wood and so againtoward the highway and the house-grove. The evening General Austin sentme to Wiggins it was at this gap that I saw old Dismukes sittingcross-legged on the ground, playing poker; and here, now, I summoned thedesperation to speak directly to my point. 

I had already tried hard to get something said, but had found myself atevery turn entangled in generalities. Now, stammering and gagging Iremarked that our experiences of the morning, both in church and out, had in some way combined with an earlier word of his own to me, andgiven me a valuable thought. "You remember, when I wanted to shoot thatYankee off my horse?"

"Yes; and I said--what?"

"You said 'This isn't your private war. ' Lieutenant, I hope those wordsmay last in my memory forever and come to me in every moral situation inwhich I may find myself. "

"Yes? Well, I think that's good. "

"It seems to me, Lieutenant Ferry, that in every problem of moralconduct we confront we really hold in trust an interest of all mankind. To solve that problem bravely and faithfully is to make life just somuch easier for everybody; and to fail to do so is to make it just somuch harder to solve by whoever has next to face it. " Whurroo! my bloodwas up now, let him look to himself!

"Yes?" said Ferry, picking at the underbrush as we sauntered, and forsome time he said no more. Then he asked, "You want me to apply that tomyself, in--in the present case?" and to my tender amazement, while hiseyes seemed to count his slackening steps, he laid his arm across myshoulders. 

An hour of avowal could not have told me more; could not have filled mehalf so full of sympathy, admiration and love, as did that one slightmotion. It befitted the day, a day outwardly so quiescent, yet in whichso much was going on. A realization of this quiet activity kept ussilent until we had come through the woods-pasture to its southernborder, and so through the big white field-gate into the public road;now we turned up toward the grove-gate, and here I spoke again. "Do youstill think we ought to wait here for the command?"

That from a private soldier to his captain! Yet all my leader answeredwas "You think there's cause to change our mind?"

"I don't know, Lieutenant; do you think Jewett has run back into his ownlines?"

"Yes, I think so; and you?"

"Why, eh, --Lieutenant, I don't believe there's a braver man in Grant'sarmy than that one a-straddle of my horse to-day! Why, just the way hegot him, night before last, --you've heard that, haven't you?"

"Yes, the General told me. And so you think--"

"Lieutenant, I can't help believing he's out here to make a new recordfor himself, at whatever cost!"

We went on some steps in silence and entered the gate of thehouse-grove; and just as Ferry would have replied we discovered beforeus in the mottled shade of the driveway, with her arm on Cécile'sshoulders as his lay on mine, and with _her_ eyes counting _her_slackening steps, Charlotte Oliver. They must have espied us already outin the highway, for they also were turned toward the house, and as weneared them Charlotte faced round with a cheery absence of surprise andsaid "Mr. Smith, don't we owe each other a better acquaintance? Supposewe settle up. "

XXXI

THE RED STAR'S WARNING

It seemed quite as undeniable, as we stood there, that Ned Ferry owedCécile a better acquaintance. Every new hour enhanced her graces, andwere I, here, less engrossed with her companion, I could pitch thepraises of Cécile upon almost as high and brilliant a key--there may beroom for that yet. Ferry moved on at her side. Charlotte stayed a momentto laugh at a squirrel, and then turned to walk, saying with eyes onthe earth--

"If I tell you something, will you never tell?"

I looked down too. "Suppose I should feel sure it ought to be told. "

"If you wait till you do you may tell it; that will suit me wellenough. "

"I will always suit you the best I can. "

"I don't know why you should, " she said. 

"You risked your life to save mine; and you risked it when I did notdeserve so much as your respect. "

"Oh!--we must never talk about that again, Richard; you saw me in theevilest guise I ever wore, and that is saying much. "

"But, " I responded, "you put it on for a better reason than you couldtell me then or can tell me now, though now I know your story. "

"Please don't forget, " she murmured, "that you know too much. " "No, no!I don't know half enough; I know only what Miss Camillaand--and--Gholson could tell me, " was my tricky reply, and I tried tolook straight into her eyes, but they took that faint introspectivecontraction of which I have spoken, and gazed through me like sunlightthrough glass. Then again she bent her glance upon her steps, saying--

"Ah, Richard, you have found out all you could, and I am glad of it, except of what I, myself, have had to betray to you; for _that_ was morethan one would want to tell her twin brother. But I had to create you_my_ scout, and I had only two or three hours for my whole work ofcreation. "

"Well, you completed it. " We went on some steps, and then she said--

"You tell me I risked my life to save yours; I risked more than life, and I risked it for more than to save yours. Yet I did not save yourlife; you saved it, yourself, and--" here her low tone thrilled like aharp-string--"you risked it--frightfully--at that bridge--merely to savethe promise you made me that you need not have made at all--oh, youneedn't shake your head; I _know_. "

"Ah, how you gild my base metal!"

"No, no, I have the story exactly, and from one who has no mind topraise you. "

"From Gholson?"

"Gholson! no! I have it from Lucius Oliver, who had it from his son. Hetold me carefully, quietly and entirely, in pure spleen, so that I mightknow that they know--think they know, that is, --why you and--he in frontof us yonder--would not shoot his son when--"

"When as soldiers it was our simple du'--"

"Yes; and also that I may understand that he--the son--has sworn by thatright hand you mutilated that the 'pair of you' shall die beforehe does. "

"I ought not to have shown him that envelope addressed to you. "

"Ah, but if it saved your life!"

"And this is what you don't want me to tell? Ah, I see; for me to knowit is enough; I can put it to him as a theory. I can say Oliver is not aman to be put upon the defensive, and that he is more than likely to behunting 'the pair of us'--" All at once I thought of something. 

"What made you give that sudden start?" she asked as we faced about inthe driveway to make our walk a moment longer; "that's a bad habityou've got; why do you do it?"

I fancied the thrilling freshness of the question I was about to putwould be explanation enough. "Do you believe Jewett has gone back intohis own lines?"

"I don't know; hasn't he?"

"Oh, I don't _know_, either, but--well, I don't believe there's a braverman in Grant's army than that one a-straddle of my horse to-day! Why, just the way he got him, night before last, --you've heard that, haveyou not?"

"Yes, I've heard it; he is a very daring man; what of it?"

"Why, I can't help thinking he's out here to make a new record forhimself, at whatever cost!"

A note of distress hung on my hearer's stifled voice; her head wentlower and she laid her fingers pensively to her lips. "It would be likehim, " I heard her murmur, and when I asked if she meant Jewett sheshook her head. 

"No, " I said, "you mean it would be like Oliver to join him, " and withthat the sudden start was hers. "He wouldn't have to touch Ned Ferry orme, " I went on, heartlessly, "nor to come near us, to make us rue thehour we let ourselves forget this wasn't our private war. "

She whispered something to herself in horrified dismay; but then shelooked at me with her eyes very blue and said "You'll see him about it, won't you? You must help unravel this tangle, Richard; and if you doI'll--I'll dance at your wedding; yours and--somebody's we know!" Hereyes began forewith. 

A light footfall sounded behind us, and Camille gave both her hands tomy companion. "I was in the hall, " she said, "telling Cécile she waslike a white star that had come out by day, when I saw you here lookinglike a great red one; and you're still more like a red, red rose, andI've come to get some of your fragrance. "

"I'd exchange for yours any day, and thank you, dear, " respondedCharlotte; "you're a bunch of sweet-peas. Isn't she, Mr. Smith?"

The bunch beamed an ecstatic bliss. What was the explanation; had herfather arrived, or--or somebody else? The question went through me likean arrow. Was the cause of this heavenly radiance somebody else?--thatwas the barb; or was it I?--that was the soothing feather. 

In gratitude for Charlotte's word she sank backward in a long obeisance. "May it please your ladyship, dinner is served. Oh, Mr. Smith, I've beenlistening to Mr. Gholson talking with aunt Martha and Estelle; I don'twonder you and he are friends; I think his ideas of religion areperfectly beautiful!"

At our two-o'clock dinner I found that our company had been reinforced. On one side of Camille sat I; but on the other side sat "Harry. "

XXXII

A MARTYR'S WRATH

Great news the aide-de-camp brought us; from Lee, from Longstreet, Braggand Johnston. Johnston was about to fall upon Grant's rear. Across theMississippi Dick Taylor was expected this very day to deal the sameadversary a crippling blow, and it was partly to mask this movement thatwe had made our feint upon the Federals near Natchez. Now these hadfallen back, and our force had cunningly slipped away southward. OnlyGeneral Austin and his staff had not gone when Lieutenant Helm left thefront, and they were about to go. 

Toward the end of the meal Mrs. Sessions, in her amiable plantationdrawl, said she hoped the bearer of so much good tidings had not come totake away Lieutenant Ferry; and when Harry, flushing, asked what hadgiven her such a thought, the simple soul replied that Mr. Gholson hadtold her he "suspicioned as much. "

At once there arose the prettiest clamor all round the board, in whichCharlotte and Cécile joined for the obvious purpose of making confusion. Gholson turned yellow and spoke things nobody heard, and Ferry tried todrown Harry's loud declarations that the word he had brought to Ferrywas for him to stay, and that he had found him saddling up to go insearch of his company. "Isn't that so, Ned?--Now, --now, --isn't that so?"

We left the table all laughing but Gholson. He tried to say something toHarry, which the latter waved away with mock gaiety until on the sideveranda we got beyond view of the ladies, when the aide-de-camp reddenedangrily and turned his back. As the two lieutenants were lightingcigarettes together, Harry, thinking Gholson had left us, blurted out, "Oh, that's all very well for you to say, Ned, but, damn him, he's notthe sort of man that has the right to 'suspicion' me of anything;slang-whanging, backbiting sneak, I know what _he's_ here for. "

On that the blood surged to Ferry's brow, but he set his mouth firmly, locked arms with the speaker and led him down the veranda. Gholson tookon an uglier pallor than before and went back into the house. I followedhim. He moved slowly up the two flights of hall stairs and into a roomclose under the roof, called the "soldiers' room". It had three doublebeds, one of them ours. Without a fault in the dreary rhythm of hismotions he went to the bedpost where hung his revolver, and turning tome buckled the weapon at his waist with hands that kept the sameunbroken measure though they trembled and were as pallid as his face. Inthe same slow beat he shook his head. 

"Smith, I rejoice! O--oh! I rejoice and am glad when I'm reviled andpersecuted by the hounds of hell, and spoken evil against falsely for myreligion's sake. "

"Now, Gholson, that's nonsense!"

"O--oh! that's what it's for! that's what he meant by 'slang-whanging. 'That's what it's for from first to last, no matter what it's for inbetween; and I know what it's for in between, too, and Ned Ferry knows. Did you see Ned Ferry take him under his protection? O--oh! they're twoof one hell-scorched kind!" My companion stood gripping the bedpost andfumbling at his holster. I sank to the bed, facing him, expecting hisrage to burn itself out in words, but when he began again his teethwere clenched. "You heard him tell Ned Ferry he knows why I'm here. It'strue! he does know! he knows I'm here to protect a certain person fromhim and--"

"From whom? from Harry Helm? Oh, Gholson, that's too fantastical!"

"From him and the likes of him! Not that he loves her; that's thedifference between them two cotton-mouth moccasins; Ned Ferry, hellgrind him! does--or thinks he does; that other whelp _don't, _ and knowshe don't; he's only enam'--"

"HUSH!" He ceased. "I swear, Scott Gholson, you must choose your wordsbetter when you allude--Lieutenant Helm is the last man in the brigadeto be under _my_ protection, but--oh, you're crazy, man, and blindbesides. Harry Helm is not in love, but he thinks he is, though withquite another person!"

"O--oh! whether he loves or not, or whoever he loves, I know who hehates; he hates me and my religion; our religion, Smith, mine and yours;because it's put me between him and her. What was that the preacher saidthis morning? 'The carnal mind, being enmity against God, is enmityagainst them that serve God. ' O--oh, I accept his enmity! it proves myreligion isn't vain! I'm glad to get it!"

All this from his oscillating head, through his set teeth, in one malignmonotone. As he quoted the preacher he mechanically drew his revolver. There was no bravado in this; he might lie, but he did not know how tosham; did not know, now, that his face was drawn with pain. Holding theweapon in one hand, under his absent gaze he turned it from side to sideon the palm of the other. I put out my hand for it, but he dropped itinto the holster and tried to return my smile. 

"Do you propose to call him out?" I asked. "You can't call out anofficer; you'll be sent to the water-batteries at Mobile. "

"I've thought of all that, " he droned. 

"Then why do you put that thing on?"

"Why do I put it on? Why, I--you know what I told you about thatYankee--"

"Gholson, " I exclaimed, for I saw that murder, even double murder, washatching in his heart, with Charlotte Oliver for its cause, and lookedhard into his evil eyes until they overmatched mine; whereupon I made asif suddenly convinced. "You're right!" I turned, whipped on my own beltwith its two "persuaders, " and blandly smoothing my ribs, added "Now!here are two ready, Yankees or no Yankees. "

I never saw a face so unconsciously marked with misery as Gholson's waswhen we started downstairs. I stopped him on a landing. "Understand, youand I are friends, --hmm? I think Lieutenant Helm owes you an apology, and if you'll keep away from him I'll try to bring it to you. "

The reply began with a vindictive gleam. "You needn't; I ain't got anymore use for it than for him. I never apologized to a man in my life, Smith, nor I never accepted an apology from one; that's not my way. "

Near the bottom of the second flight we met Charlotte, who, to make badworse, would have passed with no more than a smile, but the look ofGholson startled her and she noticed our arms. With an arresting eye Ioffered a sprightly comment on the heat of the day, and while she wasreplying with the same gaiety I whispered "Take him with you. "

How nimbly her mind moved! "Oh Mr. Gholson!" she said, and laughed togain an instant for invention. 

"Mr. Gholson, can _you_ tell me the first line of the last hymn we sangthis morning?" Her beam was irresistible, and they went to the largeparlor. I turned into the smaller one, opposite, where Squire Sessionsstarted from a stolen doze and, having heard of my feeling for books, thrust into my hands, and left me with, the "Bible Defense of Slavery. "

As I moved to a window which let out upon the side veranda the twolieutenants came around from the front and stood almost against it, outside; and as I intended to begin upon Harry as soon as SquireSessions was safely upstairs, this suited me well enough. But the momentthey came to the spot I heard Ned Ferry doing precisely what I hadplanned to do. At the same time, from across the hall came the sound ofthe piano and of Charlotte's voice, now a few bars, then an interval oflively speech, again a few bars, then more speech, and then a sustainedmelody as she lent herself to the kind flattery of Gholson'ssongless soul. 

"But he is!" I overheard the aide-de-camp say; "he is a backbitingsneak, and I tell you again he's backbitten nobody more than hehas you!"

"And I tell you again, Harry, that is my business. "

"If he wants to fight me he can; I'll waive my rank. "

"No, you will not, you have no right; our poor little rank, it doesn'tbelong to us, Harry, 'tis we belong to it. 'If he wants to fight!'--Doyou take him for a rabbit? He is a brave man, you know that, old fellow. Of course he wants to fight. But he cannot! For the court-martial hewould not care so much; I would not, you would not; 'tis his religionforbids him. "

"O--oh!" groaned Harry in Gholson's exact tone, "'Hark from the tombs'!"

"Ah!" said Ferry, "he does not live up to it? Well, of course! whodoes? But we will pass that; the main question is, Will you express theregret, and so forth, as I have suggested, and do yourself credit, Harry, as an officer and a gentleman, or--will you fight?"

"But you say his religion, so called, won't let him fight!"

"That's what I think; but if it forbids him, and if consequently he willnot, well, --Harry, --I will. "

"You will what!"

"I will have to fight you in his place. "

"Why, Ned!--Ned!--you--you astound me! Wha'--what do you mean?"

"That is what I mean, Harry. You know--many times you have heard mesay--I don't believe in that kind of thing; I find that worse than thereligion of Gholson; yet still, --what shall I say?--we are but soldiersanyhow--this time I make an exception in your favor. And of course thisis confidential, on both sides; but you must make peace with Gholson, oryou must fight with me. "

"Oh, good Lord!--Ned!--Good Lord A'mighty! but this is too absurd. Why, Ned, don't you see that the bottom cause of this trouble isn't--"

"I know what is the bottom cause of this trouble very well, Harry; youcan hear her in yonder, now, singing. Wherever Gholson is he hears her, too, like-wise. Perchance 'tis to him she is singing. If she can sing tohim, are you too good to apologise?"

"Oh, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, Ned, damned if I don't!George! I'll apologize! Rather than lose your friendship I'd apologizeto the devil!"

Ferry's thanks came eagerly. "Well, anyhow, old boy, " he added, "in sucha case to back down is braver than to fight; but to apologize to thedevil--that is not hard; on the contrary, to keep _from_ apologizing tothe devil--ah! I wish I could always do that!--I wonder where isDick Smith. "

I stealthily laid down the "Bible Defense of Slavery" and was goingupstairs three steps at a stride, when I came upon Camille and Estelle. My aim was to get Harry's revolver to him before he should have theexasperating surprise of finding Gholson armed, and to contrive apretext for so doing; and happily a word from the two sisters gave me mycue. With the fire-arms of both officers I came downstairs and out uponthe veranda loud-footed, humming--

 "'To the lairds o' Convention 'twas Claverhouse spoke, Ere the sun shall go down there are heads to be--'

"Gentlemen, I hope I'm not too officious; they say we're all going for awalk in the lily-pond woods, and I reckon you'd rather not leave thesethings behind. "

Both thanked me and buckled on their belongings, but Ferry's look waspeculiarly intelligent; "I was in the small parlor, looking for you, " hesaid; "I thought you would be near the music. " And so he had seenGholson with his revolver on him, and must have understood it!

"Smith, " said Harry, "will you be so kind as to say to Gholson--oh, Lord! Ned, this is heavy drags on a sandy road! I--"

"That's all right, Harry, I withdraw the request. "

"Well, you needn't; I was in the wrong. Smith, will you say toGholson--" His voice dropped to a strictly private rumble. 

"Yes, Lieutenant, I'll do so with pleasure, and I'm sure what you saywill have the proper--here are the ladies. "

XXXIII

TORCH AND SWORD

"Now give me your hand, Miss Camille; now jump!" So twice and once againthe rivulet was passed which ran from the lily-pond, she and I leadingall the others on the return from the woodland afternoon walk. We turnedand faced away from the declining sun and across the clear pool to whereits upper end, dotted with lily-pads, lay in a deep recess of the woods. There were green and purple garlands of wild passion-flower around herhat and about the white and blue fabrics at her waist. At the head ofthe pond, with Ferry beside her, stood black-haired Cécile canopied byoverhanging boughs, her hat bedecked with the red spikes of theIndian-shot and wound with orange masses of love-vine. Nearer to usaround the shore was Estelle of the red-brown hair and red-brown eyesand brows and lashes, whose cheek seemed always to glow with ever risingbut never confessed emotion; and with her walked Gholson. Near thewaterside also, but farthest up the path, came Miss Harper andCharlotte Oliver. 

Harry was not with us. The settlement of his trouble with Gholsonawaited his return out of the region north of us, whither Ferry hadsuggested his riding on an easy reconnaissance. Camille and I were justturning again, when there came abruptly into our scene the last gallantshow of martial finery any of us ever saw until the war was over andthere was nothing for our side to make itself fine for. On the road fromthe house we heard a sound of galloping, and the next moment GeneralAustin and his entire staff (less only Harry) reined up at the edge ofthe pond, ablaze with all the good clothes they could muster andbetraying just enough hard usage to give a stirring show of the war'sheroic reality. The General, on a beautiful cream-colored horse, worelong yellow gauntlets and a yellow sash; from throat to waist thesunlight glistened upon the over-abundant gold lace of his new uniform, his legs were knee-deep in shining boots, and his soft gray hat waslooped up on one side and plumed according to Regulations with onedrooping ostrich feather. Behind halted in pleasing confusion captainsand captains, flashing with braids, bars, buckles, buttons, bands, sword-knots, swords and brave eyes, and gaily lifting hats and caps, twice, and twice again, and once more, to the ladies--God bless them!Major Harper, the oldest, most refined and most soldierly of them all, was also the handsomest. Old Dismukes was with them; burly, bushy, dingy, on a huge roan charger. Camille asked me who he was, and I wasabout to reply that he was a bloodthirsty brute without a redeemingtrait, when he lifted his shaggy brows at me and smiled, and as I smiledback I told her he was our senior colonel, rough at times, but thebravest of the brave. Meantime the General rode forward over a stretchof shallow water, Ned Ferry ran back along the margin to meet him, andat the saddlebow they spoke a moment together privately, while at moredistance but openly to us all Major Harper informed his sister that withone night's camp and another day's dust the brigade would be down inLouisiana. Camille turned upon me and hurrahed, the Arkansas colonelsmiled upon her approvingly, the ladies all waved, the General liftedhis plumed hat, faced about, passed through his turning cavalcade anddrew it after him at a gallop. 

Our promenaders hurried into close order and with quick step and eagerconverse we moved toward the house. In raptures scintillant with theirown beauty the three Harper girls inflated each item of the day's newsand the morrow's outlook, and it was almost as pretty to see MissHarper's keen black eyes and loving-tolerant smile go back and forthfrom Camille to Estelle, from Estelle to Cécile, and round again, aseach maiden added some new extravagance to the glad vaunting of thelast, and looked, for confirmation, to the gallant who toiled to keepher under her parasol. Suddenly the three girls broke into song with anadaptation of "Oh, carry me back" which substituted "Louisiana" for"Virginia, " but whose absurd quaverings I will not betray in words to ageneration that never knew the frantic times to which they belonged. Ifelt a shamefacedness for them even then, yet when I glanced behind, Miss Harper was singing with us in the most exalted earnest. We hadnearly reached the field-gate, the big white one on the highway, andwere noting that the dust of the General and his retinue had barelyvanished from the southern stretch of the road, when one feminine voicesaid "What's that?" another exclaimed "See yonder!" and Miss Harpercried "Why, gentlemen, somebody's house is burning!"

Beyond the grove and the fields north of it, and beyond their fartherbound of trees, in the northwest, was rising and unfolding into thepeaceful Sabbath heavens a massive black column of the peculiar heavysmoke made by the burning of baled and stored cotton. We ran, two andtwo, into the road and up toward the grove-gate. "Don't stumble, " Iwarned Camille as she looked back to see if any one besides me washolding his partner's hand. Inside the gate we paused, we two, stillhand in hand. Her brown hair had shaken low upon her temples in twovoluptuous masses between which she lifted her eyes to mine, my handtightened on hers, and hers gave a little spasm of its own. 

"Oh, Dick!" she whispered; but before I could rally from the blissfulshock of it to reply, her face changed distressfully, and pointingbeyond me, she drank a great breath, and cried, "Look!"

Sure enough, out there on the sky-line, in the north-east this time, another column of smoke was lifting its first billow over the tree-tops. "Oh, Dick!" she exclaimed, in beautiful alarm, "what does it mean?"

"It means the Yankees, --love, " I said, and when she gasped her dismaywithout letting on to have heard the last word, I felt that fires werecheap at any price. 

"There are others there besides Yankees, " said Gholson to the generalcompany as they joined us; "Yankees have got more sense than to startfires ahead of their march. " On the same instant with Ned Ferry I spranghalf-way to the top of the grove fence and peered out across road andfields upon the farthest point in line with the second fire. There wesaw two horsemen reconnoitring, one a very commanding figure, the othermean enough. Ferry used his glass, but no glass was needed to telleither of us that Gholson's reckoning was true; those two werenot Federals. 

The ladies flew to the house and the rest of us to the stable. In itsdoor Ferry stopped to look back upon the road while Gholson and I dartedin, but now he, too, sprang to his horse's side. "How many, Lieutenant?"I cried, as the three of us saddled up. 

"About a hundred; same we saw yesterday; captain at the rear; that meansour fellows are close behind them. "

For a moment more I could hear the thunder of their speeding column;then the grove seemed to swallow it up, and the stillness was grim. "Come on!" cried Ferry, swinging up, and after him we sprang. "They'vedismounted on the far edge of the grove, " said Gholson to me as we rodeabreast, with Ferry a length ahead; "they'll form line on each side theroad at right angles to it!" and again he was right. Ferry lednortheastward, but hardly had we made half a dozen leaps when he wavedme to a near corner of the flower-garden palings and I saw Miss Harperbeckoning and Charlotte holding up my carbine and his sword. Miss Harperwas drawn up as straight as a dart, her black eyes flashing and her lipscharged with practical information that began to flow the moment I wasnear enough to hear her guarded voice. "They've all put their horses inthe locks of the road fence, just beyond the big white gate--"

"We know, " I interrupted, leaning and snatching the weapons fromCharlotte's hands. She kissed them good-bye. 

"Ah, yes, yes!" she said, "they know all we can tell them and all wecan't!"

The only response I could give was the shower of loose earth thrown uponboth women by my horse's heels as I whirled and sped after my leader. Heand Gholson were half a broad field ahead of me, but I followed only attheir speed, designing to hand over the sword so nearly at the moment ofgoing into action that I might stay by its owner's side unrebuked; andmy plan was not in vain. Up the highway our Louisianians burst into viewin column at full speed; I knew them by their captain, a man notedthroughout the brigade for the showiness of his dress; and the nextinstant, away across the fields beyond the highroad, Quinn and hisscouts broke out of the woods, heading for the gap in the woods-pasturefence. As each friendly column caught sight of the other, long cheersrang across the narrowing interval between them. Through that other gapwhich I had noted in my walk with Ferry he and Gholson reached the road, sped forward on it to a rise that overlooked the fields, and halted. Ferry rose on tiptoe in the stirrups, lifted his cap in air, pointedtriumphantly backward to the grove, and was recognized by both columnsat once. Again they cheered; at a full run I reached his side and threwhis sword into his hand. Both columns saw him belt it on and flash itout, their cheers swelled again, the Louisianians hurtled down upon us, and we turned and were at the front of the onset. 

XXXIV

THE CHARGE IN THE LANE

The instant Ferry wheeled at the flaming captain's side you could see hewas unwelcome. I heard him tell what we knew of the foe and the ground;I saw him glance back at the blown condition of the speeding column andthen say "You've got them anyhow, Captain; you'll get every man of themwithout a scratch, only if you will take your time. "

But the Captain answered headily; "No, sir! I've tried that twicealready; this time I'll cut them in two and be in their rear at onedash! Bring in your company behind mine, if you choose. "

Ferry drew back a few ranks but stayed with the column; Quinn had hadthe toil of the chase, he should have also the glory of the fight. SoFerry sent Gholson--whose horsemanship won a cheer from the passingLouisianians as he cleared the roadside fence--across to Quinn, biddingthe Lieutenant slacken speed and count himself a reserve. And then intothe broad lane between grove and woods-pasture, with the charging yell, the Louisianians thundered. Ah! but my Creole gentleman was a sight, with his straight blade lifted in air and his face turned back on usaglow with the joy of battle! I was huzzaing back at him and we werepassing the front gate of the grove avenue, when down through it camefrom the house, with a tremor of echoes, the first shot; a shot and thena woman's scream, and his blazing eyes said to me, "He is there! Thatwas Oliver!"

There was no time for speech. The shot was not a signal, yet on theinstant and in our very teeth, on our right and our left, the cross-fireof the hidden and waiting foe flashed and pealed, and left and right, alife for a life, our carbines answered from the saddle. For a moment theodds against us were awful. In an instant the road was so full of fallenhorses and dismounted men that the jaded column faltered in confusion. Our cunning enemy, seeing us charge in column, had swung the twoextremes of their line forward and inward. So, crouching and firing uponus mounted, each half could fire toward the other with impunity, andwhat bullets missed their mark buzzed and whined about our ears andpecked the top rails of either fence like hail on a window. A woundedhorse drove mine back upon his haunches and caused him to plant a hooffull on the breast of one of our Louisianians stretched dead on his backas though he had lain there for an hour. Another man, pale, dazed, unhurt, stood on the ground, unaware that he was under point-blank fire, holding by the bits his beautiful horse, that pawed the earthmajestically and at every second or third breath blew from his flappingnostrils a cloud of scarlet spray. They blocked up half the road. As weswerved round them the horse of the company's first lieutenant slidforward and downward with knees and nose in the dust, hurling his riderinto a lock of the fence, and the rider rose and rushed to the roadagain barely in time to catch a glittering form that dropped rein andsword and reeled backward from the saddle. It was his captain, shotthrough the breast. An instant later our tangled column parted to rightand left, dashed into the locks of the two fences, sprang to the ground, and began to repay the enemy in the coin of their own issue. Only adozen or so did otherwise, and it was my luck to be one of these. Espying Ned Ferry at the very front, in the road, standing in hisstirrups and shouting back for followers to carry the charge on through, we spurred toward him and he turned and led. Then what was my nextfortune but to see, astride of my stolen horse, the towering leader ofthe foe, Captain Jewett. 

He came into the road a few rods ahead of us through a gap his men hadearlier made opposite the big white gate. He answered our fierce halloo, as he crossed, by a pistol-shot at Ferry, but Ferry only glanced aroundat me and pointed after him with his sword. A number of blue-coats afootfollowed him to the gap but at our onset scattered backward, sturdilyreturning our fire. Into the gap and into the enemy's left rear wentFerry and his horsemen, but I turned the other way and spurred throughthe woods-pasture gate after the Federal leader, he on my horse and I onhis. Down the highway, on either side, stood his brave men's horses inthe angles of the worm-fence, and two or three horse-holders took a shotat me as I sped in after the man who was bent on reaching the right ofhis divided force before Quinn should strike it, as I was bent onfoiling him. Twice I fired at his shapely back, and twice, while he kepthis speed among the tree-trunks, he looked back at me as coolly as at anodd passer-by and sent me a ball from his revolver. A few more boundscarried him near enough to his force to shout his commands, but half ahundred cheers suddenly resounded in the depth of the woods-pasture, andQuinn and his men charged upon the foe's right and rear. I joined theshout and the shouters; in a moment the enemy were throwing down theirarms, and I turned to regain the road to the pond. For I had markedJewett burst through Quinn's line and with a score of shots ringingafter him make one last brave dash--for escape. Others, pursuing him, bent northward, but my instinct was right, his last hope was for hishorse-holders, and at a sharp angle of the by-road, where it reached thepond, exactly where Camille and I had stood not an hour before, I cameabruptly upon Cricket--riderless. I seized his rein, and as I bent andsnapped the halter of one horse on the snaffle of the other I saw themissing horseman. Leaping from the saddle I ran to him. He was lying onhis face in the shallow water where General Austin and his staff had sogaily halted a short while before, and as I caught sight of him herolled upon his back and tried to lift his bemired head. 

XXXV

FALLEN HEROES

I dropped to my knee in the reddening pool and passed my arm under hishead. 

"Thank you, " he said, and repeated the word as I wet my handkerchief andwiped the mire from his face; "thank you;--no, no, "--I was opening hisshirt--"that's useless; get me where you can turn me over; you've hit mein the back, my lad. "

"I?--I hit you? Oh, Captain Jewett, thank God, I didn't hit you at all!"

"What's the difference, boy; you didn't aim to miss, did you? I didn't. It's not my only hurt; I think I broke something inside when I fell fromthe sad'--ah! that's _your_ bugle, isn't it? It's my last fight--oh, thedevil! my good boy, don't begin to cry again; war's war; give me somewater. . . . Thank you! And now, if you don't want me to bleed to death getme out of this slop, and--yes, --easy!--that's it--easy--oh, God! oh, letme down, boy, let me _down, you're killing me!_ Oh!--" he fainted away. 

With his unconscious head still on my arm I faced toward the hundredafter-sounds of the fray and hallooed for help. To my surprise itpromptly came. Three blundering boys we were who lifted him into thesaddle and bore him to the house reeling and moaning astride of Cricket, the poor beast half dead with hard going. The sinking sun was as red asOctober when we issued into the highroad and moved up it to the grovegate through the bloody wreckage of the fray. The Louisianians werecamping in the woods-pasture, Ferry's scouts in the grove, and thecaptive Federals were in the road between, shut in by heavy guards. Atour appearance they crowded around us, greeting their undone commanderwith proud words of sympathy and love, and he thanked them as proudlyand lovingly, though he could scarcely speak, more than to ask everymoment for water. A number of our Sessions house group crowded out tomeet us at the veranda steps; Camille; Harry Helm with his right handbandaged; Cécile, attended by two or three Sessions children; and behindall Miss Harper exclaiming "Ah, my boy, you're a welcome sight--Oh! isthat Captain Jewett!"

Two or three bystanders helped us bear him upstairs, where, turning fromthe bedside, I pressed Camille with eager questions. 

"Lieutenant Ferry? he's unhurt--and so is Mr. Gholson! Mr. Gholson'sgone to Franklin for doctors; Lieutenant Ferry sent him; he's beensending everybody everywhere faster than anybody else could think ofanything!"

I asked where Ferry was now. Her eyes refilled--they were red fromearlier distresses--and she motioned across the hall: "The captain ofthe Louisianians, you know, has sent for him!"

"Yes, " I said, "the Captain's hit hard. I saw him when he was struck. "

"Oh, Dick! then you were at the very front!"

"Did you think I was at the rear?"

She looked down. "I couldn't help hoping it. "

"Then you were thinking of me. "

"I prayed for you. "

Such news seemed but ill-gotten gains, to come before I had gatheredcourage to inquire after Charlotte Oliver. "Wh'--where is--where arethe others?"

"They're all about the house, tending the wounded; Mrs. Sessions is withthe Squire, of course, --dear, brave old gentleman! we thought he waskilled, but Charlotte found the ball had glanced. "

I asked if it was Oliver who shot him, and she nodded. "It was down atthe front door; the Squire said he'd shoot him if he shot Charlotte, andCharlotte declared she'd shoot him if he shot the Squire, and all atonce he shot at her and struck him. "

"Who was it that screamed; was it she?"

My informant's head drooped low and she murmured, "It was I. "

"Then _you_ were at the front. "

"Did you think I was at the rear?"

I fear I answered evasively. I added that I must go to Lieutenant Ferry, and started toward the door, but she touched my arm. "Oh, Dick, youshould have heard him praise you to her!--and when he said you hadchased Captain Jewett and was missing, she cried; but now I'll tell heryou're here. " She started away but returned. "Oh, Dick, isn't itwonderful how we're always victorious! why don't those poor Yankees giveup the struggle? they must see that God is on our side!"

As she left me, Ned Ferry came out with a sad face, but smiled gladly onme and caught me fondly by the arm. On hearing my brief report hesaddened more than ever, and when I said I had promised Jewett he shouldhand his sword to none but him, "Oh!"--he smiled tenderly--"I don't wantto refuse it; go in and hang it at the head of his bed as he would do inhis own tent; I'll wait here. "

I pointed to the door he had softly closed behind him: "How is it inthere?"

"Ah, Richard, in there the war is all over. "

"Dead?"

"So called. "

XXXVI

"SAYS QUINN, S'E"

Lieutenant Helm came out as I went in, and I paused an instant to askhim in fierce suspicion if he had bandaged his hand himself. "No, " hewhispered, "Miss Camille. " It was a lie, but I did not learn that untilmonths after. "Come downstairs as soon as you can, " he added, "there's ahot supper down there; first come first served. " We parted. 

I found Miss Harper fanning the wounded giant and bathing his brows, and my smiles were ample explanation of my act as I hung the sword up. Then I brought in my leader. "Captain Jewett, " he said after a nearlysilent exchange of greetings, "I wish we had you uninjured. "

"Ah, no, Lieutenant, this is bad enough. Lieutenant, there is onematter--"

"Yes, Captain, what is that?"

"The villain who set those fires--you know who he is, I hope. "

"Yes, Captain, I know. "

"He didn't begin that until after he left me. I had some private reasonsfor not killing him when I might have done it. "

"Yes, Captain, I know that, too. "

"Yet if I had caught him again I would have strung him up to the firstlimb. "

"I have sent some picked men to catch him if they can, " said Ferry, andthe racked sufferer lifted a hand in approval. Camille came to her auntand whispered "Mr. Gholson with two doctors. " The wounded captiveheard her. 

"Lieutenant, " he panted, "I hope you'll--do me the favor--to let my turnwith those gentlemen--come last, --after my boys, --will you?"

"Ah! Captain, even our boys wouldn't allow that; no, here's a doctor, now. "

I went down to the supper-table. Camille was there, dispensing itspromiscuous hospitality to men who ate like pigs. I would as leave havefound her behind a French-market coffee-stand. Harry Helm, nursing hisbandaged hand, was lolling back from the board and quizzing her withcompliments while she cut up his food. A fellow in the chair next minesaid he had seen me with Ferry when we joined the Louisianians' charge. "Your aide-de-camp friend over yonder's a-gitt'n' lots o' sweetenin'with his grub; well, he deserves it. "

I asked how he deserved it. "Why, we wouldn't 'a' got here in time if hehadn't 'a' met-up with us. That man Gholson, he's another good one. "

The latter remark seemed to me a feeler, and I ignored it, and inquiredhow Lieutenant Helm had got that furlough. (Furlough was our slang for alight wound. ) "Oh, he got it mighty fair! Did you see that Yankeelieutenant with the big sabre-cut on his shoulder? Well, your friendyonder gave him that--and got the Yankee's pistol-shot in his hand. Butthat saved Gholson's life, for that shot was aimed to give Gholson afurlough to kingdom-come. Are they kinfolks?"

I mumbled that they were not even friends. "Well, now, I suspicionedthat, --when I first see 'em meet at the head of our column! But theaide-de-camp he took it so good-natured that, thinks I, --"

Another of Ferry's men, seated opposite, swallowed hurriedly, andcovertly put in--"Y' ought to hear what Quinn said to Gholson just nowas they met-up out here in the hall. Quinn thought they were alone. SaysQuinn, as cold as a fish, s's'e 'Mr. Gholson, ' s'e, 'you're not acoward, sir, and that's why I'm curious to ask you a question, ' s'e. Andsays Gholson, just as cold, s'e 'I'm prepared, Lieutenant Quinn, toanswer it. ' And says Quinn, s'e 'Why was it, that when Harry Helm struckthat blow which saved your life, and which you knew was meant to saveit, and you seen his sword shot out of his hand and three or fourYankees makin' a dead set to kill him, and nothin' else in anyparticular danger at all, why was it, Mr. Gholson, that you never turneda hand nor an eye to save him?'"

"Great Scott! wha'd Gholson say?"

"Gholson, s'e, 'I done as I done, sir, from my highest sense o' duty. This ain't Lieutenant Helm's own little private war, Lieutenant Quinn, nor mine, nor yours. '"

"Jo'! that to Quinn! wha'd Quinn answer?"

"Why, with that Quinn popped them big glass eyes o' his'n till thewhites showed clear round the blue, and s'e 'I know it better than youdo; that's just what it suited you to forget. Oh! I'd already seenthrough you in one flash, you sneak. It's good for you you're not in mycommand; I'd lift you to a higher sense of whose war this is, damn you, if I had to hang you up by the thumbs. ' With that he started right onby, Gholson a-keepin' his face to him as he passed, when Ned Ferryand--her--came out o' the parlor, and Ned turned out on the rear gallerywith Quinn while she sort o' smiled at Gholson to come to her and senthim off on some business or other. George! I never seen her sobeautiful. "

Thereupon occurred a brief exchange of comments which seemed to me tocarry by implication as fine a praise as could possibly come from tworough fellows of the camp. Speaking the names of Ferry and Charlotte inundertone, of course, but with the unrestraint of soldiers, they saidtheir say without a shadow of inuendo in word or smile. Her presence, they agreed, always made them feel as though something out of the common"was bound to happen pretty quick, " while his, they said, assured themthat "whatever did happen would happen right. " I turned with a frown asHarry laughed irrelevantly, and saw Camille and him smiling at me withchildish playfulness. Then suddenly their smile changed and went beyondme, two or three men softly said "Smith!" and I was out of my chair andstanding when Charlotte Oliver, in a low voice, tenderly accosted me. 

"Oh, Richard Thorndyke Smith!--alive and well! Lieutenant Ferry wantsyou; he has just gone to his camp-fire. "

XXXVII

A HORSE! A HORSE!

Night had fully come. A few bivouac fires burned low in the grove, andat one of them near the grove gate I found our young commander. On abench made of a fence-rail and two forked stakes he sat between Quinnand the first-lieutenant of the Louisianians. The doctor whom I had seenbefore sat humped on his horse, facing the three young men and makingclumsy excuses to Ferry for leaving. The other physician would stay forsome time yet, he said, and he, himself, was leaving his instruments, such as they were, and would return in the morning. "Fact is, my son's asurgeon, and he taken all my best instruments with _him. _"

"When; where is he?" eagerly asked Quinn, seeing Ferry was not going toask. 

"My son? Oh, he's in Virginia, with General Lee. "

"Hell!" grunted Quinn, but the doctor pretended to listen to Ferry. 

"Ah, but we move south at day-light; the prisoners and wounded we sendeast, to Hazlehurst, " said our leader, with a restraining hand onQuinn's knee. The other lieutenant made some inquiry of him, and thedoctor was ignored, but stayed on, and as I stood waiting to be noticedI gathered a number of facts. The lightly injured would go in aplantation wagon; for the few gravely hurt there was the Harpers'ambulance, which had just arrived to take the ladies back to SquireWall's, near Brookhaven, alas! instead of to Louisiana. For the ladiesCharlotte's spring-wagon was to be appropriated, one of them ridingbeside it on horseback, and there was to be sent with them, besidesCharlotte's old black driver, "a reliable man well mounted. " Whoeverthat was to be it was not Harry, for he was to go south with a smallguard, bearing the body of the Louisiana captain to his home between thehostile lines behind Port Hudson. 

"Good-night, gentlemen, " said the doctor at last. As he passed into thedarkness Quinn bent a mock frown upon his young superior. 

"Lieutenant Ferry, the next time I have to express my disgust please tokeep your hand off my knee, will you?"

Ferry's response was to lay it back again and there ensued a pueriletussle that put me in a precious pout, that I should be kept waiting bysuch things. But presently the three parted to resume their severalcares, and the moment Ferry touched my arm to turn me back toward thehouse I was once more his worshipper. "Well!" he began, "you have now_two_ fine horses, eh?"

"Oh, by Regulations, I suppose, I ought to turn one of them over toMajor Harper. I wish it were to you, Lieutenant; I'd keep my own--he'llbe all right in a day or two--and give you Captain Jewett's. "

"Well, --just for a day or two, --do that, while I lend my horse to afriend. "

I had already asked myself what was to become of Charlotte Oliver whilethe Harpers were preempting her little wagon, and now I took keen alarm. "Why, Lieutenant, I shall be glad! But why not lend Captain Jewett'shorse and keep yours? Yours is right now the finest and freshest mountin the command. "

"Yes, 'tis for that I lend him. "

We went on in silence. Startled and distressed, I pondered. What was hernew purpose, that she should ask, or even accept, such a favor as thisfrom Ned Ferry; a favor which, within an hour, the whole command wouldknow he had granted? Was this a trifle, which only the Gholson-likesmallness of my soul made spectral? The first time I had ever seen Ferrywith any of his followers about him, was he not on Charlotte's gray, now, unluckily, beyond reach, at Wiggins? Ah, yes; but Beauty lending a horseto speed Valor was one thing; Valor unhorsing himself to speedBeauty--oh, how different! What was the all-subordinating need?

As we entered the hall I came to a conviction which lightened my heart;the all-subordinating need was--Oliver. I thought I could see why. Thespring of all his devilish behavior lay in those relations to her forwhich I knew she counted herself chargeable through her past mistakes. Unless I guessed wrong her motives had risen. I believed her aim wasnow, at whatever self-hazard, to stop this hideous one-woman's war, andto speed her unfinished story to the fairest possible outcome for allGod's creatures, however splendidly or miserably the "fool in it" shouldwin or lose. We stopped and waited for Cécile and the remaining doctor, she with a lighted candle, to come down the stairs. From two roomsbelow, where most of the wounded lay, there came women's voices softlysinging, and Charlotte's was among them. Their song was one listening towhich many a boy in blue, many a lad in gray, has died: "Rock me tosleep, mother. "

Cécile and the doctor had come from the bedside of the Union captain, where Miss Harper remained. "I've done all I can, " he said to Ferry; "weold chill-and-fever doctors wa'n't made for war-times; he may get welland he may not. "

"Smith, " said Ferry, "go up and stay with him till further orders. "

XXXVIII

"BEAR A MESSAGE AND A TOKEN"

Late in the night Gholson came to the Union captain's bedside for MissHarper. Charlotte had sent him; the doctor had left word what to do if acertain patient's wound should re-open, and this had happened. The threehad succeeded in stanching it, but Charlotte had prevailed upon MissHarper to lie down, and the weary lady had, against all her intentions, fallen asleep. I was alone with the wounded captain. He did not reallysleep, but under the weight of his narcotics drowsed, muttered, stirred, moaned, and now and then spoke out. 

Sitting in the open window, I marked the few red points of dyingfirelight grow fewer in the bivouac under the grove. Out there by thegate Ned Ferry slept. Fireflies blinked, and beyond the hazy fields rosethe wasted moon, by the regal slowness of whose march I measured thepassage of time as I had done two nights before. My vigil was a sad one, but, in health, in love, in the last of my teens and in the silentcompany of such a moon, my straying thoughts lingered most about themaiden who had "prayed for me. " My hopes grew mightily. Yet with themgrew my sense of need to redouble a lover's diligence. I resolved neveragain to leave great gaps in my line of circumvallation about the cityof my siege, as I had done in the past--two days. I should move to thefinal assault, now, at the earliest favorable moment, and the nextshould see the rose-red flag of surrender rise on her temples; in war itis white, but in love it is red. 

First favorable moment; ah! but when would that be? Who was to conveythe Harpers to Hazlehurst? Well, thank Heaven! not Harry. Scott Gholson?Gholson was due at headquarters. Poor Gholson! much rest for rackednerves had he found here; what with Ferry, and Harry, and the fight, andQuinn, I wondered he did not lie down and die under the pure suffocationof his "tchagrin. " Even a crocodile, I believed, could suffer fromchagrin, give him as many good causes as Gholson had accumulated. Butno, the heaven of "Charlie Tolliver's" presence and commands--she seemedto have taken entire possession of him--lifted and sustained him abovethe clouds of all unkinder things. 

A faint stir at the threshold caught my ear and I discerned in the halla young negro woman. The light of an unseen candle made her known at aglance; she had been here since the previous evening, as I knew, thoughit chanced that I had not seen her; Oliver's best wedding-gift, theslave maid whom I had seen with Charlotte in the curtained wagon atGallatin. I stole out to her; she courtesied. "Miss Charlotte say ef youwant he'p you fine me a-sett'n' on de step o' de stairs hafe-ways down. "

I inquired if she was leaving us. "She a-gitt'n' ready, suh; MistehGoshen done gone to de sta-able to git de hosses. " The girl suddenlyseemed pleased with herself. "Mis' Charlotte would 'a' been done gonewhen de yethehs went--dem-ah two scouts what was sent ayfteh _him_--ef Ihadn' spoke' up when I did. "

"Indeed! how was that?"

"Why, I says, s' I, 'Mis' Charlotte, how we know he ain' gwine fo' todouble on his huntehs? Betteh wait a spell, and den ef no word come backdat he a-doublin', you kin be sho' he done lit out fo' to jine deYankees roun' Pote Hudsom. '"

"Why did you tell her that? You want him caught; so do I; but you knowshe doesn't want to catch him, and you don't want her to. Neither do I. Nor neither do we want Lieutenant Ferry to catch him. "

"No, suh, dass so. But same time, while she no notion o' gitt'n' himcotch, she believe she dess djuty-bound to head-off his devilment. 'Tisdess like I heah' Mr. Goshen say to Miss Hahpeh, 'Dis ain't ow ownli'l pri'--'"

I waved her away and went back into the room; the Captain had called. Heasked the time of night; I said it was well after two; he murmured, wasquiet, and after a moment spoke my name. I answered, and he whispered"Coralie Rothvelt--she's here; I--recognized her voice--when they weresinging. Did you know I knew her?"

"Yes, Captain. "

"Daring game that was you fellows let her put up on us night beforelast, my boy, --and it hung by a thread. If our officers had only askedthe old man his name--it would have been--a flash of light. If I haddreamed, when I saw--you and Ned Ferry--yesterday, --that CoralieRothvelt was--Charlotte Oliver, --and could have known her then--asI've--learned to know her--to-day--from her--worst enemy, --you know, --"

"Yes, Captain. "

"I should--have turned back, my boy. " After a silence the hero said moreto himself than to me "Ah, if my brother were here to-night--Imight live!"

Many days afterward I thought myself dull not to have guessed what thatspeech meant, but now I was too distressed by the change I saw comingover him to do any surmising. He began to say things entirely tohimself. "Home!" he murmured; "sweet, sweet home!--my home! mycountry!--My God, my country, my home!--Smith, --you know what that isyou're--wiping off my brow, --don't you?"

"Yes, Captain. "

"I--I didn't want you to be--taken too unpleasantly by surprise--just atthe--end. You know what's--happening, --don't you?"

"Yes, Captain. " As I wiped the brow again I heard the tread of twohorses down in front of the house; they were Gholson's, and Ned Ferry'sfor Charlotte. "Captain, may I go and bring her--tell her what you say, and bring her?"

"Do you think she'd come? She'd have gone to Ship Island if I had caughther. "

"I know she'll come. "

"I wish she would; she could 'bear a message and a token, ' as the songsays. "

She came. I met her outside the door, and for a moment I feared shewould come no farther. "How can I, Richard! Oh, how can I?" shewhispered; "this is my doing!" But presently she stood at the bedsidecalm and compassionate, in the dark dress and limp hat of two nightsbefore. The dying man's eyes were lustrous with gratitude. 

"I have one or two things, " he said, after a few words of greeting, "that I'd like to send home--to my mother--and my wife; sometrifles--and a message or two; if I--if--if I--"

"Will you let me take them?" Charlotte asked. I did not see or hear whatthey were; Gholson beckoned me into the hall. He did not whisper; thereare some people, you know, who can never exercise enoughself-suppression to whisper; he mumbled. He admitted the dying had somerights, but--he feared the delay might result unfortunately; wanted meto tell Charlotte so, and was sure I was ever so wrong to ask to haveNed Ferry awakened for the common incident of a prisoner's death; hewould let him know the moment he awoke. 

When I came back into the room the captive had asked Charlotte to pray. "Tisn't that I'm--the least bit afraid, " he was saying. 

"Oh, no, " she responded, wiping his brow, "why should you be? Dyingisn't nearly so fearful a thing as living. I'd rather, now, you'd prayfor me; I'm such an unbeliever--in the beliefs, I mean, the beliefs thechurch people think we can't get on without. My religion is scarcelyanything but longings and strivings"--she sadly smiled--"longings andstrivings and hopes. "

"Yet you wouldn't--"

"Part with it? Oh, not for the world beside!"

"Neither would I--with mine. " The soldier folded his hands insupplication. "Neither would I--though mine, O Lord--is onlythe--old-fashioned sort--for whose beliefs our fathers--used to kill oneanother; God have mercy--on them--and us. "

There was a great stillness. Against the bedside Charlotte had sunk toher knees, and under the broad brim of her Leghorn hat leaned her browupon her folded hands. Thus, presently, she spoke again. 

XXXIX

CHARLOTTE SINGS

"I know, Captain, " she said, "that we can't have longings, strivings, orhopes, without beliefs; beliefs are what they live on. I believe inbeing strong and sweet and true for the pure sake of being so; and yetmore for the world's sake; and as much more again for God's sake as Godis greater than his works. I believe in beauty and in joy. I believethey are the goal of all goodness and of all God's work and wish. As toresurrection, punishment, and reward, I can't see what my noblest choicehas to do with them; they seem to me to be God's part of the matter;mine is to love perfect beauty and perfect joy, both in and infinitelybeyond myself, with the desiring love with which I rejoice to believeGod loves them, and to pity the lack of them with the loving pity withwhich God pities it. And above all I believe that no beauty and no joycan be perfect apart from a love that loves the whole world's joy betterthan any separate joy of any separate soul. "

"Thank you, " was murmured from the pillow. Then, as Charlotte once morewiped the damp brow, the captive said, with much labor, "After that--warseems--an awful thing. I suppose it isn't half so much a crime--as it isa--penalty--for the crimes that bring it on. But anyhow--youknow--being--" The bugle rang out the reveillé. 

"Being a soldier, " said Charlotte, "you want to die like one?"

"Yes, oh, yes!--the best I can. I'd like to sit half up--and hold mysword--if there's--no objection. I've loved it so! It would almost belike holding--the hand that's far away. Of course, it isn't reallynecessary, but--it would be more like--dying--for my country. "

He would not have it in the scabbard, and when I laid it naked in hishand he kissed the hilt. Charlotte sent Gholson for Ned Ferry. Glancingfrom the window, I noticed that for some better convenience our scoutshad left the grove, and the prisoners had been marched in and huddledclose to the veranda-steps, under their heavy marching-guard ofLouisianians. One of the blue-coats called up to me softly:"Dying--really?" He turned to his fellows--"Boys, Captain's dying. "

Every Northern eye was lifted to the window and I turned away. "Richard!" gently called Charlotte, and I saw the end was at hand; a newanguish was on the brow; yet the soldier was asking for a song; "asoldier's song, will you?"

"Why, Captain, " she replied, "you know, we don't sing the same words toour soldier-songs that you do--except in the hymns. Shall I sing 'Am I asoldier of the cross?'"

He did not answer promptly; but when he did he said "Yes--sing that. "

She sang it. As the second stanza was begun we heard a responsive swellgrow softly to fuller and fuller volume beneath the windows; theprisoners were singing. I heard an austere voice forbid it, but it rosestraight on from strength to strength:

"Sure I must fight if I would win, Increase my courage, Lord. I'll bear the toil, endure the pain, Supported by thy word. "

The dying man lifted a hand and Charlotte ceased. He had not heard themuffled chorus of his followers below; or it may be that he had, andthat the degree of liberty they seemed to be enjoying prompted him toseek the new favor he now asked. I did not catch his words, butCharlotte heard, and answered tenderly, yet with a thrill of pain sokeen she could not conceal it even from him. 

"Oh! you wouldn't ask a rebel to sing that, " she sighed, "would you?"

He made no rejoinder except that his eyes were insistent. She wiped histemples. "I hate to refuse you. "

His gaze was grateful. She spoke again: "I suppose I oughtn't to mindit. "

Miss Harper came in, and Charlotte, taking her hand without a glance, told the Captain's hard request under her voice. Miss Harper, too, inher turn, gave a start of pain, but when the dying eyes and smile turnedpleadingly to her she said, "Why, if you can, Charlotte, dear, but oh!how can you?"

Charlotte addressed the wounded man: "Just a little bit of it, will thatdo?" and as he eagerly assented she added, to Miss Harper, "You know, dear, in its history it's no more theirs than ours. "

"No, not so much, " said Miss Harper, with a gleam of pride; andthereupon it was my amazement to hear Charlotte begin guardedly to sing:

 "O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?"

But guardedly as she began, the effect on the huddled crowd below wasinstant and electrical. They heard almost the first note; looking downanxiously, I saw the wonder and enthusiasm pass from man to man. Theyheard the first two lines in awed, ecstatic silence; but at the third, warily, first one, then three, then a dozen, then a score, bereft ofarms, standard, and leader, little counting ever again to see freedom, flag, or home, they raised their voices, by the dawn's early light, intheir song of songs. 

Our main body were out in the highway, just facing into column, and theeffect on them I could not see. The prisoners' guards, though instantlyablaze with indignation, were so taken by surprise that for two or threeseconds, with carbines at a ready, they--and even their sergeant incommand--only darted fierce looks here and there and up at me. Theprisoners must have been used to singing in ordered chorus, for one ofthem strode into their middle, and smiling sturdily at the maddenedguard and me, led the song evenly. "No, sir!" he cried, as I made anangry sign for them to desist, "one verse through, if every damned foolof us dies for it--let the Captain hear it boys--sing!

 "'The rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air--'"

Charlotte had ceased, in consternation not for the conditions withoutmore than for those within. With the first strong swell of the song frombelow, the dying leader strove to sit upright and to lift his blade, butfailed and would have slammed back upon the pillows had not she and MissHarper saved him. He lay in their arms gasping his last, yet clutchinghis sabre with a quivering hand and listening on with rapt faceuntroubled by the fiery tumult of cries that broke into and overthe strain. 

"Club that man over the head!" cried the sergeant of the guard, and oneof his men swung a gun; but the Yankee sprang inside of its sweep, crying, "Sing her through, boys!" grappled his opponent, and hurled himback. In the same instant the sergeant called steadily, "Guard, ready--aim--"

There sounded a clean slap of levelled carbines, yet from the prisonerscame the continued song in its closing couplet:

 "The star-spangled banner! O, long may it wave!--"

and out of the midst of its swell the oaths and curses and defiantlaughter of a dozen men crying, with tears in their eyes, "Shoot! shoot!why don't you shoot?"

But the command to fire did not come; suddenly there was a drumming ofhoofs, then their abrupt stoppage, and the voice of a vigilant commandercalled, "Attention!"

With a few words to the sergeant, more brief than harsh, and while theindomitable singers pressed on to the very close of the stanza without asign from him to desist, Ferry bade the subaltern resume his command, and turned toward me at the window. He lifted his sword and spoke in alowered tone, the sullen guard stood to their arms, and every captivelooked up for my reply. 

"Shall I come?" he inquired; but I shook my head. 

"What!--gone?" he asked again, and I nodded. He turned and trottedlightly after the departing column. I remember his pensive mien as hemoved down the grove, and how a soft gleam flashed from his sword, abovehis head, as with the hand that held it he fingered his slendermustache, and how another gleam followed it as he reversed the blade andlet it into its sheath. Then my eyes lost him; for Gholson had taken hisplace under the window and was beckoning for my attention. 

"Is she coming?" he called up, and Charlotte, at my side, spokedownward:

"I shall be with you in a moment. "

While he waited the second lieutenant of the Louisianians came, and asguard and prisoners started away she came out upon the veranda steps. Across her knee, as she and Gholson galloped off by a road acrossfields, lay in a wrapping of corn-husks the huge sabre of the deadnortherner. 

XL

HARRY LAUGHS

The first hush of the deserted camp-ground was lost in the songs ofreturning birds. Captain Jewett, his majestic length blanket-bound frombrow to heel as trimly as a bale, had been laid under ground, and theHarpers stood in prayer at the grave's head and foot with hats on fortheir journey. The burial squad, turned guard of honor to the deadcaptain of the Louisianians, were riding away on either side of a lightwagon that bore his mortal part. I, after all, was to be the Harpers'guardian on their way. 

Day widened into its first perfection as we moved down the highroadtoward a near fork whose right was to lead Harry and his solemn cortégesouthward, while the left should be our eastward course. Camille and Irode horseback, side by side, with no one near enough to smile at mysentimental laudations of the morning's splendors, or at her forrepaying my eloquence with looks so full of tender worship, personalacceptance and self-bestowal, that to tell of them here would make aspoor a show as to lift a sea-flower out of the sea; they call forpiccolo notes and I am no musician. 

The familiar little leather-curtained wagon was just ahead of us, bearing the other three Harpers, the old negro driver and--to completeits overloading--his daughter, Charlotte's dark maid. Beside the wheelsambled and babbled Harry Helm. At the bridge he fell back to us andfound us talking of Charlotte. Camille was telling me how well Charlotteknew the region south of us, and how her plan was to dine at mid-daywith such a friend and to pass the night with such another; but themoment Harry came up she began to upbraid him in her mellowestflute-notes for not telling us that he had got his wound in saving--

"Now, you ladies--" cried the teased aide-de-camp, "I--I didn't saveGholson's life! I didn't try to save it! I only tried to split aYankee's head and didn't even do that! Dick Smith, if you tell anybodyelse that I saved--Well, who did, then? Good Lordy! if I'd known that tosave a man's life would make all this fuss I wouldn't 'a' done it! Why, Quinn and I had to sit and listen to Ned Ferry a solid half-hour lastnight, telling us the decent things he'd known Gholson to do, and theallowances we'd ought to make for a man with Gholson's sort of aconscience! And then, to cap--to clap--to clap the ki'--to cap--the_climax_--consound that word, I never did know what it meant--to clapthe climax, Ned sends for Gholson and gets Quinn to speak to himcivilly--aw, haw, haw!--Quinn showing all the time how he hated the job, like a cat when you make him jump over a stick! And then he led us on, with just a word here and there, until we all agreed as smooth as glass, that all Quinn had said was my fault, and all I had done was Gholson'sfault, and all Gholson had said or done or left undone was our fault, and the rest was partly Ned's fault, but mostly accident. "

Camille declared she did not and would not believe there had been anyfault with any one, anywhere, and especially with Mr. Gholson, and Iliked Lieutenant Helm less than ever, noticing anew the unaccountablefreedom with which Camille seemed to think herself entitled to rebukehim. "Oh, I'm in your power, " he cried to her, "and I'll call him aspotless giraffe if you want me to! that's what he is; I've alwaysthought so!" The spring-wagon was taking the left fork and he canteredahead to begin his good-byes there and save her for the last. When hemade his adieu to her he said, "Won't you let Mr. Smith halt here withme a few moments? I want to speak of one or two matters that--"

She resigned me almost with scorn; which privately amused me, and, Ifelt sure, hoodwinked the aide-de-camp. 

"Say, Dick!" he began, as she moved away, "look here, I'm going to tellyou something; Ned Ferry's in love with Charlotte Oliver!"

"You don't mean it!"

"Yes, I do, mean it! Smith, Ned's a grand fellow. I'm glad I came hereyesterday. "

"Yes, you've secured a furlough. "

"Oh, this thing, yes; don't you wish you had it! No, I'm glad I came, for what I've learned. I'm glad for what Ned Ferry has taught me a mancan do, and keep from doing, when he's got the upper hold of himself. And I'm glad for what she--you know who--by George! any man would knowwho ever saw her, for she draws every man who comes within her range, asnaturally as a rose draws a bee. I'm glad for what she has taught me awoman can _be_, and can keep from being, so long as she knows there'sone real man to live up to! just _up to_, mind you, I don't even say tolive _for_. "

I stared with surprise. Was this the trivial Harry talking? Fact is, thepair we were talking about had by some psychical magic rarified theatmosphere for all of us until half our notes were above ournormal pitch. 

"Do you mean she loves him; what sign of such a thing did she showyesterday or last evening?"

"Not a sign of a sign! And yet I'll swear it! Do you know where she'sgone?"

"To-day? I think I do. "

"Where?"

"Well, Lieutenant, if I were she, _I_ should go straight into the Yankeelines behind Port Hudson. She's got Jewett's messages and his sword, andthe Yank's won't know her as a Confederate any better than they everdid; for it's only these men whom we've captured who have found outshe's Charlotte Oliver, or that she had any knowing part in GeneralAustin's ruse. "

"If Oliver doesn't tell, " said Harry, lifting his bad hand in pain. 

"He will not dare! If she can only get her word in first and tell them, herself, that he's Charlotte Oliver's husband and has just led thefinest company of Federal scouts in the two States to destruction--"

"Hi! that ought to cook his dough!--with her face--and her voice!"

"Yes, " I responded, "--and his breath. "

"And why do you think she wants to do this?" asked Harry. 

"She doesn't want to do it; but she feels she must, knowing that everyblow he strikes from now on is struck on her account. I believe she'sgone to warn the Yankees that his whole animus is personal revenge andthat he will sacrifice anything or anybody, any principle or pledge orcause, at any moment, to wreak that private vengeance, in whole orin part. "

"Dick Smith, yes! But don't you see, besides, what she _does_ want? Why, she wants to keep Oliver and Ferry apart until somebody else for whomshe doesn't care as she cares for Ned, say you, or I, or--or--"

"Gholson?"

"Gholson, no! she can't trust Gholson, Gholson's conscience is toovindictive; that's why she's keeping him with her as long as she can. No, but until some of us, I say, can give Oliver a thousand times betterthan he ought ever to get--except for her sake--"

"Yes, you mean a soldier's clean death; and what you want of me is forme to say that I, for one, will lose no honest chance to give it to him, isn't it?"

"What I want of you, Smith, is to tell you that _I_ shall lose no suchchance. "

"Well, neither shall I. "

"Bully for you, Dick; bully boy with the glass eye! You see, you're oneof only half a dozen or so that know Oliver when they see him; so Nedwill soon be sending you after him. Ned's got a conscience, too, youknow, as squirmy as Gholson's. Oh, Lord! yes, you don't often _see_ it, but it's as big and hard as a conscript's ague-cake. " The Lieutenantgathered his rein; "Smith, I want Ned and her to get one another;that's me!"

I was tempted to say it was me, too, but I forbore and only said it wasI. 

"All the same, " said Harry, "I'm sorry for the little girl!"

"Little girl?"

"Oh, come, now, you know!" He leaned to me and whispered, "Miss Cécile!"

"Lieutenant, " I replied, with a flush, realizing what I owed to thefamily as a prospective member of it, "you're mistaking a littlepatriotic ardor--"

"Pat who--oh? I tell you, my covey, --and of course, you understand, Iwouldn't breathe it any further--"

"I'd rather you would not. "

"Phew-ew! I don't know why in the devil _you'd_ rather I would not, but--Smith, --she's so dead-gone in love with Ned Ferry, that if shedoesn't get him--I George! it'll e'en a'most kill her!"

I guffawed in derision. "And she didn't even have to tell you so! Shecan't even hide its deadly intensity from the casual bystander! haw!haw! haw! And it's all the outcome of a _three-days acquaintance_! Itbeats Doctor Swiftgrow's Mustache Invigor'--aw, haw! haw!" "Oh, youthink so? Pity you couldn't get a few barrels of it--aw, haw! haw!" saidHarry, and my laughter left off where his began. But, some way hurtinghis hand, he, too, stopped short. I drew my horse back. 

"Is that all you've noticed?" I smilingly inquired. "Isn't anybody elsemortally in love with anybody else? You can't make me believe that's allyou know!"

"Well, then, I sha'n't try. I do know one thing more; heard ityesterday. Like to hear it?"

"Like! Why, I'm just that dead-gone with curiosity that if I don't hearit it'll e'en a'most kill me--aw, haw! haw! haw!"

"Well, I'm tired saving people's lives, but we won't count this one; yousay you want to hear it--I can't give you all of it but it begins:

"'Turn away thine eyes, maiden passing fair! O maiden passing fair, turn away thine eyes!'--

"Haw! haw! haw! Good-bye, Smith, --aw, haw! haw! haw!--and it's all theoutcome of a three-days acquaintance!--haw! haw! haw!--Oh, say!--Smith!"--I was leaving him--"that's right, go back and beginover!--'Return! return!'--aw, haw! haw! haw!"

XLI

UNIMPORTANT AND CONFIDENTIAL

On the second night after that morning of frantic mortification I wasriding at Ned Ferry's side, in Louisiana. The camp of the brigade was afew miles behind us. Somewhere in front of us, fireless and close hid, lay our company of scouts, ahead of whose march he had pushed the daybefore to confer with the General, and we were now on our way to rejointhem. Under our horses' feet was that old Plank-road which every"buttermilk ranger" must remember--whether dead or not, I am tempted tosay, --who rode under either flag in the Felicianas in '63 and '64. 

Late in the evening of the day on which I had conducted the Harpers toSquire Wall's I had received a despatch ordering me to board the nextmorning's train at Brookhaven with my horse. On it I should find anumber of cases of those shoes I had seen at Hazlehurst. At Tangipahoa Iwas to transfer them to one or two army-wagons which would by that timehave reached there, and bring them across to Clinton, where a guardwould meet and join me to conduct the wagons to camp. And thus I haddone, bearing with me a sad vision of dear dark Miss Harper flutteringher handkerchief above her three nieces' heads, one of whom refraineduntil the opportunity had all but gone, to wave good-bye to the visiblywretched author of "Maiden passing fair, turn away thine eyes. " Mylucky Cricket had gone three nights and two whole days with no harnessbut his halter, and to-night, beside the Yankee's horse, that still boreNed Ferry, he was as good as new. My leader and I talked of Charlotte. In the middle of this day's forenoon Gholson had come into campreporting at the General's tent the long ride she had made on Monday; asgood a fifty miles as Ferry's own. We called it, now, Ferry and I, amost clever achievement for a woman. "Many women, " he said, "know how toride, but she knows how to march. "

"I think you must have taught her, " I responded, and he enjoyed hisinability to deny it. So I ventured farther and said she seemed to meactually to have reached, in the few days since I had first seen her, afiner spiritual stature. 

"She?" he asked; "ah! she is of the kind that must grow or die. Yes, youmay be right; but in that time she has kept me so occupied growing, myself, that I did not notice she was doing the same. But also, I think, the eyes with which we look at her have grown. "

"She has outgrown this work, " I insisted. 

"Those letters--to the newspapers?"

"No, this other; this work which she has to do by craft and wiles anddisguises. Lieutenant, I don't believe she can go on doing that now withher past skill, since life has become to her a nobler story than itpromised to be. "

My companion lifted higher in the saddle with delight. Then soberly hesaid, "We have got to lose her. " I turned inquiringly and he continued:"She has done me the honor to tell me--Miss Harper and me--that if shesucceeds in what she is now trying to do--you know?--"

"I think I do. It's to prevent Oliver from making himself useful to theenemy, isn't it?"

"Well--like that; and she says if she comes out all right she will leaveus; yes, for the hospital service. "

"Hosp'--Oh--oh! gangrene, typhoid, lock-jaw, itch, small-pox! Isn't shedeep enough in the hospital service already, with her quinine dolls?"

"Ah! but she cannot continue to play dolls that way; she must findsomething else. I see you have my temptation; yes, the desire to see heralways doing something splendid. That is not 'real life, ' as you callit. And besides, was not that you said one time to me 'No splendorshines at last so far as a hidden splendor'?"

"No, sir! I suppose it's true, but I never want to see her splendorshining through pock-marks. " The reply won from him a gesture ofapproval, and this gave me a reckless tongue. "Why, if I were you, Lieutenant, she simply shouldn't go! Good Heaven! isn't she far enoughaway at the nearest? How can you tamely--no, I don't mean tamely, but--how can you _endure_ to let this matter drift--how can youendure it?"

At the beginning of my question he straightened exactly as I had seenhim do in the middle of the lane when our recoiled column wasstaggering; but as my extravagance flamed up he quieted rebukingly, andwith a quieter smile than ever asked "Is that a soldier's question?Smith, is there not something wrong with you to-night?"

"There always is, " I replied. 

"No, but to-night I think you are taking that 'lower fork' you talksometimes about. Of course, if you don't want to tell--"

"_May_ I tell you?"

"Ah, certainly! Is it that little Harper girl?"

I nodded, all choked up. When I could speak I had to drop the words byones and twos, and did not so much as say them as let them bleed from mylips; and never while I live shall I forget the sweet, grave, perfectsympathy with which my friend listened and led me on, and listened andled me on. I said I had never believed in love at first sight until nowwhen it had come upon me to darken and embitter my life henceforth. 

He replied that certainly love sometimes _germinated_ at first sight, and I interrupted greedily that that was all I claimed--except that lovecould also, at times, _grow to maturity_ with amazing speed, a speed Inever could have credited previous to these last four days. And headmitted as much, but thought time only could prove such love; whereto Irejoined that that was what she had answered. 

He glanced at me suddenly, then smoothed his horse's mane, and said, gently, "That means you have declared yourself to her?"

I confessed I had, and told him how, on our journey to Squire Wall's, being stung to desperation by the infantile way in which she had drooledout to others what my love had sacredly confided to her alone, I hadabruptly confronted her with the fact, and in the ensuing debate, carried away by the torrent of my emotions, had offered her my love, forlife and all. 

"And she--ah, yes. I see; and I see, too, that in all she ever said ordid or seemed, before, she never made herself such a treasure to belonged for and fought and lived for as in the way in which she--"He paused. 

"Refused me! Oh, it's so; it's so! Ah! if you could have witnessed herdignity, her wisdom, her grace, her compassionate immovableness, you'dnever think of her as the little Harper girl again. She said that if theunpremeditated, headlong way in which I had told my passion were my onlymistake, and if it were only for my sake, she would not, if she could, answer favorably, and that I, myself, at last, would not have a girl whowould have a man who would offer his love in that way, and that shewould not have a man who would have a girl who would have a man whoshould offer his love in that way. "

I call it one of the sweetest kindnesses ever done me, that Ned Ferryheard me to the end of that speech and did not smile. Instead he asked"Did she say that as if a'--as if--amused?"

"No, Lieutenant, she nearly cried. Oh, I wish we were on some dangerouserrand to-night, instead of just camp and bed!"

"Well, that's all right, Richard; we are. "

XLII

"CAN I GET THERE BY CANDLE-LIGHT?"

After a few minutes we quitted the public way by an obscure path in thewoods on our right. When we had followed this for two or three miles weturned to the left again and pressed as softly as we could into a lowtangled ground where the air seemed stagnant and mosquitoes stungsavagely. We wiped away the perspiration in streams. I pushed forward toFerry's side and whispered my belief that at last we were to see rain. 

"Yes, " he said, "and with thunder and lightning; just what we wantto-night. "

I asked why. "Oh, they hate our thunder-storms, those Yankee patrols. "

Presently we were in a very dark road, and at a point where it droppedsuddenly between steep sides we halted in black shadow. A gleam of palesand, a whisper of deep flowing waters, and a farther glimmer of moresands beyond them challenged our advance. We had come to a "grapevineferry. " The scow was on the other side, the water too shoal for thehorses to swim, and the bottom, most likely, quicksand. Out of theblackness of the opposite shore came a soft, high-pitched, quavering, long-drawn, smothered moan of woe, the call of that snivelling littlesinner the screech-owl. Ferry murmured to me to answer it and I sent thesame faint horror-stricken tremolo back. Again it came to us, from notfarther than one might toss his cap, and I followed Ferry down to thewater's edge. The grapevine guy swayed at our side, we heard the scowslide from the sands, and in a few moments, moved by two videttes, ittouched our shore. Soon we were across, the two videttes riding with us, and beyond a sharp rise, in an old opening made by the swoop of ahurricane, we entered the silent unlighted bivouac of Ferry's scouts. Ferry got down and sat on the earth talking with Quinn, while thesergeants quietly roused the sleepers to horse. 

Now we marched, and when we had gone a mile or so Ned Ferry turnedaside, taking with him only Sergeant Jim, Kendall, another private, andme. We went at an alert walk single-file for the better part of an hourand stopped at length in a narrow untilled "deadening. " Beyond it at ourleft a faint redness shone just above the tree-tops. At our right, inthe northwest, a similar glow was ruddier, the heavens being darkerthere except when once or twice they paled with silent lightnings. Sergeant Jim went forward alone and on foot, and presently was backagain, whispering to Ferry and remounting. 

Ferry led Kendall and me into the woods, the other two remaining. Wefound rising ground, and had ridden but a few minutes when from itscrest we looked upon a startling sight. In front of us was a stretch ofspecially well farmed land. Our woods swept round it on both sides, crossed a highway, and gradually closed in again so as to terminate theopening about half a mile away. Always the same crops, bottom cause ofthe war: from us to the road an admirable planting of cotton, and fromthere to the farther woods as goodly a show of thick corn. The wholeacreage swept downward to that terminus, at the same time sinking inwardfrom the two sides. On the highway shone the lighted rear window of aroadside "store, " and down the two sides of the whole tract stretchedthe hundred tent-fires of two brigade camps of the enemy's cavalry. Their new, white canvases were pitched in long, even alleys followingthe borders of the wood, from which the brush had been cut away farenough for half of them to stand under the trees. The men had quieteddown to sleep, but at one tent very near us a group of regimentalofficers sat in the light of a torch-basket, and by them were plantedtheir colors. A quartet of capital voices were singing, and one whojoined the chorus, standing by the flag, absently yet caressingly spreadit at such breadth that we easily read on it the name of the command. Let me leave that out. 

As they sang, and as we sat in our saddles behind the low fence that ranquite round the opening, Ferry turned from looking across into thelighted window on the road and handed me his field-glass. "How manycandles do you see in there?"

I saw two. "Yes, " he said, dismounting and motioning me to do the same. Kendall took our bridles. Leaving him with the animals we went over thefence, through the cotton, across the road at a point terribly near thelighted and guarded shop, and on down the field of corn, to and over itsfarthest fence; stooping, gliding, halting, crouching, in thecotton-rows and corn-rows; taking every posture two upright gentlemenwould rather not take; while nevertheless I swelled with pride, to bealone at the side--or even at the heels--of one who, for all thisapparent skulking and grovelling, and in despite of all the hiddendrawings of his passion for a fair woman at this hour somewhere inperil, kept his straight course in lion-hearted pursuit of his duty (ashe saw it) to a whole world of loves and lovers, martyrs and fighters, hosts of whom had as good a right to their heart's desire as I to mineor he to his; and I remembered Charlotte Oliver saying, on her knees, "Ibelieve no beauty and no joy can be perfect apart from a love that lovesthe whole world's joy better than any separate joy of anyseparate soul. "

XLIII

"YES, AND BACK AGAIN"

One matter of surprise to me was that this whole property had escapedmolestation. I wondered who could be so favored by the enemy and yet beso devoted to our cause as to signal us from his window with theirsentinels at his doors; and as we passed beyond the cornfield's fartherfence I ventured to ask Ferry. 

"Aaron Goldschmidt, " he whispered, as we descended into a dry, tangledswamp. In the depths of this wild, beside a roofed pen of logs storedwith half a dozen bales of cotton, we were presently in the company of avery small man who tossed a hand in token of great amusement. 

"Hello, Ned!" he whispered in antic irony; "what an accident is dat, meeding so! Whoever is expecting someding like dis!"

"Well, I hope nobody, Isidore; I hardly expected it myself, your fatherset those candles so close the one behind the other. "

Isidore doubled with mirth and as suddenly straightened. "Your horse ishere since yesterday. _She_ left him--by my father. She didn't t'ink t'eYankees is going to push away out here to-night. But he is a pusher, t'at Grierson! You want him to-night, t'at horse? He is here by me, butI t'ink you best not take him, hmm? To cross t'e creek and go round t'eot'er way take you more as all night; and to go back t'is same way youcome, even if I wrap him up in piece paper you haven't got a lawchinsite pocket you can carry him?" He laughed silently and the nextinstant was more in earnest than ever. 

"_She_ is in a tight place! She hires my mother's pony to ride in toheadquarters. " He called them hatekvartuss, but we need not. "I t'inkshe is not a prisoner--_unless_--she wants to come back. " He doubledagain. "Anyhow, I wish you can see her to-night; she got anotherdoll-baby for t'e gildren, and she give you waluable informations by dehatfull. . . . Find her? I tell you how you find her in finfty-nineminutes--vedder permitting, t'at is. "

The last phrase was fitted to a listening pose, and the first mutter ofthe pending thunder-storm came out of the northwest. Then Isidorehastened through the practical details of his proposition. Ferry drew abreath of enthusiasm. "Can I have my horse, bridled and saddled, inthree minutes?"

"I pring um in two!" said Isidore, and vanished. Ferry turned with anovermastering joy in every note of his whispered utterance. "After all!"he said, and I could have thrown my arms around him in pure delight tohear duty and heart's desire striking twelve together. 

"Smith, " he asked, "can you start back without me? Then go at once; Ishall overtake you on my horse. "

I stole through the cornfield safely; the frequent lightnings were stillso well below the zenith as to hide me in a broad confusion of monstrousshadows. But when I came to cross the road no crouching or gliding woulddo. I must go erect and only at the speed of some ordinary officialerrand. So I did, at a point between two opposite fence-gaps, closelyafter an electric gleam, and I was rejoicing in the thick darkness thatfollowed, when all at once the whole landscape shone like day and Istood in the middle of the road, in point-blank view of a small squad, a"visiting patrol". They were trotting toward me in the highway, hardly ahundred yards off. As the darkness came again and the thunder crashedlike falling timbers, I started into the cotton-field at an easydouble-quick. The hoofs of one horse quickened to a gallop. A strongwind swept over, big rain-drops tapped me on the shoulder and patteredon the cotton-plants, the sound of the horse's galloping ceased as heturned after me in the soft field, and presently came the quiet call"Halt, there, you on foot. " I went faster. I knew by my pursuer'scoming alone that he did not take me for a Confederate, and that theworst I should get, to begin with, would be the flat of his sabre. Shrewdly loading my tongue with that hard northern _r_ which I hatedmore than all unrighteousness, I called back "Oh, I'm under orders! gohalt some fool who's got time to halt!"

I obliqued as if bound for the headquarters fire where we had seen thesingers, the lightning branched over the black sky like tree-roots, thethunder crashed and pounded again, the wind stopped in mid-career, andthe rain came straight down in sheets. "Halt!" yelled the horseman. Helifted his blade, but I darted aside and doubled, and as he whirledaround after me, another rider, meeting him and reining in at such closequarters that the mud flew over all three of us, lifted his handand said--

"He is right, sergeant, he is carrying out my orders. " Ferry's blacksilk handkerchief about his neck covered his Confederate bars of rank, and the Federal may or may not have noted the absence ofshoulder-straps; our arms remained undrawn; and so the sergeant, catching a breath or two of disconcertion, caught nothing else. WhileFerry spoke on for another instant I showed my heels; then he left thedripping Yankee mouthing an angry question and loped after me, and overthe low fence went the two of us almost together. 

Kendall was not there, the Federal camp-makers had tardily repairedtheir blunder by posting guards; but these were not looking for theirenemies from the side of their own camp, and as we cleared the fence inthe full blaze of a lightning flash, only two or three wild shots sangafter us. In the black downpour Ferry reached me an invisible hand. Ileapt astride his horse's croup, and trusting the good beast to pick hisway among the trees himself, we sped away. Soon we came upon our threemen waiting with the horses, and no great while afterward the five of usrejoined our command. The storm lulled to mild glimmerings and a gentleshower, and the whole company, in one long single file, began to sweephurriedly, stealthily, and on a wide circuit of obscurest byways, deeperthan ever into the enemy's lines. 

XLIV

CHARLOTTE IN THE TENTS OF THE FOE

From certain rank signs of bad management in the Federal camp one couldeasily guess that our circuit was designed to bring us around to itsrear. That a colonel's tent--the one where the singers were--was notwhere the colonel's tent belonged was a trifle, but the slovenlinesswith which the forest borders of the camp were guarded was a gravermatter. Evidently those troops were at least momentarily in unworthyhands, and I was so remarking to Kendall when a murmured command cameback from Ferry, to tell Dick Smith to stop that whispering. I wassorry, for I wanted to add that I knew we were not going to attack thecamp itself. That was on Wednesday night. Charlotte and Gholson hadmade their ride of fifty miles on Monday. The friends with whom shestopped at nightfall contrived to cram him into their crowded soldiers'room, and he had given the whole company of his room-mates, as they satup in their beds, a full account of the fight at Sessions's, Charlotte'scare of the sick and dying, and the singing, by her and the blue-coats, of their battle-song. Next morning Charlotte, without Gholson--whoturned off to camp--rode on to Goldschmidt's store, just beyond whichthere was then still a Confederate picket. Here she hired Mrs. Goldschmidt's pony, rode to the picket, and presented the CoralieRothvelt pass. 

"Miss Coralie Rothvelt; yes, all right, " said the officer, "the men thatrode with you this morning told me all about you. " He went with her asfar as his videttes, and thence she rode alone to a picket of theFederal army and by her request was conducted under guard to theheadquarters of a corps commander. To him and his chief-of-staff shetold the fate of Jewett's scouts and delivered the messages of theirdying leader; and then she tendered the hero's sword. 

The staff-officer cut away its cornhusk wrapping and read aloud theowner's name on the hilt. The General laid the mighty weapon across hispalm and sternly shut his lips. "How did you get through the enemy'spickets with this?"

"I had a Confederate general's pass. "

"Ah! Is the Confederate general as nameless as yourself?"

"I am not nameless; I only ask leave to withhold my name until I havetold one or two other things. "

"But you don't mind confessing you're an out-and-out rebel sympathizer?"

Under the broad-brimmed hat her smile grew to a sparkle. "No, I enjoyit. "

The chief-of-staff smiled, but the General darkened and pressed hisquestions. At length he summed up. "So, then, you wish me to believethat you did all you did, and now have come into our lines at a mostextraordinary and exhausting speed and running the ugliest kinds ofrisks, in mere human sympathy for a dying stranger, he being a Unionofficer and you a secessionist of"--a courtly bow--"the very elect;that's your meaning, is it not?"

"No, General; in the first place, I am not one of any elect. "

A flattering glimmer of amusement came into the two men's faces, butsome change in Charlotte's manner arrested it and brought an enhanceddeference. 

"In the second place, I am not here merely on this errand. "

"Oh!"

"No, General. And in the last place, my motive in this errand is no meresympathy for any one person; I am here from a sense of public duty--"The speaker seemed suddenly overtaken by emotions, dropped her wordswith pained evenness, and fingered the lace handkerchief in her lap. 

"Pardon, " interrupted the General, "the sunlight annoys you. Major, willyou drop that curtain?" "Thank you. One thing I am here for, General, is to tell you something, and I have to begin by asking that neither ofyou will ever say how you learned it. "

The two men bowed. 

"Thank you. Please understand, also, I have never uttered this but toone friend, a lady. There was no need; I have not wanted aid or counsel, even from friends. But I feel duty bound to tell it to you, now, because, for one thing, the brave soldier who wore that sword--" Hereyes rose to the weapon and fell again; she bit her lip. 

"Yes--well--what of him?"

"He was lured to disaster and death by a man whose supreme purpose was, and is to-day, revenge upon me. That man drew him to his ruin purely insearch of my life. " Charlotte sat with her strange in-looking, out-looking gaze holding the gaze of her questioner until for reliefhe spoke. 

"Why, young lady, it's hard to doubt anything you say, but really thatsounds rather fanciful. Why should you think it?"

"I do not think it, I know it. He sends me his own assurance of it byhis own father, so that his revenge may be fuller by my knowing dailyand hourly that he is on my trail. "

"And you appeal to me for protection?"

She smiled. "No. I am not seeking to divert his fury from myself, but toconfine it to myself. Fancy yourself a human-hearted woman, General, andmurder being done day by day because you are alive. " "Oh, this isincredible! What is its occasion, its origin? How are you in any wayresponsible?"

"Why, largely I am not. Yet in degree I am, General, because ofshortcomings of mine--faults--errors--that--oh--that have their bearingin the case, don't you see?"

"No, I don't; pray don't ask me to draw inferences; I might infer toomuch. "

"Yes, you might, easily, " said Charlotte; "for I only mean shortcomingsof the kind we readily excuse in others though we never can or shouldpardon them in ourselves. "

The General turned an arch smile of perplexity upon his chief-of-staff. "I don't think we're quite up to that line of perpetual snow, Walter, are we?"

The chief-of-staff "guessed they were not. "

Charlotte resumed. "I have come to you in the common interest, to warnyou against that man. I believe he is on his way here to offer hisservices as a guide. He is fearless, untiring, and knows all this regionby heart. "

"Union man, I take it, is he not?"

"No, he's Federal, Confederate or guerilla as it may suit his bloodyends. "

"And you want me not to make use of him. "

"Oh, more than that; I want him stopped!--stopped from killing andburning on his and my private account. But I want much more than that, too. I know how you commonly stop such men. "

"We hang them to the first tree. "

"Yes, our side does the same. If I wanted such a fate to overtake him Ishould only have to let him alone. At risks too hideous to name I havesaved him from it twice. I am here to-day chiefly to circumvent hispurposes; but if I may do so in the way I wish to propose to you, Ishall also save him once more. I am willing to save him--in thatway--although by so doing I shall lose--fearfully. " She dropped herglance and turned aside. 

"How do you propose to circumvent and yet save him?"

"By getting you to send him so far to your own army's rear that hecannot get back; to compel him to leave the country; to go into yourcountry, where law and order reign as they cannot here betweenthe lines. "

"And you consider that a reasonable request?"

"Oh, sir, I must make it! I can ask no less!"

"But you say if this scheme works you lose by it. What will you lose?"

"I may lose track of him! If I lose track of him I may have to gothrough a long life not knowing whether he is dead or alive. "

"And suppose--why, --young lady, I thought you were unmarried. I--oh, what do you mean; is he--?"

Charlotte's head drooped and her hands trembled. "Yes, by law and churchdecree he is my husband. "

"Good Heaven!" murmured the General, drew a breath, and folded his arms. "But, madam! if a man _abandons_ his wife--"

"I abandoned him. "

"Good for you!" "It was vital for me. But I did it on evidence whichour laws ignore, the testimony of slaves. Oh, General, don't try tountangle me; only stop him!"

"Ah! madam, I'll do the little I can. How am I to know him?"

"By a pistol-wound in his right hand, got last week. He would have gotit in his brain but for my pleading. His name is Oliver. "

"Oliver; hmm! any relation to Charlotte Oliver, your so called newspapercorrespondent? I'd like to stop her. --How?--I don't quite hear you. "

"I am Charlotte Oliver. "

The two officers glanced sharply at each other. When the General turnedagain he flushed resentfully. "Have you never resumed your maiden name?"

"Never. "

"Then, madam, tell me this! With a whole world of other people's namesto choose from, why _have_ you borrowed Charlotte Oliver's? Have youcome here determined to be sent to prison, Miss Coralie Rothvelt?"

XLV

STAY TILL TO-MORROW

Charlotte did not move an eyelash. Gradually a happy confidence lightedher face. "Freedom or prison is to me a secondary question. I came heredetermined to use only the truth. No wild creature loves to be free morethan I do. I want to go back into our lines, and to go at once; but--Iam Charlotte Oliver. "

"Young lady, listen to me. I know your story is nearly all true. I knowsome good things about you which you have modestly left out; one of therebels who stopped where you did last night and rode with you thismorning was brought to me a prisoner half an hour ago. But he said yourname was Rothvelt. How's that?"

"Unfortunately, General, my name is Charlotte Oliver. Two or three timesI have had use for so much concealment as there was in the childishprank of turning my name wrong side out. " The speaker made a sign to thechief-of-staff: "Write the two names side by side and see if theyare not one. "

He was already doing so, and nodded laughingly to his superior. Charlotte spoke on. "I tell you the truth only, gentlemen, though I tellyou no more of it than I must. I have run many a risk to get the truth, and to get it early. If it is your suspicion that by so doing, or in anyother way, I have forfeited a lady's liberty, let me hear and answer. If not--"

"Oh, I'll have to send you to the provost-martial at Baton Rouge and letyou settle that with him. "

"Ah, no, General! By the name of the lady you love best, I beg you tosee my need and let me go. I promise you never henceforth to offend yourcause except in that mere woman's sympathy with what you call rebellion, for which women are not so much as banished by you--or if they are, thenbanish me! Treat me no better, and no worse, than a 'registered enemy'!"

The General shook his head. "Your registration has been in the openfield of military action; sometimes, I fear, between the lines. At leastit has been with your pen. "

"General, I have laid down the pen. "

"Indeed! to take up what?"

"The spoon!" said Charlotte, with that smile which no man ever whollyresisted. "I leave the sword and its questions to my brother man, in theblue and in the gray--God save it!--and have pledged myself to the gray, to work from now on only under the yellow flag of mercy and healing. "

"Yes, of course; mercy--and comfort--and every sort of unarmed aid--torebels. "

"To the men you call so, yes. Yet I pledge you, General, to deal astenderly with every man in blue who comes within range of my care as Idid with Captain Jewett. "

"Oh, I know you did even better than you've told me, but I'd be a foolto send you back on the instant, so. Stay till to-morrow or next day. "The captor smiled. "Major, I think we owe the lady that muchhospitality. "

The Major thought so, and that she must need a day's rest, more than sherealized. She could be made in every way comfortable--under guard at"Mr. Gilmer's. " The Gilmers were Unionists, whose fine character hadbeen their only protection through two years of ostracism, yet hebelieved they would treat her well. "Oh! not there, please, " saidCharlotte; "I hear they are to give some of your officers a danceto-morrow evening!" and there followed a parley that called forth allher playfullest tact. "Oh, no, " she said, at one critical point, "I'mnot so narrow or sour but I could dance with a blue uniform; butsuppose--why, suppose one's friends in gray should catch one dancingwith one's enemies in blue. Such things have happened, you know. "

"It sha'n't happen to-morrow night, " laughed the General. 

She offered to nurse the Federal sick, instead, in the command'sfield-hospital, but no, the General rose to end the interview. "My dearyoung lady, the saintliest thing we can let you do is to dance at thatmerrymaking. "

She rose. "As a prisoner under guard, General, I can nurse the sick, butI will not dance. "

The General smiled. "I'll take your parole. "

"Oh! exact a parole from a woman?"

"Good gracious, why shouldn't I! As for you, --ha!--I'd as soon turn acommissioned rebel officer loose in my camp unparoled as you. "

"Then take my parole! I give it! you have it! I'll take the chances. "

"And the dances?" asked the Major. 

"Very good, " said the General, "you are now on parole. See the ladyconducted to Squire Gilmer's, Major. And now, Miss--eh, --day afterto-morrow morning I shall either pass you beyond my lines or else sendyou to Baton Rouge. Good-day. " When Charlotte found herself alone in aroom of the Gilmer house she lay down upon the bed staring and sighingwith dismay; she was bound by a parole! If within its limit of timeOliver should appear, "It will mean Baton Rouge for me!" she cried underher breath, starting up and falling back again; "Baton Rouge, NewOrleans, Ship Island!" She was in as feminine a fright as though she hadnever braved a danger. Suddenly a new distress overwhelmed her:if--if--someone to deliver her should come--"Oh Heaven! I amparoled!--bound hand and foot by my insane parole!"

Softly she sprang from the bed, paced the floor, went to the window, seemed to look out upon the landscape; but in truth she was looking inupon herself. There she saw a most unaccountable tendency for herjudgment--after some long overstrain--momentarily, but all at once, toswoon, collapse, turn upside down like a boy's kite and dart to earth;an impulse--while fancying she was playing the supremely courageous orgenerous or clever part--suddenly to surrender the key of the situation, the vital point in whatever she might be striving for. "Ah me, ah me!why did I give my parole?"

At the close of the next day--"Walter, " said the General as thechief-of-staff entered his tent glittering in blue and gold, --"oh, thuddevil!--you going to that dance?"

XLVI

THE DANCE AT GILMER'S

All the while that I recount these scenes there come to me softorchestrations of the old tunes that belonged with them. I am thinkingof one just now; a mere potsherd of plantation-fiddler's folk-musicwhich I heard first--and last--in the dance at Gilmer's. Indeed no otherso widely recalls to me those whole years of disaster and chaos; thedaily shock of their news, crashing in upon the brain like a shell intoa roof; wail and huzza, camp-fire, litter and grave; battlefield stench;fiddle and flame; and ever in the midst these impromptu merrymakings tokeep us from going stark mad, one and all, --as so many literally did. 

The Gilmer daughters were fair, but they were only three, and theGilmers were the sole Unionists in their neighborhood. "Still, a fewgirls will come, " said Charlotte, sparkling first blue and then black ata sparkling captain who said that, after all, the chief-of-staff haddecided he couldn't attend. I know she sparkled first blue and thenblack, for she always did so when she told of it in later days. 

"They say, " responded the captain, "that in this handy little worldthere are always a few to whom policy is the best honesty; is that thefew who will come?"

"You are cynical, " said Charlotte, "this is only their unarmed way ofsaving house and home for the brothers to come back to when you arepurged out of the land. "

When the time came there were partners for eight gallants, and thegallants numbered sixteen. They counted off by twos; the evens waitedwhile the odds danced the half of each set, and then the odds waited andcooled, tried to cool, out on the veranda. But when a reel was calledthe whole twenty-four danced together, while the fiddler (from thecontraband camp) improvised exultant words to his electrifying tunes. 

 "O _ladies_ ramble in, Whilst de _beaux_ ramble out, For to guile[1] dat golden _cha--ain. _ My _Lawdy!_ it's a sin Fo' a _fiddleh_ not to shout!Miss _Charlotte's_ a-comin' down de _la--ane_!"

[Footnote 1: Coil. ]

Now the dance is off, but now it is on again, and again. The fiddlertoils to finer and finer heights of enthusiasm; slippers twinkle, top-boots flash, the evens come in (to the waltz) and the odds, out onthe veranda, tell one another confidentially how damp they are. Was everan evening so smotheringly hot! Through the house-grove, where thedarkness grows blacker and blacker and the tepid air more and morebreathless, they peer toward the hitching-rail crowded with theirhorses. Shall they take their saddles in, or shall they let them get wetfor fear the rebels may come with the shower, as toads do? [Laughter. ]One or two, who grope out to the animals, report only a lovely picture:the glowing windows; the waltzers circling by them; in the dining-room, and across the yard in the kitchen, the house-servants darting to andfro as busy as cannoneers; on their elbows at every windowsill, and ontheir haunches at every door, the squalid field-hands making grotesquesilhouettes against the yellow glow that streamed out into the trees. 

Now the lightning seems nearer. Hark, that was thunder; soft, but real. At last the air moves; there is a breeze, and the girls come out on thegallants' arms to drink it in. As they lift their brows and sigh theircomfort the lightning grows brighter, the thunder comes more promptlyand louder, and the maidens flinch and half scream, yet linger for onemore draft of the blessed coolness. Suddenly an inverted tree ofblinding light branches down the sky, and the thunder crashes in one'svery ears; the couples recoil into a group at the door, the lightningagain fills heaven and earth, it shows the bending trees far afield, andthe thunders peal at each other as if here were all Vicksburg and PortHudson, with Porter and Farragut going by. So for a space; then the winddrops to a zephyr, and though the sky still blazes and crashes, andflames and roars, the house purrs with content under the sweet strokingsof the rain. 

Let it pour! the dining-room is the centre of all things; the ladies sipthe custards and nibble the cake the gallants cram the cake and gulp thepunch. The fiddler-improvisator disappears, reappears, and with crumbson his breast and pan-gravy and punch on his breath remounts his seat;and the couples are again on the floor. The departing thunders grumbleas they go, the rain falls more and more sparingly, and now it is awaltz, and now a quadrille, and now it's a reel again, with Miss Sallieor Louise or Laura or Lucille or Miss Flora "a-comin' down de lane!"

So come the stars again, one by one. In a pause between dances Charlotteand the staff captain go to the veranda's far end and stand against therail. The night is still very dark, the air motionless. Charlotte isremarking how far they can hear the dripping of the grove, when shegives a start and the captain an amused grunt; a soft, heart-broken, ear-searching quaver comes from just over yonder by the horses. "One ofthose pesky little screech-owls, " he says. "Don't know as I ever heardone before under just these condi'--humph! there's another, around onthis side. "

"I think I will go in, " says Charlotte, with a pretence of languor. Asthey do so the same note sounds a third time; her pace quickens, and inpassing a bright window, with a woman's protecting impulse she changesfrom his left arm to his right so as to be on the side next the owls. Amoment later she is alone in the middle of her room, a lighted candle inone hand, a regally dressed doll in the other, and in her heart the cry, "Oh, Edgard, Edgard, my parole, my parole!"

Once more she is downstairs, in the lane which the dancers are makingfor their last reel. Two of the gallants have gone out to see thehorses, and something keeps them, but there is no need to wait. Thefiddle rings a chord! the merry double line straightens down the hallfrom front door to rear, bang! says the fiddler's foot--"handsround!"--and hands round it is! In the first of the evening they hadbeen obliged to tell the fiddler the names of the dancers, but now heknows them all and throws off his flattering personalities and hisoverworked rhymes with an impartial rotation and unflagging ardor. Oncein a while some one privately gives him a new nickname for the next man"a-comin' down de lane, " and as he yawps it out the whole dance gathersnew mirth and speed. 

Now the third couple clasp hands, arch arms, and let the wholecountermarching train sweep through; and a beautiful arch they make, forthey are the aforesaid captain and Charlotte Oliver. "Handsround!"--hurrah for the whirling ellipse; and now it's "right and left"and two ellipses glide opposite ways, "to quile dat golden chain. " Inthe midst of the whirl, when every hand is in some other and men andgirls are tossing their heads to get their locks out of their eyes, atthe windows come unnoticed changes and two men loiter in by the fronthall door, close to the fiddler. One has his sword on, and each hispistols, and their boots and mud-splashed uniforms of dubious blue arewet and steamy. The one without the sword gives the fiddler a fresh nameto sing out when the spinning ring shall straighten into its two gayranks again, and bids him--commandingly--to yell it; and with never asuspicion of what it stands for, the stamping and scraping fiddlershouts the name of a man who "loves a good story with apositive passion. "

 "Come _a-left_, come a-right, Come yo' _lily_-white hand, Fo' to _quile_ dat _golden cha--ain_. O _ladies_ caper light-- Sweetest _ladies_ in de land--NED FERRY's a-comin' down de la--ane!"

[Illustration: Musical Notation]

XLVII

HE'S DEAD. --IS SHE ALIVE?

Cries of masculine anger and feminine affright filled the hall, but oneringing order for silence hushed all, and the dance stood still with NedFerry in its centre. In his right hand, shoulder high, he held not hissword, but Charlotte's fingers lightly poised for the turn in thearrested dance. "Stand, gentlemen, every man is covered by two; look atthe doors; look at the windows. " The staff captain daringly sprang forthe front door, but Ferry's quick boot caught his instep and he struckthe floor full length. Like lightning Ferry's sword was out, but he onlygave it a deferential sweep. "Sir! better luck next time!--LieutenantQuinn, put the Captain in your front rank. "

Quinn hustled the captives "down a lane, " as the fiddler might havesaid, of Ferry's scouts, mounted them on their own horses at the door, and hurried them away. Charlotte had vanished but was back again in hatand riding-skirt. Ferry caught her hand and they ran to the frontveranda steps just as the prisoners and guard rode swiftly from them. Kendall and I had the stirrup ready for her; the saddle was a man's, butshe made a horn of its pommel, and in a flash the four of us weremounted. Nevertheless before we could move the grove resounded withshots, and Ferry, bidding us ride on after the fleeing guard, wheeledand galloped to where half our troop were holding back their assailantsin the dark. But then, to our distraction, Charlotte would not fly. "Richard, I'm paroled!"--"Charlotte Oliver, you're my prisoner!" Ireached for her bridle, but she avoided me and with a cry ofrecollection wheeled and was on her way back. "I forgot something! I canget it, I left the room lighted!"

I remember vividly yet the high purpose and girlish propitiation thatrang together in her voice. Kendall dashed after her while I wentagainst a wet bough that all but threw me; but before he could reach hershe flew up the steps, crying "Hold my horse!"

"Mine, too!" I cried, springing up after her. How queerly the innerhouse stood alight and silent, its guests and inmates hidden, whileoutside pistols and carbines flashed and cracked. I came upon Charlotte, just recrossing her chamber to leave it, with her doll in her arms. "Come!" I cried, "our line is falling back behind the house!" Her headflinched aside, a bit of her hat flew from it, and a pistol-ball burieditself in the ceiling straight over my head. We ran downstairs together, pulling, pushing and imploring each other in the name of honor, duty andheaven to let him--let her--go out first through the bright hall door. Kendall was not in sight, but in a dim half-light a few yards off we sawOliver. He was afoot, bending low, and gliding toward us with hisrevolver in his left hand. He fired as I did; her clutch spoiled my aim;with eager eyes she straightened to her finest height, cried "Richard!tell Lieutenant Ferry he--" and with a long sigh sank into my arms. Arush of hoofs sounded behind Oliver, he glanced up, and Ferry's bladefell across his brow and launched him face upward to the ground. I sawa bunch of horses, with mine, at the foot of the steps, and a bunch ofmen at the top; Ferry snatched Charlotte's limp form from me and saidover his shoulder as he went down the steps, "Go get him and bring himalong, dead or alive!"

I called a man to my aid and was unlucky in not getting the cool-headedKendall, for my own wits were gone. The next moment all had left us andI was down on the ground toiling frantically, with no help but one handof my mounted companion, to heave the stalwart frame of Oliver up tomy saddle. 

"Why, he's dead!" cried the lad, letting him slide half-way down when wehad all but got him up; "don't you see he's dead? His head's laid wideopen! He's as dead as a mackerel! I'll _swear_ we ain't got any right toget captured trying to save a dead Yankee. "

I was in despair; our horses had caught our frenzy and were plunging tobe after their fellows, and a fresh body of the enemy were hurtling intothe grove. Dropping my burden I vaulted up, and we scurried away, savedonly by the enemy's healthy fear of an ambush. The first man we came upwith was Quinn, with the rear-guard. "Is he dead?" he growled. 

"Dead as Adam!" said I, and my comrade put in "Head laid wide open!"

"Drop back into the ranks, " said Quinn to him. "Smith, ride on toLieutenant Ferry. Corporal, "--to a man near him--"you know the way sowell, go with him. "

The two of us sprang forward. How long or what way we went I have nowno clear idea, but at length we neared again the grapevine ferry. Thestream was swollen, we swam our horses, and on the farther side we foundKendall waiting. To the corporal's inquiry he replied that Ferry hadjust passed on. "You know Roy's; two miles off the Plank Road by thefirst right? He expects to stop there. "

"Is she alive, Kendall?" I interrupted. "Is she alive?"

"No, " said he, to some further question of the corporal; "I'm to waithere for the command. "

"Is she alive, Kendall?" I asked again. 

"Hello, Smith. " He scanned my dripping horse. "Your saddle's slipped, Smith. Yes, she's alive. "

XLVIII

IN THE HOLLOW OF HIS RIGHT ARM

"There they are!" said the corporal and I at the same moment, when wehad been but a few minutes on the Plank-road. Two men were ahead of usriding abreast, and a few rods in front of them was a third horseman, apparently alone. Two others had pushed on, one to the house, the otherfor surgical aid. The two in the rear knew us and let us come upunchallenged; the corporal stayed with them, and I rode on to myleader's side. 

Charlotte lay in his double clasp balanced so lightly on the horse'screst as hardly to feel the jar of his motion, though her head lay asnearly level with it as Ferry's bending shoulders and the hollow of hislowered right arm would allow; from under his other arm her relaxedfigure, in its long riding-skirt, trailed down over his knee andstirrup; her broad limp hat, as if it had been so placed in sport, hungat his back with its tie-ribbons round his throat, while the blackmasses of her hair spread in ravishing desolation over and under hissupporting arm. Her face was fearfully pale, the brows glistened withthe damp of nervous shock, and every few moments she feebly brought ahandkerchief to her lips to wipe away the blood that rose to them withevery sigh. Steadfastly, except when her eyes closed now and then indeathly exhaustion, her gaze melted into his like a suffering babe'sinto its mother's. From time to time a brief word passed between them, and with joy I noticed that it was always in French; I hoped with mywhole heart and soul that they had already said things, and were sayingthings yet, which no one else ought to hear. I waited some time for hisnotice, and when he gave it it was only by saying to her in a full voiceand in English "Dick Smith is here, alongside of us. "

Her response was a question, which he repeated: "Is he hurt? no, Richardnever gets hurt. Shall he tell us whatever he knows?"

He bent low for the faint reply, and when it came he sparkled withpride. "'It matters little, ' she says, 'to either of us, now. ' Give yourreport; but _I_ tell you"--there came a tiger look in his eyes--"thereis now no turning back; we shall go on. " I answered with soft elation:"My news needn't turn you back: Oliver is dead. "

He drew a long breath, murmured "My God!" and then suddenly asked "Youfound him so, or--?"

"We found him so; had to leave him so; head laid wide open; we wereabout to be captured--thought the news would be better than nothing--"

"Certainly, yes, certainly. Now I want you to ride to the brigade campand telegraph Miss Harper this: 'She needs you. Come instantly. Durand. '"--I repeated it to him. --"Right, " he said. "Send that first;and after that--here is a military secret for you to tell to GeneralAustin; I think you like that kind, eh? Tell him I would not send itverbally if I had my hands free. You know that regiment at whoseheadquarters we saw them singing; well, tell him they are to make a moveto-day, a bad mistake, and I think if he will stay right there where heis till they make it, we can catch the whole lot of them. As soon asthey move I shall report to him. "

Two gasping words from Charlotte brought his ear down, and with aworshipping light in his eyes he said to her "Yes, --yes!" and then tome, "Yes, I shall report to him _in person_. Now, Smith, the top ofyour speed!"

Reveillé was sounding as I entered the camp. In the middle of my storyto the General--"Saddle my horse, " he said to an attendant, "and sendMr. Gholson to me. Yes, Smith, well, what then?"--I resumed, but in aminute--"Mr. Gholson, good-morning. My compliments to Major Harper, Mr. Gholson, and ask him if he wouldn't like to take a ride with me; andlet me have about four couriers; and send word to Colonel Dismukes thatI shall call at his headquarters to see him a moment, on my way out ofcamp. Now, Smith, you've given me the gist of the matter, haven't you?Oh, I think you have; good-morning. "

Gholson had helped me get the despatch off to Miss Harper, whose comingno one could be more eager to hasten. Before leaving camp I saw himagain. He was strangely reticent; my news seemed to benumb and sickenhim. But as I remounted he began without connection--"You see, she'll beabsolutely alone until Miss Harper gets there; not a friend within call!_He_ won't be there, she won't let him stay; she dislikes him too much;I _know_ that, Smith. Why, Smith, she wouldn't ever 'a' let him carryher off the field if she'd been conscious; she'd sooner 'a' gone to ShipIsland, or to death!" He looked as though he would rather she had. Histongue, now it had started, could not stop. "Ned Ferry can't stay byher; he mustn't! he hadn't ought to use around anywheres near her. "

I gave a sort of assent--attended with nausea--and turned to my saddle, but he clung. "Why, how can he hang around that way, Smith, and he asuitor who's just killed her husband? Of course, now, he'd ought to knowhe can't ever be one henceforth. I'm sorry for him, but--"

"Good-morning, " I interrupted, quite in the General's manner, and made aspirited exit, but it proved a false one; one thing had to be said, andI returned. "Gholson, if she should be worse hurt than--" "Ah! you'rethinking of the chaplain; I've already sent him. Yonder he goes, now;you can show him the way. "

"Understand, " I said as I wheeled, "I fully expect her to recover. "

"Yes, oh, yes!" replied my co-religionist, with feverish zest; "we musthave faith--for her sake! But o--oh! Smith, what a chastening judgmentthis is against dancing!"

I moved away, looking back at him, and seeing by his starved look how hewas racking his jaded brain for some excuse to go with me, I honestlybelieve I was sorry for him. The chaplain was a thick-set, clean-shaven, politic little fellow whose "Good-mawning, brothah?" had the heavysweetness of perfumed lard. We conversed fluently on spiritual mattersand also on Ned Ferry. He asked me if the Lieutenant was "a believer. "

"Why, " said I, "as to that, Lieutenant Ferry believes there's somethingright about everything that's beautiful, and something wrong abouteverything that isn't. Now, of course that's a very dangerous idea, andyet--" So I went on; ah me! the nightmare of it hangs over me yet, "religionist" though I am, after a fashion, unto this day. In Ferry'sdefence I maintained that only so much of any man's religion as fittedhim, and fitted him not as his saddle or his clothes, but as his nervoussystem fitted him, was really his, or was really religion. I said I knewa man whose ready-made religion, small as it was, bagged all over himand made him as grotesque as a child in his father's trousers. Thechaplain tittered so approvingly that I straightened to spout again, butjust then we saw three distant figures that I knew at a glance. 

"There he is, now!--Excuse me, sir--" I clapped in the spurs, but thechaplain clattered stoutly after me. The two horsemen moving from uswere the General and Major Harper, and the one meeting them was NedFerry. Between the three and us rose out of a hollow the squad ofcouriers. And yonder came the sun. 

XLIX

A CRUEL BOOK AND A FOOL OR TWO

I could see by Ferry's face that there was no worse news. He met measide, and privately bade me go to Roy's (where Charlotte was). "Kendallis there, " he said; "I leave you and him in charge. That will rest yourhorses. Kendall has your Yankee horse, his own is sick. You and Kendallget all the sleep you can, you may get none to-night. "

"Lieutenant, " I began eagerly as he was drawing away, "is--?"

"Yes! oh, yes, yes!" His eyes danced, and a soft laugh came, as happy asa child's. "The surgeon is yonder, he will tell you. "

This person Kendall and I had the luck to meet at the Roy'sbreakfast-table. "Yes, left lung, " he said. "No, hardly 'perforated, 'but the top deeply grazed. " The ball, he said, had passed on and out, and he went into particulars with me, while I wondered if Kendall knew, as I did, what parts of the body the pleura, the thorax, the clavicleand the pyemia were. 

We lay down to sleep on some fodder in the Widow Roy's stable, whilearound three sides of the place, in a deep wooded hollow, Quinn and thecompany, well guarded by hidden videttes, drowsed in secret bivouac. Idreamed. I had feared I should, and it would have been a sort of bitterheart's-ease to tell Kendall of my own particular haunting trouble. Fornow, peril and darkness, storm, hard riding, the uproar and rage ofman-killing, all past and gone, my special private wretchedness cameback to me bigger than ever, like a neglected wound stiffened andswollen as it has grown cold. But Kendall would not talk, and when Idreamed, my dream was not of Camille. It seemed to me there was a hotfight on at the front, and that I, in a sweat of terror, was at therear, hiding among the wagons and telling Gholson pale-faced lies as towhy I was there. All at once Gholson became Oliver, alive, bloody-handed, glaring on me spectrally, cursing, threatening, anddemanding his wife. His head seemed not "laid wide open, " but to haveonly a streak of the skull bared by Ferry's glancing left-cut and astrip of the scalp turned inside out. Cécile drew his head down andshowed it to me, in a transport of reproaches, as though my false reporthad wronged no one else so ruinously as her. 

I awoke aghast. If Kendall had still been with me I might, in the firstflush of my distress, have told my vision; but in the place whereKendall had lain lay Harry Helm. Kendall was gone; a long beam ofafternoon sunlight shone across my lair through a chink in the logstable. I sprang half up with an exclamation, and Harry awoke with aluxurious yawn and smile. Kendall, he said, had left with the company, which had marched. Quinn was in command and had told Harry that he wasonly going to show the enemy that there was no other hostile force intheir front, and get himself chased away southeastward. 

"I don't know whether he was telling me the truth or not, " said Helm, aswe led our saddled horses toward the house; "I reckon he didn't want mealongside of him with this arm in a sling. " The hand was bad; lines ofpain were on the aide's face. He had taken the dead Louisianian home, got back to camp, and ridden down here to get the latest news concerningCharlotte. Kendall had already given him our story of the night; I hadto answer only one inquiry. "Oh, yes, " was my reply, "head laid wideopen!" But to think of my next meeting with Ned Ferry almost mademe sick. 

Harry was delighted. "That lays their way wide open--Ned's and hers!Smith, some God-forsaken fool brought a chaplain here to talk religionto her! He hasn't seen her--Doctor wouldn't let him; but he's here yet, and--George! if I was them I'd put him to a better use than what he camehere for, and I'd do it so quick it would make his head swim!" He wenton into all the arguments for it; the awkwardnesses of Charlotte's newsituation, her lack of means for even a hand-to-mouth daily existence, and so on. Seeing an ambulance coming in through the front gate, and inorder not to lose the chance for my rejoinder, I interrupted. "Lieutenant, she will not allow it! She will make him wait a proper timebefore he may as much as begin a courtship, and then he will have tobegin at the beginning. She's not going to let Ned Ferry narrow or lowerher life or his--no, neither of them is going to let the other doit--because a piece of luck has laid the way wide open!" I ended with apomp of prophecy, yet I could hear Ned Ferry saying again, withCharlotte's assenting eyes in his, "There is no turning back. "

The driver of the ambulance did not know why he had been ordered toreport here, but when the Widow Roy came to the door she broughtexplanation enough. A courier had come to her and gone again, and thechaplain and the surgeon and every one else of any "army sort" except ustwo had "put out, " and she was in a sad flurry. "The Lieutenant, " shesaid, "writes in this-yeh note that this-yeh place won't be safe f'omthe Yankees much longer'n to-day, and fo' us to send the wounded lady inthe avalanch. Which she says, her own self, it'd go rough with her tofall into they hands again. My married daughter she's a-goin' with her, and the'd ought to be a Mr. Sm'--oh, my Lawdy! you ain't reg-lahly inthe ahmy, air you?"

With some slave men to help us, Harry and I bore Charlotte out and laidher in the ambulance, mattress and all, on an under bedding of fodder. She had begged off from opiates, and was as full of the old starlight asif the day, still strong, were gone. I helped the married daughter upbeside the driver, Harry and I mounted, and we set forth for thebrigade camp. Mrs. Roy's daughter had with her a new romance, which shehad been reading to Charlotte. Now she was eager to resume it, andCharlotte consented. It was a work of some merit; I have the volume yet, inscribed to me on the fly-leaf "from C. O. , " as I have once alreadystated, in my account of my friend "The Solitary. " At the end of a milewe made a change; Harry rode a few yards ahead with an officer whohappened to overtake us, I took the reins from the ambulance driver, andhe followed on my horse; I thought I could drive more smoothly than he. 

And so I began to hear the tale. I was startled by its strong reminderof Charlotte's own life; but Charlotte answered my anxious glance with abrow so unfretted that I let the reading go on, and so made a cruelmistake. At every turning-point in the story its reader would havepaused to talk it over, but Charlotte, with a steadily darkling brow, murmured each time "Go on, " and I was silent, hoping that farther alongthere would be a better place to stop for good. Not so; the story'swhirling flood swept us forward to a juncture ever drawing nearer andclearer, clearer and crueler, where a certain man would have to choosebetween the woman he loved and that breadth and fruitfulness of life towhich his splendid gifts imperiously pointed him. Oh, you story-tellers!Every next page put the question plainer, drove the iron deeper: must aman, or even may a man, wed his love, when she stands between him andhis truest career, a drawback and drag upon his finest service to hisrace and day? And, oh, me! who let my eye quail when Charlotte searchedit, as though her own case had brought that question to me before everwe had seen this book. And, oh, that impenetrable woman reading! Herhusband was in Lee's army, out of which, she boasted, she would stealhim in a minute if she could. She was with us, now, only because, atwhatever cost to others, she was going where no advancement of theenemy's lines could shut her off from him; and so stop reading a momentshe must, to declare her choice for Love as against all the careers onearth, and to put that choice fairly to shame by the unworthiness of herpleadings in its defence. I intervened; I put her grovelling argumentsaside and thrust better ones in, for the same choice, and then, in thefear that they were not enough, stumbled into special pleading andprotested that the book itself had put the question unfairly. 

"Shut it, " said Charlotte, with a sigh like that which had risen whenthe lead first struck her. "If I could be moved ever so little, --"she said. 

I had the driver tie my horse behind the vehicle and resume the lines. Then the soldier's wife and I moved Charlotte, and when the reader beganto handle the book again wishfully our patient said, with the kindestvoice, "Read the rest of it to yourself; I know how it will end; it willend to please you, not as it ought; not as it ought. "

For a while we went in silence, and she must have seen that my heart wasin a rage, for with suffering on her brow, amusement on her lips, and asweet desperation in her eyes, she murmured my name. "Richard:--whatfun it must have been to live in those old Dark Ages--when all you hadto do--was to turn any one passion into--one splendid virtue--at theexpense--of all the rest. "

I could answer pleadingly that it were far better not to talk now. Butshe would go on, until in my helplessness I remarked how beautiful theday had been. Her eyes changed; she looked into mine with her calminward-outward ken, and once more with smiling lips and suffering browmurmured, "Yes. " I marvelled she should betray such wealth of meaning tosuch as I; yet it was like her splendid bravery to do it. 

At the brigade's picket, where I was angry that Ferry did not meet us, and had resumed the saddle and stretched all the curtains of theambulance, who should appear but Scott Gholson. Harry and I were ridingabreast in advance of the ambulance. Gholson and he barely saidgood-evening. I asked him where was Lieutenant Ferry, and scarcely notedhis words, so promptly convinced was I by their mere tone that he hadsomehow contrived to get Ferry sent on a distant errand. "Is shebetter?" he inquired; "has the hemorrhage stopped?"

"It's begun again, " growled Harry, who wanted both of us to suffer allwe could. Gholson led us through the camp. A large proportion of the menwere sleeping when as yet it was hardly night. 

"Has the brigade got marching orders?" I asked, and he said the threeregiments had, though not the battery. He passed over to me two pintbottles filled, corked, and dangling from his fingers by a stout doubletwine on the neck of each. "Every man has them, " he said; "hang one oneach side of your belt in front of your pistol. "

I held them up and scowled from them to Harry, and we both laughed, sotransparent was Gholson's purpose to get every one away from our patientwho yearned to be near her. "One in front of each pistol, " I said, sotying them; "but use the pistols first, I suppose. "

"Yes, " replied Gholson, "pistols first, and then the turpentine. "Whereat Harry and I exchanged glances again, it came so pat that ScottGholson should be a dispenser of inflammables. At a house a mile behindthe camp the surgeon stood waiting for us. He frowned at me the instanthe saw Charlotte, and I heard him swear. As we bore her in with Gholsonand me next her head she murmured to him:

"Mr. Gholson, when does the command move?"

"At twelve, " he replied, and I bent and softly added "That's why--"

"Yes, " she said, with a quick, understanding look, and wiped her lips asdaintily as if it were with wine they were crimsoned. 

L

THE BOTTOM OF THE WHIRLWIND

On my way back through camp with Gholson I saw old Dismukes. He calledme to him, quit his cards, and led me into his tent. There, verybeguilingly, he questioned me at much length, evidently seeking to drawfrom the web of my replies the thread of Ferry's and Charlotte's story;and as I saw that he believed in both of them with all his brutal might, I let him win a certain success. "Head laid wide open!" he saidgleefully, and boiled over with happy blasphemings. 

I left him, found supper, and had been long asleep tinder a tree, when Igrabbed savagely at some one for silently shaking me, and found it wasNed Ferry. His horse's bridle was in his hand; his face was more filledwith the old pain than I had ever seen it; he spoke low and hurriedly. "Come, tell me what this means. "

In an envelope addressed to him in the handwriting I had first seen atLucius Oliver's I found a scripture-text, a heading torn from a tractwhich the chaplain may have sent in to Charlotte in the morning. Iturned it to the light of my fire. Under this printed line she hadpencilled her name. 

I asked if he had seen her. "Ah, no! the Doctor has drugged her tosleep; but that woman who came with you was still in the parlor, readinga book, and she gave me this. What does it mean?"

"Lieutenant, " I replied, choking with dismay, "why mind her meaningsnow? Ought you not rather to ignore them? She is fevered, dejected, overwrought. Why, sir, she is the very woman to say and mean things nowwhich she would never say or mean at any other time!" But my tone musthave shown that I was only groping in desperation after anythingplausible, and he waved my suggestions away. 

"The Doctor says that woman has been reading her an exciting story. "

"Yes, and that helps to account--"

"Richard, it helps the wrong way; _I know that story_. After hearingthat story she is, yes! the one woman of all women to send me _this_. "

I took it again. The signature was extended in full, with the surnameblackly underlined. The first clause of the print, too, was so treated. "_Keep thy heart_, " it read; "_Keep thy heart_ with all diligence; forout of it are the issues of life. --Charlotte _Oliver_. "

"Why, Lieutenant, that is just what you have done--"

"You think so? But I _have done_. I will keep it no longer! Ah, I neverkept it; 'twas she! Without taking it from me she kept it--'with alldiligence'; otherwise I should have lost it--and her, too--and all thatis finest and hardest to keep--long ago. Give me that paper; come;saddle up; you may go with me if you want, as my courier. " No bugle hadsounded, yet the whole camp was softly and diligently astir. We rodetoward the staff tents; the pulse of enterprise enlivened him once more, though he clung to the same theme. "I have _her_ heart now, Smith, and Iwill keep _that_ with all diligence, for out of _that_ are the issuesof _my_ life--if I live. And if I do live I will have her if I have tosteal her even from herself, as last night from the Yankees. "

Three hours later the stars still gleamed down through the balmy nightabove the long westward-galloping column of our brigade, that for thosethree hours had not slackened from the one unmitigated speed. TheFederal regiment of whose plans Charlotte had apprised Ferry had beencamped well to southward of this course, but in the day just past theyhad marched to the north, intending a raid around our right and into ourrear. To-night they were resting in a wide natural meadow through themiddle of which ran this road we were on. Around the southern edge ofthis inviting camp-ground by a considerable stream of water; thenorthern side was on rising ground and skirted by woods, and in thesewoods as day began to break stood our brigade, its presence utterlyunsuspected in all that beautiful meadow whitened over with lane uponlane of the tents of the regiment of Federal cavalry, whose pickets wehad already silently surprised and captured. Now, as warily as quails, we moved along an unused, woodcutters' road and began to trot up agentle slope beyond whose crest the forest sank to the meadow. We werewithin a few yards of this crest, when a small mounted patrol came upfrom the other side, stood an instant profiled against the sky, bentlow, gazed, wheeled and vanished. 

Over the crest we swept after them at a gallop and saw them half-waydown an even incline, going at a mad run and yelling "Saddle up! saddleup! the rebels are coming! saddle up!" The bugles had begun thereveillé; it ceased, and the next instant they were sounding the call ToArms. It was only a call to death; already we were half across the shortdecline and coming like a tornado; in the white camp the bluecoats wererunning hither and yon deaf to the brave shoutings of their captains;above the swelling thunder of our hoofs rose the mad yell of the onset;and now carbines peal and pistols crack, and here are the tents so closeyou may touch them, and yonder is one already in a light blaze, and atevery hand and under every horse's foot is the crouching, quailing, falling foe, the air is one crash of huzzas and groans, screams, shotsand commands, horses with riders and horses without plunge through theflames and smoke of the burning tents, and again and again I see NedFerry with the flat of his unstained sword strike pistol or carbine fromhands too brave to cast them tamely down, and hear him cry "Throw downyour arms! For God's sake throw down your arms and run to the road! runto the public road!"

And still every moment men fell, and what could we do but smite whilethe foe's bugles still rang out from beside his unfurled standard. Thitherward sprang a swarm of us and found a brave group massed on footaround the colors, men and officers shoulder to shoulder in suddenequality. I saw Ned Ferry make straight for their commander, who alonehad out his sabre; the rest stood with cocked revolvers, and at twentyyards fired low. Ferry's horse was hit; he reared, but the spur carriedhim on; his rider's sword flashed up and then down, the Federal's sabreturned it, the pistols cracked in our very faces, and down went myleader and his horse into the bottom of the whirlwind, right under thestandard. I saw the standard-bearer bring down one of our men on top ofFerry, and as Ferry half regained his feet the Federal aimed point-blankagainst his breast. But it was I who fired and the Federal who fell. Ashe reeled I stretched out for the standard, and exactly together NedFerry and I seized it--the same standard we had seen the night before. But instantly, graciously, he thrust it from him. "Tis yours!" he criedin the midst of a general huzza, smiling up at it and me as I swung thetrophy over my head. Then he turned ghastly pale, his smile faded to anunmeaning stare, two or three men leaped to his side, and he sanklifelessly into their arms beside his dying horse. 

I was swinging from the saddle to my leader's relief, when a familiarvoice forbade it, and old Dismukes came by at a long trot, pointingforward with the reddest sabre I ever saw, and bellowing to right andleft with oaths and curses "Fall in, every man, on yon line! Ride to yonline and fall in, there's more Yankees coming! Ride down yonder andfa'--_here_, you, Legs, there! follow me, and shoot down every man thatstops to plunder!"

Now I saw the new firing-line, out on our left, and as the rattle of itquickened, the Colonel galloped, still roaring out his rallying-criesand wiping his reeking blade across his charger's mane. Throngs gatheredafter him; the high-road swarmed with prisoners double-quicking to therear under mounted guards; here, thinly stretched across the road atright-angles, were our horse-holders, steadily, coolly falling back;farther forward, yet vividly near, was our skirmish-line, crackling andsmoking, and beyond it the enemy's, in the edge of a wood, not yet quiteventuring to fling itself upon us. We passed General Austin standing, mounted, at the top of the rise, with a number of his staff about him. Minie balls had begun to sing about them and us, and some officer wastelling me rudely I had no business bringing that standard--whensomething struck like a sledge high up on my side, almost in thearm-pit; I told one of our men I was wounded and gave him the trophy, our horse-holders suddenly came forward, every man afoot rose into hissaddle, and my horse wheeled and hurried rearward at a speed I strove invain to check. Then the old messmate to whom I had said good-bye at thisvery hour just a week before, came and held me by the right arm, while Ibegged him like a drunk-and-disorderly to let me go and find Ned Ferry. 

But he said Lieutenant Ferry was in a captured ambulance ahead of us andof our hundreds of prisoners, that a full creek and a burning bridgewere between us and the foe, and that the fight was over. 

LI

UNDER THE ROOM WHERE CHARLOTTE LAY

The fight was over only in degree. Our brigade was drawing away into thenorth and the enemy were pressing revengefully after them. Our hundredsof prisoners and our few wounded were being taken back eastward over theroad by which we had come in the night, and even after we had turnedinto it I saw a Yankee shell kill a wounded man and his horse not thirtyyards from me. 

Before we had gone another mile I met Harry Helm. The General had lefthim in camp with flat orders to remain, but at daylight he had riddenout to find us. He was in two tremendous moods at once; lifted to heavenon the glory of our deeds, yet heart-broken over the fate of Ned Ferry. "Surgeon's told him he can't live, Dick! And all the effect that'shad--'No opiates, then, Doctor, ' s'e, 'till I get off these two or threedespatches. ' So there he lies in that ambulance cross-questioningprisoners and making everybody bring him every scrap of information, asif he were General Austin and Major Harper rolled into one and they werewounded instead of him--By George! Dick, he knows you're hit and justhow you're hit, and has sent me to find you!"

I said I thought I could gallop if Harry could, and in a few minutes wewere up with the ambulance. It had stopped. There were several men aboutit, including Sergeant Jim and Kendall, which two had come from Quinn, and having just been in the ambulance, at Ferry's side, were nowremounting, both of them openly in tears. "Hello, Kendall. "

"Hello, Smith. " He turned sharply from me, horse and all. 

"Good-morning, sergeant, is Lieutenant Ferry--worse?"

The sergeant only jabbed in the spurs, and leapt away with Kendall, bearing despatches to the brigade. Harry, looking back to me from theambulance, called softly, "All right again; it was only a bad swoon!"

"Hello, Smith, " said some one whom I was too sick and dizzy torecognize, "one of those prisoners says he saw Oliver dead. "

They say two or three men sprang to catch me, but the first thing I knewwas that the ambulance was under way and I in it on my back withinelbow-touch of Ferry, looking up into a surgeon's face. "How's theLieutenant?" I asked. 

"Oh--getting on, getting on, " he replied. Doctors think patients arefools. 

In a parlor under the room where Charlotte lay they made a bed for Ferryand one for me, and here, lapped in luxury and distinction, I promptlyfell asleep, and when I reopened my eyes it was again afternoon. In theother bed Ferry was slumbering, and quite across the room, beside aclosed door, sat Cécile and Camille. The latter tiptoed to me. Herwhispers were as soft as breathing, and when I answered or questioned, her ear sank as near as you would put a rose to smell it. "TheLieutenant, sleeping? yes, this hour past; surgeons surprised and morehopeful. Miss Estelle? in another room with other wounded. Her aunt?upstairs with Charlotte, who was--oh--getting on, getting on. " That mademe anxious. 

"Does Charlotte, " I asked, "know--everything?"

Camille allowed herself all the motions of a laugh, and said "No, notquite everything;" and then with solemn tenderness she added thatCharlotte knew about Ferry. "And she knows about _you, "_ the whispererwent on; "they all know. "

I thought she was alluding to the verses, and had an instant of terrorand rage before I saw what she meant. She glided back to the door andthe two opened it an inch or so to answer some inquirer without. I sawher no more until bedtime, when she stood at her aunt's elbow to handand hold things, while Miss Harper, to my all but screamingembarrassment, bared the whole upper half of one side of me and washedand dressed my wound anew. Ferry it was imperative to let alone, butwhen I awoke the next morning there was a radiance of joy throughout allthe house; for he had slept and improved. The next morning again he wasever so much stronger, and Harry Helm rode off in simulated disgust, notseeing "any fun in hanging round girls who were hanging roundother fellows. "

Another day arose. A courier brought passes for our three or four otherwounded to go home as soon as they were fit to travel, and by night theywere all gone. At early bedtime came two surgeons of high rank all theway from Johnston's army up in Mississippi. General Austin had askedthis favor by telegraph. Harry had been gone thirty-six hours, and Ferrywas just asking if he had not yet got back, when the surgeons came in tothe room. A pleasantry or two consumed a few moments. Then the surgeonin charge of us told of a symptom or two, to which they responded only"hmm, " and began the examination. Miss Harper sent her three niecesaway. I lay and listened in the busy stillness. Presently one of theexaminers murmured with a certain positiveness to the other, who after amoment's silence replied with conviction; Miss Harper touched oursurgeon's arm inquiringly and he looked back in a glad way and nodded. Miss Harper nodded to me; they had located the ball! Now theconversation turned upon men and events of the day, while one of thevisitors, with his back to the patient, opened a case of glitteringknives. Presently the professional heads came so close together as quiteto hide the patient; they spoke once or twice in a manly soothing tone. Miss Harper stroked my temples to keep me down, one of the busy onesspoke again, and lo! the thing was done, there was the ball in thebasin. As the men of blood sped through their kind after-work the newsflew to and fro; Camille wept, --since she could not hurrah, --Cécile toldCharlotte, the heavenly-minded Estelle was confirmed in her faith, MissHarper's black eyes, after a brief overflow, were keener and kindlierthan ever, and as the surgeons spoke the word "done, " Ferry asked againif Harry had not got back yet. Pretty soon Harry did arrive, with newsof great feats by our cavalry against our old enemy Grierson, in whichAustin's brigade had covered themselves with glory, and in which he hadhad his own share; his hand was swelled as big as his heart. In all theConfederacy no houseful went to sleep that night in sweeter content. Isank into perfect bliss planning a double wedding. 

LII

SAME BOOK AND LIGHT-HEAD HARRY

The next day found me so robustly happy that I was allowed to dress andwalk out to the front door. Three days later the surgeons were gone, allthree, and at the approach of dew-fall Cécile and Harry, Camille and I, walked in a field-path, gathered hedge roses, and debated the problem ofMrs. Roy's daughter's book, which all of us were reading and nonehad finished. 

"A woman, " I remarked, "who, for very love of a man, can say to him, 'Goon up the hill without me, I have a ball and chain on my foot and youshall not carry them and me, you have a race to run, '--a woman sowonderfully good as to say that--"

"Ah, no!" interrupted Cécile, with her killing Creole accent, "not awoman so _good_ to say that, only with the so-good _sanse_ to say it. "

Harry was openly vexed. "Well, either way! would any true man leave_that_ woman behind?" and I tried to put in that that was what I hadbeen leading up to; but it makes me smile yet, to recall how jauntilyshe discomfited us both. She triumphed with the airy ease of a king-birdrouting a crow in the upper blue. Camille had more than once told methat Cécile was wise beyond the hope of her two cousins to emulate her;which had only increased my admiration for Camille; yet now I began tosee how the sisters came by their belief. In the present discussion shewas easily first among the four of us. At the same time her sensuousgraces also took unquestionable preëminence; city-bred though she was, she had the guise of belonging to the landscape, or, rather, of thelandscape's belonging, by some fairy prerogative, to her. She seemedjust let loose into the world, yet as ready and swift to make right useof it as any humming-bird let into a garden; as untimorous as any such, and as elusive. In this sultry June air she had all the animation bothof mind and of frame that might have been expected of her on a keen, clear winter day. Her face never bore the same expression at thebeginning and middle, or at either of these and the close, of any of herspeeches, yet every change was lovely, the sign of a happy play offeeling, and proof of a mercurial intelligence. No report of them bythis untrained pen would fully bear me out, and the best tribute I canoffer is to avoid the task. 

It was a sweet mercy in her to change the subject, and tactful to changeit to Charlotte, as if Charlotte were quite an unrelated theme. Thecousins vied with each other ever so prettily in telling how beautifulthe patient was on her couch of enfeeblement and pain, how her formerloveliness had increased, and what new nobility it had taken on. Thatany such problem overhung her life as that which we had just beenweighing, seemed never to have entered their thought, and if they hadever conceived of a passion already conscious between Charlotte andFerry, they veiled the fact with charming feminine art. 

When we got back to the house Harry detained me on the veranda alone. Camille told me how long I might tarry. It was heaven to have her bit inmy mouth, and I found it hard to be grum even when Harry beat with hisgood hand the rhythm of "Maiden passing fair, turn away thine eyes. "

"Dick, " he said, suddenly grave as he walked me down the veranda, "hercousin Cécile! isn't it awful? Now that poor girl's gone back to Ned'sbedside; back to her torture! Why _do_ they let her? My George! it'smerciless! Has her aunt no eyes?"

"But, Lieutenant, you don't know she loves him; there are signs, Iadmit; but proofs, no. She's lost color, and her curves are moreslender, but, my goodness! a dozen things might account for that. "

"Dick Smith, "--my questioner worked himself up over the rail and sat outon the shelf that held the bucket of drinking-water and its gourd--"doyou imagine she didn't know, when we were talking about that book, thatshe was arguing against the union of Ned Ferry and Charlotte Oliver?_Didn't_ she do it bravely! Richard, my friend, she couldn't have doneit if she had suspected us of suspecting her. It's a bleeding pity! Andyet you can't side with her, for I just swear Ned's got to haveCharlotte Ol'--what? No, he won't overhear a blank word; here's hiswindow shut, right here. He's got to have her, I say, and he's got tohave her just as soon as the two of 'em can stand up together to besworn in! Don't you say so?"

I replied that I was not aware of any one who did not say so. 

"Well, I can name several! I don't call Scott Gholson anybody, butthere's Major Harper--No, I'm not talking too loud, Ned isn't hearing aword. Major Harper's so hot against this thing that he brought it up, with me, yesterday on the battlefield. "

"Major Harper doesn't really know her, " I softly remarked. 

Harry swore with military energy. "I told him he didn't, and he fairlysnorted. _We_ don't know her, he says; you nor I nor his sister nor hisniece nor his daughters, oh, we don't know her at all; and neither do weknow Ned; Ned has graceful manners, and she's a born actress, and we'resimply infatuated by their romantic situation. Good Lordy! he got up onhis Charleston pride-of-family like a circus-girl on stilts, and 'EdgardFerry-Durand has got a great public career before him, ' s's he, 'and notrue friend will let him think of taking a wife who is all history andno antecedents, a blockade-runner, a spy, and the brand-new widow of ablackguard and a jayhawker she had run away from practically on herwedding-night. ' Hy Jo'! the way he went on, you'd 'a' thought he wasalready Ned's uncle-in-l'--" The speaker's face took a suddendistress--"Great Caesar!" He pointed up to the second-story front roomand slipped down from the shelf just as Estelle came out to us with heraunt's message for me to come in. 

"How's the fair patient?" I hurried to ask as the three of us went. 

"Why, Mr. Smith, she's actually been sitting up--in the twilight--atthe open window--while Aunt Martha and I smoothed up her bed. "Harry groaned. 

"She's still very weak, " said Aunt Martha when we came to her; "themoment her bed was made up she asked to lie down again. "

"Yes, " softly exclaimed Camille, "but, oh, aunt Martha, with suchcourage in those eyes!"

"Smith, " privately asked the agonized Harry, "what would you do if youwere in my place; go and cut your throat from ear to ear?"

"No, " I said, as black as an executioner, "but I wish you'd done ityesterday. "

LIII. 

"CAPTAIN, THEY'VE GOT US"

More days slipped by. Neighbors pressed sweet favors upon us; calls, joyful rumors, delicacies, flowers. One day Major Harper paid us aflying visit, got kisses galore, and had his coat sponged and hisbuttons reanimated. In the small town some three miles northwest of ushe was accumulating a great lot of captured stuff. On another day cameGeneral Austin and stayed a whole hour. Ferry took healing delight inthese visits, asking no end of questions about the movements afield, and about the personal fortunes of everyone he knew. When the Generaltold him Ferry's scouts were doing better without him than with him--"Ithought he would smile himself into three pieces, " said the General atthe supper-table. 

On a second call from Major Harper, when handed a document to open andread, he went through it carefully twice, and then dropping it on thecoverlet asked--"and Quinn?"

"Oh, Quinn's turn will come. "

"Ah! Major, that is not fair to Quinn!" said Ferry. Yet when he took upthe paper again he gazed on it with a happy gravity; it made him acaptain. "By the by, " he said, "that Yankee horse that Dick Smithcaptured at Sessions's; I'd like to buy that horse from you, Major. "They made the sale. "And there's that captured ambulance still here, Major, with its team eating their heads off. "

"Yes, I'm going to take that away with me to-day. "

This meant that Charlotte's negro man and his daughter, her maid, hadcome with her spring-wagon, and Harry and I would have liked the Majorbetter if he had smiled at this point, as he did not. Yet he was mostlovable; sent so kind a message up to Charlotte that Harry and Iwondered; and received back from her a reply so gracious that--since wecould not wonder--we worshipped. In the evening of that day Ferry andCharlotte were transferred, she into the room behind her, and heupstairs into the one out of which she was taken. That night a slave andhis wife, belonging to the place, ran away to the enemy. If they shouldtell the Yankees Ned Ferry was here--! "By Jo'!" said Harry Helm, "I'mglad I didn't cut my throat; I told that darkey, yesterday, Ned's namewas O'Brien!"

Toward the close of that day came tidings of the brigade's splendid workat a steamboat-landing on the Mississippi River, how they had stolen inby night between two great bodies of the enemy, burned a vast store ofmilitary supplies, and then brilliantly cut their way out; yet we weretold to be ready to withdraw into Mississippi again as soon as our newlymade captain could safely be moved. Pooh! what of that? Lee was on hisway into Pennsylvania; the war was nearly over, sang the Harper girls, and we were the winners! They cheerily saw Helm and me, next morning, ride southward in search of further good news. At a cross-roads Iproposed that we separate, and meet there again near the end of the day. He turned west; I went an hour's ride farther south and then turnedwest myself. 

When we met again I knew that he--while he did not know that I--had beento Gilmer's plantation. We wanted to see if the Federals had left agrave there. They had left three, and a young girl who had been one ofthe dancers told me she had seen Oliver's body carried off by two bluetroopers who growled and cursed because they had been sent back to buryit. Neither Harry nor I mentioned the subject when we met at thecross-roads again, for we came on our horses' necks at a stretched outrun; the Federals were rolling up from the south battalion afterbattalion, hoping to find Major Harper's store of supplies feeblyguarded and even up with us for that steamboat-landing raid. Presentlyas we hurried northward we began to hear, off ahead of us on our left, the faint hot give-and-take of two skirmish lines. We came into thehomestead grove at a constrained trot and found the ladies out on theveranda in liveliest suspense between scepticism and alarm. 

"Yes, they're fighting, now, on the edge of town, " we said, "but ourboys will keep them there. " Our host and hostess moaned their unbelief. "However, " added Harry, "I'll go tell the old man to hitch up the littlemules and--"

"You dawn't need, " said Cécile, "'tis done!" and Camille confirmed herword, while the planter and his wife returned to the kitchen yard, wherethe servants were loading the smokehouse meat into a wagon to hide it inthe woods; Miss Harper and Estelle went into the house, summoned byCharlotte's maid. On Ferry's chamber floor sounded three measured thumpsof his scabbarded sword. 

"Dick, you answer that, " exclaimed Harry, reining in half wheeled; "butkeep him on his back, if you have to hold him down!" He spurred away tolearn whether we had better stay or fly. I threw my rein to Camille andflew up the hall stairs. 

Ferry lay in bed with three pillows behind him and his sheathed swordacross his lap. "Good-evening, Richard, " he said, "you are returned justin time; will you please hand me my two pistol' from yonder?--thankyou. " He laid one beside each thigh. "Now please turn the head of mybed a little bit, to face the door--thank you; and now, good-bye. Youhear those footstep' there in the room behind? she is dressing to go;the other ladies they are helping her. Richard, I place them in yourcharge; have them all ready to get into her wagon at a moment's notice, with you on your horse--and you better take that Jewett horse, too; hecame to-day. "

I hesitated, but a single flash of authority from his eye was enough andI had passed half-way to the door, when, through the window over thefront veranda, I saw a small body of horsemen trotting up through thegrove. The dusk of the room hid me, but there was no mistaking them. "Too late, Captain, " I said, "they've got us. "

"How many do you see?"

"About sixteen. Our two horses will be Yankees again to-morrow. "

"Ah! not certainly. Where is your carbine?"

"Just outside this door. They know you're here, Captain, they'resurrounding the house. " As I reached toward the door I heard his swordcrawl out, the doorknob clicked without my touching it, the door swungand closed again, and Charlotte Oliver was with us. The light of thewestern window shone full upon her; she was in the same dress, hat andall, in which I had seen her the night we rode together alone. Thoughwasted and pale, she betrayed a flush on either cheek and a smile thatmated with the sweet earnest of her eyes. She tendered me my carbine, patted my hand caressingly, and glided onward to Ferry's bedside. Withmy back to them and my ear to the door I hearkened outward. In the frontdoorway below sounded the jingling tread of cavalry-boots and a clankof sabres. 

LIV

THE FIGHT IN THE DOORWAY

Charlotte's whisper came to me: "Richard!" Standing by Ferry's pillowshe spoke for him. "If they start upstairs come and stand like me, onthe other side. "

I nodded and slyly opened the door enough to pass half-way out. Some manwas parleying with Miss Harper. "Now, madam, you know you haven't lockedup your parlor to maintain an abstract right; you've locked it upbecause you've got the man in there that I've come for. "

"Whom have you come for, sir?"

"Lieutenant O'Brien, of the rebel army. Shall I order this man to kickthat door in? Answer quickly. "

"Sir, there is no Lieutenant O'Brien in there, nor elsewhere in thishouse; there never has been. "

"Stand aside, madam. "

"Stop, sir! I command you! There is no Lieutenant of any name on thisplace!"

"Oh, yes there is; he goes by various names, but one of them is NedFerry. Sergeant, we'll kick together; now!"--Bang!

I leaned back into the room to say "It's all right! Oh, but that sweetwoman's a 'coon! Let them batter!" As I thrust my head out again MissHarper was exclaiming "Oh, sirs, don't do that!"--Bang!--"For the honorof your calling and your flag--" Bang!

"There's no Lieutenant in there. " Bang!

"Corporal, go find an axe or something. "

"Oh, you need not, sirs, I'll unlock the door. "

"Well, be quick about it, and then stand clear; we don't want any womanhurt. " The key rattled at the keyhole and then dropped to the floor. "You did that by intention! Give me that key!" He tried the lock. "We'vejammed it, corporal, but another good kick will fetch it;now!"--Bang!--crash!--open flew the door. 

"Well, I will be damned!" said the officer. 

"Sir, " said Miss Harper, "you give me no occasion to doubt it. " Shefollowed the men upstairs. "Estelle, go back to your sister and cousin;and if you, my dear, "--to our hostess--"will kindly go also, and staywith them--"

I closed the door. It had no key, but there was a small catch to theknob and I turned it on while the men were looking into the adjacentrooms. When they reached ours Miss Harper was again at their front. Inside, the three of us silently noted our strategic advantages: we werein the darkest part of the room, the bed's covering was a dull red, Ferry had on his shirt of black silk, the white pillows were hidden athis back, Charlotte and I were darkly clad, the light from our westwindow would be in our assailants' faces as they entered, and they wouldbe silhouetted against a similar light from the hall's front. Wenoiselessly cocked our weapons and Charlotte and I each sank to oneknee. "The door is very thin, " murmured Ferry, "we can fire before theyenter; they will get, anyhow, our smoke, and if they fire as they rushin we can aim under their flash. "

It was only then that I observed that Charlotte was armed. But the factmade her seem only the more a true woman, since I knew that only for herhonor or his life would she ever take deadly aim. Her weapon was theslender revolver she had carried ever since the day which had made herCharlotte Oliver, the thing without which she never could have reachedthis hour of blissful extremity. 

"In here there is a lady, ill, " we heard Miss Harper say. 

"Is she alone?"

Ferry prompted in a whisper, the three of us cried "Yes!" and he added"Pass one side from the door, Miss Harper, we are going to shootthrough it. "

"Hello, in there! Lieutenant Ferry, of Ferry's scouts, "--

"_Captain_ Ferry, " retorted Miss Harper, and I echoed the amendment. 

"Damn the difference; I give you one half-minute, Captain Ferry, to sayyou surrender! If you weren't wounded I wouldn't give you that. Corporal, go get a log out of that fireplace downstairs. "

"Oh, shame!" wailed Miss Harper, half-way down the hall. 

"Captain, " called Ferry, "I give you one quarter-minute to get away fromthat door. " He whispered to Charlotte, pointing to a panel of it higherthan any one's head. 

"Oh, sirs, " we again heard Miss Harper cry, "withhold! Captain Ferry, they have called in four more men!" We heard the four downstairs comingat a run. "Oh, sir--"

"Go away, madam!" bellowed the officer as his men thundered into theupper hall. "Now, Captain Ferry, there are six of us here and threeunder each of your windows. Do you--?"

"Oh, sir, the lady! the sick lady!"

"That's his look-out, madam. If the sick lady isn't Charlotte Oli'--"

"And if she is?" called Ferry, depressing Charlotte's weapon to an aimbarely breast high. 

"Then throwing away your life won't save hers! Do you surren'--?"

Ferry made a quick gesture for her to shoot low, but she solemnly shookher head and fired through the top of the uppermost panel, and theassault came. 

The log burst the door in at a blow, Ferry and I fired, and our foessprang in. Certainly they were brave; the doorway let them in only bytwos, and the fire-log, falling under foot, became a stumbling-block;yet in an instant the room was ringing and roaring with the fray andbenighted with its smoke. Their first ball bit the top of my shoulderand buried itself in the wall--no, not their first, but the first saveone; for the bureau mirror stood in dim shade, and the Federal leadermade the easy mistake of firing right into it. The error sealed hisfate; Ferry fired under his flash and sent him reeling into the arms ofhis followers. They replied hotly but blindly, and in a moment the roomwas void of assailants. Ferry started to spring from the bed, butCharlotte threw her arms about him, and as she pressed her head harddown on his breast I could not help but hear "No, my treasure, myheart's whole treasure, no!"

LV

RESCUE AND RETREAT

I sprang for the door, but the fire-log sent me sprawling with myshoulder on the threshold. As I went down I heard in the same breath thewounded officer wailing "Go back! go in! there are only four of them!don't leave one alive!" and Miss Harper all but screaming "Our men! ourmen! God be praised, our men are coming, they are here! Fly spoilers, for your lives, fly!"

And it was true. Their hoofs rumbled, their carbines banged, and theircharge struck three sides of the house at once. Rising only to myelbows, --and how I did that much, stiffened with my wound, the doctorswill have to explain, --I laid my cheek to my rifle, and the light of twowindows fell upon my gunsights. Every blue-coat in the hall was betweenme and its rear window, but one besides the officer was wounded, andwith these two three others were busy; only the one remaining man sawme. Twice he levelled his revolver, and twice I had almost lined mysights on him, but twice Miss Harper unaware came between us. A thirdtime he aimed, fired and missed. I am glad he fired first, for our twoshots almost made one report, and-he plunged forward exactly as I haddone over the fire-log, except that he reached the floor dead. 

[Illustration: Ferry fired under his flash and sent him reeling into thearms of his followers. ]

Thereupon came more things at once than can be told: Miss Harper'soutcry of horror and pity; Charlotte's cry from the bedside--"Richard!Richard!" a rush of feet and shouts of rage in the hall below; and myleap to the head of the stairs, shouting to half a dozen gray-jackets"Two men, no more! two men to guard prisoners, no more! go back, all butyou two! go back!"

A sabreless officer with a bandaged hand flew up the stair and into myface. It was Helm. "The ladies! Smith, good God! Smith, where arethe girls?"

"In the smokehouse, " cried Miss Harper from her knees beside theprostrate Federal officer; "go bring them!--Richard, Charlotte iscalling you!"

I ran to Ferry's door; Charlotte was leaning busily over his baredchest, while he, still holding a revolver in his right hand, caressedher arm with his left. "Dick, his wound has opened again, but we mustget him away at once anyhow. Isn't my wagon still here?--oh, thank God!there it comes now, I hear it in the back yard!"

A Confederate waiting on Miss Harper with basin and towels barely dodgedme as I sprang to the far end of the hall and shouted down into the yardfor Harry. The little mules, true enough, were just rattling round ahalf turn at the lower hall's back door, having been in hiding behindthe stables. A score or so of cavalry were boisterously hurrying offacross the yard with a few captured horses and prisoners, and I had tocall the Lieutenant angrily a second time, to make him hear me amidtheir din and a happy confusion which he was helping to keep up in afairer group. For here were all the missing feminine members of thehousehold, white and colored, and Harry was clamorous with joy, compassion and applause, while Camille and Cécile, pink with weeping, stepped out across the high doorsill of the smokehouse, leading NedFerry's horse and mine. 

However, there was not the urgency for instant flight that Charlotte hadthought there was; night fell; a whole regiment of our mounted infantrycame silently up from the rear of the plantation and bivouacked withoutlights behind a quarter of a mile of worm-fence; our two wounded andthree unharmed prisoners, or Miss Harper's, I should say, for it was inresponse to her entreaties that the latter had thrown down their arms, were taken away; the dead man was borne out; lights glowed in everyroom, the servants returned to their tasks, a maddening fragrance camefrom the kitchen, and the three nieces flitted everywhere in theirbenign activities, never discovering the hurt on my shoulder untileverything else on earth had been discovered, and then--"Oh, Richard, Richard!" from Estelle, with "Reach-hard, Reach-hard!" from Cécile, and"Mr. Smith!" from Camille, as they bathed and bound it. At length asurgeon arrived, gave a cheering opinion of Ferry and of Charlotte, andscolded Harry savagely for the really bad condition of his hand. Thensounds grew few and faint, our lights went out, we lay down fullydressed, and nearly all of us, for a while, slept. 

But about two in the morning Harry awakened me, murmuring "Reach-hard!Reach-hard! come! our sick-train's moving. Ssh! General Austin's asleepin the next room!" I asked where Ferry was. "Already started, " hewhispered, "--in the General's own ambulance, with Charlotte Oliver inhers, on a mattress, like Ned, and the four Harpers in theirs. " While westole downstairs he murmured on "Our brigade's come up and GeneralAustin will attack at daylight with this house as his headquarters. "

As we mounted I asked whither we were bound. "Tangipahoa, " he said;"then by railroad to Brookhaven, and then out to Squire Wall's. "

At the first streak of dawn our slow caravan caught the distant notes ofthe battle opening behind us. "That's Fisher's battery!" joyously criedthe aide-de-camp as we paused and hearkened back. "Well, thank the Lord, this time nobody's got to go back for her doll; she's got it with her; Isaw her, just now, combing its hair. " We descended into a woody hollow, the sounds of human strife died away, and field and forest offered usonly beauty, fragrance, peace, and the love-songs of birds. 

LVI

HÔTEL DES INVALIDES

A shattered crew we were when in the forenoon of the third day wereached our goal. Harry's hand was giving him less trouble, but both mysmall wounds were misbehaving as stoutly as their limitations wouldallow; my aches were cruel and incessant, my side was swollen and myshoulder hot. Miss Harper was "really ill, " said the surgeon, but forwhose coming with us we should hardly have brought our whole numberthrough alive. Both Ferry and Charlotte were in a critical condition. "Take you in!" said our tearfully smiling Mrs. Wall; "why, we'd take yo'whole crowd in ef we had to go out and bunk undeh the trees owse'v's!. . . Oh, Mr. Smith, you po' _chi--ild!_. . . Oh, my Lawd! is this LieutenantDo-wrong! Good Lawd, good Lawd! I think this waugh's gone on now jesslong enough!"

In the house she gave the younger Harpers a second kiss all round. "Youpo' dears, yo're hero-ines, now, and hencefo'th fo'evehmo'!" Harry and Iagreed they were; it was one of the few points on which we thoughtalike. We even agreed that Estelle's grasp of earthly realities was notso feeble as we had thought it. 

"Fact is, " I said to him, on our first day at the Walls', as he wasleaving the soldiers' room, where I sat under the surgeon's inspection, "you were totally mistaken about her. "

"Yes, I was, " he replied; "she's got more sense in a minute thanCamille's got in a week, " and shut the door between us. 

My blood leaped with rage, yet I sat perfectly calm, while the surgeonlaughed like a hyena. "As soon as you can let me go, Doctor, " I frigidlysaid, "I shall look up the Lieutenant. I consider that remarkungentlemanly, and his method of making it as worthy only of a coward. "

The surgeon cackled again. "If that man, " I dispassionately resumed, "was not perfectly sure that I am too honorable a gentleman to give MissCamille the faintest hint of what he has said, sooner than say it hewould go out and cut his throat from ear to ear. "

"Well! you oughtn't to get mad at him for thinking you a gentleman. "

"He sha'n't take a low advantage of my being one. You think he's openand blunt--he's as sly as a mink. He praises the older sister at theyounger's expense, when it's the younger one that he's so everlastinglystuck on that he can't behave _like_ a gentleman to any man to whom sheshows the slightest preference. " We heard a coming step, but I talkedon: "Sense! poor simpleton! he knows he hasn't got"--the door opened andHarry stepped partly in, but I only raised my voice, --"hasn't got asmuch brains in his whole head as there is in one of her tracks. "

With something between a sob, a sputter and a shriek he shut himself outagain. Harry was never deep but in a shallow way, and never shallowwithout a certain treacherous depth. When Ned Ferry the next daysummoned me to his bedside I went with a choking throat, not doubting Iwas to give account of this matter, --until I saw the kindness of hispallid face. Then my silly heart rose as much too high as it had justbeen too low and I thought "Charlotte has surrendered!" All he wantedwas to make me his scribe. But when we were done he softly asked, "Thatbusiness of yours we talked about on the Plank-road--it looksany better?"

I bit my lip, turned away and shook my head. "Well, anyhow, " he said, "I am told there is nobody in your way. "

I faced him sharply--"Who told you that?" and felt sure he would namethe tricky aide-de-camp. But he pointed to the room overhead, whichagain, as in the other house, was Charlotte's. I blushed consciouslywith gratitude. "Well, " I said, "it makes me happy to see you beginningagain to get well. "

Within the same hour I met unexpectedly two other persons. First, HarryHelm; who, before I could speak, was deluging me with words, telling mefor the twentieth time how, on that evening of the indoor fight, comingwith a platoon of Mississippians which he had procured merely as aguard, he was within a hundred yards of the house before our shots inthe bedroom told him he was riding to a rescue. Then suddenly he beganto assure me that in what he had said about the two sisters he hadsought only to mislead the surgeon, who, he declared, was more utterlydead-gone on Camille than both of us put together. We parted, andwithin the next five minutes I confronted the maiden herself. 

She came from upstairs with a mixed armful of papers, books and sewing, said she had been with Charlotte, and said no more, only made amysterious mouth. I inquired how Charlotte was. She shrugged, sank intoa seat on the gallery, let her arm-load into her lap, and replied, "Ah!she lies up there and smiles and smiles, and calls us pet names, andsays she's perfectly contented, and then cannot drop half asleep withoutlooking as though she were pressing a knife into her own heart. Oh, Dick, what is the matter with her?"

"What do you think, --Camille?"

"Oh--I--I'm afraid to say it--even to Estelle, or aunt Martha, or--"

"Say it to me, " I murmured. 

"Oh, if I could only trust you!" she said, shaking her head sadly andtrying to lift her arm's burden again without taking her eyes from mine. It went to her feet in a landslide, and out of one of the booksfluttered three stems of sweet-pea each bearing two mated blossoms. Iknew them in an instant, and in the next I had them. She would not letme pile the fallen freight anywhere but into her arm again, nor recoverher eye before she was fully re-laden. Then she set her lips freezinglyand said "Now give me back my flowers. "

I meekly gave them and she turned to go into the house; her headgradually sank forward as she went, and her unparagoned ear and neckflushed to a burning red. On the threshold, by some miscalculation, herburdened arm struck the jamb, and the whole load fell again. I sprangand began to gather the stuff into a chair, but she walked straight onas though nothing had occurred, and shut the nearest door behind her. 

In those days used to come out to see us Gregory, in his long-skirtedblack coat and full civilian dress; of whom I have told a separatehistory elsewhere. Very pointed was Camille's neglect of both Harry andme, to make herself lovely to the dark and diffident new-comer, whileEstelle positively pursued me with compensatory sweetness; and Gregory, whenever he and I were alone together, labored to reassure me of hisharmlessness by expatiating exclusively upon the charms of Cécile. Sheseemed to him like a guardian angel of Ferry and Charlotte, while yeteverything she said or did was wholly free from that quality ofother-worldliness which was beautiful in Estelle, but which would nothave endured repetition in the sister or the cousin. There Harry and I, also, once more agreed. Cécile never allowed herself to reflect a spiritof saintliness, or even of sacrifice, but only of maidenly wisdom andsweet philosophy. 

"If it weren't for Charlotte, " whispered the Lieutenant, "I could swearshe was created for Ned Ferry!" and when I shook my head he, too, declared "No, no! if ever a match was made on high Charlotte was madefor him and he for Charlotte; but, oh, Lord, Lord! Reach-hard ThorndykeSmith, how is this thing going to end?"

That was the problem in the mind of every looker on, and the lookers-onwere legion; the whole wide neighborhood came to see us. Gregory andothers outstayed their furloughs; the surgeon lingered shamelessly. Ofcourse, there were three girls besides Charlotte, and it was purelying--as I told Helm--for some of those fellows to pretend that CaptainFerry's problem was all they stayed for; and yet it was the oneheart-problem which was everybody's, and we were all in one fever to seeforthwith a conclusion which "a decent respect to the opinions ofmankind" required should not come for months. 

"Pooh!" said Harry, "'a decent respect to the opinions of mankind'requires just the reverse!" and the surgeon avowed that it was requiredby a decent respect to her powers of endurance; he was every day afraidher slow improvement would stop and she would begin to sink. He admittedthe event could wait, but he wished to gracious we could haveher decision. 

I said suppose it should be negative. "Oh, it won't!" exclaimed both heand Harry. "When it comes to the very point--"

Gregory's approach interrupted us, but I remembered a trait in Charlotteof which I have spoken, and gave myself the hope that their predictionmight prove well founded. 

LVII

A YES AND A NO

But now Charlotte's recovery took on new speed. Maybe her new brightnessmeant only that her heart was learning to bear its load; but we hopedthat was just what it was unlearning, as she and Ferry sat at chess onthe gallery in the afternoons. 

One night the fellows gave a dance in Brookhaven. We went in two wagonsand by the light of mounted torch-bearers, and Charlotte and Ferry stoodat the dooryard gate and sent after us their mirthful warnings andgood-byes. It set some of us a-hoping--to see them there--a dooryardgate means so much. We fairly prayed he might compel her decision beforeshe should turn to re-enter the house. But the following morning it wasevident we had prayed in vain. 

On the next afternoon but one we heard that a great column of oursoldiers was approaching on the nearest highway, bound up the railroadto Joe Johnston's army from the region about Port Hudson, and Charlotteinstantly proposed that our ladies deal out food and drink from someshady spot on the roadside. It was one of those southern summer dayswhen it verily seems hotter in the shade than in the sun--unless you arein the sun. The force was wholly artillery and infantry, the lastConfederate infantry that region ever saw in column under arms; poor, limping, brown-faced, bloody-footed boys! their weapons were the onlyclean things, the only whole things, about them except their unbrokenspirit; and when the very foremost command chanced to be one which theHarpers had seen in New Orleans the day it left there marching infaultless platoons and spotless equipments through the crowds thatroared acclaim and farewell, our dear ladies, for one weak moment, wept. 

"Here come the real heroes, Harry, " said my crippled leader; "we aredandies and toy-soldiers, by the side of those infantry boys, Doctor, wecavalry fellows;" and we cavalry fellows would have hid if we honorablycould. Yet hardly had he spoken when he and a passing field-officercried out in mutual recognition, and from that time until the rear-guardwas clear gone by we received what the newspapers call "a continuousovation. " A group of brigade officers went back with us to SquireWall's, to supper, and you could see by the worship they paid Charlottethat they knew her story. Her strength was far overtaxed, and the momentthe last fond straggler had gone we came in out of the splendidmoonlight. 

"Now, Charlotte, my dear, " began Miss Harper, "you are too terriblytired to--why, where is Charlotte; did she not come in with us fromthe--gate?"

Ferry, too, was missing. Mrs. Wall made eyes at the inquirer, Estelleand Cécile began to speak but deferred to each other, and Camille, putting on a deadly exhaustion, whined as she tottered to her smilingguardian, "Kiss your sweet baby good-night, auntie dear, and"--with ahand reached out to Estelle--"make Naughty come, too. " She turned to saygood-night to Cécile but spoiled her kiss with an unintended laugh. Thesurgeon, Harry and I bowed from the room and stepped out to thewater-bucket and gourd. From there we could see the missing two, lingering at the dooryard gate, in the bright moonlight. As we finisheddrinking, "Gentlemen, " murmured Harry, "I fear our position is tooexposed to be tenable. "

The surgeon started upstairs. "I'll join you directly, Doctor, " Harrysaid, and in a lower voice added "Smith and I will just lounge in andout of the hall here to sort o' show nobody needn't be in any hurry, don't you see?"

But the other jerked his thumb toward the half-closed parlor, whereMiss Harper and Cécile sat close, to each other absorbed in some matterof the tenderest privacy. "They'll attend to that, " he muttered; "comeon to bed and mind your own business. "

Harry huffed absurdly. "You go mind yours, " he retorted, and then moregenerously added, "we'll be with you in a minute. " The surgeon went, andthe aide-de-camp, as we began to pace the hall, fairly took my breath byremarking without a hint of self-censure, "Damn a frivolous man!" Thenirrelatively he added, "Those two out at that gate--this is a matter oflife and death with them;" and when I would have qualified thedeclaration, he broke in upon me--"Right, Dick, you're right, it _is_worse; it's a choice between true life and death-in-life; whetherthey'll make life's long march in sunshine together or indarkness apart. "

Well, of course, it was no such simple question, and never could bewhile life held so many values more splendid than any wilfulness couldwin. There lay the whole of Charlotte's real difficulty--for she hadmade it all hers. But when I tried in some awkward way to say this Harrycut me short. "Oh, Dick, I--eh--you bother me! I want to tell yousomething and if I don't hurry I can't. Something's happened to me, oldfellow, something that's sobered me more than I ever would 'a' thoughtanything could. I want to tell you because I can trust you with asecr'--wh'--what's the matter, did I hurt your wound? Honestly, I wantto tell you because--well--because I've been deceiving you all along:I've deceived you shamefully, letting on to like this girl more thanthat, and so on and so on. "

"Yes, you thought you were deceiving me. "

"Oh, well, maybe I wasn't, but I want to tell you to-night because I'mgoing to camp in the morning. Oh, yes, "--he named the deepest placeknown--"the sight of those webfoot boys to-day was too much for me; I'mgoing; and Dick, when I told her I was going--"

"_Told whom_?"

"Aw, come, now, Dick, you know every bit as well as I know. Well, when Itold her I was going I didn't dream I was going to tell her anythingelse; I give you my word! Where in the"--same place again--"I ever gotthe courage I'll never tell you, but all of a sudden thinks I, 'I'mnever going to get anything but no, anyhow, and so, Dick, I've been andgone and done it!"

I leaned on the stair-newel, sorry for the poor fool, but glad of thischance. "Why, Lieutenant, not many men would have done as well. You felthonor-bound not to slip away uncommitted, so you took your dose like ahero and licked the spoon. " I felt that I was salting his wound, but wewere soldiers and--I had the salt. 

He drew a sigh. "Yes, I took my dose--of astonishment. Dick, she saidyes! Oh, good Lord, Dick, do you reckon they'll ever be such full-blownidiots as to let me have her?"

I sank upon the steps; every pore in my body was a fountain of coldsweat: "Have whom?"

"Cécile. " He was going on to declare himself no more fit for her thanfor the presidency of the Confederate States, which was perfectly true;but I sprang up, caught him (on my well side) by one good hand, and hadbegun my enthusiastic congratulations, when Charlotte appeared and weswerved against the rail to let her pass upstairs. In some way as shewent by it was made plain to us that she had said no. "Good-night, "ventured both of us, timorously. 

"Good-night, " she responded, very musically, but as if from a greatdistance. 

LVIII

THE UPPER FORK OF THE ROAD

Ferry, as he passed us, called my name, and I started after him. AtCharlotte's door we heard the greeting of her black maid. The maid'sfather, who of late had been nightly dressing Ferry's wound and mine, came to us in Ferry's room; and there my Captain turned to greet me, hisface white with calamity. He took me caressingly by a button of myjacket. "Can you have your wound washed to-night before mine?"

"Why, certainly, if it's the least--"

"Yes, thank you. And down here in this room instead of upstairs?"

"Captain Ferry! if you knew how horribly it smells, you--"

"Ah! don't I know?" he said, and as I sat naked from throat to waistwith the old negro laving the sores, Ferry scanned them narrowly. "Theyare not so bad, Dick; you think a few hours in the saddle will not makethem worse?"

"Not if they're spent for you, Captain. "

"Yes, for me; also for much better. We shall ride for--"

"You ride? Oh, Captain, you are in no condition--"

"Tst!" he laid a finger on my lips; "'twill not be hard; we are notgoing on a scout--to jump fences. " He began to make actual preparations, and presently helped me draw my shirt into place again over the cleanbandages, while the old man went out after fresh water. "I am a hundredtimes more fit to go than to stay, " he suddenly resumed. "I must go. Ah, idleness, there is nothing like idleness to drive a man mad; I must havesomething to do--to-night--at once. " I wish I knew how to give the wordswith his quiet intensity. 

I began to unclothe his wound. "May I ask one thing?"

"Ah! I know you; you want to ask am I taking that upper fork of theroad. I am; 'tis for that I want you; so go you now to the stable, saddle our horses and bring them. "

When I reached the front steps with them Ferry was at the gallery'sedge, Miss Harper, Cécile and Harry were on three sides of him, and hewas explaining away our astonishing departure. We were going toHazlehurst, to issue clothing and shoes to those ragged and barefootfellows we had seen that afternoon, and the light of whose tentless campwas yonder in the sky, now, toward Brookhaven. We were to go that way, confer with their officers, telegraph from town for authorizations to besent to us at Hazlehurst, and then to push on to that place and be readyto issue the stuff when the trains should come up from Brookhavenbringing the brigade. While he spoke Camille and Estelle joined us. "No, " he said, "to start any later, 'twould be too late. "

To Harry's imploring protest that he, Ferry, was not fit to go toHazlehurst horseback, he replied "Well! what we going to do? Those boyscan't go to Big Black swamp bare-foot. "

Our dear friends were too well aware of the untold trouble to say a wordabout his coming back, but Miss Harper's parting injunction to me was towrite them. 

The whole night and the following day were a toilsome time for us, butby fall of the next night the brigade had come in rags and passed newlyclothed and shod, and in a room of the town tavern we dressed eachother's hurts and sank to sleep on one bed. The night was hot, the painof my wounds was like a great stone lying on them, and at the tragicmoment of a frightful dream I awoke. "Captain, " I murmured. 

"Yes?"

"Did she give no reason?"

"No. " A silence followed; then he said, "You know the reason, I think. "

"Yes, I think I do; I think--"

"Well? don't be afraid to say it. "

I got the words out in some form, that I believed Charlotte loved himdeeply, as deeply, passionately, exaltedly, as ever a true woman loveda man--

"Ah, me!" he lifted his arms wide and knitted his fingers on his brow. 

"And there is the whole trouble, " I added. "She will not let you marrythe woman whose--"

"Whose husband I have killed. . . . Ah, God!. . . Ah, my God! why was Ichosen to do that?. . . And you think, Dick, it was not a question oftime; that I did not ask, maybe a little too soon?"

"No, not as between sooner and later; and yet, in another way, possibly, yes. " Without either of us stirring from the pillow I tried to explain. I pointed out that trait in Charlotte which I called an impulse suddenlyto surrender the key of her situation, the vital point in herfortunes and fate. 

"Yes. . . . Yes, " Ferry kept putting in. 

I went on to say that she seemed now to have learned, herself, that itwas on this shoal she grounded at every low water of her physical andmental powers; as when over-fatigued, for instance; and that I shouldnot wonder if she had bound herself never again at such a time to lether judgment follow her impulses. He laid his hand on me: "Stop; stop;you stab too deep. I thought to take her by surprise at that very point, and right there she has countermined. My God! can it be that I am servedonly right?"

"No, " I replied, although it was a thing I would have said Ned Ferrywould not do, "no, no, it is she who has served both you and herselfcruelly wrong. Captain, I believe that when Miss Harper has talked itover with her she will see her mistake as we all see it, and will callyou back. "

"Ah, me! Ah, me! Do you believe that, Dick?"

"I do, Captain; but at the same time--"

"What, what? Speak out, Dick. You blame me some other way?"

"Oh, no, indeed! I am the one to blame, the only one. If you had not, both of you, been so blameless--so splendidly blameless--I should hardlyhave let myself sink so deep into blame; but I knew you would never takethe last glad step until you had seen the last sad proof that you mighttake it. Oh, Captain, to-night is the third time that in my dreams Ihave seen _that man_ alive. "

I do not know how long after that we lay silent, but it seemed anendless time before he exclaimed at last "My God! Dick, you shouldhave told me. "

"I know it; I know I should! But it was only a dream, and--"

"Ah! 'twas your doubt first and the dream after! But let us think nomore of blame, we must settle the doubt. We shall begin that to-morrow. "On my venturing to say more he interrupted. "Well, we can do nothingnow; at the present, sleep is our first business. " However, after alittle, he spoke again, and, I believe, purely in order to soothe me toslumber, speculated and counselled with me for the better part of anhour concerning my own poor little love affair. 

At breakfast he told me the first step in his further plans would be forus to take the train for Tangipahoa, with our horses, on our way to ourown camp; but just before the train came the telegraph brought GeneralAustin's request--which, of course, carried all the weight of anorder--for Ferry to remain here and make ready for further issues ofquartermaster's stores. He turned on his heel and twisted his smallmustache: "That means we are kept here to be kept here, Richard. "

It was a mistaken kindness, from our point of view, but it had the meritthat it kept us busy. In two days the post-quartermaster's affairs andsupplies were reduced to perfect order for the first time in theirhistory. For two days more we ran a construction train and with a swarmof conscripts repaired two or three miles of road-bed and sometrestle-work in a swamp; and at every respite in our strenuousactivities we discoursed of the girls we'd left behind us; their minds, their manners, their features, figures, tastes and talents, and theirwalk and talk. So came the end of the week, and while the sun was stillabove the trees we went on down, inspecting the road beyond our repairs, on our own hand-car to Brookhaven. With heads bare, jackets in our laps, and muddy boots dangling over the car's front edge, and with six bignegroes at the levers behind us, we watched the miles glide under ourwheels and grow fewer and fewer between us and the shrine of our hearts. "Sing, Dick, " said Ferry, and we chanted together, as we had done atevery sunset these three days, "O my love is like a red, red rose. " Wecould not have done it had we known that yonder glorious sun was settingforever upon the fortunes of our Southern Confederacy. It was the fourthof July; Lee was in full retreat from Gettysburg, Vicksburg was gone, Port Hudson was doomed, and all that was left for us now was todie hard. 

LIX

UNDER CHARLOTTE'S WINDOW

At the tavern, where we went to smarten up and to eat, we chanced uponGregory. He was very shy of Ferry, because Ferry was a captain, but toldme the latest news from the Wall place, where he had spent the previousevening. Harry and the surgeon were gone to camp, the Harpers were well, Charlotte was--better, after a bad turn of several days. We felt in dutybound to stay within hail of the telegraph office until it should closefor the night; and when the operator was detained in it much beyond theusual time, Ferry, as we hovered near, said at length, "Well, I'm sorryfor you, Dick; 'tis now too late for you to go yonder--this evening. "

"Didn't you intend to call, too?" "No, " he said; yet the moment theoperator turned the key in his door we sauntered away from the station, tavern, town, and out into the rain-famished country. We chose a road onhigh ground, under pines; the fact that a few miles of it would bring usto Squire Wall's was not sufficient reason for us to shun it, and weloitered on and on, discoursing philosophically on man and woman and theduties of each to other. Through habit we went softly, and so, in time, came up past a small garden under the house's southern side. Heresilence was only decorum, for every window in the dark upper rooms wasthrown open to the sultry air. The house's front was away from thedirection of the town, and at a corner of this garden, where the roadentered the open grove, the garden fence turned north at a right angle, while the road went on through the grove into wide cornfields beyond. 

We kept to the garden fence till it brought us along the dooryard front, facing the house. Thus far the whole place seemed fast asleep. Along thefarthest, the northern, side a line of planted trees ran close to anarrow wing of but one room on each of its two stories, and the upper ofthese two rooms was Charlotte's. Where we paused, at the dooryard gate, we could not see this wing, but we knew its exterior perfectly; it had anarrow window in front, looking into the grove, and a broader one at therear, that overlooked an open stretch of the Wall plantation. The placeseemed fast asleep, I say, but we had not a doubt we were beingwatched--by the two terrible dogs that guarded the house but neverbarked. By this time they should have recognized us and ought to becoming forward and wagging faintly, as who should say "Yes, that's allright, but we have our orders. "

"Ah!"--Ferry guardedly pointed to the ground at the corner of the housenearest Charlotte's room; there were both the dogs, dim as phantoms andas silent, standing and peering not toward us but around to the wingside in a way to make one's blood stop. We drew deeper into the groveand made a short circuit that brought us in line with Charlotte's twowindows, and there, at the farther one, with her back to us, satCharlotte, looking toward Hazlehurst. The bloodthirsty beasts at thecorner of the house were so intently waiting to spring upon something, somebody, between them and the nearer window, that we were secure fromtheir notice. We had hardly more than become aware of these things when, in the line of planted trees, out of the depths of the one nearest thenearer window, sounded a note that brought Charlotte instantly to herfeet; the same feeble, smothered cry she had heard the night she waswounded. She crossed to the front window and listened, first standingerect, and then stooping and leaning out. When we saw her do that weknew how little she cared for her life; Ferry beckoned me up from behindhim; neither of us needed to say he feared the signal was from Oliver. "Watch here, " he whispered, and keeping the deepest shade, startedeagerly, with drawn revolver, toward the particular tree. I saw the dogsdiscover and recognize him and welcome his aid, yet I kept my closestwatch on that tree's boughs and on Charlotte. She was wondering, Iguessed, whether the call was from some messenger of Ferry, or was onlya bird's cry. As if she decided it was the latter, she moved away, andhad nearly re-crossed the room, when the same sad tremolo came searchingthe air again. Nevertheless she went on to the farther window and stoodgazing out for the better part of a minute, while in my heart I besoughther not to look behind. For Ferry and the dogs had vanished in shadow, and outside her nearer window, wavering now above and now below thesill, I could just descry a small pale object that reminded me of thatmissive Coralie Rothvelt had passed up to me outside the window-sill atold Lucius Oliver's house exactly a month before. From the upper depthsof the nearest tree this small thing was being proffered on the end of afishing-rod. Presently the rod must have tapped the sill, with such astart did she face about. Silently she ran, snatched the dumb messenger, and drew down the window-shade. A moment later the room glowed with acandle, while her shadow, falling upon the shade, revealed her scanninga letter, lifting her arms with emotion, and so passing out of theline of view. 

I waited on. So absorbed was I that I did not hear the coming of ahorseman in the fields beyond the grove, nor the click of a field gate;but when the strange quietude of Ferry and the dogs had begun toreassure me I became aware of this new-comer approaching the dooryard. There he reined in and hallooed. I knew the voice. An answer came froman upper window. "Is this Squire Wall's?" asked the traveller. "Well, Squire, I'm from General Austin's headquarters, with orders toCaptain Ferry. "

"Captain Ferry ain't stopping with us now, sir, he's 'way up atHazlehurst. "

"Yes, sir. I didn't know but he might 'a' come down to spend to-morrowwith you, it being the Sabbath. My name's Gholson, sir; I've got lettersfor the Miss Harpers; yes, sir; and one for Private Smith, from hismother, in New Orleans. "

"My sakes! yo' pow'ful welcome, Mr. Wholesome; just wait till I call offmy dogs, sir, and I'll let you in. "

When the dogs came at the Squire's call I breathed relief. Ferryappeared behind me and beckoned me deeper into the grove. He sank upon astump, whispering "That was worse than ten fights. "

"Who was it?" I asked. "Where is he?"

He pointed to the field gate through which Gholson had come. In thefield a small man was re-closing it cautiously, and now he mounted androde away; it was Isidore Goldschmidt, of the Plank-road swamp. I waswondering why he had behaved in this skulking way, when Ferry, as ifreading my thought, said, "Isidore can't afford to be found seventy-fivemiles inside our lines with no papers except a letter from a Yankeeofficer--and not knowing, himself, what's in it. "

"Oh! why should he risk his life to bring such a thing to her?"

"Because three months ago she risked her life to save the life of hisfather, and now, since only last week, that Yankee has saved the life ofhis mother. " I asked who this Yankee might be. "Well, that is yet morestrange; he is the brother of Captain Jewett. "

We were moving to the house; at the steps we halted; the place was allalight and the ladies were arriving in the parlor. A beam of lighttouching Ferry's face made his smile haggard. I asked if this Jewett wasanother leader of scouts. 

"No, he is a high-rank surgeon. Yet I think he must have heard all abouther; he wouldn't send that letter, that way, just for gratitude. "

"Yes, " I responded, pondering, "he may easily have learned about her, "and I called to mind that chief-of-staff of whom Charlotte had told us. Then, remembering her emotional shadow-play on the window-shade, Iadded, "He knew at least what would be important news to her--Captain, I have it!"

He made a motion of pain--"Don't say it!" and we read in each other'seyes the one conviction that from a surgeon's personal knowledge thisman had written to warn Charlotte that Oliver was alive. 

LX

TIDINGS

All the glad difference between hope stark drowned and hope sighing backinto life lightened Ferry's heart; he gripped my shoulder--the soundone, by good luck, --and drew me into the dining-room, where the wholecompany were gathered to see Gholson eat. Our entry was a freshsurprise. As we drank the flatteries of seven lovely welcomes, frombehind Gholson I reconnoitred Charlotte, and the fullest confirmation ofour guess was in the peaceful resolve of her eyes. I noted the Harpers, all, and dear Mrs. Wall's sweet freckled face, take new gladness of thehappy change, while unable to define its cause. 

But now came raptures and rhapsodies over the opened letters. Ferry'sorders had not been expected to reach him to-night, Gholson said, and sowe insisted they and my letter should remain in the saddle-pockets whileGholson ate, and while the good news, public and personal, of theHarpers' letters went round. 

"But I thought the' was fi-ive letters, " said the Squire as we wereabout to leave the board; at which Mrs. Wall mumbled to him to "hushup;" for the fifth was to Cécile. 

"Yes, " guilefully said Charlotte, "Richard's letter!" and we allfollowed Gholson to where his saddle lay on the gallery. There he handedout Ferry's document and went on rummaging for mine. 

"The two were right here together, " he said, "and Mr. Smith's was marked'valuable' and had something hard in one corner of it. " Camille brought acandle, Estelle another; Gholson rose from his knee: "Smith, it's gone!I've lost it! And yet"--he slapped his breast-pockets--"no, it'ssomewhere in the grove; it's between here and that cornfield gate! Icounted all the papers just this side of that gate, and I must 'a'dropped yours then!" Cécile brought a third light and we sallied forthinto the motionless air, Estelle with a candle and Gholson, Camillewith a candle and me, Cécile with a candle and Mrs. Wall, Miss Harperand the Squire, and Charlotte and Ferry. In the heart of the groveEstelle gave a soft cry, sprang, stooped, straightened, and handed methe letter. 

"Yes, " exclaimed Camille as the three candle-bearers gathered close, "that's your mother's writing, " and as we fell into marching orderagain, with the lights still in the front files, I opened it. It wasthick and soft with sheet after sheet of thinnest paper. With these wasa sealed letter, unaddressed, containing in one corner what seemed to bea ring. Around all was a sheet of writing of later date than any other. Wonderful, my mother's lines declared, was the Providence that hadbrought her wounded boy among such priceless friends; and wonderful thatsame Providence that now gave her the chance to send three weeks' dailyletters in one, and to send them by a hand so sure that she ventured toadd this other note, a matter so secret that it must be delivered onlyby my own hands, or hands which I could trust as my own, to CharlotteOliver. We glanced back in search of Charlotte. She and Ferry were wellin the rear of the procession, moving with laggard steps, she lightinghis page with a borrowed candle, and he evidently reading not hisorders, but the Federal surgeon's letter. "Oh, don't speak yet, "murmured Camille, "let them alone!"

At the garden gate the most of the company passed on into the house, Gholson among them. His face, as for an instant he turned aside to me, betrayed a frozen rage; for Ferry and Charlotte tarried just at ourbacks, she seated on the "horse-block" and he leaning against it. A stirof air brought by the rising moon had blown out their light. Gholsonleft me, and Camille waited at my side while I tried to read by theflare of her guttering candle. "Come, my dear, " said Miss Harper fromhalf-way up the walk, but Charlotte called Miss Harper. 

"You'd better go in, Camille, " insisted the aunt as she passed us, butCharlotte had just asked for our candle to relight her own, and she saidto Miss Harper, "Let them stay, won't you?" and then to Ferry, "Theymight as well, mightn't they? Oh, now, "--as Camille handed her mymother's letter--"they must!" She toyed with the envelope's thinner edgewithout noticing the ring in the corner. "My dears, " she said, lookingfrail and distressed, yet resolute, "I have positive intelligence--notthrough Captain, nor Richard, nor Mr. Gholson, --I'll tell you how someday--positive intelligence that--the dead--is not dead; the blow, Richard, glanced. I was foolish never to think of that possibility, itoccurs so often. He was profoundly stunned, so that he didn't come-tountil he was brought to a surgeon. It's from that surgeon I have thenews; here's his letter. "

"Charlotte, my dear, " interrupted Miss Harper, "tell us the remainderto-morrow, but now--"

"No, sweetest friend, there will never be another chance like this;Captain Ferry's orders carry him to Jackson at daylight to-morrow, and--and we may not meet again for years; let me go on. When the gashwas sewed up, the hand was really the worse hurt of the two, and aftera few days he was sent down on a steamer to New Orleans with a great lotof other sick and wounded, and with the commanding general's warning notto come back on peril of his life. 'Tisn't easy to tell this, but youfour have a particular right to know it from me and at once. So let mesay"--she handed Ferry my mother's letter as if it were a burdensomedistraction--"I'm not sorry for the mistake, Richard, which we all soinnocently made; and you mustn't be sorry for me and be saying toyourselves that my captivity is on me again; for I'm happier tonightthan I've been since the night the mistake was made. "

She dropped a hand to Ferry's to receive again the neglected letter, andchanced to take it by the corner that held the ring. With that shestared at us, fingered it, rended the envelope, gave one glance to herown name engraved inside a plain gold ring of the sort New Orleans girlsbestow upon those to whom they are betrothed, and springing to theground between our two candles, bent over the open page and criedthrough a flood of tears, "Oh, God, have mercy on him, he is gone! He isgone, Edgard! Oh, Edgard, he is gone at last; gone beyond all doubt, andour hands--our hands and our hearts are clean!"

Ferry tossed away his candle and turned upon her, but she retreated intoMiss Harper's arms laughing through her tears. "Oh, no, no! we've neverhurried yet, never yet, my master in patience, and we'll not hurry now!Go and come again. Go, wait, hide your eyes till I cry 'whoop, ' andcome again and find me, and, I pledge you before these dear witnesses, I'll be 'it' for the rest of my life!"

With the letter again held open, and bidding Miss Harper and Camilleread with her, she swept a fleet glance along the close lines that toldhow Oliver, half cured of his wounds, had died in a congestive chill, ofswamp-fever, the day he landed in New Orleans. "See, see, Richard, hereyour mother has copied the hospital's certificate. "

She read on aloud how two private Federal soldiers, hospitalconvalescents, had come to my mother telling her of his death, and howhe had named my mother over and over in his delirium, desiring that sheshould be given charge of the small effects on his person and that shewould return them to his father in the Confederacy. My mother wrote howshe had been obliged secretly to buy back from the hospital steward acarte-de-visite photograph of Charlotte, and this ring; how, Oliver notbeing a Federal soldier, she had been allowed to assume the expense andtask of his burial; how she had found the body already wrapped andbound, in the military way, when she first saw it, but heard the twoconvalescents praising to each other the strong, hard-used beauty of thehidden face, and was shown the suit of brown plantation jeans we allknew so well; and how, lastly, when her overbearing conscience compelledher to tell them she might find it easier to send the relics to the wiferather than the father, they had furtively advised her to do asshe pleased. 

[Illustration: Springing to the ground between our two candles, shebent over the open page]

"Charlotte, " said Miss Harper, "the thing is an absolute certainty!Even without your likeness or--"

"Ah, no, no, not without this! the ring, the ring! But with it, yes!This is the crowning proof! my ring to him! Oh, see my name inside it, Camille; this little signet is Heaven's own testimony and acquittal!Look, Richard, look at it now, for no living soul, no light of day, shall ever see it again--"

"Sweet heart, " replied Miss Harper, "very good! very good! but now sayno more of that sort. God bless you, dear, just let yourself be happy. Good-night--no, no, sit still; stay where you are, love, while Camilleand I go in and Richard steps around to the stable and puts our teaminto the road-wagon; for, Captain Ferry, neither you nor he is fit towalk into Brookhaven; we can bring the rig back when we come from churchto-morrow. "

"No, Richard, " said Charlotte, "get my wagon and the little Mexicans. "Then to Miss Harper and Camille, "Good-night, dears; I'll wait here thatlong, if Captain Ferry will allow me. " She turned to him with themoonlight in her eyes, that danced riotously as she said in her softest, deepest note, "You're afraid!" and I thanked Heaven that CoralieRothvelt was still a pulsing reality in the bosom of CharlotteOliver. 

LXI

WHILE DESTINY MOVED ON

Ned Ferry and I never saw Squire Wall's again. When our hand-car thenext morning landed us in Hazlehurst the news of Gettysburg andVicksburg was on every tongue, in every face, and a telegram awaitedFerry which changed his destination to Meridian, a hundred miles fartherto the east. He kept me with him at Hazlehurst for two days, to help himand the post-quartermaster get everything ready to be moved and saved ifour cavalry should be driven east of the Jackson Railroad. But it wasnot, and by and by we were sundered and I went and became at length inpractical and continuous reality one of Ferry's scouts--minus Ferry. Oh, the long hot toils and pains of those July and August days! thescorching suns, the stumbling night-marches, the aching knees, thegroaning beasts, the scant, foul rations, the dust and sweat, the bloodand the burials. To be sure, I speak of these hardships far more fromsympathy than from experience, so much above the common lot of the longdust-choked column was that of our small band of scouts. After July ourbrigade operated mainly in the region of the Big Black, endeavoring, with others, to make the enemy confine his overflow meetings to theVicksburg side of that unlovely stream. How busy our small troop waskept; and what fame we won! On a certain day we came out of a driedswamp in column and ambled half across a field to see if a brigadegoing by us at right angles in the shade of a wood at the field's edgemight be ours. It was not, though they were Confederates; but one of itscaptains was sent out toward us with a squadron to see who we might be, in our puzzling uniform, and when, midway, he made us out and calledback to his commander, "Ferry's scouts!" the whole column cheered us. Ifeel the thrill of it to this hour. 

How busy we were kept, and how much oftener I wrote to Ferry, and toCamille, than to my mother. And how much closer I watched the trend ofthings that belonged only to this small story than I did that greattheatre of a whole world's fortunes, whose arches spread and resoundedfrom the city of Washington to the city of Mexico. In mid-August one ofCamille's heartlessly infrequent letters brought me a mint of blithenews. Harry and Cécile were really engaged; Major Harper, aunt Martha, General Austin, Captain Ferry and Charlotte had all written the distantfather in his behalf, and the distant father had capitulated. Furthermore, Captain Ferry's latest letter to Charlotte had brought wordthat in spite of all backsets he was promised by his physician that inten days more he could safely take the field again. But, best of all, Major Harper, having spent a week with his family--not on leave, but onsome mysterious business that somehow included a great train of pontoonbridges--had been so completely won over to Charlotte by her own sweetways that, on his own suggestion to his sister, and their jointproposition, by correspondence, to Ferry, another group of letters, from Miss Harper, the Major and the General, had been sent to theDurands in New Orleans--father, mother, and grandmother--telling themall about Charlotte; her story, her beauty, her charms of manner, mind, and heart. And so, wrote my correspondent, the Wall household wereliving in confident hope and yet in unbearable suspense; for thesethings were now full two weeks old, and would have been told me sooneronly that she, Camille, had promised never to tell them to any onewhomsoever. 

A week later came another of these heartlessly infrequent letters. Mr. Gregory, it said, --oh, _hang_ Mr. Gregory!--had called the previousevening. Then followed the information that poor Mr. Gholson--oh, dear!the poor we have always with us!--had arrived again from camp so wastedwith ague as to be a sight for tears. He had come consigned to "ourhospital, " an establishment which the Harpers, Charlotte and the Wallshad set up in the old "summer-hotel" at Panacea Springs, and hadcontrived to get the medical authorities to adopt, officer and--in amanner--equip. They were giving dances there, to keep the soldierscheerful, said the letter, in which its writer took her usual patrioticpart, and Mr. Gregory--oh, save us alive! And now I was to preparemyself: the Durands had got the bunch of letters and had written alovely reply to Captain Ferry, who had sent it to Charlotte, claimingher hand, and Charlotte had answered yes. If I thought I had ever seenher beautiful or blithe, or sweet, or happy, I ought to see her now;while as for the writer herself, nothing in all her life had ever sofilled her with bliss, or ever could again. 

Ferry did not arrive, but day by day, night by night, we stalked theenemy, longing for our Captain to return to us. Quinn was fearless, daring, indefatigable; but Quinn was not Ferry. Often we talked it overby twos or fours; the swiftness of Ferry's divinations, the brilliantcelerity with which he followed them out, the kindness of his care;Quinn's care of us was paternal, Ferry's was brotherly and motherly. Weloved Quinn for the hate and scorn that overflowed from his very gazeupon everything false or base. But we loved Ferry for loving each andevery one of us beyond his desert, and for a love which went fartheryet, we fancied, when it lived and kept its health in every insalubriousatmosphere, from the sulphurous breath of old Dismukes to thecarbonic-acid gas of Gholson's cant. We made great parade of recognizinghis defects; it had all the fine show of a motion to reconsider. Forexample, we said, his serene obstinacy in small matters was equallyexasperating and ridiculous; or, for another instance, --so and so; butin summing up we always lumped such failings as "the faults of hisvirtues, " and neglected to catalogue them. Thinking it all over athousand times since, I have concluded that the main source of hischarm, what won our approval for whatever he did, however he did it, wasthat he seemed never to regard any one as the mere means to anend--except himself. 

If this history were more of war than of love--and really at times Ifear it is--we might fill pages telling of the brigade's September andearly October operations in that long tongue of devastated country whichnarrowed from northeast to southwest between Big Black on our front andthe Tallahala and Bayou Pierre behind us. At Baker's Creek it had abloody all-day fight, in which we took part after having been driven inupon the brigade. It was there that at dusk, to the uproarious delightof half the big camp, and with our Captain once more at our head, for hehad rejoined us that very morning, we came last off the field, singing"Ned Ferry's a-comin' down de lane. "

On a day late in October our company were in bivouac after some hardnight-riding. Some twenty-five miles west of us the brigade had beenresting for several days on the old camp-ground at Gallatin, but nowthey were gone to Union Springs. Ferry, with a few men, was scoutingeastward. Quinn awaited only his return in order to take half a dozen orso of picked fellows down southward and westward about Fayette. Betweenten and eleven that night a corporal of the guard woke me, and as Iflirted on my boots and jacket and saddled up, said Ferry was back andQuinn gone. I reported to Ferry, who handed me a despatch: "Give that toGeneral Austin; he has gone back to Gallatin--without the brigade--towait--with the others"--his smile broadened. 

"Captain, "--I swallowed a lump--"what others?"

"Well, --all the others; Major Harper, Colonel Dismukes, Harry Helm, Squire Wall, Mrs. Wall, the four Harper ladies, and--eh, --let me see, isthat all?--ah, no, the old black man and his daughter, and--eh, --thetwo little mule'! that's all--stop! I was forgetting! What is thatfellow's name we used to know? ah, yes; Charlie Toliver!" In a moment hesobered: "Yes, all will be yonder, and I wait only for Quinn to get backin the morning, to come myself. " In the fulness of his joy he had togive my horse a parting slap. "Good-night! good-bye--till to-morrow!"

I galloped away filled with an absurd foreboding that he was too sure, which may have come wholly from my bad temper at being started too lateto see our ladies before morning. However, at two that night, my saddlelaid under my head, and haversack under the saddle, I fell asleep withall Gallatin for my bedchamber, the courthouse square for my bed, thesky for my tester, the pole-star for my taper, hogs for mosquitoes and aclub for a fan. 

LXII

A TARRYING BRIDEGROOM

Joyous was the dawn. With their places in the hospital filled for thebrief time by Brookhaven friends, here were all our fairs, not to speakof the General, the Colonel, the Major, idlers of the town and region, and hospital bummers who had followed up unbidden and glaringly withoutwedding-garments. Cécile, Harry, Camille "and others" prepared thechurch. The General kept his tent, the Major rode to Hazlehurst, and theColonel, bruised and stiffened by a late fall from his horse, loungedamiably just beyond talking range of the ladies and grumbled jokes toChaplain Roly-poly, whose giggling enjoyment of them made us hope theywere tempered to that clean-shaven lamb. 

However, there came a change. By mid-forenoon our gaiety ran on only byits momentum. The wedding was to be at eleven. At ten the Colonel, aside, told me, with a ferocious scowl, that my Captain ought to havearrived. At half-past he told me again, but Major Harper, returning fromHazlehurst, said, "Oh, any of a hundred trifles might have delayed him ashort time; he would be along. " The wedding-hour passed, thewedding-feast filled the air with good smells. Horsemen ambled a fewmiles up the road and came back without tidings. Then a courier, one ofFerry's scouts, galloped up to the General's tent, and presently theMajor walked from it to the tavern and up to Charlotte's room, to saythat Ferry was only detained by Quinn's non-arrival. "It's all right, "said everyone. 

Another hour wore on, another followed. The General and old Dismukesplayed cards and the latter began to smell of his drams, Harry andCécile walked and talked apart, Camille kept me in leash with threeother men, and about two o'clock came another courier with another bitof Ferry's writing; Quinn had returned. He had had a brush withjayhawkers in the night, had captured all but their leader, and had senthis prisoners in to brigade headquarters at Union Church, while hereturned to Ferry's camp bringing with him, mortally wounded--"O--oh!Oh--oh!" exclaimed Charlotte, gazing at the missive, --"SergeantJim Langley!"

"Does Ned say when he will start?" asked the Colonel, and Charlotte, reading again, said the sergeant, at the time of the writing, was notexpected to live an hour. Whereupon the word went through town thatFerry was on his way to us. 

"Smith, " said the Colonel, just not too full to keep up a majesticfrown, "want to saddle my horse and yours?" and very soon we were off tomeet the tardy bridegroom. The October sunshine was fiery, but the roadled us through our old camp-ground for two or three shady miles beforeit forked to the right to cross the Natchez Trace, and to the left onits way to Union Springs, and at the fork we halted. "Smith, I reckonwe'd best go back. " I mentioned his bruises and the torrid sun-glarebefore us, but he cursed both with equal contempt; "No, but I must goback; I--I've left a--oh, I must go back to wet my whistle!"

We had retraced our way but a few steps, when, looking behind me as ascout's habit is, I saw a horseman coming swiftly on the Union Churchroad. "Colonel, " I said, "here comes Scott Gholson. "

Without pausing or turning an eye my hearer poured out a slow flood ofcurses. "If that whelp has come here of his own accord he's come for nogood! Has he seen us?"

Gholson had not seen us; we had been in deep shade when he came intosight, and happened at that moment to turn an angle that took us out ofhis line of view. In a minute or so we were again at the small bridgeover the embowered creek which ran through the camping-ground. The waterwas low and clear, and the Colonel turned from the bridge as if to crossbeneath it and let his beast drink, yet motioned back for me to go uponit. As I reached its middle he came under it in the stream and halted. Guessing his wish I turned my horse across the bridge and waited. Gholson was almost within hail before he knew me. He was a heaving lumpof dust, sweat and pain. 

"Has Ned Ferry come?" was his first call. I shook my head. "Oh, thankGod!" he cried with a wild gesture and sank low in the saddle; butinstantly he roused again: "Oh, don't stop me, Smith; if I once stop I'mafraid I'll never get to her!"

I stopped him. "Why, Gholson, you're burning up with fever. "

"Yes, I started with a shaking chill. I'm afraid, every minute, I'll goout of my head. Oh, Smith, Oliver's alive! He's alive, he's alive, andI've come to save his poor wife from a fate worse than death!"

"Gholson, you are out of your head. "

"Oh, yes, yes, yes! and yet I know what I'm saying, I know what I'msaying!"

"You do not! Gholson, Oliver's been food for worms these four months. Iknow he wasn't dead at Gilmer's; but he died--now, let me tellyou--he--"

"Smith, I know the whole story and you know only half!"

"No, no! I know all and you know only half; I have seen the absolute--"

"Proofs? no! you saw things taken from the body of another man inOliver's clothes! Oliver swapped places with him on the boat going downto the city so's he could come back to these parts without being hung bythe Yankees; swapped with a sick soldier, one of a pair that wanted todesert; swapped names, clothes, bandages, letters, everything. It wasthat soldier that died of the congestive chill and was buried by yourmother with his face in a blanket--as, like enough, mine will be beforeanother day is done--Oh, Lord, Lord! my head will burst!"

"Gholson, you're mistaken yet! That soldier came to my mother--"

"No, he never! the other one went to her, in cahoots with Oliver, andworked the thing all through so's to have the news of Oliver's death, socalled, come back here to the Yankees and us; and to his wife, so's she_would_ marry Ned Ferry to her everlasting shame, and people would saythey was served right when he killed 'em at last! O--oh! Smith, --"

"Listen to me!" I had tried twice to interrupt and now I yelled; "was itOliver, and a new gang, that Quinn fought last night, and have you gothim at Union Church?"

"Quinn didn't know it, for Oliver got away, but they got the Yankeedeserter, and brought him in when everybody was asleep but me, and Icross-examined him. Oh, my friend, God's arm is not shortened that hecannot save! He maketh the wrath of the wicked to praise him! The manwas dying then, but thank God, I choked the whole truth out of him witha halter over a limb, and then for three mortal hours I couldn't startbecause the squad that took him out to--Who--who is that?"

The Colonel moved from under the bridge, spurred up the bank, and turnedto us with a murderous smile. "Howdy, Gholson. " The smile grew. "Had tostay with the hanging-squad to keep his mouth shut, you was going tosay, wa'n't you? But you knew Captain Ferry would be delayed waiting forQuinn, too; yes. Does any one know this now besides us three; no! Good, we're well met! Smith and me are going to Union Church, and you'd bettergo with us; I've got a job that God A'mighty just built you two saintsand me for; come, never mind Gallatin, Ferry's not there, and when hegets there Heaven ain't a-going to stop that wedding, and hell sha'n't. "Gholson had barely caught his breath to demur when old Dismukes, roaringand snarling like a huge dog, whipped out his revolver, clutched thesick man's bosom, and hanging over him and bellowing blasphemies, yelledinto his very teeth "Come!"

We galloped. A courier from the brigade-camp met us, and the Colonelscribbled a purely false explanation of our absence, begging that nodelay be made because of it. As the man left us, who should come up frombehind us but Harry, asking what was the matter. "Matter enough for youto come along, " said the Arkansan, and we went two and two, he andGholson, Harry and I. We reached camp at sundown, and stopped to feedand rest our horses and to catch an hour's sleep. Gholson's fatigue waspitiful, but he ate like a wolf, slept, and awoke with but little fever. The Colonel kept him under his eye, forcing on him the honors of hisown board, bed and bottle, and at nine we galloped again. 

Between eleven and twelve the Colonel, Harry and I were in a dense wood, moving noiselessly toward a clearing brilliantly lighted by the moon. Iwas guide. A few rods back in the woods Gholson was holding our horsesand with cocked revolver detaining a young mulatto woman from whom theColonel had extorted the knowledge which had brought us to this spot. The clearing was fenced, but was full of autumn weeds. Near the twosides next us, tilted awry on its high basement pillars, loomed an oldcotton-gin house, its dark shadows falling toward us. A few yards beyondtowered and gleamed a white-boled sycamore, and between the two thetitanic arms of the horse-power press widened broadly downward out ofthe still night sky. The tree was the one which old Lucius Oliver hadonce pointed out to me at dawn. 

LXIII

SOMETHING I HAVE NEVER TOLD TILL NOW

At the fence I ceased to lead, and we crept near the gin-house fromthree sides, warily, though all the chances were that wherever Oliverlay he was heavy with drink. The Colonel stole in alone. He was lost tous for, I should say, five minutes; they seemed thirty; then therepealed upon the stillness an uproarious laugh mingled with oaths andcurses, sounds of a plunge, a struggle, a groan, and old Dismukescalling "Come, boys, I've got him! Take it easy, take it easy, I've gothim on the floor by the hair of his head; call Gholson!"

Gholson brought the mulatress. In the feeble rays of an old tin lantern, on some gunny-sacking that lay about the gin-room floor, sat oldDismukes cross-legged and smiling, with arms folded and revolverdangling from his right hand, at full cock. On one side crouched Harryand I, on the other side Gholson and the slave woman. Facing him, halfsat, half knelt Oliver, bound hand and foot, and gagged with his ownknotted handkerchief. The lantern hung from a low beam just above hisface; his eyes blazed across the short interval with the splendor of ahawk's. The dread issue of the hour seemed all at once to have takenfrom his outward aspect the baser signs of his habits and crimes, and Isaw large extenuation for Charlotte's great mistake. From the bigColonel's face, too, the heaviness of drink was gone, and its smile grewalmost fine as he spoke. 

"Ten minutes for prayer is a good while to allow you, my amiable friend;we ain't heard for our much speaking, are we, Brother Gholson? Still, we've given you that, and it's half gone. If you don't want the otherhalf we won't force it on you; we've got that wedding to go to, and I'mafraid we'll be late. "

The bound man sat like a statue. The slave girl went upon her knees andbegan to pray for her master, --with whom she had remained after everyother servant on the place had run off to the Federals, supplicatingwith a piteous fervor that drew tears down Harry's cheeks. "Humph!" saidthe Arkansan, still smiling straight into Oliver's eyes, "she'd betterbe thanking God for her freedom, for that's what we're going to give herto-night; we're going to take her and your poor old crippled father tothe outposts and turn 'em loose, and if either of 'em ever shows upinside our lines after to-night, we'll hang 'em. You fixed the date ofyour death last June, and we're not going to let it be changed; that'swhen you died. Ain't it, Gholson? Whoever says it ain't fixes the dateof his own funeral, eh, boys? I take pleasure in telling you we're notgoing to hang your father, because I believe in my bones you'd ratherwe'd hang him than not. Mr. Gholson, you're our most pious believer inobedience to orders; well, I'm going to give you one, and if you don'tmake a botch of it I sha'n't have to make a botch of you; understand?"

Gholson's lips moved inaudibly, his jaws set hard, and he blanched; butthe Colonel smiled once more: "I've heard that at one time you said, orimplied, that Captain Ferry had betrayed his office, because when he hada fair chance to shoot this varmint he omitted, for private reasons, todo it. And I've heard you say, myself, that this isn't your own littleprivate war. So, --just change seats with me. "

They exchanged. The slave girl sank forward upon her face moaning andsobbing. Harry silently wept. "Now, Gholson, you know me; draw--pistol. "

Gholson drew; I grew sick. "Ready, "--Gholson came to a ready and so didthe Colonel; "aim, " Gholson slowly aimed, the Colonel kept a ready, andOliver, for the first time took his eyes from him and gazed at Gholson. "Fire!" Gholson fired; Oliver silently fell forward; with a stifled crythe girl sprang to him and drew his head into her lap, and he softlystraightened out and was still. "Oh, sweet Jesus!" she cried, "Oh, sweet Jesus!"

The amused Colonel held the lantern close down. "He's all right, BrotherGholson, " was his verdict; the ball had gone to the heart. "Still, justto clinch the thing, we'll calcine him, gin-house and all. "

Gin-house and all, we burned him up. On our horses out in the open roadto the house, we sat, the girl perched behind the Colonel, and watchedthe fire mount and whirl and crackle behind the awful black arms of thecotton-press. The Arkansan shook his head: "It's too fine; 'tain't adog's death, after all. Lord! why didn't I think of it in time? we'dought to 'a' just dropped him alive into that lint-box and turned thepress down onto him with our horses!"

When the pile was in one great flame we rode to the dwelling, and thegirl was sent in to bid old Lucius begone. The doors stood open, a softfirelight shone from his room. We saw her form darken his chamberthreshold and halt, and then she wailed: "Oh, Lawd God A'mighty! Oh, Lawd God A'mighty!"

"Stop that noise! Gholson, hold the horses. Come. Lieutenant, comeSmith, maybe he's killed himself, but it seems too good to be true. Here, girl, go cram what you can get into a pillow-case, and mountbehind my saddle again; be quick, we're going to burn this hornet'snest too. " Harry and I had already run to the old man's room, and, sureenough, there lay the aged assassin hideous in his fallen bulk, with hisown bullet in his brain. 

Once more the Arkansan shook his head at the leaping flames. "Too good, too good for either of 'em, entirely; we've let 'em settle at five centson the dollar. Here girl, "--he reached back and handed her a wad ofgreenbacks, --"here's your dividend; you're a preferred creditor. " He hadrifled the pockets of both the dead men, and this was their contents. "Now, boys, we'll dust, or we'll be getting shot at by some fool orother. We're leaving a fine horse hid away somewhere hereabouts, but wecan't help that; come on. "

In due time the Colonel, with the slave girl, and Harry with herpillow-case of duds, turned toward Fayette, and Gholson and I toward thebrigade, at Union Church. Then, at last, my old friend andco-religionist let his wrath loose. He began with a flood of curses, lifting high a loaded carbine which we had found with Oliver and whichhe was ordered to turn in. As he gave his ecstasy utterance it grew; hebrandished the weapon like a Bedouin, dug the rowels into his overspentbeast and curbed him back to his haunches, fisted him about the ears, gnashed with the pain of his own blows, and howled, and stood up in thestirrups and cursed again. I had heard church-members curse, but theywere new church-members, camp converts, and their curses were aninfant's cooing, to this. Unwittingly he caused his horse to stumble, and the torrent of his passion gathered force like rain after a peal ofthunder; he clubbed the gun to bring it down upon the beautifulcreature's head, and when I caught it on the rise he wrenched it from meas if I were a girl, threw it fifty feet away, sprang to the ground andcaught it up, fired it in the air, and with one blow against a tree sentthe stock flying, threw the barrel underfoot, leapt upon it, tore hishair and his hat, and cursed and champed and howled. I sat holding hishorse and feeling my satisfaction rise like the mercury in a warmedthermometer. Contrasting this mood with the cold malignancy and resolveof his temper in the soldiers' room at Sessions's, I saw, to my delight, that our secret was forever imprisoned in his breast, gagged and chaineddown by the iron of his own inextricable infamy. At dawn he awakened methat he might persuade me to reject the evidences brought against hischaracter by his doings and endurings of the night, and that he mightrebuild the old house of words in which habitually he found shelter, tooabysmally self-conceited ever to see his own hypocrisy. We breakfastedwith the "attatchays"; after which he had barely secured my finalassurance that our friendship remained unmarred, when old Dismukes andHarry mounted at the Colonel's tent, and the old brute, as they trottedout into the Gallatin road, beckoned me to join them. 

LXIV

BY TWOS. MARCH

The Arkansan was happy. "Come up, Legs, " he bawled to me as soon as wewere beyond the pickets, "come up from behind there; this ain't nodress parade. "

"Are they married?" I softly asked Harry at the first opportunity, buthe could not tell me. He knew only that Ferry had been expected toarrive about an hour before midnight; if he arrived later the weddingwould be deferred until to-day. On our whole ride we met no one fromGallatin until near the edge of the town we passed a smiling rider whocalled after us, "You-all a-hurryin' for nothin'!"

We dropped to a more dignified gait and moved gayly in among ourgathering friends, asking if we were in time. "No--o! you're toolate!--but still we've waited for you; couldn't help ourselves; shewouldn't stir without you. "

The happy hubbub was bewildering. "Where's this one?" "Where's thatone?" "See here, I'm looking for you!" "Now, you and I go together--""Dick Smith! where's Dick Sm'--Miss Harper wants you, Smith, up at thebride's door. " But Miss Harper only sent me in to Charlotte. 

"Richard, tell me, " the fair vision began to say, but there the cloudleft her brow. "No, " she added, "you couldn't look so happy if therewere the least thing wrong, could you?" Her fathoming eyes filled whileher smile brightened, and meeting them squarely I replied "There'sa-many a thing wrong, but not one for which this wedding need waitanother minute. "

"God bless you, Richard!" she said; "and now _you_ may go tell Edgard Iam coming. "

Old Gallatin is no more. I would not mention without reverence theperishing of a town however small, though no charm of antiquity, of artor of nature were lost in its dissolution. Yet it suits my fancy thatold Gallatin has perished. Neither war nor famine, flood nor fever werethe death of it; the railroad and Hazlehurst sapped its life. Some yearsago, on a business trip for our company--not cavalry, insurance, --I wentseveral miles out of my way to see the spot. Not a timber, not a brick, of the old county-seat remained. Where the court-house had stood on itssquare, the early summer sun drew tonic odor from a field of corn. Inplace of the tavern a cotton-field was ablush with blossoms. Shops andhouses had utterly vanished; a solitary "store, " as transient as atoadstool, stood at the cross-roads peddling calico and molasses, shoesand snuff. But that was the only discord, and by turning my back on it Ieasily called up the long past scene: the wedding, the feast, the fierypunch, the General's toast to the bridal pair, and the heavy-eyedColonel's bumper to their posterity! It was hardly drunk when a courierbrought word that the enemy were across Big Black, and the brigadepressing north to meet them. Charlotte glided away to her room to be"back in a moment"; into their saddles went the General, the Colonel, the Major and the aide-de-camp, and thundered off across the bridge inthe woods; Charlotte came back in riding-habit, and here was my horsewith her saddle on him, and the Harpers and Mrs. Wall clasping andkissing her; and now her foot was in Ferry's hand and up she sprang toher seat, he vaulted to his, and away they galloped side by side, he forthe uttermost front of reconnoissance and assault, she for the slow butsuccessful uplifting of Sergeant Jim back to health and into his placein the train of our hero and hers. In the little leather-curtainedwagon, with the old black man and his daughter, and all her mistress'ssmall belongings, and with my saddle and bridle, I followed on to thehouse where lay the sergeant, and where my horse would be waiting tobear me on to Ferry's scouts. 

I saw the Harpers only twice again before the war was over. Nearly allwinter our soldiering was down in the Felicianas, but by February wewere once more at Big Black when Sherman with ten thousand of hisdestroyers swarmed out of Vicksburg on his great raid to Meridian. Threeor four mounted brigades were all that we could gather, and when we hadfought our fiercest we had only fought the tide with a broom; it wentback when it was ready, a month later, leaving what a wake! The Harpersset up a pretty home in Jackson, where both Harry and Gholson wereoccasional visitors, on errands more or less real to departmentheadquarters in that State capital; yet Harry and Cécile did not weduntil after the surrender. Gholson's passion far Charlotte really didhalf destroy him, while it lasted; nevertheless, one day about a yearafter her marriage, when I had the joy of visiting the Harpers, I sawthat Gholson's heart was healed of that wound and had opened in a newplace. That is why Estelle, with that danger-glow of emotion everimpending on her beautiful cheek, never married. She was of that kindwhose love, once placed, can never remove itself, and she loved Gholson. Both Cécile and Camille had some gift to discern character, and somenotion of their own value, and therefore are less to be excused for notchoosing better husbands than they did; but Estelle could never seebeyond the outer label of man, woman or child, and Gholson's label washis piety. She believed in it as implicitly, as consumingly, as hebelieved in it himself; and when her whole kindred spoke as one and saidno, and she sent him away, _she_ knew she was a lifelong widow from thathour. Gholson found a wife, a rich widow ten years his senior, and sofirst of all, since we have reached the page for partings, good-byeGholson. "Whom the gods love die young"--you must be sixty years oldnow, for they say you're still alive. And good-bye, old Dismukes; theColonel made a fortune after the war, as a penitentiary lessee, but theysay he has--how shall we phrase it?--gone to his reward? Let ushope not. 

But what is this; are we calling the roll after we have broken ranks?Our rocket has scaled the sky, poised, curved, burst, spread out all itsstars, and dropped its stick. All is done unless we desire to watch thefading sparks slowly sink and melt into darkness. The General, theMajor, his brother, their sister, my mother, Quinn, Kendall, SergeantJim, the Sessionses, the Walls--do not inquire too closely; some havevanished already, and soon all will be gone; then--another rocket; it isthe only way, and why is it not a good one? Harry and Cécile--yes, theystill shine, in "dear old New Orleans. " Camille kept me on thetenter-hooks while she "turned away her eyes" for years; but one eveningwhen we were reading an ancient book together out dropped those same oldsweet-pea blossoms; whereupon I took her hand and--I have it yet. There, we have counted the last spark--stop, no! two lights beam out again;Edgard and Charlotte, our neighbors and dearest friends through all ourlife; they glow with nobility and loveliness yet, as they did in thoseyoung days when his sword led our dying fortunes, and she, in her gypsywagon, followed them, binding the torn wound, and bathing the achingbruise and fevered head. Oh, Ned Ferry, my long-loved partner, as dear aleader still as ever you were in the days of bloody death, life'schoicest gifts be yours, and be hers whose sons and daughters are yours, and the eldest and tallest of whom is the one you and she havenamed Richard. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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