I dropped to my knee in the reddening pool and passed my arm under his
head.
"Thank you," he said, and repeated the word as I wet my handkerchief and
wiped the mire from his face; "thank you;--no, no,"--I was opening his
shirt--"that's useless; get me where you can turn me over; you've hit me
in 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 from
the sad'--ah! that's _your_ bugle, isn't it? It's my last fight--oh, the
devil! my good boy, don't begin to cry again; war's war; give me some
water.... Thank you! And now, if you don't want me to bleed to death get
me out of this slop, and--yes,--easy!--that's it--easy--oh, God! oh, let
me 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 hundred
after-sounds of the fray and hallooed for help. To my surprise it
promptly came. Three blundering boys we were who lifted him into the
saddle 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 as
October when we issued into the highroad and moved up it to the grove
gate through the bloody wreckage of the fray. The Louisianians were
camping in the woods-pasture, Ferry's scouts in the grove, and the
captive Federals were in the road between, shut in by heavy guards. At
our appearance they crowded around us, greeting their undone commander
with proud words of sympathy and love, and he thanked them as proudly
and lovingly, though he could scarcely speak, more than to ask every
moment for water. A number of our Sessions house group crowded out to
meet us at the veranda steps; Camille; Harry Helm with his right hand
bandaged; Cécile, attended by two or three Sessions children; and behind
all Miss Harper exclaiming "Ah, my boy, you're a welcome sight--Oh! is
that Captain Jewett!"
Two or three bystanders helped us bear him upstairs, where, turning from
the bedside, I pressed Camille with eager questions.
"Lieutenant Ferry? he's unhurt--and so is Mr. Gholson! Mr. Gholson's
gone to Franklin for doctors; Lieutenant Ferry sent him; he's been
sending everybody everywhere faster than anybody else could think of
anything!"
I asked where Ferry was now. Her eyes refilled--they were red from
earlier distresses--and she motioned across the hall: "The captain of
the 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?"